The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

"We're just letting her rest for a while." The tall woman who looked exactly like Raiden Mei said calmly in a voice that Theresa knew very well and was no different from Raiden Mei's. "Don't worry, Dean. The captain and I have no intention of becoming your enemies."

"You and the Captain...? Wait, who are you?"

"Can't you tell?" The tall woman raised a smile, "Of course I'm - Raiden Mei."

Chapter 4: The Fall of Hyperion (k)

Of course I am——Raiden Mei.

Hearing the tall woman who attacked Mei Raiden and took away her will to move freely say this as a matter of course, Theresa almost instinctively wanted to curse out loud.

Are you kidding me? You said you are Raiden Mei, then who is the person who lost consciousness after being attacked by you? ?

But before Theresa could put the doubts in her mind into words, the voice coming from the communicator made her feel like she was struck by lightning and fell into a state of confusion.

"Ms. Theresa, bad news." Perhaps because he saw too absurd data, Einstein, who had been continuously monitoring Theresa's surroundings on the Hyperion, took a deep breath, "The Hyperion's Honkai energy detector detected an extremely high concentration of Honkai energy in the body of the woman who suddenly appeared next to you and looks like Miss Mei."

"The specific detection value is 5686hw. I really hope that the detector is malfunctioning. There is no doubt that this lady is a Herrscher who has completely awakened." Einstein laughed bitterly in a rather dry voice. "Although it is unclear why the power contained in this Herrscher lady is several orders of magnitude higher than that of Miss Mei who has the Conquest Gem implanted in her body, and even more than % higher than the Herrscher of the Void who awakened at the Sentient Headquarters three months ago... But from the conclusion, we should be thankful that she has not yet revealed the desire to destroy the outside world. Otherwise, probably no one in Sky City would be able to survive the great destruction caused by this Herrscher lady."

...Gu, Theresa couldn't help swallowing her saliva after hearing Einstein's horrifying words.

"The twenty-four mechas we deployed around you have all lost their signal responses. It seems that before the Herrscher revealed her true form, she had easily wiped out all the means we had prepared."

"...Is that so?" Theresa laughed self-deprecatingly. "I thought I had finally found my niece's whereabouts, but I didn't expect that this action would actually put everyone in danger."

She turned her face slightly and looked at Rita's azure eyes which seemed frozen and without any warmth.

"No wonder this person is so determined to identify herself as Raiden Mei. When I was completely unaware, not only little Kiana... even Mei couldn't escape grandpa's clutches? It's really a despairing move, Rita." Theresa said faintly, "But I still have a question to ask, when did grandpa... or your destiny, take action against Mei? Has St. Freya's Academy... really been completely reduced to a testing ground for you to conduct Herrscher experiments?"

"...You misunderstood." Rita shook her head. She raised her wine-red eyes that flashed with a hint of fear and looked at the tall woman. She seemed to be extremely helpless. "This... Ms. Herrscher who calls herself Miss Mei, at least Rita, is completely unaware of this."

"You don't know?" Theresa frowned. Things had developed to this point. She didn't think Rita would continue to lie to her. "Didn't you say that the man was from the Sky Mandate Headquarters? Since he is a subordinate of Grandpa like you, then this Herrscher who claims to be Mei must be in the same group with you, right?"

"It seems that the dean and Miss Rita have some strange misunderstandings about me?"

At this moment, the tall woman who had disrupted Theresa and Rita's plans with her extremely domineering attitude suddenly spoke.

"I'd like to make it clear in advance that I'm neither one of Otto's men nor an experimental subject created by fate." The tall woman raised her arm and shook her fingers. She then glanced at Mei Raiden, whose eyes were closed, and smiled, "Of course, this guy isn't either."

"?"

What does it mean?

Theresa was at a loss.

She really had no idea what was going on.

After Rita pointed out Li Shubai's position in Tianming, Theresa thought that Li Shubai, like Rita, came to Tiankong City under the order of Bishop Otto, and their purposes were nothing more than two things.

One is Kiana, who is the Herrscher of the Void, and the other one, of course, is the traitors who have betrayed their destiny.

And since Kiana has been found out by that man, of course he only has one goal left.

Following this logic, since the man was from the Satori Headquarters, then the tall woman who suddenly appeared at the moment when Raiden Mei was about to successfully attack him and protected the boy from the sword swung by Raiden Mei should also be from the Satori Headquarters.

Although she didn't understand what means Otto used to make this dangerous Herrscher obey his orders, nor was she clear when he conducted the Herrscher of Lightning experiments on Mei Raiden, since it had already happened before her eyes, Theresa had to face the reality no matter how unwilling she was to admit it.

——But at this moment, the Herrscher who looked no different from Raiden Mei flatly denied all his speculations.

This made Theresa feel extremely confused.

What is going on? Isn't this Herrscher, who is even more terrifying than the Herrscher of the Void, a subordinate sent by Grandpa?

Although Theresa could not deny the possibility that the Herrscher's words might be lies, she had faced the Herrscher several times and could instinctively feel that the Herrscher was not lying.

“Ah—” At this moment, the Herrscher lady who looked like Raiden Mei suddenly sighed deeply. She held her forehead with her hand and showed an expression of headache. “Sure enough, although we have no ill will towards you, due to the difference in information, it is not something that can be explained immediately with words alone if we want you to trust us.”

She spread her hands and looked at Li Shubai with a half-smile: "I understand why the captain always takes direct action whenever he interferes with other worlds."

Li Shubai was silent for a moment, turned his head away, and did not look at Miss Herrscher's eyes that were slightly teasing. Instead, he muttered in a low voice in silence: "...Are you still holding a grudge against what happened back then?"

"No... at least after knowing that I'm not the only one who was treated like that, I'm no longer angry." Miss Herrscher covered her mouth and chuckled. "Besides, even if I still feel angry, I've already completed the revenge I wanted to take on the captain not long ago. Does the captain think that I'm the kind of stupid woman who would hold on to past events?"

"...Since you don't plan to bring up the past, why don't you hurry up and do your job?" Li Shubai glanced at Mei Raiden, who was being supported by Miss Herrscher with her eyes closed. "With your electromagnetic induction ability, you should be able to accurately grasp Hyperion's location from the wireless signal received by her communicator."

Hearing Li Shubai's plain words, Theresa's pupils shrank slightly.

She whispered anxiously, "Hey! Did you hear that? Cut off the communication link with us immediately!"

After a moment of silence, a somewhat helpless and numb voice came from the other end of the communicator: "...Although I did hear it clearly, I'm sorry, Ms. Theresa, we know it too late."

"——The Hyperion has been captured."

"Ah?! How is this possible!" Theresa was stunned by the absurd fact that Einstein suddenly told her.

She raised her eyes with cold sweat on her forehead, her face twitching as she glanced at the Herrscher who had not left the place: "But, this Herrscher clearly hasn't taken any action yet?"

Suddenly, Einstein asked Theresa in a flat tone something that seemed to her to have nothing to do with her current anxious situation: "Do you remember the hacker we encountered last night when we were hacking into that boy?"

Theresa couldn't grasp the point at all because of the sudden change of topic. She frowned and asked in confusion, "Why are you telling me this now? Is this related to your sudden telling me that the Hyperion has been captured?"

"Relationship?" Einstein suddenly chuckled as if he was mocking himself. "What if I tell you that the person who has obtained the authority of Hubley Security Department right under our noses is the hacker we encountered before?"

At the moment when Theresa's communicator rang, a virtual light screen suddenly unfolded before her eyes.

A virtual light screen suddenly appeared in front of Theresa, showing her the entire scene in the command room.

Einstein with a calm face, Tesla with gritted teeth, and Bronya with an expressionless face that turned completely pale... All the personnel who were providing them with remote assistance and technical support in the command room had their hands and feet firmly trapped by a glowing thin wire. The culprit who caused all this sat in the center of the command room without any regrets, calmly looking at Theresa on the other side of the communicator through the virtual screen.

"Although it may not be appropriate to say this now, but..." The culprit who appeared in front of Theresa with a swagger said in a mature voice that was very similar to Bronya's and had a slight milky taste, "I really hope you are doing well, Principal Theresa."

"Who are you? Why do you want to invade Hyperion?" Theresa asked in a deep voice.

"Just as Dr. Einstein just introduced, I am the hacker who helped the captain avoid your search last night. My name... After seeing my appearance, the dean should have noticed something." The culprit shrugged, crossed her arms, and put on an indifferent expression. "As for the purpose of invading you, of course it is to help the captain retrieve the Hyperion that originally belonged to us."

Ridiculous! When did the Hyperion become yours?! Furious, Theresa gasped rapidly. The moment she realized that her thoughts were somewhat irrational, she gently closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and then opened her eyes again.

"I was the first captain of Hyperion, and the second captain was Major Himeko, who was appointed by me personally. After Major Himeko's death, the supreme command of Hyperion returned to my hands again." Theresa narrowed her eyes and turned her gaze to Li Shubai. She spoke calmly and loudly, "You took Hyperion away from us. We are inferior to you and have nothing to say. But please explain clearly why these two people who claim to be Mei and Bronya call you the captain? Why do they say that Hyperion originally belonged to you?"

Obviously, although Himeko Murata has sacrificed her life on the battlefield against Honkai and has temporarily stepped down as captain of the Hyperion, in Theresa's heart, the position of captain still belongs to the great teacher who challenged life as a mortal.

"If it's just these two questions, I don't mind spending a little time to explain them to you. But..." Li Shubai shook his head, then shifted his gaze to the sky and whispered, "It seems that someone doesn't want things to go so smoothly."

"What do you mean..."

Before Theresa could finish her words, a thunderous voice broke through the sky.

In the night sky, a deep blue comet was approaching rapidly from the direction of the city. It fell into the ruins where several people were standing in the blink of an eye. The huge shock wave and air wave carried the flying sand and rocks and splashed them everywhere.

"Lord Yulandel!" Feeling the surging power surging out from the azure comet, Rita couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, "You are finally here."

Faced with such continuous and extremely abnormal situations, even with her calmness and intelligence, she felt at a loss. But when Yulandel finally arrived at the scene, all the anxiety and helplessness were dispelled.

"Rita, report the situation at the scene." With the help of Yuepo's light wing module, Yulandel came to the center of the vortex of the incident and quickly looked around. Then, she quickly locked her eyes on Kiana who was still being held horizontally by Li Shubai. "The Herrscher of the Void... is in the hands of that boy?"

"Yes... but... please be careful." Rita nodded and whispered, "Although it is a little hard to believe, the boy who serves as the deputy director of the research institute at the Tianming headquarters seems to have received a force beyond our imagination."

Chapter 4: Catch Them All (k)

Rita's careful description surprised Yulandel.

She was well aware of the weight of these words.

Although this humble maid, who has always presented herself to outsiders with a calm and elegant temperament, does not boast too ostentatiously about how powerful her abilities and wisdom are.

However, Yulandel, who had been with Rita for more than five years, knew very well that this maid still had her own pride buried deep in her bones.

On the surface, it seemed that Rita's tone had only become a little more serious when she said that warning, but Yulandel could clearly understand from her words that Rita was not simply describing how unexpected the situation she encountered was, but was also telling herself who came here to support her... that facing such an extremely abnormal situation, she was helpless.

What kind of situation would make Rita so helpless that she had to wait for her support before taking the next step? Soon, Yulandel got the answer to this question.

Because she saw a cool woman who looked exactly like Raiden Mei, who walked silently to the distance between her and the boy who was holding the Herrscher of the Sky horizontally.

"Raiden Mei? No..." Yulandel, who had just reported the other party's name, was suddenly at a loss. She glanced at the tall woman standing between herself and the Herrscher of the Void, and then at Raiden Mei, who was supported by her with her eyes closed. For a moment, she had an illusion that she was under mental attack and saw an illusion. "You are...?"

“Didn’t you tell me my name?” Under Theresa’s angry gaze, the tall woman placed the unconscious Raiden Mei on the boy’s shoulder, and took a few steps forward to the center of the distance between the boy and Yulandel. Then, she spread out her five fingers and called out the glowing Heavenly Strike Realm. “Herrser of Thunder—Raiden Mei, although I feel a little sorry, but... unfortunately, I can’t let you get close to him.”

As soon as the words fell, thunder and lightning poured down.

Amid the roar of thunder, a pair of sharp arcs of light suddenly lit up in the eyes of the tall woman. Two long horns extended from her forehead, and the headband that tied her hair into a high ponytail naturally fell away. Her long black hair, which fell to the ground like a waterfall, danced in the dazzling arcs of light.

If the tall woman just now, apart from the black and white combat uniform she was wearing, looked no different from the Raiden Mei that Theresa and the others were familiar with, then at this moment, she had fully awakened her power of conquest, making it impossible for Theresa and Rita to simply associate her with Raiden Mei.

Although her facial features remained unchanged, her awe-inspiring temperament and appearance, like those of a god or spirit, made it difficult to equate her with a mere "human".

"What a joke! What we just saw was actually the state where that guy fully unleashed his abilities as a Herrscher, right?"

Tesla's voice mixed with fear and surprise was heard from the communicator.

Of course, she would feel horrified and incredulous, and rightfully so.

Not only her, but even Theresa and Rita, who were S-class Valkyries, couldn't help but have an indescribable look of fear in their eyes.

Yulandel's expression became more solemn than ever before.

Although she had seen the Herrscher of the Void once at the Schicksal Headquarters and had indeed witnessed the horrific disaster brought about by the Herrscher, deep down, Yulandel did not actually think that the Herrscher of the Void was so terrifying that it was difficult to deal with.

Since she was promoted to an S-class Valkyrie, this was the first time that Yulandel felt the danger of an enemy who was equally powerful as herself or even stronger than herself after meeting the Forerunner.

Obviously, even compared with the Herrscher of the Void who awakened at the Destiny Headquarters, this Herrscher of Thunder who possesses the appearance of a ghost or god is undoubtedly the stronger one.

But just as Yulandel tensed her muscles and was concentrating on being alert to the attack of the Herrscher of Thunder who had displayed all his strength, a light male voice suddenly sounded amid the roaring thunder.

“Forget it, Mei.” The young boy holding the Herrscher of the Sky horizontally gave an order in a calm tone that made everyone except himself and the Herrscher of Lightning stunned. “Come back first and bring Kiana and yourself in this world back to the Hyperion. During this time, go with Bronya and get the information we want from Hyperion and Anti-Entropy.”

"As for Yulandel, Theresa and the others, we will take care of them."

In a matter-of-fact tone, as if he was saying "I'll be home for dinner tonight", the young boy gave an order that was undoubtedly absurd even to his opponents, Yulandel and the others.

However, faced with this extremely ridiculous instruction.

"Really? I know."

——The Herrscher of Thunder, who had unleashed an incomparably terrifying power, accepted it without hesitation.

The atmosphere suddenly relaxed.

In less than half a second, the thunder and lightning that dominated everyone's vision disappeared instantly along with the Herrscher of Thunder's brisk voice, as if they had never appeared from the beginning.

At the same time, the devil horn on the forehead of the Herrscher of Thunder also retracted.

She didn't even look at Yulandel who was facing a formidable enemy, but turned and came to the young boy, and picked up Kiana and Raiden Mei into her arms one by one.

The control over the Herrscher of Thunder that was as easy as waving an arm made the three S-rank Valkyries present feel something unusual.

Theresa and Rita looked at each other and saw a look of disbelief in each other's eyes.

Although they had already guessed this fact after the Herrscher of Lightning did not show the desire to destroy the outside world, until now, after seeing her obey the young boy's order without hesitation and easily restrain the power of the Herrscher, no matter how much they couldn't believe it, they had to admit it...

...Perhaps, this Herrscher of Thunder does indeed still possess a sense of self-awareness that is still human, and has not fallen into the control of the Honkai Will.

If this is true, then how did she do it? If she were to help Kiana, would the Herrscher consciousness in Kiana also be able to...?

At this moment when everyone fell into silence, the Herrscher of Lightning, who had taken over Kiana and Raiden Mei from the young boy, suddenly did something that surprised everyone.

——She leaned forward slightly and kissed the young boy gently on the face.

The atmosphere, which was as tense as fire and water, suddenly became strange.

"Hurry up and take care of things here, and come back with Kiana." The Herrscher of Thunder smiled slightly, as if entrusting a husband who was about to leave home, "Bronya and I will be waiting for you on the Hyperion."

After saying that, without waiting for the young boy and the three S-rank Valkyries present to react, she took Kiana and Raiden Mei and flashed away without looking back in a burst of sharp electric arcs.

"..."

In the eerie silence, Yulandel, Theresa and Rita, who were suddenly fed a mouthful of dog food, felt like they didn't know what expression to make.

The silence lasted for a long time, and finally, the serious and rigid Yulandel couldn't help but break the silent air.

"Ahem, excuse me." She blushed slightly, cleared her throat, and forced herself to focus her gaze on the expressionless young boy. "I heard from Rita that you are from the Destiny Headquarters like us?"

“…Before today, that was indeed the case.” said the young boy.

"Destiny should be kind to researchers like you, so why did you betray the Destiny headquarters?" Yulandel's face was serious.

"..." The young boy didn't say anything, but glanced at Theresa.

Feeling his inexplicable gaze, Theresa felt a little unnatural and hugged her shoulders, but she didn't dare to say anything, just glared at him fiercely.

Yulandel followed the young boy's line of sight and glanced at Theresa, then said hesitantly, "Senior Theresa's affairs... should have nothing to do with you."

"...They are my crew members." Li Shubai said calmly, "It is a captain's responsibility to protect his crew members."

Yulandel frowned: "According to the records of the Destiny Headquarters, you should have never served as the captain of the Hyperion."