As the captain of the Moths Who Chase the Flames' Fifth Squad, Himeko was obviously strong.
However, this assessment did not include the Extraordinary domain.
So...
"You..."
At that moment, Sirin suddenly appeared in front of Himeko, her intentions clear.
Seeing the cold smile on Sirin's face and realizing the danger, Himeko instinctively swung the muzzle of her heavy firearm around.
Then, she pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat~
Himeko, wearing her high-tech Mobile Armor, usually carried two types of equipment.
One was the greatsword with a rotating serrated blade, which was currently hanging from the side of her tactical backpack.
The other was the ballistic heavy firearm she was now using.
There was one thing that needed to be mentioned...
In fact, the Moths Who Chase the Flames had already developed individual laser weapons, and there were already combat-ready models.
Unfortunately, those weapons were very effective against flesh and even metal structures, but they had low lethality against Honkai Beasts.
According to the analysis of the organization's research personnel, they had long ago concluded that the Honkai Beasts' shells possessed a certain level of energy dissipation.
That outer shell acted like a diffusing lens, making laser weapons very ineffective.
This was the fundamental reason why Himeko preferred using ballistic weapons.
At this moment...
"Heh~"
Facing Himeko's instinctive attack, Sirin only sneered, not even trying to dodge.
As mentioned before, after stepping onto the Destruction Path, Sirin awakened three Extraordinary abilities: Teleportation, Shrinking, and Fission.
But besides those, she could also summon the fire-attribute Flame of Destruction as a more general attack method.
To put it simply, this flame, composed of Imaginary Energy and born from the Path Power, was the very foundation of her three Extraordinary abilities.
Otherwise, the "Flash of Flame" phenomenon would not appear every time she teleported.
In short, Sirin could control the temperature and even the adhesion effects of this special flame to a certain extent.
When using her teleportation ability, the flame's temperature wouldn't be too high, and its adhesion effect would be suppressed.
She hadn't evolved fire-resistant skin, so she wasn't foolish enough to set herself on fire.
And now...
"Thump thump thump thump thump~"
As Himeko pulled the trigger, the bullets fired from her heavy weapon were all vaporized before they even reached Sirin.
The golden-orange flame, though only a thin layer, was enough to showcase the massive gap between the "ordinary" and the "Extraordinary."
"No wonder in the original history of this era, the Moths Who Chase the Flames suffered a crushing defeat during the Seventh Honkai Eruption when they first tried to defeat the Herrscher of Fire using only technological weapons."
Ling Ke, who had already run a considerable distance away, muttered as he glanced back at Himeko and Sirin.
The Trailblazer Model he was currently using wasn't particularly strong in terms of perception.
Therefore, without activating the "Omniscience" light curtain, he had naturally failed to notice Sirin, who had been in her shrunken state until just now.
But now, seeing Sirin appear before Himeko with his own eyes, and combining it with the information he had previously gathered...
He finally understood exactly how this whole situation had unfolded.
One must remember that when Kali first "cut in line" to become the Third Herrscher, she had her head severed by Raiden Mei, who was in an extremely unstable mental state, and lost her original body.
It was precisely because of this incident that she completely turned dark, transforming from a little girl who "just wanted to eliminate evil cultists and let more weak people like herself live a good life."
Therefore, the Kali who is now personally triggering a biological mass extinction hates Raiden Mei the most. Mei was the one who, completely unaware of the situation, snuffed out the last shred of kindness in her heart.
And who does Raiden Mei care about the most?
Kiana Kaslana...
Or you could also say: K-423.
Therefore...
"Poor Sirin, she's caught in the crossfire of Kali's revenge!"
Ling Ke's mouth twitched.
"Wait, Kiana's also pretty unlucky."
Thinking about it, that made sense.
Long ago, it was Raiden Mei who had unwittingly planted the first "cause" that turned Kali dark.
And in her quest for revenge against Mei, Kali had also dragged the innocent white-haired girl into the fray.
Now, even in the Current Era...
Kiana had once again been targeted by another avenger because of Raiden Mei.
Isn't she the Goddess of Luck? Ling Ke thought to himself. The kind with absurdly good luck.
So why does she always get caught up in this kind of mess?
He had long since achieved his own revenge, but he couldn't help complaining silently.
He turned his attention back to Sirin...
"Your reaction isn't slow. You figured out who the enemy is almost instantly."
Standing before Himeko, Sirin spoke with a meaningful smile.
"Unfortunately, I'm not your only enemy."
"Focusing all your attention on me was a huge mistake."
The moment she finished speaking...
!!!
Thanks to Sirin's "kind" warning, Himeko's peripheral vision finally caught a terrifying sight.
Right behind Sirin, a swarm of vicious alien monsters had leaped into the air, their numbers almost obscuring the sky.
It looked like they were about to unleash their full fury...
From her point of view, all their attacks were converging on a single point.
Which was...
Sirin herself, just a few feet away.
But Sirin was simply too close to Himeko.
"What's wrong, Kiana?"
Sirin timed the incoming attack, not forgetting to taunt the other consciousness within her body.
"Are you not going to interfere with my control?"
"..."
There was no response in her mind.
"Hah~"
A cold smile reappeared on Sirin's face.
The next instant...
Whoosh~
With a flash of flame, she vanished from the spot.
Leaving only Himeko...
And the rest of the Fifth Squad behind her, facing the dense barrage of attacks that had already formed, with no way to escape...
Boom!
Fire, wind blades, lightning, and blood spikes...
All the attacks slammed into the commercial street.
In an instant, dust and smoke billowed everywhere.
But the alien monsters in the air didn't pay much attention to the aftermath here.
After realizing the white-haired girl had teleported away, they immediately gave chase.
Leaving behind...
A scene of utter devastation.
When the dust settled and the carnage was revealed...
Hum~
Himeko, who had instinctively shielded her eyes with her left hand, froze for a moment.
She realized she...
Was still alive.
But her combat training prevented her from slowly opening her eyes like a hatchling.
After a brief moment of shock, she immediately opened her eyes and scanned her surroundings to assess the situation.
In her field of vision...
"This..."
Himeko saw clearly that everyone in the Fifth Squad, including herself, was completely enclosed by a nearly transparent, invisible barrier.
These barriers were obviously not generated by the Mobile Armor they were wearing.
The energy shields originally generated by the Mobile Armor were light blue.
But these barriers in front of them were all colorless and almost impossible to see.
It was as if...
The space had fractured.
They had blocked all the attacks that had just come.
Several blood spikes hung suspended in midair outside the barrier.
Witnessing this with her own eyes...
"Who... saved us?" Himeko wondered, whispering softly.
At the same time, not far away...
"This is getting interesting."
Ling ke, who had no intention of interfering from the beginning, let the corners of his mouth curl into a distinct smile.
Just now, as an observer, he had seen something quite interesting.
It happened after Sirin teleported away...
For a brief moment.
No one else noticed.
With a flash of flame, Sirin had vanished from her spot, carrying both her malice and the victory she believed she had won over Kiana by a narrow margin.
The Impostors who quickly chased after her confirmed this.
But...
Sirin had indeed teleported away.
She had fled into the distance without hesitation.
Yet, the spot where she had stood still held the afterimage of a white-haired girl.
It was that very afterimage that, with a wave of her hand, generated the countless invisible barriers that saved the lives of everyone in the Fifth Squad.
Then, having existed for only a fleeting moment, she quickly vanished.
It was as if the only purpose of that afterimage was to perform that single act.
That was all.
Ling ke saw it clearly.
The white-haired girl who appeared briefly looked exactly like the Queen of the Void from before.
She was an afterimage of the past.
And the ability to bring an afterimage of the past into the present...
Especially the Path Power that drove it...
"So it is not Preservation, but Remembrance?"
Ling ke thought to himself.
"It seems Kiana has already stepped onto a Path, but... she herself hasn't even noticed?"
"How did she suddenly awaken?"
"Just now, Sirin must have deliberately used a psychological attack on Kiana. Then... what exactly happened in that brief moment?"
"And is this extraordinary Path ability she has awakened... a bit too broken?"
Analyzing it from Ling ke's perspective...
If his guess was correct, that ability should be:
"Memory Replication."
"A miracle-like ability that allows her to briefly recreate past scenes or objects that she has 'memorized'..."
Why did Ling ke think this ability deserved to be called "broken"?
It was simple!
Because theoretically, as long as Kiana realized she had this ability and could draw upon enough Imaginary Energy, then...
According to Ling ke's current knowledge, other than his own transcendent being after ascending to godhood, Kiana could even surpass Ancestor Kevin...
No.
She could even replicate the Cocoon of Finality itself.
The prerequisite was simply that she had to have seen what the Cocoon of Finality looked like.
Of course, that condition hadn't been met yet.
Naturally, the stronger the target being replicated and the longer the replication had to be maintained, the more Imaginary Energy it would consume.
Therefore, whether she had "enough Imaginary Energy" was the greatest limitation of this ability.
After all, when the Herrscher of Reason used her Understanding Replication Authority, she still had to perform an Analysis first.
But this Memory Replication seemed to allow her to directly bring out the Past Afterimages from her memory as long as she had seen them before.
It was almost identical to the Herrscher of Truth, who could use the power of "I think so."
Yet, the Herrscher of Truth still needed a process to activate her Authority.
Memory Replication was instantaneous.
In gaming terms:
The latter was an instant cast, while the former had a casting wind-up.
Therefore, to sum up...
"If she could briefly materialize a powerful replication, and use the replicated object's abilities, moves, or even ultimate attacks that were best suited to handle the current problem during that time..."
"Then Kiana can almost fight on equal footing with everyone except me, and use this to turn the tide in desperate situations."
"Tsk tsk~"
Ling Ke couldn't help but click his tongue.
"See, I told you, the protagonist always cheats in various ways."
"On Raiden Mei's side, although the side effects were extremely great, she eventually became significantly stronger in a short period of time... strong enough to clash with Ancestor Kevin."
"Bronya even gave up many things, yet a 'Seele' still appeared by her side."
"And now, Kiana again... Heh~"
"Good thing I didn't babble much back then and just got the job done."
Hmm.
Considering this 'Path' thing was something he introduced...
"Fine, you finally have the qualification to step onto this 'stage', Kiana Kaslana."
Ling Ke, who was using the Trailblazer Model, narrowed his golden eyes, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.
"Let me see, after almost losing everything..."
"Can you still survive in a desperate situation, and just like in the 'predetermined ending'..."
"Change this imperfect story into the version you desire?"