Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

 "Hmm? Those boring ants from before came from here?"

The Herrscher closed her eyes and sniffed a few times, looking somewhat puzzled:

"Hmm? Where did all the people hide? Well, it doesn't matter..."

She waved her hand, and within the heaving black waves, one strangely-shaped Honkai beast after another surged onto the shore.

Those Honkai beasts were different from the ones that had appeared before. They were like primitive life forms that had climbed out of the ocean countless eons ago. They had no limbs or torsos. They were just round or long, amorphous masses of flesh that moved by wiggling.

"It looks like these Honkai beasts don't have the gray outer shells that other Honkai beasts have. It should be easier to deal with, right?"

Pro speculated from the side.

"No. It's very likely that their outer shells have softened… I don't think the Honkai will become weaker and weaker. So, we can't assume that these Honkai beasts are easy to deal with just because they look primitive. At the very least, they should be about the same… dif-…"

Mei's words were cut off. In the video footage, a Honkai beast that was over a hundred meters tall lifted its head from the sea, and then started to wriggle onto the shore bit by bit.

"Th-this... this..."

The largest Honkai beast that humanity had encountered so far was the fifty-meter class one in Shanghai City… no, if you counted the remnants of Parvati, which was only a little over forty meters when Mei and the others found it in the ice cave, then this wasn't the first Honkai beast over a hundred meters.

But Parvati was just a remnant, while the one in front of them now was real, and still moving!

The camera's view was shaking, the entire command room was shaking, and even the hearts of those within couldn't calm down.

Mei took two deep breaths. The sound was extremely clear in the dimly lit and quiet command room. As she started, the disorganized and rapid sounds of breathing also began.

"The Herrscher's location?"

Pro, as if waking from a dream, ran over to the Honkai energy detection equipment. There was no need to look closely. The individual with the strongest reaction was definitely the Herrscher.

"She's still on the shore. There are no signs of her coming onto the island."

After reporting that, he quickly went over to Mei and whispered: "Should we order the disguised unmanned turrets to start attacking? If we don't act soon, the Honkai beasts will penetrate the defensive line!"

But Mei didn't speak and she didn't make a move either. She just held her breath and kept her eyes on the positions of the Honkai beasts, especially the hundred-meter-class Honkai beast.

"A little further… just a little further…"

The Honkai beasts were wandering around aimlessly, not having found a target. The clustered heavy equipment quickly caught their attention—regardless of what it was, it was still a product of human civilization! Of course they should destroy it!

Even that hundred-meter-class Honkai beast came over to join in, but it got stuck among the tanks, artillery, and armored vehicles, and was unable to move for a while.

Mei's eyes lit up, and she slammed her right fist on the steel table--ignoring the pain, she immediately took the communication device from Pro:

"Air force, immediately initiate a full saturation bombing of area P17-L63, according to the plan! After the first round of bombing, extend the attack range to the entire island!"

"Karabis, initiate a target lock for all the unmanned turrets. After the first round of aerial bombardment begins, attack at the same time!"

"Aldemir, after the aerial bombardment starts, immediately detonate all the explosives!"

"Has the energy barrier been recharged? Immediately open the semi-enclosed mode to form a ring-shaped barrier that will trap all the Honkai beasts on the island!"

"Chasing Flames Three, move immediately towards Agania Island. Charge the main cannon in advance and prepare to strike the Herrscher! But be careful to hide in the clouds and don't expose your position too early."

After carefully putting the communication device back on the table, she squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her aching fist. Mei said with some reluctance, "Too bad, the Herrscher is a bit cautious…"

Pro's mouth twitched slightly. He raised his fingers up and then put them back down. He was unable to express his emotions clearly for a moment.

Vashak simply plopped back down onto the ground. His face was neither red, white, nor black. After the anger and unwillingness had gradually dissipated, he was actually left with shame and relief.

Karabiya, on the other hand, pointed incredulously at the radar screen that was full of friendly markers and asked the questions that the two of them were thinking: "Dr. Mei, how did you manage to get dozens of different flight squadrons from different bases to arrive at the battlefield at the same time!"

In their imaginations, Mei should have first used the defensive line of unmanned turrets to delay the Honkai beast's attack. That would have bought time for the different flight squadrons from different bases to gather. In short, in their assumptions, it should have been very difficult to get all the attacks to launch at the same time—although everyone knew that that would maximize the damage.

"Uh? As long as you calculate the time that each flight squadron will arrive at Agania and then notify them one by one, wouldn't that work?"

"?" × N

It was not clear if it was just their imagination, but everyone who had heard those words couldn't help but have one question surface in their minds: was this kind of micromanaging really that simple?

Especially Pro. He hadn't understood why Mei had contacted almost every single flight squadron individually before, and why the order in which they had been contacted seemed so disorganized.

It didn't simply depend on the distance. Mei had even considered the different aircraft types that each squadron was using, and she had even factored in the effects of different payload and fuel capacity on their speeds!

But…

But!

There was also one major problem with this kind of intense saturation attack—wouldn't the sky collapse… ah no, wouldn't the ceiling collapse?

Before anyone could even ask that question, all of the attacks broke out at the same time. All the flight squadrons released every bomb they were carrying at their maximum speed. The bombs fell from the hole in the "dome" of the ring-shaped barrier, and exploded along with the pre-set explosives, causing a series of violent chain reactions.

The external cameras were the first to suffer from this disaster. All video connections between the command room and the outside world were cut. All they could hear from overhead were the muffled explosions and vibrations. The vibrations weren't as intense as the previous tsunami, but they were continuous.

Mei raised her head. The dim blue light from the screen illuminated the blurred outlines of the ceiling. Fine grains of soil fell from the cracks in the thick steel plate--this had never even happened during the previous tsunami!

The ceiling was ten meters thick. Once it collapsed, there would be almost no way to survive. Mei had done such a complicated calculation, so she naturally wouldn't forget about that.

But so what?

The moment she had made this decision, she had already considered everyone—including herself—to be cold numbers, numbers that could be sacrificed for victory.

In some ways, this was a kind of equality.

"Doctor! The No. 073 underground room has collapsed. More than a hundred soldiers were…"

Before Aldemir could finish speaking, he was drowned out by a series of explosions.

Mei calmly put the communication device to her ear. It took over ten seconds before Aldemir's voice rang out again:

"Doctor, the No. 048 underground room has also collapsed. We're trapped!"

Everyone in the command room subconsciously glanced at the ceiling. In the darkness, it seemed to be the darkest sky. It looked low and gloomy, like it could collapse at any moment.

Evangeline took advantage of the fact that almost all of the lights were off to quietly move a few steps, but that couldn't escape Mei's eyes:

"Don't make any pointless movements. With the current situation, even if you leave the command post, you won't be able to save anyone. The only way to save the trapped soldiers is to destroy the Herrscher and end all of this. Otherwise—we'll all die here!"

These words seemed to be directed at Evangeline, but that voice clearly reached everyone's ears. As long as they weren't too stupid, they would be able to understand her subtext—

There was nowhere to run right now. They could only defeat the Herrscher in order to end this.

"Uh… ah…"

Suddenly, a bestial growl rang out in the pitch-black command room, instantly causing a series of screams.

"Everyone, put your head down and don't move!"

Mei slammed her hand on the table and shouted loudly.

But she herself didn't crouch down. Instead, she snatched the pistol from Karabiya's waist and ran towards the direction of the sound, firing a single shot into the head of the staff member, who had died from the impact on the table and become a zombie.

"Just do what you need to do! What's the point of panicking!"

Even though she said that, there was actually nothing that the people in the command room could do.

But Mei's white coat that was stained with blood was so eye-catching in the darkness that all of the staff, who were either scared silly or were having a bout of claustrophobia, suddenly had a source of support.

The fear didn't go away, but everyone was now behaving themselves.

Then, the shaking from overhead stopped, and everyone realized that only two minutes had passed.

When the enraged Herrscher used her fist to break the outer energy barrier on Agania Island, what she saw was chunks of Honkai beast corpses flying everywhere. The biggest one, the wriggling Honkai beast that was over a hundred meters tall, had left behind a pool of blood on the ground. The rest of its body had long been shattered into countless pieces.

"Heh… hehehe… hehehehe hahahahaha!"

Upon seeing this, the Herrscher first chuckled lightly a few times, and then began to laugh hysterically.

It was an angry laugh. But she wasn't angry because of the miserable deaths of those Honkai beasts. In her eyes, the Honkai beasts were just lower-level puppets.

What she was angry about was that she had actually been toyed with by ants such as humans?

She looked at the dark clouds in the sky again. One small black dot after another was disappearing. Those were the fighters that had returned after completing their missions. But then, even more small black dots appeared out of nowhere--

"I'm not going to use all of my power at once. I divided all of the flight squadrons into two shifts, so I'll be ready for if my first wave of attacks doesn't severely injure the Herrscher… So then, you should also stretch your muscles, Himeko?"

"Hehe, I never thought that it would be you, a... ah, no, a doctor, who would be commanding the front line right now. You have to buy me a drink when we go back, okay!"

"Please, Captain Himeko, I'm still underage..."

"Ah... ah... oh!"

The blade-like hull of the ship tilted downwards, easily splitting through a large patch of clouds. Light particles held up the sword named "Chasing Flames Three," and the "cold" tip of the sword pointed towards the Herrscher, as expected.

"Haha!"

To that, the Herrscher hummed two sounds that resembled laughter.

"Is this all you've got? Humans are really incorrigible beings. Even though you're so weak, you still like to struggle… What's the point?"

She tilted her head and lightly snapped her fingers.

In a place where no one could see, one gust of wind after another began to converge, interweave, and spin. The wind swept across the sea, tearing apart the sky. Even the clouds formed a pattern of four giant spirals. In less than ten seconds, violent tornados had appeared between the sky and earth. One, two, three, four, like four pillars supporting the sky.

Seawater was pulled up from the bottom of the pillars. The water droplets maintained their centripetal spin, but it was inevitable that some small strands of water would break away from them. As a result, thin rain started to fall on the area above Agania Island.

The fighters that had just arrived at the battlefield were captured by the tornados as expected, and were uncontrollably pulled into them, turned into pieces. All that could be heard through the communication channel was the pilots' screams.

Only the Chasing Flames Three was temporarily immune to the pull of the air current due to its great weight. The staff on the entire warship were working like crazy, constantly trying to raise the warship's prow to rise to an altitude where the air currents were more stable.

But that was it.

In the face of the violent wind, even the Chasing Flames Three, a giant like that, was nothing more than a rootless fallen leaf.

"Captain Himeko, what's going on?"

"Mei! The Herrscher's powers aren't about manipulating seawater. It's about manipulating wind! No, fluids, it's about fluids!"

It's over--that's what everyone thought.

No one believed that Mei could turn the tide anymore.

But no one hated her. Both logically and emotionally, she had already done enough—especially compared to the person who was supposed to be shouldering the responsibility of command.

But…

"It doesn't matter. We still have a chance to make up for it."

"?"

Ignoring their confusion, her fingernails tapped lightly on the communication device's microphone. In the end, she couldn't help but lift it to her mouth, but then, strangely, she didn't say anything--

Aldemir had seemingly found a phone and had sent out a message. All of that had happened in front of Mei's eyes.

It wasn't hard for her to guess who the recipient was.

So…

"You guys should have arrived by now... I never imagined that I would have to rely on outside help at the very end..."

At the same time, a golden glow suddenly flashed on Agania Island's ruined and scorched earth. A spatial rift opened, and a pink figure emerged from it.

"Elysia~ Arrived on the battlefield! Huh? Am I the only one here?"

"Sorry Elysia, the Second Divine Key is not completely finished yet. It will take another two hours for the phase portal to activate again. So, I suggest that you avoid the wind first, and then find Mikael later."

Vill-V analyzed over the communication channel.

"No, it's okay!"

"What's wrong, did you meet Mikael?"

"No! The Herrscher seems to be standing right in front of me!"

"…"

"Vill-V, listen to me, thank you!"

"… You're welcome."

Mobius made a polite reply for Vill-V, who had suddenly fallen silent.