Durandal, who almost blurted out that sentence, immediately tried hard to throw this incredibly bizarre thought out of her head.
Regardless of whether the opponent was her long-lost relative, right now, he was a Herrscher threatening humanity.
*I am a Valkyrie, and Valkyries... should be the shield that protects the innocent and the spear that pierces the Honkai.*
*Aside from giving me a sense of intimacy from blood ties, the pressure he gives me has grown stronger. That is also an indisputable fact.*
*Moreover, the massive materialized energy behind him is now becoming more complete and distinct.*
*I can't drag this out any longer.*
*This guy probably still has quite a few trump cards left, and from the start until now, he has barely used the Herrscher of Thunder's powers.*
*Able to use human weapons, possessing decent coping methods when dealing with enemies, and even hiding many trump cards... if we let this kind of Herrscher slip away from right under our noses, who knows what kind of disasters he will cause in the future.*
*I must defeat him here, then take him back to Schicksal.*
But just as this thought flashed through Durandal's mind, she suddenly heard a strange voice speaking a simple yet chilling phrase incessantly inside her brain.
*Kill the Honkai...*
*Kill the Honkai.*
*[Kill the Honkai]!*
*Kill the Honkai Kill the Honkai Kill the Honkai Kill the Honkai Kill the Honkai Kill the Honkai Kill the Honkai!*
As if to drive Durandal insane, that emotionless male voice repeated this phrase over and over in her mind.
"Enough!"
Durandal, her heart intertwined with complex emotions, annoyed, tried hard to block out this voice and immediately charged at the enemy before her.
There were too many mysteries surrounding this enemy. For both public and private reasons, she couldn't let him go here.
Only by taking him back to Schicksal could she get the answers she wanted.
*So...*
*—I must win this battle!*
After liberating the [Meta-Morph Factor], Aaron's speed was naturally much faster than before.
Relying on the increase in physical specs, Aaron's spear thrust speed was naturally much faster than previously.
Accompanying his attacks, the red and yellow spears wove into a blur of light and shadow, forcing Durandal, who was prepared to attack aggressively, to retreat repeatedly.
Aaron's speed had increased, but in Durandal's eyes, Aaron's strikes were still too full of flaws.
At this moment, she had figured it out. The person before her might have decent tactical thinking, but in terms of attack techniques, he really wasn't much to look at.
The problem was, after Aaron's speed increased, he could complete continuous, uninterrupted spear strikes within a short time.
And once speed increased and the number of attacks went up, many flaws in offensive moves would be covered up by the incredibly simple reason of "being fast enough."
At least right now, Durandal could see the opponent's flaws but couldn't effortlessly parry the two magic spears like before.
*However, increased speed...*
*Even if my speed keeps up, the final result won't turn into 'I see through the opponent's flaws and easily break the move,' because once both sides' speed reaches a certain level, I will only be forced into an awkward situation of trading damage with the opponent.*
*As long as the opponent chooses to trade moves with me regardless of damage, I'm the one who loses out.*
*Of course, I haven't used the Abyss Flower's ability yet.*
*But at the same time, those two spears of his clearly have special abilities too.*
*And that energy construct behind him... it hasn't made a move since it finished condensing earlier... Mm, I can't ignore the threat of the construct just because of that.*
*When fighting Honkai Beasts before, even though Emperor-class ones might have some combat instincts, compared to humans... no, compared to him who was perhaps once human, those combat instincts really aren't enough.*
*Just slightly constructing a tactical approach, and I actually feel a bit... helpless?*
*No, saying helpless isn't quite right.*
*I can only say it feels troublesome.*
*If possible, I didn't want to use the true power of the Key of Death.*
*But now...*
Durandal, having dodged an attack, sharpened her gaze.
Even for a Valkyrie wielding a Divine Key, liberating the Divine Key's true power would place a massive burden on the body.
And the Key of Death, [Abyss Flower], which governed the two Authorities of [Creation] and [Wither], was already considered a weapon with extremely domineering Authorities among Divine Keys.
According to the records in Schicksal's database, the previous user of this Divine Key, Cecilia Schariac, easily insta-killed a Pseudo-Herrscher that appeared during the Second Eruption with a single strike of [Black Abyss].
Possessing such a rule-breaking combat record was certainly related to Cecilia's own strength being too rule-breaking, but this incident alone was enough to show just how domineering the Key of Death's destructive power was.
The greater the power, naturally, the more terrifying the burden accompanied it.
Precisely for this reason, and some reasons that were hard to mention, Durandal hadn't used the Key of Death's true power earlier.
But now, it seemed she had no choice.
Although the opponent's attacks were disorganized, they were too fast.
If this rhythm continued, there was a high probability Durandal would be injured by his barrage of spear strikes before she could adapt to his rhythm.
Often, in battle, the side that took damage first might be seized upon by the opponent to accumulate advantages, eventually causing the injured side to be slowly ground to death.
Although [White Flower]'s Creation Authority could heal heavy injuries, firstly, activating White Flower's ability would also make the user bear a massive burden, and secondly... Durandal felt the opponent wouldn't give her the chance to use White Flower.
So if she didn't preemptively suppress him, her chances to counterattack would only become fewer and fewer.
And even more terrifyingly, Durandal suspected this wasn't the opponent's full strength.
Yes, even at this moment, Durandal still suspected the opponent hadn't used his trump cards.
Right now, those attacks raining down like meteors were already keeping her fully occupied. If he continued to speed up, it was hard to say if she could keep up.
The two sides had been fighting for less than a minute. Rita couldn't help for now.
Regarding the two seniors on the Hyperion: Theresa couldn't be expected to come down, and Senior Himeko's Nexus System wasn't suited for this kind of precise combat. Her tactical support couldn't be counted on to have much effect either.
Also, if I lose, and this guy's intent in hiding here is to 'ambush this battleship secretly,' then the other comrades of the Far East Branch and the Immortal Blades will all suffer.
While attacking ceaselessly, Aaron discovered via the Pure Eye that the energy concentration on Durandal's body was actually starting to gather toward her right arm.
*Mm... Does she intend to use the Divine Key?*
*Using Black Abyss in this situation... that's ruthless.*
*Although relying on [Guts], I should be able to make the power of [Black Abyss] dissipate from my body, the problem is that after using Guts once to restore my arm earlier, the mental energy I can mobilize now has decreased by a portion.*
*Damn it, damn it, is the pressure I'm giving you that huge... forget it, whatever.*
*Let's try it out. The worst result is just getting injured by Black Abyss.*
*But if it succeeds, things will be much more comfortable later.*
After completing the Honkai energy charging, Durandal drew the Black Abyss hidden inside the White Flower and thrust it viciously at Aaron before her.
As Durandal activated the Herrscher of Death's core within the Abyss Flower with a massive amount of Honkai energy, the Authority of Wither instantly turned into black mist wrapping around [Black Abyss].
But at the same time, Aaron actually actively stopped his offensive against Durandal herself, and instead used the Noble Phantasm in his hand, [Gae Dearg], to stab directly at the shaft of Black Abyss.
Attacking the enemy's weapon to try and knock it away to gain an advantage—this tactic wasn't rare.
But the moment Aaron thrust this spear, the corners of Durandal's mouth curled up slightly.
The vermilion spear in the opponent's hand clearly had special abilities, but no matter what, when this long spear encountered Black Abyss's Wither mist, it would be decomposed by the mist.
The opponent didn't know this intel, which was why he tried to attack Black Abyss.
And after this, as long as the opponent lost one weapon, his normal output firepower would instantly drop by half.
Relying on dual spears attacking rapidly in unison, Aaron could suppress Durandal in normal offense. If one of the weapons in his hand was disabled, Durandal could naturally completely suppress him in normal offense.
After this strike, at most the opponent would mobilize the massive energy construct behind him to force Durandal back and forcibly interrupt her follow-up offense.
But regardless, the opponent's weapon was definitely gone, and the disadvantage of losing a weapon was something he couldn't recover from no matter what.
According to Durandal's understanding of the Key of Death, this was how it should have been normally.
But at this moment, she suddenly realized that a crimson light suddenly flashed across the vermilion long spear in the opponent's hand.
Gae Dearg. This demonic spear Diarmuid received from his foster father was supposed to be a weapon only used to target 'mana', rendering 'magical enhancements invalid'.
But at this moment, Aaron had already mobilized a massive amount of Honkai energy via the Meta-Morph Factor, pouring it into this demonic spear.
Accompanying the influx of other powers, the property of Gae Dearg, which should only have been able to target mana, actually underwent a certain degree of change.
The essence of a Noble Phantasm was actually a weapon created with human fantasy as its skeleton.
And at this moment, the vermilion demonic spear, having been 'dominated' by its new master Aaron to a certain extent, was reconstructed by Aaron through his own fantasy under the characteristics of the Power of Dominance.
Secondary reconstruction of a Noble Phantasm's characteristics was naturally an extremely difficult task for Aaron. However, the current [Gae Dearg] clearly didn't fall into that category.
Ultimately, [Gae Dearg] was a user of mana sealing the opponent's mana effects via the spear's characteristics. Aaron's modified effect of sealing the opponent's Honkai energy characteristics via [Honkai Energy] essentially belonged to the effect of "sealing the opponent's energy characteristics via the same energy."
This reconstruction of the Noble Phantasm's ability wasn't essentially a very strange change. Precisely because of this, Aaron dared to boldly make an attempt at such a time.
And looking at the facts, he succeeded.
[Gae Dearg], infused with Honkai energy by him, actually suppressed parts of the black mist using the Honkai energy within the spear body.
And not only that, under the enhancement of the Meta-Morph Factor, Aaron's strike not only suppressed Black Abyss's characteristics but even caused a burst of cold air to appear with the blow.
Finally, combined with the power of Magnetic Field Rotation, the seeping cold air turned into countless ice spikes, stabbing directly toward the enemy before him.
Despite having brought out Black Abyss, one of her trump cards, Durandal actually found that after using her trump card, she was the one forced into a predicament.
*Ice... another new ability.*
*And I did see 'magnetic fields' appearing just now. It seems the Herrscher of Thunder's core is indeed on him.*
*Black Abyss's black mist... it seems Black Abyss's characteristics weren't completely suppressed.*
Seeing the black mist created by Black Abyss beginning to spread to the surroundings after being suppressed for an instant, Durandal instantly confirmed one thing.
The opponent's red long spear could indeed suppress Black Abyss's characteristics, but this level of suppression could at most slow down the spread of the black mist and ensure the red long spear wasn't 'withered' by Black Abyss.
Rather, the fact that the opponent used a suppression ability to try and suppress Black Abyss was also a sign of "not daring to face Black Abyss directly." This showed that in his view, Black Abyss's effects posed a threat to him.
*Mm, that's fine.*
*It doesn't matter if I miss for a moment. As long as I know this move poses a threat to this man, there's no problem.*
*As for these ice spikes... Mm, after adding electromagnetic power, they've actually become a bit troublesome.*
*Aside from weapon usage techniques, this guy really has too many variations.*
Although complaining words flashed through her mind, Durandal, who swung her dual lances to shatter the ice spikes directly, knew very well what her heart was truly thinking.
After bullying Honkai Beasts for too long, she had met such a strong enemy.
Facing a strong enemy that made her feel 'troubled' right now, Durandal felt her fighting spirit as a warrior making her increasingly excited.
Seeing the opponent seize the recovery time after she shattered the ice spikes to close in on her body, Durandal had no thought of evading.
The opponent clearly intended to trade damage with her. And right now, Black Abyss's characteristics hadn't been fully revealed to the opponent's eyes, so... this guy shouldn't know about Black Abyss's Wither characteristic.
*If he plans to trade damage in this situation, this...*
*—Is inevitably a massive win for me!*