Chapter 268 The Last Trust

"Report...cough cough cough! The fire in District 31 has been put out!"

"Immediately take all the equipment and rush to Area 38... Ahem! The fire there is the biggest and it has not been extinguished yet!"

There was a strange smell in the air, a variety of burnt, oily, meaty smells... that made people breathless.

The flames jumped out of thin air, and everything it touched, even stones and soil, burned. The cold water from the high-pressure water gun shot out. After being thrown into the sea of ​​​​fire, not only did it not play its due role, On the contrary, it was like adding fuel to the fire, making the flames beat even more arrogantly.

Mikael saw clearly that this fire was not a flame in the traditional sense. The heat energy it emitted did not come from the combustible material itself, but was directly converted from Honkai energy, so it could skip the preconditions for the reaction to occur. Fire is born directly through molecular motion.

And this method of stimulating flames is too familiar to Mikael, because this is the second power he really possesses——

The power of fire.

Obviously, the fire caused by the Herrscher's power cannot be extinguished by a simple high-pressure water cannon.

"Sakura, I leave it to you, go help them."

Stepping on the scorched earth that was still emitting residual heat and almost melting the rubber soles, Mikael gave instructions without looking back.

Sakura remained silent. If the fox ears on her head hadn't swayed slightly, it would have been hard to tell when she nodded.

And when Ellie squinted her eyes and focused on her fox ears, her whole person disappeared.

"Ah, Sakura's speed is already so fast!"

Ellie touched her palms together and praised her heartily.

"Oh, Alicia's face has become so round!"

Mikael replied heartily.

"Hey! Hey! Mikael, why do you always use this kind of thing to attack others? They will be very sad!"

Mikael tilted his head, twitched the corners of his mouth, and resisted the urge to continue complaining——

Alicia has now become more and more skilled in facing these merciless revelations, and it is almost impossible to see her as angry and frustrated as she was when she was a child.

Since there is no way to make the target of complaints jump with anger, the fun of complaints is directly reduced by more than half, which is not the most uncomfortable thing.

The most uncomfortable thing is that not only has her defense increased, but she has also learned to take advantage of the situation to counterattack:

"Oh... Really, the way you talk now is similar to Mebius... Although Mebius is also very cute, he is still slightly inferior to the one he used to be! How about it, Mikael? , do you want to smile like you did when you were a kid, and I’ll take a photo for you?”

"First, Alicia, you have said more than once that I was not cute at all when I was a child, and I couldn't even smile."

"Oh, I've been discovered... I don't care, I don't care, as long as it's Mikael, he's cute!"

"……well."

Mikael sighed softly:

"Second, let's get down to business now."

Without staying at the scene for too long, Mikael followed the weak Honkai reaction and quickly found two Herrscher individuals who were killed by the local guards, took away their cores, and then took Ellie and directly froze them. After being exposed to the fire, Sakura reunited and returned to Fire Chaser Moth's base.

"how?"

Seeing several people returning, Mei also didn't raise her head, and asked questions while carrying out the work at hand.

Kevin held the sky fire in both hands and stood beside her. On the one hand, it was naturally to prevent the previous assassination from happening again. On the other hand, he could also use fire to drive away the chill in the middle of the night.

"It's certain."

Mikael paused, and Mei's movements also paused for a moment.

What was determined? Mikael didn't say it, but both of them knew it - the Tenth Herrscher and the Thousand Herrscher were born just like in the "script".

Others naturally didn't understand, so Mikael took out the two cores found at the Rhine riot site, plus Carol's one, a total of three cores, and placed them in a row on the table.

Seeing that Kevin looked a little nervous, Mikael knew what he was worried about, so he explained:

"Don't worry, Kevin, the core of the Tenth Herrscher is different from the previous Herrscher core. If you feel the Honkai energy in it carefully, you will find that its energy fluctuations are minimal and will not have any impact on Mei."

After hearing this, Kevin's expression relaxed slightly, but then he tilted his head, blinked in confusion, pointed at the three cores and asked:

"No...that's not right. Shouldn't this be the core of the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Herrschers?"

"The response was very quick, but unfortunately, it would have been better if this was the case... No, I can't say it was good."

Mikael shook his head regretfully.

Kevin immediately realized that both Mei's calculations and the inscriptions left on the moon proved the fact that there were thirteen Herrschers in total. Excluding the last Herrscher of the End, there were twelve in total. .

If these were the 10th, 11th, and 12th Herrschers, they would be too weak, even worse than the early Mikael who had not experienced feathering and had a very low synchronization rate with the core.

And if it is true, it means that the end is coming soon, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

It's like students always look forward to the final exam coming soon, but when the real thing comes, they hate that the review time is too short.

So, unfortunately and fortunately, these are the core of The Tenth Herrscher.

"It seems that you understand that from a logical point of view, the Herrscher should be getting stronger and more targeted, but it is impossible for it to be getting weaker, let alone three in a row.

"From the perspective of power... we numbered these three cores as L10-001, L10-002, and L10-003 according to the time when the individuals appeared. The power displayed by their individuals, the first one, that is, Carol, did not display any power, the second one should have some power of consciousness according to speculation, and the third one is very clear, it is the power of fire.

"Although there is no research evidence that the power of the Herrscher will not appear repeatedly, but two consecutive repeated powers and one power that did not show power... Then we can only think that the power of the tenth Herrscher cannot be one of the above three."

Things became more and more difficult. Even Mei, who had read the "script", had a lot of doubts in his heart. After all, the "script" was only the result, but not the specific process. Naturally, it did not write the real power of the tenth Herrscher, only the name of "dominate"...

But what exactly does dominate mean? Mei herself still didn't quite understand, but when she saw these cores, some inaccurate and unreliable guesses came to mind.

But Mikael winked and then walked towards the cubicle without looking back.

Mei looked at the pile of local documents in her hand and shook her head helplessly.

...

"Why are you here?"

The cubicle was a little crowded after Mikael, Mei, Kevin, Ellie and Ying stood in it at once, of course, it was mainly because of the table and Kevin's Skyfire.

"Could it be that you suspect..."

Mei's face quickly became solemn.

In the past, when people made decisions, they entered the cubicle to prevent some "truths" from hitting the morale of ordinary soldiers.

But looking at Mikael's expression, Mei combined her previous guesses and the "script" and it was obvious that things were not that simple, but...

"You guessed right, Mei, there is a traitor among us... ahem! No, it's inside the Fire Moth. In addition to Carol, there should be other Tenth Herrschers, and their levels will not be low."

"How do you judge?"

Mei asked knowingly.

"I just inferred that if these powers are obtained by each Tenth Herrscher from the moment of birth, then wouldn't the collapse give them two powers? Although it is not said that one Herrscher only corresponds to one power, it is the case from the previous samples."

Mikael's memory of the Tenth Collapse that occurred in the original civilization was very thin, but he already remembered that there was an individual who was a high-level member of the Fire Moth.

The Fire Moth today is very different from the original Fire Moth, and it is still unclear whether the Herrscher individual is the original one.

But from the perspective of power, Mikael does not think that the powers of other Herrschers displayed by these individuals are possessed from birth. In addition to destroying the common sense of "one Herrscher corresponds to one power", it is also because...

In the tenth collapse of the current civilization, the Herrschers fully demonstrated how they took away the powers of other Herrschers.

As long as the opponent uses power against them in the Domination Theater, the power will be taken away by them, except for Meiyi who has shed her wings.

This process looks a bit like the time when Mikael dealt with the eighth Herrscher, but it is completely different in nature.

Mikael's method is to feel the power contained in the opponent's attack, analyze this power, and then reproduce it.

The Herrscher of Domination uses tug-of-war to grab part of the power revealed during the attack and forcibly seize it.

In short, assuming that the power is a file in the computer, Mikael's method is CTRL+C and then CTRL+V, so he gets two copies of the power. His own use of power does not affect the power in the core. This is understanding and construction.

The Ruler of Domination forcibly dragged the file from the corresponding folder (core) to his own folder, and the total amount of power did not change, which is domination.

Considering that the power of the two civilizations before and after is the same, the Tenth Ruler that the Fire Moth is facing now must be the same -

Their power must come from the Ruler Core in the Key of God, but it is not known whether it is because there is no Domination Theater or the Tenth Ruler does not want to attract the attention of the Fire Moth too early, the power they seized is not large in terms of quantity.

So that even though there are individuals of the Tenth Ruler who have demonstrated the power of fire, Kevin's Heavenly Fire Judgment has not had much effect.

"You mean... the way the Ruler obtains these powers is by contacting the Key of God... no, to be precise, by contacting the core in the Key of God?"

May quickly understood what Mikael meant.

"Kevin, give me the Key of God."

Kevin quickly carried Skyfire behind him, "Mei, calm down."

Although Mei had emphasized countless times that her adaptability to Honkai energy was no problem, neither Kevin nor anyone else dared to let her touch the Key of God.

They really didn't dare to gamble.

"Then... OK."

Mei withdrew her hand angrily and looked at Mikael, "Thank you for your help."

Before she finished her words, the surrounding scenery changed in the blink of an eye, and everyone had appeared in Mei's exclusive laboratory.

Mei winked, Kevin understood, and handed the Key of God to Prometheus.

Prometheus used a mechanical arm to transfer the Heavenly Fire Holy Seal, and finally put it into the Honkai energy input device, and then massive amounts of Honkai energy began to pour in.

After a while, a lot of ant-sized numbers popped up on the screen.

Mei immediately found the amount of Honkai energy input, and Prometheus understood it and had already enlarged this data and displayed it in the form of a percentage.

"Eighty-seven point eight percent..."

Taking into account some errors and the consumption of the God Key energy transmission, after the God Key is actually charged, the charging percentage should be between 95% and 99%.

But now it is 87.8%. Obviously, part of the power has been taken away, which affects the core's charging limit.

"That is to say, this... no, maybe there is more than one. In short, there must be an individual Tenth Herrscher in the Fire Chasing Moth who can access the Key of God. Hiss..."

From a certain point of view, the control of the God Key by the Fire Chaser Moth is not as good as that of ordinary firearms. This is because the God Key also has the data of synchronization rate——

Don't think that dead cores have no synchronization rate. In fact, different people will have different effects when using the Key of God. Taking the just-completed Ninth God's Key, the Law of the Star Sea, as an example, there are only three people in the entire Fire Chasing Moth who can maximize the power of this God's Key, namely the two Herrschers and Eden.

That’s why there is a rule that fusion warriors are allotted a God Key, find the most suitable God Key, and hone the synchronization rate in the long-term battle and life process, so the God Key is often carried casually .

But considering the power of a few carriers, if you want to snatch the God Key from their hands...

But despite this, it does not mean that others will not come into contact with the God Key.

For example, when conducting routine inspections and tests on the God Key.

Or it could be used for training of comrades who are also fusion warriors. After all, they may be faced with using other people's weapons on the battlefield.

And looking at it this way, the individual who grabbed the power from the God Key is either a person from the scientific research department or a fusion warrior...

"And that's not all."

Mikael added in a low voice:

"I have seen the riots in the Rhine, and I have also seen the various records of the city hall. Regardless of the specific causes of the riots, one thing is very clear - the organizers behind it, regardless of the involvement of the Tenth Herrscher How much? They have one and only one target, and that is the Soul Steel Manufacturing Plant in the 31st to 38th Industrial Area of ​​the Ruhr District."

This is obvious. There are so many factories in the Ruhr area. The main thing that was destroyed in the end was the soul steel manufacturing factory, especially the warehouse where soul steel was stored. It was burned clean by the flames released by the power of fire - those soul steels. It was originally used to give Velvet the fourth and fifth divine keys that had been undecided for a long time.

So targeted…

Mei closed her eyes tiredly, and she once again understood the voice of Mikael's words for the first time:

"You want to say that the location of every soul steel factory in the world is information that only the Fire Chaser and the top leaders of the coalition government know. Even the mayor of the Rhine only knows that there is one arsenal in the Ruhr area that produces soul steel. Steel, he doesn’t know which one it is.”

"Yes, and I have used the power of consciousness to explore the consciousness of the Rhine Mayor. He is not an Herrscher individual, and he has not revealed the news about the Soul Steel Factory to anyone, not even the one he fears most... his wife."

Mikael shrugged. Once upon a time, using the power of the Herrscher or any other ability on a human was an insurmountable sacred taboo in his heart. He once called this a principle and regarded it as a proof that he was still a human. .

But I don’t know when this taboo started to be broken, so that it has become a commonplace behavior now.

"Then... maybe those violent... hungry people are related to the workers of the Soul Steel Factory?"

Kevin asked from the sidelines.

"Theoretically, this is indeed possible, but...even the workers in the soul steel factory don't know that what they produce is soul steel..."

Mikael pointed at Kevin with a speechless expression:

"Forget about those workers, Kevin, you have been exposed to soul steel weapons for four or five years, right? Have you seen what soul steel looks like when it leaves the factory?"

"Well……"

Of course Kevin doesn't know...

"They say it's steel, but it's just a metal plate or something, right?"

Mikael closed his eyes, grinned, and shook his head.

"The essence of soul steel is a nanorobot, so when it is used in weapons, it will have particularly rich morphological changes. This is clearly reflected in the Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment and the Seven Thunders of Purification. As nanorobots, they The initial appearance is actually like this.”

Mikael pinched out a special test tube, with half a tube of glazed liquid flowing in it.

"This is what soul steel looks like when it leaves the factory."

"This...then why is it called soul steel and not soul water?"

"Who knows, ask Mebius. Or maybe she considered the issue of confidentiality at that time? It is not new to name weapons that need to be kept secret with unrelated names, such as tanks. Of course, In terms of its application, Soul Steel deserves its name.”

"All right……"

Since even the workers themselves don’t know what is being produced, how can they possibly reveal it to the Tenth Herrscher?

Therefore, it has become uncontroversial that there is a mole.

"but……"

Mei pushed up her glasses and asked calmly:

"Mikael, you are so sure, I'm afraid you even know who the traitor is?"

Mikael just lowered his eyelids and leaned against the wall of the laboratory silently after hearing this.

Mei also sighed softly - another acquaintance, and an old friend who has been together for many years...

This is obvious. There are only a few people in the Fire Chaser who know the location of the Soul Steel Factory. If the person being targeted is from the United Government, it would not be so annoying.

But who is it?

To get information about the Soul Steel Factory, the level must be not low.

Is it Hen? Or Erwin?

Or Cang Xuan? Danzhu? Blanca?

"It's Aldemir."

"Huh?"

Even Mei couldn't help but tilt her head and hummed in confusion.

Aldemir's level is actually similar to Erwin, Cang Xuan, and Danzhu. Their levels are just stuck at the watershed of maybe knowing this information or not.

And the reason why she mainly suspected the latter three is because these three people work in the intelligence department and are more likely to be exposed to information about the Soul Steel Factory.

Mikael certainly understood her doubts, and he immediately explained:

"If there hadn't been yesterday's riot, he would have led a team to the Rhine tomorrow to escort the soul steel stored there."

"Is that so..."

Mei scratched her head. Although most of these tasks were arranged by her, she couldn't remember all the key information because there were so many things to deal with...

Of course, she didn't have much impression, which might be because she directly asked Prometheus to arrange the candidates for this order.

"But... when did you start to suspect him? Last night? Is the evidence conclusive?"

Mikael's chest rose and fell twice quickly, and he used a little force on his back to pull his body out of the wall and stand upright again.

His tone was silent, but there was no emotional fluctuation, as if he was talking about something insignificant:

"The goggles he brought from Luluye, because the elastic band had a limited life, he was reluctant to wear them later, and always held them in his hands. But last night, he wore them on his head."

Mikael certainly understood what was going on.

There are only two possibilities:

First, after exploring Aldemir's memory, the Herrscher consciousness realized that the goggles were of great significance, so he deliberately wore them on his head, as if he cherished them very much.

But this possibility is not very likely. Since the Herrscher checked his memory, he would certainly see his behavior in the past few years. How could he act against his subconscious?

Or the second possibility is more likely:

Aldemir regained control of his body for a short period of time during the process of being replaced by the Herrscher consciousness or becoming its puppet, and then his last thought was to wear the goggles on his head. He believed that such a small detail abnormality would be captured by Mikael.

And as he has the power of knowledge and is a Herrscher himself, he must be able to identify that he is already a Herrscher without alarming the Herrscher consciousness.

This is his last trust in a six-year friendship, his comrade-in-arms, and his friend.