159: Chapter 159 The Opera's Finale: Cooperative Defense by Four Teams

At the end of the black highway, the Place of Honkai Beginning, floating in the center of the Magma Sea, resembled an obsidian disc embedded in a crimson purgatory.

The platform was a full kilometer in diameter, its surface covered in black-purple Honkai patterns resembling congealed blood scabs, with each line emitting a black radiance; the heat waves rising from the magma constantly washed over the black platform, and black mist escaping from the cracks in the sky slowly drifted down onto it.

Crimson magma churned around the platform, and the surging magma waves constantly slapped against the bottom edges of the platform, splashing up black debris carrying mist—that was Rock powder eroded by Honkai Power.

In the sky, the black rift piercing through it was constantly emitting black mist possessing A-Rank Honkai Power; the black Honkai Power, like ink dropped into clear water, rapidly lowered its energy level to E-Rank in the air and spread out, twisting even the light into an eerie pale black, suffusing the entire world with a suffocating heaviness.

The vehicles of the four teams finally drove through the Doomsday Highway of the Magma Sea and arrived at the black platform of the Place of Honkai Beginning; when they were less than a hundred meters from the throne at the center of the platform, the four teams stopped in place with tacit understanding.

As soon as they stopped, the "creak" of the tires rolling over the platform was completely crushed by the "clack, clack, clack" of high heels.

The Herrscher of the Honkai—Klaps—stood up from the pure black throne and was catwalking down the black steps in front of the throne.

She was dressed in a tight black leather gown, with a silver zipper winding from the hem to the neckline; the interlocking chain teeth gleamed with a cold light under the red glow of the magma; with every step she took, the zipper swayed with her figure, and the occasional glimpse of fair skin, set against the Honkai Power drifting from the black wings behind her, exuded a fatal allure.

She wore a matte black streamlined mask, revealing only her sharp jawline and full, scarlet lips; the edges of the mask were wrapped in black energy threads as fine as hair, which connected to the Honkai patterns that roamed like living creatures on her forearms.

The pigeon-egg-sized black gem at her neckline was the most eye-catching, its interior emitting a profound black radiance that seemed to suck in people's Souls, like an endless abyss.

Her left hand gently stroked the edges of the black mask, while her right hand hovered under a black sphere half a meter in diameter; through the black sphere, one could see black light spots constantly colliding with the inner wall, causing ripples of black radiance to emerge on the surface of the sphere.

"I didn't expect there to be three Hosts resonating with the Source as the lead actors. Be honored! To be able to participate in this opera dedicated to the great Dominator!"

Her voice was soft and sweet like honey, yet carried the chill of ice shards; when her gaze swept over the cargo bed of the dream chaser, it landed precisely on Zhang Hao, Sun Miaomiao, and Sugar.

Her fingers, supporting the black sphere, gently rubbed against it, and the surface of the sphere quickly became transparent, with countless black light spots colliding chaotically inside. "These are the Souls you are to Redemption; I have given the world will's soul virus a little enhancement. Take a look~ How will you Redemption these Honkai Souls!"

Having said that, Klaps waved her hand to disperse the black sphere imprisoning the Soul light spots; hundreds of thousands of black Soul light spots carrying Honkai Power, along with a massive number of Collapse Sparrow own formed from the wings behind Klaps, rushed towards the four teams together.

Facing the black Soul light spots surging like a tsunami, Li Mubai looked at the three—Zhang Hao, Sun Miaomiao, and Sugar—who were still in front of the soul gourd, modifying and upgrading the soul redemption vaccine; he shouted loudly to the remaining 16 Hosts: "Defensive formation!"

Sha Luoluo's sandstorm tornado, Marshmallow's cloud Bastion, Lin Wan's purification Domain, and Flora's blue light protective shield together propped up the first line of defense against the torrent of black Honkai Power.

Countless yellow sands formed a violent tornado that surrounded and protected the four teams; the colorful cloud Bastion further slowed down the speed of the black light spots and Collapse Sparrow own; the purification Domain constantly annihilated the Collapse Sparrow own and attempted to Redemption these Souls, while the materialized energy protective shield blocked physical impacts.

The four female team members of the four teams were all putting their full effort into maintaining the area-of-effect defense.

The remaining Hosts were each showing off their own unique Divine Ability; the Road Overlord team's air cannons, molten bombs, giant sound waves, and gear bombs violently cleared everything approaching the sand tornado.

The Fairytale Town team's unicorn purification beams, candy bomb saccharification obstacles, and crystal chain connection amplification reduced the pressure on the four people forming the defensive line.

The Most Journey to the West team's purification golden characters and energy-restoring delicacies made everyone's combat capability more enduring.

The Dream Society team's real-time star map provided the most helpful information for everyone's battle; meanwhile, the other Hosts remained vigilant around the dream chaser, where the soul gourd was located, watching for other potential threats.

Klaps looked at the cooperative defense of the four teams with great interest, revealing a mocking, wicked smile; she said loudly to everyone: "Defense alone will not be able to defeat me, oh~ Let me tell you a 'little secret', oh~ If these black Soul light spots are shattered, it will be true death, oh~ The kind where not even a Soul is left, oh~"

Klaps attempted to use her words to shake the minds of the Hosts, but she had not expected that everything she had said and done so far was within Zhang Hao's expectations; Zhang Hao had analyzed everything that happened after the world's aberration through his Person of Logic Talent, including the sudden appearance of the Collapse Sparrow own, the strange convergence of the four teams, the opera invitation from the shadow doppelgänger, and so on; he had created a personality profile for this Herrscher of the Honkai and, with the assistance of the Dream Spirit Silver Star, analyzed several possible behavioral predictions for Klaps.

At the same time, he activated his Person of Numerology Talent to actively explore the future further ahead in the fate trajectory of everyone in the four teams, and forcibly connected the causal threads on everyone, making everyone a temporary collective entity on the level of Karma.

"If the Herrscher of the Honkai appears and tries to shake your hearts with the survival of this world or the destruction of this world's Souls, you must not overthink it! Only victory in battle is the method to Redemption these Souls. If we fail, only a fate worse than death awaits us! I have already told you about the bad ending future I saw—all Hosts being corrupted by Honkai and reshaped into another 'self'. If you don't want that to happen, do not have even a shred of a saintly mentality! Mercy is not needed! Your victory is Redemption! Your failure is only Honkai!"

Before the battle, Zhang Hao used the Logic Sharing ability he developed through his Person of Logic Talent to tell everyone the countermeasures for all the possible futures he had analyzed.

Klaps looked at the unshaken Hosts, gently pursed her lips, and said with a slightly dazed look in her eyes: "How wonderful! There are actually no disgusting 'saintly' existences! What a surprise!" After speaking, Klaps's gaze penetrated through layers of obstacles and swept over Lin Wan, Gummy, and Marshmallow.