Under Calamity, Civilization Is Fragile; Even the Slightest Disturbance Is Enough to Erase It

The direction in which the building collapsed happened to be where the Third Herrscher stood.

Reaching the top, Chang Yuan leaped into the air and swung a long blade forged from Soul Steel at the Third Herrscher.

This time, the Third Herrscher also sensed Chang Yuan's bioelectric energy. Purple-red lightning immediately erupted around her and shot toward him.

Having already anticipated this possibility, Chang Yuan immediately reconfigured the Soul Steel blade into a shield.

With a single blow, Chang Yuan slammed violently into the ground.

A portion of the Soul Steel shield was also disintegrated by electromagnetic force.

"Hiss, damn it... that felt like getting stepped on by an Emperor-class Honkai Beast."

Climbing back up, Chang Yuan felt as though every bone in his body had been knocked out of place.

If his physical constitution had not long surpassed that of an ordinary person, that strike would probably have turned him into pulp.

Noticing that Chang Yuan was still alive, the Third Herrscher immediately sent several more bolts of lightning crashing down at him.

Compared with lightning, Chang Yuan was naturally somewhat slower.

But he could react in advance, so those bolts of lightning almost all brushed past him.

Yet their corrosive power still disintegrated all his clothes.

Only then did Chang Yuan realize how laughable his earlier thought of instantly killing a Herrscher had been.

He could indeed kill her instantly, but before he did, she could kill him instantly too.

Because Chang Yuan had drawn the Third Herrscher's attention, Airi was also given a chance to catch her breath.

The dark green giant snake had shrunk considerably as well.

Airi therefore concluded that if the snake suffered severe injuries or died once, it would consume some energy and gradually shrink.

Only once it reached a critical point could the snake truly be killed.

So Airi did not waste the opportunity Chang Yuan had created for her.

She swiftly engaged the dark green giant snake in battle.

The battle was incredibly brutal, and nearly all the surrounding buildings collapsed.

This city, which had still been bustling with life just two days ago, now quietly vanished from the world.

There was no way this incident could be concealed, so Chang Yuan had already prepared himself to expose the existence of Honkai and gather the strength of the entire world to fight it.

After three minutes of continuous fighting, the dark green giant snake finally collapsed for good after its body had shrunk by half.

Only then did the Third Herrscher realize that her servant had been killed.

She immediately flew into a rage.

At that moment, the clear sunny sky turned into one blanketed by dark clouds.

Purple-red lightning flickered amid the clouds.

In that instant, the Third Herrscher waved her hand, and purple-red lightning came roaring down from the clouds. At the same time, Airi fired her arrow.

Without the dark green giant snake to block the attack for her, the strike pierced straight through the Third Herrscher's brain.

In an instant, the Third Herrscher fell from the sky, but the lightning she had summoned did not dissipate with her.

"Get under the giant snake's corpse!"

Chang Yuan shouted at Airi, then immediately slid beneath the dark green snake's body.

Airi did not care about the dark green fluid either. Imitating Chang Yuan, she hurried beneath the corpse.

The instant Airi hid under it, purple-red lightning descended from the sky.

Only after nearly half a minute of bombardment did the purple-red lightning finally stop.

Once the sounds of lightning outside had ceased, Chang Yuan endured the dark green fluid and crawled out.

Fortunately, because the fluid had existed for too long, it no longer possessed its original potency. Otherwise, their bones would have been exposed for sure.

But once outside, the tragic state of the city was too much for Chang Yuan to bear looking at.

Forget Honkai Beasts—even the buildings had been completely disintegrated, leaving behind nothing but endless craters.

Airi emerged right after him.

Seeing this scene, Airi was speechless for a long time.

In the end, she could only say sorrowfully, "Everyone in an entire city died just like that. Countless families have been torn apart..."

"This is Honkai. This is a Herrscher. We should be grateful that, at least this time, we reduced the losses."

Though he did not know what price Flame-Chasing Moth had paid in the original story to kill the Third Herrscher, it had certainly been greater than theirs.

After all, even with the Divine Key that had appeared ahead of time, they had only managed to kill her at the cost of an entire city's complete destruction.

Then in that time when there had been no Divine Key, when weapons could inflict only limited damage on a Herrscher, they must have paid an even greater price to destroy her.

"Mm... this time, it was indeed thanks to you, Chang Yuan."

Hearing Airi address him by his full name this time, Chang Yuan immediately understood that she was in a very bad mood.

So he said nothing more and simply stood beside Airi, keeping her company.

When the logistics team finally arrived, they too were shocked by the city's condition when they first reached its outskirts.

This had been a city, yet now there was not even a trace of any structure that could prove it had once been one. There was only uneven, cratered ground.

Even several nearby cities had been affected.

"Captain Airi, Vice Captain Chang Yuan, we are the logistics team. We have come to recover the Herrscher's body and the Honkai Beast's body. Do you have any further instructions?"

"No. Oh, give the Herrscher's body directly to Dr. Velvie. The dark green giant snake's corpse can go to Dr. Mobius."

"Understood."

After saluting, the logistics team did not disturb the two captains as they stood there in silence.

It was only after nearly half an hour that Airi finally calmed down completely.

"Chang Yuan, do you think future Herrschers will become stronger and stronger? Will humanity still be able to survive then?"

"They will. With you here, and Velvie and the others too, we definitely can."

"Mm. When we return this time, I want to make a suggestion to Velvie: build a satellite that can detect rising Honkai Energy levels in every region.

Then I will go anywhere a Herrscher might be born. I don't want to see people lose their homes again, or countless children lose their parents."

Hearing Airi's proposal, Chang Yuan wanted to object.

After all, Honkai Energy levels in every place could rise and fall unpredictably. If Airi had to go everywhere, even she, who was already beyond human, would never be able to endure such exhaustion.

But seeing Airi's resolute gaze and her compassion for humanity, Chang Yuan ultimately said nothing.

That was simply who Airi was. She deeply loved humanity, yet had never properly loved herself.

Chang Yuan hoped she would think more about herself, but that possibility was slim. If she truly did, then she would no longer be herself.