Central Europe, within the borders of the Republic of the White Eagle.
"Big Sister Bronya, slow down." The short-haired girl called out with a mildly scolding tone. "Aunt Cocolia's hat almost blew right off."
"Oh. Okay, got it."
On a relatively rugged mountain road, the gray-haired girl was driving Project Bunny in its motorcycle form. They were speeding toward a remote small town.
Today, because that man, Ling Ke, had suddenly dropped off her Mother Cocolia, Bronya had gone through a period of frantic panic. Ultimately, she managed to explain everything clearly to the incredibly understanding Seele.
After confessing all of it, she now felt an immense wave of relief.
Seele truly was the best. She hadn't minded too much that Bronya had hidden such crucial secrets from her. She understood her. She forgave her.
Just look at them now. Considering Mother Cocolia could no longer live independently, they had to bring her along whenever they left the house together.
Seele had previously shown immense disgust toward Mother Cocolia. Occasionally, when looking at the woman, her eyes would even betray a look of absolute rejection. But now, sitting on the backseat, Seele was acting incredibly considerate. She was helping Mother Cocolia, who was sandwiched between the two of them, pull her cotton hat tight and wrap her heavy coat securely around her.
While Bronya focused on driving, Seele took full responsibility for keeping Mother Cocolia steady. She did not show a single trace of reluctance.
When Bronya glanced into the rearview mirror. Seele noticed and offered her a sweet smile in return.
She really was so good at taking care of people.
About half an hour later.
"Big Sister Bronya, I'll wait right here."
"Okay. I'm going to buy the daily necessities Mother Cocolia needs. I will be back very soon."
Project Bunny's motorcycle form parked on the outskirts of the small town. After the two girls exchanged a few brief words, Bronya put on a face mask and jogged into the town alone.
Truth be told, over the past few months, Bronya and Seele would pick a completely different town to visit every single time they needed supplies. Bronya had even changed her hairstyle to something much less conspicuous. Only by doing this could they minimize the risk of exposing themselves.
The town they visited today was, frankly speaking, quite far away.
It was so far away that.
We are getting quite close to the borderlands.
Sitting on Project Bunny, Seele was still adjusting Cocolia's clothing. However, her face was completely devoid of any underlying human emotion.
There was no affection. There was no disgust. It was pure, absolute apathy.
She looked exactly as if she were casually posing a soulless doll.
At a certain moment, she suddenly raised her head and cast a seemingly aimless glance toward the horizon.
By now, she knew the hunk of metal beneath her possessed its own consciousness. Therefore, she no longer spoke her thoughts aloud very often. Instead, she quietly pondered things strictly within her own mind.
It seems the range needs to be expanded a few more circles. She thought to herself.
And then, in the shadows, she activated her power.
At that exact same time, also within the central region of Europe.
A high-speed shuttle was rocketing toward a designated mission coordinate. Inside the cabin sat over a dozen soldiers fully clad in high-tech Powered Armor. They were armed to the teeth, sitting face-to-face in pairs with live ammunition loaded into their weapons. They were on high alert.
The man leading them was someone currently enjoying quite a bit of prestige within The Moth Who Chases the Flames. His name was Hen.
Of course, no one else inside this shuttle aside from Hen himself knew a very critical secret. Their captain had defected a long time ago. Presently, Hen was a hidden sleeper agent planted within The Moths by the newly reborn World Serpent.
And there were others just like him.
"The test results are already out."
"Remember, your mission this time is strictly reconnaissance. Do not do anything unnecessary."
"If you don't want to throw your life away for nothing and break the hearts of Blanca and little Griseo."
Inside the cockpit, Hen sat in the co-pilot seat. He held an electronic tablet, conducting a long-distance remote communication with someone else.
On the screen, a woman with long emerald-green hair, wearing a pristine white lab coat, was explaining something to him. Her tone made it incredibly obvious that she found him deeply annoying.
It was.
"Dr. Mobius. Is the energy level of the Fourth Herrscher truly this astronomically high?"
Looking at the exaggerated number displayed on his tablet, Hen could not help but ask the question.
Honkai Watt, or HW, was an exclusive unit of measurement designed by knowledgeable scholars to quantify the energy levels of Honkai Energy. Well, in reality, Mobius simply learned of this future intel from Gray Serpent. Too lazy to even change the name, she directly proposed it as her own concept.
Although, to be fair, The Moth Who Chases the Flames would have inevitably developed this concept sooner or later in the original historical trajectory anyway. Right now, it had simply been brought forward a bit, giving a formal name to their previous theoretical research.
Digressions aside.
In short, under normal circumstances, an energy level exceeding 1,500 HW was associated with only one type of existence: a Herrscher.
Of course, there were a few other exceptional cases in the modern day. For example, MANTISes of the Flame-Chaser caliber. Or, for instance, the bizarre and uncanny powers currently wielded by individuals like Raiden Mei and Durandal, powers even the users themselves did not fully comprehend yet. The powers originating from the Paths.
But strictly regarding cases related to Herrschers. Logically speaking, it was completely normal for an ordinary Herrscher to reach energy levels of a few thousand HW.
But looking at it now. Those glaring, five-digit numbers on the screen. And the leading digit wasn't a small number like a 1, 2, or 3, either.
"Are you questioning my professional expertise?"
On the screen, Mobius's expression turned noticeably hostile. Honestly, while Mobius rarely showed anyone a friendly face, she had a particular distaste for Hen. He was the man who had essentially stolen her assistant away.
But business was business.
"A Herrscher isn't guaranteed to be born weak and then slowly grow stronger." Mobius explained. "Some Herrschers exhibit terrifying power right from the very start. It has everything to do with the specific Authority they command."
She could only say that much. Because right now, she was using The Moth Who Chases the Flames' internal communication channels. It was entirely possible that a third party was monitoring them. Therefore, Mobius could not cite any future intel as an example.
So, in the end.
"Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't believe me."
"No, I never said I didn't believe you! Dr. Mobius—"
"Seeing is believing." Mobius cut off Hen's explanation. "Given your current coordinates, you should be able to see it by now. Why don't you try looking up?"
The moment those words fell.
Gasp.
Hen simply followed her advice on instinct. The next second, he involuntarily bolted upright from the co-pilot seat. He, along with the pilot sitting right next to him, stared at the scene unfolding before them with eyes widened in sheer horror.
Looking out through the cockpit window.
It was a mass of purple-black fog rolling over the horizon. It swept over the earth like a canopy and surged forward like a raging tide. Its existence was like a massive curtain dropped from the heavens. It completely obscured everything inside.
Hearing it described like that might not sound like much. But as the shuttle drew closer, they could clearly see its true scale.
It was too massive. It was absurdly massive!!!
Nearly half of the Republic of the White Eagle, and even parts of the neighboring German Federation, were already completely engulfed by it.
If one looked at a live satellite map, it looked exactly like a massive, terrifyingly visible malignant tumor that had abruptly grown on the surface of the Earth. It was ominous, profound, and overwhelmingly lethal.
Especially.
CRACK—!
That thing was acting like a virus infecting the surrounding environment. Its area of effect was actually still expanding.
"This."
Hen's jaw dropped. He was completely speechless.
A scene this absurdly terrifying could only be truly comprehended by witnessing it firsthand.
At this moment, illuminated by the blazing sun preparing to set in the west, the perimeter of that Earth's Ulcer had already been reduced to a tragic landscape of total withering and decay. Trees, flowers, vegetation. Even the populated towns and cities in its path could not escape the fate of total disintegration.
The pilot sitting beside Hen was completely paralyzed by the sight.
Suddenly.
"Pull up! Pull up!"
Hen's combat experience was evidently far superior to the soldiers he commanded. Even though he was deeply shocked by the apocalyptic vista before him, he had not relaxed his vigilance for a single second.
Therefore, the moment he noticed a massive, tentacle-like mass of purple-black fog abruptly lash out from the tumor, he immediately screamed a warning.
Seeing the pilot's reaction time lagging.
Tch!
He directly seized manual control of the flight instruments from the co-pilot seat. He violently yanked the steering yoke.
CRASH—!
The squad members in the rear cabin were violently thrown off their seats, tumbling over one another.
Fortunately.
SWOOSH—!
The shuttle aggressively banked to the side, dodging the colossal tentacle capable of decaying all matter by a hair's breadth.
In that very moment, Hen did not dare to linger in the vicinity for a second longer. He immediately altered the shuttle's heading, pushed the thrusters to maximum capacity, and fled frantically away from the malignant fog.
At a certain moment, he used the shuttle's external monitoring ports to look back at the colossal anomaly. As he watched the fiery red sun sink below the western horizon.
"A Herrscher!" Hen swallowed hard. "Is this truly an enemy that humanity can defeat?"