The End...? / Disappearance

But this time the commotion wasn't near Himiko. She instantly realized it was directed at Dessidobia, and when she turned around, she saw a bloody gash torn open on Dessidobia's shoulder and elbow.

"Dessidobia!"

"Captain..." Dessidobia managed to raise her gun and fire, but her soul was no longer in that position. She weakly fell backward, collapsing to the ground, her eyes darting around. "That person... is trying to escape..."

Upon hearing Dessidobia's reminder, Himiko caught a glimpse of the Speaker stealthily approaching the rift torn open in the soul.

He wanted to jump out of the transport plane and detonate the bomb!

The Armed Puppet activated its thermal scan, but she couldn't directly fire at the soul because Himiko and Dessidobia were still inside the transport plane. Calculations showed that if she fired indiscriminately and caused the transport plane to crash, the mortality rate for these two people would be over 90%.

She could only keep pinpointing the soul's location, but the soul's movement speed was beyond her calculations, completely surpassing the level of humans.

Himiko forward, grabbing the edge with one hand to block the wide mouth, and reached out with the other to grab the Speaker: "Don't even think about escaping!"

Escape? No... this is an attack!

A glint flashed in the Speaker's eyes, and he instantly changed direction, skillfully dodging Himiko's arm, and reached out to grab the Phase Transfer Device in the Armed Puppet's hand.

"Bass!"

Himiko on the greatsword, slashing upwards at the chairman's abdomen, trying to force him to retreat.

The sharp blade can easily slice through the shell of Honkai Beast. Countless Honkai Beast and Honkai zombie have died by this blade, so a fragile human body can be cut in half with just a light touch.

However, the speaker seemed not to see the sword at all, and showed no intention of stopping. He leaped forward with all his might, and his thigh crashed directly into the blade.

"What..."

Blood splattered from the cross-section of the thigh, exposing the entire internal structure of the thigh and some purple streaks to the air, which stunned Himiko.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

The man whose leg had been severed didn't even glance at his broken leg. He grabbed the blanket on the floor with both hands and roared as he reached for the Phase Transfer Device.

Without the slightest hesitation.

End of Chapter Fifty-Nine...?

Himiko was unable to stop the Speaker's sudden and reckless attack, and Dessidobia had already lost her fighting ability. With Soul lurking outside the transport plane, she could only watch helplessly as the Speaker reached for the device that symbolized victory.

My fingertip touched the Phase Transfer Device.

However, before the Speaker could even feel a surge of joy, the red-haired Armed Puppet's mechanical eyes instantly targeted him. An unimaginable force, disproportionate to her petite frame, emanated from the other end of the device. She grabbed the Phase Transfer Device and swung it violently, sending the Speaker flying.

"Bang!"

After the Speaker crashed into the bottom of the cabin, Soul's claws once again attacked the Armed Puppet like a ghost. This time, she jumped back into the cabin, grabbed the Armed Puppet's assault rifle with one hand, and crushed it into a lump of scrap metal with a forceful squeeze.

The Armed Puppet immediately drew its tactical dagger and stabbed at Hun's abdomen. However, it was just a hastily developed new technology. Hun might find it troublesome to use a human wave tactic, but a single Armed Puppet did not have much adaptability. After she dodged the dagger, she bound her index finger with her claws and pierced through Hun's abdomen, pinning it to the ground.

The Armed Puppet struggled, sparks flying from its damaged parts, causing its main control system to malfunction and the light in its eyes to gradually fade.

Soul took the Phase Transfer Device from her hand and gazed at Himiko from afar.

So, only Soul and Himiko remained on the field. Dessidobia's wound was so deep that the bone was visible, and she was close to her heart. She had already fainted and was in danger of dying if she was not rescued in time.

Caught off guard, the speaker was thrown into the air, his spine broken. He lost all feeling in his lower body and lay panting on the ground, staring at the soul.

"You can program the new signal now." Soul kicked aside the completely damaged Armed Puppet at his feet and said to the chairman behind Himiko.

Upon hearing this, the Speaker immediately took out the detonation device and began rewriting the code. How could Himiko just stand by and watch? She immediately bent down and grabbed the Speaker's neck with one hand, but a cold wind came from behind, forcing her to let go and dodge.

After Himiko to retreat, Soul coughed and steadied himself against the howling wind, the already precarious transport plane swaying precariously, on the verge of crashing at any moment.

Just now, outside the cabin, part of the fabric of her clothes was torn by the wind pressure, and the exposed skin was covered with twisted and mutated pinkish-purple lines.

Himiko gazed silently at the lines.

"There's nothing to worry about. It's just that using this thing caused my already dangerous Honkai Energy erosion rate to turn into genuine Honkai Sickness." Soul calmly put the Phase Transfer Device on his hand. "This is also one of the reasons why Lin was eroded. It's just that I used a more brutal method, which made my Honkai Energy erosion rate increase rapidly."

"But ironically, my Honkai Energy erosion rate has exceeded the threshold due to my unrestrained abuse, even higher than Lin's. Yet, I only have some organ abnormalities, and my bodily functions have been strengthened by the Honkai Energy."

Lin was heading towards death after the erosion rate exceeded 15%, but she was completely different from Lin.

Even the Speaker can withstand a higher level of Honkai Energy erosion than Lin.

Why does tragedy always seem to befall... him?

"Kon, it's not too late." Himiko's eyes were firm. She knew that Kon was now the enemy. If Himiko hesitated, it would lead to the deaths of many soldiers and High Council. This was not the time for sentimentality, and she had no intention of persuading Kon.

She was merely the last, as a captain, to remind Soul.

"It's too late." Soul raised its claws, its short hair whipping wildly in the wind, its blood-red eyes reflecting Himiko's face. "Will stopping now make Lin heal? Will my sins be washed away? Will the dead... come back?"

"Those who died, those we killed, we bear the weight of their lives on our shoulders..." The man walked ahead, his shadow stretched long by the sunset.

Standing in the sunset, she cautiously stole glances at the man with bandages wrapped around his neck, the red-haired woman who was acting silly, and the shy gray-haired girl standing beside him.

The father lying in a pool of blood, the mother turning into a monster and dying under the scythe, the Fifth Branch burning in the flames with billowing smoke.

A man in the quiet moonlight, with repulsive purple lines, his trembling hand clutching a medical report.

Corpses left behind in the collapsed city, sinners dying with their eyes wide open in the conference room, and oneself grinning in the mirror.

Countless images flashed before my eyes, and all love and hate vanished without a trace.

All of this is in the past, and it will never be in the future.

"Bang!"

The two attacked simultaneously. The short-haired girl's claws stabbed towards the red-haired woman's face, while the latter did not dodge at all, but merely tilted her head and delivered a counter punch to the girl's face.

Even considering the weapon girl's longer reach, she would have struck the woman first. However, the woman moved her feet, dodging the blade to the side, and slammed the fist—enough to shatter the girl's facial bones and finger bones—where it was meant to go.

However, the attack missed, and the girl disappeared before their eyes.

Behind her, a girl leaped out of the void, her arms crossed, her claws gleaming with a cold light, ready to tear the woman to shreds in the next second.

The woman subtly curled the corners of her lips into a smile.

She stepped on the unnoticed greatsword once more, and the rebounding blade struck the claws precisely.

"Varied--"

The attack was thwarted, and even if the force was enough to break through the barrier and continue cutting the woman apart, that moment of stagnation was fatal for the girl.

The red-haired woman's long hair danced in the air, passing through the girl's eyes, before an enlarged elbow loomed from behind the hair.

"Bang!"

Himiko watched expressionlessly as the soul slowly collapsed to the ground.

"Impressive, Captain Himiko..." The Speaker watched this scene with a cold smile. His hand movements had stopped, indicating that he had completed the new code. Pressing it would detonate all the bombs, including those on this transport plane.

Himiko did not immediately step forward, fearing that she would provoke him and cause him to explode. She could only coldly say, "Stop."

"Hmm...that's right. Now we should talk about the terms and discuss what we can use to exchange for the lives of those scum and the soldiers..." The Speaker nodded with a smile, then immediately changed his expression and said, "But I refuse."

He pressed it without hesitation!

"Boom!"

A beam of light pierced through the machine, the intense heat melting the steel and burning the Speaker's arm to ashes.

The scorching heat curled his hair, and he stared blankly at his charred elbow, now missing his forearm, gazing aimlessly into the empty space.

Two Titans are flying outside the cabin, one of which has its guns pointed at the transport plane, indicating that it was the one that launched the attack earlier.

"Autonomous Titan." He suddenly laughed. "The very creation I proposed has stopped me. This is truly..."

Without any warning, the speaker's eyes rolled back, and he fell out of the hole, plummeting towards the water.

Chapter Sixty Disappearance

"I barely made it."

May watched the Titans' status updates distributed on the screen, having Prometheus Unit 2 integrate the information and focus on finding details about the Squad Five.

Hua quietly stood by, and after defeating the rebels who were blocking her way, she watched as Mei activated all the Titans, and then learned from Mei that most of the squads had been rescued.

Mei remained completely expressionless throughout, her composure frightening. She even had time to adjust the Titans' modes to make it easier for them to rescue squads in different areas.

Such reliable decision-making is enough to make anyone admire it.

But...

"Is there anything you'd like to ask?"

As Hua looked up, Mei finished processing the message, turned to look at her, and after a moment of silence, Hua asked, "Doctor Mei, did you already have this plan in mind?"

"What?"

"After this happened, you immediately had me bring you here, and everything you did was too...smooth, even the adjustments to Titan," Hua said. "It's like you had already thought about what to do, guessed what would happen...no, that's just my overthinking."

She shook her head to clear her mind of these distracting thoughts. She wasn't a particularly thoughtful person to begin with, so she simply thought her sudden idea was an overreaction.

If I hadn't protected Doctor Mei, she probably wouldn't have thought of activating Titan.

"..."

Mei didn't say anything either.

She glanced at the screen thoughtfully.

"It's finally over..." Himiko sighed softly after bandaging the unconscious Dessidobia.

The assassination of High Council members and the betrayal of some members—even the Honkai had never caused such great losses to the Firemoth. Perhaps humans really are the most adept creatures at internal strife.

Titans held up transport planes that had lost their ability to fly. These were controlled by the simplest Artificial Intelligence and were uniformly commanded by Prometheus Unit 2, but at this moment, it was May, far away at headquarters, who was manipulating their behavior.

When exactly did their souls begin to go in completely different directions from theirs?

Himiko felt an overwhelming weariness welling up inside her, as if it were about to crush her.

How can I tell Lin, who has returned to the Moth of Fire, all of this now? No... can Lin still return to the Moth of Fire?

It's like this again...

My teammates have disappeared again...

Himiko down, picked up the greatsword, slung it over her back, and sat heavily in the chair, wearily covering her face.

In this counter-insurgency attack, more than half of the High Council were killed or wounded again, and less than a quarter of the original number remain. The headquarters' combat personnel lost one-fifth of their strength, including traitors.

Those traitors who were not killed on the spot were tortured and imprisoned in the Deepest Place, but this was also a loss for the Moths of the Flame.

Did the Speaker's plan fail?

The remaining quarter of the High Council can still take charge and maintain the status quo, so the cleanup plan can be considered a failure.

But what meaning will this massive cleanup plan be given?

Will the remaining High Council remember that one of them chose to kill them all in order to change the Moth of Fire?

They feared that such incidents would happen again, so even though the plan failed, it was not a complete failure.

Will it be success or failure, bought with so many lives? Himiko didn't know. She only felt that she was about to fall asleep, and that she could forget everything as soon as she closed her eyes.

Fighting to the death with former subordinates—it turns out that's such an exhausting thing...

Her sleepy eyes glanced at the soul on the ground, and the next second she instantly opened her eyelids and woke up, shivering.

It's gone.

The soul that Himiko unconscious has disappeared!

"Thump..."

The speaker awoke from his slumber with a splitting headache, his listless eyes staring at the ceiling above him.

My memory is still stuck on the second before I fell into the sea.

Weightlessness, burning sensation in the hands, leg pain...

Consciousness returned to this body, and the ignored pain began to haunt him again. The speaker gagged twice but couldn't even cough up blood.

He used his only remaining hand to prop himself up on the floor and looked around blankly.

This is also a transport plane, and its design resembles that of a moth drawn to flames.