Humanity was done for--the Sixth Herrscher understood this.
There were only a couple of cats left, and they wouldn't be able to affect the overall situation.
So she wasn't in a hurry to look for the people who had escaped during that critical moment. Instead, she wandered through the city that had already sunk into the pitch-black ocean. She ran her hand over the withered thorns.
The thorns looked intimidating, but when her finger touched them lightly, the thorns turned to black ash and drifted away.
All of this was her masterpiece.
"Tap… tap… tap…"
Slow and steady footsteps came from a nearby alley. The Herrscher raised her head, and looked warily towards the source of the sound. As expected, it was that extremely unfamiliar figure, the Herrscher that had come to interfere for some reason.
"That... you... who are you exactly!"
She crossed her hands over her chest, her fingers intertwined, and timidly asked.
Mikael didn't reply. His mind was completely occupied by questions and fear:
Defeating the Sixth Herrscher was not difficult for him. The difficulty was how to completely kill her?
"As for the final, decisive blow... of course I have a plan!"
Elysia's soft chuckle was still echoing in his ears, but that unusual relief and liveliness actually gave Mikael a creepy feeling.
"You should say it clearly, what exactly is your plan? Don't make me go fight without knowing anything!"
"It's okay, Mikael! I believe in our teamwork!"
Teamwork, my ass!
If it was the Elysia from his original world, Mikael would have been confident that they had that kind of mysterious and abstruse connection, but the Elysia in this world... She had never fought alongside him before…
Mei's attitude was also quite strange. After a brief chat with Elysia, she put on a cold face. When facing Mikael's questions, she simply shook her head, bit her lip, and replied: "You don't need to ask. You only need to use your full strength at the right time, at the right place."
Ha, what familiar words, what a familiar plot, what a familiar pattern…
"I see… this time, it's my turn to play Kevin's role..."
Back in reality, Mikael was only three steps away from the Herrscher. But before the fight started, he had some questions to ask:
"Sixth Herrscher… do you know who you are?"
"Huh? Herrscher? What are you talking about? I don't understand."
The Sixth Herrscher lowered her head, turning her body to the side. She looked frightened. If Mikael didn't know better, she… would look like a normal girl, right?
"Then do you know why you want to destroy human civilization?"
Mikael relentlessly continued to question her. But this time, the Sixth Herrscher's answer was still meaningless.
"Des… destroy human civilization! How scary!"
"Looks like I can't get anything out of her…" Mikael frowned. Another possible source of information had disappeared.
Little did he know that the Herrscher was just as annoyed: Damn it, what are these habitual actions and tones…
These were all determined by the muscle memory, subconscious, and memories of the original body. Although this trick had worked well against humans in the past, there was no need to put on an act now.
But the Herrscher still couldn't get rid of these habits. This was the thing that made her the most uncomfortable--the feeling of helplessness.
Even though she could destroy the entirety of human civilization, she was still helpless when facing the subconscious left behind by this human body.
"Ah... Um, big brother, can you come a little closer... It's too dark, I'm scared..."
"Do you take me for an idiot?"
Mikael tilted his head, feeling speechless.
It seemed that possessing human emotions didn't mean possessing human intelligence. At least, the Sixth Herrscher gave Mikael the feeling that her emotions and intelligence were a little disconnected--the emotions she displayed were no different from a young girl, but the intelligence she inadvertently revealed in her answers…
Was that of a three-year-old…
The next moment, with a horizontal wave of his left hand, the Void lance that appeared out of nowhere blocked the Herrscher's right claw. Then, he quickly retreated half a step, letting the Herrscher's left claw, which had thrust forward, graze past his chest.
At the same time, he turned his right hand into a blade and traced a crescent arc in the night sky. The power of tearing space that was attached to his palm easily severed the Herrscher's arm at the root.
It was as if the Sixth Herrscher had no pain. She continued to flail her right claw, forcing Mikael to retreat. Her severed left arm fully regenerated within the time it took her to make a turn. The speed was remarkable.
"Is that all you've got?"
While retreating, Mikael didn't forget to mock her:
"You're too weak for a Herrscher, right?"
After saying that, he felt incredibly satisfied for a moment-- Finally! Finally, it was his turn to say these words to another Herrscher!
The Sixth Herrscher was undoubtedly enraged. She was already annoyed by her powerlessness to change the original body's subconscious. When Mikael provoked her like that, it was like pouring oil on a fire. The fire within her began to spread. The "fuse" called "common sense" only lasted for a brief moment before burning out.
"You traitor! What do you have to be so proud of!"
In extreme anger, the Sixth Herrscher finally completely unleashed her powers. The dark tide that covered the sky, and the all-encompassing darkness, merged together.
It was almost impossible to see the difference. But with his perception of spatial powers, Mikael could clearly feel a large amount of Honkai energy surging towards him like waves.
With a more detailed perception, he could see that the sparse microorganisms in the air instantly turned into dead objects after coming into contact with the Honkai energy-transformed waves—
If the Sixth Herrscher was so hard to kill before because of the "life" aspect of her power, then the "black tide" that made the cells of all living things die in an instant was the "death" aspect of her power.
"Black Abyss and White Flower, huh... I'm getting out of here."
Mikael didn't want to be tainted by the "death" power. As he jumped back and forth, he maintained a line distance from the "black tide", guiding the Sixth Herrscher, who was chasing closely behind him, to the place where Elysia was lying in wait.
"It's here!"
Although he couldn't see clearly in the dark, Mikael had already sensed Ellie's presence nearby. He quickly turned around, a transparent Void barrier forming in front of him, but in an instant, it was dyed the same color as the night by the "black tide".
But in the end, it was just a "virus" that targeted living cells. It couldn't do anything against a barrier purely made out of layers of Void energy.
Then, the Sixth Herrscher's body caught up, and her sharp, cold claws pierced through the barrier without any resistance, tearing a large hole. The virus surged in, engulfing Mikael's figure…
A flash of purple abruptly lit up in the darkness.
Someone had once compared the sound of arcing electricity to lightning. Now, accompanied by the winding purple electricity, one sound, two sounds, three sounds... More and more "twittering" sounds converged, before finally erupting into the sound of a thousand birds singing in unison.
"Die, Herrscher!"
The Herrscher's claws dug into Mikael's right arm, but she was unable to stop the erupting lightning. A huge hole was torn open in her chest by the purple lightning blade.
The high-frequency vibrating electromagnetic waves were continuously devouring the cells around the wound, but under the influence of the Sixth Herrscher's power, more new cells were splitting, and the cells around the wound were caught in a stalemate of life and death…
In contrast, Mikael's entire right arm also began to turn a cyan-black color. The virus that was contained in the "black tide" was inhaled into his lungs, and he could feel the strength flowing out of his body…
"Elysia, it's up to you!"
Although he didn't say it clearly, Mikael understood that this wasn't the "best time" that Mei had talked about.
That best time would have to be created by Elysia for him.
As expected, a pink light appeared behind the Herrscher. Mikael kicked out without any hesitation. The Herrscher's body flew backward and slammed into a pink crystal sphere. Pink crystal dust exploded, which made the Herrscher's body trend towards crystallization…
But that was easy for the Sixth Herrscher. All she had to do was make the cells that were arranged into crystal structures die, and then replace them with new, normal cells, right?
Unless—
Unless there was someone who could constantly keep her trending towards crystallization, just like the wound that Mikael had made on her chest. The crystallized cells kept dying, and new cells were constantly being produced, but were quickly crystallized again.
Only then could the Herrscher be firmly controlled in place.
And not only that, but it could even be said that control was never the goal… Mikael understood what the true purpose of the crystallization was in the first moment--if you want to break water, then liquid water and gaseous water vapor can't be broken.
The only way is to solidify it into ice.
"So, Elysia, you wanted me to attack the crystallized Herrscher with all my strength and use spatial and lightning powers to generate high-frequency vibrations, directly reducing the Herrscher to atoms, so she can never regenerate, right?"
Mikael understood. It was indeed a good method. It was certainly a good method, but…
How… how could he make the Herrscher keep trending toward crystallization?
"Elysia..."
Her figure suddenly appeared behind the Sixth Herrscher. She was glowing with a pink light, and her hands went under the Sixth Herrscher's armpits. Their figures overlapped.
She even had the time to give Mikael a flawless smile. And just from that smile, Mikael knew what she was thinking:
"Yes, that's right, just as you thought, Mikael~"
Pink crystals spread from her feet, encasing both her and the Herrscher.
Only an aftersound abruptly rang out in Mikael's mind--
"Then, in order to give our civilization a perfect ending that has never existed in history."
"Mikael, can you help me once more?"
"Mikael, [Please], kill me."