Years of military drills had etched every contour of her sidearm into Cocolia’s muscle memory.
In a matter of seconds, she could manipulate metal with her mind, assembling a pile of scrap into a weapon indistinguishable from the real thing.
“The rounds don’t have gunpowder, but I don’t need it anyway.”
Cocolia could forge the frame and the slugs, but gunpowder fell outside the domain of metal.
Still, she no longer relied on traditional chemical explosions to send lead flying.
Setting the pistol on the table, she clicked the release and slid the magazine out.
A few solid metal slugs drifted into the air, hovering under her absolute command.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
If she could reshape the metal, she could hurl it just as easily.
Choosing a mark, she sent the solid slugs shrieking toward her target.
“Stronger than a standard round,” she noted.
The thick wooden plank she’d aimed at didn’t just splinter; the slugs tore right through it, punching clean holes into the concrete warehouse wall behind it.
The sheer ease of it—a mere flick of her will producing such carnage—left Cocolia deeply satisfied with her newfound strength.
“The power of a Herrscher of Dominance goes far beyond that,” Sienna said, stepping forward to demonstrate the fundamental skills shared by their kind.
“The metal manipulation is your personal flair, a gift of your awakening. But every Herrscher of Dominance possesses the innate ability to ‘Plunder’ and to manifest the Theater of Domination.”
“Is that how you produced that core out of thin air?”
“Exactly. But let’s find somewhere else to talk.”
Now that Cocolia was officially on their side, there was no reason to linger in this dilapidated hole.
“We’re leaving already?” Cocolia asked, a bit surprised by the sudden move.
“Do you have unfinished business here?” Sienna asked.
Having completed the primary objective of their meeting, she assumed they were done.
Sienna had insisted Alexandra come along, so Cocolia assumed she was a candidate.
Now that she had ascended, she expected Alexandra to be next in line.
“Surviving a Honkai Eruption is impressive, but it’s not the only requirement for becoming a Herrscher,” Sienna explained gently.
“Lady Alexandra’s body can’t handle the strain of merging with a Core. Forcing it would not only destroy her, but it would harm her unborn child as well.”
The moment she’d laid eyes on Alexandra, Sienna had sensed the lingering frailty caused by Honkai erosion.
The minute traces of Honkai Energy Alexandra had encountered on the battlefield hadn’t been fatal, but they proved her constitution wasn’t up to the task of hosting a Core.
“Then… do you still need me?” Alexandra asked.
She had also assumed she was meant to follow in Cocolia’s footsteps.
“Of course. Even if you can’t be a Herrscher, there’s plenty of work to be done.”
Sienna wasn’t just securing the future “Silver Wolf of the Urals,” Bronya, for her own ends; her current team was desperately short-handed.
“Understood. I’ll work hard,” Alexandra replied, a wave of relief washing over her.
Knowing she wouldn’t be discarded meant she finally had a path forward.
She no longer had to spend every waking moment wondering how she and her baby would survive the next few days.
“Let’s go, then. We can talk more somewhere civilized.”
Sienna restored the warehouse to its original state, and the three of them departed.
She hopped into her car, trailing behind Cocolia and Alexandra as they headed toward the city center.
“How about this place?”
Ten minutes later, they pulled up in front of a cozy two-story cafe.
“It looks perfect,” Sienna agreed.
The place was charming, and with the snow coming down hard outside, she was craving something hot.
“Do you have a private booth?” Sienna asked the server as they stepped inside.
“Right this way, please.”
The server led them to a quiet room on the second floor.
“This will do for now.” Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
They placed their orders for drinks and snacks.
Sienna waited until the food arrived before sealing the door for their private discussion.
“Enjoy your meal, ladies,” the server said, setting the trays down before departing.
“This is much better,” Sienna sighed, leaning back.
The bright, clean room and the scent of fresh pastries were a world away from the grimy warehouse.
“Now, let’s discuss our next move.”
After a few bites of cake, Sienna pulled an extra chair out from the table.
She reached into the air, tearing open a rift to the Theater of Domination to let Cecilia step through.
“Cecilia?” Cocolia gasped.
A translucent figure shimmered into existence in the empty chair, bathed in the white light of a Herrscher Core.
From the footage Sienna had shown her, Cocolia knew Cecilia was the one who had pulled her and Alexandra from the front lines.
But that footage had ended with Cecilia exhausting her lifeblood and being consumed by the fire of Schicksal’s Honkai Fission Missile.
“Sienna brought me back,” Cecilia explained, her voice soft but steady.
“Though, for now, I remain a spirit.”
Seeing their savior standing before them, Cocolia and Alexandra immediately rose to their feet, bowing in deep gratitude.
“Please, sit. There’s no need for that,” Cecilia said with a warm smile.
“Protecting people from the Honkai was my duty as a Valkyrie.”
“Can the power of a Herrscher truly bring back the dead?” Cocolia asked as she sat back down, realizing the scale of this power was even greater than she’d imagined.
“In theory, yes. But it’s not exactly a simple process,” Sienna clarified.
“Usually, when a Herrscher is defeated, their soul retreats into their Core, waiting for a chance to awaken again.”
She thought of Welt, who seemed to treat death and resurrection like a revolving door, or Sirin, who had slumbered for over a decade before returning.
“To revive a normal human, they have to be recently deceased, and the person doing the reviving needs a few spare Cores lying around—much like I do.”