"Herrscher of Sentience, I've tolerated you for long enough!"
"I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! Old relic, calm down! You can't just use this move whenever you feel like it—ahhh!"
The Herrscher of Sentience trembled as she looked up at the sky, only to see a colossal flaming sword imbued with the Immortal's wrath descending from the ceiling above, crashing down onto the top of her head with terrifying force.
Having once acted as "Fu Hua" for a time, Senti naturally recognized this as the Immortal Phoenix's ultimate technique—the true essence of the Edge of Taixuan!
Looking back over the past five thousand years, whenever traces of Honkai appeared anywhere on the land of Shenzhou, this blazing sword deity would descend from the heavens to annihilate it.
People in the West called it the Sword of Damocles.
Up to this point, aside from the Herrscher of Finality, no one had ever survived a full-power strike of Taixuan Eminence from the Immortal Phoenix.
Even though the Herrscher of Sentience commanded consciousness and possessed extremely high resistance to mental attacks, taking this strike head-on would still leave her severely crippled, barely clinging to life.
Senti: "Old relic, y-you—you really have to go this far?!"
Fu Hua: "Hmph. Have you prepared to repent?"
Elias: "Uh... isn't that my line?"
At this moment, Senti genuinely felt regret. She thought to herself that this was karma—what goes around comes around. If she had known this would happen, she wouldn't have been so arrogant.
At the very least, she wouldn't have acted so arrogantly right in front of Fu Hua herself.
However...
"I'm just a newborn Herrscher (baby) who hasn't even been alive for a full day yet! There's no need to be this ruthless, right?! Waaaah, it's over, it's over—this is the end of me... huh?"
"Alright, alright, Senti. You're fine."
Elias reached out and rubbed the head of the crouching, defensive Senti, then activated the authority of the Herrscher of Reason to repair the ceiling that had been split open by Fu Hua's Taixuan Eminence.
Still dazed, Senti blinked in confusion. She raised her hand and felt the top of her head, only to realize she was completely unharmed—not even a single strand of hair had fallen.
"I—I'm not dead? Hahaha! I'm not dead! As expected of me—the great Lady Herrscher of Sentience is just that invincible!" Senti immediately placed her hands on her hips, beaming with pride once more.
"This child is far too inflated. As expected, she's lacking a proper beating from reality," Mobius commented.
"Mm, hard to disagree."
Everyone nodded in unison.
"But how did she endure that? The class monitor definitely didn't hold back just now—she really did bring down Taixuan Eminence," Bronya tilted her head, looking curiously at Senti, who was busy clowning around.
When they saw Fu Hua actually use Taixuan Eminence, they had all been startled, thinking it had gone too far. But what surprised them even more was that Senti was completely unharmed.
"Could it be that the Herrscher of Sentience's mental strength is so powerful that she can completely ignore Taixuan Eminence?"
"What? As expected of the Herrscher who controls consciousness."
"Uh, you're overthinking it."
After unleashing Taixuan Eminence, Fu Hua had already returned to her usual calm and steady demeanor. Everyone immediately realized that the earlier display of the Immortal's wrath had likely been mostly an act, meant only to scare Senti.
"That strike just now was carried out at Elias' instruction via Honkai energy transmission. And although it looked like I struck the Herrscher of Sentience, in reality, I struck the other consciousness within her mind."
Fu Hua explained to everyone.
As is well known, if a person has two consciousnesses within their mind, then sacrificing one can offset the damage of Taixuan Eminence. So the one who was truly erased by that strike... was the Honkai inside Senti's mind.
Honkai: (...Why am I always the one who gets hurt?)
First it got scolded by Senti and muted, and then it was directly cut off—disconnected—by a single strike of Taixuan Eminence.
Not only did it gain nothing, it even gifted humanity a Herrscher with extremely high potential, and got beaten up for free. It could only be said that Honkai was having an increasingly miserable season.
Honkai: (Just you wait—I'll be back! Next time! The next Herrscher definitely won't turn out like this!!)
Elias: "Alright, the ceiling's fixed. It's time to eat—let's eat! To celebrate Senti joining us, we need to make something good today. Mei, Rita~"
Rita: "Yes, Lord Elias."
(Arise, master of the refrigerator.)
Raiden Mei: "Alright, no problem."
(Pots and pans, submit to me!)
...
Several days later, in the Valkyrie dormitory.
Ever since the Herrscher of Sentience joined, everyone could clearly feel that the atmosphere at home had become much livelier—one could even say there was a bit of chaos every day.
Because the newly born Senti behaved like a mischievous troublemaking child, and her authority was far too dangerous, everyone unanimously decided to find her a guardian.
However, Elias felt this wasn't really necessary. After all, Senti had long been influenced by Fu Hua's memories to the point her very soul had been reshaped—and that influence was still ongoing even now.
Herrscher of Sentience cognition shaping: I am Fu Hua.
Combat power +50000
Authority usage -10000
All scheming and underhanded skill sets completely sealed!
Originally, the Herrscher of Sentience's combat style should have revolved around interfering with the enemy's mind—inflicting illusions, altering thoughts, even directly controlling them in a cunning and insidious manner.
But due to the influence of a certain flat Immortal, Senti's fighting style had become using spears, chain blades, and swords—charging straight in and engaging in direct melee combat.
Elias: "Especially that New Year sword style—absolutely incredible! A flurry of smashing attacks—feels perfect for farming the land!"
In short, she fought in a completely upright and straightforward manner—not at all like a Herrscher of Sentience. On top of that, she liked to laugh maniacally while fighting—and not only did she laugh, it was an extremely infectious, chaotic kind of laughter...
One could only say she was a slightly unhinged troublemaking child.
However, although it had been confirmed that Senti was essentially harmless, Fu Hua still ended up becoming her guardian. At first, everyone joked that they were like sisters—but very quickly, they realized they were mistaken.
Elysia: "Compared to sisters, Hua and Senti feel more like a mother and daughter."
Mobius: "Who said that~ Isn't it father and daughter? Didn't this Herrscher of Sentience say earlier that if she were a Herrscher, she'd acknowledge Fu Hua as her dad~"
Dark Seele: "Heh... that's hilarious."
However, although Senti wouldn't use her authority to commit evil acts, her inherently mischievous, troublemaking personality still caused plenty of incidents in daily life. And every single time, she would be caught by Fu Hua—followed by a long and ruthless lecture.
Faced with Fu Hua's lectures that lasted no less than two hours each time, Senti wasn't without resistance. But in the end, she was always physically suppressed by the flat Immortal with absolute force.
However...
Senti: "I was wrong, I was wrong! Old relic, I really know I was wrong... but I'll still do it again next time!!"
Fu Hua: "...Ki Impact."
As a side note, ever since Senti joined, the group of troublemakers at St. Freya Academy had also started hanging out together—namely Kiana, the Herrscher of Sentience, Dark Seele, Rozaliya, Liliya, and Pardofelis.
Fu Hua, Raiden Mei, and Himeko found this extremely troublesome.
Recently, Theresa had even been considering whether to install a few machine guns on the academy walls.
Theresa: "Before, I was worried you brats would hurt yourselves climbing over the walls, so after raising them three times, I stopped. But now... all of you are so strong that I don't need to hold back anymore! Always skipping class—open fire!"
...
One day, in the dormitory hall, Elias and Elysia were discussing something together. The latter sat on his lap, holding a world map and scribbling on it.
"Eli, what do you think about going here?"
"That's a good idea. But let's bring Mei and the others along this time. The more people, the better."
"Mm~ of course. By the way, should we also add one of our signature activities from back then?"
"Uh, Ely, you mean..."
Just as the two were discussing, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed, and the dormitory door was violently pushed open.
Then, as expected, Senti—who had clearly caused trouble yet again—skillfully hid behind Elias.
"O-old relic! Don't come any closer!" Senti's voice trembled. Elias raised an eyebrow, thinking that this time, she must have really gone too far.
"Senti, even Elias can't save you this time." Fu Hua's eyes were filled with a sharp, dangerous light.
"I-it was just borrowing a little of your feathers!"
"You call that a little?"
Fu Hua's fists clenched tightly. As everyone knew, in her artificial cascade form, she would transform into a destructive phoenix. And just earlier, while she was taking a nap...
Senti had plucked out every single one of her phoenix feathers!
When Fu Hua woke up, she felt a chill all over her body. Opening her eyes, she realized she was completely bald.
Then she looked up and saw the Herrscher of Sentience holding a sack full of phoenix feathers, snickering as she prepared to make her escape.
"Y-you said you shed a lot in summer, didn't you? I was just helping you solve the problem at its root!"
"So this is your solution? And I never asked for your help. Enough talk—Herrscher of Sentience, come over here and take my punch properly."
"I refuse!!"
"Ah~"
Seeing the two about to start fighting again, Elias shook his head and sighed. Then he opened his storage space, rummaged through it, and took out a voice recorder.
"La la la la la~ la la la~ la la la la~~"
"!!!" x2
The moment the singing from the recorder played, both Fu Hua and Senti froze instantly.
What a terrifying, destructive sound! It was enough to make one foam at the mouth and have their soul leave their body. Its power was so great that even Herrschers and MANTISes would struggle to resist it.
Senti's eyes rolled back, while Fu Hua's face turned pale.
Senti: "Aaaah! W-what is this soul-scratching sound?!"
Fu Hua: "I-is this... someone singing?"
Elias: "That's right~ This is my favorite idol—the future superstar, the heavenly voice of Shigure Kira. You two were too worked up just now, so listen to her song and calm down."
Senti: "...I'd rather take a punch from the old relic. Ugh! What is this, some kind of sonic weapon?!"