Shifting Sands

Looking at Salome, whose limbs had gone limp and eyes were vacant, Nicholas wished she could grind her back teeth to dust.

But the biting wind and the mountain-like pressure weighing on her body made her understand that the enemy had not yet been eliminated, and this was far from the time for grief.

Above the Herrscher of Frost, the frost crystal had already exceeded a kilometer in diameter, showing no sign of stopping.

As the only mobile unit, Enoshia had to protect the others, find a way to interrupt the Herrscher of Frost's charge, and figure out how to deal real damage to it—she suddenly felt like one head was about to split into two.

"As long as Fu Hua launches an attack, everything will be fine."

Enoshia didn't understand. At this moment, Kevin was in the Sea of Quanta, Su was in the Sumeru Mustard Seed, and Suo was hiding somewhere unknown. She was currently the strongest in the world—how could there be anything capable of holding her back? But if she wasn't truly missing, she should have shown up by now in a situation like this.

"Eh, since when did the sun turn purple?" Enoshia glanced up at the sky unintentionally and noticed a thunderball that had appeared out of nowhere, continuously growing larger, its diameter already exceeding a kilometer. The only one with this ability right now was Sirin, who possessed the Herrscher of Thunder core.

"Is that Sirin? But wait..."

Soon, the thunderball and the frost crystal grew to roughly the same size. Sirin extended her right index finger and pointed downward, and the thunderball collided with the frost crystal.

"Boom!"

A sound nearly deafening enough to rupture eardrums rang out, and everyone present briefly lost both sight and hearing. The large-scale clash between a mysterious Three-Core Herrscher and a Four-Core Herrscher unleashed energy on an entirely different scale from a self-destructing Emperor-class Honkai Beast. Everyone was like a leaf in a gale, swept away with no control over where they landed.

"Holy mother of—if they're on the same level, why not just use the Herrscher of Void's authority to teleport the frost crystal away? Why fight beam for beam... damn it..." As an Unascended Herrscher, she was merely a slightly larger leaf in this storm, lasting only a few seconds longer than the others before being flung away by the blast wave.

To move freely under several times the gravity, Enoshia had modified her own data in advance, and now she ended up flying the farthest of all, gliding several kilometers through the air before planting headfirst into the snow.

As soon as the aftershocks of the explosion subsided, she scrambled out of the snow and looked into the distance.

In the distance, dark clouds gathered, with gale-force winds, blizzards, thunder, and lightning filling the entire battlefield, like the set of some epic disaster movie. At the storm's center, Sirin and the Herrscher of Frost traded blows, hurling skills back and forth, putting on a show that felt like "two sovereigns battling until the Great Dao itself was ground to dust."

"Well, looks like I've got nothing to do here. Better check on the others. Sirin's fighting without any regard for anyone else."

Enoshia's guess was spot on. If Schicksal's Valkyries got killed by the shockwaves of her fight with the Herrscher of Frost, she'd be perfectly happy with that. In fact, she'd deliberately chosen to clash beams precisely because she wanted to wipe out both the Herrscher of Frost and the Valkyries together.

On the other side, Siegfried had also ended up headfirst in the snow, just like Enoshia, with only his legs sticking out.

"Lixue, give me a hand." Theresa, who had just recovered somewhat, wanted to pull Siegfried out but lacked the strength. With their combined effort, each grabbing one of his legs, they yanked him out of the snow like pulling a carrot.

A few minutes later, Shigure Kira and Nicholas, supporting each other, arrived beside the three. Cecilia spotted the five from a distance and jogged over to join them.

"Kira, Nicholas, and everyone—are you all alright?" Her concerned gaze swept across the group.

"We're fine." Shigure Kira and Shub looked at Cecilia, whose face was still rosy and full of energy, and their respect for her grew another notch.

"Captain, the abnormal gravity field disappeared shortly after the explosion. Everyone can move freely now. What should we do next?" Cheng Lixue asked her while her own mind was already racing.

Cecilia opened her communicator:

"Bishop, it's me. The situation is... Alright, I understand."

"The Bishop has given us permission to withdraw and let the two Herrschers fight it out among themselves. As long as someone stays behind to observe the situation."

Though he said "observe the situation," everyone understood Otto's real intent—wait for the two Herrschers to wear each other down and then clean up.

Shigure Kira and Shub knew this was Cecilia's way of giving them a chance to escape. Salome's death had proven that this battle was far beyond what an A-rank Valkyrie could handle; staying would only make them a burden.

"Bam!"

The Herrscher of Frost was slammed into the ground by Sirin, its body wreathed in electric currents. Sirin had tried out the authorities of all the Herrschers and found that it seemed most afraid of lightning.

"Haha, even all of Schicksal's trash working together couldn't handle this thing, and it's still no match for me☆"

Sirin flashed her smug grin again. A bolt of lightning struck the Herrscher of Frost, sending up black smoke, with a faint smell of burning protein.

Seeing this Pufferfish puff up again after winning her first fight, Enoshia felt a bit helpless.

"A Four-Core Herrscher beating a Three-Core Herrscher—isn't it only natural to overpower the opponent? And she hasn't noticed at all that, even though she can suppress it, thanks to its absurd regenerative ability, she's never dealt any real damage."

Of course, saying Sirin's attacks had no effect on the Herrscher of Frost at all would be unfair. At least now it was only using the Herrscher of Ice's authority, and the surrounding gravity had returned to normal.

Enoshia watched the Herrscher of Frost's abnormal state and guessed that Theresa's earlier attack within the Divine Prayer Barrier had still had some effect, at least throwing its internal energy circulation into chaos while it was consuming massive amounts of Honkai Energy.

"The Herrscher of Rock's authority is unusable... Hmm, maybe I can take this chance to rip the Herrscher of Rock core out of its body. If I'm lucky, Old Yang might even be saved. With only one Herrscher of Ice left, eliminating it should be no problem."

Just as Enoshia was scheming, Schicksal's group had also reached a decision.

"I'll stay behind with Siegfried. Everyone else, hurry up and leave. I don't want to put him in danger, but I know I can't talk him out of it." Cecilia looked at Siegfried with a mix of helplessness and happiness.

Siegfried's gaze was firm: "My wife knows me best. How could I, as a man, hide like a coward while my own wife fights for her life on a dangerous battlefield? No matter how risky, I'll stand with her through thick and thin."

Cecilia shrugged. "That's just how he is. The battlefield changes in an instant. Don't worry—Siegfried and I will definitely come back safe."

"Promise me, you both have to come back safely. Kiana is still waiting for you." Theresa knew this was no place to linger. She picked up Judah, which had conveniently landed beside her after the explosion, activated skateboard mode, and prepared to lead the others off the battlefield.

Just then, a figure appeared before them.

"The Queen said, not a single one of Schicksal's people gets to leave. All of you, leave your lives behind!"