Ignition / The End? The Beginning
"Clatter."
A very faint footstep sound came from behind.
Sakura's gaze sharpened, and her right hand flashed like lightning as she drew her sword and slashed horizontally at the wall beside her!
"Bass!"
Under the radiance, the wall delayed for two seconds before slowly sliding down at an angle, the cut as smooth as a brand new side.
The two men stared intently at the scene that appeared after the wall collapsed.
A person stood behind the wall, raised his head, and a pair of blood-red eyes burned silently in the dust.
Chapter 109 Ignition
"Boom!"
The room was shaking. Even the Headquarters Base, which had survived the tsunami unscathed, was now trembling. Dust that was usually invisible was constantly being stirred up and then falling back down.
"Doctor..." Su stopped what he was doing and looked hesitantly at Spasi beside him. Some dust had settled on his hair, making him look disheveled.
But Spasi didn't even raise an eyebrow, calmly mixing the medications on the table with his one arm. "Don't stop, keep going."
"..."
"This incident has been classified as the Eighth Honkai War. Only the powers of Herrscher could achieve this level of control. In other words, the person being controlled is being manipulated by the Eighth Herrscher," Spasi explained coldly. "This time, the Herrscher did not unleash destructive power, but rather a mental and conscious attack unlike anything we have ever encountered before."
"Unlike previous attacks on Herrscher, this time we don't even know where the Herrscher is. She could be controlling everything from anywhere on Earth, so we must develop drugs to resist mental attacks instead of blindly 'helping' her."
Even the High Council of the Fire Moths couldn't be sure if they were under control, so Mei directly ordered those who could still contact them to cut off communication with the higher -High Council and temporarily stop obeying their orders.
"I understand." Su sighed and continued with the allocation work.
That's right, there's nothing they can do right now. Their biggest help is to develop drugs to resist mental attacks.
We have to go faster... faster...
The Eighth Herrscher leaned against the wall to rest for a while. The Herrscher Core within her body had undergone a high-intensity expenditure of Honkai Energy and could no longer be overdrawn.
Two people were lying in front of her.
Chrono and Cherry Blossoms.
She had to admit the power of the Flame-Chaser created by humans themselves; if she hadn't been Herrscher of Consciousness, she might have been directly defeated by these two.
But Sakura is Flame-Chaser, so what about this man? How can he use such terrifyingly large amounts of energy in an instant?
Adding to the woman with eyes just like Lin's, the current humans are becoming increasingly incomprehensible to her, a Herrscher.
The Eighth Herrscher calmly repaired the wound on her chest.
It was a neat scar, like the cut of paper made by a paper cutter; this was Sakura's all-out attack before being attacked by her consciousness.
That's really dangerous.
Ultimately, she lacked the Authority of Creation. After managing to stop the bleeding, she walked in one direction.
The consciousness of these two people has been controlled, and they are still useful to her, just like other people who have been controlled... and very useful at that.
She continued on her journey without stopping until she arrived at someone's laboratory.
The door wasn't closed, and she strolled in as if walking through a garden, bypassing the empty laboratory, and arrived at the door of Mobius's office.
She had already decided which humans to kill, and Mobius was definitely her first choice. Moreover, the Eighth Herrscher was certain that Mobius was not corrupted and might even have developed a method to resist mind attacks.
The Eighth Herrscher pushed open the door expressionlessly, gathering Honkai Energy in her hands, ready to obliterate anyone she saw.
But...
"... She actually fell for it?" The Eighth Herrscher dissipated the Honkai Energy in her hand with a hint of doubt and glanced at Mobius lying on the table.
The Eighth Herrscher had already identified several troublesome targets through Qianqi's memories, such as Kevin, May, and Mobius. After sending Lin away, she planned to take them down one by one.
However, plans can't keep up with changes. How could Mobius be so careless?
"..."
As mentioned earlier, every person who is controlled is of great use to the Eighth Herrscher, especially those with special identities.
After a moment's thought, the Eighth Herrscher lowered his raised hand and turned to walk out the door.
"—!"
Suddenly, she stopped.
"... Has the attack already begun?" the Eighth Herrscher muttered to herself.
"Third observation of the consciousness world failed!"
Vill-V pressed the stop button, Dessidobia, pale-faced, opened her eyes, gasping for breath, her expression extremely unpleasant.
Besides her, there were more than a dozen Armed Puppet busy adjusting data around her, while Kosma guarded the entrance to the Spiral Workshop to prevent the corrupted or anything else from breaking in.
Vill-V solemnly organized the data. "Mental burden increased by 17%. Take a ten-minute break."
"No, no need! Let's continue!" Dessidobia's face was as tired as if it had been dehydrated. She already felt completely exhausted after just three rounds, but now was not the time to rest. "I... I can still do it!"
"If your spirit is damaged, it will be a loss." Vill-V didn't seem to care about Dessidobia's bravado. She calmly recorded and deduced the data from the previous observation, looking for data that was more likely to enter the consciousness world of the Eighth Herrscher.
After hearing what Vill-V said, Dessidobia could only close her eyes and try to give her brain a rest.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, an unprecedented tremor swept through the entire Moth of Fire!
Mei stopped what she was doing in the office and looked at Kevin.
Kevin pondered for a moment, then suddenly relaxed his brow. "Lin."
The Eighth Herrscher stood still and retaliated against the other consciousness that was attacking her consciousness. The other party had obviously just learned to use this ability, and she defeated it without much effort.
This is the third time already; humans are really quite tenacious.
We need to find their location quickly, and then...
"Crack!"
A loud bang suddenly rang out, and a pink arrow of light attacked her from behind. It was so fast that she didn't have time to react and could only barely dodge. The shining arrow pierced her shoulder and exploded like fireworks!
"Bass!"
Blood and flesh splattered from her shoulder. The arrow of light, after shining and disintegrating, did not dissipate, but spread around her like an impenetrable prism. Then, arrows came like a rainstorm!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The Eighth Herrscher tried her best to dodge, but even if she dodged, the arrows would bounce off the prism and appear in her path. In an instant, she was surrounded by shimmering pink light!
The light arrows pierced her abdomen, both legs, and right arm!
"Boom!"
Radiant light, shattered into pieces!
A terrifying energy swept away everything around it! The sea breeze swept in!
"... Lin, it seems she's avoiding me."
The Eighth Herrscher floated in the sky with a cold expression. Apart from the hideous and terrifying wound on her shoulder, the other wounds that should have been hit earlier were nowhere to be seen.
She ignored the pink-haired girl holding a bow and arrow who looked troubled, and instead stared at another figure slowly emerging from the hole below.
He turned the button on his helmet, and the azure blue viewing window ignited like a flame.
End of Chapter 110? Beginning
The Eighth Herrscher looked down at the forest at the gap. Half a year later, she met the eyes of this special human again, but this time... she could not see his eyes.
"Elysia." Lin activated the anti-gravity flight device.
Elysia understood what he meant; they had already discussed the plan on the way here. "Understood."
She stepped back, avoiding close contact with the Eighth Herrscher, which caused the Eighth Herrscher to narrow her eyes and stare at Lin thoughtfully.
"You immediately confirmed my identity... You've regained your memories?"
The Eighth Herrscher refers to the one who deleted Lin's memories in the consciousness world after the failed invasion of Lin's consciousness. He should not remember what happened in the consciousness world that time.
"I've recovered." Lin flew straight to the Eighth Herrscher and said without changing his expression, "I remember everything."
"How could this be... No, you're lying to me?" The Eighth Herrscher stared at Lin's helmet and suddenly realized what was happening.
It's not like the memory is deleted or blocked, so how could this guy possibly "remember" it?
However, in that moment of distraction, Lin fired the missile from her wrist without hesitation, and by the time she realized what was happening, the missile had already exploded in her face.
"Bang!"
Lin drew his sword from his waist and burst through the smoke. His helmet scanned the surrounding airflow and wind direction changes, and then he slashed in a certain direction!
"Bass!"
The Eighth Herrscher emerged from the smoke, was clearly somewhat surprised that Lin had been able to spot her.
This is not some kind of visual illusion caused by light refraction, but a real influence on a person's mental consciousness, causing them to have illusions and hallucinations. Even if Lin can see environmental elements such as wind direction through the helmet, it may be an illusion she created.
"Drop--"
This is because Lin was not the one making the judgments and taking the actions.
It was Prometheus inside his helmet.
The Eighth Herrscher can interfere with and attack human consciousness, but her abilities cannot directly affect Artificial Intelligence.
Lin's movements were swift and ruthless, and after the Eighth Herrscher's abilities became ineffective against him, she gradually fell into a disadvantageous position. In terms of direct combat ability, she was no match for the other Herrscher.
Four spiked objects were launched from her back, but were hit by the two cannons at Lin's waist midway. Lin didn't even glance at the spikes that had gone off course and passed right through them.
This guy—
Lin Ru flew swiftly into the sky, raised her long sword high under the sunlight, and slashed down at the Eighth Herrscher who had no way to avoid it!
The Eighth Herrscher's eyes blazed crimson, and at that moment she gave a sinister smile as the Honkai Energy field, which she had not used before, opened up!
However, just as the blade was about to strike the target... it stopped.
Immediately afterwards, the missiles on her wrist, specifically designed to counter the Herrscher's shield field, were launched again, piercing the field without any suspense, and then exploding before the Eighth Herrscher's incredulous eyes.
"Boom!"
The Eighth Herrscher, her skin torn and bleeding, fell from mid-air. Lin swiftly swooped down, grabbed her by the neck, and lifted her up.
"Hehehe..." The Eighth Herrscher was not unconscious, and these injuries were not fatal to a Herrscher, but the outcome was now decided. Lin had defeated her without exerting much effort. She sneered with Qianqi's face, "Congratulations... you won. Now it's time to complete the final step of each Herrscher -slaying campaign."
"... We haven't won yet." Lin just held her up like that, but didn't use any force.
The final step in defeating the Herrscher is to kill the Herrscher, but Lin... cannot do that this time.
It wasn't just because of the mocking expression on the Eighth Herrscher's face, but also because... this massive Honkai couldn't be ended simply by defeating the Herrscher herself.
"Although it hasn't been verified, the Eighth Herrscher might be the key to everything."
This question kept replaying in Lin's mind: Why is the Eighth Herrscher the key? Now Lin seems to have understood something about it.
"Can't bear it? Can't bring yourself to harm the owner of this body?" The Eighth Herrscher's mocking expression grew stronger. "Then... let's find someone else."
"..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Eighth Herrscher in Lin's hand rolled its eyes and fainted.
Lin Mo stared blankly at the Eighth Herrscher in his hand, who had completely lost consciousness.
"She is the original form of the Eighth Herrscher?" Mei looked at the Eighth Herrscher that Lin brought back with some surprise. "This is the first time that humanity has captured a living Herrscher."
The Eighth Herrscher was right there at the headquarters of Flame Chaser, something Mei hadn't guessed. She thought the Herrscher was just someone within Flame Chaser, but she never expected that the Herrscher was doing these things right under her nose. Is this what they call being blind to what's right under your nose?
After examining the Eighth Herrscher, the location of the Herrscher Core within her body was discovered, confirming that she was indeed the Eighth Herrscher.
That's all? They captured the Herrscher with almost no losses?
"...No." Mei's expression turned solemn after the examination. "Why haven't those contaminated people been released from control yet?"