“N-no way, I’m super strong.”
She never expected Cecilia’s assessment of her to be like this.
Those words, spoken with such seriousness, suddenly pierced right through Sienna’s heart.
“But from everything I’ve learned, among the Previous Era’s Herrschers, the Herrscher of Dominance was the easiest to deal with.”
“Stop right there!”
“There were a thousand of them, but even the strongest only had the strength of a Pseudo-Herrscher. You could wipe out several hundred individuals in a single battle…”
Ignoring Sienna’s request to pause, Cecilia repeated the information about the Herrscher of Dominance she’d learned from Schicksal’s records, word for word.
“What’s wrong?”
After finishing, Cecilia saw Sienna, who had been holding the core containing her, place it on the bed.
She lowered her head and curled up into a ball.
“It’s nothing, it’s only right that I accept Lady Cecilia’s criticism.”
Never having encountered a situation like this, Sienna immediately retreated into her shell.
“Alright, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have joked with you like that.”
Seeing at a glance that Sienna had been trying to scare her just a moment ago, Cecilia naturally countered with a blow that sent her into that shell.
“Ugh…”
Realizing her attempt to scare had backfired, and she’d been taken down instantly.
The Cecilia Sienna had once imagined as somewhat naive and absent-minded turned out to be a bit of a sly tease.
“Anyway, I was resurrected by you, right? I’ve never heard of anyone else having an ability like this.”
“Hmph~ You don’t need to comfort me. I know I’m strong.”
It was just that facing this situation for the first time, she hadn’t known how to respond to Cecilia’s words.
Not actually needing anyone’s comfort, Sienna let out a long sigh and quickly reverted to her previous mindset.
“Are you going to the Siberian battlefield to form your own army?”
Having overheard Sienna’s conversation with her teammates, she knew it had been less than a week since she herself had awakened from death.
The cleanup operations following the outbreak of the Second Eruption definitely wouldn’t be finished yet.
The Siberian plains right now probably still had tens of thousands of Honkai Beasts and Zombies wandering around.
Having fought Sirin, Cecilia believed Sienna’s combat ability was definitely inferior.
But in terms of thinking, she was certainly far more mature than the childlike Sirin.
But her thoughts, born within the illusion, had ultimately fallen short.
Now, facing a new Herrscher, one who had once been her comrade…
Even though she hadn’t sensed any cruel feelings or disdain for humanity in their few exchanges, it could still be a disguise.
After all, the person before her was a Herrscher.
“Not at all. Gathering up the remnants of the Honkai Beasts that survived Schicksal’s strikes would only speed up the cleanup work.”
Facing Honkai Beasts scattered in uninhabited areas that regular troops couldn’t reach quickly, the best way was to dispatch Valkyrie squads to handle them.
If she gathered them all together into a large, concentrated area, then Schicksal could just call in another barrage of long-range missiles to scour the area clean.
“The best way for a Herrscher to restore Honkai Energy is to trigger a massive Honkai Eruption. Use a small amount of your own Honkai Energy to ignite a huge disaster. Afterwards, you can reap dozens or even hundreds of times the energy from the disaster site.”
Like lighting a single match, using its tiny flame to set an entire forest ablaze.
And then gaining an entire sea of fire in return.
“But the consequence of doing that is getting wiped out by Schicksal pretty quickly.”
Hearing Sienna casually mention triggering a massive Honkai Eruption to get stronger, Cecilia pointed out the outcome.
In terms of thinking, Sienna might be more mature than Sirin, but that didn’t make her someone who could overcome a stronger foe through strategy alone.
Schicksal had just suffered a relatively major blow.
But they could still easily crush Sienna, should she try anything, with just a few fingers.
“Of course. I’m not about to make the same mistake as that pufferfish.”
“Pufferfish?”
“I mean Sirin. Gets power, gets cocky, gets beaten down by you guys. Gets even more power, gets even cockier, gets beaten down even harder.”
“That really is like a pufferfish.”
Hearing Sienna’s explanation, Cecilia recalled the battle.
Sirin, putting on that haughty air, calling everyone ‘mere humans,’ was just a child in her actions, no matter how powerful.
She had no trained techniques or skills at all during the fight, just getting scared and knocked down again and again.
“And the biggest difference between her and me is that my dream is still to fight for all that’s beautiful in the world.”
“Then how did you become a Herrscher?”
Seeing that Sienna didn’t seem to be lying, Cecilia asked the question on her mind.
“How did I become a Herrscher? I don’t know either. Just think of it as me being at the rear, watching you all go to fight the Herrscher on the front lines, realizing there was nothing I could do, and suddenly becoming one myself.”
“If that were the case, the whole world should be full of Herrschers by now.”
“Alright.”
Seeing that Sienna didn’t want to talk about herself, Cecilia didn’t feel the need to press for the truth.
As long as she remained on humanity’s side, like that first Herrscher from Anti-Entropy, it was fine.
“Since we still have some time, how about we do something fun?”
“Huh?”
Seeing Sienna pick up the core containing her and place it against her own chest, Cecilia watched, confused, as the core slowly sank into Sienna’s body, having no idea what she was planning.
“Originally, I didn’t think you’d wake up this quickly. But since you’re awake, it’s perfect for testing out an idea I had.”
To avoid releasing too much Honkai Energy when opening the Domain of Dominance and getting discovered by Schicksal, Sienna had opened an opening in her chest, just large enough for a core to pass through.
“Welcome, to the Domain of Dominance.”
As Cecilia looked around the space, lit by the purple glow of Honkai Energy, Sienna appeared before her in spirit form.
“Herrscher consciousnesses are all inside their cores?”
Seeing the translucent Sienna in front of her, Cecilia realized her current state was probably the same as her own.
“Not exactly.”
Unlike Cecilia, who could only rely on the core’s protection to avoid dissipating, after several days of testing, conceptualizing, and experimenting with her abilities, Sienna had already learned to freely transfer her soul between her body and her core at any time.
And in her soul form, she remained the same size as usual.
She could even use threads to interact with physical objects.
“Your soul is here, what about your body?”
Seeing Sienna like this, Cecilia worried about her body outside.
If it was left unattended without its soul and someone discovered it, it would be hard to explain.
“My soul is here, but I can still control my body through these threads.”
Sienna raised her right hand, a single thread coiled around her index finger.
The other end of the thread connected back to Sienna’s body, outside the space.
“You can do that? That’s amazing.”
“Since you think it’s amazing, you should give it a try too.”
Approaching Cecilia, Sienna wrapped a thread from her hand around Cecilia’s core.
“?”
“This time, you’re my stand-in.”