When Shu opened his eyes again, Cocolia could clearly feel a change in him.
First, the killing intent was suppressed, replaced by a state of intense concentration.
Shu stood there, silent.
The only purpose of calmness was to provide a rational space for thought, to methodically sort through all the information and conditions, and then, through a process of elimination, find what he was looking for.
Here we go... Cast aside the anger, cast aside the concern that has already caused trouble, cast aside all emotions. Think like an AI...
Shu waved his hand sharply. In an instant, the world around them shifted. For a moment, Cocolia felt the illusion of traveling through time and space.
When she came to her senses, she was standing on a patch of burning, scorched earth.
Her pupils trembled. This place was all too familiar... it was her orphanage!
How could the orphanage end up like this?! An attack? A riot?! Could it be the work of the Herrscher Shu had mentioned?
A twin Herrscher... the simplest way to understand it is like twins... Was this done by Noah's sibling? Or could it be...
Cocolia suddenly understood the reason for Shu's intense killing intent toward Noah earlier. If the orphanage truly had become, or was about to become, like this, then Noah, being connected to the culprit, would indeed be the target of displaced anger and hatred.
Shu raised his hand. The burning flames froze. He formed a camera-like frame with his hands and then abruptly pulled it wide.
The space receded, actively bringing the scene he wanted to see before his eyes.
Step one—analyze what the Herrscher truly is!
There was only one core problem: the Herrscher. And there was only one question he needed to answer: how to deal with the Herrscher.
His first answer to himself was brute force.
That canopy, the Herrscher's main body, its power attacks, and its Honkai energy level—none of it meant anything in front of Shu.
Shu was fully capable of crushing the canopy, the Herrscher's puppet, and the Herrscher himself, all in a single blow!
If he just tossed his brain aside right now and, like some overpowered protagonist in a wish-fulfillment story, mindlessly charged in and threw a punch at whatever he encountered, the Herrscher would be beaten to death by him.
But what about Kiana and the others? What about Bronya? What would happen to them?
Would he use their lives to pay his price?
That's what he had done before the rewind. Like a roaring beast, the moment he sensed something was wrong, he had rushed to the canopy and shattered the fragile membrane with a single punch...
And then...
Kiana's consciousness had been torn to shreds...
What if he switched methods? He had more Honkai energy, he had [Hope], he had a higher power output... How about a direct clash of abilities?
Shu raised his hand. The scene changed again. Time seemed to rewind before their eyes. The "Shu" in front of them retracted the fist that had shattered the puppet, moved backward to Mei who was holding Kiana, and then continued to move back.
The scattered fragments began to reassemble, forming the canopy of light in the sky once more. Shu also retreated outside the canopy, withdrawing his fist, which had been filled with rage.
Time stopped there.
The scene froze. Shu raised his hand, and the "Shu" before him also raised a hand, placing it gently on the fragile canopy.
Erosion.
A purplish-black, dim light, from Shu's palm began to spread, seeping into the canopy before him. Like leaves beginning to yellow, the power of erosion quickly spread across the membrane.
But it was wrong.
Shu's gaze had been fixed on Kiana's condition behind the canopy from the very beginning. The moment the erosion began, Kiana's brow twitched. Then, Shu saw her body begin to dissipate along with the spreading erosion.
Shu abruptly pulled his hand back, rewound time, and then froze it again at the moment he arrived before the canopy.
Erosion wouldn't work either... Why?
He recalled the erosion of the Elysian Realm, and the erosion recorded in the Previous Era.
What was its essence?
It was pathological... to destroy and then replace... destruction...
"Tch..." Shu let out a sound of frustration, then waved his hand. The "Shu" in front of him began to move again.
He still carefully placed his hand on the canopy. This time, the canopy began to rapidly flow into Shu's body, to be absorbed and stored by him.
But Kiana's reaction was still not good. Shu stopped his hand again.
As he forcibly drew away the canopy, Kiana's body suddenly began to distort. Not a distortion of her limbs, but something closer to displacement on a cellular level...
Shu didn't dare to continue the experiment. He knew what would happen if this tissue displacement continued...
There was no need to test the other idea either. Whether he completely absorbed and transferred the canopy, or used his own power to forcibly create a gap, Kiana would suffer corresponding damage...
The damage from tissue misplacement wasn't as simple as displaced internal organs... It was the cells that make up bones moving to the heart, the cells that form blood vessels dispersing into the blood...
It was the result of mixing red beans and green beans and then shaking them up.
The canopy could not be touched... at least not from the outside...
Shu began to create a [Hypothesis].
What if he were inside?
Shu raised his hand, and like pinching an insect, he tossed it inside the canopy.
Threads extended down from the inner wall of the canopy, wrapping around Kiana's limbs.
The "Shu" who entered the canopy raised his hand and severed the threads with a single sword strike. He then looked up at the canopy in the sky.
The moment the connecting threads were severed, the canopy trembled, then began to crumble.
But the incomplete sphere had lost its ability to distribute pressure. It began to self-destruct. Shu turned to look at Bronya in the distance, then silently raised his hand, terminating this simulation.
Severing the connections from the inside to break the canopy—feasible.
But the canopy would begin to self-destruct after losing one anchor, which would in turn affect the other anchors...
Time rewound. "Shu" attacked again. This time, he swung in three directions simultaneously.
The moment the threads connecting the three anchors were severed, the canopy instantly shattered. The three of them fell to the ground. Shu silently checked for a moment and got his answer.
As long as he simultaneously severed the connections of all anchors, the canopy, which had been deliberately made extremely fragile to accommodate his attack, would self-destruct.
Without the canopy, the Herrscher would be completely exposed before him. With that, the solution was found.
But—
Shu silently returned "Shu" to his original position, outside the canopy.
This solution had one [Hypothesis]...
That he could enter the canopy without disturbing it.
And as he waved his hand and erased everything outside the canopy, he was left with a complete sphere.
The canopy had no opening for him to enter.