"Nineteenth record. Time: Zzz—-, Gender: Male, Age: 5 years old."
A person whose face was obscured crouched in front of him.
"Did you listen to the nurse?"
"..."
"That's troubling..." he sighed. "Alright, let's get to the point."
The child sitting on the chair watched the video recorder expressionlessly.
"Do you remember how you fell from the third floor and weren't hurt?"
"Little Lin."
...
"What's going on?"
Delta, who was on the transport plane modifying parameters, saw the red alarms lighting up around her and abruptly stood up, asking the others who were equally stunned.
This level of alarm could only mean one thing—a major Honkai Eruption.
"Where is the Eruption happening?"
The unexpected result quickly came back.
"There's no major Honkai Eruption..."
Delta froze, then asked seriously: "Then what is this alarm for?"
The person looked at the communicator and swallowed: "A Herrscher has appeared..."
"...No major Honkai Eruption, but a Herrscher is born?"
"Yes, a Herrscher reaction appeared in the Mu Continent three minutes ago, but it's only the Herrscher's individual high Honkai energy reaction. That is to say, no major Honkai Eruption has occurred."
"A hurricane that lasted for a month..." A flash of realization struck Delta's mind, and a terrifying thought surfaced. "Could it be..."
...
"Herrscher reaction at high altitude! Confirmed to be the Fourth Herrscher!"
"Why would a Herrscher be born without a major Honkai Eruption?"
A cold voice cut through the intense communication among the squads.
"It's a trap."
Lin succinctly reported to all squads via the communicator.
"A trap?" Hen couldn't quite understand this statement.
"The Fourth Eruption already occurred a month ago, but not here." Lin sent a piece of information to everyone's communicators. "It happened at sea."
"At sea?!"
Kevin looked at the information before him, which was a compilation of global meteorological monitoring and distressed ships from a month ago. He carefully read it over and discovered a clue.
"What is this abnormal cyclone?" He pointed to the most eye-catching weather phenomenon over the ocean.
"That is the Fourth Herrscher." Lin used his visor to outline the location of the cyclone. "A month ago, the day before the typhoon made landfall here, a civilian cruise ship with five hundred people suddenly lost contact. The last known location before losing contact was the coordinates of this cyclone."
"When the search and rescue team arrived, they only found a small amount of wreckage. They believed the ship might have been wrecked by a waterspout."
"But in reality, a major Honkai Eruption likely happened there, destroying the ship, and the surrounding Sea creatures was corrupted into Honkai Beasts—which are the same Honkai Beasts we've encountered this time."
Kevin took a sharp breath, suddenly realizing why Lin had asked him that question—it was to confirm his suspicion.
Why was a Herrscher born without a major Honkai Eruption?
Because the major Honkai Eruption had occurred in their blind spot.
"Then the Fourth Herrscher, born among those five hundred people, used her authority to create a tornado, bringing the Honkai Beasts here and altering the wind field, causing abnormal phenomena and localized high Honkai energy reactions. She is hiding in an area where she cannot be detected, luring us in."
"Uncertain about whether this was a major Honkai Eruption, the Moth of the Flame would send out a moderate number of combat personnel, and she could then annihilate us to reduce the Moth of the Flame's fighting force."
This Eruption was a blatant strike against the Moth of the Flame.
Lin's expression wasn't good either.
The first three Eruptions all occurred in densely populated metropolises, so they naturally assumed the Honkai would seek efficiency and descend upon cities each time. But this Eruption, contrarily, targeted the Moth of the Flame, the only force among humanity capable of combating the Honkai.
It was as if the Herrscher had gained experience and intelligence, learning from the lessons of being defeated by the Moth of the Flame in the first three Eruptions, and formulated a complete strategy to first weaken the Moth of the Flame's strength before carrying out its plan of destruction.
After the prey had entered the hunting ground, the hunter revealed her rifle.
Moreover, this Fourth Herrscher was far from comparable to the Third Herrscher, who hadn't fully mastered her authority. She had a month to master her Herrscher authority, as evidenced by her ability to isolate the city from the outside world and freely create wind fields and terrifyingly destructive tornados.
"..."
"..."
In the communication channel, only the howling of the downpour and the tyrannical wind remained; everyone fell silent.
"The Herrscher's coordinates, where are they?" Hen asked after a long silence.
Since they had fallen into the trap, there was only one way to break out.
Kill the Herrscher.
Lin looked up: "The Herrscher reaction is nine thousand meters above us."
"What!"
Nine thousand meters?
Even Ato couldn't help but exclaim.
Nine thousand meters was an operational altitude that could only be reached by fighter jets.
How could humans, who could at most reach the tops of city buildings, reach that distance?
Now, surrounded by the wind field, tornados were ruthlessly scouring the ground, cutting and destroying everything they touched, while the attacker watched the human struggle from a distance no one could reach.
"We've been able to contact headquarters. They are dispatching reinforcements—sending out fighter jets."
This was the only good news.
But could fighter jets truly fight a Herrscher?
Based on current manifestations, the Fourth Herrscher's authority was undoubtedly related to wind. Could a fighter jet break through the wind field created by the Herrscher?
No one responded.
In previous Eruptions, humans had used almost all small and medium-sized weapons, but none could inflict effective damage on the Herrschers. And the lethality of large-scale weapons would probably cause more harm than the Honkai itself.
Fighter jets had been deployed, of course, but their performance against the bizarre authority was even worse than that of the Moth of the Flame's soldiers.
"There is one way." At this moment, Lin said flatly.
"What way?"
"Titan."
Lin's two words were a shot in the arm for everyone.
That's right, wasn't the latest weapon, the Titan, on its way? And the pilot was also here. They weren't completely hopeless.
Ato, however, didn't relax: "Can the Titan reach that altitude?"
"Yes."
Lin's single word was the ultimate confidence in Delta.
"Alright, we have no other options now."
"Besides that, we have one more matter to resolve."
"..."
As soon as Lin finished speaking, a fatal crimson alert appeared on everyone's Honkai energy detectors.
"They're here. The Fourth Herrscher's accompanying Honkai Beasts."