The Beginning of the Wind's Colors

When Chen Ran found the source of Honkai, he immediately sought out the Fourth Herrscher and went toe-to-toe with her.

Then that Herrscher threw honor out the window and actually created a companion Honkai Beast.

Alright, he had almost forgotten that every Herrscher came with a companion Honkai Beast when they were born.

The Fourth Herrscher's companion Honkai Beast was a many-eyed monster that looked like a gorilla covered in eyes, each of which could create vortices and storms.

The Fourth Herrscher stood atop the Honkai Beast's head, commanding the raging winds.

Chen Ran said, "Keep that Honkai Beast tied down for me. Leave the Herrscher to me."

Kevin frowned. "Are you sure you didn't get that backward?"

"Hehe, you wouldn't know this."

Chen Ran said, "A newly born Herrscher is much easier to deal with than a Honkai Beast. A Honkai Beast's strength is fixed the moment it appears, but a Herrscher is different. She still needs time to adapt to her authority."

"So, Kevin, you carry this time. I'll be responsible for calling 666."

Kevin: "..."

What reassured Chen Ran and Kevin was that the Herrscher had not left the city.

A newly born Herrscher was not powerful and needed to absorb Honkai Energy to grow. Before the Herrscher fully absorbed the Honkai Energy, Flame-Chaser had a chance to recover her.

Soon, Chen Ran and Kevin found the Herrscher and her companion Honkai Beast, Vayu. Vayu was a temporary name Flame-Chaser had just chosen, taken from South Asian mythology for convenience.

Incidentally, Flame-Chaser had quite a few South Asians within its ranks.

The Fourth Herrscher stood on Vayu's head, looking like a real-life beauty-and-the-beast pairing.

However, the Herrscher before them possessed no consciousness whatsoever. When Chen Ran had fought her before, he discovered that her body contained only the desire to fight and destroy. There was no way to communicate with her.

So awakening the Herrscher with love would not work here.

They could only use the iron fist of justice.

"You take the gorilla. I'll take the beauty."

Chen Ran held Vill-V's newly modified weapon and aimed it directly at the Fourth Herrscher.

"Let's see what the latest invention can do!"

The Wind Gun, built upon a fluid-based structure, could rapidly gather immense wind pressure in a short period of time. By exploiting differences in air pressure, it created violent storms that could quickly damage the vulnerable organs and tissue structures of the human body.

This had already surpassed the scope of a standard-issue weapon. It was a new weapon Vill-V had specially customized for him.

Kevin could not help feeling envious. "The engineering department really treats you well."

"Of course. I radiate charm from head to toe." Chen Ran chuckled, making it impossible to tell whether he was joking or telling the truth.

Kevin did not care, though. Mei had upgraded his weapon as well.

After Mei finished her rotation at the Sixth Material Institute, she upgraded the performance of Kevin's weapon and combat suit armor. That was also why Mei had recommended Kevin for the battlefield.

Simply put, he had received special treatment too.

After Chen Ran used the wind-pressure weapon, Kevin aimed his machine gun at Vayu's eyes as well. Intense lasers struck directly, driving the massive creature into a frenzy.

It stared at Kevin, a storm clenched in its mouth before erupting outward.

This was practically magic.

Yet when Kevin adjusted his machine gun again, the surrounding temperature plummeted. The storm Vayu had spewed out was actually subdued by the extreme cold.

Chen Ran clicked his tongue and aimed his weapon at the ground. Using wind pressure to launch himself high into the air, he rapidly closed in on the Fourth Herrscher.

"Vill-V's equipment really is easy to use. Now I finally understand why people spend money in games."

"Because if you don't spend money, you'll have to spend your life!"

He did not tell Kevin that Vill-V and he had been squeezed dry for this weapon. They had even borrowed some funding from the First Research Institute.

After approaching the Fourth Herrscher, Chen Ran extended his other hand.

"Now let me show you what a storm is!"

He pushed the Herrscher of Wind's authority to its limit.

Invisible wind blades began slicing at the Herrscher.

The Beginning of Wind's Hue

The gale did not stop.

But the Herrscher stopped moving.

She instinctively avoided the invisible wind blades, only to fall into an even more dangerous situation.

Chen Ran had severed her connection to her companion Honkai Beast.

The corner of Chen Ran's mouth lifted slightly. "Oh? You can't even match me in authority? Then this Herrscher might as well be me."

The Herrscher did not speak.

Unlike Wendy, the Herrscher of Wind before him had no ability to communicate with people. She could not even hold a conversation.

Yet after Chen Ran spoke in a teasing tone, the girl who had become a Herrscher actually uttered an obscure syllable.

"Fine."

Chen Ran was slightly taken aback. "What did you say?"

"This is a gift... and a curse."

Her words were muddled and difficult to make out. Yet what she did next stunned Chen Ran.

"God's agents... are merely slaves."

She suddenly attacked Chen Ran. He instinctively dodged, then counterattacked with the weapon in his hand.

The collision of wind pressure alone seemed enough to tear apart the surrounding air currents. Chen Ran instinctively pursued, controlling a storm with his other hand and directly shattering her wind field.

But astonishingly, the Herrscher dismissed all her defenses.

"This..."

Shock flashed through his eyes.

Until the girl collapsed into his arms.

"We are the same kind... I hope you can break the curse of our kind."

The Herrscher died.

Her end came in a way Chen Ran could not understand.

Her companion Honkai Beast, Vayu, fell into a frenzy because of this, but it was nothing more than a target for Kevin.

The storm gradually subsided. Kevin looked at Chen Ran with a hint of surprise in his eyes. "I didn't expect you to really have the power to deal with a Herrscher. Looks like you've improved a lot."

Chen Ran paused. "Can I say that this Herrscher committed suicide?"

After hesitating for a moment, he still told Kevin about what had happened.

Then Chen Ran continued, "I want Mei to study this. She should be interested in this sort of thing. As for headquarters... Kevin, help me keep this quiet for now. Things haven't exactly been good at headquarters these past few days."

Kevin nodded. "You heard about it too."

"Yeah, but the mission is over. The strange winds at headquarters can't reach us for now." Chen Ran let out a slight breath, but the doubts in his heart did not lessen.

The Fourth Herrscher was not a puppet. She had developed consciousness.

Or was it because he possessed a special authority that it resonated with her?

Was it because of the system? Or the serum Mobius injected? Or both?

Even though he wielded the authority of wind, Chen Ran did not feel even the slightest sense of safety.

This feeling of being shrouded in a bizarre fog trapped him deeply, even though he had experienced the game's story before.

World Serpent, Elysian Realm.

Eden poured herself a drink and said to Elysia beside her, "Elysia, would you like some?"

"Oh, my dear Eden, this isn't the time for drinking. Compared to that, I'm more interested in whether there's any popcorn or potato chips around here. Hmm?"

Without a doubt, Elysia was watching a show.

Eden merely sighed softly at that.

The ones she had dragged over to watch the show also included Eden and Hua.

At this moment, Wendy and Mobius stood together after Wendy had vented her frustration by fighting Kalpas. They looked exactly like a pair of sworn enemies.

"Tch, I always thought Chen Ran was the most sincere person in Flame-Chaser, but it seems I overthought it." Mobius's tone carried a trace of mockery. "But this is good too. Since he is the man I fancy, he naturally cannot be too naive."

Wendy said, "I want to know everything."

"Everything? What, his height and weight? Or how long he lasts in bed?"

This person who looked like a teenage girl spoke such blush-inducing words without the slightest concern.

Though Wendy tried to remain composed, her cheeks still reddened.

A thoughtful look appeared in Mobius's eyes, then a smile spread across her lips.

"Perhaps we can work together."

She said, "I can help you return to the past, back to that era."

Mobius was tempting her.

As a former Valkyrie of Schicksal, Wendy still had her own judgment.

"Don't think I don't know that if people could return to the past so freely, an entire era's civilization would not have been destroyed. So there must be a price..."

Shock flashed through her eyes.

Mobius picked up where she left off. "So there must be a price, and it is an extremely steep one."

"Ordinary people cannot bear that price, much less pay it. But he can." She smiled. "Either he ignored the laws of time, or he became an agent of Honkai."

"Whatever the possibility, if he can do it, then so can you."

The doctor quietly moved closer to Wendy's ear and blew on it. "You are also an agent of Honkai, aren't you?"

Wendy's pupils contracted slightly.

Then Mobius continued piling weight onto the scales in her heart.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you. If there had been a Herrscher standing on humanity's side back then, perhaps many tragedies could have been avoided."

"Mm, from that perspective, I can understand why he did it. Unfortunately, that era was still buried."

Clearly, Mobius was doing it on purpose.

She exposed the tragedy of that era, then viciously implied that Wendy had merely been a tool Chen Ran used to save the tragedy of an era.

She would not hypocritically tell Wendy how much Chen Ran loved her. That was not Mobius's style.

On the contrary, a clumsy provocation worked better.

At this moment, Wendy was undoubtedly lost. Bronya's words were like a curse, while Chen Ran's sudden disappearance and World Serpent's subsequent appearance seemed to tell her that she was merely a tool.

The additional memory in her mind was even more bizarre.

She began to grow confused.

She craved the truth. She wanted help.

She wanted to see Chen Ran!

The girl did not know how long it would take to prepare for traveling through time, nor did she know what price would have to be paid.

But her heart told her that she had to see Chen Ran.

She wanted Chen Ran alive. She longed for a real answer.

This was the desire buried deep in her heart. Even traveling against time was worth it.

A smile appeared at the corner of Mobius's mouth. "You want to know the answer, don't you? I'll help you."

Wendy left with Mobius.