Dual-Core Herrscher

"Hey, what are you planning to do to that beautiful girl over there getting her beauty sleep?" Xina raised an eyebrow as she watched the uncouth, graceless fellow before her, her cherry-red lips moving slightly.

Even her tone brimmed with disdain.

"Tch! Seeing how mighty I am, you're just an ordinary person, yet you're not running away? Could it be..." Welt turned his head with a sinister smile. "You're also one of Schicksal's Valkyries?!"

Without waiting for Xina to answer, Welt began answering his own question.

"Tch, if you are, then that's perfect. I happen to have some debts to settle with Valkyries like you."

"With you?" Xina looked at the braggart before her with a half-smile, utterly unmoved.

Honestly, compared to this endlessly chattering, puffed-up chicken, Fu Hua—with her calm, steady presence like the surface of a tranquil sea—gave Xina a stronger sense of danger.

"Huh? What do you mean, 'with me'? Are you looking down on me?"

Welt seemed provoked by Xina's contemptuous attitude and immediately became aggressive.

He merely flicked a finger at the coffee table to Xina's right, and a fierce gust sprang up from nowhere.

As it flew through the air, the gust shattered the coffee table and everything around it without warning.

"Huh?" Xina stared at the mess to her right in surprise. "Why did you smash the coffee table? Did you miss?"

"What do you mean, miss?" Welt roared as if his defenses had been shattered.

"How could I possibly miss? I only destroyed that piece of junk to show you true power! Did you see that?! Gravity manipulation—this is my ability!!

"As long as it's within my field of vision, I can alter the gravity acting on it however I please. Even with a flick of my finger, I can kill people using the air."

"So, Valkyrie? Do you still want to fight me, the First Herrscher?"

"The First Herrscher?" Xina's expression finally changed when she heard that.

This kind of trash was a Herrscher too? Seriously?

Just as Xina began to feel that her future was incredibly bleak and that the prestige of an Apostle of God had plummeted dramatically—

That nearly omniscient and omnipotent God perhaps did not want its reputation to nosedive among its fangirl, so it began speaking up to clear its name.

Hmm? God, what are you trying to tell me...

Feeling God whisper to her once more, Xina assumed it had an important mission for her and listened intently.

"I see!"

After learning the full story, Xina tilted her head and stared at Welt with disgust. "Before me, there was a traitor who betrayed God. And you are merely the crudest imitation of that traitor. You're nothing but an impostor, yet you dare call yourself a Herrscher? You really don't know your place."

"Bastard! Who are you calling an impostor? Let me tell you, I've seen countless fools like you who don't know their limits. But under my Hundredfold Gravity, every last one of them obediently shut their mouths."

Perhaps the word "impostor" had completely broken him, or perhaps he had truly lost his temper. Special patterns glowing with Blue Light suddenly appeared on Welt's face.

Under Xina's gaze, Welt rose into the air and floated midair. The objects around him also drifted upward as though weightless.

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

Boom!

The crushing force of gravity pulverized the surrounding objects and kicked up a sky full of dust.

When the dust cleared, the bloody mess and severed limbs Welt had expected did not appear.

There was only a sofa and table crushed by gravity into fragments scattered across the floor.

"What? She actually dodged it? Could it be... you're also..." Welt stared at his palm in disbelief, seemingly unable to accept that his invincible gravitational suppression had failed just now.

"Starting off by smashing things? You really have no manners, you piece of trash!"

An ethereal voice carrying a chilling, sinister coldness came from behind Welt.

Following the sound, Welt saw that the girl who had been sitting on the sofa was now lazily leaning against a pillar, leisurely twirling a lock of hair draped over her shoulder around her slender index finger.

"Trash? Are you talking about me?!"

"Who knows?" Xina smiled faintly as blue frost rapidly spread outward from her, sealing this room off from the outside world.

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

Crack!

The instant the two exchanged blows, the victor had already been decided. Xina's temple had been grazed by flying rubble, leaving a wound the size of a fingernail, while more than half of Welt's body was encased in thick Ice Crystal.

"Why?! Why is it that we're both Herrschers, yet my power is completely inferior to yours?" Welt slumped onto the floor, staring at the numb half of his body as he let out an unwilling roar.

"I told you already, an impostor is an impostor. You were destined to be something unfit for the stage. All right, you can disappear now!" Xina slowly raised her right hand into the shape of a gun and aimed her index fingertip at Welt's heart.

"!" Looking at the Blue Light gathering at Xina's fingertip, indescribable panic instantly swept through Welt's heart. "Wait, we can talk..."

At that moment, even someone as arrogant and unruly as him had no choice but to cast aside his illusory pride and begin begging for mercy.

"Begging me is useless, because I can't let someone who knows I'm a Herrscher leave..." Xina curled her lips into a slight smile, while the Blue Light at her fingertip grew increasingly dazzling as it charged.

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

"Hiss..." Just as Xina was about to fire that icy-blue laser, her body began trembling beyond her control.

The Pseudo-Core in her chest underwent a mutation at that moment. The surrounding Honkai energy continuously flowed into her body, bringing an indescribable sensation as it steadily solidified the gem.

That strange feeling was like... ascension, yet also like evolution. It actually caused Xina to briefly lose control of her body.

After waiting for quite a while without the blue light gathered at Xina's fingertip taking his life—

Welt cautiously raised his head and looked at the girl who had tried to kill him.

In his field of vision, the girl who had been so imposing moments ago now stood silently there, completely motionless like a puppet that had lost its life.

"Huh?!"

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

Struggling to break free from the Ice Crystal covering his body, he limped toward Xina, who was in "shutdown maintenance mode."

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

As he spoke, Welt's face twisted viciously. He curled his relatively intact hand into a claw and reached for Xina's heart.

"Eh! What's going on?!"

The moment Xina came back online and regained her senses, she saw Welt's savage face right in front of her.

Startled out of her wits by this lunatic, Xina raised an arm before herself and retreated backward.

However, with the two of them practically face-to-face, it was already impossible for her to completely avoid Welt's claw.

Her arm, not yet fully transformed into a Herrscher body, split open under Welt's heavy strike. At the same time, the Amethyst Bracelet around Xina's wrist shattered apart in midair.

"Eh! That... that was what Mom left for me..." Looking at the scattered amethyst beads, Xina instinctively reached out to pick them up.

A perfect opportunity!

Taking advantage of Xina's distraction, Welt launched a kick into her chest. Countless fragments pulled by gravity carried Xina flying backward until her frail body smashed through five or six walls in succession before finally falling from the wall.

Welt had put everything he had into that kick. He had even used his authority over gravity on it.

The instant he withdrew his leg, Welt even heard the crisp crack of bones breaking inside the Herrscher's body.

"Hahahaha! So what if you're a Herrscher too?! I won now. As expected, I'm still stronger! Hahaha!"

Welt stepped forward and looked down at the battered Xina from above, a flash of malice passing through his narrowed eyes.

He grabbed Xina by the throat and lifted her from the ground, sneering. "Hey! You had a lot of fun beating me up just now, didn't you? Tell me, how should I repay your 'enthusiasm'? Right, I'll dig out your Herrscher Core first, then I'll..."

Perhaps the essence of a Herrscher was getting beaten down...

Before Welt could even finish his threats, the powerful air pressure rising before him sent him flying. Xina staggered to her feet while supporting herself against the wall, glaring at Welt and roaring through gritted teeth, "Bastard, you ruined the last thing Mom left me! I'll kill you a thousand times! No, ten thousand times!"

"Impossible! How can you still stand after suffering such injuries..." Welt stared in terror at Xina's brilliantly glowing golden eyes, repeatedly crying that it was impossible.

Only after he was swallowed by the dense Black Mist swirling around Xina, nearly solid in form, did he miserably spit out four words: "The Serenity Gem..."

Within the eerie Black Mist, Welt, whose body had been mostly dissolved by the mist, did not die. Instead, his wounds were repaired amid waves of screams, and he endured the same torment again and again...

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

"Himeko, how did it go? Did this reconnaissance yield anything?" Theresa, dressed in a nun's habit, set down her half-finished bitter gourd juice and stared straight at Himeko across from her with watery eyes, though her tone carried a hint of heaviness.