Chat Group: Starting by Swapping Bodies with Elysia?

The allied commanders were in high spirits. The storm had calmed considerably. Wasn't that a sign that the Herrscher had been eliminated?

"I can't wait for this damn exercise to be over," Commander Doug grumbled, puffing on his pipe.

For the military, exercises were just work. And they'd rather be doing anything else. Besides, they'd just finished an exercise—a show of force directed at Shenzhou.

They'd been preparing to head home when Vill-V had convinced them to join forces and head to New Zealand. They'd quickly resupplied in Singapore and set course.

They wouldn't have arrived so quickly otherwise.

—If not for the higher-ups assuring them that it would be a short trip, a mere show of force, they wouldn't have agreed.

But things rarely went as planned.

…Or rather, this time, it did.

This massive fleet would return home early—

—At the bottom of the ocean.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion rocked the fleet. A destroyer sank beneath the waves.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Sir, we're under attack! A destroyer has been sunk!"

"What?! Attack? Where's the enemy?!" Doug yelled, snapping out of his initial shock.

"Found her!"

Their advanced technology finally located the attacker—a young girl standing on the wreckage of the destroyer.

"What? A little girl? Are you kidding me?" Doug exclaimed, incredulous.

A kid had sunk his destroyer?

"She… might be the Herrscher…"

"What?! I thought she was eliminated?!" Higher-ranking military personnel knew about the Honkai and the Herrschers. Doug, as the fleet commander, was aware of their existence.

—But having never encountered one, he wasn't worried. A mere human? Stronger than my fleet?

Especially after hearing that the First Herrscher had been killed by conventional weapons, his arrogance had grown.

He'd wanted to hunt a Herrscher himself. It would be a glorious achievement. But the higher-ups had decided to nuke the Herrscher first.

Now, it seemed, he had his chance!

"That idiot Gesar! He'll face a court-martial for this!" He was furious. Gesar's false report had cost him a destroyer.

Then, a surge of greed filled him. Killing a Herrscher would bring great rewards. He ignored the warning signs—how the Herrscher had survived the nukes, how Gesar had vanished.

"Men, it's time to earn your medals! Fire at will!"

His greed blinded him to the danger.

The soldiers cheered, their eyes red with excitement, their weapons trained on the girl. Unseen threads wrapped around them, controlling their minds.

Cannons fired, missiles launched. Even the aircraft, unable to fly in this weather, were launched, only to be crushed by the storm.

[Wendy], standing on the wreckage, sensed the source of their madness, her eyes turning cold.

She had intended to be merciful, to avoid unnecessary carnage.

She wanted to instill fear, not despair. Crushing an ant without killing it required delicate control.

But now, she'd changed her mind.

"They all die." She clenched her hand, and the world seemed to tremble.

The soldiers, their madness fading, looked up in horror. The sky was falling!

BOOM!

Silence. Only the raging ocean remained. The fleet, humanity's pride, was gone.

The ocean was also a fluid—the Herrscher of Wind's domain.

"Always making things difficult…" She looked up at the clear sky, her emerald eyes piercing through the clouds, towards the moon, where the Will of Honkai resided.

She sighed.

…The entire fleet… hundreds of thousands… all Herrschers of Domination!

The "Thousand Herrschers" were no more. Perhaps because Jiang Qiao was too powerful, the Will of Honkai had created a different version of the Herrscher of Domination.

[Wendy] didn't know its exact abilities.

But from Seele's previous actions, and observing the fleet, he'd learned two things—

There were far more than a thousand Herrschers of Domination.They could influence minds, amplifying desires and narrowing perspectives.

And unlike the original, they were weaker.

The previous era's Herrschers of Domination could wield fragments of other Herrscher powers, making them a formidable army. Even Kevin, as a MANTIS, had struggled against them. It had taken MEI, switching between two Divine Keys, to defeat them, a battle that had contributed to her premature death.

These Herrschers of Domination, however, possessed no such powers. They seemed… ordinary.

But—

"This is bad news." MEI frowned, looking at the countless particles floating in the air. Even she couldn't detect the Honkai energy within them. "Are you sure these are Herrscher cores? I can't sense any Herrscher powers, not even an Imaginary connection."

All cores had an Imaginary connection—their link to the Will of Honkai, their source of power.

"The power of Origin tells me they are." [Wendy] said, certain.

"Can't you sense their connection?"

"They don't have a conventional connection… even Herrscher powers have their limits." She sat cross-legged in the air, her Ascended form radiating power. She blew on the particles, scattering them, then restoring them.

While the power of Origin had been useful, it wasn't omnipotent. It had its limits. He'd been able to interfere with other Herrschers through their Imaginary connection.

Origin's power was connection and modulation. And as the Herrscher closest to the Will of Honkai, besides the Finality, she had access to all other Herrschers.

"The Will of Honkai is wary of me." She sighed.

—Unlike the Honkai consciousness, the Will of Honkai wasn't a sentient being. But it could adapt its tests. And it wasn't happy that its "examiner," the Herrscher, was helping the "examinee," humanity.

And it wasn't just any examiner; it was Origin, a high-ranking administrator.

While humanity convincing a Herrscher to help them wasn't against the rules, it wasn't ideal. The Will of Honkai couldn't let Origin simply eliminate all the other Herrschers. That wasn't a test.

So, it had created this new version of the Herrscher of Domination. No Imaginary connection, barely any Honkai energy—there was nothing to grasp, no thread to follow.

"...We'll study these later." MEI frowned, but nodded, trusting Jiang Qiao.

Even if they seemed like ordinary dust, she knew he wouldn't lie.

"We'll take care of Wendy."

Jiang Qiao had extracted Wendy's core and the core from the Fourth Divine Key, creating a new body for her. The Fourth Divine Key needed a core to function, and MEI needed the satellite. And [Wendy]'s body would eventually return to its owner.

Besides, the Ascended form was too dangerous for Wendy to handle. Its power was a threat to humanity. Jiang Qiao could control it, but Wendy couldn't.

"You're giving me a headache." MEI sighed.

Dealing with Wendy was tricky. While he'd extracted the core, the Herrschers of Domination would recognize her. If her identity was exposed, it would be disastrous… but it would also mean another powerful ally, like Sakura.

"Don't worry. The body I created is… special. With a change of clothes and hairstyle, no one will recognize her. And it's a real human body." He'd anticipated this. Wendy was now completely human. Even if recognized, she'd appear as an ordinary person.

The downside was that she couldn't use her Herrscher powers without the core. That was a limitation of the Truth authority. It could only replicate existing forms, so he'd had to use Origin to make the body more human. With the power of life and death, he could have done better.

"Good. She'll join the Fourth Squad. And I'll transfer Totori to headquarters." MEI nodded.

Normally, Totori would be transferred to either the Ninth Research Department in Mu or the Eighth in Shenzhou. But with the Herrschers of Domination lurking, it was safer to keep her close.

"Are you leaving again?"

"Yes."

"Are you… reluctant to leave me?" He teased.

"No. It's just that things will be more difficult without you." While [Elysia] was more demanding, she was also more reliable than Elysia.

—Why not just use Sakura?

"If Elysia heard you say that, she'd cry."

"I think she's quite reliable too." He chuckled, sensing her unspoken words.

"Yes, as a… chat partner." Only Vill-V would agree with that.

"Before you go, visit Elysia. She might get angry if you leave without saying goodbye."

"Okay." While he could use the chat group, he agreed. Elysia seemed to have a grudge against him.

—With Wendy contained, the Fourth Eruption was almost over. Fire Moth just needed to clean up the remaining Honkai Beasts and restore New Zealand's environment.

But the previous era wasn't safe yet. The Herrschers of Domination were still out there. And without Jiang Qiao to cheat for them, they had to figure things out themselves.

The good news was that the Herrschers of Domination weakened the existing power structures. While this also affected Fire Moth, it primarily targeted the established governments.

This allowed Fire Moth to expand their influence, eventually becoming humanity's leaders in the fight against the Honkai.

He arrived at the camp where Elysia and Ato were stationed. After Parvati's defeat, they were clearing out the remaining Honkai Beasts and rescuing survivors.

"Ji… you jerk!" Elysia's initial joy at seeing [Wendy] turned to annoyance. He was still in his Ascended form, though without the halo.

She was angry! He'd left without saying goodbye after defeating Parvati.

How dare you leave me behind!

"Don't leave me alone next time! At least tell me when you're leaving!"

"Okay."

"Honestly…" She pouted, dissatisfied with his easy compliance. It made her seem like a spoiled brat!

She hugged his arm, inhaling his scent. It had changed slightly after his transformation. But then, she remembered it was another girl's body…

…Maybe it's not so bad? She was annoyed that he was using another girl's body, but also… intrigued. It's still him, inside… Damn it, this is his fault!

"Where's the boy?"

"Who… oh, the boy you saved? He's with Ato… we were just talking about him."

"Speaking of that boy…" Just as he was about to leave, Elysia's sweet, yet menacing, voice stopped him.

"—Do you have any idea why that boy ran away from me? You jerk~♪"