The First Injection / "Lin" and Lin

Lin uttered those words indifferently.

Another Honkai zombie has appeared.

She used all her reason to suppress her impatience to tear the two Honkai zombie apart, recalling Lin's teachings: don't let emotions dominate the battle, but use the environment, advantages, and equipment to create conditions that allow you to use your strength to the maximum extent to break through the opponent's weaknesses.

Just as Lin guessed, she always considered herself a human being, and even though she possessed abilities that humans could not match, she was still limited by her own way of thinking.

Those two Honkai zombie were no ordinary people. She had launched an attack with full preparation, but the other Honkai zombie grabbed the first Honkai zombie and dodged the attack in the almost unbearable time.

Moreover, it was faster than her, and even though she was hit, she was not seriously injured.

The complex terrain around her created favorable conditions for her. She was able to move long distances using the Phase Transfer Device and was not limited by the terrain. Since the actions of the Honkai zombie were mostly predictable, she prepared to launch another surprise attack to kill the second, faster Honkai zombie.

The first Honkai zombie's body was only half its original size, making it much easier to deal with. However, the fact that the Honkai zombie could use a gun really surprised her.

The faint sense of unease didn't linger in her mind for even half a second before it was washed away. She thought of the person who had been killed, raised her hand and revived him. Seeing the exact same face, she breathed a sigh of relief and wanted him to go to safety.

In the very next second—

"Bang!"

Her nascent smile froze in her muscles.

The person in front of me fell straight down, and just as I was about to respond with a smile, he died again with a strange expression.

The dark bullet hole on his forehead was clearly made by that Honkai zombie.

Cruel.

The word popped into her mind.

The Honkai is so cruel, killing her companions time and time again.

Therefore, it is unforgivable.

With fire blazing in her eyes, she used Phase Transfer Device to leave her original position before the next bullet could be fired, appearing in front of the Honkai zombie who had fired the shot.

However, before she could raise her scythe, an almost transparent ice blade attacked her from a tricky angle, forcing her to retreat and defend herself.

"Bass!"

In the vibrant spring, the scent of death quietly spreads.

Chapter 84 The First Needle

"Bass!"

The timing and angle at which the knife appeared were extremely tricky. Even when she tried to pull back her strength at the fastest speed, she still couldn't completely block it. Not to mention the Sword Intent of the Honkai zombie wielding the knife, which was as fierce as that of a sword master, even the crippled and blind Honkai zombie raised his gun and pointed it at her forehead.

In this moment of crisis, she instinctively, as if in a stress response, used the power of death within her.

"Teng—"

The moment the Black Mist appeared around her, the Honkai zombie with the knife stopped attacking. This sudden withdrawal of the knife startled her, but it also gave her time to react and retreat. She immediately vanished into the void and disappeared without a trace.

Seeing that the Herrscher did not continue the pursuit as Lin had predicted, Sakura sheathed her sword to prevent the chill that she could not yet fully control from spreading further.

Their attack was a feint. Lin had warned Sakura that the Sixth Herrscher would emit Black Mist that could decompose the human body, so she never used her full strength from the beginning, in order to stop her sword in time and avoid hitting the Black Mist with too much force.

Even so, the chilling deathly aura she felt as she brushed past the Black Mist sent a shiver down her spine.

"Hahaha..."

As she was sweating profusely, Lin, who was kneeling on the ground with his hands supporting him, was breathing heavily, which drew her attention. But just one glance made her freeze for a moment.

A purple tumor bulged from Lin's left shoulder. The swollen blood vessels and disgusting lines looked particularly horrifying in the still pulsating tumor, and its deformed shape was something that could never appear on a human body.

"What's going on?" She hurried over, but was stopped by Lin's glance.

Lin lost sensation in his left shoulder, and a disorienting feeling that made him want to vomit came from his body. In the few seconds that he had been in close contact with the Herrscher without any protective gear, the rampant Honkai Energy had been activated in his body, causing his body to change again.

It is foreseeable that after this battle, his death will come as scheduled, and he will probably die as a disfigured, unrecognizable lump of flesh.

Lin's body has now become a Honkai Energy bomb that could explode at any time. If Sakura gets too close, he will also be corrupted by the Honkai Energy, so he prevents Sakura from getting too close to him.

"Sakura..." He forced back the strange feeling and managed to utter a sentence to Sakura, who didn't know what to do, "Cut off this lump of flesh..."

"Good."

Sakura didn't hesitate. She could tell that Lin's pain stemmed from the lump of flesh that was tearing his clothes, so she immediately drew out another standard-issue knife from the Moth Chaser.

With a flash of cold light, large chunks of flesh and blood were sliced off Lin's body, turning completely purple-pink and pooling into a small pool at their feet.

"Cough..." Lin's muscles relaxed, and he lay down in the pool of blood. The strange mass of flesh even twitched twice as if it still had a life force before stopping.

Sakura was shocked by the color of Lin's blood and the mass of flesh. Even though she didn't know about Honkai Sickness, she could tell that Lin's body was in trouble, "You... you should leave first. I can hold her off by myself."

Even if the flesh in the picture is a foreign object, it is still composed of Lin's flesh and blood. This is equivalent to cutting nearly a pound of flesh off his body. His left shoulder is directly missing an equivalent amount of flesh and blood, and the bare white bones are exposed to the air. The purple lines in it have become completely indistinguishable from the blood vessels.

"No..."

Sakura may have unparalleled skill in killing humans; no one in the entire Moth of Flames knows the weaknesses of the human body better than her. However, she has no experience in fighting Herrscher. Therefore, Lin cannot leave. Helping Sakura here is what he can do. Even if he dies, he will have completed his mission.

Lin Cong felt his body so heavy. He pulled his face out of the blood, and half of the soaked bandage came off his face, revealing a pair of weary eyebrows.

"You..." Sakura was speechless with surprise when she saw the upper half of Lin's face, because after this half of his face was revealed, his whole demeanor changed. His originally stern eyes became less sharp under the harmonization of his gentle eyebrows and nose, and Sakura even wondered if Lin had become a different person in that instant.

But now doesn't seem like the time to ask about this.

"... What's wrong?" After catching his breath, Lin took out the three doses of bright green potion from his body and asked, noticing Ying's hesitant expression.

"It's nothing." Sakura quickly shook her head like a rattle-drum, trying to change the subject by shifting the focus to the Sixth Herrscher. "Judging from your tone, you seem to be quite familiar with her... the Herrscher?"

"She was once my comrade-in-arms."

Lin removed the syringe stopper and pushed out the needle.

"She seems to still be conscious, so why can't she...?"

"Bass!"

Before Ying could speak, Lin inserted the syringe into the aorta in her neck right in front of her, and pushed all the medicine inside in one go.

This action caused Sakura to choke on her words. She watched as Lin painfully threw away the syringe, knelt on the ground coughing, and showed a hint of emotion on his face.

When they first met, Lin was in a wheelchair, and it didn't seem like she was faking it. Later, when she stopped her from assassinating Mei, she miraculously recovered, but she was still seriously injured by her. Now she still seems to be seriously ill.

It's as if this person never has a healthy day.

Sakura joined the Fire Moth for Rin's sake, but what about Rin? Was it for that little sister named Prometheus? But after becoming a member of Mei's newly formed Poisoned Cocoon, Mei told her that the little girl named Prometheus was just an Artificial Intelligence that assisted Rin.

"Cough cough..." The coughing gradually subsided, and Lin's eyes regained their clarity. However, the color of his single eye changed from its original quiet black to a somewhat bewitching emerald green. He stood up from the ground normally, showing no signs of anything amiss.

He picked up his cane and said to Sakura, "The fact that she retains consciousness is just an illusion, making her look not much different from when she was alive. In reality, the consciousness in that body has been replaced by the Herrscher consciousness that vents malice towards humanity without reservation."

"Right now, she is merely maintaining this disguise. In order to appear as she truly is, she will not use her powers to kill people indiscriminately, and even when she does use them, the scope will be limited. But once she sheds her disguise, she will transform into a natural disaster."

Do not hesitate or show any pity, otherwise you will be betraying the victims.

Lin had said this to Hun, and he would say it to himself as well, constantly reminding himself that no matter how similar they looked, they were not people he knew, but monsters who wanted to destroy humanity.

"An illusion..." Sakura murmured, recalling the chilling scene she saw when she entered the amusement park, in the place where the soldiers had disappeared.

It was a haunted house, literally an amusement park designed to scare people. All the objects inside were props like skulls, severed limbs, and pools of blood. But in the deepest part, Sakura saw a sight she would never forget.

The equipment of seven squads was piled up there, all the clothes and weapons were put together, but the people wearing them had vanished without a trace.

Chapter 85 "Forest" and Forest

An indescribable rage.

After she returned to her companions, this feeling of irritability surged through her mind.

"Lin, what did I not do? What should I do now?" she asked "Lin," who remained standing still, as if seeking his opinion or venting something.

"...Now you can use your power to kill them." "Lin" gave an answer, but it did not satisfy her.

With that kind of power?

She knew what that meant, but she thought that this force was far less effective than her own attacks in terms of both speed and destructiveness. Couldn't that Honkai zombie with the knife just dodge the Black Mist?

"You are resisting using your ability. You could use this power to kill all the Honkai zombie in the city."

"The whole city? No, what if there are still survivors in this city? Before reinforcements arrive... Ugh..."

She clutched her head in anguish halfway through her sentence, her long hair whipping around in pain.

"Survivors... are there really any survivors here..." she murmured to herself as the pain subsided. "I can't sense any living people in this city..."

The power of creation reminded her that there were no living creatures left in the city. In this area with a high concentration of Honkai Energy, all living things would be eroded by Honkai Energy. Even small insects would undergo unexpected mutations. It was not a place where living people could survive.

Moreover, judging from the extent of the damage, the Honkai attack must have lasted for at least several days. Even if there are any survivors, they should have been rescued by now.

Right... we can't let these Honkai zombie leave this city and endanger more people...

"That's right, it's for more people..."

She was still muttering to herself, but the expression on her face had changed. Black Mist was emanating from her body at an eerie speed, threatening to spread outwards.

However, in less than half a second, the Black Mist shrank back into her body.

She glanced at her companions around her with lingering fear, then shook her head and retorted, "They're still here. I can't do this; it will hurt them."

"... We can be resurrected by you."

"No! I can't... hurt again..." she screamed instinctively, but stopped halfway through, asking in confusion, "Can't... what?"

Something she had forgotten; some very important memories had vanished from her mind.

This time, she became aware of the blank space, but soon she stopped caring about it.

"Then let me do it."

"Lin" said to her.

Was that medication you just injected with?

"Um."

In a sense, it was indeed a drug that delayed the onset of the disease, but while it was helping Lin recover, it was also killing him. However, there is no need to make this clear. He would die from the erosion of Honkai Energy. The only difference between him and the injected drug was that one died by his own hand, and the other died by the Honkai.

As long as it gives him the ability to fight, he would drink even poison without batting an eye.

Sakura instinctively realized that this drug was no good, but she couldn't worry about that now. Her immediate priority was to understand the Sixth Herrscher and stop her. "Is the Sixth Herrscher's ability to launch a surprise attack and retreat also her power?"

"No, that's Phase Transfer Device, which works on the same principle as your Spatial Fracture Device. However, that device has a greater side effect, which can cause the user to be corroded by Honkai Energy and lose consciousness." Lin told Sakura the information without reservation. "But this side effect should be close to non-existent for Herrscher."

The biggest reason for the collapse of consciousness caused by using the Phase Transfer Device is that the void space of that device is a space composed of high concentrations of Honkai Energy. When human consciousness enters there, it will lose its five senses and will not be able to feel the flow of time. However, Herrscher are unlikely to experience this situation. Therefore, the Sixth Herrscher did not appear to have any abnormalities after using the Phase Transfer Device continuously.

"If possible, remove that device, then she will have no means of transfer."

Another consideration for the grappling hook was that Lin needed a way to move quickly. All his equipment was left at headquarters, so he couldn't move using his most common method. With his legs and feet disabled, he became a sitting duck after losing the grappling hook option.

"Also, be careful, it could be next time, or it could be the time after that... It might not just be Herrscher attacking us."

During each major Honkai, some Honkai Energy creatures are born under the call of their masters, the Herrscher. As Companion Honkai Beast of the guardians, each one is an Upper-class Honkai Beast at the pinnacle of Honkai Beast. It can be said that, apart from their powers, their destructive power surpasses that of the Herrscher.

The Sixth Herrscher is currently the most unique Herrscher. Not only does she consider herself a human, but she also cannot be detected to Honkai Energy. All that appears around her are Honkai zombie, not a single Honkai Beast.

It's important to know that while there are many variations of the Honkai zombie, it is completely inferior to the Honkai Beast in the Honkai zombie Honkai Energy spectrum. No matter how ferocious Honkai zombie is, it is not as terrifying as an ordinary Chariot-class Honkai Beast.

Thinking of the Fourth Herrscher's Emperor-class Honkai Beast, which arrived on the battlefield much later than she appeared, Lin guessed that the Sixth Herrscher's Companion Honkai Beast might have already been born somewhere in the world, and might even be on its way here.

What they were competing with the Sixth Herrscher was the speed of their respective reinforcements.

If headquarters' support arrives before the Sixth Herrscher fully realizes that she is a Herrscher, the Sixth Herrscher can be defeated at a relatively low cost. However, if Upper-class Honkai Beast arrives in advance, it will be a catastrophic disaster for the city.

Just then, the communication from the Fifth Branch rang again, and Lin answered it without hesitation.

"Lin, we have completed the evacuation of three-quarters of the population. There are no civilians around you. But there is one more thing you need to know. After you hear it, you can decide whether you want to evacuate or not."

Spasi's voice was calm. He looked at the rising curve on his screen and sighed, "Around you, there is a massive Honkai Energy reaction source that is rising."

"..."

A massive Honkai Energy source.

This statement implies that the Sixth Herrscher's Companion Honkai Beast has already been born, and is right around them.