The Newborn World Serpent's current plan for subjugating the Herrscher of Thunder did not actually rely on Sakura killing such a troublesome, impossibly fast target with a single strike.
Instead, Sakura's role was to use the Key of Corruption and restrain the enemy's movements, even if only for a moment.
And then…
"Trap the Herrscher of Thunder inside a World Bubble."
A few days earlier, MEI had personally outlined this step during an operational meeting.
The inspiration for the plan was obvious.
It came from the extreme measure taken by a certain blond bastard who had betrayed his allies during the previous operation against the Fourth Herrscher, Seele.
Just like the Herrscher of Death, the Herrscher of Thunder possessed no Authority capable of spatial teleportation.
So if she was too fast for almost anyone on their side to stop her from simply fleeing…
Then they would choose a relatively stable World Bubble and turn it into an enclosed arena.
An "Octagon."
A battlefield where the Herrscher of Thunder could no longer exploit her greatest advantage.
Once trapped inside, their chances of successfully subjugating her would rise dramatically.
But for any of that to work, Sakura first had to strike the Herrscher of Thunder with Jizo Mitama.
That would allow Rin, effectively the weapon spirit of the Twelfth Divine Key, to infect the Herrscher of Thunder with the Ultimate Virus.
If they were fortunate enough, that alone might end the battle.
And even if the Divine Key lacked the power to completely kill or incapacitate her, the infection should still be enough to briefly interfere with her movements.
That brief opening was all MEI needed.
While wearing the Key of Blankness, she could use the Authority of the Void to forcibly transfer the Herrscher of Thunder into the designated World Bubble.
But now…
That entire plan had fallen apart before it could even begin.
From another perspective, perhaps that was fortunate.
Otherwise…
One only had to look at what happened to Kali after she tried to devour the Herrscher of Thunder's severed arm.
Rin had once been the Herrscher of Corruption in the original timeline. After willingly becoming the Twelfth Divine Key, her existence had essentially become an Ultimate Virus capable of infecting even inorganic matter.
But attempting to infect the body of a Self-Annihilator saturated with the Path Power of Nihility was another matter entirely.
The danger was enormous.
Rin had known that from the beginning.
Even so, she had already prepared herself to die.
Just like Sim Su had before her.
No…
At this point, that description was no longer limited to Rin.
With the Nihility embryo liable to hatch at any moment, everyone had already staked their lives on this final struggle.
They had loaded every last bullet into the chamber.
There was nothing left in reserve.
That was also why Kevin, as a "Returnee," no longer tried to stop MEI from recklessly using the Key of Blankness.
This era had no room left for caution.
One mistake could mean extinction.
On the ground…
"She sensed what we were planning!"
MEI stared upward with a grave expression, looking at the face in the sky that was identical to her own.
As the person Kevin cherished above all others in this life, she immediately made a decision.
"Activate the second contingency—"
"…!" ×5
Before MEI could finish, all five people around her reacted at once.
The Herrscher of Thunder, who had stopped abruptly in midair, suddenly shot backward and opened a vast distance between them.
Just moments earlier, MEI had intended to have Sakura, the fastest among them, coordinate with Fu Hua and Sim Hua, whose speed was only slightly inferior, and force the Herrscher of Thunder into a close-range stalemate.
At the same time, Aponia would use her psychic abilities from a concealed position to momentarily restrain the Herrscher's mind.
The method would be different, but the objective remained unchanged.
As soon as the Herrscher of Thunder was pinned down for even an instant, MEI would teleport her into the prepared World Bubble.
But now…
"She saw through that too?"
MEI held her breath, her mind racing.
"How…?"
"How did she know?"
Almost at the exact same moment…
Far above them, the Herrscher of Thunder, who had just retreated, uttered nearly identical words.
"How…"
"How did she know?"
Only the pauses were slightly longer.
The coincidence was unnerving.
And if someone had been close enough to examine the Herrscher of Thunder carefully, they would have noticed something else.
Her missing left arm had changed.
From the stump now extended a crimson-red "Blood Hand."
Kali's handiwork.
Naturally, after the agony of her previous attempt, Kali was not stupid enough to assimilate Raiden Mei's flesh again.
This time, the Blood Hand functioned more like a prosthetic limb.
Its purpose was simple.
Restore the Herrscher of Thunder's full combat capability.
But that was only part of it.
"The neural connection is still stable."
"Yes. It works remarkably well."
The Bloody Little Snake coiled around the Herrscher of Thunder's neck like a scarf spoke in a human voice.
A closer look would reveal something disturbing.
The snake was not simply wrapped around her.
Part of its body had split into extremely fine tendrils that clung to the Herrscher of Thunder's skin and pierced into her flesh like invasive electrodes.
Several extended even deeper.
All the way to her spine.
This was the "trump card" the Herrscher of Blood and Herrscher of Thunder had developed together over the past several days.
Through this neural connection, the two Herrschers could complement each other and achieve far greater combat effectiveness than either could manage alone.
The Herrscher of Blood could temporarily interfere with, or even directly control, the Herrscher of Thunder's body.
Much like Doctor Octopus's mechanical arms in Spider-Man 2, Kali could react to dangers the Herrscher of Thunder herself had failed to notice and move her body accordingly.
More importantly, this connection was not assimilation.
It was merely a physical interface linked to the nervous system, more akin to attaching removable high-tech equipment to the body.
Because of that, it did not provoke the Path Power of Nihility into retaliating.
Kali had already tested the limits extensively with the Herrscher of Thunder's cooperation.
She now knew exactly how deeply she could connect herself before crossing the threshold that would trigger Nihility's backlash.
As for the Herrscher of Thunder…
"If I didn't know Kali was genuinely native to this world, I'd almost suspect she was a transmigrator who had read A Certain Magical Index."
Watching everything unfold from the sidelines, Ling Ke could not help but comment.
"Heh."
"She practically copied Accelerator's electrode setup."
Naturally, no one else could understand what he meant.
But his comparison was remarkably accurate.
After Kali devoured the genetic material of countless high-ranking and even ancient Honkai Beasts, she had gained far more than the ability to construct a massive "Spawn" network through which she could remotely project her consciousness.
Her computational ability had also increased to an absurd degree.
And the fundamental nature of the Herrscher of Thunder's Authority was…
Control over electromagnetic force.
Its outward manifestation could differ depending on the civilization and the individual wielding the Core.
Her current absurd speed, for example, was achieved through something resembling "becoming lightning."
In simpler terms…
Elementalization.
But no matter how the Authority manifested, its underlying nature remained the same.
Electromagnetic force.
And if that power were pushed far enough, controlled with sufficient precision, and supported by overwhelming computational ability…
Its possible applications became terrifying.
After all, electromagnetism was one of the four fundamental interactions of the universe.
Creating magnetic fields.
Interfering with brainwaves.
Manipulating electronic systems.
Those were merely the obvious applications.
Surface-level tricks.
At a deeper, microscopic scale…
The possibilities expanded enormously.
From the atomic level upward, as long as one did not attempt to directly manipulate nuclear forces or challenge extreme gravitational phenomena, electromagnetic control could influence almost everything encountered in ordinary matter.
Magnetic fields could repel or attract objects.
Chemical bonds could potentially be manipulated to alter the structure of matter.
Light could be generated and focused into destructive beams.
With enough energy, electromagnetic radiation could be pushed to catastrophic extremes.
And when applied to living organisms, the implications became even more frightening.
Nerves.
Muscles.
Electrical impulses in the brain.
The biochemical processes supporting thought itself.
In terms of sheer versatility, sufficiently advanced control over electromagnetic force could become even more frightening than the combined Authorities of Blood and Death.
But there was an important limitation.
An ability's theoretical possibilities meant nothing without enough output, precision, and computational capacity to realize them.
Ignoring those limitations and discussing only what an Authority could theoretically accomplish was meaningless.
The Herrscher of Thunder alone could never perform operations requiring that degree of microscopic precision.
It would be like trying to run a modern AAA game on a cheap computer from the CRT-monitor era.
The hardware simply could not keep up.
But now…
Kali had changed that.
By combining her own Authority with the Sesha genes she had acquired from Sim Mobius, Kali had effectively installed a genuine external supercomputer onto the Herrscher of Thunder.
A second brain.
And that was the real reason the Herrscher of Thunder could now seemingly "predict" attacks.
It was not precognition.
She was remotely sensing the neural activity of nearby enemies.
Intentions formed in the brain before the body moved.
Kali detected those signals, processed them, and fed the result back through their neural link.
In effect…
They were reading an opponent's thoughts in real time.
And this was merely the beginning.
The Herrscher of Thunder was still inexperienced with this aspect of her Authority.
If she ever mastered it completely…
Reading deeper memories might become possible.
Perhaps even altering them.
Personality.
Perception.
Thought.
All of it could theoretically fall within her reach.
This…
Was the complete potential of the Herrscher of Thunder.
The conceptual essence of the Herrscher Core that bore the name…
"Conquest."