The moment the ultimate weapon took shape, its awe-inspiring presence could no longer be concealed.
Ignoring the fact that her large movements would tear open the numerous wounds on her body, the Herrscher grit her teeth and aimed her hand at the weapon the instant she struggled to her feet.
Dodge? There's no time! The Herrscher could feel herself being locked on. It was a determined, inescapable posture. She was certain that as soon as this weapon fired, she would perish here!
No! I will not accept this outcome!!
"If you kill me now... all of you will die!!"
The Herrscher roared and raised her hand. The last of her chains burst from her remaining hand, dripping with blood, and shot towards Leukocyte.
At the same time, the cannon muzzle of Leukocyte, filled with a sense of technology and flowing with visible streams of energy, flickered.
The world seemed to fall silent at this moment. The only thing that changed was the thick beam of light that erupted from Leukocyte's muzzle.
It was only then that the Herrscher's cry was heard.
If she died... everyone would die?
Mei knew the Herrscher was right... except for Bianka, who had escaped her control by some unknown means, everyone was now connected to the Herrscher. If the Herrscher died, they might all follow her into death.
The Herrscher had shouted this the moment she acted, to make the Snow Wolf Squad, who were controlling Leukocyte, hesitate. After all, there were thousands of people here! The loss of these thousands of lives along with her own would be a massive blow to humanity!
They would never...
But Leukocyte's light shot out without a shred of hesitation. The Herrscher saw a look of grim resolve in the eyes of every member of the Snow Wolf Squad.
It can't be... even if they don't care about their own lives, what about the others? Their very thoughts are being shared right now. Can they decide the life and death of others?
Is everyone as unafraid of death as they are?!
No, there must be someone...
The Herrscher's gaze shifted to the other directions, and she suddenly froze.
Everyone's eyes were on her, staring at her, glaring at her with hatred, looking down on her with the same resolute gaze as the Snow Wolf Squad.
Everyone's expression was the same, as if they were all cast from the same mold.
But upon closer inspection, a variety of emotions could be seen in the depths of their eyes: fear, reluctance, resistance.
Yet, when all their gazes were focused on her, the choice "they" had made was perfectly clear.
Go to hell with us!
Golden threads linked everyone together, leading them all to a common decision. Perhaps their individual thoughts differed, but humanity would forever be a collective with a shared destiny.
The dancing chains froze in mid-air. Facing the oncoming blast from Leukocyte, the Herrscher paid it no mind, showing no resistance or fear of death.
She simply used her last limited moments to retract her hand, trying to touch the dense golden network before her.
Wasn't this interconnected network... what she had wanted to see?
"...So beautiful..." The last words the Herrscher left in this world were not of vicious resentment, but a heartfelt compliment.
The white light engulfed the Herrscher, and Leukocyte's true power was revealed.
Among all of Future City's weapon systems, Leukocyte's principle was the most unique.
It was not a traditional kinetic weapon, nor was it an emerging energy weapon. It was the only method Future City had mastered that tampered with the fundamental rules of physics.
And the weapons they had created, equipping the entire Snow Wolf Squad, were all extensions and branches of this one physical rule.
A brilliant light burst from the cracks on the Herrscher's body, then transformed into an intense heat that began to scorch her. Yet, the scorched areas were coated in a thin layer of frost.
Then, the frozen parts began to disintegrate before everyone's eyes, even flying apart, only to collapse the next second into a tiny, distorted black dot...
This was not an isolated phenomenon... Different transformations were happening all over the Herrscher's body, simultaneously on the same hand, even down to each fundamental particle.
Light energy converted to heat, gravity to repulsion, Coulomb force to electromagnetic force, and they were constantly interconverting!
All energies were interconverting, with no fixed target, only constant, chaotic transformation.
Such a chaotic transformation of fundamental energies was something the Herrscher's body could never withstand... perhaps she might have had a chance.
After all, based on her perception, the essence of Leukocyte was also a Herrscher Power. Although even Honkai energy was part of its transformation, she could still fight it by simply using her own power against it.
But the Herrscher didn't even glance at her own depleted core power. She had already used every means at her disposal. Already at the end of her rope, she had no strength left to struggle.
She just focused on the sight before her, wanting to burn that exquisite scene into her fading consciousness amidst the constant transformation and annihilation.
She could not resist now. She no longer wanted to resist.
The Herrscher gently closed her eyes. Amidst the continuous energy conversion and loss, her body rapidly approached its final heat death.
The mutual conversion of energy was merely an instantaneous destruction on the macroscopic physical level. Any target hit by Leukocyte would ultimately head towards heat death due to entropy increase from the unlimited energy conversion.
It was just a pity... that everyone here would have to experience such a result.
The Herrscher's body had already dissipated to the point where only half a head remained. And at this last moment, she opened her eyes again.
Even though she knew she could no longer stop this magnificent scene from disappearing, the Herrscher still wanted to witness its disappearance with her own eyes.
But the moment she opened her eyes, she saw that the scene that should have vanished had not only not dissipated with her, but was instead draped in a dazzling, brilliant splendor.
That was...
The scepter, which had stood here from the very beginning, was like a new sun in this rainy night. Beneath the dark, oppressive clouds, only the scepter shone with brilliance.
It floated quietly above everyone. From the purple crystal at its tip radiated ribbons of light gauze, as if woven from those colorful lights. The gauze drifted among the crowd, bestowing its grace equally upon everyone.
Wherever the gauze passed, the corrosive patterns disappeared, the connecting threads dissolved, and all the energy that had been spreading in this space was suppressed by the scepter's brilliance the moment it became chaotic enough to be considered Honkai energy.
The gauze lingered on everyone, draping them in a veil, like God's fingers descending from the sky, making everyone unable to resist reaching out to touch it.
"My wound is healed!"
"Mine is healed too!"
"I thought this injury would be with me for the rest of my life!"
Siegfried subconsciously raised his hand, only to find that what he extended was the left hand he had long lost.
The gauze was like God's hand, but to Azhar, it was like a mother's gentle touch. In a daze, Azhar opened her eyes. Her mind had not yet recovered, but she saw a shining core slowly descending before her.
The golden core had lost its first master. She had abandoned it, willingly disappearing from this world under the guidance of the brilliant light, not even leaving a trace of consciousness, but completely annihilating herself.
People no longer needed threads to connect, so this world never needed her.
But the world still needed supervision and judgment of such bonds.
The golden core lingered in front of Azhar for a while, then quietly floated away and finally arrived beside Theresa.
Theresa was stunned for a moment. In that instant, the core merged into the golden cross. Then, the cross began to shrink before Theresa's disbelieving eyes, finally becoming the size of a normal pendant, hung around her neck by two slender chains.
Theresa lifted it, and its light weight made her expression change slightly.
She had never used such a light weapon in her life. Even a needle would be heavier than this!
More gazes fell upon the scepter.
After spreading its brilliance, it transformed into a streak of light and shot into the sky, piercing through the dark clouds, breaking through the atmosphere, becoming a reverse shooting star visible to half the world, and arriving in space.
It finally landed in Shu's hand.
The memories carried within the scepter flooded into Shu's mind.
After a moment of confusion, Shu forcibly received all the memories.
Although his head was a bit groggy from the influx of memories, the moment he saw that everyone was safe and sound, Shu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Since everyone was fine, he should now release all restrictions and properly deal with the fellow in front of him.
Shu gathered all his scattered thoughts. In space, he took a symbolic deep breath to calm himself, then looked at Gu Chu opposite him.
"Come on... now it's just the two of us."
The scepter twirled in Shu's hand, and Gu Chu also raised his hand towards Shu.
Having undergone a transformation, Gu Chu felt omnipotent!
His figure instantly turned into a streak of light and rushed towards Shu. The next moment, Shu raised the scepter and pointed it at Gu Chu's direction from afar. A flash flickered between the two.
The pride Gu Chu had just developed was instantly torn to shreds by Shu.
A stellar ring, visible even from the other end of the universe, erupted from the tip of Shu's scepter. In this dream created by Shu, even the stars were shattered.
Tomb of the Brilliant Stars—Supernova Explosion!!
Gu Chu was pushed back by the erupting electromagnetic radiation at a speed faster than he had charged over.
His body was rapidly annihilated and re-condensed several times, then began to become fragmented, constantly repairing itself.
Two seconds later, Gu Chu had stabilized his body in the afterglow of the supernova, raising his hand to redirect the oncoming electromagnetic radiation.
At the same time, a dazzling little star, identical to the dying star he was currently enduring, condensed in his other hand.
But Shu gave him no chance to taste his own medicine. Shu's scepter tilted slightly. The next moment, the star in Gu Chu's hand suddenly dissipated, replaced by a sudden reversal of universal gravitation.
The instant all gravity turned into repulsion, Gu Chu dissipated again, but stubbornly reassembled. This time, he attacked Shu without hesitation, wanting to snatch back the initiative.
The scepter tapped down lightly. A ripple spread out from its lowest point. Shu's pupils contracted. At this moment, the world before him gave him an extremely strong sense of unreality.
The world was no longer three-dimensional, but a painting floating on the surface of water, easily destroyed by a stone dropped into it.
—Dimensional Reduction Strike.
His body was erased like an eraser. Facing the first ripple, Gu Chu couldn't even block it. But when the second ripple came, Gu Chu suddenly raised his hand and grabbed the ripple from a higher dimension, crushing it to pieces.
There was no follow-up attack. Gu Chu panted, looking at his already trembling hand, and suddenly let out a sneer.
"Hehehahahaha..." He covered his face with that trembling hand, trying to suppress his crazed laughter, but he couldn't. The fanaticism in his heart had completely devoured his reason.
This is it... this is it!!
The limit, surpassing the limit, looking down on the limit!!
I need more, more!!
As Gu Chu erupted again, Shu raised the scepter above his head. The entire dreamscape turned into a vast, dark, deep space. Only the purple crystal at the tip of the scepter was bursting with brilliant light.
Various attacks continuously appeared from Shu's side, bombarding Gu Chu like a close-in weapon system.
Every shot that landed on Gu Chu could tear him apart or knock him back. Every attack that Gu Chu dodged could leave a shattered wound in this dreamscape, which would then repair itself before the next attack arrived.
And Gu Chu kept failing, then recovering, and continuing to charge towards Shu.
The trajectory he circled around Shu was almost forming an airtight sphere, and wherever he passed, there would be successive attacks, completely destroying every inch he grazed.
Surviving in the cracks... completing the ultimate challenge in the extreme theory!
But... it's not enough! Not enough!!
What is the probability of survival... 1%? 0.0001%? Or lower? So low that a person couldn't count the zeros in their lifetime?
Not enough! This is still not enough!!
What he wanted was not the most extreme, flawless theory.
What he wanted had never changed!
He wanted a—truly desperate situation that even theory could not achieve!