My Escape Route!!! / Winter

Herrscher of the Void's Arknights — Author: Kill Bill

"Synopsis: Because of the Gambler System, Chlorine Sodium has to play the villain in various worlds and draw the hatred of the Child of the World. She must also survive to earn points—the greater the hatred, the more points she gets.

To that end, she has to stop at nothing: deceiving, ambushing, and tricking all you old protagonist comrades.

After seeing FrostNova, who bore the protagonist symbol, she stood up with a slap—very quickly, too.

She directly exchanged her points for the strongest body, the Herrscher of the Void. Facing her new target, she came **beeeeeeer**ing in.

However, the "protagonist" she encountered this time had no glowing protagonist symbol above their head···········

But it didn't matter. What kind of person was I, Chlorine Sodium, anyway~?

Many people probably didn't understand what it meant to use a blank-slate character to gamble 200,000 points and win 8.78 million points to become God's Apostle.

We usually described such a person as.

A gambler.

"Go to hell, FrostNova! Come on, Miyabi, let's fight!!" she shouted.

"As your older sister, FrostNova, don't blame me for being despicable.

P.S. Want to raise little loli Yelena? I've put her in the book already~ Hehe."

Section 1: Chapter One—My Escape Route!!!

"Stop, A'Lu. Himeko is all over the other side of the door."

"What the hell?!"

"Ahem, no, what I mean is that your identity in the next world has already been purchased. You can bring all of this to an end."

"Isn't that just a Plot Kill?"

"Don't put it so harshly. You only get rewarded if you draw enough hatred and survive."

"Tsk, fine. Then I should say my line····

—You didn't expect this, did you, Himeko?! This is my escape route, hahaha!!!!"

······················

Time rewound several hours.

I had many names: Herrscher of the Void, Esdeath, Sheffield, Sephiroth··· In short, many of them, and they were all villains.

But I still really liked my current identity.

My name was Chlorine Sodium. I was currently playing the Herrscher of the Void. My body was nineteen years old, though I had forgotten my actual age. I lived in the Imaginary Space, was unmarried, and every day had to act out the role of a proper villain. I didn't smoke, drank only in moderation, and settled down around nine each evening to contemplate life. In the past, I would have gone to bed and fallen soundly asleep at once, never carrying fatigue into the next day. Now that I no longer needed sleep, I naturally had to contemplate life to maintain my sense of propriety. Even the doctors said I was perfectly normal.

I hated intense happiness, and I also hated profound despair. What I wanted was a tranquil life. Living out my days like a plant was the best way.

But the heavens seemed to think I was a special existence. They selected me to serve as the villain in various worlds.

As long as I drew enough hatred and survived in the gaps between worlds, I would receive more points.

This was no different from gambling, and I hated intense happiness too.

But this was the only way to stay alive. Otherwise, the protagonist would kill me. I could accept defeat. Every villain accepted defeat at the end of the story. But I couldn't accept death.

To pursue the life I once had, to continue living like a plant, I chose to resolve every problem before me.

It was easy to survive and win in a battle. But that also accumulated stress, which was foolish. I hated endless hatred, so I preferred to cut the problem off at the root and resolve everything in one go.

That was why my points were so high.

Many people probably didn't understand what it meant to use a blank-slate character to gamble 200,000 points and win 8.78 million points to become God's Apostle.

I only wanted to say this.

Gamble—no, I should say.

—The right to become a god was now in my hands.

"So this is Schicksal's Valkyrie? That's it? This is really hilarious."

The Queen's face showed no expression, solemn and dignified, as though she were a god looking down upon the world.

After all, her escape route had already been prepared: a new identity and a new world.

The Queen was now steadier than ever. It had to be said that having an escape route made one's words much bolder, filled with dignity at every turn.

If one ignored the fries hanging from her mouth and the half-finished iced cola beside her seat.

Sweetness helped her stay alert. Though it wasn't good for maintaining dignity, the Honkai Beasts around her didn't understand what dignity was. They only knew to acknowledge their master through Honkai Energy.

Within the unobservable depths of her heart, Chlorine Sodium finished her final self-introduction. This was important, because life needed a sense of ritual.

And so, the god looked down upon the world while the demon king sat upon her throne, waiting for the challenger of fate to come before her.

Those reckless cannon fodder, those cannon fodder who considered themselves extraordinary, deserved only to collapse on the steps below the throne, struggling feebly for breath and spreading the atmosphere their queen loved most.

Despair.

And her favorite ending.

Destruction.

The tottering airship struggled in midair. Countless cannon blasts weakly drove back her pets, but it was all meaningless.

This body really was worth every point.

It was incomparably powerful. The Honkai Energy seemed inexhaustible, allowing her to squander it at will. With a casual wave, she could summon vast swarms of monsters to pledge themselves to her.

And her chest was huge, which was excellent.

The eyes of a god, an apostle walking upon the earth, a queen crowned in the name of a god—she sat upon the throne in the Imaginary Space, watching the scene projected before her.

The final moment had arrived.

The heroine of this drama had made her entrance.

The warrior named Himeko had appeared. Chlorine Sodium believed she had drawn enough hatred.

She had taken the body of the student her opponent regarded as flesh and blood and used it for herself. She had even summoned a world-destroying Honkai to annihilate the world. With hatred like this, it would be difficult not to die.

But none of this could trouble the Queen. It was all the reward she was about to obtain.

As the saying went, no one grew rich without unexpected wealth. If she had to do something stimulating, she might as well do it as well as possible.

She would take her points to the next world, grow ever stronger, and ultimately achieve her goal.

I was perfectly content. That was my philosophy of life.

I didn't care about winning or losing, because those things only brought negative emotions and troublesome enemies. But if I had to fight, I would not lose to anyone!

Then let the final battle begin.

"Ahem. Do you think you can escape?"

Without attracting attention, she pushed the cola and fries off the throne and let them fall into the slightly opened Imaginary Space.

Flawless. Utterly dignified.

She clasped her hands behind her back, cold and arrogant. She would look down upon the challenger before her and draw the hatred to its limit.

"I've been waiting for you."

She struck, and in an instant the mountains collapsed and the seas roared.

Fortunately, she had watched Fate/Zero many times before. Imitating Gilgamesh's attitude was quite simple.

Looking down on all beneath heaven, arrogant to the extreme, she played the Queen with the bearing of a king above kings. It was perfect.

Although the Apostle was incomparably powerful, the red warrior had placed everything she possessed upon the scales of victory.

It had to be said—you were stronger now.

A wallet warrior really couldn't beat someone fighting with their life. I'm out of here, out of here, out of here.

Seeing that her mission was complete, the villain would eventually vanish at the story's conclusion.

Villains didn't die because they talked too much. Those were merely the final words of someone whose curtain was falling.

The red warrior finally defeated the god's Apostle with everything she had and drove a syringe into the back of the Apostle's neck. It was the only antidote capable of making the villain occupying this body disappear and bringing her student back.

Everything had ended. The flames of war had died away, and the mottled Imaginary Space was gradually collapsing after losing its master.

Yet no one expected that, as the god was gradually disintegrated and the body slowly separated from the villain's soul, golden eyes would suddenly open!

It was a smile no one had ever seen before—mockery, delight, exhilaration···· Even the howling wind of the fall could not conceal the laughter.

"You didn't expect this, did you, Himeko?! This is my escape route, hahaha!!!!"

Please favorite and vote, nyaaa~

Section 2: Chapter Two—Winter

Listen. That was the sound of points entering the account.

It had to be said that although Chlorine Sodium considered herself someone who liked peace and quiet, no one disliked having their disposable assets increase.

For example, even while plummeting rapidly downward, the Herrscher of the Void didn't forget to check the points she had just received.

This haul had been extremely profitable. After all, she had drawn hatred to its limit and escaped at the final battle.

Himeko's student's body was no longer useful. After obtaining the points, the body that had originally been a spirit decisively changed into a genuine physical form.

After leaving host K423, Chlorine Sodium retained the Herrscher's original appearance. However, her health was··· quite low.

Surviving after taking a Plot Kill slash had already pushed her to the limit.

Then··· it was time for the next world.

Just as she was about to use Honkai Energy to tear open the void and travel to the next world, she suddenly noticed something!

This was the only time her energy consumption had ever been so great. She could feel the Honkai Energy within her rapidly depleting. But····

Why had her wings disappeared?

"Why··· why has my voice changed too?!"

The Herrscher's originally ethereal voice, tinged with a hint of bewitchment, had become increasingly plain, like the voice of the original Kiana!

Could she be transforming into K423's appearance? That shouldn't be possible. She was only using Herrscher transformation. Her original body had long since been abandoned by her soul. Why would a soul that had discarded its shell still transform into the form of that white-haired idiot?

Watching her hands gradually shed their Herrscher transformation, it seemed that her entire body was changing from a Herrscher into the form a human should originally have. The ethereal, eerie qualities were gone, replaced by something more like the girl next door.

A girl next door was a girl next door. The idiot's original body had an excellent figure too, but that wasn't important for the moment. The more important change was·····

—Where did my breasts go!?

Kiana hadn't been flat-chested originally!

How could this happen?!

Could it be that too much energy had been consumed while materializing her soul?

I, Chlorine Sodium, had no other hobbies. I only liked a peaceful life. My sole hobby was beautiful, full and ample breasts. Were even my favorite things going to be taken away from me?!

"No!!"

The villain let out a hoarse, furious roar, but it was completely useless. Her originally exquisite figure had been utterly ruined.

That obscene fullness had gone from one extreme to another.

From the extreme of lewdness to the kind of extreme that would make the FBI break down the door.

Perhaps because her injuries were severe, and because she had only just gained a physical body, her energy had to be condensed to support the massive expenditure. As a result, all the Herrscher's originally flashy effects and such went offline so that her physical form wouldn't distort into some other bizarre existence.

The result was that she had gone from the size of a goddess to··· the proportions of a certain immortal master she had once known.

But points were points in the end, and her strength hadn't weakened. The void entrance still opened where her pale fingers passed. To some extent, the now-smaller Herrscher fell inside and left the Honkai world.