Honkai Double Traverse, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

Then, as Jiang Cheng became aware of the water-like stimulation coursing through his nerves, the pain spread rapidly.

Everything, every single component of the human body, shared this excruciating agony in an incredibly fair manner at this very moment.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the swirling dust around him settle onto the ground in an instant, and his vision, usually obscured by all sorts of chaotic clutter, suddenly became crystal clear.

For the first time, Jiang Cheng looked at this world with such clarity.

He saw the girl before him, covered in wounds, her clothes almost entirely soaked in blood, watching her pupils flicker and tremble like lightning on a dark horizon.

On that face, once elegant, cold, and untouchable—the face that had earned her the title of Thunder Queen for her decisive and swift actions—

There was a terror he had never seen before.

No.

It was more than just terror.

Due to the physical enhancement caused by Honkai Energy erosion, his vision had been heightened as well—

Jiang Cheng could vaguely see, reflected in those deep purple eyes, a humanoid figure descending from the sky.

"My opponents—"

An arrogant, insolent voice, as if the entire world should be groveling at his feet, reached him clearly.

"Are just you pieces of trash? A bunch of bugs I could crush with a flick of my finger? Lady Cocolia, haven't you underestimated this Leader a bit too much?"

Jiang Cheng endured the unbearable pressure, struggling to turn his eyes to find the source of the voice—

Blue hair, standing straight up as if from an explosion.

A disheveled shirt and trousers, not even buttoned, with water droplets still clinging to his abdominal muscles as if he had just stepped out of a pool.

—The worst-case scenario had arrived.

Deep within his heart, danger signals blared incessantly.

Jiang Cheng realized clearly, "In this Honkai world, the normal walkthrough process can already be declared a failure."

It was at this moment, as if deliberately savoring the wide-eyed expression on Jiang Cheng's face, that Cocolia's voice finally arrived, fashionably late.

"The First Herrscher, Leader of Anti-Entropy."

"—Welt."

The person opposite was not Welt.

But what did it matter whether he was or wasn't? His power to suppress the current environment was no different from Welt's.

In the original plot, even a top-tier A-rank Valkyrie like Fu Hua would have been suppressed in an instant. If not for the manifestation of the Herrscher of Thunder, which allowed Kiana to equip the fourth-generation Valkyrie armor—comparable to S-rank—everyone would have been easily subdued.

Even so, they had only narrowly escaped with their lives, only to be finished off by the real Herrscher of Reason, Welt Yang.

—Should I run?

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha—!!!"

He was laughing wildly, that clone bearing the name of Welt—raising his right hand high, his five fingers spread wide.

The opposite of the light that illuminated the world, a darkness that seemed to devour all radiance, was held in his palm, like a condensed, static black hole.

"Gravity, this is my authority."

—Boom.

Jiang Cheng's knees nearly touched the ground in that instant. His body, feeling as if dozens of people were pressing down on him at once, was on the verge of collapse; he used every ounce of his strength just to keep from kneeling.

"You didn't collapse? Interesting, but—"

He smiled contemptuously, a smile devoid of any warmth, looking down from above as if he were an omnipotent god, "For bugs like you, isn't lying on the ground more appropriate?"

—Boom!!!

The gravity intensified once more. Jiang Cheng clearly felt his weight increase tenfold; even moving his eyeballs became sluggish, as if stirring through viscous liquid.

"Don't you dare hurt him!"

The gravity, which was enough to immobilize a superhuman like Jiang Cheng who traded health for stats, could not fully restrain this girl who, only hours ago, had still believed herself to be an ordinary person.

Flickering lightning surged throughout her entire body, as if to make her the embodiment of lightning itself, and she stood up.

Raiden Mei gritted her teeth with all her might, doing everything she could—

—She swung her blade.

A handsome, textbook attack.

Anyone who saw it would praise it as master-level swordsmanship.

The clear arc seemed capable of easily severing a neck, yet the lightning-wreathed blade stopped in mid-air.

The tip of the blade made a teeth-grinding friction sound against the space behind Welt, sparks splashing from the point where the blade met the air, dense and golden like countless fireflies exploding at once.

Raiden Mei gave her absolute all, barely forcing the tip of her blade against that invisible wall, inch by inch—

Advancing...?

No, there was no such delusion.

It was a slide.

That wall was deflecting the force of her blade tip to the side, like water flowing around a rock or wind brushing past treetops; her so-called one-sword style didn't even have the qualifications to get close to him.

"Oh?"

Welt didn't turn back. He didn't even change his posture, still standing there as casually as before, his right hand raised languidly, fingers spread in a relaxed, comfortable grip around that pitch-black sphere that seemed to swallow all light.

Then, his gaze slanted over.

It was merely a slant, arrogant as if he were looking at a moth mindlessly throwing itself into a flame.

"...Is that it? You dare call yourself the Herrscher of Thunder with this?"

Seeing Raiden Mei's wretched posture as she gritted her teeth, he tilted his head in disdain, a movement that shifted his gaze from a slant to a downward look.

From top to bottom.

From inside to out.

From the way she held her blade to her trembling arms, her clenched teeth, and the blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

"--Heh?"

Welt gave a contemptuous laugh. He raised his hand, the one not holding the black sphere, and tapped his index finger lightly in the air.

"Thunder?"

"The Herrscher of Thunder?"

The moment his voice fell, Raiden Mei was struck as if by a heavy truck. Her delicate body flew back in a wretched arc, slamming into the ground in a miserable display.

He ignored Raiden Mei, who was coughing up blood but still leaning on her long blade, trying to crawl back up, and turned his gaze toward the other battlefield—the white-haired girl locked in a bitter struggle with Bronya.

"There's more than one annoying little bug." Welt watched the scene with disdain, raised his hand, and closed his fingers into a light fist.

Ten times the gravity was applied to her. A pitch-black stream of light wrapped around the white-haired girl like a force field.

"----?!"

Kiana's footsteps faltered in that instant; her body, which surpassed that of steel, swayed involuntarily.

Then.

--BOOM!!!

An electromagnetic pulse slammed into her, the overflowing energy carving a charred trench into the ground behind her.

"Who--"

"Who's ambushing this lady?"

Kiana's brows twisted, but she didn't even have the time to turn her head left or right, as Bronya, acting like a humanoid weapon, immediately pressed the attack.

"So annoying! You little shrimp."

"Is that it?"

The excitement Welt had felt upon his initial arrival had long since vanished from his face.

"The Third Herrscher and her cohorts are perfect as a sign of your return, Lord Leader."

Though she used an honorific for him, Cocolia laughed with her head held high, watching him with cold indifference.

"Now, Lord Leader, please kill that little bug over there yourself, and then capture the Third Herrscher."

27. Welt, Siege of Xilian (Revised)

Jiang Cheng stared blankly at the blue-haired young man, who held a pitch-black reflection in his hand—a power that was by no means something a human could rival.

He had already tasted the bitter fruit of greed.

Since failure was confirmed, there was no need to persist in opening a side branch. Wasn't bringing Xilian over meant for the safe World Serpent route? All he had to do was shout for Grey Snake; it would just mean missing the Yae Sakura dungeon, failing to obtain the Key of Corruption, and making the possibility of defeating the Iron Curtain even lower.

It was something he could do just by opening his mouth.

He had known from the very beginning the simplest path he could take by relying on Xilian, yet he had been unable to bring himself to do it.

Perhaps it was because he could still see someone.

He saw Raiden Mei, still persistently charging forward.

Her body, repeatedly battered—it must have been so painful, surely even moving an inch was agony?

She had lost so much blood, suffered so many wounds; such soft skin subjected to such inhumane attacks.

But what could that change?

The result was exactly the same.

Refusing to unleash her own power, her Stigmata and Herrscher Core were like two venomous insects suppressing each other—or rather, the Herrscher Core had been implanted precisely to suppress the berserk Stigmata.

Under these circumstances, no matter how many times this repeated, she would never be able to cross such a massive chasm of strength, just as data factors could never defeat Laigushi on their own.

"Boom--"

Once, pinned to the ground by gravity.

Twice, sent flying by a strike.

Three times, trampled directly into the earth.

"--Cheng-jun, run!"

In the corner of his eye, the lightning was like a kite caught in a torrential storm, charging into the sky again and again, and again... and again...

"Drip,"

--Why don't you stop?

It was clearly a meaningless act; clearly, this kind of thing wouldn't change anything.

"Drip,"

--Why do you keep rushing forward?

No matter how many times you try, nothing will change. Without becoming a Herrscher, you can never defeat Welt.

You should know that better than anyone.

Wouldn't it be fine if you just turned into a Herrscher? If you just gave up on me... After all, I'm just someone who appeared out of nowhere, aren't I?

Watching Raiden Mei's movements time and time again, Jiang Cheng fought through the crushing pressure of gravity and stood straight where he was.