"17th Branch, 19th Branch, execute your missions immediately."
"6th Branch, please support the 9th Branch in suppression."
"Branch..."
Mei was in the thick of it, directing the various branches that had regained their mobility with the help of mental resistance drugs. After the headquarters had been paralyzed and the high command had lost contact, she was the only one who could methodically plan the next steps.
"Mei."
At that moment, a cold wind had already blown to her back.
"..." Mei typed in the final command, then sighed. "No, you cannot go."
If Kevin went to support Lin and the others, the currently vulnerable headquarters would become even more like a leaking sieve. Although there were still three MANTIS—Kosma, Mobius, and Elysia—Kevin was the only combat force who could follow her orders without hesitation.
They still didn't know whose body the Eighth Herrscher had moved into; there was a high possibility it was someone within the headquarters.
"I know you are worried about them, but not now."
Because others were unable to think rationally, Mei had to do it for them. Whether they judged her a demon or a hero was irrelevant; she would only do what was "right."
Personal feelings compared to human survival—the latter was clearly more important. It was an incredibly simple choice.
"No... I wanted to say..." Kevin looked toward a vacant spot. "Elysia has already gone."
"..."
...
Drowning.
Lin bloodshot eyeballs were soaked in seawater. He had stopped struggling. The pain had lessened significantly, but he no longer had the strength to return to the surface.
His consciousness was flat, observing the waves churned by the battle between Ato and the Emperor-class Honkai Beast on the surface.
The seawater enveloped him. He couldn't feel temperature, yet a piercing cold seeped into his very bones.
Would he really drown here like this? It was a laughable way to die, especially after just making that bet with Aponia, and after saying those things to Yama...
They say when a person dies, they look back on the first half of their life as a revolving lantern flashing through their mind.
...But Lin didn't.
Because he wasn't dead yet, and he absolutely refused to die here.
Lin heard the sound of blood vessels bursting inside him and the roar of seawater rushing into his ears. He struggled to raise his arm, reaching toward the unreachable surface.
Stirring his soul, tearing his body, he reached out—
Snap!
A slender hand caught him!
"Lin!"
Between this familiar scene and the moment he was dragged out of the sea to see that dazzling, gentle long pink hair, his heart felt strangely at peace.
It was as if he had known all along that she would come. Even though he couldn't see colors, he instinctively thought of "pink" when he saw her hair.
...Indeed, the two of them understood each other better than they understood themselves.
"Usually it's the hero saving the beauty, so how is it that it's my turn to save you?" Seawater streamed down Elysia face, and her soft bangs lay flat against her forehead. She smiled in this lightless place, radiating the only light.
"Cough, cough..." Lin gripped Elysia slender waist tightly to prevent himself from falling back into the sea. He responded weakly, "Then I'm lucky. Those heroes don't have beautiful girls coming to save them."
Aside from the neurotoxins, a hideous, giant gash had been ripped open across Lin abdomen. His condition was not good.
"Go help Ato." But Lin, after allowing his stinging body a moment of relief, pushed Elysia away and activated his anti-gravity flight gear. "I need to check Prometheus's status."
"Understood."
With a silent understanding, the two turned simultaneously and dashed in different directions.
...
"Have they already begun to effectively counter the contamination... As expected, a fragmented authority can only do so much."
Inside a contaminated body, the Eighth Herrscher woke up. She stretched this unfamiliar form and sat down in front of a computer.
Since she was born within Qian Xi's body, she possessed Qian Xi's memories, including her hacking skills. After hacking into Fire Moth's currently unguarded intranet, she found the various instructions Mei had sent to the branches.
As she expected, these humans she had intended to kill had already begun to counter-attack in such a short time.
However... she had her own ways of responding.
The Eighth Herrscher quickly tampered with Mei's orders. She couldn't make it too obvious; the people in Fire Moth's branches weren't idiots. There were definitely smart people among them who could reverse-engineer the cause from tiny clues. Thus, the Eighth Herrscher only altered the orders to look similar to the originals while actually deviating from the intended path.
"And then..."
The Eighth Herrscher could attach her authority to non-living objects to perform memetic contamination on other living beings.
This was her trump card for striking Fire Moth until they couldn't offer effective resistance. Even Fire Moth had never encountered such an uncanny ability.
And now, the Eighth Herrscher would utilize Qian Xi's hacking techniques and her own authority...
To completely shatter human society.
...
"Surgery concluded. The Honkai energy reaction and rejection response are within normal ranges. The surgery is a success."
Su wiped the sweat from his forehead. He finally breathed a long sigh of relief, leaned against the wall, and slowly sat on the floor.
"Griseo surgery was a success, and Ato's surgery was a success... Does the success rate of Project Soldier surgery have a correlation with hereditary genes?" After the surgery, Mobius muttered softly while looking at the stabilized Griseo.
Could the offspring of other MANTIS also undergo Project Soldier surgery?
No, looking at it from another angle: modifying a MANTIS's offspring while it's still an embryo...
Mobius high spirits suddenly stiffened. She thought of something and instantly dispelled the idea.
...Forget it.
"You're not bad," Mobius said flatly to Su, then walked out of the operating room. Su hurried to stand up and follow.
"What about that child?"
"Leave her there for now. Since the surgery was successful, there's no need to worry. The physical quality of a MANTIS is something ordinary Honkai Beasts can't rival."
At this point, Mobius suddenly stopped and looked at Su with an interested glint in her eyes. "Speaking of which, are you interested in becoming a MANTIS?"
"...Me?"
Su froze for a moment.
Him, a MANTIS? He didn't even remotely fit the word "warrior."
But Su immediately thought of Dystopia, who was still suffering in that device. If becoming a MANTIS meant he could...