She wanted to stand up. To strike a queenly pose. To skewer these invaders into porcupines with Void Lances—especially after seeing the Herrscher of Thunder skulking timidly at the back.
That's her peer?
The Third Herrscher with the Gem of Conquest—supposed to be thunder incarnate?
Right now she looked like a grade-schooler getting scolded by the disciplinarian.
But Sirin had forgotten one thing: she hadn't even seized control of Kiana's body. She had no Honkai energy to speak of. She was, at this moment, a pufferfish that couldn't even puff up its spines.
"So," Bai Qian said, tilting his head, "are you Sirin—the Second Herrscher, the Herrscher of the Void… or just an overinflated pufferfish?"
"You're the pufferfish! Your whole family is pufferfish!"
Sirin was so furious her hair practically stood on end. She was the Second Herrscher. Since when did anyone dare give her an insult like that?!
Bai Qian didn't even bother acknowledging her useless tantrum. He turned instead to the one shrinking in the back, trying her hardest to erase her own presence.
"Herrscher of Thunder."
He crooked a finger, beckoning her forward.
"What, you see your senior and you don't even greet her? You think her cup fills itself?"
The Herrscher of Thunder stiffened.
She raised her head. The violet eyes that once carried overwhelming authority now held only humiliation and helplessness.
She glanced at Raiden Mei.
The real Mei was watching her with a complicated, worried look—like she was staring at a little sister who'd gone astray.
"You looking at her for what?" Bai Qian stepped closer, then slung an arm around the Herrscher of Thunder's shoulders in a chummy, buddy-buddy hold, completely ignoring the crackling violet sparks on her skin. "She can't save you now."
He patted her shoulder.
"Still remember our friendly chat earlier? How'd you like the taste of righteous group justice?"
The Herrscher of Thunder clenched her teeth, cheeks flushing red with shame.
Looking back, it hadn't been a fight at all.
It had been one-sided bullying.
That huge demon with black wings had pinned her down and ground her into the dirt. In that moment, her Herrscher pride had shattered into pieces.
"Don't you want to let that Void Herrscher get a little taste too?" Bai Qian grinned. "You're on our side, aren't you?"
"I… I understand."
Her voice was so small it was practically a mosquito's buzz.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Simple." Bai Qian pointed at Sirin, who was still hopping mad and cursing like a cat trapped in a sack.
"See that pufferfish? She's pissed. Thinks you embarrassed all Herrschers. Called you soft tofu. Said you're a disgrace."
"Hah?!" Sirin's eyes went huge. "I didn't say 'disgrace'! I did say soft tofu though—because it's true! You got raised like someone's pet! You traded your Herrscher core for three hundred thousand buns. Three hundred thousand! You could've eaten for years, and you just handed it over!"
Bai Qian spread his hands. "See? She admits it."
His smile slowly turned… unsettlingly kind.
"Herrscher of Thunder—look, you might be my prisoner, but I'm not unreasonable. If you want to survive in this team, you need to hand over a pledge."
"A pledge?" The Herrscher of Thunder blinked.
"That's right." Bai Qian's smile vanished. His voice dropped cold.
"There's no 'surrender and only lose half' here. Either you walk over right now and, with your thunder, teach this pufferfish what a senior's love feels like… or—"
Behind him, Sataniel's rapier dipped slightly.
Behind that, the rest of the group shifted, stirring like a pack that could smell blood.
Everyone could tell what Bai Qian was doing. All they had to do was add pressure.
Kiana, seeing the Herrscher of Thunder's hesitant, shrinking posture, scratched her head—only to be yanked back by Rin.
"Don't let your little head control your big head," Rin hissed.
"I wasn't! I was just scratching!" Kiana snapped, then stomped forward as if to prove her innocence. She slapped the Herrscher of Thunder's shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you hit me earlier—but if you really do it, I'll wipe our slate clean! Don't underestimate me! I've got status around here!"
Status?
You?
The Herrscher of Thunder didn't believe it for a second.
"Sure," Bai Qian said smoothly. "Her status is 'mascot,' but even mascots have ranks."
He patted the Herrscher of Thunder's shoulder again, harder this time.
"You're stuck in the middle, not advancing, not retreating—and that makes things hard for us. Loyalty, Herrscher of Thunder. You need loyalty."
The Herrscher of Thunder shuddered.
That soul-rattling "massage" earlier—she never wanted to experience it again.
She drew a breath, turned, and looked at Sirin.
Her gaze changed.
It became the stare of someone taking every humiliation, every fear, every fury she'd swallowed outside—and pouring it into the nearest outlet.
If she couldn't beat that freakish human…
Then she'd have to make do with this.
Sorry, Second Herrscher.
"I… I'm going to have to trouble you."
"W-Wait!" Sirin watched the violet-lit woman step closer, and instinctively felt something very, very wrong. "What are you doing?!"
When Kiana was calm and clear-headed, Sirin couldn't draw on Honkai energy at all. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.
"Don't come any closer! I'm the Second Herrscher! I'm your senior! This is insubordination! How many years have you been a Herrscher?! How many years have I been a Herrscher?!"
Sirin saw the Herrscher of Thunder ignore her completely, and panic surged. She couldn't take this humiliation—so she roared and lunged straight at Bai Qian instead.
But the Herrscher of Thunder's voice snapped like thunder.
"Shut up."
Violet lightning condensed in her palm—dense, tangible, vicious.
"I've got a belly full of fire too!!"
BOOM—!
Purple light detonated, flooding the entire consciousness-space.
"Ghh—Ghh—AAAAAAAH!! I won't tell you anything!!"
Sirin's scream slammed through the little black room like a siren.
Electricity crawled into her body like poisonous snakes. The numbness and burning tore away her ability to stand; she curled up and crashed to the floor like a shrimp under a stun gun.
Sirin lay there, twitching uncontrollably. Her long purple hair spilled messily across her face, hiding most of her expression—only her pale chin and tightly clenched mouth visible.
Even in this miserable state, the Second Herrscher's bones were hard as stone.
"Ghk… kill me!"
She jerked her head up, golden eyes blazing with a fury that could set the world on fire. Her voice was hoarse, shaking from pain—yet the arrogance remained, untouched.
"Don't think this is enough to make me yield—filthy humans, filthy traitors! If you've got the guts, kill me! As long as I live, one day I'll—"
Snap.
A crisp finger-snap cut her off.
"What a tough-as-nails Void Herrscher," Bai Qian said brightly, squatting down. He wore that radiant smile that made you want to punch him on instinct. He studied Sirin like she was a rare collectible, then—like a magician—reached behind his back.
When his hand came forward again, he was holding a black handheld DV camcorder.
A red light blinked on.
The lens cap flipped open.
The camera barrel shoved right into Sirin's face, close enough to capture every trembling strand of baby-fine hair.
"Then let's not waste time. The special program I set up just for you… begins now."
He adjusted the focus, glanced at the display screen, and nodded in satisfaction at the twisted mix of pain and shock on her face.
"C'mon. Look at the lens. Give me a smile? Don't wanna smile? Fine—crying has better ratings."
Sirin froze.
She'd imagined a thousand tortures. She'd pictured every method a human might use to break her.
But she had never, not once, imagined…
This.
"Y-You… what are you doing?!"
A feeling worse than death crawled up her spine.
No—don't tell her—
This wasn't going where she thought it was going, was it?!
"It's nothing serious. Just documentation." Bai Qian's tone was as casual as chatting about dinner, but every word was poison. "I'm thinking—not just you. Schicksal's Valkyries, Anti-Entropy's people… they'll all miss you. You're an old acquaintance, right?"
"I want them to see you like this—see the great Second Herrscher getting fried into a tragic mess—so they can't hold back their laughter."
From the side, Soyo wiped at her eyes. "That's… so dark. Is this the group's shadow side?"
Her lips curled, almost involuntarily. "So I didn't become a capitalist—I became a full-on warlord dog."
And the worst part was—
She was on the "righteous" side.
It felt terrifyingly good.
"Kidding," Bai Qian said, wagging a finger at the camera. "We're heroic partners."
"So I'm going to copy this video tens of millions of times and broadcast it everywhere, all channels, nonstop."
He leaned closer, voice turning into a devil's whisper.
"I already have titles. 'Shocking! Second Herrscher Sirin Doing This in a Little Black Room!' Or 'The Fallen Queen's Diary: Precious Defeat CG of a Senior Getting Face-Stomped by Her Junior!'"
"Imagine it—Valkyries come home exhausted after fighting Honkai all day, open the video, and fall asleep peacefully to your screams. That's what I call a brighter tomorrow."
Sirin's entire body began to shake.
This was worse than facing ten thousand Herrscher-killers.
Shame.
A shame so violent it shattered what little sanity she had left.
She was the Herrscher of the Void. A divine envoy. How could she—how could she leave behind that kind of footage?!
"Stop! You—You can't!! You—No, you can't do this!!"
She screamed, wrenching herself free from the Herrscher of Thunder and lunging for the camcorder.
"Then shock her again."
Bai Qian hopped back neatly, dodging her grab, and shouted to the Herrscher of Thunder with a predator's grin.
"Haha—keep stirring! Don't stop! Make her scream louder! Even if you're out of juice, squeeze it out anyway! More power! Show me the determination you need if you want to survive in this team!"
"Yes, sir!" the Herrscher of Thunder answered without hesitation.
Maybe the first hit had restored her confidence.
Maybe Bai Qian's "even if you're out of juice, squeeze it out" gave her a terrifying sense of workplace pressure.
She inhaled sharply—
—and her hands erupted with brighter, harsher lightning.
ZZZ—ZZZ—ZZZZZ—!!!
The electricity was far more violent than before.
Violet snakes wrapped Sirin instantly, slamming her half-raised body back into the floor.
Bai Qian held the camcorder steady like a dedicated director, narrating in real time.
"Good! Very good! The expression—pain mixed with defiance, rage mixed with total confusion—perfect! Hold it! Herrscher of Thunder, a little left—yes, give me a close-up!"
"I-I'm a Herrscher," Sirin rasped, still trying to sound proud, but her voice was already thin as a dying flame. "I won't—"
"Got it. Stop."
Bai Qian snapped his fingers again.
The crackling stopped instantly.
The Herrscher of Thunder obediently stepped back.
Bai Qian flicked the camcorder off. The screen went dark.
"Seems you really are tough," he said, rising and stretching with a loud crackle of joints. He glanced down at Sirin, who was still twitching on the ground, like a gamer bored after clearing a high-difficulty boss.
"Alright. Intermission."
He turned away, as though he wasn't worried in the slightest that the world-ending Herrscher behind him might spring up and bite his throat.
He waved at the Herrscher of Thunder.
"Come on. Let's go eat."
"Huh?"
The Herrscher of Thunder stared, dumbfounded, residual arcs still flicking at her fingertips.
Bai Qian shrugged. "We can come back anytime. This place isn't going anywhere."
"Happy? We pop in and zap her for fun. Unhappy? We pop in and zap her to decompress."
Sirin's head snapped up.
Her golden eyes—once burning with rage to resist pain and humiliation—went rigid with pure, frozen dread.
What did that mean?
This wasn't a one-time execution.
Not a kill-or-be-killed verdict.
"Happy, zap. Unhappy, zap…"
Sirin's lips trembled as she finally understood.
If it was death, she could face it with her head held high.
If it was imprisonment, she could endure and wait for a counterattack.
But this—this endless, mood-based torment with no schedule, no rule, no end—what was this supposed to be?!
That meant that every second of the future, she'd have to live in fear.
Even while unconscious. Even while staring blankly into the dark.
If that man felt like it, the broken TV would open again, and the humiliation-camera would arrive, and the traitor's thunder would follow.
A lab rat in a cage—with the added cruelty that she couldn't even predict when the needle would strike.
"T-This… this isn't allowed…"
Sirin tried to shout, to protest, but only a wheezing breath scraped out of her throat.
"Um… really? I can go out?"
The Herrscher of Thunder hesitated, her eyes darting between Sirin's face and Bai Qian's back.
She'd thought it was all empty promises—at best, he'd let her take over Mei's body for a short while, and if she disobeyed, he'd "correct" her again.
She'd been trapped deep inside, watching everything, a spectator to Mei's life.
To go out. To eat. To be treated like a real person.
The temptation hit harder than Sirin's screams.
Before she realized it, she might've been getting addicted.
"Of course," Bai Qian said.
He pulled out the S.E.E.S standard evoker and spun it around his finger.
"This can summon Personas in reality. And in this world, in a sense—you're Mei's Persona. The embodiment of her inner strength."
"If possible," Mei said softly, "I can cook."
Mei's eyes flicked between Herta and Bai Qian. She remembered Herta snapping at him earlier—the words about switching back and switching again.
She couldn't help asking, "So at school… the person who came in to help me—"
"That was me," Bai Qian admitted openly. "Certain circumstances made me swap bodies with Herta for a while. Just call me Bai Qian."
"I see…" Mei exhaled, relief loosening her shoulders. "That's good. Better than what I imagined."
Mei walked quietly to Kiana's side.
"Wait—what do you mean 'better than what you imagined'?" Kiana blurted, completely lost.
She sensed something—something she couldn't see, couldn't grasp, like a foggy shape just out of reach.
Why did Mei look relieved when Bai Qian switched back from Herta?
"Eating is just the side dish," Bai Qian said. "The main point is team bonding."
He turned back, no longer looking at the Herrscher of Thunder, and faced Sirin again.
The playful carelessness in his expression faded—just a little.
Rin and Talulah, who'd spent enough time around him, could both tell: he was about to start selling a speech. A serious one. A dangerous one.
"When we're out, we'll eat hotpot, sing songs, and talk business."
He paused.
"Like how we twist that old witch Cocolia's head off and kick it like a ball. Like how we storm Schicksal HQ and rip apart Otto's soul-steel bodies until they're scrap."
"You might not know who Otto is," he added lightly, "but that's fine."
Sirin didn't even know her real enemy.
But that wasn't the key.
Bai Qian stared into Sirin's confused golden eyes and slowly tossed out his final chip.
He drew a slow breath.
Then spoke the name that hit like a thunderbolt.
"The reason we do all of it… is to avenge Cecilia Schariac."
"She died to Otto's Honkai fission bomb."
"And he's also the one behind Babylon Tower."
Boom.
Those words struck Sirin like a divine bolt straight through the skull.
She jerked her head up, pupils trembling violently, pain-fog clearing in an instant. Her lips quivered as she tried to speak—but emotion stole her voice.
Cecilia.
The only light in her short, agonizing life.
The woman who held her on the Siberian snowfield and told her, I love you.
The woman she'd always wanted to call Mom.
The woman Otto killed with a Honkai fission bomb.
Did she hate humanity?
Yes.
Did she hate Cecilia?
She didn't know. She truly didn't know.
But if Cecilia could stand in front of her again—
Then she wouldn't hate anymore.
"Mom…"
A voice came from the side.
Kiana.
She'd been silent until now, head lowered, vivid blue eyes brimming with tears.
She didn't look like her usual loud, fearless self.
She looked like a drenched puppy caught in the rain.
Bai Qian's words hadn't just punched Sirin's wound.
They'd stabbed straight into Kiana's heart too.
"I… I've barely seen her pictures," Kiana whispered. "Dad hardly ever talks about her. And I'm not even the real Kiana."
She clenched her fists, raised her head, and looked at Sirin with aching sorrow.
"But I know she was the best mom in the world."
"Dad accepted me. So she would accept me too."
Kiana sniffed, voice shaking.
"As her daughter… helping her get revenge is only natural!"
That sentence became the final straw.
The last blow that broke Sirin's already-fracturing defenses.
Sirin stared at Kiana.
For a heartbeat, she saw that silver-haired woman smiling at her on the snowfield again.
And suddenly a question she'd never dared to ask rose up like a blade.
Kiana was Mom's daughter.
Then what was she?
Was Sirin… Cecilia's daughter too?
Even a Herrscher.
Even a monster blinded by hatred—
in front of the word Mom…
was still just a child starving for love.
The gold in Sirin's eyes dimmed rapidly.
"I get it," she whispered, exhausted. "Stop."
"I lose."
She felt so tired.
So tired she wanted to sleep.
She closed her eyes slowly, as if slipping back onto that cold snowfield—back into the moment when she was still held in Cecilia's arms.
She knew, with perfect clarity, that no matter how many times she woke up…
the angel in the snow would not bend down to hold her again.
-------
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