"Mei, calm down, calm down!"
Sparks flew, making one's hair stand on end.
Kiana felt like her own hair was about to stand up, but she still couldn't stop Raiden Mei from awakening her ultimate divine power.
Beside a panicked and helpless Kiana, the purple-haired girl gripped a real katana, faint electric charges floating around her, making one's whole body tingle.
Raiden Mei's expression was grim, her eyes looking past the low bushes in front of her to see everything on the coastal highway.
Bronya ordered Project Bunny to aim its cannon at Brian's head, and the intensity of the electric charge around her reached its peak.
Kiana, at her side, was in a panic, completely at a loss for what to do.
She had thought that the things the hateful Blondie, Brian, had said before were just a delaying tactic, that Raiden Mei had been confused by him, and that everything was a scheme against her personal cook.
After all, if a random villager suddenly popped up on the roadside claiming to have mastered controlled nuclear fusion, no one would easily believe it.
But it turned out that everything the guy said was true.
Not only did he catch the mastermind behind the earlier farce, but he also put himself on the line and managed to stimulate the hidden power within Raiden Mei.
She had no doubt that if that Russian loli named Bronya Zaychik pushed things any further, Raiden Mei would really strike her down with lightning and split her in two.
Fortunately...
"Mei, that guy has succeeded. You should relax a bit too."
Her amethyst-like eyes watched everything happening on the coastal highway, and Raiden Mei's stern expression gradually softened.
Kiana breathed a sigh of relief.
Compared to the old Mei, the current Mei was truly terrifying.
She gave off the feeling that she would grab your neck at the slightest disagreement and give you a dose of domestic discipline.
It's good that she's back, it's really good that she's back.
"Thank you, Kiana," Raiden Mei said with a gentle expression.
Her hand relaxed, and the electric charges around her no longer fluctuated with her emotions.
Watching others walk on a knife's edge for her sake, while she herself could do nothing due to her weakness, was a terrible feeling.
She had only known Brian for less than three days. At first, she, like Kiana, thought this man was just after her body, even coming up with a lame excuse to stay at her house.
But event after event, it was proven that this man was correct every time.
He was saving himself, and he was also saving her, the abandoned young lady of the Raiden family.
If he hadn't appeared, Raiden Mei believed she would only be able to weep when things became irreversible, kneeling in the ruins of a disaster crying, "I can't do anything."
Just like now.
Although she possessed superb swordsmanship, enough to be a master who could establish her own school, in the face of a more unstoppable power, it was nothing more than an unpresentable trick.
One of the masterminds was close at hand, yet she could only let that man face the danger alone.
It was painful.
"Kiana, do you know of any way we can help?"
"Huh?" Her azure eyes were filled with limpid confusion.
"Never mind, forget I asked," Raiden Mei sighed.
This girl didn't have any world-renowned geniuses in her ancestry, she didn't think much before acting, and in her academic classes, a whole day would pass with her eyes closed.
Asking Kiana for her opinion on such matters, she must have really lost faith in the Kaslanas.
Instead of wasting effort on her, she'd be better off trying to find something her father left for her. Perhaps there was something in there that could help with the current situation.
"Um..." Kiana realized a bit late.
But upon seeing the contemplative look on Raiden Mei's face, she shut her mouth unhappily.
If she couldn't be of any help to Mei, at least she couldn't drag her down.
...
On the coastal highway...
"Have you figured it out, Bronya Zaychik?"
"What makes you think your shallow wisdom can compare to the Previous Era's nine generations of careful selection?"
Brian's expression was mocking, like a spectator in the audience watching a clown dance on stage.
The Previous Era proved the danger of Herrschers with the lives of everyone, and they forged the Herrscher cores into Divine Keys that were passed down to this era.
And in this era, perhaps it was the unusual Herrscher of Reason that gave humanity a slight misunderstanding of a Herrscher's humanity, making some conceited careerists think, "I can do it too."
To catalyze an ordinary carbon-based human into a powerful Herrscher...
"Who do you think you are? Do you think the Honkai is your family business? You think it'll work just because you say so?"
Ordinary words formed a sharp steel knife, slicing open the defenses of the girl's heart and showing her the cruelest reality.
It has always been the Honkai that chooses humans, never humans choosing the Honkai.
The most likely outcome of trying to catalyze a person into a Herrscher is not the birth of a Herrscher, but the test subject being annihilated by the super-high concentration of Honkai energy.
Not even a speck of dust left.
Brian patted Bronya's shoulder. "If you really want to save your sister this way, I suggest you bring a box with you."
"What do you mean?" the girl replied mechanically.
"An urn, of course."
"..." An outburst of rage!
The cannon of Project Bunny overflowed with light, instantly reaching the critical point for firing.
She would absolutely not allow anyone to insult her sister!
"What, you can't even listen to the truth now, and you still think you can save your sister with this half-baked plan you came up with on the spot?"
"..."
The emotional damage from the truth, combined with mental suggestion, directly broke through Bronya's defenses.
"You bastard..."
The girl's silver-gray eyes wavered, her previous ideas now supported only by the obsession to save her sister.
She had no other way, so she could only cling to this last straw.
But it was a double-edged sword.
Bronya Zaychik's only weakness was still Seele Vollerei.
"I don't object to you continuing with your plan, but you better think it through. What will your sister's reaction be when she finds out you hurt so many people because of her?"
"Guilty enough to commit suicide? Or cut off all ties with you, her sister, from then on?"
"Bronya Zaychik, think carefully about what you can bring to your sister."
Brian turned around without hesitation, exposing his completely defenseless back to Bronya.
Taming a wolf isn't an overnight affair.
To make a wolf obey, you have to let the wolf get beaten.
Only when this little she-wolf hits a wall will she learn her lesson and listen to him.
Wolf-dog duality.
It's not just about something as crude as feeding it.
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