"Clang!"
The pitch-black scythe, like the grim reaper's tool, grazed Lin's forehead. The aura of death, like a fire igniting a pile of dry grass, instantly eroded a small area of his helmet.
Using the Black Abyss and Abyss Flower, he backhanded the shadow's arm holding the scythe. Then, two steel-hard vines shot out from under his feet, piercing the shadow's throat and chest.
Such fatal wounds would likely decide the outcome for others, but Lin knew that for her, this was only a moderately severe injury. She could recover given time, so he didn't relax his vigilance. Instead, he freed a hand to grab the shadow's neck, while raising the Black Abyss and Abyss Flower with the other, ready to impale her.
"Boom—"
A barely perceptible odd sound made Lin stop his hand. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, he instantly brought the Black Abyss and Abyss Flower up to shield his back. A great force slammed into him, and a painful groan of loosening joints echoed throughout his body.
Spinning almost head-over-heels, Lin flew over a hundred meters before landing. He didn't use the Black Abyss and Abyss Flower to create plants to slow himself down, to distance himself from the "person" who ambushed him.
Upon seeing another equally familiar figure standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the shadow, most of Lin's previous guesses were overturned. All that remained was the thought of how to stop them.
A figure, wreathed in substantial, scorching flames, emanated an aura of destruction even denser than the black shadow.
The Black Shadow and the Crimson Shadow began walking toward Lin, who was slowly getting back on his feet.
In appearance, they were no different from the zombies who only emitted eerie screeches.
But this was far from the end.
In every direction Lin could see, some restless shadows rose from the ground, transforming into figures he was intensely familiar with.
Multiple Herrschers, numbering more than seven…
The facts proved Lin's concern was correct. The target of these enemies was likely Mei. Individually, their strength might be less than one-tenth of the fully formed Herrscher of Thunder, but Lin saw among them the figure of a person once hailed as the Honkai Energy Killer.
Even though the range and neutralization effect were far inferior to the terrifying, kilometer-spanning boundary he had encountered before, with that figure's appearance, the Black Abyss and Abyss Flower's abilities were already largely suppressed.
Even Mei would be caught off guard by this ability.
Perhaps having lost their primary target, these figures gathered together, apparently intending to switch to a different hunting target.
That target was Lin, who possessed a certain level of authority within the Elysian Realm.
No, perhaps they had multiple targets from the very beginning.
Lin scanned these "people," observing their positions and quietly adjusting his distance from them.
If his estimation was correct, the reason for the appearance of these "people" should be related to that experiment.
And one of the participants in that experiment happened to be Mei.
"Boom!"
The Crimson Shadow was the first to attack.
…
"Klein, can you hear me?"
"Hmm… I can hear you. You suddenly lost signal just now. I couldn't communicate with you. Did something happen?"
Mei, after being forcibly sent out of that area by Lin, re-established contact with Klein. Her voice was slightly urgent, as Lin's serious, battle-ready attitude suggested that this incident was likely far from simple.
Even with Mobius's plan, Lin had only given Mei a little help.
Mei could feel the gravity of the situation emanating from beneath Lin's helmet.
In Mei's eyes, Lin was an ultimate warrior who could fight her to a draw—and in some ways even gain an edge—using only a few pieces of obsolete equipment from the Previous Era. Unlike the Fusion Warriors, whose abilities varied, he was a person who fought using his own unique "strength."
Mei respected warriors like him, because her teacher was very much like Lin: without any inherently unique abilities, yet a resilient and brave warrior.
But it was precisely because of this that such people often died young.
"That's the full sequence of events that just occurred, Klein. Can you locate Elysia and the Fusion Warrior named Aponia?"
"…"
Mei didn't receive a response from Klein. Just as she thought the communication had been cut off again, Klein's usually somewhat lazy voice spoke with disbelief: "That might be… the Sixth Herrscher of the Previous Era, the Herrscher of Death."
"The Herrscher of Death?!"
The Herrscher of Death had never appeared in the civilization Mei belonged to. Her Authority, the Gem of Serenity, was used by the Second Herrscher, who was the only taboo existence in history to possess multiple Herrscher Authorities.
Even Mei, the Third Herrscher, was initially implanted with the Gem of Conquest—one of the four Herrscher Core Gems that remained after the Second Herrscher vanished—which turned her into the Herrscher of Thunder, who destroyed Nagazora.
However, because of this, a true Herrscher of Death was never born in the Current Era.
"Why would the Herrscher of Death from the Previous Era appear here?"
Since Klein recognized the Herrscher of Death, the Herrscher of Death of the Previous Era must have been highly recognizable. There was no possibility of a newly born Herrscher of Death from the Current Era entering the Elysian Realm.
The Elysian Realm is a space composed of memories, so Mei quickly guessed the shadow's true identity.
"That's a memory body…"
A Herrscher's memory body.
"Someone injected the memory body of a Herrscher into the Elysian Realm." Klein, as the maintainer of the Elysian Realm, quickly sensed that something was wrong. "But a Herrscher's memory shouldn't be extractable. Furthermore, the Herrscher of Death still retains part of her Authority. This is not something a simple memory body can achieve…"
"Put the analysis aside for now, Klein. Can you send me back to that area?"
"No. That area seems to be blocked off… Initially, it was Lin's block, but after his block ended, I still couldn't open the anchor point to that area."
Lin was in trouble.
This was the only possibility Mei could think of.
"No… I must find Elysia first." Lin had specifically emphasized two people before throwing her out: Elysia and the Fusion Warrior named Aponia, whom she hadn't met yet. This meant he believed they had a solution.
Lin was a memory body who monitored the Elysian Realm and possessed a certain authority. An event that troubled him could only be a crisis affecting the entire Elysian Realm.
For the sake of the Current Era's humanity, Mei had to find the truth about the Honkai in the Elysian Realm. Personally, she also couldn't ignore the memory bodies in the Elysian Realm.
"I can't trace Elysia's location, but one person can."
Mei paused, then subconsciously said—
"Pardofelis?"