Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Welt charged straight onto the battlefield. There was nothing more to be said. He would eliminate anyone who massacred civilians, cleanly and without hesitation.

Because both sides had bombed each other's central command, neither faction had any real political leadership left. It all happened so suddenly that no other nation or military organization had time to intervene.

And few dared to get involved. This wasn't like nuclear war; it was a classic case of radiation damage from Honkai Energy weapons. The people of the outside world were now far more vulnerable to Honkai Energy—the slightest touch meant instant death.

Welt saw no other option. He immediately transformed into Noldrei and went on the offensive.

Why not do this in his own form, you ask? To be honest, Welt was a bit of a shy guy at heart. He felt it was better to let his leader shoulder the burden of such difficult political work.

It wasn't that he was trying to cause trouble; he genuinely believed he couldn't handle a problem of this magnitude.

So on the battlefield, Welt adopted a single, sweeping solution. Massacring civilians? Kill! Robbery and riots? Kill! Perpetuating the war? Kill! Greed and corruption? Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!

Welt gradually descended into a state of frenzy. He began defaulting to the most direct, violent means to solve every problem.

A surge of hot-blooded rage swelled in his chest, getting stuck in his throat, unable to be swallowed or released.

In time, Welt gained greater mastery over the powers of the Herrscher of Reason.

His time at the Academy City research institute had granted him immense benefits, particularly from advancements in human genetic engineering. These advancements allowed him to silently control the brain activity of others.

Thanks to the power of the Herrscher of Reason, he could even monitor the fluctuations in a person's brain, patching their brainwave signals directly into his own mind to perceive and monitor their thoughts. In other words—a perfect lie detector.

Both nations had populations in the tens of millions. Even with their high military-to-civilian ratios from years of constant war, the number of officers was only in the tens of thousands.

Having identified this group, Welt began his purge.

As the Herrscher of Reason, his abilities—invisibility, infiltration, shapeshifting, memory reading—had all been honed in Academy City. Now, Welt could effortlessly infiltrate these armies and wipe out their entire chains of command.

And that is precisely what he did. He infiltrated the command structures of both sides and began a massacre.

He followed a simple procedure: first, he'd ask them questions. If there were problems, he would start killing.

And so, a scene unfolded that utterly shocked both sides. A young man with white hair and blue eyes walked brazenly into a meeting of military officers and bureaucrats. Paralyzed, they could only watch as he questioned each individual about the sins they had committed.

The accused showed no signs of resistance, calmly confessing to their deeds.

What followed was a direct sentence. Corruption, betrayal, oppression of the common people—all were laid bare.

In the process, Welt felt a growing detachment from others. The thrill of looking down from on high, judging everyone's thoughts and punishing their sins, reminded him of the scalp-tingling excitement he felt watching anime heroes defeat a demon king.

The few who were truly innocent were never summoned to these meetings; they had already been ostracized and deemed unworthy of attendance.

Welt could only purge tens of thousands in a short amount of time. He was on a tight schedule.

With so many to kill, he couldn't afford to waste a moment. It wouldn't do for someone to escape on a plane.

However, thanks to his swift action, even those who tried to flee found it impossible. He had already sabotaged every aircraft, ensuring none of them would reach their destinations alive.

After the slaughter, Welt felt no pleasure. Instead, a strange serenity washed over him.

He felt as if his anger wasn't his own, as if his spirit had detached from his body to hover in the void.

Welt moved continuously through the war zone, occasionally passing through areas contaminated by Honkai Energy radiation.

His power as the Herrscher of Reason was growing, at a speed he found incredible.

'I can control their blood circulation at will. I can plunge entire regions into slumber with a thought. I can graft my own brainwaves onto their minds.'

'I am like a god, arbitrarily defining human morality...'

'When they err, I can punish them. There will be no mistakes, no oversights.'

'No one can escape the Herrscher of Reason. No one can escape my sight.'

'There will be no more deception, no more barriers between people. They will become honest and good.'

'No more war. No more pain.'

'I can soothe the hearts of the wounded, grind away the greed of the selfish, and even control the anger and opposition, the love and hate, the passion and sorrow between people. I can ensure society's resources are distributed more equally. I can bring them greater wealth.'

'I am the Herrscher of Reason... I can effortlessly break humanity's cycle of sorrow. With my endless life, I can unite them all and alter the tragic path that leads to certain doom.'

Welt had an epiphany.

A long time ago, when he read the story of the Tower of Babel, he had assumed that God was angry because humanity was challenging His authority.

'Perhaps that wasn't it at all. Perhaps God knew that once power was decentralized and distributed equally, humanity would fracture on its own, devolving into ugly, opposing factions filled with mutual hatred. Therefore, to preserve the world in the peaceful, beautiful state He desired, He struck down anyone who coveted His power.'

'A ruler does not simply rule over a certain class, or specific groups of people.'

'He rules over a world of his own liking. And to preserve that world, he will exercise his power by any means necessary.'

At that moment, Welt finally understood what Noldrei had been trying to tell him.

Noldrei's point had been perfectly clear. As long as Welt possessed the power of the Herrscher of Reason, he would one day use it to control others, to shape a new world in his own image.

Whether he was a good person or a bad one was irrelevant. The moment he gained this power, he became one of humanity's rulers.

Whether fighting the Honkai or purging the wicked...

The essence of both actions was the same: the pursuit of a world made in his own image. A benevolent king and a tyrant are both, fundamentally, monarchs.

The Herrscher of Reason bathed in the sunlight, like a god descending from the heavens.

He swept away all the filth and corruption within the ruling classes of both nations.

With a serene expression, Welt, still in Noldrei's form, began his final act.

He would eliminate the final source of this land's crisis of faith.

As long as Jerusalem was gone, the religious conflicts here would vanish completely.