Lightning shrieked like a thousand birds, intertwining with burning flames, as if cloaking Ryan in two layers of attire.
He was very clear-headed, analyzing this intricate battlefield in a few seconds.
On the surface, both sides suffered heavy losses. The Herrscher side, having plundered an entire continent, seemed to be running out of steam. The Fire Moth was also exhausted. Even Mei herself had come to add fuel to the fire.
The Ninth and Tenth Herrschers were very strong. If calculated by high-tier MANTIS, they were at least equivalent to three or more people. If truly estimated this way, Honkai was still slightly stronger, as five MANTIS couldn't participate in the battle.
However, the Ninth Herrscher was already held back by Kalpas. Now, the strongest one on the surface was only the Tenth Herrscher.
So he had to snowball, trying his best to evacuate the wounded. Even if all four Herrschers were eliminated, there would still be more to come, but if people died, they were truly gone.
Furthermore, only by making the snowball bigger would he have enough trump cards to counter the Herrscher trump card.
"Then let's see who breaks first!"
Lightning and fire intertwined, ice and wind resonated. Ryan couldn't believe it; with two Divine Keys in hand, he couldn't defeat this Herrscher of Blood with his full power.
One must know that targeting also had its limits. At least, the prolonged battle during this period prevented the opponent from growing unrestrainedly.
Come on!!
Flames expanded, enveloping his entire body. A giant stood on the earth, just like the rebirth of the Seventh Herrscher. But upon closer inspection, there were slight differences.
Beyond the crimson flames, azure lightning flickered. His right hand held a blazing pure fire greatsword, and his left hand gripped a lightning-sparkling thunder spear.
A body over a hundred meters tall appeared so abruptly. The overflowing energy carbonized everything within a few hundred meters. Even the Herrscher of Blood slightly froze, not expecting this human to be so terrifying.
The people of the Fire Moth were even more dumbfounded. Ryan ultimate move completely surpassed imagination. At least, it looked far more terrifying than a Herrscher.
Even Kosma was excited, his face flushed, feeling like a scene from an anime was replaying in reality, involuntarily muttering to himself.
'Is it the power of a god...?'
"This song of Eden is best for piloting a Gundam."
Ryan smile was somewhat sinister. He used four Authorities. His entire being floated in the center of this fiery thunder, using the threads of domination to control the 'Gundam'.
'Isn't your Authority aimed at me? Then at this moment, have you exceeded your control limit?'
Ryan raised his hand, and the giant also raised its flaming greatsword. At this level, specific moves no longer mattered. All that was needed was to pour in energy, and then—
Slash!
Whoosh—
A colossal wall of fire magnified in the Herrscher eyes. Its speed was extreme. He only had time to cross his arms over his chest, utilizing his Authority to its limit.
The air clearly twisted. A visible light shield formed in front of him, pushing back the roaring Honkai energy. Then his pupils gradually constricted.
Whether absorption or decomposition, power makes things move. The energy exceeded its limit, finally breaking through and violently crashing into him.
This river of fire extended once again, washing over the mountain ten kilometers away. A powerful light suddenly blazed.
Boom!!!
As if a nuclear bomb had exploded, destructive energy washed over everything around, finally forming a perfectly round fireball that turned night into day.
A sword split the mountain. No, it sliced the mountain into tiny particles, then vaporized them into the air, leaving only a large, round hole.
The Herrscher of Blood lay on his back in the great hole, clearly feeling the other's killing intent. This was a move to kill him, regardless of energy cost.
He felt no fear, nor did he understand fear. He simply blinked and muttered to himself.
"It's not time yet. His upper limit is still too high. We should execute the third phase of the plan."
Thump.
Almost simultaneously with the mountain's explosion, a column of thick smoke rose from a distant city. Ryan turned his head to look, seeing a colossal creature flying into the air.
It looked very strange. Its center was like a giant brain, covered in wrinkles, and then hundreds of black ribbons connected to it, swaying like kelp.
3000HW of Honkai energy. This far surpassed a Judgment-class Honkai Beast. However, Ryan only took one look and showed a disappointed expression.
'A Doomsday-class Honkai Beast? Is this your trump card?'
Looking at the dense black ribbons soaring through the air, the giant twisted his wrist and turned, delivering a sword slash.
A hundred-meter wall of fire suddenly stretched across the land. These ribbons were extremely tough, but could only penetrate halfway before retracting. If they continued deeper, they would surely be melted.
The so-called Doomsday-class was the Fire Moth's classification for special Honkai Beasts. For example, Vishnu, who could grow indefinitely, was a tier stronger than Judgment-class and could also be included in this category.
But it was still not enough, far from enough.
Ryan was no longer who he was half a year ago. Even with the strength of a regular Herrscher, he couldn't sway the outcome of this war, and naturally, Kevin and the others would deal with it.
So he didn't bother with it, only controlling the thunder-fire giant to take a step.
Storm Advance.
The enormous body seemed slow, but in reality, with the assistance of the Authority of Wind, its speed was incredibly fast and agile. The Herrscher of Blood had just gotten up when the blazing figure already enveloped him. With no time to think, he immediately used a gravity sling to propel himself away.
Boom!!!
The thunder spear plunged into the pit. Ten million electric snakes splattered outwards. This single spear directly pierced the ground, evaporating the underground river.
"Like a flea, running all over the place."
Ryan looked down from above, watching the Herrscher body flicker. The gravity sling made it accelerate extremely fast and move like a phantom. Ryan understood that this Herrscher was fundamentally different from himself.
His Authority originated from understanding, while the other's seemed stored, just like he had done to Kevin earlier. This was a clever trick, but it would eventually run out.
"But I didn't go to all this trouble just to fight a war of attrition with you!"
Even with the Divine Key's assistance, he felt his energy draining rapidly as if a dam had broken. Seeing the Doomsday-class Honkai Beast blocked by Kosma and Kevin, he had no more worries.
The Herrscher of Death had temporarily hidden. 'What makes you think you can fight me one-on-one?'
The giant stretched its body, raising its shimmering thunder spear. Then six layers of qi rings simultaneously appeared, vanishing into the distance like lightning.
Thunderous Burst!
A gigantic white light shot straight to the sky. What Ryan threw was not a spear, but clearly a high-yield Honkai energy warhead. The suburbs of Rio were instantly destroyed. The Herrscher, who was about to enter the city, was swept back by the shockwave.
Unable to break through.
Ahead were only flickering thunderbolts, cutting the earth into pieces, enough to penetrate Authorities and paralyze bodies, and then—
Ryan caught up in three steps, once again raising his blazing greatsword.
First Rated Output. Judgement of Shamash!
The greatsword expanded further as it descended. Ryan, wielding the Sword of the Azure Sky, struck with a wide-area attack. The covered area already exceeded the range of the gravity sling's movement.
Cannot dodge, only parry!
A surge of crimson Honkai energy reflected from the ground. This energy seemed to generate countless corpses, corpses made purely of energy.
Some looked like MANTIS, some like Honkai Beasts, some were just pure energy, giving Ryan a sudden realization.
'So you just spit out what you eat. No wonder you grow so fast.'
He didn't think much of it, only concentrating all his energy. He wanted to exceed the critical point of the opponent's Authority.
Even with high-efficiency Honkai energy decomposition, as long as the total amount was sufficient, the greatsword would Burn everything. Putting aside the flashy tricks, it was essentially an energy clash, only the Herrscher of Blood was slightly different.
His Authority restrained everything, its efficiency naturally extremely high. Even in the blood sea, flames ignited, clearly absorbing Ryan Authority and returning it on the spot.
But the greatsword continued to press down irresistibly, incinerating everything in its path. Fortunately, the Herrscher extreme calmness didn't faze him. Instead, his crimson eyes darted around.
A faint, intermittent song continued. Indra's surface had already condensed a layer of ice. This Doomsday-class Honkai Beast was stronger than ever before, but it was still a little short against Kevin.
Not to mention Kosma was also there; he actually devoured the Honkai Beast's flesh and blood whole.
Pink arrows rained down in the distance. Hua had already arrived with her subordinates. The Herrscher of Death, fighting outnumbered, was firmly suppressed. She was hard to kill, but her combat power was slightly weaker than Elysia.
Further in the sky, a meteor with residual fire was approaching. Clearly, after Ryan appeared, the Ninth Herrscher had charged wildly towards this side. Unfortunately, Kalpas was a madman, relentlessly harassing him, and Su was hidden in the shadows, occasionally interfering with mental power, which instead put the Herrscher of Stars, who was rushing to get there, at a disadvantage.
He couldn't hold on. He couldn't catch up. Humans recovered stamina with this song, conversely suppressing the Honkai army. As for Kalpas and the others, they were completely out of the Herrscher of Blood's consideration.
The roaring flames were already a few meters above his head. From the Herrscher perspective, it was as if the sky had been ignited, and the air around him also began to burn. The Herrscher of Blood could only sigh softly.
Since the appearance of this human, the balance of victory and defeat in this massive war has tilted, and the snowballing tactic is continuously adding weight.
"No choice, execute the third step. We cannot expect a hundred percent success rate."
What third step?
Ryan, of course, knew that the Herrschers had trump cards. This war was massive, and the Fire Moth suffered heavy losses, but they were ultimately evenly matched.
You know, Herrschers are computers, they don't gamble.
An ominous feeling spread in his heart, but he thought of nothing, only focusing on increasing his output.
Whatever trump cards you have, let's take out one first!
The speed of the roaring flame slash accelerated, from several meters to half a meter, burning away the surging sea of blood, and the sword's edge was about to touch the Herrscher body.
Then at this moment, a strange fluctuation swept around. Ryan pupils suddenly contracted, because he saw the fierce flames on the greatsword rapidly dissipating, like a flickering candle in the wind.
He raised his head and looked at the city close at hand, his heart beating uncontrollably fast.
The Herrscher trump card is He!?
Invisible Honkai energy waves spread out from the city as the center. On the Sky Net map, a strange sight suddenly appeared:
Due to continuous battles, the South American continent on the map had turned red, and the area around Rio had become purplish-red. Even Prometheus could not calculate how many energy bursts occurred per second.
But within a few tenths of a second, this purplish-red suddenly turned light green, like a naughty child's random graffiti. For a moment, countless people tapped their screens.
The Sky Net system must have a BUG. How could the Honkai energy reaction instantly return to a clean zone, even several orders of magnitude lower than the Mu Continent?
The iron curtain dispersed, and the moonlight finally shone down. The images transmitted back by optical satellites made countless people rub their eyes.
The clamor instantly turned into silence, a deathly silence.
All the fireworks-like colorful energy beams disappeared, and the dazzling flame giant was nowhere to be seen. Even the lingering fires on the ground vanished without a trace. Everything became some kind of illusion. If it weren't for the shattered mountains and dry riverbeds, one would have thought the war was just a dream.
"What's going on?" Kevin lowered his head and looked at his scarred hands. The ice that was as hard as iron just now had also disappeared.
He turned his head and looked at Kosma, who had two horns on his head. Just now, the boy was also about to break through his limits, and he was very anxious, but now the two stared at each other, neither able to speak.
Honkai energy dispersed? Even if some remained in the body, it was completely unable to resonate with the world, like a robot with its plug pulled out, only the battery inside its body remaining.
The key is that after continuous fierce battles, this battery is almost exhausted, and there's no way to replenish it?
"What's going on?"
The same thought permeated the hearts of everyone on the battlefield, including Eden. She found that her singing had lost its medium, truly just singing with her voice.
In an instant, fear replaced confusion. Fusion Warriors had long been accustomed to fighting with Honkai energy. This drastic change was more terrifying than cutting off their hands and feet.
Fortunately, they found that the enemy also fell into silence. Honkai Beasts, as energy beings, became stiff, their wounds no longer healed, and the Pseudo-Herrschers lost their abilities, looking around confusedly.
It was too sudden, everyone on the battlefield was a bit stunned, and the only one who was clear-headed was Ryan.
"It's the Herrscher of Binding, the trump card turned out to be Him!?"
Sweat instantly covered his forehead. The moment the hundred-meter-tall flame giant dissipated, he understood that this was not an illusion at all, but supreme authority!
The Herrscher of Binding can create a domain that dispels all energy within it, causing Fusion Warriors to fall from their pedestal, just like a magic-prohibiting barrier in a game.
But something is wrong, the Honkai energy is very weak, but it hasn't been completely eliminated!
Ryan didn't panic, instead, he entered an unprecedented state of calm, carefully perceiving every detail for one second, then analyzing it for another second, and finally comparing it with his memory.
'Honkai energy still exists, and I can still move. The breeze blows, and the leaves are still fluttering.'
Why has he always been wary of the Herrscher of Binding? Dispelling energy is only one aspect; the most terrifying thing is that this Herrscher can bind all 'energy', including kinetic energy, electrical energy, and biological energy.
In other words, within His domain, you can't even move a finger. No, He doesn't even need to do anything. After binding bioelectricity, the heart will stop beating.
But not now.
Ryan subconsciously gripped his greatsword. Assuming the Herrscher wouldn't go easy, he instantly analyzed two situations:
Either this is not the Herrscher of Binding, or the Herrscher of Binding cannot do it.
Yes, He just can't do it. This supreme authority also needs to be activated with His own Honkai energy, and now the Herrscher of Binding came too quickly, without time to accumulate energy, or rather, he didn't give Him this time.
'In the original world line, the Tenth and Eleventh Herrschers were separated by a whole year, but at this moment, their successive arrivals are less than two months apart. Even with Fusion Warriors as carriers, how much can the progress bar be pushed?'
Ryan suddenly understood, reason completely eliminated the panic. Honkai had always fallen into his trick, focusing on quantity rather than improving quality for a big push.
Although this involved him playing with fire and maintaining balance, essentially—
"You're not confident enough, afraid that I'll hold back something bigger than you."
The greatsword swung, the flames released were negligible compared to before, but when it grazed the Herrscher of Blood's chest, the latter was surprised instead.
Completely unaffected, is this still a human?
Looking at the dazzling sword qi dancing in front of him after a brief silence, the Herrscher was instead confused. He knew that even he was a bit unaccustomed after losing Honkai energy, at least he had to adjust his fighting style. He knew that whether human or Honkai Beast, they would not recover after such a drastic change.
And he, after only a few seconds of hesitation, regained his confidence.
Expected it? Impossible, the existence of the Herrscher of Binding is known to very few people. If he had expected it, he would never have appeared!
The Herrscher of Blood was puzzled, but he didn't understand that Ryan not only knew, but could also compare before and after, looking for clues.
His movement made the silent battlefield noisy again. The Honkai Beasts began to attack again. At this time, their huge bodies came in handy. Even if their movements were much slower and they couldn't perform highly destructive attacks, the Fusion Warriors' attack power was greatly reduced, and they didn't have bodies as hard as theirs.
"All troops retreat! Minerva provides fire cover!"
When the huge aerial battleship appeared on the horizon, Mei decisively activated the emergency plan. The Minerva stayed at the edge of the domain, firing missiles and shells at full speed.
Even these weapons, which are not propelled by Honkai energy, were still affected after entering the domain, becoming extremely slow, but at least they could blow up some Honkai Beasts when they landed.
And the Minerva decisively took over the flag, giving the panicked crowd a concentrated direction.
"Kalpas is back. Huh, Su seems to be attached to him?"
"Sakura has also been brought back, but why didn't Mobius come back?"
The Herrscher of Binding was most effective against Eden, who could only return to the ship to help, and by the way, picked up an elegantly shaped 'flintlock gun', a Soul Steel weapon custom-made for her by Vil-V.
Everyone was exhausted. If any Herrscher charged out, she would have to stop them.
Mei remained silent. 'Sky Net' was out of order, and she could only judge the battle situation through optical satellite images, quietly clenching her fists.
It was indeed the Herrscher of Binding, but as Ryan had hypothesized, this Herrscher of Binding was incomplete. He did not have enough energy to support that terrifying barrier.
According to Ryan description, once the Herrscher of Binding's domain unfolded, creatures within its range would become lambs to the slaughter, and slightly weaker warriors would die immediately.
"Fortunately, compared to absolute binding, it's more like a significant weakening. At least there's a chance to retreat."
"Good? Is this still good?" Eden heard this and found it a bit difficult to understand, because she saw the Fusion Warriors, who moved like the wind, seemed to have become ordinary people.
Without Honkai energy, strength, speed, and defense were all reduced across the board. Instead, the Honkai Beasts, relying on their physical advantage, completely regained the initiative.
If it weren't for the Minerva's desperate cover and Prometheus's precise correction of every impact point, they would have been completely wiped out. Even so, many slow ones were caught and slaughtered.
"Of course it's a bad situation, but at least it's not to the point of despair." Mei was calmly cruel, even when she saw Kevin being flung away by that Doomsday-level Honkai Beast, covered in blood, her expression didn't change much.
"At least we can cope. Honkai only pushed their advantage to the limit, not to the point of total annihilation."
"What about Ryan?" Eden was a bit agitated, because Ryan was closest to the center of the domain, and he showed no signs of escaping.
"He should have made up his mind. For this sudden situation, to risk his life and save the overall situation, that is also his responsibility." Mei was somewhat unsympathetic, turned her head, and ordered her subordinates:
"Prepare to launch the Gate component, open the escape, no, the gate of victory for the Chief!"
Fighting Honkai, being an enemy of Herrschers, victory and defeat, life and death, are only in an instant.
As Mei expected, Ryan had long been mentally prepared. He had always walked on thin ice, and knew that the reversal would be so fast that he wouldn't have time to react, which indeed confirmed the old saying:
Honkai can fail ten thousand times, but humanity cannot fail even once!
From having a slight upper hand to a crisis of survival, Ryan was not too surprised. For a long time, he had been accustomed to preparing in advance, with contingency plans for even the worst outcomes.
"Just like this very moment."
The greatsword slashed, leaving a crimson arc. The Herrscher of Blood supported himself with one hand and dodged backward. Although he looked fierce, he was not a war maniac like Kalpas. After the Herrscher of Binding made his move, there was no need to fight Ryan head-on.
Humans could no longer hold on and were constantly retreating into the distance. Soon, without him even needing to act, the Honkai Beasts could pile up and kill Ryan. However, this human's calmness made the Herrscher very interested.
"You're dead. You no longer have that speed and destructive power, and the authority of binding will become heavier and heavier. You won't even have a chance to escape."
He was stating a truth. Even with psychological warfare involved, Ryan had already experienced that he wasn't lying.
The fewer targets this binding domain suppressed, the greater its intensity would be, and its scope would expand from Honkai energy to all energy. His and the Herrscher speeds were getting slower and slower, and the damage caused was becoming weaker.
If this continued, he would either be suppressed by the Herrscher of Binding until his heart stopped, or be piled up and killed by the surging enemies before that.
Whoosh—
Ryan did not waver, even though he saw Honkai Beasts, Pseudo-Herrschers, and Herrschers abandoning their respective targets and concentrating towards him. If Elysia and the others hadn't desperately intercepted them, he would have been completely surrounded.
The communicator was full of retreat orders. In this unfavorable situation, Elysia and Kevin wouldn't be able to hold on for too long. Ryan might not be able to get out, and they might even get themselves trapped.
Right, concentrate on me, I'll cover the retreat.
Ryan had no intention of getting closer to them, only drawing the Seven Thunders of Purgation from the ground, using the remaining Honkai energy to resist the binding.
"You're wrong, I never planned to escape!"