"Are you okay?"
It was rare for Lin to voice his concern.
He actually lacked similar experience, and perhaps he should have said something gentler, but the tears welling up in Seele red eyes proved that he was overthinking it.
Seele embraced Lin, burying her head and sobbing, long and inconsolable.
Lin didn't push her away this time, gently patting her back, allowing her to vent her grief.
The heart-wrenching cries echoed through the empty building.
The support from the Third Branch arrived on time. They disembarked from the transport plane wearing protective suits, first carrying the wounded onto the aircraft, and then descending in groups of three to clear the wreckage of the Fifth Branch.
Corresponding personnel also implemented a lockdown beneath the building, and news reports began covering the "gas pipeline explosion" accident. It wouldn't be long before the public discussion of this incident would disappear.
"The total number of survivors in the Fifth Branch is fourteen, all with varying degrees of Honkai energy erosion. The loss of data and research is still being tallied; it's estimated that not much could be saved." Mei removed her surgical gloves and mask, standing next to Lin and talking to him softly.
Lin looked at the frozen Seele. She was kneeling by the bodies of her parents, as if all vitality had been drained from her body. He closed his eyes and asked, "What are your plans?"
"...How will this incident be explained?"
"An attack."
"Then let's return to headquarters."
"The headquarters isn't completely safe."
"But at least it won't be 'attacked.'"
An indiscriminate attack like the one on the Fifth Branch wouldn't happen at the headquarters. At most, there would only be personal assassination attempts against Mei. Furthermore, under the checks and balances among the upper echelons of the headquarters, it wouldn't be as traceless as this time. By then, Mei would begin to fight back.
"What exactly did you and Mobius do?" Lin knew that all the reasons stemmed from the plan Mobius had mentioned. She had hinted in every way that Lin, Mei, and she were all of the same mind, who would modify humanity until they were no longer human for the sake of humanity.
"The birth of a Herrscher is the result of Honkai energy condensing into a Herrscher Core within a human body with extremely high Honkai energy adaptability, granting the human the power of a natural disaster. This suggests that Honkai energy itself grants humans some extra abilities; it's just that the strength of the adaptability determines whether it causes collapse or reinforcement."
"You are already at the peak achievable by humans. If you could use Honkai energy like a Herrscher, then it's entirely possible for you to rival a Herrscher in combat power."
Mobius had also mentioned this. The focus of this theory wasn't the result, but the process.
Lin, while bringing up previous mission reports, trying to find clues between the lines, asked, "How is it done? Using a Herrscher Core?"
"The First Herrscher to the Third Herrscher all displayed personality contamination or the emergence of a new personality replacing the original after acquiring a Herrscher Core. Therefore, using a Herrscher Core would only create a new Herrscher. I plan to turn them into weapons against the Honkai."
Weapons...
The Herrscher Core undoubtedly contained the authority possessed by the Herrscher. To completely reproduce the Herrscher's power, merely making it into a weapon wouldn't be enough, but it was undoubtedly the best way for humans to utilize the core.
"But I have also considered the direct use of a Herrscher Core that you mentioned."
"..." Lin wasn't too surprised by this. Mei always had radical and bold ideas, which were like two extremes compared to her quiet appearance.
Mei didn't continue, instead returning to the previous topic: "Since Herrscher Cores cannot be used, we set our sights on the Upper Honkai Beasts, which have comparable strength but no authority. They are all composed of pure Honkai energy and are highly malleable."
"Fusing a Honkai Beast into a human body—that is our project."
Mei used "we" in these few sentences to refer to herself and Mobius, or had more people already joined this project?
This plan was undoubtedly crazy and terrifying. Not to mention that the Moth of the Fire Chasers itself was fighting the Honkai, and combining humans with Honkai Beasts would incite opposition from certain fundamentalist factions. Just to achieve the goals of the plan, how many people would Mei and the others put on the operating table who wouldn't make it off, or who would turn into monsters?
"...When did you start thinking about this?" Lin gazed deeply at the calm Mei, who smoothly straightened her long hair that the wind had tousled.
"The first second I saw a Herrscher's corpse."
That's why the higher-ups who originally invited Mei to join the Moth of the Fire Chasers were divided into two factions in such a short time.
"Lin, would you kill people?" Mei suddenly asked an untimely question, but Lin heard her intentions in her tone.
Ultimately, the Fifth Branch was implicated because of her, and Mei couldn't guarantee that similar things wouldn't happen again before she gained the power to speak.
How does one become an emperor? Simple, kill the current emperor.
Lin's peripheral vision caught someone standing up. He said in a low voice, "Judging humanity is not my job."
"Then let's find someone else."
"Mm."
"AHHHHHHHHH————"
"Bang!"
A fist slammed into Lin's helmet. There was the sharp crack of fracturing knuckles. Lin, who hadn't exerted force, was knocked to the ground by the punch. Through the viewport, he saw the frenzied Spaciel disregard his fractured right hand, climb onto him, and howl as he repeatedly struck Lin's body with his right hand.
One punch, and then another.
Spaciel's fists couldn't leave any mark on Lin's armor or helmet, but with bloodshot eyes and an extremely distorted face, he still raised his left hand, which lacked a forearm, and his fractured right hand, splattering blood over Lin's body.
"It was you! You killed Karen! It was you!" The words roared out of his mouth were already incoherent. He bit his lips until they bled, the veins on his face thick as chopsticks.
Like a beast, he madly gnawed at Lin.
Kevin, seeing this from afar, rushed forward to stop him: "Doctor Spaciel! Stop it!"
"Get lost! You monster! You murderer!" Spaciel pushed Kevin away with unexpected strength. He head-butted the front of Lin's helmet. A trail of blood ran from his forehead down to the helmet. His eyes were about to burst from their sockets: "You heartless, Soulless killing machine!"
"Do you think you've done another good deed for humanity! I spit on you!"
A bloody mouthful of spit landed on the viewport.
"You're just executing a program set in your heart! You're a monster colder than an AI!"
"You have no parents! You have no lover! You have no children! You even plan to abandon your friends! You have nothing to lose, you need to lose nothing, which is why you have no human emotions!"
"Do you hear me! You have nothing!"
Lin gradually relaxed the muscles in his limbs. The information panel inside his helmet disappeared, leaving only a pitch-black view, accompanied by Spaciel's shrieks.
The distraught Spaciel grabbed the handgun in Lin's holster, pulled it out, and aimed it at Lin's head.
"Doctor! Stop!" Kevin's eyes widened as he dashed forward.
"Squad Member Lin!" Seele, who had turned her head, also saw this scene.
Lin closed his eyes, waiting for the gunshot.
"Bang!"