The Honkai energy he had just expended.
Plus the portion eaten by Kosma.
Lu Xing's remaining Honkai energy was now at about 15%; as for the Fusion Warriors, Aponia's consumption had been the greatest. Judging by her aura, her remaining Honkai energy was less than 30%. As for the one in the best condition...
"Sakura?"
That flame that had broken through [Universal Stagnation] earlier, Lu Xing still hadn't figured out the reason, but he assumed the cost wouldn't be small. Yet now, the Honkai energy aura Sakura was revealing was the strongest among all the Fusion Warriors.
Artificial Honkai Eruption was an extremely exaggerated boost for a Fusion Warrior.
However.
Not much time had passed since Lu Xing and Sakura had "parted ways."
The Sakura who had nearly died back then from her "Lightning Draw" being reflected, had actually become so powerful after her Artificial Eruption, even surpassing Kalpas, whom Lu Xing had been wary of all this time...
"Besides Aponia, she's the second trump card."
Had Mei or Mobius pulled some strings?
It didn't matter.
Regardless of any new trump cards, or that truly threatening "sword technique" of Sakura's, the Emperor was very clear on what he needed to do.
In that case—
Swoosh!!
A fierce wind stirred.
An aura thick with hostility was projected onto Lu Xing without any attempt at concealment.
"[Please] stand still."
Aponia's ethereal voice seemed to echo from the clouds.
However.
Lu Xing retracted all his mental power into his body to resist it head-on!
All his elemental power gathered at his fists. The six [Annihilation Iron Fists] prepared for Sakura were about to, in coordination with [Dawnbreaker], directly sever one of the Flame-Chasers' arms!
And Aponia...
Aponia's actions were completely different from her comrades'—everyone else was desperately unleashing their power, but her "Discipline" move... was just to, no, from the very beginning, it was all to prevent the Black Emperor from projecting his mental power outward!
The reason for doing so—
BOOM!!
The atmosphere was ruthlessly shoved aside.
Accompanied by a piercing sonic boom, six [Annihilation Iron Fists] blocked all of Sakura's escape routes!
The environment froze, space was sealed, the atmosphere compressed. Spatial power combined with the power of the four elements, aimed at Sakura's figure charging straight for the Emperor—
He struck with all his might!
BOOM!!!
A terrifying impact blasted the surface.
Within a sphere several hundred meters in diameter, everything was turned to ash!
The range wasn't large, but it was a sign of extremely compressed Honkai energy—aside from a tiny black dot beneath his fist, everything else was annihilated...
That's right.
Compared to the Emperor's size, this dot could only be described as "tiny."
But!
That torrential sea of fire, like a boundless ocean, silhouetted a figure of immense size!
Kalpas!!!
The target hit by the six [Annihilation Iron Fists] was not Sakura at all!
From the start of the battle, no, from the moment the Flame-Chasers appeared, Su, who had seemed not to attack at all, had been the busiest one. Aside from the initial trap and controlling the artificial God Key, he had used all his power to construct this realistic "illusion"!
It was all a feint!
In the first exchange, all the "effective" strikes were feints designed to make the Black Emperor misjudge the situation!
The one who looked like Kalpas, who seemed the most useless and only slashed the Honkai energy halo once, was the Flame-Chasers' true trump card!
The Sakura illusion was Kalpas!
And the Kalpas illusion—
Crack!
Ice flowers, ice crystals, electric serpents, a pool of lightning.
A figure of blue and white, the familiar headphones, gently twitching fox ears, and... the [Forget-Me-Not] mask that once brought fear and madness to countless people—adorned with vermilion maro eyebrows, and horns like Honkai crystals!
This was—
The assassin named Sakura, the warrior named Sakura, the guardian named Sakura!
"One slash, one moment."
Sakura's eyes remained closed from beginning to end. But her perception never once left the Emperor's body.
Unleashing all her power, exhausting all her skill—this was a power that even the Herrscher of Corruption, who could be called "omniscient and omnipotent" in the Elysian Realm of a later era, would fear.
Space, time, all things!
A dazzling light shone from the scabbard. With just a simple drawing motion, the artificial God Key, made from a pseudo-core, was already covered in cracks, looking as if it would shatter at any moment!
Sever everything!
Freeze everything!
Sword Technique—
"Myriad Phenomena, No Illumination!!!"
KSHIIING!!!!!
It was unknown if it was ice, thunder, or light.
A blinding, searing white illuminated the gray, dusty sky.
Click.
She sheathed her blade.
The Emperor's towering, immense body was frozen motionless in mid-air.
[Myriad Phenomena, No Illumination]
The ultimate drawing slash—it was precisely with this power that Sakura, while still a "normal person," was able to injure Kevin and fight Kalpas to a standstill before the Fusion Warriors were even born.
This was the most powerful, and also the most terrifying, power of the poison cocoon and [Forget-Me-Not]!
And the reason Sakura could become Mei's guardian was also because of this power—aside from the violence of severing space, the other effect of [Myriad Phenomena, No Illumination] was...
To freeze spacetime!
Freezing, for the sake of control.
The opportunity for control, created by gambling all of Su's and Sakura's power, was naturally for—
"[Please]"
Is Kalpas strong?
Without a doubt. Besides Kevin wielding the Judgement of Shamash, only Kalpas could produce flames capable of melting [Universal Stagnation].
In terms of pure destructive power.
No one present was a match for Kalpas.
However.
Could such a Kalpas kill the Black Emperor?
The answer was: no.
The "Black Temple" that had made a brief appearance during the defense of the Flame-Chasers had not been forgotten. That ability, [Infinity], similar to Shesha's, which Mobius had already definitively researched, was very likely also in the Black Emperor's hands.
On a physical level.
Even if humanity exhausted all its strength, they could only weaken the Black Emperor time and time again; they could never kill him completely.
And even this had a huge prerequisite: that the Black Emperor would not flee... an assumption that never existed from the start!
With the Black Emperor's spatial abilities, the Flame-Chasers' suspicion—that after devouring the Core of the Herrscher of Void, not even the Eye of the Abyss could stop him—had come true.
Elysia dared not leave Mei's side for this very reason.
To conceal this breakthrough in spatial ability, Lu Xing hadn't even intervened to rescue his eastern legion when it was attacked by the [Spatial Disruption Warheads] and the subsequent nuclear weapons... unfortunately, that disguise was wasted. Poor Sheshe took three big hits for nothing.
Now.
Everything Sakura had done, the true goal of [Myriad Phenomena, No Illumination], had been achieved:
To freeze the spacetime where the Black Emperor was located, to provide an opportunity for... Aponia's attack!
The truest power of the Eighth Herrscher!
At the cost of sacrificing a massive amount of memories, she would unleash a single, unblockable mental attack!
This strike. A move that, in a later era, would sever the will of the Honkai and directly interfere with a god, this was the Flame-Chasers' final means to kill the Black Emperor!
[First Power: Sword God of Taixu (Incomplete)]
"[Please]!"
"Go to your death!!!"