Sure enough, the ground around the Sealing Pillars abruptly transformed into a black swamp, swallowing the soldiers gathered nearby.
A vortex of green lightning rose from the mire. A colossal serpent over one hundred meters long—its tail unseen, its body like vertebrae strung together—coiled around the stone pillars. Black wings unfurled from the jagged spines along its back, blotting out the sky. Ink-dark scales etched with lightning patterns opened and closed in sequence, as if breathing.
This was the Third Herrscher of the Previous Era's accompanying beast—the Judgment-class Honkai Beast Shesha, on the same tier as the future Benares.
"Shesha has finally appeared!"
Its belated arrival confirmed some of Vill-V's suspicions.
A Herrscher and her accompanying Honkai Beast were not born simultaneously. There was a brief interval between them. Otherwise, when a Herrscher first awakened and was still weak, the accompanying beast would have arrived early to protect her.
Regarding this interval, Vill-V had three hypotheses:
First, the time required for the Herrscher to replenish the Honkai energy within her core to a certain threshold.
Second, the time needed for the Herrscher to establish communication between her core and Imaginary Space.
Third, the Herrscher must possess a strong desire for her accompanying Honkai Beast.
Faced with the newly emerged colossal serpent-like Honkai Beast, the remaining MOTH soldiers immediately regrouped and unleashed heavy firepower against Shesha.
However, the scales covering Shesha's body were abnormally hard. The most cutting-edge firearms and artillery of the era in the soldiers' hands failed to shake its defenses in the slightest.
Shesha ignored their attacks. Its fangs clamped onto the upper section of a stone pillar. Its enormous body coiled around the structure, tail braced against the ground, and began slowly pulling the Sealing Pillar outward.
At that moment, the six warriors previously assessed at B-rank Valkyrie strength—comparable to White Comet—made their move.
Experienced in combat, they searched constantly for openings, targeting Shesha's vulnerable spots where scales did not cover.
"Snakes can't close their eyes—attack its eyeballs!"
With covering fire, two of them lunged toward Shesha's eyes.
But unexpectedly, lightning shot out from Shesha's pupils. The two White Comet-level warriors failed to dodge in time and were electrocuted to death midair.
The remaining four achieved some results. They slashed open Shesha's softer underbelly, drawing violet blood. Its wings were riddled with bullet holes from MOTH gunfire.
If not for the fact that Shesha's body coiled around the pillars was absorbing electrical energy—preventing lightning from coating its surface—the human soldiers would have long since been paralyzed.
For now, Shesha could only release localized lightning from its eyes.
Even in pain, it did not stop pulling the pillars. Enduring the fierce firepower with sheer physical strength, it gradually uprooted them. With a thunderous boom, the pillars were flung into distant ruins by its twin tails.
Lowering its massive head toward the deep pit, Shesha waited respectfully for its queen to descend once more.
The MOTH soldiers did not understand what was happening, but they would not waste this rare chance to grievously wound Shesha. They poured torrents of bullets toward the beast as it stood motionless.
Yet every projectile halted eerily in midair outside Shesha's body, as though striking an invisible wall of bronze and iron.
From the scorching depths below, amid rising heat and smoke, the blood-soaked Third Herrscher emerged—her clothes in tatters. Dust, charged with static electricity, swirled upward and formed a makeshift veil to cover her graceful figure. The girl swept her furious gaze across the surroundings.
She coughed up a mouthful of pale pink blood and waved her hand forward.
"Insignificant humans... die. Shesha!"
Receiving the queen's command, Shesha roared and immediately spread its wings, lunging at the surviving humans.
This time, it unleashed its full power. Black scales shot outward from its rugged body, transforming into sharp daggers that pierced through fighter jets in the sky.
With a beat of its wings, feathers became fine serrated blades, effortlessly sawing through soldiers and their reinforced combat suits alike.
No one could approach Shesha anymore. Its body radiated lethal high-voltage lightning. Any who drew near were instantly reduced to charred corpses.
Within moments, only two White Comet-level warriors remained, struggling desperately. All others had become mangled remains.
"Damn it... this Honkai Beast's strength is unprecedented. Is it Unknown-class..."
Heh. So even I'm being underestimated.
At this critical moment, one of the two White Comet-level warriors suddenly turned on his comrade. With the dagger in his hand, he pierced through his teammate's throat from behind.
His companion stared in disbelief. "Why..."
Before he could comprehend the reason, the dagger was pulled free and he collapsed into a pool of blood.
The traitorous warrior immediately dropped to his knees toward the Herrscher of Thunder and shouted in oath:
"Messenger of God, we have awaited your arrival for three years!"
"I am willing to follow you, to serve our Lord—our great God!"
Shesha paused, its blood-stained claws hovering midair as it cast an inquiring glance toward its master.
Seeing the Honkai Beast halt, the kneeling warrior grew more confident.
"I can provide detailed intelligence about the organization opposing God! I can—"
Before he could finish, a whip of lightning lashed out and reduced the defector to charred ash.
"Your destruction has nothing to do with you."
The lightning whip in the Herrscher's hand dissolved into starlike motes. Her serpentine pupils showed no ripple of emotion.
"Shesha. Eliminate every last human. Leave none alive."
Sensing the anger beneath her gaze, Shesha nodded hastily.
In the sky, countless missiles and fighter jets streaked in with blazing contrails. On the ground, scattered survivors hid among the ruins.
The Herrscher of Thunder did not even turn her head. In a tone as natural as breathing, she declared coldly:
"I am the Herrscher. God has crowned me. I draw lightning as my bow and arrows, shatter all things, and reign as the Queen of Conquest."
"Let thunder resound—and let the voices of all things fall silent."
She snapped her fingers.
"This is—Heaven's Wrath Edict."
The pinnacle of power in the Honkai world—the executor of the Will of the Honkai, the judge of human civilization—the Herrscher at last revealed her true terror.
As though a decree of judgment had been cast down, thunderclouds within a fifty-kilometer radius churned violently. The long-brewing energy of destruction was fully released under her guidance. Lightning cascaded like waterfalls of light, linking heaven and earth.
All sound seemed forcibly muted. Only the shrill roar of thunder remained as the very void tore apart.
The will of destruction and conquest crushed everything beneath it.
Even buildings equipped with lightning rods were relentlessly struck and destroyed. Vegetation and Honkai Beasts alike were burned to charcoal.
From the heavens, blazing meteors tore through the clouds—twenty-meter Chariot-class Honkai Beasts wrapped in lightning. They plunged from high altitude, their terrifying mass slamming into the earth, carving out enormous craters and triggering explosions. Each impact was several times—perhaps dozens of times—more destructive than a missile strike.
In the distance, MOTH fighter jets were either blasted into fragments by lightning or shattered by collisions with the Chariot-class Honkai Beasts. In the span of a single exchange, they were annihilated.
Substations and power lines along the roads were destroyed or snapped apart. A massive blackout swept across the entire Far East region. Darkness swallowed the land, and only the glow of fires and lightning illuminated the city's sky.
People huddled in underground shelters, trembling under the dim light of their phones, praying to survive the cataclysm and await rescue from the United Nations.
They did not expect the reinforced concrete above them to collapse.
White "boulders" crushed down, turning the underground shelters into blazing infernos.
No one survived the Herrscher's wrath.