Vincent stared at the massive inverted triangular pyramid hanging in the sky and activated the Honkai-energy-powered anti-air cannons on the vehicle.
He knew that an attack of this scale would likely have little effect on this unknown Honkai Beast, but their goal was no longer to stop its birth—only to halt its further evolution.
As if sensing his intent, two glowing spheres orbiting the creature detached and descended to the ground.
"This is… an Emperor-class Honkai Beast reading!" Scott shouted.
The light dispersed, revealing two roaring beasts before them. One wielded a pair of massive, pale scythe-like arms; the other had a slender, arthropod-like body and limbs.
Emperor-class Honkai Beasts were apex entities within the hierarchy of Honkai creatures, each possessing unique abilities. Yet these two seemed to only possess Emperor-class energy levels, lacking any special traits.
They lunged straight for the recon squad—their target was obvious: destroy the vehicle.
"Tch, are these subordinate Honkai beasts of a Judgment-class? Damn it, since when do Judgment-class beasts have subordinates?" Vincent cursed, drawing his weapon. "Haisen, Palak—get the bomb ready. Target's that inverted pyramid. Scott, the rest of you—hold these two off with me!"
"Roger!"
At Fire Moth HQ, every moment of the recon squad's feed was on full display.
Mobius stared wide-eyed at the massive inverted pyramid-shaped Honkai Beast and the two Emperor-class creatures it had dispatched.
To everyone else, her reaction seemed like simple shock at this unprecedented sight. Their own faces were already pale with horror, and the expressions of the high-ranking officers watching the feed grew darker still.
In truth, Mobius was not surprised by the creature's ability—during the later Ninth Herrscher incident, the strongest Vipralopa-Class Honkai Beast, Brahma, had also demonstrated the ability to summon and create Emperor-class beasts.
What shocked her was that she had never once seen this Honkai Beast in her previous life—nor those two Emperor-class entities.
The unknown meant unpredictability… and unpredictability meant her past-life experience might not have the same value here.
Heh… After all, small-scale Honkai outbreaks were always random. Perhaps, in her previous life, some accident had prevented this thing from being born, she thought.
That was possible—but if so, shouldn't it have appeared more easily in Canghai City, near Changkong City? What was going on here?
She turned her gaze back to the screen, hoping Vincent's squad could hold out a bit longer—at least long enough to identify the unknown Honkai Beast's abilities so they could prepare a countermeasure.
Meanwhile, at the cost of half their squad, Vincent's team finally brought down the two Emperor-class Honkai Beasts. As Vincent had suspected, while their energy levels were on par with Emperor-class, their actual combat strength was closer to Templar-class.
"Captain, the bomb's ready!"
Vincent nodded, strapping one of the fallen members' Honkai bombs to himself. The rest also armed themselves. Their plan: fire a specially designed anti-Honkai-Beast bomb from the vehicle to force the unknown creature to land, then rush it with the bombs in a suicide attack.
"Coordinates sent. Requesting missile bombardment immediately after," Vincent spoke into the comms with firm resolve before turning to glare at the creature.
His approach was the safest possible—typically, even a Judgment-class Honkai Beast would need time to recover after such a strike, unable to leave the area. That window would allow the missiles to hit their mark.
With a deafening roar, the inverted pyramid flared with a blinding light.
The light engulfed Vincent and the others.
When Vincent opened his eyes again, he was stunned to find that the anti-Honkai Beast bomb was still loaded on the vehicle. Even more shocking—the two Emperor-class Honkai Beasts they had just defeated stood before them once more, completely unscathed.
"What… is going on?" Vincent could hardly make sense of the situation.
The massive inverted triangular pyramid let out a deep roar. Before Vincent's bewildered eyes, it began to change shape—transforming into a massive steel dragon clad in black armor. From the crimson crystal embedded in its chest radiated an intense Honkai energy signature, dark red lines spreading outward from the crystal to cover the entirety of its body.
"Confirmed—Judgment-class Honkai Beast!" Scott shouted.
The two Emperor-class beasts reverted into spheres of light and flew toward the draconic Honkai Beast, orbiting protectively around it.
Rage burned in the dragon's scarlet eyes, fury at being attacked. It opened its jaws, gathering Honkai energy into a terrifying breath attack that swept across all members of the squad.
The video feed cut off there.
Everyone in the Fire Moth HQ conference room, having watched every second of the transmission, stared wide-eyed in silence. The room was utterly still. None of them could comprehend what they had just seen. They had watched the anti-Honkai Beast bomb make a direct hit. They had seen the two Emperor-class beasts fall. So why…
"Temporal… rewind…" Mobius murmured under her breath. She suddenly recalled something, her expression turning strange. When it came to authority over time-space, there was someone in Fire Moth HQ who had once wielded a similar power.
From her experience in the previous life, nearly every Herrscher—except for Finality—had a corresponding companion Honkai Beast. Elysia's companion had never been recorded, but she herself wasn't counted among the Thirteen Herrschers, so that could be considered an exception. That left only one Herrscher without a recorded companion beast…
But Silas hadn't even awakened yet. How could his companion Honkai Beast appear here?
Regardless, she decided it was absolutely necessary to speak to Silas to confirm.
The newly appeared three Honkai Beasts were quickly uploaded to the Fire Moth internal database. After his training session, Silas opened his device to check on Vincent's squad, only to freeze completely when he saw the images.
The Interstellar Dragon — Parsec, The Half-Moon Dragon — Radius, and Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon.
WTF?
What the hell was this? Was this still the same Honkai world? Sure, the jump from 2D to 3D made some things harder to recognize, but the Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's features were far too distinctive. He'd never forgotten that inverted pyramid in three whole lifetimes.
And those two glowing spheres—what was this, an XYZ Summon?
Soon, all active squads received orders to remain on standby at headquarters. The newly emerged Judgment-class Honkai Beast was officially registered under the name Uka, while the other two were given the names Rahu and Ketu.
Though their strength was on the weaker side, they were still Emperor-class beasts—titles deserved a bit of ceremony, after all.
Very quickly, worse news arrived: Uka had broken through the military blockade, annihilated all forces sent to intercept it, and was advancing toward HQ at extremely high speed.
Estimated time of arrival: thirty minutes.
Uka's special ability as a Judgment-class Honkai Beast had finally been confirmed—temporal rewind.
Uka could reset the state of all non-human entities, including itself, within a certain range. It was precisely this ability that had allowed it to wipe out the army sent against it.
While Silas was still musing about random things like, "Will Astral show up? Maybe even Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, the rival of Tachyon Dragon?", Mobius appeared before him in a rush.
"Silas, do you recognize this Honkai Beast?"
How to put it… recognize was an understatement.
Silas could only nod. Before he had time to process what was happening, Elysia was the first to react:
"Mobius—don't tell me you mean that Uka, the one heading here right now, is Silas's companion Honkai Beast?"
Silas froze. What? His companion Honkai Beast? He didn't recall ever summoning such a thing—after all, the moment he became a Herrscher, he went straight to fight Finality.
"Based on current intelligence, the likelihood of Uka being your companion Honkai Beast is very high. As for why it appeared now…" Mobius analyzed, "It may be because your authority rewound time, but only for the timeline of the world we exist in. Your companion Honkai Beast might have been in the rift between worlds at the moment of its birth and thus wasn't affected by your rewind."
"So that means Big Bro Silas can order Uka to fight alongside us?" Pardo imagined Silas standing on the dragon's back—super cool. Kosma would definitely think so too, right?
Speaking of which, they hadn't seen Kosma since the ball ended yesterday.
"Not likely," Silas said bluntly. "Even if I could order Galaxy-Eyes—cough—Uka, it's already wiped out Vincent's squad and the entire army sent against it. Just that alone makes it impossible for humanity to ever accept Uka.
"Besides—how would I even explain to the higher-ups that I can command it?"
It's not like he could just ride the Tachyon Dragon and wipe out the entire leadership…
First off, Fire Moth was run under a council system, and not all high-ranking members stayed at HQ—they came from all over the world and only projected themselves in for meetings.
Second, even if he did wipe them all out, who would lead Fire Moth? It sure as hell wouldn't be him—he was only good for fighting.
Lastly, even if he somehow found replacements for all the high-ranking members, how could he guarantee they'd listen to him instead of falling into the same old power struggles?
The wickedness of human hearts knows no bounds.
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