"It really is cold here." Little Senti exhaled a visible puff of breath, gazing at the ice encasing everything around them. "I an it — everywhere you look, it's just solid ice. Feels like we've been dropped at the North Pole."
"Aren't you a ntal projection?" Kiana, standing nearby, had wrapped herself in the Authority of the Herrscher of Fla, cocooned in warmth from head to toe, the biting wind utterly unable to touch her. "How can you even feel cold?"
They were Herrschers, after all — by all logic, the cold shouldn't bother them. They could survive in the vacuum of space. But this ice had been ford by a Herrscher's Authority, and its temperature was genuinely brutal.
"How should I know," Little Senti muttered.
"It probably has to do with self-perception." Elysia spread her wings as she walked, white feathers drifting loose with every step and sinking silently into the ice beneath her feet.
"A Herrscher's Authority is deeply idealist in nature — especially sothing like the Authority of the Herrscher of Sentience. That one runs entirely on the mind."
Elysia glanced back at Little Senti as she walked. "Little Senti thinks of himself as human, so his body responds more or less the way a human body would — if it ought to feel cold, it still feels cold."
"Put simply, it's the sa principle as Rin and Little Corruption. The form they wear right now is just a humanoid interface, and they can adjust its paraters however they like."
When he needed to be seen, he could be seen. When he didn't, he simply wasn't. All of those attributes were adjustable.
That was exactly why, during the rainy night in Cambridge, Little Senti had said he could simply decide he hadn't gotten wet — and he wouldn't have been.
As long as Little Senti firmly believed he hadn't been rained on, or didn't need to be, his humanoid interface would simply cut off that particular interaction on its own.
"Oh, so basically, as long as I decide I'm not going to freeze, I won't freeze." Little Senti nodded slowly, sothing clicking into place. "Right. I've updated my self-perception. I no longer feel cold."
"That sounds an awful lot like elaborate self-delusion." Elysia glanced at him, and in the sa motion casually flicked a bolt of lightning that shattered an approaching Honkai Beast into fragnts.
"Speaking of which, Elysia-nee — is it really okay for us to be this relaxed?"
"Don't worry. Wendy's up there stabilizing the local climate. The disaster zone won't keep expanding."
Elysia pointed upward. It wasn't as though they were genuinely out for a stroll — before coming to Coral Island, she had sent Wendy ahead to use her Authority to stabilize the surrounding weather.
Otherwise, the sudden appearance of an Arctic-level cold zone in this region would have caused climate disruptions with consequences that were anyone's guess. Damage wrought by a Herrscher's Authority wasn't the sort of thing that fixed itself overnight.
That was precisely why Elysia needed Wendy to do what the other Wendy had done — hold the climate steady. Once things were resolved, Anna and Kiana could probably work together to reverse the changes to the area.
The other reason was the ordinary people Anna had been protecting. It was a good thing Anna had retained enough self-awareness to shield them — but it also ant the group couldn't just charge straight in.
The shockwaves from a serious fight could easily kill ordinary bystanders through sheer Honkai energy exposure alone — not by intent, just as an unavoidable side effect.
So Elysia was still quietly spreading her Authority of Life outward, trying to reach every person she could. Ideally, the Immortal Blades would evacuate all civilians first before any real fighting began.
They were the good guys, after all. The civilians had to go before the battle started.
As she spoke, Elysia lowered her gaze and looked down through the thick ice. White feathers drifted like ghosts through the layers, settling gently against the bodies of the ordinary people frozen and suspended within — protected, but encased.
Amid the ice she found several Valkyries who had apparently been stationed here. Their condition was considerably better than the civilians', though with their entire bodies locked in ice and no surface to push against, they had no way to break free.
"So how far along are you, Elysia-nee?"
"About fifty percent, I'd say." Elysia answered as she walked. There were simply too many people. Though treating ordinary people didn't drain much Honkai energy — pump too much in and they wouldn't be able to handle it.
"Besides, we're waiting for soone." Elysia led the group onward, searching for Anna while keeping an eye out for the one person she was expecting to turn up.
She didn't have to wait long. The person she'd been waiting for was already on their way.
"Quite the procession you've got here." Raven dropped down from a nearby building with soone in tow, landing in front of Elysia. "And you lot are taking your sweet ti — are you sure that's wise? You're not worried about the clock?"
"Well, what about all the people here? Anna worked hard to save them. Even from a purely practical standpoint, they're her emotional anchor — if sothing happens to them, her ntal state is going to take a hit."
"That does us absolutely no good for what we're about to do."
"Alright, alright, fine — I can't tell you lot anything." Raven waved a hand dismissively. "Lord Sovereign told to cooperate with you. Just don't expect to fight on the front line — you don't need that from anyway."
"But since you kept my island in one piece, go ahead — tell what you need."
What Raven didn't notice was that when she ntioned her island, Elysia's gaze quietly slid off to one side — a flicker of guilt. After all, if she hadn't been the one to suggest Raven find a new place to live, Raven wouldn't have ended up caught in this ss again.
Though in fairness, she couldn't have known back then — she hadn't made peace with Sirin yet at that point, so how could she have foreseen any of this? And she certainly hadn't expected Raven to have such, well, extraordinary luck in choosing Coral Island as the address for her brand-new ho.
Either way it was going to go wrong. So... that probably wasn't on her, right? Probably. Maybe.
After offering Raven a few silent apologies in her head, Elysia looked her in the eye and said: "Simple. Hand us the Staff of the Netherworld, and then keep an eye on Chen Tianwu here."
"Keep an eye on ? Why would that have anything to do with you?" Chen Tianwu, who had been staring vacantly into the middle distance, turned his head at the sound of his na. A flicker of genuine puzzlent crossed his face.
He didn't think he had any real connection to this woman. Why was she suddenly asking Raven to watch him? Was it a matter of distrust? He was World Serpent — what did any of this have to do with him?
"I'm trying to keep you out of trouble," Elysia said, looking at him steadily. "I'll put it plainly: if you co face to face with Anna right now, sothing might go wrong — with you."
Raven's brow furrowed. She glanced at Chen Tianwu, then back at Elysia. "Lord Sovereign ntioned sothing about your identity — said it had to do with that sea. In the world you ca from, did sothing happen to this guy?"
Even as she spoke, Raven quietly and without fanfare angled the Seven Thunders of Retribution she'd been cradling toward Chen Tianwu's foot. She was a rcenary — she knew when to act. And whatever Elysia ant by "go wrong," it probably wasn't sothing trivial.
Even if it turned out to be a false alarm or the threat passed, it hardly mattered — most of Chen Tianwu's body had already been replaced with combat prosthetics, including the leg she was currently aiming at.
So if things cald down, they could just bolt it back on.
Chen Tianwu glanced at Raven, then turned back to Elysia. "So you're trying to stop from becoming sothing — and you don't want eting her right now, at least not until things are confird safe. Is that it?"
"Mm-hmm, quick on the uptake." Elysia nodded, giving him a small round of applause. "Exactly. At least for the ti being."
Just then, a voice crackled out from Raven's tactical terminal — Gray Serpent. "Miss Elysia, we ran full diagnostics on Chen Tianwu during a surgical procedure. His Honkai Adaptability, Honkai Resistance, and physical constitution all fall short of the threshold required to beco a Herrscher vessel."
"Chen Tianwu does not et the baseline conditions for Herrscher manifestation."
It was true — Chen Tianwu had so Honkai Resistance, enough to survive the Eruption, but not by much. If his levels had been truly high, he would never have fallen into severe Corruption.
His Honkai Adaptability was equally middling. If it had been sufficient, the Corruption he'd experienced should have translated into substantial power — and it hadn't.
His Honkai Adaptability and Resistance both sat in that awkward zone: higher than an ordinary person's, but not by any aningful margin. By every theoretical model, he should not be capable of becoming a Herrscher vessel.
"That's true — under normal circumstances, it would be impossible." Elysia nodded at the terminal. "The operative phrase being: as long as nothing decides to play dirty."
"I trust that Mr. Gray Serpent, with your capabilities, already has a reasonable picture of how Anna's Herrscher awakening unfolded. So let ask you directly — did this Eruption feel normal to you?"
There was a pause on Gray Serpent's end before he continued: "No. Not normal. There were no precursor indicators whatsoever. Miss Anna herself was displaying what I can only describe as a bright and cheerful psychological profile."
"Based on the most recent psychological evaluation of her Valkyrie squad, Miss Anna was carrying sothing on her mind — but it wasn't serious. Not serious enough to significantly affect her ntal state."
Schicksal's Valkyries did undergo regular counseling and psychological assessnts, conducted by highly qualified professionals in the field — which made sense, given that death and sacrifice were an everyday reality on the Honkai front.
Moreover, many Valkyries had been recruited precisely because they had survived an Eruption — which ant most of them had experienced, firsthand, the world they knew reduced to ash in an instant.
So had been with family and friends when it happened, watching with their own eyes as those people were corroded by Honkai energy and simply ceased to exist.
The worst cases involved Valkyries who, in the very next mont, had found themselves fighting off the sa family and friends — now Deadwalkers — who were attacking them. The psychological toll of that was not difficult to imagine.
So Schicksal provided all active-duty Valkyries with regular ntal health support, ensuring no one would break down in the field. As an aside, Wendy had been a special case — the Far East Branch had essentially treated her as a temporary storage unit and a consumable.
"At present, Coral Island showed no signs of an impending Great Eruption whatsoever. It erupted as if from nowhere."
"You see, Mr. Gray Serpent — you know yourself that the circumstances surrounding this Eruption don't add up." Elysia spread her hands. Locations like Coral Island typically had Honkai energy monitoring systems in place.
Any Honkai energy reading that exceeded safe thresholds would trigger an alert, and the early stages of a Herrscher awakening — a Great Eruption — would almost always be preceded by steadily rising anomalous Honkai energy levels.
Even before the Herrscher of Corruption erupted in Nagazora City, there had been a handful of isolated Deadwalker incidents in the area. On Coral Island, there had been none of that. No warning signs whatsoever.
It had simply detonated — as if the entire Eruption had been summoned into existence for one person alone.
"So, Mr. Chen Tianwu — all I'm asking is that you avoid direct contact with Miss Anna during this window. Once we can confirm the situation is stable, whatever's between the two of you is entirely yours to sort out."
A silence fell on Gray Serpent's end. A mont later, a different voice ca through the terminal — Kevin's.
"Do what she says. It's not going to hurt us."
When the Lord Sovereign himself weighed in, Chen Tianwu had no argunt left. He genuinely cared about Anna — that was the only reason he'd co rushing out here the mont Honkai energy flared up in the area.
Especially when it turned out the Herrscher was Anna herself. He'd thrown caution aside and pushed inward, trying to reach her — only for the temperature to drop lower and lower with every step, until he couldn't go any further.
"Alright. No problem." Elysia nodded at the silent Chen Tianwu, then turned to Raven and gave a small beckoning gesture. Raven understood imdiately, fishing a small case from where she'd been holding it and passing it over.
"This is the Staff of the Netherworld. Since you asked for it yourself, I imagine you already know what it does."
Elysia took it and tossed it straight to i. "i, the principles behind this thing have so overlap with your Thunder Authority. Study it carefully — after this, we won't be short on Staves of the Netherworld anymore."
"..." i caught the Staff of the Netherworld with a slightly dazed expression, opening the case to look at the device inside. "Um, Elysia-nee... I use a sword. This thing is a bullet."
"Doesn't matter — there's a gun here too, isn't there?" Elysia smiled, then shifted her gaze to the Seven Thunders of Retribution still in Raven's hands. Raven looked at the gun, then looked at Elysia.
"Are you trying to strip down to nothing?"
"Oh co on, you still have clothes, don't you?" Elysia's smile didn't waver. "That thing is the 3rd Divine Key — made from the Herrscher of Thunder's Core. If we're talking pure Adaptability, do you really think you can match the genuine article standing right here?"
"Fine, fine, take it then." Raven wordlessly handed over the Seven Thunders of Retribution. The situation was urgent, and if there was a better user available, so be it.
Not to ntion Elysia had helped her kids. Lending a weapon was nothing.
What Raven hadn't anticipated, however, was what happened the mont the Seven Thunders of Retribution touched Elysia's hands.
The weapon erupted in a blaze of lightning.
A blinding radiance surged across the entire fra of the gun all at once — as if soone had cranked the visual effects up to maximum — and even Raven's fingers, not yet fully let go, received a sharp jolt of electricity.
"Yss!" Raven hissed in pain and released her grip, watching as the gun settled into Elysia's arms, its brilliance dimming back to a constant shimr of violet flowing light, with occasional arcs of electricity dancing along the surface.
She thought back to how the weapon behaved in her own hands — putting out a modest special effect when she was actively using it — and then looked at the full light show playing out in Elysia's arms.
Raven went quiet.
That little traitor. After everything she'd done for it. Getting fried once in a while was one thing, but what exactly was that shock just now about? Was it showing off? Was it being snobby?
"Uh." Elysia looked down at the Seven Thunders of Retribution in her hands. "Is this... normal?"
"How could this possibly be normal?!"
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