Honkai: Oh No, I’ve Become the Herrscher of Corruption?! - Chapter 40

February 10, 15:50 – Inside the computer systems of Schicksal’s Siberian branch

Enoxia regained consciousness.

“Ah… so this is what it feels like to die once.”

Though the incident proved that having a backup meant she had an extra “revival armor,” it was just like Subaru Natsuki’s “Return by Death”—theoretically, she could resurrect infinitely, but the pain of death would still carve itself into her memories.

By 3:55 PM, she had mostly recovered. Funny how things turned out—after all that, she still ended up back in the computer at the Siberian branch.

“Let’s check the battle situation first… What? Schicksal Headquarters launched several Honkai fission missiles at Lake Baikal?!”

She had never dared to infiltrate the control terminals for high-destructive weapons like Honkai fission missiles. She feared that human civilization might be destroyed by her own hands.

The inexplicable bloodlust, the increasingly radicalized perception of people and events—all these abnormal signs suggested that she might be under the influence of a Herrscher’s consciousness.

Though this Herrscher consciousness seemed disappointingly weak. In her past life, she had just been a lazy college student from a happy family, barely even exposed to the harsh realities of society. She had no particularly strong willpower, so the fact that the Herrscher consciousness could only influence her subtly was downright pathetic.

But sometimes, the least threatening things were the deadliest. Maybe because she was weak, the Herrscher consciousness was weak too? Before her self-destruction, she had speculated that the process from destruction to revival would inevitably involve a period of consciousness fading and then reforming. The moment her consciousness first reformed would undoubtedly be her weakest point—what if the Herrscher consciousness seized that moment to take control?

Even if it was too weak to hold on for long, and she could wrest back control as soon as she recovered slightly, she still had to ensure it couldn’t launch nuclear missiles in that short window. So, the safest approach was to avoid infiltrating those systems entirely.

“Let’s see what happened earlier… Dark clouds… blood, and then dissipation? Damn it, isn’t this the same as the original ending?”

“Cecilia’s position suddenly teleported from Baikal before vanishing? That bastard Otto must have predicted that Sirin would save Cecilia, so he fired Honkai fission missiles at her—since he could track her coordinates at any time. Now Sirin must have fallen right into his trap.”

“No! If something happens to Sirin, Bella will definitely go on a rampage. With Schicksal already heavily damaged, if Bella inflicts irreparable losses, who’s going to fight the later Herrschers? I have to stop her and rescue Sirin!”

Enoxia quickly searched for information but found nothing.

“Damn it, I’m so panicked I forgot—I put them on the whitelist myself! They don’t have comms devices, and their Herrscher/Tyrant-class Honkai beast signatures are undetectable. Of course conventional methods won’t find them.”

As she calmed down, Enoxia realized something.

“No… the situation might not be as bad as I thought. There’s something even more important I need to do—if I don’t act now, it might be too late.”

“Even if I fail, there’s no need to follow Sirin into the Sea of Quanta. I’m not Seele—that’s a place best avoided if possible.”

16:05  – A hospital somewhere in Siberia

Enoxia crawled out of a computer terminal.

The hospital was deserted. Due to Honkai beast attacks, everyone had been evacuated on the first day after the Herrscher of IceFall’s emergence, thanks to the Valkyries’ assistance.

“Three out of five Snow Wolf Squad A-rank Valkyries are dead, one’s critically injured, and one’s missing. Countless B-ranks died to the Honkai beasts spawned by the Herrscher of IceFall or were killed when the Herrscher fled. Finding this place won’t be easy.”

On a nearby hospital bed, Cecilia lay silently. The highly automated medical equipment, detecting a presence, suddenly activated.

In an abandoned hospital, electronic devices inexplicably powering on—right around the time Cecilia’s signal vanished—was precisely how Enoxia had located this place so quickly.

Cecilia’s eyes were closed, her face pale, with self-inflicted wounds on her arteries. Yet, her beauty remained undiminished.

“Sirin was thoughtful enough to teleport her right onto the bed… Too bad the backlash from releasing the Schariac Holy Blood means even the finest human medical tech—no, even the Abyss Flower—can’t save her now. Hm?”

Though the movement was faint, Cecilia’s reflexive twitch didn’t escape Enoxia ’s notice.

“Not revivable, but not completely dead yet… Seems I arrived just in time.”

In this world, vessels couldn’t hold a fading consciousness. But if it hadn’t fully dispersed, there was always a chance to find a compatible vessel.

In other words, death was irreversible—but as long as she wasn’t fully dead, there was still hope. Welt Yang, the master of last-minute comebacks, was living proof.

“Good… With 24 years of memories intact, there’s still a chance to salvage this…”

Enoxia placed a hand on Cecilia’s head and activated the Herrscher of Corruption’s power, copying every fragment of her 24 years of life and storing it as data.

19:30

After triple-checking, Enoxia confirmed that both surface and deep memories had been fully copied—though she had the odd sense that something more than just memories had been extracted.

“Phew… Done. Good thing this is my specialty. With current-era tech, extracting a person’s complete memories would take an absurd amount of time, manpower, and resources. At her rate, she’d be long gone before they finished.”

Wiping sweat from her brow, Enoxia had her “avatar”(proxy) lurking in Schicksal’s network report on Bella’s status.

“She fought Welt Yang around 4 PM? So Otto’s letting Bella clash with Anti-Entropy while he takes Sirin for research… Classic.”

Otto’s methods were underhanded, but this outcome actually reassured her. Facing Anti-Entropy’s members meant Bella would be restrained without excessive casualties, and they wouldn’t kill her outright, avoiding irreversible conflict with Sirin. It was the best possible scenario.

Glancing at the floor beside Cecilia’s bed, Enoxia spotted the Abyss Flower, carelessly tossed there by Sirin. Though her data form couldn’t carry physical objects, curiosity about Divine Keys led her to pick it up—after all, as a Herrscher, she was confident it wouldn’t corrupt her.

Yet the moment Enoxia grasped the Abyss Flower, her eyes widened. She felt a resonance.

She knew the Abyss Flower was a Divine Key that chose its wielder—over 500 years, only two Valkyries in Schicksal’s history, Ragna and Cecilia, had been able to use it.

“I… can wield it? I’m the Herrscher of Corruption, not Death. Why would the Abyss Flower respond to me? Never mind—now’s not the time.”

After a moment of scrutiny, she set the weapon back beside Cecilia and left the hospital.

Years later, only after fully mastering the Herrscher of Corruption’s power would Enoxia understand why the Abyss Flower had accepted her.