Herrscher of Ice

The boy stared at the familiar shapes formed by the light and shadow before him, and his hand, which was rubbing Little Feather, involuntarily stiffened for a moment.

He wasn't surprised by Prometheus's appearance. The watch on his wrist was a communication tool given to him by Mei. Prometheus handled the entire process of scanning and storing the Emperor-class information and naming the new codename.

Previously, Su Qing'an didn't have any particular feelings about this, but after gradually returning to normal, Su Qing'an couldn't help but express some personal opinions about the virtual image of Prometheus.

He can understand other people's situations.

Mei, Lin Xinchán, Himeko, and even Seele —they are all past lives of some people from the later era.

Su Qing'an made this judgment because he had the ability to see through souls.

The super-intelligent being before him, who bore a striking resemblance to Bronya, contained no soul that he could comprehend, so he naturally did not consider it to be Bronya's past life.

However, the image and even the voice created by Dr. Mei are too coincidental. In addition, the unusually high level of intimacy between Mei and Bronya in later generations almost after they met, and the current combination of Mei and Prometheus, make people really think too much.

However, the little girl's words quickly interrupted Su Qing'an's thoughts.

"Urgent message, Mr. Su."

"Great Honkai of Honkai energy has been detected in Spain, suspected to be the Fifth Herrscher. An emergency meeting has been convened at the higher levels, and Dr. Mei has also joined the discussions."

The boy's pupils trembled slightly, and he whispered indifferently:

"What a coincidence, it just so happens to be on the eve of the full restoration of his personality."

Prometheus asked:

"Mr. Su?"

Su Qing'an raised his eyes and said:

"Where?"

Prometheus answered softly:

"Right in Barcelona."

"If Mr. Su needs to participate in the battle, I will arrange your itinerary immediately. You will be able to arrive in about an hour at the fastest speed."

Su Qing'an was silent for a while. Barcelona, known as the flower of Europe, is located on the Mediterranean coast in northeastern Spain. The city proper has a population of about 1.6 million, and if the surrounding areas are included, the population is 4 million. Before the Great Honkai, it was already the second most densely populated city in the world after the capital Madrid.

After the Great Honkai wiped out most of the population in the Madrid region, Barcelona, which was almost unaffected, became the last remaining force in Spain. The Moth to Fire were established there, and the hundreds of thousands of people who survived are now a silent threat from the Honkai Consciousness.

If the Honkai Fission Bomb were to be deployed indiscriminately under such circumstances, it would almost be tantamount to being forced to reduce the world's already dwindling population in accordance with the Honkai Consciousness's will, and the government would probably understand this reality in light of such a massive number of cases.

In Su Qing'an's understanding, even if he followed the same approach as last time and unhesitatingly launched the Honkai Fission Bomb, he could still achieve the result of successfully killing the Herrscher.

However, the war could not be resolved indefinitely. And imagine if the next Herrscher entity were to be born in the center of the Mu Continent, would humanity also choose to sever its own foundation and use the Honkai Fission Bomb?

This is nothing more than a foolish act of drinking poison to quench thirst. If this is done, the government will find it difficult to completely block the news from the rest of the Mu Continent due to the proximity. And once things develop to that extent, it is not hard to imagine that irreconcilable conflicts will arise within humanity.

However, Su Qing'an himself also found it difficult to find a way to kill the opponent directly without using Honkai Energy Fission Bomb before the appearance of Fusion Warrior.

Barcelona is a coastal city, and the Honkai Consciousness's choice of this location was undoubtedly a deliberate attempt to coordinate with the Fifth Herrscher's powers. It's not hard to imagine that the other side must have made even more thorough preparations than before.

Even though this battle was destined to be filled with direct and pure killing intent, without any information gap, Su Qing'an was no longer confident that he could kill a Herrscher on his own.

Perhaps by paying a certain amount of money within the Soul Hall, one could sever the link between the opponent and the Honkai, thereby achieving the goal of killing the opponent.

But the boy did not intend to sacrifice himself for humanity. Putting aside his own wishes, he could not choose to face death now simply because of the current state of the war.

Currently, she is only the Fifth Herrscher, and is still a long way from becoming a truly terrifying enemy. Su Qing'an could not bear to let Fu Hua and Seele face all the despair that would follow alone, so he simply left.

Being willing to fight alongside the other party and cooperate to a certain extent is the limit he can accept right now, because the closer the emotions are to normal, the deeper the aftereffects of the last incident will be.

His personality disorder granted Su Qing'an a long period of calm, allowing him to get along with the organization and join the Moth to Fire in a harmonious way. However, fighting in cooperation with the authorities was still not a pleasant thing for him.

He asked:

Has the government dispatched the Moth to Fire Forces?

Prometheus said:

"We are currently organizing our forces."

Su Qing'an said quietly:

"Even Kevin and Fu Hua couldn't step onto the battlefield of Herrscher- level beings, so sending the rest of the soldiers there would only lead to their deaths."

"Currently, even top-tier Mechanical Force can only deal with low-level Honkai Beast individually. All battlefields rely on sheer numbers and resources to sustain the fight. However, once higher-level Honkai Beast are involved, the army has to expend a lot of resources, and sometimes, it is necessary to sacrifice human lives."

"The current technology level of the Flame -Moth to Fire Unit and its mechanical soldiers makes it impossible to engage in a protracted war with the Herrscher."

"Regardless of whether the nature of the other side's power is, as I have said, to slow down molecular movement, all troops sent to Spain have no purpose other than to evacuate people."

Prometheus stated:

"The situation Mr. Su described is a reality that the High Command are already considering how to respond to. They have already organized personnel to conduct reconnaissance and testing in the area reported by the Herrscher."

"Dr. Mei said that if Mr. Su is willing to go, she can handle the specific details of the transaction with the authorities herself, which will help accelerate the progress of the Stigmata Project."

Su Qing'an nodded and whispered:

"Good."

The boy put the Little Feather back into his shirt pocket, looked up at the girl who was faintly visible amidst the illusory light and shadow, and said softly:

"But I have one request."

Prometheus said:

"You said that Dr. Mei and I are in a direct connection, and she will relay the official response."

Su Qing'an said:

"I went to investigate the situation there, but my condition was that no one associated with me was allowed to travel to Barcelona."

Prometheus's eyes flowed with countless streams of data, and her originally clear and soft voice switched to Mei's voice, and indeed, the other party was communicating with Su Qing'an in this way:

"Including Kevin?"

Su Qing'an nodded silently, and he confirmed in a soft voice:

"Including Kevin."

Mei continued to ask:

"What about the rest?"

Su Qing'an replied:

"Those who are qualified to enter the Fusion Warrior Project do not need to go. Appropriate wars are sufficient for training, but going to the almost inevitable Herrscher -level battlefield is just a pointless suicide."

"People who qualify for your list are very rare, and even for the sake of the subsequent implementation of the Fusion Warrior Project, such people shouldn't go to that kind of place."

And...

If the authorities were to deploy the Honkai Fission Bomb at a critical moment, sending such personnel would be nothing more than a pointless sacrifice.

"Okay," she replied.

Barcelona used to have a typical Mediterranean climate, with mild and sunny weather all year round, unlike Madrid which has four distinct seasons. Except for winter and early spring when there is more rain, it rarely rains. Since the temperature rarely drops below zero, snow scenes are a rare sight here.

Before the Great Honkai, it was said that the pleasant climate, famous golden coastline, and romantic cultural environment here attracted tens of millions of tourists every year.

However, the satellite footage reveals a scene that completely overturns previous history, obliterating all vibrant life and creating a desolate atmosphere—a spectacle that would likely have been unseen even during the ancient Ice Age.

With the coastline as the baseline, the entire city of Barcelona was covered by a blanket of snow, with a layer of clear, deep blue ice enveloping and swallowing everything in sight.

Su Qing'an's previous concerns seemed to have been unnecessary from the beginning. By the time the Fifth Herrscher's Honkai Energy reaction was officially detected, the entire city had already become a hopeless, icy wasteland.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors were frozen into ice sculptures, their expressions before death clearly visible, like an immortal painting.

This widespread death meant that Su Qing'an's previous theory of coercion was unfounded. The Honkai Consciousness seemed unwilling to play house with humans. It didn't care whether the higher-ups would choose to launch the Honkai Fission Bomb. So, it was as if it was discarding worthless chips. Countless lives vanished in the blink of an eye, like weeds.

Even if the Honkai Consciousness doesn't care about the arrival of the Honkai Fission Bomb, the authorities still need to consider the real consequences of launching the Honkai Energy Fission Bomb. From the perspective of the higher-ups, they care more about whether that land still has the possibility of being recycled than about the lives that have already been lost.

If there is a possibility of continuing to build a civilization, then hastily launching the Honkai Fission Bomb would leave that area of the map in a state of abandonment and unusable for more than a hundred years. Even without considering casualties, this is still a matter that needs to be carefully considered.

For this reason, the authorities had no intention of refusing Su Qing'an's conditions. At this moment, the Honkai Energy wavelength in the Barcelona region exhibited a strange frequency that was enough to completely isolate current electronic devices.

Even if the satellite could see some images, this was only a few minutes before the fluctuations were detected. The higher-ups, who only knew that the Herrscher had appeared but had not yet seen the Herrscher in person, had completely cut off all communication with the local area.

Clearly, the Honkai Consciousness has learned the same abilities as Su Qing'an.

The essence of [potential] is to influence electronic devices through subtle changes in the frequency and wavelength of Honkai Energy.

Once this principle is understood, and with the Herrscher's massive Honkai Energy output and infinite Honkai Energy reserves, interfering with such a vast area becomes extremely easy.

The reason the satellite was able to see the initial image is that the Herrscher spent a certain amount of time accumulating energy to restrain the terrifying Honkai Energy in order to interfere with communications.

The result is obvious: the Fifth Herrscher accomplished what the Third Herrscher could only do by using her powers, simply by using the magnitude of Honkai Energy.

This situation demonstrates that the manipulation of the Honkai Consciousness is constantly being updated and transformed over time.

Regardless of the various countermeasures Mei plans to take, at this stage, if a normal team is dispatched, they will most likely be doomed in this strange place where information cannot be transmitted in real time.

The most suitable candidate at present is Su Qing'an.

Having the world's strongest people conduct the investigation and reconnaissance is undoubtedly the most efficient way to obtain the truth, allowing those in power to make informed decisions.

When Su Qing'an received the news, she found it difficult to have any particular feelings.

He seems to only feel a little empathy for those close to him for the time being; the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are like a string of numbers casually written in black ink on a white sheet of paper, having no real value that he cares about.

Although it sounds a bit convoluted, he was actually starting to doubt whether he could ever completely revert to being the same Su Qing'an he once was.

Perhaps in that encounter, I did lose something, and even if I try to pick it all up now, the only result I can get is a fragmented self.

This may be a trivial matter for many people, after all, people change gradually and constantly.

Is a sense of incompleteness really that serious? Not necessarily.

It's like a decadent teenager who spends all his time playing Teamfight Tactics, occasionally playing mahjong in flip-flops, and helping his neighbor walk their dog and play with their cat in his spare time, suddenly starting to wear a suit and tie, leaving behind his past life and becoming just another ordinary person.

Actually, there's no difference, right? Because both kinds of lives are just as ordinary, so ordinary that there's no process of becoming what we call the general public.

The person who made this analogy simply believed they had something special about them.

But actually, you are very ordinary, so ordinary that even if you change, you will only realize this when you look back much later.

Perhaps Su Qing'an hasn't lost any of his personality or sense of self; he's simply undergoing a transformation.

He couldn't accept this change.

Therefore, one can only use worn-out words to disguise and embellish, so that one can appear not so far from the original boy.

The wind and snow grew stronger, and the vehicle swayed precariously.

The Sky Island, reflected in my dark pupils, seemed like something out of a fairy tale. Beneath its golden brilliance, snow-white clouds met, and a translucent, icy blue hue formed a mountain range stretching to the horizon. And those tiny black dots drifting among the clouds and mountains slowly magnified under the device before my eyes...

Distance.

The silent girl, wearing a heavy crown, looked at him with a slight smile.

The Herrscher of Ice.