Countless blue energy projectiles bombarded the swarm of Divine Machines like meteors flying in reverse. Although they possessed strong autonomous combat capabilities as Schicksal's products, upon realizing their attacks were being reflected, they quickly decreased their altitude. However, because they were Schicksal's creations, the blast radius of their energy projectiles was not small.
Quite a few Sub-God Machines were blown to pieces, and the ensuing explosions caught even more Sub-God Machines in the crossfire. Fortunately, some high-end Divine Machines managed to survive, especially the leading Heimdall.
It engaged its thrusters at full power and charged toward the group. The surviving ranged Sub-God Machines stopped laying down fire; knowing their attacks would be useless and only trigger counterattacks, their AI had learned its lesson after suffering once.
Otto's attention, however, wasn't entirely on those Sub-God Machines, which were originally only meant to stall for time anyway. He devoted all his focus to urging the progress of a certain project.
Although it was a pity that the swarm of Sub-God Machines was destroyed, Schicksal ultimately wasn't like Anti-Entropy, an organization entirely propped up by mechas.
Rather, the initial design philosophy behind these Divine Machines was to serve as cannon fodder, compensating for the severe lack of Valkyries on the battlefield compared to the overwhelming numbers of Honkai Beasts and Deadwalkers.
As for the Divine Machines' tall and slender frames, their armor naturally wasn't very thick. It wasn't that Schicksal's designers were ignorant of the "thicker is better" principle.
At least up to a certain limit, anyway. Of course not; they were professionals, after all. If even the Titans next door knew this, how could the Sub-God Machines not?
It was just that the core concept for these units had never been frontal assault on the main battlefield. They were merely expendable units designed to bog down the majority of Deadwalkers and Honkai Beasts.
This allowed the Valkyries to execute decapitation strikes or slowly separate and clear out the mobs later. No matter how many Divine Machines were destroyed, they were merely consumables to Schicksal.
Schicksal's vast enterprise could entirely afford such losses. Valkyries, however, were not easy to raise. Taking a Valkyrie from stigmata implantation to training, and finally to complete mastery of combat techniques, was no simple task.
Setting aside the funding—Schicksal certainly wasn't short on money—the real issue was the absolute, non-renewable cost of time.
Therefore, they cared deeply for every Valkyrie. Of course, this care only lasted while they were off the battlefield. Once deployed, the Valkyries had to be responsible for their own safety.
All Schicksal could do was produce Sub-God Machines like these to help them handle some of the workload—nothing more.
Thus, Otto didn't feel too much heartache over this. However, at this moment, he noticed a detail: Sirin hadn't continued her attack, but had instead descended.
Despite her best efforts to hide it, Otto could still tell that Sirin was likely feeling quite unwell right now.
"Oh, the influence of a Great Eruption?" Otto immediately understood something. The birth of a Herrscher was always accompanied by a Great Eruption. Although the Herrscher of the Void had already been born once, her current state was no different from a rebirth, so it should naturally be accompanied by the manifestation of a Great Eruption.
It was just that the current anomaly—merely a rise in ambient Honkai energy concentration—seemed quite unreasonable. Did that mean Sirin had been suppressing it this entire time?
Benares also sensed that something was wrong with Sirin. She immediately moved to the front on her own initiative, standing before everyone and using her massive frame to draw the enemy's fire.
Without their network connection, the Sub-God Machines could only rely on their individual AI to determine which enemy posed the greatest threat. Without a doubt, it was the Benares charging right at them.
Benares opened her maw slightly, rapidly drawing in the surrounding Honkai energy. A massive energy cannon blast instantly fired out, sweeping away the Sub-God Machines with lower defense ratings and durability.
One Heimdall immediately reacted; the cape-like armor plates on its back instantly shifted to the front, generating a thick energy shield to help disperse the damage from the energy blast.
The other two Heimdall units also charged forward, bringing their heavy swords crashing down toward Benares. Benares wasn't stupid; she immediately retreated while swiping her claws at the two Heimdalls.
Meanwhile, Mei and the others quickly gathered around. They looked with concern at Sirin, who had just landed and clearly looked unwell. "Kiana?"
"I am not Kiana," Sirin said, her eyes half-closed as she struggled to suppress the Honkai energy radiating outward from the Herrscher of the Void Core, as well as its growing vitality.
"And right now..." Feeling the core's vitality becoming increasingly difficult to suppress, Sirin hurriedly warned them. It didn't matter to her; as a Herrscher, very few of them feared high concentrations of Honkai energy.
But she was looking at this group—they had two ordinary humans with them! If these two collided head-on with a Great Eruption triggered by a Herrscher's awakening at point-blank range, they would suffer severe Honkai corruption. That would be no laughing matter.
"You wouldn't actually be Sirin, would you?" Tesla looked at Sirin with a strange expression. For no other reason than the sheer deterrent power of the Herrscher of the Void was truly no joke.
"Now is not the time to be talking about this!" Sirin glared at Tesla. "If you want to live, get out of here quickly. I won't be able to suppress it much longer."
Hearing this, Tesla finally realized something, but Himeko beside her reacted even faster, directly grabbing Tesla and running toward the interior of the nearby laboratory.
It was a joke; the surging Honkai energy radiating from Kiana—or rather, Sirin—couldn't be any more obvious. No matter how slow the two of them were, they could sense it.
Combined with the surrounding environment and Sirin's warning, how could they not realize what was about to happen? Mei might be fine, but with their frail bodies, they absolutely couldn't withstand the point-blank Honkai energy eruption of a Herrscher.
At this moment, Irene also landed beside Sirin. She extended her hand, and a layer of white mist rapidly surged into Sirin's body, but upon sensing Sirin's condition, she immediately withdrew it.
"Sirin, can you suppress it?" Irene looked at Sirin with concern. If the Honkai awakening were to trigger now, the resulting impact would be massive. The amount of Honkai energy currently stored within Sirin's body was simply too immense.
"How could I possibly suppress it?" Sirin's complexion was poor. This was a mandatory process for a Herrscher's birth; it wasn't something she could just refuse.
"That's going to be troublesome," Irene frowned. However, she wasn't entirely without options to resolve this. She just needed to hand it over to Wendy, just like the [Wendy] inside her body had done.
By utilizing the Authority of Wind to absorb all the Honkai energy produced during the eruption into her own body, Wendy theoretically could complete her awakening, just like [Wendy].
She might even enter the state of emergence as a result. But the question was, could the current Wendy withstand it?
[No, there is no risk necessary.] Right at this moment, [Irene]'s voice surfaced within Irene's mind. [Aside from Wendy, there is another Herrscher here capable of absorbing a massive amount of Honkai energy.]
[What?] Irene immediately spoke in her mind. [Are you talking about Mei? But Mei can't absorb massive amounts of Honkai energy like the Herrscher of Wind can.]
Wendy had used the Authority of Wind to forcefully capture all the Honkai energy and inject it into her own body. Mei didn't seem capable of doing the kind of things the Herrscher of Wind could do.
Not to mention, Mei's application of her own Authority was a complete mess—she was utterly clueless about it.
[I am talking about you, my dear.] [Irene]'s voice carried a hint of anxiety. [Have you forgotten? When you awakened as a Herrscher, didn't you notice that the scale of the Honkai energy eruption wasn't very large either?]
[You are an emerged Herrscher, after all.]
[Of course I know that... Wait, you're right. Why did my Honkai energy eruption only affect a single hotel back then?]
It might not have even affected the hotel too deeply; almost the entire Honkai energy eruption seemed confined to that small basement. Was it because the core's level of vitality hadn't been high?
[You've already emerged; how could the level of vitality not be high?] [Irene] and Irene's minds were connected, so[Irene] immediately sensed Irene's inner thoughts.
[It's because, my dear, your high-intensity Honkai Adaptability, coupled with my active control, directed the vast majority of the Honkai energy into strengthening your body.]
To be honest, it was almost impossible to find someone with Honkai Adaptability as high as Irene's among humans. Even her initial "extremely high" rating was already a value beyond the reach of ordinary people.
One must know that back then, such values were only found in someone like Cat, who had undergone MANTIS surgery and was virtually indistinguishable from a Honkai Beast.
Yet Irene, as an ordinary human, possessed such high aptitudes. Her starting point was already far beyond the level of an ordinary person, let alone after utilizing the Honkai Adaptability Enhancer, which directly boosted her beyond established limits.
It was 100% certain that Irene would become a Herrscher. As long as she experienced any high-concentration Honkai event, it was possible for her to be chosen.
Of course, later on in that hotel, the Herrscher of Death had directly burrowed into her body at point-blank range, serving as the catalyst for her awakening as the Herrscher of Death.
At that time, the highly concentrated Honkai energy directly acted as the material to strengthen Irene's body. Almost all the Honkai energy was captured or attracted by Irene's high-intensity Adaptability, serving as reinforcement materials for her physique.
This was why Irene still felt her Honkai Adaptability increasing to this day; it wasn't entirely just a perk of becoming a Herrscher.
Naturally, the extreme agony Irene felt back then was the result of her body being forcibly modified by extremely high-intensity Honkai energy while her Honkai Resistance was still weak.
Normally, a Herrscher's awakening wasn't that painful, so Irene could be said to have been screwed over by her own Honkai Adaptability at the time, but the subsequent rewards were absolutely worth it.
"I understand. I'll give it a try then." Knowing this much, there was no need to say anything else. Irene looked at Sirin. "Just trigger the awakening directly. I'll help handle the massive amount of Honkai energy."
"You asked for it," Sirin said, no longer holding back. Freed from suppression, the Herrscher of the Void Core rapidly surged with vitality, and the ambient Honkai energy concentration spiked drastically.
Finally, after the concentration reached a certain extreme peak, a massive pillar of purple light erupted directly beside Sirin. Sirin's Great Eruption had begun.
The surrounding Honkai energy concentration surged by several times, if not more. Irene took a deep breath of the air saturated with Honkai energy, closed her eyes, and fully opened her Taixuan Sword Qi perception.
She stopped suppressing her Honkai Adaptability, beginning to guide all the Honkai energy to converge and absorb towards her.
Sensing Irene's Honkai Adaptability, the massive amounts of Honkai energy actively surged into her body, accumulating and strengthening her physique.
This formidable attractive force even caused the thick purple mist around Irene to form a vortex-like state, with the center being Irene's body, which was gradually becoming covered in purple lines of Honkai corruption.
Irene didn't feel any pain from the intense influx of Honkai energy at this moment. Instead, she felt as if she were enveloped in a massive hot spring, a warm sensation washing over her.
She could also feel the immense Honkai energy flowing through her body, inadvertently improving her physical condition. If Irene were to open her System right now, she would notice that her Honkai Resistance was rapidly skyrocketing.
This was also a benefit of Honkai energy modification; while enhancing Honkai Adaptability, it also increased Resistance against Honkai corruption.
However, ordinary people couldn't enjoy such treatment. Before they could enjoy the physical enhancements brought by Honkai energy, they would be killed outright by Honkai corruption.
White mist automatically surged forth, smoothing over the corruption patterns etched onto Irene's body wherever it flowed. At the same time, black mist continuously billowed out, corroding any physical matter it encountered in the vicinity.
The sturdy Schicksal deck was corroded and rotted away layer by layer, like a fragile sponge.
Meanwhile, within Irene's body, a blue singularity began to thoroughly integrate with her under the massive influx and infusion of Honkai energy, becoming indistinguishable from her own being.
Irene's white hair cascaded down to her waist like a waterfall. White and black mists flowed over her body like running water, eventually converging on her back.
As they gradually solidified into physical form, the white mist turned into pristine white wings that scattered pure specks of light with every gentle sway. On her left side, amidst the condensing black mist, a black wing gradually formed, slowly spewing out dark fog that corroded and dissolved everything it touched.
Framed by these black and white wings, Irene looked like a holy angel, yet simultaneously a fallen one. Irene opened her eyes; they had inevitably transformed into a vivid, blood-red hue.
Crimson crosses now formed Irene's pupils. Irene slowly exhaled a breath of mist.
Sirin also opened her eyes. The exclusive patterns of a Herrscher similarly appeared within her golden pupils, making her look absolutely magnificent.
The White Comet outfit she originally wore had long since been eroded and altered by the massive amount of Honkai energy. Only faint traces of the original White Comet remained visible at the edges.
At this moment, she was the Queen of the Void in the truest sense of the word.
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