A strong wind blew across the battlefield, carrying away the lingering smell of smoke and gunpowder.
This is a very normal phenomenon. Large-scale bombardment by thermal weapons continuously heats the air. This portion of air rises rapidly due to thermal expansion. At this time, external cold air intervenes to fill the void, and the convection of high and low pressure forms a rather fitting wind.
Fuli put away the shattered Silver Haze Flower Seed, and strands of crystal-blue thread formed by tracer swords wrapped around the unconscious Bronya, binding her into a sheep at his mercy.
Or rather a female... cough, puppy?
The majestic Silver Wolf of the Urals and a little lamb that fell victim to sailors in the Middle Ages are not the same breed.
Looking down at his trophy, Fuli reached out and cleanly tore off the girl's hair ornament, neck brace, and leg ring.
Her silver-gray hair, freed from restraint, cascaded down, adding a touch of pity-inducing fragility and tranquility to the unconscious Bronya.
"Eight Star Stone shields. I've wanted to roast this for a long time—this little duck head is seriously filthy rich."
Spinning the leg ring inlaid with Star Stones on his index finger, Fuli turned his hand and clamped it onto his own arm.
The tightness was a bit off, but the leg ring itself was elastic, so it was roughly okay.
"Three people, exactly one for each."
Fuli whistled cheerfully, carried the girl on his back, and ran in the direction Kiana and Mei had left.
Originally, he didn't plan to bother with Bronya. An A-rank strength is enough for self-preservation in Nagazora City after the Third Eruption; this girl didn't need him to worry at all.
However, since she was so kind as to deliver herself to his door as takeout, Fuli naturally could only accept this plate of fragrant roast duck with tears in his eyes.
Bronya's butt is a treasure, after all!
...
Outside the ruins of Yae Village—
Accompanied by a series of hurried braking sounds, a brand new Yangwang U8 screeched to a halt at the top of the winding mountain road with a Howl!
The rear door opened from the inside, and a foot wearing a knee-high military boot stepped Thud! onto the road surface.
"Enforcer Cocolia!"
The golden-orange-haired girl temporarily acting as adjutant hurriedly got up from the driver's seat. It seemed that for her, letting the owner of the long boots step on the ground was a sin.
"No matter."
The sexy mature woman with blond hair and purple eyes didn't care at all. She strode to the edge of the road, resting her hands on the guardrail that prevented pedestrians from falling into the deep valley.
Mountain mist lifted the hem of her military uniform, which had a distinct Soviet Russian undertone. She looked down at the thriving international metropolis and said in an illusory tone:
"Nagazora City seems a bit too urbanized."
(Note: This is a meme reference to "XXX is too urbanized" implying it needs to be "ruralized" or destroyed/purged)
No one answered Cocolia, and Cocolia didn't care.
After using framing tactics to imprison Raiden Ryoma, the Anti-Entropy Conservative faction was already in a semi-breakup state with her on the surface.
Many people in the same Enforcer class knew exactly what Cocolia was going to do next. Even if they didn't openly oppose her due to various reasons, they still distanced themselves from her in private.
Satellites, military, network... Not to mention limitations in various aspects, Einstein, who temporarily acted as the Sovereign, even froze her authority in the super AI [Femirins].
This directly led to Cocolia's available troops being stretched thin. Setting aside general strength users below B-rank and mecha creation units, the only A-rank personnel accompanying her to Nagazora City this time was Bronya.
It wasn't that Cocolia hadn't cultivated confidants above A-rank, but in Anti-Entropy, critical-level powerhouses were considered public property of the organization.
Not only were they unconditionally promoted to shareholder level, but mobilizing them required the joint approval of at least three Enforcers.
The willful Cocolia obviously couldn't find two other Enforcers willing to help, so she had to personally go to the ruins of Yae Village to investigate why there was a strange Honkai reaction here.
As for what exactly Cocolia planned to do that made other Enforcers so fearful that they didn't hesitate to cut off contact with the Far East branch and pretend she didn't exist.
The answer is simple: a large-scale experiment.
However, in the imagination of the staff and subordinates, this large-scale experiment was similar to injecting Honkai series drugs into a bunch of people and then observing the performance and resistance of these subjects.
But the real large-scale experiment was to artificially induce the Third Eruption directly centered on Nagazora City.
Yes, whether before Fuli's rebirth or right now, the culprit behind the Third Eruption in Nagazora City was this blond beauty standing on the mountain peak.
It was she who caused millions of humans to vanish into nothingness, wiping an international metropolis off the map in the blink of an eye.
Doesn't it sound terrifying?
Cocolia indicated it was okay, just okay.
Because this is the Far East, where people live quite comfortably ("Little days pass quite nicely" - sarcastic slang for Japan).
To put it bluntly, placing the experiment site here—let alone the death of people in one city, even if all the people on the four islands of the Far East perished, Cocolia, who knew the history of World War II well and came from the great northern country, wouldn't hesitate for a bit, and might even clap and cheer.
How does the saying go? If there was a button to launch nuclear weapons at the Far East in front of you, what would you do?
Among the more than one billion people in the neighboring great eastern country, there are at least tens of millions—hmm, let's be conservative, millions, right? Millions of people are eager to throw nuclear bombs at major cities in the Far East. I'm just helping them realize their dream of nuclear peace.
The people of this country deserve such suffering.
Moreover, Cocolia didn't feel she was doing something bad. Having personally experienced the Second Eruption, she knew very well what kind of catastrophe a complete Herrscher would bring to human society.
Therefore, she gave birth to the idea of using the Gem of Conquest—the mysterious energy core extracted from the Second Herrscher [Herrscher of the Void]—to create a Herrscher.
According to calculations, even if the Third Herrscher was truly born through her hands, the Great Eruption caused by her maldevelopment would at most affect a surrounding radius of a hundred miles.
According to historians' restoration of the historical truth from 50,000 years ago, the Third Eruption that occurred in the Previous Civilization Era not only turned the four islands of the Far East into a demon's den (SAKURA's homeland fell because of this), but the aftermath even radiated to the Shenzhou continent across the sea (such as Shenzhou's Sapphire City where Hua was located), turning its southeast coast into a boundless purgatory where monsters ran rampant!
Giving up only one Nagazora City in exchange for the safety of the entire Far East country, Shenzhou, and even the whole of East Asia—Cocolia felt that the Far East government and those surviving civilians should be grateful to her.
Sacrificing a few million to save one or two hundred million—is this deal a loss? No loss! Where is the loss? Hasn't the world always been like this? Don't open your eyes and talk nonsense! It's also very hard for us high-level people to make trade-offs!
Those who feel it's a loss should reflect on whether they have been protected too well by others. Look for the reasons within yourselves more, okay?
(Note: Parody of Li Jiaqi's controversial live stream comments about eyebrow pencil prices).
Besides, although you sacrificed your lives, you also allowed us to obtain precious data on the birth of a Herrscher!
When you go down to hell later, you can totally puff out your chests and say to King Yama who judges you:
My whole life and all my energy have been dedicated to the most magnificent cause in the world—the struggle for humanity to fight against the Honkai!
(Note: Parody of How the Steel Was Tempered quote).
...