Full Strength / "She"

One detail made the Speaker very uneasy: his blood turned black first and then disappeared. Although the process was extremely short, it did happen. And it was that detail that gave him a terrifying idea.

The speaker used his remaining right hand to draw a dagger he carried with him and cut a bloody chunk of flesh from his charred left arm. The piece of flesh was about half the size of his palm, so that he could see the experiment that was about to begin.

He took a couple of breaths, but breathing became increasingly difficult after the flesh was cut off. The pain of having a piece of flesh ripped off was nothing compared to the challenge of maintaining consciousness.

He knew that closing his eyes could mean death, and he refused to die before he could unravel the true nature of the Black Mist.

"Okay... record this, first experiment..." The speaker muttered a sentence to himself, his teeth chattering as he threw the fresh piece of meat in his hand into the Black Mist.

He plunged a knife into his shoulder, forcing himself to keep his eyes wide open, not wanting to miss any of the following details.

"Sizzle—"

His bloodied eyes were fixed on the dark, despairing Black Mist.

"..."

"..."

"So that's how it is..."

The speaker forced a smile.

Is it retribution?

If this saying is true, then now is the time for it to come true.

At this moment, the "soul," with its eyes tightly closed, twitched its fingers violently, a sign that it was about to awaken.

As for what wakes up, whether it's a soul or something else... the Speaker no longer cares.

He stared silently at a device in Soul's hand, then looked up at the cockpit, which seemed like an insurmountable chasm.

"Drop--"

Lin put the pistol back into its holster after checking it, and looked at the communicator with his clear, dark eyes. It showed that it was a call from Spasi.

Is there anything else that hasn't been explained?

The first thing you see after pressing the call button is Spasi's grim expression, "Lin, this is an emergency communication transferred to you. There's no time to explain. The Fifth Branch is already preparing a plan to subdue the Sixth Herrscher."

"..."

The Sixth Herrscher...

From dealing with the rebellion to preparing to attack the Sixth Herrscher, less than an hour had passed...

Lin said nothing; he simply nodded silently, remaining calm, and asked Spasi to transfer the call.

Spasi's face disappeared from the screen, replaced by... an unfamiliar smiling face.

Lin had only seen this face once, and his impression of it was that of a politician with a smile that concealed a knife. They never saw it again after that.

However, the familiar feeling that was so intense that it made his heart race now occupied his entire mind.

"Hehehe... If Doctor Spacy hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have believed you left Dusk Street." The man's face was pale, with disgusting lines spreading from his neck to the corners of his eyes, and the muscles on the lower half of his face were loose and sagging, like deformed fat.

But he still smiled, maintaining his usual demeanor, with the composed and unhurried expression characteristic of politicians.

"It seems you already know everything, so I'll skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point."

"The Sixth Herrscher is on this transport plane. Her true identity is the former member of the Squad Five, Soul."

The speaker and Lin stared at each other, their two dark, unfathomable eyes watching each other's expressions.

The speaker could not see Lin's emotions; sadness, anger, shock, pain... all remained beneath that stagnant surface, unfathomable and without any trace.

The speaker smiled with satisfaction.

"MSA-079, this is the last order I give you. At any cost, including your own life, defeat the Sixth Herrscher." He enunciated each word clearly and distinctly. "The Sixth Herrscher's ability is to accelerate the apoptosis of living cells, and it also has the potential to corrode Non-biological entity matter. It manifests as a black gas that automatically spreads when the user is unconscious. It can pass through objects to some extent, and its movement is unknown."

After catching his breath, the Speaker sneered at Lin and said, "No matter what our identities were before, you are now just a soldier of the Fire Moth. Compared to stopping the Honkai, your life is worthless."

Do you understand?

"You could have crashed the transport plane to delay the Sixth Herrscher's actions, so why did you still let it fly automatically towards the Fifth Branch?"

After the Speaker ended his communication with Lin, Spasi angrily questioned the Speaker.

"Why... Doctor Spacy, I remember the Fifth Branch's research on the Honkai Sickness Serum was nearing its end, right? How much is it going to finish?"

"... I don't know. Maybe only one sample of serum is needed, or maybe a hundred or a thousand. The dosage required to reach the stage of qualitative change is unpredictable."

"Very good."

The Speaker's ominous smile startled Spasi. He continued, "With the current medical technology of the Fire Moth, even someone as severely injured as me can be pulled back from the brink of death, except for this nasty Honkai Sickness."

"You—" In an instant Spasi understood the Speaker's plan.

"So now you know why I still sent the transport plane to the Fifth Branch?" The Speaker's smile grew increasingly exaggerated.

"Do you know?"

"Do you know that?!"

Tearing away all pretense of refinement and gentleness, he roared madly in a terrifying voice, like a true monster.

"I can't die here! I can't perish together with the Sixth Herrscher! I must live! I must live to the Fifth Branch!"

Human selfishness finally stripped this demon of all reason.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: All-Out Effort

"The Sixth Herrscher has been born."

Mei's fingers, which were typing code on the keyboard, paused for a moment.

Vill-V emerged slowly from the shadows behind her, her magician's hat still in her hand.

After a brief pause, May ignored Vill-V and continued working, replying calmly, "I have dispatched all the Titans to the campaign, and ordered one of my subordinates to participate in the campaign against the Sixth Herrscher."

"After the rest of the troops have finished reorganizing, they will also be deployed to the punitive expedition. Before that, the city's population will be evacuated, the combat personnel of the Fifth Branch will be gathered to hold back the Sixth Herrscher, and other branches will be dispatched to provide assistance."

At a time when headquarters has suffered a major blow, May's actions are standard and swift.

Vill-V couldn't find fault with her; this process was basically the procedure for every major Honkai, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she was a textbook example of command.

The Titan unit, specifically designed to deal with large-scale Honkai, have all set out. Having already achieved initial victory in suppressing the rebellion, the Titans will undoubtedly play their due role in this campaign.

Yes, as the highest achievement of the Firemoth in terms of technology, the Autonomous Titan, even if it is not as good as the TT-079 Kai piloted by Lin himself, is enough to easily crush most Honkai Beast.

But Vill-V suddenly asked, "Can the Titans successfully defeat the Sixth Herrscher?"

"I don't know. Titans were never designed to be used to defeat Herrscher."

The cold glow of the screen illuminated Mei's face, and her thick glasses reflected a pale light, obscuring her eyes.

"Its weapons and armor are mostly designed to fight against large Honkai Beast, that is, 'behemoths' of the same size, rather than 'gods' of human size. Even though Lin once used Titan to defeat the Fourth Herrscher, that does not prove that Titan has any advantage when defeating Herrscher."

After listening to May's analysis in silence, Vill-V dusted off her magician's hat, put it on, and pulled the brim down low. "Perhaps I asked the wrong question. Let me ask another one, Doctor Mei..."

"Will you 'help' the Titans successfully defeat the Sixth Herrscher?"

"..."

After these words were spoken, all was silent.

With an unprecedentedly cold expression, Vill-V stared at Mei's retreating figure. She didn't know when that seemingly thin and quiet figure had become so terrifying in her eyes.

She had already witnessed people being killed in order to protect humanity.

The characters in "The Moth That Chases Flame" are all capable of using any means necessary to achieve their goals, and what's most chilling is that they all share a single objective.

Protect humanity.

"I programmed Prometheus Unit 2 with the principle of human supremacy."

Just as the atmosphere was about to drop below zero, Mei's calm words made Vill-V's tightly furrowed brows relax for a moment.

"You are someone who witnessed the birth of Prometheus Unit 2, so you know very well that Prometheus Unit 2 will not do anything to harm humanity. Even if its calculation mode eventually falls into fallacy, it will not lead to a conclusion that rebels against humanity."

Mei turned around, her overly long white robe falling to her ankles. She pointed to the spot beside Vill-V and chuckled, "Prometheus Unit 2 is currently commanding the Titan unit. I have only one order for it: to fight the Sixth Herrscher at all costs and protect humanity. You can come here to check if I have entered any extra orders."

After thinking for a second, Vill-V decisively walked to the screen, skillfully opened the Prometheus program, and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the result that was exactly the same as what Mei had said.

She had indeed witnessed the birth of Number Two firsthand, and knew its operating rules all too well.

At least this time, May did allow it to fight the Sixth Herrscher with all its might without endangering humanity.

"May, you don't seem surprised by what I just said." Vill-V glanced at May, unusually abandoning her eccentric way of speaking, and spoke in a more rational manner than May. "Then can I assume that you installed a backdoor on Unit-01 to monitor everything that happens to her?"

"As an engineer, isn't your favorite thing to do to put backdoors in your own work?"

May did not give a direct answer, but her words implicitly admitted to what she had done.

So Vill-V asked directly, "Am I right? Did you make a deal with that person? Did you know the truth but just watch it all happen?"

"Most of it is correct, but I must clarify one point: I did not have any deal with that person; he simply informed me unilaterally," Mei replied calmly. "And I chose to stand by and see what happens next."

"..."

"Even if he hadn't launched the rebellion, this internal strife would have broken out sooner or later. It just wouldn't have happened now, but rather at the most critical moment for humanity, when humanity's nerves were stretched to the limit and all the problems of the Fire-Chasing Moth were exposed. That would have inevitably led to the current situation."

Is it just a casual remark?

This woman, now past adulthood and increasingly mature with her long, dark hair, used the simplest language to describe the cold, cruel truth.

"So he told me that rather than letting the toxicity erupt in my later years when it was irreversible, it would be better to cut off the tumor first. Although I did not agree with all his plans and ideas of control, I had no reason to refuse, nor did I have the opportunity to refuse."

"Everything else is pretty much as you said."

Mei's demeanor was so calm it was almost inhuman. Even amidst the Sixth Honkai War outbreak and the internal and external troubles, she maintained her most rational appearance.

"...You didn't accept all of his ideas, which is why you ultimately terminated his plan." Vill-V had reconstructed the original events, but another matter was still troubling her. "So, can I assume that your emotions led you to decide to let the Titans carry out their normal campaign against the Sixth Herrscher?"

Even though he commanded Lin with the strictest orders and had made him risk everything in the fight against the Herrscher, he still allowed him to spend his last moments with Lin.

Is this what Mei has left of her sentimentality?

"... If I can save this world with my emotions, if love and justice can defeat the Herrscher, I will unleash all my emotions, and all the emotions of humanity."

"But that's impossible."

Mei's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Vill-V's head, sending a chill down her spine.

"Dr. Vill-V, in your opinion, how should a person's greatest value be reflected? Is it by holding back in a battle for the survival of humanity, or by giving it your all?"

Clearly, only by exerting every effort can one realize the full value of something.

"So, what if you tried your best but still lost?"

Chapter Seventy "She"

The transport plane hovered steadily at an altitude of nearly 100 meters.

With alluring red eyes gazing out the window at the scenery below, "she" reached out a hand towards a tiny part of the city below.

"Despair."

The transparent glass blocked "her" fingers. After a hesitant silence, "she" looked at the Black Mist around her, which seemed both real and unreal, and was floating in the air.

With a thought, the Black Mist receded entirely into her body, which allowed "her"...

Surprise.

She could sense the destructive power within the Black Mist, yet she could manipulate it at will. Furthermore, she possessed another, entirely different energy within her body, radiating vibrant life.

Great, that way we can...

Her joy lasted for less than half a second on her delicate face.

So what...?

My head hurts so much... There's something I can't remember...

It took her a while to recover from her headache, but she couldn't remember what she had forgotten.

Most importantly, "she" needs to remember something related to someone...

Finally, "her" gaze fell on a part of the city outside the transport plane.