Chapter 32: First Phase

“It’s really lively up there.”

The intensity of the battle was evident from the communicator.

Xing’er had no intention of helping, and she even understood that the situation was quite bad.

Although the ten Titans deployed by headquarters seemed like a powerful lineup, it was only enough to deal with Yao Bingling alone, and also included one or two Valkyries that Schicksal might send.

The scale of the Honkai energy erupting here is so large that it could instantly turn the surrounding area for several kilometers into a death zone inhabited by Honkai beasts. Given the hypocritical behavior of those Schicksal people, they would never allow this small-scale Honkai to spread. The purpose of sending extra Valkyries here should be to deal with the Honkai beasts in the surrounding area.

This way, they can naturally take advantage of the chaos.

However, even Cocolia, known as the anti-entropy fox, did not anticipate the secrets and strangeness contained within this Honkai.

Nearly half an hour has passed since the Honkai energy erupted, which seemed to be like a flood, but its scale has not expanded from the initial three kilometers to the present, and even shows a faint trend of shrinking.

This is natural; Honkai Beasts are not like Herrschers who can use their consciousness to transform Honkai energy into storms and natural disasters that spread throughout the city. For them, large areas of Honkai energy are energy reserves; the more they absorb, the stronger they become, and the more they release, the weaker they become.

This is the battlefield after a battle between two Emperor-level Honkai Beasts, not the site of a small-scale Honkai outbreak.

Cocolia hadn’t considered this point, but a certain white-haired nun who never grew up was very clear about it. Her goal from the beginning was quite clear: she was willing to send out the elites from St. Freya Academy who were not yet fully grown up to bring them back.

“Tsk, we need to find that guy quickly and bring him back.”

Knowing that time was running out, Xing’er clicked her tongue in amazement, focused her gaze on the spot where her target had fallen, and sped up to run towards it.

“Well…..”

A pain that almost stopped my breathing came from behind.

As his memories were restored, Yao Bingling opened his eyes in a swamp. The smell of rotting leaves and withered branches filled the air, which was quite unfriendly to his sense of smell.

The throbbing pain at the back of his neck made him feel dizzy as he tried to stand up.

“…Himeko.”

She knew perfectly well that her dizziness was caused by Himeko Murata’s meddling, even though the child meant well…

“That was too presumptuous of them.”

He shook his head vigorously from side to side, and a rather terrifying “crackling” sound came from his neck. It was the sound of him repositioning his cervical vertebrae, which had been slightly dislocated due to Himeko’s attack.

“boom!!”

A violent explosion came from dozens of meters above him, and only then did he remember the Titans chasing him and…

“Wait, where’s Himeko!?”

Although his memory is stuck on the time when he was first hunted, he is not stupid. He is obviously brought out by someone since he is not in the war zone. So where is the person who brought him out?

“Himeko?! Himeko! Himeko Murata!”

The constant roaring and exploding bullets, along with the sounds of highly mobile mechanical movement of the mechs, all spoke volumes about the intensity of the battle.

Is it up there?

The lack of signs of fighting below can only mean that he was thrown off at the very beginning of the battle…

“Hold on!”

How is your physical condition?

Absolutely terrible!

His body was already in a state of unrepair after the battle, and the explosion just now caused Yao Bingling’s back wound to flare up again. Just standing up gave him the illusion that someone was constantly scraping his back with a knife.

In addition, the fall just now dislocated not only his cervical vertebrae, but also his spine and leg bones suffered varying degrees of damage, and a tree branch could even be seen embedded in the inside of his left thigh.

Furthermore, Yao Bingling, who had been fighting all night, was extremely weak. His entire body felt as heavy as if it were filled with lead, and his mind was so foggy that he felt like vomiting.

In his condition, let alone fighting, even moving around would be extremely difficult for him.

“…So we’re going to use it so soon?”

His words sounded helpless, yet also carried a strong sense of self-deprecation.

Indeed, as a human, he was no longer able to do anything at this moment… but he could completely abandon his human identity for the time being.

He closed his eyes, his consciousness returning to its deepest depths, where he once again saw the tightly closed prison and the golden eyes inside that looked at him with considerable surprise.

“So fast?”

Even the owner of that eye couldn’t believe that Yao Bingling had returned so quickly.

“It seems something quite interesting has happened, but unfortunately I can’t see it yet.”

“It’s not fun for me, and it’s dangerous.”

“So it’s interesting.” The owner of the golden eyes did not emerge from the darkness. He was still recovering after being cut in two, and he did not want to appear before Yao Bingling in such a defeated state.

“30 minutes,” Jinwu said. “My power can be deployed for you in stages, and you can only rely on yourself to last for a maximum of 30 minutes in the first stage.”

“But if this period of time is exceeded, I don’t know what might happen.”

“…Understood.” Yao Bingling nodded, staring at the enormous sun that suddenly shone in the prison. The sun’s light and heat converged into intense rays that burst out from the cracks in the prison and flowed into his body.

In reality, Yao Bingling suddenly opened his eyes!

He took a deep breath, and the Honkai energy around him poured into his body like water being pumped into a lake. The stigmata under the bandage on his chest lit up, and the intense heat ignited all the bandages on his body.

His burned back began to heal, and the dislocated bones caused by the explosion and the fall from a great height also began to repair themselves at a rapid pace. All the bones in his body made crackling sounds like popping beans.

The muscles beneath his slender frame were activated to their maximum potential, as if weighed down by tons of explosives, and their firm strength had once again gripped his hands.

When he opened his eyes again, they had changed from pure black to burning gold.

The feeling of power was quite strong. Yao Bingling even had the real feeling that he could tear apart a tank with his bare hands and kick a Titan with one foot.

“This is only the first phase?…”

“Wow, you’ve got a great physique, sir.”

The second voice appeared, with an expression of an uninvited guest on his face, holding the uninvited guest’s weapon in his hand, standing where the uninvited guest was. Xing Mar, whose entire body was practically screaming “uninvited guest,” held a long, thin, twisted sword that easily reminded people of steel thorns growing on a sword.

She stood upwind, smiling at Yao Bingling below. That was the only way for Yao Bingling to return to the war zone.

“…I’m in a hurry, please make way, child.”

Yao Bingling already knew the other person’s identity very well, even though the person was unfamiliar. He figured the other person was a newcomer who had joined the organization during the ten years he had been away. And, at this age… was the person from that orphanage?

But the manic aura and the oppressive feeling of encountering a large carnivore both spoke of the danger posed by this seemingly child.

What if I don’t?

“…Didn’t Cocolia tell you?” Yao Bingling lowered his body, his posture resembling that of a wild beast poised to hunt. “How dangerous am I?”

“That’s exactly the answer I wanted, otherwise taking you away alone would be quite boring!”

Xing Mar grinned excitedly as the ground beneath her feet suddenly exploded. The powerful impact caused an explosion across the entire area. Her speed at that moment even exceeded 60 km/h, which shortened the distance between the two people by about two breaths.

Without uttering any further words, he simply aimed at Yao Bingling’s hand and slashed down with all his might.

However, a second roar occurred here, also caused by the ground exploding due to the high-speed impact. Yao Bingling, who was also rushing towards Xing’er, was even 30% faster than her.

Completely unable to process what had happened, Xing’er only realized she had lost her weapon when her hands were completely empty.

He grabbed the blade of the thorny longsword in Xing’s hand with his right hand. He didn’t care that the sharp blade cut his palm. Just like before, he used an unimaginable amount of violence to disarm her.

Then came a swift, spinning, powerful split kick that struck Xing’er’s body, sending her crashing into a tree several meters away before she finally landed on the ground.

“…Good physical condition, combat experience…” A sudden sharp pain shot through his abdomen, followed by excruciating pain that would cause him to convulse with the slightest movement. Yao Bingling looked down at his abdomen, where a gleaming knife had been inserted at some point, and hot blood was dripping from it onto the ground, igniting hot white smoke.

When I kicked her, the distance wasn’t enough for her to stab me. In other words… did she complete this ambush the instant I took her weapon? What terrifying reaction speed and adaptability.

“……pretty.”

Yao Bingling said this as he pulled the small knife out of his abdomen as if he felt no pain. This action made him frown, not only because of the pain, but also because of the unexpected length of the knife. The ten-centimeter blade pierced into his body without even reaching the hilt, and had damaged some of his internal organs in the process.

If not handled carefully, this would undoubtedly be a fatal injury.

“Are you really human?” A hand reached out from under the broken tree and easily pushed aside the ancient tree that weighed hundreds of kilograms.

Anne Marle, who had just taken a split kick, looked like she only had her clothes a little dirty. But she patted her ribs, which had been kicked, with a rather wicked sense of humor: “That hurt!”

“…Are you human?”

The power of the Golden Crow is unmistakable; it’s a power that Yao Bingling has personally experienced. But this child… seems a bit off.

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m asking you a question! Ugh! This is infuriating… But, isn’t that what battles are all about!?”

Xing’er suddenly reached out towards Yao Bingling, or more precisely, towards the weapon that Yao Bingling was holding the blade of!

The vibration from the blade in his hand instantly made Yao Bingling feel a strong sense of crisis. Without thinking, he released his grip on the sword, but the next moment a sharp pain still came from his palm and went straight to the back of his hand.

Dark purple spikes emerged from the back of his hand, the icy touch becoming strangely eerie due to the heat of his blood, and a faint white mist from the intense heat immediately began to waft across his palm.

He abruptly pulled his hand away and kicked the blade, sending it flying.

But the moment his foot touched the blade, the thorns bursting from the blade pierced his entire foot. The intense pain made his eyes widen, and he realized in that instant that this thing was not so easy to get rid of. So he decisively broke his leg and slammed the blade into the ground!

Blood splattered everywhere.

The sound of bones and flesh being cut apart was the sound of Yao Bingling’s foot almost being severed by his violent escape.

His foot was cut in half vertically, and the damage to the foot bone was obvious. Even one of his toes flew off. It was a terrible price to pay, but the effect was remarkable. He got rid of the sword.

“Pretty surprising, right? An anti-entropy product, Honkai Mercury, can mimic various forms according to the user’s consciousness, and its density will also change during the process.” Anzu was quite satisfied with her masterpiece, and she clapped her hands and laughed.

[Such cutting-edge technology as always, no wonder it’s from the former North American branch!]

“Of course, this thing can be used in many ways besides this, it can also be used like this!”

The mercury suspended in mid-air changed; it transformed from the shape of a sword into an irregular liquid state, and then from the irregular liquid state into a long, serpentine, self-aware, tracking weapon in the blink of an eye!

Without any hesitation, he didn’t even care whether the injury on his foot would affect his movements; he simply jumped back immediately, trying to create distance.

The corrupted mercury immediately followed, and in that instant, its tip transformed into a sharp arrow aimed at Yao Bingling’s head!

The time was so short, almost too short to react, yet Yao Bingling managed to capture the mercury’s trajectory with his dynamic vision and instantly turned his head to dodge the attack…

“Too naive!”

Xing’er’s roar exploded in his ears. The middle section of the mercury snake, which should have dodged, deformed in less than 0.12 seconds when it was close to Yao Bingling’s neck skin. Like a fishhook, it barbed accurately pierced Yao Bingling’s neck flesh and blood, and in an extremely short and high speed, it passed through his neck and took away a piece of flesh the size of an infant’s fist!

“Well!!!”

The fatal blow to Yao Bingling’s vital parts caused him to pause in his movements. Xing’er immediately flashed a fierce light in her eyes, grabbed the mercury “long snake” that had returned to her side, and threw it with all her might at Yao Bingling, who was in a sluggish state!

The mercury instantly transformed into a spear, its tip and sharpness essentially formed from elongated steel needles! Furthermore, double blades appeared on both sides of the spearhead, designed to widen wounds and create large-area lacerations.

Xing Mar seemed to have completely forgotten that her goal was to capture Yao Bingling alive, and instead aimed at his heart!

However, an unexpected change occurred.

Although Yao Bingling, whose body was originally sluggish, maintained that state, his arm suddenly rose. In an instant, only his arm could be seen moving in a blur. The speed was indistinct and his instantaneous judgment enabled him to grab the mercury gun that Xing Mar had thrown.

“Idiot, haven’t you learned your lesson yet!”

Xing’er chuckled wickedly, intending to manipulate the mercury gun to extend its sharp spikes and slice off Yao Bingling’s entire hand. However, she quickly stopped laughing… because the broken mercury gun seemed to have lost control. Instead of immediately transforming under her command, it was suppressed by some kind of force.

It was restless in Yao Bingling’s hands.

“That’s slow enough,” Yao Bingling said softly.

Temperatures soared, reaching fever pitch. Heat was visibly rising from Yao Bingling’s body, his skin turning a deathly pale, bloodless color, and his eyes, slightly raised, gradually transformed from the black of night to the golden hue of the sun!

“That’s slow enough”—this phrase can be used in many contexts, such as the speed of Anne Mar’s javelin throw. Especially considering he caught the javelin in his hand, he could indeed say the opponent’s javelin throw was slow enough. But he wasn’t referring to that… rather, to his own speed of Honkai energy supply.

This could be considered his first real use of the Golden Crow’s power, and the connection between the two had just been established. The energy supply would naturally not be instantaneous, and being suppressed by this brat felt terrible, but at least he had managed to hold on.

With the power structure complete, the first phase has officially taken shape.

His pupils burned like flames, and the ever-increasing temperature formed a transparent flame domain a meter away from his body. Within this flame domain, the Honkai energy mercury became extremely unstable due to the high temperature and the injection of a second type of Honkai energy. This instability was fully revealed after the second second!

It wasn’t an eruption, but rather a melting state. Drops of oil and silvery mercury fell from Yao Bingling’s hand, landing on the ground and scorching into high-temperature white smoke.

“If you want to run, I won’t stop you.”

“Who would run away!”