Aponia's matter had to be handled step by step. Telling her too much now might only backfire.
But it wasn't all bad news—at least when facing the next Herrscher, Aponia's power would make things much simpler.
Chapter 16: Calm down. We're a legitimate organization.
Aponia had no idea what had caused Ai Yue to look so solemn.
But she knew that Ai Yue never spoke without reason, and he rarely showed such an expression. Even when he had seen so many patients suffering from Honkai Sickness at the sanatorium and desperately in need of treatment, he had remained calm and had even comforted her instead.
So, had she really done something wrong?
Aponia lowered her head and studied her current reflection in the water inside her cup.
She remembered how, several years ago, she had seen Honkai Sickness patients curled up on the roadside in agony.
At the time, unable to bear watching those patients die in pain, she had turned the church into a sanatorium and taken in a large number of them.
But in truth, "taking them in" merely meant barely providing them with shelter from the wind and rain and enough food to survive. As for treating their illness or easing their suffering, Aponia could do nothing.
All she could do was kneel before the statue of God and pray devoutly again and again, placing her hopes in an illusory deity.
Yet it was only when Ai Yue appeared before her that she realized how grave a mistake she had made.
Concentrating patients with Honkai Sickness in one place would continuously increase the local Honkai Energy concentration. Not only would their conditions worsen, but the illness would also spread outward.
If the Honkai Energy concentration reached a certain level, the entire sanatorium would become a massive source of infection, spreading this "disease" throughout Twilight Street. By then, aside from the few people with Honkai Energy resistance, everyone else would die.
So, by choosing to undergo the Fused Warrior surgery, had she made another mistake in the dark, just as she had when she chose to gather the patients together?
Ah, ah... Now that things had come to this, the only thing left was—
Ai Yue was still recalling all the outrageous things Aponia had done after gaining this power when he suddenly saw the nun struggle upright and kneel on the bed before him.
...Not again, right?
Aponia stared into Ai Yue's eyes before lowering herself. She clasped her hands before her chest, pressed her forehead tightly against the bed, and adopted a devoutly prostrating posture.
"Please forgive me—"
"Aponia, I've already said this many times," Ai Yue sighed. "But I'm really not your god, nor was I sent here by your god."
He was beginning to regret calling himself a savior in front of Aponia back then.
Aponia remained motionless.
"Please forgive me—"
"You should understand that even if I say I forgive you, it won't change anything in reality, nor does it mean the mistakes you've made will disappear, right?"
"Please forgive me—"
"You..." Ai Yue sighed. "Fine. I forgive you."
As he spoke, he placed a hand on top of Aponia's head, thus completing some kind of ritual. The last time, Aponia had specifically asked him to do this.
This time, however, Aponia still did not rise. Instead, she continued, "Please guide me—"
"Fine, fine, I'll guide you." Ai Yue spoke as if soothing a child. "But whether you listen is another matter."
"Please save me—"
"Mm, I'll save you. Of course I will." Ai Yue withdrew his hand. "So, you also have to find a way to save yourself. Understand?"
"I understand that perfectly." Only then did Aponia sit up. Her expression was as calm as ever. "But how should I do it?"
"Why do I feel like this isn't your usual character setting?" Ai Yue looked at Aponia as she cast him an inquisitive glance, and he fell into thought. "Shouldn't you be a little... stronger?"
"When children fall while they are alone, they will struggle to get back up on their own. But if their parents or elders are nearby, they will sit where they fell and cry and fuss, hoping to gain care and comfort." A faint smile appeared on Aponia's face. "Sometimes, strength exists only because there is no one to rely on."
If Ai Yue had not appeared before Aponia as a savior and silently eliminated the hidden danger at the sanatorium, perhaps Aponia would not have revealed such a weak side of herself to him.
If that had happened, how many mistakes would her "strong" self have stubbornly committed?
"So now it's my fault?" Ai Yue had not noticed Aponia's inner thoughts, but seeing that she seemed to have cast off some of her burden, he also breathed a sigh of relief. "All right, if nothing else is wrong, get some proper rest. There is still a lot to do from here on."
"What do you want me to do?" Aponia looked at him. "I don't trust Moth to Fire, but I am willing to trust you."
Some of the ugliness Moth to Fire had displayed during today's interrogation had been difficult for Aponia to tolerate. If she had not understood that such people could not represent all of Moth to Fire, she probably would not have this attitude now.
"Kalpas was taken to The Deepest Place. If possible, I'd like you to go there as well and use 'Discipline' to temporarily restrain the situation there." Ai Yue told Aponia about Kalpas and The Deepest Place. "After that, I may need your help with something. As for what comes later, you can decide for yourself."
With the Eighth Herrscher capable of appearing at any time, Ai Yue had no choice but to borrow Aponia's power and make preparations in advance. According to the original plot, the "Discipline" Aponia imposed could help the Fused Warriors resist the Eighth Herrscher's authority. If everything went smoothly, Ai Yue was confident he could minimize the damage caused by this disaster.
"I understand." Aponia nodded, then took a small statue from her arms. "Then please accept this."
Looking at the somewhat familiar object, Ai Yue's eyes widened slightly. "You've already... Ahem, what is this for?"
As far as he remembered, this thing seemed capable of enabling Aponia to establish absurdly long-range mental communications.
"You really do know a great deal, Mr. Ai Yue." Aponia gave Ai Yue a meaningful look before saying softly, "Please don't worry. Just treat it as a protective charm. With this, perhaps distance will no longer be an obstacle between us."
Ai Yue hesitated briefly before placing the statue in his pocket.
A mental-type Fused Warrior was not omnipotent. Besides, this was reality, not the Sea of Quanta, which was constructed from mental power. Even with a medium, there was only so much Aponia could do.
And this world was so dangerous that it might genuinely come in handy.
Chapter 17: Enemy of Herrschers
At dusk, Ai Yue returned alone to his current residence and laboratory.
Pardofelis had to move into the reconnaissance team's dormitory according to Moth to Fire's arrangements, while Aponia had been assigned to the Fused Warrior base and was temporarily staying next door to Elysia. Thus, no one was beside him now, and the place instantly fell quiet.
After several days of lively activity, Ai Yue was somewhat unaccustomed to this sudden return to silence.
He looked around the somewhat empty room, sighed, then took some paper from his bag and began recording something.
Successfully joining Moth to Fire meant that he had accomplished his first goal. It was time to formulate a plan for the next stage.
Before that, he should organize his current intelligence.
Ai Yue wrote "Seventh Herrscher" and "Eighth Herrscher" at the top and bottom of the white sheet respectively, establishing the time period he was currently in.
The fire in Australia had occurred several months ago. That was also when the first Fused Warrior, Kevin Kaslana, had been born.
Ai Yue wrote Kevin's name on the paper, then wrote down Elysia's and Mobius's names in order.
In the plot he knew, Elysia had snatched the Fused Warrior surgery Mobius had prepared for herself, becoming the second Fused Warrior. Mobius had followed shortly afterward, becoming the third.
Next was Sakura, the fourth Fused Warrior. The fox ears on her head were a side effect of the surgery.
Ai Yue wrote down Sakura's name and circled it.
After Kevin became a Fused Warrior, voices opposing the creation of monsters gradually emerged within Moth to Fire. These people believed that Fused Warriors possessed Honkai Beast genes and were therefore unstable factors that could potentially trigger a disaster.
To stop the project, they chose to create a Fused Warrior to assassinate the person directing the Fusion Warrior Project—Dr. Mei. The one chosen was Sakura.
But judging from the relationship between Elysia and the others and Sakura, the assassination should already have ended. Dr. Mei had secured Sakura's cooperation through an exchange of benefits, causing the Opposition Faction's plan to fail.
Of course, Ai Yue knew that the Opposition Faction would not let the matter rest, but their follow-up plans should be impossible to carry out for the time being.
After Sakura and before the Eighth Herrscher, four more people became Fused Warriors, including Aponia, who had undergone surgery that very day.
The others were... what were their names again?
As he pondered, Ai Yue wrote down "Cosmo" and "Su," but the final name stopped after he had written only "Daisy."
Never mind. This would do for now.
Having determined the eight Fused Warriors who could currently serve as fighting strength, Ai Yue nodded.
To defeat the Eighth Herrscher at the lowest possible cost, relying on Ai Yue alone would certainly not be enough. The Fused Warriors' combat strength was indispensable.
As for how to grow closer to them, Ai Yue wrote four words: "birthday party."
He did not know the exact date of Kevin's birthday, but the event occurred after Aponia became a Fused Warrior and before the Eighth Herrscher's arrival. Therefore, he should have a chance to attend. If he could make a sufficiently striking impression at the party, he might easily win the favor of several Fused Warriors.
If Elysia did not invite him to help organize the birthday party, he would have to shamelessly crash it.
As for the gift...
Ai Yue took Kevin's hair, carefully sealed in a plastic bag, from his pocket and smiled.
His research system could unlock corresponding research projects using materials from the relevant characters. For example, the "Anti-Aponia Filtering Earmuffs" he had used before had been developed using Aponia's hair.
After getting on good terms with the Fused Warriors, the next thing to do was prepare for the Eighth Herrscher.
The Eighth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Consciousness, existed as two different figures in Ai Yue's memories. The one he was more familiar with had become a comical character who was both righteous and mischievous for certain reasons, making it difficult to directly sense the power she possessed as a Herrscher.
But the Herrscher of Consciousness Ai Yue had to consider now was a terrifying existence that stood as civilization's mortal enemy. The moment she appeared, she would unleash disasters without mercy, attempting to destroy the entire world.
As an authority possessed by every Herrscher, the Herrscher of Consciousness's ability was, just as her title suggested, the ability to interfere with the mind. This included, but was not limited to, creating illusions, pulling people into dreams, and disrupting their five senses.
Although it might not sound frightening—at least not as overtly offensive as the previous Herrschers, who had brought corruption and decay or raging infernos—combined with the Herrscher of Consciousness's outstanding personal attributes, this ability had caused Moth to Fire immense suffering.
Like Aponia, a mental-type Fused Warrior who could activate her abilities across great distances, the Herrscher of Consciousness did not need to show herself to easily draw large numbers of people into dreams she had created. This could not only cause widespread panic and disaster, but also perfectly conceal the Herrscher of Consciousness's whereabouts, making it difficult for Moth to Fire to locate her.
After all, even the Seventh Herrscher, who had been capable of burning all of Australia, had still died at the hands of the Fused Warrior Kevin. But if the enemy could not be found, then no matter how great one's abilities were, they would be impossible to put into practice.
Ai Yue wrote down two goals at the end of the page: "lock onto the target" and "prevent large-scale civilizational paralysis." The former was meant to eliminate the Herrscher of Consciousness as quickly as possible, while the latter was intended to minimize the devastation she inflicted on civilization.
To Ai Yue, the second goal was even more important than the first. The reason Herrschers could drive civilization toward its end, after all, was that they gradually eroded human civilization.
The Seventh Herrscher had turned an entire continent into scorched earth. The Eighth Herrscher had inflicted severe damage on major cities. The Ninth Herrscher had destroyed another continent. The Tenth Herrscher had wrecked countless important facilities. The Eleventh Herrscher had nearly annihilated humanity's forces of resistance. And the Twelfth Herrscher had compressed human civilization until only three shelters remained...
This disaster, which steadily reduced the population and gnawed away at the foundations of civilization, was the true terror of the Herrschers as "enemies of civilization."
But that would end here.
Ai Yue constructed his plan in his mind, and a smile gradually appeared on his face.
If the Herrschers were the "enemies of civilization," then he would become the "Enemy of Herrschers."
And as the person who understood all the Herrschers' authorities, no one in this world was more suited to that title than he was.
Chapter 18: How can we fight Honkai while surrounded by vermin like this?
Ai Yue's plan was wonderful.
In his vision, if everything went smoothly, he should be able to complete the entire plan before the Eighth Herrscher appeared, thereby saving the lives of the vast majority of people.
But when he woke from his dreams the next day, what awaited him was pile after pile of documents.
"What is all this?" Ai Yue flipped through the stack of documents. The various formulas and calculations made his head spin. "Don't tell me all of these are for me?"
"Yes. These are research projects issued by the major research institutes." The man who had delivered the documents wore a white lab coat, clearly marking him as a researcher as well. He was fairly young, probably one of the doctors' assistants. "Dr. Mei said to send you a copy of everything. You can pick a few to try and see which ones you have the most confidence in."
"Wait. Can I only accept projects issued by other research institutes?"
Ai Yue skimmed through them. He immediately realized that they were all subdivided tasks from larger projects, and most of them involved the "grunt work" of extensive calculations and deductions.
In other words, they were basically all chores normally handled by laboratory assistants, but now they had been dumped on him.
Wasn't this just bullying an honest man?
"What do you mean?" The other man looked puzzled. "Could it be that you want to apply for research projects yourself?"
Ai Yue frowned. "Is that not allowed?"
"Of course it is. It's just that things might be a little difficult right now." The man gave him a knowing look. "Mr. Ai Yue, Dr. Mei's exact words were, 'Prove your worth to those suspicious fellows.' As long as you really have the ability, there are some things you won't need to ask for yourself."
Tsk, no wonder I kept feeling like I'd forgotten something. I'd forgotten about those bastards.
Since the man had put it so bluntly, Ai Yue stopped insisting. After sending him away, he sighed.
Indeed, Moth to Fire was not an organization from some science-fiction story where everyone stood united and existed solely to defeat Honkai.
Even at the critical moment when humanity's survival was at stake, the powerful figures at the top would still scheme against one another to seize benefits, impose restrictions everywhere to keep their subordinates in check, and even turn their guns on the people fighting Honkai for the sake of their own power.
So although he had used the Honkai Energy Absorber to prove his worth, and although he had joined Moth to Fire with Dr. Mei as his sponsor, he still had to obey the various rules and restrictions within the organization.
It was even possible that, because he was too close to Dr. Mei, those people above would deliberately make things difficult for him.
Thinking about it that way, it really had not been easy for Dr. Mei to secure an independent laboratory for him.
Should he alter his plan first and wipe out all these useless bastards holding everyone back?
Ai Yue hesitated briefly before finally abandoning the satisfying idea.
Until there was a way to eradicate the greed and malice in people's hearts, killing people could not solve the problem. Even if this group disappeared, another similar group would take its place. If he kept fighting with them, humanity really would have no hope.
The best solution should be...
Before you continue