[You couldn’t help but feel there was something deeply unsettling about Aponia, but there was no denying the power she awakened after injecting the gene medicine.
Perhaps it was an ability she always possessed, merely dormant, but the injection had amplified it to a terrifying degree.]
[It was an absolutely top-tier power for interrogations, and equally dangerous.]
[You pragmatically named her ability ‘Mental Seal,’or perhaps’Absolute Command.’]
[Elysia immediately vetoed your suggestions, reasoning that they simply didn’t sound pleasant.
With a thoughtful hum, she changed the name to a single, elegant word: Discipline.]
[The new workflow was ruthlessly efficient.
After Sakura and Kosma captured the criminals Pardo had located, the real work began.]
[One by one, they would be escorted into Aponia’s psychological clinic, not for counseling, but for ‘experimentation’ and interrogation.
Under her influence, they confessed everything.]
[The names they gave up led to more arrests, who were then brought to the clinic, continuing the cycle.
The process was so simplified that Aponia soon found herself with an abundance of free time, which she often used to provide genuine psychological counseling for the frontline combat personnel of the Sea of Quanta Frontline.]
[Nearly a year after the Sixth Herrscher was eliminated, the Seventh descended.]
[The Seventh Herrscher manifested in Australia.]
[The host was an internal member of the Sea of Quanta Frontline, likely a soldier from one of the original Flame-Chaser combat squads.
She was a woman of formidable will; because she practiced the spiritual Meditation Method, she was able to resist the nascent Herrscher consciousness taking root within her.
But when she realized she couldn’t fully defeat it, she did the unthinkable.]
[She took a knife, plunged it into her own chest, and, enduring the blinding agony, personally carved the Herrscher Core from her body.]
[If someone hadn’t discovered her in time, this selfless hero would have bled to death on the dusty ground.]
[When you arrived at the scene, you saw a red-haired woman, her chest swathed in crude bandages already soaked through with blood.
In her trembling hand, she clutched a crimson, pulsating Herrscher Core.]
[You brought her directly back to the Sea of Quanta Frontline, placing her under your personal supervision.
After a period of observation confirmed she was stable and the core remained inert, you turned your attention to the artifact she had sacrificed so much to secure.]
[You began the process of using this Herrscher Core to manufacture a new weapon.
Of course, you had already decided on its shape: it had to be that fiery-red greatsword from your memories.]
[You considered it a weapon prepared specifically for your subordinate, Kevin.
His body was suffused with a bone-chilling cold, making this fiery weapon a perfect counterbalance.]
[The task of crafting the weapon was left to Vill-V, and she did not disappoint.
In a stroke of genius, she split the Herrscher Core in two, forging a pair of dual pistols that could smoothly combine into a magnificent, flame-wreathed greatsword.]
[It must be said, Vill-V was full of tricks; she even presented you with the “Anti-You Armament Model 999.”]
[As for the previous 998 models?
They never existed.
She had only built a handful of prototypes.]
[The name “999” was simply something she thought of on the spot, and so it stuck.]
[Naturally, none of her contraptions worked on you; they were all smashed to pieces by your bare fists.
[In the time that followed, your days fell into a rhythm.
Besides training your Magnetic Field Power and practicing your martial arts, you spent most of your time in the laboratory.
The only exceptions were when Eden occasionally invited you to a concert or when others managed to drag you out for a rare moment of leisure.]
[In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.]
[One day, reports flooded in from across Shenzhou.
A strange phenomenon of large-scale, deep sleep was affecting the populace.]
[The incidents lasted only a few days before abruptly ceasing.
In their wake, a girl with a fractured mind appeared—or rather, a Herrscher with a fractured mind.]
[She stood in an open field, shouting at the heavens, “I’ve done it!
I’ve done it!
I’ve attained immortality and the Dao!
Hahahahaha!”]
[You felt a wave of speechlessness wash over you.
It seemed the people of Shenzhou had finally gone mad from their attempts at cultivation.]
[Elysia looked on as the Herrscher Girl, now restrained in a straitjacket, continued to babble about having ‘attained it.’]
[After some deliberation, the group reached a grim consensus.
She was to be given a quick end.
Such unhinged behavior made her a dangerously unstable factor, and it was only a matter of time before the Honkai tried to reclaim their wayward agent.]
[After you dealt with her, you tossed the Herrscher Core directly to Vill-V, letting her handle it as she saw fit.
Your only instruction was to refrain from building any more colossal constructs.]
[In the six months following the Eighth Herrscher’s appearance, Honkai incidents, both large and small, occurred with increasing frequency.]
[Worse, cults dedicated to worshipping the Honkai began to emerge.
They preached that the Honkai were a catalyst for human evolution and that the Sea of Quanta Frontline was an obstacle to this grand destiny.
They occasionally sabotaged important facilities, and though they never caused significant damage, they were a persistent nuisance, caught one by one.]
[To be honest, you could almost understand the desperation that led people to believe in cults that promised to strengthen the body.
But preaching that you and your comrades were the enemy of mankind?
That was a line crossed.]
[In that moment, an idea sparked, dredged up from a fragment of memory.
You would build a rebirth pool and throw every last one of those saboteurs into it.]
[You felt that with your current technical expertise, combined with the advancements of the gene medicine, you could ensure those people survived their time in the pool.
For a very, very long time.]
[Unfortunately, when you proposed this, you were met with severe opposition from everyone.]
[You found a few like-minded individuals and secretly began construction of the rebirth pool in a secure, undisclosed location.
[Somehow, word of your secret project leaked.]
[Political figures from the Human Union, despite their impossibly busy schedules, all arrived to perform ‘ideological work’ on you, pleading for you to reconsider.]
[MEI, Elysia, and the others also came, trying to persuade you many times over.]
[However, what brought you a great deal of comfort was that your most beloved Little Griseo stood firmly by your side through it all.]
[You felt that all your pampering of Little Griseo had not been in vain.]
[In the end, the rebirth pool was established and put into use.
The first to taste its unique properties were those very same cultists.]
[On the very first day of their immersion, they regretted it.
They regretted it with every fiber of their being.]
[Afterward, word of the pool and its effects spread, whispered in hushed, terrified tones until everyone knew.]
[For a time, the entire world fell silent.]
[Even the most defiant underground organizations, those who had been causing endless trouble, ceased their little schemes.
They became model citizens overnight, often seen helping old ladies cross the street and performing other minor acts of public service.]
[You felt not a shred of mercy regarding this outcome.]
[Once a cultist, always a cultist.
Could such a person truly turn over a new leaf?
If you let one go, would that be fair to the soldiers dying on the front lines?
To the elderly, women, and children they harmed?
To the vital resources they destroyed?!]
[It was during a raid to capture cultists on the M Continent that the Ninth Herrscher was born from among their ranks.]
[You were present when it happened.
This new Herrscher immediately constructed a massive black hole in the sky above.]
[Surrounding buildings, vehicles, and everything else were torn from their foundations and sucked into the swirling vortex.
In an instant, a huge section of the city block simply vanished.]
[Without a flicker of hesitation, you unleashed the full, unrestrained force of your Magnetic Field Power.
You appeared directly in front of the Herrscher, thrust a hand shaped from pure magnetic force into its chest, and tore the being in two.]
[Fortunately, you had acted in time.
The black hole hadn’t expanded to its full potential, but the casualties in that city block were still far from few.]
[Standing on the ruins created by the Ninth Herrscher, you looked down at the corpse you had torn asunder, then at the earthy-yellow crystal core resting in your palm.
For a fleeting moment, you felt that you were still far too weak.
You had to hurry up and train.]
[Elysian’s Note:
Having a good time with the story?
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