As these thoughts surged through his mind, Leo Ash was startled to find that the malice he held towards certain people and things in this world was perhaps far greater than he had imagined.
But that was hardly surprising.
In the short fifty days since he had transmigrated to this world, so much had happened.
Although he had the System's help, Leo Ash felt that he had worked hard enough.
And yet, the result was that even though he had tried his best, the dangers in this world were only continuing to increase.
A butterfly flapped its wings, causing a tornado in another region? What a load of bullshit.
In the next instant, feeling the transport begin to shake violently, Leo Ash could only forcibly suppress his inner frustration and directly initiate the deployment sequence for [Zero Knight: Moonshade].
"Mei, come here."
Pulling Mei to his side, Leo Ash said to his companions.
"Kiana's armor is suited for aerial assaults. You hold onto Bronya."
"Bronya, summon your robot and have it hold Mike. You carry Stan."
"If things go south, we'll just bail out."
"W-wait a minute!"
Seeing Bronya suddenly summon Project Bunny, Mike said in a slight panic.
"If I get held by this hunk of metal, even if I land, the impact will rupture my internal organs!"
"Oh, don't worry. It's mainly to keep you from flying off somewhere else. As for the landing..."
Embracing Mei, Leo Ash pulled open the transport's hatch and leaped out into the open air.
"—I'll handle it."
At this moment, Mei knew that it was inappropriate to have other thoughts, but...
She had to admit, curled up in Leo Ash's arms, she truly had the thought, 'I wish this moment could last forever.'
[I'm telling you, you'd better not be having thoughts like that.]
Th-the Herrscher of Thunder?!
Realizing that the Herrscher's voice had once again appeared in her mind, the strange thoughts in Mei's head were instantly scared away.
Damn it, how can I be so useless at a time like this!
If the Herrscher of Thunder wakes up now—
[I have no interest in ambushing this dog of a man, you can rest assured—if I were to ambush him, I wouldn't say a word.]
[I just feel that I should apologize to you. The reason I was able to surface before was likely not because of you.]
What... what do you mean?
[It's simple.]
[Although I personally don't have many thoughts, I have no interest in helping the human side either.]
[So, in God's eyes, I am still an apostle who can receive 'blessings'.]
[In other words, the Herrscher of Thunder is not a traitor in the eyes of the Honkai God, but a subordinate who can receive support.]
...So?
[So, because this new Honkai Eruption is about to descend, the Honkai God probably wants me to seize your body and join the new Herrscher in slaughtering humanity.]
[In the past, God probably wouldn't have had these thoughts, so you'd all better be careful.]
Although she couldn't be sure if the Herrscher of Thunder's warning was correct, Mei, after a brief moment of thought, came to her own conclusion.
Whatever the Herrscher of Thunder was thinking, there was probably nothing wrong with her words.
If the Herrscher of Thunder truly intended her harm, she wouldn't be actively warning her to be careful now.
In any case, thanks for the warning.
[Hmph, I just don't want this guy to die at the hands of someone else.]
The Herrscher of Thunder let out a cold snort and said to Mei with a sneer.
[Last time, it was because that white-haired girl's father weakened my power. Otherwise, how could I have possibly lost to this dog of a man?]
[Sooner or later, I will seize your body and show him with facts—that what happened that day was nothing but an accident.]
Hearing the Herrscher of Thunder's declaration of war, Mei felt that...
—the threat the Herrscher of Thunder posed to Leo Ash seemed to have lessened even more.
In those words, she could at most detect a hint of indignation and annoyance. The killing intent and malice that should have been present in the Herrscher of Thunder's words were completely absent.
For now, after warning Mei, the Herrscher of Thunder voluntarily fell silent.
And Mei, her fighting spirit now roused, no longer focused on being in Leo Ash's arms.
After Leo Ash and Mei, the first two to jump, landed safely, Leo Ash looked up at the others in the air.
Kiana, now clad in [White Knight: Moonlight], was gently descending from the sky while holding Bronya. The two of them should be fine.
But on the other side, Mike, held by Project Bunny, had a calm expression, but judging from his violently trembling body, his inner turmoil was likely off the charts.
"Mm, no big deal."
After estimating Project Bunny's landing distance, Leo Ash instantly wove a mana net on the ground where it was about to land, using the mana within his body.
When Project Bunny and Mike landed on the ground, cushioned by the mana net, the terrified Mike let out a huge sigh of relief.
Then, after looking around, Mike decisively leaped from the robot's arms and started running frantically towards the area behind the group.
"I'll just be a burden if I stay here! I'm leaving this to you, Captain Ash!"
"Ah, as expected of an elite."
Seeing the surprised looks on Kiana's and Mei's faces, Leo Ash said with a smile.
"Don't be surprised, Mike's choice is the correct one."
"He's a transport pilot with no combat ability. Staying here would only get in the way."
"Besides, the welcoming party that came for us this time is a bit... large."
Turning his gaze to the uninvited guests that had appeared before him, the smile on Leo Ash's face vanished without a trace.
"Now that Mike is gone, we can really let loose."
Kiana, Mei, and Bronya had, of course, also noticed the enemies that had appeared before them.
"These guys...!"
Seeing the group of blue-haired men behind the black-robed figure, Kiana directly aimed her dual pistols, [Fafnir Burstflame], at the enemies.
"The blue-haired guys from St. Freya Academy! You really dare to show your faces in front of me again!"
"...Something's wrong."
Staring at the group of blue-haired men with vacant eyes, Mei frowned slightly and drew the [MagStorm] from her waist.
"These people are different from the enemies that appeared at St. Freya. They... don't even give me the slightest sense of pressure."
Yes, Mei's feeling was spot on.
Looking at the Joyce clones behind the black-robed figure, Leo Ash could feel that these clones were far inferior in strength to the Joyce clone he had faced before.
The Joyce clone that had appeared before Leo Ash at that time, though arrogant and easily provoked, at least possessed individual intelligence.
But now, looking at the vacant-eyed clones, not only did Leo Ash not feel any pressure from them, he even felt that they couldn't even be considered living beings.
Are these guys really worth an Intermediate Lottery Ticket?
At that moment, the black-robed figure in front of the clones suddenly spoke.
"Mr. Ash, is it?"
"We actually bear you no great animosity, and even hope to coexist peacefully with you, so..."
"—Coexist with your mother. Trying to stall for time when you can't kill me, is that it? Scram!"
Hearing the annoying mechanical voice, the already extremely irritable Leo Ash directly activated the [Magic Spear System], aiming at five of the eleven enemies before him.
At the same time, as Leo Ash attacked, Kiana unhesitatingly pulled the triggers, using the trajectory of her Pantheon dual pistols to block the retreat of several enemies.
Mei had already circled to the side, preparing to cut down the enemies after her companions' ranged attacks ended.
As for Bronya, she had already transformed Project Bunny into turret mode, ready to provide fire support at any moment.
The three of them had locked down the enemy from multiple directions, and if nothing unexpected happened, their combined attack would have been enough to take several lives.
However, at the very moment the three of them launched their attack, the ten clones, as if pulled by some force, raised their right hands in unison.
In the next instant, the power released by these clones miraculously merged to form a huge protective barrier.
The energy bullets fired by Kiana, the light spears fired by Leo Ash's auto-targeting Magic Spear System, and the cannon fire from Bronya's Project Bunny were all blocked by this single barrier.
Although the barrier shattered instantly under their bombardment, the people inside were indeed unharmed.
"As I was saying, Mr. Ash, I believe we can really have a proper chat."
After tanking the blow with the clone army behind him, the leading Gray Serpent took off his hood, revealing his mechanical body.
"If you are angry because of our earlier greeting, that's simple—after we finish talking, you can kill me and the soldiers behind me to vent your anger."
"But before that, I still hope you can understand—we are enemies with Otto, but that doesn't mean we are enemies with Otto's subordinates..."
"Cut the fucking crap!"
Leo Ash, who had already activated the Magic Spear System again, now gripped the spear that had condensed in the void and threw it directly at the Gray Serpent before him.
Leo Ash was racing against time. Since he knew the enemy was just stalling with their bullshit, how could he possibly go along with their plan?
Although he hadn't expected to hold Leo Ash back with words, in Gray Serpent's eyes, there was still some distance between them.
The gravity barrier jointly launched by the clones just now had managed to block the opponent's attack, giving him a little bit of confidence to negotiate. However, now, Leo Ash had shown Gray Serpent the truth.
The previous attack was not his full strength at all, and when the furious young knight concentrated his power into a single point, these Pseudo-Herrschers behind Gray Serpent were completely unable to withstand the blow from Leo Ash's rage.
The spear created by the Magic Spear System easily pierced through Gray Serpent's body, blowing it to smithereens.
But at that moment, Leo Ash's offensive was not over.
The instant he threw the spear, Leo Ash had already brought his palms together and activated Mind Like Still Water.
"Endless..."
"—Jizō Blade!"
The powerful spear thrown by the Magic Spear System was, in essence, a creation of Honkai Energy.
And in his dream training during this period, Leo Ash had gradually come to understand some other things from these skills he had drawn.
In the world of Sea Tiger, more than five thousand years after the death of Bai Junlang, the Sea Tiger Destructive Punch he had developed was once used as a research basis by his descendants to deduce a mantra-like magnetic field martial art, the Sea Tiger Destructive Mantra.
And during this period, Leo Ash, who had been studying various skills, had now indirectly grasped the essence of something similar to the Sea Tiger Destructive Mantra through the bonus of studying his skills properly.
The spear he had thrown already contained the technique to detonate it from within.
And using the fragments generated by the spear's explosion, Leo Ash directly harnessed this Honkai Energy to unleash Endless Jizō Blade on the spot, instantly turning these energy fragments, which were not that lethal to begin with, into deadly Honkai Energy blades.
These clones were mindless creations with no combat intelligence.
Now, having lost Gray Serpent's command, Leo Ash, just by linking these moves together, had killed all of them on the spot in the very next second after killing Gray Serpent.
Mike, who had already run several hundred meters away, looked back at the battlefield and was completely stunned.
In his eyes, although Leo Ash was powerful, dealing with enemies who were suspected to be Pseudo-Herrschers should have taken some effort.
But now, from the moment he started running until the end of the battle... had it even been a minute???
No, no, a minute was too long.
Including the time the black-robed figure was talking, did this battle even last thirty seconds???
On the battlefield, the three girls and one cat looked at Leo Ash, who had already deactivated his armor, with only a thought similar to Mike's remaining.
Senior... just took care of all the enemies in an instant?
Leo Ash... and the Herrscher of Thunder actually wanted to pick a fight with him just now.
Brother Leo Ash... if Mother Cocolia continues to court death, when Brother Leo Ash's temper flares up, Bronya probably won't be able to stop him.
Back in Nagazora City, all three of them had crossed hands with Leo Ash.
Yet now, looking at Leo Ash, the anger on his face gradually fading, a single question arose in all three of their minds.
So...
—Just when did he become so powerful?
.