Honkai Impact: The Serpent's Tale

Chapter 37: Two Against All

It took a moment for Alex to regain consciousness as he placed a hand on his head since it felt fuzzy.

He slowly regained his vision as he stood up and looked to his side to see Mei also having awoken at the same time as well.

"Seems like we made it. It worked." Said Mei as the two made sure one another was okay before she surveyed their surroundings.

"Are we at the outer edge of the theater?" She asked.

Alex looked around himself and immediately recognized that they were back at the outer hallways with the main lobby they were in last time being at the center instead of the main stage.

"We are. These hallways stretch along the outskirts. I've been brought here before though to a different section. The lobby normally wasn't in the center." He said.

"Well if it's there now, then something must be worth checking out. Come on."

The two made their way down the hall and almost immediately heard the voice of the puppets echo in the air.

"Intruders, intruders!" It shouted.

The two came across a bend in the hallway as there stood a puppet and judging from it's rigid body language, it was not pleased to see them two.

"Go away. Go away! You two aren't welcome here now!"

"I know. That's exactly why we came back, cause we aren't welcome." Said Mei.

"You've no right to be here on your own accord! We have other guests to entertain so stay out of our way!"

'Other guests? Are Bronya and Seele possibly here again?' Thought Alex as those were the only other two that he had been here with together.

"I can tell you seem to be in a hurry to kick us away, so we'll remain in your way. Don't tell me that you're possibly scared of me?" Asked Mei, clearly trying to provoke the puppet now that she knew that she had the upper hand.

The puppet merely laughed off Mei's remarks.

"You're just an ignorant little girl who doesn't have a mind of her own!" It said as suddenly another puppet appeared and joined in on the conversation.

"Don't push us into taking away your Herrscher powers too!" Said the second puppet.

"Go ahead. I'd like to see you try."

The two puppets went away as puppeteered beasts emerged in their place.

Mei tapped Alex on his shoulder, quickly snapping him out of his train of thought as the two made quick work of them before continuing down the hall.

The voice of a puppet was heard, getting more agitated.

"Annoying. So annoying! Just stop! Stop pestering us!" It shouted.

As Alex and Mei got closer to the lobby, more and more puppeteered enemies would appear as the groups took longer and longer to take down.

"The closer we get, the more enemies stand in our way. Are they trying to stall for time?" Asked Mei.

"You heard them didn't you? They have other guests to entertain. That clearly means other people are here with us. They're probably somewhere in the lobby if I were to guess." Said Alex.

At that moment, the two puppets appeared in front of them again as one of them gave Alex a slow clap.

"Excellent deduction little boy. Well done. Would you like to know who this other guest is?" Asked the first puppet.