Lin stood calmly amidst a ground of blood and water. Five MANTIS soldiers lay scattered around him, along with portions of their limbs.
They were all alive, but each was missing a few "parts."
Splash...
Blood mingled with the rain. He couldn't distinguish between the blood and water at his feet.
Perhaps there was no need to.
Lin walked over to the captain, who was kneeling with his arms hanging limply at his sides. The captain lifted a face splattered with blood and rain—pale and fragile. He looked at Lin helmet looming over him, shook his head, and gave a raspy chuckle.
"I warned them not to underestimate you, yet I was the one who fell for it..."
Lin ignored him. He reached out and gripped the long blade embedded in the captain's shoulder, pulling with force—
Whoosh—
Blood sprayed like a fountain, drenching Lin helmet in a gory coating. The originally graphite helmet was stained a shocking crimson.
"Hiss..." The captain sucked in a breath of cold air, nearly passing out from the pain. Lin never looked at him again. He flicked the blood off the blade, sheathed it back in the weapon case, and turned to leave.
"You're exactly the same as you were back then."
"..."
Stopping in his tracks, Lin stood in a pool of water, looking down at his indistinct reflection.
Back then...
"Haha, forgotten? That's fine." The captain lowered his head slightly to catch his breath, soothing the pain in his body. "You saved many people during those countless Honkai. I was just an insignificant person drawn to your silhouette."
"I often thought it would be nice to become a hero like you. But in the end... cough cough..."
He let out a helpless, light laugh.
"I made a different choice than you. It's... quite bothersome."
Lin pondered for a few seconds after hearing this, then resumed his walk. A cold, flat sentence drifted back through the heavy rain.
"You have the wrong person."
"Sakura, Kalpas. Be advised: The Chrysalis Squad is formally breaking away from the Fire Moth leadership to become my personal squad. If you do not approve of this arrangement, I can approve your resignation from the squad immediately. However, once this incident concludes, your stance will be used as direct evidence for your processing."
Mei's tone was calm as always, offering no negotiation—only notification, carrying a faint, cold indifference.
Sakura gripped her communicator. She had just received the leadership's notice to immediately coordinate with other peacekeeping forces to suppress rebellious members.
If necessary, summary execution was permitted.
Such a bloody and cruel command against their own kind was unique even among the missions she had handled.
This was not "necessary," nor was it the removal of a "cancer." She had already understood when she saw the blade Lin raised and the look in his eyes.
"Hahaha... isn't this great?" At that moment, Kalpas laughed abruptly. He clutched his stomach, laughing with pure joy. "I was wondering when I could go and cause trouble for those brain-dead order-givers. I didn't expect the opportunity to be hand-delivered. It's perfect. Truly, good things happen if you live long enough."
The destruction of the sanatorium was inseparable from the orders given by the Fire Moth leadership. Even though Kalpas had seen what Lin and Sakura had done, he understood perfectly whose orders they were.
"...In that case, Sakura, what about you?"
"I agree."
This time, Sakura didn't know why her usually hesitant self was so decisive.
Maybe it was knowing the leadership's KY Plan included all of humanity, including Rin?
Maybe it was the cold, heartless glance Lin gave before he left?
Or maybe, she herself had already...
"There really are quite a lot of them."
Vil-V took a launcher from her suitcase and pulled the trigger on a group of mechs rushing toward them. The warhead instantly pierced the mechs' chassis and exploded internally.
Boom!
The heatwave blew past her face. Prometheus, meanwhile, cleaved a mech that was ambushing from the air, firing her gun-blades into its core.
Nearby, a figure wielding two massive blades blocked the mechs surging from behind. With both hands swinging greatswords and a tail acting like a third hand—flexibly dancing with a blade—she hacked all the incoming mechs into scrap metal.
"She's actually quite strong. She should be around the upper tier for MANTIS soldiers." Vil-V glanced at Delta fighting silhouette. In her spare moments, she didn't forget to pull out components for assembly. "The only current problem is where Lin is. Did he act early? Or..."
Lin had been missing for several days. Though Vil-V felt anxious, she prioritized manufacturing the items in her hands. Now that the leadership had begun their move and Lin still hadn't returned, saying she wasn't worried would be a lie.
Prometheus stopped in her tracks. Data began flashing frantically across her visual sensors before she spoke mechanically: "High-risk individual approaching."
Thump!
Three tall mechanical humanoids landed ahead. Vil-V ran back behind cover without looking. She had learned her lesson last time and tried not to get in the way during combat.
Compared to ordinary mechs, their chassis were taller and more humanoid. The charging greatswords in their hands were a story tall. Just standing there, a heatwave and a sense of pressure that felt like it could char a person rolled forward.
Compared to them, Prometheus was like a child standing before adults.
"Commencing target elimination."
"Commencing target elimination."
The three specialized mechs and Prometheus issued their execution commands simultaneously. Prometheus then turned into a streak of light, the particle beam from her gun-blades striking the monitor of one mech.
Boom!
The sparks from the monitor's explosion were like fireworks, but for a specialized mech, a single destroyed monitor wasn't enough to stop its activities. They immediately activated secondary monitors and charged toward Prometheus like three mountains.
Two slender, blue, wire-like lines manifested in Prometheus's hands. She lashed them out, entangling the waist of one mech. The heels of her boots emitted a faint pulse, allowing her to skip across the ground like a bird over water, flexibly dodging the cleaving greatsword.
She gripped the long lines, using the mech as an anchor to swing her body. Like a ballet dancer, she leaped over the charging blade beneath her feet, landing on the chest of one mech. Clinging to it, she drove her Soul Steel gun-blade into its frame, carving a breach and firing ruthlessly into the core within.
Boom!
Headquarters, the 10th Branch, and various Fire Moth branches were all plunged into chaotic combat at this moment.