Pure Love Greatsword (Continued)

"Take this familiar Great Honkai, for example. Guess who caused it?"

Kiana fell silent and looked toward the source of the voice.

As the Theater of Domination collapsed, some secrets that had been hidden could finally no longer remain concealed.

The Sirin consciousness Su Jue had successfully captured had not been destroyed, but bound. Now, with Kiana's awakening, the Herrscher of Void's consciousness had also begun to recover.

Countless threads wrapped around her body, binding her tightly behind the stage curtain. The proud queenly bearing she once possessed was gone; she could only struggle endlessly like a caterpillar.

"Sirin? Just as I thought. During the time I was asleep, you never gave up trying to invade my consciousness." Kiana was not surprised by the Herrscher of Void's consciousness appearing. When she had decided to use her body to absorb the Honkai Energy produced by the Honkai Bomb, she had already anticipated the Herrscher consciousness's invasion.

But Kiana no longer faced the Herrscher consciousness by merely running away like before. She knew clearly that as long as her will was strong enough, the Herrscher consciousness could not take her body from her.

She snapped her fingers, and a pitch-black little dark room formed. The best way to deal with a Herrscher consciousness was not to listen or think about it. Imprisoning her deep within her own mind could not kill her, but it could temporarily prevent her from affecting Kiana.

Yet Sirin, who was about to be locked in the little dark room, showed no intention of resisting. Instead, the mockery on her face grew ever thicker.

"Invasion? No, I'm merely prey that fell into a trap. Before that, aren't you curious why your own mindscape looks like this?"

Sirin's words struck directly at Kiana's current doubts. She had indeed been wondering about the changes around her, and Sirin's current state did not look like she had successfully invaded her either.

More importantly, throughout those successive dreams, she had dreamed of Su Jue. Aside from all the chaotic nonsense before, that final dream had felt far too real, and the scenes she had seen earlier had left her deeply uneasy.

Su Jue was a Herrscher? How could that be possible?!

"You're still trying to break down my will through the people around me, just like before? No matter what you say, I won't believe you again." As soon as she finished speaking, the little dark room opened and shut the still-bound Sirin inside.

"Kiana, you and I are one. The thoughts I can guess are thoughts that already exist within your heart."

"Actually, you already suspected him. But you chose to run away. You chose to deceive yourself because you didn't dare believe it."

"You think you can escape? You can't."

"Admit it. Su Jue... he's a monster just like you."

"And the one who gave birth to the Herrscher was you."

The voice finally vanished, yet the oppression in her heart did not ease in the slightest. Instead, it grew heavier.

The little dark room was buried deep within her consciousness. Kiana stood blankly at the center of the stage for a long time. A beam of light shone down from above, illuminating her figure. The threads used to construct the theater were steadily unraveling, transforming back into Kiana's original mindscape.

These strange scenes were about to disappear. Kiana realized this.

Slowly, she extended a finger. After hesitating for a moment, she still touched those threads with her fingertip.

They were clearly just threads, yet Kiana sensed a familiar presence from them—it was Su Jue.

While Kiana's consciousness had been asleep, Su Jue could only project the Theater of Domination by coupling his consciousness with Kiana's. In a sense, these threads were the manifestation of his consciousness.

And under such circumstances, their hearts had been closest to one another.

That was why, after touching those puppet threads, Kiana could sense Su Jue's memories hidden deep within his heart.

Kiana did not understand the principle, but her intuition told her that these threads represented Su Jue's consciousness. That forced her to accept a fact.

"Those scenes were real. They were Su Jue's past."

She sensed them once more, but no images appeared this time.

Even if their mindscapes did not reject each other, the repulsion between their souls was unavoidable. Once the owner of the mindscape awakened, Su Jue's intrusion into her would become negligible.

When the grand theater completely collapsed, their consciousnesses would be fully severed as well.

However, the erosion Kiana's body had suffered had not yet healed. Even though her consciousness had awakened, she could not wake up physically. In this state, she could only remain in her mindscape for now, temporarily slowing the collapse.

In this extremely quiet environment, no matter how desperately Kiana tried to stop herself from overthinking, Sirin's earlier words continued to echo uncontrollably in her mind.

"Herrscher..."

"He lied to me..."

She should have been in great pain, yet strangely, Kiana found that she did not feel much resistance toward the fact that Su Jue was a Herrscher.

Instead, it was the scene from those images that made her clench her fists tightly.

A sky shrouded in gray mist, Honkai Beasts appearing out of nowhere—during her days of wandering, she had seen far too much of it.

The Great Honkai!

And Su Jue had awakened during that Great Honkai.

She did not know what Herrscher Su Jue had awakened as. She did not even dare recall the look in that boy's eyes from the image.

Only those trapped in despair would be chosen to become Herrschers. After inheriting the Herrscher of Void's memories, the experiences at the Tower of Babylon had also become Kiana's nightmare. Because of that, she understood better than anyone what kind of pain it was.

And the one who had caused Su Jue to awaken was herself.

He probably recognized me long ago.

Deep darkness gradually gathered, trying to wrap around Kiana once more, just as it had before, trying to drown her.

"What an idiot." Tears slid down Kiana's cheeks. She opened her palm, and a faint glow flickered within it.

It was the tiny spark she had borrowed from Su Jue. As long as it remained, Kiana's mindscape would never fall into total darkness.

"Idiot!" No one knew whether she was scolding herself, Su Jue, or whether both of them were idiots, fumbling their way forward through this dark world.

The theater was still collapsing, but Kiana suddenly reached out, grabbed those threads tightly, and wound them around her arm.

"Come back here!"

Above the sky, Su Jue, who was still locked in a struggle with Durandal, suddenly felt a surge of panic. He hurriedly looked around, but found nothing.

According to the intelligence he had obtained from Alvit, Schicksal's forces would arrive in a little over half an hour. He did not have much time left, though retreating would not be difficult.

Yet this unease had come far too abruptly, as though someone were invading his main body.

His main body?

Setting the surrounding air ablaze once more, Su Jue successfully forced Durandal back. Only then did he realize that the injuries on his body were healing rapidly. There was no doubt that this was a sign that the Serenity Gem was being used.

But he had clearly not used the gem. As his connection with the Herrscher Gems deepened, he suddenly discovered that their affinity with him was constantly increasing.

Something was wrong. He was still pretending to be a severely injured Herrscher. If it were discovered that he could use the Serenity Gem, Otto would probably risk everything to capture him and bring him back. Moreover, most of the Serenity Gem's power was still repairing Kiana's injuries. If he had begun recovering here, then something had most likely happened to Kiana.

He did not want anything to happen to Kiana, so he immediately called upon the Serenity Gem and directed its restorative power toward her. Yet the moment he did so, control was seized from him again. No matter what, it insisted on healing Su Jue first.

The only ones who could compete with him for control of the gem were its original owners. Su Jue looked at the girl in his arms. Even in sleep, a trace of worry had appeared on Kiana's face.

Her consciousness had awakened?

Wait, did my little act of playing the victim just happen to fool Kiana?

Realizing that possibility, Su Jue immediately sank into the consciousness space. Sure enough, the theater he had set up within Kiana's heart had completely collapsed, leaving behind only a small number of threads connected to the gem.

With the girl's consciousness awakening, Su Jue's control over the gem should have been severed. Yet not only had it not disappeared, it was instead becoming increasingly entangled.

He did not know that, within the mindscape, Kiana was grabbing a huge bundle of threads and wrapping them around the Serenity Gem. Although her body could not yet sense the outside world, she could sense the changes in his body through Su Jue's threads. Thus, after discovering that he was injured, she wanted to heal him.

"Su Jue, hang in there!"

Outside, Durandal, who was fighting Su Jue, also noticed the change in him. Just moments ago, he had been seriously injured and nearly dead. Now, he had recovered more than half of his strength.

The Herrscher of Flames did not possess such powerful recovery abilities. Bianca frowned tightly, and even the damage caused by Black Abyss White Flower had vanished without a trace.

"It's the Serenity Gem." Otto, who had been watching the battlefield, immediately gave the answer. He swiftly switched back to the earlier footage and played it frame by frame.

"He began recovering two minutes ago. The Herrscher of Void may have awakened. End this quickly."

At the same time, after several hours of travel, Schicksal's Valkyrie transport ships were about to arrive at Sky City. The situation suddenly became urgent.

A counterfeit could never overpower the genuine article. No matter how hard Su Jue resisted, the healing effect only grew stronger. Moreover, he helplessly discovered that the threads he had placed inside Kiana's mindscape could no longer be withdrawn.

"Whoa, you idiot, stop messing around."

His plan had suddenly been disrupted, leaving Su Jue rather speechless, but fortunately, the impact was not significant.

Since the Serenity Gem had already been discovered, he might as well stop acting.

He raised an arm, and a flaming greatsword condensed once more. This time, it was a real greatsword.

Durandal, who had just received Otto's order and was preparing to unleash her power, had her expression change slightly when she saw a nearly forty-meter-long sword slashing down at her.

Boom—

A violent torrent of heat erupted again. This time, it was no small disturbance. More than half the sky was set ablaze, and Bianca, who had previously been evenly matched with him, was directly suppressed.

Every slash of the colossal sword ignited the ground hundreds of meters away. If everyone had not already evacuated, these battles alone would have killed half the city's population.

But at that moment, a beam cannon shot past his body. Schicksal's forces had finally arrived.

"Tread Snow!" With things having come to this point, the original plan was ruined. He could only proceed according to Plan B.

No one knew how the fluffy orange cat had leaped so high into the air, but amid the searing flames, it suddenly expanded into a giant cat several meters long. This was the effect of the serum obtained from Jackal. Unlike ordinary Honkai Beasts with their bald shells, Tread Snow was still a cat even after growing larger.

After placing Kiana, who was in his arms, onto the cat, Tread Snow fled through the air toward the distance. No matter what, Her Majesty the Queen could not be captured. As for Su Jue himself, he intended to have a chat with the bishop.

On the ground, Mei was still blankly watching Kiana be held in someone else's arms while observing the battle. When she saw the Schicksal warships arrive, her expression tightened. She could only silently pray that the Kiana Organization people would be a little more reliable and not let Schicksal capture Kiana.

"Have you thought it through, Raiden Mei?" Thousand Calamities found Mei and handed her the lost katana.

"I..." There was still hesitation in her heart. She did not entirely trust the Kiana Organization's people, but looking at the giant cat formed in the sky, then at the figure holding the flaming greatsword, she finally nodded.

"Good. Welcome aboard." Thousand Calamities swiftly slung the immobile Mei over his shoulder and ran in the direction Tread Snow had gone.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Mei was jostled painfully, but she had no time to care about that. These people were all lunatics. Judging by this, they were probably about to do something huge.

"Of course, the Queen will temporarily be under your protection. I hope you won't disappoint us."

In the distant sky, a vast shadow emerged from the darkness. After being led around by Su Jue for so long, Benares had finally found Sky City. She immediately sensed Kiana's location and rushed toward the battlefield.

The sudden change on the battlefield naturally could not escape Otto's notice. He immediately realized that the Herrscher of Void was trying to flee. Large numbers of Valkyries were dispatched, and the fleet began attacking at any cost.

Su Jue stood alone in the sky. He had forcibly severed his connection with Kiana, so he naturally no longer had the gem's power. He could only remain airborne using Griseo's Stigmata ability.

"I've heard the Herrscher of Flames has the strongest destructive power. Let me give it a try." Looking at the unyielding Durandal before him, Su Jue murmured softly.

"Good morning, Sky City."

A thin line suddenly appeared in the dark sky, as though some mischievous child had casually drawn it. Yet Durandal, the Valkyrie forces, and even those merely watching Sky City through their screens all felt an unbearable pressure.

Then, dawn came.

"With this blazing fire, nothing cannot be cut."

Amid blazing red light, the sky was neatly split in two. Along the dividing line, the explosions of transport ships rang out without end.

Had Schicksal's Valkyries not landed in time, that single strike would likely have wiped them all out. Even so, more than half the forces sent this time had been crippled. The intense heat was something ordinary B-rank Valkyries simply could not endure, and nearly all of them had suffered severe injuries. If Schicksal's equipment had not been good enough, the flames alone would have taken their lives.

In battles at the Herrscher level, anyone below A-rank was little more than cannon fodder, and that was with Su Jue holding back. With Sky City's citizens now mostly evacuated, he no longer needed to worry about casualties. After a brief pause, he raised his forty-meter greatsword again.

Just as he was about to unleash the second strike, countless beam weapons had already locked onto him. To capture a Herrscher, Schicksal had invested heavily. There were no shortage of warships on Eos's level.

The energy weapons arrived in an instant. But as always, Herrscher abilities were bug-level. Su Jue merely controlled the air molecules around him to form convection, giving the gases within the same space completely different refractive indices. It was not enough to deflect the beams entirely, but enough to distort them.

It was useless. The Herrscher of Flames could control molecular motion, which meant he had essentially grasped authority over energy weapons.

To fight him, they either had to honestly use physical weapons or rely on Honkai Energy weapons. The most straightforward method, of course, was to send warriors like Durandal into close combat to restrain him.

Unfortunately, Bianca could not withstand attacks of this level either. She was blasted back to the ground by the waves of flame, with no further movement.

Having effortlessly thwarted Schicksal's ambush, Su Jue swung his second sword. This time, it targeted the remaining warships.

Scorching currents created by the extreme heat filled the sky. Though it was night, it looked like fiery clouds at sunset, setting the horizon ablaze like a scene from a fantasy novel.

No one noticed that among those flames, several spatial passages opened soundlessly and swallowed all the damaged warships.

These were all important spoils for the Kiana Organization. How could he waste them? Once they entered the Theater of Domination, every surveillance system designed by Schicksal would fail. After sweeping them once more with the Authority of Domination, he could get warships for free.

Thanks to the intimidation of Su Jue's earlier strike, Schicksal had kept virtually no personnel stationed aboard the warships in order to avoid Valkyrie casualties, relying entirely on AI to pilot them. Some were even perfectly intact. What a windfall.

When the time came for the game's plot, if Dr. Tesla still dared use warships to bombard the puppets, he would make her understand what true firepower suppression was.

Of course, warships alone were not enough. There were no research-capable puppets yet, so even after getting them, they would not understand how to use them for the time being.

No matter what, the momentum from Su Jue's two strikes had been fully established. The information that there was a Herrscher alone was enough to draw the entire world's attention. Not to mention that the Kiana Organization's leader was the Herrscher of Void, the one who had once nearly destroyed the world. An organization founded by two of the strongest Herrschers was terrifying just to think about.

Floating high above the sky, Su Jue looked down upon the earth. Large numbers of Valkyries descended in disarray, like dumplings dropped into a pot.