Chapter 104: A Gentle End and an Ominous Beginning
"Himeko, be careful. These thorns might be poisonous." Rovel's voice was low and steady, but his eyes were fixed on the grim tableau nearby. The Death Soldiers who had been unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire were a proof of the danger; their bodies, pierced by the wicked briars, were liquefying and rotting away at a terrifying speed.
"Got it!" Himeko hefted her greatsword onto her shoulder, its immense weight seeming like nothing to her. With a battle cry, she launched herself toward Asaka Yuno, her blade carving a crimson arc through the air.
However, the sheer density of the thorns was a fortress in itself. They writhed and grew with unnatural speed, a living, hostile wall. Himeko's charge was brought to an abrupt halt, her blade deflecting off a thicket of briars that was as hard as steel.
"Rovel, you're faster than me! I'll make an opening—you take it!" Himeko immediately adapted her strategy. She planted her feet, and with a guttural roar, swung her greatsword in a devastating horizontal sweep, severing a dozen thick thorns in a single, clean motion. Not letting the momentum fade, she leaped high into the air, twisting her body and bringing the massive blade crashing down into the earth.
The ground shattered on impact, fissures spreading like a spiderweb. The shockwave threw up a blinding cloud of dust and debris, staggering even Asaka Yuno, who was forced to instinctively raise a shield of thorns to protect herself from the concussive blast.
For a moment, the world was a chaotic haze of swirling dust. Then, a figure burst from the cloud, moving at a speed that was little more than a blur to the naked eye.
Reacting with preternatural instinct, Asaka Yuno drew the surrounding thorns in on herself, weaving them into a massive, impenetrable sphere of tangled briars.
"Hokushin Ittō-ryū: Ultimate Technique—Moonlit Shadow Dance!"
Rovel's form flickered, becoming a phantom dancing on the edge of perception. Silver light flashed as his blade moved, a whirlwind of steel that seemed to strike everywhere at once. A vast swathe of the thorny defense was shredded into splinters in the blink of an eye, and suddenly, he was there, standing directly before Asaka Yuno, his blade held at the ready.
In that frozen moment, Asaka Yuno's expression was unreadable. She looked at Rovel, her gaze soft, and slowly, almost tenderly, she reached out her hands as if to draw him into an embrace. A faint, serene smile graced the corners of her mouth.
"Rovel, watch out!" Himeko's desperate warning cry ripped through the air.
Behind him, the severed thorns had already regenerated. Countless sharp, woody spears lunged forward, converging on his back with the intent to impale him.
However, under the perfect clarity granted by the Sword Ki of Taixuan, every movement, every threat, was as clear as day to Rovel.
The thorns pierced his body, but there was no spray of blood, no sound of mangled flesh. Instead, the figure they had skewered simply vanished, dissolving like smoke. The clones created by the Hokushin Ittō-ryū were so flawless they were indistinguishable from the real thing.
The real Rovel had already reappeared, silent as a ghost, directly behind Asaka Yuno.
"Death Force: Rending Sky!"
In an instant, his fists became a storm. Countless overlapping shadows hammered down upon Asaka Yuno's back, each blow delivered with devastating force. Even a body fortified by the raw Honkai Energy of a Herrscher was left utterly powerless, unable to retaliate under the continuous, overwhelming onslaught.
The final punch landed with a dull thud. Asaka Yuno's health bar, a construct of this game-like world, flickered and was completely emptied.
Slowly, Asaka Yuno opened her eyes. Was that… a dream just now?
"Time to get up, Yuno. If you don't get up now, you'll be late!" a gentle woman's voice whispered in her ear.
"Late?!" Yuno shot up in a panic.
"If you don't want to be late, then hurry up and get out of bed," the voice chuckled warmly. "Today's breakfast has your favorite miso soup."
"...Okay, Mom."
That's right, she thought with a wave of relief. It was just a nightmare.
Just a nightmare.
Then, her body began to crack, fine, hairline fractures spreading across her skin like a shattered porcelain doll.
[At least let you leave with a smile~♪]
Rovel watched as a single, luminous crystal flower floated out from his own chest. It drifted gently through the air and settled upon Asaka Yuno's head. A soft, pink halo of light enveloped her disintegrating form.
A genuine, peaceful smile bloomed on her face as she faded, until she had disappeared completely from the world.
Only then did the crystal flower dissolve into motes of light and return to Rovel's body.
"Elysia," Rovel murmured to himself, his voice barely a whisper. "You really are gentle..."
At the same time, a series of notifications chimed in his mind.
[Killed Pseudo-Herrscher—Asaka Yuno. Gained 300,000 EXP. Stored in the pending EXP pool. Current remaining EXP: 1,300,000.]
[Mobius's Scalpel collected: Pseudo-Herrscher Blood (Wood) ×10. Mobius's Scalpel triggered extra harvest effect: Pseudo-Herrscher Blood (Wood) ×2.]
[Hokushin Ittō-ryū skill proficiency +15,000. Promoted to the next stage: Great Accomplishment (MAX).]
[The effect of Lightning Sword Intent has evolved.]
[Lightning Sword Intent: Fast as a thunderclap, sharp as a gale, demonstrating the ultimate beauty of a one-hit kill in battle!]
[Effect: Based on your base attributes, Agility +50%, Strength +25%.]
As the notifications faded, the last of the writhing thorns around them withered into dry, brittle husks. Rovel sheathed his blade, and the silver sheen of his hair receded, returning to its natural black.
"Tsk tsk. You almost solo-killed a Herrscher. Rovel, your strength is far more terrifying than I imagined." Himeko planted her greatsword into the ground with a heavy thud and whistled in appreciation.
"It was thanks to your cover, Himeko," Rovel said, shaking his head. "Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy to get close to her."
"Acting all humble again!" Himeko laughed, striding over and hooking a strong arm around Rovel's neck, playfully pulling his head into the soft expanse of her chest. "If I say you're amazing, just take the compliment!"
She wasn't just being kind. Given Rovel's current state—activating the Spirit Blade Form, achieving maximum proficiency in both his sword style and his fist techniques, and now possessing the triple buff of the Clear Mirror Sword Intent, the Sword Ki of Taixuan, and the newly evolved Lightning Sword Intent…
The Rovel of this moment was, for all intents and purposes, a terrifying monster. The Sword Intents provided the flawless mechanics, while his Stigmata provided the raw stats to back them up.
If he had one weakness, it was probably the lack of a true, large-scale, battlefield-clearing ability. While Dead Force could compensate for this, its side effects were too severe, making it a situational trump card at best.
Facing such a Rovel, Himeko honestly wasn't sure she could win without activating her own battlesuit's nexus system.
And the most frightening part? Less than a month had passed since the Descenders first arrived in this world.
"Major Himeko, a large group of Descenders has been detected flooding into Nagazora City," Ai-chan's voice suddenly broadcast from Himeko's comms.
"Descenders? What are they doing here?" Himeko asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Scavenging for scraps? Or are they here to help us clear out Death Soldiers and Honkai Beasts?"
"Unclear, but their destination is Chiba Academy. They are swarming toward it," Ai-chan replied.
"Rovel, what do you think?" Himeko turned to him.
"I'm not sure what these people are up to, either," Rovel admitted. "Let's head back to the Hyperion and get a better look from above."
Himeko nodded. The two of them were quickly extracted, returning to the bridge of the airship as it ascended high into the sky. Though some of the Descenders on the ground noticed the colossal vessel, they had no means of reaching it.
"Is this… an army?" Himeko murmured, her eyes wide as she stared at the satellite imagery on the main screen.
The group of Descenders moved with chilling speed and a clear division of labor. Their formations were tight, their movements coordinated. They were obviously a well-trained, disciplined force.
"They couldn't possibly be here to crusade against that Herrscher from just now, could they?" Himeko guessed aloud.
"Unlikely," Rovel shook his head. "At this stage, most Descenders are no more than paper in front of someone like Asaka Yuno. Plus, with her ability to manipulate such a massive area with her thorns, it wouldn't matter how many people they sent. It would just be a suicide mission."
Below, the Descender army quickly set up a perimeter near Chiba Academy. They collectively cleared out a few stray Death Soldiers with practiced ease, and then… they just sat there. Some were even chatting.
This bizarre maneuver left both Rovel and Himeko completely bewildered. Were they on a sightseeing tour?
"Wait," Rovel said suddenly, his eyes narrowing. "Ai-chan, please zoom in on this person." He pointed to a figure on the screen whose skin had a strange, grayish-white pallor.
"He's almost turning into a Death Soldier, isn't he?" Himeko's frown deepened into a scowl.
"They… they couldn't be planning to transform the entire army into Death Soldiers, could they?" Rovel's voice was grim as he thought of a horrifying possibility.
When a Descender transformed into a Death Soldier, their attributes doubled, and they could, for a time, retain their self-awareness. In a twisted sense, it was indeed a method to grow rapidly stronger within the game.
But… as had been established before, becoming a Death Soldier was a state that synchronized with reality.
What on earth were these people trying to do?
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