Just as Mei was getting thoroughly dizzied by Elysia, Lynelle, on her end, had already successfully met up with Sushang.
Though, honestly, Lynelle's original intention hadn't been to send Mei into the Elysian Realm right away.
She had planned to plant a backdoor within Mei first, hiding it by leveraging Mei's incomplete control over the core, and only guide her into the Realm when the time was ripe.
Given Mei's circumstances, Lynelle had reasoned that without the stimulus of Kiana's incident, Mei likely wouldn't achieve the same level of persona integration as in the original timeline so quickly.
She'd even prepared for the possibility that, due to incomplete integration, Mei might become the primary target during the upcoming Herrscher of Domination incident.
That Elysian Realm Sigil was, in a way, also a trap she'd set for the Thousand-Herrscher event.
What she hadn't expected was that Mei's Herrscher persona seemed to be persuaded remarkably easily, allowing Mei to gain nearly complete control over the Herrscher core.
Under these conditions… the backdoor Lynelle left behind naturally ended up "cleared of clouds, seeing the clear sky once more."
Of course, while she noticed her backdoor had been triggered prematurely, Lynelle had no mental bandwidth left to dwell on it, because… right now, she was preoccupied with another, rather pressing matter.
CRACK—
With a crisp shattering sound, the several crystalline sword energies that had been restraining the Herrscher of Ice instantly fractured.
The backlash from their destruction, combined with her already depleted state, sent Sushang staggering back dozens of meters, a trickle of blood escaping the corner of her mouth.
"Sushang, are you alright?!"
"I'll live… for now. Any progress on your end?"
Sushang frowned slightly, the emptiness from overexpending her Honkai energy and the backlash from the shattered sword qi causing a dull ache throughout her body.
"If this goes on… I might not last much longer."
"There's progress, but it's bad news."
Seven Thunders of Retribution in hand, Lynelle fired several beams of light, temporarily blocking the icy mist and shards assaulting them, while quickly explaining.
"The Herrscher of Ice's abilities are very different from what we imagined… My powers, or rather, most of our powers here, will probably be hard-countered by her."
"No wonder why Ana, while she still had some self-control, struggled with all her might to move away from Nagazora City…"
"She probably knew that with Nagazora's current defensive capabilities, handling a problem like her would be difficult. So she chose to head toward the ocean."
"But the issue is, if her Authority reaches the sea, the planet would likely be hit by a series of natural disasters long before the next Herrscher even appears."
"So, what exactly is her ability? Isn't she using ice?"
Sushang, whose knowledge of Honkai science was about on par with a certain internet-famous herdsman, stared blankly at Lynelle.
"Ice is just the primary outward manifestation. In fact, while the Herrschers of this era generally align with the Previous Era's, the Cocoon makes subtle adjustments based on the current civilization's developmental progress."
"For example, among the Herrschers that have descended so far, the proportion siding with humanity is 100%."
"Therefore, the Herrscher of Ice's abilities would be tuned to severely counter her own kind. It's even possible that all subsequent Herrschers could become 'Herrscher-killers' in a sense."
"And Ana… Besides the Herrscher of Ice's inherent ability to slow molecular motion, she can also decelerate the response speed of other Herrscher Authorities."
"Simply put, when we Herrschers face her, any Authority we use on her will take effect at an extremely sluggish pace. My Corruption Authority already struggles against fellow Herrschers, and with this added effect, it's practically useless against her."
"Wait, I remember that Rascal mentioned that Anti-Entropy is basically full of Herrschers?"
Sushang finally grasped the severity of the situation. "So, right now in Nagazora, I'm the only one who can stop her?"
"It's not quite that hopeless… Even if my strength is drastically reduced, I'm not limited to just Herrscher Authority."
As she spoke, a card appeared in Lynelle's hand.
"You focus on recovering for now. I'll hold the line for you for a while."
"Hey, don't push yourself! I'm not so hurt that I can't fight— Wait, what's going on?!"
Before she could finish, under Sushang's stunned gaze, Lynelle's form began to shift within a white light, and then… another Sushang gradually materialized before her.
"Huh? How did you turn into me?"
Li Sushang's eyes widened. For a girl who'd been asleep for five hundred years, Lynelle's transformation trick was a bit too much to process.
"Aren't there still some differences?"
Lynelle, now using the Sushang character card, placed her hands on her hips.
"Well, yes. Your style is different from mine, and you seem… younger overall?"
Looking at Lynelle, whose chest was a size smaller but who stood a bit taller, Li Sushang had to admit the other's figure was indeed more proportionate.
Though, according to what that Ms. Rita back at Schicksal had said, her own type… uh, something about a "busty loli"?
Might be more popular with modern folks? At the very least, Ms. Rita seemed to like her quite a bit.
"Heh, don't worry. I know the Taixu Sword Qi too."
Facing the massive ice spikes Ana was conjuring once more, Lynelle showed no intention of dodging. Instead, she drew her sword and chanted under her breath.
"Ancestor— I mean, Phoenix, manifest!"
"Coo coo coo!"
As Lynelle finished speaking, the phantom of a "Jingwei" instantly materialized before her.
However, this was not the Jingwei of common knowledge, but rather the special, plump variety native to Taixu Mountain.
Under Li Sushang's jaw-dropping stare, Lynelle gave a casual wave.
The "Phoenix" flapped its wings, waddled toward Ana's ice spikes, then performed a powerful leap, launching itself high into the air before sitting directly down onto one of the spikes.
Li Sushang couldn't help but feel a phantom pain in a certain region.
The good news was, this Jingwei had no intention of letting Ana cosplay as Vlad the Impaler, so the scene didn't become even more viscerally painful.
The bad news was… the bird's method of attack was even more explosive.
Explosive in the literal sense.
The moment it sat down, the Jingwei…simply blew up.
"So, what do you think?" Lynelle flashed a brilliant smile at the stunned Sushang, the threat completely neutralized. "My Taixu Swordplay isn't bad, right?"
"…?"
Faced with this, her worldview thoroughly shaken, Sushang was forced to seriously contemplate one pressing question.
Was the Taixu Swordplay she learned… a fake all along?
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.