[Stigma of Death (Gold / Semi-Awakened Exclusive Talent): A unique Stigma that carries the authority of the Herrscher of Death. Through this mark, a close connection can be established with the "Herrscher of Death," even allowing the temporary summoning of her consciousness to assist the host in combat!]
[Note: Limited by the host's physical strength, and because the consciousness of the "Herrscher of Death" in the Current Era remains sealed, the effects of this gold-tier talent are temporarily restricted.]
[Current Restricted Talent Effect: The host may summon the consciousness of the "Herrscher of Death" to take over and fight, up to once per day for a maximum duration of five minutes.]
[While the Herrscher of Death's consciousness is active, the true effects of the "Stigma of Death (Semi-Awakened)" will be activated.]
[During this time, the host's Honkai Energy-to-physical conversion rate will temporarily adjust to a hundred-to-one ratio, and partial Herrscher of Death abilities will be awakened.]
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As the rewards from fully conquering Dark Seele, her number-one wife, were saved and finalized, Lunelle was utterly stunned by the sheer, absurdly overpowering boost described—just reading it felt outrageous in every sense!
What was she looking at?
A hundred-to-one Honkai Energy-to-physical conversion rate!
Doing a quick mental calculation, that meant Lunelle's combat strength would instantly skyrocket by a factor of 100, purely from the numbers!
Keep in mind, Lunelle's current Honkai Energy Adaptability of 91 points, converted into 91 points of physical stamina, already made her something of a superhuman.
But with this takeover active, that 91 would immediately soar to an outrageous 9,100 points of stamina!
It reminded Lunelle of the publicly stated baseline for an S-rank Valkyrie candidate at St. Freya—a foundational Honkai Energy Adaptability potential of at least 250.
So if an S-rank Valkyrie was calculated based on that 250 benchmark, then with her little cheat activated, wouldn't she essentially be as strong as 36 S-ranks combined for those five minutes?
Even though her own frail body couldn't sustain the cheat for long, for Lunelle, who had previously been forced to watch helplessly without being able to do anything, having this daily five-minute takeover meant she finally had a tiny bit of capital to intervene in the main storyline!
However, since she couldn't view anyone else's stats besides her own, Lunelle felt a slight swell of pride but didn't dare assume she was invincible just because of these seemingly insane numerical boosts.
After all, knowing the general plot direction, Lunelle was well aware that even without seeing concrete numbers, the world of Honkai had far more than just one or two beings who could be called "gods" or "cheaters"!
Still, with her current "little cheat," dealing with a weakling like Welt Joyce, who could at most manipulate gravity a hundredfold, should be more than enough, right?
With that thought, Lunelle's consciousness was ejected back into the real Honkai world due to the save completion.
'See-chan, I'm requesting the takeover now!'
The moment she returned to reality, feeling herself about to be sucked into Welt Joyce's grasp, Lunelle could only pin her hopes on the new cheat she'd obtained in the simulation!
[Host takeover request sent… The "Herrscher of Death" has responded to the host's takeover request!]
'Huh? That was fast…!!!'
As the "Herrscher of Death" instantly accepted the request, Lunelle—completely unprepared for the takeover expert to arrive so quickly—suddenly felt as if her originally adequate brain was forcibly stuffed with something very, very big.
At this point, we can vividly borrow a classic line from a certain emergency food:
"Not a chance! There's no way Paimon would fit in there!"
Since this was, in a way, Lunelle's first time having something so big forced into her, especially under such sudden, urgent circumstances, the sensation was almost comparable to certain rather intense scenarios in underground genres, where someone gets caught by a half-orc or troll… Ahem…
In short, dear readers, you can imagine the rest.
Some things are better left unsaid—if you know, you know, and then it's just blah-blah-blah…
'This… hurts too much!'
In the end, unable to endure such terrible, tearing pain, Lunelle lost consciousness on the spot.
As the soft, adorable Lunelle fainted, her number-one wife, Dark Seele, seamlessly took over.
For just an instant before losing consciousness, Lunelle's pure, flawless sea-blue eyes shifted into an eerily enchanting, crimson red.
And Lunelle's originally sweet, comforting, milky scent suddenly underwent an indescribably strange change.
However, if any of the beauties who had been intimately close with Lunelle before were present, they'd likely recognize it immediately—the change in scent on "Seele" was exactly the same as the "succubus aura" that emerged whenever they teased the adorable Lunelle into a blushing, flustered mess.
Only now, with Dark Seele—the "succubus herself"—taking the wheel, this unique seductive aura, which was usually half-masked by Seele's pure and cute demeanor, was finally blooming fully into its true form!
Because if Seele, her number-one wife, was the universe's most incredibly adorable beauty, then Dark Seele, her other number-one wife, was clearly the universe's most incredibly sultry beauty, yum (ˉ﹃ˉ)!
After forcibly connecting her consciousness to Lunelle's soft, delicate body, the real-world "Herrscher of Death"—Dark Seele herself—quickly accessed her precious Seele's recent experiences and general situation in this world, all thanks to a certain unspoken deal made with the simulator.
"Tch! To think even a small fry like this in the Current Era dares call themselves a Herrscher?"
Upon understanding the crisis Lunelle now faced, Dark Seele couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
After all, this so-called First Herrscher seemed pathetically weak—by "just a bit," she meant a whole "heck-ton"—in the eyes of Dark Seele, a genuine, bona fide "Herrscher of Death" from the Previous Era.
As an "old-timer" in the Herrscher business, Dark Seele naturally looked down on this Welt Joyce with utmost disdain.
The mere fact that someone so weak dared claim the title of Herrscher was reason enough for her to ensure such a being wouldn't continue existing in this world.
But this Bronya is really like a stubborn ghost! How did she manage to find her way back to Seele's side in such a short time?
And this Raiden Mei person!
Kiana!
Murata Himeko!
Hmph!
Hmph!!
Hmph!!!
"Well, aren't you just ir-re-sis-ti-ble! My adorable little Seele!!!!!"
But through the memory images displayed by the simulator, while becoming clear about the crisis her precious Seele was facing, Dark Seele also learned just how many creatures had gathered around "Seele" in her absence, daring to secretly covet her little treasure!
Fortunately, Dark Seele could only view the corresponding memories from a third-person perspective.
So, in her eyes, it seemed the members of the main trio were simply taking advantage of her adorable, soft, and shy little Seele, who wasn't good at refusing these somewhat passable-looking individuals from boldly sticking themselves to her.
At the very least, her precious, darling Seele—no matter how you looked at it—was clearly too gentle and soft by nature, coupled with a genuine lack of power to resist.
For self-preservation, she had ultimately been forced into the role of the one being forcibly clung to!
This made Dark Seele's bitterly jealous heart feel a tiny bit better.
However, if Dark Seele were to discover that Lunelle, that little philanderer, had long been secretly and not just once, but multiple times, sending waves of passionate 'electricity' in her heart towards these ambiguously connected 'wives'...
Then even if Dark Seele were bound by the "deal" they'd struck and truly couldn't directly deal a "fatal" blow to Lunelle's wives, Lunelle herself—who, despite having a proper first wife like her, still dared to openly seek so many "extra wings"—could forget about having an easy time from now on!
At best, she could expect to be pinned down in the consciousness space by a Dark Seele whose possessiveness had exploded, subjected to days and nights of relentless, frenzied "pummeling"!
And though Dark Seele herself very much wanted to take advantage of Seele's consciousness being knocked out to peek at some more private, deeper memories—like checking out the memory scenes of her precious Seele taking a bath, helping to confirm her wife's current... development in advance, and secretly getting an early visual treat... which should be perfectly fine, right?
Sadly, the simulator, which was quite the prickly customer in other aspects, proved exceptionally effective at prohibiting anything lewd.
Just as Dark Seele tried to sneak a peek at some of Lunelle's spicy memories, the moment things got critical, a classic singing picture of a certain notorious fraudster would suddenly pop up.
And it would loop a single, blood-pressure-spiking, classic line from a certain emergency food:
"How about we explore the area ahead of us later?"
Thus, under the simulator's powerful blockade, it forcefully thwarted and crushed the "just a few" nefarious attempts of the overly parched Dark Seele.
"Tch! How annoying!!"
Realizing she couldn't continue peeking at those "few" little secrets belonging to "Seele," Dark Seele, with no outlet for her frustration, soon slowly locked her murderous intent onto Welt Joyce Clone 1, who still smugly thought victory was in his grasp and he'd obtain her precious Seele any moment.
After all, when settling accounts, this damned Welt Joyce Clone 1 had not only actually hit Seele, but even dared to harbor the most forbidden covetous thoughts towards her treasure!
But for Dark Seele, the most crucial point was that this Welt Joyce Clone 1 was not on the simulator's restricted "no-kill" list!!!
Since he didn't have the protection of that pesky system spirit, there was nothing more to be said!
Meanwhile, Bronya, whose sole reliance, the heavy mecha Project Bunny, had been temporarily knocked offline, was struggling with all her might against the intense dizziness, stubbornly lifting her head.
As little Duckie wasn't currently equipped with her "Drive Kometa" Valkyrie battlesuit, being slammed hard into the wall had left her in a similar state to Lunelle's earlier injuries—several bones broken throughout her body.
If not for her past mercenary experience granting her willpower far beyond her peers, a normal child Bronya's age would have long succumbed to the pain and passed out on the spot!
But little Duckie wasn't like Lunelle, who had a self-healing talent "Hyper Regeneration" to greatly speed up recovery.
So, at this moment, Bronya could only watch helplessly as her most important Seele was snatched away by that vile-smirking scumbag, Welt Joyce Clone 1!
"Ugh! Bronya can't do anything!"
Completely bereft of combat ability, despite the immense resentment in her heart, little Duckie could only powerlessly murmur a certain classic pre-Herrscher line from the world of Honkai.
It's just a pity that if uttered later, after little Duckie came into contact with the Herrscher of Reason core, such words might actually have some effect.
But the current Bronya was still the initial "Duck" from the very beginning of the story.
At this point in time, merely a genius among normal humans, she obviously hadn't even dared to consider the possibility of becoming a Herrscher in the future.
So, no matter how desperately Bronya tried to input the precursor login password for a Herrscher, it was impossible for her to log into her "Herrscher main account," which she hadn't even had time to register yet!
After all, among the main trio, Duckie was the one whose Reason core wasn't the original equipment.
In fact, precisely because the core wasn't originally hers, in the story, not only was her newbie protection period driver's license forcibly revoked by Kevin, but in later plotlines, not only was her license revoked by others, even her not-so-precious Herrscher of Reason Authority was snatched away by others more than once!
And perhaps because Duckie, as a Herrscher, was either getting beaten or on her way to getting beaten, by the later stages, when engaging in some mutual professional praise with the also somewhat beatable "Sister Rita," the glorious achievements Duckie had that were worth Rita mentioning turned out to be, of all things, legends from her childhood mercenary days!
But whether it was because her classic "password input" had no effect on herself but could activate on others, Bronya didn't know.
Just after she lamented her own uselessness, Seele, who moments before had seemed weak and completely unconscious, suddenly regained awareness!
However, this Seele who awoke so abruptly at this moment, while her appearance showed no obvious change from before, gave Bronya—who knew her Seele far too well—a sudden, strong sense of dissonance, a feeling that was "a bit" very not-Seele!
It was as if her originally pure, flawless, adorable Seele had suddenly become... not quite like Seele anymore!
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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.