"Way scarier than the virtual space."
"Rover, be careful! This thing's Frequency is off the charts! And it's not weakened at all right now. I can't just swallow it whole." Abby's voice carried a nervous edge.
"Then I'll beat it down until you can."
Rover stared up at Dreamless without flinching. Ever since she'd encountered this Calamity Class Tacet Discord in the virtual space, she'd known this fight was coming. Now here it was.
Compared to that simulation, the real Dreamless was stronger, more terrifying. An avatar of the apocalypse given form.
But...
"I'm not who I was three days ago either. Let's go. Round two."
Frost radiated from the Emerald of Genesis as she charged without hesitation. Queen against queen, general against general. Even with an army at her back, this was a battle she had to fight alone.
Nothing else on that field could touch a Calamity Class. Ordinary soldiers couldn't survive this kind of fight, let alone win it. She'd even dismissed her Echo army. The Bell-Borne Geochelone had already proven that numbers meant nothing against this tier. And that turtle hadn't even been a combat-type; it had dumped most of its stats into defense and ranged attacks. Dreamless was something far more vicious.
The proudest creation of a Threnodian of War.
What she excelled at was slaughter on a grand scale.
"You are... a threat... that must be purged."
The war scythe in Dreamless' grip shifted, its form rippling until it became a longsword wreathed in Havoc energy. The grotesque wings at her back beat once, whipping up a storm of destruction, and she appeared in front of Rover as if she'd teleported.
What followed was swordplay. Brutally efficient, razor-sharp, and merciless. Every thrust and slash carried the Threnodian's borrowed power behind it, enough force in a single blow to annihilate a battalion.
"That's... Midnight Ranger swordsmanship!"
Yangyang and the others, positioning for long-range support, froze. Dreamless was using orthodox Midnight Ranger sword techniques. This Tacet Discord had learned a human fighting style.
And yet...
Rover's bladework was sharper. More refined.
Every strike found a weak point.
With how much she'd grown, the stat gap between her and Dreamless had narrowed. Not closed, but no longer the insurmountable chasm it had been in the virtual space. Skill could bridge what remained.
Then their weapons collided.
Clang!
Wait. Something's wrong.
Instinct screamed before thought caught up. Rover blinked through a teleport, putting distance between them, then looked down at the Emerald of Genesis in her hand.
The frost-forged blade had snapped clean in two.
"How? That was one hit!"
A five-star weapon, shattered on the first exchange. If she hadn't reacted in that split-second and warped away, Dreamless' sword would have run her through.
No time to process it. Dreamless closed the gap again, that lethal dark-violet longsword already sweeping toward her.
Rover hurled a volley of Originite: Type II Swords at the creature.
Every single one met the same fate as the Emerald of Genesis. The instant they touched Dreamless' blade, they disintegrated.
"Rover, watch out! I believe this is Havoc Authority! This Calamity Class' attacks ignore all defenses and are lethal to weapons themselves! You absolutely cannot let her land a hit!" Baizhi's urgent voice crackled through the Pangu Terminal.
The moment Dreamless had destroyed Rover's weapon, Baizhi had torn through every historical record she could find. Deep in the archives, in the battle logs from centuries ago when the Sentinel Jué and a mysterious black-haired, golden-eyed hero had fought the Threnodian of War, she'd found her answer.
This was the same power from that ancient battle.
The one legends called the Authority of Havoc.
"Are you kidding me? That's broken!"
Rover dodged frantically, but her mind was already processing the implications.
In plain terms: every strike from Dreamless hit with enough force to reshape the landscape, ignored all defenses, and destroyed any weapon it touched.
Clash head-on, and Havoc did what its name promised.
Annihilation beyond resistance.
Still, she wasn't ready to give up. She ran one more test, freezing an Originite: Type II in the Temporal Mandate, locking its timeline in complete stasis, then letting it meet Dreamless' Havoc longsword.
No difference.
A sharp crack, and the blade broke apart.
"Even the Temporal Mandate can't stop it."
Her eye twitched as she stared at the severed halves. Whenever she and the male Rover had run low on weapon durability, they'd always used time-stop to "lock" the weapon's state. But the Authority of Havoc cut through frozen time like it was nothing.
It truly was the power to destroy everything.
"No choice. I can't take a direct hit."
Cold sweat traced down her spine as she cycled through options, and in less than a second she'd locked in a new approach. At the same time, the snapped Emerald of Genesis in her grip began to mend itself.
Dreamless paused.
Where the blade had been severed, bitter frost crystallized and grew, forming a new edge of ice. The weapon had regenerated.
The Calamity Class stared. She'd never seen a weapon that could repair itself.
If she could absorb this weapon's Frequency, her Mother would grow even stronger.
But Rover was already gone. Before Dreamless could register the disappearance, a killing intent flared behind her. She whipped around and swung without thought.
"Echo, resonate!"
Time ground to a halt. Dreamless froze mid-strike. The Authority of Havoc could destroy anything it touched, but it couldn't let her move through stopped time.
Rover didn't waste the opening. She carved into the creature with strike after strike, every blow aimed at the golden Whisperin Core embedded in Dreamless' chest.
"Un... forgivable..."
Attack.
"Are Calamity Class Whisperin Cores seriously this tough?!"
After several full-power slashes, the Core showed nothing but hairline fractures. Rover's eyes went wide.
Dreamless wrenched free of the time-stop and lunged. But Rover had already slipped through a portal and emerged behind the creature again, driving another strike into its back.
Everyone on the hillside watched, stunned. They'd never seen such brazen backstabbing executed so openly. But once Rover understood what Havoc Authority meant, spatial warping and rear attacks became her only viable strategy.
"Stop gawking! Get the Zaokong ready! We can't let Rover fight alone. Sniper teams, prepare to fire. Even if all we can do is distract that thing for a second and give her an opening, that's enough!"
Jiyan was the first to set aside his dragon lance, picking up a Tacetite sniper rifle instead and leveling it at Dreamless. Around him, soldiers scrambled to prepare their final trump card.
"Sir!" came the chorus from every side.
The hilltop surged back to life. This battle had long since surpassed anything they could match, but not one of them was willing to stand idle. Everyone threw themselves into what they could do.
=-=-=-=-=
Note: This book is currently on hiatus. The author is focusing on another Honkai Impact project, so updates may be paused for now.