Under Enoxia’s threats and bribes, Jackal managed to deliver the goods just before her deadline. Following her hints, Enoxia successfully entered the Theater of Domination. And then, she saw Kiana about to self-destruct.
Achievement unlocked: Saving someone at the nick of time.
Fortunately, Kiana’s self-destruction was still only in its first stage—meaning Enoxia could still save her by using her Herrscher of Corruption authority to forcibly suppress the urge to self-destruct. If she’d been even fifteen minutes later, it probably would have been beyond saving.
“Go away, go away, you’re not welcome here!”
“Uninvited guest, uninvited guest!”
The dolls shouted at Enoxia—more out of fear than anger.
“Ara ara, I heard from Bella before that when she mentioned my name, you all got so excited. So why is it that now that I’m actually here, you’re all giving me the cold shoulder? I’m already inside, so even without an invitation, couldn’t you at least treat me decently?”
Before Enoxia even finished speaking, she grabbed the nearest doll.
“You’re… Landon…”
“Wait, I can—aaaaaah!!!”
Before the doll named Landon could finish, its entire body convulsed violently as if electrocuted. After it went still, Enoxia had a very heartfelt exchange with it—by ripping open its chest cavity and tearing out the Herrscher of Domination’s core with her bare hands.
Looking at the tiny crystal in her hand, Enoxia shook her head in disappointment and kicked Landon’s “corpse” away. Landon’s body hit the wall and shattered into pieces.
“What, you like making Herrschers attack themselves? I’m a Herrscher too—who wants to be the next target?”
Looking at Enoxia’s smiling face, quite a few dolls instinctively took a step back.
“Wait, let’s talk this out, no need for violence! Let me tell you—every one of us has a corresponding real person out there. If you do anything to us here, they’ll all die too!”
Kiana, sitting cross-legged beside the mimicry Black Abyss White Flower to heal her injuries, couldn’t help but frown at these words.
“Besides, gentlemen use words, not fists. We’re all Herrschers—why make such a big fuss over a little thing… heh heh…”
Enoxia pinched her nose:
“From what you just said, you’re closely linked to the real humans corresponding to you. In other words… if I just kill all the corresponding 1,000 people, that should have some effect on you here in the Theater of Domination, right…”
“If you kill all the hostages, the criminals have no hostages left to hold. You should understand that logic too, right…”
“Huh?”
Kiana and the dolls all exclaimed in surprise at the same time.
“That said… it’s not impossible to switch from a fistfight to a war of words…”
“I may not be a gentleman, but cleaning up trash in just a few moves would be far too boring. Go ahead—let’s see how many seconds longer you can last in a war of words than in a fight.”
Kiana stared at Enoxia, lost in thought.
“Engaging in a war of words with the Herrscher of Domination seems pointless. If we win, they won’t just let us go. If we lose, we could very well fall under their control. From the dolls’ reactions and what just happened, their method of luring me into attacking so they can steal Herrscher authority doesn’t seem to work on Enoxia. So what exactly is she trying to do…”
After a bout of whispering among themselves, the dolls cautiously closed the distance to Enoxia.
“Fool, since you’ve given up this chance yourself, don’t blame us. Blame your own arrogance and ignorance…”
With that thought in mind, the dolls began their specialty: trash talk.
” Herrscher of Corruption Enoxia, you appeared in Siberia in 2000. You have no mother and no father—you were born an orphan. Finding Sirin was just you empathizing with fellow orphan Sirin… What’s the matter, cat got your tongue? Did we hit a sore spot? Can’t refute it, so you’ve gone silent?”
Enoxia blinked, then replied:
“I think that spaghetti should be mixed with No. 42 concrete, because the length of the screws easily affects the excavator’s torque…”
“Huh? What are you even answering? I was asking…”
Enoxia spread her hands:
“You ask yours, I answer mine. Who do you think you are? Just because you ask me something, I have to answer? What I want to answer depends on my own will, not on what the question asks. Understand?”
“…Trying to cover up your inner fragility with nonsense? Hmph, watch me smash your fragile self-esteem to pieces!”
“…Fine, let’s continue. During the Second Honkai Eruption, even though you saved Sirin and saved Bella, you caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Siberian residents and caused the Snow Wolf Squad to fall apart. With everything you’ve done, you don’t deserve to be called righteous!”
The doll finished this speech looking thoroughly indignant, then deliberately paused. Because it knew that people need time—from receiving information to forming an opinion and rebutting, to getting more and more agitated. It needed to give Enoxia time to get angry. Just talking nonstop on its own might not achieve the desired effect of breaking her down.
And Enoxia seemed to do exactly as it hoped—after it stopped speaking, she couldn’t wait to open her mouth:
“Let’s go back to the previous question. You said I have no parents—I’ll admit that, since I was born directly from the Honkai as a Herrscher. But you said I’m an orphan—that I have to refute. I have family, so I’m not alone.”
“Just as I thought, she’s still hung up on what I said earlier…”
A smug smile crept onto the doll’s face:
“Is that so? Do you know that the family you see is just your own wishful thinking? You treat them as family, but in their eyes, you’re nothing but a complete freak… Hm?”
The doll grew more agitated and more excited as it spoke, but then it noticed that Enoxia’s gaze had, at some point, shifted to the mimicry Black Abyss White Flower beside Kiana—in other words, to the Void Archives.
“Void Archives, I’m curious—what’s the difference between you as the mimicry Black Abyss White Flower and you as a little golden cube?”
【Aside from the difference in form, there is no other difference. Just as the same person has different identities in different places and therefore needs different outfits.】
【In your eyes, I directly changed my appearance and displayed different abilities. In my eyes, I merely changed clothes.】
“Whoa, Divine Keys can talk?”
Kiana, standing nearby, was also drawn to the Void Archives’ voice and stared at it curiously.
“Not just the Void Archives—the Key of Corruption, Jizo Mitama, is also a Divine Key with self-awareness. If you want to know why, we’d have to go back to the Previous Civilization…”
“Hey, I’m talking to you here, what are you—”
“So noisy. There’s nothing wrong with my hearing—I know full well you’re talking to me. But you talking to me and me choosing to ignore you aren’t mutually exclusive.”
“You!”
