'Damn it… why is he here too?!'
Raven took a deep breath, forcing down the urgent panic in her chest.
She secretly thanked her luck that she hadn't made a move against C.C. earlier—otherwise, both she and Grey Serpent would've been corpses by now.
Even with the Obscuring Wing forged from generations of civilization and the Thunder Herrscher's core, Raven knew she stood no chance against that terrifying Herrscher of Domination.
For a mercenary who lived on the knife's edge between life and death, self-awareness was more than a virtue—it was survival.
Those without it were long gone.
And from that spatial shift just now, it was clear the intel on C.C. had been gravely wrong. Her power was far greater than reported.
As expected of a survivor from the previous era—none of them were to be underestimated!
By now, Raven and Grey Serpent almost fully believed C.C.'s claimed identity.
Only such a background could explain the impossible things happening around that green-haired girl.
If that's true… then Nagami might very well be another contingency left behind by humanity of the last era.
Raven stared at Nagami's back, lost in thought.
Nagami himself, however, cared little for their suspicions.
He was fully immersed in analyzing the principle behind the Abyssal Eye's link to the Quantum Sea.
Hours passed, and the work was nearly complete.
Only 0.01% remained.
Once he could see the Eye of the Abyss activate with his own eyes, he'd be able to finish his analysis completely.
With no intention of wasting more time with Raven and Grey Serpent, Nagami slowly raised his right hand.
The power of the Herrscher of Reason stirred, and the Imaginary Space erupted with a flood of Honkai energy.
That tide of power surged out like a storm, forcing Raven and Grey Serpent's expressions to darken.
But then—something utterly unbelievable happened.
The dazzling violet particles within the space began to glow with a strange red hue.
As if they had their own will, they rushed desperately toward Nagami's hand, condensing into solid form.
It was as if—
As if they were love-struck dogs throwing themselves at their goddess, no matter the cost.
Unreal!
What the hell was happening?!
World Serpent's intel already claimed that many Valkyries—no, Herrschers at St. Freya had unusual relationships with Nagami.
That was shocking enough.
But this? Was Nagami actually… seducing Honkai energy itself?!
That was impossible. Absolutely insane!
Yet before their eyes, the purple torrent condensed in his hand into a familiar blue crystal, shimmering with deadly brilliance.
"That's… the Gem of Conquest!"
Grey Serpent's synthetic voice glitched, warped by shock.
His exposed cybernetic eye flared an intense red, looking ready to burst at any moment.
The Gem of Conquest should've already become the Herrscher of Thunder's core inside Raiden Mei.
But Nagami's actions, combined with his identity as the Herrscher of Reason…
He—
He could reproduce Herrscher Gems!
Raven's eyes widened as she stared at the crystal in Nagami's hand.
Her mind thundered as though struck by a bolt of lightning.
She knew exactly what this meant.
Behind her, the still-unactivated weapon, the "Obscuring Wing," could fire bullets that disassembled matter down to atoms.
But every shot damaged the weapon temporarily. That was why Raven always relied on one-hit kills.
Yet Nagami's power… could potentially mass-produce Divine Keys!
Normally, inert Herrscher cores embedded in Keys could never cause Herrscher transformation—they were essentially "dead" items, stripped of permissions.
With fusion like Chiyaro's, true large-scale replication was possible.
For Nagami, it was harder—he could only manage one or two but that alone was absurd.
"Time to open the gate, you two."
Nagami chuckled lightly at the still-stunned Raven and Grey Serpent, then casually tossed the recreated Gem of Conquest into the device before him.
Instantly, the ground trembled violently.
All of Abyssal City shook as though something vast had stirred, dust cascading from its highest spires.
The lights dimmed.
A massive shadow spread over the city—the endless swarms of Honkai beasts across the sea were being drawn toward them.
"These beasts…" Nagami muttered, his six-pointed star glowing faintly purple as he reinforced the city's energy barrier, "…should buy us a little more time. Consider it Kevin's rehabilitation exercise."
And with that, both Nagami and C.C. vanished into thin air.
Staring at the swirling vortex, its depths reflecting countless stars, Grey Serpent's breath trembled.
"Let's begin as well!"
...
The deep corridor stretched into the unknown.
At its end, beyond a darkness so thick it swallowed sight like an abyss, stood an ancient sealed gate.
Before it sat a white-haired man, eyes closed, lost in silence.
Fifteen hundred years had passed.
Empires had risen and fallen, human hands passing the torch of power again and again.
Time had eroded countless things—but not him.
That impossibly youthful face had not changed in the slightest.
His expressionless features were as calm and unfathomable as a still, bottomless well.
But the moment the Eye of the Abyss forged a path to the Quantum Sea, the silence broke.
In the void, the sound of gears turning echoed, like rusted iron grinding against itself.
A cold, howling gale forced open the seam of the ancient door.
At that instant, the man's eyes snapped open—ice-blue pupils brimming with nothing but frost and indifference.
Behind him, the throne stirred.
From its back unraveled a serpentine pattern, energy surging like a flood, manifesting into a colossal black serpent.
With a violent crash, the serpent smashed open the massive bronze gates and surged upward from the fathomless dark, streaking forth at lightning speed.
It ascended beyond the silent world.
It ascended past forgotten ruins.
The crushing pressure of the deep lessened, and when the massive serpent breached the surface of the sea, the entire space shuddered in violent upheaval.
"This power… truly worthy of the strongest fusion warrior!"
A voice rang out—clear like a boy's, ethereal like a girl's, perfectly overlapping into one.
As the serpent's energy dissipated, a figure slowly emerged.
At his feet spread a glacier, hard as permafrost, stretching outward as though to freeze the world itself into eternity.
Yet when that frost reached the dual forms standing side by side, it melted away into nothing.
Kevin stopped in his tracks, his calm, ancient gaze narrowing ever so slightly as he looked toward the source of the voice.
"Herrscher of Reason… Nagami. And… C.C."
Though trapped in the Quantum Sea for fifteen centuries, Kevin was far from ignorant of the outside world.
On the contrary, he knew things even World Serpent itself had never uncovered.
All thanks to the observation bridges formed by quantum entanglement, he could briefly glimpse the outside and steer the general course of World Serpent's actions.
"Oh? Didn't think you'd know me," Nagami raised an eyebrow, a playful smile tugging at his lips. "I'm flattered."
Judging by his reaction, Kevin clearly didn't know about the dual-body secret.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have called out C.C.'s name so casually.
"How did you do it?"
Kevin's voice was as cold as the frozen earth beneath his feet.
"What exactly are you referring to?"
Before the hero who had led the previous civilization to resist the end, humanity's strongest warrior of the old era, Nagami's expression carried not the slightest hint of tension.
In Little Herrscher of Sentience's words:
[In terms of combat technique, I've got Kevin beat. With his weapon factored in, we're even.]
The most noble and prideful Herrscher of Sentience herself, when dealing with anyone but Nagami, always acted in a completely different manner.
And her statement wasn't entirely arrogance.
After all, even Fu Hua once fought Kevin—wielding Schicksal's divine weapon to a true fifty-fifty standstill.
Of course, that had been during Fu Hua's prime, bolstered by the Herrscher of Sentience's full power, against Kevin who had only recently escaped the Quantum Sea in a weakened state.
But the Kevin standing before Nagami now—without even Judgment of Shamash at his side—was someone Nagami could easily shove back into the Quantum Sea if he wished.
Nagami hadn't even begun fully deciphering the Deep's authority yet.
In his current, complete state, he could wield all his strength freely.
Even if Kevin were at his absolute peak, Nagami would face him without fear.
With the barrier of Judah's Oath active, even Kevin would be suppressed—like some villain softened and redeemed after defeat.
"How do you keep a Herrscher vessel's will intact?"
Kevin asked, his voice firm, his eyes unwavering.
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