Herrscher of Death Understands the Truth

Mei is located on the outermost edge of the aggregated Soul Steel. Inside, liquid metal grows and extends like branches, cradling and supporting the sleeping girl, thus initially forming a sphere of three cubic meters in size.

The material properties of the Soul Steel have been adjusted to an extremely high level of transparency, allowing people to clearly see the interior.

The Herrscher of Death, who should have been immune to all external influences, was successfully affected by the hypnotic substance after being injected with a special agent beforehand.

Her entire body entered a state of sluggish paralysis, and her consciousness fell into a slow state where she could not perceive herself and could not understand what she was about to encounter.

This was exactly the result Mei had hoped for; at least in the final experiment, she wanted to minimize the unpleasant memories the other person would have.

If possible, putting Seele into a high-purity sleep would be a better approach.

Unfortunately, the Herrscher's external Honkai Energy shield is a cycle that is almost instinctive, like an automatic power. It is too difficult to break it with external force, and it is impossible to conduct experiments. Therefore, it is only possible to preserve some of Seele's consciousness to completely dismantle the Honkai Energy shield.

But perhaps this half-baked approach can be considered gentle.

The reason why Seele's experiments did not use the special agent in the past was that its production was not high, and its purpose was to prevent the Herrscher of Death from going berserk and imprisoning her. Using it for experiments would be an extremely wasteful thing.

Now, for this experiment to separate the Herrscher Core, Mei has no choice but to use all the reserves she has accumulated to prevent any potential power rampage, and she is determined to ensure that the experiment yields definite results.

She decided that a short period of pain was better than prolonged torment.

After the outer layer of soul steel continuously wrapped around the originally three-cubic-meter transparent sphere, the girl standing behind the reinforced glass in the distance looked at the control panel and the corresponding clear light screen in front of her and began the experiment.

The Herrscher Core is located in the chest cavity of the human body. Its existence is a strange state between flesh and blood, which is similar to that of a matter and an energy body. It is judged that it is two completely different levels of difficulty to take it out of the body of a living Herrscher and to pick it up from the corpse of Herrscher.

However, the Soul Steel material should be able to successfully contact the main body, or rather, the Herrscher Core will likely transform into a materialized state on its own the moment the flesh is cut open.

Therefore, this is not much different from a regular thoracic surgery in essence. The only difference is that the tools used, such as rib shears, retractors, closure devices, and embracing devices, must all be replaced with high-quality active soul steel. Otherwise, Honkai Energy be directly annihilated into dust by the Honkai energy, making the experiment impossible.

To ensure that she wouldn't regain her senses too quickly during the surgery, Mei used the same special anesthetic she had used on Su Qing'an a few days earlier, increasing the dosage to prevent her from falling into a complete coma.

The first step is to make an incision in the outer skin.

The second step is to saw open the sternum in the middle of the body.

The third step involves using a spreader to expose the major blood vessels inside the body, and then fixing the cut sternum with steel wire.

The fourth step is to extract the Herrscher Core.

The thin, cicada-wing-like steel scalpel pierced the skin's surface, its crimson gleaming like a striking crimson beneath a snowy landscape, and blood gushed forth like a spring, following the unwavering resolve of the blade.

The scalpel cut through all obstacles in Yanbian. During this time, the Honkai Energy circulation within the Herrscher's body began to become disordered and violent. However, the Soul Steel possessed high Honkai Energy resistance and sturdiness, enough to ignore it and continue to stabilize its form to carry out the second step.

The Herrscher's body is as fragile as a human's. The Soul Steel material easily sawed through the sternum after ignoring the Honkai Energy rampage. After exposing the body cavity with a spreader, the Soul Steel threads then secured it.

Below the center of the sternum, a magnificent gem comes into view.

The Herrscher Core pulsed slowly and steadily, displaying a deeper tangerine blue color than Seele's hair. Faint arcs of light rippled from it, and before the Soul Steel scalpel could even touch the surface of the body, most of the material dissolved into nothingness, and the expander and Soul Steel wires were completely annihilated.

All the cut flesh and bones gradually showed signs of healing, and the spontaneity of the power was intensified again after the core was exposed to the outside world, making the suppression of the special agent no longer absolute.

"The experiment has officially entered a critical phase, with the nanochannels implanted in the veins continuing to increase the dosage of anesthetic and special agents."

"The Soul Steel density formula has been advanced to its highest level, ensuring the Soul Steel replenishment rate. The experiment continues."

Following Prometheus's commands, Soul Steel continuously appeared and gathered, bringing the situation back under control.

"Inject the Honkai Energy Inhibitor into the cavity, with a pre-concentration ratio of 98%."

"The outer steel is bundled into eight ring-shaped barriers."

"Data recording begins; formal attempt to separate the Herrscher Core commences."

The mechanical arm, sculpted from Soul Steel, broke through the invisible barrier formed by the chaotic fluctuations of Honkai Energy and began to execute the final step.

Extract the Herrscher Core.

As the cold Soul Steel touched the core surface, Seele's heart suddenly pounded with an unusual sound. All her functions seemed to be forcibly revived at that moment, and the accelerated blood supply was so exaggerated that Mei could hear a sound like a babbling brook.

Blood flowed continuously from the girl's ripped chest cavity, staining the cavity, which was filled with Honkai Energy Inhibitor, a tragically vivid crimson that obscured her vision.

The injection of the special agent and anesthetic was weakened to different levels by the physical blood transfusion operation, and the force of the core being touched or even pulled out of the body by external things became the external factor that completely intensified consciousness.

The Herrscher Core houses power, and this power is linked to the soul.

The relationship between the two has been inseparable since its inception. Under normal circumstances, separating the two would be tantamount to attempting to completely obliterate the life of the Herrscher of Death.

Mei, unaware of these factors, was unable to achieve perfect results from the very beginning in this experiment.

Seele Fulei's consciousness was forced to fully recover when she faced her first real life-threatening crisis. The despair and pain, surpassing the sum of all her previous experiments, crashed down like a mountain, giving her fear and despair that originated from her very soul.

The little girl, who was experiencing near-death for the first time, was completely unable to control her behavior with her so-called will. When power is no longer just instinctive and spontaneous, but actively controlled by the soul, the existence of special agents and anesthetics becomes meaningless.

The endless Honkai Energy transformed into a deep purple mist that permeated the surrounding area, instantly disintegrating the Soul Steel that touched the Herrscher Core into nothingness.

This phenomenon is sufficient proof that the power of the Herrscher of Death is not only useful to living beings, but also has a huge destructive force on inorganic matter. In fact, based on data feedback analysis, this is already a decomposition at the atomic level, which is completely impossible to restore using the metallic properties of Soul Steel.

The outburst of power instantly restored the girl's flesh and bones, and her skin returned to its original healthy state. Her undulating mountains and curves were faintly visible in the mist, but the dripping blood was proof of the trauma she had suffered.

All of this was completed in a single second. By the time Mei reacted, the purple mist had already broken through the experimental field constructed of soul steel and was spreading wildly outwards.

Clearly, the misjudgment of the Herrscher of Death's abilities led to the illusion that the Soul Steel Prison was impregnable.

With such dangerous offensive power exposed, the entire Soul Steel Prison, under the infinite Honkai Energy, was nothing more than a fragile toy box, showing no signs of being able to withstand a single blow.

The extremely dense Soul Steel sphere instantly disintegrated into nothingness when continuously supplied with liquid metal from the outside.

The remaining eight ring-shaped barriers formed by the bundled soul steel were being forcibly disintegrated at a rate of one per second, and the purple mist silently advanced, like a deadly demon.

The instruments around Seele, even the nano-infusion tubes implanted in her veins, dissolved and disappeared in the mist. She stood calmly on the cold ground, her eyes, now open, were blood-red and filled with indifference and instinctive killing intent.

Memories are chaotic; the knowledge granted by the Honkai Consciousness has broken through the barriers of personality cognition and flooded into the chaotic mind.

All knowledge about the nature of power was directly elevated to an extremely high level, and the uses of power were grasped in a daze.

If she so chooses, she can freely and effortlessly utilize the precise capabilities of her soul's power.

This is the Herrscher.

As long as the soul is special enough, the Honkai Consciousness will make up for anything else it lacks within its capabilities.

Providing them with the relevant knowledge to enable them to use their powers in a more diverse way is clearly part of this.

In fact, this characteristic itself is nothing special. Regardless of whether Seele is Seele or not, as long as she is Herrscher, this treatment will not change.

In this chaotic blank space of memories and upside-down world, in the bewilderment of reason being washed away by the crisis of life and death, the strangeness of self-change, the occasional fragmented memories, the inexplicable sadness, and the knowledge given by the current Honkai Consciousness all come together to form clues that shape an answer that is close to the truth.

For the first time since birth, the Herrscher of Death began to doubt his own identity.

Once this suspicion takes root, it will face terrifying and disruptive consequences.

A seemingly perfect lie, once it has even the slightest crack or flaw, can no longer withstand any scrutiny.

Just as Mei had thought, every time the Herrscher of Death activated her power, which was almost like shaping an entire body, she would gradually lose some fragments of her soul.

However, there is one subtle difference: the fragments of her soul that she lost were not her own, but belonged to the original Seele Fulei.

This is actually easy to understand; as a consciousness shaped by the Honkai Consciousness, it inherently possesses the instincts of Herrscher.

Therefore, she would subconsciously remove anything that did not belong to her and was of no help from her soul. The aura that belonged to Seele Fulei obviously had no reason to exist, so each near-death experience would cause the original Seele's soul to slowly wither away until it disappeared completely.

This is the core reason why all the flesh and blood in the cultivation chamber, and even the flesh and blood used for experiments, underwent that mutation.

That so-called Stigmata substance is a collection of all the original fragments of Seele's soul.

It was formed from the last remnants of that girl's soul, instinctively wanting to give that boy a glimmer of hope.

That's why everything went so smoothly, appearing to be without any conspiracy yet so perfectly logical.

Because those 21 grams were all that Seele Fulei could offer, and the last trace proving that she had ever existed.

Having shed all these burdens, the Herrscher of Death no longer takes her identity as Seele for granted.

This is the real reason why the flaw occurred.

As self-awareness wavers, all information that is constrained by cognition and subconsciously blocked becomes straightforward and clear. This is true of the knowledge that stands at the pinnacle of certain fields, as well as the two messages conveyed by the previously Honkai Consciousness.

The first message conveyed by the Honkai Consciousness was:

[My apostle, as long as humanity cannot control its desires, you will one day understand who you truly are.]

And that was indeed the case. But what He didn't expect was that the reason and cause did not stem from the ugliest and worst aspects of human nature, but rather from Seele's clear and pure emotions and Mei's repeated, sleepless nights of sacrifice and unwavering determination.

Even though the causes are different, the outcomes they lead to are quite different.

While having afternoon tea with Carole and Shiyu Qiluo, he said:

[Kill them.]

The reason why the Honkai Consciousness chose to activate at this time was naturally because it believed that such stimulation could allow the Apostle's consciousness to return completely, and in fact, it did just as He wished.

The initial flaws and strangeness arose from this, but the difference lay in Carole's apologetic words spoken with a sad expression, and Shiyu Qiluo's embrace, which was clearly full of fear yet trying to hold on tightly.

Love cannot cure everything, but it can give rise to completely different outcomes.

The girl's mind returned to normal completely. The first thing she felt was not the pain of her chest being ripped open by something, nor the terror of being between life and death.

Rather, it is the bewilderment and despair that arises from the sudden revelation of the truth.

I am the Herrscher of Death, I am not... Seele Fulei.

The sorrow and pain arising from this upheaval of her self-perception, which she had held firmly since birth, left her momentarily at a loss.

As the Herrscher of Death, she should naturally deny all of this. She has no life of her own, no memories of her own, no emotions of her own, no family of her own. She was born to be a tool used by the Honkai Consciousness, having nothing.

The girl's entire understanding and self-awareness were borrowed; she was so innocent yet undeniably won everything Seele Fulei had through despicable theft.

This cruelty cannot be denied. Perhaps finding one's so-called self and filling the void of having nothing is what should be done. But how can you make her completely deny the fact that she is Seele Fulei?

Even if everything is fake, even if all the beauty and pain are just a dream, even if the warmth and sorrow we experienced are nonexistent, even if those hugs and tender words belong to others, even with all these "even ifs," the emotion born from it will absolutely not be a fake.

The girl, being Herrscher of Death, was already beyond redemption.

Even though she knew for certain that she wasn't Seele Fulei, she still loved the people and things that Seele Fulei loved.

She couldn't simply discard this affection because of this cruel reality, but the resulting deep guilt and sorrow overwhelmed her like a tidal wave, suffocating her thoughts in a dark, Lightless sea.

The girl who inherited everything from Seele was essentially just a child as young as an infant. She lacked any ability or judgment to think outside the framework of Seele Fulei's personality, and thus could only resort to such self-deprecating and blank-minded actions.

Perhaps, as Su Qing'an believes, the current Herrscher of Death is, in a sense, completely Seele Fulei.

That's why the boy was so indecisive and hesitant. He couldn't make any effective decisions and could only weakly choose to indulge in false fantasies, which naturally led him to fall into a vortex of despair and pain.

Now even the Herrscher of Death has fallen here, unable to escape.

Just as the girl continued to sink into despair, a beam of light shattered her self-imposed prison. A cool hand cupped her face, and her bewildered eyes blinked slightly, the crimson fading to a deep blue, revealing a profound understanding of what was coming into view.

It's Sister Mei.

The girl's pale face was so delicate and ethereal; her violet eyes, once intelligent, now held a gentle tenderness that seemed to embrace all things. Her pale lips parted, and she whispered:

"Don't cry, Seele, it's good that you're alright."

"It's my fault. The connection between the Herrscher Core and the Herrscher is closer than I expected. This experiment shouldn't have been conducted."

Huh? Did I cry...? When?

The girl remembered the feeling of water droplets on her cheek, gazing at Mei's tired yet still gentle appearance. Unaware of everything she had done, she tightly embraced the sudden surge of relief and warmth within her, quietly thinking... so what if she wasn't the real Seele?

No one will know. Neither my brother, nor Sister Hua, nor Sister Mei will find out. If they knew, they definitely wouldn't treat me so gently anymore, right?

Perhaps burying the truth is despicable, shameless, and cruel enough to devour the real Seele, but the girl now feels that even if it's despicable, even if everything was stolen, it doesn't matter.

Even burdened by a heavy sense of guilt, constantly questioning her own meaning, and feeling perpetual remorse and sorrow, the Herrscher of Death does not wish to relinquish this identity and these emotions that filled her with everything from birth.

She thought, even if it's fake, it doesn't matter; even if I have to keep deceiving myself, it doesn't matter; even if it's really too much, I have to do it.

Because besides that, Seele Fulei has nothing.

Unbeknownst to her, the veins on the back of her hands, which were cupping her face, had turned a deep purple...