T-X

A mining area encompassed several mine shafts or open-pit mines, complete with production processes, ground transportation, power supply, communications dispatch, production management, and residential services. Its scale often depended on the size of the deposit. Clearly, the rare earth mining area they were to reclaim was remarkably well organized, both in infrastructure and size. Relying on basic industries such as raw ore sales and refining, it had somehow built high-rises. It must have formed a complete industrial chain to support such thorough regional infrastructure and municipal works.

The transport aircraft hovered in midair as its hatch slowly opened. The female warriors looked outside. Half the sky was covered in dark clouds, the other half was clear, and the light from that half barely illuminated the city below. Drizzle fell to the ground. From above, white Honkai Beasts could be seen wandering through the streets and alleys. So far, only Assault-types had appeared. That was probably why this mission was rated only B-class.

"Tch... Testing Divine Keys on trash Honkai Beasts like these is such a waste." The silver-haired warrior was disdainful. She even felt that she could clear out these Assault-type Honkai Beasts without a Divine Key, though it would take more time.

Base

The large screen displayed Fu Hua and the other warriors. Dr. Mei and numerous researchers watched them closely. The true mission these warriors were carrying out concerned humanity's future.

Since the first Homo sapiens emerged on the African continent, humanity had stumbled forward through history while struggling against Honkai. Now, the most effective way to resist Honkai was undoubtedly to fight Honkai with Honkai. Powerful Fusion Warriors had been implanted with the genes of Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, while the immensely powerful Divine Keys were driven by Law-Ruler Cores. Yet Fusion Warriors were far too few, and Divine Keys were no different. Though Fusion Warriors could turn the tide like legendary heroes from myth, they still could not halt the overwhelming momentum of a fully collapsing human civilization.

From this, the most effective current method of eliminating Honkai was obvious—mass-produce Fusion Warriors and mass-produce Divine Keys. It sounded simple, but the simpler an idea seemed, the harder it was to realize. If not for the Tenth Law-Ruler's ability to split, this idea might have remained nothing more than an idea.

After Fire Moth eradicated the Thousand-Man Law-Ruler, it collected a total of 943 Law-Ruler Cores. The Thousand-Man Law-Ruler had originally possessed one thousand Law-Ruler Cores, but Qin Su took fifty-seven of them. Under the most ideal plan, 943 Divine Keys paired with 943 Fusion Warriors would give them the strength to fight even the Honkai God itself.

Manufacturing Divine Keys was a stable process. With a Law-Ruler Core, a Divine Key could certainly be made. However, there were nowhere near enough matching Fusion Warriors. The reason was simple: creating Fusion Warriors was even more difficult than creating Divine Keys. Like many cutting-edge fields, they did not lack advanced equipment—they lacked top-tier talent. It was not people waiting for equipment, but equipment waiting for people.

Thus, the hypermutation synthesis serum came into being. It injected Honkai Beast genes into the human body through a simple and brutal method, but making those genes express themselves was extremely difficult. The reason was unknown. Perhaps the traits had already manifested, but the test subjects did not know they existed, and thus did not know how to use them.

To maximize the results of the experiment, Dr. Mei placed her hopes on the potential humans unleashed in moments of life and death, believing it could raise the success rate of the Fusion Warrior experiments. Therefore, the mission Fu Hua and the others were carrying out was not an ordinary B-class combat operation at all, but the highest-level, certain-death mission. Their original fate had only two possibilities: become Fusion Warriors, or die.

Fu Hua jumped from the transport aircraft hovering in midair. With her powerful physical abilities, she landed steadily from dozens of meters up without suffering the slightest injury. The transport aircraft then continued onward, allowing the Valkyries to land separately throughout the area and improve mission efficiency.

Nearby Assault-type Honkai Beasts rushed over at the sound. Fu Hua drew the Tenth Divine Key from her back, gripped the hilt, and even spun it in a flourish. The cold gleaming blade split the air and raindrops in two, whistling as it cut through the sky. Even Fu Hua, who had always been sparing with words, could not help softly praising it. "What a divine weapon."

But the Honkai Beasts had no appreciation for swords. They swarmed her from all directions, the buzzing of their vibrating wing casings filling the air. She spun and leaped, kicking an Assault-type behind her. Clang! Its frail body flew away like a dented soccer ball, slamming two or three others with it into the ruins of a collapsed high-rise. Her blade pierced another Assault-type's body as easily as slicing through paper. It was flung into a nearby pile of trash, its high-speed wing casings abruptly falling silent as it twitched from time to time.

Before long, the Honkai Beasts in this area had been completely cleared out. The cleanup operations in the other areas were also proceeding smoothly, but a smooth battle would not make the Fusion Warrior experiment succeed.

With one slash, she cut the last Assault-type in sight in half. With a divine weapon in hand, how could mere Assault-types possibly pose a threat? The white-haired warrior gripped the hilt and proudly said to her companions over the radio, "With a Divine Key, do you think I'd be afraid of these Honkai Beasts?!"

"I'll cut every last one of you down!" But an inexplicable sense of danger suddenly pierced her mind like a needle. She turned around, trying to dispel the unease in her heart, only for a colossal creature to appear in her visor. A violet-white orb of light gathered in its mouth, its radiance nearly engulfing her entire body.

It possessed a violet-and-white four-legged body, mysterious pale violet patterns covering it from head to toe. Sharp white tusks on either side could slice through iron like mud. There was no doubt about it—this was the Emperor-class Honkai Beast, Ganesha!

She instantly recognized the origin of the colossal creature before her. Barely able to believe it, she cried out in terror, "That's... an Emperor-class Honkai Beast!" She hurriedly swung her sword forward, but the Tenth Divine Key, capable of cutting iron like mud, left only a shallow mark on Ganesha.

The white-haired warrior was on the verge of collapse. "Why... Why isn't the Divine Key affecting it?!" She fled desperately and frantically shouted into the communications channel, "Someone... Someone save me! Requesting reinforcements!"

Could she really escape? The violet light in Ganesha's mouth flared brilliantly. The converging beam was about to erupt.

At that instant, time itself seemed to be covered in asphalt—thick and sluggish. Every movement became incomparably slow, while the entire world around them was stained with an eerie deep-blue hue, as though covered by a transparent film.

A silver-white foot stepped out of thin air, and the rest of its body gradually emerged from transparency. The silver-white humanoid machine walked out of what had been empty space. A faint blue glow emanated from its deep eye sockets. An X symbol was engraved upon the forehead of its half-face. One half of its body was enveloped in blue energy, while the other half exposed a Soul Steel shell. Though its full structure could not be seen clearly, its design carried a strange kind of beauty.

The Emperor-class Honkai Beast Terminator T-X had appeared.

Though it was called an Emperor-class Honkai Beast Terminator, a lone T-X could not inflict much damage on an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. However, there was one thing this T-X could guarantee: it could survive the fangs and claws of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.

The burly Terminator grabbed the white-haired warrior and ran. Its silver-white right hand gradually deformed and expanded as though liquid were flowing through it. Its arm eventually wrapped around the warrior's waist. T-X stepped forward and swung with all its might, flinging her into the distant sky like a meteor hammer. Meanwhile, the Divine Key in the warrior's hand had temporarily fused into T-X's body.

However, two seconds had passed. That was the limit of the spacetime fracture this T-X could maintain. The white-haired Valkyrie luckily escaped the Emperor-class Honkai Beast's beam strike, but after carrying out that series of actions, T-X no longer had time to evade Ganesha's converging beam.

The deep-blue colors rapidly contracted and vanished. Sluggish time resumed its normal flow, and the converging beam in Ganesha's mouth erupted. T-X immediately deployed a Honkai energy shield, but the devastating beam blasted it away. Like a fired shell, it tore through layer after layer of ruined walls, carrying countless fragments and clouds of dust with it before finally crashing into a pile of construction sand.

Ganesha leaped into the air, curled itself into a massive ball, and rolled over T-X's landing site again and again. Dozens of seconds later, Ganesha stopped. Other than the dust of ruins, nothing seemed to remain where it had rolled.

Ganesha snorted and then slowly walked away. Yet Ganesha never could have imagined that if it had taken one more step, it would not have stepped on empty ground, but on T-X's body. This T-X possessed more than one Law-Ruler Core. It had another pseudo-Herrscher of Wind Core, which meant it could become invisible.

"Ahhhhhh—" The white-haired warrior screamed. The terror of death had made her shut her eyes long ago, while a mechanical arm gripped her body tightly.

"Tell me your location. I'll come right away!" Fu Hua said over the communications channel.

"..."

The white-haired warrior felt the cold metallic touch around her waist. She opened her eyes and looked around. The clouds were within reach, and the high-altitude wind blew so fiercely that she could barely keep her eyes open.

"So... I'm dead."

But the beating in her heart told her—she was not dead yet. Looking upward, she saw that she was being suspended beneath a strangely shaped aircraft. A Hunter Drone was carrying her away from the area, and her radio had been torn off when she was grabbed.

PS: 1. The Tenth Law-Ruler's abilities were basically the author's own guess. When the original work introduced the Tenth Law-Ruler, it only said that the previous nine Law-Rulers' powers were the ultimate manifestations of certain laws, while the Tenth Law-Ruler's abilities were all very simple. In the early manga—many of whose settings were later discarded—it was said that the Xuanyuan Sword had fused the powers of six Law-Rulers and could even fuse the powers of other Law-Rulers. The author's guess was based on those few lines. Of course, the official material never actually stated whether the Tenth Law-Ruler of the Previous Era possessed the abilities of the previous nine Law-Rulers. I doubt it ever will.

If anything is wrong, just have a laugh about it.

2. T-X's appearance here is based on T-Infinity from the manga.

3. Congratulations, the author is finally close to finishing the Elysian Realm.

4. T-Infinity's uniquely beautiful design