Chapter 150: The Great Sin Mal's Downfall
Fu Hua lowered her gaze, her expression turning grave. "In other words, the perimeter outside is already completely surrounded by Anti-Entropy mechas?"
"That's not exactly a difficult problem to solve."
Rovel crouched at the edge of the subterranean lake. He pressed his palm flat against the glassy surface of the water. For a split second, nothing happened. Then, the previously tranquil current violently churned. A low, rumbling roar echoed through the cavern as a massive, violent whirlpool tore open the center of the lake.
Kiana staggered back, her blue eyes widening to the size of saucers. "Huh?! What kind of crazy ability is this?! Rovel, you can actually manipulate nature like this just using Honkai Energy?"
"Yeah, it's a little trick I picked up recently." Rovel nodded, keeping his hand hovering over the swirling vortex. "I can freely control water now."
Bronya floated closer, her gray eyes narrowing in intense scrutiny. "Rovel, you haven't secretly turned into a Herrscher, have you?"
It was a logical deduction. Who else besides a Herrscher possessed the sheer authority to use Honkai Energy to directly bend the forces of nature to their will?
"Uh..." Rovel chuckled, his fingers twitching as he guided the raging currents. "I'm definitely not a Herrscher, but I suppose I do have abilities that mimic one. It's a bit complicated to explain right now. I'll give you the full breakdown later."
Himeko crossed her arms, watching the water violently spin. "You Descenders really are a mysterious bunch," she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief.
Outside the hidden depths of Jiuyou, the ocean itself became a weapon. Anti-Entropy's heavily armored tactical mechas were swept up in the relentless, crushing pressure of the whirlpool, their reinforced hulls groaning before being ground into metallic dust bit by bit.
[Titan Mecha (Level 50) destroyed. Gained 35,000 EXP.]
[Thunder Mecha (Level 50) destroyed. Gained 32,000 EXP.]
[Magnetic Storm Mecha (Level 50) destroyed. Gained 30,000 EXP.]
Almost every few seconds, the crisp, mechanical chime of the system rang out in Rovel's mind, feeding him a steady stream of notifications.
A light tug on his sleeve broke his concentration. Bronya floated right beside him, pointing a small finger toward a specific section of the churning water.
Rovel nodded in understanding. He closed his eyes, extending his senses through the raging currents, feeling every ripple and disruption. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. He had caught a very specific anomaly. With a sharp, upward flick of his wrist, a geyser erupted from the surface.
Out of the spray, a small, thrashing figure was violently yanked into the air. It was a bratty girl with messy purple hair, heterochromatic eyes, and a mouth full of sharp, shark-like teeth. The water instantly solidified into thick, liquid ropes, tightly binding her limbs and suspending her helplessly in mid-air.
"It's her!" Kiana jabbed an accusing finger at the suspended girl. "She's the little psycho who's been hunting us down!"
"Cough... hack! Cough!" Sin Mal spat out a mouthful of seawater, her mismatched eyes glaring daggers at the group. "Put the great Sin Mal down right this instant, you miserable losers!" she shrieked, seemingly completely oblivious to the absolute peril of her current situation.
"No problem." Rovel offered a bright, entirely too cheerful smile.
He snapped his fingers. The liquid ropes binding her instantly dissolved into harmless mist. Gravity immediately took over, and Sin Mal plummeted like a stone.
Directly beneath her, the whirlpool raged like a massive meat grinder. Countless jagged shards of destroyed mecha armor spun within the vortex. If she were sucked into that churning abyss, those metal fragments would act like thousands of spinning blades, shredding her to pieces in seconds.
"Ahhh!!!" Sin Mal shrieked, her arrogant facade shattering into pure, unadulterated terror as the deadly vortex rushed up to meet her.
Just as her flailing hands brushed the deadly, churning foam, Rovel moved. His hand shot out, his fingers clamping like a vice around her slender ankle. He hoisted her up, leaving the bratty assassin dangling upside down, mere inches from a gruesome death.
"Ready to admit your mistakes?" Rovel's voice drifted down, calm and laced with dry amusement.
"..." Sin Mal hung there, trembling violently, her chest heaving as she stared wide-eyed at the spinning metal blades just below her nose. She was completely paralyzed by the lingering terror.
Deciding she needed a little push, Rovel kindly lowered his arm just a fraction of an inch. A freezing wave of seawater slapped violently against Sin Mal's face. The shock instantly rebooted her brain.
"You think I'll give in just like this?!" she sputtered, coughing up more saltwater as her signature arrogance flared back to life. "In the great Sin Mal's dictionary, the words 'admit mistake' do not exist!"
"Is that so?" Rovel sighed, feigning disappointment. "Bronya, did you happen to bring a camera? Let's take a few high-definition photos of her in this pathetic state as a little souvenir."
"Bronya, don't you dare!" Hearing this, Sin Mal thrashed wildly, her voice cracking in genuine panic as she shouted her threats. The great Sin Mal feared neither heaven nor earth, but she did have two absolute weaknesses: dying, and losing face.
"Project Bunny 19C, engage photography mode," Bronya stated in her usual flat, emotionless tone, fully cooperating with Rovel's psychological warfare. The massive mechanical construct materialized behind her, its optical sensors flashing with a bright, recording red light.
"Bronya!!!" Sin Mal let out a furious, humiliated roar, struggling helplessly against Rovel's iron grip.
"Alright, enough messing around with this brat," Himeko interrupted, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let's wrap this up and get out of here quickly."
"Brat?!" Sin Mal whipped her head around, her shark teeth bared in a vicious snarl. "You wrinkly old hag, how dare you call me a brat! Believe it or not, I'll skin you alive!"
She lashed out at Himeko with venomous fury. If there was one thing Sin Mal hated more than anything in her life, it was being called a brat. It struck a massive nerve, primarily because her physique was so tragically flat that if one were to cover her head, it would be physically impossible to tell her front from her back.
Rovel and Bronya instantly froze. The playful atmosphere evaporated in a millisecond. They both slowly turned their heads, giving the dangling purple-haired girl a look of deep pity that clearly screamed, 'You are entirely on your own now.'
"Old... hag..." Himeko repeated the words slowly, her voice dropping to a dangerously low, icy whisper. A terrifying, almost visible black aura of pure murderous intent began to violently emanate from her body.
Without another word, she marched forward and forcefully took over Rovel's position, snatching Sin Mal's ankle. For the next five minutes, the cavern echoed with Sin Mal's desperate screams as Himeko subjected her to a dizzying array of humiliating dangles, ordering Bronya to capture 360-degree, high-resolution, no-blind-spot photos of the great Sin Mal's absolute misery.
"Weren't we supposed to be leaving as soon as possible?" Fu Hua massaged her temples, utterly speechless at the chaotic display unfolding before her.
"It looks like Ms. Himeko's anger isn't going to subside anytime soon..." Mei offered a strained smile, a bead of nervous sweat sliding down her cheek. "By the way, Rovel, did you manage to find the Stigmata?" Mei turned her attention back to Rovel, her tone shifting to a more serious note.
"No..." Rovel paused, his gaze dropping to the cavern floor. He made a split-second decision to withhold the heavy truth of what Ji Lin had actually told him.
During their brief encounter, Ji Lin had revealed the tragic reality of her sacrifice. She had poured the entirety of her Stigmata's power into the Xuanyuan Sword, driving the legendary blade directly into Chiyou's heart to form the ultimate seal. But the battle hadn't ended there. The power of the Stigmata, carrying Ji Lin's very will, had been locked in a grueling, agonizing war against the massive Honkai beast for thousands of years.
She had been fighting entirely alone, trapped in an endless, suffocating darkness. To simply persevere and maintain the seal, she had been forced to systematically abandon all the love and hope in her heart, gradually allowing herself to walk alongside the very darkness she sought to destroy.
Because of this tragic fate, the pure remnant of Ji Lin's soul had pleaded with Rovel. She begged him to save the fractured piece of her will—the version of herself that had completely fallen to the darkness, consumed by millennia of crushing loneliness, fear, and bitter regret. To accomplish this impossible task, he would have to physically enter the rotting, corrupted depths of Chiyou's massive body and drag that corrupted will back into the light.
"Class Monitor, I need you to lead everyone out of here first. I might be delayed for a bit," Rovel said, looking up to meet Fu Hua's calm gaze.
"What exactly do you plan to do?" Fu Hua asked, her brow furrowing in slight confusion.
"I know exactly where Ji Lin's Stigmata is located. I made a promise to her that I would go in and bring her out," Rovel replied, his voice steady and resolute.
Mei stepped forward, her delicate fingers gently wrapping around Rovel's hand. Her dark eyes were swimming with unconcealed worry.
He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry about me. Besides my new trick with the water, I've also fully mastered 'Quantumization.' Ordinary physical attacks and hazards literally can't touch me anymore."
To prove his point, Rovel didn't just move—he ceased to exist in his current space. His physical form suddenly blurred and vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind. A split second later, the air rippled, and he materialized directly behind Bronya.
"Seriously, where do you keep pulling all these ridiculous, reality-breaking abilities from?" Even Himeko, who was currently busy torturing Sin Mal, paused to stare at him, utterly speechless.
"...Monster," Bronya evaluated flatly, not even bothering to turn around.
Rovel chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, that's the plan. You guys head for the surface first. Be careful, though. It might be even more chaotic up there than it is down here in the ruins. Just like during the Third Honkai Eruption, a massive swarm of Descenders is going to flood this location."
"Ugh, not those annoying Descenders again!" Kiana groaned, her face scrunching up in deep dissatisfaction.
During the chaos of the Third Honkai Eruption, the reckless, unpredictable swarms of Descenders had caused their squad an endless amount of grief. If Rovel hadn't mastered Dead Force at the critical moment and secured Yae Sakura's Stigmata, the Valkyries would have likely found themselves in lethal danger.
"Ahem." Rovel shamelessly leaned in close, bumping his shoulder against Kiana's with a teasing grin. "Does that mean you think I'm annoying too?"
Kiana's cheeks flushed a light pink. "...You're the most annoying one of them all!" she huffed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest and turning her head away in a classic, petulant pout.
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