Just how much damage had those two suns caused? As the one who had truly borne the brunt of the damage, the Herrscher was qualified to express her thoughts.
If it were a simple nuclear bomb, the Herrscher would not have even blinked. Whether it was retreating or mobilizing Honkai energy and powers to defend and resist head-on, she could do it easily.
After all, the upper limit of a nuclear bomb was there. For this kind of attack, which could be said to be formulaic and only required facing the minimum, individual strength would be infinitely magnified.
But weapons were ultimately used by humans, and it just so happened that the one using it was not a fool who would only attack from the front, but Siegfried, a madman who burned his life to make a posture of mutual destruction, but only to attract her attention.
Unlike a rigid weapon, she had to consider what the upper limit of the damage Siegfried could cause was, because he could do it.
And there was no doubt that if Siegfried's sword had really struck her core, she would have been severely injured.
So she had to use most of her power to resist Siegfried's advance, and her back was almost exposed to the impact of the small nuclear bomb. And because she was unable to block the impact from behind, she had to face Siegfried's charge head-on.
And so, the current situation occurred.
After a moment of writhing, the black mist landed on a rugged terrain. Under a huge wind-eroded mushroom, the Herrscher revealed her figure.
Her condition was not much better than Siegfried's. Her chest was completely caved in, as if a large piece had been dug out, presenting a terrifying posture.
Charred and broken, ferocious bone spurs wrapped around a heart that had stopped beating. Yet, even with such injuries, this body could still move.
The only thing that could be said to be better than Siegfried was that all her limbs were intact.
The Herrscher, who had revealed her figure, supported herself with one hand on the rock wall beside her and knelt on one knee, looking quite pathetic.
Her eyes were filled with confusion, a sense of haziness that obscured the path ahead.
She gently raised her other hand, but instead of placing it on her wound, she softly summoned the small golden scale.
"What... is sin?" Her eyes could not focus. The golden light of the golden scale cast several afterimages in her eyes, but it could not give her a proper answer.
And the Herrscher just continued to talk to herself.
"I thought... that to have nothing in one's heart was to be without sin... but I met that man named Siegfried. He escaped the judgment... but he was definitely not someone with nothing in his heart.
"I could feel that he had a lot of things in his heart, a lot... so many that I couldn't even see them all, so many that it should have crushed the scale, but he won... his heart was lighter than a feather, he passed the test in a way I couldn't understand..."
The emptiness in the Herrscher's eyes at this moment was completely different from before.
She had once adhered to the principle of "do not do to others what you would not have them do to you." Before she could do it herself, she would not judge anyone.
So she did it. There was nothing in her heart. Everything was just following her subconscious concept to find those sinners, judge them one by one, and then gather them into the jury.
She considered herself a sinner as well. The only sin in her heart was the obsession to "judge all sinners in the world." So after she achieved her goal, she would completely abandon all miscellaneous thoughts and commit suicide to ascend to heaven.
But now, there were too many miscellaneous thoughts in her heart, making it impossible for her to return to the state where she could see everything as nothing.
She would not doubt the result of the scale, because that was the meaning of her existence.
But why, the result given by the scale was... Siegfried was innocent?
He had so many things in his heart, was he also innocent?! But that was the result of the scale! Siegfried—innocent!
She couldn't figure it out... but she had to.
...
What did Siegfried have that others didn't?
No, it should be...
What did others have that Siegfried didn't?
The Herrscher lowered her eyes, her chaotic mind gradually calming down.
This was actually not a very difficult question... the difference between Siegfried and others was actually very obvious.
He had everything in his heart, except himself.
"So that's how it is..." The Herrscher lowered her head, and a different expression finally appeared on her face.
This was the first time she had smiled, and with this smile came the billowing black gas.
The black gas billowed around her, trembling with her body, and then a different color emerged from within.
A brilliant golden ray, like a swimming fish, roamed freely in the black mist, joyfully awakening more of its companions, turning the entire black mist from black to gold.
The black that was originally just terrifying had now become a color of black and gold that made people unconsciously revere it. At least, beyond fear, she truly had an extra bit of convincing aura.
"All original sins are actually born from the same factor..." She gradually got up, and the divine pattern exclusive to a Herrscher finally appeared in her hollow eyes.
"Selfishness..." she murmured, "the world is just, it treats all life equally, but there are always people who take themselves as the center of the world, and all their thoughts are based on their own interests..."
The charred blackness on her body began to peel off like a shell. The incomplete chest began to recover in her murmur, and then peeled off from her body along with the filth.
She was reborn at this moment!
"Justice... justice!" she raised her head and looked at the scorching sun in the blue sky, but she did not find it dazzling.
She took off the black outer robe on her body and walked out of the shadow of the wind-eroded mushroom.
The sandstorm had come to her side at some point. The endless storm stopped at this moment and became a gentle wind.
The Herrscher raised her hand and gently placed it on the sand-yellow giant beast that had come to her.
"Please help me, messenger of Honkai," she said softly, and wisps of gold emerged from her palm, plating a layer of gold on this Honkai Emperor.
"I bestow upon you the name—Xiezhi. Follow me, and let us complete the judgment of the sinners in that city." (Xiezhi is mystical beast in China, search it)
As she spoke, she slowly turned her head and looked at a hidden position behind her.
"And you, little one... who are you fighting for?"
Her gaze seemed to pass through the huge wind-eroded mushroom behind her and land on the small white cat.
And the small cat's fur stood on end the moment the Herrscher spoke. It turned its head and ran, but what appeared in front of it were a few golden chains.
"You... cannot escape..." The Herrscher's voice gently descended to Stan's ear, gently blowing in her ear.