The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Is it okay, Mei? You don't look good."

Kevin, or Kevin's stereoscopic projection to be precise, asked with concern.

With the help of Prometheus, Kevin and May talked on the phone across a distance of 388,000 kilometers.

"ah--"

Mei pressed the corners of her eyes with cold fingertips and replied absently:

"Me? I'm fine. I'm just a little tired from traveling for a long time, okay."

"well……"

Kevin crossed his arms and shook his head with a wry smile.

Just like Mikael understands Alicia, why doesn't he understand Mei?

With just a few simple actions, a few words of dialogue, and a few eye contact, he could probably "empathize" with Mei.

He could feel the emotion that was more than just sadness. It was more like anger than sadness. Thinking about it carefully, he had never seen Mei show an angry look.

But he had no idea what exactly happened, and he didn't even know the target of her anger - it couldn't be Mikael and Ally, could it? It's definitely impossible.

At this moment, he wanted to sneak into Velvet's workshop, secretly activate the Second God Key, and teleport himself directly to the lunar ruins. Anyway, Mikael had already synchronized the spatial coordinates with the Second God Key.

But he can't get away... Both Mikael and Alicia are on the moon, and the Fire Chaser's highest combat power has been reduced to two out of three. There must be someone who can take charge of the increasingly unstable Earth, right?

"...If I had known it earlier, I would have said nothing to agree to Mikael and Alicia's persistent fight."

Kevin sighed secretly, and then heard Mei ask:

"How is the situation on Earth now? Is there anyone in the Parliament who is disobedient?"

Upon hearing the word "parliament", Kevin instinctively scratched his head.

"Huh? Someone is disobedient?"

Mei's glasses narrowed to a slit, and a cold light flashed - the reason why she chose to annex the coalition government through the more peaceful method of parliament, instead of a simpler and more direct killing, was just to avoid internal friction as much as possible.

But if someone really did not open his eyes and did some small tricks when she and Mikael were not around, then don't blame Mebius for having one or two more corpses on the operating table.

"Uh! No, no! It's not that serious. They are all very, very well-behaved..."

Kevin quickly added a few words. After all, those old guys just mocked him and Mei. He neither wanted these things to disturb the already haggard Mei, nor did he want them to finally get along with each other on the surface. The human beings on the rope were once again cracked by a few words.

So he quickly changed the topic elsewhere:

"Then again, less than an hour ago, an emperor-level Honkaimon-level Honkai energy reaction appeared in the far east. I have already sent Sakura and Qianjie to attack. Counting the time, we should be almost at the battlefield now—— Well, considering that the Far East is basically a no-man’s land, I didn’t activate the Second God Key.”

Kevin blinked with an expression that said, "Please praise me, Mei!"

How could Mei not understand the look in his eyes? She forced a smile and praised sincerely:

"Very well, very thoughtful."

Using the Second God's Key to directly deliver troops to the battlefield is undoubtedly the fastest option, and can also quell the unrest immediately. However, as a "dead object", the God's Key cannot obtain a source of energy from the Tree of Imaginary Numbers like the Herrscher. Honkai energy is continuously supplied, and each time the rated power is used, it takes about two hours to recharge.

And sometimes, the two-hour gap is often fatal, even enough to destroy mankind once - if the Herrscher happens to appear at this time.

"But you still have to be careful. The initial energy response level doesn't mean everything. At the beginning, both Mahatma and Vishnu appeared with the energy response level of the emperor-level Honkaimon."

"Ah, of course I know this, so I divided the main combat power of Anti-Entropy into four groups. Sakura and Qianjie are the combat group, Kosmo and I are the quick response group, Hua, Su, Mebius and Velvet It’s a reserve group, and the rest keep working and training as normal.”

"Well!"

Mei's eyes widened slightly, and then she smiled:

"Not bad, I didn't expect that my boyfriend also has the ability to become a leader."

"Cough cough cough!"

Kevin coughed twice, "Actually, this was a plan that Mikael had made a long time ago." He wanted to tell the truth, but he was finally praised by Mei once. After thinking about it, he could only suffer. Got——

"Ah, this is all routine! But I remember Mikael said that the most important thing about being a leader is not ability. How many capable people are there in the world? But there is only one who can become a leader, because for leaders The most important thing for a person is not his superb ability, but his unwavering belief and the charm that brings everyone together.”

"Well...as usual, self-deprecating, this is really what Mikael would say."

Mei chuckled and looked at Mikael, who was chatting and laughing with Alicia, classifying various equipment and soul steel in the warehouse.

There is no need to belittle oneself. If you are looking at Fire Chaser Moth or even the entire human race, Mikael is indeed inferior to her, but if you are looking at Anti-Entropy, it is completely the opposite.

Because Mei can't do the second thing about counter-entropy: bringing so many weird people together.

"By the way, speaking of Mikael, what is he doing?"

Kevin's projection body looked around, but unfortunately the perspective that Prometheus could display was limited. No matter how much he poked his head around, he could only see Mei.

"Oh! Look at me, I almost forgot to mention this!"

Mei patted her head gently:

"Tell Velvet that we found a large amount of soul steel on the moon. A conservative estimate is that there are ten tons in this warehouse alone, and there are many scattered outside."

"Uh, wait a minute Mei, there is soul steel on the moon...wait, there is a warehouse, what exactly did you find? There can't be people on the moon, right?"

"Well... these parts, just wait until I go back and talk to you face to face..."

"Woo-wu-wu-"

The piercing siren interrupted the conversation between the two, and even Mikael and Mei looked over.

Mei instinctively looked up to see the color of the light, and suddenly realized that the alarm sound should have come from Kevin.

And Kevin's projection body also disappeared without a trace, until half a minute later, he suddenly leaned out half of his body again:

"I'm sorry, Mei, but the response level of the Honkai Beast in Jidong has been raised to the judgment level. I have to go to the command room and wait for you to come back!"

Kevin hung up the communication angrily.

…………

Two minutes later, he returned to the same place with regret - his reflexes had improved again, and the guy named Feitian, the final level Honkaiju beast, was struck by a thousand calamities the moment he stepped into the command room. killed.

"Sigh... If I had known it was so easy, I wouldn't have hung up the communication first."

Kevin called again for a long time, but Mei's side seemed to have lost the connection. The cost of "interstellar communication" was not low. It seemed that the only way to communicate again was to wait for the next scheduled time...

He stretched and walked back to the lounge dedicated to reverse entropy.

"Gu——gu——"

His stomach suddenly growled, so he quickly opened the refrigerator and prepared something to eat.

"Um... sushi?"

Kevin opened the disposable lunch box, sniffed it, and felt it was not bad, then he picked up a piece and threw it into his mouth with a smirk...

"Uh! Uh...ah! Cough cough cough!"

A chill rushed straight to Tianling Gai, causing his eyes to twitch and turn white, until finally he couldn't bear it anymore, and fainted with a "thud".

…………

Thirty-eight thousand kilometers away, Mei had no idea that the sushi she had worked so hard to make had done what only the Herrscher could do - defeat Kevin.

She was looking down at the bottomless crater beneath her feet, discussing with Mikael how to enter the crater. Of course, Mikael was mainly talking:

"The first method - since the civilization of Qianqianqianqianqian is facing the collapse here, and most of the soldiers are suspected to be deployed outside the crater, waiting for the final arrival before entering the crater to fight with it, then take it for granted Yes, they must have a mechanism to quickly enter the bottom of the crater. All they need to do is find that mechanism."

"..."

"But I don't think this is a good idea, not only because the mechanism may not be able to be activated, but - Mei, can your body still tolerate it?"

Mei nodded and replied with great confidence:

"I don't feel any discomfort at the moment, except...a little tired."

She said this, but as a half-doctor herself, she knew better - no discomfort is often more troublesome than obvious discomfort.

How can there be no problems when normal metabolism is disrupted? If there is obvious discomfort, we can also find the problem based on experience and theory, and determine whether the problem is serious or not. And the current situation is... I only know that there will definitely be problems, but I don't know where the problems are and whether they are serious or not.

Continuing to hold on is a gamble. The longer you stay on the moon, the greater the risk.

The second quick solution that Mikael came up with was also gambling——

"The other way is very simple. I'll just jump down from here. Anyway, I have the power to come and go freely. I'll take you two down after confirming the situation below."

"...Okay, this method is indeed convenient enough."

Mei held her forehead and reluctantly agreed to the plan.

Oh, it’s not that helpless. After all, her main purpose is to explore this crater. In the process of searching for the equipment left by her predecessors, she can explore many facilities along the way, but if time does not allow, she still needs to take it easy. good.

"But in the final analysis, the so-called 'time does not allow' is my physical limitation. If there is any way I can..."

Not willing to give in, maybe a little bit. Although Dr. Mei is omnipotent in front of others, there are too many things she cannot do.

She knew that Mikael actually envied her, envied her maturity, calmness and rationality, as if nothing could defeat her mentally.

But... although there is no inevitable causal relationship, isn't spiritual maturity to a certain extent meant to make up for the lack of external strength?

While Mikael envied Mei's mature spiritual will, she was actually also envious of his powerful external strength.

She was just stunned for a moment, and Mikael had already jumped down silently. Only the sound of hunting as his clothes were blown up by the wind echoed in her ears.

Mei had no choice but to follow Ai Li's example, slowly bend down and sit on the edge of the cliff.

"Ellie, what are you looking at?"

Mei followed Ellie's gaze and looked forward, and could only see special stones scattered on the ground. The reason why they are special is because the cross-sections of those stones are very strange: upon closer inspection, the center of the cross-sections all look like a starry sky. There are spots of blue, and the color of the surrounding parts near the surface and inside gradually deepens, showing purple and black.

If the starry sky blue in the center were replaced with crimson, and the lime on the surface was replaced with bone white, it would really look like the remains of Honkaimon's corpse.

Perhaps, that was the corpse of the Honkai Beast, but it slowly settled and deteriorated over countless time, and finally turned into this appearance.

Is she looking at these rocks?

May was both certain and a little unsure. After all, there is nothing else there except these stones, and if you are interested in those stones, you won’t stare at them for so long...

Or are you just in a daze?

Mei felt a little pain in her head. Alicia's thoughts were unpredictable. Although Mei was not completely unpredictable, her brain was too tired to think about Alicia's abnormality——

She had been too silent since she arrived at this crater, no, since she came to the moon.

One thing to say, facing the unchanging surface of the moon, silence is normal.

There are even many soldiers from the exploration team who went directly into sanatoriums after completing their missions and returning to Earth.

Most people's symptoms are the same, that is, a person stares ahead in silence when there are people around him, but cannot stop mumbling to himself when alone. Once night falls, it may even develop into hysterical misery. Call.

Some without family members... signed consent forms in desperation, and ended up lying on Mebius's operating table. Even if they were lucky enough to survive, they were now transferred to the "deepest place".

"well……"

Because of this, Ellie's abnormality did not attract her attention. It was not until she came to this ruins that this situation became more obvious and eye-catching...

This was at least the third time she had sat on the edge of the cliff without saying a word.

"Alicia? Alicia?"

"..."

Moreover, it was as if her hearing had been deprived. No matter how she shouted, she would not give any feedback. This was true for Mei, and it was also true for Mikael before.

This kind of silence seemed to be very different from those of the soldiers of the exploration team, but Mei always felt that it was more than that.

On the one hand, those soldiers often have to stay on the moon for several months, and they have only experienced it for less than a week. She believes that Alicia's spirit will not be so fragile. After all, Mei herself and Mikael are fine. .

On the other hand, it is a suspicion... Of course, this is not a malicious suspicion, nor is it directed at Alicia's position.

To be precise, it is a question, an answer that cannot be obtained from Mikael's mouth - "Without power, without a core in a normal state, Alicia, is she really just a Herrscher?"

She didn't want to think too much about it, but this was...according to the inscription left by "Mei" herself 250,000 years ago, this was the birthplace of the Last Herrscher, the Herrscher of the End.

Such a special place, surrounded by such a special Herrscher as Alicia, and she also happened to have a special reaction...

It was really hard not to think too much, and with the speed of her brain, she came up with more than a hundred hypotheses almost instantly, such as:

Since it is impossible to tell when Alicia became a Herrscher, we might as well assume that she was the first Herrscher, and then, contrary to Mikael's collection of powers, each new Herrscher would take power away from her, so that She has no power.

As for why she doesn't have a gem-like core? It can also be understood that she is the only core, and the other Herrscher cores are just lower-level existences...

"Well, this can all be explained, but... forget it..."

Mei cut off these thoughts abruptly. She felt that she still had plenty of time, and she hoped to get Alicia's personal answer.

As for telling Mikael about Ellie’s anomaly? That's even more unnecessary - he should have noticed it from the beginning, so he kept doing all kinds of seemingly childish behaviors.

The silence that spread stretched out the time invisibly. Mei raised her hand and glanced at the Prometheus terminal. She thought that two hours had passed... at least one hour had passed, but the flashing number Tell her that less than two minutes have passed since Mikael jumped into the crater.

To be precise, it was 107 seconds, now it is 108, 109...

Mei let out a long sigh again, boredly picked up a pebble at hand, raised her head habitually, and raised the pebble in front of her eyes, as if she wanted to compete with the moon in the sky to see who was bigger.

But what she saw were just grains of salt scattered on the dark curtain, and naturally none of them could compare with the pebbles in her hands.

She burst into laughter, and then belatedly remembered that she was on the moon.

She threw the stones into the bottomless crater and kept silent for dozens of times, but she didn't hear any sound.

He raised his hand and looked at the time again. It was 142 seconds, and half a minute had passed.

Mei suddenly turned around and stretched out her hand to wave in front of Ellie's eyes. She had no hope at all, but she just remembered that such scenes often appeared in novels and movies, so she did it casually.

Unexpectedly, it actually had an effect - Ai Li let out a light sigh and raised her head in disappointment.

"You...uh..."

"What's wrong with you?" - Mei wanted to ask this, but she didn't know if it was due to psychological factors. A strange force came out halfway. Not only did she keep silent, but she also slightly raised her chin and looked at The starry sky further away.

"This is!"

Her sight was like a bird that did not exist in this space, easily passing over the scattered stones, crossing the edge of the city ruins, and flying into the wider night sky.

That was the night sky she had just looked at half a minute ago. The deep darkness only changed in the moment she lowered her head and raised her head. Now it showed dreamlike colors - that one was deep dark purple, that one was scarlet, and that one was light. is blue.

These colors that should not exist in the black-and-white universe have quietly appeared, just like the gorgeous galaxies that Mei saw on her father's computer when she was a child, photographed by an astronomical telescope and then artificially colored.

And that's not all.

The "salt grains" in the night sky were originally rough or delicate. No matter what, they hung there quietly, lifeless and unchanged.

But now, some of them began to rotate slowly along a certain point as the center of the circle, and they were getting faster and faster. In just a blink of an eye, they left circles of fine arc-shaped tracks in the night sky, like annual rings. .

This is also a scene that Mei is very familiar with - on a clear night, set up a camera where you can see the bright stars, shoot in the direction of the pole, and combine it with post-processing, you can get a beautiful star track map .

But... but how did all this happen? Not to mention the inexplicably colored universe, let’s talk about the star track map, which is also the product of a long-term camera shooting. How is it possible...

"clatter……"

A sound that should have been light and crisp, but was actually dull, sounded in Mei's ears. It was the sound of pebbles falling to the ground.

She couldn't help but blink, and then, both the gorgeous galaxy and the neat star trails disappeared without a trace.

So much so that she couldn't help but wonder in her heart - was everything just her imagination? If not, how can these be explained?

She took it for granted and looked at Alicia beside her, only to see her lowering her head and staring at the abyss at her feet, as if she had never noticed the strangeness in the starry sky.

"like……"

"Ah! You're back!"

The girl's sudden voice of joy choked back Mei's question. She put a little more force on her hands on the edge of the cliff and was about to jump down, but her toes landed just right on a piece of clear pink crystal.

With this force, she jumped up slightly and rotated her body, like scattered petals picked up by the wind, falling lightly back to the edge of the cliff.

And Mikael was standing in front of her.

Mei swallowed back all her previous reveries and questions. She noticed that Mikael's face was a little solemn, so she asked first:

"What's the situation down there? Are there a lot of Honkai Beasts?"

Mikael shook his head with an ugly expression:

"There's no Honkaimon down there, but there are some things that shouldn't be there."

…………

Mei had to admit that despite Mikael's warning, she still sincerely believed that all the words she had learned from childhood to college could not describe the desolation at the bottom of the crater, because what appeared before her eyes was the desolation of nothing— —

There are some strange-shaped buildings behind them, but the neatly arranged stones that are swaying in all directions, the strange circular patterns carved on the surface of the stones, and the purple color exposed in the cross-sections do not look like the products of human civilization.

What's more, there is an invisible weight in the air pressing on the shoulders and squeezing the chest, making it difficult to breathe.

If it weren't for the dust and sand at her feet that were different from ordinary moon soil, bringing a tiny bit of light, making the surroundings less dark and depressing, Mei would have found it difficult to stay here for even ten minutes.

Looking up at the sky, all I can see is a small hole like an elm coin, which makes the heaviness even more inescapable.

But……

"What are you talking about that shouldn't exist?"

Mikael pinched his fingers and moved his lips a little, as if counting the time.

After a while, he came to the conclusion:

"Ten seconds left, step back."

He forced Mei and Aili to take two steps back and muttered:

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...

Five, four...

Three, two, one——

The sand and dust are flowing in front of me, but the scenery does not seem to have changed much.

But several black spots appeared inexplicably in the dust and sand: a dozen broken long swords, two crosses leaning on the sand, black and white lances, a dull sword that could no longer burn...

Some know it and some don’t.

But as half of their designers, this does not prevent Mei from shouting those three words in her mind——

"God's Key!"