"Look at me, you mongrel!"
Faced with the one who had just thrashed the three Valkyries, Mo Wang showed absolutely no courtesy.
He was even grinding his shoe into the man's face for good measure.
"Bastard! Get your foot off me!"
The young man under his foot unleashed his full power. A strange blue energy radiated outwards, blasting a crater in the ground.
In the end, though, Mo Wang was completely unharmed, while the young man had a shoeprint on his face and his clothes had been blasted to tatters by his own power.
"You bastard, how dare you call me a mongrel? You..."
"Calling you a mongrel is a compliment. After all, a clone without a name of his own is even lower than a mongrel."
Mo Wang looked at the young man with contempt. Or rather, the clone of the first Welt, Welt Joyce.
When it came to this clone of Joyce, many people probably didn't even know he existed.
Even fanfiction authors couldn't remember who this person was.
In reality, it was all because miHoYo had retconned him out of existence.
Speaking of this character, one had to mention that particular Honkai Impact 3rd manga, which could be considered miHoYo's dark history.
Looking back at it now, the plot of that manga was full of landmines.
This included, but was not limited to, the Central Dogma area beneath St. Freya being filled with Cecilia clones; Welt's initial setting being a sickly weakling; Himeko's initial character being a complete tramp; and the Herrscher of Reason's initial setting being gravity manipulation in the manga... among other bizarre plot points.
For various reasons, even miHoYo couldn't stand this broken plot and just retconned it all away.
They even changed the entire first chapter of the Honkai Impact 3rd game itself.
But it couldn't be said that the manga had no redeeming qualities.
At least, it was in the manga that the origins of Kiana's first S-rank battlesuit, Moonlight, the full story of Sakura Samsara (that trash tho), and the prequel to the Xuanyuan Chapter were all fleshed out.
And the setting of this Joyce clone from the manga seemed to have been remembered by miHoYo's writers later on, which led to the creation of the more familiar character, Welt's "son," little Joey.
(If you think about it that way, does that mean the current Welt in Star Rail abandoned his wife and son, quit his job, and is now traveling across the universe?)
But in the end, this character, who had only appeared twice in the manga and was used as a punching bag for the Valkyries both times, was someone Mo Wang had almost failed to recognize when he first saw him.
To be frank, you could probably count on one hand the number of characters in the entire Honkai universe who were more obscure than this guy.
"Mo Wang... he seems really angry."
Kiana, who had already gotten up from the ground, said numbly as she looked at Mo Wang in the distance.
In all the time they had known him, this was probably the first time they had ever seen Mo Wang so angry.
"You bastard!" Joyce's clone roared, the blue light in his eyes glowing even more intensely, as if to turn all his anger into power.
The moment he went all out, the veins on his forehead bulged, and blood streamed uncontrollably from his nose, staining his pale cheeks.
In that instant, the air around them seemed to thicken, and blue energy condensed around him, forming a powerful gravitational wave that swept towards Mo Wang.
As the gravity intensified, Mo Wang suddenly felt an immense pressure, as if the weight of the entire world was pressing down on him.
His feet were forcibly pulled into the ground, which groaned beneath him. Dust flew, and the surrounding scenery distorted under the immense force.
"This is bad!"
Seeing Mo Wang being controlled by the enemy's power, the three girls couldn't help but look panicked.
"Do you see?! This is the power of the Anti-Entropy Sovereign! All of you, just die!" Joyce's clone's face was twisted in rage, his violent emotions having almost driven him insane.
As he continued to increase his power, the veins on his forehead bulged, and bright red blood flowed from his nose, eyes, and ears, dyeing his crazed face and making him look like a deranged demon.
At this moment, even the space around them began to distort due to the gravity.
However, the pained expression Joyce's clone had expected to see on Mo Wang's face never appeared.
Instead, faced with the immense gravity, Mo Wang actually looked like he wanted to laugh.
"The power of the Anti-Entropy Sovereign? Just this level of power? The Anti-Entropy Sovereign I know is dozens of times stronger than you!" Mo Wang suddenly roared at the Joyce clone before him.
As his roar echoed, the Joyce clone's expression turned to one of terror, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Just then, Mo Wang began to move his body.
Thanks to the enhancement of his Reinforcement Magecraft, he was now able to ignore the surrounding gravity.
"Mere gravity! How can it possibly contend with my tempered body?!" At that moment, Mo Wang actually used his physical strength to pull his legs out of the ground.
Dirt and gravel shattered beneath his feet, flying in all directions.
"Is this guy... a monster?!" Seeing Mo Wang walking towards him step by step, even the Joyce clone was now terrified.
Under his full power, the force being exerted on this guy was at least ten times normal gravity.
But now, Mo Wang was walking towards him, step by step, relying purely on his physical strength (or so it seemed to him).
Was this some kind of Super Saiyan that had appeared out of nowhere?
"Y-you, stay away from me!"
Despite using his power to its absolute limit, Joyce's clone still couldn't stop Mo Wang's advance by even a single inch.
"Just grit your teeth and take it, you bastard!"
Mo Wang suddenly threw a punch, and in that instant, the Joyce clone's body shot into the air.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!"
Mo Wang's fists flew like a machine gun, continuously landing on the clone's body.
Blood began to pour from Joyce's clone.
Although his body was in excruciating pain, he was horrified to find that he had absolutely no way to escape Mo Wang's barrage of fists.
"Shoryu... KEN!"
After a full three pages of "ORA," Mo Wang finally clenched his fist.
Scorching flames enveloped his right hand, as if beckoning for victory!
THUD!
The rising dragon punch slammed into the clone's abdomen.
And just like that, Joyce's clone was sent flying high into the sky.