"Is this... a painting?"
Among the items dropped by the monster was a picture frame with a completely different style. Thinking it might belong to one of the Flame-Chasers, Mei squatted down to pick it up.
Then, she was startled by the wild, frenzied lines within the frame.
The overall coloring of the painting was extremely depressing and somber, and the twisted, jumbled lines looked as if the artist, filled with hatred, had poured ink onto the canvas, brimming with negative emotions that made one's heart turn cold.
It wasn't artistic obscurity, but pure, cathartic expression.
Only after careful observation did Mei make out the content of the painting: "Is this... a person hanging upside down?"
Amidst the horrifying colors, a person was bound hand and foot by chains, suspended upside down beneath a dim, fading light. Motionless, he allowed the chains that stripped him of his freedom to hold him inverted, with glaring crimson blood flowing from the wounds on his wrists and ankles.
There was no trace of hope; in the gaps of the madness, the single beam of light served only to highlight the captive's miserable state.
And after staring for a while longer, Mei even saw pairs of hands reaching out from the darkness of the wild lines, opening their fingers towards the person in the center with a hungry, hateful longing...
"Snap."
Mei turned the painting over, her expression grim.
She couldn't look anymore.
She had only stared at it for a short time, but an indescribable emotion had rushed to her head.
Whose painting was this? Or rather, whose memory was this painting from?
...
"Execute the plan. Third Squad and Seventh Squad are responsible for evacuating the remaining residents and investigation. First Squad and Lin will be on alert. Report immediately if an advanced Honkai Beast is sighted."
Under the influence of the hurricane, the intensity of the downpour was comparable to that of Nagazora during the Third Eruption. The cyclonic winds could lift unstable trees and houses, making it impossible for people to walk through.
However, having learned its lesson from the last time, the Moth of the Flame had thoroughly prepared equipment to cope with the severe environment this time. Cutting-edge technology such as small-scale ground-grippers and improved communication devices had been issued to the combat squads for this operation. Although combat would still be restricted, it was a vast improvement compared to the restricted movement and visibility of the last time.
Kevin's squad consisted of seven people in total, making it eight with Lin. This number was sufficient to deal with low-tier Honkai Beasts and could maneuver against an advanced Honkai Beast. Therefore, Lin skipped the less threatening areas and decided to prioritize scouting regions with high Honkai energy concentrations.
"Kevin, orders." Lin walked through the heavy rain to Kevin's side.
Kevin looked confused: "Orders?"
"..."
With the reminder from Lin's polished visor, Kevin realized that he was the one in command now. Previously, Lin and others had taken on this role, and this was the first time he'd been tasked with assigning duties.
He frowned deeply, while Lin and the other squad members waited quietly.
It didn't take long for Kevin to issue his first conservative order: "Adopt a four-person formation. Advance in two groups, heading first to the nearest high Honkai energy concentration area."
...
"Clang!"
The last Honkai Beast fell. Everyone sighed in relief and put away their weapons. After a brief rest, they would head to the next area. Their goal was to clear all Honkai Beasts from high-risk areas first.
"Lin... Captain, any further instructions?" one of them asked Lin, who was squatting beside the Honkai Beast's corpse. Lin had the highest authority after the squad split into two, making him the temporary commander besides Kevin.
Calling someone who joined the squad later and was younger than himself "Captain"—experiencing this feeling twice in one month was quite extraordinary.
Lin did not answer. He flipped the Honkai Beast's corpse over. It was a familiar-looking Honkai Beast, similar to the water-based creatures he had seen in the Deep. Besides its ability to float in the air, it also possessed some degree of Honkai energy manipulation.
[Analysis suggests this type of Honkai Beast has an 86% similarity in physical composition to the Honkai Beasts in the Deep, confirmed as a low-tier Honkai Beast of the same class.]
[Also, this Honkai Beast's body is 80% water, suggesting it was transformed from a Sea creatures.]
"..."
Sea creatures...
They had already defeated a total of five Honkai Beasts along the way, all of the same type—sea-creature Honkai Beasts. They hadn't seen any Zombies or other types of Honkai Beasts. This Accidental made Lin somewhat wary.
"It probably got blown in with the typhoon and mutated, right?" a less patient squad member couldn't help but ask, seeing Lin repeatedly examining the Honkai Beast.
"..."
This person was confusing typhoons with tornados. The center of a typhoon has high wind speeds, low centrifugal force and suction, and can only whip up large waves at most. A tornado, however, can have terrifying wind speeds of hundreds of meters per second on its periphery, with low central pressure, and the balance of inertial centrifugal force and pressure gradient allows it to lift water and fish high into the air.
Wait, tornado?
Lin brought up the weather map to observe the distribution of the wind field.
He had a strange feeling. This typhoon had an extremely high similarity to the thunder-storm of the Third Eruption. Under normal circumstances, it could be judged as a natural disaster triggered by the birth of a higher-level Honkai creation, unrelated to their conscious will. Or, the Third Herrscher had not fully mastered her authority in such a short time, leading to the uncontrolled transformation of the entire city into a sea of lightning.
But this time, Lin didn't believe it was simply a passive triggering event.
Firstly, to cause such large-scale destruction, it could only be an Emperor-class or Judgment-class Honkai Beast. But from the first contact in the First Eruption, advanced Honkai Beasts have always been unique in both appearance and ability, which even distinguishes them from the Herrschers they serve—they are "conspicuous" existences.
Yet, over this past month, there had been no sighting reports of any advanced Honkai Beasts.
Secondly, why was the wind field confined to this city and not moving? Would a Honkai Beast stay docilely in one place for a month?
Finally, and most strangely, why were all the Honkai Beasts encountered "marine" creatures?
The mission was more than halfway done, and they were about to rendezvous with Kevin according to the route. It had been smoothly progressing, unlike being in a Honkai Beast field, but Lin felt increasingly uneasy.
This feeling, like the calm before a storm, and the faint awareness of undercurrents in the stillness, was exactly the same as the eerie tranquility before every major Honkai Eruption.
Recalling the gaze he felt upon entering the city, he stood up and shook the powdery residue off his hands: "Contact Kevin."
[Dialing Kevin]
"Lin, what's wrong?" Kevin's work was also nearing completion. He was puzzled why Lin would contact him now. "Did you find an advanced Honkai Beast?"
"No..."
Lin asked Kevin about the type of Honkai Beasts he had encountered.
"Indeed, all the Honkai Beasts I've encountered are of the same type."
"..."
Just as Lin was about to say something, Prometheus's crimson alert flashed in the top right corner.
[Lin, the city's wind force is rising rapidly. Tornados are appearing out of nowhere in multiple locations.]
[The wind speed at the city's edge has increased to level 15, making normal entry and exit impossible.]
[A trap.]
And directly above Lin and his team, emerald eyes were observing every prey in the city with a hunter's gaze.