I Give Up. The Herrscher of Thunder Has the Face of a Ghost Knight

"Give Ishiu back to me."

"I... I'm sorry..."

Facing the furious Bronya, Raiden Mei opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she said nothing. She merely lowered her head and apologized.

"..." Looking at the crying girl before her, most of Bronya's anger suddenly faded. It was not because she pitied her, but because she suddenly remembered that Cocolia was the reason Raiden Mei had become like that, wasn't she?

Although Ishiu had been injured because of her, when it came down to it, Bronya could not truly hate Raiden Mei. She had no right to.

After a moment of silence, Bronya looked away from Raiden Mei. Instead, she crouched down and bit her lip as she looked at Ishiu.

"Ishiu, how are you?"

"It's... it's nothing serious. Just let me rest for a while." Ishiu panted heavily. Though he had lost a lot of blood, it was not actually a big problem. They were only superficial wounds. He had merely overexerted himself and was temporarily exhausted.

Seeing that Ishiu was not pretending to be fine, Bronya finally relaxed a little.

"Ishiu, you're bleeding so much. Does it hurt?" Kiana looked at Ishiu with teary eyes, her small hands groping all over him.

"Fuck... Kiana, stop it! Don't touch my ticklish spots!"

"Kiana, move your hand." Bronya expressionlessly grabbed Kiana's hand and tossed her aside.

"Mm... Mei, are you okay?" Kiana puffed out her cheeks, feeling a little dissatisfied. She was clearly worried about Ishiu too. But she quickly remembered Miss Mei and hurried over to Raiden Mei's side to ask after her.

"I... I'm fine. I don't know what happened to me just now. Kiana, I'm sorry. I hurt you..." Raiden Mei shook her head painfully. Everything that had just happened remained vivid in her mind, impossible to forget.

"Hey, it's okay, Mei. Don't take it to heart. Look, aren't I perfectly fine?" Kiana patted her chest and revealed her trademark foolish grin.

Seeing her smile, Raiden Mei suddenly felt a little more at ease. Maybe that was the charm of an idiot. They were always livening up the atmosphere, making it easy for their emotions to affect others.

"Mei, don't burden yourself too much. That wasn't you just now. I'm sure of it." Ishiu struggled to sit up from Miss Mei's arms. Although resting against that softness was comfortable, this was not the time to enjoy it.

"Ishiu..."

"Alright, stop crying. You're already so grown up, so why are you still crying?" Ishiu raised his hand and wiped the tears from Raiden Mei's face.

Beep beep—

At that moment, Bronya's communicator rang. She answered it, and Cocolia's voice came through from the other side.

"Bronya! Is Ishiu alright?!"

The Queen of Raiden's final attack had destroyed the electronic equipment nearby, so Cocolia had been unable to see how it ended.

When Cocolia saw that bolt of heavenly lightning descend, her heart had nearly stopped. If she had not gripped her own hand so tightly, she might have fainted.

"Yeah. He's injured, but it's nothing serious," Bronya replied.

Cocolia immediately let out a relieved breath from the communicator.

"Good. Get back here quickly. Changkong City is about to fall. They... are coming."

"They?"

Ishiu asked in confusion, but his question was soon answered. A mass of enormous shadows was flying toward them from the distant horizon.

As they drew closer, Ishiu finally saw what they were beneath the moonlight.

It was a herd of Honkai Beasts so vast that its edges could not be seen!

Kiana and the others saw the dark clouds as well, and all their expressions changed.

"S-So many Honkai Beasts..."

"Stop staring and move! Before they get here, we need to leave immediately!" As Bronya spoke, she helped Ishiu up from the ground.

"But what about the people in Changkong City?" Kiana shouted.

"Mom should have already arranged for people to evacuate them." Bronya and Raiden Mei each supported one side of Ishiu as they ran in a certain direction. "We can't worry about that right now."

"But..." Kiana hesitated for a long while before finally stomping her foot. She could only choose to follow Bronya and leave.

She might have been a hot-blooded idiot, but she was not truly brainless. With such an enormous herd of Honkai Beasts, even if they stood still and let her kill them, she probably would not finish killing them in a whole day.

After running for a short while, the group was met by the warship Cocolia had sent to pick them up. The four of them quickly boarded.

Once aboard, Ishiu was immediately pressed onto a stretcher. Though he said it was unnecessary, the medical staff did not listen to him. They treated him like an ancestor, afraid that he might so much as bump into something, and carried him all the way to the infirmary.

There was nothing they could do. Cocolia had given them a strict order. How could workers like them not stay on high alert? What if their pay got docked afterward?

Thus, Ishiu received imperial treatment. For the next half hour, he did not even need to move an arm himself. Four young nurses took turns applying medicine to him, while several doctors asked where he felt uncomfortable...

Ishiu really wanted to say that they were making his entire body uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Bronya, Raiden Mei, and Kiana watched from beside the infirmary, closely monitoring Ishiu's condition.

After another ten or so minutes, when Ishiu had nearly recovered, Cocolia finally arrived.

(P.S.: Current—1,500 monthly votes, 40,000 in tips, 800 300-blade donations

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The bounty has been open for two days, and this is all there is. Looks like you guys aren't much good, emmm.)

Scared.

The previous group got taken down by a mole, so I made a new full-subscription group. No brats allowed. Those joining will first enter the review group, then privately send the admins a screenshot proving full subscription before entering the real group.

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I'm Speechless, the Herrscher of Thunder Looks Like a Ghost Armor

"Ishiu, how are you feeling?"

The moment she entered the infirmary, Cocolia headed straight for Ishiu without even glancing at Bronya and the other two beside her.

"Mom, I've almost recovered already. Can you tell them to stop treating me like some critically ill patient?" Ishiu spread his hands helplessly.

"That's good. You can leave first." Cocolia sighed in relief upon hearing that. After sending out everyone unrelated, she looked at Ishiu. "What exactly happened just now? Why did she suddenly become a Herrscher?"

Naturally, Cocolia was referring to Raiden Mei. She did not know why Raiden Mei had suddenly become a Herrscher. There should have still been more than a month before the calculated date.

"I... I don't know either." Ishiu was utterly confused. "By the way, Mom, what does becoming a Herrscher even mean? Is it related to that consciousness that took over Mei's body earlier?"

"Herrschers..." Cocolia cast Raiden Mei a complicated look before explaining what the term Herrscher meant.

(I won't explain it in detail here, lest people accuse me of padding the word count. I believe everyone understands.)

"You're saying Mei will become a disaster that destroys human civilization?"

After listening to Cocolia's explanation, Ishiu looked utterly incredulous. "Mom, could you be mistaken? How could Mei possibly become a Herrscher? And although she lost control just now, that consciousness did not seem like it wanted to destroy humanity. She was only interested in me."

"Exactly! Mei is so pretty and gentle! How could she possibly become a Herrscher?" Kiana hurriedly agreed.

Raiden Mei, however, did not say a word. She stared blankly at the ground, her fingers twisting together unconsciously.

"I know it's difficult for you to believe, but that is the truth." Cocolia sighed and said gravely, "Every Herrscher's birth brings an outbreak of Honkai. The Second Honkai outbreak happened in Siberia in the year 2000. At that time, Anti-Entropy was the main force fighting the Herrscher. Their power was beyond anything we could imagine. Tens of thousands died, and Anti-Entropy was severely weakened in that battle."

"But that still doesn't mean Mei..." Ishiu wanted to say more, but Cocolia directly interrupted him.

She picked up a tablet, swiped across it a few times, and handed it to Ishiu. "See for yourself."

"This is..."

Ishiu turned his gaze to the tablet and saw Changkong City displayed on it.

At that moment, Changkong City had already descended into chaos. The herd of Honkai Beasts that had attacked from outside was rampaging through the city. Skyscrapers became as fragile as thin paper before them. There were Chariot-class Honkai Beasts dozens of meters tall, Temple-class Honkai Beasts over ten meters tall, and even figures of Honkai Emperors.

Under their assault, the residents of Changkong City were in extreme danger. Countless people drove cars or ran on foot, desperately trying to escape the disaster, but many still failed to get away. They were torn apart by the Honkai Beasts' attacks.

There were even people infected by Honkai Energy. Their skin turned pale, their eyes became as red as blood, and when they stood up again, they had already lost their reason, raising scythes of death against the humans who had been their companions moments before.

Changkong City had seemingly become hell...

"See? This is the disaster brought by Herrschers. Even if they do nothing, their very existence means a Honkai outbreak. Honkai Energy rises rapidly, and countless Honkai Beasts gather in the area." Cocolia's voice sounded beside Ishiu's ear, jolting him from his daze.

"And she could become a Herrscher again at any time. When that happens, it will not just be Changkong City. Even the entire Far East could be destroyed."

"How... can that be..." Kiana's eyes widened as though she could not accept this reality. She had seen what was on the tablet as well. That was precisely why she found Cocolia's words so hard to accept.

"There is nothing impossible about it, because the appearance of Herrschers has always been a mystery. No one can predict when they will appear or where they will appear. Their emergence is completely random. But one thing is certain: they all obey the will of Honkai and seek to destroy human civilization entirely..."

"Cough, cough... But you don't need to worry too much. I have already had Anti-Entropy organize the evacuation of Changkong City's residents and deployed mechs to stop the Honkai Beasts. There are also people from Schicksal here, and they are doing the same thing. We can't say everyone will be saved, but at least most of them can be."

Seeing everyone's gloomy expressions, Cocolia appropriately offered what could be considered good news.

"What about Mei, then? What should she do? Is there any way to stop her from becoming a Herrscher?" Ishiu looked at Cocolia and asked.

"...There is." Cocolia fell silent for a moment before nodding.

"What way?!" At that, Ishiu and Kiana, even Raiden Mei, who had not said a word until now, raised their heads and looked at Cocolia with hope in their eyes.

To be honest, Raiden Mei's feelings were incomparably complicated at that moment. She had never imagined that one day she would become the kind of final villain from movies and novels, the kind who wanted to destroy the world. Yet she was completely powerless to do anything about it.

When the Queen of Raiden took over her body, her consciousness had felt as though it had been squeezed into a tiny corner by a mass of lightning. She could only watch helplessly as her body wreaked havoc.

That feeling had been unbearable. She clearly did not want to do those things, but she could do nothing.

When she saw Changkong City on the tablet, engulfed by the disaster of destruction, guilt, remorse, sorrow, and other emotions surged wildly from the depths of Raiden Mei's heart. The enormous burden pressed down on her until she could barely breathe. She had even felt the urge to kill herself.

If she died, would this disaster end?

But she also knew that Ishiu and Kiana would never allow her to do that. They were her best friends. Even when another consciousness had taken over her, they had not abandoned her... Since they had not given up on her, why should she give up on herself?

So when she heard Cocolia say there was a way, it was like she had grasped a lifeline.

"Remove her Herrscher Core." As Cocolia spoke, her gaze involuntarily shifted aside. She did not dare look Ishiu in the eyes. If Ishiu learned that the Conquest Gem which had caused Raiden Mei to become a Herrscher was placed in her body by Cocolia herself, that her goal had been to obtain a complete Herrscher Core, and that everything she was doing now was merely to achieve that goal, what would he think of her?

Cocolia did not want to know, nor did she want Ishiu to know, so she chose to hide it.

She had never been a good person. To her, Raiden Mei was merely an unimportant passerby. In order to plot against her, Cocolia had even tricked Raiden Ryoma into prison.

Raiden Mei's life or death had nothing to do with her. Even Changkong City being attacked by Honkai Beasts was within the range she could accept.

The only people she truly valued were always her own children—Ishiu, Bronya, and the others.

In her heart, her children were important, and her plan was just as important. Therefore, she would not give up her scheme against Raiden Mei for Ishiu's sake. To Cocolia, it was enough as long as Ishiu had not been harmed.

Upon hearing Cocolia's so-called "method," Bronya's expression changed slightly. She had just wanted to speak, but Cocolia gave her a look. After hesitating for a moment, she swallowed her words.

"A Herrscher Core?" Ishiu frowned. "What is that?"

"You can think of it as the source of a Herrscher's power. If the Herrscher Core is removed from a Herrscher, then she will no longer be a Herrscher," Cocolia explained.

At once, Ishiu opened his Dead Apostle Ancestor, intending to use the Death Lines to see the so-called Herrscher Core within Raiden Mei's body.

The battle had been too intense earlier for him to inspect it closely. He had only seen a singularity inside Raiden Mei that was absorbing Honkai Energy, and that singularity was extremely closely connected to her. He had not had time then, and he feared cutting it might hurt Raiden Mei, so he had merely killed the line through which the singularity absorbed Honkai Energy.

But as he carefully observed it now, the singularity within Raiden Mei truly seemed to be the Herrscher Core. He could sense the immense energy contained within it, and that Herrscher Core was closely connected to Raiden Mei's other consciousness. If he killed the Herrscher Core, that other consciousness would undoubtedly suffer a devastating blow.

That should have been a good thing, but what gave Ishiu a headache was that the consciousness was equally closely connected to Raiden Mei. She was like another Raiden Mei, two souls in one body, coexisting within the same vessel.

If that consciousness suffered a devastating blow or even disappeared, Raiden Mei would certainly suffer an extremely severe backlash as well. It might even endanger her life!

Thus, Ishiu was wary of harming the innocent and did not dare make a move against the Herrscher Core.

"Mom, do you have a way to remove it safely?" Ishiu withdrew his Dead Apostle Ancestor and looked at Cocolia.

"I can only say that I'll do my best. I cannot guarantee the result will be what you want," Cocolia said ambiguously, pursing her lips.

"...Mei, what do you think?" Ishiu was silent for a moment before turning to Raiden Mei, who had remained silent all this time. Her face was filled with exhaustion, and none of her former gentleness and elegance remained.

"I agree." Raiden Mei nodded without any hesitation. Then she looked at Cocolia and forced a gentle smile. "You're Ishiu's mother, right? I'm truly sorry. I didn't even greet you before. I'm willing to accept your method. Even if it costs me my life, I don't want a demon to be born because of me."

"...Mm." Cocolia nodded silently. She was a formidable figure and would not regret what she had done. Even if she truly felt the faintest trace of guilt, she would not abandon her goal because of it.