As much as Seiya loved Cecilia, her being there was unfortunately really bad.
Especially not that Fu Hua was there as well.
Really, really bad.
Cecilia, Sirin could handle.
And with Welt and [Seiya] there as well, she’d go down quite easily.
But Fu Hua…?
Yeah, no.
Pack it up.
[Fenghaung down] and the Garuda [MANTIS] were already forces to be reckoned with.
That, combined with the Taixuan Sword God/ Taixuan Eminence that she could employ at a moment’s notice were…problems, to say the least.
It was the Taixuan Sword God combined with Fenghuang down that had forced Sirin into retreat in the original timeline.
‘As expected!
Flame-chasers are broken!’
Seiya thought so at least.
Sirin, fueled by animosity towards the Schicksal logo on Cecilia’s chest, made her mind up to attack.
This was a rather minor reason.
The more infuriating part was the look in her brother’s eyes towards this woman!
Had they met before!?
Where!?
Was she going to steal him away from him?
She was wearing such accentuating clothing too, so she could seduce him!?
Curses upon this shameless woman!
Lewd!
Seductress!
Drawing upon her void powers, a ring of golden portals appeared behind her, spinning rapidly.
Akin to the rising Buddha and the Bodhisavatta, they had an ethereal otherworldly glow to them.
In less than a second, Honkai energy was already surging from the imaginary space towards Sirin’s portals, coalescing together and growing stronger in power.
And then Boom.
Like a machine gun, torrents of black cubes, lined with pink honkai energy, fired towards Cecilia.
Cecilia barely reacted in time, and managed to dodge to the side slightly.
Firing off an energy blast from her lance, the Black Abyss designation of [Black Abyss, White Flower].
A pure black blast filled to the brim with the emancipating power of ultimate decay, moulded from the core of the Herrscher of Death in the previous era.
Small cracks appeared on her skin, the backlash of decay, which she immediately healed with [White Flower].
A perfect synchrony.
It shot forward towards Sirin as retaliation for the blasts, battle started.
The constant machine gun fire from Sirin’s portals continued, continuously barraging her even as Cecilia’s decay cannon surged towards her.
[Seiya] took the blast without hesitation for her queen, her outer purple armour cracking slightly but the large majority of the dragon’s body remaining intact.
It would take far more than that to fell a Judgement Class Honkai beast.
[Seiya] surged forward.
To act as a vanguard for her queen as she attacked from range, forcing Cecilia to confront it in melee combat, her teeth gritting as she used the full extent of her muscles and strength to parry and repose the claw strikes of the dragon using the edges of her lance.
The raw physical output from the Judgement Class Honkai beast was intense, especially when paired with the raw damage output from Sirin which she constantly had to dodge was a tough task, even for an S-rank Valkyrie and Captain of the Snow-Wolf Squad.
Fu Hua made to act against Sirin, in order to assist Cecilia against the constant onslaught of the two paired combatants.
Luckily, Sirin was still getting used to her Herrscher powers, and therefore was at a consistent disadvantage rather than if she had properly adapted.
Still an insurmountable opponent, but more manageable due to her inexperience.
As she began to teleport there, she was blocked by intense waves of gravitational pressure, courtesy of Welt Yang.
This surprised both her and Seiya.
Seiya had originally expected him to stay out of this conflict in the best case scenario, but he was actively assisting them.
Fu Hua remembered Welt.
The idealistic Sovereign of Anti-Entropy.
Although he had clashed against Schicksal quite a few times in the past, Fu Hua still had ample respect for him.
The Red Kite Immortal was convinced of his attitude towards the betterment of humanity, and his dedication towards the eradication of the Honkai.
Standing there, with a resolute look upon his face as he pushed his glasses up his nose, he was a tough opponent to face, even to Fu Hua.
The 2nd Herrscher of Reason paired with a divine key was a tough opponent, even to someone of Fu Hua’s calibre.
Combined with his true dedication to humanity, Fu Hua’s resolve to fight him wasn’t particularly high.
For a person as upright and moral as Fu Hua, even the death of one ordinary person was a source for mourning, let alone a primary force of humanity.
If Otto hadn’t forced her hand, and if Sirin wasn’t a possible threat to Shenzhou, Fu Hua would simply retreat from this battle, taking Cecilia and escaping, activating her Garuda form to cover her escape, and having Cecilia constantly heal herself with [Black Abyss White Flower] to counteract the effect the flames would have on her.
Even still, seeing Welt fighting to protect her, Fu Hua’s opinion of Sirin lifted.
Subconsciously, she shifted her target from [Eliminate] to [Contain and Observe].
She would attempt to capture Sirin.
And if she proved a boon for humanity, then she’d prevent her from falling into Otto’s hands.
Perhaps take her to Mount Taixuan?
Fu Hua discarded the possibility of using Taixuan Eminence against Sirin.
That would kill her, or at least majorly maim her, and cause immense damage to everyone nearby.
‘Maybe even kill that boy over there’
She eyed Seiya out of the corner of her eyes, while locked in intense combat with Welt Yang.
Welt created cannons using the Authority of Reason, bombarding her with Honkai bombs.
She dodged them with sharp, graceful actions, not a single movement wasted in the battle as she thought and contemplated Seiya.
It was a testament to the skill of the Flame-Chaser bearing the title of [Vicissitude].
To fight a Herrscher wielding a divine key and still have room to worry about collateral.
To someone as disciplined and righteous as Fu Hua, killing even one innocent was unimaginable.
Cecilia managed to break out of the chain of melee combat with [Seiya] by use of her Schariac Holy Blood.
A natural antagonistic force against any and all Honkai entities.
Using her lance to harness the power of her blood, she was temporarily able to knock back [Seiya], a pained roar escaping the dragon as the blood splashed over her, the natural counter to Honkai beasts.
Using this opportunity, she managed to rush forward in a singular lance thrust, attacking Sirin with all she had, using as much force as should be outputted.
She did not power it up with the force of decay from [Black Abyss, White Flower], but she did power it up using her blood.
A raw physical force would be of no effect against Sirin.
Cecilia, seeing her youthful appearance and the low quality of Honkai beasts that she had unleashed earlier, came to the conclusion that her heart wasn’t really in it.
She did not truly wish to destroy humanity.
She’d left Siegfriend, Shigure Kira and Shub-Niggurath to deal with the beasts, and ensure none of them escaped.
They’d rendezvous with her later, agreeing to let her leave when Fu Hua arrived as back-up.
Seiya, noticing that Cecilia was about to hit Sirin, assumed the worst.
Cecilia hadn’t noticed him, all her maternal love and anguish dictated towards Sirin, in hopes to pull her from the darkness, unaware that Sirin already possessed a guiding light.
‘Ah, it’s now or never!’
Seiya thought in panic as he activated the partial authority of death, granted to him by becoming a Pseudo-Herrscher, possessing the Gem of Serenity.
He focused all of his energy and mind on somehow stopping Cecilia from stabbing his beloved sister.
The Gem of Serenity obliged.
Waves of crushing despair and fear crashed upon Sirin, Cecilia and even [Seiya] in an area of effect type attack.
[Seiya] let out a pitiful whine and whimpered, her spirit utterly crushed by the burning feeling of Cecilia’s blood as well as the terror gripping her.
Sirin’s heart dropped, her eyes widening in shock, as her heart started pumping incredibly fast, adrenaline activating and Honkai energy from the imaginary space flooding into her, her Herrscher core instinctively activating a fight response.
She looked around to discover the source of this despair, and when she saw Seiya with his arms outstretched, she softened.
And forcibly calmed herself down.
Ah, it was brother.
Alright then.
These waves of terror wouldn’t hurt her then.
In an act of complete trust, Sirin completely assumed this was nothing dangerous for her.
Since it came from Seiya after all.
Cecilia stumbled in the middle of her attack, frozen in place as she gripped her lance tightly, her heart thumping out of her chest.
When faced with death, even a Valkyrie feels herself growing afraid.
Her attack was almost completely cancelled out, the blood’s effect dissipating and her momentum stopped.
Fu Hua took this chance.
Using a plume from [Fenghuang Down], she sent both Cecilia and Sirin into a mental illusion realm courtesy of the divine key.
As they both fell to the ground, in their shared illusion, the battlefield rested a little.
Seiya held his hand up to the dragon as a gesture to calm down and it stopped.
He deactivated the authority of death and slumped down to the ground.
Welt pushed up his glasses and retreated to his side as Fu Hua deactivated her [Garuda] form and approached him.
She felt confident none of the two bore her ill will and this was further solidified by Welt summoning three cushy chairs instead of two using his authority of reason.
She knelt down by Seiya, a comforting big sister look on her face as her hair returned back to the calming grey as she examined him.
She’d explain [Fenghuang Down] to him later.
Give him relief his sister wasn’t in danger.
Right now, the three had come to a common consensus.
This battle was meaningless.
Neither side meant a threat to the other, and now with Cecilia and Sirin out of the fight, they had no reason for fighting.
An unspoken agreement came between Fu Hua and Welt as they nodded to one another.
Instead of meaningless conflict, the events of the mental realm would determine the path to take from now on.
Fu Hua still didn’t fully trust Sirin.
But she was willing to put her trust in Seiya.
This young boy who had forced himself to his limit to protect her, supposedly her brother, looking at their shared appearance.
Fu Hua looked upon the unconscious form of Cecilia and Sirin, lingering on the latter.
‘Besides, the previous Herrscher of this era had been a force to protect humanity.
There’s nothing that says Sirin can’t be.
She hasn’t killed anyone, despite having the chance to.’
Fu Hua disregarded the scientists.
And so, with a slightly concerned gaze at the slouched Seiya, who seemed physically alright, Fu Hua made her decision.
She sat down beside the other two and waited, looking towards Welt Yang to recite her the tale as Seiya recovered.
Welt sighed.
And then began the story he had previously heard from Seiya, creating a few drinks for them as he did so.
Tea, a specific type native to Shenzhou.
Fu Hua nodded in polite thanks.
Welt looked back with a smile.
The tension had dissipated as Seiya sat back up, drained but conscious.
Now they wait.
Nothing else to it.
We need like…four more reviews!
This probably makes up for any shorter chaptes previously, so throw lots of power stones at it!