Then, as Jiang Cheng realized that the water's nerve-jangling sting was pain, it rapidly spread.
Everything, every part of the human body, shared that agonizing pain equally in that moment.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the dust swirling around him suddenly settle flat against the ground. His vision, usually obscured by all kinds of clutter, abruptly cleared.
For the first time, Jiang Cheng saw the world so clearly.
He saw the girl before him, covered in wounds, her clothes almost entirely stained red with blood. He saw her pupils flickering and trembling like lightning across a darkened sky.
On that face, once hailed as the Thunder Queen's for its decisive ruthlessness—supposed to be elegant and aloof, untouchable—
There was a terror she had never shown before.
No.
It wasn't just terror.
Her body had been enhanced by Honkai Energy, and so had her vision—
Jiang Cheng could just make out a figure reflected in those deep violet eyes, descending from the sky.
"Are these—"
A voice full of arrogance and bluster, as if the entire world should grovel at his feet, rang loud and clear.
"—the useless opponents I have to deal with?! A bunch of bugs I could crush with one hand?! Cocolia, did you think so little of me that you sent these weaklings?"
Jiang Cheng fought against the unbearable pressure, struggling to shift his eyes and find the source of the voice—
Blue hair, standing straight up as if blasted skyward.
A rumpled shirt and trousers, with every button undone. Even his abs were wet, as if he had just stepped out of a swimming pool.
—The worst-case scenario had come to pass.
A constant stream of danger signals rang in the depths of his mind.
Jiang Cheng realized all too clearly, "The normal route for clearing the Honkai world can now be declared a failure."
Just then, as if deliberately savoring the wide-eyed expression on Jiang Cheng's face, Cocolia's voice finally arrived.
"The First Herrscher, the Anti-Entropy Leader."
"—Welt."
This wasn't Welt.
But what difference did that make? His ability to dominate this situation was no different from Welt's.
In the story, even Fu Hua, a top-tier A-rank Valkyrie, was instantly suppressed. If the Herrscher of Thunder hadn't manifested, allowing Kiana to don the fourth-generation Valkyrie battlesuit—one on par with an S-rank—everyone would have been subdued with ease.
Even so, they only managed to escape by a hair, before the real Herrscher of Reason, Welt Yang, finished them off.
—Should he leave?
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha—!!!"
He was laughing uproariously. The clone bearing Welt's name raised his right hand high and spread his fingers.
The darkness in his palm seemed to swallow light, the opposite of a radiance that could illuminate the world. He held it like a dense, motionless black hole compressed into a sphere.
"Gravity. This is my authority."
—Boom.
Jiang Cheng's knees nearly hit the ground. His body felt as if dozens of people were pressing down on him at once, and he was close to collapsing. He summoned every ounce of strength just to keep from kneeling.
"You didn't fall flat? Interesting, but—"
He smiled contemptuously, his expression utterly devoid of warmth. He looked down as if he were an omnipotent god. "A bug like you belongs flat on the ground, doesn't it?"
—Boom!!!
The gravity increased again. Jiang Cheng could feel his weight multiply tenfold. Even moving his eyes became sluggish, like stirring them through thick liquid.
"Don't you dare hurt him!"
The gravity could immobilize even a superhuman like Jiang Cheng, who traded health for stats, but it couldn't fully restrain this girl, who had thought she was an ordinary person just hours ago.
Lightning flickered all over her body, as if she were about to become lightning itself. She forced herself to stand.
Raiden Mei clenched her teeth as hard as she could and gave it everything she had—
—She swung her sword.
It was a clean, textbook strike, as stylish as it was precise.
Anyone who saw it would have praised it as master-level swordsmanship.
The clear arc looked capable of slicing through a neck with ease, but the blade, crackling with lightning, stopped in midair.
The tip scraped against something behind Welt with a grating sound. Sparks burst from the point where the blade met the air, a fine golden spray like countless fireflies exploding at once.
Raiden Mei strained with all her might, managing to force the tip of her blade against that invisible wall, inch by inch—
Forward...?
—No, she couldn't even dream of that.
It was sliding away.
The wall diverted the force of her blade to the side, like water flowing around a rock or wind passing through treetops. Her so-called one-sword style didn't even deserve the chance to get close to him.
"Oh?"
Welt didn't turn around. He didn't even change his stance, still standing there with casual ease. His right hand was raised just as carelessly, fingers spread in easy abandon, holding the sphere of darkness that seemed to devour all light.
Then his eyes slid toward her.
Just slid toward her, as if he were looking at a moth foolish enough to fly into a flame.
"...That's it? And you dare call yourself the Herrscher of Thunder?"
Seeing Raiden Mei's miserable, gritted-teeth struggle, he tilted his head in disdain. The gesture turned his sidelong glance into a condescending stare.
From head to toe.
Inside and out.
From the way she gripped her sword to her trembling arms, her clenched teeth, and the blood at the corner of her mouth.
"—Hmph?"
Welt gave a scornful laugh. He raised the hand that wasn't holding the black sphere and lightly tapped the air with his index finger.
"Thunder?"
"The Herrscher of Thunder?"
The moment his words fell, Raiden Mei was as good as slammed by a truck. Her delicate body flew helplessly through the air, tracing an arc before crashing to the ground in a miserable heap.
He ignored Raiden Mei as she coughed up blood and still tried to use her longsword to climb back to her feet. His gaze shifted to another battlefield—to the white-haired girl fighting Bronya.
"More than one annoying little bug, huh?" Welt watched with contempt and raised his hand, lightly closing his fingers.
Tenfold gravity bore down on her. A black stream of light enveloped the white-haired girl like a force field.
"—?!"
Kiana stumbled in that instant. Her body, tougher than steel, swayed despite herself.
Then—
—Boom!!!
An electromagnetic pulse slammed into her, and the energy that spilled out carved a charred trench into the ground behind her.
"Who—"
"Who's sneaking up on me?"
Kiana's brows twisted, but she didn't even have time to turn her head. Bronya, moving like a human weapon, immediately pressed her attack.
"You're so annoying! You little runt."
"That's it?"
The excitement on Welt's face had already faded.
"The Third Herrscher and her accomplices are the perfect way to mark your return, Leader."
Though Cocolia addressed him respectfully, she smiled haughtily and watched him coldly.
"Now, please kill that little bug over there yourself, Leader, then capture the Third Herrscher."
Chapter 27: Welt, Encircling Cyrene (Revised)
Jiang Cheng stared blankly at the blue-haired young man, who held the pitch-black, light-swallowing sphere in his hand—a power no human could hope to match.
He had already tasted the bitter fruit of his greed.
Now that he knew he'd failed, there was no point in insisting on pursuing a side route. Hadn't he brought Cyrene along for the safe World Serpent route? All he had to do was shout for Grey Snake. He would miss out on Yae Sakura's scenario and wouldn't get the Key of Corruption, and his chances of defeating the Iron Curtain would be lower, but that was all.
All it would take was opening his mouth.
He'd known from the start that he could take the easiest route with Cyrene's help, yet he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Because he could still see someone.
He could still see Raiden Mei charging at him without giving up.
Her body had been struck again and again. It must have hurt terribly by now. It must have been hard even to move.
She had lost so much blood, suffered so many wounds. Her soft skin had been subjected to such merciless attacks.
But what did that matter?
The result was always the same.
She refused to unleash her power, while her Stigmata and Herrscher Core suppressed each other like two parasitic worms. Or perhaps the Herrscher Core had been implanted precisely to suppress the Stigmata's rampage.
In these circumstances, no matter how many times she tried, she could never bridge the enormous gap in strength. It was like data factors being unable to defeat Laigushi on their own.
"Boom—"
The first time, gravity pinned her to the ground.
The second time, she was sent flying.
The third time, she was stomped straight into the ground.
"—Cheng-kun, run!"
In the corner of his eye, the lightning was like a kite buffeted by a violent storm, soaring into the sky again and again, then once more... and once more...
"Drip."
—Why wouldn't she stop?
It was pointless. Nothing she did could change anything.
"Drip."
—Why did she keep coming back?
No matter how many times she tried, nothing would change. Without Herrscherization, she could never defeat Welt.
You of all people should know that.
Why not just become a Herrscher? Why not give up on me... I'm just some inexplicable stranger who showed up out of nowhere, aren't I?
Watching Raiden Mei move again and again, Jiang Cheng fought through the pressure of gravity and straightened up.
Before you continue