But it was meaningless. Everything Chlorine Sodium lost was real: stamina, Honkai Energy, mental strength, and concentration.
And she consumed nothing at all, merely moving her fingers.
Was this woman's head broken? Why wasn't she using her strongest state?
In her Herrscher state, she could at least hold out for a while. Simply using the fist technique called Inch Force was practically no threat to the Administrator.
Could she really be trying to conserve her Honkai Energy?
Huh? No way. Right?
"Void Herrscher, you're not really that stingy, are you? Why? Why won't you use your strongest state to face me?"
As she spoke, Elafia raised her hand, silently recited an ancient incantation, and asked with a cruel smile.
"So why won't you answer me? Do you think that whatever fist technique you're using now..."
"—can defeat me?!"
Her face was twisted into an utterly manic smile, looking ferocious in the howling wind.
The ocean of wind raged, trembled, and cheered at the arrival of its master.
In an instant, a huge wall of wind suddenly surged up around the girl!
All the scrap metal, bricks, stones, and rubble on the ground were swept up by the wind and rapidly scattered outward.
This was a large-scale AOE. Without counterattacking, there was no way to escape the area covered by this mad storm.
Silver hair whipped about in the gale.
The Administrator recklessly used her authority, ignoring everything around her.
To her, this was nothing more than an unfair game.
Yet Chlorine Sodium still did not use that strongest state of hers.
Why? Could this woman be...
Wait.
Miss Administrator seemed to have discovered a blind spot she had overlooked.
In all her observations over the past few days, there was only one situation in which Chlorine Sodium would not casually use her Herrscher transformation.
When she was beside that little Ursus girl.
The clinic was not particularly far from here.
Ah~
Elafia seemed to understand everything.
But in her red-gold eyes, what rose was the flame known as malicious amusement.
The pressure still wasn't enough. After all, they had not met in a long time. Without a proper welcoming ceremony, it simply wouldn't do.
The Administrator lowered her hand and changed the incantation. The gale slowly lifted her up. Although her body should not have been able to remain steady, she stepped on the wind elements that had long since become her most loyal servants, forming a platform beneath herself.
Thus, she could stand above everything.
At the boundary of the entire ruin, an air wall bearing yellow "No Entry" markings suddenly appeared, blocking Chlorine Sodium's path!
Tch!
Even her retreat had been blocked. Chlorine Sodium glared fiercely at Miss Administrator with those golden-glowing eyes.
That only made Elafia's smile widen.
There was none of her former bearing left. If the Administrator had previously been nothing more than a foolish character,
then she was now a hidden boss capable of shaking the world's strongest bosses!
She could not only designate the battlefield, but also recklessly expand the range of her skills, forcing her opponent to attack her.
She was like a child who did not understand what malice was, yet constantly radiated a kind of malice called innocence.
"Still not planning to use your strongest state? So what if that girl sees you? Don't tell me you've gotten addicted to playing house?
"You haven't actually taken it seriously, have you? No way, right?!
"You're used to bullying weaklings all day. How does it feel to be put in your place?
"Have you remembered who you really are, once you strip away the power those points bought you, and the things you learned that belong only to others...?"
"—just how much of you truly belongs to yourself?"
But although the question had been raised, the Administrator was not actually seeking an answer.
It was merely a goading tactic she had tossed out to disrupt her opponent's state of mind.
The gale beneath her had completely covered the entire controlled area.
Even her strongest fighter, Chlorine Sodium, could no longer possibly survive.
"Boring... Did she really die just like that? I'll have to revive you afterward. What a hassle."
Elafia spoke with a look of utter distaste.
It was like watching a toy break after becoming bored with how uninteresting it was.
The roar of the gale drowned out every other sound.
She was beginning to get bored.
Just as she was about to withdraw her authority,
a discordant sound came from the next moment.
Following it was the trembling ring of a thin blade in the hurricane!
"Xiliu—"
"Though I hate endless fighting... I have never lost to anyone...
"Not even you! And who told you I only know how to fight with my fists and feet?"
"—Slash!"
PS: Something came up at home. I just got back, so this is late.
Section 55: Chapter Fifty-Four—You're Stronger Now
How could fist techniques be such inconvenient things?
The narrow Imaginary Number Gate had yet to close, but the long blade drawn from it had already left its sheath!
The instant the demon blade left its sheath, it tore the wind apart.
The girl burst through the gale, crossing the boundary between the rubble and the unharmed ground beneath Miss Administrator's feet, as if stepping into the divine realm.
At that instant, the pressure of the wind crashed into her face!
The two were already extremely close.
She could even see the astonishment on Elafia's face slowly widening.
Time itself seemed to stop. Only the thin blade continued cutting through the dust filled with countless particles, moving straight ahead.
A faint metallic wail trembled in the air. Even the blade itself radiated an eerie hue from the eruption of Honkai Energy.
It was a spirit blade.
Yet although it was called Cherry Blossom Snow, the colors suffusing the blade were so eerie.
They were as ethereal and deadly as blooming poppies.
That was what the demon blade truly looked like.
The blade had long since broken the sound barrier. It flashed through the air, leaving behind a purple slash mark.
The Administrator had not expected Chlorine Sodium's counterattack to be so... swift.
Or perhaps so reckless.
No one could remain unafraid of death, especially when Chlorine Sodium had a record of zero deaths.
Someone who had never truly died could not possibly overcome the fear of death.
Yet the girl's current state could only be described as tragic. The hurricane had long since torn apart the Herrscher's shield, and even the Void Herrscher's body could not withstand the power of an authority released by an otherworldly higher being like the Administrator.
The wind was like the sharpest cutting blade, rapidly gnawing and slicing through everything it passed on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis.
The girl had already been cut open. Blood ran down from her forehead, dyeing her vision red.
Yet all these losses were the price she paid to reach striking distance.
And now, she had entered the divine realm. The blade of the God-slaying Priestess would make this villainous Administrator pay a price.
Elafia seemed to want to leap backward and evade the blade.
But the blade had already arrived in the instant between breaths.
The demon blade drew an arc through the air, its edge pointing straight at Elafia's head.
"Urgh! How could—?!"
Elafia completely panicked. She probably did not want to lose her newly molded body so soon.
"...it?!"
There was not even room for a few seconds to pass. Elafia instinctively raised her hand to block it, but the arc had already arrived!
The Administrator simply stared blankly at the splattering flesh and shattered bones.
And at the mirror-smooth cut surface on her own hand...
Her wrist ended at a strange length. The palm above it had already vanished...
The overlapping explosions finally sounded belatedly.
The road cracked apart, the hurricane was torn open, and the wind wall, having lost its supply of authority, lost control and became a chaotic tornado.
Chlorine Sodium landed lightly, shook the blood from the blade, sheathed it, and flung the God's blood staining the blade onto the ground.
Elafia's severed hand finally fell as well, transforming into drifting ash.
Everything had happened too quickly—so quickly that the battle had ended within seconds.
"Urgh—gah. Damn it. I have to admit, you're stronger now."
Seeing Chlorine Sodium reverse her grip on the blade and rest its back against her left arm—the stance for her next attack—Elafia hurriedly spoke.
"Fine, fine, you're stronger! I'm not fighting anymore, I'm not fighting! If we keep going, this body will be ruined. Remolding a hand is such a pain!!!"
Although she had lost one hand, the Administrator wore a tearful, aggrieved expression completely at odds with the situation.
It was as if she had reverted to the foolish character she had been before.
As though none of what had happened earlier had ever existed.
"Chlorine-chan really is scary, hmph."
So what exactly had this woman come here to do?
Seeing Chlorine Sodium's confusion, Elafia calmly applied some basic first aid to herself, then cast a healing spell on Chlorine Sodium before slowly explaining.
"I didn't tell you before, but this mission is a little special."
"Special?"
..............................
"So eating this stuff every day really is raising a child rather than raising a pig?"
"Raising... raising a pig?!"
Her elder sister had something else to take care of.
Late at night, the room was simply too quiet. Even with the lights on, it was still the same.
Before you continue