"Just what exactly are you trying to do?!"
The Third Herrscher glared at Durandal, violet-crimson lightning flickering incessantly within her eyes. She was clearly incensed.
Durandal looked at the figure before her. In appearance, she was identical to Miyuki, yet her temperament was worlds apart.
Thinking that the wait for Elysia was becoming rather dull anyway, Durandal figured she might as well strike up a conversation.
She wanted to see how a Herrscher of the Previous Era would behave when left to her own devices, without any interference.
Breaking her silence, Durandal finally stated her intent: "I'm waiting for someone."
The Third Herrscher stared back, blankly.
Seeing the "you've got to be kidding me" expression on the Herrscher's face, Durandal added, "I really am waiting for someone. Don't assume that just because the Honkai energy concentration is high here, no human can reach it. After all, isn't the person standing right in front of you a living example?"
"..." The Third Herrscher remained silent.
Then, taking advantage of the Herrscher's momentary lapse into thought, Durandal swung her lance.
With a powerful sweep, she cleared out a massive swathe of Honkai Beasts that had been merely circling her, hesitant to pounce.
"You!"
The Third Herrscher was both shocked and enraged. As a Herrscher, she possessed very little in the way of rationality to begin with; it was already a feat that she had restrained herself this long.
Pushed by Durandal's repeated provocations, the Third Herrscher finally snapped and struck.
Of course, she didn't just charge in blindly. She commanded the surrounding Honkai Beasts to surge forward while she lurked behind them, waiting for the perfect opening.
She refused to believe that a war of attrition wouldn't eventually force Durandal to show a weakness.
In reality, however, dealing with these Honkai Beasts required very little effort from Durandal. She didn't even need to tap into the Holy Blood or the Kaslana power within her.
Relying solely on her innate, monstrous strength to brandish her weapon, she easily reduced the swarming beasts into raw Honkai energy, scattering them back into the world.
Finally, after the ranks of the Honkai Beasts had visibly thinned yet again, the Third Herrscher couldn't take it anymore.
She realized that sending the beasts to their deaths served no purpose other than weakening the army she intended to use to destroy human civilization.
Discarding any semblance of tactics, she launched herself at Durandal alongside her companion beast, Śeṣa, which had been standing by on her orders.
The Third Herrscher opened the engagement by releasing an intense electromagnetic field toward Durandal, intending to paralyze her movements.
Simultaneously, Śeṣa crept out from the shadows, spreading an eerie, murky green swamp beneath Durandal's feet to further restrict her.
Durandal didn't panic.
With a single thought, her armor shifted from Dea Anchora to Bright Knight: Excelsis.
Leveraging the superior mobility of the Godsbane Suit, she soared into the sky, easily evading both the electromagnetic field and the toxic mire.
As she looked down from the heights, her gaze was suddenly captured by a flash of pink in the distance.
Without a moment's hesitation, Durandal abandoned the now-maddened Herrscher below and flew toward the figure she had been searching for.
Having missed her strike, the Third Herrscher prepared to give chase into the air, only to freeze in confusion as she watched Durandal—who had previously stuck to her like glue—simply fly away.
For a moment, the crazed expression on the Herrscher's face faltered.
She didn't know whether to be happy that this walking disaster had left, or furious that her opponent had fled just as she had finally resolved to fight.
Durandal, naturally, was oblivious to the Herrscher's inner turmoil. All she knew was that she had finally found the person she'd been waiting for all day.
As Durandal approached, Elysia—who had been cautiously advancing across the ground—felt a sudden stir in her heart. She looked up and froze.
She saw a silhouette flying toward her from the very center of Nagazora City, the area with the highest Honkai concentration—a place that even she found slightly uncomfortable.
Having fought the Second Herrscher before, Elysia knew that Herrschers were generally capable of flight.
However, looking at the stranger's attire, her instincts told her this person wasn't a Herrscher.
But if she wasn't a Herrscher, that made things even stranger. After all, what person or organization in this world could have developed such ridiculous power outside of Fire Moth?
If such a thing were possible, why would she have gone through all the trouble of sneaking into Fire Moth in the first place?
Regardless of the stranger's origins, Elysia knew that for the sake of humanity's fight against the Honkai, she had to meet this person and gather some intel.
So, despite noticing Durandal early on, she didn't retreat. Maintaining the highest level of vigilance, she stood her ground and waited.
The Bright Knight armor was fast. In a few moments, Durandal landed before Elysia, the impact of her descent kicking up a cloud of dust.
As the dust settled, Elysia finally got a clear look at the newcomer.
The woman had long, wavy golden hair streaked with a few white strands. Her deep blue eyes held a complex swirl of emotions that Elysia couldn't quite decipher.
She wore a strange set of armor, primarily blue and white, and held a lance that seemed to faintly pulse with the aura of a Herrscher Core.
But none of that was the main point.
The main point was that, for no reason at all, Elysia felt that this blonde beauty fit her personal aesthetic to a terrifying degree.
As that thought sprouted, Elysia blinked in surprise.
Yes, it was true—she was a sucker for a pretty face and could never resist befriending a beautiful girl.
But she considered herself a lover of all beauty, and it wasn't like she hadn't seen women as striking as the one before her.
If nothing else, she herself was certainly no less beautiful.
She shouldn't be feeling this strongly.
While Elysia studied her, Durandal saw the familiar mix of wariness and distant confusion in the other girl's eyes.
It was the same look Elysia had given her when she first traveled back to the Second Honkai Eruption of the Previous Era and eliminated the Second Herrscher in an instant.
If that was the case, Elysia's thoughts right now were likely the same as they were back then.
The only one who had changed was Durandal herself.
Back then, she had constantly warned herself: Whatever you do, do not fall in love with her.
Whenever she looked back on those days, Durandal felt an urge to go back and smack some sense into her past self for thinking she could actually resist Elysia's charm. What was she even trying to prove?
She might as well have surrendered from the very start.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL