Cocolia spent three days secretly moving a portion of the forces under her command to Nagazora City, ensuring that she could defeat and retrieve Raiden Mei after she awakened as a Herrscher.
Although Cocolia had more forces at her disposal, this was the extent of what she could do for now to avoid attracting the attention of Nagazora City's management and to deceive St. Freya Academy's intelligence network.
Raiden Mei was destined not to become a true Herrscher in this relatively short time, so there was no need to overestimate her power. It would be enough to end the operation before St. Freya Academy arrived.
To prevent St. Freya Academy, which had already noticed Nagazora City due to that unexpected small-scale Honkai eruption, from taking excessive action or directly discovering Raiden Mei's existence, Cocolia began to artificially increase the Honkai energy concentration in the outskirts of Nagazora City.
Since an eruption had already occurred once, it wouldn't be too exaggerated for the Honkai energy concentration to rise again in a nearby location, right?
Cocolia felt her plan would achieve multiple goals at once. Not only could she accelerate Raiden Mei's awakening process through the Honkai, but she could also divert suspicion from herself. Moreover, a Honkai eruption in the outskirts of Nagazora City wouldn't endanger the lives of the citizens, so even if everything was exposed in the future, she wouldn't be unable to face Bronya.
That was how it was supposed to be.
But everything changed too quickly.
In just three days, the Honkai, which in Cocolia's initial plan would at most be confined to an area of 10,000 square kilometers in the outskirts of Nagazora City and not exceed 50 HW, skyrocketed tenfold to reach 500 HW. And the affected area had already covered Nagazora City.
If St. Freya Academy hadn't installed Honkai energy concentration control devices in Nagazora City beforehand, this eruption might have come even more suddenly and violently.
Even so, Nagazora City had no time to mount any decent resistance. Aside from arranging a large number of flights, trains, and various other transport tools, they had no spare capacity to organize search and rescue teams within the city. Many elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people who had difficulty moving were eroded by the Honkai and became zombies. Nagazora City's defense forces barely established a defense line around the city to resist the Honkai Beasts attacking from the suburbs, and there was no more manpower to manage the city's interior.
In this disaster, nearly 100,000 people turned into zombies because they couldn't escape in time. Compared to this large-scale Honkai that had reached 500 HW and was still rising, and compared to Nagazora City's millions of permanent residents, this number of casualties was already considered very small. In future records, this event might be regarded as a successful case of humanity predicting a Honkai eruption in advance, or perhaps a shot in the arm for humanity's fight against the Honkai. But right now, there were only ruins and destruction in Nagazora City.
The Honkai was ultimately a disaster that destroyed humanity, not a tool in human hands. When the rough statistical report on the casualties and economic losses of this disaster in Nagazora City was placed on her desk, looking at the numbers, Cocolia had nothing to say.
She felt only a sense of powerlessness.
Back when she watched that child from the orphanage disappear into the Sea of Quanta, and watched Bronya lose her legs and emotions to find her, Cocolia had felt this same powerlessness.
She had sworn never to let her children get hurt again.
Now, the children were indeed unharmed. Bronya, with her extremely high adaptability to Honkai energy, wouldn't become a zombie because of a 500 HW eruption, and with Project Bunny 19C, she should be able to ensure her own safety.
The ones who died or were injured were those 100,000 elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people.
She was thoroughly a sinner now.
Cocolia smiled palely and gradually clenched her fists.
Since she wanted to fight the Honkai, sacrifice was inevitable. Compared to those elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people who didn't have much life left anyway, it was enough that her children were still safe.
...
"Quick, get out of the way! Since you're already dead, don't block the path!"
Kiana constantly fired her [Artemis' Guardian] dual pistols, killing the zombies eroded by Honkai energy that were like walking corpses. Having fought the Honkai with her father since childhood, she wasn't unable to kill zombies. At this moment, the girl was running through the streets of Nagazora City with Raiden Mei, and she couldn't help but speak anxiously.
"Where the hell did that guy Evan run off to? Why can't I contact him?! He didn't turn into a zombie, did he?"
Kiana's voice made Raiden Mei's heart skip a beat violently. Then, remembering how Evan had destroyed the giant Honkai Beasts, the girl calmed down slightly.
"He won't. He's very strong. The inability to contact him should be because the nearby cell phone towers were destroyed, or maybe Honkai energy affects signals like electromagnetic waves. We should hurry and find a safe place."
Raiden Mei could hear Kiana's disordered and heavy breathing. In fact, she herself was extremely exhausted. Kiana at least had two powerful pistols, so killing zombies wasn't too arduous, but Raiden Mei could only rely on her bamboo sword. Every strike took almost all her strength, and she felt somewhat exhausted by now.
Hearing Raiden Mei's words, although she was very worried about Evan, Kiana could only nod and start looking for a relatively safe hiding place with Raiden Mei.
If they continued to push themselves, they might get injured before finding Evan, or even turn the situation into Evan having to find a way to rescue them.
Kiana and Raiden Mei could deal with those zombies, but they couldn't face large Honkai Beasts directly. Hiding and resting for a while was the better choice now.
Preferably a place high enough. There, the cell phone signal might be much better, and maybe they could contact Evan.
That guy who talked big before, absolutely don't let anything happen to you.
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