37. Blazing Reed: I Was Just Being Polite-You Really Killed Me? / 38. Hare: Thanks a Lot, You Know

"I see..."

Distracted by reading Kal'tsit's action log, Xia Ling finally understood the ins and outs of the matter.

"So that's how Kal'tsit explained it to Himeko? No wonder they went through such a roundabout way; it certainly provides enough justification..."

"The Thousand-Man Herrscher have already arrived at this time... but judging from Kal'tsit's list of suspects, they shouldn't have become a force to be reckoned with yet."

Just as Xia Ling was pondering silently, a video call interrupted her train of thought.

As the video call connected, a person in charge of the Hyperion Honkai Observation Department appeared on the screen.

"Everyone, I'm sorry to interrupt your meeting."

"We just observed a large-scale Honkai disaster in the Coral Island region of Southeast Asia, and its Honkai Energy level has exceeded the minimum standard for the birth of Herrscher."

"At the same time, based on the intelligence sharing from the Schicksal faction, it can be confirmed that the Herrscher of Ice has already descended."

Chapter Thirty-Seven Flame Willow: I was just being polite, are you really going to kill me?

At this moment, on the main island of Coral Island.

"Captain, Captain?"

One of the team members walking in front suddenly noticed that Anna beside him had stopped moving.

"What's wrong, Captain? Do you want some ice cream?"

The team member didn't think much of it, assuming Anna was just considering what dessert to have later.

"That's a bit tricky... It seems like a lot of shops are closed today."

The Valkyrie who was traveling with her answered casually, and then she noticed something was wrong.

"Captain, why aren't you saying anything?"

"Wait, something's not right, Captain? Anna? Are you sick? Why are you so cold?"

She reached out and tried to touch Anna's forehead, but as soon as she touched Anna's arm, a patch of icy blue began to slowly spread.

To the astonishment of the group, the Honkai Energy detectors on their bodies began to emit sharp alarm sounds.

This was the first time they had heard this alarm since officially starting their jobs, yet it felt incredibly familiar to them.

Because this is the alarm signaling the arrival of the Herrscher.

As if she had struggled greatly, Anna's clothes began to change, and a shadow slowly fell over her lowered face. At the same time, a somewhat indistinct voice squeezed out of her mouth.

"Hurry... go..."

However, the warning seemed to come too late. As the Snow Lotus Squad went on high alert, the world before their eyes gradually turned azure, and the biting cold froze them in place, rapidly pushing the insulation limits of the Valkyrie armor.

"Leave here immediately, and then begin evacuating the crowd."

A warm current flowed down the ground, melting the solid ice beneath their feet. At the same time, a familiar voice sounded from behind them.

"Anna... I'm afraid she's been chosen as Herrscher."

"Miss Reed?"

"Leave this to me, you all get out of here! I don't know how long I can hold out, so use this time to do what you need to do."

Flame Willow raised her hand and spat out a pillar of fire, melting a path outward for the Valkyrie. Then, she faced Anna with a solemn expression.

"Okay, okay!"

Although they are usually quite lively and carefree, these Valkyrie are all graduates of headquarters and their tactical skills are not bad. They know very well that staying here will only increase casualties.

So, without being surprised that the seemingly easy-going Miss Reed actually possessed such strength, the members of the Snow Lotus Squad immediately activated their armor and began to evacuate this icy world.

Seeing that all unrelated personnel had left, Flame Willow finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She was also very familiar with these team members, or rather, Anna's new teammates were a group of lively and outgoing people who usually had a good relationship with the children.

Anna's personality was clear to her. Although she usually seemed carefree and had the style of the Kaslana family, she was actually a girl who was very prone to getting stuck in dead ends.

If her Herrscher transformation leads her to kill her friends with her own hands here... then it will probably be very difficult to bring her back to consciousness.

Flame Willow looked at Anna not far away, her expression somewhat complicated.

Flame Willow had already roughly formulated a plan for dealing with Anna, and only needed to wait for some verification conditions to be met before it could be implemented.

However, before that, she needed to test just how deep Anna's Herrscher transformation was.

Furthermore, she also needs to buy some time for the remaining people on Coral Island to evacuate, because if too many people die in this Honkai, Anna will still be traumatized by it.

"Anna, can you hear me?"

Flame Willow tried to take a few steps closer, but before she could move, she felt a chill under her feet.

A patch of solid ice was rapidly spreading upwards along her black stockings, but this spread only reached her thighs before stopping, causing her little harm.

Sensing the frenzied Honkai Energy around him, Flame Willow pondered for a moment.

In the original work, Anna is almost the only one Herrscher, and she herself absolutely does not want to be the Herrscher.

Mei's incomplete Herrscher transformation of the Mei destroyed the entire Changkong City, Wendy's Herrscher transformation of the Void caused heavy losses to Oceania, while Anna's Herrscher transformation only froze the main island of Coral Island, and the three connected sub-islands were only affected by Honkai Energy radiation and temperature.

This is enough to prove that she was fighting against the Honkai when she awakened.

Considering that the organizations present here in the original work are basically united against external forces with little internal conflict, the key to solving this problem lies in how to awaken and stabilize Anna's consciousness.

Although it wasn't in the plan, let's give it a try anyway...

"Anna, you can still sense the outside world, right?... You mean, I shouldn't come near?"

Flame Willow's body.

The ice on her body gradually melted into water, which slid down her legs and was then melted back into steam halfway down.

"But you must be very scared right now..."

Anna quickly backed away, but before she could take more than a few steps, Flame Willow pulled her into her arms.

"How can I properly comfort you if I don't get closer?"

An extremely cold sensation instantly spread from the point of contact between their bodies, and almost instantly, Flame Willow felt half of her body lose sensation.

Anna, on the other hand, dared not move at all. She had been forcibly suppressing the voices and desires that kept appearing in her mind. With Flame Willow holding her like this, even for the sake of the other person's safety, she had to hold on to her consciousness.

"Daring to directly embrace a newly awakened Herrscher... Haha, I must be one of the few."

Looking at the icy blue marks around her that had begun to stop spreading, Flame Willow chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Now I should be considered a humanoid Herrscher limiter?"

Using flames to repair his constantly damaged body, Flame Willow held Anna tightly, as if trying to meld her into his own body.

Originally, she had planned to find a way to stop Anna here for a while, to buy time for the evacuation of Coral Island. Now it seemed that if Anna could suppress the Honkai's erosion on her own, then holding her like this might not be a bad idea.

Unfortunately, things did not turn out as she wished. Although Anna kept her eyes closed and did not speak, Flame Willow could clearly see that the shadow on Anna's face was gradually solidifying into solid black ice over time.

Her image seems to be resembling that of Ice Herrscher in the game?

As Flame Willow pondered, she noticed that Anna seemed to have moved.

Her arms were struggling slightly, trying to break free from Flame Willow's embrace.

"I won't let you escape, Anna."

"Unless you kill me, don't even think about getting rid of me."

Flame Willow's arms wrapped around her even tighter.

Then, she felt a sharp pain in her chest.

A section of solid ice, now stained crimson, pierced through her chest.

Only then did she realize that Anna's face was now completely black.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Yu Rabbit: Thank you so much!

"They killed him without hesitation... How decisive."

Realizing that Anna seemed to be completely suppressed by the Herrscher's consciousness, Flame Willow no longer needed to be a punching bag. He grabbed the ice spike and pulled hard, temporarily creating distance between himself and Anna.

She plugged her wound with one hand, and healing golden flames gathered on the wound, repairing her body.

If it were Xia Ling, this kind of injury would probably have already triggered the King's Set.

However, her strike line was high, so it could only be described as a minor fatal blow.

"Alright, the first verification is complete. Anna does retain her consciousness. At the same time, it would be almost impossible for her to suppress the Herrscher Persona on her own without paying any price."

"Well... now it's time to try the second hypothesis..."

"Will weakening the power of Ice Herrscher help Anna regain her consciousness?"

Feeling the dwindling Honkai Energy within her body, Flame Willow took a deep breath.

She wasn't planning on going back alive when she stood here today. After all, the price to pay for escaping from a fully awakened Herrscher might be far greater than being resurrected once.

Moreover, while Flame Willow is somewhat confident in simply restraining Herrscher- level enemy, she will have to resort to her most powerful methods if she wants to injure them.

"Heh... It's been a long time since I used this move, since I dealt with Chijie last time."

Flame Willow chuckled softly, and the flames within her body instantly became violent and surging.

The gold and fiery red blended together, turning a faint black.

This is the result of her maximizing her own vitality; in the coming period, her abilities will push her life force to its limits.

And when this exploitation reaches its extreme, that's when the King's Set is triggered.

Black and red flames swept out from the Flame Willow, instantly breaking through the icy blue color of the area.

At least before she collapsed, this patch of icy blue should have had no chance to spread outwards.

"Phew... So that's how it was solved. That's amazing."

While the operational meeting was in progress, Xia Ling, who was secretly slacking off, was also constantly flipping through the logs left behind by Flame Willow.

Previously, because others didn't want to bother her, they basically didn't tell her anything when making plans, only leaving her a bunch of task logs.

With Xi's relatively relaxed explanation, she had roughly understood the whole plan.

The Raven's children were sent directly to the villa island for a vacation, and false information was spread in advance through Anna to cause people to gather on the three secondary islands.

There's no need to elaborate on things like sounding alarms in advance.

The most interesting part is the handling of Chen Tianwu.

While they were certain that Anna was "designated" as Herrscher by the Honkai Will in the original work, Chen Tianwu's situation was much more complicated.

Judging from the plot, it's hard to tell whether he was more influenced by the Honkai Will or his own emotions when he became Herrscher.

However, for no reason at all, Flame Willow could not deal with Chen Tianwu. Putting aside the fact that she and Chen Tianwu could barely be considered colleagues, the fact that both Chen Tianwu and Chen Tianwen regarded her as their benefactor made it impossible for her to take action against them.

Moreover, Chen Tianwu did not lose his sister this time, so he has no psychological flaws. It would be difficult for him to become Herrscher without being designated.

So, Flame Willow came up with a very wicked idea.

As we all know, Chen Tianwu possesses considerable talent; otherwise, he wouldn't have been chosen as Herrscher, and wouldn't have been able to Manila Honkai Outbreak.

Having survived in that environment, he and his sister should both be considered as incompletely awakened Stigmata bearers.

However, his physical condition was very poor, and in order to survive, he had to replace most of his body with machinery.

Physical disability, the presence of Stigmata, and the desire to survive—these three conditions combined made Flame Willow think of someone.

So, with the good intention of "saving people to the end", Flame Willow inadvertently "revealed" a person to Chen Tianwu: Rabbit.

Furthermore, it "accidentally" revealed some concepts of rational form.

Anyway, the Stigmata Project is going to be implemented in less than six months, and the preparations for World Serpent may start even earlier. If he survives, he will know this information sooner or later within a month or two.

Thus, Yanwei led Chen Tianwu to Yutu.

After all, our dear Miss Rabbit can say "The Herrscher of Reason is nothing special", so even if Chen Tianwu suddenly becomes Herrscher transformation, she should be able to easily deal with this newly born Herrscher of Rock.

Even if we can't handle it, at least we can hold out until Kevin arrives.

After ensuring that Chen Tianwu, this ticking time bomb, would not appear, Flame Willow began to work on her plan regarding Anna.

Looking at the long list of items in the log, Xia Ling couldn't help but sigh.