So, who was going to teach him how to answer at a time like this?
Ishiu hesitated for a moment before finally shaking his head at Miss Mei. "Um... Mei, forget about the amulet. I'll be staying at the Orphanage, so I won't be in any danger. You should keep it yourself."
Although he truly did not want to refuse Miss Mei's kindness, Bronya was family after all. In a situation that was not such a big deal, Ishiu knew perfectly well what choice he should make.
"...O-Okay..." Raiden Mei silently withdrew her hand. Clutching the amulet, she looked somewhat dejected.
In contrast, Bronya smiled. It seemed this damn brat still knew who was closer to him and had not had his soul lured away by some vixen from outside.
"Alright, Ishiu. It's time for us to head back. It's already very late," Bronya said.
"Head back? Then are you staying here for another night?" Kiana asked in surprise. Though she knew Ishiu would eventually leave, every extra moment she could spend with him counted.
"No. We're leaving tonight. If I've calculated correctly, we should reach the Orphanage at four tomorrow morning," Bronya said casually, glancing at Kiana.
"Ah? I-I see..." Kiana, who had just been beaming with joy, immediately wilted like an eggplant struck by frost.
"Ishiu..." Raiden Mei pressed her lips together. A host of emotions flashed across her face before she finally revealed a breathtaking smile. "Have a safe trip. Remember to call me when you get back."
"Mm, I definitely will." Ishiu nodded and waved at Raiden Mei. "Then... goodbye, Mei."
"Goodbye, Ishiu..."
Is that all the nerve you have? Useless trash!
Just as Raiden Mei finished speaking, a voice rang out in her mind.
Let me handle this!
"Alert! Alert! Honkai Energy in Changkong City is rapidly rising! I repeat! Honkai Energy in Changkong City is rapidly rising! It has already exceeded the threshold!"
Cocolia, who was still at Ishiu's house, suddenly received a report from her subordinate. Her expression changed, and she immediately left the room, headed to the rooftop, and boarded the battleship concealed in the sky.
"What happened? Why did Honkai Energy suddenly erupt?" Cocolia asked grimly as she entered the control room.
"Report. It seems... the Honkai Source inside Raiden Mei suddenly surged, causing the Honkai Energy throughout Changkong City to skyrocket as well."
"Raiden Mei?" Cocolia had already suspected as much, but she had not expected it to really be because of Raiden Mei. "Pull up the surveillance feed!"
Cocolia felt a little panicked, because Ishiu and Bronya were both still with Raiden Mei. If something happened to them...
Cocolia had not expected Raiden Mei, who should have needed over another month to completely merge with the Conquest Gem and become a Herrscher according to their calculations, to erupt ahead of time. It was like childbirth—when a baby came prematurely, no one could have predicted it.
Her subordinate quickly pulled up the surveillance footage from near Raiden Mei's home, and an image immediately appeared on the large screen.
"M-Mei?"
Ishiu stared in shock at Mei, who had just waved goodbye to him. The next second, it was as if her inner cosmos had erupted. A powerful field of Honkai Energy appeared around her, blue-violet arcs of lightning flickered faintly between the tips of her hair, and when she opened her eyes again, her azure pupils had turned a brilliant violet.
"You, human, are not allowed to leave."
The Queen of Raiden spoke in a cold voice, her gaze utterly devoid of emotion. Like a queen ruling over the world, she seemed to be issuing an order to one of her subjects.
"Huh?" Ishiu froze. He recognized that voice. Wasn't it the voice that had called out to him back at the villa? So she had been the one speaking. But what was going on? Why had Miss Mei suddenly become so aggressive?
"Ishiu! Get away from here!" Bronya suddenly shouted. She grabbed him and frantically retreated.
"What's going on? Why do we have to leave? What happened to Mei?" Ishiu's head was full of question marks, but unfortunately, no one could explain it to him right now.
"I said... you are not allowed to leave." The Queen of Raiden controlled lightning. With a slight curl of her finger, a bolt of azure lightning transformed into a swift grappling hook and shot straight toward Ishiu.
"You! Will not keep him!" A fierce glint flashed through Bronya's eyes. She stood in front of Ishiu. Having lost him once already, she absolutely did not want to lose him again, even if it meant making an enemy of... a Herrscher!
"Heavy-duty Bunny!" Bronya shouted, summoning her Stand User... no, Heavy Armored Bunny 19C.
It was a black-and-white thing resembling a robot, with only an upper body.
It stood roughly two meters tall, radiating an icy steel aura. Its eyes glowed with emotionless red light, but at Bronya's command, it unhesitatingly stepped in front of her and swung a heavy fist at the blue lightning bolt.
Ora!
Its massive fist blasted out in an instant, carrying a thunderous sonic boom as it slammed into the lightning, shattering the hook formed from electricity.
"Holy shit? Little Pudding, you're a Stand User?!" Ishiu was stunned. What the hell was going on?
Were they all coming clean one after another?
First, Miss Mei had suddenly erupted with her inner cosmos, transforming into a lightning sorceress who controlled thunder and electricity. Then Bronya unleashed a Stand attack. Ah, this...
Wait, only Stand Users could see Stands. Did that mean he was a damn Stand User too?
"Enough nonsense! Run already! She's become a Herrscher!" Bronya kicked Ishiu directly, her face solemn as she urged him to flee. She had not expected Raiden Mei to suddenly become a Herrscher for no reason at all.
"A Herrscher?! H-How is that possible?!"
As soon as Bronya said that, Ishiu had not even had time to react before Kiana cried out in shock. Her face was filled with disbelief.
Kiana had fought the Honkai alongside Siegfried since she was little, so she knew far more about the Honkai than Ishiu did. Though she had never seen a Herrscher, she had heard Siegfried mention the word before. He had not explained much, but Kiana still understood what that word represented.
—A natural disaster.
Whenever a Herrscher appeared, the world would face an unprecedented Honkai catastrophe. It had already happened twice before, and now, this would be the third time.
It was precisely because she understood how terrifying that word was that Kiana could not believe it. She did not want to imagine that Mei, the person she liked most, could become a Herrscher...
"There's nothing impossible about it. Can't you feel the Honkai Energy gathering around her?" Bronya said coldly. Then she turned to Ishiu and shouted, "Hurry up and leave! It's dangerous here! She's no longer the Raiden Mei you know, understand?!"
Although Bronya managed to maintain an outward calm, she could not conceal the anxiety in her voice.
As the Silver Wolf of the Urals, she should have remained composed no matter what situation she encountered.
But whenever Ishiu was involved, she could not stay calm.
She had already watched Ishiu disappear before her eyes once. How could she tolerate seeing him hurt in front of her again?
Before, she had been unable to do anything. But now it was different. Now she had Seele's help. Heavy Armored Bunny 19C was the power of both of them, and they would never lose to anyone!
Even if their enemy was a Herrscher, she would still fight!
However, Bronya had forgotten something extremely important: one could not lose focus in battle.
Just as she turned to tell Ishiu to leave, the Queen of Raiden had already risen into the air. Expressionless, like a deity seated high in the heavens, she raised the thunder god's whip in her hand. Like divine punishment descending upon the world, blue-violet lightning lashed down like a whip the next second.
"Ah!"
Bronya sensed the danger, but it was already too late to dodge. How fast was lightning? Although the Queen of Raiden's controlled lightning was still far slower than actual light speed, it had already exceeded the speed of sound.
This is bad!
The thought flashed through Bronya's mind. She had no time to evade, but Heavy-duty Bunny had already blocked her path. Like a loyal knight carrying Seele's wish, it would forever protect this petite princess.
Yet just as the lightning was about to strike Heavy-duty Bunny, a dazzling flash of blade light suddenly burst forth! Like the legendary Raikiri, it forcibly cleaved the lightning in two.
Ishiu's figure landed soundlessly beside Bronya. He gripped Wolf Fang in his hand, his ice-blue mystic eyes gleaming with a cold light.
"Though I don't know what exactly happened, she isn't Mei, right?" Ishiu looked at the figure floating in midair, his voice turning cold as well.
"Ishiu, you..." Bronya stared blankly at him. If she could not confirm that this was her Ishiu, she might have thought he had been switched with someone else.
How had he become this strong after just a few months apart?
A huge question mark immediately appeared in Bronya's little head.
"Bronya, take Kiana farther away first. Leave this to me," Ishiu said, raising his dagger one word at a time.
"What kind of joke is that? Do you think I'm the sort of person who fears death and runs away whenever there's danger?" Kiana flew into a rage. She pulled a metal baseball bat out from beneath her skirt. No one knew how she had stuffed that thing in there. Maybe girls' skirts were like Doraemon's four-dimensional pockets.
"Hmph! Even if Mei has become a Herrscher, I'll beat her awake!" Kiana's fighting spirit surged. She showed no fear whatsoever because of her opponent's identity as a Herrscher. Instead, she looked eager to give it a try.
"Bronya..." Knowing he definitely could not persuade that idiot to leave, Ishiu could only turn his gaze toward Bronya.
Bronya could not be bothered with him. She directly had Heavy-duty Bunny fire a missile at the Queen of Raiden, using her actions to express her intentions.
"You wish to resist me?"
The Queen of Raiden merely waved her hand lightly, and endless lightning tightly protected her. Bronya's missile did not even touch her before it was forcibly detonated.
The enormous explosion was especially piercing in the nighttime city. Yet when the shockwave and energy from the blast approached the Queen of Raiden's lightning barrier, they were easily dissolved into nothingness.
The Herrscher of Thunder was not a rice cooker lady!.jpg
(P.S.: I currently owe twelve thousand words from the reward campaign. I'll pay back four thousand words first, then I should be able to finish paying it off in another two days. Pretty easy, right~)
(P.P.S.: Oh, and I hope everyone can turn on auto-subscription. Please, it's really important to me!)
Let's open another reward campaign.
Everyone's blades and donations seem a little lacking. I have no passion when writing, so in order to become a writing sow, I'll add a monthly-ticket reward campaign too.
The conditions are still the same.
Every 50 monthly tickets earns an extra thousand words.
(Currently owed: eleven thousand words)
Ishiu's Favorite Thing Was Saying NO to Those Who Thought Too Highly of Themselves!
(Four-thousand-word chapter)
"Tch... just as expected, she won't be easy to deal with." Bronya frowned. Though the Herrscher had only just awakened, her power was already terrifying. Moreover, as time passed, the Honkai Energy around her was still continuously building up. If this continued...
"Activate the citywide alarm and begin evacuating the residents."
Aboard Anti-Entropy's battleship, Cocolia began taking action as well.
Although she had not expected Raiden Mei to erupt ahead of time, she had prepared in advance for evacuating Changkong City's residents in the event of a Honkai outbreak. The problem was that Anti-Entropy's main forces were still in Siberia. While there were some troops in the Far East, they were still insufficient for all of Changkong City.
But Cocolia was not worried, because there was another organization in the Far East that fought against the Honkai—Schicksal.
However, what Cocolia did not know was that at the very moment the Honkai erupted, a silver-haired, child-faced figure at some academy was hiding beneath her blankets with a flashlight, happily reading the latest issue of the HOMU comic. Every now and then, she even let out a creepy auntie grin.
"Headmaster! Something's wrong!"
At that moment, the silver-haired child-faced girl's door was suddenly shoved open from outside. The wooden door struck the wall with a dull thud, startling the person hiding under the blankets so badly that she rolled straight off the bed.
"W-What happened?!"
Theresa hurriedly hid the HOMU comic beneath her butt, terrified that anyone would find out she was reading comics and damage the dignity of her position as Headmaster. (Not that she had any dignity to begin with.)
"Headmaster, this is bad! Honkai Energy in Changkong City has suddenly erupted. It has exceeded the threshold and is still rising rapidly. If this continues, Changkong City may fall!" The person who barged in was a young woman responsible for monitoring Honkai Energy readings across different regions. Just moments ago, she had watched Changkong City's Honkai Energy soar like the inverse of the stock market, climbing madly upward. In only three seconds, it had exceeded the threshold.
"What?!" Theresa's eyes widened, and her expression turned serious. "Are you certain this is real?"
"Yes! The instruments have not malfunctioned!"
"Quick! Sound the alarm! Gather everyone, deploy every battleship, and head for Changkong City!" Theresa gave orders while changing into a black-and-white nun's outfit.
"Yes!" Upon receiving the order, the girl immediately turned and ran off to carry it out.
"Strange. Why did Honkai Energy in Changkong City suddenly erupt without any warning? Could it be..." Thinking of a possibility, Theresa's expression became even uglier. She hurried outside and pulled out her communicator.
"Hello? Himeko?..."
Leaving aside the turmoil elsewhere, the battle on Ishiu's side had already reached a fever pitch.
The queen, wreathed in violent lightning, resembled a god gazing down upon all living beings. She merely stood there, moving her fingers slightly, and the countless flashes of lightning she unleashed battered Ishiu's group of three into a miserable state.
"Damn it! At this rate, we can't get anywhere near her!" Kiana shouted furiously as she dodged the lightning attacks.
"We only need to hold her off. Reinforcements will arrive soon," Bronya said, controlling Heavy-duty Bunny to launch missiles in an attempt to distract the Queen of Raiden while evading attacks.
Just as Bronya finished speaking, several black dots descended from the horizon. When they crashed heavily to the ground, everyone realized they were several towering robots.
The robots stood three or four meters tall. Their bodies were white or blue, and their cold mechanical frames gave off an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Ishiu recognized these robots. He had seen many like them in that World Bubble, and their name was—Titan Mechs!
The moment these Titan Mechs appeared, they sprang into action. Flames burst beneath their feet, and powerful jets propelled them into the sky. With unstoppable momentum, they charged straight at the Queen of Raiden.
"Trash. Who permitted you to come up here?" The Queen of Raiden remained expressionless. With a light tap of her finger, several thick lightning serpents writhed forth and strangled every Titan Mech!
Before you continue