Lin pupils constricted. At that moment, his helmet finally locked onto the "things" emerging from the fissure.
"What... are those?"
They possessed forms resembling biological organisms, yet upon closer inspection, they revealed twisted shapes completely alien to nature. Every single one of them seemed to exist on a different plane of reality.
They weren't Honkai Beasts. However, looking at the word "Unknown" flashing on his HUD scan, Lin felt a terror that far surpassed anything a Honkai Beast could instill.
..........
"As expected, it triggered a change after all," he said to Yama, who was resting with closed eyes. "Whether it's you or me, what we did to that parallel world caused the Honkai to mutate. it's different from our time now... though this mutation doesn't seem to be caused solely by the Honkai."
"...Isn't this exactly what you hoped for?"
"Mm... I suppose so."
He chuckled, but there was no mirth in his voice.
"Even if only one remains, it's enough."
..........
"What the hell are those things..."
Employees working in skyscrapers stood by the windows, watching the dark purple "rain" flowing from the cracks in the sky, discussing it noisily.
"What are you all doing! Get back to your stations!"
Reprimanded by their supervisor, they were about to disperse. It was just rain of a different color; it had nothing to do with them...
Boom!
A heavy impact, accompanied by the wind rushing through a smashed hole, blasted into their consciousness. Everyone stared in daze at the point of impact—rubble, a gaping hole, and... a monster, roaring.
A transparent creature, resembling a crab but with a rounded shell, scrambled up from its fallen state. Then, it let out a bizarre, soul-shaking howl: "Gwaaaaaah—"
...
Lin pushed through the crowd, running in the opposite direction of the fleeing masses. He stared at the grotesque monsters constantly crawling out of the rift, dropping into the city one after another. Because the fissure's position wasn't fixed in a single visual direction, the monsters were falling across the entire city.
In less than a minute, roars echoed throughout the city, accompanied by the panicked screams of people fleeing. Disaster never arrives when you are prepared.
A monster crashed down ahead of him. Lin saw it crush a sedan before shaking its body and standing up. It looked like a preying mantis magnified countless times, two stories tall. After standing, its two sharp foreclaws scraped together, making a piercing sound. It quickly locked onto the nearest person fleeing with their back turned.
Its strong hind legs pressed against the ground, then it lunged like a bolt of black lightning toward the person's back!
Boom!
Another person tackled the fleeing civilian. The pair of foreclaws sliced through the air above their heads, cleanly shearing off the top of another sedan like a knife through tofu.
The person who had been tackled was too terrified to move. If he hadn't been knocked down just now, he would have been sliced in half.
"Run. Quickly."
A calm voice appeared by his ear. He didn't have time for anything else; he scrambled up and sprinted away.
Lin crouched low with one hand on the ground. After its strike missed, the dark purple mantis retracted its claws and turned its body, supported by four legs. Its massive, bulbous compound eyes stared at the human.
Is this a Honkai Beast?
Lin observed the monster's form in that brief moment. Compared to the inexplicable, seemingly conjured nature of Honkai Beasts, this thing had a higher similarity to natural organisms, like a high-tier Honkai Beast. Its shell fluctuated unstably, flickering like static on an old television screen, as if it couldn't stabilize its physical form.
This couldn't be a Honkai Beast. This species didn't exist in any records. Instead, Lin felt a sense of "familiarity" from it.
Before Lin next thought cycle could finish, the monster attacked again. It closed a distance of dozens of meters instantly, moving so fast it created a sonic boom. The fierce air pressure stung Lin skin. He watched the monster's movements intently, his nerves flashing a warning. Without thinking, he rolled forward.
Crash!
The two razor-sharp claws pierced the ground. Lin had already rolled beneath it. He drew his pistol and aimed at its rear abdomen!
Bang!
In his vision, Lin clearly saw the bullet strike the monster's abdomen. However, the moment it touched the shell, it was slowed by a blurry layer of something, instantly losing its kinetic energy!
Ordinary bullets were somewhat effective against small Honkai Beasts, but this monster clearly possessed an ability entirely different. Lin didn't know if this power came from its flesh or some exotic energy.
Not even a scratch was left. Failing the strike, Lin kicked off the creature's belly and slid away.
"Roar!"
The monster lacked intelligence. Lin couldn't hear even the most basic biological emotion in its roar—the kind present in Honkai Beasts. Which meant... it might not even be a living organism.
Lin flipped to his feet, keeping low to move quickly. He glanced at the sky; the cracks had disappeared at some point, but the monsters remained in the city.
He had already sent a support request to the 10th Branch, but even with the fastest transport, it would take nearly fifteen minutes to reach Svatok 51. Without proper equipment, how was he supposed to deal with these bulletproof monsters?
"Lin!"
Just as the mantis monster turned to lunge at him again, Lin heard Vil-V voice from behind. The sensors on the back of his helmet immediately activated, capturing the image of Vil-V waving at him.
Lin pupils shrank. He roared without thinking: "Hide!"
"Catch!" But Vil-V threw a straight longsword—lacking a scabbard or a handguard—toward him, then immediately dropped to the ground. The monster skimmed over her head, the gale nearly flipping her over.
Lin thought of nothing else. He turned and charged toward Vil-V as another crab-like monster dropped behind her. He leaped into the air, catching the longsword mid-flight, and then felt a very slight sting at his waist.
No, it wasn't a slight sting. It was his senses being weakened countless times; a lethal wound had been reduced to a minor pain.
On the ground, Vil-V eyes widened. Two drops of blood fell onto her face.
She saw Lin in mid-air. Across his abdomen, a terrifying gash had been sliced open. Blood was escaping his body uncontrollably. The mantis monster was also in the air, the blood on its claws proving it was the culprit.
"Stay down!" Lin coughed up a mouthful of blood and descended from the sky, driving the blade into a gap in the crab monster's shell!