A hair's breadth.

The Herrscher of Sentience forcefully pushed herself with psionic power.

Otherwise, she might have truly become the first Herrscher to be crushed to death by the Cosmic Juggernaut.

After a somewhat undignified tumble to get back on her feet, the figure that met the Herrscher of Sentience's gaze… wasn't the one who had secretly tricked her, but the對方's boiling killing intent probably made this encounter even worse for the Herrscher of Sentience than facing the Black Knight.

"Bang!"

Mental energy, like a heavy hammer, slammed forward.

The Honkai energy she had just managed to recover was once again depleted after forming a wall to barely block this strike.

"Whoosh!"

The dispersed impact whipped up a fierce wind in the surroundings.

The Herrscher of Sentience's condition was already terrible, and moreover, this was the real world; the combat power she could exert was drastically reduced.

Facing Su, who was striking out in anger.

There was absolutely no possibility of escaping again.

Not far from the Herrscher of Sentience lay the "corpse" of the Second Herrscher — at the hands of humans, her body would very likely be made into the same kind of thing.

"So that's how it is."

This contest was already lost.

The price of defeat was death… but this didn't mean the complete exit of the Herrscher of Sentience—

"I will still…"

Her words were not yet fully spoken.

Su had already gripped the blade in his hand — invisible mental energy condensed into the shape of a scalpel — and thrust it fiercely towards the Herrscher of Sentience's chest!

"Su."

"Whoosh!"

A gentle and low voice sounded by Su's "ear."

The blade in his hand instantly dissolved into scattered particles.

His thoughts, racing towards the abyss, the killing intent to dissect the Herrscher, all slowly dissipated with this voice filled with tranquility.

At the same time.

A phantasmal image of peacock tail feathers, like hundreds of arms wielding blades, which Su hadn't noticed at all, instantly vanished from behind him.

That's right.

Su, who had arrived here via the Second Key of God, had been in an unforeseen state of "Overload Hyper-Transformation" from the moment he appeared.

If it progressed any further.

The moment the peacock phantom solidified completely would be Su's "Man-Made Honkai Corruption."

At the final moment before the backlash completely engulfed Su, the one who rescued him from this state was precisely…

"Aponia."

A psychic-perception type Fusion Soldier, the "Prisoner" of the Deepest Place, the future third of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, the Listener of God — "Discipline" Aponia.

"Su!"

A crimson meteor fell from the sky.

Aponia's main body was still in the Deepest Place. Her ability to influence Su from such a vast distance relied on the greatsword plunged into the ground behind Su — the Might of An-Utu.

Traveling with it… there was no doubt, it was the strongest of the Flame-Chasers, Kevin, returned from the Deepest Place.

Aponia's abilities were very special.

Besides the common abilities of psychic-perception type Fusion Soldiers.

She also possessed the unique power to "freely restrict a certain action of an individual, even affecting their bodily functions; according to a person's desires, she can push a certain aspect of a person towards its extreme within the scope of human potential."

Simply put.

It could be summarized as the "Great Prophecy Art" from xuanhuan stories.

The Flame-Chasers' higher-ups had approved Kevin's request, allowing him to meet Aponia in the Deepest Place. However, besides the superficial request for Aponia to apply "Discipline" to him, Kevin had also reached other consensuses with Aponia.

One of them.

Was to rely on a Herrscher Core (Might of An-Utu) to briefly bring Aponia's consciousness away from the Deepest Place.

"What happened to you?"

"No, I'm fine…"

Kevin quickly walked to Su's side, but the latter clutched his forehead and forcefully retreated several steps.

Kevin had intended to approach and check Su's condition.

But now, he had more important matters to attend to… which was also the reason for his hurried arrival here—

"Herrscher."

The Eighth Herrscher · Herrscher of Sentience.

She would become the first and only Herrscher to be captured alive in the history of humanity's fight against the Honkai — possessing human logical thinking, not eroded by the Honkai's consciousness into a puppet knowing only destruction and slaughter…

All these characteristics.

To humanity, were an incomparably precious sample.

"Kevin."

"Aponia?"

Just as Kevin was preparing to "take away" the Herrscher of Sentience, Aponia's voice once again sounded in Kevin's ear.

"Remove her Herrscher Core…"

"I tried just now; Discipline doesn't have a significant effect on her. This might be due to the influence of the Herrscher Core."

"As long as the core remains within her body."

"No matter how much Honkai energy is extracted… without mental suppression at Su's level, there's always a possibility she could escape."

Aponia spoke in an unhurried tone.

"Remove the Herrscher Core?"

"Won't she die?"

Kevin asked back with a hint of doubt.

"No."

"Seeing her, I can understand."

"The Eighth Herrscher's Herrscher Core is an item more inclined towards the mental plane."

"Removing it will not cause her death, only make the concept of 'Herrscher' temporarily disappear… If you're worried, after removing the core, I can apply a new Discipline to her."

"…"

"Alright."

"What a pity."

"That human named Kevin is too formidable; otherwise, there might have been a real chance… That's a Herrscher Core!"

High above in the sky.

Shesha, currently sharing Lu Xing's [Super Perception], spoke with a tone of regret after seeing Kevin remove the Eighth Herrscher's core. In Shesha's current state, its super perception couldn't cover such a vast distance… and even if it could, it wouldn't dare. After all, not all Honkai Beasts' perception was as silent as Lu Xing's.

"Is that so."

Lu Xing stated, his tone devoid of any inflection.

"Of course!"

"If it were me, I definitely wouldn't dare to absorb this thing, but… Emperor, since you can accommodate so many authorities, perhaps there's a real possibility of devouring a Herrscher Core to advance further."

"Is that so."

Lu Xing's indifference left Shesha feeling a bit helpless.

But then again, the Eighth Herrscher being dealt with by humans was definitely a good thing for them — such an annoying, parachuted-in leader wasn't worth much grief even if she died.

Perhaps because of this, Lu Xing appeared…

"Shesha."

"Hm?"

Shesha had barely registered its name being called when it saw Lu Xing draw his murderously sharp lance from the void.

Just as Shesha was frantically trying to recall if it had said something wrong—

"Why do you think."

"That the Herrscher of Sentience was killed by humans?"

"Zzheng!"

Spear and shield separated!

A violent elemental light flowed over the sharp spear blade!

"And why do you think."

"That what humans took away was necessarily the Herrscher Core?"

"Clang!"

"What are you doing!?"

To Shesha's astonishment, Lu Xing actually inverted his grip on the spear, pointing the sharp tip directly at his own chest!

"Nothing much."

"It's just that…"

The first part was still a reply to Shesha, but the latter half was already a question directed at a "non-existent" third party—

"Ange."

"You didn't even say hello when you arrived."

"So why are you leaving… in such a hurry?"

Author's note:

PS: For this part of the plot, I actually arranged two endings that would lead to the same result. In the end, well, I gave up on the direct face-slapping scenario that everyone loves to see. The current ending is more in line with the original work's direction—involving Aponia's appearance, the reason for the birth of the Eighth Herrscher's new personality, and Mobius's consciousness transfer experiment (the birth of Gray Serpent)—so it was finalized this way. I hope everyone likes this arrangement~