Chapter 66 - A Special Herrscher Personality

The surge of Honkai energy had ripped through Mei clothing, her long dress was scorched with black marks from searing lightning, and the thigh-high black stockings were riddled with seductive little burns.

Her once pristine, light-purple hair had darkened into a shade of twilight, lengthening slowly as if alive.

Purple-black arcs of electricity crackled around her, and her pale, porcelain arms were streaked with jagged lines of dark energy.

Behind her, particles of deep violet coalesced into crystalline wings of lightning.

Her face remained as delicate and beautiful as ever, but the gentle and serene smile from before had vanished.

In its place, the smile of a newly born Herrscher—one laced with an icy, lethal danger.

Her eyes, once a calm amethyst, now gleamed with a fierce crimson-pink light.

She was indeed a Herrscher now but whether it was the peak Honkai energy readings or the sheer pressure she emitted.

This Third Herrscher still didn't come close to matching Nagami or C.C.'s earlier display.

Cocolia might have been insane, but she wasn't stupid.

It was clear the group before her was working together.

Even if she used every resource at her disposal to defeat this new Herrscher, there was no way she could retrieve her from under the noses of those two mysterious figures.

Who had absorbed nearly all of the energy from this Honkai eruption.

You can win against a ripple, but not against a tsunami.

It was a lesson everyone knew.

The rapidly approaching mech unit halted instantly upon this realization.

As the crimson pupils of the Herrscher of Thunder locked onto her, Cocolia's anxious voice suddenly crackled in Bronya's ear.

"Bronya, abort the mission. Run—use everything you've got!"

"Go to hell, you insect" The newly born Herrscher of Thunder was already seething.

Even before her emergence was complete, the personality within her had formed a vague consciousness.

And from start to finish, she had watched Nagami and C.C. siphon away the Honkai energy meant for her birth.

Her fury erupted like a volcano.

Bronya, being the closest at the time, became the natural first target of her wrath.

With a cold glint in her eye, the Third Herrscher turned her head toward Bronya.

Electric arcs slithered like living serpents across her form, a suffocating aura radiating in every direction, deep and impenetrable.

Purple-black lightning gathered in her delicate white hand.

Like a thunder god's wrath made manifest, blinding bolts tore through the sky.

A massive streak of lightning, shaped like a comet, blasted from her palm and shot toward Bronya, who sat atop the mechanized companion—Heavy Bunny 19C.

"Heavy Bunny, fire!" Bronya instantly raised her right hand.

As the stand of a stand user, Heavy Bunny's mechanical hand transformed in a series of slick, mechanical shifts into a cannon, black as obsidian.

A roaring torrent of energy ripped through the air, clashing head-on with the lightning.

But it was like throwing tofu at a spear.

The thunder spear formed by the Herrscher's power pierced right through it effortlessly.

Herrschers—the so-called apostles of god wielded powers that defied human understanding.

Their abilities were, in essence, the ultimate embodiment of certain fundamental laws of the universe.

Even if Herrschers—who all flunked their science classes couldn't fully wield these powers as intended, they were still absurdly powerful.

To face off against a Herrscher, even one newly born, it took at least an S-rank Valkyrie just to hold their own.

As for Windy, who got wrecked by Papa Titan… yeah, please kindly leave the Herrscher club.

And for those who didn't possess the strength of an S-rank Valkyrie, the outcome of challenging a Herrscher head-on was exactly what was unfolding now.

'BOOM!'

The chaotic roar of energy burst forth, bolts of brilliant purple electricity lashing out madly.

An enormous shockwave surged out from the impact zone, engulfing the silver-haired girl and scorching the terrain behind her.

As smoke and dust billowed from the fractured ground, Bronya—clothes in tatters and body smoldering was carried out of the blast by her partially burned mech armor.

The matrix-like defensive barriers shimmered for a mere two seconds… then shattered completely.

Supported by her exoskeleton, Bronya stood with difficulty, her eyes locked on the floating thunder queen above.

But to her surprise, no follow-up attack came.

The Herrscher merely gave her a cold glance before shifting her focus away.

Suspended mid-air, she turned toward the black-haired boy who was smiling gently at her—flanked by the girls at his side.

"Hello there, Herrscher-san~"

Nagami waved with exaggerated friendliness, though his gaze was strangely... intense.

The sight above demanded a glance upward: the girl floated with barely-there scraps of clothing fluttering in the breeze, the tattered hem of her outfit swaying softly.

The Herrscher's expression remained unreadable.

A flicker of incredibly complex emotion passed through her eyes.

She remembered everything about Raiden Mei.

And she knew all too well what this boy meant to Mei.

Herrschers were born under extreme conditions—brutal, despair-filled circumstances, in the wake of massive Honkai disasters.

In essence, the Herrscher personality was a new consciousness birthed in a hellscape of agony and hatred, triggered by the will of Honkai itself.

Though the nascent Herrscher inherited the host's memories, in many ways… they were little more than newborn children.

And the will of Honkai? It scrawls across that newborn mind with chaos and negativity, distorting their view of the world.

Sirin, for example—consumed by despair, twisted in the abyss, and then nudged a little by the Honkai's whispers—and boom. Hatred for humanity exploded like fireworks.

That's how it should have gone.

But…

Before this Herrscher Mei had even awakened, she'd already occasionally seen the outside world through Mei's eyes.

She saw Nagami and Kiana shielding Mei from every ounce of malice directed her way.

She knew her father had been framed.

Her heart was never truly swallowed by despair.

More importantly, the most crucial ingredient in creating a twisted Herrscher, the seductive whispers of the Honkai will—never reached her.

It was like stars with smaller mass being pulled toward bigger stars.

The tiny fragments of will scattered in the Honkai energy had all been drawn away—locked up in "dark rooms" by Nagami.

They were reshaped into his influence, not the Honkai's.

So this so-called Herrscher personality?

It had never even spoken with the real Honkai will.

What shaped her was the Honkai energy she absorbed—energy that still carried a few diluted traces of consciousness.

Just enough to awaken powers, but far too weak to trigger full corruption.

That was also intentional—Nagami had allowed a tiny amount through, uncertain whether completely pure Honkai energy could trigger a Herrscher awakening at all.

So in truth, this Herrscher consciousness was more like a version of Mei's own mind and memories, just stirred and refined by the Honkai energy.

The remnants of will were so faint they barely pushed her personality toward arrogance, at most.

Her rage burned bright—but Mei's influence held sway.

And because of that, the proud Lightning Queen found herself blushing slightly under Nagami's gaze, unable to suppress the flurry of embarrassment and… a hint of joy.

A barely noticeable blush crept up her porcelain cheeks, and realizing it only made her more furious.

There was no doubt about it—she was blushing from anger!

"Die!"

Thunder began to churn in the clouds above, crackling with the wrath of a lightning god.

Waves of radiant, chaotic purple lightning converged above her, fusing together into a blinding pillar of energy in an instant.

At her will, it crashed downward—an attack that could reduce anything in its path to ash—straight toward Nagami.

"Whoa, whoa, let's all calm down here, No need to start with murder right off the bat!"

With a grin, Nagami held up one hand, fingers splayed open.

A torrent of energy surged from within him, blinding motes of burning light swarming outward like a solar storm.

In a heartbeat, the mass of energy coalesced into an enormous, molten lava.

The air shimmered from the rising heat.

Scorching steam hissed from the ground.

The heat distorted everyone's vision as waves of humidity wrapped the battlefield like a boiling storm.

'Sage Art: Lava Release Rasenshuriken!'

Okay, it wasn't exactly the same technique… but close enough.

Nagami had simply added a tiny bit more energy.

Surrounded by actively swirling Honkai energy, he hurled the blazing lava straight toward the incoming lightning spear.

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