If I hadn't come, the Eighth Herrscher probably wouldn't have hesitated to flee when facing Aponia and Mobius. In that case, she would still have had a chance to escape.
But with the culprit who had personally driven her into a dead end standing right before her, Ai Yue was certain that she would immediately choose him as the target for possession.
With Aponia and me working together from within and without, even if the Eighth Herrscher struggled desperately on the verge of death, she would be nothing more than meat on a chopping block.
Yet the dreamscape she had created had indeed exceeded Ai Yue's expectations. He had thought she would use more lethal methods, allowing him to put the trump cards he had prepared in advance to use. He had never expected the Eighth Herrscher to prepare nothing more than a sweet dream for him.
Incidentally, the Eighth Herrscher had never used any lethal attack from beginning to end. It was hard not to wonder whether this woman had only learned half of a Herrscher's abilities before rushing out to cause trouble.
"Whatever. You won this time, anyway." The Eighth Herrscher's face was filled with desolation. "Might makes right. Whatever the victor says is right."
Halfway through speaking, she suddenly raised her head and stared at Ai Yue. "But I'm still curious. What exactly are you?"
"What do you mean?" Ai Yue frowned. "Is there something wrong with your brain? Can't you tell that I'm human?"
"Impossible. How could there be a human like you in this world?" The Eighth Herrscher shook her head in denial. "When I invaded Moth to Fire, I found most of the records concerning humanity's resistance against the Herrschers. Aside from one unexpected victory, although the other wars all ended in human victory, not one of the methods they used resembled yours."
The wars between humans and Herrschers were usually fought by devising targeted tactics or methods based on each Herrscher's authority. As a result, humanity's counterattacks were always one step slower than the Herrschers' offensives, and effective countermeasures could only be produced after the other side had caused large-scale disasters.
Ai Yue, however, was completely different. He practically blocked every path along which a Herrscher could form a plan, then grabbed her by the head and beat her senseless.
The Spiderweb Dreamscape was only half-laid when he charged in and found the node where the dream was woven. The Eighth Herrscher used mental locking to find Moth to Fire's location, only to discover that it was a trap laid by him, waiting for her to expose her position by coming to him. She had set up an inescapable net for the final battle, yet the man before her could imitate a Herrscher's methods and cross space directly, ignoring the sea of Honkai Beasts to arrive before her...
If the war between humans and Herrschers was like chess players countering one another's moves, then the war between Ai Yue and the Eighth Herrscher was like a diviner beating up an ordinary person through prophecy.
How could such an existence still have the nerve to call himself human? What the hell kind of human was he?
"In any case, I can give you one last chance." Ai Yue ignored her question and forcefully changed the subject. "Submit to me and offer up your Herrscher Core. If you do that, I may be able to preserve your consciousness. Even without a body, you might still have a chance to exist in another form."
"And then what? Become a tool in your hands to deal with future Herrschers?" The Eighth Herrscher let out a scoff. "Don't make me laugh. You may have won this time, but I won't be the last Herrscher. One day, you'll go to hell and keep me company!"
After saying this, the Eighth Herrscher's figure dissipated before Ai Yue's eyes along with the collapse of the entire pure-white space.
Perhaps to preserve the dignity of a Herrscher, she had chosen to destroy her own consciousness, using suicide to retain the last vestige of her dignity.
The world before him soon transformed back into that dim room. The stark contrast between light and darkness made Ai Yue narrow his eyes. He felt somewhat weak and couldn't help taking a step back, only to bump into a soft body.
"Are you all right?" Aponia wrapped her arms around Ai Yue from behind and asked softly in his ear, "The Eighth Herrscher's consciousness can no longer be detected. Could it be...?"
"Mm." Ai Yue nodded, then looked around.
With the support of his powerful mental strength, he could see that the room was covered with things resembling chains. They gave off a faint glow. They were the cage Aponia had established.
Within such a prison, there was absolutely no way for the Eighth Herrscher's remaining consciousness to escape.
"Rose?"
"I'm here."
"Send a message to everyone in Moth to Fire." Ai Yue let out a long breath, feeling the great weight in his heart finally lift. "The Eighth Herrscher's death has been confirmed. We won this war once again."
Prometheus was incredibly efficient. In the blink of an eye, she had spread the news throughout Moth to Fire.
However, because the Eighth Herrscher had invaded Moth to Fire's headquarters earlier, the entire headquarters was still paralyzed. Although people would soon gradually awaken from their dissipating dreams, it would clearly take some time before everything could function again.
But besides Moth to Fire's headquarters, other people had obviously received the message as well.
"The Herrscher is dead?" Elysia froze when she heard the news. Even the arrow in her hand went off course, skimming over the target's head.
Fortunately, the sea of Honkai Beasts before them was extremely dense, so other unlucky targets were struck instead.
"What do we do now?" Sakura appeared beside Kevin with a frown and killed a Honkai Beast that had tried to ambush him from behind. "Retreat? It seems there's no reason to keep advancing."
"No. On the contrary, we need to go over and take a look." Hen picked up the conversation from the side. As one of Moth to Fire's most experienced veterans, he reacted quickly in the field. "Even if this is true, we still have to see the Eighth Herrscher's corpse with our own eyes."
"The message came from Prometheus, which means this may have been done by Doctor Ai Yue and the others." Kevin agreed. "Although we don't know how they found the Eighth Herrscher or how they killed her, we still have to go and support them. The Honkai Beasts will soon run wild after losing their leader. The situation will be even more chaotic then. Stop holding back and charge with everything you've got!"
To preserve enough strength to face the Herrscher, the Fused Warriors had constantly controlled their fighting methods, using the least exhausting means possible to clear a path. But if they truly didn't need to deal with the Herrscher themselves, things would suddenly become much simpler.
"No problem!" Elysia was the first to respond. She drew her longbow, and a pink crystal arrow condensed from vast energy gradually appeared in her hand. When the girl released the bowstring, the arrow transformed into a massive torrent of light that blasted forward, instantly carving a path through the densely packed sea of Honkai Beasts.
"The Eighth Herrscher is dead?"
While Kevin and the others fought their way forward, Mei also slowly awakened in the conference room. She was the only one left in the room. After seeing the message on her phone, the girl couldn't help showing a stunned expression. "What happened?"
"The process was rather complicated, but the Eighth Herrscher is indeed dead." Prometheus sent over a photograph showing a young girl's corpse. "Also, Doctor Ai Yue said that you may need to deal with something else now."
"What is it?" Dr. Mei frowned. Judging from Prometheus's hesitation, it seemed to be something troublesome. "The cleanup work? I'll arrange it right away."
"No. I can handle the cleanup work," Prometheus said. "But dealing with the higher-ups still requires you, Dr. Mei. Those were Doctor Ai Yue's exact words."
"Deal with the higher-ups?" Dr. Mei froze, then realized what was happening. "Wait. What exactly did Ai Yue do?"
Dr. Mei finally realized why she had always felt that something was deeply out of place. From beginning to end, she hadn't received a single order from the higher-ups!
That had been impossible in the past. Even if they initially chose to let Moth to Fire make its own decisions, once the Herrscher's situation was confirmed, the authority to make decisions would quickly be reclaimed.
Although everything had ended extremely quickly this time—the entire process had taken less than forty-eight hours—not receiving a single order was completely inconsistent with those people's usual style.
Even though Prometheus had severed Moth to Fire's internal network from the outside network, those people had plenty of ways to contact Moth to Fire if they wanted to.
Faced with Dr. Mei's question, Prometheus chose to respond with silence.
What exactly had he done? Everything.
Dr. Mei felt her vision go black.
Ai Yue had always given people a very strange impression.
On the one hand, he knew his own abilities very well. He frequently produced astonishing projects and constantly refreshed Dr. Mei and the others' evaluation of him. It could be said that geniuses like Mobius, Vill-V, or even Mei might appear among humanity again, but there would absolutely never be a second existence like Ai Yue.
On the other hand, compared with his talent, this man's temper and personality were good to an extreme, even seeming somewhat weak. Whether he was interacting with others in daily life or facing the deliberate difficulties imposed by Moth to Fire's higher-ups, he would always take the initiative to yield, giving people the impression that he had extremely high moral standards.
Only when interacting with Mobius and the others would Ai Yue occasionally reveal an uninhibited side.
Yet in truth, one could see from Dr. Mei and the others that transcendent intelligence and extremely high moral standards were, to a certain extent, contradictory. After all, when many scientific technologies were born, they nearly always violated the secular rules of the time. Without the courage to oppose authority and convention, many technologies might never have appeared.
Dr. Mei had sometimes wondered where Ai Yue's share of "courage" was. Now, she finally knew.
"Ai Yue cut off communications between the higher-ups and Moth to Fire?" Dr. Mei removed her glasses.
"Yes."
"Vill-V's modifications to The Deepest Place and Aponia's departure were also decisions he made on his own?" Dr. Mei began rubbing her temples.
"Yes."
"What else did he do?" After realizing that the problem seemed outrageously serious, Dr. Mei instead laughed. "Don't hide anything. Tell me all of it."
"He had me hack into the shelters of several higher-ups and imprison them inside, preventing them from sending messages outside. He also altered the wartime orders of many countries, keeping most of their armies on alert..."
Prometheus began confessing everything Ai Yue had done. Every item made Dr. Mei's heart pound with fear.
Then she felt a wave of helplessness.
This was no longer something she could resolve. In fact, at that moment, even Dr. Mei felt fear toward Ai Yue.
"What does Ai Yue want me to do?" Only after Prometheus finished reporting did Dr. Mei lean back against her chair. "Or rather, at this point, does he even think there's anything I can do?"
If Ai Yue were judged according to human law, he would be sentenced to an execution known as "one hour of shooting."
At this point, unless the next Herrscher attacked tomorrow, Ai Yue would probably have to spend the time before then in prison.
Moreover, Prometheus herself would likely be unable to escape punishment. In the worst case, she might even be discarded outright.
"You only need to buy time," Prometheus replied, giving Dr. Mei an unexpected answer. "Buy time until Doctor Ai Yue returns."
What? He still dared to come back?
In Dr. Mei's initial plans, Ai Yue's best choice at present would be to defect from Moth to Fire directly, relying on Prometheus's powerful abilities to establish his own faction. With his capabilities, as long as he didn't deliberately cause disasters, and as long as he continued opposing the Honkai, the matter would probably end with him being "recruited" anyway.
It was ironic, but that was reality. Only after displaying a powerful capacity for harm would a person be taken seriously and receive treatment matching their abilities.
But if Ai Yue really chose to return to Moth to Fire, then...
"You don't need to worry. All of this is within Doctor Ai Yue's considerations." Prometheus seemed to understand Dr. Mei's concern and continued, "Furthermore, you don't need to defend Doctor Ai Yue. You can even place all the blame on him. Those were Doctor Ai Yue's exact words."
"What on earth is he trying to do?" Dr. Mei froze, then revealed an annoyed expression. "Wouldn't that only make things worse? And I can't smear Ai Yue's name for him."
Even setting aside Ai Yue's contribution to defeating the Herrscher, he was someone who had helped Dr. Mei. Just by resolving Kevin's dangerously low body temperature, he had made it impossible for her to become the sort of person who kicked someone when they were down.
She didn't know why Ai Yue had said such a thing, but she couldn't help feeling that he was looking down on her.
"Don't dwell on it, Dr. Mei." Prometheus continued, "It could even be said that if there is any way to resolve this problem once and for all, this is the only way. Just do as instructed."
After saying this, Prometheus ended the communication.
Once and for all?
Dr. Mei stared at the phone's darkened screen, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face.
She vaguely realized that everything Ai Yue had done before was insignificant compared with what he was about to do.
While the outside world had already descended into chaos for various reasons, everything on Ai Yue's side was remarkably harmonious.
When Mobius opened her eyes, a gaze immediately fell upon her.
Ai Yue sat against the wall nearby and tossed the white lab coat in his hand to Mobius, who had just been resurrected and was completely naked.
"Awake?" Ai Yue pointed at the Eighth Herrscher's corpse nearby. "Since no one's watching you right now, want to add to your collection?"
He was naturally referring to the Herrscher gene samples Mobius had secretly collected.
"You're surprisingly composed." Mobius put on the lab coat and looked at Ai Yue strangely. "I thought that when I opened my eyes, I'd see you sprawled over the Herrscher's corpse, refusing to get off."
There was some guilt in her voice when she said this, because that was exactly what she had done back then.
"Do I look like some kind of pervert?" Ai Yue replied with a complicated expression. "Of course, mainly because I've already collected everything I wanted. Otherwise, I might really have been as you imagined."
"That fast?" Mobius froze. "Wait, I've been curious about this for a while. You don't seem to have any storage space on you, so how do you always manage to pull all sorts of things out of nowhere?"
After removing his lab coat, Ai Yue was wearing a very simple long-sleeved shirt and trousers. He barely had any pockets. Where could he possibly keep anything?
She hadn't even seen that "Pikachu" that had startled her. Where did this man usually hide it?
Mobius's gaze swept repeatedly over Ai Yue before finally settling on his belt.
If anything looked suspicious, it was the exquisitely crafted belt buckle.
This man had absolutely no fashion sense. Would he really buy himself such a good belt?
"Oh? You finally discovered it?" Ai Yue smiled faintly, making no attempt to hide it. "A little later than I expected."
Ai Yue casually waved his hand in front of the belt buckle. A familiar golden light flashed, and a gun instantly appeared in his hand. It was Pikachu.
"This is..." Mobius pounced at once, grabbing his belt buckle and studying it carefully. "A spatially expanded storage device? When the hell did you develop this?"
"Not long ago. It's only the first-generation model, and it has plenty of flaws. It can't be mass-produced." Ai Yue placed a hand on her head, trying to push her away. "Stop fiddling with it. This thing is controlled through mental wave frequencies. You can't use it."
Mental wave frequency was a theory proposed after the appearance of Mental Perception Fused Warriors. It referred to a unique mental fluctuation that could be viewed as a mental "pulse." Since everyone's mental wave frequency was different, it could also be used for identification systems and was safer than other biometric technologies.
But this thing was currently Ai Yue's exclusive patent. Other people couldn't even understand what a mental wave frequency was.
"I've cleared out the Honkai Beasts around the building. We can leave at any..." Aponia drifted over at that moment. Seeing the two in their strange position, she couldn't help frowning. "What are you doing?"
"Just studying equipment. It's nothing." Mobius immediately stood up and turned to look at the Eighth Herrscher. "Ahem, I'll study the Herrscher a little longer. Give me five minutes."
She hadn't forgotten to bring a small toolbox when she came. Although the clothes she had blown up were gone, the toolbox was still lying intact in the corner.
"Kevin and the others are approaching too. Let's wait a little." Ai Yue remained seated where he was. He merely patted the ground beside him. "Thanks for your effort. Why don't you rest for a while?"
"No..." Aponia shook her head instinctively, but immediately realized something. She glanced at Mobius, then walked toward Ai Yue. "Yes, I am a little tired."
The nun sat beside Ai Yue and rested her head against his shoulder, unable to stop a smile from curving her lips.
Ai Yue said nothing either, because his eyes were already closed, as if he had fallen asleep.
The continuous, high-intensity expenditure of mental energy had left him struggling to hold on. If not for the effects of Aponia's Embrace still continuing, Ai Yue would probably have already passed out.
About fifteen minutes later, the Fused Warrior squad finally reached the building. On the building's roof, an aircraft from Moth to Fire was waiting for them.
"This is actually real..." Looking at the Herrscher's corpse being placed into a special preservation device, Kevin couldn't help sighing. "But how exactly did you manage to do this?"
Since joining Moth to Fire, Kevin had almost never missed a single battle against a Herrscher. He had never expected that one day he would become a supporting character.
Of course, he didn't mind. He simply wanted to know how Ai Yue and the others had accomplished it.
"Don't worry about the details for now." Ai Yue sat between Aponia and Mobius. "Before we return to Moth to Fire, there are a few things I need to tell you."
Before you continue