Dual-Core Ruler

"Hey, what are you planning to do to that beauty sleeping over there?" Xina raised an eyebrow as she stared at the man before her—someone utterly lacking in both grace and class—her cherry-red lips parting slightly.

Even her tone was dripping with disdain.

"Tch! Seeing my majestic presence, an ordinary person like you still hasn't run away? Could it be..." Welt turned his head with a sinister grin, sneering, "Are you also a Valkyrie of Schicksal?!"

Before Xina could answer, Welt started answering himself:

"Tch, if so, then perfect. I've got some debts to collect from you Valkyries."

"You?" Xina looked at the arrogant man with a faint, mocking smile, her heart utterly unruffled.

To be honest, compared to this incessantly jabbering, ruffled chicken of a man, Fu Hua—with her calm, steady demeanor like a placid sea—gave her a far greater sense of danger.

"Ha? What do you mean 'you'? Are you looking down on me, your lord?"

Welt seemed provoked by Xina's contemptuous attitude, instantly turning aggressive.

He simply snapped his fingers toward the coffee table on Xina's right, and a sharp gust of wind materialized out of thin air.

As that gust flew, it shattered the coffee table and everything around it into pieces without warning.

"Huh?" Xina looked at the mess on her right in surprise, puzzled. "Why'd you break the coffee table for no reason? Did you miss?"

"Miss?!" Welt roared, his composure cracking:

"How could I possibly miss?! I only broke that worthless thing to show you true power! See that! Controlling gravity—that's my ability!!

"Anything in my line of sight, I can freely alter the gravity it experiences. Even with a snap of my fingers, I can kill with air pressure.

"So, Valkyrie? Still want to fight me, the First Herrscher?"

"First Herrscher?" Xina's expression finally shifted at that.

A piece of trash like this is also a Herrscher? Seriously?

Just as Xina felt her future growing bleak and the prestige of the Apostle of God plummeting—

That nearly omniscient and omnipotent God might not have wanted His reputation to tank so fast in His fangirl's eyes, and began to speak up to clear His name.

'Hm? God, what do You want to tell me...'

Sensing God whispering to her again, Xina assumed He had some important task for her and listened very seriously.

"So that's how it is!"

After learning the full story, Xina tilted her head, staring at Welt with undisguised disgust: "Before me, there was a traitor who betrayed God, and you're just the shoddiest imitation of that traitor. A mere fake, and you still dare to call yourself a Herrscher? How utterly clueless."

"Bastard! Who are you calling a fake? Let me tell you, I've seen countless arrogant fools like you. But under my Hundredfold Gravity, they all shut their mouths."

Perhaps triggered by the word "fake," or maybe genuinely enraged, strange blue-glowing patterns suddenly appeared on Welt's face.

Under Xina's gaze, Welt rose into the air, floating midair, while objects around him also drifted as if weightless.

"Today, I'll make you repent properly in this hell of Hundredfold Gravity."

Boom!

The immense gravity crushed everything around, kicking up a cloud of dust.

When the dust cleared, the bloody mess of mangled flesh and severed limbs that Welt had expected was nowhere to be seen.

All that remained was a sofa and table shattered into pieces by the gravitational pressure.

"What? You dodged? Could it be... you're also..." Welt stared at his own palm in disbelief, as if he hadn't anticipated his usually unstoppable gravity suppression failing just now.

"Starting off by smashing things—you really have no manners, you scum!"

An ethereal yet chillingly cold voice came from behind Welt.

Welt turned to look, only to see the girl who had been sitting on the sofa now lazily leaning against a pillar, twirling a strand of hair draped over her shoulder with her slender index finger.

"Scum? Are you talking about me?!"

"Who knows!" Xina smiled faintly, and blue frost rapidly spread outward from her, sealing off the room from everything outside.

As for the still-unconscious Kiana, Xina thoughtfully covered her bed with a thick layer of ice to prevent frostbite.

Crack!

The moment they clashed, the outcome was already decided. Xina's temple was grazed by a flying fragment, leaving a nail-sized cut, while more than half of Welt's body was encased in thick Ice Crystal.

"Why?! Why, when we're both Herrschers, is my power completely inferior to yours?" Welt slumped to the ground, staring at his numb half-body and letting out a resentful roar.

"I told you, a fake is a fake—destined to never make the grade. Alright, time for you to disappear." Xina slowly raised her right hand, forming a finger gun, and aimed her index fingertip at Welt's heart.

"!" Welt saw the Blue Light gathering at Xina's fingertip, and an indescribable panic instantly flooded his heart: "Wait, we can talk..."

At this moment, even the arrogant and unruly man had to set aside his hollow pride and beg for mercy.

"Begging me is useless, because I can't let someone who knows I'm a Herrscher walk away..." Xina curled her lips into a smile, the Blue Light at her fingertip growing ever more dazzling as it charged.

Realizing he was doomed to die here today, Welt lowered his head in despair, gritting his teeth as he silently awaited death.

"Hiss..." Just as Xina was about to fire that icy-blue laser, her body trembled uncontrollably.

The Pseudo-Core in her chest mutated at that moment. The ambient Honkai energy surged into her body, continuously solidifying the gem, bringing with it an indescribable sensation.

That strange sensation was like... sublimation or evolution, causing Xina to briefly lose control of her own body.

After waiting for a long while, the blue light gathering at Xina's fingertips still hadn't come to take his life.

Welt cautiously lifted his head, looking at the girl who had tried to end him.

In his line of sight, the once-overbearing girl now stood there silently, motionless like a lifeless puppet.

"Huh?!"

Though he had no idea what was happening, Welt knew this might be his only chance.

He struggled to break free of the ice crystals encasing him, limping toward Xina, who seemed to be in a state of 'maintenance shutdown':

"Looks like you're pretty weak right now. As expected, the final winner... is me!!"

With that, Welt's face twisted savagely as his remaining intact hand curled into a claw, reaching for Xina's heart.

"Hey! What's going on!"

Xina, having just reconnected, snapped back to reality only to see Welt's twisted face right in front of her.

Startled by the lunatic, she swung her arm across her body and instinctively stepped back.

But with the distance between them nearly face-to-face, completely dodging Welt's claw was impossible.

Her arm, not yet fully transformed into a Herrscher's body, split open under Welt's heavy blow, and the Amethyst Bracelet on her wrist shattered into pieces midair.

"Ah! That's... that's what Mom left me..." Xina stared at the scattered amethyst beads, instinctively reaching out to pick them up.

Perfect opportunity!

Seizing Xina's moment of distraction, Welt kicked her square in the chest. Countless fragments, pulled by gravity, carried Xina flying backward until her frail body crashed through five or six walls before finally tumbling to the ground.

That kick was Welt's all-out effort, even channeling his gravity authority into it.

As he pulled his leg back, he even heard the crisp snap of bones breaking in that Herrscher's body.

"Hahaha! So what if you're a Herrscher too! I'm the one who wins now! See, I'm still stronger! Hahaha!"

Welt strode forward, looking down at the battered Xina, a flicker of malice in his narrowed eyes.

He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground, sneering, "Hey! You had fun beating me up earlier, didn't you! How should I repay your 'enthusiasm'? Right, I'll dig out your Herrscher Core first, and then I'll—"

Perhaps a Herrscher's fate is to get humiliated...

Before Welt could finish his threat, a powerful gust of wind sent him flying. Xina staggered to her feet, leaning against the wall, and roared through gritted teeth, "Bastard! You broke the last thing Mom left me! I'll kill you a thousand times! No! Ten thousand times!"

"Impossible! How can you still stand after taking that kind of damage..." Welt stared in terror at Xina, whose golden pupils blazed brightly, muttering disbelief.

It wasn't until the dense, almost solid black mist swirling around Xina engulfed him that he wretchedly spat out four words: "Serenity Gem..."

Within the eerie Black Mist, Welt, whose body had been mostly disintegrated, didn't die. Instead, amidst screams of agony, his wounds were repaired, repeating the same torment over and over...

St. Freya Academy, Headmaster's Office...

"Himeko, how did it go? Any findings from this reconnaissance?" Theresa, dressed in her nun habit, set down her half-finished Bitter Gourd Juice and fixed her big, watery eyes on Himeko across from her, though her tone carried a hint of gravity.