Mei's sword strike was thrown with almost all her might, but the golden light of her charge came to an abrupt halt.
Mei tried again, only to find her sword was still stopped just beside the Herrscher's neck.
She was like an insect caught in a spiderweb, unable to move.
"Haah—!" The moment the Herrscher looked at Mei, Kiana let out a great shout and headbutted the moving puppet, knocking its head aside. Seizing the opportunity, Kiana broke free from the puppet's grasp and charged toward the Herrscher's main body.
Despite Mei being closer, the Herrscher turned its head to look at Kiana the instant she moved, flinging both hands toward her.
Once again, it was an extremely tricky angle, but Kiana was like an uncatchable fish, slipping through the fine "mesh" of the net one more time.
A swift punch once again flew toward his face. The Herrscher's retreat was nowhere near as fast as Kiana's advance.
But in Mei's eyes, the Herrscher who had been right in front of her transformed into a streak of light and shot off into the distance, while an even faster red figure caught up to its opponent in the blink of an eye.
Two sharp sonic booms made Mei's ears ring. The restraint on her sword vanished. Mei looked up and saw two streaks of light clashing a dozen times in the sky within a single second.
"So fast..." Mei was secretly alarmed but could only grip the Xuanxuan sword in her hand.
She didn't have the ability to fly, and theoretically, neither did Kiana. But they had already been entangled in the sky for two or three seconds, exchanging dozens of blows, yet showed no signs of falling.
In fact... they were flying higher and higher!
The Herrscher plucked the threads in his hands, tilting his head at the last second to dodge Kiana's punch. The force of the blow was enough to straighten the messy, wiry whiskers on his face.
Two threads, appearing without warning, crisscrossed, aiming to slice Kiana into four pieces. But just like his previous attacks, Kiana dodged it with the most breathtaking maneuver.
In terms of attack power, he had the advantage. In terms of speed, he was also slightly faster than Kiana. In both burst power and endurance, he outclassed Kiana by a whole level.
But this complete statistical superiority was proving ineffective. The Herrscher looked at Kiana zipping around in front of him, a trace of irritation rising in his heart.
His time was short. He couldn't afford to waste it here with her. If that monster on the other side reacted, he, in his true form, would have no chance of escape.
If his puppet hadn't been so heavily damaged, he wouldn't have had to appear in his true form at all. If he hadn't attacked back then and had just turned and left...
No, if not for that brief exchange, he wouldn't have known that monster was so incredibly strong... a single encounter had nearly destroyed his puppet.
So even though it was clear Kiana's current state wouldn't last long, the Herrscher still chose to face her head-on, wanting a quick victory.
But he found he couldn't do it... he couldn't catch her.
She was even starting to evade his attacks before he launched them! The Herrscher couldn't figure out how she was able to do that.
Could it be precognition?!
It was Kiana's intuition.
All of the Herrscher's attacks were linear slashes, along with the puppet's melee strikes. They were so simple that even Kiana was surprised.
She had seen her fair share of Herrschers: Evolution's mutagenic guidance, Memory's erosive forgetting, Vision's rule-based suppression...
Every Herrscher had unique methods, but this one only had these basic physical attacks...
Attacks like these were completely ineffective against the current Kiana!
Although it looked like the Herrscher had the absolute upper hand, with Kiana often only able to counterattack in the gaps between his attacks, both of them knew very well who was truly at a disadvantage.
Kiana already understood what the Herrscher was capable of. All she had to do was bide her time and wait for her opponent to reveal a flaw or reach his limit, and she could turn the tables.
The Herrscher, on the other hand, had to consider Kiana's upper limit. What was she capable of, and what new moves would she pull out...?
The threads he flung out became Kiana's stepping stones. She touched them lightly, like a dragonfly skimming water, and then charged at the Herrscher again.
In terms of margin for error, Kiana's was actually smaller. A single thread could slice her in two. But in this brief minute of fighting, the Herrscher hadn't seen her make a single mistake.
This was an enemy who could truly fight at her absolute upper limit!
The upper limit Kiana could currently display was enough to threaten the Herrscher... and her opponent had to take that limit into account.
What is an upper limit?
It's a "what if."
The Herrscher's hand was off by about half an inch, but this half-inch deviation created a massive opening.
In an instant, Kiana was right in his face, bypassing the puppet that pressed her at every step. A full-force punch, glowing with crimson light, slammed directly into the Herrscher's face!
On the ground, Mei had been chasing the two colliding streaks of light in the sky. Suddenly, with a dull thud, one figure plummeted to the ground.
After only a moment's hesitation, Mei charged forward with her Xuanxuan sword.
It wasn't Kiana who fell!
The Herrscher, who had landed messily, wiped his face. His weathered features were grim.
He turned his head, and the approaching Xuanxuan sword carried an aura that made him wary. He had no choice but to turn and flee.
The three-foot blade of the sword sliced his face, leaving a gruesome wound. Mei didn't have time to launch a second strike and could only pull back again.
The Herrscher, now on the ground, touched his face. The wound wasn't bleeding but was emitting purple specks of light. His brilliant, god-like eyes held an unreadable emotion.
In the sky, Kiana was entangled with the broken puppet. Amidst a sky full of thin threads, the two figures constantly intertwined, bursting with layers of light.
Mei took a deep breath. She knew she had to face the Herrscher by herself now...
---||---
On the other side, Bronya had already charged into the burning building. She had given the Key of Memory to Seele, and the two of them split up inside.
The sounds of crying and the crackling of flames mingled together, with the sounds of battle from outside occasionally reaching them.
I have more important things to do...
She repeatedly reminded herself that this was no time to be upset. She had to pull herself together...
"Mama—!" As Bronya moved through the flames, she suddenly heard a desperate cry for help. A flicker of joy finally rose in Bronya's heart. In the next moment, she changed direction and ran toward the sound.