"How can this be?! I can't use my Herrscher authority anymore! Could it be those puppets messing with me?!" Kiana frantically tried to activate her power, but nothing happened.
"Kiana, calm down."
"Mei, how am I supposed to stay calm? These are the powers Elias gave me! Damn it, those guys have gone too far!"
Feeling both the Gem of Haste and the Gem of Desire inside her fall completely silent and unresponsive, Kiana's face filled with anxiety. She had no idea what was going on.
However, even though her Herrscher powers were gone, for Kiana—who had already become a Chimera MANTIS—the Herrscher authorities were no longer strictly necessary.
But those powers had been given to her by Elias.
The fact that they had been taken away by the Herrschers of Ten Thousand was something she simply couldn't accept.
At that moment, the girl even had the urge to activate her ultimate Artificial Cascade and charge straight into the Theater of Domination, slaughtering everything in sight to take back what she had lost.
And it wasn't just her.
At that very moment, Mei, Bronya, and Ana also had their expressions change drastically. Clutching their chests, they revealed the same disbelief Kiana had shown half a minute earlier.
Mei: "How is this possible? My authority is gone too!"
Bronya: "Bronya is the same. This shouldn't be possible. What exactly is happening?"
Ana: "It's not just my authority that's been taken. I... I can feel my Honkai energy decreasing as well."
The three of them were all struck with shock.
They were certain they had already eliminated all the attacking Herrschers of Ten Thousand. Even though each of them had faced thousands of puppets, with their strength, they hadn't suffered even the slightest injury.
With such overwhelming dominance, how could their authorities have been stolen?
The atmosphere in the dormitory instantly became tense. No one had expected that the weakest Herrscher—one that had only hidden and fled in the Previous Era—could now accomplish something like this.
Elias' expression turned solemn. Although there had been many gaps in the intelligence earlier, he had already considered multiple possibilities—and now, he chose to respond using the worst-case scenario among them.
At this moment, the white-haired boy had once again become the absolute commander who had led Fire Moth fifty thousand years ago.
"Hiss... ha! Theresa, Cecilia, Himeko—you three go check the current situation in the academy immediately. See how the Herrschers from the Previous Era are doing."
"We'll go right away!"
"Kiana, come here. Let me examine your body."
"O-okay!"
"Mm... as expected, your authorities have been taken. The Herrscher Cores are still inside your body, but you can't establish any connection to them—as if a thin thread is drawing their power away. And you still have to bear the cost of using that power yourselves."
"Huh? Th-then what should we do?!"
"We can only give up on the Herrscher Cores for now. Mei, Bronya, and Ana—come here. I'll extract your Cores."
As he spoke, Elias had already equipped the Hand of the Void. He then directly reached into Kiana's chest and pulled out the Gem of Haste and the Gem of Desire.
Mm, and while he was at it, he also gave her cat ears a quick rub to relieve some of the current frustration.
Soon after, the Herrscher Cores of Ana, Mei, and Bronya were all extracted as well.
The Gem of Reason, the Gem of Serenity, the Gem of Conquest, the Gem of the Void, the Gem of Stasis, the Gem of Destruction, along with Kiana's Gem of Haste and Gem of Desire—
A total of eight Herrscher gems now lay before them, all dim and devoid of their former brilliance.
Elias let out a slight breath of relief. The Herrschers of Ten Thousand—also known as the Herrscher of Dominance—did not directly seize other Herrschers' Cores. Instead, they took the authorities within them.
Therefore, in their eyes, a Core housed within a vessel held greater value. While they could technically use it themselves, if someone else could bear the cost instead, they would naturally prefer that option.
Thus, if the Cores remained inside the four girls, they would be exploited to the maximum extent by the Herrschers of Ten Thousand. Although extracting them couldn't change the fact that their authorities had already been taken, it could at least minimize further losses.
At the very least, when the Herrschers of Ten Thousand used those powers, Kiana and the others would no longer be forced to pay the cost and consumption.
"Come to think of it... Elysia and Senti are fine?"
"Mm, we're fine," Elysia replied.
"Uh, I wasn't attacked by those guys," the Herrscher of Sentience shrugged. After all, she had wandered off midway through the trip and gone wherever she pleased. The Herrschers of Ten Thousand probably never found her.
"That's still strange. Why did Kiana and the others lose their authorities, but nothing happened to Elysia? Could it be that the Herrscher of Origin—on par with the Herrscher of Finality—is outside their range of theft? No, that shouldn't be the case."
Elias rejected his own speculation. The authority of Origin could indeed be seized by the Authority of Domination—he himself had proven that fifty thousand years ago.
"Uh, I think this time it's thanks to Mobius," Elysia raised her hand and said.
"Huh? What did Snake do?" Elias was momentarily stunned.
"Well, all the Herrschers of Ten Thousand that attacked us were taken care of by Mobius alone. I didn't even get a chance to act."
As she spoke, Elysia hugged the loli-sized Mobius in her arms and rubbed her cheek against her—only to receive a merciless slap in return.
Mobius crossed her arms and let out a snort.
The reason she had personally crushed the incoming Herrschers of Ten Thousand was simple—she had accumulated far too much stress from traveling with Elysia.
For someone like Mobius, who preferred to stay cooped up in her laboratory all day, even with the immense stamina of a MANTIS, she had no interest in wasting it on walking or traveling.
Originally, she had wanted to just lie down in a hotel and sleep all day. But every single day, Elysia dragged her out sightseeing, running all over the place. If she dared to stay put, Elysia would simply drag her along without mercy.
She couldn't beat the pink elf, nor could she escape. She had already been extremely frustrated—and then, at that exact moment, a thousand foul-mouthed Herrschers of Ten Thousand showed up.
And so, those unlucky souls became Mobius' outlet for venting.
After activating her Artificial Cascade, the Infinite Ouroboros smashed them into pieces, tore them apart, devoured them, poisoned them, dissolved them, and even dissected them for research...
As a result, Snake's mood was thoroughly vented.
And Elysia successfully avoided having her authority taken.
Elias: "Phew... thank goodness. That's a relief."
Elysia: "???"
Elias: "Ely, remember this—any of us losing our authority is acceptable, but yours absolutely cannot be taken. Absolutely not. Under no circumstances!"
Hearing such an extremely serious and solemn warning, Elysia finally understood. If her authority were taken, what the Herrschers of Ten Thousand would do next was obvious.
The Herrschers of Ten Thousand in this era had clearly fully sided with the Honkai, becoming an extremely rare type of Herrscher willing to fight for it.
If they obtained the authority of Origin, they would undoubtedly make a wish to bring the Honkai's curse back upon every Herrscher.
They would turn all Herrschers back into their puppets—into the kind of killing machines that stood completely opposed to humanity in the Previous Era.
And the Herrschers of Ten Thousand would certainly not bear the cost of that wish themselves like Elias once did. At that point... Elysia might very well face death because of it.
That was something Elias absolutely could not accept.
So...
"Please, Ely. Sit this one out. This Herrscher is far too dangerous for you," Elias said as he wrapped an arm around her waist, his heterochromatic eyes staring directly into her blue ones.
"But... I want to help..."
Elysia revealed a conflicted expression. She wanted to say that she could protect herself, but Elias shook his head, pressing a finger to her lips and cutting off the rest of her words.
"Next time. Not this time. I won't allow it—whether for the sake of this world, or for myself."
This was both selfless and selfish.
If Elysia's authority were taken, and the Herrschers of Ten Thousand made a wish to bind all Herrschers once more under the Honkai, then the Current Era would likely face total destruction.
After all, the total number of Herrschers in the world had likely already exceeded eleven thousand. If that many Herrschers simultaneously turned against humanity and rampaged—
The Current Era would probably be completely destroyed within a minute. After all, Elias himself was also a Herrscher.
And if Elysia died, given Elias' feelings for her, he would undoubtedly lose his sanity and fall into darkness.
"I now issue an order as the Supreme Commander of Fire Moth, and as the leader of the Fifteen Flame-Chasers—Ely, you will stay home and not take any action this time... don't force me to do what I did in the ninth cycle (imprisonment)."
Elias pinched Elysia's cheek, then pulled her into a protective embrace. This was the one thing he would never allow the Herrschers of Ten Thousand to take. Anyone who dared come even one step closer would be torn apart.
"Waaah... o-okay, I understand," Elysia buried her face in Elias' chest and sighed helplessly.
She knew she had no chance of taking the field this time.
What Elias had just said was not a lover's request, but a king's command—an absolute law that even Elysia could not defy, something binding to anyone born in the Previous Era.
Because he was the savior. His words were the rules.
Elysia felt a little melancholic, but she also understood that Elias' seriousness was necessary. The authority of Origin was of utmost importance and could not afford even the slightest mistake.
To put it more gravely, the safety of Miss Pink Elf was now tied to the fate of the world.
"...Don't worry, Ely. I'll protect you. From now on, not a single puppet will appear before you," Elias said gently, stroking her head.
"Mm, alright then. This time I'll just be a vase princess protected by her prince... sigh," Elysia nestled in Elias' arms, feeling completely at ease.
"Ahem! That's enough, you two. What do we do next? How are we supposed to deal with these Herrschers of Ten Thousand? And we still haven't figured out how they stole the authorities," the Herrscher of Sentience said, twitching at the corner of her eye as she knocked on the table.
"What else is there to do? Wait for the next puppet to show up, dig out its Core, then charge straight into their base—the Theater of Domination—and start slaughtering. I assume that theater still exists," Elias said casually, playing with Elysia's elf ears while resting his chin on his hand.
He didn't believe the Honkai would remove the Theater of Domination.
After all, it must have learned from the Previous Era—when Elias mobilized the entire population to hunt down the Herrscher of a Thousand, reporting and investigating every suspicious individual until they had nowhere to hide, like a rat crossing the street.
Creating a Theater of Domination in a separate space as the Herrschers of Ten Thousand's base would prevent him from using the same method again.
"The Herrschers of Ten Thousand we defeated earlier already had their Cores disappear. Now we can only wait for a new one to appear, then use it to locate the Theater of Domination before launching our attack," Elias said as he took out a replica of the Judgment of Shamash and began sharpening it, preparing to make his next round of killing more efficient.
"Oh, right. As for how the Herrschers of Ten Thousand steal authorities—I think I might already know. Most likely, it's through [contact]."
"Huh? Contact?" the Herrscher of Sentience tilted her head.
"Yeah. I just remembered—one of the puppets that attacked Hua and me said that it only needed to touch me. So I think as long as they make contact, they can steal a Herrscher's authority."
And because of that, neither Elias nor Elysia—who hadn't directly engaged those puppets—had their authorities taken.
(Tch! This time, the Honkai really went all out strengthening the Herrscher of Dominance... not only did their numbers increase at least tenfold, even their ability to steal authorities has been enhanced.)
Originally, the Herrscher of Dominance stole authorities through direct clashes of power—the strong devouring the weak, with the victor bringing the loser's authority under their control.
Simple and straightforward—but it came with a risk.
If the target Herrscher was stronger than them, the Herrscher of Dominance would suffer backlash, and even their own Authority of Domination could be disrupted.
But clearly, that weakness had been removed in this version.
After all, this time they had launched simultaneous attacks against all Herrschers of the Current Era—except for the Herrscher of Finality and the Herrscher of Sentience.
And the weakest among those targets were already dual-Core ascended Herrschers.
(Ignoring differences in strength, removing the need for the Theater of Domination, and no longer requiring the target to activate their authority first... reduced to simply stealing authority through contact alone? Tch. This version of the Herrscher of Dominance is truly absurd.)