St. Freya Academy wasn't too far from Changkong City.
After receiving Theresa's orders, Himeko piloted the Hyperion and quickly arrived above the city.
Looking down at the streets below, where not a single living person was moving, Himeko sighed.
"Still too late, huh…"
Even though she'd seen sights like this countless times in her career as a Valkyrie, every time, that same helpless feeling would well up in her chest.
"Valkyrie squad, listen up!"
Himeko looked toward the Valkyrie team she led. "Prepare to..."
[Alert! Alert!]
Before she could finish, the Hyperion's alarm blared.
The red lights symbolizing danger flashed continuously.
[Detected: Herrscher energy fluctuation! Detected, Herrscher energy fluctuation!]
'A Herrscher?!'
Himeko's heart tightened. She had been prepared for this possibility before arriving, but actually encountering one still made her tense up.
[Main cannon of the Hyperion has locked on target!]
Himeko looked at the big screen, where Levi's smiling face appeared.
"This Herrscher… looks a lot like Theresa."
'Could they be related or something?'
And besides, she didn't look quite like the Herrscher described in the records.
———
[Main cannon of the Hyperion has locked on target!]
The warning wasn't only audible inside the ship, Levi, standing on the rooftop, heard it clearly as well.
His smile froze, and his raised hand slowly lowered.
Watching the cannon's muzzle begin to gather energy, Levi's eye twitched slightly.
He glanced at Raiden Mei, who was lying unconscious on the ground.
Were they detecting the Herrscher energy from her, or from him?
"Crap!" Kiana panicked, urging him frantically, "You just ran into an organization that specializes in handling Honkai incidents! Run, quickly!"
"Run? Run where?"
If it was anywhere other than St. Freya, he genuinely had no idea where to go.
Anti-Entropy? World Serpent?
He didn't even know where their headquarters were.
Even if he wanted to defect, he wouldn't be able to find them.
"Don't worry about where, just make sure they don't catch us!"
Levi was a Herrscher of Honkai, if he were captured by an organization that specialized in dealing with Honkai, it wasn't hard to imagine what kind of torture awaited him.
Especially since, once they left Changkong City, the chat group mission would be complete, and they'd all return to their original worlds. Kiana, however, was from this world, she'd have to stay.
If they got caught, the one who would suffer the consequences would definitely be her.
Seeing the blue glow lighting up the warship in the distance, Elysia swallowed nervously and whispered, "You'd better think of a way to teleport all of us out of Changkong City!"
Kiana's world was way too dangerous.
She was never coming back again.
She was just an ordinary girl, how was she supposed to survive in such a deadly world?
Lumine was thinking the same thing.
'This world was too dangerous.'
Teyvat suited her much better.
There were always kind people giving her commissions, and the best emergency food companion at her side.
And more importantly, the commissions she received there were never impossible to complete.
Unlike now.
She'd barely arrived when a walking, electrified "Pikachu" had shown up.
If Levi hadn't been here, the few of them would've already died under the Herrscher of Thunder's blade.
And now, a massive airship was targeting them like it was about to fire at any second.
Just looking at the Hyperion's size, Lumine seriously doubted she'd even have a body left if it fired a single shot.
———
Inside the Hyperion's control room, Himeko stared at Levi on the big screen.
Something about her just didn't match the Herrscher recorded in the archives.
And that face so similar to Theresa's made Himeko hesitate to give the order to fire.
She glanced at the people standing beside Levi.
"Ai-chan, whose body was the Herrscher-level energy fluctuation detected from?"
Himeko's eyes fell on the collapsed Raiden Mei.
"Reporting to Colonel Himeko! The reading came from that white-haired girl!"
But before Himeko could give an order, the Hyperion's main cannon fired automatically.
"Ai-chan!"
"It's the Hyperion's automatic attack system!" Ai-chan replied anxiously.
To prevent the crew from being instantly wiped out by a Herrscher, or mind-controlled from afar, the Hyperion was equipped with an automatic counterattack system.
Once Herrscher energy was detected and no counterattack had been initiated after a certain amount of time, it would automatically activate.
Ai-chan's words made Himeko's teeth ache.
Because the Hyperion had never actually encountered a Herrscher before, she had completely forgotten that such a system even existed.
"All Valkyries, prepare for combat!"
At the door, Himeko turned to the Valkyries behind her. "Make sure every single one of you comes back alive!"
It no longer mattered why the Herrscher hadn't attacked first.
Now that the Hyperion had fired, if it didn't manage to kill the target instantly, what awaited them would be the Herrscher's furious retaliation.
And honestly, if a single Hyperion cannon shot could really "one-shot" a Herrscher, then Herrschers wouldn't have become humanity's greatest threat in the first place.
There wouldn't have been a disaster like Siberia.
———
As she spoke, Levi looked up at the Hyperion's cannon, noticing a slight instability in the energy gathering there.
Watching the beam grow brighter and brighter, he sighed.
'I just wanted to hitch a ride to St. Freya, why is it so difficult?'
Still, he couldn't really blame them. His current identity was that of a Herrscher.
When facing a Herrscher, firing first without hesitation was indeed the smartest thing to do.
But from his perspective, it was nothing but frustrating and unpleasant.
Raising his hand, he let the Honkai energy within his body surge outward.
A faint golden spatial barrier spread out in front of them.
The incoming beam of light was absorbed into the space, and then sent right back the way it came.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed through the air.
When Levi came back to his senses, the Hyperion was already wreathed in black smoke, crashing down onto the streets not far away.
Seeing the downed Hyperion, and realizing the hit had only struck the engine, he let out a breath of relief.
He was here just to complete a chat group mission, he didn't want to end up carrying the guilt of a few hundred deaths.
"That weak?" Kiana was stunned to see the Hyperion destroyed so easily.
Or maybe....
'I'm just too strong?!'
Like Kiana, Elysia and the others stared at the scene before them, their mouths hanging open.
'So this is Levi's strength… he's amazing!'
That attack had looked so powerful, yet he had deflected it effortlessly, even sending it back, causing the Hyperion to destroy itself with its own shot.
Lumine compared the scene in her mind, wondering who was stronger, the Stormterror dragon or Levi.
'Good timing, I also took a commission from the Knights of Favonius. Next time I run into Stormterror, I'll just have Levi handle it.'
On the distant street, a soot-covered Himeko crawled out from the wreck of the Hyperion.
Looking at the thick black smoke rising from her ship, she couldn't help but feel her paycheck slipping away.
If Theresa found out about this, she'd definitely use it as an excuse to chew her out, and then move straight to her favorite part, docking salaries.
"Everyone, are you all alright?"
One by one, the Valkyries climbed out. Because the reflected attack had come back too fast, the Hyperion had crashed before anyone even had time to disembark.
Fortunately, the shot had only hit the engine section.
There were no casualties.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The sound of heavy impacts came from behind her.
Hearing the noise, Himeko picked up her greatsword from the ground and turned around.