"Homu!"
His entire body immobilized, Siegfried forced every cell in his body into overdrive, pushing them to their absolute limit. Ignoring the erosion of the Honkai Beast factors, he drove his potential to its maximum.
His eyes burned like raging flames, the whites as dark as an abyss. Black scales and jagged ridges erupted across his body. Massive thunderclouds wrapped around him like a waking dragon roaring in fury.
Thump! Thump! The swelling of powerful muscles echoed from within Siegfried's body.
And then, Siegfried transformed into the form of a black Homu...
"Homu! Homu!"
Clearly, the utterly wicked Magician had tampered with the Expert's work again. Even under constant surveillance inside Mobius' laboratory, Siegfried had been unable to escape it.
The Magician's surprises were not something mere monitoring could prevent.
The muscular Siegfried Homu was tightly bound by rings of wind. Though he could still move, each time he shifted even a few centimeters, the wind rings mercilessly dragged him back to his original position.
The Herrscher of Wind had originally intended to tear him to pieces in a single strike, but Siegfried's fully Honkai Beast–transformed body was far too sturdy.
After undergoing deep modification by the top sages of the Previous Era and reinforcement from the genes of two Herrschers, Siegfried Homu's physical strength was nearly comparable to a Judgment-class Honkai Beast.
The powers of the Herrscher of Thunder and the Herrscher of the Void both resided within his cells. Even if he could not wield them freely, under the stimulation of survival instinct, they would still struggle desperately to resist external harm.
"Homu, homu, homu!" Siegfried had already lost his sanity, able only to roar in fury.
Sensing the sharp hostility emanating from Siegfried Homu, the Herrscher of Wind showed a trace of pity. "Pitiful creature. Allow me to grant you release."
She extended her palm. A ring-shaped windmill howled. Siegfried Homu's body creaked like an old piece of furniture, letting out mournful groans.
The wind rings rapidly contracted. Siegfried Homu's neck was locked tight. As Honkai energy sprayed outward in all directions, his muscles suddenly went slack. His body collapsed limply to the ground, and his Homu head slid off as well.
"I'll allow you to keep an intact corpse." (An intact corpse without a head.)
No human could survive after having their head severed—just like the kind aunt who had raised Wendy.
After all, when a person is killed, they die.
Perhaps it was because she had remembered Wendy's aunt that the Herrscher of Wind did not toss Siegfried Homu into the fire to roast him, though he was already blackened like a lump of charcoal.
Besides, there were other humans here waiting for her. There was no need to waste time on whatever this creature was.
The Herrscher of Wind's gaze shifted—fixing upon the girl who had been launching various futile attacks against her. She gently pinched her slender fingers together, and a violent gale lifted Minori like a chick.
Struggling desperately in midair, Minori tried to break free of the restraint. Yet no matter how she grasped, her fingers passed through the wind shackles like sifting through fine sand.
In the distance, Kevin lay sprawled on the ground, his warrior attire tattered beyond recognition. He could only watch as Minori was toyed with by the Herrscher of Wind.
The tragic fate of that man from moments ago was about to repeat itself. Minori would be torn apart and thrown into the fire.
"Kevin, stay calm! Use the freeze gun to draw the Herrscher's attention." Kevin struggled to draw his sidearm, but his body refused to obey. Only the bone-grinding sound of joints scraping echoed, intertwining with the shrill howl of the wind.
Kevin clenched his teeth, the muscles in his face twisting from the strain. Yet his body still would not move an inch.
"...Damn it."
She had said that after this battle ended in victory, Minori would help him choose a birthday gift for Mei. How could he let her die here like this? Unlike him, she still had an older sister waiting for her.
The gale shrieked.
Just like half a year ago, another comrade was about to be killed before his eyes—and once again, he could do nothing.
My strength is still far too weak.
The wind sliced against his eyelids like blades. Even as Kevin widened his eyes, tears were scraped out of them.
This was not yet the Kevin of the future—the one who could watch his teammates charge forward and calmly unleash Judgment of Shamash upon them.
The Kevin of now was still naive and fragile at heart. He believed that through relentless effort, he could protect the beauty around him. If he failed, it only meant he had not worked hard enough.
At this critical moment, Vill-V successfully reconnected to the thought bomb inside the Herrscher of Wind's mind once more—and activated it.
"Magician's helpful reminder: It's past three o'clock, time for tea! Miss Herrscher, how about watching a mental advertisement first?"
Countless past scenes instantly flashed before the Herrscher of Wind's eyes: memories she had once cherished, her gentle aunt, and a man tap-dancing behind a microphone.
"Hnngaaaaah—" The Herrscher of Wind felt her brain trembling violently.
Kevin noticed the Herrscher of Wind's strange behavior returning. She clutched her head tightly, her entire body beginning to shake uncontrollably.
Stones around her were swept up by the chaotic storm she released. The restraints around Minori were blown apart as well.
Seeing Minori being swept away by the storm, Kevin—who for some reason could move again—hurriedly reactivated his jetpack. He snatched Minori from the storm's grasp, and together they smashed through a high-rise's floor-to-ceiling window, tumbling into the wrecked interior of a room.
The reason Kevin could move again was because Vill-V had reconnected to his soulium armor, manipulating him like a puppet on strings—Kevin's own condition had not improved in the slightest.
"Cough..."
Kevin spat out blood, staining Minori's uniform red. Minori held his head helplessly, discovering that his condition was dire. "Captain Kevin... I'll treat you right away."
After being activated repeatedly by the Magician, the Herrscher of Wind finally discovered the backdoor Vill-V had installed in her mind.
"Hnngaaaaah—That damned voice... get... out of my head!"
A burst of white gale suddenly surged forth, like the hand of a god, wrapping tightly around the Herrscher of Wind.
Within the storm, countless hair-thin strands drifted through the air, seeping into her sea of consciousness. In an instant, the voices that had tormented her vanished completely.
The surrounding space seemed to lose its support. The massive boulders floating in midair crashed down onto the hardened ground. Fire hydrants and other facilities on the streets shattered under the impact, countless fountains erupting throughout the alleys.
The Herrscher of Wind examined the invisible object that had been extracted from her mind—a tiny soulium feather resting in her palm.
Though the feather was only the size of two fingers, thanks to soulium's properties, it contained an enormous volume of data.
The Herrscher of Wind crushed the cooing feather in fury.
"No wonder my head was so noisy. It was even imitating another version of my voice... damned pigeon."