Though Kiana's spirit was utterly shattered right now, you could just barely say that in terms of mental state, she had met a certain awakening condition.
The problem was, Kiana simply didn't have enough Honkai Energy on her right now!
Even in the later plot where the Paramecium awakened as the Herrscher of the Void, it was basically always after coming into contact with the Herrscher core that once belonged to Sirin.
Or that certain "Green-Hat King" outright gifting her a massive amount of Honkai Energy, allowing a complete Herrscher transformation.
Before her utterly chaotic thoughts could settle on why Lunelle was so important to her...
The Honkai Beast—a Templar-Class—that had sliced Lunelle down to the brink of death seemed to sense that this little cutie still had a faint breath left.
So, the Templar-Class Honkai Beast switched its giant sword back to a lance, ready to perform a careful, final strike on Lunelle right then and there!
"No... don't hurt Seele! Don't!!!"
Seeing the monster in front of her not only hurt Lunelle this badly but still refusing to let the little one go, Kiana scrambled desperately, half-crawling, half-lunging toward the now barely breathing Lunelle.
At the very least, she absolutely couldn't just watch Seele get hurt again, not even if it was just Seele's body!!!
But just as the Honkai Beast's lance thrust was about to physically finish off the gasping Lunelle...
Kiana, in her inexplicably shattered state, never expected that someone else present—who also adored Seele, and was also a beautiful young girl—would react even more wildly than she was right now!
Even more broken!!!
That's right!
The person more broken than Kiana was none other than...
The Herrscher of Thunder!!! (Duck: Huh???)
Huh? You ask why it wasn't a certain Ms. 'Duck' reacting more strongly?
Well...
That's because our dear Ms. Duck had just been sent flying.
Plus, everything happened too fast; she didn't even get a chance to see anything else.
And as for our Duck right now...
Perhaps she's still on the way, riding her Armored Bunny. (Duck: ...)
"Scum! Scum! How dare... how dare you harm the one I hold dear!!!"
In that instant, the "Mei" whom Kiana had lunged at had her pupils suddenly narrow into vertical slits filled with madness.
The brand of the Authority of Conquest instantly flared above Mei's rather... alluring lace panties, manifesting the Herrscher's sigil of that very Authority!
As the Herrscher of Thunder awoke and erupted under intense stimulus, the Templar-Class Honkai Beast's thrusting lance was instantly blocked by an electromagnetic shield woven from the Authority of Conquest.
Moreover, the silicon-based lance, upon contact with the electromagnetic shield, was rapidly electrolyzed and vaporized under the Herrscher of Thunder's terrifying lightning!
ZAP!!!
The Herrscher of Thunder pointed a finger, and a terrifyingly dense mass of Honkai Energy instantly transformed and condensed into countless bolts of conquering lightning.
The half-wing symbolizing her Herrscher authority—the Wing of Conquest—materialized behind her, stirring without wind, lifting the enraged Herrscher of Thunder slowly into the air.
"Vanish, scum!"
With her words, countless bolts of conquering lightning instantly coalesced into a terrifyingly powerful ball of plasma, instantly electrolyzing this eager-to-die Templar-Class Honkai Beast down to its most basic molecular structure.
This was the power of the Herrscher of Thunder's authority—the formidable offensive force capable of disintegrating and annihilating all things with lightning.
And the Herrscher of Thunder, acting with perhaps not the lightest touch in her fury, unleashed an attack that sent a pillar of thunder piercing through heaven and earth.
So much so that the Hyperion, which had just arrived in the skies above Nagazora, immediately detected the terrifying Honkai Energy fluctuations released by the Herrscher of Thunder.
With this attack from the Herrscher of Thunder, Schicksal, having captured clear Herrscher signals, officially issued the order to close the net.
However, as for this plot development that seemed generally on track but was oddly twisted in the details... Lunelle, now completely unconscious in the ruins, naturally had no way of knowing any of it.
In her unconscious state, Lunelle only felt as if she was silently sinking into the depths of a dark sea, trapped in an awkward state between life and death—not quite dead, but not fully alive either.
Then suddenly, it seemed something yanked Lunelle, teetering on the edge of drowning, out of the "sea's depths."
And Lunelle, jolted from that half-dead state, awoke with a start!
"Hah... hah!!!"
Opening her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling that looked like a hospital's, Lunelle—freshly pulled back from death's door—let out a slow, relieved sigh of survival.
"I'm... alive?"
Seeing the hospital gown on her body and the bandages wrapped tightly around her, Lunelle quickly realized she must have been rescued.
She just wasn't sure whether she'd been taken in by Schicksal or Anti-Entropy.
Although in the simulations she'd experienced pains worse than death more than once, this was the first time in reality she'd come so close to actual death.
"Sigh... that was really cutting it close this time!"
But if a similar situation happened again...
"..."
As the rush of adrenaline cooled, reviewing her own actions this time, Lunelle naturally understood that while it seemed she had desperately protected someone,
in terms of results, she was just like a mindlessly passionate fool, nearly tossing away her own fragile life for nothing.
"Still not strong enough!"
Feeling the wounds that still hadn't fully healed—the pain still sharp enough to make her suck in a breath—Lunelle muttered helplessly.
"No idea how long I was out, but logically, it should be long enough for my simulation cooldown to reset, right?"
'See-chan? Has my simulation cooldown reset?'
Figuring she was stuck paralyzed in a hospital bed with nothing else to do anyway, Lunelle thought she might as well make full use of the time, start a simulation, and boost her strength a bit.
And the thought that her beloved Dark Seele's fate had been chaotically altered by her desperate confession made Lunelle feel a little smug.
After all, by now she should have successfully won over her tsundere 'big wife,' even if she was wearing Seele's 'jacket.'
As they say, my first wife's wife is, by extension, also my wife!
So me, Lunelle, claiming Dark Seele is one of my big wives is totally within reason, right?
'Giggle, really wanna jump into the simulation and get close with my big wife Dark Seele again.'
'A tsundere like Dark Seele, all talk and no bite…'
'Probably even if I get a little too close, she'd just run out of words, call me an idiot, but still let me snuggle up, right? Tsundere Dark Seele wife is just the best!'
But just as Lunelle was harboring some rather grubby thoughts, dreaming her peach-filled dreams and preparing to enter the simulation for some quality snuggle time with her Dark Seele wife...
[Simulation cooldown complete. Does the host wish to initiate simulation?]
"Start it!"
[Simulation initiating...]
[Detected host's thoughts are excessively impure. Simulation cooldown increased by 5 minutes!]
Lunelle: …What the? I suspect you, See-chan, are deliberately targeting me!
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.