Daily Life of the Fallen Angels VI

The autumn sun had just risen when the young man lying in bed opened his eyes, following his usual routine.

He walked to the window, glanced at the sun just peeking over the horizon, stood there for a while, then went to wash up.

After opening his door, he prepared to head to the training grounds. Lilith had forbidden him from taking missions lately... So who exactly was the captain of the Fallen Angel Squad?

When he had looked at Lilith that way, she had smiled and said, "So you mean... I can slack off openly and legitimately?"

Zhu Yufeng: "..."

You were right. I really had been taking on missions too diligently...

He truly had not expected that he would lead the squad to defeat Kevin... That was Kevin, after all—the mythical man of the Previous Civilization. Before he had transmigrated here, Kevin's record in the Previous Civilization had supposedly been undefeated against everything but Finality... It was strange. The Previous Civilization had possessed so many monsters, and Kevin had been invincible just days ago, yet in the end, they still had not defeated Honkai...

He could not understand it. He really could not understand it. But it was beyond the scope of his knowledge, so there was no point thinking about it anymore. Better to leave it to Rovoc and Admil.

Right, Rovoc's mental state lately... Well, at least when they had conducted combat training with Kevin a few days ago, Rovoc had seemed more or less back to normal...

The Mu Continent, humanity's most technologically advanced and powerful homeland on Earth, had sunk overnight. His teacher had also died long ago during the Fourth Great Honkai. It had indeed been a tremendous blow to Rovoc.

"Yo, Feng, you're up this early again today. Heading to the training grounds?" A warrior greeted him. The man's face seemed to hold more life than those Zhu Yufeng had seen a few days ago. At least he no longer looked hopelessly lifeless.

"Mm." Zhu Yufeng nodded. "Are you going to the training grounds too?"

The warrior smiled. "Yeah. Humanity hasn't reached the point of despair yet. Fire Moth is humanity's last safeguard. Since I bear that responsibility, I can't afford to slack off."

"Keep it up," Zhu Yufeng said.

"Yes!"

Watching the warrior's excited expression, Zhu Yufeng found it a little strange. He had only said a standard polite phrase. Was such a huge reaction really necessary? Or was it that...

"Although Kevin has never been defeated and is the hero in everyone's hearts, in the darkness brought by Honkai, the places Kevin can illuminate are still too few. No one knows whether he might go out one day. Humanity cannot have only one hope. Before the Mu Continent sank, everyone believed in the Mu Continent and Kevin. Now that the Mu Continent has sunk, Kevin alone cannot rekindle the hope of humanity's survivors."

That was how Lilith had explained Mei's decision to heavily publicize the Fallen Angel Squad's victory over Kevin.

Zhu Yufeng thought there was no need to exaggerate it so much. Kevin had never lost except against Finality, yet hadn't humanity still collapsed during the Twelfth Herrscher incident?

When he arrived at the training grounds, he directly raised the training difficulty to its current highest level. The other levels were too weak for him now. He had not tried the highest level that Vill-V had recently modified, and it might take some time.

After all, only a small number of people could complete the highest-level training.

Zhu Yufeng glanced at the training room usage records. Kevin, Elysia, Qianjie...

The same old three... Ahem. He wondered where that brat Kosma had run off to. There had been no word from him at all. If the other Fire Moth warriors still could not find him, he would have to take the Fallen Angel Squad out to search for him.

Hm? A message from Mobius?

Zhu Yufeng picked up his device and read Mobius's message. She told him to finish his morning training early. She had already prepared the materials needed to implant the Hypervariable factors of Brahma and Ravana into his body, and told him to prepare for the next Hypervariable Surgery.

Brahma... It was another name for Brahma, one of the three great gods in mythology, and the last of the three End-of-Law Honkai Beasts so far. Including Vishnu, whom he had already fused with, after fusing with Brahma, the next would be Maheshvara.

Maheshvara was the End-of-Law Honkai Beast fused by Elysia. So far, only Elysia had successfully fused with it without suffering any obvious side effects. Fire Moth still prohibited all Hypervariable Surgeries involving Maheshvara, so Mobius had turned her attention to Brahma, which he had hunted. If he could successfully fuse with Brahma, then there would be legitimate grounds to approve the procedure for fusing with Maheshvara.

Mobius was very pleased by the news that the Fallen Angel Squad had defeated Kevin. She probably thought that if he fused with a few more Honkai Beasts, he might be able to solo Kevin...

In his dreams.

Solo Kevin... During that previous training session, he had nearly given his life just to activate the Zeroth Power of Black Abyss White Flower and tie Kevin's Zeroth Power of An-Utu. And that had only happened because Kevin had been ambushed by Lilith, while the others bought him time to charge Black Abyss White Flower.

They called it training... but as they fought, it had become practically a real battle. Fortunately, they had fought in an uninhabited part of the Pacific Ocean.

After finishing his training, Zhu Yufeng followed Mobius's instructions to her laboratory and lay down on the operating table with practiced ease.

By the time the surgery was complete, it was already close to evening.

After all, this time he was fusing with a Judgment Level and an End-of-Law Honkai Beast, so it was only natural that it took longer. Back when he had volunteered for the first batch of Fusion Warrior surgeries, the operation had taken even longer than this, and he had only fused with an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.

Zhu Yufeng opened his eyes and sat up from the operating table. Mobius was still calibrating various detection instruments, while Klein was busy on the other side.

He clenched his hand, sensing the power within his body, when Mobius said, "Do you have any other discomfort? For example, is your body heating up, with your temperature exceeding normal levels? Or do you feel like something is about to come out of your body?"

"...No," Zhu Yufeng answered. "It just feels like the previous side effects have gotten worse. I may have to trouble you, Doctor, to develop some new medicine."

"The side effects intensify every time the number of fused Honkai Beasts increases... Heh. Forget it. It's not a major problem." Mobius tossed him an invitation. "Lilith came to see you earlier. She said today was your birthday and asked me to give you this invitation after your surgery was finished."

His birthday?

Oh, today was his birthday. He had forgotten...

Zhu Yufeng opened the invitation. It roughly said that Lilith and the others had prepared a birthday banquet for him. The address was written below, and as the sole important guest to receive an invitation, he was required to attend with gratitude. It also repeatedly emphasized that he was not allowed to use Misdor's sensory ability.

Zhu Yufeng: "..."

So shouldn't it have been him inviting people to his birthday party? How had it become Lilith inviting him instead?

Forget it. If he were the one arranging it, he probably would not even bother holding it.

Following the address on the invitation, Zhu Yufeng arrived at a restaurant within Fire Moth. There were no lights inside. It looked like Nahamah had paid to reserve the whole place. Did that guy have endless money like Eden? He always spent whenever he had money, liked picking the expensive options, and often said, "I'll take them all."

He had the feeling that someday, when Nahamah ran out of money, he might suddenly say, "Put it on the Fallen Angel Squad's tab."

Zhu Yufeng pushed open the door. Although there were no lights, he could see clearly in the darkness anyway. He was a Fusion Warrior, after all. Light or no light made little difference to him.

The door behind him suddenly shut, and the windows were covered by blinds or something. In any case, there was not even a trace of dim light left. Just as Zhu Yufeng prepared to use Misdor's power for a mental scan, he suddenly heard the sound of mechanisms moving. Then the lights blazed on, followed by the bang of party poppers.

"Happy birthday, Boss! Happy birthday, Captain!"

Zhu Yufeng reached out and caught the confetti drifting down from above. Looking to either side, he saw that Mostima and Baal had been using the party poppers not far from him...

"Happy birthday, Feng." Lilith stood in the middle of the crowd and smiled at him.

Zhu Yufeng looked around at the arrangements and decorations, then gave a rare smile. "You've all worked hard..."

"Serving the Boss—"

Before Nahamah could finish, Abaddon shoved his head into the mashed potatoes behind him. Smiling, Abaddon said, "Captain, don't mind him. This was proposed by Vice-Captain Lilith, and everyone agreed. If you're satisfied, that is praise enough for us."

Nahamah lifted his head from the mashed potatoes. "Abaddon, I've put up with you for a long time! I'm fighting you!"

"Who told you to always act so unreliable? With you around, you really drag down the Fallen Angel Squad's image!"

"Can't we relax a little on the Boss's birthday? Do we have to act like we're in a meeting, staring at those old fossils' dead faces?"

"Then could you at least pay attention to your image?"

"Have I ever had one?"

"So noisy." Astaroth frowned.

Xila also cast a glance at the two people fooling around. With Astaroth's remark and Xila's look, the two immediately stopped fighting and stood at attention.

You could provoke anyone, but not Xila or Astaroth. Xila would genuinely beat people half to death, and Astaroth was quite capable in a fight herself. Besides, provoking Astaroth would earn you a beating from the captain... If the captain started beating someone up, Lilith would definitely join in. Beelzebub would join the moment she saw a fight, and Esmodius would absolutely get involved too.

Don't ask. They had learned that the hard way.

Zhu Yufeng looked toward Rovoc again. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Rovoc, you..."

For the first time in a long while, a smile appeared on Rovoc's usually expressionless face. "You don't need to worry about me, Captain. I... am much better now. Rovoc of the Fallen Angels can return to the battlefield and carry out missions at any time."

"Mm... It hasn't been easy for you." Zhu Yufeng nodded.

"Alright, alright. Since the main character has arrived, it's time for the gifts and cake-cutting part~" Lilith said, clapping her hands.

Esmodius took out a note and said, "Mm, aside from us, Kevin and Mei also sent gifts. Sakura sent one as well. Michael and Aponia both asked me to deliver their gifts to you. Oh, right, Astaroth, didn't Griseo say she had a gift for Feng?"

"Um..." Astaroth glanced at Zhu Yufeng and said hesitantly, "Griseo's gift... She had already finished painting it, but then she felt it wasn't suitable and said she would prepare something else... I watched her finish it. She really put a lot of care into it."

"You don't need to be so nervous." Zhu Yufeng smiled. "We all know Griseo is a good child. You're a good child too, Astaroth. You're both good children. There is no need to lie."

"Come to think of it, I think I've seen the paintings Griseo gave other people a few times. They're really well painted, but as gifts, aren't they a little..."

Astaroth looked at Nahamah, and Nahamah immediately backed down. "Of course, what could possibly be wrong with a child's paintings? They're simply their innocent thoughts."

His survival instincts were fully engaged.

After all, the Fallen Angels' top three in combat strength were Zhu Yufeng, Lilith, and Xila. Beelzebub ranked fourth on the surface, but Astaroth's upper limit was even higher than Beelzebub's. Nahamah admitted that he could not afford to provoke this little lady. There was no shame in backing down promptly.

He did not want Astaroth to fix her eyes on him and make him suffer nightmares for an entire month where he could no longer distinguish dreams from reality.

After everyone had given their gifts and the cake had been cut, Nahamah began spouting nonsense over there about how Kevin's individual bravery was not worth mentioning and how their boss was invincible under heaven. Zhu Yufeng truly wanted to smash this joker to death with a brick. What did he mean, invincible under heaven? Did he think Zhu Yufeng was Lord Guan?

"Um... Brother Yu Feng..." Astaroth tugged gently on Zhu Yufeng's sleeve and spoke softly. "Griseo really did paint something for you..."

"I never doubted you." Zhu Yufeng looked at Astaroth and smiled somewhat helplessly. "Really."

"Um... I think Griseo may never take it out in the future, so I wanted to tell you now..." Astaroth glanced at the others before speaking hesitantly. "In her painting, there was a Knight of Dawn who never saw dawn. The sun had risen, but the knight was not touched by its light and gradually vanished into the darkness..."

"I see... Griseo really did put a lot of thought into it." Zhu Yufeng spoke, but his thoughts had begun to turn. A knight who never saw dawn? His Fallen Angel inscription was Dawn's Fallen Angel. From another perspective, he had actually brought dawn, hadn't he?

He had not seen dawn only because he had taken away the last darkness before it arrived.

"Not bad." Zhu Yufeng smiled faintly.

On the other side, Rovoc was chatting with Admil.

"I didn't expect you to no longer be as despairing as before," Admil said to Rovoc. "What? Did you find hope for defeating Honkai?"

"No. I still cannot see hope for defeating Honkai," Rovoc answered.

"Oh?" Admil seemed interested. "Then why aren't you despairing?"

"Even if the beacon fire that saves the world is about to be extinguished, I am willing to believe that dawn will eventually come." Rovoc shifted his gaze toward Zhu Yufeng. "Even if the world's future is bleak and without light, I have already found the dawn that belongs to me."

Admil fell silent for a moment, then said, "How much hope do you think you have against Lilith?"

Considering how well the two of them got along during research discussions, Admil could consider helping him out.

"None."

Admil: "..."

That was an exceptionally clear understanding of himself.

"Are you really not planning to struggle a little?" Beifengge loved watching trouble unfold. Let it get messy, let it get messy! He wanted to see the captain's harem catch fire! Don't chicken out—stand up for yourself!

Rovoc glanced at Beifengge and said, "For dawn, it is enough merely to be within one's sight. Above the canopy of heaven, the only one who can touch the dawn where the sun rises is that bright moon."

Beifengge: "..."

Well, no drama to watch. You were also a steadfast member of the Feng-Lilith Faction. Boring. Better to keep watching Lilith tease the captain.