Chapter 84: Great Impact

After everything was basically resetted by me, I could finally focus on my intended task of sending out these seed pods.

I could see my Vessel in the same school as Raiden Mei, and seems to be friends with her for some reason. Though, his hidden intention is clear in my eyes. He is trying to worm himself under her skirt.

I am indecisive if I should take over the Vessel now or wait because the Vessel seems to have a goal in mind.

"I'll just wait and see then." I skulk in the shadows and continue to observe him.

"Neh, Artoria. Wanna go on a date?" I ask her out for several reasons since I have time to spare.

I am interested in exploring the city as it has been a very long while, since the early days in Teyvat, that I have time to do something else than raising my power, grinding dungeons, etc. Besides, I also owe him my atonement for my harsh treatment and needing to buy Venti his wines before he did it himself and caused another trouble.

What trouble you ask? Well first, he didn't look old enough to buy one. Second, no ID to verify he is 2600+ years old and already passed the drinking age by a great margin. Third, I rather not have Venti blabbering about himself being a god to convince the shop to sell him alcohol and revealing his power randomly.

'Hey, it's not my fault they put all these nonsensical rules around buying alcohol! People at the age of 14 already can drink freely in Mondstadt while in your world you have to be twenty something or have parents consent.' Venti cried out the injustice.

"Shut up. If you just drink around the Einzbern territory, no one is going to stop you but you have to go out and get it elsewhere. Of course the people are going to stop you when you still look like a child. At least change your appearance to an adult before doing so to reduce suspicion." I rub my brow to lessen the headache remembering his stupidity. I don't even know if the stupidity is on purpose or not.

'I can hear your thoughts you know.' Venti called out.

"I'm not hiding it either as I am questioning your intelligence."

"Anyway, let's go, Artoria." I look at her by my side and inform her to change her outfit before we leave Ars Paulina.

She nodded and created a light gray long sleeved sweater that covered up to her knee. She wears it on top of her bodysuit for some reason. I also changed to a white shirt with black jacket and a black pants.

We exit Ars Paulina into an empty back alley and make our way to the street.

"Let's get your stomach filled first." I said and held her hand to lead her.

"O-okay, Master." She responded with uncertainty to my sudden enthusiasm.

"Call me Ray instead of Master while we are in public. People will misunderstand that, Artoria." I said hushly at her and thankfully able to correct her before we exited the back alley.

"Mhm… Ray." She nodded and tightened her hand before increasing her pace to match Ray.

———

In Senba High School.

"Wait, Mei-san. Please, give me a chance to speak my words." He said with an agitated mood clear in his body language despite his soft words.

"I appreciate your feelings but I am not interested, thank you." Raiden Mei was emotionally vulnerable, but she isn't oblivious to the type of man in front of her. After all, her former fame had attracted numerous men like him and she can already see the pattern to identify them.

Angered by the rejection, he discarded the thought of winning her love and rather used a forceful method since his ability didn't specify he needed these bitches to love him back to steal their power. He only need to rape them like he did the Valkyrie then dispose them after their use is up.

With the augmented strength from the stigmata, he forcefully grabbed her hand and tried to pin her to the wall while blocking her mouth before she screamed for help.

"Kyahh! He-"

"Shut up and be obedient." He whispers to her ears and takes a deep whiff of her scent. "You are nothing but a meat bag to me without that stigmata and it's going to be mine soon." He moves his body closer and eyes her body with undisguised lust, making Mei struggle harder but helpless against his augmented strength.

'Father… anyone… help…' Mei struggled helplessly, flailing her body in a desperate attempt, hoping someone would come to her rescue but no one did and all she managed to achieve is giving her rapist more satisfaction.

"Odd, she should awaken with current emotional distress. Hmn, nevermind. The Savior had arrived to save the day." Mei heard the voice speak and quickly opened her terrified eyes to look at her self proclaimed savior.

Mei saw another student, an upperclassman, a year older than herself. The said senpai grabbed the annoying male student's shoulder and cracked his bone with a half hearted squeeze, making him cry in pain before trying to punch her with a spin of his body but hitting empty air as the senpai had back stepped.

As a martial arts practitioner herself, Mei couldn't help but praise how fluid her movements were as when the male student ended his vain attack, she had already charged a roundhouse kick that timed perfectly to hit his side chest, knocking him and the air out of his lungs. Incapacitated him with a perfect knock out.

"T-Thank you… I am indebted to you." Mei hastily gives a proper thank you to her savior.

"Don't sweat it. My name is Houraiji Kyuusyou. It is my task and duty as the Saviour to save the world." The girl proudly declared. Mei didn't want to be disrespectful and nodded along, thinking that she is a chuunibyou.

"May I ask a small favor from you, Raiden-san."

"Yes?"

"Can you be the sacrifice for the world peace? I can even help save your father if you agree."

"Haii?" Mei was confused by sudden demands which she would shrug off considering her opinion of the girl. However, the tone and expression she uses are very serious. As if she isn't joking.

"Become the offering to the god so he would bring forth peace to the world and usher a new age of prosperity." Kyuusyou said while lifting both her hands and head to the sky as if reaching for the sun while her face displaying intense religious zeal like a hardcore cultist.

Mei becomes terrified as her situation is currently out of the pan but into the fire when she thinks she was saved from a stalker turned rapist.

———

*Achoo!*

"Defeat!" The arcade machine declared while the screen showed his character died.

"I won!" Artoria cheered as this is her first victory after five arcade machines we tried out.

"Huhu, it's your defeat." Artoria gloated at me because she was spiteful after being defeated a few times in a row which hurt her Draconic pride and finally seized a victory.

"That's not fair." I gave her a flat stare but on the inside I am glad that she became cheerful and energetic again.

"It's your turn to do the penalty." Artoria stated proudly with her arms crossed below her chest which perked up a bit.

"Yes, yes. The loser will have to follow one order from the winner." I sighed, hoping it wasn't an outrageous one. "So, what is your order, your majesty?" I asked with a slight mocking tone.

"I want to try that Yakiniku buffet we went past just now." She replied enthusiastically with comically sparkling eyes and mouth closed to keep her drool from flowing out.

"That's it? You don't need to use the order if you want to eat there. I will bring you to eat anywhere you want as long as you are happy." I responded as that's the point of this date after all. To make her happy and less gloomy.

"Really?! Then, I want to try that sushi buffet, the ramen shop and the rice bowl shop over there also…" She excitedly stated all the places she wanted to visit and eat as I led her out of the arcade to the nearest shop she stated.

Her core personality as the King Artoria still be retained all the way through multiple transformations she undergoes and I do find the blissful, astonished, amazed, etc expression she made when tasting delicious foods, adorable. A glutton with an endless black hole stomach.

In just three hours, she had eaten her way through dozens of shops and I couldn't keep count of the bills since the money I made was counterfeits to begin with. Shouldn't be an issue though since no one could really identify it unless they compare the serial number and find it to be the same.

"Ah, next I want to try that ice cream parfait." She points at another cafe and I follow her lead as she nudged my hand forward.

While Artoria is still in a happy mood, enjoying the date. I sensed an increasing number of eyes looking at us. Some are not even humans, which I assume is a surveillance device. Perhaps I caught someone's attention but I disregard them for now since they only observe instead of harming us.

———

"Apologies, Matushka. I couldn't identify these two individuals even after checking all the records in the world."

"Haah, fine Bronya. I expected this result. After all, to freely wield honkai energy. Only Herrscher could. Thank you for your help, Bronya. I will call again if something arises.

"Da, Matushka."

Cocolia theories that the two couples could be just someone with stigmata. However, the ability that the man showed didn't match any. Creation type abilities exist like the current Sovereign of Anti Entropy. She could argue it's a fragment of power from Herrscher of Reason but the man isn't a clone of Welt and she is sure of it.

Whatever, she will investigate this matter later but now. She must proceed with her plan and create an artificial herrscher.

———

Two days later, Mei found herself in one of the Anti Entropy facilities disguised as ME corps facilities. She had politely refused the request of Kyuusyou regardless if it was a joke or not. However, she still wanted to save her father and Kyuusyou nod and send her the coordinate which she followed and ended up in this facility.

"Nothing… all the papers and data had been removed…" Mei sighed and stopped checking the terminal.

She basically flipped every stone she could find and nothing could be found. But, then she saw a box left in a corner that she noticed by chance.

She pried it open to find a purple glowing gem and everything suddenly turned dark as she passed out. The gem is later absorbed into her body, trying to awaken the Herrscher of Thunder but the Gnosis inside her that Ray allows her to have absorbed the powerful honkai energy radiation and failed the awakening.

"Ah, as I had foreseen. He had blessed this girl." Kyuusyou emerged from the door of the room as she had been secretly following Mei.

She checked Mei and found the reason for the failure of awakening.

"Lacking honkai energy…" Kyuusyou places her palm on Mei's chest and injects honkai energy to feed the other thing that she detected inside her.

"Ah! Not enough even after exhausting my own reserve." Then she remembered that Cocolia's agent is coming to retrieve Mei. "Must leave first." She lifts Mei in princess carry before making her escape.

———

Cocolia who had observed everything, became petrified and looking at the honkai energy reader to quadruple check the result.

"0HW! Did the gem malfunction? No, impossible. The gem should constantly release honkai energy… But… it turned inert…"

"Is the gem fake?" She tried to make a logical assumption and think Raiden Ryoma had done something knowing her betrayal and swapped the gem? How do one even fake a Herrscher gem?

———

Bringing Mei to her house, Kyuusyou once again checks Mei to understand what caused her to fail on becoming a Herrscher since the vision shows she indeed became the Herrscher of Thunder.

The answer turns out to be that the other thing inside her is eating away the honkai energy released by the gem fast enough that none could affect Mei to be released.

The question now is, what is the thing that eats away the honkai energy?

*Thump*

"Huh?" Kyuusyou was caught off guard by the sudden pulse of honkai energy. Like an engine being started, the thump became rapid until it suddenly caused a burst which exploded out powerful honkai radiation greater than what a gem should be capable of.

Kyuusyou can feel something resembling but different from Herrscher Core is forming inside her and stirring the Herrscher awake from her slumber.

"Oh, no. My room…" Kyuusyou managed to mutter before a blast of purple lightning destroyed her bedroom. She easily resisted the explosion of honkai energy but was forced to defend herself from the lightning.

She could see a phantom of women resembling Mei but older, wearing kimono and wielding a sword. It disappeared soon after and the awakening ended.

"Now, time to convince the Herrscher to side with humanity. Kiana isn't here to use her yuri power after all." She readied herself and brought out a mostly black katana with some red and gold color on it. "I'm counting on you, Higokumaru."

'I never agreed to help!' The spirit in the sword protested but Kyuusyou dismissed it as she being a tsundere.

—————