As Hua and Su drew closer and closer to Qian Jie, the Fire Moth’s research on the Eleventh Herrscher finally began to show progress.
The troops that had previously attempted to eliminate the Eleventh Herrscher had been almost entirely annihilated—even their machines had all failed. But their sacrifice was not in vain; Mei and the others had managed to deduce its general capabilities.
An explosion had occurred in the eastern laboratory of the Fire Moth base, proving that the Eleventh Herrscher was on the move and that parts of this base had already fallen within its coverage.
And quite coincidentally, the person who had been in the lab at the time was none other than Vill-V, who was testing her replica of the Blank Key inside the base. By the time Mobius arrived, all she saw was a wasteland of twisted steel.
Useless weapons and armor lay scattered like broken toys, abandoned haphazardly, burying the ground’s original color beneath them. Mobius walked through the wreckage, cradling the non-responsive Klein in her arms, her face utterly expressionless.
Suddenly, she stopped. Her gaze landed on a piece of mechanical debris in the corner. It was a damaged suit of armor, still faintly emitting traces of Honkai energy.
“A replica of the Blank Key… Looks like we have an old acquaintance nearby.”
She hesitated for a few seconds, then decided to pretend nothing was amiss and continued forward.
Less than five hundred meters ahead, she found a second familiar weapon carelessly discarded on the ground. Firearms, vehicles, battered defense robots—the machinery scattered along this path could almost form an entire arsenal. The only problem was, every single piece was damaged. They lay across the road in miserable states, caked in mud and grime, telling a grim story of what their owners must have gone through.
“Truly a rout… I wonder if the owner is still alive?”
Finally, after following this trail of mechanical debris for nearly a kilometer, Mobius discovered the unconscious Vill-V beside a crater that was practically a ruin.
She didn’t look much better than the machines littering the roadside. Her body was covered in wounds of all sizes. Her arm was probably broken, bent at an unnatural angle. The only saving grace was that she still had a faint breath.
Since the day Mobius had first met Vill-V, this was the first time she had ever seen her in such a state. In the past, no matter what methods Fire Moth had used against her, or during the previous Herrscher eruptions, Vill-V had always come through without a hitch.
“What a sorry sight…”
Mobius shook her head and muttered to herself, addressing the unconscious Vill-V:
“Mistaking the power of technology for your own power. How is that any different from those cowards hiding behind the scenes at Fire Moth? Place all your faith in things outside yourself, and the moment you lose control over them, you’ll be swiftly devoured in return. Greedy fool… How could you not understand something so simple?”
Mobius stared coldly at the crumpled figure on the ground, silent for a long while. Finally, she let out a sigh.
She gently tucked Klein into her arms to free up one hand, then grabbed hold of one of Vill-V’s feet. “Might as well drag her back like this. Worst case, I’ll replace the broken parts with prosthetics… Even on the verge of death, you still manage to be such a pain.”
Perhaps the jostling from being dragged had stirred the unconscious girl awake. Mobius heard a faint groan from behind.
“Let… go… of… me…”
“What nonsense are you spouting? Are you planning to crawl all the way back?” Mobius glanced back casually—then stopped in her tracks.
Behind her, Vill-V was lying on the ground, staring at her with the look of someone seeing a complete stranger.
“Um… who… are you…?”
Mobius furrowed her brow but didn’t stop dragging her along.
“Once you figure it out, tell me—which Vill-V are you now?”
After a long stretch of silence, the voice behind her finally spoke again:
“I see… so that’s how it is. I never imagined I’d wake up this way… after all the other Vill-Vs had fallen asleep.”
Mobius paused for a few seconds, then showed a look of understanding, and dragged Vill-V all the way to a safe zone.
Meanwhile, Hua and Su had fallen in behind Qian Jie, deciding to keep a certain distance from him. After all, it was plain to see that he was far from normal right now. The aura radiating from him wasn’t human at all—it was more like that of a ferocious, untamed beast.
Their failed negotiation attempts before had given them some improvement in communicating with Qian Jie. They knew clearly that the best thing to do at this moment was to follow behind him and not do anything unnecessary.
Beneath Qian Jie’s feet, footprints and scorch marks stretched across the steel floor, trailing his wrath.
Suddenly, as if all the strength had been drained from his body, he collapsed face-first onto the ground.
“This… is this the limit of the Herrscher’s influence?”
Hua unconsciously stepped back a few paces. The distance of about a hundred meters between her and Qian Jie felt like a boundary line between life and death…
