On how PhDs become human evil

Ten minutes before the appearance of the Herrscher of the End, on the coast of Naples.

"I've found you, senior."

Wearing that Chaldea uniform, Fujimaru Ritsuka stood behind Hakuge and spoke.

Turning to look at Fujimaru Ritsuka, Bai Jie smiled and said, "We meet again, Fujimaru. You learned your lesson from me last time. Haven't you learned your lesson and want to be taught a lesson again?"

"Um... they have all sorts of reasons, and I can't just refuse their request for the Counter Force. Although I know that fighting you, senpai, is just asking for trouble."

Raising an eyebrow, Bai Jie chuckled and said, "So you knew you were going to be taught a lesson by me, yet you still decided to come and stop me? I have to commend your courage."

"You flatter me. There's something else I need to clarify: I didn't come alone; I brought many companions with me."

As Fujimaru Ritsuka finished speaking, one magic circle after another appeared on the ground beside her, and even a large number of magic circles appeared on the sea surface, roughly estimated to be more than two hundred!

Emerging from the magic circle were heroic spirits who had left their illustrious names in history. Even Bai Jie saw several old acquaintances among them, such as King Arthur, Lancelot, and the King of Conquerors.

"This is really... the entire Chaldea team is here?" Bai Jie exclaimed with some emotion.

"It's not just Fujimaru and the others! There's us too, Bai Jie!"

A howling wind came from above. Bai Jie slightly turned his head, then raised his left hand to shield himself.

clang------!!!

The massive headdress collided with Bai Jie's hand, and the two immediately began to rub against each other rapidly, sparking countless dazzling sparks.

"boom!"

With a powerful jerk of his arm, sending the dart flying, Bai Jie released the hardening spell on his body and looked up at the sky: "Using darts to hit people without warning, what a unique way to greet someone, you rabbit."

"I've already told you I'm not a rabbit!"

Zero, flying in the sky, retorted instantly. Beside him, Geed, Mebius, Orb, and Jugglus lined up, looking at Zero with some surprise at White Gear who had blocked Zero's attack.

On the ground is Chaldea, and in the air are the Ultra Warriors.

"You've really pulled out all the stops to deal with me, Fujimaru."

“After all, I’m taking you as my opponent, so it’s not too much to be cautious,” Fujimaru Ritsuka said with a smile. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to ask you to stay here for a while, senpai.”

With a slight smile, Bai Jie summoned the black holy lance, and a storm of magic erupted from his body.

However, just as Bai Jie was about to take on everyone present by himself, a white snowflake suddenly appeared in his field of vision. Then, countless snowflakes began to fall from the sky. The sudden change in weather not only stunned Bai Jie, but also stunned Chaldea and the Ultra Warriors.

The next moment, Bai Jie heard someone's voice.

"My ally, don't be stubborn, your ally SilverAsh is here to help!"

"SilverAsh, why are you charging so far forward? Go to the back and use True Silver Slash, I'm the one in the front!"

"Don't stop me from seeing the doctor!"

Before anyone knew it, a huge hole had appeared in the sky, and out of that hole fell a vehicle that Bai Jie knew all too well—the mobile city-state of Rhodes Island!

But in Bai Jie's memory, Rhodes Island should be in Gensokyo, so how did it end up here?

"Wow, there are a lot of people here. We're about to go all out. Are you ready, Philip?"

"Of course, Shotaro."

Amidst a green and purple hurricane, two detectives emerge as one.

"Although police officers shouldn't be influenced by emotions, if the person in question is a doctor, then I have to do my best to help him out—come run a lap with me, Mr. Belt."

"OK, Shinnosuke, start your engine!"

The red-clad police officers arrived at the scene at breakneck speed.

"The souls of historical heroes? I wonder how they differ from my own power."

"Sir, we can investigate this later if you're curious. Let's help the doctor first."

The Infinite Soul and the Knight, and the Knight of the Seven Deadly Sins, have arrived.

.........

Approaching the stunned Bai Jie, Tsukasa Kadoya chuckled and playfully punched him: "Alright, stop standing there. You have things to do, right? We'll hold things off here. Go do what you need to do."

"Scholar...meddling in other people's business."

Despite saying that, Bai Jie's face revealed an undisguised joy.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

----------------

Consciousness returns to the present.

He slammed the Holy Lance and the Divine Sword heavily onto the ground, activated the giantification technique he had set up in his body, and Bai Jie immediately grew to the same size as the girl. The two giants stood tall on the wasteland.

"You want to destroy civilization, while I want to ensure its continuation. The outcome of our battle will determine the existence of human civilization, Herrscher of the End."

"You are currently within a magic-suppressing zone; you are no match for me."

"Haha, don't be too sure of yourself. Although I retired a long time ago, I'm still a Kamen Rider, and we Kamen Riders have this famous saying."

"With love and peace in our hearts, we will never lose to anyone!"

"Come forth, Herrscher of the End, Yae Sakura!"

Section 437, Chapter 20: The Herald of the End, Terrifyingly So

Bai Jie was actually quite surprised, because according to the information he learned from Kevin, the appearance of the Herrscher of the End should be very similar to Kiana, or even that she was another Kiana.

Bai Jie even struggled with this for a time, wondering if he could bring himself to fight the Herrscher of the End if he really went to war with that face that resembled Kiana's.

However, upon seeing the Herrscher of the End, whose appearance was identical to Yae Sakura's, he realized that the Herrscher of the End chosen by the Honkai Will this time was not Kiana, but Yae Sakura, who had died five hundred years ago. Perhaps he saved her at the moment of her death and then transformed her into a Herrscher.

Looking at Bai Jie, who had shrunk to the same size as herself, the Herrscher of the End frowned in surprise: "You've already activated the anti-magic field, how can you still use magic?"

"Who told you to use such a poor-quality anti-magic field? It's completely ineffective against me."

Actually, this is a lie. Bai Jie's combat power has been sealed away by the existence of the anti-magic field, which has actually reduced his strength by 80%.

Although he had prepared more than a dozen spells before meeting the Herrscher of the End, they were essentially one-time use magical items. Once they were used up, they were gone. In other words, he could only use magic a dozen times at most in this battle, which was far inferior to Bai Jie's original turret-style fighting method.

(Damn it, that bastard Honkai Will definitely researched my abilities. This anti-magic field is completely targeted at me. I was even thinking of trying to forcefully break through it with magic power.)

Bai Jie had encountered situations where he couldn't use magic, but relying on his inexhaustible magic power, he always broke through them with brute force. He did the same when Yae Sakura deployed her magic-suppressing domain, attempting to break it.

However, it was no use. The strength of this domain was on a completely different level from what Bai Jie had encountered before. It suppressed his magic power so completely that it was as if he had returned to the time when he was still a pure human, with a body that was extremely weak.

"—"

The Herrscher of the End stared intently at Bai Jie for several seconds before saying, "Whether you are truly unaffected by the anti-magic field or are bluffing, what I'm about to do will not change."

"In accordance with the will of my God, I will annihilate you completely, and then destroy the civilization on that planet, nothing more."

Unfurling behind her dazzling, endless divine wings, the Herrscher of the End ascended to the heavens, covering the entire earth and sky with her wings.

"Zheng——————!!!"

Countless eyeballs appeared on the divine wings, and as the eyeballs appeared, Bai Jie, who was standing on the ground, suddenly felt his body sink, and then his legs bent down uncontrollably!

"Boom!"

The Holy Lance and Divine Sword plunged into the ground, and Bai Jie barely managed to stop himself from kneeling. At the same time, he activated the [Purification Spell] within his body, a spell that could completely remove all negative statuses.

however--

"invalid?!"

Bai Jie, whose body still felt incredibly heavy, was taken aback.

"Don't struggle anymore. You can't break free from my grasp. Just let it end with this world."

As the Herrscher of the End finished speaking, golden lightning burst forth from each of the eyeballs, and the boundless sky instantly transformed into a sea of ​​lightning. With the appearance of this sea of ​​lightning, Bai Jie felt the ground beneath his feet begin to soften, and even began to burn!

In an instant, Bai Jie knew what the Herrscher of the End was going to do next.

The sea of ​​thunder in the sky can actually be seen as a super circuit that covers the entire world. And circuits generate heat during operation. Given the scale of the sea of ​​thunder in the sky, Bai Jie didn't even want to calculate just how terrifying the heat energy it would generate would be.

After all, even the earth melted under the influence of heat!

This was merely the prelude to the Herrscher of the End's attack.

"boom----------!!!"

At the same time, without a millisecond's difference, millions of beams of light rained down from the sea of ​​thunder! Like a torrential downpour of lightning, they crashed down on the earth! The density of the attacks was so high that not even a single patch of bare ground was left!

(This area-of-effect attack across the entire map is too much, damn it!)

Bai Jie was screaming inwardly, how could he possibly dodge this?!

If it weren't for the magic-suppressing field, he could simply activate absolute defense and tough it out, but the problem is he can't use magic right now! Even if he tried to physically dodge, there wasn't the slightest opening in this thunderstorm; how could he possibly dodge it?

This is practically like smashing down that sea of ​​thunder!

First, the Herrscher of Rock's gravity control ability was used to amplify the gravity of the entire area where Bai Jie was located by a thousand times. Then, the Herrscher of Binding's power was used for further control, and the Herrscher of Wind's ability was used to solidify the atmosphere.

After completely controlling Bai Jie, she used the power of the Herrscher of Thunder to create an electromagnetic field that occupied the entire sky, and simultaneously used the power of the Herrscher of Flame to enhance the destructive power, finally smashing the sea of ​​thunder down!

It's hard to imagine that the Herrscher of the End could launch such a chain attack in less than thirty seconds.

"boom--------------!!!!!"

As the sea of ​​thunder collided with the earth, a golden mushroom cloud immediately rose with a roar. The extremely hot thunderstorm, carrying a rolling sandstorm, swept across the wasteland, burying the entire world in yellow sand!

After the storm of thunder and dust subsided, what was revealed was a huge crater, as if a giant celestial beast had devoured a large chunk of it, a crater nearly ten kilometers deep, etched into the surface of the planet.

This is the destructive power of the Herrscher of the End. As the strongest apostle of the Honkai Will, she possesses power that the other thirteen Herrschers combined cannot match. For example, the huge crater in front of her is something that the other Herrschers could not achieve even with all their strength, but she did it with a single strike.

The Herald of the End, how terrifying!

"...Are you still alive?"

The Herrscher of the End, staring at the huge pit, suddenly spoke, her tone filled with obvious surprise.

As her voice faded, a strange commotion suddenly arose from the pit, and the commotion gradually intensified, emitting a peculiar "glug-glug" sound, like the sound of boiling water.

"boom--!"

Like a volcanic eruption, endless black mud surged out of the pit, then transformed into black waves that surged outwards in all directions. The originally ravaged land was rapidly replaced by the black mud at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, and the world became a world of black mud.