Racing Against Time / Resurrection ...

The Sixth Herrscher heard laughter, all sorts of laughter, coming from those particles of light, as if there were many people in them.

"It is the light gathered by countless nameless pioneers, which can never appear in the light, but will only exist in the endless night."

"It may not be able to illuminate this darkness, but it will certainly guide those who come after it when they need it."

Lin released his hand, and the light particles gathered in his hand, transforming into a broad and thick sword blade.

Such a dull blade cannot cut through anything.

But it was the only thing that darkness could not devour; it was in Lin's hands, protecting him as he stood tall in the night.

"I don't need to be anyone. I'm just a human being, an anonymous person, and that's enough."

Lin's sword tip was pointed at the face of the Sixth Herrscher, who had completely collapsed.

"And you, you are truly nothing."

"Neither a soul nor Herrscher."

"You have no name and will not be remembered."

Chapter 111 Racing Against Time

"You're insane! If I die now, you'll die too. This time, there's no chance of surviving with your consciousness in that area!"

With her psychological defenses shattered, the Sixth Herrscher roared hysterically at Lin, her eyes filled with both uncontrollable rage and incomprehensible confusion.

As the Herrscher who is closest to humanity, she doesn't understand why Rin always makes such choices, why Kevin and Elysia would choose to shoot even though they would be saddened by Rin's passing, and why humans always perform fearless feats.

Despite her inhuman nature and her resemblance to humans, she still couldn't comprehend all of this.

"Listen carefully, Lin. Even if this body is destroyed, I can still live in the Herrscher Core, but your consciousness as a human will eventually be Honkai and disappear by the Honkai or become a new Herrscher consciousness."

"If you don't interfere with me, I can prevent your consciousness from being corrupted and allow you to coexist with me in this body. I can even use the Authority of Creation create a new vessel for you that is more perfect than your previous body, a body that will not be Honkai Energy and whose Honkai Energy Adaptability surpasses that of humans!"

"Do you understand? You and I are one now, so you are also Herrscher. Even if I separate you, I will not kill you. Think about it, Lin, do you really want to give up everything for those who have never done anything for you?"

The Sixth Herrscher gave a forced smile. She opened her arms as if to welcome Lin, who was holding a sword, and showed her goodwill to Lin with the most serene smile in her memory.

"In comparison, I'm better to you, aren't I? The soul's consciousness is one with mine, and there's not much difference between us, so I can understand you."

A faint glow illuminated Lin's face. The Sixth Herrscher's words caught in her throat as she stared at an inconspicuous particle of light that flew out of the sword, from which Soul's laughter emanated.

She is nothing.

These words echoed in her mind once again. Even though she couldn't understand this emotion that had no source, it didn't prevent her consciousness from wavering under the influence of these words.

"Do you really have to fight me to the death? Aren't the conditions I offered generous enough? Just because of... these people?" The Sixth Herrscher glared at the free-flowing particles of light, then shifted her gaze to Lin's icy expression.

A man with a gentle face, yet his gaze turned icy and sharp only when he looked at her.

"..."

Lin didn't even bother to talk to her; he seemed to be using his signature silence to mock the Sixth Herrscher.

One human wants to die, one Herrscher wants to live.

"We'll see."

The Sixth Herrscher's expression finally cooled down, and with a wave of her hand, a scythe appeared in her hand.

"Bass!"

Swords and scythes clashed and slashed, their metallic clashes echoing in this space of consciousness.

The Sixth Herrscher appeared several hundred meters away. She glanced down at her wounds, which showed no signs of healing. Kevin and Elysia had already spotted her and were chasing after her.

She had to deal with Lin first, but this little bit of time was not enough for her to defeat Lin's consciousness. It was almost impossible to break his willpower, which was like that of a dead man, on a mental level. She could only erode him and wear him down little by little.

So the Sixth Herrscher began to move towards the Fifth Branch, dodging the attacks from the two people behind her.

Because the use of her powers is restricted, which could potentially lead to unintended consequences, she will no longer use the Authority of Creation from now on.

She could attack using Honkai Energy, and Lin didn't seem to be able to interfere with that part. So, while flying, she would occasionally fire some condensed beams of Honkai Energy behind her to slow down their pace.

There was no back-and-forth fighting, only humans chasing the Herrscher who couldn't use his abilities. This trip was as fast as the Sixth Herrscher flying straight to Changkong City. In just a few minutes, he returned to the city where the Fifth Branch was located amidst the attacks of bullets and Honkai Energy.

The city was a scene of utter devastation, which the Sixth Herrscher had no interest in seeing. However, she noticed that as she left the city and the Honkai Energy was gradually depleted, no new Honkai zombie or Honkai Beast were being born. Furthermore, about two-thirds of the original Honkai creature had already been cleared out by the Titans and soldiers.

In other words, the Fifth Branch now has surplus troops to deal with her and the Giant Tree.

After discovering the porcupine's corpse, the Sixth Herrscher dodged the beam of light behind her with a dive, then Honkai Energy gathered in her hands to smash the monitor of the Titan that was guarding it, and landed next to the porcupine.

Ignoring the bewildered soldiers, her consciousness seeped into her body, driving the Authority of Creation with all her might.

"Whoosh~"

A large patch of branches grew from her arm, and the weight instantly crushed her. This was Lin interfering with the way her powers operated, but the Sixth Herrscher didn't care. Lin could do things that seriously affected her combat power, but he couldn't truly stop her from using her powers.

Just as he could use his Creation Authority to stop her Black Mist, but he couldn't directly prevent her from releasing the Black Mist.

With the use of its powers, the porcupine, which had been lifeless, actually stood up again, swaying, to everyone's horror. However, it did not howl, nor did it display the human-like intelligence it had before. Its eyes were dull, just like an ordinary Honkai Beast.

It was just a corpse. Even the Sixth Herrscher, who controls life and death, couldn't completely resurrect a living being. But she had no reason not to be able to bring something that was already dead back to life.

Their combat power will be lower than when they were alive, and they will no longer have intelligence, but they are still stronger than ordinary Honkai Beast.

With a wave of his hand, the Sixth Herrscher caused the porcupine to shrink into a ball and roll on the ground, crashing into the soldiers' defensive line, which was taking a short rest.

"Boom--"

The terrifyingly powerful spikes instantly carved a bloody path. After rolling a distance, the porcupine, unable to protect itself, was knocked to the ground by two other Titans, its abdomen and limbs completely blown apart, rendering it unable to move.

But that's enough.

The Sixth Herrscher glanced at Kevin, who had caught up, and his bullets seemed to have eyes, each one hitting her body with perfect accuracy.

He activated his shield, but it wasn't enough to completely stop the bullets, leaving several bullet holes in the skin of his feet.

It was Lin who was causing trouble. She could only use Phase Shift again. Under her forced manipulation, the device, which could not be used continuously, emitted some discordant noises, as if it had reached its operating limit.

The Sixth Herrscher appeared not far away. She rushed in through the blood path she had cleared, and then used a high concentration of Honkai Energy instantly break through the already dilapidated defense system of the Fifth Branch, which had been attacked by the Honkai Beast, and entered the interior.

The crimson in her eyes burned fiercely.

Where is Lin's body?

Chapter 112 Resurrection

Because Kevin and Elysia had already notified the Fifth Branch in advance while on their way to catch up, the members of the Fifth Branch had already been evacuated to the cleared area under Himiko's protection. However, they did not expect the Sixth Herrscher to arrive so quickly, which prevented Himiko from returning in time.

After entering the Fifth Branch Sixth Herrscher began frantically searching for Lin's body. Since she couldn't defeat him on a mental level, she decided to try an easier way.

A method she had already used.

Since Lin's consciousness can be transferred into the Herrscher Core, it is also possible to expel him. What is needed for this action is a container that can also accommodate consciousness.

The Sixth Herrscher had considered using the Creation Authority to create a frail body, but firstly, Lin's interference with the Creation Authority was particularly severe, so she couldn't create a body that could accommodate consciousness. Secondly, consciousness also has the concept of compatibility, which is why, apart from the blessing of Honkai, she always had the upper hand in her body.

To successfully drive him out, it's best to use his original body. This is similar to how animals can instinctively identify which of two similar habitats they usually live in.

Even if Lin's consciousness wanted to stay in the Herrscher Core, he had no choice but to make the decision due to the combined effects of the Herrscher Core's rejection and the attraction of his original body.

Once he returned to that frail body, she had a hundred ways to kill him again.

"I remember they said they were sending it back to the Fifth Branch." The Sixth Herrscher heard the noise of the soldiers storming the Fifth Branch, and she had to speed up her search for the body. Logically speaking, even if the Fifth Branch personnel retreated, they wouldn't have taken any extra things with them, so there was no point in transporting the body to a safe location. Therefore, the body should still be in the Fifth Branch.

With no one to stop her, and Sixth Herrscher's extraordinary sensitivity to living beings and corpses, she quickly found a room on one of the floors containing a large number of corpses. As the sound of pursuit grew closer beneath her feet, she did not hesitate to break through the door and enter the room filled with the aura of death.

"..."

Corpses covered with white sheets were placed one by one on the table. In this room, which didn't seem to be just a place to store corpses, only two bodies were not completely covered.

One was the speaker's corpse, and the other was Lin's corpse.

They were the only two corpses whose serum had not yet been extracted, while all the remaining corpses were patients who had suffered from Honkai Sickness and died from it.

Besides these, there was another "person" standing among these fallen corpses.

Prometheus used her eternally icy face to shield Lin's corpse.

The Sixth Herrscher didn't want to waste words with her. She punched Prometheus through the power reactor in his chest, along with the arm she was using to block him, and then threw the completely destroyed Prometheus aside.

Before the system went into hibernation, Prometheus extended a finger toward Lin's pale face.

"Smack."

The Sixth Herrscher's incredibly strong fingers gripped the corpse's neck tightly. She wished she could crush the body on the spot, but not only could she not do that, she also had to painstakingly restore the corpse to a state where it could be brought back to life once consciousness entered.

Connecting with the Creation Authority within her body, she carefully used her abilities to restore Lin's mangled corpse.

Was this guy's body... injured in this state back then?

Lin's internal condition was even more dire than it appeared on the outside. All his organs had shrunk to the point of losing their normal function, his nerves had been burned away by a certain liquid, and most importantly, his heart had been eroded by Honkai Energy to the point that it was unrecognizable as a human heart. It was more like a deformed and swollen tumor formed by the fusion of venom and Honkai Energy.

As she used her Creation Authority, a sharp branch shot out from beneath her feet and pierced the corpse's head with lightning speed.

However, the Sixth Herrscher had already taken precautions against this. She moved the body away to avoid the stab, and then restored some of Lin's organs to a state where they could barely function normally, but were only a hair's breadth away from necrosis.

This looks about right.

"Bang!"

Kevin had leaped onto the floor, fired a shot at the Sixth Herrscher without even looking. The shot pierced through a third of the Sixth Herrscher's neck, but she smiled strangely, grabbed Lin's corpse with one hand, and activated Phase Shift with the other.

"What would your expressions be if I killed him again?"

Kevin could only watch helplessly as the Sixth Herrscher and the corpse disappeared into the desolate room, the mocking voice still echoing in his ears.

"I told you, just you wait and see."

The Sixth Herrscher stood mockingly in front of Lin, whose figure was fading away. She planted her scythe in the ground, knelt on one knee, and looked to be in no better condition, but the mockery in her expression remained unchanged.

Thanks to Kevin for damaging their bodies to the point where their consciousness began to leave their bodies, consciousness is more easily separated in the gaps. Here, Lin's consciousness is attracted by his body and rejected by the Herrscher Core, returning to that body.

Once she's outside, she can use her Creation Authority to heal her injuries without restraint, so even near-death injuries are nothing to her.

More than this matter, she wanted to see Lin return to his dying body after leaving, still powerless; that would be incredibly exciting.

Everything he did was in vain, and his life was meaningless. Using such an outcome to prove that what he said was right is the most powerful evidence to refute him.

"For me, who controls life and death, wanting you to die or wanting you to live is an extremely simple matter. Human, enjoy the last moments you can still perceive this world."

"..."

However, to her annoyance, Lin acted as if he hadn't heard her, relentlessly trying to harass her control over her powers even in these final moments.

"Humans..."

"You don't control life and death. You just use a highly efficient method of killing to kill people, and you can't resurrect any living beings, including your own." Lin calmly slashed her chest with his sword. A corner of the Sixth Herrscher's consciousness materialized and collapsed. He said indifferently, "The so-called control of life and death is just a special ability in a different form. The only difference between you and the previous Herrscher is that you talk a lot."

"There are so many that I'm starting to get impatient."

The blatant mockery further enraged the Sixth Herrscher.

The Sixth Herrscher, who should have broken his psychological defenses, was instead mocked by him. Even she herself didn't notice that as her mentality wavered, her consciousness began to decline.

"Hmph, there's no point in saying more, human, your death is near."

The Sixth Herrscher grabbed her scythe to block the light blade, then thrust forward, expelling him from her Herrscher Core toward the primal body that was drawing him in.

Chapter 113 The Last Bullet

The long-lost... no, not long ago, feeling of weakness surged back from the depths of his consciousness. The moment Lin left the crevice, he had already returned to his body. He coughed up a mouthful of familiar purplish-green blood and felt his heart beating weakly, the melody of life.

He was resurrected, or rather, his consciousness returned to his body.

"Bang!"

The two figures landed on the ground simultaneously. Without even giving each other time to adjust, they rolled up, grabbed their weapons, and charged at each other.

"Bang!"

The Fifth Branch building was smashed open from the inside, and Lin flew out through the debris. At the last moment, he threw away his dagger and grabbed the edge of the broken wall to stop, falling to the floor below.

The Black Mist surged and billowed over his head the moment he fell.

Lin fell to the next level, which was the serum chamber where the Sixth Herrscher had originally led him into the Phase Shift.