Chapter 211: Welcome to the Theater of Domination
"..." MEI stared at the hand Irene had extended toward him. After a long silence, he raised his own hand — trembling slightly — and clasped hers. "If you all still trust my mind."
"We're fighting for the same goal. When that's the case, trust or no trust doesn't really enter into it." Irene smiled at him, then pointed to herself. "So — formal introduction: I'm Irene, Herrscher of Death for this century. And, moonlighting as Herrscher of Origin."
"Which makes her my successor, you know~" Elysia rested one hand on Irene's shoulder and gently leaned her head against the other side.
"So? Adorable, right?"
"..." MEI instinctively pushed his glasses up. "Elysia, 'adorable' probably isn't quite the right word for this situation. But — Miss Irene does seem to be a highly capable person."
There wasn't much concrete evidence to go on, but he trusted that Elysia wouldn't choose someone purely based on looks. Surely not.
MEI studied Elysia for a moment, then gave a small internal nod. Right. Surely not.
And Irene herself was a Herrscher of Death, so her combat capability was at least thoroughly guaranteed — even if the idea of fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with a Herrscher sounded genuinely strange to him.
As if noticing the flicker of bewilderment crossing his face, Irene continued: "Actually, it's not just me. Right now, from the Herrscher of Reason all the way to the Herrscher of Rock — all of them are Herrschers fighting on the side of humanity."
"...Huh?!?!" MEI's expression went through what could only be described as an eight-point-zero earthquake. Sheer disbelief filled his eyes. From the Herrscher of Reason to the Herrscher of Rock — all of them on humanity's side?
Was that — was that even right? Was that even sane?
Then what had all their life-and-death battles against Herrschers amounted to? Was that a testament to their own strength — or to the power of the Herrschers they'd faced?
They were Herrschers. Fire Moth had spent so much of its history devising plans for the next generation, and the bulk of their strategizing had been about how to counter Herrschers — studying what weaknesses they might exploit.
But never — not once — had they imagined a day when they would fight side by side with Herrschers against the Honkai.
Something about this felt fundamentally off.
"Nothing is fundamentally off." Irene looked at MEI, who had gone completely blank, and gave a small shrug. "Isn't this one right here a Herrscher too? Relax — and honestly, there are even more."
"...That's not exactly the kind of thing you can just relax about, Miss Irene."
As if finally resigning himself to reality, MEI let the tension drain out of him and adjusted his glasses.
Fine. If this was how things stood, he would accept it. And truthfully, it wasn't bad — no one understood a Herrscher's capabilities better than someone who had fought against them.
Every victory had been hard-won. If Herrschers could belong to humanity's side, then all the better for it.
"Speaking of the Herrscher of Rock..." MEI pushed his glasses up and did his best to recover his composure as a strategist. If they needed plans, he would plan — it was the thing he did most, after all.
"That would put us close to the Herrscher of the Legion, wouldn't it?"
"Mm-hm." Irene nodded. "Though the Herrscher of Ice and the Herrscher of Flame have only just been born — two arriving together like that — so the Herrscher of the Legion probably won't emerge quite that quickly."
"We're also already taking precautions."
"Precautions against the Herrscher of the Legion?"
"They're a Herrscher, after all. If they truly do replace someone, that person's Honkai Adaptability will spike. We're planning to use that as a detection vector — at minimum, to rule out the possibility that someone among us has already been replaced."
Irene laid out the current situation plainly, and MEI listened, then nodded. It was a sound approach. Back in their day... well. Back in their day, even if they had thought of it, it wouldn't have mattered.
By the time they understood that something like the Herrscher of the Legion existed, it had already been far too late. The enemy had already spread out of control — or rather, had already begun its assault.
This method could only be used for prevention. It was nearly useless for hunting one already loose.
"Proactive countermeasures would probably require more thought..." MEI's words were cut short as Sirin — who had been sitting close to Cecilia just a moment before — suddenly lifted her head and looked straight at Irene.
"Sister Irene, something's happening! I'm sensing it — in the direction of the Hyperion, an Imaginary Singularity has just opened!"
— Theater of Domination —
"You — who are you...? Where is this?" Seele's hands trembled slightly as she gripped her scythe, unable to figure out how she had gone from being aboard the Hyperion to ending up here.
"Didn't I already tell you? Welcome to the Theater of Domination!!!" The golden-haired puppet seemed personally offended by Seele's question, and stomped furiously on Seele's mobile terminal.
After venting for a moment, the puppet looked up at Seele, eyes glinting with mockery. "Look at our little crybaby — not only does she love to throw fits, she also can't follow a simple sentence."
"Well, no matter. As someone we've personally selected, I'd be more than happy to explain things in greater detail."
Just as Seele raised her guard, dozens of thin threads shot out from the surrounding darkness and wrapped around her body — then with a single sharp pull, she was hoisted into the air.
"Ugh!!!" Seele struggled to break free, but the threads were impossibly rigid, and with every thrash they bit deeper into her skin.
"Ngh!" Red lines were being carved into Seele's flesh — but whatever else could be said, she had been tempered by Honkai energy and even quantum energy, and the threads weren't quite enough to actually break skin.
[Seele!] The moment Black Seele sensed the attack, she moved to switch places with Seele.
[I'm fine...] Seele reassured her, and kept her eyes on the puppet. "Theater of Domination... You're not a Honkai Beast?"
"Oh, oh, hold on." The puppet seemed to completely ignore Seele's question. It watched Seele straining against her bonds, then raised one hand — and the threads, which had been tightening relentlessly, immediately went slack.
"We can't injure our dear honored guest. After all, she may yet become one of our comrades."
Even as it spoke, several more thin threads extended from the puppet's hand and brushed across Seele's skin. Seele could feel that these were different from the ones binding her — finer, and sharper.
But those threads only grazed her cheek before retreating, snaking into her pocket and lifting out a black invitation card.
"Oh, would you look at that — you're already holding one of our invitations, aren't you?"
"That's yours?" Seele looked at the puppet, then at the invitation dangling before her face on its thread — and the thought came to her immediately: Xiao Lin, acting so strange. "What did you do to that person?"
"Oh, are you looking for me?" The puppet's head spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees. The crudely doll-like face vanished — and in its place appeared Xiao Lin's face.
And from beside it, a dense web of marionette strings materialized in the air. Then, as if lifted by invisible hands, Xiao Lin drifted up and came to hang before Seele's face.
"Miss Seele, I sincerely hope you will accept my invitation and become a member of the Theater."
"Never!" [Seele]'s eyes turned red in an instant. The body that had been bound snapped into an ephemeral state, slipping free of the threads — and with a flash of light in her hand, the heavy scythe materialized in [Seele]'s grip.
One clean swing of the scythe cleaved the puppet's body in two. Its lower half dropped to the ground alongside [Seele], and [Seele] immediately raised the scythe and looked upward.
The bisected puppet hung limp in the air, its upper body swaying like something that had lost all control of itself.
[The other me...]
[That person is beyond saving.] [Seele] answered Seele. [I don't know what that thing even is, but leave the rest to me.]
Scythe in hand, [Seele] confirmed that the thing dangling overhead seemed to have gone still — and was just about to look for a way out.
She had barely let out a breath of relief when the sound reached her from every direction — the grinding of stone on stone. The corridors that had been plunged in darkness blazed to life.
Several Honkai Beasts closed in around [Seele]. From each of their joints, thin threads extended upward — working them like marionettes.
The puppet's severed body shuddered in midair. Its head twisted into an unnatural angle, folding back as if it were about to fall off entirely, and gazed down at [Seele].
Its eyes were completely covered by a blindfold — but [Seele] could feel with certainty that the thing was studying her. There was even what felt like amusement in that eyeless gaze.
"Oh, what was that just now?" The puppet's head made a rapid clack-clack-clack sound. "Was that your Quantization? How truly remarkable a power."
"..." [Seele] glanced up at the puppet, then swept her eyes across the other Honkai Beasts — unnervingly sculpted, unnervingly smooth. Honestly, their situation right now was genuinely bad.
The mobile terminal was out of commission for reasons unknown, and even if it weren't, there was no way to get a signal in a place like this. She didn't even know if they were still on Earth.
People dropped by the Medical Bay to find Seele all the time — but she had arrived here through some inexplicable means. The odds of anyone noticing something was wrong were pitifully low.
But Kiana — no, Sirin — should realize soon enough. What might look like perfect stillness from Seele's end would almost certainly appear as something else entirely to the Herrscher of the Void.
"It seems our honored guest still hasn't quite decided what to do." The puppet looked at the wary [Seele] with apparent disappointment, then shook its head. The shaking grew faster and faster until the head was spinning loose on its neck like something that had lost its anchor.
Another puppet stepped out of the darkness. "Hey, no need to rush. Maybe [Seele] just hasn't had the chance to take part in the show we've personally staged for her."
"More than one?" [Seele] immediately fixed her gaze on the second puppet that had emerged from the shadows. They were nearly identical — the only difference was a slight variation in hairstyle. That detail gave [Seele] a certain theory about what they were.
An enormous and mysterious space, with no clear indication of whether it was even on Earth — the corridors floating in the air off in the distance certainly didn't look like anything on Earth.
They had the ability to control Honkai Beasts. And there were Honkai energy fluctuations radiating off them. When she pieced every possibility together, only one answer remained.
"...A Herrscher? But how? How is it this soon?"
The Herrscher of Ice and the Herrscher of Flame had only just been born. Bronya had told Seele all about it when she came back. How could another Herrscher have appeared this quickly?!
The words faded from [Seele]'s lips — and the two puppets erupted into frenzied applause. The one hanging from the ceiling screamed at the top of its voice: "Oh my goodness, our little audience has finally figured out who we are!"
"You can't call her the audience — she's the honored guest." The one standing before [Seele] smiled. The smile was frozen, rigid, and it made [Seele]'s skin crawl.
"And she just might become one of us. Then we'd have to call her a comrade."
"But the threads couldn't hold her."
The hanging puppet shot a furious look at its still-talking counterpart: "Shut your mouth — you think we weren't watching? Are you the only one here with eyes?! Are you the only one here with a mouth?!"
"I was just pointing it out." The half-puppet dangling in the air sounded almost a little aggrieved — but the next instant it was back to its obnoxious, jeering tone. "Also, the little girl's running."
And so she was. [Seele] had her scythe raised and had already taken off a charging Honkai Beast's head — she wasn't foolish enough to just stand there watching the two puppets chat.
She needed to find a way out, fast, and get word to Bronya and the others that the Herrscher of the Legion had appeared.
The scythe came down and the Honkai Beast's head slid free and smashed to pieces on the floor. [Seele] immediately raised one foot and kicked the body out of her path.
But something was wrong. The sensation when the blade connected had felt off — not like it normally did. It felt like... stone?
[Seele] glanced back at the motionless Honkai Beast behind her. Looking at it now — they did all seem strangely smooth.
In that split second of hesitation, another strange Honkai Beast lunged at her from the side, its massive body barreling toward [Seele] like a tank.
[Seele]'s body flashed blue — she phased, letting the Honkai Beast's charge pass straight through her, while the scythe in her hand remained solid and carved clean through its body as she ghosted past.
[Seele] landed atop the bisected Honkai Beast and looked down at it. The feel was definitely wrong. This thing didn't look like any Honkai Beast she knew.
If she had to describe it — it felt more like a plaster cast. And just then, the threads controlled by the phantasmal orb floating overhead snapped taut — and the severed halves of the Honkai Beast began to move again.
"Just cutting them apart isn't enough?" [Seele] swung the scythe again, splitting a limb that swatted at her, then tilted her head up toward the phantasmal orb hovering over the Honkai Beast.
She hadn't missed it — the orb had twitched, and only then had the severed pieces stirred back to life. [Seele] raised the scythe and slashed at the orb.
But just as the Honkai Beast's attack had passed through her, the blade passed through the orb as well. The difference, [Seele] could sense, was that this wasn't like phasing with Quantization — she hadn't felt any quantum energy from it at all.
"Tch. What even is all of this?"
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