Starting with the Herrschers, I Cut Down All

She finally caught her breath. "In the second half, I thought you were going to kill me."

An Yu, meanwhile, looked perfectly composed as he sat beside her and stared at the ceiling. "Sorry. First time. I wasn't very skilled."

For the first time, he entertained the idea of becoming a scumbag. Whether it was dealing with his mentally unstable older sister, going to nightclubs, or dating, whatever—if he was a scumbag, he wouldn't need to think about so much troublesome stuff.

Elysia continued taking small breaths. "Still, I accept that reason."

"By the way, isn't what we're doing kind of weird?"

She nestled against An Yu's shoulder, just like when her head spun from solving problems between classes back in high school.

An Yu glanced at her. "No one knows."

There weren't any cameras in the house, and kissing wouldn't get her pregnant.

Elysia's little face stiffened. Wow, that was exactly the sort of thing someone irresponsible would say. Why had Xiao Yu learned this kind of thing without being taught?

"Then what if the two of us get criticized by others in the future? I'm a huge streamer! I've got loads of fans."

Now she remembered she was a huge streamer? That she was in the spotlight? Why hadn't she considered that when she was barking before?

Besides, some things simply couldn't be put under the spotlight. Once certain futures walked into it, they became difficult to achieve.

An Yu answered casually, "Worst case, if things blow up, we'll get divorced. I'll give you a bigger share of the property."

After saying that, An Yu continued blankly staring at the ceiling, but the air seemed to freeze.

Once Elysia processed those words, her eyes instantly reddened, filled with helplessness and sadness.

She gently shook Xiao Yu's arm until he slowly came back to himself.

When An Yu recovered, he saw the inexplicably watery corners of Elysia's eyes and wanted to slap himself. With his sister in this mental state, why was he provoking her?

"Xiao Yu, when I tricked you into getting divorced before, were you this sad too?"

Elysia seemed to understand when the relationship between the siblings had begun to deteriorate.

An Yu: ...

He turned his head away. Of course he had been. His mentality had collapsed at the time, and for a moment, he'd even wanted to kill Elysia.

Back then, Elysia had somehow believed someone else's nonsense and become completely immersed in her fantasy of livestreaming, never noticing the look in her little brother's eyes when he wanted to stab someone.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's fine. You were doing it for work, after all."

It had been so long already. What, was he supposed to travel back in time and beat Elysia to death now?

"But Xiao Yu, you've never spent any money I earned."

"Didn't I spend it in college?"

"Did you really?"

Elysia cupped Xiao Yu's cheeks and stared into his eyes.

An Yu calmly met her gaze. He had that much mental fortitude, and besides, he really had spent some during the last two years.

If he hadn't come to terms with it during college, he would've kicked Elysia aside the moment he graduated.

"Instead of overthinking all day, I'd recommend doing something practical," An Yu suggested. "For example, help me find a girlfriend."

Elysia: ...

What an incredibly cold joke.

Especially since Xiao Yu had just pinned her against the back of the couch, bending her supple waist to nearly 140 degrees and setting the girl's thoughts adrift like a floating boat.

"Woof woof..."

She chose to end the topic. She would think about it again once she found a way to solve everything.

An Yu chuckled too. "All right, all right. Good girl, go take a shower. Then have a sweet dream."

Have a sweet dream.

Hopefully, she really could have a sweet dream. Elysia wished along with his words.

[A whole pile of annoying things had happened during the day, and she hadn't even sorted them out.]

[By nightfall, Elysia once again set foot on the land of the Far East. Looking at the flamboyant Herrscher in the distance, she took a deep breath without surprise. What sweet dream was this supposed to be?!]

[Woof... ahem, Herrscher, it's time to settle this!]

[My little brother is too precious to bully, but do you think I'd hesitate to beat you up?!]

[As it happened, the Herrscher thought the same.]

Volume One: Chapter 69 — See? I Won Again

"You seem angry?"

An Yu adjusted the settings, raising sensory sharing to 80%. He couldn't exactly say he was bored at home, but he really wasn't happy either.

"Sorry, even a pretty girl has her own little thoughts."

Looking at a face identical to An Yu's, Elysia hurriedly shook her head.

She should've gone to Xiao Yu's room before falling asleep. That would've kept him from thinking about other girls all day.

An Yu didn't understand, but magnetic field, turn for me!

The heavens and earth flipped. The already ruined buildings gave their final contribution, and countless steel bars and chunks of metal floated around them. Those seemingly harmless materials easily pierced through the buildings.

Elysia didn't really understand why the Herrscher was wasting energy on something so thankless.

She didn't even need to do anything. Kalpas's fighting spirit had already reduced everything around them to particles. So was this for appearances?

"By the way, does steel conduct electricity?"

Just before attacking, Kevin suddenly remembered something. Almost instinctively, he opened a spatial gate in front of himself.

Elysia: ...

There was no need to answer. Her headset exploded with noise, blinding white light filled her vision, and a pure electric net instantly enveloped the entire area.

It should've been a devastating opening move, but unfortunately, the boss had a second phase.

Just like before, massive amounts of Honkai energy burst through the boundary, guarding, surrounding, and crushing everything nearby.

Elysia caught her breath. Damn it, was this a fight or an exam?!

"Next, I'll create an opportunity for you."

Elysia took a deep breath. She felt less and less psychological burden about exposing her identity now. It was only a dream anyway. In this dream, she was a divine maiden. She was the Herrscher of Origin!

So! What! Of! It!

"Starsea—Protection."

The surrounding air began to solidify. Under Starsea Harmony, Honkai energy gathered like a vortex. Without any shift in the magnetic field, heaven and earth changed color all the same, with a flawless crystal curtain serving as the backdrop.

"Huh? Is this a crowd-control move?"

An Yu was visibly stunned. Sis, can I learn that skill?

Damn it, players didn't have any way to gather mobs, but a boss did? Designer, you deserve to die.

"I found you."

Elysia spoke softly. An elemental torrent washed over everything in its path, yet the moment it touched the crystal curtain, it became Melting Frost and Snow, failing to affect the outside world in the slightest.

An Yu flashed into the distance, but before he could complain, spatial ripples spread behind him once more. It was still just a little short, but a scorching fist blocked off his retreat again.

"Are you really treating me like some scrub to order around?"

Iron filings compressed by Honkai energy instantly gathered, vibrating at high speed in An Yu's hand as they took shape. To be safe, he didn't even grip the sword himself.

The high-frequency vibrating blade easily sliced through the masked boss's arm, effortlessly separating flesh from bone, but the boss didn't stop.

The cleanly severed, ghastly white bone instead dealt even greater piercing damage. The Elemental Shield shattered in an instant, along with the bone itself. The shield's burst of paralysis made the other side pause, but the impact of that overwhelming brute force still sent An Yu flying.

"Now!"

As the Herrscher plowed across the ground for dozens of meters, two ripples appeared behind him. The next moment, electromagnetic conversion unleashed extreme repulsion, sending Kevin flying backward.

But it didn't matter. Kevin's task was complete. He had created an opening for the true monster at this stage.

"In a battle between Herrschers, Honkai energy isn't the key to victory, Mr. Fake!"

My authority surpasses yours!

Amid noisy electronic sounds, an icy spear pierced through the core without losing momentum, carrying a glimmering gemstone as it crashed straight into the distance. A Honkai energy arrow followed closely behind and pierced through his heart.

After steadying himself, Kevin quickly shifted positions and grabbed the core, refusing to give the Herrscher a chance to react.

The battle seemed to have reached its conclusion.

Heh. Hehehehahaha! An Yu covered his face. This simple pain really sent adrenaline soaring. No wonder games weren't currently allowed to have sensory sharing above 30%.

He hadn't felt this damn good in a long time. And the masked boss's trait of neither fearing pain nor dodging had genuinely caught him off guard. It felt like playing an ancient online game—so retro that he hadn't reacted in time at all.

"You lost!"

As though declaring an utterly obvious fact, Kevin opened spatial ripples and casually returned the spear—which wasn't a Honkai energy construct—to Elysia.

Why use a Soulium weapon rather than shape one from Honkai energy?

No particular reason. Elysia was simply being cautious. These past few days, she'd been beaten senseless in her dreams.

The severely wounded Herrscher slid to the ground, covering his face with one hand. His body trembled, while blood continuously flowed from the two wounds in his chest.

"Can you cry too?"

Elysia froze.

Come to think of it, although the Thunder Herrscher was still inhuman, the other side seemed capable of communication. After all, Mei hadn't died.

An Yu's choking motions grew more pronounced, gradually giving way to laughter—pure laughter, devoid of any emotion.

"Friendship, bonds, dreams, the future."

"Since you enjoy the bonuses brought by fervent emotions, you must naturally be bound by them as well. That's why you'd actually listen to the last words of a loser."

The remaining currents in the air began to resonate. Elysia sensed that something was wrong, but she could no longer catch the Herrscher's movements.

What kind of joke was this? They had taken out the Herrscher's core, and his heart had been pierced through.

"Kevin, watch out!"

It was fine. Kevin remained full of confidence, because the previous battle had made him understand that once the Herrscher used his authority to raise his speed past a certain point, he himself couldn't react to it either.

And he was the user of the Key of the Void.

Only when a sharp pain came from his abdomen did Kevin hesitantly lower his head. His body had been cut in half at the waist.

He had clearly opened a spatial ripple. How could any creature's reflexes adapt to that kind of speed?

"Is it really that hard to understand?"

Even though he couldn't see anyone's face clearly, An Yu could feel the boss's disbelief.

An Yu retrieved the core and unhurriedly swallowed it. It quickly fused into his flesh, once more making up for that deficiency.

"After all, you aren't the true Herrscher of the Void. Your attacks aren't that arbitrary. When you make a fist, your arm's reach is 72.2 centimeters, and the Key of the Void is roughly 90 centimeters long."

"Based on our earlier battles, spatial ripples usually appear 190 to 230 centimeters in front of you—around two meters away. Their usual radius is 60 centimeters. You seem very afraid that a spatial ripple will obstruct your entire field of vision."

Why?

Was it because you inherited memories from the previous stage? Or because white-haired bosses like you all loved exploiting blind spots, so you yourself were especially wary of that kind of attack?

As for how An Yu controlled that distance?

He calculated it. Since he couldn't react in real time, he only needed to notice when the energy consumption stopped at a certain point, then perform the next action. He turned instantaneous actions into delayed ones.

By calculating the effect of every instant in advance, he could avoid relying on reflexes in many situations.

Dodging another attack with a flash, An Yu appeared even farther away. He hadn't even bothered to pick up the attribute card.

"Oh, and you. You're as stupid as ever."

"In a battle between Herrschers, Honkai energy isn't the key to deciding victory. You should've used that spear to pierce my heart."

With Honkai energy canceling each other out, the current could barely keep his damaged heart functioning.

Honestly, An Yu had even deliberately turned sensory sharing up to 100%. This forbidden game was way too exhilarating.