Honkai World · Main World
While Takatsuki was fighting and expanding in another world, the people here were also facing a huge crisis.
That was... the Herrscher's advent.
Because Takatsuki had always thought it would be a long time until other Herrschers descended, he had not made specific preparations.
And after he was struck by Fu Hua, who was possessed by the Will of Honkai, to another world, the Will of Honkai seemed to know Takatsuki's abilities and wanted to quickly finish this assessment during his absence.
Thus, following the Herrscher of Sentience, came the advent of the Herrscher of Ice.
Regarding the Herrscher's advent, since the Archbishop was absent, although Schicksal detected Herrscher-level Honkai Energy reactions, they had no way to respond.
After all, several of their S-Rank Valkyries had already defected from Schicksal.
However, fortunately, even if those original main combat forces were delayed for some reason, others would step forward.
"Herrscher of Ice, leave it to me. Takatsuki is not here now, so only I can confront the Herrscher."
Inside St. Freya Academy, Mei said to Theresa and Himeko.
"But Mei..."
"Headmaster, although you were once an S-Rank Valkyrie, Judah has been lent out now, and your strength has greatly declined. It would be very difficult to fight against a Herrscher."
Theresa was interrupted by Mei as soon as she spoke, because, as Mei said, without Judah, Judah's combat power was directly reduced by seventy to eighty percent.
Theresa's combat over the years had been too reliant on Judah, so her own combat skills had not improved much.
"Then I and the Hyperion will go with you. At least with the Nexus system, I can help."
Amidst the red lightning, Mei transformed into her Herrscher of Thunder form and interrupted Himeko Murata: "Herrscher of Ice is on me. I'm worried there might be other situations later, so I'll trouble Ms. Himeko and the Headmaster to remain at St. Freya Academy."
After speaking, Mei gave the two no further chance to persuade her, instantly transforming into a bolt of lightning and flying into the sky, leaving only the echoing thunder above the clouds.
"Mei... has become so strong too."
"It's been less than a year, but for them, a long time has passed, hasn't it? We've really been quite derelict as teachers."
Hearing Himeko's words, Theresa nodded: "I never thought that a Herrscher could truly stand on humanity's side."
Even the original Theresa, misled by Otto, had always believed the Herrscher of Reason was a great villain. When she first encountered the Herrscher of the Void, although she spoke to her a couple of times initially, she never chose to negotiate with her, but instead directly chose to use force. Now, looking back, if she had chosen to negotiate with her then, perhaps the outcome would have been different.
"Now is their young generation's era; we are all old..."
"What are you two still doing here?"
Just as St. Freya's Headmaster and teacher were feeling somewhat melancholic, Hestia's voice suddenly appeared behind them.
"There's no time to waste now. I don't know much about your world. Come quickly and help."
Hestia took Theresa and Himeko, one in each hand, and dragged them towards the room.
The two, who had been feeling a bit sentimental, suddenly realized that if they were talking about being old... who present could be older than this one?
The few of them came to the room, supposedly to help, but in reality, they all just sat on the sofa watching TV.
And the scene on the TV was the Holy Grail War on Chi You Island.
"Something unexpected has appeared in Takatsuki-kun's Holy Grail War. Do we really not need to intervene?"
If they intervened, the fairness of the Holy Grail War that Takatsuki had previously mentioned would be immediately destroyed, and they were unsure if this would disrupt Takatsuki's arrangements.
Theresa and Himeko also hesitated after watching for a while, as the Holy Grail War was related to Cecilia's revival.
"Rita believes it's best to leave it to Durandal. After all, the newly appeared Herrscher is also one of the participants. We also have three Herrschers on our side, and Rita trusts that Durandal will not lose to anyone else."
Rita, who was sitting on the sofa, stood up, her words filled with trust in Durandal.
"Seele feels the same way, and Seele is also ready. If anything unexpected happens, let Seele help everyone."
After everyone's discussion, the conclusion reached was to wait and see.
The Holy Grail War could be said to be the most important matter to Takatsuki. Even without considering the subsequent arrangements, the sheer power to revive the dead was enough reason for a few people not to want to disrupt it.
On the other side, Mei streaked across the sky like a bolt of lightning.
Among all the Herrschers, the fastest, besides the Herrscher of the Void who can traverse space, is the Herrscher of Thunder, who controls lightning.
Her Herrscher body and the authority of lightning made her as swift as true lightning.
In just a few minutes, she crossed continents and oceans, arriving at the place where the Herrscher of Ice appeared — Coral Island.
"So this is the Herrscher of Ice."
Mei frowned as she looked at the Herrscher of Ice high in the sky, with white hair and a white dress, but a black body.
The bone-chilling cold stung her skin. Even with a Herrscher body, she would be affected in such an icy environment.
"Hey! Herrscher of Ice! Are you still conscious?!"
Although she knew this was her target, Mei did not immediately attack.
The Herrschers of the current civilization could all communicate, mostly. This applied to both those who appeared before and herself.
It was just that the original personality would be suppressed by the Herrscher personality, with the more volatile Herrscher personality controlling the body and unleashing destruction on everything around it.
However, this experience proved ineffective here.
Mei's response was a giant block of ice falling from the sky.
But with just one slash, the ice block was shattered.
However, the remaining blade light, on its path towards the Herrscher of Ice, was frozen into ice shards and shattered.
At this time, the Herrscher was merely the Herrscher of Ice, not the Herrscher of Starfall Ice from the original timeline.
The only authority it wielded was freezing.
But as a Herrscher authority, this freezing could even freeze energy.
"If we can't communicate, then don't blame me for being ruthless."
Mei sighed as she looked at the Herrscher of Ice.
Putting herself in its shoes, Mei wanted to save this nascent Herrscher.
After all, fate is not something one can subjectively choose, but since the other party could not communicate, Mei would not waste any more effort and directly charged towards the Herrscher of Ice in the air.
One Herrscher who was already familiar with her own authority.
One Herrscher who had just been born, with little self-awareness and relying on instinctual destruction.
The disparity in strength between the two was obvious.
Even though the Herrscher of Ice continuously condensed ice blocks in mid-air to block Mei's advance, Mei, who had sparred with Bronya wielding White Album, naturally had her own methods to deal with such moves.
A figure wrapped in crimson lightning flashed past, and the ice blocks obstructing Mei's path in the air were instantly disintegrated.
They weren't vaporized by lightning, but directly broken down into molecules.
And these molecules instantly recombined in the next moment to form a huge ice spear.
This was an ability that reappeared after Mei's former Stand, Crazy Diamond, was absorbed by her. It allowed her to break down matter into molecules and then reconstruct them. It was with this ability that she broke down and reconstructed the ice blocks into her own ice spear, and then imbued it with lightning.
"Since it's ice, then I'll use your ice to break it."
The giant ice spear, imbued with crimson lightning, shot towards the Herrscher of Ice.
The freezing ability could not re-freeze an ice spear that was already ice, but just as it was about to touch the Herrscher of Ice, the flying ice spear instantly lost power and fell vertically to the ground.
Mei also felt a huge pulling force dragging her towards the ground.
When she looked down, she saw a black, black hole-like object.