Chapter 176 176: An Unexpected Development
Irene and Kiana opened their eyes — and immediately felt something wedge itself between them.
They both looked down to find a small girl with purple hair and dragon horns sitting right in the middle of them.
"My Queen, you're awake." Bella looked up at Kiana. "I've fully recovered. Is there anything you need me to do, my Queen?"
"Nothing for now — I'm just glad you're better, Bella." Kiana reached up and patted Benares on the head. "For the time being, just stay close to us."
Now that Bella had recovered, it wasn't exactly that their hand had grown stronger — to be perfectly honest, a Judgment-class Honkai Beast's combat power was, among the group assembled here, genuinely nothing to write home about.
The crew of the Hyperion, setting aside Himeko, was composed entirely of either Herrschers or S-Rank Valkyries. Oh, and Seele — but Seele didn't participate in combat. She was logistics.
And the enemies they were going to be fighting from here on out were almost certainly at that level or stronger. As a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, Benares had no higher ceiling to speak of — yeah, she really wasn't much, combat-wise.
Still, she could hold her own. All things considered, she was still stronger than any A-Rank Valkyrie.
And just as Kiana was patting Benares on the head, Sirin quietly surfaced, nudging Kiana aside, and the moment she was up she reached out and scooped Bella into her arms.
"Bella~ This is the best position~"
"If my Queen likes it, Bella will stay like this." Bella nuzzled into Sirin's arms, then seemed to sense something and looked up at her.
"My Queen seems very happy."
"I really am." Sirin nodded. After all, she had just seen Cecilia — how could she not be happy? Even if it was a Cecilia from another world, what difference did that make?
And now Bella had recovered too, so that was double the happiness. In her buoyant mood, some random thoughts started bubbling up in Sirin's head. She looked at Bella for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"Bella, would you be interested in being a maid? Like... a dragon maid."
"Huh?" Before Bella could even respond, Irene turned to Sirin with a bewildered look. "What are you on about now? Don't go importing all the otaku culture you picked up from human civilization, please."
"What manga have you been reading? Suddenly you want a dragon maid?"
"What's it to you? Mind your own business." Sirin put her hands on her hips and stared Irene down. "Bella hasn't objected. Right, Bella?"
Bella nodded, somewhat blankly. She didn't really know what Sirin meant by 'maid', or 'dragon maid' for that matter.
But if it was something her Queen wanted her to do, then she would simply comply. Though — what exactly did Her Majesty mean by dragon maid?
"Mm, I want to see it too." Kiana surfaced at that point, looking at Bella with a completely straight face — and immediately got bopped on the head by Irene.
"Sirin's just got otaku rot of the brain, but what's your excuse?" Irene looked at Kiana, mildly exasperated. Some things really didn't need an audience.
"Because I also want to see it." Kiana nodded earnestly — then, as if sensing something, turned to look off into the distance. A streak of lightning threaded its way between the buildings and dropped down right in front of them in an instant.
"Now that's a stylish entrance~" Irene turned toward where the lightning had landed. "How does it feel?"
"Strange. Wonderful." Mei stepped out from within the lightning, raised a hand, and clenched her fist. The massive spectral oni-hands at her sides mirrored the motion and clenched in unison.
"No discomfort, I hope." Irene studied Mei. "Over the next couple of days, you should try doing what Sirin does — watch some anime, that sort of thing. Thunder-type is pretty common compared to spatial-type, so there's no shortage of material."
While Herrschers could supplement their use of their Authority through accumulated knowledge, Sirin's approach had shown Irene that lateral thinking worked just as well.
A Herrscher with solid foundational knowledge and a mind willing to think outside the box? Even better.
Not that Mei needed to become a lightning physics prodigy overnight — she was no electrical engineering honors student, but her grades at St. Freya were decent enough.
Getting Tesla or Einstein to tutor her now would be entirely feasible. With Mei's level of intelligence, picking up the essentials should be no problem at all.
"Understood." Mei gave a neat nod — at which point Kiana, beside her, seemed a little put out.
"How come you never give me suggestions like that, Sister Irene?"
"Oh, you want to know why? My dear Classmate Kiana." Irene reached out and pinched Kiana's cheeks. "Should I go through your exam scores one by one and read them aloud for the room?"
"Mm — no, no, that's fine, no need." Kiana shook her head vigorously. Irene released her and gave her a long-suffering pat on the shoulder.
"You could ask Tesla and Einstein for a quick crash course on thermodynamics and the like — it would at least give your Herrscher of Flamescion Core a bit of a boost. As for your Herrscher of the Void Core, you're better off relying on Sirin's natural talent and her... creative imagination."
Kaslanas were simply not built for academic study — but Sirin was a different story. She might be living in a Kaslana's body, but her personality wasn't Kiana's, and her drive to learn was strong.
Well — except that Sirin had now become completely absorbed in otaku culture and probably couldn't spare much mental bandwidth for studying. But that was a problem for another day.
"Alright then, let's head back — everything here is wrapped up." Irene nodded, then pressed her earpiece. "Theresa, Dr. Tesla — we're done here. Heading back now. How are things on your end?"
"We're on our way back too, almost there." Theresa's voice came through the earpiece. "Dr. Tesla says she has enough data."
"Rare opportunity — we got plenty." Tesla's voice followed, carrying an unusual note of excitement. "And that sudden Honkai energy surge — we collected data on that too. We'll analyze it when we're back."
"Got it, we'll head back now." Irene clicked off the earpiece and turned to the other two. "Want to race? See who gets back first?"
"Huh?" Kiana looked at Irene. "Are you sure, Sister Irene?"
"No spatial teleportation, obviously." Irene fixed Kiana with a look. "No cheating. Understood?"
"Fine." Kiana nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. "When do we start? Now?"
"Whenever you're ready." Irene nodded — and in the same instant, several Honkai energy thrusters materialized at her feet and back. A powerful burst of Honkai energy launched her forward toward the assault ship at blistering speed.
Mei hesitated for half a second, then reacted — her body dissolved into lightning, weaving between the buildings just as she had arrived.
"Hey, you both jumped the gun!" Kiana scrambled into the air and flew after the assault ship — but halfway there, something made her glance back over her shoulder at the ruins behind them.
[What's wrong? They're already way ahead of you.] Sirin urged her along. [Come on, move it — I am not losing this race. I refuse to come in last.]
"Okay, okay, I know." Kiana pulled her gaze away and poured on speed, heading full throttle toward the assault ship.
Back in the ruins, Kevin stood holding the Judgment of Shamash, watching the three Herrschers depart into the distance. Herrschers who fight for humanity — Elysia would be overjoyed to see this.
Not that he needed to be the one to bring them to the Elysian Realm. Irene would handle that. But this was far from over — the battles ahead would be even more complicated.
For now, though, he needed to prepare for the other Herrschers. He had fully consolidated all current intelligence. The ones yet to emerge would be harder to counter — more dangerous, and far less predictable.
Meanwhile, out in front, Irene suddenly heard a crack of thunder from behind. When she turned to look, a bolt of purple lightning had already roared past her.
"Going on ahead, Sister Irene."
"Hey, not so fast —" Irene instinctively reached out — and the moment she made contact with the lightning, something strange happened.
The crackling electricity traveled up from Irene's hand and coursed through her entire body. Then it wrapped around her, and her speed suddenly exploded.
She blew straight past Mei in an instant. Through the shroud of lightning surrounding her, Mei could still make out the expression on Irene's face — pure, baffled confusion: "?!"
"That wasn't mine."
— Assault Ship · Small Laboratory —
[Beep. Beep. Beep.]
A screen suddenly blinked open in front of Tesla. Einstein's face appeared on it — that familiar Chicken Nest Head of hers, looking at Tesla as usual.
"What?" Tesla didn't look up, continuing to pore over the data in front of her. "If you're not busy, I certainly am — I've got a pile of good stuff here waiting to be analyzed."
Einstein, as though she hadn't quite caught that, pressed on: "Tesla, I have two pieces of news. One is good news, and the other... is also good news."
"Chicken Nest Head! Don't do that dramatic pause thing — I thought you were going to say one was bad news." Tesla finally looked up at Einstein with a twitch of her mouth. "Just spit it out."
"Looks like you've had quite a haul over there." Einstein raised an eyebrow, but the matter at hand was more pressing, so she continued.
"First piece of good news: Bronya and Welt are back, both in good condition. The girl... succeeded."
"Oh, good for her." Tesla nodded. Bronya succeeding wasn't all that surprising, honestly — she had strong Honkai Adaptability and enough Honkai Resistance to serve as a vessel for a Herrscher Core.
In theory, as long as she had the compatibility for the Herrscher of Reason's Core, it was going to work. And frankly, when Tesla had noticed that Irene hadn't objected at the time, she'd already figured this was probably going to happen.
Welt had said Irene kept urging him to find a successor — and right there in their group, there just happened to be a candidate. Did she even need to spell out who Irene had in mind?
So yes. Not exactly shocking that it worked out.
"So what's the second piece of good news?" Tesla set down what she was working on, allowing herself a small spark of interest. "I hope it's genuinely good."
"The second piece of good news is: Schicksal exploded. Or rather — someone took it apart." Einstein sent over a series of images. They showed the Schicksal HQ floating island, punched through in several places, trailing black smoke and flames.
"Oh? Now how did that happen?" Tesla took one look and immediately broke into a grin. Setting everything else aside, she always enjoyed seeing anything go wrong for Otto.
"Otto botched his own experiment and blew a hole in his own floating island? Wonderful."
"Not quite — according to the security footage I hacked into, what did this to Schicksal HQ wasn't an explosion. It was a fight." Einstein spoke as she sent over another image: Fu Hua, wreathed in black feathers, beating Durandal to a pulp.
"The parties involved were Miss Fu Hua and Durandal."
"Oh, now that is interesting." Tesla raised an eyebrow — and right at that moment, an alarm went off nearby. Tesla glanced back at it: high-concentration Honkai energy, approaching at speed.
"Hold on, we'll talk more in a moment. They're back."
Irene crashed onto the assault ship's deck, still wrapped in lightning. The electricity dispersed. She raised her hand — a faint trace of purple lightning lingered at her fingertips.
"What just happened?" She stared at the last fading sparks. "Did I just... take some of Mei's Authority? How did I do that?"
That contact earlier had been completely instinctive — and in that instant, she had definitely absorbed at least a portion of Mei's Authority. Even if it was only for a moment. Possibly she'd only caught some Honkai energy that happened to be carrying traces of the Authority.
Either way, in that brief moment... actually, she had no idea what had happened.
[Sweetheart, what just happened?] [Irene]'s voice cut in. [Did you just absorb the Herrscher of Thunder's Authority, or what?]
"I don't know." Irene shook her head. "But I don't think this has ever happened before — or maybe I've just never tried?"
In the distance, another crack of purple lightning — Mei landed on the deck, looked at Irene, and asked: "Sister Irene, what was that just now?"
"I have no idea." Irene shook her head again. "This has never happened to me before — or I've never been in a situation where it could. We'll need to look into it."
"Well, looks like I'm last." Kiana came skidding onto the deck at that point, clearly the latecomer of the group. Compared to Irene riding a full-body Honkai energy thruster boost and Mei dissolving into pure lightning, the Herrscher of the Void simply couldn't keep pace without teleporting.
"At least Bella's behind me." Kiana pointed back at Bella, who was still flapping her wings on her way over. Last wasn't first, but at least she wasn't dead last.
That said, Kiana immediately sensed something was off. She looked between the two of them: "Something wrong?"
"Nothing serious — something unexpected came up. We can look into it later." Irene waved a hand, then turned toward Tesla, who had just emerged. "Let me guess what happened on your end. Something like — a second Fu Hua appeared?"
"How do you always know."
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