"Naga—ahem—Captain? My dear Captain? Do you copy? Hyperion has reached the designated coordinates. Awaiting your orders!"
Under the slightly awkward gaze of the Valkyries on the bridge, Himeko quickly corrected herself, looking a little embarrassed.
She'd forgotten this was the public comms channel for the Hyperion.
"Yes, Yes,~ Captain's currently performing a C-section. This is C.C., over~"
A crisp, ethereal voice echoed through the channel.
C.C. was using the power of the Herrscher of Reason, combining it with her Alpha Stigma Eyes extreme analytical capabilities, to channel a colossal surge of electromagnetic energy through the Iron Throne around her.
She gazed upward, watching as the sky above was ionized and blown open, observing the Honkai energy flowing toward Chiyou and calculating the structure and angle of the vacuum corridor.
The vacuum tunnel would allow the railgun's full power to be unleashed.
"Let's see… yep, looks like everyone's here."
Even though the abilities she borrowed from the spider world weren't as broken as the ones with the same names in the Nasuverse, they were still incredibly handy.
She could clearly see the girls gathered near the Valkyrie drop pod—long hair cascading down their backs, tall and elegant figures standing poised in the half-light.
True Kiana and the little tuna girl were armed with firearms supplied by St. Freya Academy.
While the heiress held her gift from Cecilia—Luna's Guard.
Arcs of electricity danced softly at the tips of the girl with dark hair—eyes glowing a mesmerizing violet, both bewitching and sharp.
This was none other than… the dashing and proud Raiden Mei. Sorry, we mean—The Queen of Thunder.
The Herrscher personality hadn't completely fused with Mei.
But that didn't mean she couldn't tap into the Herrscher's power.
Let's just say—they had a "working relationship."
Sometimes, though, Mei found herself troubled by this other version of herself.
Even though they shared the same memories, the Herrscher personality was very different from the gentle, nurturing Yamato Nadeshiko type that Mei naturally was.
No, the Herrscher was pure domineering queen energy.
The two had vastly different approaches to pursuing Nagami.
The original Mei preferred the slow-burn, silent rain approach—gentle care and affection that would quietly make Nagami dependent on her.
The Herrscher, on the other hand, wanted to just charge in and take him by force.
'If all else fails, brute force it and get it over with!'
Mei obviously couldn't handle that level of boldness and would always shyly refuse.
As for Bronya, the Stand user? She didn't need any fancy gear—Heavy Bunny is eternal and divine.
"At 10 o'clock from the Hyperion, you should be seeing something unusual."
Everyone turned to follow C.C.'s voice.
"That is…!?"
A roaring tide of thunder and lightning swept across the horizon.
Brilliant bluish-purple bolts connected the heavens and earth.
As the Herrscher of Thunder, Mei could naturally sense the overwhelming surge of electromagnetic power.
Floating in the air was a massive metal sphere several kilometers wide.
Blinding lightning raged across the sky, arcing between steel and ground, illuminating the world with violent electric flashes.
'Is this… my power?'
The Herrscher inside Mei could also sense it through her shared body.
"Can our abilities… really reach this level?" Mei muttered, stunned.
She tilted her head upward, dazed.
Recently, C.C. had been forcing her to cram physics lessons.
While desperation can drive people to do incredible things, that doesn't apply to physics and math.
If you don't know it, you just don't know it.
Normal high school questions?
Mei could ace them—she was a top student, after all.
But C.C.'s materials? Entire pages filled with only formulas, numbers, and barely a word of text?
Mei could force herself to look at it for a bit.
The Herrscher inside her? She'd probably faint from just two seconds of reading it.
…
The Herrscher went completely silent.
Maybe she realized it was better not to say anything at all.
"…It's so beautiful!"
Of course, the only one who actually cared about that sort of thing was the tuna kiana.
"What is that…?"
The heiress and True Kiana were both aware that C.C. and Nagami were one soul in two body—voiced their confusion together.
An endless storm of energy surged like ocean waves, warping the space around it with a black-ink distortion.
The pressure from this immense power could be felt even without tools.
"This is just a little gift for Chiyou."
The hem of C.C.'s dress flowed like water, embroidered in thunder.
Her golden eyes flicked toward the growing crowd of Honkai beasts and Deadwalkers converging on her position.
Her half-lowered lashes lifted slowly, gaze stretching all the way to distant Xuanyuan Island—locking eyes with a pair of beastly crimson irises through the void.
To Chiyou, the massive electromagnetic cannon wasn't yet perceived as a serious threat.
C.C. was deliberately controlling the output to keep the energy contained and undetected.
Besides, Chiyou was still in the final phase of its evolution, so instead of reacting directly, it simply ordered its minions to disrupt C.C.'s actions.
"But it looks like he's not a fan of the gift… seems like he's sending some pests to ruin the party."
"So, everyone, I'll leave the small fry to you. Make sure they don't interrupt me."
Like Goku gathering energy for the Spirit Bomb, C.C. had no room to spare—her entire focus was on drawing forth the infinite energy swirling within Earth's ionosphere.
They needed to charge the railgun to full power before Chiyou's evolution was complete—enough to blast it out of existence in a single shot.
"You're calling those things small fry...? Isn't that a bit much?"
Standing at the Valkyrie drop pod, mechanical arms extended to assist her in suiting up.
Under Aichan's control, the detachable thrusters clicked into place as Valkyrie armor was mounted onto Murata Himeko.
She glanced at the swarm of Honkai beasts gathered on the ground—all of them at minimum Temple-class and her tone turned a bit awkward.
This was the first time she'd seen close to a hundred Emperor-class Honkai beasts on screen at once.
And to think... this Honkai eruption was centered far off the mainland, on Xuanyuan Island!
Yet the sheer number of upper-class Honkai beasts emerging in these outer regions...
What kind of hellish survival challenge was this!?
Himeko started considering whether to connect her current suit directly to the Hyperion' energy core, fully activating the Nexus System.
Without it, her current equipment wouldn't be nearly enough to deal with Emperor-class threats.
'Tch. The more I think about it... I really am falling behind, huh?'
She slung the nearly body-sized Sunfire Greatsword onto her back, striking a combat-ready pose as she prepared to deploy.
"Hold up, Auntie Himeko. Nagami actually has a more important mission for you," C.C.'s voice rang out with barely disguised mischief.
"Please board a light aircraft and rendezvous with him over the ocean."
That "Auntie" nickname made a vein pop on Himeko's forehead—but when it came to the ever-unrepentant C.C., there was no real way to deal with her.
This is what happens when you're dealing with someone in a girl's body.
"What about me, what about me!? Hey C.C., doesn't Aluo have some super important mission for this lady too!?"
The tuna Kiana's energetic shouting came through loud and clear.
C.C. paused thoughtfully for a moment.
"For Kiana... Sirin and Mei, keep an eye on her. Don't let her get too cocky."
To be honest, out of the original Herrscher trio, the only one capable of soloing an Emperor-class Honkai beast was Mei—thanks to her ability to tap into Herrscher powers.
Kiana and Bronya had grown tremendously during their time training at St. Freya Academy.
But when it came to raw, single-target damage output, they still weren't quite there yet.
"Ugh! What's that supposed to mean! I can handle those beasts, you know…"
Her voice faltered slightly, the confidence in her bright blue eyes wavering as she looked down at the snarling horde of beasts below.
She might be a bit of an airhead, but she wasn't completely clueless—she could still tell the difference between friend and foe, and what her own power level was.
The truth was, Nagami had brought them here not to fight, but as a trump card.
"Understood!" ×2
The two voices overlapped in perfect sync.
Their owners—The heiress and True Kiana shifted their eyes slightly, their identical blue irises locking for a moment in silent tension.
To be honest, despite being alternate selves, The heiress and True Kiana weren't particularly in sync.
In fact, their coordination was far worse than the near-perfect teamwork between Nagami and the Doctor—despite only having known each other for less than a day.
The reason was simple: not only were The heiress and True Kiana alternate selves more intimate than sisters—they were also romantic rivals.
In contrast, the shared SP designation gave Nagami and the Doctor a kind of innate mutual understanding, as if they could treat each other like extensions of themselves.
Hearing the two Kianas respond in sync, C.C. curved her lips into a small smirk—then paused, as if something had just come to mind.
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[Nagami]: This should help you two a lot.
[Red Envelope]: Dual Drive Unit
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The power ceiling of a Kamen Rider was ridiculously high, but in its default form, the W Armor wasn't anything special by C.C.'s current standards.
The first-stage W form couldn't possibly scratch the current Chiyou.
A 2.5-ton punch force? Tha's still a child's play.
But the real value lay in the ability to combine the powers of two users into one.
Thanks to proper training from her parents, The heiress was much stronger than True Kiana or the tuna girl.
She could even wield the power of the Saintess.
If they had the power of "W," taking down an Emperor-class Honkai beast would be no problem.
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[Kiana Kaslana]: Got it!
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