Excessive Honkai Energy.
If not for the arrow embedded in her chest, constantly radiating heat so intense it burned her veins, her blood, and everything inside her to ashes, while somehow forcibly keeping her alive in a way she could not understand,
Cocolia had no doubt she would have died instantly in the Great Honkai—consumed by an excessive amount of Honkai Energy.
Ah...
So that was it...
She finally realized how foolish she had been.
So, from the very beginning...
"—I was creating a monster that humanity could never hope to control!"
"Don't presume to speak for humanity!"
Jiang Cheng glanced at her with disdain, then, as though deliberately showing off, spread his arms toward the empress high above, the god who commanded lightning.
"Someone like you, with no self-awareness or brains, who acts entirely on her own assumptions, is nothing but bottom-of-the-barrel trash!"
How could such a terrifying being possibly—
The doubt didn't even have a chance to fully form before the sight before her shattered it.
Lightning flashed, turning into a bolt of light.
Raiden Mei, noble and elegant as a god, untouchable, as though even looking directly at her were blasphemy, now rushed into Jiang Cheng's arms like a naive young girl, where he held her close.
Cocolia saw it—the proud empress, just before being gathered into his arms, straightened her tall figure and used those two round things to distract Jiang Cheng.
As he looked somewhat flustered, [Raiden Mei] grabbed his chin and kissed him with decisive force.
Holy crap!
Who said Herrschers were dangerous?
Was this the rampaging monster recorded as insane, an immense threat, and impossible to reason with—the Herrscher—going from looking bashful in his arms to forcefully kissing him?
If talking to a Herrscher was this easy, why had I captured one back then instead of asking the Herrscher of Thunder for help?
Uncontrollable regret welled up inside her, but it was too late to regret anything now.
She had already—lost.
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Chapter 38: Blowing Grey Snake to Bits in One Hit, Then It's Duckling's Turn
—There was no time to dodge.
Lightning was too fast. In an instant, Jiang Cheng's chin was caught, and he felt softness press against his lips.
Though they were crimson, her eyes were still beautiful. There was nothing crazed about them; they reflected nothing but him, without reservation.
The scent of orange blossoms lingered in her hair.
Something impossibly soft pressed hard against his chest, as white as melted cream. He hardly dared to take in the sensation properly.
The girl he'd held just moments ago had at least been embarrassed and tried to shy away. But now, she only pressed against him, as if she meant for them to become one.
At long last, their lips parted.
Raiden Mei showed no embarrassment. Instead, the tip of her rosy tongue lightly swept over her full lips as she savored the moment, the corners of her mouth rising brazenly.
"Have you kissed Cyrene? You haven't, have you? Your first kiss wasn't with Cyrene,"
"—it was with me, [Raiden Mei]!"
Yet despite her appearance, as though she were thoroughly enjoying herself and about to raise her chin to the heavens, her body remained rigid and motionless.
Jiang Cheng's gaze shifted elsewhere—to be precise, toward the most important person there—
—Cyrene.
He could sense time and space warping.
It wasn't the distortion of the portal he'd opened just now, but a distortion on a world-wide scale.
For some inexplicable reason, it made him feel at ease.
"..."
It was as if someone stood in front of him and leaned down, her glistening pink hair falling against his cheek.
It was cold. Chilly. Like raindrops.
Ah.
There was no need to worry anymore.
—How could he?! This jumble of feelings was nowhere near enough to make Jiang Cheng forget about Cyrene.
The Hunt's perception immediately showed him where Cyrene was—
Some very out-of-place, very strange crystal statues.
More importantly, there was someone dressed in black robes and a black mask beside Cyrene.
—Grey Snake.
You really went and added beef?!
Jiang Cheng stared coldly at Grey Snake, who was giving Cyrene a deathly, expressionless look, with an expression as if he were looking at a dead man.
There was no longer any need to keep up a mutually beneficial relationship with him. And if he dared to hurt Cyrene, then, to quote that Tang god-king—Grey Snake had a death wish.
The golden bow opened once more.
He spread his left hand palm-up, then curled his fingers and pinched a golden spark out of thin air once more.
A mighty, blazing arrow appeared.
Jiang Cheng pinched the bowstring, bending his arm to its limit and taking the most proper archer's stance—
"—Fire!"
"Boom—!"
A strike that truly cleaved through heaven and earth appeared once more.
The sky, which already looked as though a mysterious pair of scissors had cut a slit through it, its cloud layers clearly visible from below, was now split open by a new gash.
Anger forged the arrow.
Calmness drew the bow.
The force was compressed to such an extreme that it couldn't even be described as instantaneous. The moment Jiang Cheng released the string, Grey Snake stood at the boundary of the shadows, coldly watching Cyrene—and in the reflection of Cyrene's eyes, he clearly saw his own body explode.
"—?"
Grey Snake had no chance to react.
His body, made from a top-tier alloy surpassed only by Soul Steel, was crushed into dust in an instant.
Only the parts below his knees remained untouched by the attack, which had been compressed to maximize its destructive power without harming Cyrene. They slowly melted under the scorching heat.
"Eh? Eh?!"
Cyrene's little mouth hung open in bewilderment, her adorable face full of confusion. Her eyes must have shown the same expression.
Sorry, I'll come see you in a moment.
He confirmed that there were no more enemies near Cyrene.
So naturally, he had to focus on the last enemy who had hurt Kiana and Mei—
Bronya.
Jiang Cheng turned around.
There was no need to follow a trail of clues to figure out where she was, then rush over and push aside obstacles before barely making out a figure in the dust.
Finding—
Those words had barely surfaced in his mind when his target appeared before him of its own accord.
Distance, obstacles, dust—none of it could even blur his vision.
The final landing point hadn't been very close. Kiana really had given everything she had to drag Bronya as far away from him as possible.
Jiang Cheng saw her at once—a pale, delicate girl with slender limbs, like a doll who didn't belong to the mortal world. Bronya.
She had already sensed that something was wrong from the arrow that had torn across the sky. Unease kept rising from deep within her, and even her combat stance was becoming increasingly twisted, more defensive than offensive.
But she couldn't change anything anymore.
Jiang Cheng stepped forward.
In an instant, he crossed several thousand meters.
He arrived at the edge of the battlefield and saw Bronya, who had switched her weapon to electromagnetic mode, locked in a desperate fight.
"Guh. Project Bunny."
Her cold voice, tinged with the scent of cream, stirred Cocolia from the screen Jiang Cheng had somehow brought along. She had been burned by flames until she was on the verge of death, yet somehow still couldn't die completely.
"Kill... kill me..."
She no longer even had the strength to shout.
It seemed she had given up hope.
"Otherwise... otherwise I'll make Bronya kill Kiana... I'm the only one who can give her orders."
Jiang Cheng sneered as a fist abruptly appeared in his field of vision and slammed into the alloy shield.
The alloy let out a teeth-grating "creak—," nearly pushed past its limits, while her knuckles only swelled slightly, not affecting her next punch in the least.
Compared to Kiana, who had endured a Great Honkai and come through completely unscathed, looking even more radiant than before, Bronya could barely breathe.
"Hmph."
Jiang Cheng glanced at Cocolia on the screen, his condescending mockery completely undisguised.
"Did you really think a little steel could compete with Kiana's 'tempered through a thousand trials and loaded with every cheat imaginable' body in a test of endurance?"
"Bronya's resistance to Honkai Energy isn't all that high either, is it?"
"..."
Not saying anything?
I'll give you another push with [Destruction] in a bit.
You can forget about dying, anyway.
Without hesitation, Jiang Cheng stepped forward and slapped her, leaving a clear handprint on her round cheek. Then he punched Project Bunny, blowing half of it apart—it was a custom alloy, yet more fragile than tofu.
"Project Bunny! This is Seele's..."
Bronya's pupils trembled violently. Her icy-doll composure nearly broke as she suddenly looked utterly pitiful, the faint glimmer of translucent tears barely visible.
Jiang Cheng knew that Project Bunny was the last gift Seele had given Bronya, and that it meant a great deal to her.
—But he didn't care at all.
He simply tossed the girl over to Kiana.
She threw a punch in the direction Bronya had flown, and the two of them landed a powerful combo.
"Bang!"
"Didn't see that coming, did you, little squirt? In the end, the winner was yours truly!"
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