Just as Ryan was training the fox-eared girl and causing the sea level to drop.
Off the coast of Japan, the battleship Destiny, which was only half the size of the Hyperion, broke through the clouds, scattering the breath of civilization alone.
The sea shimmered with golden light under the twilight. As one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, no ships could be seen. Occasionally, a few fish would jump out of the water, as if they had returned to the prehistoric era.
The coastline in the distance was silent. A few oil tankers that had lost control were overturned on the beach, and some wooden houses were collapsed by a typhoon. But after seeing the alien-world scenery of South America, many people subconsciously smiled when they saw the lush green forest.
"I didn't expect to have a chance to come back and see this. If I didn't know that the war wasn't over, I would have thought this was me retiring and living in seclusion." Edwin started to lament again. As the head of the Far East branch, he was also a veteran.
His peers were either killed in action or were purged with the Council. He, on the other hand, was a tough old man who had survived until now.
"We haven't reached our darkest moment yet. Don't be in a hurry to think about retiring. As Senior Brother says, the further you think, the faster you die." Hua was tapping on the keyboard next to him, perfecting the battle plan issued by Prometheus. Her face was tense and visibly serious.
This girl is feeling the pressure. After realizing that Owl was very strong, she started to compete with herself again.
Edwin smiled silently. He had been Hua's superior for several years and knew this indomitable girl too well. His gaze gradually became kind.
"Please don't give me the same smile as my dad. I finally sent him away, and I don't want to run into another stubborn old man." Hua's finger paused. She turned her head slightly and said: "Lieutenant Colonel Andrei and Kevin have already fought with a Honkai Beast. It was under the Antarctic ice sheet. According to the information they sent back, it was confirmed that all the Honkai Beasts in the entire Antarctica had disappeared and gathered into one, just as Dr. Mei said. It's not in the central database record either."
She lightly pressed the enter key. A video shot from a high-altitude satellite was projected onto the screen. They could see a crystal clear monster piercing through the thick ice sheet.
It was like a winged octopus. It was shooting out ice crystals and exhaling cold air. The detector showed a data of about minus two hundred degrees Celsius.
Kevin originally wanted to hold it back so Ryan could come and reap the harvest, but he found that this thing was stronger than he had imagined. He had to become serious and teamed up with the human-collapsing Andrei. They fought until the sea froze and blizzards roared.
But in the end, it was no match for Kevin. It was soon cut to pieces and incinerated into ashes.
"The Honkai energy intensity is a full 7,000HW. Is that equivalent to 700 Rush-class Honkai Beasts?" Edwin sat up slightly. With his rich experience, he knew that the two couldn't be compared at all.
Seven hundred Rush-class Honkai Beasts wouldn't even need Kevin's help. A few volleys from the fleet would be enough to annihilate them. But when they gathered together, it was terrifying. It actually sent Andrei flying thousands of meters away.
"It seems this is not an isolated phenomenon in South America. Have the Honkai Beasts as a whole started to change??" The elderly branch head felt that something was not right. This was a different path.
"A qualitative change achieved through a quantitative change. I already said that the power the Honkai has accumulated for more than ten years couldn't be completely useless." Hua's expression didn't change at all. After being with Ryan for so long, she already knew that the Honkai didn't have cheat codes because the Cocoon of Finality itself was a cheat.
It had countless methods it could use. It was just a matter of whether it was necessary to use them.
'No wonder Senior Brother said something about hacking the Finality. Is he trying to disable its subjective initiative?'
Hua remembered a confidential matter but didn't understand it too well. She just listened to the branch head's rambling laments again.
"I finally understand why the commander-in-chief takes this so seriously. If Antarctica alone can create such a powerful Honkai Beast, then if they all merged globally, wouldn't it be even stronger than the Herrscher of Binding?"
"Much stronger. It just doesn't have an authority. It's taking a different path, more like using brute force to suppress others in martial arts. And Antarctica hasn't been cleaned up for many years. There's definitely more than just this one. Even Kevin and Lieutenant Colonel Andrei will have to spend some time on them."
"Was there a loss during the merging process? Or is it that..."
"This is just to cover their retreat. They have the wisdom to hide their strength. No, 'instinct' is a more accurate word." Hua's face darkened. As one of the participants in the World Bubble trip, she had also heard the story of Venus.
That civilization, which was not inferior to Earth's, was wiped out by the 'Beast.' According to Vita, the Abyss Beast, which is the Honkai Beast, has intelligence and can even speak. Compared to the Herrscher, who were born from humans, they belong to a different evolutionary path that is completely unfamiliar to the people on Earth and for which there is no information.
As for whether these Beasts, created from waste utilization, can reach that level, finding out is the purpose of this trip.
"Branch Head, let's not waste time. Let's go straight to Nagazora City. I want to know what these monsters are up to."
The near-Earth orbit Skynet satellites were monitoring the globe non-stop. They could always find Honkai energy anomalies. Vil-V's creations once again saved them a lot of trouble.
The land flew past below the ship, and all they could see were large areas of city ruins. When they saw the state of the Earth with their own eyes, it was hard not to feel silent.
Ninety percent of humanity had migrated to the World Bubble for refuge, leaving behind countless ruins that told the story of the past glory of civilization. The ultra-high concentration of Honkai energy in the air was enough to mutate all animals. With the Honkai Beasts that were wandering around also disappearing, the land was left in a state of deathly silence.
Forests, rivers, lakes, and cities were all there, but it was like a horror movie where not a single person could be seen. The ruins of civilization showed different results depending on how long they had been abandoned.
"This is Nagazora City, where Senior Brother used to go to school?"
Hua saw a medium-sized city appear on the horizon through the screen. It was located between mountains and a river. Since it had been abandoned for several years, the remaining houses were all askew.
"The commander-in-chief also went to school here. It's a pity that Su went to sweep the peninsula. I remember he also graduated from Chiba Academy." The blue-haired Owl showed her sharp teeth and looked very interested.
This group was divided into two teams, not too far apart, and could support each other.
Hua glanced at her powerful vice-captain and said faintly: "Kevin and Dr. Mei also graduated from here."
"Oh, this place is really full of talented people." The blue-haired girl didn't know what to say. As for why these four mainstays of the Fire Moth didn't come here for a class reunion, it was simple.
Japan was the last area to be abandoned. Even Nagazora City was only abandoned two years ago. It was relatively safe.
One worked hard to take care of you, and the other was determined to become stronger. They are a perfect match.
"Let's not waste time with small talk. Quickly get your equipment ready." Hua raised her hand and opened her palm to the subordinates who were in a state of readiness: "Everyone, five minutes to prepare."
As the hangar door slowly opened, the high-altitude airflow rushed in. The land was pitch black, and not a single light could be seen. Hua pressed the button on her helmet. The ground showed a gray color, and they could see some slightly whiter mutated animals moving around.
As Ryan's most stubborn follower, Hua resolutely gave up her aesthetic and wore a bulky power armor. She was holding the Fifth Divine Key in one hand.
It's pretty useful. It saves me the step of concentrating.
The latest Honkai energy imaging could search for all energy targets higher than the environment like an infrared camera. After pressing the enhanced mode, it could even penetrate dozens of meters into the ground.
"There's really something wrong. We came to the right place this time."
The helmet showed a white screen. Dozens of meters underground, there were high Honkai energy reactions, showing a water ripple pattern that seemed to be moving.
"Follow me down."
"Wait. Why don't we bomb it from the air and force it out?"
Hua glanced at her vice-captain and said in a deep voice: "It's too far. We can't pinpoint its location, and the organization doesn't have many resources left. We should save as much as we can."
After saying that, she didn't wait for a reply and fell from the sky. Dozens of warriors activated their jetpacks, looking like shooting stars from a distance.
Thump.
The leg armor made contact with the ground. Hua slightly bent her knees, her eyes always on the ground. As they got closer, the detector's imaging became better, and she saw more details.
"It seems there's more than one? Are the Honkai Beasts in each region evolving in different directions?" Hua pondered for a moment. This level of energy was similar to the weakest Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
In the past, this would have been a big fish, but now that the human collapse was becoming commonplace, it was a bit too weak. Because there was no authority, a Honkai Beast had to have an energy level of at least 3,000HW to have the combat power of a Herrscher.
But what's the situation with there being more than one? Shouldn't they have merged together like clay and become one?
Looking at the deep tunnel, her instinct told Hua not to move. She spread her palm and took a cylindrical object from the subordinate next to her. She then lifted her left leg high and leaned back.
She bent down, stomped, and threw.
Bang—
This 'spear' exploded with a pale aura in front of her and instantly drilled into the tunnel. About two seconds later, a bright fireball appeared in her eyes, and a rolling heatwave slammed over along the track.
Boom!
The Honkai light spear exploded, creating an effect like a small nuclear bomb. Rocks continuously fell from the ceiling. Hua, in her gray heavy armor, stared intently at the distance.
What are you going to do? Are you going to run or counterattack?
She was stubborn but not brainless. She of course knew that going in rashly was very dangerous. If these Honkai sources ran to a deeper place, she would just confirm their coordinates and use a precise bombing to clear them out.
The swirling storm couldn't move these steel monsters. The red electronic eyes flickered in the dust. After another second, Hua suddenly jumped onto the platform.
Whoosh—
A purple laser beam grazed her side, melting the steel and cement together and whistling to the other side. Then, the ground began to tremble slightly. The tunnel could no longer hold up and began to collapse.
"Retreat to the surface. They seem to be very angry."
Hua, for once, made a joke. She punched the falling steel and cement and sent them flying into the night sky. She decisively created an escape route, and with a light leap, she returned to the surface. She then looked at Owl and saw that both of them were relieved.
It was the same familiar feeling. If they just gathered together to make a single entity stronger, they would still just be a beast. With the current fire density of the Fire Moth, they could be completely cleaned out with a little bit of strategy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Pillars of smoke rose. The buildings collapsed after their foundations were destroyed. Some white-shelled monsters appeared in the dust.
The color was still familiar, but Hua was clearly stunned for a moment.
They were more than ten meters tall, half-human, half-horse, with wings on their backs, and holding large shields and spears. There were also rhombus-shaped objects floating around their bodies. At first glance, it looked like an amalgamation of lower-level Honkai Beasts like the Rush, Knight, Chariot, Templar, and Emperor.
A new species she had never seen before. Their size and appearance were exactly the same, and the Honkai energy intensity error was within 0.5.
"What is this thing? How is it completely different from what Kevin and the others encountered?" Owl was also a bit confused. The one in Antarctica was over a hundred meters tall.
"I don't know, but this is the reason why Senior Brother started the cleanup work. As for what it is?" Hua picked up the Fifth Divine Key. The ice wall she created deflected the laser beam.
"We'll know once we put them on the platypus's operating table."
As her words fell, she led her subordinates to counter-charge the enemy. The chilling air turned a Honkai Beast into an ice sculpture. Her subsequent heavy punch turned it into flying fragments. The two squads following behind her opened fire, and green laser beams flew through the night sky.
Owl, who was in charge of guarding the rear, didn't make a move. She watched the gray figure darting back and forth, either charging, or helping her subordinates, or forming a formation to fire in a volley. She was not only brave but also very organized.
The elite who had once single-handedly guarded the entire Eastern Europe raised her eyebrows. This was the first time she felt truly convinced.
She's only nineteen years old??
Nineteen years old is the age when one first enters college, but the girl was more like a seasoned veteran.
"There's definitely something wrong."
It was a lively night. Fierce battles broke out all over the world, but here in Japan, Hua's eyebrows became more and more furrowed.
In just twenty minutes, Nagazora City was almost completely destroyed. Ice and craters covered the ground. Even the small river that ran through the city was frozen.
Thump!
The high-rise building fell like a rock, raising a cloud of dust. Then, the spear that was coming down was cut in half. When the Honkai Beast tried to pull out the spear, it found that it wouldn't move at all.
The spear had been frozen to the ground. The silver-armored warrior stepped on it. Her helmet had been knocked off, revealing a delicate face.
Before the Honkai Beast could get a clear look, that face had disappeared from its sight. It subconsciously controlled the rhomboid shapes to form a dense web woven from light beams in front of it.
All things freeze.
The light beams froze in the air, like brilliant crystals. A figure emerged from the gap in the shield, leaped to the top of the Honkai Beast's head, and raised her right leg high.
Bang—
The downward slash was like a hammer, smashing the building-like monster into the ground. With a wave of her hand, the huge head flew into the sky, and the body that could still move was split into two by a crystal-like halo.
Hoo hoo hoo.
Hua stood on the ruins, panting as she looked around. After the city was almost leveled, the huge Honkai Beasts looked even more out of place.
The white behemoths rampaged everywhere. Explosions and firelight filled the air around them. They were sometimes shot full of holes by heavy fire and fell to the ground.
"Captain, something's not right." Owl came to her side. She unfolded her crystal-clear wings and deflected the light beam coming from a distance. Her human collapse looked more like a ten-meter-long flying dragon.
Hua didn't notice the change in her address. She propped herself up with her sword and said: "How many Honkai Beasts have we killed?"
"Thirty or forty. I haven't counted carefully."
With two High-Ranking Fusion Warriors leading the team and a skilled cooperation, they had killed more than thirty Emperor-level Honkai Beasts. This would have been unimaginable in the past.
But neither of them had a proud expression. Hua reached out and tore off her chest armor, which had a huge hole in it, revealing her body covered in fine scales. Her chest was very prominent, and the armor here was the thickest.
It was a very ordinary human collapse. Her appearance and power were very average. At least, she had no special characteristics in front of this crystal dragon. But Owl didn't dare to look down on her.
This 'ordinary' girl had fought from the south of the city to the north, from underground to the sky. She had the highest kill count and could also command.
"There's an endless supply. Even if we add up all the Honkai Beasts in Japan, there shouldn't be this many. And have you noticed—" Hua looked at the ashes of the Honkai Beast's corpse at her feet and then saw a hollow appear in the night sky in the distance. Three identical Honkai Beasts walked out of it.
"The total number hasn't decreased, but the energy intensity of these newly appeared Honkai Beasts has decreased by ten percent."
The flying dragon subconsciously looked up and saw that this batch of monsters that had just appeared was indeed a bit weaker. As an elite warrior, she immediately understood.
"The dead Honkai Beasts were recycled and are being continuously regenerated?"
Her voice was a bit surprised. First, she didn't expect the Honkai Beasts to be so cunning. Second, she was amazed at Hua's keen observation. She had discovered this detail so quickly.
"It seems we are facing an immortal army. They can exhaust us to death. Let's find a way to retreat. Our casualties are already at one-fifth. Let the commander-in-chief solve this problem."
"No. If we rely on him for everything, we would have no purpose." Hua answered faintly and then raised her hand to stop Owl's suggestion. "Besides, we are already in the battlefield. The losses would be huge if we retreat. This Honkai Beast is very strange. If we stir the grass and startle the snake, it will definitely escape, and the consequences will be endless."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"Do you see the location where these hollows appeared? They are arranged in a circular arc, and the center is—" Hua raised the Divine Key. After pouring all her Honkai energy into it, a pale mist lingered around it, and then she slammed it into the ground.
"Right here!"
Frozen Earth.
The center of Nagazora City was completely frozen. As the girl twisted her wrist, fine cracks began to appear. In an instant, Owl felt countless 'gazes' gather.
The Honkai Beasts that had just appeared, and the ones that were fighting fiercely, no matter what they were doing, even if they were being shot at from behind by the Fusion Warriors, they all gathered in this direction.
"Hold them off for ten minutes for me. I'll find a way to solve the core of these monsters. When ten minutes are up, you must retreat. Don't stop for a second."
"Hey, if you're really going to fight to the death, I, who am stronger, should..."
Crack.
Before she could finish, the ground shattered, revealing a huge hollow. Owl looked down and saw a red light spot. At first, there was no Honkai energy reaction.
In an instant, the light of that red spot surged. What followed was a roaring Honkai energy.
300, 500, 800, 1300...
As the light surged, its main body was revealed. It was a diamond-shaped brain with countless wrinkles and elliptical eyes all over it. In an instant, thousands of eyes focused on her.
A powerful sense of oppression. But Hua didn't hesitate at all and fell into the abyss.
This kind of meticulous observation, this kind of sense of responsibility that would fulfill her mission even at the cost of her life, this kind of absolute trust in her comrades...
"What a wooden stick." The flying dragon looked up and saw dozens of pale monsters unfurl their wings and all rush over. Without much hesitation, she spread her wings to the extreme, and the crystal barrier blocked the hollow.
"But she has learned his ways to the core!"
Hua didn't hear Owl 'insulting' her superior. Gravity pulled her body down. Her eyes were fixed on the terrifying monster deep in the ground. The aura of death made her tremble all over. She had to grip the Divine Key until it creaked.
The red spot that was originally there expanded into hundreds and thousands of them in half a second. Without any dialogue, thousands of Scarlet lasers shot out. Each one was only the size of a fist, but it could instantly cut the ice ball gathered by the Fifth Divine Key into tens of thousands of pieces.
Swoosh—
The ice ball in front of her exploded, and the red light beams passed through. Hua quickly crossed her hands in front of her face and felt a piercing pain, as if her body was being cut apart inch by inch.
Countless laser beams pierced through her armor, burning her scales red. But this didn't stop her from falling. Another second later, the dense beams of light disappeared. No, they gathered into a giant light blade, whistling to cut the girl in half, or at least force her to retreat.
Zero-point power. Space freeze.
Just as the light blade was about to graze her hair, Hua fully unleashed the Divine Key. After a long time of unremitting practice, she had finally mastered this Key of Freeze, which had a low compatibility with her.
The blood and sweat she had shed in her daily life shone brightly at this moment. Ryan, who had given her a Divine Key to protect her life because she was weak, saw it being used to charge forward.
In an instant, the girl was close. She raised her right fist. Her scales faded away, concentrating on her fist, forming an invincible gauntlet.
Crush!
She punched out, and the feedback she received made Hua's eyes widen because the diamond-shaped brain in front of her disintegrated, causing her full-force punch to land deep in the ground.
Time seemed to freeze. As her eyeballs turned, she saw countless fragments floating around, and a pair of Scarlet eyes stared at her.
A trap. It's waiting for me to get close and miss a punch, and then it will shoot at me without a blind spot?
Hua instantly understood that this Honkai Beast indeed had intelligence. She didn't feel sorry for herself. She just clenched her fist tighter.
Of course, I know this is overconfident. Of course, I know I might die. Of course, I know Senior Brother wants to protect me and didn't even want me to become a Fusion Warrior.
Lasers appeared from all directions. It seemed to have learned its lesson from before. They were in groups of ten, gathering into hundreds of light blades, determined to shred this overconfident, foolish human into a thousand pieces.
"But I just don't want to hide under his wings. I just want to stand in front of him, even if I'm so weak that I can only cut down a single thorn."
There was no fear in her blue eyes. She charged towards the light blades as if committing suicide until her gray-blue long hair faded, and a faint flame burned in her hair.
"Even if I die ten times, I won't regret it!!"