Sorry for not updating, I had an accident and had to be hospitalized for a few days, my phone was also broken so I couldn't give any information.
Heck, my family and my girlfriend also only found out about my accident after a few days.
Sorry everyone
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"Very good. If you experience any discomfort, be sure to tell me immediately," Mobius said as she connected the instruments to Lumine.
"I understand, Doctor," Lumine replied.
Today was the day of his comprehensive physical examination. Once the results were out, his daily routine would likely be fixed—training, occasional visits to the laboratory, and rest.
After all, he had already signed a contract with Mobius.
That said, there was something that had been bothering Lumine for a while now: were only he and Elysia reborn? On his way to the laboratory, he had subtly asked Klein about it. Klein mentioned that Mobius had been noticeably lax in her experiments lately. The Mobius she knew was, at the very least, a scientific fanatic—if not a full-fledged research madwoman.
Slacking off? Was that even possible?
Lumine had fought against the Honkai in his previous life, so he still retained basic logical thinking. The reason he often delegated strategic thinking to Iliya back then was due to the side effects of becoming a Fusion Warrior, which constantly eroded his physical and mental state and made his thoughts unstable.
Iliya was his strategist—but never an external brain.
Still… Kevin really did just do whatever Mei told him to do.
Lying amidst the array of experimental equipment, Lumine closed his eyes, pondering why the reborn Mobius was unwilling to tell him about her own rebirth. With Mobius's intelligence, she should have realized that he, too, had been reborn.
The reason she didn't tell me… is because of me, isn't it?
On the other side of the room, Mobius suddenly widened her eyes as lines of data streamed across the screen.
"How is this possible?!"
Lumine opened his eyes. "What's wrong, Doctor?"
"Ahem—nothing." Mobius quickly composed herself. "Your Honkai energy resistance is among the highest within the Fire Moth. It seems bringing you back was the correct decision."
She continued staring at the data.
"Is that so…" Lumine murmured.
One of the highest?
He knew very well that Elysia possessed the highest Honkai energy resistance due to her nature as a born Herrscher. As for himself—while his resistance was indeed high—there was no way it should be classified in the same category as hers.
Based on Mobius's usual manner of speaking, she would have said something like 'second only to Elysia'. Yet she hadn't.
And she was clearly shocked.
A possibility surfaced in Lumine's mind.
At the same time, the same thought occurred to Mobius.
She stared at Lumine's data in silence. On the screen, his Honkai energy resistance was almost identical to Elysia's—a level completely unattainable for ordinary humans, excluding Kevin.
That alone wouldn't have been enough to shock her.
What truly unsettled Mobius was that this data was completely different from Lumine's records in their previous life.
Back then, in preparation to fight the Seventh Herrscher, she and Mei had jointly initiated the Fusion Warrior Project. Kevin, possessing the highest Honkai resistance at the time, volunteered. Lumine—having somehow obtained the information—volunteered as well.
Kevin fused with Parvati.
Lumine fused with Agni.
Kevin's fusion resulted in a permanently lowered body temperature. Lumine's fusion with Agni caused ceaseless burning pain throughout his body.
However, there was one more anomaly.
Lumine's Honkai resistance had also increased significantly—laying the groundwork for his later execution of the Chimera Project.
Returning to the present.
Faced with Lumine's current, absurdly high Honkai resistance, Mobius could not help but recall the image of him become Herrscher during the final battle—
When he had revealed his Herrscher form.
It was not a choice of Honkai, but a Herrscher who became a Herrscher through human will. He still retained a certain degree of humanity, but in the end, none of them knew what the Herrscher's powers truly were.
Now that she thought about it, could his power be related to the sequence of events? But even so, why wouldn't he be aware of it himself? Or rather—could this power only be activated after his sacrifice?
Mobius didn't dare to draw any conclusions. After completing all the examinations, she immediately called Elysia over for a physical check, while Lumine went to train as scheduled.
"Mobius, why are you suddenly examining me? You should already know my data, right?" Elysia asked curiously as she lay inside the machine. "Did Lumine's examination reveal some kind of problem?"
"A serious one," Mobius replied, looking down at the monitor. "I suspect he has become a born Herrscher—just like you."
"!"
Elysia's eyes widened. She had heard from Vil-V that Lumine had once become a Herrscher, but Mobius was saying that Lumine was still a Herrscher.
"However, there is one thing I can be certain of," Mobius continued. "I did not detect any trace of a Herrscher core in his body. In other words, he is like a human possessing a Herrscher's body—without a Herrscher core."
Mobius finished comparing Elysia's data with Lumine's. Just as she had anticipated, aside from the absence of a Herrscher core, nearly all parameters matched those of Elysia, a born Herrscher.
Elysia sat up among the instruments, walked over to Mobius, and studied the data carefully.
"Vil-V told me something," she said. "When Lumine became a Herrscher during the final battle, he briefly distorted spacetime. Perhaps… his power really is time."
Then what about her own power? What exactly was it?
Mobius fell silent, memories of the brutal final battle resurfacing—an encounter in which only Kevin had been able to truly participate until the end.
Distorted spacetime… was it at that moment?
"Elysia," Mobius said at last, "you were right."
"Hm?"
"You guessed your power correctly," Mobius said irritably. "He is the first Herrscher born after you released your power to fight for humanity—the true Thirteenth Herrscher."
Elysia's pupils contracted.
"Although this conclusion is somewhat unbelievable, I think it is the only reasonable conclusion at present. He unleashed all his power without even realizing it, allowing us to be reborn as a result. To put it more vividly, he is a Herrscher who has not yet awakened," Mobius said.
Elysia's body trembled slightly. She took several deep breaths to calm herself before asking, "So, as the true Thirteenth Herrscher, Lumine's awakening will only occur after all twelve Herrschers have descended?"
"That's how it is in theory," Mobius replied. "Elysia, where are you going?"
The only answer she received was the sound of the laboratory door closing.