"A proper stage play always flips without warning. That's drama—what makes the audience feel," Furina said breezily…but she still edged closer behind Tatsuki.
Tatsuki wasn't worried about a Herrscher's birth. To his eyes now, even the Herrscher of the End was just that—an endpoint, nothing more.
"What is that— a flying ship? That huge?!" Behind him, Furina's voice leapt an octave.
She looked up—not only at the girl like a thunderborn god—but at a steel warship even more fearsome than Fontaine's airships.
"Oh? So this world does have tech like that," Silver Wolf murmured, genuinely surprised. It was her first time seeing this level of hardware in a member's home world.
A vast aerial battleship.
Cocolia's expression curdled. "Damn Schicksal."
The emblem on the hull was obvious—shaped like a pair of wings. To Tatsuki's eye, it also looked suspiciously like the character for non-luck.
He tipped his chin skyward, a spark of interest in his gaze. "Hyperion."
Above, thunder raged—and the steel giant roared in.
"Ultra-strong Honkai source detected ahead!"
Aboard Schicksal's warship Hyperion, now over Changkong City, klaxons wailed. Crew snapped to stations. No one dared slack—not if this was truly the third global Honkai.
"Major Himeko, the source is spiking! Honkai Beasts in Changkong are converging!"
Arms folded under her chest (which only made the line even fuller), Himeko Murata stood straight, brow creasing. "Tch. Looks like we've hit the jackpot."
Her bespectacled adjutant said tightly, "Ma'am, we can still withdraw."
"Can it." Himeko's smile curled, a touch feral. "The word 'retreat' isn't in my dictionary."
"All hands to Level One. Begin the operation!"
Rrrr—
A colossal rumble rolled over Mei. The carrier-like warship—Hyperion—loomed overhead.
"…"
Mei raised her eyes, shadowed, to the pinnacle of human ingenuity above— a warship driven by a Honkai energy reactor. She stared in silence, as if at trash.
On Hyperion's main screen, Mei came into focus: clothing torn in places, a single violet wing of lightning unfurled behind her left shoulder.
"So that's the Herrscher?"
Hands on hips, Himeko's tone and look were both teasing. "I expected something scarier. Not tentacles? No slime?"
"Your imagination when you're… parched is terrifying, ma'am," the adjutant deadpanned—clearly used to this.
"Then stop interrupting my dates."
One heel clicked forward; Himeko's right hand swept down, and her voice snapped into command steel. "All batteries lock on. Suppression fire—commence!"
Clack—clack—
Armor shutters irised open along Hyperion's hull, revealing turrets and heavy guns. They tracked as one—and every barrel leveled at the Third Herrscher, Raiden Mei. The muzzles began to glow—charging.
"…"
Below, lightning crawled and hissed across Mei's skin. Above, gun-ports flared brighter and brighter.
For a breath, the world held its air. Tension alone congealed—but storms don't pause forever.
"Annoying insects."
Mei's voice dripped contempt for Hyperion. Her brows lifted; cold eyes flashed with anger. "Who allowed you to stand above me?"
Honkai energy poured toward her from all across Changkong, power she could command.
She was the Third Herrscher—Herrscher of Thunder.
When an eruption's instantaneous output exceeds 1000 HW, a Herrscher may be born at ground zero—a human of extreme Honkai adaptability, transformed. With a Herrscher Core, they wield inhuman powers and ravage the human world—agents of a god called Honkai, selected to become something beyond human. Their authority is the collapse of reality itself: impossibilities made real, the final form of a physical law—Igniting flame from nothing (Flame), conjuring ideal fluids (Wind), infiltrating all things (Erosion)…
And Thunder governs electromagnetism.
Now, Honkai energy bent to her will—hardening into lightning in her palm.
A thousand violet sparks—beautiful, lethal—thickened and fused. A massive sphere of storm churned, arcing like a globe of ball lightning.
On Hyperion's bridge, Himeko felt the danger first. "Shields—NOW!"
"Disappear," Mei said, right hand slicing toward Hyperion.
Zzz—ZZT!
The storm-ball flashed—
KRAK–ZZZTTT!
A compressed lance of annihilating lightning erupted and stabbed the warship in the blink of an eye.
"So bright!" Furina flinched behind an arm—then blinked. Tatsuki had vanished.
…
Schicksal, Far East Branch—Council Chamber.
A long table of condensed white light sat packed with brass. All eyes were on Changkong and Raiden Mei.
"Hyperion has entered the zone—contact jammed."
"These are the last images before the signal cut."
The projection showed the indistinct silhouette of the Herrscher of Thunder—Raiden Mei.
"That humanoid… is a Herrscher?"
"Those Honkai beasts kneeling—is that submission? She can control them?"
"The interference is too severe—we can't even confirm her face."
"Has the feed not recovered yet? We need usable visuals!"
"Not just Hyperion—satellites over Changkong are jammed by a massive EM field. Is that also the Herrscher's ability?"
Voices overlapped—analysis, worry, grasping for purchase—until the one sitting not on a chair but on the table itself spoke:
"Here we are again," said Theresa Apocalypse.
"A new Herrscher—after fourteen years."
"Judgment Day keeps drawing closer."
…
"Warning! Outer armor suffering critical losses!"
"Output down 40%—recommend immediate retreat!"
With a single strike, Hyperion's outer plates blew, fires raging. Red warnings flooded the bridge.
"At this rate, we won't survive the next shot!" the adjutant cried.
Even Himeko's temple beaded a cold sweat. "Tch… brat—do you have any idea what it costs to repair this ship?!"
Retreat? If the enemy allowed it. And Himeko had every reason not to run.
By duty: a Valkyrie of Schicksal, a commander of the Far East Branch— eradicating Honkai was her charge.
By self: she simply didn't want to die.
She was a woman with no future, a woman with little time left. She had accepted an artificial stigmata to become a Valkyrie and chase the truth of her father's death. The stigmata had ravaged her body; she was breaking down.
She wanted to live.
A Herrscher was her chance. If she could capture one, stigmata research might leap forward—She might buy more time—She might keep searching for what happened to her father.
But capturing a Herrscher was no longer the question.
Either die here or kill the Herrscher.
....
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