The Thunder That Originated in Changkong (4)

"Activate the special ability of the Thunder Queen's subordinate. Upon successful synchronous summoning, destroy all monsters on the opponent's field." The purple lightning samurai extended its right hand, drawing lightning from the sky. The lightning instantly engulfed the Titan units before it.

Although the description of the transformation and attack was lengthy, it all happened in less than a second. While Bronya was still shocked by the transformation effects, the samurai unleashed a field-clearing attack, making her forget about chaining her abilities.

"Is this the power of the Herrscher of Thunder? Even a Pseudo-Herrscher possesses this level of strength. How much stronger would the true Herrscher of Thunder be after triggering the Honkai?" Xing looked at his armor-covered hands and murmured to himself.

"Xing." The purple gem embedded in the sword hilt lit up. "What... what's happening?"

"Uh... I'm sorry for not explaining my abilities to you beforehand. For now, let me use them. I'll deactivate them once I confirm there's no danger... Don't reject it so quickly!" Xing gritted his teeth and covered his sparking purple left eye.

"Ah, I'm not!"

"You, you damn human! How dare you treat the Thunder Queen like this!"

A voice, diametrically opposed to Mei's and filled with brutality, exploded in his mind. Herrscher Mei was fiercely resisting synchronization with the boy, and the samurai armor on her body flickered unstably.

"Fire!" A missile broke through the smoke and flew towards Xing. Xing moved his hand away, revealing his sparking eye. The roaring lightning instantly pierced the metallic creation.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, a large amount of blue light appeared. The Titans, who had curled up and activated their energy shields, re-entered combat mode. Other Titans without this function had gloriously turned into scrap metal.

"This is troublesome..." Xing, jointly suppressing Herrscher Mei's resistance with Mei, held the sword with both hands, allowing purple currents to flow over his body. Even the Kaslana bloodline couldn't resist the erosion of Herrscher energy for long. Red patterns had begun to appear on his body...

Speaking of which, why did the circulation of Honkai energy within him feel a bit slow?

Raven, whose entire body was scorched black – no, it was already black – patted the dust off herself and casually put down Kiana, who had almost been caught in the shelling. "Let's go quickly, little sister. This isn't a place for you." The mercenary looked at the sky-piercing lightning in the distance, her eyes cold. She didn't even notice that her left hand, which lacked claws, had already clenched into a fist.

"It seems I really can't take any living things back this time..." she said in a voice only she could hear.

"No, my Mei is still waiting for me there!" Kiana, showing no fear, strode towards the battlefield. But the next moment, she felt the world spin, and then she was lying on the ground.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? Bronya was a bit dazed.

Raven, who had easily subdued Kiana, leaned down and asked softly, "Raiden Mei?" Upon closer inspection, wasn't this the girl who had been clinging to that Mei earlier?

"Huh, how did you know?" Kiana's eyes widened in surprise, but the next second, they turned to terror.

"Well, because I might have to kill her soon," Raven said casually, as if she were talking about killing an insect.

"You wish! As a warrior of the Kaslana family, I absolutely will not allow you to harm my Mei!" Kiana instantly bristled, leaping up from the ground and throwing a punch forcefully at Raven's face.

"What a coincidence, you're also a Kaslana?" Raven reached out and firmly gripped Kiana's fist just as it was about to make intimate contact with her face. A drop of cold sweat trickled down the girl's forehead, but she immediately caught the information in the other's words, "Also?"

"I've changed my mind. Come with me and see what your Mei has become. I hope you'll still be like this then." Raven released her left hand and turned to leave. Kiana thought for a moment and quickly followed.

"What happened to Mei?"

"You'll know soon enough."

As he gripped the katana in his hand, a strange sensation spread through him.

Hokushin Itto-ryu - Instant Slash.

Naturally, he used Mei's move as if it were his own.

Steel bodies fell before the samurai, like puppets in a performance.

Bronya's expression was cold. Numerous dark purple rings appeared, unleashing countless artillery shells that engulfed the subordinate's figure.

"Do you know, when the storm comes, the eye of the storm is the safest place~" A flippant voice sounded in Bronya's ear. Bronya's pupils contracted sharply, but it was too late. Xing gently patted her head. The current instantly surged through her entire body, and a certain connection was severed.

"I didn't use too much electricity, she should be fine, right?" Xing looked at the Bronya who had been knocked back to her original form, checked her breathing, and let out a sigh of relief. "Good, good, Bronya is okay."

At the Anti-Entropy headquarters, Cocolia knelt silently on the ground. Just moments ago, the bio-chip's reaction had disappeared. There were two possibilities: first, the bio-chip was removed or destroyed; second, the implantee of the bio-chip had died.

"OK, danger cleared." After dealing with the last Titan mech, Xing let out a long sigh. He touched the increasingly dense red patterns on his face, a mark of being gradually eroded by Honkai energy. "I'm also reaching my limit. Disarm, Mei. Hmm, Mei?"

The girl didn't respond for a long time, and a sense of unease spread through him. The next second, an electric light far exceeding the previous one erupted from his body.

"What's going on? Why is my power..." Due to the resistance of the Herrscher personality, the Honkai energy within him couldn't be fully mobilized. Coupled with a strange sense of blockage, he couldn't fully exert the power of this form. But now, abundant Honkai energy was boiling within his body.

"Because I suddenly realized, lending you my power isn't impossible." Herrscher Mei's teasing voice sounded. "But can you handle it?"

The power of the Gem of Conquest continuously surged, far exceeding the limit of what he could bear. Xing twisted his body in pain and collapsed. The katana in his hand fell to the ground, reverting back to Mei.

"Xing!" Mei looked at the boy curled up on the ground in panic. The scarlet patterns had spread across almost his entire face.

The boy's right hand, the Stigmata, quietly lit up.

"Mei!" A familiar voice sounded from behind. Mei subconsciously turned her head and was pounced on by a ball of white fur. Kiana, having successfully leaped, happily hugged Mei. "That's great, you're okay!"

Raven watched the two women clinging to each other with dark eyes. "Hey, Raiden Mei—" she picked up Xing, whose body was covered in erosion patterns, and quickly took out a syringe to inject him. "Can you explain to me how he ended up like this?" The mercenary's eyes were filled with killing intent.

Kiana drew her baseball bat and stood in front of Mei, "Mei, run! I'll hold her off!" But Mei pulled her back. "Wait a moment, Kiana." She looked at Raven. "Excuse me, are you Xing's...?"

"Sort of a temporary guardian."

"Xing defeated me when I was out of control and endured that forbidden power for me." The girl recalled the experience of being armed. Just before the armament was released, more than half of the Honkai energy within her had flowed into Xing's body. If it weren't for the severe imbalance in power that caused the Bonded Weaponry to be forcibly released, her Herrscher personality would have directly catalyzed the boy into a Maniac.

"Are you sure?" This kid defeated an unformed Herrscher? That strong? Wait, endured it for her? Does that mean the Honkai energy within that girl is now all inside him?! Raven was instantly drenched in cold sweat. Even a natural Stigmata combined with Kaslana blood might not be able to suppress it!

"Why did you only bring three? Never mind, I'll inject them all and see." Raven nimbly injected the remaining Honkai Energy Inhibitor into Xing. Although she knew very well that it was like a drop in the bucket for the Honkai energy within the boy.

As expected, the erosion patterns showed no signs of receding. Raven looked at the unconscious boy, extremely anxious. Her bounty! What to do? Jackal would surely have a way to handle this, but given the current situation, the other party would have turned into a Maniac long before she could bring Xing to him. Just as Raven was about to have a heart-to-heart talk with Mei, a massive battleship appeared in the sky.

Justice may be delayed, but it is never absent. The Hyperion arrived at the battlefield.

Raven looked at the battleship, hesitated for a moment, then made up her mind.

"Hey, what do you want? Let Mei go quickly!" In less than a second, Raven's claws were on Mei's chest. "Don't come any closer." She looked indifferently at the furiously raging Kiana, feeling inexplicably annoyed, as if looking at the killer of her brother.

"I pray your core is in a non-vital area." Raven took out an instrument and placed it on Mei's forehead. "Detecting... Detection complete. High Honkai energy reaction detected, no high-concentration Honkai energy crystal reaction."

How could this be? Raven didn't believe it and tested again, but the result was the same. Could Jackal's instrument be faulty? Raven was a bit annoyed, then a flash of inspiration struck her, thinking of an impossible possibility. "No, this is too absurd."

Raven released Mei, and Kiana immediately stepped forward to shield her.

"Detecting... High-concentration Honkai energy crystal reaction detected."

"Little one, should I call you lucky or unlucky? I'll let you off this time, but you won't be so fortunate next time."

Raven sighed and handed the boy to Kiana. "He's your kin. Schicksal people should be here soon. Tell them this kid is a natural Stigmata carrier and they must rescue him at all costs, understand?"

"Huh?" Kiana was a bit confused.

"With the Stigmata keeping him alive, it's fine for him to hold on for a while." Raven waved her hand and turned to leave. "When he wakes up, tell him, 'Serpent' is after him."

"Um, Mei, who is this little sister? She's so cute."

"Kiana, it's a little brother..."

—Separator—

Herrscher Mei was breathing weakly, as if even breathing was a difficult task for her at this moment.

"Ha, haha..." Herrscher Mei forced a smile. "Truly, unexpected."

The white-haired nun watched her expressionlessly, controlling multiple golden chains to bind her tightly.

—Separator—

"So, the mission failed?" Jackal's tone sounded very calm, but this was just the prelude to a storm.

"That kid was about to turn into a Maniac. You can't expect me to bring back a corpse, can you?" Raven, now in casual clothes, sat leisurely in a cafe, reporting on the mission. "Don't worry, I've implanted a micro-tracker in him. I'll find another chance to tie him up later."

"Forget about that. What about the Herrscher candidate?"

"Ah, let me confirm with you first. The person you said was implanted with a Herrscher Core, is that girl named Raiden Mei?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"It's simple, her core is gone."

"?"

"Let's just say, the two mission objectives have become one." Raven hung up the communication and walked out of the cafe.

"Boo hoo, my balloon!" A little girl with purple hair stood under a large tree, looking very helpless.

"Here, kid." Raven lightly leaped onto the treetop and helped the girl retrieve her balloon.

"Wow, big sister is so amazing! You're such a good person!" The little girl was very happy, with little stars in her eyes.

"Good person? Forget it, I still want to live a few more years." Raven turned and left. For a mercenary, "good person" was a word that would never be associated with her. However, she did quite like the little girl's smile.

"Xiao Kong, what are you doing?"

"Mom and Dad! I just met a super amazing big sister!"

The butterfly from another world caused an unexpected change in the worldline, allowing Changkong City to be preserved to the greatest extent, and the arrival of the Third Honkai was also postponed. Although some people might no longer meet, it might not be a bad thing for them. What changes will the future bring?

Author's Notes—

Prologue complete! St. Freya arc is about to begin!

Please rest assured, things will be returned.

Also, the protagonist will not be that person.

And, I might have messed up Raven's characterization a bit, please forgive me.

By the way, was the last thing I posted meant to be sweet?

Oh, right. When Bonded Weaponry appears next time, it will be time to reclaim the three summons mentioned in the synopsis. Please look forward to it!