"Oh my?"
"A test subject I haven't seen before, hmm."
Long, light green hair, brimming with the breath of life.
A white lab coat over a light-colored shirt, even with a brown-black tie, couldn't conceal her exaggeration that would absolutely not show weakness to Vill-V.
Her pupils, transitioning from green to pink, were filled with an alluring charm.
This was she.
Dr. Mobius, before she had fused with Shesha's genes and become a Fusion Soldier.
Mobius's purpose in coming here.
Was naturally to recover Shesha's corpse—video footage from the battle against the Third Herrscher, though clearly showing the death of its Judgement-class companion Honkai Beast, had recently, through a chance occurrence, allowed Shenzhou to detect an aura equivalent to an Emperor-class Honkai Beast from within the ruins.
Several reconnaissance teams dispatched here had all lost contact one after another.
After this situation was reported.
The Flame-Chasers proactively dispatched a team for investigation.
But this was merely the overt operation—the team led by Hua and Imer was still searching for traces of active Honkai energy in several other ruins.
Mobius, however, had visited this place alone, without notifying anyone.
The Fusion Soldier project had already begun.
As the first experimental subject, Kevin, after fusing with Parvati's genes, had exhibited terrifyingly overwhelming power.
Mobius had originally intended to use herself as the second test subject.
But unfortunately, the second person became Elysia, also one of The Flame-Chasers' founders. At the latter's request, Mobius relinquished this opportunity, helping Elysia complete her fusion with the Honkai Beast "Mahamaudgalyayana," becoming the second Fusion Soldier after Kevin.
Success brought elation.
But failure... cases of fusion failure were not non-existent; history simply doesn't remember them.
Mobius summarized the experience from this:
Fusion with a Honkai Beast requires a certain "compatibility" between the human's genes and the Honkai Beast to be completed.
Among the numerous Honkai Beasts.
Mobius had taken a fancy to "Shesha" at first glance—confronting "death," that mysterious and ancient law, was what excited and thrilled Mobius the most.
Thus.
Mobius took the Third Key of God, the Seven Thunders of Retribution.
As a veteran of The Flame-Chasers, there was no issue with Mobius temporarily "borrowing" a Key of God, especially for research.
This weapon was originally wielded by "Sakura," but the latter was currently recuperating and preparing for matters related to her fusion (with the Emperor-class Honkai Beast Yaksha), unable to undertake missions, so the Seven Thunders of Retribution was temporarily stored at headquarters.
Mobius utilized the power of the Seven Thunders of Retribution.
To successfully construct a virtual Honkai Core for the artificial Emperor-class Honkai Beast "Ramiel," whose "shell" had long been prepared. Nominally, Mobius had taken the Key of God for research indeed; after all, creating an Emperor-class Honkai Beast subservient to humans was an experiment with vast prospects... and corresponding dangers:
The Honkai Beast disobeying control, issues with the core's sustained energy output, and so on.
But regardless.
None of these prevented Mobius from deploying "Ramiel" as a combat force.
Coupled with the Seven Thunders of Retribution, which possessed absolute suppressive power over the "Herrscher of Thunder's companion Honkai Beast"... Mobius believed dealing with a Shesha that was merely clinging to life in the city ruins wouldn't be difficult at all.
Until...
She saw her target, Shesha, coiled like an ordinary white snake on this Honkai Beast before her, which resembled a Temple-class but was entirely different internally.
————
A very peculiar color.
Mobius had personally dissected countless Honkai Beasts.
But no matter the attribute of the Honkai Beast, none possessed such a "noble" color scheme.
On its body, deep and translucent like obsidian, were gilded patterns of crimson and azure, appearing exceptionally beautiful—that's right, regardless of its level, the one before her was the most "beautiful" Honkai Beast Mobius had ever seen, so beautiful that Mobius even wanted to give up on Shesha and dig out this creature's Honkai Core to fuse with herself.
However.
Things were not that simple.
Judging from Shesha's appearance, this companion Honkai Beast of the former Third Herrscher had completely fallen into the other's hands—the fluctuation level Shesha now emitted was so faint that even detection instruments struggled to identify it.
This was a considerable discrepancy from the intelligence provided by Shenzhou.
As a Honkai Beast, Shesha wouldn't self-mutilate. The most likely possibility was... it had been persuaded by this "Black Knight" before her into its current state.
Even if its strength had declined so severely, Shesha was still a bona fide upper-tier Honkai Beast. To be able to exploit it into a harmless little snake...
"Emperor-class."
"The possibility of Judgement-class cannot be ruled out."
The "Black Knight's" Honkai energy showed no leakage whatsoever. Unless they truly clashed, it was fundamentally difficult to judge its specific level.
The opponent's pristine condition.
And the exaggerated destructive traces in the surroundings, all hinted to Mobius: it would be best not to initiate this battle.
————
While Mobius was assessing Lu Xing.
Lu Xing was also carefully observing the 巨O御姐 (busty onee-san) before him—after all, the difference from her common loli appearance in the games was vast, and the allure in certain aspects was overly astonishing.
"..."
The above was all slander.
Lu Xing was actually looking for Mobius's weaknesses.
Ramiel wasn't weak, but merely not weak—aside from speed, this Emperor-class Honkai Beast was inferior to Lu Xing in all attributes, its constitution so frail it was almost laughable.
Lu Xing even felt.
A [Dawnbreaker] delivered with his greatshield could directly K.O. the opponent.
The problem lay in escape—an Emperor-class excelling in speed couldn't possibly lack an acceleration-type skill. If Lu Xing failed to eliminate Ramiel in one strike, it wouldn't be good if it escaped with Mobius.
Mobius appeared to be human, true.
But with that green hair and gradient pupils... if one were to say she hadn't undergone any modifications herself, Lu Xing absolutely wouldn't believe it a hundred times over—the high-speed dive from the sky just now was not something a human body could withstand.
The Key of God was even more of a concern.
Keys of God, created based on Herrscher Cores, were inherently prepared to deal with high-tier combatants on the Honkai side—they could, to some extent, replicate Herrscher authorities, and in the hands of certain perverts, could even display power surpassing a Herrscher.
Lu Xing had no memory of Mobius using the Seven Thunders of Retribution.
Whether the other party could unleash the might of this Key of God was truly impossible to judge—in other words, taking a risky gamble could very well lead to an unknown crisis.
Crucially, it wasn't worth it.
Mobius was very important to The Flame-Chasers.
But she wasn't an absolute core figure like Dr. MEI—if Dr. MEI were standing before him, Lu Xing would absolutely kill her at any cost. This future Miss Serpent Spirit, everything she did was for "human evolution."
However.
Her definition of "human" differed greatly from that held by the general populace.
If possible...
Time seemed to stagnate for a moment.
Lu Xing's intent fluctuated for an instant—he was communicating with Shesha, and after confirming a certain "fact."
"Om!"
Space tore open a rift.
Lu Xing's action nearly caused Mobius to launch a counterattack.
But after seeing what emerged from the rift, she slowly halted the motion of raising the Seven Thunders of Retribution—
"Plop."
Something somewhat slimy was held in his palm.
This eyeball, previously gouged from Shesha's head, was casually tossed over by Lu Xing.