Above Oceania, the Hyperion was a silver arrow trying to pierce a wall of black ink. The warship hurtled towards New Zealand, its frame groaning under the strain of the unnatural storm.
Outside the window, the black clouds were so thick and oppressive it felt like they were flying through the deep sea. The fierce winds and lashing rain made everyone on the bridge feel a deep, primal sense of unease.
After receiving the message that Mo Wang had sent through Ai-chan, St. Freya had immediately and unhesitatingly chosen to provide support.
Theresa, looking far too small for the captain's chair she occupied, was personally leading the Valkyries to prevent the further spread of the Honkai.
"Aunt, can't we go any faster? How much longer until we reach our destination?" Kiana, her face a mask of poorly-concealed anxiety, leaned so close to Theresa that their noses were almost touching.
"Stop rushing me! I want to go faster too, but is this a problem that can be solved by going faster? If we go any faster, we'll be rushing to our deaths!" Looking at Kiana, who had her face practically glued to hers, Theresa irritably pushed her away.
Did she not want to go faster?
Theresa looked at the main viewscreen helplessly. In front of the Hyperion, a huge tornado, visible to the naked eye, was like a monstrous barrier erected by a malevolent god.
She hadn't expected that even though they had rushed over at the fastest possible speed, the power of the Fourth Herrscher had already reached such an exaggerated level.
In less than an hour, its power had already enveloped the whole of New Zealand. In terms of sheer scope, the Fourth Honkai Eruption was already dwarfing the third one caused by Mei.
"Kiana, don't be so anxious. Even with the Herrscher and the Honkai, Mo Wang will be fine," Mei said, her calm voice a soothing balm in the tense atmosphere as she gently pulled Kiana back.
"Who... who's worried about him!" But faced with Mei's comfort, Kiana pouted and aggressively turned her head to the side, folding her arms.
"That guy, he's a troublemaker wherever he goes. I heard that he even beat up the branch head of the Oceania Branch for that Valkyrie named Wendy. And he even held some kind of ridiculous competition. I don't care about a guy like that."
Of course, although Kiana said that, the deep worry etched on her face was too obvious to fool anyone. Having personally experienced a Honkai Eruption, she knew very well how terrifying the Honkai was.
That time in Nagazora City was purely because of her good luck.
Looking at it now, the fact that Kiana had survived was a miracle born from her protagonist's halo. First, Mei, as a Herrscher, was not fully awakened at the time.
And at that time, Mei could be said to be the weakest of all the Herrscher hosts. (Mei, who had not undergone any formal training at the time, was indeed weak. Maybe... only the original pufferfish was weaker than her?)
Kiana, who had no weapons at the time, had actually managed to wake Mei up with various verbal attacks and sheer force of will.
But she still remembered the crushing despair, the monsters, the feeling of being utterly helpless. This storm looked even worse.
"Principal, I heard that the Fourth Herrscher this time is that Valkyrie named Wendy, right?" At this moment, Bronya, who had been silently observing the data, slowly came to Theresa's side.
"Yes, that's right," Theresa answered, a pained look on her face.
Thinking about what she had said before—about Wendy being her proudest student—made her head ache.
Her own strongest Valkyrie, who she had raised with great difficulty, was taken away by her grandfather, became disabled, and now had become a Herrscher. This was simply a slap in her face.
She had thought that her small St. Freya, having gathered the Crouching Dragon (Kiana), the Phoenix Fledgling (Mei), and a Guo Jia (backstabber) (Bronya), was already a big enough headache.
But she hadn't expected there to be even more.
"I don't know his status," Theresa sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Ai-chan said after Mo Wang sent the message, he ran out to save people. We've completely lost contact. We can only believe in him."
As she thought of this, a bizarre image popped into her head: Mo Wang, sparkling like an idol, giving her a thumbs-up and declaring,
["Believe! Belief Needs No Reason!!"]
"Somehow," Bronya's monotone voice cut through her thoughts, "Bronya feels that with the Captain's personality, he might just try to beat her up and call it a 'personality correction punch'."
"How could that be? Mo Wang..." Alright, Theresa couldn't finish that sentence. With his usual personality, he would probably just whip out the Judgment of Shamash at the first sign of trouble.
"Attention!" Bronya suddenly called out, pointing to the sensor display. "Multiple unidentified objects exiting the storm at high velocity!"
On the viewscreen, a chaotic spray of debris was spat out from the tornado—splintered trees, twisted metal, and even a few unlucky Honkai Beasts tumbling end over end.
But amidst the junk, one object was moving with a strange, almost deliberate trajectory.
"Wait a second..." Kiana squinted, pressing her face right up against the reinforced glass. Her eyes went wide. "Is that... a giant kiwi? And is that... Mo Wang on top of it?!"
Bronya glanced at the screen, then back at Kiana with her trademark deadpan stare. "Bronya sees a large piece of fiberglass junk. Kiana is being an idiot again. You are likely hallucinating due to excessive worry for the Captain."
"I am NOT worried!" Kiana's face flushed a brilliant shade of red. "And I'm not an idiot! I saw him! He was standing on it! Like he was... surfing!"
"Surfing a kiwi statue through a category five hurricane. A logical conclusion," Bronya stated flatly, the corner of her mouth twitching in what might have been a smirk. "Kiana's brain has clearly short-circuited."
"Has not! You're just jealous because he likes to Play game with me more than you!"
"Bronya finds that claim statistically improbable, given Kiana's sub-paramecium level of intellect..."
"Alright, you two, that's enough!" Mei sighed, stepping between them once more.
"Wait," Theresa whispered, her eyes glued to the screen. "Bronya, magnify object designate Kiwi-One."
The screen zoomed in just in time for everyone to see the giant fiberglass kiwi—with a figure clearly clinging to its side—use a flying water tower as a makeshift ramp.
The figure rode the kiwi up the tower, launched into the air, performed what looked suspiciously like a 360-degree spin, and then dove back into the storm at a completely different angle, disappearing from view.
"..."
The bridge was silent.
"( ᗜ _ ᗜ ) ...Somehow," Bronya finally commented into the quiet, "Bronya now feels that with the Captain's personality, he might just kill the Herrscher by accident."
"How could he...?" Theresa started to defend him, but then trailed off. Honestly, with Mo Wang's track record, using the Judgment of Shamash to win a surfing competition against a Herrscher didn't seem that far-fetched.
"Forget it! Now is not the time to think about this! If the Hyperion breaks, we'll fix it! Full power!" she roared, her earlier caution thrown to the wind.
"Charge!"
The Hyperion lurched forward, plunging headfirst into the raging tornado.
"Wh-why is it so shaky!"
"P-principal! This is way too fast!"
"Everyone, hold on! We're breaking through!"
The ship felt like it was in a blender. Kiana went pale and immediately started to vomit rainbows. Finally, with a deafening bang, the Hyperion burst through the storm wall and into the eerie calm of the eye.
---||---
Meanwhile, on the ground, Mo Wang gracefully dismounted his ride—the very same fiberglass kiwi statue—and gave it a fond pat.
"Thanks for the lift, buddy."
He'd adapted quickly. After being launched into the sky, he realized the chaotic winds weren't just a hazard; they were a high-speed transportation network.
He'd spent the last twenty minutes hopping from one piece of flying debris to another, surfing the tornados like they were ocean waves.
He now stood in a clearing filled with white flowers, miraculously untouched by the chaos. In front of him, a massive tornado, the heart of the storm, connected the earth and sky.
Through the swirling winds, he could see a girl curled up at its center.
The moment he arrived, she seemed to sense his presence. The girl in the storm opened her eyes.