Chapter 76: Mr. Ruo Bai, You Are Mine!
"Watch out!" Kiana shouted, her body already a blur as she leaped away from the spot.
With a deafening crash, a Chariot-class Honkai Beast brought its colossal foot down. The ground buckled under the immense weight, and entire swaths of the surrounding buildings crumbled into dust and rubble, instantly blocking the path they needed to take to reach Mei.
"Don't get in my way!"
Rovel's figure flickered, reappearing in the shadow of the mechanical monstrosity. Without a moment's hesitation, he sprinted straight up the beast's leg, his movements defying gravity. He used its metallic hide as a vertical runway before launching himself high into the air, soaring towards its head.
"Inch Force: Heaven Opening!"
His fist, glowing with a faint internal light, slammed heavily into the glowing, gem-like core embedded in the Chariot-class Honkai Beast's chassis.
A spiderweb of cracks instantly radiated from the point of impact. A sharp, crystalline sound, like a pane of glass shattering under immense pressure, echoed through the ruined street.
[Weak Point Attack!]
[-1554!]
An armored behemoth that had shrugged off military-grade missiles just moments before now had its core shattered by a single, perfectly placed punch.
The massive body of the Chariot-class Honkai Beast swayed drunkenly for a moment, its systems failing. Then, with a final, groaning screech of tortured metal, it crashed to the ground, shaking the very foundations of the city.
[Killed Chariot-class Honkai Beast (Level 50). Gained 30,000 EXP!]
[Level increased to 11. All four attributes +1, free attribute points +2.]
[Mobius's Scalpel collection: Honkai Beast Shell × 12. Triggered additional collection effect: Honkai Beast Shell × 3.]
[Honkai Beast Shell: An extremely hard shell. Perhaps it could be used to craft Honkai Energy weapons?]
"How did you know its weak point was the core?" Kiana asked, jogging up to him with a look of genuine surprise.
"I guessed, of course," Rovel replied matter-of-factly, shaking his slightly numb hand. He flexed his fingers, a dull ache radiating up his arm. 'With something that big and shiny staring at you,'he thought,'whether it's an eye or a power source, you can't go wrong smashing it.'"..." Kiana simply rolled her eyes.'This guy,'she grumbled internally,'is even more reckless than I am.'
The two pressed on. Though their path was still littered with shambling Death Soldiers and smaller, scuttling Honkai Beasts, none of them posed a significant threat. They were cut down with practiced efficiency, a whirlwind of fists and gunfire clearing the way.
Soon, they finally arrived in the vicinity of Mei's home.
[Warning: You have entered a high-concentration Honkai Energy region. Please proceed with caution.]
Rovel quickly pulled up his interface. The Honkai Energy erosion progress bar, which had been a steady 0.00%, now ticked up to 0.01%.
The increase was minuscule, almost imperceptible, but it was happening. That single, terrifying detail meant the ambient Honkai Energy concentration in this area had already surpassed 1300HW. It might have even reached 1500HW, or possibly higher—a level lethal to any unprotected human.
"Mei is there!" Kiana pointed toward the silhouette of a tall building in the distance. A lone figure stood silhouetted against the stormy sky on its rooftop.
"I'm impressed you can see that clearly in the middle of the night," Rovel remarked dryly, squinting into the gloom.
"Stop talking nonsense! Do you have a plan? If Mei has really become a Herrscher... I'm afraid she won't be the same Mei we know anymore." Kiana's voice was tight, and a flicker of deep sadness crossed her eyes.
"There's no other way," Rovel declared, a strange mix of determination and theatrical flair in his voice. "I'll just have to use the power of love to reach her!"
With that, he broke into a dead sprint, heading straight for the building.
"Use love to reach her?! That's the most unreliable plan I've ever heard! Hey, wait for me!" Kiana yelled, scrambling to chase after him.
Before long, the two reached the rooftop where Mei was waiting.
Kiana instinctively hung back, her expression tense as she stood by the rooftop entrance. She remained silent, leaving the stage to Rovel.
Raiden Mei stood at the very edge of the building, a terrifying storm of purple lightning swirling around her. The gale-force winds whipped at her hair and clothes, making them flap violently in the charged air.
[Raiden Mei, Level:???, Trust:???, Danger Level: Extremely High!]
"Mei," Rovel called out, his voice steady as he took a cautious step forward.
"Mr. Ruo Bai... you've finally come." Raiden Mei turned around slowly. A wild, almost feral smile stretched across her face, a stark contrast to the gentle girl he knew.
Hearing the familiar, respectful address, Rovel let out a long, silent sigh of relief. It seemed that even in this state, the will within Mei's Stigmata still remembered him.
"Mei, come with me. I'll take you away from here," Rovel said, extending a hand toward her.
"Leave? Why would I leave?" Raiden Mei tilted her head, her expression one of genuine confusion. "Look, Mr. Ruo Bai. Look how strong I've become. I'm strong enough to tear this pathetic world apart with a single thought!"
Her voice grew more fervent, more possessive. "Weren't you only close to me to become stronger? Now that I'm this powerful, I can definitely train you even better, Mr. Ruo Bai! I can make you stronger than you ever dreamed!"
Raiden Mei pressed a hand to her chest, her violet eyes glowing with an incredible, unnerving depth as she stared fixedly at him. Her agitation fed the storm around her, and the surrounding thunderstorms crackled with even greater intensity.
As if to demonstrate her point, several thick bolts of lightning descended from the heavens, striking the ground around them. The already ruined street below was blasted anew, leaving deep, smoldering craters in the asphalt.
"Yes, I did approach you to become stronger, Mei," Rovel admitted, his voice ringing with sincerity. "But... what truly drew me in wasn't your strength. It was your kindness. The kindness you showed me!"
"Mei, there has to be a way! Let's leave this place together!" he shouted over the howling wind.
At his words, the manic smile on Raiden Mei's face vanished in an instant, replaced by a mask of cold fury.
"Mr. Ruo Bai... are you... going to abandon me too?"
Her body slowly began to float upward, arcs of raw lightning coalescing behind her, forming a pair of magnificent, terrifying wings of pure energy.
Kiana immediately raised her dual pistols, her knuckles white as she watched Raiden Mei with unwavering vigilance.
"Have you forgotten?" Rovel threw the question back at her, his voice sharp. "I promised you I would never abandon you! If I was going to, why would I have risked everything to come here?"
"No... you don't understand... you don't understand anything at all!" Mei shrieked, her voice cracking with a strange mix of rage and despair. She had suddenly become an enigma, shouting riddles he couldn't solve.
Without another word, a bolt of lightning shot from her outstretched hand, streaking directly toward Rovel.
He threw himself back, retreating several meters and barely evading the massive, explosive impact of the lightning strike.
His mind was racing, desperately trying to piece together what had gone wrong.
"Negotiations failed? Looks like we have to fight..." Kiana muttered, and her twin pistols began to spit fire, sending a volley of bullets at the levitating Herrscher.
"Ant! How dare you disturb my time with Mr. Ruo Bai!" Raiden Mei was instantly enraged. Lightning flared violently around her, and with a dismissive wave of her hand, she unleashed a counter-strike at Kiana.
This was no ordinary lightning. This was a bolt imbued with the authority of a Herrscher—the Herrscher of Thunder, master of the electromagnetic force. It was a concentrated electromagnetic pulse capable of destroying molecular bonds on contact.
If that attack landed, even an advanced alloy like Soulium would be instantly decomposed into its base atoms.
Kiana twisted through the air, her movements nimble and acrobatic as she dodged, her pistols never ceasing their barrage. But it was useless. A strange, crackling electric field surrounded Raiden Mei, deflecting every bullet before it could get anywhere near her.
As Kiana landed from a high flip, she suddenly felt her entire body seize up, a paralyzing numbness spreading through her limbs. She looked down in horror. At some point, without her even noticing, Raiden Mei had blanketed the entire rooftop in a near-invisible net of electricity.
"Caught you, you filthy rat!" Raiden Mei snarled, and without a shred of hesitation, she struck with another bolt of lightning aimed to kill.
'Oh no...' Kiana's eyes widened as the blinding light of the attack surged toward her. It was too fast, too close. She could already feel the searing heat on her face.
At the absolute last moment, a figure slammed into her, pushing her out of the way. The lightning strike grazed past Rovel's head. A few strands of his dark hair, caught in the attack's periphery, simply vanished—disintegrated into nothingness the instant they touched the raw energy.
Seeing this, the fury in Raiden Mei's eyes intensified into a blazing, possessive inferno.
"Mr. Ruo Bai," she screamed, her voice echoing with the power of the storm, "is MINE!!!"
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