Let's rewind time a little.
Somewhere on the seabed.
The battle between Kevin and Kali's true form had reached a desperate stalemate. They remained locked in a prolonged deadlock, neither able to gain the upper hand.
Without a doubt, in terms of individual combat strength, Kevin far surpassed Kali. Yet the situation had devolved into the same kind of impasse he'd faced when pursuing Kiana.
Kali leveraged her numerous pre-arranged advantages—the undersea environment and her own bizarre, ever-changing abilities—to constantly evade Kevin, who was constrained by the fact that he couldn't kill her.
Meanwhile, Kevin, desperate for information about the strange, purple-black cocoon, racked his brain for a way to capture her alive.
But as time ticked by, mere seconds after Kali had shattered his instantly-formed, wide-area ice field with ultrasonic waves, the white-haired young man (?) realized he couldn't do it.
So, he swiftly switched from an all-out assault to a strategy of entanglement. While doing everything in his power to delay Kali and prevent her escape, he activated the long-range communication device—custom-made by Vill-V—that he carried with him, relaying the situation to everyone at the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters.
Just moments later...
Bzzzz~
Bzzzz~
Bzzzz~
Drawing on her previous experience, Prometheus immediately drove the Void Archives into its "Mimicry: Cosmic Juggernaut" state, executing a series of increasingly precise long-range spatial teleports.
In an instant, personnel across various locations were swapped. All key individuals requiring protection—such as Eden's original body and Dr. Einstein—were temporarily transferred to the temporary shelter where MEI and Vill-V were located, a place previously guarded by Aponia.
With that, the security forces originally dispersed across the globe to protect them were now freed.
Elysia, Aponia, Eden, Su, Sakura... five Sims.
And Elysia's original body.
A total of six individuals were teleported to the sea region where Kali's true form was located.
Including Kevin, who had arrived earlier, seven Flame-Chaser-level combatants now surrounded the Third Herrscher.
As for the temporary shelter...
With Aponia's temporary departure, to prevent Kali from remotely commanding her "Spawn" to attack the shelter as a diversion, Sim Hua and Fu Hua—both capable of using Fenghuang Down—joined forces with Kalpas (another "Fire-type combatant"), as well as the Sims of Kosma, Griseo, and Vill-V. Together with a contingent of Girl Dolls, they established a solid defensive line.
Now, all they had to do was provide support and quietly await the outcome of the battle between Kevin and the other six.
Everyone knew that since Kevin placed such importance on the bizarre purple-black cocoon, and Kali would never cooperate willingly, their only option was to quickly read her crucial memories, and then...
Immediately shift from a pursuit to an extermination campaign.
This was the fundamental reason why Aponia, who had recently been the unwavering pillar guarding their rear, had been redeployed.
Possessing the "Discipline," her Mental Perception-type abilities were undoubtedly the most efficient.
Of course, considering Kali's unique nature, MEI had taken precautions. She had Prometheus teleport a large number of Girl Dolls to the battlefield.
They would not participate in combat.
Their true purpose was to monitor the battlefield, scanning for any potential... new enemies.
And, if Kali somehow managed to temporarily escape the lock of the seven Flame-Chaser-level combatants, they would begin tracking her trail.
And drag her back out in the shortest possible time.
Everyone knew:
"The Third Herrscher's main body must not be allowed to escape."
"The failure in India must not be repeated."
And so...
Krak... krak...
Kevin, Sakura, and the two Elysias all possessed ice-based attacks.
Sakura, in particular, was the fastest of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers. She could relentlessly pin Kali down without killing her.
The four of them worked in concert, creating an opportunity for Aponia and Su, the two Mental Perception-type MANTISes.
Kali had already shut down most of her senses.
Having absorbed the memories of two Sim Mobiuses, she knew that the nun named Aponia specialized in using hearing to invade others' minds.
The MANTIS named Su, on the other hand, favored visual intrusion.
Of course, Mental Perception-type abilities were hardly so inconvenient.
In truth, both Su and Aponia could directly invade a target's mind without any medium, just as Su had remotely controlled Kalpas's body during the Tragedy of Binding in the original timeline.
But every coin has two sides.
The effectiveness of such medium-less mental invasions drops sharply when the target resists fiercely.
Otherwise, Su and Aponia could simply mind-control every Herrscher they encountered, effortlessly neutralizing all but the Herrscher of Binding without anyone noticing.
In any case...
"I'm close to retrieving the key memories."
With Su's assistance, Aponia was nearing the truth.
She "saw" the all-out battle that had taken place in the Far East coastal waters: Fu Hua versus a mentally unstable Raiden Mei.
On the seabed, surrounded by seven Flame-Chaser-level combatants, Kali's resistance weakened as her counterattacks were systematically dismantled. Kevin, Sakura, and the two Elysias gradually restricted her movements.
From the moment the seven gathered, the battle had become completely one-sided in less than two and a half minutes.
And this was with the Flame-Chasers holding back from delivering a killing blow.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
At least, that's how it seemed to the members of the Newborn World Serpent.
They were moments away from obtaining intelligence on the eerie, purple-black Cocoon.
But just then...
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The group of Girl Dolls monitoring the battlefield and providing support detected a rapidly approaching threat.
It was a streak of extremely fast red lightning.
Her movement speed was truly unbelievable.
Screech!
Less than half a minute earlier, the surveillance satellites deployed by the Newborn World Serpent had only detected a "red dot" with an extremely high Honkai Energy signature. On the world map displayed on the monitoring screen, it moved at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It departed from the Mu Continent and traveled north.
In just over twenty seconds, it had crossed half the planet, from the equatorial region to the vicinity of the Arctic Ocean.
Then, it plunged instantly into the icy waters.
Yes, Kali's true body was hidden beneath the Arctic Ocean.
This was the fundamental reason why Kevin hadn't used the Judgement of Shamash earlier, and why Sim Hua, Fu Hua, and Kalpas were absent from the high-level combatants who later arrived to provide support.
A Herrscher capable of exploiting geography against all of Earth's human civilization was truly a formidable foe.
And now...
"Another Herrscher!"
As the surrounding Girl Dolls detected the rapidly approaching high-energy signature, Kevin and the other six simultaneously received a remote communication from MEI.
Instantly...
"From the equator to the pole in half a minute?"
"What kind of Herrscher is this?"
Among the seven besieging Kali's true body, Su's expression flickered.
At the same time, a smile bloomed on the face of the besieged Kali.
Her reinforcements had finally arrived.
She knew the two Mental Perception-type MANTISes were forcibly reading her memories.
But they had made two mistakes.
First, Kali's memories were incredibly vast. Even a precise search would take considerable time.
This played right into her hands.
And second...
Kali herself had no idea what the strange, purple-black cocoon actually was.
Therefore...
"!!!"
Having finally accessed the crucial memory, Aponia's face showed an expression of utter shock, a sight almost unheard of for her.
Just as Kali had anticipated.
Aponia had only seen the process: Kali attempting to devour Raiden Mei's severed arm, only to be harmed by it, and then, through a series of coincidences, "hatching" the strange, purple-black cocoon.
In other words, the cocoon had never been part of Kali's meticulously crafted "plan."
"This is bad!"
Connecting this revelation to the current situation, Aponia instantly realized what was happening.
Today's battle had once again fallen into the enemy's scheme.
To summarize:
"I was waiting for reinforcements. What were you waiting for?"
The smile on Kali's face was a silent, mocking taunt that echoed through the deep sea.
Just then...
BOOM!
A bizarre bolt of red lightning, which turned everything in its path black and white, shot across the entire seabed battlefield.
The Girl Dolls were truly unlucky.
They had only just been created, yet they had already encountered the one natural enemy they least wanted to face at this stage.
Yes.
It wasn't just the influence of Nihility.
Like Seele, who had been born and subsequently defeated, this newborn Herrscher's Authority had undergone subtle, targeted changes due to the presence of Kevin, Fu Hua, the various Sims, and even Prometheus.
Its extreme, almost uncanny speed was just one manifestation of this.
Now, red lightning raged across the seabed.
Taking advantage of the environment, it moved like a fish in water.
It wasn't just the Girl Dolls.
Even Kevin and the others were caught in the aftershocks, their movements hindered to varying degrees.
Their mobility was disrupted, and all of them found their movements restricted to some degree.
The terrain advantage, it seemed, was on the enemy's side.
Both Aponia and Eden's Sim could use lightning-element attacks.
But that red lightning was no ordinary electricity.
And its master...
Whoosh~
With savage force, she appeared in an instant beside Kali's main body.
When Kevin saw her familiar face...
"Raiden Mei?"
This development was completely beyond his expectations.
Moreover...
Shwing~
A merciless slash.
The red lightning blade swept through the area, draining all color from the world.
The purple-haired girl with twin horns seemed to dislike... no, she utterly despised that name.
It was something even "God" detested.
Therefore, she refused to be called that.
She...
was simply the Herrscher of Thunder.