Chapter 467: Commencement of the Final Battle

Adam released his bandages to free Diana and Shae, and as the two of them watched the little girl disintegrate into specks of light before vanishing into nothingness, their hearts suddenly began to throb.

"Did we really just destroy something so beautiful?" Shae asked with a pained look in her eyes.

"No, that was nothing more than an underlying illusion that her creators implanted in her mind to prevent her from going out of control."

Having conducted a great deal of research into blank slates, Adam knew far more about them than the average person did.

Each blank slate had a set of underlying logic, as well as basic memories and instincts to ensure that they were capable of basic human functions.

Of course, there were also some that didn't have any of those things, but that could very easily result in them becoming vegetables from conception.

Hebi no Miko had undergone the same process during her creation, but seeing as she had been designed to become a human super weapon, she was inevitably going to become too powerful for her creators to control. Hence, some completely different underlying elements had to be implanted into her mind to act as a failsafe that could be activated whenever it was required to do so.

However, they had clearly failed to anticipate just how powerful an adapter Hebi no Miko would become, and they had implanted the failsafe into the deepest part of her psyche, where it was completely inaccessible.

Only after the complete destruction of her psychic body would this failsafe measure be revealed, but the problem was that Adam couldn't tell if it was real or not. Perhaps it had already been contaminated by Hebi no Miko so that if she were ever to be defeated, this failsafe would appear before her opponent so that they would be inclined to take mercy on her.

Adam couldn't afford for Hebi no Miko to escape again. During the final moments before Hebi no Miko's psychic body was destroyed, he could sense that she had already killed the psychic mutant trio.

The psychic mutant trio that he had seen upon entering the psychic world were nothing more than illusions conjured up by Hebi no Miko's psychic power, so he would've never been in time to save them.

Adam withdrew Angel, and he discovered that the entire psychic world around him had transformed into a boundless expanse of emptiness without even the slightest trace of any memories.

Hebi no Miko's psychic power was so immense that during her final self-destruction, she had bundled all of her memories together to be destroyed alongside herself, making it impossible for Adam to access them.

The bleak and empty psychic world began to collapse, and everything that had once been Hebi no Miko was about to disappear soon. At the same time, a vast amount of anomalic power emerged, and Adam invoked his wounded anomalies once again so that they could devour this feast.

Out of all of his anomalies, Horse Face was the one in the worst condition, having been forced to the brink of destruction. Thankfully, it had just barely been able to hang on by a thread, and at this moment, it was devouring anomalic power in a frenzy to facilitate rapid recovery, quickly returning it to a stable condition.

Sludge had also been severely wounded after being struck by two lightning strikes, but thankfully, defense and physical resistance had always been its fortes, so it wasn't going to die so easily.

It didn't take long before the entire psychic world collapsed, forcing the trio to return to the real world.

An epic battle had just taken place, but it actually hadn't taken all that long, and after regaining consciousness, Adam immediately began to inspect his surroundings to see if there were any threats being posed to them in the real world.

He had anticipated that Hebi no Miko would've set up an ambush in the real world to try and kill him while he was in the psychic world, but even as he activated his radar and thermal imaging sensors, he was unable to discover anything in the surrounding area. All of the living people in the area had already been startled away or been killed, and Hebi no Miko certainly wasn't going to have any qualms about taking innocent lives.

This was unavoidable collateral damage, and he had already considered situations like this back when he chose this veterinary hospital, where there weren't many residents in the surrounding area.

It didn't take long before Thunderbird and the others arrived on the scene with Mechguard units in accompaniment, and a fleet of drones carefully examined the entire veterinary hospital. Shortly thereafter, the bodies of the psychic mutant trio were found, and it was already too late to try and save them.

Adam did his best to suppress his grief, telling himself that the psychic mutant trio weren't good people, that they had done many heinous things that were reprehensible both legally and morally.

However, the bond that they had formed was genuine and earnest, and it had brought Adam some warmth and comfort in his darkest times.

"Perhaps this is the best outcome for them," Shae consoled, but even she wasn't convinced by her own words.

Adam nodded in response. From the moment that he had decided to participate in the mayoral election and actively strike back at his enemies, he had already prepared himself for the possibility that he could lose everything.

He had to be prepared to put everything on the line, whether that be his friends, his family, his companions... Anything and anyone that he cherished could've been targeted or used against him, so he had to be prepared for all manners of tragic outcomes.

After silently grieving for a moment, Adam promptly departed from the veterinary hospital with Shae and the others. Hebi no Miko's body was also quickly tracked down, and as it turned out, she had been on the top floor and hadn't bothered to disguise herself at all.

Perhaps in her eyes, if she had won, then there would've been no need for her to run away as someone would've taken care of the situation for her, and if she had lost, then she would've perished, so either way, there was no need for her to disguise herself or hide.

Adam watched as the Mechguard units collected all of the evidence in the veterinary unit before departing, and on the way back, he informed all of his closest allies of the outcome of the battle.

May and Cowboy were both stunned to hear that Adam had managed to take down Hebi no Miko, and they couldn't help but wonder how he had become so powerful in such a short time.

However, they didn't ask any questions, merely congratulating him on his latest victory before discussing with him what to do next.

"First, we have to find out who was behind this, then exert pressure upon them through both the legal system and the media, then gradually begin an investigation."

Both of them were more inclined to take a safer approach to ensure that they didn't squander this advantageous position.

"We don't need to find out who's behind this, we just need to pick an opponent and declare war on them."

Adam was still following the same strategy as before. Regardless of who it was that was targeting him, he would continue to follow his own plan, and eventually, all of his enemies would be brought down.

It seemed like a very barbaric and foolish way to do things, but it was actually the smartest choice. If he were to get swept up in the rhythm of his enemies, then he would constantly have to react to them, rather than seizing the initiative and taking things into his own hands.

This latest incident involved the deaths of three registered special psychic police officers and a top-tier global fugitive, so it was definitely going to be making some massive headlines.

The outcome was completely unexpected to almost everyone. Adam had managed to successfully take down another formidable foe while emerging completely unscathed himself, and the aura of invincibility around him was only continuing to grow.

Adam didn't want to allow his enemies any chance for respite, so he immediately declared his next objective.

"I'm going to completely uncover the Metaverse immortality scam and pursue this matter to the very end!"