Herrscher of Flames, Descends

The world seemed to be veiled by a veil that gradually became indistinct. The gazes of passersby and their occasional inquiries were no longer within the scope of her senses. In a daze, she recalled the tranquility of being torn apart by a Temple-type spear on the battlefield, the crimson light spreading across her vision, and all the trivialities fading away.

Death arrives swiftly like the wind, as if one could escape this bleak world and find liberation simply by indulging in fleeting pleasure.

But in the end, he was injected with nanotechnology by the armor core device located in his neck, and thus continued to drive his shapeless limbs and his body, which was mostly devoid of blood, to stand silently on the dusty battlefield, never falling.

Himeko thought that perhaps he was now facing a far greater predicament than before, and even nano-medicines could not reorganize his exhausted consciousness.

If the interference originates from the soul, then any medicine or stimulation targeting the body will likely be meaningless.

This feeling of isolation and despair is like being alone on an island, surrounded by ocean currents and empty land, which brings loneliness and despair, gradually crushing one's nerves and will.

Himeko is facing this situation now, but she can't find a way out and can't give up. Perhaps the moment she sees her father, the erroneous perceptions that are deeply ingrained in her mind will vanish. Clinging to this straw called hope, she arrives at the agreed-upon place.

Immediately, in the sparse crowd, the man in the gray suit, with a gentle and refined demeanor, noticed his daughter's arrival. As he smiled, his Amber eyes softened as well, but after carefully observing her complexion and state, deep worry and concern appeared.

Ryusuke Muryōtō put down his suitcase, placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her unsteady steps, which seemed heavy with hangover, and asked with concern:

"Himeko? Are you alright?"

All the sounds around her seemed to be infinitely pulled away, like hearing distant trivialities after being submerged in water. The changed medium made the transmission speed even slower. She only felt that her father's voice was so gentle, like a youth that was so distant that it could not be traced back, vague yet beautiful.

Memories flooded back at this moment, like the white horse drinking water by the Mississippi River, seeming so out of place and abrupt.

But the image of the rising sun over San Francisco is still vividly etched in my mind: the clear blue Seawater, the golden horizon fading into pale red, the pristine, boundless deep blue sky with its wispy clouds, and the silhouettes of my friends laughing and talking beside me, all obscuring my vision.

Memories of the past flooded her senses like Seawater, immediately bringing to mind the winding, undulating streets of Lombard Street.

The wind from the car as it turned the corner brushed against her face, bringing the scent of summer roses into her embrace. Finally, the roar of the tires came to an abrupt end, and the red-haired girl at the highest point gazed at the distant Bay Bridge and Coit Tower, her smile clear and bright.

The white doves in Victoria Square, the cool spring water, the yellowed letter paper, and the birch trees outside the classroom window—these rosy memories are so enduring and special, still vividly present as if they have traveled back in time.

Himeko sensed the receding tide and the emptiness returning to her mind, a lingering scent of youth seemingly still present in her nostrils. She chuckled softly and said:

"Dad, I'm fine."

Ryusuke Muryōtō frowned and said:

"Aside from the very beginning of your military service, I've never seen you in such poor mental condition. Your problems are serious. Notify the higher-ups to prepare for the handover."

"You need rest and enough time to investigate the problems you have now."

Seeing her distracted expression, he continued:

"Do you remember our promise? You can pursue your ideals and visions, fight for them, strive for them, and abandon the shackles of common sense. I won't stop you, but when you have time to rest and need to rest, you can't be so hasty anymore."

Himeko looked up at the man; his tall, upright figure, like a pine tree, made his fine gray linen suit appear even more sophisticated. Only his loose bow tie and the two unbuttoned shirt buttons hinted at a casual style.

At this moment, his eyes were lowered, and his pupils, which were similar in color to his own, fell into the sunlight, like ancient resin being dug out from the dark rock strata and seeing the light of day again.

It contains complex yet pure emotions that make one want to recount them one by one.

She suddenly felt a mix of amusement and warmth, like when she was in elementary school and tripped over a stone slab at the alley entrance.

Her father immediately dropped his schoolbag and briefcase, hurriedly helped her up, and carefully and quietly asked her if she was hurt and where she felt pain. After all the fuss, he didn't let her go to school the next day, but instead took a day off and took her to an amusement park and a watchtower.

Although I was forced to do double the homework the next day, I was still very happy.

Himeko felt valued and loved, which is the best gift for a young child.

The same is true now. Even though the changes in perception are still like a persistent, intractable disease, this warmth is still transmitted clearly to a certain part of the heart, just as it was back then, encouraging the will to burn brightly again and resist the missionary's [seductive] power.

We cannot admit defeat.

Even though that sliver of hope vanished the moment she saw Ryusuke Muryōtō, Himeko still refused to give up. Countless experiences of being pulled back from the brink of death had given her an incredibly strong will, which meant that the missionary's goal had not yet been truly achieved.

Himeko looked at his concerned eyes and the graying temples, and said helplessly:

"I will temporarily hand over the work to my adjutant."

The man breathed a sigh of relief, stroked her vibrant red hair, and whispered:

"You've always had the same personality as your mother since you were little. Sometimes I'm happy that you're so much like her, but I'm also worried about it."

Ryusuke Muryōtō smiled, took out a comb from his pocket to tidy his slightly messy red hair, gazed at her face for a moment, and said softly:

"But no matter what, you are our treasure."

This should have been a poignant statement, but it sounded somewhat melancholic as a sudden gust of wind blew. His dark brown hair swayed slightly, his eyes were deep and gentle, and the way his lips parted was just as it had always been.

The cicadas' chirping grew increasingly noisy in the height of summer, as if they were making their last stand. Suddenly, an immense pressure seemed to cover everything, like a distorted fog enveloping the world, or perhaps like a suffocating ocean crashing down.

The storm swept through, accompanied by deafening roars.

Honkai, eruption.

Ryusuke Muryōtō's face froze like a sculpture, purple lines spreading from the blue veins on his neck. He coughed violently involuntarily, and dark blood dripped from his lips.

Ignoring the sudden, amplified buzzing in her mind, Himeko gritted her teeth, suppressing all despair and terror, and retrieved the Anti-Honkai Potion from the recess in the self-extending armor. With her trembling hands, she began to inject it.

The cold mist sprayed from the fingertips that held the medicine, and the ejected needle pierced the skin, causing the spiderweb-like purple patterns to gradually fade.

If we can successfully withstand the initial erosion, we'll have at least another hour.

Su Qing'an, who recently received my message, should be on his way. With the Black Abyss White Flower in his hand, the despairing Honkai Infection and organ damage of the past will no longer be fatal problems.

So there is still hope.

There is still hope.

Himeko continued to subconsciously resist the soul erosion that had already descended, but she could not pay attention to the chaotic crowd around her, nor could she notice the Honkai Beast and Zombie that were gradually being born. She simply held the man's face quietly, her tired expression swallowed by sorrow and anxiety, turning into tranquility.

But reality did not grant her any lingering hope; the unsent text message only fueled her despair, shaping the ending into a silent finale.

In the thirteenth second after the Honkai truly erupted, the Honkai Energy ocean that spanned the entire continent of Australia halted its outward expansion and instead flowed upstream, frantically converging around her, like the particles of everything gathering there.

Regardless of one's own will, the trend towards Herrscherization is irreversible.

The scorching temperature rose silently, and the intense white flames engulfed the entire Sydney International Airport. Whether they were passersby who became the Zombie, survivors who were lucky enough to survive, or even the Honkai Beast that were born one after another, they all dissolved in the magnificent flames and disappeared into the dreamlike pure white.

The man's light brown hair withered and turned to ash, the glasses perched on his nose vanished, and his slightly dull skin, along with his flesh and bones, burned away. The face he held in his hands, his Amber eyes, and the smile on his lips all perished in the intense heat, leaving nothing but [Ashes].

Also, I hope...

The woman's expectations were dashed in an instant. Her eyes were empty as she stared blankly at the emptiness in her arms, murmuring:

"Dad?"

The will, pushed to its limit, finally snapped completely under layers of scheming and torment.

Himeko's consciousness was seized from the void of her mind, and she was thus swallowed and controlled by the god known as Honkai.

The pure white flames, like a surging ocean, instantly peeled away into threads, merging into the body that was no longer covered by fabric. The endless Honkai Energy currents merged with the core, and the woman, now a puppet, opened her Amber eyes, gazing indifferently at the magnificent scene of the world slowly burning.

The sixth minute of the Honkai outbreak.

The Seventh Herrscher is born.

[Legend has it that God sent down a great fire, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.]

[Without Lot in Australia, they would all turn into pillars of salt, until the last one is reduced to black dust, purified into a world in Honkai. That barren, burnt-out land would be our ideal homeland.]

Australia, Moth to Fire Division.

At this moment, on the third floor of the underground laboratory.

The soldiers, who should have remained in place to guard and patrol, instead uniformly carried their issued pulse weapons and, led by their squad leader who had permission to access the lower levels, entered the elevator in unison, progressing through each floor to the deepest part.

Upon reaching the final floor, a solid steel door, with its gear-like, interlocking knobs, blocked all escape routes, making the dozens of soldiers feel somewhat out of place in this vast, empty chamber.

But it would be somewhat ridiculous if these soldiers, who shouldn't be here, were actually stopped by a gate. The expressionless girl pressed the signal jammer she had prepared beforehand, temporarily cutting off the portal system connected to Prometheus.

This is a method that will never work again once it's used. As a super artificial intelligence, Prometheus possesses terrifying evolutionary and self-checking abilities, but that doesn't matter; it only needs to succeed once.

With the silent interference, the Soul Steel Gate, now devoid of higher-level system control, was left with only the most rudimentary iris and fingerprint recognition system.

The girl removed her colored contact lenses, revealing eyes that were almost identical to Mei's violet hue. This allowed her to pass the initial scan and recognition. She then removed her gloves and placed her palms on the surface of the Soul Steel, fooling the recognition system once again.

This is the result achieved through highly advanced cloning technology combined with transplantation.

The Soul Steel gate slowly opened, and this suicide squad, deliberately created by missionaries in Australia, silently filed in. As everyone inside turned their heads, they all pulled the triggers without hesitation.

But the result was a silent blank shot; the dozens of pulse waves that should have appeared seemed like an April Fool's joke, as they all readily chose to break the contract.

This was the expected outcome. Even though Mei herself was unaware of the missionaries' true existence, the Yakarta incident still provided her with the possibility of internal rebellion. All weapons and even armor were equipped with the highest authorization, and would automatically shut down when clearly directed at Mei herself.

Prometheus himself possessed secondary authorization for all of this weaponry, so any attempt to carry out this assassination attempt by using the weapons of the Moth to Fire was doomed to failure from the start.

However, the missionary's cautious and cunning nature is evident in her treatment of Himeko. She is eager to absorb the wisdom of civilization itself, can readily accept and perfectly utilize the power of emotions, and prefers to use the power of humanity itself to harm humanity. She is an excellent hunter who naturally possesses the power to overturn the world.

Flora understood, of course, that a pure pulse gun wasn't enough to buy the life of a genius scientist who could betray Australia's top leader and indirectly help Su Qing'an obtain the perfect Stigmata.

In reality, the nano-armor that spread between the soldiers' bodies had begun to lock all joints and shut down all mobility. The internal structure ejected anesthetic needles and forcibly injected them into the veins, directly plunging the soldiers' consciousness into darkness.

This was a ridiculous rebellion. The bombs hidden inside the teeth and internal organs were exposed under Prometheus's scan. The trigger mechanism failed to be established under the rapid countermeasures and was wrapped up one by one in the melted soul steel.

Mei is definitely not some insignificant character who can be killed easily. Not to mention the success of the Fusion Warrior and the Divine Key Project, her level of protection was already at the top level that the entire civilization could achieve before that.

No one understands better than the higher-ups what these brilliant scientists, who are constantly breaking through barriers in their fields, mean to the current crumbling civilization. Even if it means allocating a lot of resources and power to ensure the safety of the other side, they are still happy to do so.

This is easy to understand. In peacetime, people would naturally mind if someone took a slice of their cake. But when the cake itself is rotting at any moment, only a fool would cling to these worthless bubbles.

The fact that the girl possessed a top-tier Miniature Battleship demonstrates just how much importance the higher-ups placed on her safety, and the fact that Prometheus, a forbidden AI that was so advanced in the world that it could be used to rebel at will, was never criticized further illustrates this point.

Times change, circumstances change, and so do bottom lines and tolerance levels.

To assassinate a target, one must understand the target's identity, background, behavioral logic, capabilities, and power. The missionary could not possibly be unaware of the subtle difficulties involved in using human technology to combat Mei, or even to kill him.

The reasons it chooses to do this are partly because success or failure doesn't matter—watching humans kill each other is inherently interesting—and partly because it has other means.

Dozens of soldiers' soul-derived power links melted away on their own, providing a medium for the spread of Honkai Energy. The special wavelength disrupted the armor's self-checking system and violently caused the Honkai Energy reactor inside to explode.

The continuous flow of liquid soul steel silenced the incessant roaring in the sealed space. Mei frowned as she watched this scene, her gaze deep and unsettling.

The girl almost instantly connected the incident to the unprovoked rebellion that occurred in Yakarta. Aside from the fact that the incident itself was very special, the reason she remembered it so vividly was that it was very close to the time of her first phone call with Su Qing'an.

She understood that this was undoubtedly the result of external interference. The soldiers who could work in the underground basement were all elites selected from hundreds of candidates. Their identities, families, and past backgrounds had all undergone layers of screening, and regular psychological testing had never been missed. There was no plausible logic to a collective betrayal without a reason.

If Mei could see the files Himeko had stored in the cloud at this moment, she would immediately understand who was behind it. But even if she didn't know who the person was, it didn't change the fact that the assassination had failed.

But as mentioned at the beginning, it saw the missionaries' plan as feasible.

The severing of dozens of power links not only allows Honkai Energy to obtain the corresponding medium, but also allows the power of [Bewitchment] itself to be released remotely from the spot.

No matter how talented Mei is, even with her extraordinary willpower, it will be impossible for her to conduct normal research under the interference of the powers.

As long as this terrifying talent is abolished, her life or death becomes irrelevant.

However, all these plans must be based on a single logic.

That is, Su Qing'an is not by Mei's side.

The boy glanced at the strange soul fluctuation that had caused it; its power, like a bolt of lightning, swept across the entire space. A mournful wail briefly passed by, then vanished without a trace...