"You want to fight me?"
The Eighth Herrscher smiled faintly at Kevin and Vil-V, who had just arrived on the deck.
It seemed Vil-V had been the one to notify Kevin. Though it was unclear how she had persuaded him, he had finally distinguished who the real enemy was.
"You know that I was the one who killed everyone the first time around. So how does a piece of trash like you—someone who can't even beat Kevin—think you can win against me?"
Lin took a deep breath, drawing air deep into his lungs.
"Because he is just a fictional construct. He has no true consciousness."
"..."
"This is a world of consciousness. The only ones who possess a true subjective consciousness are the two of us. That Kevin is pieced together from my memories and the memories of others; therefore, in my subjectivity, I believe I cannot defeat him. But you are different. I am the host, and you are the underlying support. As long as you wish it, you can erase anyone except me."
...
...
"Hehehehe... No wonder your status in her consciousness is so high. It wasn't without reason after all..."
The Eighth Herrscher chuckled lowly, then raised her palm, aiming it at the two nearby.
"Since things can no longer proceed, and this conscious world is on the verge of collapse, I suppose it's time for me to withdraw."
Much like a dreamer who wakes soon after realizing they are in a dream, if a host with immense mental strength wills themselves to break through the illusion she constructed, the conscious world will collapse accordingly.
"But now, shouldn't I perform a scene of 'the villain's dying struggle'?"
Bang—
...
Lin had miscalculated one final thing.
The Eighth Herrscher's objective wasn't combat, but that didn't mean she was weak.
She possessed authorities related to consciousness; therefore, within a world of consciousness, her combat prowess was by no means inferior.
"Since I cannot 'correct' your consciousness, then it is only natural even if I destroy it, isn't it?"
Lin gripped the hilt of his blade with both hands, the skin of his palms tearing under the immense force. Before him, the Eighth Herrscher had caught the edge of Godslayer with just one hand; there wasn't a single scratch on her palm, which was as smooth as jade.
The two struggled in the air above the headquarters. Lin delivered a heavy horizontal kick to the Eighth Herrscher's abdomen, yanked Godslayer back, and forced her away with a backhanded swing.
A weapon made of Soul Steel was blocked?
...Vil-V?
He remembered Prometheus reporting to him about her chassis upgrades, and she indeed possessed combat capabilities. Had she switched to a Soul Steel structure?
Clang—
The two clashed again in mid-air. Lin, disadvantaged in terms of raw power, crashed straight into the roof of the headquarters, creating a deep indentation.
She wasn't wrong; if the goal was simply destruction, everything became much easier.
Lin watched the flow of information on his panel. He suddenly lurched to the side from the roof just as a massive roar and vibration erupted beside him. The Eighth Herrscher pulled her arm out of the several-meters-thick roof with a cruel grin; the alloy, which even missiles couldn't penetrate, was as fragile as foam in her hands.
Tense nerves contracted completely at this moment. A thin silver line connected the tip of his blade to the Eighth Herrscher's neck. There wasn't even the sound of a swing, for the blade's sharpness had sliced through the very resistance of the wind.
Bang!
Two figures crashed into the corridor of the headquarters. Amidst the dust, a blue trail of light elongated, and Lin form vanished in the blink of an eye.
The Eighth Herrscher stood up with a strange laugh. She was unharmed, but Lin had been heavily injured by her. Ultimately, whether it was Kevin's MANTIS body or Prometheus semi-Soul Steel mechanical frame, neither was something Lin frail human body could compare to.
He was a failure through and through.
Perhaps at the moment of his birth, his creator had broken taboos while harboring the delusion of making him a hope for humanity or a leader of mankind. But that was useless, for Lin innate flaws had already overshadowed all his virtues.
As a product of the "Holy Son's Birth" project, he had no Honkai resistance.
As a product of the "MANTIS" project, his surgery was not a success.
It was the same now. He was nothing more than an accident. She had intended to refine him into a consciousness identical to her own and stuff him into a Herrscher Core to become a new Herrscher, yet he had once again become a failure of the plan.
A failure should be... discarded!
The Eighth Herrscher swung her slender hand like a blade. An invisible shockwave instantly sliced through the surrounding walls and cut through the annoying smoke.
But Lin was nowhere to be seen. She immediately rushed toward the only passage ahead, yet before she could take two steps, she felt something trip her ankle.
She had pulled the pins of two grenades herself.
Boom, boom—
Lin sprinted through the headquarters. He knew conventional weapons likely couldn't harm the Eighth Herrscher. The Godslayer in his hand might be able to contend with her, but his own body could no longer permit combat against an enemy of that level.
Was there anything in the headquarters that could pose a threat to a Herrscher-level enemy?
This was a world of consciousness.
In other words, as long as it existed within the jumbled memories brought into this place, it would exist here too.
As long as it fit the "cognition" and "memory" shared by both him and the Eighth Herrscher, it would possess the functions from those memories.
So, to contend with a Herrscher in terms of raw strength, in the absence of usable equipment and weapons, was there anything besides a MANTIS like Kevin that could do it?
There was. And more than one.
Lin soon reached the Research Department. He didn't have time to say anything to the people inside and ran straight past them—including Mei, whom he didn't even spare a glance.
But Mei merely glanced at him indifferently and allowed him to head toward the room storing the Herrscher Cores. She raised her hand to stop the others who were preparing to intercept Lin, ordering them instead to be on guard for the person who would appear next.
Without Mei authorization, one could not enter the storage room. But with Godslayer in hand, he didn't need to consider how to get in.
Schwing!
He thrust the blade into the biometric lock and sliced open the sealed door. This seemingly ordinary blade cut through iron like butter; the places it sliced were as smooth as if they had been cut by a laser.
It seemed Vil-V and Mei next step should be a major renovation of the headquarters to prevent it from being breached by Soul Steel weapons...
What followed was simple. He broke through layer after layer of security without effort and reached his destination.
The sound of gunfire that erupted behind him for an instant vanished amidst a violent tremor.
This was only a virtual world; they were not flesh-and-blood people.
He didn't need to convince himself. Lin didn't want to let any unnecessary emotions surface as he arrived before his objective.
A crystal that had lost its color.
The consciousness inside had vanished. Among the many Herrscher Cores, this was the only one that would never again pose a threat to humanity.
The sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from behind, and Lin reached out, grasping the Core of the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Era.