The Eve of Destruction

"Rin, I can understand that the current situation might be a little difficult for you to accept."

Lee lowered her gaze and said softly, "But your body did test positive for a Herrscher reaction. You might need to stay here for a while... After Mei and the others have investigated, I'll let you out as soon as possible."

Rin cautiously raised her head and looked at Lee, her eyes still shimmering with tears. ".....Really?"

"Yes, I promise you."

Seeing that Rin was still willing to trust her, even after knowing that Lee had brought her here, brought a slight sense of relief to Lee's face. "The people here won't hurt you anymore... I'll talk to them."

"I want to see my sister....."

"That, for the time being, is not possible."

Rin was Sakura's sole reason for living, and the reason she joined the Fire Moth and even Poison Cocoon. For Sakura, her sister was definitely more important than humanity.

If Sakura knew that her sister had been captured and imprisoned as a Herrscher, and even had her blood drawn to become an experimental subject, she would undoubtedly disregard all her missions and storm back to headquarters to rescue her sister.

And having her first request denied caused Rin to sadly bury her head in her knees again.

".....I'll come visit you often, okay?"

"Mhm....."

Knowing that Rin's mood and feelings must be terrible right now, Lee simply sighed softly when she saw that Rin was no longer willing to talk.

She prepared to get up and leave, giving Rin some time alone before coming back later.

However, when she reached the door, she heard Rin's soft question.

"Big Sis Lee, why didn't you kill me? My sister told me before that Big Sis Lee never shows mercy to Herrschers....."

Lee's footsteps faltered for a long time.

Finally, she lowered her head and gave a self-deprecating smile.

".....Maybe it's because I'm a coward."

.....

At Lee and Mei's request, the Fire Moth members guarding Rin, though they looked displeased, ultimately had to accept Lee's orders.

They stopped deliberately attacking and verbally abusing Rin, and Rin's cell was upgraded from a six-sided transparent glass box to a normal room with a bit of privacy.

But despite this, Rin's danger as a suspected Herrscher still couldn't be ruled out, so she still couldn't leave her cell.

While Sakura was still kept in the dark, busily carrying out missions, only Lee visited Rin almost every two or three days.

Although Lee was the one who personally brought Rin to the cell, she was now the only person Rin could communicate with.

Coupled with the immense pressure Rin was under in prison, her affection for Lee began to climb rapidly, as expected.

And Lee wasn't just doing nothing but raising affection levels.

According to the plot in her memory, Rin became a Herrscher after being killed. Before that, she was just an ordinary person with a Herrscher reaction.

And in these years of understanding, Lee could roughly determine that those who became Herrschers had their consciousness devoured by the newly born Herrscher consciousness, thus their personality dissipated, and they became messengers of humanity's destruction.

Since it wasn't a change in their original personality, there must be a struggle between the Herrscher consciousness and the host's consciousness when the Herrscher consciousness was born.

It was just that the Herrscher consciousness was far stronger than that of ordinary humans, so this process was extremely short.

But if a Herrscher specializing in consciousness intervened, things could become unpredictable.

Therefore, during these days, Lee had added consciousness protection to Rin, so strong that even if Su and Aponia came together, they wouldn't be able to break through Rin's consciousness in a short time.

As for the rest, it depended on Rin's own willpower – but since Lihua saw the Herrscher of Corruption, it probably wouldn't be enough.

.....

"Lee..... Lee?"

Vill-V's call brought Lee back from her thoughts.

Looking at the seemingly still-dazed Lee, Vill-V said helplessly, "Did you even listen to my product presentation? I specifically opened this for you!"

"Of course I did. I just suddenly remembered something."

Lee smiled and looked at the row of life support pods behind Vill-V. Today, Vill-V had excitedly contacted her to call Lee over to see her latest invention as soon as possible.

"Is this the Divine Key modified by the Clockmaker?" Lee pondered. "During the battle against the Herrscher of Legion, the Clockmaker's power was indeed quite astonishing... To be able to transform such a terrifyingly powerful weapon into these cryo-sleep pods, as expected of you, VV."

Vill-V, who was already full of pride, almost stuck her tail up in the air after hearing Lee's praise.

She confidently crossed her arms and said, "Isn't that obvious~ I renamed it The Great Hibernation. Even if we don't win against the Herrscher of Finality in the end, we can crawl into these and sleep until the next civilization appears, and then reorganize our forces to fight the Honkai!"

"That's amazing....." Lee, counting the number of sleep pods, nodded, then her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "But, there aren't many, are there?"

"Yeah, after all, the energy required to instantly freeze and preserve a person's body without damage is quite enormous. But the output power of the Herrscher of Ice Core is limited. If there were more sleep pods, there might be problems."

Vill-V looked at the Everlasting Slumber pods beside her and said casually, "But seven is pretty good, right? After all, didn't Mei say that the so-called Herrscher of Finality that will appear in the end is very strong? If we win against the Herrscher of Finality, we won't need them. If we lose... there probably won't be many people left when we return from the Herrscher of Finality. Seven pods might not even be full."

".....What if we don't defeat the Herrscher of Finality, but we temporarily paralyze her and buy some time?"

"Oh, that's a possibility – then we'll just have to draw lots to decide, see who's lucky."

Vill-V leaned against the sleep pod and said easily, "Thirteen into seven, the survival rate is over 50%. As for the rest, I wish them good luck. After all, even if the Herrscher of Ice Core could handle that much energy, we wouldn't be able to make that many sleep pods. If we gathered together and were discovered by the Herrscher of Finality and wiped out in one go, all our efforts would be in vain~"

What Vill-V said would be considered insane by outsiders, but Lee didn't refute it. She just silently looked at the sleep pods in front of her.

"Speaking of which, Lee, you don't seem to be in such a hurry lately." Looking at Lee's peaceful expression, Vill-V couldn't help but say.

".....Am I in a hurry?" Lee looked at Vill-V, puzzled.

"Super hurried, especially when building the fortresses. It was like you wanted all three city clusters to be completed overnight, and everyone to move in."

Vill-V put her hand on her chin and thought, "It should be from the time that Rin was confirmed to be the Twelfth Herrscher. You seem to be in no hurry anymore..... What were you in a hurry for before, Lee?"

"Nothing." Lee shook her head. "It should be..... alright now."