Dr. Magi: "Are you feeling weak all over?"
"Mhm..." Ryn nodded.
"Don't worry! This feeling of weakness is only temporary! I developed this serum in a hurry and didn't even have time to name it, but its effects are excellent!
It will neutralize the Honkai energy in your body and repair the tissues damaged by it. With continued injections of this serum, it can completely eliminate the Honkai energy from your body and turn you back into a normal person!"
With that, Dr. Magi tremblingly took out the remaining doses of the serum from his person and placed them in Ryn's arms.
"Don't work for Otto anymore... the glory of a Valkyrie, the mission to save the world... these are all lies to deceive you... This serum will also improve the lifespan that was shortened by the artificial Stigmata and Valkyrie Surgery. Leave this place, live a good life as a normal person..."
After speaking to Ryn, Dr. Magi turned to look at Kiana, who was furious but holding back from lashing out.
"Having power isn't a good thing, because it means that troubles corresponding to that power will also find you... Lass, you are very kind. You don't deserve to be sacrificed fighting the Honkai..."
Kiana shook her head, rejecting Dr. Magi's seemingly well-intentioned advice. "I'm sorry, grandpa. This has nothing to do with whether I have power or not. A long time ago, I made a promise that I would give my all to protect everyone..."
Dr. Magi was reminded of his own granddaughter, Lin, who had said the same thing as Kiana. He could almost hear Lin's words from when she had just become a Valkyrie.
Lin: "Grandpa, I've decided to become a Valkyrie! I'm going to protect you, Grandpa, and everyone else..."
Dr. Magi's eyes grew moist, and he covered his face with his hand. "Are all of you Valkyries fools and idiots..."
"Indeed, they are all such idiots, so pure and kind... one by one, for the sake of others, they would sacrifice themselves without a second thought to give others a chance to live... even if they themselves were starving and sleeping on the streets, they would donate what little money they had to the pitiful people they met on the road..."
Ryn flexed his wrist, then gently touched the pinprick left by the syringe. He had originally intended to show Dr. Magi the vast difference in their strength, but Dr. Magi had given him a big surprise instead.
"Ryn, are you okay! Are you feeling unwell anywhere?" Kiana stood by Ryn's side, taking his arm to support him. She had clearly heard both Dr. Magi and Ryn say that he would feel a sense of powerlessness.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. How can someone who can't even die be defeated by something like this~" Ryn smiled and patted Kiana's head, reassuring her that he was fine.
Then Ryn walked over to Dr. Magi and grabbed the arm whose bones he had crushed.
"How is that possible? The serum can't have been ineffective!" Dr. Magi felt the strength in Ryn's grip and immediately understood that Ryn wasn't pretending to be fine; he was truly fine.
"How should I put it? The serum took effect, but it's not very useful on me."
"Impossible, impossible... I've tested this dosage. Even an A-rank Valkyrie would be instantly incapacitated. Even if you're an S-rank, it's impossible for you to be completely unaffected!"
"Sigh... to be able to develop a serum that neutralizes Honkai energy and turns Valkyries back into normal people in less than two months. But it seems that even with such talent, you are still someone Otto doesn't trust... for example, there's something about me that I've never hidden, but that very few people actually know, and Otto never told you..."
"Wh-what?"
Ryn's lips curved into a slight smile, and he whispered in Dr. Magi's ear, "Because... I'm an unusual Herrscher!"
"!" Dr. Magi's eyes widened.
Ryn didn't explain further. Just the fact that a Herrscher is connected to Imaginary Space and has an endless supply of Honkai energy meant that a Honkai-neutralizing serum couldn't possibly work on him.
Even if it could temporarily deplete the Honkai energy in his body and cause the Herrscher to fall unconscious, he would recover quickly.
What's more... even without a connection to Imaginary Space or the Imaginary Tree, and without Honkai energy, Ryn's body was constantly and autonomously producing another kind of energy, one that belonged uniquely to him and could not be described in words.
"Regeneration."
As Ryn finished speaking, Dr. Magi felt an intense itching in his arm, as if the old bones were quietly disintegrating and disappearing, while new bones were rapidly growing to take their place.
But compared to the pain of his body's cells being torn apart and replaced by new ones, the sight of Ryn effortlessly using this power without any external aid sent a chill down his spine.
Murky tears streamed down Dr. Magi's aged face. With a hoarse and trembling voice, he asked Ryn:
"Is... is this the Authority of the Herrscher of Death... right?"
"Mhm..."
"Heh... heh... hahaha..." Dr. Magi first let out a dry, pained laugh, then covered his face and laughed up at the sky.
"Hahaha... the Herrscher of Death... hahaha, the Herrscher of Death! He already had the Herrscher of Death, yet Otto still made me conduct experiments with the Gem of Serenity... and he let my granddaughter go to the operating table..."
After his self-deprecating laughter, Dr. Magi fell to his knees, drained of all strength, and clutched his head, crying out in anguish.
"Why... why... Lin..."
——————————————
Although Kiana was present, making it difficult for Ryn to act directly, the original plan was to execute Dr. Magi immediately. However, after seeing the serum that Dr. Magi had researched, which could neutralize and eliminate Honkai energy from the human body, Ryn changed his mind.
In this world, Honkai outbreaks were happening constantly, and ordinary people were being infected with Honkai energy and dying from Honkai Disease at any given moment.
Therefore, a serum that could eliminate Honkai energy from the body was practically a life-saving elixir for them.
But unfortunately, after Fu Hua returned with the intelligence she had extracted from Welt II's mind using Fenghuang Down...
Fu Hua: "Dr. Magi, your theft of the gem and defection from Schicksal were all part of Cocolia's plan. But they never intended to analyze or obtain the gem, and you were just a pawn to draw fire...
Anti-Entropy's real plan is to soak the gem in high-concentration Honkai energy to create a chain reaction, and then trigger a Great Honkai Eruption in this city, powerful enough to birth a Herrscher."
"..." When Dr. Magi heard Fu Hua say he was a pawn, he felt a sharp pang of pain in his heart. It seemed neither Schicksal nor Anti-Entropy wanted him to live...
But when he heard the latter part, Dr. Magi immediately became agitated, shouting excitedly, "Is that madwoman Cocolia trying to recreate the situation in Nagazora! To turn everyone in this city into a sacrifice for the advent of a Herrscher!"
"It's Cocolia again..."
Ryn and Kiana frowned in unison. Mei's tragedy was single-handedly orchestrated by Cocolia, and now she wanted to destroy another city?
If St. Freya High School and Anti-Entropy weren't allies, Ryn really wanted to go and slap Cocolia a few times.
As expected, Anti-Entropy was incompetent, allowing someone like Cocolia to rise to the position of Sovereign. Although she was the acting Sovereign, besides Tesla and Einstein occasionally being uncooperative, everyone else was more obedient to Cocolia than to Welt...