“Fu Hua… so she’s also…”
Theresa and Himeko watched as Fu Hua rapidly approached in her flight mode. For some reason, the Fu Hua they saw today felt unfamiliar to them.
Reina didn’t know Fu Hua very well. When she saw Fu Hua charging straight at her, she breathed a blast of dragon’s breath right at her.
But surprisingly, Fu Hua didn’t dodge at all. Instead, she met it head-on and shattered the breath attack with a single punch.
Seeing this, Reina’s internal alarm bells started ringing loudly:
“No way, I absolutely cannot let her get close to Her Majesty the Queen!”
So she quickly moved her body, charged toward Fu Hua, and got tangled up in a fight with her.
“Is she… trying to lure me away right now? Well, whatever. In the end, we’re both heading toward the same goal anyway.”
Fu Hua cooperated perfectly and started fighting Reina while gradually pulling away. The two of them fought farther and farther apart, slowly moving away from the main battlefield.
With Reina gone, the forces from Schicksal closed in once again. The crew aboard the Helios had no choice but to keep fighting as they advanced. When they got to less than 100 kilometers away from Schicksal, they found themselves in a tough battle.
Himeko watched as more and more fleets surrounded them, and she couldn’t help but feel anxious.
It wasn’t because the enemy was too strong. The thing was, up until now, everything Schicksal had sent to attack the Helios were unmanned aircraft of various types. All Himeko had to do was unleash the skills of the Far East’s ace pilot, use the Helios’s weapons, and blow them all up.
But now, the ships they were facing all had Valkyries from headquarters on board. As someone with plenty of combat experience, she knew that headquarters was planning to board the Helios.
So here’s the question: was she really going to strike down her former colleagues and end these young women’s lives, who were right in the prime of their youth? If any Valkyries died because of Theresa’s “rebellion,” even if they did manage to rescue Kiana, what would happen to Theresa afterward?
Clearly, she couldn’t become a cold-hearted leader like Otto. In fact, you could say it was precisely because she had a human heart that she chose to go against Otto.
To save one of her own students, but having to personally kill other young women who were around the same age as her student… that’s just…
That said, hesitating was never Himeko’s style. She thought back to the diagnosis she received a few months ago and immediately made up her mind.
If it really came down to a situation where she couldn’t save Kiana without killing other Valkyries, then she would take the full blame for harming her comrades upon herself—since she was already going to die soon anyway. Everything would be her own reckless decision, and had nothing to do with Theresa or anyone else on the Helios.
“Although, if it really came to that, I certainly wouldn’t be the only one killing Valkyries…”
Just then, a loud blaring alarm echoed from Schicksal headquarters. Right after that, a terrifying cold spread outward from a certain point, and within just a few minutes, it even started affecting the Helios’s progress.
The good news: Himeko no longer had to worry about the moral guilt of killing her comrades.
The bad news: The Helios’s detectors showed that an intense source of Honkai energy had appeared at Schicksal headquarters. It had already exceeded 2000 HW, and a large number of Honkai beasts were emerging as well.
This meant that after 17 years, the Herrscher of Ice had returned to the world. The Fifth Honkai Eruption had arrived.
All the Valkyries who had been preparing to fight against Theresa immediately pulled back to headquarters to defend it. The Helios’s crisis was temporarily resolved.
“Lady Theresa, the temperature on the deck has already dropped below freezing!”
“Keep moving forward!”
Theresa had witnessed just how terrifying the Herrscher of Ice was 17 years ago. Even if it no longer had that frightening regenerative ability, she didn’t believe conventional forces could stop it.
Rescuing Kiana and defeating the Herrscher—she was going to accomplish both of these things!
Inside the laboratory at Schicksal headquarters, with a deafening crash, “Kiana” shattered the outer wall and walked out from inside.
At this moment, she was wearing a dark blue top and a light blue top. Her originally blue pupils had completely turned green. Behind her, on the six long spears, the white symbolizing snow and the blue symbolizing ice alternated with each other. Just one look at them made you feel as if you were frozen solid.
(For her appearance, you can reference the Queen’s outfit, “Winter Empress,” just change her pupils from yellow to green.)
“Seventeen years have passed. Finally, I get to see this world once more… though it’s inside such a weak little girl’s body…”
“The gifts of [Voracity] and [Abundance] are almost gone, but my control over Honkai energy seems to be a bit stronger than before.”
“Hmm… since I’ve got nothing better to do anyway… I might as well start by killing every single person in this Schicksal headquarters…”
Right then, the first wave of Valkyries who were closest to her arrived and immediately opened fire without a word.
She pointed her right index finger forward, and countless shields made of ice crystals formed around her body, deflecting all the bullets and energy beams.
Not only did this attack fail to cause her any damage at all, but the reflected beams also caused two Valkyries to lose an arm permanently.
“The power of short-lived species… truly… pitiful…”
She pointed forward, and countless ice shards shot out, turning every Valkyrie within her line of sight into bloody messes.
“I only severed their arteries, and yet they lost their lives just like that… lives not favored by the Aeons… truly pitiful…”
Just then, the second wave of forces arrived.
She raised her hand again but noticed a stream of water rushing toward her. She didn’t pay it any attention, because as soon as it got within about a meter of her, it froze solid and fell to the ground.
But the next moment, a figure came flying in from the side at extreme speed. Her ice wall had just formed when it was shattered instantly. The weapon struck her, but the attacker didn’t press the advantage. Instead, they quickly retreated and shot down the ice shards she had fired at the Valkyries.
“It’s Lady Cheng Lixue!”
Cheng Lixue gripped Ruoshui tightly in her right hand and stopped about three meters directly in front of the Herrscher, white mist continuously streaming from her mouth as she breathed.
“Even though I’ve grown stronger and it’s grown weaker… is the gap still this large…?”
Although her surprise attack had hit its target, it made Cheng Lixue clearly understand one thing—the enemy was absolutely stronger than she was.
“Everyone, fall back! Without my order, no Valkyrie below A-rank is to come within one kilometer of the Herrscher!”
The Valkyries who received the order immediately dragged their nearly frozen bodies back.
Cheng Lixue stared fixedly at the Herrscher, her gaze firm yet serious:
“No matter what, I absolutely have to hold it back!”
