Kevin's tone was resolute. He knew full well the side effects of this drug and how agonizing the healing process would be. But from the moment he became a soldier of MOTH, he had resolved never to fear any hardship.
He understood clearly that the Herrscher of Wind would not spare him. That meant he had to ensure he retained the ability to act.
There was even a possibility he would need to coordinate with the MOTH fleet and help them complete the kill against the Herrscher of Wind.
Seeing that Kevin had made up his mind, Minori had no choice but to take out the green serum produced by Mobius' laboratory and inject it into him.
The effects of Mobius' laboratory's serum were immediate. The first thing Kevin felt was excruciating pain—his abnormal bone proliferation was compressing his nerves.
Mmgh... haah... haah...
Kevin's face flushed crimson, cold sweat covering his forehead. He squeezed his eyes shut and endured the familiar agony with everything he had.
This was not the first time he had used this drug.
Once his body adjusted to the pain, Kevin felt sensation returning to his limbs. Bracing himself against the wall, he slowly stood up. Products from Mobius' laboratory might lack humanity, but their effectiveness was undeniable.
"Minori, go secure our retreat route... I... will follow shortly."
"Captain Kevin..." Minori clearly had not expected Kevin's obsession with defeating the Herrscher to run this deep. But an order was an order. "You have to survive, Captain Kevin!"
At this moment, flames of war burned across the outskirts. The Herrscher of Wind and the MOTH fleet led by Himeko were locked in a battle that shook heaven and earth.
Their figures darted like specters among shattered buildings and squadrons of fighter jets locked in combat, demolishing skyscrapers, statues, hills, and overpasses alike. The tension was suffocating, for this battle concerned the survival of all humanity.
Humanity's main force was the aerial battleship Tethys. The remaining fighters, reinforcement units, and airborne mecha cannons served only to provide cover for the floating warship.
Beyond that, humanity would receive no reinforcements. The North American operations command had already collapsed, and the intercontinental missiles capable of damaging a Herrscher had detonated alongside the destroyed nuclear warheads. To deploy other high-yield nuclear weapons would require launches from thousands of miles away, which was utterly impractical. The Herrscher would never obediently stand still as a target during that time.
Meanwhile, nearly all of humanity's remaining aerial combat power had already converged here. Unfortunately, due to the reckless misjudgments of the North American operations command earlier, a third of their active forces had been lost in probing attacks against the Herrscher of Wind.
On the forward deck of Tethys, invisible wind-pressure projectiles launched by the Herrscher blasted crater after crater into the surface, like silent war drums sounding the prelude to battle.
Tethys did not remain idle. Laser cannons struck the Herrscher of Wind's wind barrier, bursting into brilliant blue waves like fireworks blooming in the night sky.
After a brief exchange of probing attacks, the Herrscher of Wind summoned magnificent tornadoes around Tethys. Their bases connected to the ground, forming vast funnel-shaped shadows, while their tops stretched into the sky and merged with the storm clouds.
At the base of each funnel, violent air currents churned ceaselessly, uprooting soil, iron railings, and everything that could be torn free, sending them spinning wildly within the vortex. Thick dust blanketed the entire area, shrouding everything in hazy obscurity.
Five colossal tornadoes, like pillars that pierced the sky, surrounded Tethys with swirling sand and debris. They resembled five descending divine fingers intent on crushing humanity's final hope beneath their weight.
Yet Tethys, representing humanity, did not yield before the might of the Herrscher. The deck unfolded like the spread wings of a great bird. Amid thunderous rumbling, the particle acceleration ring radiated dazzling blue light. A powerful plasma field surged outward like a tidal wave, washing over the roaring, writhing tornadoes again and again.
This plasma field had been developed by MOTH based on the defensive model of the Third Herrscher. As MOTH's most advanced large-scale aerial flagship, Tethys was naturally equipped with this formidable defensive system.
The plasma field defense device not only prevented the electromagnetic control of the Herrscher of Thunder from affecting the battleship, but could also block and dismantle tornadoes conjured by the Herrscher of Wind.
The howling of the tornadoes gradually weakened under the relentless battering of the plasma field, until they were completely dispersed.
The Herrscher of Wind showed a hint of surprise. This was only the second time she had witnessed humanity destroying tornadoes under her control. The first had been through missile bombardment.
Humanity was no longer a trembling cub cowering before the forces of nature. They had grown steel fangs and claws. They had learned to strike back against nature itself.
Tethys launched another attack. Guided by a high-precision predictive targeting system, the heavy particle cannon locked onto the Herrscher of Wind. Condensed nuclear fusion energy cascaded forth once more, crashing against her defensive shield.
The high-temperature residual particles scattered by the shield melted the asphalt of the streets below. Around the Herrscher of Wind, the heat was even more intense. The extreme temperature felt like bathing in molten lava. Only by constantly channeling wind to carry the heat away did she avoid being melted alive.
The Herrscher of Wind frowned. She could feel her Honkai energy draining rapidly. Even as a Herrscher, she could not withstand this subatomic-level attack three times in succession.
Her initial Honkai energy level had been only 2600 Honkai Welt(s). Even after absorbing surrounding Honkai energy, she had barely reached 2800 Honkai Welt(s). Compared to the Third Herrscher, the Herrscher of Thunder, the gap was immense.
This was mainly because at the moment of her birth, driven by Wendy's obsession, she had immediately flown away from her place of origin instead of remaining to absorb her accompanying Honkai energy.
However, it was not without solution. Thanks to the authority of wind she possessed, acquiring Honkai energy was exceedingly convenient.
"Throne of the Wind!"
At her call, the surrounding Honkai energy surged toward her, tearing apart the void around her body and summoning a towering throne from Imaginary Space—the symbol of the wind's authority.
The Throne of the Wind appeared as a semi-transparent phantom, constantly twisting and rotating with the shifting winds. Around its seat danced wind spirits in countless forms—from gentle breezes to raging tempests. They tumbled, whirled, and leapt about the throne, as if singing praises to the deity of wind.
As the winds flowed around the throne, they stirred countless harmonious notes, like a magnificent symphony orchestra performing a stirring movement.
The moment the Throne of the Wind manifested, it seized control of the battlefield. The crimson heavy-particle streams fired by Tethys automatically curved away before it, like streams bowing in submission before a towering mountain.