Donggong City, the land formed a perfectly circular pit.
This circular pit had a diameter of over a hundred kilometers. Its surroundings were incredibly smooth. Cities and people had completely disappeared, leaving only groundwater gushing out.
Soon, a circular lake would appear on Earth. Because of its perfect roundness, people would marvel at the power of nature.
There was no sense of dilapidation after a fire, but the sea breeze howled past, and that terror permeated deeper into the bones.
On a distant mountain peak, a young man gazed at the 'lake,' his hair swaying in the wind. His handsome face bore a slight smile, seemingly more vivid than the previous Herrschers.
"Annihilated in an instant. It's a pity all valuable targets were transferred away, which leaves me with some regret."
"My dominant body delayed the alarm, but you should have warned me before destroying the city, so I wouldn't have lost a dominant body for nothing." The enchanting blonde woman stepped onto the mountain peak. The previous battle had already caused heavy losses, and she seemed somewhat displeased.
"Sorry, I just manifested and haven't controlled my power yet. I'll be careful in the future." The young man spread his hands, then pointed to the figure with his back to them in the distance. "Besides, I did this to cover His existence. I had to erase all traces, otherwise humanity would have gotten the news."
Indeed, Herrschers never cared about revenge or provocation. It was simply because before the black hole formed, the remaining hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Donggong City had encountered an indescribable terror.
A red shadow rushed into the city, slaughtering all residents and warriors. The spilled blood dyed the streets red, and corpses filled every room. It was a true living hell.
But under the infiltration of the Herrscher of Domination, no alarm was sounded. Then, all traces were cleanly erased, making it seem more like the Herrscher came for revenge and instantly destroyed the city.
"Not enough."
A sound like grinding stones entered their ears. The back figure squatting in the distance disappeared, instantly reappearing in the center of the two Herrschers, oddly with his back to them.
"All trash, I can't get much power from them. I need warriors, high-ranking MANTIS, to integrate more existences into this body."
The two Herrschers remained silent, unaffected by this seemingly frantic tone. Even though they had failed many times, they were still confident, because this time the difficulty would increase significantly.
"Be a little patient. Let's use Honkai Beasts for a transition first. Suitable sacrifices will appear soon." The Herrscher of Stars said lightly.
"Then, can Indra be used?"
"No. High-ranking Honkai Beasts are qualified pawns. Anyway, you don't care about strength or weakness. In human terms, this is called quantitative change leading to qualitative change." The Herrscher of Stars shook his head slightly, nodding to the Herrscher of Domination, who already knew what to do.
Now, ordinary Honkai Beasts can only deal with human armies; they're truly useless. Luckily, this one can make waste useful, so they never thought they would ultimately fail.
No matter how humanity struggled, there was no end in sight. This pain would last forever, just as at this very moment, a Herrscher specifically targeting him had descended.
That's right, the Honkai energy accumulated over two months was only enough to manifest a Herrscher of his strength, but it didn't mean that authorities couldn't be sent. Authorities without energy are like trees without water, but thanks to him, there were already carriers in the world far surpassing ordinary humans.
Theoretically, MANTIS had lost the qualification to become Herrschers, but if they opened their hearts and offered themselves as sacrifices, it could still be done.
"Take me... there."
A roar came. The gaunt figure slowly turned back, revealing skin as red as blood.
...
Did it leave no trace?
Two days later, Ryan flipped through the investigation report. Donggong City had vanished from the world, leaving only a huge circular pit. By the time the investigation team arrived, the incoming seawater had already transformed it into a vast lake.
Because of the battle with the Herrscher of Flamescion, most of that city had already been evacuated, but the remaining 100,000 soldiers and civilians still disappeared from the world.
100,000 lives, at least 30 MANTIS, just gone like that?
Ryan held the thin document, feeling it weigh a thousand pounds. 100,000 lives' blood would be enough to form a river of blood, yet not a single trace was left.
Speaking of which, he once again affirmed Mei contraction plan, and even felt that the abandoned locations were not enough.
'From victory to victory, then from victory to destruction. This world is truly messed up.'
A flame ignited. Ryan burned the document into particles, just as he had been criticized recently. After a major victory, he immediately had to abandon 20% of the land. Many people didn't understand, but sitting in Ryan position, everything seemed logical.
The world was too vast to defend everywhere. For example, this Herrscher attack—even if a Fire Moth squad was sent, they might not be able to hold out until reinforcements arrived. And with the previous branch configurations of Fire Moth, it would simply be sending them to their deaths.
An open palm needs to be clenched into a fist to hit someone hard, yet I can't even kill them.
Ryan rubbed his temples, feeling his head throb. It was so annoying. To truly attack regardless of everything, he would have to wait until the Herrscher of the End descended, right? What he could do now was to preserve this fist as much as possible before the End.
"Headache?" Sakura quietly approached and gently rubbed his temples.
"A little, but I can vaguely see the end. Only when I face It can I fully vent my anger." Ryan curled up on the sofa, not feeling helpless or frustrated at all.
This was war. Sacrifices were inevitable. He was merely using cold logic to calculate the value of each life.
"Every time a high-ranking MANTIS dies, the win rate drops by one percent. Using that one percent to exchange for a city means losing your underwear."
These were cruel words, and would undoubtedly cause an uproar if spread, but they were also very true. If the End truly existed and couldn't be overcome, then even if the whole world lived happily, they would merely die on the same day.
"I trust your judgment." Sakura pursed her lips.
"Do you have something to say?"
"I did, but not anymore."
She had originally wanted to talk to Ryan deeply, but found that in the face of his distress, her own private feelings were light as a feather. She immediately shifted her attention to serious matters.
"So that's why you're carrying out the 'Wandering Human' plan?"
"Yes, human civilization is inherently a burden, but without civilization, there would be no Fire Moth. So I'm preparing to protect it in a safe place."
"Sea Of Quanta?"
"Yes, Dr. Vidich has some clues, and it's similar to what I thought."
Ryan flipped through the documents. The Quantum Institute had found a suitable World Bubble. This was a continent submerged in the Sea Of Quanta. To put it simply, this was similar yet completely different from planetary colonization; it was a trans-dimensional colonization activity.
'World Bubbles' were essentially worlds that had failed the Honkai test. If they were to fall like seeds from the Imaginary Tree and plunge into the sea, they should have vanished into thin air.
"What does this 'ether anchor' mean?" Sakura pointed at the document, humbly asking for an explanation.
Of course, she didn't understand profound theoretical knowledge. So Ryan thought for a long time and explained in an easy-to-understand way: "You can think of it as a book spine. Incomplete worlds are like blank sheets of paper. Forcibly nailing them together makes these fragmented leaves form a World Bubble."
"It can even replicate worlds like a mirror, hmm, similar to the First Herrscher mimicry ability."
Ryan had read the Durandal visual novel before and couldn't remember much, but combining it with the Quantum Institute's research, he recalled many things.
"Generally, the Sea Of Quanta cannot replenish Honkai energy, but larger World Bubbles will continuously absorb energy and will not sink even after a long time in the Sea Of Quanta. Do you understand what I mean?"
"Although I still don't understand the theoretical knowledge, I roughly know what it's for." Sakura let out a long sigh, as if she had returned to the fear of being dominated by homework, and skipped the theoretical knowledge.
"You mean to send people in? As a sanctuary?"
"That's pretty much it. The Sea Of Quanta is vast and boundless, Herrschers simply cannot find World Bubbles, and Honkai, being part of the 'Tree,' theoretically won't rashly enter the 'Sea.'"
Ryan explained, then stood up and paced the room. Originally, the Quantum Institute's plan was to dump garbage into a World Bubble, which meant expelling the excess Honkai energy from the world to reduce the global energy concentration.
But he always felt that doing so was unreliable. One pouring in, one pouring out, it wouldn't solve the fundamental problem.
The destruction of Donggong City further solidified his determination to evacuate the population. In the future, as the intensity of the war increases, the aftermath of battles alone could destroy cities one by one. Ordinary people simply wouldn't have the right to survive in this world.
It's good that they left. This would greatly increase tactical flexibility. Without so many burdens, they could even drive the Minerva around freely.
"Ryan, you're truly a person who lacks a sense of security," Sakura murmured. He wasn't satisfied with a sturdy underground fortress as a refuge; he even wanted to go into the Sea Of Quanta.
"Haha, it's always good to be safe. If we send Rin and Griseo in, we'll have no worries. They're too young for super-transformation surgery, and the risk is very high. And high Honkai energy adaptability, you know what that means."
Sakura immediately sobered up. This was also what she had always feared.
According to current research, the higher the Honkai energy adaptability, the greater the possibility of becoming a Herrscher vessel. However, MANTIS are not included in this category, but they are too young, and the risk of surgery is very high.
If they go into the Sea Of Quanta, no matter how terrifying Honkai is, it's impossible for it to cross the tree into the sea to manifest a Herrscher, at least the possibility is extremely low.
"So you had it all planned out already." Sakura stared at Ryan profile, her eyes like water filled with tenderness. Her hand, hidden behind her back, quietly clenched into a fist. At that moment, it answered Hua question. I will join the fight.