Vanished?
The Honkai Beast's sudden disappearance stunned both Lin and Sakura. Before they could determine whether the beast had turned invisible or teleported away, Lin sensed something accelerating toward him.
A familiar sensation surged through him. Lin captured a strange piece of information from the enormous volume of data, and he dropped and moved backward at maximum speed. A transparent wind blade sliced through all the trees behind him, leaving a gap hundreds of meters long.
Glacier, wind blade...
A flash of purple electricity flickered past, briefly paralyzing Sakura body. A heavy whooshing sound immediately followed. Gritting her teeth, she forced her powerless body to dodge the strike of an invisible giant arm.
It hadn't vanished. It had... turned invisible?
"Light refraction..."
After it unleashed the wind blade, Lin immediately activated his thermal imaging detector. Sure enough, the grotesque Honkai Beast was right in front of them.
The authority possessed by the Fourth Herrscher was later verified to be the creation of an Ideal Fluid, and light refraction could be seen as a branch ability under the control of this Authority, though the Fourth Herrscher herself never fully demonstrated the diverse uses of this power.
Ice, wind, lightning—this Honkai Beast had already demonstrated three abilities. Was this due to its consumption of the two Honkai Beasts?
"Here it comes." Sakura also activated the thermal imagery in her contact lenses. She slashed horizontally at an incoming tentacle. The muddy tentacle was cut into two pieces, twitching on the ground, looking utterly repulsive.
Having missed the best opportunity to retreat, their only option was to kill this Honkai Beast here.
The Honkai Beast had a seemingly cumbersome body, yet its tentacles were as flexible as venomous snakes. Even though they looked soft, their terrifying weight and speed turned them into iron whips that could dismember a person with just a slight brush.
But what worried Lin more was a different speculation.
And before he could voice this suspicion, his fear materialized the very next second.
"Roar!"
The gale generated by the Honkai Beast was not as powerful as the Fourth Herrscher's ability to casually level half a city, but it was still enough to blow people off the ground. Within the wind, both Lin and Sakura saw flickering points of light.
Those were condensed, sharp ice crystals.
"Clang!"
Accelerated by the wind, the ice crystals launched faster than bullets. Lin and Sakura instinctively used their swords to block. The terrifying force numbed their arms, and the chilling air contained within the shattered ice shards bore into their bodies.
As expected, it could mix abilities!
The experience of being overwhelmed by attacks from authorities that were essentially superpowers had made many people relieved that Herrschers would at least only use one authority. If the authorities of multiple Herrschers appeared in one entity, or if multiple Herrschers cooperated, that would be the most terrifying disaster.
And now, a Honkai Beast had appeared that used combined abilities, even if their power intensity was far inferior to a Herrscher's authority.
However, ice doesn't ionize, so it won't conduct electricity. This limits the Honkai Beast's electromagnetic field manipulation ability. In that case...
Just as Lin rapidly thought of a countermeasure, something unexpected happened.
A hideous flame ignited.
"…"
The temperature, which had been rapidly dropping due to the cold air erosion, suddenly soared to a level that made them feel scorching hot.
Flames ignited on those tentacles.
"Sakura, retreat." Lin instinctively ordered Sakura to fall back.
But it was too late. Sakura had already retreated as fast as possible upon hearing Lin command, but the terrifying temperature had melted the ice into liquid. The Honkai Beast was even spontaneously manufacturing large ice blocks and melting them. Water instantly spread behind them.
"Crackling."
A terrifying electric current, traveling through the liquid, connected with Sakura body.
...
"...What is your purpose?"
The girl sat quietly in a corner of the room. The monitor overhead was useless to her and the Starlight; the Starlight could easily interfere with human surveillance systems using technology.
A civilization that had already left its star system was simply beyond the current technology of human civilization.
If there was any Earth civilization with comparable or superior technological capabilities to the Starlight, it would probably be the previous civilization that completed twelve Honkai Eruptions and was just short of facing the End.
That civilization hadn't left the planet, but it wasn't because they lacked the ability...
The weapon the girl used to kill the Starlight was an ordinary Soulium standard-issue weapon from the late period of the previous civilization. The technology contained within it surpassed the structural strength of the Starlight's body, allowing her to easily kill them.
But for present-day humanity, this alien civilization, which showed no friendly intentions, had arrived too early and at the worst possible time...
"We only wish to obtain a place for resettlement..."
"Incorrect. Last night, a Starlight infiltrated the data library. After analyzing its transmission source, I found it connected to the same location as you." The girl's unsettlingly placid voice sounded from inside the helmet. "This means, if that Starlight was from the 'Hawk Faction,' you are still connected to the 'Hawk Faction.' If that Starlight was from the 'Dove Faction,' then your purpose is fundamentally not to obtain some area for resettlement."
"And I am more inclined to believe that you and it belong to neither faction. From the start, the Starlight species never had factions; that was simply a lie you told humanity."
"…"
The camera continued to rotate, unaware of what was happening.
The space seemed to freeze.
After a long silence, the Starlight spoke in an indescribable voice: "What 'thing' are you? You are also not 'human.'"
"No, I am 'human.'" The girl affirmed with unprecedented certainty. "Now, answer my question. What exactly is your purpose?"
"Do not lie to me. I can judge whether what you say is a lie. If you do not answer, I will disclose your true nature to the rest of humanity."
"Humanity will not believe you."
"Then who do you think they will believe: their own kind, or you?"
"…"
If the girl's analysis was not wrong, then the Starlight was a group of "organisms" that operated solely on rational logic, completely devoid of emotion.
This was consistent with the information they provided: that after replacing their bodies, they discarded all feelings.
Therefore, the girl believed they would inevitably analyze and arrive at the conclusion she wanted them to reach.
"If you do not believe me, I will now explain your body structure to prove that the information I obtained is correct."
"Your bodies are not lacking in 'transparency,' nor is the transparency caused by the 'material.' Rather, you intentionally conceal yourselves, using technology that humanity has not yet acquired to keep your bodies in an unobservable state."
Hence, there was only an outline, but not even a blurry shape.
"You are also not a 'metal-like lifeform,' but rather... a Honkai Creature."
"You are a group of micro-Honkai Beasts."