Honkai, I Alone Save Everything

"Was such a simple mission really worth sending yours truly?"

On the eastern shore of St. Freya Academy, the man calling himself Joyce had already returned with the prey he had captured during this trip.

Through his control over gravity, the unconscious Mei and Bronya were each enclosed in spheres of gravity, floating quietly at his side.

Standing on the shore, he stretched out a hand and manipulated gravity, seeming to draw some massive object up from the sea.

Soon, a single-person submarine broke through the waves and surfaced.

—This was the vehicle he had used to approach the island.

All that remained was to board it and take the two women beside him back.

"How boring. I never expected St. Freya Academy to lack even a decent defense."

The dark-blue-haired man muttered to himself as he prepared to board the submarine and leave.

As a clone of the First Herrscher, he had successfully gained control over a small portion of the First Herrscher's Authority. At the same time, however, he possessed considerable flaws.

The most obvious of those flaws lay in his mental state.

He had a violent temperament, enjoyed sadism and combat, and craved the immense pleasure of crushing weak enemies beneath his feet.

Thus, a mission this simple—one where he had not even encountered an opponent worthy of fighting—left him exceedingly bored.

"—In that case, how about I keep you company?"

A voice came from not far behind him, accompanied by a dazzling flash of light that was already right before his eyes.

"...!"

His instinctive combat awareness made him immediately summon an energy shield, attempting to block the sudden attack.

Vaguely, he could make out that it was a coin crackling with electricity...?

However, the coin was not aimed at him, but at the submarine in front of him.

Before he had time to stop the attack with gravity, a thunderous boom rang out, and he could only watch as his means of transportation was destroyed.

Yet the man calling himself Joyce did not grow angry over the attack. He rolled his neck, then turned around with a cruel smile and got a clear look at his attacker.

"I didn't expect this academy to have some decent stuff after all. State your name. Yours truly is Welt Joyce!"

That powerful strike had confirmed that his attacker was no ordinary opponent.

Now he could finally have some fun. As for how he would leave after the submarine had been destroyed, he could worry about that later.

Right now, he only wanted a proper fight—or rather, a one-sided slaughter.

"My name is Ming Yu, and also..."

Ming Yu stepped out of the forest and onto the shore.

Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar face before him, he said calmly:

"You don't deserve that name."

Judah, Quite Useful, Right? ### Welt, one of the key results of Cocolia's artificial Herrscher project.

Though incomplete, he had indeed reproduced a portion of the First Herrscher's power—or rather, the power of the Star of Eden once wielded by the First Herrscher.

—The reason this artificial Herrscher could wield the Authority to control gravity was essentially because, after the Herrscher of Reason constructed something, its data and information would be stored in DNA in the form of blueprints, much like "muscle memory."

This greatly reduced the consumption of Honkai energy and increased construction speed when the same object was constructed again later.

Perhaps due to the flaws of an artificial Herrscher, not only was his personality drastically different from the real Welt Joyce's, but his abilities were also far inferior. He retained only the Authority to control gravity and did not gain the Herrscher of Reason's true power—the ability to construct all things.

In a sense, calling him a clone of the Ninth Herrscher might have been more fitting.

In any case, for now, it was better to use the more conventional name, "Welt," for the man before him.

Having just spent time with the "real" Joyce not long ago, Ming Yu truly could not accept this impostor wearing the same face while committing evil deeds.

Coupled with his attempt to abduct Mei, Ming Yu's efforts to deal with him next would naturally carry a little personal resentment.

Of course, he would win. He had already "foreseen" that future.

"I never expected the famed St. Freya Academy to have male students. This truly has opened my eyes."

After densely deploying energy shields around himself, Welt spoke in a frivolous tone.

"If you put Mei and Bronya down and surrender obediently, you'll suffer a little less later."

Ming Yu spoke with a pitying tone, as though he were merely stating an established fact.

That pitying tone greatly displeased Welt—he had always been the one crushing and mocking others. When had it ever become someone else's turn to speak to him in such a tone?

Thus, Welt sneered.

"You think you can deal with yours truly?"

Though his tone seemed disdainful of Ming Yu, he had already begun activating his Authority in secret.

As long as an object or living being was within his field of vision, he could apply gravity to it. It was an extremely covert and swift attack, one that was nearly impossible to evade.

And once the initial gravitational suppression succeeded, the opponent would have nowhere to run and could only obediently submit to his torment.

This had always been his tried-and-true tactic. This time should have been no different.

Yet the next second, just as Welt's gravity was about to touch Ming Yu's body, he suddenly vanished from where he stood, leaving behind only a sentence drifting in the wind.

"...?!"

Welt hurriedly looked up and searched around. He finally spotted Ming Yu ten meters away and immediately guided gravity toward him again.

A coin flipped between Ming Yu's fingers. Just as Welt's gravity was about to bear down on him once more, he vanished again—and launched the coin at the same time.

This was a lightweight electromagnetic cannon. Though it was less powerful than a Railgun at full output, it could be used frequently without consuming too much electricity at once.

Welt's energy shield was exceptionally sturdy. The lightweight electromagnetic cannon struck it with a deafening bang, but failed to breach its defenses. It did not even leave a crack.

Of course, Ming Yu had never intended to defeat him with that. At most, it was merely a means of harassment.

"Can you do nothing but scurry around and hide like a rat?!"

After repeatedly failing to catch him, Welt roared at the surrounding area.

"Speed is a tactic too. But you—who call yourself the so-called First Herrscher—are you really only capable of failing to catch even a rat?"

Ming Yu's voice continued drifting through the wind, leaving Welt able to hear him but unable to see him.

"...Don't underestimate me, you bastard!"

After being mocked twice by Ming Yu, Welt clearly could not keep his composure. His expression twisted horribly.

As an artificially created Herrscher, he possessed tremendous power by nature.

Even relying on brute force alone was enough to make everyone regard him with reverence.

Even Cocolia treated him with utmost respect, let alone those Anti-Entropy employees beneath her.

Having lived in an environment where everyone showered him with flattery, how could Welt ever have endured such mockery?

Consumed by fury, the flaws in Welt's character made him stop restraining his power and release it all at once.

Pale blue stigmata emerged across his face and chest, radiating a crystalline glow. At the same time, immense Honkai energy poured from his body.

Rather than locking onto a specific target, he imposed an enormously amplified gravity upon every area around him.

That way, no matter how fast Ming Yu was, he would be unable to escape gravity's lock.

—More accurately, it was a hundredfold gravity field.

Ordinary people could not survive in a gravity field of that magnitude. They would be killed in an instant, crushed into meat paste by gravity.

Although he could not maintain gravity at that level for long, he only needed to catch Ming Yu once.

Sure enough, Ming Yu, who had been speeding along, abruptly came to a halt. Unable to move even an inch, he revealed himself before Welt.

At the sight, Welt smiled smugly.

"Idiot, regret this inside a hundredfold gravity field!"

He extended his hand, preparing to manipulate gravity and crush Ming Yu's body from every direction, reducing his organs and head into a lump of pulp.

He wanted to watch it happen. He wanted to see Ming Yu's agonized, twisted expression as he struggled before death.

"..."

Though his body had become unable to move, Ming Yu showed no sign of panic.

He merely raised his head slightly with a confident look, his gaze flicking upward.

"...?"

Just as Welt was about to look up, a piercing pain suddenly shot through his right palm.

"AAAAARGH—!!"

Amid his pained scream, he barely managed to turn his head, only to see that a golden spirit lance had somehow pierced through his palm and embedded itself in the ground, pinning one of his hands firmly to the earth.

As the intense pain tore at his mind, he also realized that his control over gravity was weakening!

...Was it the influence of this weapon?

Sweat poured down Welt's face as he demanded, "Th-this is..."

"Judah. Pretty useful, isn't it?"

Before Ming Yu's words had even faded, another four or five spirit lances descended from the sky in succession, accurately piercing Welt's limbs and chest.

The power of Binding came upon him, rapidly diminishing Welt's control over Honkai energy and restoring freedom to Ming Yu's body.

Then, unhurriedly, he walked over to Welt, who had been nailed to the ground.

It would be more accurate to say that he had drawn inspiration from Kevin's tactics in the recollection of the Herrscher of Binding, and had copied the same falling-lance technique.

All he needed to do was project part of Oath of Judah's armament high in the sky beforehand—specifically, those spirit lances—and leave them on standby in the air.

Once Welt deployed his hundredfold gravity field, the spirit lances that had been floating in the air would be rapidly drawn down by the immense gravity at a speed he could not possibly react to, severely wounding him.

Well, of course, he could have projected the complete cross as well. But in that case, the man before him would not have survived.

Having something weighing over one hundred and fifty kilograms fall from the sky under a hundred times the acceleration of gravity... that would have been a little too gruesome for children.

Ming Yu lowered his head, smiling brightly as he looked at the fake First Herrscher he had defeated, and asked in a concerned tone:

"How did it feel to get screwed over by your own Gravity Authority?"

If not for the acceleration from the hundredfold gravity, the Spirit Spear's effect and damage might not have been nearly this good.

"You...!"

"Alright, you can't die yet. Hmm... It wasn't easy to catch someone from Anti-Entropy. I still have a few things to ask you."

Bronya's Obedience

This surprise attack with Oath of Judah descending from the sky had only been devised after repeated battles within the loop.

Only after fighting Welt multiple times through Time Reversal had Ming Yu fully grasped his abilities and fighting style.

He had tried ambushing Welt with a full-power Railgun, but that attempt had failed. Even a full-power strike could not break through his energy shield head-on.

The shield this guy constructed with Honkai energy truly could be called impregnable.

If it were merely a contest of Honkai energy manipulation, Ming Yu was currently no match for this artificial Herrscher. But battle had never been a simple comparison of whose abilities were stronger.

Tactics were also extremely important.

He provoked him with a few simple words, leaving him no time to notice the Oath of Judah quietly projected high in the sky. Then, he turned the hundredfold gravity created by Welt's own power into the force that would grievously wound him.

Moreover, the projected Spirit Spear of Oath of Judah possessed restraining properties as well, allowing it to neutralize Honkai energy to a certain extent. It thus pierced through his shield with ease.

Welt, who had initially been quite arrogant, was soon reduced to complete obedience under the torment of the intense pain caused by the Spirit Spear piercing his body, along with the electric currents Ming Yu intermittently pumped into him. He honestly confessed everything he knew.

He did not know much, but some of it was valuable intelligence.

—For example, the location of Cocolia's base in the Far East.

After interrogating Welt, Ming Yu knocked him unconscious with a chop to the neck. Only then did he rise to his feet and send a message to Kiana and the others through his portable terminal.