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Chapter 298 – Evolving Toward the End
🕑 Added 2025-09-03 15:00:17 +0000 UTCKevin Kaslana was strong. Terrifyingly strong.
As the very first test subject of the “MANTIS” project, Kevin was the first warrior to successfully fuse with a super-variable factor after countless failed experiments.
And his fusion was perfect.
But precisely because Kevin’s compatibility with the Emperor-class Honkai beast Pavanti’s genes was so high, the power of ice he gained forced his body temperature to remain below –30°C.
He was, quite literally, cold as death.
Anyone standing near him risked frostbite.
Even simple contact was impossible—hugging Dr. MEI, for example, was completely out of the question.
Thanks to the miracles of technology, however, Kevin and Mei could still have children through in vitro methods.
After Kevin’s success, Dr. Mei optimized the process, ensuring future MANTIS soldiers fused with the factors only to safe degrees.
None of the later fusion warriors ever suffered side effects as extreme as Kevin’s.
But on the other hand, this only proved Kevin’s uniqueness.
His compatibility with the super-variable factor far surpassed anyone else.
He was the one and only perfect fusion warrior—untouched by later corrections or artificial limits.
In the previous civilization’s battle against the Herrscher of the End, Kevin had unleashed his full power.
The strike didn’t break it’s defenses, but it froze the Herrscher—at 70% Honkai energy remaining for twelve entire hours.
Twelve hours of stillness against that.
To put it in perspective: the Herrscher of the End was the pinnacle of existence.
A force capable of wiping the surface of the Earth with ease.
For Kevin to hold her down for even that long? It was nothing short of legendary.
His feat could be summed up in a single line:
At the peak of Honkai, defying the world itself!
But how far had Nagami grown after the “Herrscher of Domination War” and his journey through the Second Eruption?
The Herrscher of Reason’s power was the root of Nagami’s strength.
Most important of all, his manifested soul—his “Void Genome” armament had fully merged with the Herrscher core.
Then came the power of the Herrscher of Thunder—control over electromagnetic forces.
Two abilities Nagami had already mastered.
But that was only the beginning.
The artificially accelerated Herrschers born to counter Domination—Flame, Sentience, and the briefly manifested Corruption—Nagami had already copied their powers as well.
Though still in the process of deep analysis, they were now part of his arsenal.
And after the fall of Domination, he had claimed even more treasures: three new Herrscher cores—Domination, Ice, and Rock.
The Core of Domination he gifted to Kurumi.
The Ice Core, he planned to give to Rita.
With the right timing, her fusion would add both [Domination] and [Molecular Slowdown] to his list of available powers.
The Rock Core, meanwhile, he intended to offer to Welt.
In their dealings, Nagami had promised to find Welt a replacement for the Herrscher of Reason’s core.
Promises mattered to him—at least when it came to allies.
Now, with the Rock Core appearing at the perfect moment and its abilities perfectly aligned with Welt’s affinity for gravity—it was time to make good on that oath.
After all, Welt’s signature move in the “new season” was literally powered by Eden’s Star.
Not that pseudo-black holes were weak—but come on! You’re the Herrscher of Reason.
Your ultimate shouldn’t be someone else’s Divine Key.
That was embarrassing enough to make your ancestors weep.
And truthfully, most of Welt’s battles had been fought by replicating Eiden’s Star over and over, until its gravitational control was etched into his muscle memory.
Practically written into his DNA.
Since Welt loved gravity powers that much, Nagami thought—why not indulge him?
Just hand him the Rock Core and let him become the Herrscher of Rock outright.
That would add [Gravity Manipulation] to the growing list.
And don’t forget—back in the Second Eruption, Honkai itself had “gifted” Nagami four gemstones.
Among them: the Gem of Desire and the Gem of Pestilence.
Now tally it all up:
Reason, Void, Thunder, Wind, Ice, Rock, Death, Flame, Sentience, Corruption, Domination.
Eleven Authority from 9 Herrscher core.
Nagami didn’t even need to rush into new worlds or seek shortcuts anymore.
All he had to do was finish analyzing the powers he’d already copied—and his strength would evolve into something utterly terrifying.
Only two more Authority stood between Nagami and the complete set of thirteen Herrscher authorities needed to evolve into the Herrscher of the End, and the authority of the mysterious, yet-unrevealed Thirteenth Herrscher.
The Valkyrie weapon Judas Oath contained a dormant Binding Core.
Though inactive, its authority had not fully vanished.
The reason God Keys were so terrifyingly powerful was because Mei, that absolute cheater, managed to extract the residual Herrscher authority from inactive cores.
Nagami had already obtained the principle data of Binding through his own analysis of Judas.
And with his mastery of the Alpha Stigma Eyes, his understanding of Herrscher powers ran deeper than the girls who originally wielded them.
In Nagami’s hands, Herrscher authorities operated on an entirely different level. None of those “illiterate” girls could ever surpass him within their own domains.
It was the perfect example of that Type-Moon truth: sometimes the counterfeit outshines the original.
Even Gilgamesh’s severed arm gave him a thumbs-up for that.
And besides, Nagami’s powers weren’t just counterfeits—far from it.
With the Void Genome Core, his Honkai energy truly had no limits.
This wasn’t superiority over the originals, but it was nonetheless a crucial step on his path from Herrscher of Reason toward Herrscher of the End.
Once all these authorities were fully analyzed, the only difference between Nagami and the true End would be output levels.
And with the Void Genome Core’s limitless potential, as long as Nagami’s soul could withstand it, he could unleash infinite Honkai energy.
Even Kevin in his prime could be flattened with ease.
As for the weakened Kevin of the present—without Shamash, and in his deteriorated state, Nagami wouldn’t even need to step in.
Once Himeko familiarized herself with the power of the Herrscher of Flames and combined it with the God Key forged from the pre-civilization Herrscher Core of Flames, defeating Kevin would be no problem at all.
After all, a Herrscher plus a corresponding God Key wasn’t 1+1=2. It was exponential.
When Nagami finished parsing those nine powers and added even a basic mastery of time manipulation, he could cast aside the title of Herrscher of Reason and rightfully claim the mantle of Pseudo-Finality.
And by then, it would be time for the true hell-level dungeon: Honkai Impact 2.
For now, Nagami poured everything into analyzing authorities.
With Reason and Lightning already fully parsed, nine remained.
On top of that was Kurumi’s time-based ability.
Of Kurumi’s Twelve Bullets, Nagami focused on the first five and the seventh, totaling six temporal abilities.
They amounted to localized versions of Dust of Osiris, Star Platinum, and time acceleration—none involving timeline manipulation or outright time travel.
The later bullets, however, were another story; parsing them would take longer than all his other authorities combined.
Truly, there was no out-of-place power like Time.
If Nagami’s soul was a processor, this was like running ten threads at once, each devoted to one authority.
The Alpha Stigma Eyes was powerful—its lineage traced back to the “Solver of All Equations” and the “Compiler of All Formulas.”
But right now, Nagami’s eyes hadn’t matured to that level.
It was like comparing a supercomputer to a quantum computer.
Even the best supercomputer would lag trying to crunch ten universal laws at once.
That meant until analysis was complete, Nagami’s combat strength would drop significantly.
But honestly? He didn’t care.
After all, the Honkai world was full of Herrscher girls with beautiful legs to cling to.
Who wouldn’t want to live off that softness?
Still, even in a weakened state, Nagami was an “enjoyment fiend” who never neglected the noble cause of stirring up trouble.
No way he’d forget about Brother Aether!
So when the Heavenly Principles appeared, you could bet he’d be there.
And in a world like Teyvat? Nagami didn’t even need Herrscher powers.
The King’s Authority of the Void alone was enough to place him at Tier 1, maybe even Tier 0.
Reaching the level of “Heavenly Principles” or one of three ancient sister goddesses might be difficult, but the Seven Archons?
They’d be well within reach.
By estimation, the Archons’ strength was surely less than that of a Herrscher wielding her authority perfectly, but greater than that of a newborn Herrscher.
And if by some chance he ran into trouble beyond his control, he could always pause the parsing process.
The only downside would be a slower reboot when he resumed.
