"..."
Splash.
Was it rain or blood that covered his hands?
Was it his blood or her blood?
What was left... before him...
Lin knelt in the pool of water, looking at the hand he had reached out, which had grasped nothing.
He couldn't even feel any warmth.
He wanted to cover his ears.
Those voices bored into his brain—irritation, irritation, irritation, irritation, irritation...
But Lin had no right to do that, and even less time.
High in the sky, that arm shifted its angle again without pause. This time, it was firmly locked onto Lin. Several jet-black spherical energy bodies appeared around it, and the space nearby distorted slightly, as if the spheres themselves possessed the power to warp space.
Swish!
With a wave of the large hand, the spherical energy bodies shot out, heading toward the back of the motionless, kneeling Lin.
Bang!
Ato blocked the exploding rubble with his arm. He gritted his teeth, staring at the center of the explosion. He then saw a figure holding a deep pink greatsword escape from the aftershocks and land steadily beside him with a side-flip.
Lin held the Abyss Flower in one hand and Delta deep pink greatsword in the other. The wounds on his face cut by the explosion's fragments healed rapidly. He slowly stood straight, looked up, and opened his eyes.
This was perhaps not a gaze a human would have.
Ato often saw such eyes—usually... on corpses.
Numb and devoid of life.
"Lin..."
"The Ninth Herrscher's ability is gravity control." The man interrupted Ato, speaking in a flat tone as he stared indifferently at the re-healing sphere. "The damaged buildings and corpses were attacked by being 'warped' and 'crushed.' The energy balls just now had a clear gravitational pull, and the Herrscher shows signs of 'increasing gravity' when attacking."
"...I understand."
"It takes her about 0.3 seconds from locking onto a target to applying gravity. This might be the time needed for her pupils to focus on someone and utilize her authority. She also has the ability to change the gravity of objects on a large scale and fire gravity spheres and waves. You must be careful."
A chill rose from the depths of Ato's heart.
In such a short time, Lin had deduced the Herrscher's authority and reaction time based on the environment and her simple actions. He was cold to the extreme; Ato even felt that his indifferent tone was so calm it didn't seem like... Lin.
It was clearly the same person, the same flat tone, the same gaze, yet this person seemed like a stranger who just happened to look like Lin.
Lin swung the greatsword, cleaving through the rain in front of him to create a void. The rainbow pupils in his eyes were a reflection of the fused Honkai Beast struggling to its feet from the ground. "The Ninth Herrscher has not fully emerged, but I am running out of time."
It wasn't "we," but "I" am running out of time.
"Alright, then... let's go."
Ato ultimately couldn't say anything else. He drew his own weapon, shifting his gaze from Lin back to the Honkai Beast.
"The Ninth Herrscher will attack at any moment... Be careful, Ato."
Lin spoke the final sentence, then charged without looking back into the torrential rain that fell like cold slivers of light.
He did not look back.
"Is it ready yet?"
Sigma tore the Honkai Beast biting his arm away along with his own skin and flesh. Seeing the fangs embedded in his muscles, he grabbed the beast's tail and smashed it into the ground, spreading his arms to block the frantic assault almost with his own body.
The rifts grew larger as time passed, and even more bizarre and terrifying Honkai Beasts emerged. Elysia, Sigma, and the other ordinary combatants were on the verge of being unable to hold out.
Furthermore, he had a premonition: when the rift grew to a certain size, that surging "abnormality" in the deepest depths would pass through the rift and enter their world.
Just like the rift opened at Fire Moth headquarters to combat Kevin.
"5% remaining..."
The researcher was so anxious he was practically jumping. The time it took to open and close the Stargate before was nowhere near this long. Rather than saying it was hard to close, it was more that the massive Honkai energy impact and the endless stream of beasts coming from the rifts had nearly broken the gate; what he was doing was actually repairing it.
However, the repair work became harder as it progressed. For the final 10%, the researcher racked his brain, but the progress moved as if dragging a stone lion that could sink a river. No matter how urgent he was, he couldn't speed it up.
By the final 5%, he discovered in despair that the repair progress could no longer be advanced.
Was this... their fault? Because they had collaborated with that person, it had led to such a horrific crisis, causing them... and perhaps all of humanity to be buried with them.
"Don't stop!"
An urgent, sharp cry snapped the researcher back to reality, but it was too late.
Sigma had ultimately missed a small Honkai Beast, which sprinted past his feet toward the researcher. Even Elysia couldn't react in time, and the researcher, snapped awake by the cry, looked up blankly...
Crach.
The headless corpse collapsed onto the control panel, painting the frozen repair progress with crimson.
The Honkai Beast, making crisp chewing sounds, spat out a mixture of bones, brain, blood, eyeball, and grey matter, then pounced toward the others still fighting.
The others were forced to turn their guns toward the beast behind them, but in doing so, the front defensive line would collapse. Elysia gritted her teeth and shifted the direction of her bow, ignoring the beast about to pounce on her to aim at the monsters trying to bite the others...
Bang!
The stray beast was hit by an attack from outside the management room. Immediately, a barrage of gunfire rang out, followed by the sound of synchronized footsteps. One small figure after another entered the room from outside, using their weapons to destroy the escaped beasts before immediately filling the gaps in the defensive line to hold back the Honkai onslaught.
The pressure decreased instantly. The survivors realized how dangerous their previous actions had been and immediately threw themselves back into the battle to maintain the line with lingering fear.
"Number Three, I'm leaving the command to you."
"Yes, Doctor."
Einstein limped into the management room, half her face covered in dried blood, one injured eye squeezed shut. She glanced at Elysia and Sigma, walked to the control panel, and moved the headless corpse aside.
"Dr. Einstein!"
"Elysia, I will repair the Stargate. Until then, please do your best to maintain the defensive line."
Elysia face lit up with a smile again. She then seriously killed every Honkai Beast, throwing them back to where they belonged.
"No problem!"