Chapter 203: Anna
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Durandal had no particular fondness for Kevin — the man had shown up out of nowhere and beaten him up without so much as a word of explanation.
That said, anyone who could beat him up was clearly exceptionally strong, and Durandal was genuinely hoping for a rematch. It had been a very long time since he'd met anyone worth sparring with.
He was S-Rank, sure, but his actual combat strength had long since blown past that ceiling. Back at HQ, the only person who could hold a practice bout with him was Rita — and even Rita couldn't win, ending up on the receiving end every time.
It was the same with the Honkai Beasts. Peerless under heaven — that sounded great on paper, but for Durandal it was anything but. He wanted opponents. He wanted to know where his limits were. Or rather, he wanted to know what limits he still needed to break through.
And now, at last, Durandal had found one.
Kevin studied Durandal. Hmm. Sharp fighting spirit, solid foundation — a decent prospect. A decent warrior, too. On any other day he might actually be in the mood to offer a pointer or two.
Or he could figure out a way to grab him and toss him into the Elysian Realm. Plenty of people in there would be happy to teach him, and judging by his weapon, he used the Abyss Flower — Irene had used it for a while, so she'd at least have some experience with it and could hold her own.
But now probably wasn't the time. The Elysian Realm had been practically swept clean by Irene — going by what he'd sensed when he'd picked up on her presence back then, it looked like only his own mental projection and Su's hadn't made it out with her.
Rather than tossing Durandal into the Realm, he might as well toss him straight to Irene's side — the end result would be the same. Though that probably wasn't ideal either, given that Schicksal and the Hyperion were apparently in open conflict right now.
Then again, Gray Serpent had only said it was open conflict. Otto hadn't actually done anything to the Hyperion or St. Freya. Why exactly — Gray Serpent didn't know, and Kevin couldn't figure it out either.
Well, Kevin was the original Kaslana. Don't go asking him about politics.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Durandal looked at Kevin. "If you're here to help, come inside with us. Or are you planning to act alone?"
"Waiting for someone." Kevin crossed his arms and gazed toward Coral Island in the distance. It was a fair way off, and something about that Herrscher felt oddly dormant — her presence was flickering and indistinct, elusive even to him.
Just then, a voice crackled in Durandal's earpiece: "Hmm? Hold on, Lord Durandal — I'm detecting a Herrscher signature moving rapidly in your direction."
"Coming to us?" Durandal's focus sharpened at once, and the Abyss Flower appeared in his hand in an instant. Good — saved him the trouble of going to look. He pressed his comm with his free hand and began issuing orders.
"Immortal Blades, pull the line back and prepare for —"
He didn't finish the sentence. His adjutant's puzzled voice cut back in over the comm.
"Captain, it doesn't look like the Herrscher of Ice... At least, I've never seen a Herrscher with clearance codes for our air defense grid before. These access permissions are really strange..."
Durandal lowered his hand and ended the call. He already knew who it was — the air beside him had split open with a very familiar rift.
Before Durandal could even step forward to greet them, a whole pile of people came squeezing out of it. Fortunately, none of them were ordinary — they caught themselves the moment they were through, floating in midair, narrowly avoiding what would have been a spectacular fall from grace right at the entrance.
Though the sight of an entire crowd crammed together and tumbling through a portal wasn't exactly dignified either.
"I have to say, Sirin — you opened a perfectly wide door, so how does it still feel like a one-person corridor in there?" Irene turned to look at Kiana with a mild headache.
"What? Is it more fun to squeeze through together?"
"Habit." Sirin spread her hands, looking a little sheepish. "I always open it for myself alone."
She had opened the door wider to let everyone through — but the passage inside had been shaped to her usual habits, sized for a single person. Not so narrow that it was literally one body's worth of space, but with their whole group crammed in, it had still been a very tight squeeze.
Fortunately, everyone there was capable enough that no one actually tripped over anyone else coming out.
"Your group does have a rather unique way of getting around, Miss Irene." Rita maintained her smile, watching the assembled party each try to look like nothing awkward had just happened.
By any measure these were all peerless powerhouses — genuine Herrschers, beings that could probably warrant their own branch of biology — and yet here they were, doing their best to look composed after clambering through a portal in a heap. It was, somehow, endearing.
Durandal, for his part, seemed entirely unacquainted with the concept of awkwardness. He looked straight at Irene: "So you're here after all. Do you have a plan for dealing with Anna's situation?"
"Should be workable, I think." Irene nodded, then turned her gaze toward Coral Island in the distance. As the Herrscher of Death, she could already sense the faint pulse of life still present there.
And Little Corruption's virus had already relayed what the Immortal Blades' sensors had picked up. From the looks of it, Anna still retained some degree of consciousness.
In that case, as long as nothing went wrong — as long as no fool wandered over and triggered some kind of Will of the Honkai interference and created a Dual-Core Herrscher situation — it should pass without incident.
In the original story, Mei had handled it all on her own. It had simply been a matter of talking her down, or detaining her, maybe landing one decisive strike. But then Chen Tianwu showed up — and it exploded.
Once it blew up, Anna — who had already been knocked down — dragged herself back up and stabbed Chen Tianwu, and just like that, a Herrscher of Fallen Ice was born.
About that turn of events, Irene could only say: it absolutely had the Will of the Honkai pulling strings in the background. Otherwise, there was no reason — none — for Chen Tianwu to become the Herrscher of Rock at that moment.
And even if he had become the Herrscher of Rock, there was no reason Anna would immediately turn around and stab him in the back. Something was meddling. Irene refused to believe otherwise.
So as long as someone could pin Chen Tianwu down and keep him away from Anna during this period, there would be no surprises — at least no Herrscher of Fallen Ice.
After that, it would depend on the situation. If Anna was still going to undergo Herrscher awakening regardless, the same process applied: if she was willing to carry the Core, keep her as a combat asset — one more fighter was always better than one fewer. If she wasn't willing, pull the Core out. In the Current Era, that particular advantage existed — extracting your own Core didn't mean the Herrscher died. The Herrscher of Reason had done it so many times and came out completely fine.
In short: as long as someone could sit on Chen Tianwu, they'd go deal with Anna — help her find herself again, or at least give her a moment to calm down. That would settle it.
Chen Tianwu could be left to Kevin and Raven. Kevin was the top man on the totem pole — he'd listen. And as for Chen Tianwu's obsession with Anna, once things settled down, he could see her however he liked.
Just as long as he didn't decide to reenact a live Herrscher awakening followed by an immediate backstab.
Meanwhile, Wendy had struck up a conversation with Rita — largely because no one else particularly wanted to talk, and especially not Kiana, who had no good impressions of Rita whatsoever.
"I didn't expect the entire Immortal Blades squad to turn out for this. What about everywhere else?"
"You flatter us, Miss Wendy." Rita smiled warmly. "The other areas are naturally being managed by other Valkyrie squads. A Herrscher event calls for our highest level of response."
"Anna is, after all, an important member of the Shaniat Family. We would never abandon her. And besides — Lord Durandal and I wanted to confirm the situation for ourselves."
"That's enough, Rita." Durandal gave a slight shake of his head, then turned to Mei. "I believe the Overseer has made his intentions clear — it really just comes down to you. If you can handle it, go ahead. We won't stand in your way."
"That said, this doesn't mean we won't intervene when necessary. We can't simply stand by and let things spiral out of control."
"Of course." Irene nodded. "We have no desire to let things escalate either. Though I trust Schicksal won't refuse to let us save ordinary civilians."
"Naturally not." Durandal shook his head immediately. A Valkyrie who wouldn't protect civilians? Unthinkable.
It was simply that the situation was still unclear. Nobody knew the condition of the people on Coral Island. If they were merely trapped, that was manageable — but if they had been frozen solid, that was another matter entirely.
Valkyries were powerful, and in combat against Honkai Beasts they threw that power around freely. One careless swing while smashing through ice and they could easily injure a survivor. That would be hard to explain.
"Don't worry — I'll handle that." Irene waved her hand. She was the Herrscher of Death; one application of the Authority of Life and anyone who hadn't actually died could be brought back. Keeping people alive was trivially simple. The Valkyries could go in and break the ice and pull people out.
"In that case, I have no objections." Durandal nodded. Better to get the civilians out sooner rather than later — once the Herrschers started fighting, there was no telling what the situation would look like.
And at that point, when the Overseer asked questions, they could say they'd gone in to rescue people. Though going by his attitude earlier, he probably wouldn't even ask.
"Prior to your arrival, there was only ever one Herrscher signal on Coral Island's main island, and it hasn't moved in quite some time. I've already shared the location data with you. Get there quickly."
"Understood~" Irene nodded, gave everyone a brief acknowledging look, then shot off toward Coral Island. Kevin hovered in midair for a moment, then drew the Judgment of Shamash from his coat.
He was genuinely giving Elysia a chance — but if something went wrong, he needed to be ready to fire off a bolt of Shamash at a moment's notice. A Herrscher of Ice could only take so many of those.
Durandal and Rita exchanged a glance, then headed for Coral Island at full speed across the bridge.
"Immortal Blades squad — move out. Clearing Honkai Beasts is priority one. Save the civilians."
"Understood!"
???
So cold.
What was she even doing?
In the pitch-black world, a scattered consciousness gradually surfaced — but she couldn't move her own body. What was happening? Where was she?
All she could remember was that she had been on patrol with the rest of the Edelweiss squad when a sudden, searing pain tore through her body. Then she had heard sounds, seen images.
After that, her entire body had been consumed by agony and a bone-deep cold. She could still remember her fellow Valkyries shouting at her from all around — but she couldn't make out the words anymore.
Someone had even raised a weapon against her, their eyes wide with terror. It was then that Anna finally looked down at her own hand — the hand that had been encased in Valkyrie armor.
Sturdy as Valkyrie armor was, at that moment the bone-splitting cold shattered it from within, and the next instant the entire gauntlet cracked apart and fell away.
What it revealed was an arm that had turned almost entirely ice-blue — and beneath that blue, a creeping tinge of black.
Anna stared at that unfamiliar yet somehow recognizable arm. She knew that color. It was the color only found on ice-attribute Honkai Beasts: a blue so deep it bled into black.
She couldn't possibly be turning into a Honkai Beast. No one had ever heard of a person becoming a Honkai Beast. So then — had she become a...
Like a bolt of clarity striking without warning, Anna understood her situation in an instant. She had become a Herrscher.
The moment she understood, a searing gust of frozen wind erupted outward, hurling the squad members who had been closing in on her in every direction. Wherever the icy gale passed, frost crystals bloomed in layers.
The ones who had been knocked back began to feel ice crystallizing across their bodies — deep, killing cold.
And the ordinary civilians nearby — they were simply encased in blocks of ice on the spot.
"No — no — stop!" Anna fought to rein in the cold pouring off her body, but she had absolutely no control. Her body no longer felt like hers at all.
As if sensing her resistance, something stirred in her mind — the memory of a child from that Honkai eruption in Manila, long ago, back when she had first become a Valkyrie. A child she had failed to save.
It was as if that little girl — the one who had been buried in the rubble — had appeared before her now, reaching out for help. Or perhaps accusing her. Why didn't you save me?
"No..." Anna fought to block out the voice in her ears, desperately trying to pull the erupting Honkai energy back into herself. But the exceptional Honkai Adaptability inherited from the Shaniat bloodline seemed to do nothing at all now.
Worse — through that very Adaptability, she could feel along the Honkai energy exactly how far the frozen wind blasting out from her body had spread. It was slowly encircling all of Coral Island.
The ordinary people who had no idea what was happening — caught in that ferocious, freezing gale — were crystallizing into ice. Feeling this, Anna felt a creeping despair settle over her.
No. This wasn't right. She was a Valkyrie. How could she — how could she be the one killing the very people she swore to protect?
This was not how it was supposed to be.
Sinking down within the howling cold, Anna felt something shift. The eyes that had gone completely dark — they lit up again.
She was a Valkyrie. She could not run away again.
Not this time.
She would not —
Flee.
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