What Lies Beneath the Waves?

"So... the operational plan against the Yaksha..." Michael asked, the question hanging in the air a little awkwardly.

Silence stretched for a moment.

Then, Himeko's voice, firm and newly determined, came through the comms. "The bait plan remains unchanged. I'm not that fragile."

Michael breathed a sigh of relief.

Whether that relief came from Himeko's strength or the simple fact that the plan wasn't changing... even he wasn't sure.

He turned to Sakura, huddled in the shadows of the corner, wanting to offer some words of comfort. But she spoke first.

"Squad Leader, do you think the Honkai eruption in these three blocks really happened by chance?"

Her voice, calm and steady, drifted from the shadows, yet it struck Michael like a thunderbolt.

He had been trapped in his preconceived notions, always believing Honkai was a natural phenomenon from a scientific perspective. But what if it wasn't a natural disaster, but man-made?

Michael closed his eyes, countless details replaying in his mind. He felt like he had missed a crucial clue.

Was it the strange city official? No. There were many things about his behavior that Michael couldn't understand, but that was irrelevant. Besides, his attitude seemed to differ from City Hall's.

His act of welcoming them seemed to be concealing something, but because it was so deliberate, it felt like he was intentionally leading the Fifth Squad to dig deeper.

Could it be that he was simply incompetent? It wasn't impossible, but Michael believed he was the assistant who had invented the serum. Such a person making such a low-level mistake was possible, but unlikely.

City Hall's attitude was clear. They had immediately refused Himeko's request to contact the evacuees from the blocks.

Could it be that the city official had given those orders?

The more Michael thought about it, the more confused he became. He decided to discard all his assumptions and re-analyze the objective facts:

[The anomaly in the three blocks occurred about a month and a half ago, engulfing the area within a week. Ruruye City Hall reacted immediately, evacuating tens of thousands of people within another week. According to Harris, these evacuees were almost all infected with Honkai sickness…]

Pacing back and forth, Michael pulled out his phone, searching Fire Moth's internal network for reports of similar missions.

[Two years ago, a small-scale Honkai eruption occurred in the Rockford area. It began in a suburban town and expanded to a third of the urban area within half a month. The United Government declared Rockford abandoned. The city had 130,000 residents; around 34,000 died from Honkai sickness over the next year and a half.]

[Thirteen months ago, another small-scale Honkai eruption struck Biling City, starting in the Bell Tower District. The local city hall quickly sealed and quarantined the area. But within a month, Honkai sickness spread to two nearby districts. The United Government chose to abandon half of Biling City. Out of 1.2 million residents, 174,000 were infected within six months. This was the highest-casualty Honkai eruption globally before the Irkutsk incident, with the death toll nearly double that of Vostok six years prior. The mass casualties forced the United Government to expend significant effort covering up the truth about the Honkai.]

[...]

Michael clenched his fists, untrimmed fingernails digging into his palms, drawing beads of blood.

"I see… Firstly, Biling City has already proven that blockading is useless against Honkai. It can't stop its spread. And in both Rockford and Biling, the Honkai spread rapidly within half a month to a month. In Ruruye, the Honkai's emergence and spread to three blocks follow this pattern."

"But strangely, the spread of Honkai has been contained in the past month. The other blocks seem completely unaffected!"

"And according to Harris, almost everyone was infected with Honkai sickness within a week. This doesn't match the situation in Rockford and Biling…"

"Squad Leader!" Sakura whispered.

Michael turned around and saw Harris, supporting himself against the wall, coming up the stairs.

Suddenly, Michael realized what he had overlooked. He quickly spoke into the comms, "Captain, can I request a supply of food, water, and other necessities?"

"Yes," came Himeko's reply. "City Hall is probably a dead end, but Fire Moth has a small base in Ruruye. I'll requisition supplies from there. I've also reported the situation here to headquarters. If they agree, we can evacuate them…"

Her words trailed off into a sigh.

"Harris, we'll send a batch of supplies by drone soon… While it can't alleviate the sickness…"

"I understand." Harris shrugged. "Your organization is better than I thought… You know, when I heard you were coming yesterday, I couldn't sleep, afraid you'd take me back. But then I thought, it doesn't matter. Just like you said, we're all going to die anyway. It's just a shame I can't tell the world what happened here."

"Don't worry!" Michael said seriously. "We'll let the world know. I promise you."

"Forget it. That's just wishful thinking. Your department is part of the United Government, isn't it? Doesn't your superior have connections with Ruruye's city officials?"

Michael remained silent.

"But it doesn't matter now. At least someone knows. Kid, I beg you, remember this. Remember it decades from now, when perhaps no one cares about what happened here. Then, you must write it down and tell the world, okay?"

Harris gripped Michael's shoulder.

Michael nodded quickly, then asked, "Harris, you've seen that Fire Moth is different from Ruruye City Hall. And… they don't have much time left… Accept Fire Moth's help. While we can't cure Honkai sickness, we can at least…"

"I understand…" Harris nodded. "If they agree, I have no objections… Actually, the truth is, most of us are on the verge of collapse. If you hadn't come, maybe in two days, most of them would have left the blocks and surrendered themselves to City Hall…"

Michael felt a wave of relief wash over him.

"I won't say much more. You want to kill that moth-like monster… oh, the Honkai beast, right? We encountered it once. We might be able to provide some intel."

"Please, tell me!"

Mentioning the Yaksha, Michael's attention sharpened.

"It was 26 nights ago. We were returning to the Tower after gathering supplies when a white streak flashed past. The person next to me was gone. When we followed the trail, the Honkai beast was already carrying them away, two or three hundred meters in the air… I don't know why, but even though I reacted, I couldn't move. Heheh, maybe I was scared stiff."

"But back then, the Honkai beast wasn't that strong. There were twenty of us at first, and then more and more people gathered after hearing the commotion – over fifty men in total. We used almost all our bullets in that fight, and that's when I lost my eye."

Michael froze in shock. Could over fifty Honkai sickness sufferers rival a Yaksha?

And Harris had survived. That was impossible! He, Elysia, and Sakura had all been in considerable danger last night!

Michael quickly asked, "Did you… kill it once?"

Harris nodded, then hesitated before asking, "You killed it last night too?"

"Yeah."

Harris shook his head with a wry smile. "We didn't expect it to revive, and it became even bigger and stronger. In the end, we scattered, and only thirteen of us survived… It seems you already know. I'm sorry, I couldn't provide any useful intel."

No, it's not entirely useless… Michael thought.

"How did the Honkai beast revive? Did many smaller Honkai beasts gather… um… and make a cocoon for it?"

Harris was taken aback. "Yes, that's exactly what happened."

Michael narrowed his eyes, thinking.

"The Yaksha revives by consuming other Honkai beasts? No, impossible. That should be Vishnu's characteristic… No, no, that's wrong. This ability to drain a Honkai beast dry… Where have I seen this before?"

Michael struggled to recall, his mind racing. Finally, the answer surfaced from a distant memory – it was in Vostok, six years ago. He had been holding a cake he bought for Elysia when he encountered a "little mosquito."

That was when he began his transformation into a Herrscher. The first thing he did was absorb all the Honkai energy from the little mosquito, leaving it a dried husk.

"So, the Yaksha isn't reviving but absorbing excess Honkai energy to accelerate cell division at the wound site, achieving rapid healing. And the excess Honkai energy makes it stronger…"

He paused, his thoughts racing.

"But why would it absorb Honkai energy from other Honkai beasts? Back then, I clearly felt Honkai energy converging on me from all directions… Wait! Could it be that the Honkai energy concentration here isn't sufficient?"

Michael frowned. "But if the concentration is insufficient, how could a Yaksha be born…"

"Wait!"

The pieces clicked together in his mind, like a puzzle finally revealing its image.

He understood. Michael understood. Everything made sense!

"What if the initial Honkai energy was sufficient, but then decreased?"

But what could cause the Honkai energy concentration to first meet the threshold for birthing an Emperor-class Honkai beast and then rapidly decline?

It couldn't be that someone removed a large amount of Honkai energy, could it?

"?"

"Honkai is essentially energy radiation… If a radiation source were introduced into the blocks, controlling its intensity and dispersal, it could trigger a high-level Honkai energy reaction without spreading too quickly."

Michael paused, the implications of his thoughts unsettling.

"Removing the source afterward would create the current situation – the radiation barely expands, and the Yaksha, which should be an Emperor-class, can't reach its full potential due to insufficient Honkai energy."

He frowned, his mind racing.

"And this also explains why almost all the residents contracted Honkai sickness. While the controlled radiation didn't spread rapidly, the short-term damage to the human body is irreversible. Under a radiation source powerful enough to birth an Emperor-class Honkai beast, the only one who could avoid Honkai sickness would probably be a Herrscher like me."

Michael clenched his fists. "But what could serve as such a radiation source?"

He took a deep breath, calming his chaotic thoughts.

"Right, why did the Yaksha run towards the sea last night? Even though I scared it back."

His gaze shifted instinctively toward the sea, sweeping over the faint silhouette of Pompei on the horizon…