Of course, Ryan knew how much risk Punishment Sword was taking—but this wasn't child's play. There was no room for reasoning or fairness.
This was war. A damn war. To win it, every means had to be exhausted. Whether one was a common soldier, a fusion warrior, or Ryan himself—they were all simply part of the cost of victory.
Death and sacrifice were inevitable; no one could escape them. At least Ryan had left Sakura behind, choosing not to sacrifice them and keeping himself intact.
"Then... it's my turn now."
Ryan stretched lazily, joints cracking audibly. He slowly descended the mountain, crossed over the guardrail, and stepped onto the jammed highway.
He reached out his hand, feeling the caress of the wind. Then, purple arcs of electricity crackled over his body, forming a thin cloak.
The glow wasn't intense. The Honkai energy dissolved everything around it as he stepped forward.
Just a single step—but the windspeed increased drastically. Ryan had already noticed this oddity, as if there was an invisible boundary.
Grass within the crack swayed violently, while the plants behind him only trembled lightly. Without a sharp eye, one would easily miss it.
Something's definitely strange. Let's see if my theory is right.
Ryan stood amid the abandoned vehicles, watching as the tattered fabric on skeletons fluttered and broken dolls rolled on the ground. He held the sword's hilt, muscles tensing, and began counting silently.
One, two, three...
He counted a full hundred seconds, his gaze not missing even a single blade of grass fluttering in the wind. The silence remained absolute, and only then did he slowly relax.
No death soldiers came to investigate. No feeling of being watched. Just as he suspected—it was like a radar system.
Wind touching an object and bouncing back allowed detection. But Ryan authority dissolved the Honkai energy directly, leaving no reflection, effectively rendering him invisible.
Of course, it could still be a trap—he might've already been discovered, with the Herrscher simply waiting for him to walk in.
Luckily, Ryan had one strength—before any action, he thought everything through in detail. But once he made a decision, his mind was consumed by a single will:
Absolute resolve. No turning back.
He raised his foot again and moved forward, picking up speed. Passing through the densely packed wreckage, stepping over the "Latinburg" road sign, he ventured deeper.
He constantly scanned his surroundings. But the deeper he went, the more strange it all felt. This wasn't a lion's den. Quite the opposite—there was nothing at all.
The roads were jammed with vehicles, rooftops overgrown with weeds, broken lampposts crushing trucks. A decapitated main battle tank lay across the road.
Everywhere was ruins and craters. Ryan could imagine the horror during evacuation—soldiers firing madly, civilians screaming as they fled.
He even saw a massive circular hole in the middle of a high-rise apartment, like a laser had blasted through it, slicing the overpass in half. A dozen tanks were stacked like dumplings.
"But where did the death soldiers and Honkai beasts go?"
Ryan looked around. Apart from the howling wind, only eerie silence remained. Before entering the city, he'd expected a zombie siege—yet now, there was absolutely nothing.
The signs of battle were clear. According to Moth of Pursuing Fire's data, Latinburg was attacked one afternoon, and its fall led to the abandonment of northern Britannia.
Something's off.
Even if the Herrscher was here, she wouldn't personally hunt down every scavenger. The deeper Ryan thought, the more suspicious it became.
Crossing through the industrial zone into the city center, he found the destruction even more staggering. A twisted iron tower had collapsed. Apartment buildings leaned precariously. The ground bore marks of intense heat.
N1 bombs—more than one.
There wasn't a single intact building. Asphalt roads had been ripped up by shockwaves. Charred remains of massive battle vehicle types littered the streets. The buildings were stripped bare.
Ryan glanced at the map. Up ahead was Latinburg's central plaza—once a bustling commercial hub, now reduced to rubble.
He hesitated on whether to go forward when his eyes narrowed. He dropped to the ground, ear pressed to the surface.
Footsteps? Lots of footsteps, right here underground?
Ryan frowned and tapped the tactical map. Soon, it displayed Latinburg's underground structure. He cross-referenced it with the vibrations' timing and direction.
The subway tunnels. They're hiding down there!
The fog began to clear. Ryan had known Latinburg couldn't be a dead city. But now a new mystery emerged.
Large-scale movement—what are they planning?
No time to ponder. The ground itself began to tremble. Ryan quickly leapt toward a nearby apartment building. Scaling the wall, he climbed thirty floors to the rooftop terrace.
Gripping the railing, he took in the vast cityscape. Then, at the edge of the city, he saw it—a black spindle-shaped object, drilling a massive hole into the ground.
"That's an Emperor-class Honkai beast… and not in the Fire Moth database."
Ryan eye twitched. And this was only the beginning. Lead-like dark clouds turned day into night. A strange black spindle burst from underground—followed by Honkai Emperors, Sanctum types, Ballista types, War Chariots, Death Soldiers…
Like a geyser, a black tide erupted from the earth. Even Ryan, with all his observational prowess, couldn't count how many monsters surged forth.
Only one word came to mind:
Hyakki Yagyō—the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
Unknowingly, Ryan had gripped the railing so hard it twisted. He watched the black tide split in two—one stream heading north, the other south. A deep rumble echoed as fragile buildings began to collapse from the vibration.
Sounds intertwined like a symphony—but one that made Ryan pupils shrink. Still, he didn't act rashly. Tens of thousands of enemies—even just standing there—would exhaust him to death.
So many monsters moving at once—it was unprecedented in all recorded Honkai events. But Ryan felt no pride in witnessing history.
"Where is she? Only a Herrscher can command this many Honkai beasts. Why hasn't she shown herself?"
He realized trying to find her was a hopeless dream—there were too many enemies to differentiate. Without hesitation, he opened the comm system.
"Vinal, retreat to the coast immediately! A massive wave is headed your way—find defensible terrain during the withdrawal!"
The first message was for Punishment Sword. They were still tangled in an endless battle—breaking away wouldn't be easy.
"What's going on?" Vinal sounded confused. He had just mustered the courage to dive deeper into the quagmire—why was Ryan now telling him to fall back?
"You finally poked the hornet's nest and forced them out." Ryan spoke fast, no time to explain.
"Sakura—did you find Varuna?"
"Yes. It's hiding in the sky—seems to have some kind of invisibility."
Sakura crouched under rocks, the valley around her littered with corpses. Moments ago, an electromagnetic shell flew skyward—but was suddenly deflected.
Punishment Sword, struggling on the ground, hadn't noticed. But Sakura, ever watching in the shadows, had caught a faint trace.
"Varuna about to act—strike hard."
"Understood." Sakura nodded, hand resting on her sword hilt as she silently approached the battlefield.
This is your companion beast. You won't just sit and watch it fall to Sakura, will you?
Ryan murmured. He knew the Herrscher had no humanity—wouldn't impulsively rush to avenge it. Then he switched to another channel.
"Chief of Staff—what's your situation?"
Noise filled the line. Alarms blared faintly. Then Carius deep voice came through.
"Bad. No—unprecedentedly bad."
The blond man sat in a chair, watching massive red blips on the giant screen.
Large-scale enemy clusters created a Honkai convergence effect. From the satellite view, Britannia was crawling with Herrschers and high-tier Honkai beasts—especially concentrated at the central defensive line.
Anyone could guess this was the prelude to an all-out offensive. But the patrolling "White Swan" had no idea where to drop N1 bombs. Two probing strikes had already been blocked at the outskirts.
Ryan wasn't surprised. Herrschers weren't stupid—they wouldn't gather to be bombed. By the time strategic bombers arrived, there might be a true Judgment-class waiting.
"What's your plan?"
"Strike first—break through and carpet bomb. Otherwise, our defenses won't hold."
Carius was already on the phone. Ballistic missiles, fighter squadrons, and orbital weapons were all standing by.
"Don't rush—wait just a little longer."
On the eve of battle, Ryan remained surprisingly calm.
"Wait for what?"
"Wait for Sakura strike—to reveal her position. Just give me five minutes. That's all I need."
Ryan couldn't explain. Logically, the Herrscher should be in the south, ready to sweep Britannia. But he believed she had two goals.
Three Fire Moth teams landed from the north. One was wiped out. One was pinned. The third—vanished.
So, what if Ryan was with the missing team, on a decapitation mission?
Statistically plausible. Rationally speaking—killing Ryan or flattening Britannia—which was harder? Obviously, the former. And the goals weren't mutually exclusive. The millions of humans couldn't evacuate quickly.
As a fellow fisherman, Ryan sensed kindred instinct—this was a test of patience and will. Whoever acted first would lose.
Just as Calice fell silent, Ryan saw it: the black tide flowing south suddenly stopped.
Then came Sakura voice:
"I struck. Cut off Varuna's wing."
Listening to her rapid breathing, Ryan ended his thoughts. A smile slowly spread across his face.
"I'm certain—the Fourth Herrscher is in the north!"