45: Chapter 42 Fusion Evolution

The office door closed.

Theresa sat quietly in her chair, listening to the footsteps fading away in the corridor until they could no longer be heard at all.

She lowered her gaze and glanced in the direction of the drawer under the desk, which contained Kaiwen's genetic testing report.

Just as she reached out and prepared to pull open the drawer again, the holographic communication terminal on the desk suddenly lit up.

Normally, no one would call through this terminal; the only person who would ever connect was a single individual.

The Overseer of Schicksal, Otto.

Theresa glanced at the caller ID, and the expression on her face changed as if someone had flipped a switch, instantly shifting from the calmness she had when dealing with Mei moments ago into the appearance of a young child.

She reached out and connected the communication.

The light screen unfolded, and a blonde figure appeared opposite the desk.

"You've worked hard, Theresa." Otto smiled slightly, "How was this trip?"

"Grandpa, you have no idea how exhausting this trip was for me!" Theresa leaned back against the chair, pouting, "Changkong City was a complete mess down there, and Himeko wouldn't listen to commands, almost denting the armor of the hyperion. You simply must reimburse me for the repair costs."

"Of course." Otto smiled and nodded, "As long as you are happy."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Otto's tone took a leisurely turn:

"Right, the scale of the Honkai eruption in Changkong City this time was not small. The headquarters has monitored some rather interesting energy waveforms."

His gaze passed through the holographic projection and casually fell on Theresa's face.

"Were there any gains over in the Far East?"

The strings in Theresa's heart tightened for a moment, but not a single eyebrow twitched on her face.

She sighed and put on an exhausted expression: "What gains could there possibly be? By the time Himeko arrived, the abnormal energy had long since dissipated, and nothing was tracked down. After rummaging through the ruins for half a day, all she hauled back was a bunch of refugees."

Otto let out an "Mn" and did not press further.

Taking advantage of this gap, Theresa proactively steered the topic away:

"However, there was an unexpected gain—that guy Siegfried's daughter, Kiana."

Her tone turned somewhat subtle, as if she were complaining while simultaneously fishing for credit: "That girl has been wandering around Changkong City for God knows how long, and her personality is insanely wild. I'm planning to keep her at Saint Freya. She is, after all, of the Kaslana bloodline; leaving her abandoned outside would be too much of a waste."

Otto's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Kiana…" He softly repeated the name, "Siegfried really hid her deep enough."

"Tell me about it." Theresa rolled her eyes.

"Then keep her." Otto resumed his gentle smile, "Your academy, your call."

"Alright, thank you Grandpa~" Theresa smiled sweetly.

The communication hung up.

The moment the light screen vanished, the smile on Theresa's face finally couldn't be maintained and completely dropped off.

She leaned back against the chair, her blue eyes staring coldly at the empty tabletop.

Then she pulled open the drawer, took out Kaiwen's genetic testing report, scanned it over once more, folded it up, and locked it away in a hidden compartment deep inside the desk.

The physical report could be hidden, but the medical center's database might still retain comparison records. If those things were pulled out by people from the headquarters, it could become very troublesome.

She still needed to make a personal trip to the medical center.

The communication terminal rang again; it was the internal line from the medical center.

"Headmaster, the patients with severe erosion have stabilized and can now be visited."

"Got it, I'm heading over right now."

...

Schicksal Headquarters.

Otto sat before a spacious desk, his fingers gently stroking a document on the desk.

He lowered his eyelids, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

"Raiden Mei… is it?"

Otto gently closed the document on the desk and muttered to himself: "Never mind, a rebellious granddaughter isn't bad either. If everything went my way, it would honestly be a bit too boring."

...

The severe quarantine zone of the medical center was on the third underground floor.

Theresa swiped open the final access control door and walked into the ward.

Inside the ward, the smell of disinfectant was thick enough to be somewhat pungent.

The girl lying in the middle of the room was connected all over to dense pipelines, and her skin still retained purple patterns left behind by the erosion of Honkai Energy.

According to the medical team's evaluation, the Honkai Energy inside this girl named Asakura Miyuki had already eroded her internal organs, and ordinary suppression methods could only delay it without curing the root cause.

The time left for her was already running out.

Hearing the footsteps, Miyuki slowly opened her eyes.

Her gaze was somewhat unfocused, and it took her several seconds to adjust her focus.

After seeing clearly who had come, she blinked, and a sentence squeezed out from her hoarse throat:

"The doctor sisters said the Headmaster would come to see me… You must be the Headmaster, right?"

Theresa nodded.

Miyuki tilted her head and sized her up for a moment, the corners of her mouth slowly curving up: "I… I thought the Headmaster would be a very tall and majestic person…"

Theresa's eyebrows twitched, but she didn't take up the comment. She pulled over a chair from the side and sat down by the bedside.

"How do you feel?"

"It's alright, just that my whole body has no strength." Miyuki smiled, "However, looking at the expressions of the doctor sisters every time they make rounds, it's just like attending a funeral. I can probably guess my own condition."

"You can still be saved."

Miyuki was stunned for a moment, blinking in disbelief: "Really? I thought I was dead for sure this time… Then how can I be saved?"

"Right now, you have two paths before you."

Theresa raised a single finger. "The first path is to implant an artificial Stigmata into you, but the success rate of the implantation is not high, and even if it succeeds, your lifespan will be drastically shortened."

Miyuki's smile faded a bit: "Drastically shortened by how much?"

"It's hard to say. But it won't be very long, and for the rest of your life, you'll have to endure the excruciating pain of Stigmata backlash."

Miyuki was silent for a moment, muttering softly: "That doesn't sound much better than waiting to die… Then what about the second option?"

"The second path is to participate in an experiment."

Theresa's tone lacked any embellishment: "This experiment will implant the genes of those monsters into your body, forcing a fusion with your cells. If successful, you will not only survive, but you will also gain the power of those monsters and resistance to Honkai Energy."

"That sounds pretty good." Miyuki tilted her head.

"However," Theresa looked into her eyes, "among all the volunteers who participated in this experiment before you, not a single one survived. They all died from post-fusion rejection reactions."

"As of right now, the success rate is zero."

The ward fell back into silence, with only the life-support equipment emitting a steady beep.

Miyuki stared dazedly at the ceiling, and after a long while, she slowly turned her head to look at Theresa.

"Headmaster, Kaiwen… she is also in this academy, right?"

Theresa was slightly startled and nodded.

Miyuki smiled.

"Then I choose the second one."

Her voice was very calm:

"The first one just sounds like waiting to die, so I might as well take a gamble. If I really chose the first one, I wouldn't dare go see Kaiwen in the future; I definitely don't want to look like that."

Theresa looked at her and was quiet for a moment.

Then she stood up and pushed the chair back to its original position.

"I understand. Prepare yourself tomorrow, and the surgery will take place the day after."

She walked to the door, paused, turned her head, and said:

"Rest well."