Rivers of Blood

Vwoom~

A searing laser beam cut through the air, piercing straight into the massive creature before her. The next second, the enormous Honkai Beast collapsed with a crash.

Confirming the last one was taken down by her drones, Bronya Zaychik wiped the sweat from her forehead and activated the communicator in her earpiece.

"Principal, the Honkai in the northern district have been completely eliminated. No sign of the Herrscher of Dominance."

This was Salt Lake City, an ordinary city in eastern North America. Although called a city, its population didn't even reach 100,000. Aside from a large saltwater lake available for mining, it had almost no economic value. It was the kind of peripheral city merely marked by name on most maps, but what no one knew was that it was actually one of Anti-Entropy's major secret bases.

Half a month ago, with the successive appearances of the Herrscher of Dominance, various locations worldwide suffered Honkai attacks of differing severity. It was unknown if the base's location had been exposed, but Salt Lake City attracted a large number of Honkai Beasts.

Forced to act, the members of St. Freya High School had docked here temporarily, to deal with the Honkai Beasts while gathering information.

"I'm done on my end too. Kiana, how about you?" Theresa Apocalypse casually shouldered Judah's Oath, weighing half a ton, and tapped into the Hyperion's dedicated channel.

However, the other end remained silent, only faint static crackling through.

"Kiana?"

Her heart tightened. Theresa subconsciously prepared to contact Anti-Entropy for rescue, just as the girl's voice finally came through the channel.

"I'm fine. No sign of the Herrscher here either."

"Geez, Kiana, you're old enough now, stop scaring people like that." Theresa sighed in relief and didn't overthink it. After all, in the ten-plus days since Kiana Kaslana had rejoined them, Anti-Entropy had already assessed her combat strength multiple times.

The results were self-evident: even Bronya, wielding the power of the Herrscher of Reason, and Theresa in her enhanced state, were no match for her together. So, there was absolutely no need to worry about her combat capabilities.

"That's good. Since everything's handled, let's regroup quickly."

"Okay, I'll be there soon." Kiana sounded relaxed, seemingly confirming that this level of Honkai activity was indeed making a mountain out of a molehill for her.

After confirming everyone was safe, Theresa called in Anti-Entropy personnel to handle the cleanup, while she headed back to the base.

What she didn't know was that as soon as Kiana ended the communication, the smile on her face slowly faded. She stood amidst a pile of Honkai Beast corpses, her gaze fixed intently on an inconspicuous wooden puppet among the wreckage.

Half an hour earlier, Theresa had received news of the attack on Salt Lake City. As an ally, Kiana was naturally dispatched to the southern district to deal with it.

Initially, she thought it was just a standard Honkai outbreak. However, upon arrival, she discovered the situation was completely different from the intelligence reports. Not only were there several times more Honkai Beasts, but their numbers were also continuously increasing.

Anyone with basic knowledge of Honkai phenomena knows that Honkai Beasts don't gather in one place without reason, unless there's a higher concentration of Honkai Energy drawing them in. After a brief investigation, Kiana found the Honkai Energy concentration here was several times higher than in a normal outbreak.

This phenomenon usually indicates one of two things: either an Anti-Entropy Honkai Energy reactor was leaking, or a Herrscher had appeared.

A reactor leak seemed unlikely, so the only remaining explanation was the presence of a Herrscher. Furthermore, while the Honkai concentration was high, it hadn't reached the level of a typical Herrscher, making it highly probable that it was the recently active Herrscher of Dominance.

Realizing this might be connected to Ren, she deliberately cut off communication with Theresa to investigate alone.

It wasn't that she didn't trust her comrades, but there were many things she wanted to say to Ren personally.

Unfortunately, this particular puppet of the Herrscher of Dominance seemed incredibly weak. During Kiana's systematic sweep, a man in a business suit entered her line of sight.

An ordinary person wandering around an area teeming with Honkai? Something was definitely off.

Just as she prepared to apprehend him, the man seemed to notice her presence. However, instead of running, he flashed a strange smile.

The next second, a golden beam of light erupted from his body. After a violent explosion, only this strange wooden puppet remained.

Withdrawing her gaze, Kiana's expression turned sorrowful. She didn't understand why Ren was avoiding her. Even if he really was connected to the Herrscher of Dominance, she wouldn't mind...

"Ren, what are you trying to do?"

After writing up her encounter in a report, Kiana returned to the Anti-Entropy base with Theresa and the others. Before she could even catch her breath, she was summoned to the conference room by Welt Yang.

Due to the recent incidents involving the Herrscher of Dominance, meetings were becoming frequent. Although Kiana could have refused, she needed access to Anti-Entropy's intelligence network to get timely information about Ren.

However, she didn't expect that as soon as she entered the conference room, Welt's eyes would turn directly to her. "Ms. Kiana, you've heard of the organization called The Obsidian Concord before, haven't you? Are you familiar with it?"

"The Obsidian Concord?" Kiana was a bit lost, subconsciously shaking her head. "I only know Ren and Raiden Mei are connected to it. Nothing else."

"I see." Welt sighed, bringing up a series of intelligence reports to formally begin the meeting.

"Half a month ago, the Herrscher of Dominance incidents officially began. In just 15 days, the number of casualties reached the horrifying scale of tens of millions. This level of devastation surpasses that of all previous Herrschers, except for the Herrscher of the Void."

Hearing the words "Herrscher of the Void," Kiana subconsciously bit her lip. Before she could dwell on it, Welt continued, "However, after the initial panic, the Herrscher's actual harm to society has been steadily decreasing."

"How is that possible?" Theresa, listening in, found it hard to believe. "Tens of millions dead and decreasing harm... how could those two things possibly go together?"

"I know it sounds counterintuitive, but in reality, the HoD's rampage, far from causing widespread societal collapse, has instead provoked some... different reactions."

With that, Welt pulled up a new webpage.

"The main reason for this is this website, which appeared not long ago."

Kiana's sharp eyes immediately caught the logo and title on the webpage—The Obsidian Concord Forum.

"Since the HoD incidents began, this website emerged into public view. It contains no extraneous information, only detailed records of each incident. Not only does it include the time and place, but even the victims' identities are clearly listed. If it weren't for the several-hour delay between the incident and the post, we might suspect it was the Herrscher of Dominance's own crime announcements."

"But what does this have to do with the decreasing harm?"

"Take a closer look at the victims' profiles." Welt magnified the column with personal information.

Morfran, arms dealer. Five years ago, supplied 230 million worth of weapons to South Vietnamese insurgents, indirectly causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. Personally involved in 239 murders, 67 of whom were children.

Milo Randell, drug lord. Controlled the largest drug market in South Asia, supplying tens of thousands of tons of narcotics annually.

Tello, gangster. Murder count: 49. Gang-related killings: 538...

Just reading a few entries made Kiana frown deeply. Everyone listed was, without exception, a major criminal who arguably deserved death. Even those who hadn't killed directly had indirectly shattered millions of families.

"I believe you've all noticed. These are the underground organizations that modern society struggles to eradicate. Even now, with the Honkai raging, these individuals continue to exploit others for life and property through various means."

"So, you're saying the tens of millions killed were actually people beyond the reach of the law?"

Welt nodded. "If the information on this forum is accurate, then yes. In fact, after The Obsidian Concord Forum appeared, I had my people investigate. While we couldn't get details as specific as the forum's, the information largely checked out."

"However, the truth itself isn't the most critical point right now. What matters is that this forum has already spread widely among the public."

Welt then displayed some random online interactions.

「Did you guys see that Obsidian Concord Forum? The info seems to match recent events, right?」

「Could the stuff on there actually be true?」

「Seems unlikely. The officials haven't announced anything, how could they have such detailed firsthand info?」

「I think it's real. One of the cases happened right near my home, and the forum details match exactly what I know. Plus, the info was posted less than ten hours after it happened.」

"Normally, to avoid public panic, Honkai incidents are deliberately suppressed by various factions. But the scope of these Herrscher of Dominance incidents is simply too vast. Even if some remain skeptical, as the number of 'on-site' witnesses grows, the credibility of The Obsidian Concord Forum keeps increasing."

Welt sighed again. "Panic stems from the unknown. Mass death events cause fear. But if people discover that those being slaughtered are irredeemable criminal gangs, and those found hanging from lampposts are notorious local crony capitalists, even the so-called government officials targeted are mostly corrupt parasites who pervert justice... Then acts of violence, perceived as righteous, might actually lead people to cheer them on."

As a forum, The Obsidian Concord naturally has a comment section, and beneath the posts, a frenzy has clearly erupted.

"Good riddance! My father was killed by the local mafia. These bastards should all die!"

"Those guys seized my family's land with no compensation. They were exposed for embezzling tens of millions but still walked free. Finally dead!"

News travels fast online, especially among those stuck at home. Gradually, voices supporting the Herrscher of Dominance even began to appear online.

"Killing is illegal, but if it's these guys... maybe it's not so terrible...?"

Kiana frowned, looking puzzled. "If the Herrscher of Dominance only attacks bad people, isn't that... a good thing?"

"That's the crux of the problem. Eliminating these parasites of civilization might feel satisfying, but the impact left by such bloody atrocities is indelible."

As Welt finished speaking, some 'different' comments appeared on the screen.

「KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL!」

「Boring. I want to see rivers of blood!」