Chapter 517

"But there are no other clues now, only this one. Let me investigate it."

Shen Gonglin looked at the rhombus-shaped crystal in front of her, eager to try it out. Bronya, seeing this, really didn't have a better idea, but... the girl took Shen Gonglin's hand and pressed it onto the crystal with him. That way, if any problems arose, they could deal with them together.

The moment they touched the crystal, it was as if the two of them were pulled to another place, and a wave of intense heat washed over them, as if they were in a fire once again. The character composed of just four strokes symbolized both the most beautiful and the most evil things. Shen Gonglin and Bronya were seeing was something that a certain girl had experienced in her childhood.

Bronya! Over here, grab me!

"You're all right here. Are you alright, Alexei?"

Bronya is alright, Uncle Maxim.

From now on, you'd better call me "boss." In our line of business, you never know when you might be dependent on someone else. When that happens, those people won't want to hear you calling them "uncle."

In the middle of a snowy plain, the two who had escaped the fire talked like this. After hearing the boss's teachings, the young girl nodded seriously.

"Bronya understands, Uncle Maxim, boss."

The man fell silent, speechless. After a long while, he shook his head helplessly and complained.

"Well, so this really is Alexei and Alexandra's daughter. Just as stubborn as your parents."

The girl remained silent, while the man continued to speak.

"Never mind. I didn't mean to criticize you. This home we've lived in for so many years is completely ruined... Let's keep its final appearance in our memories."

Chapter 394 Mouth Substitute

These are... Bronya's memories before she went to the orphanage?

The snowy landscape abruptly ended. Bronya, rubbing her forehead to ease the throbbing pain from the sudden memory attack, looked at Shen Gonglin's worried expression and slowly recounted the reality of the scene. Why did Bronya's memories reappear? She couldn't understand.

"Your past memories? So Bronya, you were quite naive when you were little. You were actually kind of cute... Don't look at me like that. Anyone would say you're naive."

Shen Gonglin, without any hesitation, spoke ill of Bronya. The emotionless girl glared at him speechlessly. Shouldn't she be wondering why her childhood memories were resurfacing? But instead, this guy said she looked kind of silly when she was little. What does that mean? Bronya clearly thinks she looked cute as a child.

It's that third-person self-reference... Has Harako been like this since childhood? It seems a bit immature. She should probably correct it a little in the future. Perhaps it's because of her "immaturity" that her relationship with Shen Gonglin hasn't made any breakthrough progress. After all, it's well known that Shen Gonglin likes mature women.

"Shen Gonglin, Bronya!"

The two wanted to continue their investigation, but suddenly a joyful voice came from the other side. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw Kiana running towards them in delight. The girl rushed to Bronya's side, relieved that she was alright. And what they had just seen...

"Thank goodness, you're really alright. I vaguely saw Bronya being dragged out of the fire just now... That must have been a hallucination... Hey? Bronya, when did you change into this outfit?"

Kiana was still shaken by what she had just witnessed, but she finally relaxed after seeing Bronya in person. However, she realized that something was amiss. The Bronya she had seen in the fire earlier seemed to be smaller, and Bronya's clothes were different from those during the battle. Did Bronya really have the leisure to change outfits on the battlefield?

Thinking of this, Kiana gave Shen Gonglin a strange look, wondering if the two of them were playing some terrifying game.

"Bronya isn't entirely sure either. However, the fire scene Kiana just saw was probably not a hallucination, but rather a memory of Bronya's. It happened in 2011, and just now..."

He told Kiana what he had experienced, and perhaps it was Joyce's will that helped them, allowing them to meet Kiana again, who was trapped in her memories.

"I see... But from Bronya's description, there are still many questions about both the matter itself and our current situation, aren't there?"

Kiana rested her chin on her hand, deep in thought. Even so, there were still many things that didn't make sense. Even the Kiana was starting to think seriously. Of course, Shen Gonglin wasn't going to fall behind. Since arriving on the moon, he felt increasingly that his knowledge was insufficient. He figured it must be because of Einstein. If she had given him more incentives back then, he would have studied harder and wouldn't be illiterate now.

It's all Einstein's fault!

Bronya understood Kiana's questions. Why did this place look like the moon 50,000 years ago? Why did Bronya transform into her former self as a sniper? And... why did Bronya see Welt Joyce's figure? And why was she able to free Kiana from her dream? And what role did that Feathered Rabbit play in all of this?

A whole string of questions was raised; in short, there are too many unanswerable questions now. Bronya hasn't yet regained her Herrscher of Reason powers, a fact that has been weighing heavily on Bronya mind. But now...

Kiana, you seem to be doing alright?

Bronya asked, "Kiana's power hasn't recovered, but Kiana's still in her Herrscher form." Kiana gave an affirmative answer.

"Yes, the Herrscher Core is stable, and the energy flow is normal. However, speaking of Yu Tu..."

Her own power hadn't been affected, which was indeed good news. But the name she'd heard from Bronya ... She paused for two seconds while swiping her card. The girl was pondering what word to use to describe the other person's stamina. She looked at Shen Gonglin, hoping to get some information from him, but Shen Gonglin didn't seem to have any particular feelings for Hato, but herself...

"I don't know why, but she always gives me a chilling feeling. It's different from the way Otto dragged Kevin around; it's more like the oppressive feeling of the Herrscher of the Void."

Kiana expressed her feelings, which puzzled Bronya, as did Rin. Could the Shen Gonglin of the Herrscher of the Void still exude any sense of oppression? He certainly couldn't see it. Last time, she even said she wanted to replace all her Spear of the Void with parasols for better practicality on the beach. How could someone like that exude any sense of oppression?

"... The Herrscher of the Void? But they seem so different."

No matter how hard Bronya thought about it, she couldn't connect Yuto with the Herrscher of the Void. Their appearances, mannerisms, and attitudes were completely different.

"Well... it has nothing to do with her personality or way of speaking, but is closer to the threat posed by her very existence. Hmm... it seems difficult to describe clearly even in this way, I don't know how to put it."

Kiana racked her brains but couldn't find a suitable way to describe it. The feeling was so Shen Gonglin couldn't speak for her either. In short, the threatening feeling that Yuto gave Kiana was similar to that of the Herrscher of the Void back then.

"In that case, let's start with the parts that are easier to analyze... Huh?"

Setting aside Kiana's inexplicable situation for the time being, Bronya prepared to analyze the current circumstances. But just then, they saw another figure walking by – it was Welt Joyce again. Following his "guidance," they had found Kiana, but now...

"There's no time to say more, hurry up and catch up."

Without hesitation, the group quickly followed, as one teammate was still missing.

Chapter 395 The Beginning Story

Following the direction in which the phantom disappeared, the group moved forward quickly. After walking for a short while, the crystal they had seen before reappeared before their eyes. If it was exactly the same as before, then this crystal should also contain... past memories.

"Is this the thing that you guys were talking about before, Bronya?"

Kiana examined the object before her, Bronya nodded slightly. "Yes. Bronya and Shen Gonglin investigated a memory fragment, or rather, spatial structure, like this before. Then Kiana suddenly appeared. Bronya feels there's some connection between them."

"I see. So, if Bronya's deduction is correct, then this time, will Mei also...?"

The girl rested her chin on her hand, pondering this possibility. Just then, a burnt smell suddenly filled the air, like lightning flashing across the sky... Realizing something, Shen Gonglin quickly shoved Kiana, who was standing in front of the crystal, aside. Immediately afterward, a purple figure appeared before them in an instant. If they hadn't pushed Kiana away, the girl would probably have been bumped into by Mei.

"Mei!"

Seeing the figure suddenly appear before them, Shen Gonglin and the others were overjoyed. They hadn't expected to actually find Mei, and now the lost group was reunited.

"Rin, Kiana, it's my turn, Bronya... I didn't hurt you, did I?"

She was slightly bothered by the way Shen Gonglin was clinging to Kiana, but with Bronya there, they probably wouldn't do anything too outrageous. And considering what had just happened... it seemed to be her fault. She shouldn't have hurt them, right?

"No, no, how could that be? But Mei is really amazing. She can break free from this strange restraint without Bronya's power."

Kiana quickly shook her head. How could Mei have hurt herself? Even if Shen Gonglin, Kiana believed Mei would have withdrawn her power in time. The girl sincerely admired Mei's strength. She was really amazing. She was thinking about whether to do what Bronya had done when she found her, but Mei actually managed to get out using her own power. She was truly impressive.

"That's not true. It's probably just that the illusions themselves have weakened. But... you mean Bronya... I see. So this is the Herrscher of Reason's memory."

As expected of Raiden Mei, who is considered by several people to be more suitable to be the Herrscher of Reason, the girl deduced a lot from the information she had learned, and in that case, everything made sense.

"... Mei, what did you see?"

Bronya asked, "Speaking of which, ever since I met Mei on the moon, Bronya haven't called her 'Mei' anymore. Is there some deeper meaning behind that?"

"I saw someone... a dark-haired boy... being questioned by some people in white coats. Basically, these were the questions... What's your name? Where did you live before? What's your nationality? And the boy answered them with another question, Who am I... Since Bronya is connected to this memory, and the boy's appearance is indeed the one described by the people of Anti-Entropy, then I think he must be Welt Joyce, the original Herrscher of Reason."

He recounted what he had seen in the illusion, and the image of that person was etched in the minds of all the veterans of Anti-Entropy; he was practically a spirit within Anti-Entropy.

"We also followed his elusive figure to get here. But despite this... we cannot forget that we have fallen into almost the same predicament as before because of the Feather Rabbit, or rather, the power of the Stigmata Plan."

Although she didn't know why her and Welt Joyce's memories were here, Bronya always remembered one thing: their current situation was all the work of Yutu, and they still didn't know what the other party's purpose was.

"... Does that mean everything we've come into contact with could be part of Yu Tu's conspiracy?"

Kiana voiced this slightly disheartening point: she was genuinely at a loss about Yuto. What exactly did this guy want to do, and what kind of being she was? Kiana had no idea.

"I don't know. But in any case, this time, we must find her weakness and find a way to counter her abilities. Otherwise, the initiative will always remain in her hands."

Bronya shook her head after finishing. It seemed that Shen Gonglin also didn't have any special solutions to this. Even he had fallen victim to it this time. It was indeed necessary to have a targeted countermeasure against that Yuto's ability, otherwise even if they managed to get out of here by chance, they would still fall victim to it.

"Yes, Bronya is right. Moreover, if we think about it one step further, how to take the initiative from Kevin is also a very difficult problem."

Mei also brought up this matter. She had just fought Kevin. Although she had anticipated it, Kevin's power still exceeded Mei expectations after the actual fight. The strongest warrior of the previous era now possesses the Power of Finality. The previous battle... no, strictly speaking, it couldn't even be considered a battle.

"Yes, to fight against the power of the Finality and surpass the Stigmata Plan, we need at least a stable connection with scientists from Anti-Entropy and Schicksal. Speaking of which... I always have a feeling that Mr. Welt and his team have actually prepared some plans a long time ago, but for various other reasons, they have not revealed them to us."

Kiana shared her thoughts. Given the mind of the one who Anti-Entropy, it wasn't surprising that Kiana had considered a similar situation. Moreover, considering events from a long time ago, Kiana made this deduction.

"Already? Kiana, you mean..."

"Well, it was at least a year or two ago, when everyone was still studying at St. Freya."

When Kiana thought about it seriously, her mind was as sharp as anyone else's. And when she reminded them of something, Shen Gonglin and the others remembered something that Shen Gonglin had called the beginning of the dream. Kiana must be talking about that thing.

"That's right, Shen Gonglin, do you still remember... the ghost warship that Teacher Himeko led us to capture?"

Chapter 396 The Doctors' Guilt

Kiana suddenly brought up this matter, which immediately brought everyone's thoughts back to a long time ago. Of course, they could not forget this matter, because it could be said to be the beginning of everything.

"Of course I remember. Bronya tried to crack its main control system, but found that there was no password set there and all the operating permissions were open. At the time, Teacher Himeko was worried that it was a trap... Although Bronya's biochip was indeed interfered with, what happened in New Zealand later proved that it was an independent incident and had no direct connection with the strange state of the warship's main control system."

Bronya recounted what happened back then. They were worried that the ghost warship with open operational privileges was a trap, and Bronya's biochip was indeed affected by Honkai energy interference. However, this seemed unrelated to the warship, because Bronya had also been manipulated during the Wendy incident in New Zealand, so...

"So, although everything that followed was related to Cocolia, we still didn't know what the Ghost Battleship was all about."

Mei, rubbing her chin, thought of this. After recovering the ghost warship, the Far East Branch did not hand it over to Schicksal Headquarters, but instead integrated it into the Hyperion. At the time, Bishop of Schicksal Otto had no objection to this, which now seems a bit inappropriate.

"Yes, Bronya found a strange email on the warship's main control computer. The content of the email was..."

Bronya recalled the contents of the email and recounted it in detail.

"Dear Kiana, hello! This warship, the Moonlight Throne, is finally returned to you after fourteen years. You will ascend the throne and shape a new world. But before that, you must find four keys: the Conquering Lightning, the flames of plague, the Storm of Desire, Silent Death. Oh, and the navigation code is your birthday~"

With her excellent memory, Bronya repeated it word for word. Shen Gonglin muttered to herself, "He tricked Kiana into giving him this battleship back then, so it should belong to him. And now that it's integrated into the Hyperion, it's still his. Unfortunately, the girls don't care about that at all. What's yours and mine? What's yours is mine."

"At the time, we felt that although the sender was pretentious, he didn't seem to have any malicious intent... I even said that I believed that once the warship was sailed back to St. Freya, everything would come to light. But in the time that followed, new problems kept arising, and as a result, no one still understands what's going on with that mysterious warship."

This matter is indeed quite a headache. It feels like it happened a long time ago. Mei recalled that at the time they thought it was the work of Anti-Entropy, and now that Anti-Entropy and Schicksal have joined forces, it seems that they still don't understand what's going on.

"Herrscher Authority. As for the Moonlight Throne engine that was later transferred to the Hyperion, it was indeed the work of Dr. Tesla and Einstein. However, they remained vague about the origin of that email, and Bronya didn't press the matter."

Because this matter didn't seem important at the time, and many other things happened afterward, Bronya didn't ask any further questions.

"... I think that's probably related to Anti-Entropy- Honkai."

Kiana said this, and the girl who was using her brain was particularly smart now. Shen Gonglin could hardly believe that the person standing in front of her was Kiana. This girl was so smart now that Shen Gonglin was under a lot of pressure. She felt that Kiana was still more used to her old Kiana personality.

"That letter was probably written by Dr. Tesla. By using the process of elimination to identify those involved in the incident, this is quite obvious. From today's perspective, it seems that Anti-Entropy wanted to use the power of the Moonlight Throne to help me seize all the powers that Sirin once possessed. However, after finally defeating the Herrscher of Domination, none of Anti-Entropy's predecessors brought up this matter again."

Kiana made this conjecture: the owner of that email was Tesla? This was something Shen Gonglin hadn't expected. In fact, there were many things he hadn't figured out, but for now, he just needed to listen carefully. He felt that these girls would soon find out the truth, and as their leader, he just needed to watch them perform.

This guy just won't use his brain at all.

"Isn't it because this matter is already over?"

"That is indeed the case, but what I care about is... why did they intend for me to wield the powers corresponding to those four gems in the first place? The Doctors are completely different from Otto; they couldn't have devised such a plan simply because they coveted the power that Sirin once possessed."

Kiana brought this up at this time because she had indeed been thinking about it, and now it seems there might be some hidden reasons that she herself doesn't understand.

"That's true. If we think about it from that perspective, things do become suspicious. But Kiana, bringing this up at this time, do you think the focus isn't actually on Sirin, but rather... the Finality?"

Always able to keep up with Kiana's train of thought, Mei quickly grasped the core of the problem Kiana was talking about: Could it be that the Anti-Entropy plan was actually related to the Finality?

"This is just a conjecture, but I think it can explain some things that seem strange when you think about them. When I was with the doctors... I could always sense that they were carrying a certain sense of guilt. At first, I thought it was because of my own physical condition, but even now, to this day, that feeling is still there, albeit faintly."

Kiana expressed her feelings, Shen Gonglin tilted her head, directly asking her own question, "Since Kiana has always had this feeling, then..."

"Then why don't you just ask them directly? Wouldn't it be clear if you just asked them? Kiana, why have you become so troublesome?"

They're not you, so how am I supposed to ask them?

Kiana secretly rolled her eyes. Look at what Shen Gonglin was saying. Of course, she could speak her mind when she was with him, but Kiana definitely had to consider other people. She wasn't a social butterfly like Shen Gonglin, who had good relationships with many people, but she couldn't.

Chapter 397

"Actually, on the night I left for Kolosten, I tried to ask Dr. Tesla. She admitted that she had written that letter, but also said that there was still a lot of room for improvement in the Anti-Entropy plan before we actually faced the Herrscher of Finality."

The email's owner already understood, but Kiana didn't comprehend Tesla's words at the time. What huge room for improvement? Did Anti-Entropy already have a pre-existing plan when facing the Herrscher of Finality?

"Dr. Tesla... why is she keeping this a secret? She shouldn't be that kind of person."

Recalling her impression of Tesla, Mei felt that she shouldn't be the kind of person to do such a thing. That hot-tempered Dr. Lobster Head should be just as disgusted with the Shen Gonglin as she was with the Riddler's behavior, so why would she choose to do it?

"I remember she said something like this: Kiana... Back in school, you guys probably wouldn't want to read your unfinished essays to your classmates either, right? It's the same principle."

This explanation left Mei speechless. It seemed to make sense. So, in Dr. Tesla's view, the original plan for Anti-Entropy was just an essay that hadn't been revised yet?

Shen Gonglin is different. Regardless of whether he has corrected it or not, he is unwilling to read it to others. It feels like he is being executed on the spot.

"No matter what... on the bright side, this does show from another perspective that our world doesn't only have the Stigmata Plan as an option... What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Is it strange that I would say something like that?"

After Mei finished speaking, she noticed the strange looks Kiana and Bronya were giving her. Had she said something weird? Why were they looking at her like that? As for Shen Gonglin... well, if she was a beat slower, she wouldn't have followed the formation. Mei swears to the light that she had no idea why the two of them were looking at her like that.