"Do we really have to tie her in this position?"
"Of course. Tying her like this is the most secure way..."
The Herrscher of Thunder slowly regained consciousness, two voices echoing in her ears.
She only remembered seeing an enormous hand, wreathed in lightning, swinging toward her face. The rest was a blank.
And when she was fully awake and saw her current predicament, she instantly flew into a rage.
"Coward, and you... you little thing who may or may not be a Retainer, what are you doing to me!" The Herrscher of Thunder found herself suspended in the air, bound tightly in golden ropes. The ropes were threaded through her various joints, restraining her with precision and strength, yet the final result had an indescribable sense of shame to it.
Looking at the Herrscher of Thunder—her shapely figure accentuated by the golden ropes, hand-tied by Raiden Mei herself into a Kikkō-shibari—Chen Li nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, let's leave the Herrscher of Thunder here to reflect for a while. We should go deal with our current nemesis, Cocolia."
"Okay," Raiden Mei nodded obediently.
"Wait, get back here! Let me go, let me go, you two bastards, you adulterous pair!"
"Were we a bit too cruel? Her insults are so nasty."
"Just ignore her."
---o---
When Raiden Mei's consciousness reconnected with her body and she willed her eyes to open, she was greeted by the concerned faces of Chen Li and Kiana.
"It's Mei. The Herrscher of Thunder's 'everyone-is-trash' glare is impossible to fake," Kiana said, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it was Raiden Mei who had woken up.
"Everyone, I have returned." Raiden Mei sat up from Chen Li's lap, brimming with confidence.
Chen Li had successfully ignited her self-assurance.
She felt incredibly powerful right now.
"Go forth! Defeat the big boss Cocolia, save Nagazora City, and announce the return of the Raiden Queen to the world!" Chen Li declared.
Raiden Mei spread her hands, feeling a miraculous power surging within her. She instantly understood this new strength.
"Trash! Prepare to be reduced to atoms!" Raiden Mei looked at the mechs bombarding the Friends Circle shield, filled with confidence.
She strode out from the protection of the shield. Countless projectiles flew toward her, only to be blocked by the super-electromagnetic field that surrounded her, which insulated her from all physical and energy attacks. The moment any attack approached her, it was disintegrated into atoms.
Raiden Mei felt like she was invincible!
"Here's a sword." Chen Li tossed a long katana to Raiden Mei.
He had just asked Sakura for it; it should be a good fit for Mei.
"Allow me to demonstrate the power of a Menkyo Kaiden of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū!" Raiden Mei caught the katana, and it was instantly wreathed in the power of lightning!
Raiden Mei had learned swordsmanship from her father, Raiden Ryoma. A prodigy, she had earned the rank of Menkyo Kaiden in the Hokushin Ittō-ryū at a young age and had even developed her own understanding of the way of the sword.
Paired with the fully controllable authority of the Herrscher of Thunder, mere mechs were like clay chickens and pottery dogs!
Besides, if a machine like that gets fully electrified, it's bound to be scrapped.
Insulation?
There's no such thing as absolute insulation; it's all relative. Any substance composed of particles has a threshold at which it can be breached! It's just a matter of insufficient power output!
Raiden Mei felt absolutely euphoric.
Titan mechs? Trash! One slash, one kill!
Goushinnso Memento mechs? Trash! One kick, one kill!
Bronya, piloting Project Bunny 19C? Kicked aside like a stray dog on the street.
Cocolia was nothing more than a plaything in the palm of her hand!
That white-haired, one-armed uncle who appeared out of nowhere? Tra—
Raiden Mei's vision blurred, and then she was sent flying.
"..." Chen Li wondered if every Herrscher got arrogant after suddenly gaining immense power, but Raiden Mei certainly did.
She was having so much fun that Siegfried, who had suddenly appeared, swatted her away with his greatsword like a ping-pong ball.
Thankfully, the super-electromagnetic field around her was potent; otherwise, Chen Li would have had to watch an ad to revive her.
"Chen Li, didn't you say I was invincible?" Raiden Mei, now held securely in Chen Li's arms, looked up at him.
"Theoretically speaking, with your authority as the Herrscher of Thunder and your swordsmanship skills, no one in this world can beat you, except for a select few. You just happened to run into one of those select few," Chen Li explained.
"Wait, that's not right. I have a super-electromagnetic field around me that reduces people to atoms... How come you're okay?" It was only then that Raiden Mei realized Chen Li seemed completely unaffected.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm immune to lightning. But my clothes don't seem to be. Can you get down? I need to change," Chen Li said tactfully.
"Huh? Oh." Raiden Mei could clearly see that Chen Li's body wasn't being reduced to atoms from contact with her, but his clothes seemed to be gradually disappearing.
She could already feel his body heat.
Startled, Raiden Mei quickly jumped out of his arms.
"Dad!" Just as Raiden Mei turned her back to face the white-haired, one-armed uncle with vigilance, Kiana ran out, rushing towards the man who was carrying a greatsword on one shoulder, her face filled with emotion.
Siegfried's eyes were full of doubt and uncertainty when he saw Kiana.
After they had separated, Siegfried had actually been following Kiana, protecting her in secret. But earlier, he had sensed an unusual Honkai energy fluctuation in the city and had left for a while to investigate. He was only halfway through his investigation when he heard Sirin's declaration of her return. He rushed back as fast as he could, only to see the Herrscher of Thunder displaying her awesome power.
Siegfried had initially thought that the Herrscher personality, Sirin, had awakened inside Kiana and caused a big scene in Nagazora. But when he arrived, he found that his daughter seemed quite normal.
In any case, Siegfried didn't think the Herrscher of the Void's personality would ever call him "Dad." That would probably be more painful for her than death.
After all, the reason Siegfried had to separate from Kiana was that the Herrscher personality inside her couldn't stand him, and being around him for too long would cause her to awaken.
Seeing his daughter's overly clear eyes, which were impossible to fake, Siegfried let go of his suspicions. He planted his greatsword beside him and opened his single arm to Kiana.
Staying with Kiana for extended periods would trigger the Herrscher's awakening, but just a brief meeting shouldn't have any effect... right?
Then, just as Kiana was about to hug him, Siegfried saw her clear eyes instantly turn golden. She grabbed his only hand and gave him a perfect shoulder throw.
Thud!
Instant Herrscher mode! Seriously?
What the hell! A cheater!
But just as Siegfried quickly got up and grabbed his Sword of Flames, he looked at Kiana again and saw that her eyes were back to normal, and she wasn't attacking him.
This made him pause his intended counterattack.
"Dad, don't get worked up! Actually, the Herrscher personality inside me and I are gradually learning to coexist peacefully. She even gave me a lot of snacks when I was starving myself for three days out of four," Kiana, who had instantly understood that her account had been hijacked, quickly explained to Siegfried.
"Really?" Siegfried didn't believe her.
"Really! Look, with her permission, I can even summon the Subspace Lance. If I wanted to hurt you, Dad, couldn't I just use this to poke a few holes in you?" Kiana said, summoning the lance and symbolically poking Siegfried with it.
"..." Siegfried tensed up when Kiana summoned the lance, but seeing that she had no intention of harming him, he finally relaxed.
That's my daughter, able to reach a peaceful agreement with a Herrscher personality on her own!
"Come on, you smelly old man, give me a hug," Kiana said, opening her arms again.
Figuring the shoulder throw was just the Herrscher of the Void's way of expressing her dislike for him, Siegfried once again put down his Sword of Flames and reached out to Kiana.
Smack!
Kiana instantly switched to Herrscher mode again and gave Siegfried another shoulder throw.
"That's enough, Herrscher of the Void! You're too despicable!" Siegfried was furious.
You're just messing with me because you know I won't hit you while you're in my daughter's body, right?
Come out and fight me one-on-one if you have the guts!
"Dad, don't worry, I've calmed the Herrscher personality down. She promised she won't do it again. Come on, a hug."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely! I'm your daughter, how could I be smart enough to fall for the same trick twice?" Kiana said, patting her chest in assurance.
Trusting his daughter, Siegfried once again opened his arm.
This time, he stared intently into Kiana's eyes. Only when he saw that she didn't instantly switch to Herrscher mode did he finally relax.
Smack! Siegfried was shoulder-thrown again.
"Despicable Herrscher of the Void!"
Picking on a 40-year-old, one-armed middle-aged man! You cheat! You sneak!
"Oh, Dad, don't misunderstand. This time, I wanted to do the shoulder throw! I think the Herrscher of the Void has a point. A father-daughter reunion should include a little rebellious shock for the old man who ran off without a word!"
"Damn you, Herrscher of the Void! What have you been teaching my daughter?!" Siegfried trembled with rage.
"Okay, Dad, I'm serious this time. Come on, a hug!"
"..." Figuring that even the despicable Herrscher of the Void wouldn't trick him in the same way three times, Siegfried skeptically reached out his hand again.
Smack! Kiana instantly switched to Herrscher mode once more!
Having fallen for the same trick four times, Siegfried fell into deep thought.
Why is the Herrscher of the Void so evil!
Siegfried saw red! Siegfried wanted to eliminate all the Honkai in the world! Siegfried was entering artificial Honkai Eruption mode!
---o---
"Ying ying ying!"
"Ying ying ying!"
"Hahaha, my smelly old dad is so fun to play with." Kiana couldn't help but laugh as she held up the Yingying by his collar with one hand.
"Stop laughing, this is a legitimate treatment. Hurry up and take the snacks," Chen Li said.
"Oh." Kiana obediently took the snacks that the Yingying-fied Siegfried handed over.
And once Kiana, Siegfried's only remaining attachment in Nagazora City, had taken all the snacks, Siegfried popped back from his Yingying state to normal with a poof.
In a way, after using the [Mengyin Shen] Curio, people with only one friend had it the easiest, since they only had to visit one place.
"I feel much better, thanks," Siegfried said, praising Chen Li greatly after the burden was lifted.
A moment ago, being in close proximity to a Herrscher had triggered the Kaslana family's mental imprint to destroy the Honkai, which, combined with his rage, had instantly sent him into an artificial Honkai Eruption state. But the [Mengyin Shen] had hard-countered it.
"Even though that mascot costume you're wearing gives me a strange and inexplicable urge to hit you, you're a good person," Siegfried added after a moment of hesitation.
"...Is my outfit strange?" Chen Li, wearing his Golden Homu King suit, turned to ask Kiana and Raiden Mei.
"I think it looks great! Can I hug it?" Kiana asked, tilting her head.
For some reason, Kiana found Chen Li's outfit very pleasing to the eye.
"I feel that in this suit, Chen Li, you seem more like a sage. It looks respectable," Raiden Mei said.
Chen Li's outfit reminded her of the Homu Sword Saint, the one who had taught her Hokushin Ittō-ryū, who was her father in disguise.
"So, if you think it's weird, that's your problem, not mine," Chen Li said to Siegfried.
"So it's my problem?" Siegfried scratched his head.
"By the way, Chen Li, didn't you say you were weak, pitiful, and helpless? But you seem to have a lot of amazing items," Raiden Mei said, looking puzzled.
"That's normal, my friend. After all, I'm a support, a logistician, a forger. Isn't it normal for a forger to have some amazing items?"
"Is... is it?" Raiden Mei wasn't sure, but on second thought, the heroes who saved the world always seemed to have a childhood friend alchemist who was in love with them, prepared all their gear, and could conveniently produce a solution to any problem the hero encountered.
"Oh, right, there's this too. Becoming a Yingying helped you deal with the mental imprint to destroy the Honkai that's in your Kaslana bloodline, and this Senzu Bean can heal all your injuries, including your missing arm," Chen Li said, tossing a Senzu Bean to Siegfried.
"Wow, Chen Li, you have so many amazing items! You even have something like this?" Kiana was astonished.
"Just the basics. Besides, we need to deal with the matter at hand," Chen Li said, pointing to the two people tied up and hanging upside down from the ceiling rafters.
Cocolia and Bronya.
They had already relocated from Senba Academy to Raiden Mei's home.
According to Raiden Mei, her house was quite large.
"Oh, right. What should we do with them?"
"Ghk! Kill me! But please, let Bronya go," Cocolia was the first to speak.
"Oh, so now you decide to act like a good mother?"
"..." Cocolia fell silent. Bronya didn't speak up to defend her either.
Because Bronya's mouth had been gagged by Kiana.
This was special treatment Kiana had reserved for Bronya.
At least, Kiana was smiling happily while tying Bronya up, like a 16-year-old kid.
A dance for three was always too difficult.
The main trio would just have to become a duo.
"Cocolia is too evil. I recommend execution on the spot," Kiana said, raising her hand.
Just for planning to trigger the Third Eruption in Nagazora City, Cocolia deserved to be executed 300,000 times.
It was murder, blatant murder.
Although the Third Eruption was stopped by Sirin, if Sirin had been just one minute later, it would have already happened.
This constituted a factual crime to a certain extent.
"Can we have Cocolia rescue my father first, and then execute her?" Raiden Mei suggested.
When it came to dealing with Cocolia, no one could talk for three sentences without mentioning execution.
Bronya, on the other hand, was left to the side.
Because Bronya had a biochip in her brain controlled by Cocolia, everyone assumed she was just following orders and had no say in the matter.
Miraculously, after Raiden Mei zapped the biochip, its control program was fried, but the chip itself was largely undamaged.
But considering she was on a different side, she was still tied up.
"As for rescuing your father, there's no need for Cocolia to get involved. Yakumo Yukari!" Chen Li called out.
"Coming, coming! Yakumo Yukari Express, guaranteed delivery! Here, this is your dad." A gap suddenly appeared in mid-air, and a person fell out in front of Raiden Mei.
The reason Yakumo Yukari had only appeared in this world for three seconds was that she had immediately gone to rescue someone.
"Father!" Raiden Mei was shocked to see the figure before her and quickly helped him up.
"Yo, Raiden Ryoma, you're here too?" Siegfried, who was overjoyed to find his arm had actually grown back after eating the Senzu Bean, gave Raiden Ryoma a friendly greeting.
"I didn't expect you to still be alive either, Siegfried," Raiden Ryoma said, forcing a response, though he was still shaken by his trip through Yakumo Yukari's gap.
Siegfried and Raiden Ryoma's acquaintance went back to the Second Eruption. Back then, Raiden Ryoma thought Siegfried was a lazy bum and couldn't understand why the Alliance Leader, Welt, thought so highly of the man, so he gave Siegfried a glare.
From that moment on, it was love at first sight... okay, they just knew each other.
But no one could deny that the "allure of that one glance" from Raiden Ryoma was the beginning of their bond.
"Hey, Dad, you know Raiden Mei's father?"
"Know him? I more than know him," Siegfried nodded.
"That doesn't explain anything!"
"This must be Kiana, right? Are you not afraid that being near her will trigger something?" Raiden Ryoma said, glancing at Kiana.
The fact that this Kiana was the vessel for the Herrscher of the Void was known to the higher-ups of both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy.
When Siegfried defected from Schicksal with the real Kiana and K-423, he had arranged for Anti-Entropy to receive them.
Even Siegfried knew to find a new job before quitting his old one, but some people just don't get it.
"You might not believe this, and I don't either, but Kiana seems to have reconciled with her Herrscher personality. Besides, you should be worrying about your own daughter right now," Siegfried said casually.
Although he had been shoulder-thrown three times by the damn Second Herrscher, Siegfried was quite pleased with the current outcome.
"What's wrong with my daughter?"
"Your daughter became the Herrscher of Thunder, and you're asking me what's wrong?"
"What? My daughter has become the Herrscher of Thunder? The Third Eruption has begun! Daughter, are you alright?" Raiden Ryoma froze for a moment before frantically looking over Raiden Mei.
"I'm fine, Father, I'm okay. With his help, I successfully defeated the Herrscher personality!" Raiden Mei said, looking at Chen Li.
"Thank you," Raiden Ryoma said gratefully to Chen Li.
Raiden Ryoma had spent a fortune to create a masterpiece, the Plasma Kagehide—a weapon said to be able to freeze even a Herrscher—to stop his daughter from potentially reawakening as the Herrscher of Thunder.
He hadn't even had a chance to use it before the Herrscher was dealt with.
Raiden Ryoma felt it was a great pity.
A pity that he couldn't show off his skills!
"Cocolia was about to artificially create the Third Eruption to turn your daughter into a Herrscher, but the Second Herrscher stopped her, so Nagazora City wasn't affected much," Siegfried said.
"What? The Second Herrscher became a savior? Wait, where did the Second Herrscher come from? Your daughter?"
"How do you not know anything?"
"I was in prison, what am I supposed to know? By the way, why is Cocolia here?"
"Your daughter captured her."
"Then why is she tied up like that? Which one of you tied her?" Looking at the Kikkō-shibari-bound Cocolia and Bronya, Raiden Ryoma's gaze fell on the two men, Chen Li and Siegfried.
"Your daughter tied them."
"..." Raiden Ryoma looked at his daughter in disbelief.
Mei! Who corrupted you?!
"Ghk! Kill me!" Cocolia repeated her previous line, like an NPC.
"Alright! I'll kill you right now!" Raiden Ryoma picked up a chair and swung it at Cocolia.
Damn you, Cocolia! Die!
How dare you touch my daughter?
I'll smash you to death in three seconds!
"Wait!" Cocolia suddenly shouted.
"What is it? Spit out your last words, I'm about to smash you to death!" Raiden Ryoma's execution was swift!
"Killing me is useless! But keeping me alive is useful to you. Do you know about the World Serpent?" Cocolia said.
"World Serpent?" Raiden Ryoma paused.
"As the leader of Anti-Entropy's reformist faction, during the days when the conservatives were inactive, I planted many World Serpent members in Anti-Entropy and established a deep cooperation with them. If I don't tell you who the spies are, you'll never be able to outmaneuver the World Serpent," Cocolia said, planning to sell out the World Serpent to save her own life.
She could tell that Raiden Ryoma genuinely wanted to kill her.
"The World Serpent is an ancient organization that has been lurking in the shadows of the world, waiting for the right moment to strike! They are the masterminds pulling the strings and guiding our entire civilization! Both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy have their spies! And I know quite a bit about them," Cocolia continued.
"..." Raiden Ryoma was conflicted.
"The World Serpent, you say? Yakumo Yukari!" Chen Li called out again.
"Coming, coming! Yakumo Yukari Express, mission accomplished!" The pleasant voice rang out again. A gap appeared in front of Chen Li, and a figure fell out.
"There, the World Serpent you wanted," Chen Li said with a nod of his chin.
"Gray Serpent? You were captured too?" Cocolia was stunned.
Gray Serpent, how are you so useless?
"But even if you capture Gray Serpent, it's useless. He told me his individual bodies can die at any time; he doesn't care about them. Because the Serpent is a creature that will not yield to death!" Cocolia's mouth was still hard.
"Hmph, Gray Serpent, I know you won't cooperate with us, but in five seconds, you will be prostrating yourself before me!" Chen Li was not at all surprised by Gray Serpent's fearlessness as he stood up and picked up his black umbrella.
Gray Serpent had a large number of identical bodies, all linked to a single consciousness network, sharing the same memories.
So, Gray Serpent didn't care about his own life or death.
But it didn't matter. Mobius would make a move.
"I am willing, esteemed Lord Chen Li."
"I knew you wouldn't... wait, what did you say?"
"According to the agreement you made with my creator, Lady Mobius, all of her experiments belong to you, and that includes me," Gray Serpent said, bowing slightly and respectfully to Chen Li.
"Oh, right, I guess that did happen," Chen Li said, suddenly remembering.
That's how the Compulsory Transaction Gold Coin worked. Because it was cheap to make and all its stat points were put into [Compulsion], its other functions were a bit lacking.
No, wait a minute.
Oh no. Am I the biggest mastermind in this world?
"Alright, Cocolia, any last words?" Raiden Ryoma, although not knowing what had just happened, knew that things had reached a perfect conclusion and picked up the chair again.
"Ghk! Kill me!" Cocolia had nothing more to say.
Fine, fine, so that's how you want to play it? Cocolia knew the World Serpent was unreliable, but she never expected them to be this unreliable. They sold her out before she even had a chance to sell them out!
---o---
In the end, Cocolia did not die.
It wasn't because Chen Li and the others had a sudden attack of saintliness, but because Chen Li proposed another suggestion that everyone else found to be quite demonic.
A punishment method that made even Raiden Ryoma and Siegfried's blood run cold.
"What is this thing?"
"As you can see, a slime," Chen Li said.
"Can this kind of slime sprout tentacles?" Kiana asked curiously.
"..." Siegfried looked at his daughter with a complicated expression.
Dear Kiana, who taught you this stuff?
Why does seeing a slime make you think of tentacles?
"Don't get any funny ideas. Becoming a slime is a punishment, a punishment for sinners. Let me see Cocolia's sentence... oh ho, 3.15 million years? A nice round number." Chen Li was quite shocked after checking Cocolia's sentence.
This was the longest sentence he had ever seen.
"What? That old hag Cocolia can live that long? She's getting off easy!" The thought of Cocolia trying to send the entire city of Nagazora to meet God made Kiana feel that letting her live that long was a bargain.
"I mean that Cocolia will maintain her slime form for over 3 million years. But the time spent as a slime also counts as her lifespan. In other words, if she can't naturally live for 3 million years, then she will die immediately after her sentence ends," Chen Li explained.
The effect of the [The Cleaner] Miracle Card was meant to punish sinners.
You couldn't just use its effect as a sealing technique, could you?
Like, if medical technology 100 years ago couldn't cure a disease, you just use the card to turn the person into a slime, and then, under the pretext of "believing in the wisdom of future generations," you seal them in the slime and let them be released after their 100-year sentence is up to continue treatment?
In your dreams!
Punishment is punishment, and lifespan is lifespan.
---o---