"Of course. But aside from overwhelming firepower, the appearance is also crucial. If it's not cool enough, I won't use it."
"No problem, leave it to me. Trust in the aesthetic sense of the greatest magician of the century! Hmph, hmph, inspiration is surging, my brain is trembling! I already have a great idea, Elias—just wait a few days and come to Helixcraft to pick it up!"
Vill-V clutched the Herrscher Core like a treasure and was about to head for the transport plane, but Elias grabbed her by the collar and pointed at the speechless Himeko lying nearby.
"Don't forget to take her back."
"Oh right, right, almost forgot~"
Vill-V quickly snapped back. In her eyes, the Herrscher herself wasn't nearly as important as the Core. The former was just another inmate for her prison, while the latter was essential material for greater creations.
This great inventor was now brimming with motivation.
When she had seen Elias wield her Abyss Flower to save thirty-five million people in Australia, her heart had swelled with joy and pride.
Now she was desperate to forge more Divine Keys, just to watch Elias wield them with his brilliance~.
Suddenly, Vill-V fell into a very particular state.
(As expected, Elias really is the best! My inventions only reach perfection in his hands! Only he can wield the Divine Keys I create with such ease. Herrschers? The more the better! Hand over all your Cores—I'll craft an arsenal of Divine Keys for Elias, and then, and then I'll…)
"Hm? Vill-V, Vill-V? Are you alright?"
Elias frowned. The magician's sudden silly grin and unsettling expression sent a chill down his spine.
Did the magician personality have this kind of side too? Vill-V, your eyes were literally sparkling with hearts just now!
"Ah? Uh, I'm fine, cough. Anyway, I'll head back now. Elias, remember to come find me in a few days."
Vill-V hurriedly waved him off and dragged Himeko away, her heart pounding wildly as she shouted inwardly:
(Don't interfere with me like that, rookie!)
[Sorry, I just can't help it when I see Elias. After all, I was born for him. Forgive me, magician senpai.] A polite voice echoed in Vill-V's mind.
(It's Great Magician! And while I understand your feelings, don't go overboard. From what I know, Elias has a pretty wide acceptance range, but rookie, your personality is way too dangerous. It's better if you don't meet him yet.) The magician personality answered with a complicated expression.
[Magician, I'll kill you. Believe it or not, next time I'll tamper with your stage props, slip a Honkai energy bomb inside your escape trick.]
(…You were just calling me senpai a moment ago, and now this? Also, we share one body! If I die, won't you die too?!)
[Oh, you're right… then I'll just think of a way to kill all the other Vill-Vs in our mind until only I remain.]
"You damn yandere personality, this is exactly why we never let you out!!!"
Inside the transport plane, Vill-V bashed her head against the seat in frustration. This new personality—whether born from the Self or the Conductor—was utterly maddening.
After all, she was Vill-V, the woman with eight lunatics crammed into one body. Now nine.
But even with that, the only way to describe this newcomer was terrifyingly extreme. That alone showed how dangerous she was.
The rookie's traits: genius, and obsessed with Elias.
Sounds normal enough, right? With those two traits, the other Vill-Vs had expected a super smooth, all-around romance master. Someone with Elysia-level charm who could easily captivate Elias, help Vill-V rise to glory, maybe even challenge Miss Pink Elf's position.
However, because of limited (brain) memory, Vill-V no longer had the spare mental capacity to cut out a proper "love genius" personality.
After all, she couldn't just sacrifice one of the other personalities, right?
All of them shared one brain, and usually, the seven Vill-V personalities got along fairly well.
And to create a personality capable of surpassing even Elysia in love, they had all agreed it would take at least two or three times the usual mental capacity.
But just when the Magician, Expert, Occultist, Flavorful, and Model-15 Vill-Vs had decided to let the matter drop…
The very next day, [Yandere Genius Vill-V] was born!
Since all of them were geniuses, they instantly understood how a new genius personality had been created without expanding their shared mental capacity.
The answer: Pure Evil's mental field!
Although there were eight personalities, each of the others—Magician, Expert, and so on—only occupied one-sixteenth of the mental field. Pure Evil, however, monopolized half!
And so, [Yandere Genius Vill-V] was cut out of Pure Evil's field.
She was indeed a genius. But because Pure Evil's mental field was steeped in darkness—stuffed with extreme and negative elements—the "love" attribute twisted into "yandere."
Magician: "Confess! Which one of you did this?! Was it [Conductor] or [Self]? You two are the only ones who can open new accounts!"
Conductor: "Not me."
Self: "Not me either."
All Vill-Vs: "…" x5
Great. No way to tell who was lying. They nearly forgot—they themselves were genius fraudsters. If they said they weren't lying, even the other Vill-Vs couldn't tell for sure.
And both Conductor and Self had higher authority than the normal personalities.
Among the Vill-V collective, they were the admin-type and group-leader-type personalities. Even if the culprit was exposed, the rest had no power to punish them.
Magician: "Damn it! One day, evil will be brought to justice!"
(Pure Evil: "Bloop~")
Expert: "Ahem, given the danger of [Yandere], I recommend installing a Honkai energy bomb inside our body."
Flavorful: "While planting a bomb in ourselves is hard to comment on… maybe it really is necessary."
Model-15: "Mmhm, [Yandere] is too dangerous. By the way, when will it be my turn again? I came up with new moves I want to try against Elias."
Yandere (suddenly appearing): "Did someone mention Elias? Add me into the chat~ Hm? Model-15, you want to fight him? I'll kill you (￣︶￣)!"
Magician: "Ah, I forgot this one also has partial authority. Self, Conductor—you cut it out! But why allocate so much memory to her? Don't you realize this could cause trouble? Actually—too late, it already has!"
Although [Yandere] didn't gain admin authority, she had been cut directly from nearly half of Pure Evil's field. Her share was larger than any other Vill-V.
This allowed her to interfere whenever another personality came online—she could force her way in too, just like she had with the Magician today.
In short, [Yandere] could literally pull off, "I'm strong, so I'm online too."
Magician & Expert: "We have to find a way to deal with her, or it's too dangerous!"
Occultist & Flavorful: "You two are only panicking because you're closest to Elias. You're afraid that when you're with him doing those kinds of things, [Yandere] will suddenly take over and steal the moment!"
Yandere: "Hahaha~ hahahaha~ I'll wipe you all out sooner or later! Elias is mine!"
No matter how you looked at it, [Yandere] was unbelievably dangerous—even more than Mobius' brand of yandere! At least when you cut open that snake, she was green inside.
But [Yandere] cut open? Only black.
And she truly was capable of doing absolutely anything.
Just as she had said before, Yandere Vill-V didn't care about the Honkai at all. While ordinary people of the Previous Era feared Herrschers, she actually hoped for more of them to appear!
That way, she could gather more Herrscher Cores and craft more Divine Keys for Elias.
If the Honkai ever said to her: "Help me destroy the world, and I'll leave you and Elias alive as Adam and Eve," she might actually agree on the spot.
Magician: "She's a walking bomb! Absolutely must not let Elias see her! Honestly, this is nothing less than a black-history personality. Self! Use your authority and delete her already!"
And most importantly, just like the other Vill-Vs, the Yandere was a super genius!
She could be an engineering master like the Expert, or a biological genius like Mobius.
With three times the mental field of the others, she was easily the most talented among them all. And with no moral restraints, her mind was filled solely with thoughts of Elias.
If her danger still wasn't clear, then imagine this: if, by some chance—
Elias died.
Then [Yandere] would become another Otto in an instant!
Or worse. Because Vill-V was far more of a genius than Otto ever was.
Self: "Ah… oops. Looks like I accidentally created an incredible disaster. I'll just pretend I don't know. Though… should I tell everyone? I can't delete Yandere anymore."
The 'true Vill-V' muttered to herself in her private channel. Yes, it was she who had cut out Yandere! And she had completely lost control of it.
For now, [Yandere] wasn't completely free, since if the majority of personalities denied her, she couldn't take full control of the body.
But she was without question a massive potential threat.
Like a group chat where a new admin appeared—one who couldn't be muted, couldn't be kicked, and could even temporarily hijack other accounts to log in. Clearly, she was a bomb waiting to go off.
"Ugh, why do I always fail…"
The Self Vill-V curled up in her mental chamber, rolling around in frustration. Compared to the others' confidence and poise, her dejected, self-loathing appearance was striking.
But this was the real Vill-V.
A genius consumed by inferiority.
Though among the personalities, Elias was closest to the Magician, Expert, and Conductor, the others also liked him in their own ways.
The Self was no exception. But she was far too insecure to express her feelings openly. Instead, like before, she thought she could create a self who was skilled at love.
And once again… she had only created a lunatic.
Self: "N-no, don't panic! There must be another way. I have to deal with Yandere before Elias finds out!"
...
"Emmm, Vill-V seemed a little strange today. Could it be she cut out another new personality, and it backfired again? Haha~"
Elias looked in the direction of the departing transport, a strange sense that she was running away.
Boom—!
A massive explosion echoed across the sky.
"Oh? They're still fighting. Really slow."
While Elias fought the Herrscher of Fire, Kevin and the others were fighting the Garuda Honkai Beast.
But at this point, all four of them wanted to curse. This beast was outrageous.
Garuda still hovered in the sky, even though its lower body had been sliced off by Sakura. Yet despite being cut in half, the beast refused to die.
It spat out waves of scorching flames while dodging Elysia's crystal arrows. And all the while, its lower body was visibly regenerating.
"This is way, way, way too hard to deal with! Seriously, is this thing really the Herrscher of Fire's companion beast, and not the Herrscher of Death's?!"
Elysia couldn't help but complain as she shook out her right hand. She had already fired thousands of crystal arrows, and her fingers were sore.
...
"Good, good, good! What a perfect punching bag! Way better than that so-called Herrscher of Ice. So come on, stupid bird! Stop flying around up there—come down here and kill me if you dare!"
"Kalpas, save your strength. Elysia, looks like this one's up to you."
"Yeah, good luck. We believe in you."
Kevin and Sakura gave the pink elf a thumbs-up, then quietly switched into spectator mode.
It wasn't that they didn't want to help. They simply couldn't fly.
Ever since Garuda had tried to dive down and was sliced in half by Sakura in a single stroke, it had refused to descend again.
Among the four of them, only Elysia fought at range. Unfortunately, while her crystal arrows were extremely powerful, they were poorly suited against Garuda.
The Judgement-class beast's body was unbelievably tough, its speed high, and its regenerative powers seemingly endless. It even appeared to have some kind of death-lock ability.
Elysia: "Ughhh, how long do I have to keep scratching it like this? Damn it, come down here if you've got the guts!"
Garuda: "Screee!!" (I won't! Come up here if you've got the guts!)
Though still a beast, Garuda had a spark of intelligence. It could sense the massive threat radiating from the four humans.
That single stroke from Sakura that cleaved its body in half—it hadn't even had time to react. And the others were no weaker.
Instinct screamed at it: if it went down again, it would never rise back up.
Lucky for it these four couldn't fly!
But just then, the flaming bird suddenly felt a chill and hastily flew higher.
"Not done yet? I've already finished over here."
"Great, Elias, you're here!"
The white-haired boy strolled over leisurely. Elysia immediately dropped her bow and arrows and leapt into his arms.
"Sorry, Elias. I'm useless."
"Eh~ as you can see, it's tricky. If we can get it down to about a hundred meters, I can freeze it instantly."
"Hmph! I swear I'll break its wings!"
Sakura, Kevin, and Kalpas all felt embarrassed. They had assumed they could take down a Judgement-class beast easily, but after all this time, they still hadn't managed.
It seemed they'd have to rely on Elias after all.
"For it to last this long against you guys, it's not weak. But that's better—after all, Hua's been waiting a long time. If it were too weak, I'd feel bad."
Elias stared up at the giant flaming bird with satisfaction.
Flying gave Garuda an advantage, but surviving ten whole minutes against those four was impressive in itself.
"Elias, how are you going to deal with it? This thing's way stronger than the Herrscher of Fire. Its health is insane!"
"No problem. I'll deal with it like this."
Elias spoke as the Key of Judgment: Seven Thunders of Retribution in his hands shifted shape, transforming from a sleek scythe into a high-tech sniper rifle.
He aimed carefully at Garuda, then pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
A crack of thunder split the air. A violet bolt shot forth, too fast to dodge, and struck the giant flaming bird in the sky.
"SCREEE—!!"
Garuda shrieked as it plummeted to the earth.
Before the stunned eyes of the four warriors, it was instantly slain.
Elias: "All done. Job's finished."