Five minutes later, the Hyperion arrived over Wellington. Nine Valkyries successfully parachuted from the ship down to the ground.
After the nine regrouped, Himeko took the lead, guiding the squad slowly towards the base.
Just as they reached the base’s tightly shut main gate, an urgent communication came through from the Hyperion.
“Lieutenant Commander Himeko, an unknown Honkai source has appeared inside the base. Honkai intensity… 1800 HW, 1900 HW… It has exceeded 2000 HW and continues to climb…”
“Over 2000 HW, that means… There really is a Herrscher core here, but…”
Clearly, before coming to Oceania, Otto hadn’t informed the Valkyries from other branches about the experiments being conducted here and the risk of a Herrscher being born.
“Lieutenant Commander Himeko, Headquarters has confirmed that a Herrscher has been born in the base ahead of you. An S-Rank Valkyrie has already been dispatched. Please retreat immediately. Retreat immediately!”
Although doing nothing and just going back wasn’t really Himeko’s style, having witnessed the power of a Herrscher before, she still gave the order to withdraw.
However, just as Himeko and her team had moved back a little over a hundred meters, the base, covering several square kilometers, erupted as if tens of thousands of tons of TNT had gone off. All the walls and roofs were torn into the sky in an instant.
The nine Valkyries were so close that there was no chance for any of them to escape. They were swept into the air by the violent gale, along with the debris from the roofs.
Kiana, tumbling through the air, couldn’t even get a shot off at the Herrscher, let alone determine where she would be a moment later. Her entire body was at the mercy of the wind.
A large piece of equipment, also caught in the wind, spun through the air and struck Kiana squarely on the head. She was knocked unconscious instantly.
This sudden turn of events also threw the Hyperion into a brief state of chaos.
[A high-speed cyclone is forming 1.6 kilometers ahead. Maximum wind speed at the center is 1,050 meters per second. Multiple unidentified objects are approaching at high speed…]
With wind speeds exceeding three times the speed of sound, the machinery and equipment swept up hit with the force of artillery shells. Some struck the Hyperion’s deck, leaving visible dents in its armor.
“Hyperion, activate defense mode. Immediately proceed at full speed to leave the storm zone!”
Two hours later, the Hyperion finally managed to leave New Zealand, entering the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia. By then, the Hyperion was battered and scarred all over, like a ship that had just escaped an asteroid field.
However, the acting commander knew full well that if the Herrscher of Wind had directly attacked while the Hyperion was fleeing, it was hard to say how many pieces the ship would be in now.
Wendy hadn’t bothered with the fleeing Hyperion. She remained hovering at an altitude of over 5,000 meters. No one knew what she was planning to do.
By this time, the multi-mach-speed cyclone had already swept from Wellington across much of New Zealand. In just those two hours, over two-thirds of New Zealand’s towns and cities had been destroyed. The death toll was approaching one million. The capital, Wellington, had been leveled. An interim government declared a national state of emergency.
World Serpent Headquarters.
Enoxia watched Wendy wreak havoc across New Zealand, feeling quite surprised.
Because based on her performance so far, she was clearly not the “shame of the Herrschers” who, weakened, got knocked out by a single elbow strike from a Titan mech.
Sirin had relayed that although Kiana was unconscious, her Herrscher-level physique meant she was in no serious danger. However, the other genuine B-Rank Valkyries were in grave peril.
As the saying goes, only by trying do you learn one’s true measure. If a normal person wanted to experience firsthand just how strong a Herrscher was, the result would inevitably be trying it and perishing.
Watching Wendy suddenly vanish from the satellite feed, Enoxia fell into deep thought.
“Using the flow of surrounding air to alter the refractive index of light in the nearby atmosphere, achieving an optical stealth effect… This Herrscher is surprisingly well-educated.”
Jackal fiddled with the instruments in front of her for a while, and after ten minutes, Wendy’s form finally reappeared before them.
“Looks like your judgment is correct. Schicksal is going to have a tough time defeating her. What do you think she’s doing, staying motionless in the air, ignoring Schicksal fleeing right under her nose?”
Enoxia stared at a world map on the wall for a long time before gently shaking her head.
“From the perspective of human civilization, Otto has truly created a demon this time… She hasn’t moved for hours, undoubtedly gathering power…”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m asking what she plans to do after she’s done gathering power.”
Enoxia continued her non-sequitur replies:
“The true authority of the Herrscher of Wind is to create and control ideal fluids. Therefore, calling her the Herrscher of Wind is clearly inappropriate. After all, water is also an approximate ideal fluid. So, should we call her the Herrscher of Wind and Water? Hmm… sounds like a fortune teller.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
Still not answering directly, Enoxia pointed her right hand at the computer in front of Jackal, and the device automatically opened a new webpage.
“The East Australian Current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Humboldt Current… This is just an ocean current distribution map that middle schoolers have to memorize… Wait, you mean…”
Although Jackal wore a mask, Enoxia could sense the expression underneath—a mix of surprise and sudden realization.
“Well, seems you’re not completely dense. Do you have a way to contact Natasha?”
“…I do. But the Lord will be acting personally soon, so there shouldn’t be much room for her to operate. Don’t tell me you’re thinking of changing the plan at the last minute, even now.”
Enoxia let out a soft sigh:
“Is the work atmosphere at World Serpent always so tense? No basic human concern for a colleague? Once you contact her, just tell her this: if she doesn’t want to watch helplessly as her little island gets severely damaged, or even sunk, and then roll around on the floor in sorrow, she should sell it as soon as possible and wait to buy a new one next year.”
Ocean currents refer to the horizontal movement of seawater in a definite direction with a relatively stable velocity. They are large-scale, non-periodic movements of water from one sea area to another, either horizontally or vertically, and are the main form of ocean water movement.
Enoxia speculated that Wendy’s goal was to use the authority of the Herrscher of Wind to disrupt the global atmospheric circulation and ocean currents.
