"Divine Keys..."
Even knowing they were fakes with power far inferior to the originals—the best of them barely approaching A-rank artifacts—Dr. MEI on the moon was still dazed as she watched the brilliant starlight surrounding Fuli.
She murmured to herself, "The last time so many Divine Keys gathered together for a grand event was fifty thousand years ago, during the battle against Finality on the moon."
"Yes," Prometheus said softly. "In that battle, we failed."
"It wasn't a total failure." Dr. MEI broke free from her memories and smiled. "Pardofelis sacrificed her life to open the door to the Cocoon. You, Number 17, took the opportunity to hack into the Imaginary Space and become a Will of Honkai that didn't exist in the Previous Era, fixing the authority and birth order of the Herrschers in the Current Era."
Prometheus retorted with half-closed eyes, "If they weren't fixed, this battle would be much easier for the Host."
The girl was right.
If the Herrscher Mei transformed into wasn't the Herrscher of Thunder, this battle would be much easier for Fuli.
It all stemmed from a Previous Era invention called the Key of Blankness.
Wait, no, the Key of Blankness was a suit of armor. The relevant item here was the Staff of the Acheron (or Key of Yomi / Huangquan Staff).
The Staff of the Acheron looked like a box about ten centimeters long. Its black and gold surface was reminiscent of Pharaoh Tutankhamun's mask.
A Herrscher's Honkai energy exists in Imaginary Space, and the Herrscher Core is the key to opening Imaginary Space.
The ability of the Staff of the Acheron was to use a special electromagnetic field to interfere with the connection between the Herrscher Core and Imaginary Space, distorting the 'channel' between the two for a short time, rendering the Herrscher unable to replenish Honkai energy.
It wouldn't kill the Herrscher, but it could greatly restrict their movements. It was a miraculous tool that neither Schicksal nor Anti-Entropy had been able to replicate to this day.
Schicksal and Anti-Entropy couldn't, but Fuli in his God King state could.
If he could hand-craft peak creations like Divine Keys, the Staff of the Acheron was naturally a piece of cake.
It wasn't that Prometheus and Dr. MEI, remnants of the old era, didn't want to tell him about the existence of the Staff of the Acheron. By now, their main goal had shifted from ensuring the smooth progress of Project Stigma to ensuring Fuli's survival while carrying out Project Stigma.
At worst, they could just make up some excuse to brush it off. Everyone was playing dumb anyway.
Unfortunately, the Herrscher born this time controlled the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces.
The Staff of the Acheron worked by generating a special electromagnetic field.
Using the Staff of the Acheron against the Herrscher of Thunder... well, if not "teaching fish to swim," it was definitely "hanging a waist sword in front of Confucius"—an act of sheer folly, basically giving it away for free.
It might even inspire the Herrscher of Thunder with strange ideas, allowing her to whip up something bizarre.
Just like the Herrscher of Flamescion who would control spatial authority in the future; once she learned the corresponding terminology, she could perform heaven-defying operations like **[Imaginary Renormalization]**—reversing infinity into finiteness—even without understanding the principles.
The only things limiting a Herrscher's application of authority were imagination and energy caps.
"But speaking of which."
Sitting on a cold moon rock, Dr. MEI swung her beautiful legs. "That child can't hear our conversation on the moon, yet you still refer to him as 'Host'."
She tilted her head, casting a teasing glance at Prometheus floating beside her. "A certain Miss Will of Honkai who wishes to remain anonymous swore she would never let her human side burst out and act emotionally again, didn't she?"
"Just didn't have time to change how I address him."
The little girl kept a straight face. "You know, if you're going to act, you have to do the full set."
Yes, the full set. Not a half set, not an incomplete set.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes. Acting, acting."
Dr. MEI nodded perfunctorily, then changed the subject. "Since Fuli has bought so much time, Kiana should be ready by now—I wonder if she can win in one strike?"
"I'm not worried about that side. I'm more concerned about Bronya."
Prometheus mumbled, "I still think entrusting such an important task to a stranger met less than three days ago is too reckless. Being familiar in the previous timeline doesn't mean the relationship is good now. The Host is still too lax."
"Someone has to distract the Herrscher."
Dr. MEI stretched lazily. Seeing the little girl still puffed up with anger, she smiled. "Relax. The moment Cocolia chose to turn around and engage Shesha, our Treasure Boy and Bronya became a community of shared destiny bound together."
Not everyone was a "Jerry of Jiangdong" or "Wu King of Great Wei" (referring to backstabbing allies). They understood the principle that if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.
She rested her chin in her hand. "Compared to that, now that the Ever-Burning Flame has failed, I'm more curious about what he plans to do if Kiana and Bronya both fail."
Prometheus scolded her grumpily, "Can't you think of something positive? Like achieving victory before it comes to that?"
"One must always prepare plenty of contingency plans."
Dr. MEI argued plausibly, "Back when the Fire Moth faced Herrschers and Emperor-class or higher Honkai Beasts, we had more battle plans than you could count on ten hands!"
The strongest AI of the Previous Era cast a sidelong glance, her speechless eyes seeming to say: Guess who was responsible for those calculations back then?
Dr. MEI was full of interest. "So, have you guessed how that child intends to kill the Herrscher in the end?"
"I have some ideas."
"Then—"
"It wouldn't be fun if I said it now."
"Old friend, you've learned bad habits!"
"You're welcome. Learned from a scum woman named 'MEI'."
While bickering, the two stared intently at the holographic projection of the scene.
Their quota for today had expired. Next, Fuli could only rely on himself.
...
Under the dark sky, Nagazora City appeared hideous in Bronya's eyes. The high-rise buildings that once stood like a steel forest had collapsed on all sides, like fallen giants crushing surrounding structures, leaving shocking gullies in the blocks.
"Even with Theresa Apocalypse trying hard to constrain it, has the Great Eruption caused destruction of this magnitude?"
Bronya murmured to herself at the crossroads.
"It has nothing to do with Theresa. It was the earthquake earlier."
The 3D chibi lying on her shoulder looked dejected. With star-dust-like translucent long black hair and an incredibly cute face, it was Alice, the information broker who had assisted Fuli's group earlier.
Her bright, moving eyes were half-open as she said faintly, "A major earthquake with a focal depth of zero. Some guy must have hit the ground hard with nothing better to do."
It was Shesha.
Previously, when 'killing' Himeko, It had bombarded the ground with a charged Thunder Roar.
The vibrations caused by the shattering of the earth's crust spread to the surroundings, causing a not-so-small disaster for Nagazora City.
"People in this country are used to earthquakes. They should have taken evacuation measures in advance."
Retracting her gaze, Alice urged, "Hurry up, Number Ninety-Eight! Just a dozen more corners and we'll reach Raiden Tower!"
Bronya responded obediently, "Bronya understands, Miss Houraiji, who barely scraped into the ninety-sixth place on the hacker list relying on her digitization ability."
"What do you mean relying on ability?! What do you mean!"
The long-haired black loli exploded on the spot. "It was clearly because you refused to use Project Bunny's calculation ability to cheat! And call me by my avatar name, avatar name! No real names and no doxxing!"
"For that kind of unofficial, amateur hacker ranking competition that's just for fun, has low accuracy, and many people don't recognize—where getting serious means you lose—Bronya only participated because of the prize. Getting serious would mean having problems in the head."
Bronya, while moving, spoke with disdain, then gloated, "Besides, if one doesn't abuse their ability, they wouldn't end up like a certain someone, trapped in Nagazora City by a sudden Great Eruption, unable to run away."
"Curse me again!!!"
She broke defense; she totally broke defense.
After all, staying behind to watch the drama because she couldn't resist, only to have the battle crash the electromagnetic signals of the entire Honshu Island, resulting in being trapped here unable to escape—it was shameful! Simply shameful!
What? What does electromagnetic shielding have to do with Alice? How was she trapped?
This girl's ability was Will Digitization.
She could choose to invade the swaggering Anti-Entropy fleet, provided she wasn't afraid of being wiped out like a little chick by the antivirus software inside.
What hacker in reality dares to invade a carrier fleet?
Okay, there are some, like the bigshot [Gray Serpent] who suddenly rose to take the top three spots in that hacker competition. With his ability, after invading the carrier firewall, he could probably tangle with the Promethean clones in the system for a while before escaping safely.
Alice shouldn't even think about it. To reach that level, she would need at least another ten years of honing.
The lively and lovely girls bickered as they passed corner after corner. Strangely, despite the continuous natural disasters, Nagazora City, which was closest to the epicenter, was very quiet.
The situation was urgent, so they couldn't care about that much. Following their memories, they quickly arrived at the foot of Raiden Tower.
Scanning the pitch-black high-rise, Bronya said in a tone of as expected, "It's also affected by the electromagnetic waves emitted by the Herrscher of Thunder."
"Who told the Herrscher to be born when no one was stationed here?"
The little fairy Alice sitting on her shoulder expressed that this was reasonable. "You can't expect those temp workers to follow emergency regulations properly. Who risks their life for a few thousand bucks a month?"
She whispered as if having a headache, "Even the basic anti-interference matrix hasn't been activated. It'll take a lot of effort to fix it to a usable state."
Bronya said calmly, "If you can't fix it, Bronya will leave you here to fend for yourself."
Electrical appliances in Nagazora City were basically scrapped. Alice currently didn't even have a vessel.
It was Project Bunny clearing some memory space that gave this unlucky child a place to stay.
Therefore, for public or private reasons, emotionally or rationally, Alice had to go all out this time.
Otherwise, imagine her digitized will uploaded to the network, while her empty shell of a body remained in the secret base, thoughtless and defenseless.
It would be fine if it slowly rotted, but what if some hungry and thirsty male followed the scent and found it...
Before, the latter option certainly wasn't within Alice's scope of consideration.
She had absolute confidence in the secrecy of her chosen base.
Until Fuli came along the network cable and gave her a harsh lesson.
Second playthrough player! Brat!
Thinking that her beautiful body with curves in all the right places might be found by Fuli with a lewd smile on his face, leading to unspeakable things, Alice hurriedly shouted, "I-I'll do my best!"
"Crazy."
Bronya rolled her eyes at her and floated into Raiden Tower.
In the previous timeline, after the lap pillow service ended, Mei gave the awakened Fuli a tachie named Plasma Kagehide as a new backup weapon.
The sharp-eyed girl clearly saw his Key of Domination break during the mutual probing with Raven, so she used this weapon, which held special meaning for her, as compensation.
Why special meaning? That depends on the background of this weapon's birth:
[Plasma Kagehide, the masterpiece designed by Raiden Ryoma. Its power is said to be able to freeze even a Herrscher.]
[In the future, when his daughter awakens as a Herrscher, Ryoma will draw this sword, right?]
This weapon was forged before Mei's Herrscher transformation. In other words, Raiden Ryoma had long guessed that his daughter would turn into the Herrscher of Thunder.
It wasn't a prophecy ability. In the past, he personally requested Welt Yang to implant the Gem of Conquest into little Mei to suppress the rioting Thunder Stigmata.
Laughable. Gem of Conquest + Thunder Stigmata—anyone not stupid knew what that would accumulate into.
Mei had been curious before. As the daughter of an Anti-Entropy Executor, why did her father refuse to tell her anything about the Honkai World?
This was the answer. Raiden Ryoma was afraid that if Mei contacted the Honkai World too early or too much, the Gem of Conquest in her body would be stimulated to awaken.
Things must be viewed dialectically. Just like the Brigade Commander lecturing Li Yunlong after the Battle of Pingan-grad:
As a father, you, Raiden Ryoma, willing to save your daughter at all costs—you have guts! But as an Anti-Entropy Executor, a leader on the front line against the Honkai—you simply aren't qualified, dammit!
Raiden Ryoma was aware of this. So when that time came, no matter how heartbroken, he had to personally make up for his mistake, suppress the born Herrscher of Thunder, and eliminate the natural disaster he caused for all mankind.
The energy under each Anti-Entropy Executor was comparable to a medium-sized organization, and Raiden Ryoma was no exception.
Even if his code name was "Entrepreneur" and he wasn't a super martial artist like Cocolia, and even if other conservative bigshots backstabbed him in secret, Raiden Ryoma should absolutely not have been arrested by Cocolia so easily on his own turf.
The reason it happened was that he concentrated all his resources, technology, and effort to build an unprecedented cutting-edge weapon.
A Super-God-Class Cannon capable of causing irreparable damage to this planet, sufficient to kill the Herrscher of Thunder!
...
As the headquarters of ME Corp, Raiden Tower itself was sturdy enough. Even affected by the aftershocks of the earthquake caused by Shesha, only some documents and ornaments placed in the open were scattered on the ground.
Arriving at the civil defense stairwell on the first floor, Bronya went down the stairs and soon arrived in front of a heavy door labeled [Backup Energy Hub].
The security of the door was purely mechanical and non-electric. The walls were also made of Soulium with extremely strong anti-interference properties, thus preserving it through the previous magnetic storm.
Bronya raised her small hand: "Project Bunny."
A tall humanoid resembling a knight suddenly appeared in front of the girl. It extended a finger, transforming into fluid according to the data transmitted by Cocolia, and flowed into the keyhole.
Click!
The door opened.
"It's up to you."
Bronya said.
"I didn't expect the building structure I scanned earlier to be useful so soon."
Alice the little fairy mumbled as she invaded. A few seconds later, Raiden Tower, one of Nagazora City's landmarks, was brightly lit.
Bronya turned and left the room, ascending parallel to the building into the air.
Upon reaching the thirty-second floor, Project Bunny appeared and smashed the glass. The girl walked in with quiet steps.
Opposite her, a normal-sized Alice had been waiting for a long time.
"I tried my best to maintain it, but 51.4% of the functions still can't operate."
She said, "Fortunately, the armory wasn't affected much. Your mom seems to have laid out plans early on."
Bronya felt like this guy was scolding her in a roundabout way, but she had no evidence.
The girl knew it was true that Mother Cocolia had made arrangements in advance. They originally planned to hide in Raiden Tower to collect intelligence during Mei's triggering of the Third Eruption. Considering the opponent was an expert in playing with electromagnetic forces, protecting the armory in advance was a precaution.
Just then, a crimson arrow cut through the sky, savagely splitting the lifeless twilight in two.
The two girls floating in mid-air looked up simultaneously and saw the Engine of Creation, like a materialized final battle scene from a sci-fi work, following closely behind. Dragging a stirring and high-pitched BGM, it chased Shesha towards the sky over the Pacific Ocean.
"We have to hurry. He (Fuli) can't hold on for long alone."
Retracting her gaze, the girl murmured to herself, "Houraiji Kyusho!"
"I was ready long ago! And call me by my avatar name, Number Ninety-Eight!"
Slap!
Alice slapped her hands together onto the ground. Data containing programs spread through the building like electric currents.
The building above the two broke from the middle and retreated to both sides. A towering, solemn, super-large cannon with extremely complex structure slowly rose.
The cannon was embedded entirely in a hollow fundamental particle stabilization device. The extended mechanical barrel was a regular octagon. The cannon body was divided into orderly units by pitch-black constant-temperature metal. The working energy-gathering rings emitted a dreamy blue halo.
Genesis. The final product of Project MEI. The super-large-range destruction weapon for anti-star and anti-world combat, forged with Raiden Ryoma's heart and blood.
The cannon was charged by a cold hydrogen fusion reactor. When attacking, it would first inject energy into its own coils. After accumulating enough energy, it would fire a visible giant halo beam at the target, instantly evaporating and melting everything within the attack range.
Its output power could be adjusted. 20% could cause lethal damage to a Critical-class unit defending with full strength; firing at full power was enough to one-shot an unguarded S-rank unit, but it required a 24-hour cooldown and recharge after full-power firing.
Alice couldn't help clicking her tongue: "If it fires at full power, even a Class-2 Planetary super-large bubble universe would become dust floating in the Sea of Quanta."
"What Class-2 Planetary? It should be Dwarf Planetary."
Bronya arrived at the control station with Project Bunny's help.
She pressed her small hand on the light screen presented. A mechanical voice based on Mei's childhood voice sounded cheerfully: "Protocol approved! Welcome, Miss Bronya Zaychik!"
Alice argued plausibly: "Compared to asteroid, dwarf planet, and planet—such dirt-poor old names—don't you think Class-3 Planetary, Class-2 Planetary, and Class-1 Planetary sound cooler?"
Bronya, still at the chuunibyou age, was shamefully moved.
Alice continued chattering: "Raiden Ryoma is also unlucky. The ultimate weapon he painstakingly built was instead hijacked by you mother and daughter."
It wasn't clear if the "ultimate weapon" she referred to was the Herrscher of Thunder or Genesis; of course, it could be both.
In the previous timeline, after the Third Eruption occurred, Cocolia sent Bronya to Chiba Academy to retrieve Raiden Mei, who had turned into a Herrscher.
At first glance, this operation could be described as more than just braindead.
Even if the incomplete Herrscher of Thunder with the Gem of Conquest as the core only had Critical-level intensity, it was absolutely not something a mere Bronya could touch.
Unless her mind was interfered with by a higher narrative, Cocolia, who could climb to the position of Executor, wouldn't do such a cringe-worthy thing.
However, if combined with Genesis, her operation became understandable.
Bronya didn't need to defeat the Herrscher of Thunder at all.
She only needed to lure the opponent into the pre-planned range. The roaring Genesis would naturally teach the Herrscher a lesson, critically injuring her to near-death for easy retrieval.
What? Bronya was hesitant to strike because she was obsessed with Sister Mei's maternal charm, eventually leading to everyone being retrieved by the arriving St. Freya together?
That's another story (laughs).
But in this world line, not only did Bronya not feel Sister Mei's feminine charm, but the relationship between the two, if not incompatible like fire and water, was basically tit-for-tat.
Fuli, truly a sinful man.
"Genesis, start charging."
Bronya took a deep breath and pressed the charging cursor on the control panel.
Alice also stopped her mumbling, feeling extremely nervous. This concerned whether she could return to her body safe and sound.
She was only sixteen; she was afraid of death. She couldn't face death with equanimity. She was honest.
Fortunately, soon, strange patterns lit up on the cannon body extending from the building. Mercury-like energy gathered at the muzzle of clustered light particles, constructing hundreds of rotating and superimposed matrix circuits.
"Charging complete."
The mechanical voice in her ear made Bronya breathe a sigh of relief. She muttered, "Project Bunny."
The steel knight appeared beside the princess, assisting her in adjusting the ballistic trajectory of the artillery fire.
To successfully snipe the Herrscher of Thunder, first, the muzzle must absolutely not be aimed at the opponent.
This isn't a contradiction. A strong person's sixth sense is always unreasonable. As long as Genesis aimed at her, the lethal palpitations would definitely make the Herrscher sense it and take action.
And once the grass is beaten and the snake startled, the probability of a successful snipe becomes ten thousand percent zero.
"Can you do it? Snap snipe."
Alice said, "I can't spare any hands to help you."
Maintaining the normal operation of Raiden Tower and Genesis had already consumed all her computational power. At this moment, Bronya could only rely on herself.
To this, the girl's response was:
"Who do you think Bronya is?"
...
Central Battlefield—
Devouring, Stagnation, Destruction, and Planetary Control manifested as the four symbols of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind circling the body. Revelation and Constraint stood atop and hung below. Arrayed in East, West, South, North, Up, Down, and all directions, a total of six Divine Keys were poised like a drawn bow, ready to fire at a touch.
Furthermore, Eternal Calamity, Judgment, Creation, Sentience, Erosion, and Void manifested as the six Wisdom Kings of Space, Thunder, Life, Death, Mind, and Corrosion. The three-foot green blade held in the palm dominated and harmonized all phenomena from the center.
"Void Archives."
With Fuli's soft call, the infinite wisdom space transformed from the Key of Revelation slowly unfolded in his eyes.
Empowered by the massive computational power of the Previous Era's highest-grade Soulium quantum computer, applications of Divine Key abilities flooded into the boy's brain like a tide.
What could be used, what couldn't be used, how effective it would be, what consequences it would cause to himself...
This was Prometheus's gift to Fuli. The Pseudo-Key of Revelation, sensing the main body's aura, didn't ignore or hide things like the original did to a certain Overseer. Information and intelligence related to combat were all converted into plain language that even a child could understand to facilitate his mastery.
"The Great Hibernation."
Like words commanding reality, the Key of Stagnation launched the offensive first.
Extreme cold spread across space onto the Herrscher of Thunder's delicate and beautiful body. This auxiliary Divine Key, originally modified into a life-support device for the Forerunners of the Previous Era, now displayed its original sharpness once again.
It was a terrifying aurora that only [Absolutely Good People] were allowed to control—absolute stagnation of physical properties, absolute zero rejected even by space-time itself.
Every molecule and atom in the Herrscher of Thunder's body wailed and froze in a phenomenon the universe would never naturally develop. The Daughter of God standing at the peak of the surface froze in place while holding the odachi, like a peerlessly beautiful jade statue lasting ten thousand years.
Fuli, however, harbored no filth or greed toward this beauty. Eternal Kalpas flames surged around the Twin Pistols of Heavenly Fire, forging them into high-heat sword edges that smelted stars.
The Seven Thunders of Retribution circled its new master affectionately before soaring into the sky to pierce the thunderclouds. Beams that decomposed all things into fundamental particles roared down from the Eye of Thunder formed in the sky, intersecting with the unsheathed Heavenly Fire hundreds of meters away.
The two-colored cross formed by the aftershocks of thunder and fire seemed to announce the birth of the Son of God to the world, and the true Herrscher of Thunder also appeared at the center of the cross intersection.
The Fourth Divine Key, Key of Wind/Satellite. True name unknown, tentatively Planetary Control.
Shaped like an outer space satellite orbiting the Earth, it was a planetary control system used to ensure the continuation of the human race.
With sufficient energy, it could use collected data to calculate and deduce changes in the surrounding environment. If necessary, it could modify the climate and geography on a global scale through the control system within the unit to achieve desired results.
However, the global climate modification mentioned in the latter part required a certain amount of time.
For some people, like a Schicksal Overseer who wished to remain anonymous but generated typhoons towards the Anti-Entropy HQ all day, he could afford to wait.
Fuli couldn't afford to wait. Therefore, he could only give up the plan of using the Key of Wind to modify the environment to restrain the Herrscher, focusing mainly on the ability to collect data and deduce changes in the surrounding environment.
The Herrscher of Thunder's substitute was precise enough to deceive the Void Archives' detection, but the breeze of nature could not be deceived.
Then—
"Star of Eden, First Rated Power Released."
The linked melody played in the Herrscher's ear. Super-gravity waves targeting a single unit dragged her onto the ground, smashing out a concave rock plate with a radius of hundreds of meters.
Fuli, who spoke these words, learned for the first time that the true name of the Star of Eden was actually Star Sea Harmony. The Herrscher soaring into the sky didn't give him the courage to continue thinking about trivia.
Two streaks of lightning cut through the sky. No matter how unwilling, the Judgment of Shamash and Seven Thunders of Retribution that had just launched attacks had already disintegrated heroically in the boundless magnetic storm.
Little tricks.
Toys.
The peerless beauty carved from jade looked sideways, seeming to say: Is this all you've got?
Compared to Theresa and Himeko earlier, the Herrscher seemed more interested in Fuli.
Perhaps the memories in her body made her remember this classmate who seemed to be a spokesperson for miracles, making her less indifferent than before.
But still looking down from above.
Something was higher than her.
The void above the Herrscher of Thunder was torn open. The steam locomotive Cosmic Juggernaut, roaring through the sky, crashed down vertically with power that shook the bubble universe, cycling the eternal power of space to weaken the electromagnetic barriers she had set up around her.
The black mist permeating from the Abyss Flower also caressed those fair and pure feet at this moment. The aging and death engraved in genes by countless people from ancient times to the present turned into a real, great terror, showing off its unique and high existence while the enemy focused on dealing with the crisis above her head.
Will I win?
It's a guaranteed win!
Too wishful thinking.
Just as Fuli prepared to suppress the enemy further, alarm bells rang wildly in his ears—frantic warnings from the Key of Revelation.
He had been using the Key of Domination held in his hand to control the other Divine Keys for attack or defense. Just now, this channel was distorted by a strange magnetic field. The principle was different from the Staff of Acheron that appeared in the Previous Era, but the effect was similar.
Such distortion lasted only for a brief moment. Or perhaps, for the Herrscher of Thunder releasing the electromagnetic field, this instant was enough.
Be it the frantic high-speed locomotive protruding from the gap, the deadly black mist climbing from below, or even the Oath of Judah Fuli hid in front of the locomotive, intending to use it to break through the electromagnetic defense while the Herrscher was distracted by the black mist.
In less than a blink of an eye, those slender, beautiful hands wearing crystal-purple gloves tore and crushed them all.
She beckoned again, and the fragments of the Divine Keys scattered earlier condensed in her hand along with these.
These fragments churned in the Herrscher's palm, vaguely taking the sharp shape of a World-Destroying Divine Blade.
[Forging a blade, still not enough...]
Fuli seemed to hear the girl's murmur. Looking up, she remained silent as always.
He had been using the Key of Sentience (Fenghuang Down) to try and breach the Herrscher of Thunder's defenses to recall Mei. Failure was reasonable, and hearing some inner thoughts was natural.
He exclaimed internally: Good grief! He worked hard to rub out a bunch of Divine Keys, thinking he could at least delay for more time. Unexpectedly, she planned to use twelve Divine Keys to forge her own exclusive weapon.
If she really succeeded, a Herrscher weapon possessing the characteristics of twelve Divine Keys...
"Null, how is it?"
Hearing this, the Herrscher turned her head to look.
"A Proclamation Blade of Negative World forged with the power of twelve Herrschers."
Fuli said, "How about calling it 'Null'?"
[Not twelve. There's also you.]
In the flash of lightning and flint, Fuli blocked with dual blades. The Pseudo-Jizo Mitama and Pseudo-Key of Domination clashing with that hazy blade shadow shattered simultaneously, exchanging for his own escape.
[I will build you into my blade.]
The girl stood still, lowering her crimson-purple eyes, allowing him to read this part of her mind.
Ethereal and magnificent, beautiful to the point of suffocation.
"Truly proactive, Miss Herrscher. But plotting for my Law of Causality ability?"
Facing Miss Herrscher who wanted to swallow him alive (physically), Fuli smiled brightly: "It's right here. If you want it and have the ability, come and get it yourself."
Key of Wind - Planetary Control, Key of Stagnation - All Things Dormant, Key of Sentience - Fenghuang Down, Key of Devouring - Star of Eden... even including the Key of Revelation - Void Archives mimicked as All Things Dormant. All of Fuli's remaining Divine Keys were currently floating at his previous position—where the Herrscher of Thunder now stood.
Plus the collected fragments of the Key of Domination and Key of Erosion after shattering. It was as if he also intended to help her, allowing that World-Destroying Divine Blade 'Null', which should never exist in the world, to be born.
But there was one point that could not be ignored.
These remaining Divine Keys were all control types specializing in imprisoning enemies!
Even if the effect was at most infinitely approaching A-rank artifacts, far from the EX-rank original Divine Keys... with five fakes firing at full power, relying on self-destruct level output regardless of cost, they actually managed to forcibly control the Herrscher of Thunder for a fleeting instant!
"NOW!"
Far away in Nagazora City, Bronya couldn't help but growl low. The Genesis cannon fire, charged for a long time, drew an arc in mid-air, hitting the lightning barrier hastily raised by the Herrscher of Thunder at a super-god speed invisible to the naked eye!
Unexpectedly, it was still a step too slow. From the other side, several kilometers to the southwest, the Spear of Meteor in Kiana's hand pierced through space, arriving first despite starting later, flashing with light as it stabbed into the Herrscher's seemingly delicate chest one step ahead!
...