Dr. Wu's face turned ashen with shock. He had no intention of dying alongside the madwoman before him. Yanking out the sidearm hidden beneath his uniform, he attempted to threaten Himeko—only for her to draw faster and shoot him through the arm.
Dr. Wu cried out in pain. "Ah... you actually shot me! Do you know the consequences of this?"
"Dr. Wu, you have violated MOTH's newly revised military regulations. Technical personnel accompanying the fleet are forbidden from carrying dangerous firearms aboard a warship. Take him to the brig."
Himeko looked at Dr. Wu coldly, paying no attention to his threats.
With Dr. Wu subdued, order swiftly returned to the battleship's bridge.
This was not because the others had been intimidated by Himeko's decisive action, but because the MOTH soldiers fighting on the front lines had never feared self-sacrifice to begin with.
This was the mindset that warriors of the Previous Era's Honkai apocalypse should possess—one worthy of solemn respect. They did not need Captain Himeko to deliver some impassioned speech about sacrifice or morale. That would only waste precious time on the battlefield.
They were moths trying to smother raging flames with their own bodies—the fierce will of humanity refusing to yield to fate.
Unlike Dr. Wu, who had been parachuted into command, the moment they stepped onto this warship, they had already prepared themselves for death—for the sake of safeguarding human civilization.
Siegfried... you're watching me, aren't you... I can do it too. This time, I'll be the one to hand in the answer sheet.
Himeko murmured inwardly as she watched the massive Tethys battleship, wrapped in a plasma field, charge into the wind domain. The entire wind domain compressed like gelatin, a deep indentation forming beneath the tremendous bulk of Tethys.
However, it was still not enough.
Himeko's voice rang out across the bridge. "Nuclear propulsion limiters—release! Tenth combat speed! Advance toward the Herrscher!"
Woooong—Woooong—Woooong—
The roaring engines thundered like the war drums of a storm god echoing across the sky. Sixteen massive exhaust ports blazed like fire-breathing dragons, forcing the already heavy steel warship downward with crushing force—like an enormous steamroller descending from the heavens.
Under the immense pressure, the wind domain emitted a shrill, anguished wail. Even as the Herrscher of Wind manually reinforced it, she could not stop it from shrinking further.
Compared to the Herrscher of Thunder—whose control over electromagnetic force granted a natural advantage against high-tech steel warships—the Herrscher of Wind held no such edge against thick armor plating.
The wind domain was ultimately breached by Tethys.
The endless wind blades swirling within the domain slashed against the floating battleship's thick secondary soulium armor plating, leaving only shallow cuts that repaired themselves. Repeated strikes could not break through.
"Guh... why is humanity's vehicle so hard...?" The Herrscher of Wind's trembling voice was filled with confusion.
In truth, if she had mixed sand and grit into her wind blades, their destructive power would have increased severalfold.
No Herrscher authority was useless. Even the seemingly gentle wind could easily destroy everything.
Even without that, if Wendy had understood techniques for redirecting force, she could have transferred the impact elsewhere through the wind.
But the naive Wendy did not know such techniques. She only wielded the purest form of wind by instinct—just as her original personality had been pure and unguarded. Even her earlier act of severing the data link between Vill-V and Kevin's soulium armor had been instinctive. She still had not realized the true extent of her authority.
It was like human breathing. Would anyone consider breathing air an ability? People were not even consciously aware that they were breathing.
Wendy's thinking was like that, and the Herrscher of Wind—who inherited her thoughts—was the same. This was the flaw of a newborn consciousness. She had no opportunity to learn independently and could only rely on her host's knowledge and experience. But Wendy did not know how to manipulate authority.
If the Herrscher of Wind had been given time to learn on her own, the situation might have been entirely different.
But clearly, this newly awakened Herrscher had no time for self-study. Under the pressure of human military force, she could only act on instinct.
However, when you cannot win head-on, you run. Even the Herrscher of Wind understood that much.
Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, she stopped fighting and prepared to retreat. Just as she was about to dissolve the Throne of the Wind, the Magician's wild laughter rang out from afar.
"Ha! Sorry, Miss Herrscher. Since Auntie Himeko is being so enthusiastic, why not stay and have a taste of her steamroller~"
"Next, she'll finish you within nine seconds. (Himeko: I am not, I did not.) The World!"
A strange warhead froze midair above the Throne of the Wind. The time flow of both the throne and Wendy slowed drastically. It was as if they had been enveloped in a peculiar field. Though the surroundings blazed under relentless firepower, the interior of the field was dim and muted—like entering a separate dimension.
Within that alien space, the Herrscher of Wind and her throne seemed to have been pressed into slow motion, their movements thick and sluggish, as though sinking into a swamp.
"Spacetime Rupture Round · Dimensional Boundary."
This was anti-Herrscher weaponry specially designed by Expert to counter the Herrscher of Wind's high-speed mobility.
Although something like spacetime locking might be commonplace in Honkai Impact 3rd, once brought into reality, it stood at the pinnacle of technological achievement.
After all, any ability involving time and space was far from ordinary science.
According to Vill-V's hypothesis, spacetime locking in the Honkai world relied on a physical phenomenon known as a "quantum gravitational field." By generating microscopic spacetime fissures through such a field, spacetime could be compressed.
Of course, applying that theory directly to the Three-Body universe would be pure nonsense. Expert would need actual experimentation to verify its feasibility.
As for why Vill-V had not satisfied the curiosity of her other selves by attempting to create spacetime fissures based on Honkai-world theory—instead developing her own spacetime locking technology—the reason was simple.
To verify technology related to spacetime locking would require a large-scale laboratory and enormous experimental funding.
And Vill-V had no money. (Completely justified.)
Thus emerged pseudo-spacetime locking technology.
This technology did not rely on a "quantum gravitational field," nor did it require vast laboratories for massive experiments—because it had already been verified by humanity.
It was curvature technology from the Three-Body universe.
Vill-V was more than familiar with this field. In the Three-Body universe, this was precisely her line of work.
After all, back then, Vill-V had possessed a passionate desire to run away.