The venue was swallowed by a surging tide of fire.
Hundreds of people didn't even have the chance to let out a single scream before their lives were snuffed out, scorched instantly by the terrifying, high-temperature gale.
One moment, they were vibrant, living souls; the next, in the mere blink of an eye, they were reduced to piles of charred remains.
These blackened husks lay scattered haphazardly across the center of the concert grounds, a grim carpet of ash and bone.
Amidst this vast expanse of carnage, there was a single survivor who seemed to have been spared by some strange design.
Though she, too, had been engulfed by the flames, she escaped with only minor burns.
She remained crouched there, a "lucky" witness in a landscape of death.
"Captain… Himeko?"
Hua stared at the figure before her. In an instant, the woman she knew had become a total stranger.
Looking at the hellscape unfolding around her—a living tapestry of damnation—Hua, never one for many words, found herself utterly unable to comprehend the horror manifesting before her eyes.
But as Hua offered her trembling, fearful inquiry, the entity that was "Himeko" seemed to have shed all human emotion.
She turned an eerie, murderous gaze toward the catatonic Hua, staring intently for a long moment.
It was as if she were puzzled—wondering how a living thing could still be breathing within the reach of her Herrscher authority's flames.
Filled with a lethal aura, "Himeko" prepared to act on the Herrscher's primal instinct to erase human civilization. She moved to strike down the girl before her, even as a lingering, instinctive hesitation flickered within.
Just as the flames moved closer, poised to easily snuff out Hua's life, "Himeko" suddenly sensed something else—something of paramount importance to her.
The searing heat abruptly halted inches from Hua's face.
After a brief pause, "Himeko" locked onto her new target through some unknown means. Without a backward glance, she turned and marched toward the inner stadium.
Hua, who had been certain she would die at her captain's hand, felt the strength drain from her body as the terror finally broke her.
She collapsed weakly to the ground, paralyzed and mute, watching blankly as Himeko's silhouette slowly vanished from her sight.
However, Himeko's transformation in this simulation was fundamentally different from the usual cases where a Herrscher is born from utter despair.
Under normal circumstances, Himeko would have reached her breaking point after being relentlessly crushed and exploited by corporate overlords.
The accumulation of unimaginable negativity would have eventually pushed her to stand against the world in a fit of hopeless desperation. She would have naturally become an avenger, carrying out the will of the Honkai to exact a maddening revenge on human civilization.
Yet, thanks to her recent interactions with Lunelle, things had changed.
Lunelle hadn't just used her formidable scientific prowess to lead the Australia branch toward a brighter future; she had used her near-supernatural charm to make the older Himeko fall completely and utterly for her.
With money in her pocket and a future wife by her side, a life that was once on the brink of collapse had become full of visible hope.
Subjectively speaking, Himeko shouldn't have been anywhere near the level of despair required to break.
Therefore, Himeko's ascension to Herrscher status was, strictly speaking, the result of a certain "narrative correction."
The Cocoon of Finality had been watching Himeko for some time. With a "helpful" assist from the corporate idiots' provocations, it seized the moment her spirit wavered and forced its way in.
It had violently dragged Himeko back onto her original destiny, mandating that she become a Herrscher during this specific window of time.
Because this wasn't a transformation born of Himeko's own will, her incredibly resilient ego hadn't been entirely wiped out.
That said, while a Herrscher personality lacks humanity, it is still birthed from the darkest, most negative emotions of the host.
Consequently, at least in the initial moments of birth, the Herrscher persona inherits some of the original host's instinctive habits.
These lingering echoes of the "original" self subconsciously drive the newborn Herrscher.
While the primary mission is the destruction of humanity, they may attempt to fulfill the host's last, desperate wishes within their capacity—especially those burning desires for retribution against specific people or things.
This situation was quite similar to when Lunelle first realized she had a "Dark Seele" personality hiding in her head.
However, Himeko's situation was the polar opposite of Lunelle's.
Lunelle had the advantage of the Simulator implanting her consciousness, allowing her to hold the dominant position from the start.
Himeko, on the other hand, had become a "mindless" Herrscher of the Previous Era.
Unless one was a miracle like Elysia—who was born with the capacity for humanity—or a "cheater" with a simulator like Lunelle, the host usually stood no chance.
Himeko's original consciousness had been washed away by the Authority of Finality, leaving only a tiny, stubborn shred of obsession deep within her mind.
Normally, those who undergo Herrscher transformation are misanthropes whose lives are defined by suffering.
Even if a sliver of their will remains, it's usually a wish for their enemies to rot, or a classic "it's not me who's wrong, it's the world" sentiment, leading them to follow the path of those who want to make the world "feel pain."
As for the obsession currently lingering in Himeko's mind...
Perhaps it's only when a person is truly at death's door that they finally realize what—or who—matters most.
Judging by the way the Herrscher "Himeko" was narrowing her focus and rapidly closing in on the location of a certain adorable little thing, it was clear that this final obsession was inextricably linked to Lunelle—the deeply "sinful" little cutie who remained blissfully unaware of the trouble heading her way.
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T/N: I have a Patreon!
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