The Third Herrscher was draped in a luxurious purplish-black gown. Her purple hair fell obediently behind her shoulders as she floated in the thunderclouds. Her eyes, devoid of human emotion, gazed indifferently at the ruins beneath the lightning strikes.
Tiny yet lethal currents of electricity danced around her. If this inconspicuous electric light struck a human body, it would instantly cause the heart to spasm and stop beating. So dangerous, yet so obedient around her.
She seemed... no, she was the high and mighty God, bringing divine punishment and death to all she saw.
After a lightning bolt reduced the human to a charred corpse, the Third Herrscher's gaze drifted downward, looking at her slowly regenerating minion.
A core was destroyed by a mere human, and if she hadn't arrived in time, the other core would have been directly destroyed as well.
The Third Herrscher issued a command to the recovering serpentine shadow, then turned, preparing to leave.
"Bang!"
Just as she turned, a particle bullet compressed from Honkai energy shot toward the back of her head.
"Sizzle."
The bullet was deflected by a circular defensive mesh composed of electrical currents. The Third Herrscher lowered her gaze, looking toward the direction from which the bullet came.
[Warning... Jet pack damage rate reached 78%]
[Warning... Information acquisition system unavailable]
[Warning... Jump kit damage rate reached 17%]
[Warning...]
Lin was clinging to the edge of a dozen-story-high rooftop with one hand. Pieces of scorched outer armor fell off his body, peeling away his burnt skin. He threw away the pistol, which had fired its last bullet, and used both hands to climb onto the rooftop.
Even though Lin had managed to sense the attack at the last moment and shot out his grappling hook, he was still too slow to completely dodge and was hit by the periphery of the strike. Luckily, it didn't directly hit a vital body part, but it virtually destroyed all the equipment on him.
But the ravages of the toxin and his injuries had already pushed him to the brink of death.
"Cough, cough, cough..." The coughing grew louder. Half of Lin's helmet was shattered, fragments embedded in his face. Blood trickled down his chin. He lifted his head, meeting the gaze of the "God" in the sky.
The divine rain continued to wash over his hideous body, which was now missing large patches of skin.
On his fractured viewport, the blood-red countdown timer stopped at the last second. This meant the effect of the toxin had worn off. Lin weakly collapsed into the pool of rain.
"God..." The rain relentlessly drained the last bit of life from his body. Lin muttered blankly, stretching out his hand toward the magnificent and majestic purple figure.
The lightning illuminated his face—vacant and exhausted. He was a dying man on the verge of death.
What was this man thinking in his final moments? Hallucinations, memories, regret?
"..." The God extended her hand, meeting his outstretched arm in the empty space between them. Lightning brewed overhead. She mercifully brought down the thunder, intending to end this pathetic human's suffering.
But suddenly, the hand tightened into a fist.
"No... you are not Gods..." A surge of unknown strength poured into the man's body. His vacant eyes were instantly filled with sharpness. His hands firmly braced on the ground, and he stood up.
His nostrils filled with the metallic smell of blood. Lin gasped heavily, staring straight into the arrogant might of the lightning—
"And you have no right to judge humanity on behalf of God."
"Boom!"
The lightning struck again, and Lin's figure disappeared in the light.
"..."
A long silence.
A field of absolute blackness. The five senses vanished.
"The data has been adjusted, but I still can't guarantee that it will work normally..."
"Don't use it unless absolutely necessary..."
After pressing the Phase Transfer Device, Lin had arrived here again.
Was this the world after death, or had he entered phase transfer? Lin couldn't tell the difference.
In this world where everything was lost and only consciousness remained, a human would go mad if they stayed for even a short time... no, mere seconds.
Because one could not even be sure that time was moving forward. Did the "one second" he perceived truly last only "one second"?
"..."
Well then, assume he was currently undergoing phase transfer.
Lin's mind was not only unaffected by this void but became even more focused without the distraction of physical pain, allowing him to consider the details he hadn't had time for earlier.
How to defeat a Herrscher. This was the subject that the top researchers of the Moth of the Flame-Chasers, all of whom held at least PhDs, studied day and night.
As the most direct manifestation of destruction and the most threatening form of the Honkai, a Herrscher is granted a "Authority" that allows them to freely manipulate certain phenomena, such as the Third Herrscher's electromagnetic field and the Second Herrscher's space.
The difficulty was not in the method of killing a Herrscher. In fact, stopping a Herrscher's physiological activity was not difficult. After all, they were human before becoming a Herrscher, and barring separating the Herrscher Core, most methods used to kill a human could be applied to them if the force was great enough.
The difficulty was, how to achieve that force.
"..."
Humanity had killed two Herrschers and obtained their Herrscher Cores.
Through research on the Cores, the Moth of the Flame-Chasers discovered that a Herrscher Core was less like an infinite energy battery and more like a key that opened the door to using an ability. The Herrscher requested the power from behind the door and then used it.
The question was whether the requested Authority could be used without limitation.
"..."
The answer was, no.
A kind of connection linked the clues in Lin's mind. He vaguely saw a glimmer of victory.
If the Third Herrscher could freely manipulate lightning to cause destruction, and if the thunderclouds shrouding Changkong City were also under her control, she could have simply lined up strikes with the intensity of the single bolt she used to attack him and razed the ground, or launched indiscriminate attacks using the thunderclouds over Changkong City. If that were the case, humanity would be completely annihilated within a month.
But the fact was that to kill Lin, she had personally come within visual range, and then used a high-intensity single lightning strike to attack him.
Authority is not inexhaustible. Even a Herrscher must consider the consumption of Honkai energy.
Having established the first theory, Lin began to contemplate the second problem.
Was the large-scale thundercloud intentionally controlled by her?
He quickly reached the second conclusion.
No. The large-scale thundercloud was likely an auxiliary product of her Authority, which conveniently suggested that she couldn't yet control her Authority fluently.
Now, the final question.
During phase transfer, if he did not move within this void space, he would reappear at his original location when it ended. So, where should he move to now?
The void space began to invade his mind. The time limit was pressing.
A pair of indifferent eyes lit up in the darkness.
Advance.
Lin's choice was singular, set from the very beginning.
There was never any room for regret, neither for humanity nor for him. They could only...
"Advance."
And so, tearing through the darkness, Lin's body coalesced directly beneath and behind the Third Herrscher.
Amidst the rolling thunder, the human began his challenge against the God of lightning.