The Herrscher of Corruption wanted to resist, but massive golden cubes instantly proliferated from the golden light chains, imprisoning the Herrscher of Corruption's body.
"Tch..."
The Herrscher of Corruption sensed the confined areas on her body. Although she could escape the range of the Binding by digitizing herself, she would have to abandon her physical body to do so.
Pardo also seized the opportunity to withdraw her Chakrams, retreating backward with Rin.
"Rin, how much longer for your Ultimate? And what exactly do you plan to do?"
"Just a little more time," Rin replied quickly to Pardo. "I'm still very weak right now. It'll be ready soon. I'll have to trouble Sister Pardo and the Elder Sister over there to stall for a bit longer."
"Since Rin puts it that way."
Just as Pardo was about to go up and intercept the Herrscher, a Chakram flew past her like a solitary moon, embedding itself into the Herrscher of Corruption's body.
That Chakram was the very weapon Pardo had lent to Irene for self-defense earlier.
"Pardo, take it!"
Just as Pardo turned her head, wondering if Irene's weapon had been knocked away, Irene's voice followed. "I'm fine over here."
Irene assumed a combat stance. When she was learning from Kallen, Kallen had taught her quite a bit of the Kaslana Family's fighting arts—though, of course, not the Gun Kata.
The Kaslana Family's Gun Kata was entirely meant to support the Judgment of Shamash. There were clearly several moves that utilized the dual pistols as blunt instruments, and even some moves where the dual pistols were combined, obviously designed for the weapon's combined form.
Irene wasn't suitable for that set of moves, but since the Kaslana Family had developed for so long, they naturally possessed techniques for various weapons, including basic hand-to-hand combat arts.
Of course, these basic combat arts appeared somewhat difficult to use due to the specific physique of the Kaslana Family, but Irene's current physical constitution, which barely reached that of a C-Rank Valkyrie, was sufficient to utilize them.
Irene positioned her hands into knife-hands. With a chopping strike, she hit the puppet directly on the neck. However, the physical durability of the Corrupted Puppet allowed it to forcibly withstand the blow and lunge at her.
Irene reversed her hand, changing the chop into a push. The palm originally pressed against the puppet's neck retracted quickly, slapping directly onto the puppet's chin. Her other hand immediately followed up, snapping the puppet's neck directly.
Finally, Irene lifted the puppet's corpse and used it as a weapon to smash the other puppets approaching her.
"Don't worry, I'm completely fine here."
"Got it, Sister Irene."
Pardo nodded, then leaped forward, pulling the Chakram out of the Herrscher of Corruption's body. At the same time, the cat tail behind her lashed onto the Herrscher of Corruption's face.
"Damn it!"
The Herrscher of Corruption raised a claw in retaliation, but at that moment, another chain of Binding extended, binding the Herrscher of Corruption's claw tightly.
"I said, don't even think about moving!" Kallen urged Judah to release more Power of Binding to bind the Herrscher of Corruption. "If you have the skill, then flash away like you did in the village."
"Let's see how many bodies of this level you can afford to replace?"
"So that's the idea you're holding onto."
Massive amounts of blood-red cubes flashed across the Herrscher of Corruption's body. Finally, the entire fox detached from the Binding cubes as if clipping through a model. But judging by the limbs that remained fixed inside the Binding cubes, this "clipping" was not without cost.
After detaching from the cubes, the Herrscher of Corruption's body immediately solidified. Disregarding that Rin was currently absorbing the Honkai energy she had released, she immediately erupted with a massive amount of Honkai energy to vie for control of the area.
Aided by the massive amount of Honkai energy, the bright red cubes expelled Rin's white data with almost crushing momentum. The space turned scarlet once again, leaving only a small patch around Rin that remained pure white.
Seeing this, Kallen immediately shouldered Judah again and smashed it toward the Herrscher of Corruption. Simultaneously, several chains extended from Judah; clearly, if this smash landed, the chains would follow up and bind the Herrscher of Corruption.
Yae Sakura also charged forward with her blade raised, chopping at the Herrscher of Corruption's feet. However, a red light flashed in the Herrscher of Corruption's eyes, and the surrounding space began to shift violently, just like the situation Irene and the others had faced at the village entrance earlier.
The terrain began to change drastically. Bright red floor tiles shot up from the ground, colliding with the Judah Kallen was swinging and deflecting it. In front of Yae Sakura, several floor tiles shot up violently, forming a solid wall.
The Corrupted Puppets, which had become scarce due to the struggle for control, also began to increase in number.
"Oi, oi, this is completely cheating." Irene looked at the increasing number of Corrupted Puppets around her. "This is really annoying. No, wait."
Realizing the trouble amidst the struggle before her, Irene sensed something was wrong and immediately shouted, "Pardo! Careful! She's planning to go for you!"
"I'm already dealing with her!"
Pardo looked at the Herrscher of Corruption in front of her. But she couldn't retreat now; she had to protect Rin behind her.
"Do you still want to block me?" The Herrscher of Corruption roared at Pardo. "I only want revenge! You people failed to protect me, so why are you stopping me now?"
"No, no matter the reason, I won't let you continue doing this."
Pardo's heart drummed in her chest. The monster before her, wearing a fox's skin—the Herrscher of Corruption—had its scarlet eyes locked dead onto Rin behind her.
"No matter what, I have to protect Rin. This is something I failed to do before, so I must do it now, no matter what."
"Move aside, you nuisance cat!"
The Herrscher of Corruption's voice was like grinding metal, sharp and piercing. Her front claws dug violently into the ground, and the data-composed floor instantly surged like a boiling pool of blood.
Several sharp scarlet data spikes shot upward, stabbing straight at the soles of Pardo's feet. Pardo's cat ears twitched reflexively, her body's instincts faster than her thoughts.
Azure light points exploded abruptly where she stood, and her figure instantly became illusory and hazy.
Chi! Chi! Chi! The blood-red spikes pierced through the lingering afterimage, shredding only air.
In the next instant, Pardo appeared like a phantom at the rear flank of the Herrscher of Corruption. The Chakrams in her hands traced two cold arcs of light, cutting straight toward its rear waist joint!
"Tsk!"
The Herrscher of Corruption lashed her tail violently. Under the reinforcement of Honkai energy, the seemingly soft tail whipped toward Pardo like a leather whip bristling with massive steel bristles.
Although Pardo blocked in front of her chest with her Chakrams in time, creating a piercing sound of clashing metal, the immense force numbed her wrists, nearly causing the Chakrams to fly out of her hands.
But Pardo borrowed the force of the impact, hooking the Herrscher of Corruption's sweeping tail with another Chakram, then used the leverage to flip over, pouncing onto the fox's neck like a cat hunting prey.
The two Chakrams slashed down fiercely, stripping away patch after patch of fur. Feeling Pardo sitting on her neck, the Herrscher of Corruption twisted her massive body with extreme agility, apparently preparing to use the most shameless fighting method of a child—rolling over—to crush Pardo directly underneath her.
Seeing this, Pardo could only hurriedly jump off the Herrscher of Corruption. But as soon as she landed, she felt a foul wind coming from behind.
The Herrscher of Corruption's front claw tore through the air, clawing down at her head with a foul gust! Pardo struggled to twist her body, causing the front claw to miss her head. Subsequently, a blue glow rippled across Pardo's body at just the right moment.
That fatal strike was successfully dodged by Pardo. She hurriedly flipped and landed on the ground, her chest slowly returning to normal at this moment.
"Sister Pardo!"
"Don't be afraid! I'm not that easily taken down!" Pardo turned her head to quickly comfort Rin.
Pardo wasn't good at fighting; in fact, it could be said she hardly ever fought. Even at the very end, Pardo's role hadn't been combat. It could be said that among all the MANTISes, Pardo had the least combat experience.
All Pardo had faced were the Herrscher of the Legion who had accidentally intruded, or herds of Honkai Beasts she had to help dispose of due to manpower shortages.
And thanks to Pardo's luck, most of those Honkai Beast herds were easy pickings. Her luck always allowed her to resolve the troubles she encountered in the quickest way.
But not now. She had to face the Herrscher of Corruption. She could not run away.
She was very weak, but that was no reason for her to retreat at this moment. This was the promise she owed Sister Sakura. Even if this wasn't her own world, she definitely had to protect Rin.
A trace of ruthlessness flashed in Pardo's eyes. Finally, she charged fiercely toward the Herrscher of Corruption.
The Herrscher swung her sharp claws at Pardo once again. At the instant the sharp claws were about to make contact, the spot where Pardo was about to be hit quantumized again. Borrowing this quantumization, Pardo's body turned into a rapidly flowing stream of blue light, circling at extreme speed to the relatively fragile underside of the Herrscher of Corruption's abdomen.
"Go down for me!"
Pardo's figure instantly solidified. Waving the Chakrams in her hands, she left another deep wound beneath the Herrscher of Corruption's body.
The Herrscher of Corruption retreated in pain and responded simultaneously, pressing her front claw directly toward Pardo underneath her. But at this moment, Pardo's figure flickered, flashing directly out of the Herrscher of Corruption's attack range.
That thick cat tail, like a steel whip, lashed directly onto the Herrscher of Corruption's lower jaw.
"Damn it!"
The Herrscher of Corruption let out a low growl. Looking at Pardo, who was as cunning as a cat, she realized that compared to the opponent's movement techniques, it was almost impossible for her to touch her.
In that case, since Pardo couldn't kill her anyway, it was better to finish off Rin quickly. She could feel the Honkai energy in Rin accumulating more and more. If this continued, heaven knew what kind of Ultimate Rin would hold back to unleash.
As an entity of the same origin, if there was any way for this group to kill her, only Rin could do it.
Crack, crack.
The red bricks nearby that had been used to separate the battlefield suddenly shattered. Kallen, holding Judah, used brute force to directly smash these raised floor tiles to pieces.
"You annoying pests!" The Herrscher of Corruption looked at Kallen and Yae Sakura, who had smashed through the walls to pave a way. "Why can't you just let me have my way for once?"
"Why stop me? Especially you, Yae Sakura! I gave you the power for revenge! You wanted to destroy this village that killed your sister, didn't you?!"
"I only wanted to protect the village of my younger sister..." Yae Sakura pressed her lips together. "Now, I also don't wish for you to continue doing evil. This is also what Kallen needs me to do right now."
"Simply unreasonable!"
The Herrscher of Corruption looked at Yae Sakura, thinking this person was simply unreasonable. Clearly, she had given Yae Sakura the chance to take revenge on the entire village. Clearly, Sakura herself hated this village that killed her sister so much.
Yet now, she wanted to stop her from completing her own revenge.
"We cannot let you harm more people."
Kallen raised Judah. As a member of the Kaslana Family, she was the Shield of the People, fighting to protect humanity. It was the same when she was a Nun of Atonement, whether in the past or now. The things she had to do would absolutely never change.
Since the Herrscher of Corruption would harm people, she absolutely could not let the Herrscher of Corruption get out easily—it was that simple. Before she fell, absolutely not.
"Then you can all die here!"
The Herrscher of Corruption let out a roar. The surrounding scarlet ground, originally relatively solid, shifted again. The ground seemed to lose its ability to support weight, becoming like a mire.
The Herrscher of Corruption didn't want to waste energy on them anymore. She would just banish them to the dark side of the Stigmata like before. Even if Yae Sakura, as the master of the Stigmata, had the ability to bring them back from there, this method wouldn't buy much time.
But that little bit of time was enough. She only needed a tiny bit of time to kill Rin, to completely kill that coward.
Kallen immediately extended chains, wanting to bind onto something hookable, but as far as the eye could see, all the models seemed to have lost their collision volume. The chains extended and passed straight through.
"Binding · Absolute Position!"
Seeing this, Kallen hurriedly retracted the chains and turned them into a whip, sweeping across everyone. A layer of golden radiance immediately surfaced on everyone who was swept, and their bodies, which had been gradually sinking, stopped immediately.
"A deathbed struggle."
The Herrscher of Corruption looked at the group fixed in place. Even if they used Binding on themselves, it wouldn't be that easy to avoid falling into the Stigmata's dark side to delay time.
But so what if they delayed this way? The ability of Binding was indeed strong, but that ability was also a double-edged sword.
Just like in the Previous Era, within the barrier of Binding, not only ordinary humans but even Honkai Beasts couldn't survive. Binding oneself to a location destined them to be unable to move, and even less able to stop her.
"Hey! Turn around."
Suddenly, Rin's voice came from behind the Herrscher of Corruption. The Herrscher turned her head, and all she could see was a vast expanse of white radiance.
When the radiance faded, the entire world turned dark again. But it didn't seem to be because the light had dimmed; rather, she had been thrown into a prison cell.
Looking at the familiar environment before her, the Herrscher of Corruption looked up at the opposite side with anger in her eyes. There was a brightly lit hall, and directly facing her at the front of the hall was an emblem.
An emblem featuring a moth spreading its wings in flight, yet with its wings looking as if they were on fire!
"Fire Moth!"
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