Benares felt deeply wronged, but she had no desire to negotiate with this obnoxious woman, Shigure Kira.
'You're becoming a Herrscher just to kill me, a Honkai Beast? Are you out of your mind?'
Becoming a Herrscher wasn't something Shigure Kira wanted either. She had simply broken down under the current state of Earth.
The Honkai Beast who had killed her friends was happily living as an idol, singing songs and making money, while the Valkyries she once knew were reduced to mere fragments of history, even having to bear the sins of Schicksal's Overseer Otto.
No one would feel good in this situation.
In fact, Noldrei had already done his best to mitigate the negative impact of Schicksal's wrongdoings. The common people didn't pay their taxes just so those in power could use the money to build human experimentation labs.
Take the Second Honkai Eruption, for instance. When people opened the historical records of the Honkai, what did they find?
The Second Herrscher was created by Schicksal's human experiments.
Then Schicksal sent Valkyries to handle the Siberian crisis.
And how did they handle it? By suppressing the human who had become a Herrscher due to those experiments.
Did they succeed? Not really. In fact, it was a spectacular failure.
The Valkyries on the battlefield knew nothing about the true situation. Their leaders withheld crucial information and sent them to their deaths. In the end, many of these Valkyries died.
And as luck would have it, Schicksal then took the Herrscher's corpse for more experiments, creating the new K-423. An insider who couldn't stand this anymore fled with the child.
And what did Schicksal do? They sent Valkyries to hunt them down.
Anyone who read this would be confused.
What the hell? Weren't they supposed to be fighting the Honkai? Is this how you fight the Honkai?
Since all the facts had been made public, some group had to bear the blame. Schicksal and its strongest armed force, the Valkyries, were inevitably saddled with this sin.
Even if Rita were to explain, she couldn't absolve the Valkyries. The number of Valkyries under her who did Otto's dirty work was unknown.
Were there innocent Valkyries? Yes.
But the Valkyries as a political entity intertwined with Schicksal were not innocent at all.
Now, in Academy City, the existence of Valkyries was akin to the knights of old. If you wanted to learn about the "knightly spirit" or admire them as idols who fought for humanity, that was fine.
But if you wanted to follow the knights to protect the lord's land and the king's country, then you could just get lost. No one would want to fight and die to avenge the Valkyries of the past.
They would even complain that many Valkyries had hidden the truth about Schicksal, even though they knew it.
Since everything had been exposed, no one cared about the Valkyries who had sacrificed themselves.
The reason people could accept the Valkyries' sacrifices against the Honkai and for human civilization, and thus tolerate Schicksal's evil deeds, was simply because they didn't have the ability or a better alternative at the time.
It had nothing to do with emotions or morality.
Stripped of this moral skin, Shigure Kira, who had lost her comrades, could no longer accept such a result. If Schicksal and Anti-Entropy had defeated the Honkai on their own, she could have told herself that their methods had some merit.
But with Noldrei's intervention, this last shred of justification—fighting to defeat the Honkai—was also stripped away, just as she herself had been stripped bare and brought back to Earth.
History not only failed to remember the deeds of her comrades who sacrificed themselves against the Honkai, but it also clearly recorded the mistakes they had made.
Shigure Kira couldn't bear the thought of what would become of future Valkyries, and the grief and anger became unbearable.
No one would understand Shigure Kira's sorrow, just as no one noticed that the Academy City walls, which had not been activated for some time, had been activated once again.
The Honkai Energy released by Shigure Kira was instantly converted into other forms of energy by a batch of Moonlight Throne engines, either stored or consumed, causing no harm to Academy City.
"Do you have no other thought but to kill me? Even if you die after becoming a Herrscher, can you face your former friends and say, 'I did nothing wrong'?!"
Benares had no desire to fight Shigure Kira to the death. She was quite happy with her life now and was gradually feeling the joy of being human.
Why would she be so foolish as to fight like a Honkai Beast again? Even if she won, what good would it do for human civilization?
She herself would have her core taken back by Finality, and the previous Herrscher cores would also be taken. This meant that Herrschers were just tools to be used and discarded by Finality.
However, Shigure Kira could no longer speak clearly.
Not many people could maintain their sanity after being corrupted by the Honkai. Under normal circumstances, they would often have their consciousness fragmented by an overwhelming desire for destruction.
"Kill you... kill you..."
The surrounding Security Force had quickly retreated; they were no longer suitable for joining the battle.
Shigure Kira also didn't waste any more energy on these peripheral people. Her entire being was focused on killing Benares.
'This shouldn't be happening. How could she lose her sanity?'
Benares had seen other Herrschers being born before, but someone like Shigure Kira who lost their sanity was rare.
Logically, a new consciousness should have been born to take over from Shigure Kira and complete the revenge.
'Could it be that she, like Ana, can use her own power to resist the Honkai's corruption?'
Benares didn't know what kind of abilities Shigure Kira possessed. She flapped her huge dragon wings and soared into the sky.
Once they became Herrschers, they would all gain the ability to fly.
Shigure Kira still didn't know what kind of ability she was using, but she chased after Benares, clinging to her relentlessly.
'I can't fly out of the city. There aren't as many SELENE engines outside as there are in Academy City. If I fly out, it will only spread more Honkai Energy...'
For a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, the difference between a Herrscher and a Honkai Beast was just the difference in their Honkai cores.
If she flew out of Academy City, besides losing her helpers, the greater danger would be the Honkai Energy from Shigure Kira.
The battle between Herrschers would eventually become the same kind of fight: a battle of who had more and stronger Honkai Energy.
Unless some Herrscher's authority was ridiculously powerful and could utilize energy beyond the Honkai, like the Herrscher of the Void using Imaginary Energy, or the Herrscher of Reason doing something similar.
Just as Benares was thinking of stalling for time to let someone stronger handle the situation...
She was startled to feel a strange energy coming at her from behind.
That power...