281. Aponia is Here Again
Kevin led the vanguard team immediately to Australia.
"The Herrscher this time is... Captain Himiko, the fifth squad leader!"
Based on the information report from the scene, Kevin revealed the Herrscher's identity.
Captain Himiko had fought within the Fire Moth for many years and was respected by many; even Kevin had received her guidance.
But he never expected that the Herrscher would descend upon her this time.
In other words, their blades had to be turned against their former comrades.
Suddenly, Kiana, who was sitting upright, seemed to have received some news.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Ling has given me orders that conflict with this mission. I will carry out Dr. Ling's orders first," Kiana suddenly said.
"What? Wait, what are you doing?!" Kevin tried to stop her, but it was too late.
Kiana leaped off the warship and swooped down towards the ground.
A massive cloud of smoke rose as Kiana slowly rose, surrounded by a faint mist of ice.
"Kevin, change the order. Don't stop, Kiana. This could be a tremendous opportunity for humanity!"
Dr. Mei's voice quickly came through the channel.
Hearing this, Kevin could only temporarily abandon his orders and observe the battle on the ground from high above.
"Is Kiana going to fight the Herrscher alone?" Kosma asked softly.
"I don't know, but Mei told us to stay here and wait." Kevin shook his head.
His gaze turned to the battlefield; Kiana was already engaged in battle with Himiko.
The scorching fire clashed with the frigid ice, and Kiana's strength was indeed comparable to that of a Herrscher!
The terrifyingly low temperature seemed to freeze even the flames.
As the battle progressed, Kiana's terrifying potential was fully unleashed.
Kiana's control over ice and snow became increasingly proficient, and she even began to subtly suppress Himiko.
Faced with Kiana's icy aura, Himiko gradually found herself only able to resist. Just half an hour later, Kiana had completely frozen Himiko within solid ice.
No matter how much Himiko struggled, she couldn't break free.
"This... Kiana is a bit too strong, isn't she?!" Ato exclaimed, scratching his head in disbelief.
If he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, he would have found it hard to believe that someone could withstand a Herrscher head-on, let alone capture her alive!
He didn't think the Herrscher was weak this time; the intense heat, even from thousands of meters away, made his face feel a burning sting.
"We shouldn't make Kiana angry in the future..." Kosma swallowed hard.
"By the way, what's Kiana's taboo? We should avoid it." Ato nudged Kevin with his elbow.
Kevin finally snapped out of his shock.
"What taboo? I'm not entirely sure, but if I had to guess, it'd be Dr. Ling," Kevin replied.
"Dr. Ling…"
Ato and Kosma exchanged a glance, their admiration for this highly regarded doctor within the Fire Moth organization growing even stronger—no, it should be said, tinged with a newfound fear.
Following this, Kiana immediately took Himiko back, departing on a small warship.
"Capturing a Herrscher alive, like a dream come true."
…
After receiving the Seventh Herrscher, Mobius and Ling couldn't wait to begin their experiments.
Multiple tests revealed that Himiko's humanity was indeed still intact!
Unlike the Fifth and Sixth Herrschers, whose hearts were consumed by darkness and despair, making them easily corrupted by the Herrscher personality.
Himiko was upright and usually quite humorous, giving off an intellectual and mature vibe—she couldn't be associated with darkness.
It was precisely because of this that Ling felt the Herrscher personality couldn't completely corrupt her.
This also means that if they could awaken Himeko's humanity, perhaps... they could obtain a human with Herrscher power!
This would have a profound impact on both the Fire Moth organization and the future research of Ling and Mobius.
However, awakening Himiko's humanity was a challenge for the two.
"Himiko still retains her humanity, but it's suppressed in a corner of her spiritual world, unable to move. However, we currently lack a way to interfere with the spiritual world directly."
Mobius voiced the biggest problem at the moment.
"...While we don't have one yet, we can try to create one. Remember those Honkai Beasts with spiritual abilities? Let's fuse them into the warriors' bodies to create warriors who can control spiritual power," Ling suggested.
"Then the MANTIS warrior plan should be put on the agenda..." Mobius nodded; she shared Ling's idea.
If there are no conditions, then they can only create them.
Create a batch of spiritual perception-type MANTIS warriors.
Soon, this proposal was discussed at a high-level meeting of the Fire Moth organization.
No one objected; the MANTIS Warrior Project was approved immediately.
The reason was that Kiana was standing right there watching...
As soon as Kiana entered the conference room, she stood behind the three villains (Ling, Mobius, and Mei), her face obscured by a black robe.
The chilling aura emanating from her sent shivers down the spines of all the high-ranking officials present.
They had witnessed the situation on the battlefield; only a fool would oppose them at this time.
They didn't even mention the three men changing the kill orders, nodding incessantly like chickens pecking at rice.
Soon, the first batch of MANTIS Warriors appeared, but the success rate was very low. Even after Dr. Mei's second improvement to the MANTIS Warrior Project, the success rate was still less than 1%.
But Ling had his methods. He could clone a large number of test subjects for the warriors, allowing them to test which Honkai Beasts ICHOR were the most compatible with them, thus slightly increasing the success rate.
Kevin, naturally, was Parvati, the same one as Kiana.
Kevin's surgery was a complete success, and he even eagerly challenged Kiana to a duel, only to be soundly defeated.
Kiana's control over ice had matured considerably, making it easy for her to deal with Kevin, a novice MANTIS warrior.
The first spiritual perception-type MANTIS warrior was Destobia, but unfortunately, her awakened psychic power was telekinesis, allowing her to control external objects mentally, which wasn't particularly helpful for the experiments.
The subsequent awakened spiritual perception-type MANTIS warriors were either too weak or unsuitable for this field...
However, soon, a perfect candidate appeared in their field of vision.
Her psychic power was so great that even MANTIS warriors couldn't resist it, unconsciously obeying her commands.
Before Ling and Mobius could find her, she came to them herself.
"Little... Dr. Ling, hello, I'm Aponia."
"I heard that you were looking for me? But we haven't met before, have we?" Ling tilted his head, having no recollection of the nun before him.
Mobius stared at her warily. This person... was terrifying!
Her figure was even more voluptuous than hers!
Even Mobius, who was usually incredibly confident in everything, felt a pang of inferiority.
"Dr. Ling... do you... Believe in parallel universes?"