Pure white feathers drifted down before Wendy.
"Wait... what am I doing...?"
She stared blankly at her palm, disbelief spreading across her face. Originally, she had intended to keep that rare toy by her side a while longer—at least until humanity was extinct.
Yet she had killed it with her own hands.
She had personally strangled a free life she herself had created...
Wendy's emotions surged violently. Brilliant Honkai energy erupted around her, emerald light churning like writhing tendrils as it smashed apart the cross-shaped prison.
In a hoarse voice, the Herrscher of Wind declared, "I am Wendy, the executor of free will..."
With a thunderous roar, the cross-shaped prison collapsed in ruin, as though heralding the arrival of fate. From the very top of the cross, two black soulium spears bound with chains plunged downward, aimed straight at the Herrscher of Wind, who was caught in mental chaos.
Yet the winds surrounding her seemed to awaken with self-awareness, intercepting the sharp soulium spears of their own accord.
The emerald clarity returned to the Herrscher of Wind's eyes. She calmly glanced at the spears and flicked her finger lightly, reducing them to powder.
Though soulium possessed extreme toughness and regenerative properties, before a Herrscher's wind it was no sturdier than fragile glass.
In truth, even if the Herrscher of Wind had not acted, the spears could never have pierced her wind barrier.
"And destroying humanity is also Wendy's freedom," she said evenly. "Humans do not have the freedom to be free from freedom."
It was as if Wendy had once again found her position. Her emotions gradually stabilized.
Yet she failed to notice that the strange soulium dust had merged into the winds surrounding her.
The soulium spears had failed to touch the body of the Herrscher of Wind, Wendy—but that had been within Vill-V's calculations. The attack had never been meant to harm her. It was preparation for locking down the Herrscher Core in the future.
It had also served to divert her attention, preventing her from detecting the mental bomb planted within her through Gulu gulu.
In truth, if Vill-V had truly wished to kill Wendy, she could have let her taste the soulium nano-blades the moment she descended upon the stage.
The nano-blades mentioned here were not the outdated relic developed four hundred years ago, but the later generation capable of severing interstellar battleships.
However, Id could not bear to see Wendy sliced apart, and Conductor did not believe the Herrscher of Wind would be so easily dismembered. Thus Expert had not been allowed to waste the effort.
Moreover, studying the state of the Herrscher of Wind was extremely urgent and important to Vill-V, as it concerned another of her vital companions.
Of course, Vill-V was not some lecherous old snake merely tempted by Wendy's adorable appearance, unwilling to spare even a Herrscher.
If it were not for her important companion, how could she be so anxious...? (Conductor: Stop flattering yourself, Id. You're just a shameless old snake.)
Since it involved psychological cognition, it was naturally the handiwork of Occultist.
This mental bomb program would not directly harm Wendy.
(According to Expert: "First, the mental bomb will impose a reverse conceptual definition upon Wendy's actions, then apply a positive definition through psychological suggestion to prevent perceptual deviation."
"After all, if the Herrscher's will flips the table outright, then all this design would be meaningless."
"Second, it will implant certain reflection programs, causing the Herrscher of Wind to constantly question the existence of the human Wendy, thereby scrutinizing her own actions and preventing interference from the 'human Wendy.'"
"During this process, it may also help Wendy recall or activate fragments of her former memories. After all, once she recognizes the existence of 'human Wendy,' that human Wendy effectively becomes real."
"If things go smoothly, the fabricated 'human Wendy' may awaken Wendy's original personality to contend against the Herrscher persona.")
The actual effects of this mental bomb far exceeded Expert's expectations. After all, that was a Herrscher. Psychological warfare against a Herrscher was not something ordinary people could accomplish.
Even if not the Herrscher of Sentience, any typical Herrscher was born a master of consciousness—capable of manipulating awareness at will and imprinting their own intent upon matter.
Although Expert had received Occultist's confident assurance at the time, she had never truly expected the mental bomb to exert meaningful psychological influence upon a Herrscher. She had regarded it merely as a conventional mental deterrent device.
Then again, Occultist was the Vill-V who had experienced Apocalypse. Achieving such a result was indeed reasonable. Even Expert had to concede inferiority.
Yet under the current circumstances, regrettably, the mental bomb was still not powerful enough to awaken Wendy's original personality from the Imaginary imprint and sever her from the side of Honkai.
Perhaps the intensity of the mental bomb was insufficient. But if it were pushed beyond a certain threshold—such as causing her to oppose Honkai—the Herrscher of Wind, Wendy, would develop violent resistance. At that point, she would become aware of the bomb's existence herself, and with Herrscher authority, eliminating it would not be difficult.
There was another possibility.
That when she became a Herrscher, Wendy had already died...
...
Lightning flashed. Thunder roared. Storms ravaged North America, the landscape resembling the end of the world.
And in truth, it was the end of the world. The world was facing the Fourth Honkai Eruption.
A MOTH fighter jet swayed violently within the storm. Kevin struggled to control the battered transport aircraft.
As captain of the reconnaissance squad, Kevin bore the responsibility of locating and confirming the position of the Fourth Herrscher within the dense fog.
To say he was not nervous would be a lie. Having only participated in a few Honkai rescue missions, now being thrown into the search for the Fourth Herrscher was little different from being rushed into battle unprepared.
Perhaps because his previous actions had drawn too much attention, Kevin had been promoted to squad captain before even graduating from boot camp.
Of course, reconnaissance squad captain was hardly a rare title. MOTH maintained thousands of reconnaissance squads scattered across the globe.
There was also the simple fact that MOTH was desperately short on personnel. The casualties from the Third Honkai Eruption had been devastating, leaving MOTH unable to spare seasoned scouts. Veteran soldiers had largely been reassigned to frontline anti-Honkai combat units.
Reconnaissance squads were not required to engage Honkai Beasts directly. They only needed to gather intelligence. Thus, MOTH's upper echelons had filled these units with recruits.
Beside Kevin, a young girl clad in the black uniform of a MOTH soldier gripped her seat tightly and asked, "Cap—Captain Kevin... sh-should I... take over the controls?"
"No need, Minori. I can handle it."
Kevin pressed a button on the control stick. Red warning lights flared inside the cabin as the aircraft began to roll midair.
"Ahhh—"
The girl's scream echoed through the sky.