Meteor Across the Firmament

This was him, Welt Joyce, who had chosen to fight for humanity...

First Herrscher.

Meteor Across the Heavens

Fortunately, Joyce and Schrödinger's life-or-death duel had not continued to the very end.

Reanna, who had returned in time, interrupted their battle. Using the Second Divine Key of the Abyss Flower, she sealed Schrödinger's Honkai energy, concentrating it entirely in her right hand and preserving her sanity.

Meanwhile, Ming Yu was together with Joyce and the other two.

"Wait... that's a lot to take in!"

Dr. Tesla said with an exaggerated expression,

"You're saying that gloomy girl whose body was half-transformed into a Honkai Beast deliberately came looking for trouble just to awaken your powers?

"She specifically tore down someone else's clinic? And smashed me to pieces in the process?"

Her expression was plainly full of displeasure.

"That's how it was..."

Joyce said helplessly.

Scientists truly did think differently from ordinary people. He had only realized that at the very end of the duel.

"So? Joyce, what exactly is your ability?"

Tesla pressed on.

"...Huh?"

Joyce seemed unable to keep up with the abrupt change in topic.

"What? Since you're still one of us, shouldn't we discuss constructive matters directly?"

Tesla said as if it were only natural.

The ability to swiftly accept changes in the world was precisely a necessary quality for an inventor.

Einstein added from the side,

"That's right. From the standpoint of combat power, aside from Reanna, you and Ming Yu are also important forces in stopping this Honkai disaster."

Ming Yu's abilities had already been demonstrated clearly before: the power to manipulate electromagnetism.

So the only thing left to understand was Joyce's power.

"Uh... well... I'm not really sure myself..."

Joyce said awkwardly.

How was he supposed to explain an ability that let him instantly understand an object's use just by touching it?

"I saw in a document that the First Herrscher's ability is understanding and recreation."

Ming Yu chimed in at the right moment.

As long as one completely understood the structure of something, one could recreate it from nothing using Honkai energy.

This was the basic ability of the Herrscher of Reason. From Joyce to Old Yang to the future Bronya, they had all possessed this ability.

Moreover, once something had been successfully recreated once, the cost and effort required to recreate it again would be greatly reduced. This was what people called "muscle memory."

However, as the original Herrscher of Reason, Joyce possessed talent far superior to those two successors.

—He did not need to spend time or effort truly understanding an object's structure. As long as he touched it with his own hands, he could automatically complete the process of understanding in an instant.

That was why he had so easily mastered the Star of Eden's use after merely touching it.

Tesla and Einstein quickly understood the nature of Joyce's ability as well.

The red-haired girl stared at Joyce with shining eyes, as though she were looking at some kind of laboratory mouse.

"Creating things from nothing, understanding everything—wouldn't this be the best possible assistant for scientific research?!"

If they did not still need to deal with the Honkai crisis, she might have dragged Joyce back to the laboratory to work immediately.

"Hiss—"

Joyce sucked in a breath and quietly took a step back, hiding behind Ming Yu.

Even after becoming a Herrscher, he was still firmly suppressed by those two young scientists in sheer presence.

"Wait, that is—"

At that moment, Ming Yu pointed toward the sky, signaling everyone to look up.

An incredibly dazzling purple sphere was flying high overhead, gradually moving toward the coast.

"...It's Honkai energy!"

It radiated an extremely ominous glow. Ordinary people might not recognize what it was and simply mistake it for a purple meteor, but Reanna, who had fought through countless battles, recognized it at a glance. It was an extremely high concentration of Honkai energy.

At the same time, a transmission came through the artificial intelligence system and connected to their location.

"Whoever you are... if you can hear this message, please do your best to notify the ships in New York Bay and the residents along the coast. A small tsunami may occur. To be safe, please stay away from tidal flat areas."

In New York, there had not actually been a large-scale Honkai eruption like the one in Berlin.

This could be seen from the relatively small number of Honkai Beasts Ming Yu and Reanna had dealt with.

—Because Edison, the person chiefly responsible for causing all this, had used a special power before things became irreversible. She had restrained all the Honkai energy, turning it into a concentrated sphere of Honkai energy and sending it into the sky.

By doing so, she had prevented innocent civilians from suffering because of the mistake she had made.

She blamed herself for it. What she did not know, however, was that the true reason for the experiment's failure was Otto's interference, not an error in her calculations.

"Edison?"

Tesla recognized the source of the voice. It was Nancy Thomas Alva Edison, the head of the North American Branch.

She was both the sponsor of Schicksal's North American Branch and its de facto leader.

"Tesla? It's wonderful that you can receive my transmission."

The voice on the other end paused slightly, then continued,

"...No matter what, I'll do my utmost to ensure that no innocent person suffers losses because of our experimental accident."

"Wha—"

Tesla froze for a moment, then quickly understood what the other woman might be doing.

After thinking calmly for several seconds, she immediately replied,

"Understood. We're heading to Manhattan Beach now. It'll take about half an hour. Give us your coordinates. Once the civilians have been evacuated, we'll come support you immediately!"

"Half an hour... the electricity in my body probably won't last that long."

A bitter laugh came from the other end of the transmission.

"In any case, the only thing I can do right now is push it toward the open sea as hard as I can, to reduce the scale of the tsunami that comes afterward."

"...Push it toward the open sea? What are you talking about?"

Tesla had originally thought Edison was transporting the Honkai energy with some sort of device, but it now seemed that was not the case.

"I'm currently relying on electromagnetic restraint to barely control a concentrated sphere of Honkai energy with an explosive yield exceeding twenty thousand tons of TNT—by hand. Only by detonating it far away from people can I ensure the public's safety to the greatest extent."

"..."

The group had already gotten into the car. They had no time to consider where Edison had gotten the power to touch Honkai energy with her bare hands. What they needed to consider now was how to support her without watching her die for it.

But unfortunately, they could not think of any plan at the moment.

Even Reanna, Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie, could not handle that amount of Honkai energy alone.

Could they really do nothing but watch Edison sacrifice herself?

At that moment, Ming Yu, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly spoke.

"Senior Edison, please give me your coordinates. I can support you."

Tesla's eyes lit up as well. Recalling his earlier performance in battle, she hurriedly said,

"...Right! Ming Yu can manipulate electromagnetism too. He can help Edison!"

For Ming Yu, this was something right in his field of expertise.

However, if he wanted to reach the heavens, he would need a helper.

He looked at Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie beside him and said quietly,

"Senior Reanna, I need your help. Please take me close to that 'meteor.'"

A car's speed naturally could not catch up in time, but the war machine beside him had the ability to catch up to that meteor in the sky before it detonated.

Reanna nodded without hesitation.

As a being whose entire body was made of Soulium, she naturally possessed the ability to fly at high speed.

Without wasting any more time, Tesla cooperatively opened the car's sunroof, allowing Reanna to take Ming Yu into the sky.

"...You've already tried very hard, Miss Edison."

Beneath the purple meteor, a blue-haired girl was desperately using both hands to support the enormous sphere of Honkai energy above her head.

Her hands were already covered in marks of Honkai energy corrosion, and sweat streamed endlessly down her face.

A banknote bearing Franklin's portrait floated beside her. The figure on the bill seemed to possess a life of its own as it spoke with her.

"Ha... coward who only knows how to hide inside a banknote and talk."

The blue-haired girl weakly retorted.

"The special ability you obtained through the interferometer was already the result of exhausting every possible future of your life. You should not complain about it. You have already done your best."

"..."

She no longer had the strength to argue with the being in the banknote.

She had indeed reached her limit. Her consciousness was gradually fading away.

But just before she completely lost consciousness, she vaguely saw someone flying toward her.

Ming Yu stood on a skateboard beneath his feet, rapidly approaching Edison's location.

—Reanna, whose entire body was made of Soulium, could easily transform her body tissue into all kinds of shapes. At that moment, she had turned herself into a skateboard, carrying Ming Yu through the skies.

And by using electromagnetic attraction to cling to the Soulium, Ming Yu could maintain his footing firmly even amid the violent winds high in the air.

He saw the blue-haired girl falling from above and reached out to catch her.

Ming Yu caught the unconscious Edison in his arms. At the same time, he used his ability to take over the electromagnetic field she had been using to restrain the Honkai energy, controlling the mass of Honkai energy that was about to explode.

His control over electromagnetism was clearly far greater than Edison's, who had never fought before.

So where should he send it next?

If it exploded in the sea, it would inevitably cause a massive tsunami that would reach the coast.

So, as expected...

Ming Yu hooked a finger slightly, and under his control, the enormous sphere of concentrated Honkai energy began to slowly rise into the sky.

As long as it detonated high enough up, it would not have much effect on the ground or the ocean.

He planned to detonate the mass of Honkai energy remotely. As for the method of detonating it... that was naturally quite simple.

"Senior Reanna, can you give me something the size of a coin?"