"Hm?"
Something was wrong.
Ten [Weapon God] railguns had opened fire simultaneously, but the pressure they exerted on the Stellar Ring was far weaker than what his perception had registered. Although this technique could be called invincible for now, it didn't mean that maintaining the [Stellar Ring] placed no strain on the Monarch.
"I see."
In just half a second, Lu Xing understood what had happened.
His perception was incredibly powerful, and for that very reason, his tactical judgments were highly dependent on it. If one possessed a means to briefly obscure or deceive his [Super Perception], they could cause the Monarch to make a critical misjudgment.
The Herrscher of Erosion itself naturally lacked such an ability.
But the Flame-Chasers did. After suffering countless losses, Mobius, who possessed the genes of Shesha, had finally used herself as a test subject to develop a "not very useful" counter-perception measure.
The reason this method was deemed "not very useful" was precisely because its effective duration was less than a single second...
...though against Shesha, it was effective for a full several minutes.
This technique, recorded in Prometheus's database along with all the other knowledge, was successfully deployed by the Herrscher of Erosion. The direct effect was that the Monarch misjudged the output of the railguns. The Weapon Gods, which appeared to be at full power, had only expended 20% of their energy. Any lower than that, and the external light and heat signature alone would have been enough for the Monarch to notice the discrepancy.
The [Stellar Ring] could be maintained for three to five seconds.
Realizing he had fallen into a trap, Lu Xing dispersed the Stellar Ring at once... which was also when the Herrscher of Erosion cut off the energy supply to the railguns.
Immediately following—
"VMMMMM!!!!!"
Without even needing to cool down, the final fifteen Weapon God railguns opened fire on the same point on the Earth's surface!
---o---
He could dodge this attack.
But the planet's entire civilization would be annihilated under the might of the [Weapon God]. The few lives the Monarch could carry away with his Authority might be called a species, but they could no longer be called a civilization.
The Herrscher of Erosion's goal was simple.
If the Monarch dodged this attack, the entire civilization would be turned to ash, and its mission as a Herrscher would be complete. If the Monarch took this attack head-on... based on his previous performance compared with the database, it was impossible for the Monarch to block the combined strike of fifteen [Weapon God] railguns. Besides the terrifying light and heat, the chain reaction of the energy disintegration was also not to be underestimated.
Even if he had some hidden technique, whether it was resurrection through a clone or status recovery, it would obviously require a massive amount of Honkai energy as replenishment. At that point, it would only need to use the [Weapon God] to power up the [Moonlight Throne] engines at full capacity, absorbing all the Honkai energy inside and outside the planet... Relying on his own recovery speed, the Monarch would definitely be slower than the [Weapon God]'s cooldown.
Thus, its grand plan would succeed.
However...
"CLANG!!!!!"
The same scene appeared above the Monarch.
Scorching, piercing white light converged in the sky as the confrontation between the light of annihilation and the [Stellar Ring] played out once more. It wasn't until the energy stored within the [Weapon God] railguns was completely exhausted that the mimicked personality of the Herrscher of Erosion—a byproduct of devouring Prometheus—finally snapped out of an emotion a computer should not have: being stunned.
"How—"
"Is it strange?"
When the Herrscher of Erosion scanned for the Monarch's presence again, his figure had long since vanished from within Earth's atmosphere, appearing directly in front of the [Divine Machine · Avalon].
The night sky served as a backdrop to his imposing grandeur.
His Authorities manifested his divinity.
"Herrscher of Erosion."
"From where did you acquire the data that the [Stellar Ring] has something like a 'cooldown time'?"
"!?"
Correct.
The Monarch's [Stellar Ring] had no cooldown at all.
This ability had evolved from [Garrison] and [Echo]. Before that, [Garrison] was an absolute defense technique that had evolved from [Shield Bearer], and [Echo] was a universal defensive technique that had evolved from [Crystal Wall].
The [Stellar Ring] was, in itself, a powerful fusion technique.
The Monarch could directly use the "normal version" of the [Stellar Ring], but he could also construct a new [Stellar Ring] by casting it as a "normal defensive technique" if the former had already been used recently.
It was just that...
...because the latter method was somewhat more costly, the Monarch had simply never used it. Or rather, no situation had yet arisen that could force him to use the second casting method of the [Stellar Ring].
An exaggerated stream of data swept through the Herrscher of Erosion's vision.
No matter what countermeasures it analyzed, it was all in vain. A vast sea of [Warnings] nearly caused the [Divine Machine · Avalon] to crash on the spot. Even the answers obtained through countless deductions were still far behind the current version. Or rather, the basic lesson plan it had obtained from the very beginning was wrong.
In a situation like this...
Swoosh!
Inside the Divine Machine, which was soaked in red warning lights, a momentary flash of white light ignited and was extinguished in an instant. After a flicker imperceptible to the human eye, the Herrscher of Erosion fell into a state of speechless bewilderment.
"Self-destruct?" a voice echoed in its mind.
"You didn't really think the 'backdoor' I left inside you could only read data, did you?"
"Herrscher of Erosion."
"You know a great deal, but knowledge is not the same as wisdom."
The Monarch's slightly mocking voice entered the Herrscher of Erosion's mental world, every word crystal clear.
"Think about it."
"Why did you activate the 'Stigmata Project'?"
"Why did you construct so many Weapon Gods?"
"And why did you view me as your greatest obstacle?"
The Monarch's words threw the Herrscher of Erosion into a state of immense confusion.
"It's alright."
"It's alright if you can't figure it out. Thinking is not always necessary."
"..."
"No, impossible."
The Herrscher of Erosion was now completely flustered. Emotions a machine should not possess rippled through its mental world with obvious fluctuations.
"Nothing is impossible."
"I did not lie about one thing: your Authority of Erosion in the 'machine' aspect is indeed stronger than mine," the Monarch praised in a steady, even tone.
"The 'monitor' hidden inside Sakura's body."
"It's not that I didn't want to completely remove it. It's that with my own understanding of the Authority of Erosion, even with the help of the recently 'born' Higokumaru... it was simply impossible."
"But it is precisely because it was impossible," he continued, "that you were more convinced that the intelligence you obtained from our conversation was correct."
"And—"
Behind the Monarch, the bands of light symbolizing the [Authority of Reason] and the [Authority of Erosion] lit up simultaneously. At the same time, the crucial "Core of Reason" within the [Divine Machine · Avalon] flickered with the same light.
"Other than that, you're really not all that impressive."