What? My cheat code is making my own gold coins explode?

The advantage of mutual understanding is that you can immediately sense when the other person is in a bad mood.

"Zhao Si, you!"

"What do you mean, 'you'? Did I offend you by being smart?!"

With this sneak attack hitting the target perfectly, Phoenix seized the opportunity to break through the out-of-control Void Spear. He was only a thousand meters away from Sirin, and in less than three seconds he rushed behind her, swinging his left arm down, bringing with him the high temperature of a beam saber!

"Zizzizizi——"

The summoned Void Spears immediately blocked the slash, but Phoenix immediately escaped after unleashing the attack.

"My mission is complete!"

Xilin turned around, feeling as if she had fallen into an ice cave, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.

"That's the move! That's the move!"

The so-called god is the ultimate in transformation. There is a sword even without a sword; the sword is created by the god, and the sword's aura is formed spontaneously.

It has neither form nor needs form; this sword fills space, and the sword itself is space. Therefore, it is omnipresent and invincible. This sword is unstoppable.

"Only this move can eliminate the last obstacle in my path!"

Without any gestures, Fu Hua simply stands there, embodying the unity of man and sword.

This sword can penetrate any tangible barrier and strike directly into the depths of consciousness—the unperceptible and unknowable parts, which are therefore unresistable.

However, the Taixu Sword God is essentially a construct and extension of Honkai energy, while Fu Hua's Taixu Sword Heart was broken five hundred years ago.

Therefore, the Taixu Sword God, which has been activated every few hundred years, has no connection with the fifth essence of Taixu Sword Qi, "Divine Essence".

Without using the sword heart to urge the sword god, one can only pay a different price—

"Burn my memories... All the past events, all are consigned to this sword."

Those who love me, and those I love.

Those who hate me, those I don't understand...

Feather Dust, first rated power, start!

"Sword God of the Void, formless and boundless, Second Herrscher, you shall take my blow."

The fiery phoenix swept upwards from below, drawing upon the still-burning spiritual energy, mercilessly engulfing the sub-space spears and imaginary hands along its path.

Phoenix left Sirin's side early to avoid being affected by Yu Duchen again, but even from hundreds of meters away, Zhao Si could still feel Yu Duchen's fatal attraction to the mental perception framework.

Between heaven and earth, only Xilin remained, facing this attack alone. This unstoppable attack made her feel as if her whole body was frozen in place, and no matter how the imaginary barrier was destroyed and regenerated, it was to no avail.

So, Sirin used her last move:

"God! Save me!!!"

In the pure white spiritual space, the stone statue representing "God" was sculpted in the likeness of Sirin. It nodded slightly, and before the Void Sword God could tear apart Sirin's consciousness, it single-handedly withstood the attack—

"Click, click click click click..."

Only Sirin could hear the cracking of the stone statue representing "God" within her own consciousness.

From that moment on, Sirin completely broke free from the shackles of the Honkai consciousness—yes, but after merging with Zhao Si's spirit, Sirin realized the essence of "god," and her faith in god was repeatedly challenged, finally disappearing completely in the illusion constructed by Phoenix during the encounter with Yu Du Chen.

When Zhao Si first met Xilin and they started fighting, he questioned her, accusing her of not knowing what she wanted and that blindly believing in the collapse would only increase her sorrow.

"Now I know what I want."

Xilin's gaze was intense; she was still at her peak.

The Honkai energy attack that the Taixu Sword God instigated in the real world was blocked by Sirin, while the attack that seeped into the mind was left to be resisted by the "god".

The connection between "God" and the Herald was completely severed by this move.

"That's how it is. Only in this way can I finally face you in my true form..."

"Judah's zero rated power, liberate!"

While Sirin was being forcibly controlled by the Void Sword God, Theresa immediately activated Judah's Flight Mode, quickly closing in on Sirin and unleashing the true power of the Eleventh Divine Key—

"Second Herrscher, let us perish together!"

"Who are you!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: I tried to take a nap on the table, but I overslept.

Perfect attendance, my entire group!

Chapter 42: The Sorrowful Warrior, Part Four

What Xilin wanted was to be with Zhao Si, not this short, white-haired guy who had previously jumped out and told her "I pity you".

However, the Divine Grace Barrier had already been formed. Even with the Herrscher's control over Honkai energy, he was still as powerless as a mortal in the face of Judas, who was unleashing his zeroth rated power.

At that very moment, the Honkai energy was completely blocked within a 30-meter radius around Judas himself, while other energies were weakened to an extremely low level. More importantly, the two people still in mid-air had no way to help them.

Within this thirty-meter barrier, no one can interfere. Even when Zhao Si controlled the DE armored vehicle to come and meet Theresa, his mental perception framework immediately went dark the moment he got close. Only after leaving the range of the Divine Grace Barrier could Zhao Si sense the DE armored vehicle again.

"When did this guy become so extreme? Was it because his own grandfather dropped a nuclear bomb on him?"

Zhao Si could only watch helplessly as the Divine Grace Barrier plummeted. If he had placed the Armored DE below to support the two of them, they would probably have died even more tragically upon crashing to the ground.

What other options are there? What other options are there...?

Out of the corner of his eye, Zhao Si noticed a golden replica of the Seven Swords Exusiai still sitting on the ground. After Sirin created it using the Void Treasury, she had kept it there as a mascot and never turned it on.

"The myriad treasures of the void... were they waiting here all along?"

Zhao Si instantly understood Xilin's escape route, but he did not choose to stop her. This was not to spare Xilin, but because he did not want to see someone else sacrifice their life because of her.

Theresa was unaware of Sirin's scheme. She was gambling that before landing and before the zero rated power ended, she could extract the Herrscher core from Sirin's body and kill her first.

Initially, Theresa felt sorry for Sirin after witnessing her tragic past, but after Sirin sent a meteorite to Earth for the first time, she abandoned that naive idea.

"I'm sorry, but I have to kill you today!"

The Oath of Judah fell from the sky along with Theresa. She pulled out a chain gun from it, and despite her physical discomfort, threw it at Sirin with all her might. After Sirin dodged it, Theresa continued to throw the chain gun without stopping.

However, even after all thirteen chain spears had been fired, Theresa still couldn't scratch Sirin's fur, and exclaimed in surprise, "How is this possible?"

Before she could react, Celine shouted:

"The Void's Myriad Treasures!"

With only 500 meters remaining before their fall, and before the Divine Grace Barrier touched the simulated Seven Swords Archangel on the ground, its essence as the First Divine Key immediately reacted, triggering Sirin's pre-set command, transforming into a form identical to the Oath of Judah—

The oath similar to Judah that Xilin used in her previous duel with Zhao Si, although its binding power is not as strong as the original, is the best opportunity to deal with the real thing at this moment.

The simulated power clashed with the original, and even though it was defeated the moment it touched, it still gave Sirin a chance to temporarily break free from the divine grace barrier.

Seeing that the Divine Grace Barrier was ineffective against her opponent, Theresa reluctantly deactivated Judas's zero rated power. The moment the Divine Grace Barrier disappeared, power surged again, and when she was less than a hundred meters from the ground, Judas's flight mode was activated.

"In that case—"

Sirin's keen intuition thwarted all her close-quarters combat attacks, but the little gadget that Walter Young handed her was something she couldn't defend against no matter what!

"Blow it up!"

Before Sirin could regain her Herrscher powers and use her spatial powers to transfer, Theresa's originally blue eyes turned blood red. Using Judas, who followed her, as a stepping stone, she lunged forward, grabbing Sirin's shoulder with one hand while crushing the simulated Star of Eden with the other!

"what?"

Xilin's previously confident face now showed obvious panic. She had never seen such a situation in Zhao Si's memory. Theresa detonating the pseudo-Eden Star was something she had never heard of before.

Xilin, who had developed a path dependence on Zhao Si's memories, finally suffered a great loss. Even though the pseudo-black hole only controlled Xilin's senses for "three seconds", after breaking free from the pseudo-black hole, Xilin faced a double attack from the Heavenly Fire Judgment and the beam saber!

Instead of being defeated by Theresa's carefully prepared divine grace barrier, Sirin was instead struck by a self-destructing grenade that the other party had prepared in advance. The thought of this filled Sirin with frustration.

"Damn it, damn it! I'm the one who has Zhao Si's memories, I should be the one who takes him down with me!"

"It's because of self-righteous people like you that relationships between people have become so terrible!"

"Who would just stand by and watch you take the boy away!"

Phoenix maximized the output of the beam saber in his hand, and after actively absorbing the almost tangible Honkai energy overflowing around the Second Herrscher, the Heavenly Judgment slowly increased its charge from 100%.

Having just escaped the divine grace barrier and the simulated black hole, Sirin hadn't even had a chance to catch her breath before facing the most direct and overwhelming force once again. Spears of the sub-space were constantly being summoned behind her, but none of them could be of any help due to the obstruction of the two armored DEs.

In an instant, Sirin was suppressed all the way from the air to the ground. As soon as the imaginary barrier she erected disappeared, in the instant before the spatial transfer, the Heavenly Fire Judgment and the beam saber could cut down Sirin's physical body without any hindrance.

On the other hand, activating Judah's flight mode gave Theresa, who had been thrown out, a chance to land with a cushion.

Even so, Theresa, covered in blood, had to roll around in the snow six or seven times before she stopped, finally collapsing unconscious in the snow with her head lolling to the side, leaving a glaring bloody trail on the snow.

"Theresa!"

Cecilia then brought the vine platform down from the sky. Welt Yang protected the unconscious Fu Hua, and she immediately manipulated the Black Abyss White Flower, using the power of creation to heal Theresa's entire body.

"Just approaching a simulated black hole inevitably resulted in my entire body being completely torn apart, and the fall from such a height further aggravated my injuries..."

Theresa didn't even have time to chant the incantation for zero rated power. Under the healing power of the Black Abyss White Flower Welwitschia mirabilis, all of Theresa's injuries healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, but she still hadn't woken up.

Seeing this, Cecilia had no choice but to entrust her to Welt Yang's care, while she herself faced the stalemate in the match, which became the final straw that broke the Second Herrscher's back:

"Hoo... The black that devours everything gives birth to all white."

"Born before creation, existing after annihilation..."

If it's just a matter of using a little blood to achieve final victory, Siegfried probably won't blame himself, right?

"I offer my blood... Divine Key: Black Abyss White Flower, First Rated Power—Holy Lance Bloom!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

PS: This ??? plot hole should be put to rest for now. I'll decide what to write in the next volume when the draw starts at the end of the month.

You can't just draw a Spartan Jim and then go fight the Olympian Machine God.

Spartan Jim: Me vs. Zeus? Really?