novelden Chapter 194 The Arrival of Benares
Chapter 194 The Arrival of Benares
"Bah! Bah! Bah!"
The sounds of the katana clashing with the bow and arrow echoed across the open space, creating a unique symphony. Mei and Raven fought and cleared away the nearby Honkai Beasts, a situation that had been going on for quite some time.
The nearby Honkai Beasts had already been cleared out, and the battle between the two had officially entered a heated phase.
Raven used her home-field advantage to weave between buildings with steel cables, occasionally shooting an arrow at Mei. Mei, of course, wouldn't let her get away with it. She activated the teleportation device in her hand, took out the God-Slaying Armor stored in the quantum space, and put it on.
This piece was specially sent over by Einstein using quantum teleportation technology to prevent any accidents. Basic debugging has been completed and some functions have been successfully deciphered. In other words, this armor is now usable normally, except for some core functions and the insufficient Honkai energy provided by Mei.
Several sword-shaped floating cannons floated behind the purplish-black armor, with a mechanical ring of the same color in the center. A sword with a purplish-black scabbard hung at the waist, and black lightning balls with arcs of electricity floated around the body.
It is said that originally, the wearer of this armor had to be a Herrscher, but Einstein's decryption revealed that it seems that as long as Raiden Mei's name is written into the wearer's information as key information, some functions can be unlocked.
Einstein immediately fixed the wearer of the Godslayer Armor onto Raiden Mei. Although only some basic functions were unlocked, its performance was already several times higher than those fourth-generation Valkyrie Armors developed by Otto. It's hard to imagine how powerful this armor would be if it were fully activated.
The truth is, after donning the Godslayer Armor, Mei felt her power greatly enhanced, and even faintly sensed that her sealed Stigmata seemed to resonate and synchronize with the armor. Now, even without the Conqueror's Gem within her, Mei can still easily wield the power of lightning.
To Mei, the raven's attacks were as harmless as children playing with toys; with just a flick of her wrist, the wind from her sword blew all the arrows away.
Even the blades grazed Raven's cheeks and blasted a large hole in the building behind her, much to Raven's dismay. Ever since Mei took out this armor, the situation had become completely one-sided; no matter what kind of attack she launched, it was like an ant trying to shake a tree for Mei.
Her casual strike was unstoppable, leaving Raven with no choice but to temporarily retreat. Realizing that there was no point in continuing the fight, Raven simply chose to surrender.
"I surrender."
"bass!"
Mei's knife stopped at Raven's head. The distance was so short that Raven could even feel the stench emanating from the energy burning her hair.
Mei silently put away her armor, her cold gaze clearly telling Raven that if she dared to attack Kiana again, she wouldn't hold back next time!
The raven simply shrugged and said, "Alright, you've passed."
"what?"
"I mean you passed. Honestly, if I had known you had such a trump card, I shouldn't have provoked you like that."
"So all those things you just said were just a test, a way to provoke me?"
"Halfway, I guess. Although Kiana is now a member of World Serpent, the feud between us won't end there. At most, it just means I won't kill her every opportunity. If she becomes the Herrscher of the Void again, I will definitely take action and send her on her way myself."
Mei pursed her lips and remained silent. Reason told her that Raven was right. If Kiana were to revert to Herrscher of Reason, the best course of action would be to kill her on the spot. After all, no one could guarantee that Kiana would be so lucky to regain control of her body next time.
But her emotions told her that she would never give up on Kiana, because Kiana had saved her life when she was in her most desperate moment, and she had long regarded Kiana as the most important person in her life, so she could not just watch her die.
and so……
Mei made up her mind and looked at Raven with a determined look in her eyes.
"Raven, can you, or Kevin, assure me that as long as I agree to be a candidate for that plan, you will guarantee Kiana's safety, right?"
"Yes, after all, the Lord said that he has other things to entrust Kiana to do, and he will not let Kiana go to her death easily before completing that matter."
"That's good, I agree to your plan."
"Alright! I will pass on the message to the Lord later. Now that the candidate has been chosen, I believe the Lord will start the plan ahead of schedule. Just keep an eye on the Lord's movements these next two days."
Raven then remembered Mei's Godslayer Armor from earlier. She had originally wanted to try to extract some information from her, but then she thought that this was information that even Gray Serpent hadn't obtained immediately. The armor's secrecy must be very high, and even Mei herself probably didn't know much about its origin and function.
Rather than having to gather intelligence myself, it's better to let Gray Serpent, a professional intelligence officer, do it. We can't let him be idle, can we?
What Raven didn't expect was that even Einstein and Tesla hadn't figured out all the functions of this god-slaying armor, let alone Mei.
In this world, only the designer himself and Mei, who has unlocked all the functions and permissions, probably know all the functions. On the other hand, Mei is also somewhat glad that Raven did not try to extract information from her. To be honest, Mei regretted it a little when she took out this armor.
After all, she has no problem fighting Raven on her own, in other words, this armor doesn't need to be used at all in this battle.
Revealing it rashly would only reveal one of her trump cards to World Serpent, which would be a loss. However, even if Raven doesn't try to extract information from her, World Serpent will likely try every means to obtain relevant information from other sources. Afterwards, we should remind the Doctors to be wary of World Serpent's infiltration.
Compared to the tense standoff between Raven and Mei, the situation between the Captain and Kiana was much more harmonious.
The two walked silently without speaking to each other. Soon after, the battle broke out on Mei's side, and the commotion even alerted the Honkai Beasts on the Captain's side.
Alarmed, the Honkai Beasts began indiscriminately attacking humans within their line of sight, but they had provoked the wrong enemy. Whether it was the captain wielding the Judgment of Heavenly Fire or Kiana, who had been cultivating the Void Sword Qi during this time, they could easily handle Honkai Beasts that were at most at the Temple level.
In no time, the two of them had cleared out all the Honkai Beasts in the vicinity. Kiana looked worriedly in the direction where Mei and the others were.
Judging from the commotion, it could only be that some extremely powerful Honkai Beast had appeared over there, which would cause such a fierce battle. However, the captain shook his head indifferently, indicating that Kiana did not need to go over.
After all, based on the captain's understanding of the two people's personalities, this battle was actually just Mei and Raven fighting.
The reason for the fight was undoubtedly Kiana herself. As for why the fight broke out, the captain vaguely guessed the reason but did not say it.
After all, Kiana could never agree to having Mei as the person to close the passage.
This is probably why Kevin assigned the task this way; he likely wanted to test Mei's resolve.
Moreover, if successful, another Herrscher could be born to fight for humanity, and then there was the memory of what Kiana had mentioned to him last night.
In any case, it seems that Mei becoming a Herrscher is a necessity. Otherwise, if Kiana goes to Paradise in Mei's place and Mei fails to become a Herrscher and unlock her power in this world, will they really have a chance to fight Kevin who has the power of the end?
The answer is no. After all, Kevin, who possesses the power of the End, has already surpassed the End. Simply making Kiana the Herrscher of the End only grants her the qualification to stand before Kevin. Even if Kiana in this world were to gather the powers of Origin and the End according to the Captain's wishes, she would probably only have the power to rival the savior Kevin.
To truly defeat Kevin, the strength of others is still needed, and only Bronya and Mei can form a perfect synergy with Kiana. Therefore, the strength of these two absolutely cannot be inferior to the increasingly powerful late-game characters.
Therefore, it is necessary for Mei to become a Herrscher. For this reason, the captain must find a way to cooperate with Kevin and the others' plan and find a way to hold Kiana back while the plan is being executed.
Just as the captain was thinking, the sound of flapping wings came from above his head, followed by a strong gust of wind that almost made him lose his balance.
With a loud thud, Benares of this world appeared before the captain.
"This is... Benares?"
Kiana said somewhat uncertainly, for some reason a strange sense of familiarity and nostalgia rose within her, as if she had known this dragon for a very long time.
“Yes,” the captain replied. “The Second Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, is the Honkai Beast that is most loyal to her and is also the only partner that Sirin acknowledges. That’s why you feel familiar and nostalgic.”
"But I am not Sirin..."
"Kiana, I think Grey Serpent has already told you about your situation."
"Hmm, he said that I and the Herrscher consciousness within me are actually derivatives of the same consciousness. Now it seems that consciousness is Sirin's consciousness, right?"
"Yes, it may be very unfair to you, but that's the truth."
“I understand. Ever since I learned about this, I’ve been having strange dreams from time to time. Now that I think about it, those must be Sirin’s past experiences. I’ve tried to accept this fact, but when I think about how the Herrscher of the Void controlled my body in the past, causing the Great Collapse, hurting Mei and the others, and even almost killing you, I can’t help but feel disgusted with myself.”
"Actually, you don't need to blame yourself. Both I and others know that it wasn't your intention."
“But I really can’t put all the blame on the Herrscher of the Void with a clear conscience, because she and I are two derivatives of the same consciousness. She is me, and I am her. We are like two sides of a coin. I represent good, and she represents evil. Since we are the same individual, no matter who made the mistake, I cannot shirk my responsibility.”
"Then try to forgive your sins. Use your life to fight against the Honkai until you completely defeat it. Until then, you are not allowed to have any suicidal thoughts. This is my punishment for you."
Pfft! Kiana laughed. She knew that the captain's so-called punishment was actually what she was doing now, only with the added condition that she couldn't sacrifice herself.
Indeed, just as the captain said, he had been contemplating suicide. If she chose to inherit all of Sirin's sins, then he would not be able to sacrifice himself so easily.
After all, the crimes Sirin committed could not be atoned for even if she died hundreds of times. I've made up my mind! I will definitely do my best to help Sirin atone for her sins, including dealing with the Herrscher of the Void within her at some point.
Although Kiana still finds it hard to accept her identity as a Herrscher, at least she no longer takes her life lightly.
Seeing that Kiana had let go of some of her inner turmoil, the captain secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had originally been prepared to use his abilities to persuade Kiana, but fortunately Kiana had thought things through on her own. However, it seemed that it would take some time for her to fully accept her past.
Fu Hua, who was meditating in her consciousness space, sensed the change in Kiana's thoughts and opened her eyes. Seeing that the captain had helped Kiana resolve some of her inner conflicts, Fu Hua nodded in satisfaction.
However, there was one thing she couldn't figure out: who had left so much energy in Kiana's consciousness space yesterday?
As a result, Fu Hua can now not only maintain the energy of her feathers for a long time, but also easily help Kiana suppress the consciousness of the Herrscher of the Void.
Most importantly, Fu Hua sensed Kiana's presence in these powers, but she knew Kiana's situation; Kiana simply didn't have any extra power left for Fu Hua.
The energy within Feather Dust is dwindling with every use; if the Herrscher of Knowledge hadn't replenished its power before, it would have already fallen into a deep sleep.
However, it seems that the Herrscher of Knowledge himself hasn't seen her for a long time. According to the captain, in order to prevent the misunderstandings from happening in their world, the Herrscher of Knowledge went to Schicksal in advance to find the body left behind by Fu Hua.
The purpose was to ensure that the Herrscher of Knowledge could recognize herself immediately upon waking up in this world. Whether she would choose to help humanity defeat the Honkai or choose to destroy humanity was not something the Herrscher of Knowledge cared about.
Of course, that's not all. There's also the fact that the Herrscher of Knowledge wants to beat up Alto again.
The feeling of the Soul Steel creaking in her hands was irresistible to the Herrscher of Knowledge, and whenever she thought about it, she always wanted to experience that feeling again.
However, the scene of using Soul Steel to replicate and beat up Alto later didn't feel as good as that time, probably because the Soul Steel didn't have Alto's face on it.
Feeling the hidden injuries within her body being repaired one by one, the Herrscher of Consciousness, who was busy with something outside the life support pod, revealed a healthy smile.