"Done!"
"Does anything feel off?"
Inside the Flame-Chasers' base, Vill-V, holding a welding torch and pliers, took off the protective mask hanging on her face.
"Thank you."
"I feel... very good."
A completely bare Armed Automaton sat up from the machine bed.
Though its body was forged from metal, it didn't look like steel at all; even its touch was indistinguishable from a human's.
She casually picked up the clothes by the bed.
The pink-haired Armed Automaton standing up in front of Vill-V was none other than Sakura. The soul of Sakura, preserved in [Yudu Chen], had been successfully injected into the Armed Automaton created by Vill-V through Mobius's consciousness transfer experiment.
Right now, Sakura was at Vill-V's for routine maintenance.
"But..."
The pink-haired girl touched her own fox ears.
"I still don't understand why you had to keep the ears."
Vill-V put down her tools and said:
"This is called a 'moe point'."
"Besides, I think you should be used to these ears by now, Sakura."
"If we suddenly removed them, it would be terrible if some maladjustment symptoms appeared."
"Click."
As Sakura and Vill-V were talking, the laboratory's metal door suddenly opened, and Dr. Mei, unaccompanied by Elysia, walked in.
"Oh my?"
"What a rare guest."
"What brings you to my place for a tour today?"
Over the past half-year, aside from a few important project milestones, and besides Sakura and Elysia, the other Fusion Warriors had barely seen Dr. Mei.
"Vill-V."
"That experiment has reached its final step."
"If the work on the 'Divine Keys' is finished... to ensure the success of the final step, I need your help."
Dr. Mei's dark circles were already quite severe. Paired with her disheveled hair, it almost completely ruined her beautiful face.
"Our help?"
"Mobius's side..."
"Yes, Mobius's 'Super-Metamorphosis Experiment' is all finished."
The Super-Metamorphosis Experiment and the mass-produced Divine Keys.
The Herrscher of Domination had inflicted enormous damage on human society, but it had also contributed its power to the development of civilization. The Flame-Chasers used the Thousand-Person Herrscher's cores to create mass-produced [Keys of Domination] that possessed various weakened Herrscher authorities.
At the same time, relying on these Divine Keys.
Dr. Mei and Mobius initiated a plan to mass-produce Fusion Warriors using Meta-Morph agents (agents rich in Honkai Beast genes).
This was the "Super-Metamorphosis Experiment" mentioned just now.
Over 200 doses of MM agents had been manufactured by Mobius's hand. At the same time, a number of Keys of Domination equal to the MM agents—
"Is that so."
"Mobius is quite efficient."
"But, my side is not lacking in the slightest, you know~"
"Snap!"
With a soft snap of Vill-V's fingers, several huge mechanical cabinets slowly descended from both sides of the massive laboratory.
Accompanied by the sound of opening gears.
A dazzling golden light began to shine throughout the entire space!
"Ta-da!"
"The fruits of a full 247 Herrscher cores are all here."
Vill-V casually took out a golden one-handed broadsword. This rather gaudy, nouveau riche style was a special complimentary service she included when creating Divine Keys. If Dr. Mei wasn't so pressed for time, she would never have let Vill-V mess around like this.
"Two hundred Keys of Domination."
"Although it's slightly less than the number of MM agents, well, considering that not all of Mobius's 'test subjects' will succeed, this should be enough."
"As for the remaining cores—"
"Clang!"
The Key of Domination was casually tossed back into the cabinet.
"Mei, according to your ideas, they were modified into 'True Divine Keys'."
"Even if they can still only be used once, compared to those previous counterfeits, they can at least unleash the power of a 'Zeroth Power Rating'."
"As for this..."
From beneath their feet, a giant metal cabinet, from which a bone-chilling cold could be felt even though it was completely sealed, slowly rose.
"Thirty Cores of Domination."
"Plus the 24 pseudo-Herrscher cores we collected earlier... the theoretical usage time can reach five minutes."
"On the premise that Kevin doesn't enter that form."
Dr. Mei clearly knew what Vill-V was referring to—
"If..."
"If he really uses that move."
Vill-V, seeing the slight frown on Dr. Mei's face, proactively interrupted and took over the conversation, then slowly raised her index finger.
"I'm afraid it might not even last for a single blow."
"..."
"I understand."
Dr. Mei ended the topic.
"Leave the matter of the Divine Keys to Su."
"Aside from the internal Super-Metamorphosis Experiment, we've also 'recruited' a large number of external volunteers... although not many survived."
The Flame-Chasers weren't as benevolent as one might imagine.
But at least one could get a full meal here. Don't be fooled by the temporary stability of the human world; that was only barely achieved by using a few super-metropolises as strongholds. The slightly more remote human territories had been abandoned at the first opportunity.
"Social outcasts" willing to become guinea pigs were currently available in any number one could want.
"External volunteers, huh..."
Vill-V was well aware of the cruelty in that phrase.
Humanity was gathering all its strength to fight the Honkai, but the major powers, whose organization had been almost completely destroyed by the Herrscher of Domination, could no longer organize large-scale screening efforts. To find enough people with Honkai energy adaptability, this method of "filling the ranks with human lives" was the most efficient.
"I don't even know if it's enough to buy time."
Amidst Vill-V's sigh, Dr. Mei spoke calmly:
"All sacrifices have their value."
"Their contributions will be transformed into the fruit of victory."
Dr. Mei handed the tablet in her hand to Vill-V.
"The First Divine Key... it's already complete?"
"Yes."
"And 'she' already has her own name: Prometheus—the first quantum computer in human history."
"Next."
"As long as we let 'her' enter that... even without relying on Kevin, we will have the power to defeat the Honkai."
"Even if the Black Emperor reappears, humanity will not fear him in the slightest."
Dr. Mei's words were resolute.
To create this device, she had poured all her heart and soul into it over the past half-year.
Powered by the Moonlight Throne, equipped with the [War God] railgun, the crystal of civilization—
[Divine Machine · Avalon]