Lin climbed out of the cockpit and jumped onto the Titan's cupped hands.
The waves were still fiercely churning. Lin looked up at the scorching sun after the clouds had been dispersed, then looked down at the disarmed Fourth Herrscher lying on the Titan's arm.
Delta hadn't lied to Lin. He had indeed strengthened the Titan's arm output.
Originally, he should have been able to tear the Fourth Herrscher in half instantly, but the Herrscher's body strength this time was enough to paralyze the Titan's lower body with a single punch, so he could only tear off the joints.
Of course, Lin hadn't planned to kill her immediately anyway.
The Fourth Herrscher showed significant differences from the previous three Herrschers. Both in the way she was born and the increase in her humanity, this gave rise to many speculations in Lin's mind.
"Click."
Lin drew his pistol and chambered a round. He walked up to the supine Fourth Herrscher. The terror still lingered on her face, but it was rapidly fading. The "inhuman" look of a Herrscher that Lin was familiar with returned to her face.
It was as if she had transformed from a fearful human back into a fearless god.
"Lin, your organs are showing abnormalities. Honkai energy concentration is too high. Please return to the cockpit immediately."
Prometheus's warning timely reminded Lin. After a series of anti-human, extreme maneuvers with the Titan, both his consciousness and body were on the verge of collapse. Being in the high-concentration Honkai energy environment near a Herrscher now was equivalent to reducing his remaining lifespan limit of four years with every passing second.
The blood beginning to flow from his nose confirmed Prometheus's statement. He was only standing because Prometheus had shared his load through the neural link. If he were to disconnect now, he might be submerged by the blocked flood of negative load and be unable to move.
Lin hesitated, then nodded and aimed the gun at the Fourth Herrscher's forehead.
Her appearance was utterly miserable. The two swords that had been stabbed into her chest were gone under her attack, leaving only two hideous wounds. The shoulder area connecting to her arms was a bloody mess.
Other than that, there were no other external injuries. Like the Third Herrscher, she had entered a temporary state of powerlessness after her Herrscher Core went full output and was then attacked.
"Who are you?" Lin interrogated the Fourth Herrscher under the dark muzzle of the gun.
He had the Fourth Herrscher's "pre-life" data—the person from the ill-fated ship he had found, before she became a Herrscher.
Now, Lin stared at the name on his visor, waiting for the Fourth Herrscher's answer.
However, the only response was silence.
"..."
"..."
Lin and the Fourth Herrscher stared at each other. Her eyes seemed frosted over, devoid of any emotion, merely looking at him, a human.
"Do you still have your memories?"
"..."
The cruel cold smile that had appeared on the Fourth Herrscher's face felt like an illusion to Lin. How could human cruelty appear on the face of a Honkai puppet?
So Lin took a deep breath and nodded.
"Bang!"
The Fourth Herrscher... no, the girl's head heavily hit the Titan's metal armor.
Lin holstered the pistol, intending to return to the cockpit, but then he inexplicably stopped turning and slowly walked to the side of the corpse, looking at her face.
A smile.
"..." Lin stared at the familiar sight.
The smile that had once appeared on the Third Herrscher's face...
A smile.
...
"In your civilization, are there many Herrschers fighting for humanity?"
Only Lin was in the lounge today. He always seemed to have something to do, but at the moment, he was sitting on the sofa with empty hands, staring at the portrait hanging above the lounge.
He asked this question without turning his head after Mei walked in.
"...Are you making things up again?" Mei glanced at the empty lounge, not approaching Lin further.
"'Making things up' refers to rumors not being entirely baseless, meaning the actions have a cause," Lin actually had the leisure to correct Mei's misusage of a phrase. "If you go by that definition, I am indeed 'making things up'."
"..."
"Here." Lin tossed over a black object. Mei glanced at what was flying in the air before catching it.
Mei fiddled with the object in her hand: "...A figure?"
"No."
In Mei's hand was a small model of the Titan, similar in appearance to the one she had seen before, but the components on the backpack part were slightly different.
"You seem very interested in the Titan. This was made by Vil-V. The structure is identical to the real Titan, just not controllable, unless there was a person the size of an ant who could crawl inside."
"Thank you." Mei was somewhat happy to receive this gift. She could take this miniature Titan back to Anti-Entropy later. The technological achievements of the Previous Era should be helpful to Anti-Entropy.
Then Lin stared straight at her, clearly showing the look of "I have paid you the benefit," waiting for her to answer his question.
Mei thought for a moment and affirmed: "Herrschers... Yes, in my era, there were some Herrschers, including my comrades, who fought for humanity."
"Is that so..." Lin looked up at the portrait again, and only then did Mei realize that the original painting of Eden had been replaced with a frontal portrait of Elysia.
The pink-haired girl smiled sweetly, striking a lively peace sign, which was different from Eden's elegance.
"When was this changed?" Mei asked with a bit of surprise.
"Just now."
"...Who changed it?"
"I did."
"..."
Mei didn't know whether to show an "I knew it" or an "I didn't expect it" expression.
She hesitated and asked: "Won't Eden be angry?"
"She won't get angry over something like this," Lin shook his head. "Besides, you misunderstood."
"...How do you know I misunderstood?"
"Because many people have misunderstood. I've seen that expression too many times."
"..."
The helmeted man crossed his arms, leaning back on the sofa. His azure visor was the only way he expressed his emotions: "I just planned to ask Elysia some things."
"What does that have to do with you changing the hanging picture?"
"She might be happy about it, and it will be easier for me to ask."
It had to be said that the mutual understanding between Elysia and Lin was quite profound.
"Oh my, isn't this the little white mouse who can discharge electricity~ What's wrong, did you come to commiserate with the other little white mouse?"
An inappropriate voice sounded at an inappropriate time, making Lin and Mei turn their heads simultaneously.
The green-haired girl, sitting on a strange device, let out a creepy laugh and walked in from the entrance to the Elysian Realm.
"Mobius? Why aren't you hiding from him today?" Mei's hostility toward Mobius was even greater than Lin's. She sneered, asking.
Mobius smiled like a real venomous snake: "Hide? Why would I hide from him?"
"Is there something you need?" To prevent the conversation from devolving into a mutual verbal attack, Lin interrupted them preemptively.
"Nothing~ It's just that I happened to overhear someone asking about Herrscher information~ And I found it quite amusing~" Mobius's gaze settled on Lin. She used her most vicious tone to mock, "Wouldn't you agree, 'traitor'?"
"Trai... tor?"
Mei looked at Lin in confusion.
And Lin, merely lowered his head in silence, neither refuting nor responding.
As if, he was acquiescing to the appellation.