Back to the Past

The sky, scorched by the sun, resembled a sea turned red; the intense heat and thin oxygen robbed people of their vitality and everything they could see.

You can't even smell the scorched smell; only the residue from carbonization and vaporization brings some sensation back to your numb nasal cavity.

Soon, footsteps were heard, and someone helped Eden up. After a quick check of her pupils, breathing, and pulse, she finally regained some consciousness.

Before her stood a strange man. Normally, she would be surprised to see such a stunning person, but at this moment, her heart was filled with the emptiness that followed the sudden arrival of disaster.

Are you injured?

The man's familiar, flat voice brought Eden back to his senses.

"Mr. Lin..." Her once heavenly voice could only utter a dry, low murmur.

His one arm and his voice made Eden realize that he was Lin.

After carefully picking Eden up, Lin turned around and looked around at everything.

After the fire, all that remained was the devastation and endless smoke.

In the performance venue, only he and Eden remained alive, and in this city, perhaps only the two of them remained.

In just a few minutes, the raging flames that consumed everything reduced the entire city to ashes.

And the culprit behind all this, the Seventh Herrscher, is...

"..."

As Lin gazed at the desolate ruins, something within him seemed to extinguish.

The Seventh Herrscher was Himiko, who had been joking with him not long ago.

"Team leader..."

Lin, who had once reacted with incredible speed, now sat in the ruins, where only the sound of burning flames could be heard, his breath caught as he stared at the smiling red-haired woman floating in the air.

The red-haired woman lowered her head slightly, saw the only remaining person, and smiled as she turned her head away.

"Forest."

The call, no different from usual, made Lin tremble for a moment. Then he flipped over and pounced on the red-haired woman in mid-air...

No, it is the Seventh Herrscher.

"Hmm?" She smiled and turned to the side, rising a few meters higher, causing Lin to miss his target.

The flames swirling around her body transformed into an elaborately embellished black dress. At this moment, as the Seventh Herrscher, she had fully descended upon this world.

She should have killed Lin right there, but she didn't even glance at him before flying away.

"Bang!"

The bullets Lin fired were melted by the high temperature before they even reached the vicinity of the Seventh Herrscher.

He could only stand there, watching the Seventh Herrscher depart, watching that incredibly familiar figure disappear.

Then, the high temperature erupted again—

He was spared by the Herrscher.

Why?

The Seventh Herrscher's smile is exactly the same as Himiko's, and she can even call out his name. But all of this has already happened to the Fifth and Sixth Herrscher; those were just Herrscher's disguises.

Lin thought of the girl, but the Seventh Herrscher killed everyone present except him.

They didn't harm him, however.

"Mr. Lin... are you... alright?"

Eden had recovered from her near-conscious state and saw Lin standing in front of the sea of fire. She asked him softly.

"..."

"Now, this is what you called the Honkai, right?"

Eden saw his agent up close, being engulfed by a pillar of flame, burned to a crisp before he could even scream.

Looking at the desolate surroundings, all that remained in her heart was sorrow.

Only after witnessing a real disaster firsthand would she feel more grief than she could have imagined.

"... Yes, the Seventh Herrscher has been born."

"Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, she is..."

"Um."

Lin interrupted her and affirmed her words.

He had rationally contacted the Branch 19 and Headquarters, rationally reported all the situation, including Himiko becoming the Seventh Herrscher, rationally described the Seventh Herrscher's destructive power and approximate casualties, rationally...

Rationally, make yourself appear as if nothing is amiss, just like before.

"Do you want to see her?" Eden leaned against the ruins, seemingly no longer caring whether the high temperature would damage her skin. She, who had once shone like a star, now looked like a stone that had fallen into the mud. But she still calmly said to Lin, "Do those who become Herrscher still have reason?"

Lin said nothing. He turned his head and showed Eden the sea of fire in front of him.

It's as if he's said everything.

But Lin did not deny it.

"I have some questions I want to ask her."

Why should we let him go?

Beneath that smiling, destructive exterior, what remains?

He looked down at his feet and saw a group photo, curled, deformed, and turned to ash in the spreading fire.

Those smiling faces have vanished.

"Thump."

He heard the sound of his head hitting the ground.

The earth crashed down on his body.

"Tick-tock..."

"Tick-tock..."

"Are you awake?"

A highly recognizable voice, which she had only heard recently, appeared in her ears. This time, it seemed to carry a hint of weariness, revealing her fatigue.

What came into view was the laboratory ceiling, which I hadn't seen in a long time, and the IV drip hanging on my arm.

Beneath her dark green bangs were a pair of dark circles under her eyes that seemed familiar. She stared coldly at the awakened Lin.

It felt like a chance encounter, yet also like something I had been waiting for.

"Congratulations, you've added a significant chapter to your sleep history." Mobius turned away coldly, picked up a syringe, and plunged it into Lin's neck. "Don't move."

A slight stinging sensation accompanied by the flow of cold liquid into his body seemed to activate his stiff form, and he rolled off the bed with a single movement.

Only then did he realize that he was not on the operating table, but in Mobius's private room.

"Because of your special circumstances, I didn't place you in the Medical Department. Instead, I will repair your limbs and then put you under my direct supervision." Mobius crossed his arms and stared indifferently at Lin. "You can continue lying down. The Seventh Herrscher has already begun to take care of things and doesn't need you."

"... How is the battle going?"

"It's alright. At least they've already come up with a codename for the Seventh Herrscher: Herrscher of Flames."

"I mean... the battle situation."

"Can you stop babbling?" Mobius turned around impatiently. "Didn't I already say that we've already started dealing with the Seventh Herrscher?"

"... Now, to what extent has she damaged Australia?"

"..."

After just a few words, the atmosphere between them became tense.

Lin seemed to understand something from Mobius's silence, and he sat back on the bed.

The overwhelming destructive power, along with the stinging pain in his body, kept replaying in his mind...

Chapter Ninety-One: Back to the Past

"How could there be so many Honkai Beasts...?"

"Even the Sixth Honkai War didn't see so many Honkai Beast appear at once, what is going on..."

Lin Moran dragged his still-impaired body past, ignoring the panicked words, like a rat scurrying across the street.

During the time he was in a coma, the outside world underwent tremendous changes.

Half of Australia's territory was burned to the ground, and the inextinguishable flames extinguished the lives of 16 million people. The Seventh Herrscher flattened the surface of Australia with the most horrific fire in human history.

If the Sixth Herrscher is the most unique Herrscher in terms of anthropomorphism, then the Seventh Herrscher is the strongest Herrscher in history in terms of destructive power. No weapon that Moth of the Flame tried could stop her advance. Her power is like the bright moon in the night sky, radiating a despairing glow.

However, the birth of the Seventh Herrscher was not the only disaster.

Lin walked into the Research and Development Department. He didn't look at the place where everyone was so busy that their feet were touching and their shoulders were touching. Instead, he went straight to someone's office.

The door was left ajar, as if it were waiting for him.

Without a moment's hesitation, Lin pushed open the door and entered.

"Click." He locked the door from the inside.

There were only three people in the room, including him, but their arrangement was completely different from when they last met.

At that time, they were in a triangular formation, allowing each other to see everything about the other.

Now, the white-haired man is standing behind the bespectacled doctor, while he stands opposite the two of them.

They could have just looked at each other like that, but May quickly broke her silence.

"... Within seventy-two hours, a force of two hundred Titans was completely wiped out in Australia, along with the three dispatched teams and the Australian national army."

"The Seventh Herrscher's high temperature makes it impossible for conventional weapons to withstand. Her powers involve molecular-level manipulation, not just ordinary heat."

Mei, seemingly oblivious to the strange atmosphere between them, adjusted her glasses and calmly began to describe the current situation... or rather, the dire state of affairs.

"Within 24 hours of the Seventh Herrscher's activity, a large number of Emperor-class Honkai Beast began to appear around the world, with an initial estimate of about 5,000. This number is still increasing. According to the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Civilization, these are the Stars that hid among humans after the crash, and some areas have begun to be assimilated by the Stars."

"Eleven hours after Xingcai began her activities, they discovered the location of the Fire Moth headquarters. Currently, some Honkai Beast are already attacking the headquarters, and the front line can hold out for about thirty-seven hours."

The Titan unit and Armed Puppet were trying to intercept Xingcai were easily destroyed this time. They demonstrated the learning and evolutionary ability they had developed when they learned human language. The Titans, whose technology was already outdated to them, could not cause much damage after being analyzed.

The reason they haven't used their technology to launch an attack yet is simply because they want to assimilate humanity.

Before humanity could react, the Herrscher and Starlight had already crushed them with lightning speed.

"Now there is only one option left for the Moth to Chase Fire."

"Flame-Chaser project"

Mei seemed to be talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

Lin, however, seemed to be listening to something that had nothing to do with him.

As Lin was leaving, Kevin, who had been silent with a cold expression, suddenly said to Lin, who was pushing open the door with his back to him, "I killed the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Civilization."

"..."

"She wanted to retrieve the Herrscher Core and refused the Firemoth's surveillance, so I killed her. Her Soulsteel corpse has been re-encapsulated by Mei. You..."

"We can talk about it after this massive Honkai is over."

Lin seemed to be fleeing something; he said nothing more and left.

Leaving the place that had frost over a part of his heart.

"The Flame-Chaser project needs a volunteer now, because this is the first Hypervariable Surgery, so the success rate... is almost zero."

"It's no different from praying for a miracle to happen."