I Am Not a Hero

Kevin paused for a moment, then stared at Mei, whose face was obscured.

"...Mei, are you the same now?"

"..."

The moment Kevin saw Mei look up, his bewildered gaze vanished completely, and he made a decision: "I understand, Mei. I believe you."

"Thank you, Kevin..."

Mei turned around and rearranged the data, the cold light of the screen reflecting on her face.

As she and Lin exchanged a silent gaze, they both had unwavering faith in each other as friends.

Lin believed Mei was the most useful person to MOTH, and that Kevin could protect Mei well. Mei, in turn, believed Lin could hold off the Emperor-class Honkai Beast.

Now, Kevin also believed in her.

Sooner or later, Mei would shed these emotions that interfered with her decisions, but for now, she needed them to open the door to this path of no return.

"BOOM!"

The spot where Lin stood was shattered by a lightning strike, and he reappeared in the Third Herrscher's blind spot two seconds later.

He leaned against the wall behind cover, panting. His scorched pores prevented him from expelling sweat and heat, causing a buildup of internal heat that increased the burden on his organs.

"Two seconds..." he muttered under his breath.

This was the time it took Lin to use Phase Transfer, a full second shorter than the first time. This meant the distance he traveled in that space was less than the first time.

Each time he entered that void, Lin's mind would be eroded, preventing him from using Phase Transfer for extended periods. Furthermore, the residual erosion would accumulate. If he didn't control the duration, Lin would either suffer the same fate as last time, with severed body parts, or go completely insane.

This was a war of attrition. Lin intended to stall until the Third Herrscher was forced to attack him with a high-cost method. At that point, the Third Herrscher's divine power consumption would increase, and the surrounding barrier would weaken, allowing him to seize that fleeting moment to kill her.

Just like defeating Serpent's Shadow.

"Thump..."

Suddenly, the ground beneath him began to vibrate. Lin froze for a second, then saw tiny black particles, almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, flying up into the sky from all around.

Were those... iron filings?

Upon recognizing what they were, Lin's heart skipped a beat, and he activated the Phase Transfer Device.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

A large pile of iron and reinforced concrete, accompanied by two lightning strikes, crashed down on Lin's position. If he had been any slower, he would have been turned into a flattened, bloody mess.

Manipulating electromagnetic fields... what a versatile ability.

The iron filings gathered into a stream around the Third Herrscher. She controlled the lightning with one hand, while the other manipulated the iron filings into spears, her eyes scanning for places Lin might appear.

"Cough, cough..."

Lin collapsed on the ground, his body trembling and signaling danger. He hadn't even been in that space for a full second this time. The next, or the one after that, might be the one where he died inside.

Not enough...

Lin cried out in his heart.

"Swish!"

A flare shot up in the distance.

Flares, a signaling method that had been phased out since the advent of advanced communication. MOTH had considered the possibility of communication being jammed, but flares could only convey very limited information, mostly just a few simple meanings.

Red meant attack.

Lin gazed at the rising crimson light. He trembled, forcing himself to stand up one last time.

Lin, do you believe me?

Mei looked up at the crimson signal. Her glasses, covered in rain, obscured her eyes.

Taking leave today, three updates starting tomorrow.

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Chapter 14: That Tiny, Fleeting Compassion

Lin dragged himself, leaving a bloody trail, and stumbled to the wall, his strength failing just from standing.

The attack signal was meant only for him, as he was the only one near the Herrscher.

"Cough, cough..." He spat blood onto the wall, his eyes hazy as he looked at the murky stain. He removed his helmet and threw it on the ground, splashing water.

"Thump."

His legs gave out, and his head hit the wall.

Lin found it hard to remember when he had first met Mei. He only recalled that they had become friends unknowingly while discussing some fantastical technology. He was responsible for the fantastical ideas, and Mei was responsible for individually exploring their feasibility.

Once, Lin casually mentioned something like Titans from science fiction. To his surprise, Mei presented him with a design for a Titan a few months later. Although it was largely speculative within a framework, with most materials and propulsion systems beyond the technology of the era, that design eventually became the initial draft for the actual Titan.

They had been friends long before Kevin transferred to Chienyu Academy. Lin could even say he understood Mei better than Kevin did.

Lin knew all too well what the signal for attack meant.

Mei trusted Lin to guide the bombardment to the correct target, using his... own body.

But how could he signal the perfect moment for the bombardment? And after breaking through the Herrscher's barrier, how could he end her life?

Lin didn't know. He would likely be reduced to ash by the Honkai Energy conversion cannon by then. But Lin firmly believed Mei had her own considerations and plans—boldness revealed within meticulousness, that was Lin's understanding of the genius girl.

What he needed to consider was how to approach the Third Herrscher.

The Phase Transfer Device could be used at most twice more, each use lasting less than a second, with limited range. And Lin wasn't even sure if the final use would actually work.

He decided to prepare for the worst-case scenario, where the Phase Transfer Device could only be used once. The final problem Lin faced was... where should he use it this time?

If they shot at him, he could use the Phase Transfer to escape before the attack arrived. This way, he could achieve his goal and survive.

But he had no other means to approach the Third Herrscher besides the Phase Transfer.

This wasn't a particularly difficult choice.

"How many squads can we currently contact?"

"So far... none."

The head of the command center wanted to say something, but he couldn't interrupt Mei's command. Furthermore, after reporting to headquarters, they had allowed Mei to take charge on-site. Although her temporary rank wasn't higher than his, her authority was on par with his.

Most importantly, he considered himself an elite in human command capabilities, yet he had no idea how this girl, a whole generation younger than him, calculated the things she said.

For example, when Mei ordered someone to do something, she would provide every minute detail of the task, specifying the timing of signal transmission down to the microsecond. She would tell them from which location to fire the signal flare to be seen by the most squads, explaining it from a mathematical and physical perspective. When she rattled off those numbers without hesitation, it made people wonder when she had calculated them.

Strangely, Mei's command didn't interfere with the normal operations of the combat department. After the preparations were complete, besides frequently asking the monitoring personnel about the squads' movements, the entire combat department operated in an orderly fashion.

"Three minutes left."

Mei's finger slid down from her smooth nose bridge. The numbers on the screen flickered in her lenses as she murmured softly.

The Third Herrscher's Honkai Energy reaction was escalating, indicating she was continuously using her powers and was becoming impatient, increasing her energy output. It was predicted that she would reach the threshold of the Third Honkai War in three minutes.

There was only one chance. If this opportunity was missed, they would return to the situation where all other squads were in complete darkness.

Kevin stood in the corner, his gun leaning against the wall. He looked at the anxious faces around him, filled with a sense of emptiness.

Lin was fighting, and Mei was fighting.

Only he could do nothing.

If Mei joined this organization called MOTH, would he drift further and further away from her? Would she and Lin fight for humanity in secret places, while he was the "human" they protected?

"I envy you, but I can't be like you."

Lin's phantom stood before him, looking at him with those faint eyes.

Kevin clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, and a light gradually appeared in his eyes.

That's right. Since Lin's answer was the same as that day, his own response should be the same as then.

"If it's to fight for the people around me, for Mei..."

Lin crashed through the door, lightning exploding behind him as debris flew over his head.

He pumped his legs, sprinting up the stairs towards the highest floor, but was quickly interrupted by the shaking of the entire building.

Without much thought, Lin abandoned that path, turned, and jumped out the window.

"Boom!"

The entire building was destroyed in a single second. The attack, condensed from high-purity Honkai Energy, far exceeded the current capacity of human society. A single casual strike could match the output of MOTH's most powerful Honkai Energy conversion device.

Lin quickly grabbed a swaying streetlight outside the window. Using his light weight, he easily broke the already precarious streetlight and swung down to the ground.

Those purple-black eyes, which judged sin, stared coldly at Lin. Her long sleeves fluttered as purple wings sprouted from her back. Her eyes suddenly lit up the night sky. The iron objects around Lin vibrated, and then she crushed them with one hand, firing them at Lin like dense bullets.

There was no way to dodge. His body couldn't keep up.

Lin calmly faced the deadly situation, his dark eyes watching the "bullets" that seemed not so fast to him. Lightning was brewing overhead, about to strike. He quickly memorized the layout of all the projectiles and, prioritizing dodging the lightning, charged forward without hesitation.

"Clang—"

A steel bar pierced his shoulder, and iron filings tore away a piece of flesh from his left leg. However, the remaining lightning and projectiles caused him no harm.

By choosing only to avoid fatal wounds, he could perform many evasive maneuvers.

He rolled a few times on the ground, then sprang up into a half-crouch. His pupils were dilated, and his heartbeat was so rapid that it drowned out all other sounds.

Lin's severe burns and excessive blood loss continued to worsen. Some of his wounds were already dry, and he had lost nearly 50% of his blood. By all logic, even with his strong will, he should have fallen into shock.

But the poison from Mobius kept his mind stable. He was now acting purely on willpower, with only the last straw needed to break the camel's back. He would die.

"Rumble!"

But fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, what Lin wanted had arrived.

Her purple-black pupils were completely consumed by pure purple. The surging thunderclouds expanded to a range Lin could no longer avoid. In front of the Third Herrscher, a ten-meter diameter purple sphere of energy, crackling with lightning, was also charging up.

The aura of death emanated from within it.

The lightning strikes would cover all nearby areas, and that destructive beam would vaporize any cover in its path, then kill Lin completely.

If the Honkai Energy from this attack were released rather than compressed and unleashed on Changkong City, half of Changkong City would instantly disappear from the map, and the Third Herrscher would also enter a period of weakness.

Such an attack, solely to kill one human.

Lin hesitated no longer, pressing the Phase Transfer button before the carpet bombing arrived.

"BOOM—"

The skyscraper collapsed, and in the white light, everything vanished with the thunder.

The Third Herrscher watched the leveled ground beneath her feet with no joy or sorrow. That human could not possibly survive such an attack; even if he used that strange device, he wouldn't escape the attack's range.

She turned, preparing to leave.

"—"

Suddenly, an indescribable feeling, impossible for a Herrscher like her, who was practically a higher life form, surged into her heart.

A pair of black pupils quietly met her purplish-black ones.

She couldn't see any fear of her in those eyes, but there were other emotions within them, not directed at her, but at the original owner of this body.

It was a kind of pity.

She suddenly wanted to reach out and grab him.

Like residual nerve reactions after death, she inexplicably reached out a hand towards the man falling from the sky.

But her hand stopped halfway, because she saw a light flare up in the man's black eyes, clear as a mirror.

"BOOM!"

A bright white particle cannon blast struck the Third Herrscher from behind without mercy, then, together, it engulfed Lin, who had used up his Phase Transfer.