The Final Front Line / Life

"Oh!"

Director Fal bent over from the passenger seat and kicked the scalpel, which finally sank completely into the Honkai zombie's brain, and its cruel movements stopped.

"Hahaha..."

Far and Su exhaled heavily from their lungs, collapsing into their seats. Only Ragna remained calm as she drove towards the hospital in Changkong City. However, a closer look would reveal that her hand holding the gun was trembling slightly, her stiff fingers unable to loosen.

Su tried to pry open the Honkai zombie's mouth to get his hand out, but his limp fingers and the Honkai zombie's terrifying bite force meant that even with all his strength, he couldn't pull it out.

"I'll help you."

Far used another scalpel to sever the Honkai zombie's jaw muscles, and then used both hands together to pry open the Claw Mortal's mouth, allowing Sue to pull out his bloodied hand.

"Stop the bleeding quickly, Honkai Energy will corrode the injured area and make you more susceptible to Honkai Sickness." Ragna took the hemostatic cloth and bandages from next to the driver's seat and instructed, "Don't go near the operating room during the surgery."

"Good..."

Su nodded. In just that short time, he had lost sensation in his left hand.

But they were already close, and there might still be these monsters at the hospital, but the chance to save people made him temporarily forget about the injury on his hand.

"Waaah—"

His eyes widened, and he almost sprang to his feet and jumped off the broken roof of the car.

"What's wrong?" Ragna noticed his sudden outburst.

Su looked anxiously at the changing environment outside the car and said with certainty, "I heard a child crying."

"Crying?"

The desolate city and the agonizing howls of monsters filled their sight and hearing. The cries of children were the least likely sound to be heard here; even if they existed, they could only have existed in the past.

No child could survive ten minutes in this environment.

"You're hallucinating. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. We'll be there soon." Ragna said as he dodged an attack from a scythe-wielding Honkai zombie, which chopped off the vehicle's rearview mirror with a single strike.

"No, I really heard a child crying!"

Su's every pore tightened with tension. The crying made him restless and anxious. He looked around frantically, but all he saw was blood, fire, and death.

It's as if this is all that's left in the world.

"Waaah—"

"Let me out! There's a child there!" This time, Sue clearly heard the source of the voice. He shouted and opened the car door, forcing Ragna to brake suddenly and stop.

Su stumbled off the car, dragging his battered left hand. He searched for the source of the voice and shouted to the two people who hadn't gotten out of the car yet, without turning his head, "You two hurry to the hospital to save him, I'm going to find that child!"

Ragna saw Honkai zombie approaching and gritted his teeth, aiming at the head of the leading Honkai zombie: "Su, come back!"

"No... Doctor Laguna, failing to save someone in distress is murder." There was not a trace of confusion in Su's eyes. After briefly surveying his surroundings, he immediately found a path next to the burning building.

"Su..."

"Doctor Laguna, let's go." Director Fal stopped Ragna's call, staring grimly at the approaching undead. "Trust Sue, he's better than us."

"... Did you hear that too? The baby crying."

"No, but I believe Su heard it. He has always been very sensitive to the sound of children crying. He often hears the cries of children suffering from Honkai Sickness when he is on night duty."

"...Phew, alright." Ragna shouted urgently, "Su!"

Sue turned around and threw a gun at his feet.

"Once you find the child, if possible, meet up at the hospital, or hide in a safe place and avoid contact with those things."

"I understand, thank you, Doctor Laguna."

"Thank you..." Ragna shook his head with a wry smile, "It's been a long time since I've heard that."

Chapter 116 The Final Battlefront

As dawn approached, two shooting stars with elongated tails streaked across the sky above the city, chasing each other toward the demonic tree that was blocking the sunrise.

The Sixth Herrscher felt Kevin's vibrant life force relentlessly pursuing her from behind. Just an hour ago, she was the one chasing after Kevin, but she never expected the tables to turn so quickly.

She can now heal her wounds with her Creation Authority in just a few dozen seconds, but the moment she places her hand on the wound, a penetrating bullet will interrupt her.

Kevin's sharp reflexes and keen observation skills left her no time to heal her wounds, not to mention the horde of Titans following behind him. Even if he ran out of penetrating rounds, the Titans' reserve ammunition could keep her bombarded for more than two hours.

But you just can't shake them off.

The wound on her neck was the most serious. If Kevin's shot had been a little more accurate, it would have ripped her neck or head apart. But even though it didn't kill her instantly, the wound was still slowly draining her of her vitality.

Fortunately, Lin has left her body, so there will be plenty of opportunities to recover, as long as she returns to the tree she created...

The Sixth Herrscher's powers are divided into two parts: Decay and Creation. However, she cannot use the Creation Authority as skillfully as the Withering Authority. On the contrary, when Lin was in the Herrscher Core, she was more versatile in using the Creation Authority. Therefore, she thought of a way to use it even if she could not use it skillfully.

Use the most brutal method to create a plant with the Creation Authority, and then inject a large amount of Honkai Energy into it.

In other words, the tree was less a creature she created and more a manifestation of her Creation Authority, its strength being completely incomparable to that of other Honkai creature.

With the tree's protection, she could buy time to recover. It wouldn't take long, just a few dozen seconds. The tree only needed to hold her off for a few dozen seconds to restore her to her peak condition, and then she could wipe out all the exhausted and weak Fire Moth soldiers in one fell swoop.

"Bang!"

She was tired of hearing missile launches, but this time it was coming from ahead. After taking evasive action, another Titan appeared in her path.

That is the mark of someone who has been waiting here for a long time.

Kevin stopped behind the Sixth Herrscher, with the Titans lined up, blocking her final path.

"..."

"Kevin, do you remember the last time we had a gathering in the Squad Seven's meeting room?"

The Sixth Herrscher turned around, clutching the wound on her neck, and smiled at Kevin.

"..." Kevin had no intention of talking to her at all. This Herrscher was very good at using language to attack the enemy's psychology. With all of Soul's memories, it would be easy for her to find some details from some obscure corner, let alone something like a party.

He planned to fire a salvo of penetrating bullets all at once. The Sixth Herrscher, who lacked Phase Transfer Device and could not precisely control the Black Mist, had no way to avoid it.

"Fire."

He gave the attack order to Prometheus Unit 2 in a barely audible voice. All the Titans opened their missile bays at the same time, and penetrating missiles rained down on the Sixth Herrscher, who was comfortably smiling.

"Boom!"

All bullets hit!

The fireworks obscured the Sixth Herrscher's figure.

But Kevin's expression grew increasingly somber.

After the smoke cleared, a huge, charred tree root was broken in two, and the unharmed figure of the Sixth Herrscher appeared behind it.

The roots of that tree had somehow reached their feet, or perhaps the Sixth Herrscher had intentionally led them into the area covered by that tree.

In just a few short seconds, the wound on the Sixth Herrscher's neck was completely healed, and most of her injuries were removed. Her sinister smile and the glowing green Honkai Energy were etched into the hearts of the Moth Chaser soldiers.

"What I'm trying to say is that you looked cuter back then, at least not like now, starting to give up everything for some illusory thing like that fool." The Sixth Herrscher surveyed the troops, and the dark mist of decay spread from her body like a shadow, swallowing the light. "But to me... all humans are the same."

"Boom!"

The speed and range of the Black Mist far exceeded Kevin's expectations. He only had time to retreat the instant he saw the Black Mist, and as he retreated from the range, nine more Titans were engulfed in it. The screams of the soldiers inside lasted for less than half a second before disappearing.

"Come on, come on, come on! Let me kill you all with my own hands! Then, will that human still be able to utter such empty promises!"

The Sixth Herrscher lunged at Kevin in mid-air, its scythe transforming into a bloodthirsty giant claw that tore through the Black Mist, as if to slice life into pieces.

"Bang!"

A penetrating bullet exploded behind her.

The Sixth Herrscher's figure froze in mid-air, sent flying by the explosion. Kevin seized the opportunity, drew the long sword from his armor, and stabbed it into the Sixth Herrscher's neck. Before he could pull it out and make a second cut, a thick branch wrapped around him and pulled him away.

The Sixth Herrscher glanced speechlessly at the knife to her neck, the wound on her back from the explosion was bloody and mangled, she gritted her teeth and looked at the Titan who had attacked her from the ground.

This Titan had no cockpit door because it had been torn open by the Sixth Herrscher beforehand. While all the Titans were flying in the air using anti-gravity flight devices, it took a different approach and launched a penetrating missile from an easily overlooked angle on the ground, causing her to completely miss the insidious missile.

This Titan is the only self-propelled Titan, and its pilot can always find tricky angles and methods to narrow the gap between the two sides, and achieve the optimal attack distance through detailed analysis of information.

After firing the penetrating bullet, Lin in the cockpit ignored the Sixth Herrscher in the air. At this point, his Titan had lost its display screen, so all firing was done by adjusting the helmet and using motion controls, but this was not a difficult task for Lin.

He used a flamethrower to ignite the branches on the ground. No matter how tough the roots of these demonic trees are, their toughness will decrease because they are too far from the main body. Some small flames may not be useful, but the flamethrower is the natural enemy of these roots that are not tough enough. After smashing these roots with bullets and then igniting them, they will be quickly burned to ashes.

Kevin, of course, would not let go of the good opportunity that Lin had created for him. After being torn away, he turned around and cut off the tree root with a slash, and charged towards the Sixth Herrscher who was trying to heal his wounds.

"You guys—"

The Sixth Herrscher's eyes revealed her ferocity. At this moment, as Kevin charged towards her without hesitation, she finally unleashed the suppressed Withering Authority. Completely disregarding the total amount of Honkai Energy that was out of control and needed to maintain a normal state, she unleashed it all within a radius of 100 meters and a length of 10 kilometers in front of her the moment Kevin touched her.

However, in the next second, Kevin, whose face was engulfed by the Black Mist, showed a slight change in his composure.

They succeeded.

Half a second later, Kevin, the Black Mist, and the Sixth Herrscher had all disappeared from their original positions.

Chapter 117 Life

The Sixth Herrscher couldn't remember when she was born.

No, it shouldn't be called birth, but rather arrival.

She descended from chaos into an unfamiliar body. The flood of memories and destructive instincts allowed her to become a qualified "Herrscher consciousness" as she merged with the soul's consciousness.

Yes, that's what she's always thought. She is the evolved form of Soul's consciousness. After Soul merged with the Herrscher Core, she became who she is now.

Therefore, she should be both a soul and Herrscher.

Then she should do what her soul wants to do, and she should also do what Herrscher does.

She felt she was perfect, having managed to balance her human and her Herrscher identities. Moreover, Soul actually hated humans, which coincided with the Herrscher's sentiments, so her plan to eliminate humanity was complete and she had accepted herself.

However, the person who should have been the soul denied her identity as the "soul".

He didn't hesitate for a moment, and from beginning to end, he didn't think of her as the Soul, but merely the Sixth Herrscher.

Very well, let him have his way. Anyway, she is both a soul and the Sixth Herrscher. Since he doesn't think of her as a soul, let's use her identity Herrscher to make him despair.

She is the most intelligent Herrscher in history, possessing a human-like way of thinking. She believes that this makes her the strongest Herrscher. She even understands human emotions and knows why people hesitate. By making good use of human emotions, she can be invincible on the road to eliminating humanity.

But even though it was the same person, he seemed to have no feelings.

He was unmoved by her threats and seductions, nor was he deceived by her beauty. He was like a precise machine, completing all the tasks that needed to be done.

She is even more indifferent to humanity than a Herrscher.

No matter how you look at it, the ability to cry, laugh, and get angry makes me more like a human being.

But why is it that even with all this, I'm still always at a disadvantage against him?

"..."

Later, she found out.

The Herrscher can cry and laugh, can mimic human emotions, and can find human weaknesses from emotional memories, but beneath her outward appearance of joy and anger, she is still nothingness.

As Lin said, she is nothing, neither a soul nor Herrscher.

It appears to be an excellent product combining the two, but in reality, it is a failure caught in the middle, unable to gain a foothold on either side.

The man who never laughed or cried, however, possessed genuine humanity beneath his outward appearance.

Is that why you lost?

Yes, that's exactly why.

But the Herrscher still doesn't feel truly bewildered by this.

Because she has no humanity.

"Boom!"

The Sixth Herrscher stared blankly as the towering tree trembled, its eerie flowers withering and turning to ash, as if emitting a dying wail, collapsing towards the ground.

The Giant Tree that connects heaven and earth was cut down by humankind.

No, she did all of this.

The Black Mist, capable of withering all cells, dissipated from the roots of the Giant Tree; the destroyers of those creatures had already pulverized the roots of this tenacious life form.