Lin was awakened by the sound of the wind, as if someone had grabbed his hair and dragged him up from underwater. His consciousness separated from the hazy memories and returned to the cold, sober reality.
He clutched his splitting head, gasping for breath rapidly.
Had the drug worn off?
Glancing at the time, Lin estimated the specific duration of the drug's effect was about twenty-seven hours. He took out another syringe and injected the dose into his body.
"Ugh…"
The burning in his stomach and the cutting sensation in his throat made Lin vomit a mixture of purple and green fluid.
It was steaming, devoid of the bright red of human blood.
He leaned back in the wheelchair, looking up at the distant, azure sky.
...
Himeko stood before the formally serious Dusk and Ato. In these sleepless days, deep fatigue was etched on their faces.
"The Fifth Squad's mission is to escort important personnel to the Third Branch. It will begin in thirteen hours."
Assigning escort missions to various squads. After this incident, the headquarters might have its functions reduced until the air base was completed.
"Also, a final Honkai corruption rate check is required before this mission is executed." Himeko scratched the back of her head. "The recent events have been too severe; we must comply."
"...Honestly, I feel a little unreal about all this," Dusk whispered sheepishly.
Himeko, whose hearing was excellent, tilted her ear: "What?"
"No, no, nothing."
Ato, however, added: "I also feel that what is happening now... has a sense of illusion."
The consecutive deaths of high-ranking officials. Every corpse was disfigured, and every manner of death was gruesome. But the closest incident to them was the attack on Imol.
Under the operating mechanism of the Fire Moth, soldiers, except for Captains with the highest clearance, were not fully informed about the entire incident. It was like viewing a mountain shrouded in mist from outside—so close, yet seemingly so far away.
Imol was injured because he accidentally stumbled upon the crime scene, giving it a feeling of an accident.
"Unreal, huh…" Himeko pondered the phrase, her face grim.
"Captain, are you angry?" Ato asked cautiously.
Himeko only appeared to be carefree; she was actually extremely mindful of the people around her. The people she knew along the way had successively died in battle, forcing her to numb her nerves to cope with death.
"Not really. I don't know many of those old guys; some of them have only given me orders." Himeko pulled up her bangs into a ponytail, switching to a more energetic hairstyle, and sat on the conference table, casually picking up a half-drunk bottle of beer. "But I'm not surprised that things have come to this."
As one of the most senior soldiers, what Himeko could see and understand was far beyond the grasp of ordinary people.
"Seeing you all looking so dejected, let me tell you a story—something that happened before Lin joined the Fifth Squad."
"Before Lin joined?"
"Yep." Himeko took a large gulp of beer, burped, and said, twirling her finger, "Ato, you should know that you and Lin were both considered rookies at the time. Lin only joined a few months before you. Including me, the Fifth Squad had a total of three people. So, have you ever wondered what the Fifth Squad was like before Lin joined?"
"...Just you?" Ato found the answer a little hard to believe.
Hearing this, a trace of sadness flashed deep in Himeko's eyes. She said with an indifferent attitude: "That's right. To be precise, everyone in the squad besides me was wiped out in the Second Honkai Eruption, so before Lin joined, it was just me."
"Wiped out…"
The scale of the First and Second Honkai Eruptions was not large, but the Second Eruption lasted for half a month, making it the longest major Honkai Eruption to date. Before Elysia joined the Fire Moth and rushed to the front lines, the battle was in a stalemate.
The abrupt end of the First Eruption resulted in a lack of experience in dealing with the Second Eruption, causing the Fire Moth to pay a heavy price in the Second Eruption: one branch was completely wiped out, and more than one-third of the participating combat squads suffered casualties. Even now, the cost of the Second Eruption still affects the Fire Moth.
"My squad was carrying out an outer perimeter subjugation mission. The main task was to eliminate Honkai Beasts and zombies trying to escape. At that time, we didn't have specialized anti-Honkai weapons, so the combat was very strenuous. Usually, one mutated low-level Honkai Beast would require three or more squads to fight together."
"Because of my excellent battle record, I was assigned the mission to defend a critical checkpoint."
"And it was this mission…"
Ato and Dusk exchanged glances, sensing Himeko's sorrow. It seemed this mission had led to the demise of the original Fifth Squad members.
"The front line was stretched at the time, and it took a lot of time for various checkpoints to receive support, so requesting outside aid was forbidden unless it was an emergency." Himeko gave a self-deprecating laugh. "While I was defending, another nearby checkpoint requested aid, as they had encountered two mutated low-level Honkai Beasts."
"But my situation was special. The high-ranking officials ordered me to hold the critical point at all costs and not to go and support other checkpoints."
"Behind me was the shelter, full of defenseless ordinary people. Even though the Honkai energy readings nearby were very low at the time, and the Honkai Beasts and zombies had been eliminated by us, I still had to obey the order not to provide support."
"And what I didn't expect was that my squad members—they... wanted to go and help the squad that sent the distress signal, and in doing so, they disobeyed my orders and those of the higher-ups."
Himeko took another sip of beer, but this time she didn't pour it in with a hearty gulp. Instead, she used her red tongue to slowly lick the liquid, as if the bitterness had settled in her heart.
"I did not go with them to provide support. They rushed to the checkpoint that sent the signal as fast as they could, and then…"
"They lost contact half an hour after arriving."
Dusk's heart tightened. She seemed to have guessed what Himeko was going to say next.
Besides the Second Herrscher, whose abilities were the most bizarre, a Honkai Beast—whose capabilities had yet to be fully explained—also caused massive casualties among the combat personnel of the Fire Moth during the Second Eruption.
The Emperor-class Honkai Beast, named Vasuki, the accompanying Honkai Beast of the Second Herrscher.
"That's right. One of the two mutated low-level Honkai Beasts in the distress message was actually an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. Its Honkai energy level was lower than that of a typical Emperor-class Honkai Beast, so it wasn't detected immediately."
"Sometimes I wonder if I had made a better decision then, and gone with them to provide support, perhaps what happened later wouldn't have occurred."
"But in the end, those are just hindsight comments. It's just that I always dream of my squad members. They made the right decision and died, while I survived. It's truly ironic…"
Himeko raised the beer can, shaking her head and attempting to drink, but before it reached the rim, it was snatched away.
Ato's cute and charming face appeared before her: "Captain, drink less."
As she put down the beer, she said, "That wasn't the fault of your squad members, nor was it your fault... No, it wasn't anyone's fault. If we must find a reason, it's only the fault of Honkai and Death itself. Their existence is the root of tragedy."
"...You've really grown up." Himeko patted her beer-less hand and smiled contentedly.
"That's why I want to defeat Honkai and Death... That day will surely come. I want you all to witness it. I want Lin to witness it…"