Screaming.
◇
Above Nagazora City.
The clouds.
Those dense clouds, piled together like endless gray-white cotton, had been torn open.
From the ground up.
A golden trail pierced the sky.
Wherever it passed, the clouds rolled aside like silk sliced by a razor! They scattered! Evaporated!
All that remained was a vast rift, wide enough to fit an entire city, with the blue sky visible far above in its depths.
"Fire everything!"
Cocolia gave in to the unease in her heart without hesitation. Her roar erupted through the operations room.
"Every weapon—everything—activate without restriction! Shoot that arrow down for me!! Then blast them—every last one of them—to ashes!!!"
Boom.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom—!!!
Countless weapons and mechanisms opened fire all at once.
The flames belching from the muzzles turned the sky outside the command room into daylight in just seconds, as if a second, even hotter sun had risen over the earth.
Missiles.
Shells.
Energy beams.
Everything that could be fired, everything that could be unleashed, everything that could be used to destroy the enemy. In that moment, it all came pouring down like a torrential waterfall, like an ocean of steel and fire overturned from the sky. The density of the barrage was—
"Enough to plow the ground flat."
Those were the words one designer had written in a test report.
"Enough to reduce any invader to ashes before they reach the first line of defense."
There should have been nothing capable of matching it. This was the pinnacle of human technology. Even the Previous Era had slain six Herrschers before it possessed Divine Keys and MANTIS warriors.
Schicksal had only one Valkyrie in active service at the time: Rita. Durandal was traveling through a World Bubble.
The World Serpent was still hidden in the shadows, and its strongest fighter was Raven, a weakened, stripped-down, gentler version of a MANTIS warrior.
Cocolia had every reason to feel proud. She could claim that nothing in the world could withstand that strike unscathed, that everyone would be killed.
But—
An impenetrable defense was utterly meaningless in this moment.
That arrow! That blade, wielding an invincible might, like a mad bolt of thunder descending from the heavens to rip apart the entire sky!
—Tore straight through it without the slightest hesitation!
It was like a hot knife through butter, or sunlight through glass. As if those cannons, missiles, and energy beams didn't exist at all.
That dazzling golden trail streaked straight through the storm of steel and fire without slowing, as if passing through a layer of mist, and pierced through everything in its path!
The first line of defense, the long-range detection system.
—Torn apart.
The precise optical lenses, radar arrays, and sensor modules erupted in blinding sparks the instant the golden trail grazed past.
The second line of defense, the automatic interception cannons.
—Pierced through.
The barrels, mounts, and ammunition depots exploded into scrap metal one after another along the arrow's path.
The third line of defense, the energy shield.
The ghostly blue barrier, strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a tactical missile, shattered like a soap bubble.
The fourth line of defense, the special composite alloy armor developed by the radicals at the cost of ME Corp's funding, a metal barrier supposedly impossible to breach, with a thickness measured in meters, was as thin as paper.
—Torn apart.
The fifth line.
The sixth line.
The seventh line.
—Every layer collapsed.
Technology's creations were worthless in this moment. Pure violence that had beaten the entire galaxy into submission, destroyed every order, and trampled the people of the capital; unreasonable power from the Path; endless chaos—
—Manifested here!
With each line of defense torn open, Cocolia's expression grew more panicked, closer to the brink of collapse.
"No—"
For the first time, her voice quavered.
"Impossible—"
It was only an arrow, a cold weapon shot by some boy who had appeared out of nowhere, someone who had been barely stronger than an ordinary soldier moments ago.
How could this be?
How could it pierce through all of this?
Even a Herrscher couldn't tear through these defenses.
"NO!" Cocolia's pupils trembled violently. Her air of having everything under control shattered in an instant.
—Saying no wouldn't help!
The last shield, already on the verge of collapse and flickering unstably as it struggled to hold, was about to meet the arrow that had pierced the sky.
On the screen, Jiang Cheng was looking at her.
There was no cool, elegant detachment, nor any haughty look of a hunter gazing down at its prey.
Maybe he'd looked that way before, but now that was gone. All that remained was pure mockery, pure scorn.
Jiang Cheng was laughing at her with unrestrained abandon.
"So you can make that face after all!"
"I love listening to losers wail. Come on, scream louder!"
"Ha ha ha ha ha—!"
—Rip.
The final impact came with a tearing sound, heavy and immense beyond description, as if titanic objects had collided.
Cocolia heard the last shield shatter, heard the air tear apart, heard the sound barrier break as the arrow accelerated yet again just before reaching her.
More than that, she felt with perfect clarity a scorching, heavy presence racing toward her.
"—!!!"
The proud, arrogant leader of the radicals, who had tried to create a Herrscher and believed she could control one, blankly lifted her head. She saw the golden trail, which had pierced through every defense.
It was coming for her—
"No."
She spread her arms, trying to shield herself.
It was already over.
That was the only thought Cocolia managed to grasp in her final moments. Her expression, shifting from a sneer to confusion, then panic and terror, was swallowed by the golden light.
—Torn apart!
Boom—!!!
A shaft of sunlight descended through the video, shining down from the sky. It wasn't artificial light, but pure, bright, natural sunlight—
Illuminating the ruins, shattered by extreme force and searing heat.
The once-proud, arrogant woman who had looked down on everyone else.
Now she was pinned helplessly to the wall by an arrow several meters long, like an animal specimen.
The steel had melted into molten iron. Even the so-called rebar had vaporized the instant it was touched.
The liquid plastic softened, then bubbled and boiled, black and scorching.
A viscous, revolting sludge clung together as it fell, splattering over the face she had once held so high—
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
"What a delightful scream."
Jiang Cheng's smile grew even more gleeful. It was as if he'd seen the most wonderful sight in the world. His lips curled high with wild, unrestrained arrogance, and he laughed without a shred of restraint.
"Cocolia, the screams of a thing like you are as sweet as a stray dog's howling."
"AAAAAAH! Kill me!!!"
There was no response. By then, she could no longer respond.
Like prey nailed to a display case, she was powerless no matter how much she struggled.
Her hands and feet convulsed. She twisted her waist and abdomen, clawing at her face.
Her pride, her beauty—everything about her was hideous now.
Tears streamed from her eyes, and saliva dribbled helplessly from her mouth. In that moment, the instinctive fear of a living creature had awakened.
PS:
Cocolia got thoroughly crushed.
There won't be any sparing her. Jiang Cheng is never merciful or softhearted toward his enemies. Once he's sure someone is an enemy, he'll at least break their bones right away. With people like Cocolia and Otto, he'll kill them if he can.
This level of decisiveness might not suit Honkai, but I can't write a protagonist who goes soft or lets others dictate his pace... I just can't write that kind of pawn-like protagonist.
Later on, after the protagonist sees too many horrible things and too many evildoers, he might go off the deep end and try to take on the world by himself, with grand trials, purges, and the like.
But he won't go too far into madness. He won't lose his humanity or slaughter innocent people en masse. He's the sort who knows whom to love and whom to hate.
He's not some unbelievably good person. He just can't stand this kind of disgusting behavior, and he'll kill bad people to make himself feel better. In practice, he'll also care more about his friends and family.
What do you think of this kind of personality? Does it work for you?
35. Cocolia Doesn't Deserve a Quick Death; Cheng-kun's So Cruel~
"Heh."
Jiang Cheng gave a cold laugh.
"You tormented Raiden Mei for so long, and now you want to destroy an entire city for your own selfish reasons. You're so arrogant you can't even tell the difference in strength. A thing like you—"
"—doesn't deserve a quick death!"
Just thinking that she might get away with doing all those terrible things, then receive a little shock before she died and close her eyes forever, spared from facing any of the wrongs she'd caused...
Before you continue