The Chairman's sudden attack and his disregard for death prevented Himeko from stopping him. Dystopia was already out of combat, and with Seele lurking outside the transport plane, she could only watch helplessly as the Chairman reached for the symbol of victory.
His fingertip touched the Phase Transfer Device.
However, before the Chairman could crack a joyful smile, the mechanical eyes of the red-haired Armed Puppet instantly targeted him. With an unimaginable force, disproportionate to its small body, it grabbed the Phase Transfer Device and flung the Chairman away.
"Bang!"
After the Chairman slammed into the bottom of the cabin, Seele claw, like a ghost, struck at the Armed Puppet again. This time, she leaped back into the cabin, grabbed the Armed Puppet's assault rifle with one claw, and crushed it into scrap metal with a single squeeze.
The Armed Puppet immediately drew a tactical dagger and stabbed at Seele abdomen. But the technology was hastily developed. While a swarm tactic might have troubled Seele, a single Armed Puppet lacked sufficient adaptability. After dodging the dagger, Seele extended her forefinger, piercing the Puppet's abdomen and pinning it to the floor.
The Armed Puppet struggled for a moment, sparks flying from the damaged area. Its main control system malfunctioned, and the light in its eyes slowly extinguished.
Seele took the Phase Transfer Device from its hand and faced Himeko across the short distance.
Only Seele and Himeko remained on the scene. Dystopia's wound was deep, near her heart, and she had lost consciousness. Without immediate medical attention, her life was in danger.
The Chairman, thrown off-guard, had his spine broken when he crashed into the cabin wall. He had lost all feeling in his lower body. Gasping for air, he lay on the floor, watching Seele.
"You can encode the new signal now." Seele kicked the completely destroyed Armed Puppet aside and said to the Chairman, who was behind Himeko.
Hearing this, the Chairman immediately pulled out the detonator and started re-encoding. How could Himeko just stand by and watch? She instantly grabbed the Chairman's neck with one hand, but a cold gust of wind struck from behind, forcing her to let go and dodge.
After pushing Himeko back, Seele coughed and stabilized herself against a seat amid the howling wind. The transport plane was swaying precariously, threatening to crash at any moment.
Part of her clothing had been torn by the wind pressure outside the cabin. The exposed skin was now covered in twisted, mutated pinkish-purple lines.
Himeko silently looked at those lines.
"There's nothing to worry about. This thing simply converted my already dangerous Honkai energy corrosion rate into genuine Honkai Sickness." Seele said with a flat expression, putting the Phase Transfer Device on her wrist. "This was also one of the reasons Lin was corroded, only I used a more brutal method, which rapidly increased my Honkai energy corrosion rate."
"But the irony is, my Honkai energy corrosion rate has breached the threshold due to my reckless abuse, surpassing Lin's, yet I only have partial organ abnormalities, and my physical functions have been strengthened by the Honkai energy instead."
Lin had been on a path toward death after exceeding a 15% corrosion rate, but she was completely different from him.
Even the Chairman's tolerance for Honkai energy corrosion was higher than Lin's.
Why did the sorrow always fall... on him?
"Seele, it's not too late." Himeko's gaze was firm. She knew Seele was an enemy now. If Himeko hesitated, it would lead to the deaths of many soldiers and high-ranking officials. This was not the time for sentimentality, nor did she plan to try and persuade Ato.
She was merely reminding Seele, as a Captain, for the last time.
"It is too late." Seele raised her claw, her short hair whipping in the fierce wind. Her blood-red eyes reflected Himeko's face. "If I stop now, will Lin be cured? Will the crime I committed be washed away? Will the dead... come back?"
"The dead, those we killed, we bear their lives..." That person walked ahead, their shadow stretched long by the setting sun.
Standing in the sunset, she cautiously peeked at the man wrapped in bandages, pulling the mischievous red-haired woman, with the shy grey-haired girl standing nearby.
Her father fallen in a pool of blood, her mother turned into a monster and killed by a scythe, the Fifth Branch burning in raging smoke and fire.
The silent man under the moonlight, the hateful purple lines, the trembling hand holding the medical report.
The corpses tossed out in the collapsed city, the sinners staring wide-eyed in the conference room, and herself snarling in the mirror.
Countless images flashed before her eyes. All the love and hatred vanished without a trace.
All of it became the past, and it would never become the future again.
"Bang!"
Both moved simultaneously. The short-haired girl's claw stabbed toward the red-haired woman's face, but the latter did not dodge, merely tilting her head and aiming a counter-punch at the girl's face.
Counting the weapon, the girl's reach was longer, and she would strike the woman first. But the woman moved her foot, sidestepping the blade, and aimed the punch—powerful enough to shatter the girl's facial bones and her finger bones—at where it should go.
However, the attack missed. The girl vanished from her sight.
Behind her, the girl leaped out of the void, her hands crossed. The sharp claws, gleaming with cold light, were moments away from tearing the woman to shreds.
The woman quietly curved the corner of her mouth.
She once again stepped onto the unnoticed greatsword. The rebounding blade accurately struck the claw.
"Wh—"
The attack was blocked. Even though the force was enough to break through the obstruction and continue to cut the woman, this moment of stagnation was fatal to the girl.
The red-haired woman's long hair fluttered, sweeping past the girl's eyes. Behind the hair, an enlarged elbow came into view.
"Bang!"
Himeko stared expressionlessly as Seele slowly collapsed onto the floor.
"That was truly impressive, Captain Himeko…" The Chairman watched the scene with a cold smile. His hand movements had stopped, indicating he had finished the new encoding. With a press, he could detonate all the bombs, including the one on this transport plane.
Himeko did not move forward immediately, afraid of provoking him into immediate detonation. She could only snap coldly: "Stop."
"Hmm... you're right. Now is the time to negotiate terms and discuss what can be exchanged for the lives of those scumbags and soldiers…" The Chairman nodded with a smile, then instantly changed his expression: "But I refuse."
He pressed the button without hesitation!
"Boom!"
A beam of light sliced through the plane. The high temperature melted the steel, and at the same time, it incinerated the Chairman's arm into ash.
The scorching heat singed his hair. He stared blankly at his charred elbow, where his forearm used to be, and looked vaguely out the hole.
Two Titans were flying outside the cabin. The muzzle of one was aimed at the transport plane. It seemed the previous attack was launched by it.
"An autonomous Titan." He suddenly laughed. "To think that the creation I proposed and built is what stopped me. This is truly..."
Without any warning, the Chairman's eyes rolled back, and he tumbled out of the hole, falling toward the water surface below.