To be honest, the Third Herrscher reaching a Honkai energy level of 4000 Honkai Watts was somewhat beyond Vill-V's expectations.
Whether it was because Herrschers of the Previous Era generally possessed higher Honkai output, or because the Herrscher of Thunder had been pushed to her limits by Vill-V in a desperate situation, she did not know. As expected of the Herrscher bearing the name of Conquest.
While Vill-V felt alarm at the Honkai level displayed, she was also slightly disappointed. The Herrscher of Thunder seemed to have reached her limit. She could only make crude use of electromagnetic laws at the subatomic level through charged particles. She had not advanced further into the quantum realm, nor manifested the ultimate principles of electromagnetism.
Among the four fundamental forces, both the strong force and electromagnetism were related to her authority. With immense Honkai energy, she could break through the limitations of lightning as a carrier and create phenomena that existed only in human theory—impossible to reproduce in laboratories.
If Vill-V herself were the one wielding that vast Honkai energy, even constrained by the biological limits of being "human" and restricted by a Honkai threshold, unable to perform outrageous feats such as "reverse spacetime in defiance of entropy" or "manufacturing strong interaction forces," she could still achieve high-level quantum electromagnetic applications—such as exciting electrons in macro-atoms to create ball lightning, or entering a quantum state to open the Sea of Quanta.
Combined with a Herrscher Core and communication with Imaginary Space, what might be accomplished was beyond even Vill-V's imagination. At that point, it would no longer be a power measurable in real numbers. Only another Herrscher capable of wielding concepts might stand a chance of defeating her.
Fortunately, Mei's intellect was insufficient for that. The plasma shield was already the limit of her imagination.
Even so, with merely elementary applications, the power she displayed was already terrifying.
After testing, Expert had confirmed that the "Thunder Devourer No.3 PLUS" could withstand up to 4000 Honkai Watts of electrothermal energy. If the Herrscher of Thunder had simply used electrical heat to roast the stone pillars—converting electromagnetic waves into microwaves to bake them—she might have melted the pillars instead. The principle was no different from a microwave oven.
But once trapped underground, escaping through lightning alone became far more difficult. The earth itself conducted electricity. The planet was an enormous conductor, capable of accepting and dispersing electric charge.
That was why everyday electrical appliances required grounding for safety. When charge flowed through a grounding wire, it returned to the earth, reducing the electrical potential to zero.
Now, the Herrscher of Thunder could be said to have been "grounded." The stone pillars were grounded as well.
Encased beneath the earth, no matter which direction she released her electrical energy, it would be futile—merely a waste of Honkai energy.
If she had not squandered so much Honkai energy earlier, she might have had other Herrscher methods to escape. But at this stage, Vill-V did not believe she had any strength left to spare.
Simply enduring beneath the earth was already difficult. The more she attempted to use electromagnetic force, the harder the pillars pressed down, and the more severe her energy loss became.
Not every Herrscher was a Pseudo God like Otto, blessed with inexhaustible stamina.
Yet even as she watched the Herrscher suppressed underground, Vill-V did not believe the crisis was over.
The accompanying Honkai Beast that should have appeared alongside the Herrscher of Thunder—"Shesha"—had yet to emerge. That absence gave Vill-V a bad premonition.
She turned her gaze to the surveillance feed.
As the Honkai levels in Nagazora City rapidly soared, the military forces had been surrounded by Chariot-class Honkai Beasts emerging from all directions. Leading them was a Templar-class Honkai Beast roughly thirty meters tall.
Vill-V had never possessed a concrete sense of scale regarding Honkai Beasts. Previously, she had only studied data on specimens under ten meters tall. But the monsters now clearly displayed before her completely overturned her understanding. Watching Honkai Beasts hopping in groups aboard the Hyperion in past footage—almost like they were dancing with Titans—had made them seem no larger than five or six stories high.
She had not expected them to be colossal creatures comparable to Ferris wheels. Even without a Herrscher, a single Chariot-class Honkai Beast could probably destroy an entire city with ease.
With such an enormous horde of monsters, how had MOTH managed to conceal the First and Second Honkai Eruptions?
Were the Titans of Anti-Entropy in later generations really fighting opponents this terrifying all along? To produce so many Gundam-class Titan mechs and hand them directly to Sirin—Vill-V could only kneel in admiration before Dr. Tesla's audacity.
The preparations Vill-V had originally made to deal with Honkai Beasts were rendered useless in the face of such a massive swarm. Only repeated strikes from miniature nuclear weapons could eliminate them.
Yet the Far East military, bound by defense treaties, naturally did not carry miniature nuclear arms. Against the Templar-class Honkai Beast wielding its massive shield, they were completely powerless.
Watching them crushed and devoured by Honkai Beasts, even Vill-V felt a sense of helplessness. Humanity's proud strength seemed so insignificant before such creatures.
Fortunately, the long-delayed MOTH warriors finally arrived.
Freed from the threat of lightning, they maneuvered advanced nuclear-powered fighter jets to evade airborne Seraph-class Honkai Beasts and bombarded the colossal monsters with low-yield nuclear warheads, forcing them back.
Dozens of soldiers leapt from their aircraft, wielding a dazzling array of weapons. Coordinating with the military's firepower, they launched a counteroffensive against the Honkai Beasts.
Among them were a few whose attacks were exceptionally powerful. Under covering fire, they could even hold their own two-on-one against Chariot-class Honkai Beasts.
Unfortunately, Vill-V could not identify them.
By later-generation standards, they already possessed strength comparable to B-rank Valkyries—on par with White Comet.
For this era, that was already impressive. In pure close combat, any one of them could easily overwhelm a thousand unassisted Vill-Vs.
As for the suppressed Herrscher—at 4000 Honkai Watts, with a single strike capable of annihilating two Hyperion-class battleships—rating her as S-rank Valkyrie level would not be excessive.
The layered storm clouds still refused to disperse. Furious thunder rumbled across the sky. At last, the long-accumulated torrential rain poured down, washing over the filth within Nagazora City.
Without the Herrscher's support, the remaining Honkai Beasts were eliminated by MOTH's soldiers.
The battlefield entered a brief calm.
The Nagazora City military began clearing the battlefield. Meanwhile, MOTH soldiers rode individual combat motorcycles toward the impact site where lightning had erupted repeatedly. After confirming that the Herrscher of Thunder had shown no movement for a long time, they began cutting apart the Sealing Pillars that suppressed her—preparing to recover the Herrscher's corpse.
Although they were puzzled as to who had defeated the Herrscher of Thunder, that was a matter for higher command. After all, they no longer had to face the Third Herrscher's lightning.
They did not know that the Herrscher of Thunder had not been defeated.
Even with all the black technology Vill-V had built with billions in funding, she could only delay the Herrscher of Thunder—for a short while.
And that was only because the Herrscher of Thunder was still unfamiliar with the full application of her own authority.