"Bronya, aren't we supposed to be leaving? Why are you still..."
"You're so dense, Kiana! Mei-neesama's injury needs painkillers and antiseptic powder. How can she leave without them?"
"But, that painkiller, I remember..."
"Idiot, that's a problem for later. Let's get through this first!"
Bronya naturally knew what Kiana was worried about, but was this really the time to care about such things?
Mei, who had been following behind them with Seele's support, smiled faintly. But in just an instant, her smile was replaced by a deeper sorrow—even at this point, they were still unwilling to abandon her. This was certainly something to be happy about, but it also meant that she had, in the end, become a burden.
But what could she do? Her right hand, practically a mangled mess of flesh, just dangled from her arm. The painkiller's numbing effect was limited. After a short while, she felt the pain in her right hand again. It was just a very faint coolness, as if someone were lightly scraping her right hand with dozens of unsharpened razor blades. But this was only a sign of the pain to come. In a few more minutes, as Bronya had said, she wouldn't be able to leave here without another shot of painkillers.
Should she regret it? If her past self hadn't been so stubborn, so crazy, hadn't done something as meaningless as self-harm, she wouldn't have become such a burden now. With her right hand intact, she could still wield a sword. Although she couldn't compare to Kiana and Bronya, she could at least contribute a small amount of strength.
She felt a little regret.
"But regret is the most unnecessary emotion."
That familiar voice sounded in her heart. When had Michael said that? She couldn't remember at all. But just like many things that happen in this world, at the moment a gun is fired, no one knows where the bullet will go until, perhaps soon, perhaps much later, that bullet hits them right between the eyes.
Then she wouldn't regret it.
Mei silently clenched her fist.
She knew very well that even with her right arm like this, she was not a burden.
"If that situation really happens, I might be able to..."
"But don't worry, the situation is much better than I expected."
Bronya glanced back as if unintentionally, her words seemingly directed at Kiana, yet clearly with a hidden meaning.
"Huh? How can you tell?"
In a sense, Kiana was truly the best straight man, always managing to set up Bronya's explanations perfectly.
"If a large Honkai beast were coming, we would have felt the ground shake from a long way off. If it were zombies and smaller Honkai beasts, they wouldn't be completely silent, especially in such a quiet environment. If they made a noise on the first floor, we would be able to hear it from the stairwell."
"I see..."
Kiana nodded with a pout, feeling that Bronya's analysis was very reasonable and made perfect sense.
"Then if a large Honkai beast does come, will we have time to run?" Kiana asked casually, touching the number "8" on the wall.
"That's why I told you to hurry up!"
Bronya clutched her throbbing head, her patience rapidly disappearing.
She was usually a very patient person. Even in an emergency, she preferred to arrange everything step by step, ensuring that everything she could control was under her control.
Her anxiety stemmed from a vague sense of unease. There was no reason for this unease. If she had to say, it was simply because things weren't unfolding as she had deduced.
Zombies and Honkai beasts were not creatures with dull senses. With the gunshot and shouting just now, how could the surrounding zombies and Honkai beasts not have reacted?
Of course, luck could explain everything. Their luck was too good, so good that all the zombies and Honkai beasts either ignored the sound or got lost on their way.
But this kind of unnaturally good luck didn't make her feel fortunate; it only made her feel insecure and panicked.
All fortune in life must follow the law of balance. A long period of bad luck is often followed by a sudden stroke of good luck. And behind unnaturally good luck, could there be a hidden crisis waiting to be discovered?
As she thought this, her hands, which were packing up the medicine, suddenly stopped—
What was the most frightening thing on the battlefield?
Silence. As a warrior, she knew very well that the enemy would not give up easily. Behind that silence, the enemy might have already set up countless plans to kill her. But she knew nothing about those plans and could do nothing to prepare in advance. She could only wait silently in that unnerving silence for whatever was about to happen.
She looked down at the packed ammunition and medicine in her bag, then suddenly waved her hand.
"Alright, idiot, that's enough. Let's get out of here!"
She suddenly had a strong urge to escape this place. The moment this urge welled up in her heart, her body reacted before her brain. She stumbled back a step, almost bumping into Mei and Seele.
"Bronya, what's wrong?" Kiana asked, turning around while scratching the cowlick on her head.
Bronya had just opened her mouth when she felt the ground tremble slightly.
"Did you just..." Mei asked hesitantly. At the same time, her gaze shifted to the fluorescent light on the ceiling.
THUD—
With another, more obvious tremor, the light from the fluorescent lamp seemed to flicker as well.
"Follow me!"
Bronya forced herself to calm down and sensed the direction the vibration was coming from—it seemed to be along the street they had come from. All hope vanished from her heart. She only had time to grab Seele's hand before rushing downstairs.
Seele also held Mei's hand tightly and, before the latter could react, dragged her into a run.
The pain in Mei's right arm became more and more obvious, but she bit her lower lip, refusing to groan, only turning back to call for Kiana to keep up.
Kiana held an unwrapped painkiller in her hand, but her hands were shaking too much as she ran. She didn't want to hurt Mei, so she could only run along, panicking.
As they ran past the sixth floor, through the door of the stairwell, Mei saw Mobius's body laid flat in the hallway.
She took a deep look, imprinting that hint of darkening green in her mind, then was dragged by Seele to the fifth floor, and then the fourth.
Bronya didn't go to the third floor but pulled everyone into the hallway on the fourth floor.
The group followed her to the window at the end of the hallway. The vibration that had been faint and unreal before had now become a full-blown earthquake. Cracks appeared on the thick glass, which was then shattered by a blow from the dagger Bronya held in a reverse grip.
She took out a coil of rope from another bag and tried to tie one end to the door closest to the window, but the door was shaking back and forth with the ground. Bronya tried twice, then threw the rope down in frustration and ran downstairs again.
The entire first floor had no windows. When they arrived, she had been so shocked by Mobius's power that although she noticed this, she had forgotten, and had no time, to look for an emergency exit. It wasn't impossible to leave through the main entrance of the police station now, but that would be somewhat disrespectful to the giant Honkai beast charging down the street.
So she rushed to the second floor, used the same technique as before to smash the window at the end of the hallway, and then stepped aside to make space.
"Mei-neesama, you and Seele jump first!"
Mei knew she was instinctively protecting the weak, but at a time like this, both she and Seele's first reaction was to refuse.
She leaned on her knee with one hand, her brain a little dizzy from the sudden intense exercise. Fortunately, the pain shooting up from her right arm kept her awake.
She looked at Bronya, then at Seele standing in front of her. The eyes of the once most delicate girl were full of stubbornness.
"Seele! Now is not the time to be stubborn!"
Bronya smiled helplessly, whispered an apology, then picked Seele up, grabbed her hand, and threw her out the window.
A floor was only about three meters high. Minus the distance of her own body hanging down, it was less than two meters. If a girl fell from this height, she might get injured if she was unlucky, and the chance of death wasn't necessarily zero, but that was only in a very unlucky situation. Normally, the worst that could happen was a sprained ankle.
Bronya reached out to Mei. Mei clenched her left fist and gave her arm to Bronya.
"Ugh!"
The light and lines in front of her were pulled into blurry straight lines. When she came to her senses, Mei had already landed, but the throbbing pain in her right arm almost made her kneel down in the ruins.
She gritted her teeth and moved to the left, making space for Bronya and Kiana to land.
BOOM—
BOOM—
BOOM—
The whole world was in turmoil. The small pieces of concrete scattered on the ground were also jumping up and down. Mei quickly supported herself with her hand on the wall, only to feel a crack in it. She couldn't tell if it was a crack in the wall or just a crack in the paint.
She had no time to think about these things. She looked up and saw Bronya and Kiana jumping down one after another, almost in a line.
Seeing both of their feet land, Mei was still gasping for air, but the stone in her heart had finally fallen.
Large Honkai beasts certainly had unparalleled destructive power, but just as humans often don't notice the ants they step on, the Honkai beast's target should be the police station building that was about as tall as it was. All they had to do was escape quietly...
"Nice. If there's still time, that is."
The Herrscher's voice suddenly sounded again. Mei, as if sensing something, looked up again, only to see the Honkai beast's head peeking out from the top of the building.
She was stunned for only a moment before she saw a white spear tip pierce through the building. Then, the entire building collapsed like a hastily built sand wall.
Time seemed to stop at this moment, leaving only the sound of her heart pounding.
"Kiana!"
Some things, she had already rehearsed in her mind countless times.
And some things, there was no need to think, no need for a reason. Her body had already made the decision before her brain—even though it was a decision that completely violated her biological instincts.
She rushed toward Kiana and Bronya. It was only a distance of two steps. She used her left shoulder to push one, and her left hand to push the other. Using the momentum of the impact, she pushed their bodies out with all her might.
And she herself was dragged down by her weak legs and painful right arm, stumbling and falling to the ground.
"Mei!"
"Ah!"
She habitually used her right hand to support her body, but what responded to her was only unexpected pain.
She looked at Bronya and Kiana, who were turning to her with despair on their faces, reaching out to her. She tried to reach out with her left hand...
But the next moment, a huge piece of concrete landed next to her left arm. The crimson moonlight in front of her was also blocked by a huge shadow. The shadow fell quickly, and all that was left in her vision was darkness.
"As expected, a useless piece of trash like you can only do this much. And to think I had a glimmer of unrealistic hope for you just now. Heh!"
The familiar purple lightning ring lit up in the darkness. Mei silently clenched her left fist and sighed softly.
"I'm not dead yet?"
"What? Are you disappointed?"
The Herrscher said sarcastically, without mercy.
"No."
Mei was not angered by her words and attitude. On the contrary, Mei said these two words with unprecedented seriousness.
Unfortunately, the Herrscher didn't seem to appreciate it.
"No? Then who was it just now who was making such a fuss about dying? Sigh... if it weren't for that person's antics, this Honkai beast wouldn't have been attracted here, right?"
Mei pursed her lips and said no more, just staring intently at the Herrscher's silhouette outlined by the purple lightning ring.
"You... no, what's with that look? What are you looking at me for?"
"Herrscher, we made a bet earlier."
"I know, and? The bet isn't just that these three girls can accept you. Don't get ahead of yourself!"
"Of course, I know that. But I'm not here to negotiate with you."
"Heh? You dare to talk to me like that? I..."
"Herrscher, I'll give you my body."
"?"
"I can give you my body right now. But, as a reward for winning half of that bet, I want you to help me kill this Honkai beast and protect them as they leave Nagazora."
The Herrscher mentally typed out another question mark.
"Do you think I'm a charity? Once your body is in my hands, it's not up to you anymore."
Mei's shoulders trembled slightly. Of course, she understood that the chips between her and the Herrscher had never been equal.
But she had no other choice.
"Don't call me Herrscher anymore. I prefer the title 'Queen.' How about it? Let me hear you say it."
Mei stared at her blankly, not understanding why she was saying these things.
"Hmph!"
A light snort was followed by a series of laughs. The laughter seemed to suppress many things, making the suppressor inexplicably think of the loneliness she feared most.
"But, as a memento of you, you useless piece of trash, I'll add your surname in front of Queen. Coincidentally, that's also my power..."
She said no more. The Queen of Thunder had taken over Raiden Mei's body.
And so, in reality, under the wall that Seele was pushing against with all her might, a purple lightning suddenly lit up.
---||---
"Honkai energy reaction in Nagazora detected to be rising rapidly!"
"Energy reaction model has been recalculated."
Alarms blared on the Hyperion. Theresa opened the holographic projection in front of her. The projection was divided into two layers. The blue layer below represented the map of Nagazora, and the green light screen above was the distribution of Honkai energy in the area.
The green light screen was like a thin film. Except for a few acne-like protrusions, most of it was flat. This was a sign of uniform Honkai energy distribution, and it was the anomaly that had been puzzling them for the past half-day.
Now, amidst the alarms and cries of surprise, the green light screen above a certain point in Nagazora was rapidly bulging, as if someone was pushing up the thin film from below with a toothpick.
Unfortunately, the film's toughness was too good, and it was pushed up to the height of a person.
"Regional Honkai energy intensity has broken through 1000 HW, stabilizing at around 1100 HW. Confirmed to be a Herrscher reaction!"
"Location confirmed! North Police Station building, Kanagawa District, Nagazora City!"
"Finally!"
Theresa clenched her sleeves and turned her head. Himeko, who had been drinking in the back of the bridge all this time, had stood up. Except for a slightly flushed face, where was the drunkenness?
And as the strongest combat power here, Hua, who had been silently meditating on the sofa, also opened her eyes.
The Hyperion had been on standby in the suburbs of Nagazora since completing its combat readiness, waiting for this very moment!
The two S-rank Valkyries from headquarters had not yet arrived, but Theresa was willing to take a risk. After all, the Herrscher's energy reaction was almost at the critical point. Perhaps it wouldn't be too difficult to deal with. And now that it had finally revealed itself, who knew if there would be another chance?
So Theresa no longer hesitated. With a wave of her small hand, she issued a command in front of the real captain of the Hyperion, Himeko:
"Target: Herrscher! Hyperion, launch!"