"Afterward, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy simultaneously halted their exploration of the moon, sealed off all information, and fabricated the illusion that there was nothing on the far side of the moon for ordinary citizens."
"Amid the woven lies, people joyfully celebrated a false victory."
"This was one small step for me, but one giant leap for mankind. That saying was right—this truly was a giant leap for mankind."
"A giant leap... before extinction!"
"So real!" Mei murmured. She no longer leaned against Kevin, instead watching the movie on the screen intently.
"Hey, Yaqing, Schicksal didn't really find something on the moon, did it?" Vill-V asked excitedly. A few years ago, Schicksal really had funded the aerospace industry and launched probes toward the moon.
Though Mobius did not quite believe it, she still looked seriously at Yaqing.
Yaqing said helplessly, "Hey, hey, hey, you're actually taking the movie seriously? This is just inspiration. As for Schicksal launching probes at the moon, we only wanted to investigate the differences between lunar soil and Earth's soil. If we'd really found something, how could I dare put it in a movie?"
"It had better be." Mobius snorted coldly.
"Senior Mobius, I never lie."
Yaqing could hardly tell them that he had once had a dream that felt far too real, frightening him badly enough that he wanted to verify whether his world was the same as the one in that dream. That was why he had sent Schicksal to investigate the moon.
Mobius keenly sensed that Yaqing was hiding quite a lot. Could Schicksal really have discovered something on the moon?
Memories from Fifty Thousand Years Ago
Sirin rode Benares to the far side of the moon. To her astonishment, ruins resembling ancient Greek architecture stood upon the lunar surface. Sirin stared curiously at everything around her, while Benares collapsed to the ground, grievously injured.
Before Sirin had time to grieve, she saw the golden cube at the center. As though controlled by something, she could not help reaching out to touch it. The instant her fingertips met the cube, a burst of brilliant light flashed, and she instinctively shut her eyes.
When Sirin opened her eyes again, she found herself in a pure white space. Sitting in a chair covered in cracks behind her was a "person" made of simple lines. It had no face, no hair, and no details. Sirin could not help walking toward it.
Sirin had barely taken a step when the figure suddenly changed, becoming Sirin's likeness. With a thud, Sirin dropped to her knees, not daring to look directly at it.
Human wisdom could not comprehend God.
That was Sirin's thought. As the Herrscher of Space, she was nevertheless afraid of this place. And her God soon gave her an answer to her doubts.
"Fifty thousand years ago, Honkai once again appeared upon Earth in order to purge the filthy human civilization."
A voice suddenly arose in Sirin's mind.
Countless fragmented memories flickered through her mind: the appearance of a red-haired woman before her death, the back of a pink-and-white-haired girl in a white dress, a girl fallen in a pool of blood. The images flashed by so quickly they were nearly impossible to make out.
In the final image, cyberpunk-style buildings filled the background. A white-haired man in black combat gear pointed a gun at a kneeling girl. She had short hair and a short skirt, but her face could not be seen clearly.
"But after cycle after cycle, their weapons became increasingly powerful. They could even kill God's apostles."
"Was that Seele?!" Though she could not see the girl's face, Bronya recognized Seele at once. She could no longer maintain her expressionless face, leaning forward as she gritted her teeth. "Who was that man? How dare he make Seele kneel?"
At the mention of white hair, Bronya abruptly looked at Kiana, who had somehow produced a bag of chips and was devouring them.
"Mm, killing intent!" Kiana belatedly sensed it and hurriedly crawled behind Mei on all fours. "Don't think of me every time you see white hair! That was obviously a man."
"I know, but the movie was made by your uncle. A nephew pays for his uncle's debts!" Bronya's teeth were nearly crushed from clenching them.
"Mei, save me!"
"That was Kevin, wasn't it?" Fu Hua asked doubtfully.
"It was definitely him. He's so close with Yaqing, how could he not be written into the movie? But he's really getting worse with age, bullying a little girl!" Fuhua Shishi slammed her fist into her palm, sharing their outrage.
"Uh... what if Seele is also a Herrscher?" Kiana asked cautiously.
"Impossible!!!" Bronya immediately denied it. "Seele is so gentle. How could she be a Herrscher who wants to destroy human civilization? Even if she were..."
Himeko sobered up a little. She had noticed that one of the flashing images contained a figure who looked remarkably like her. She smiled, assuming she was overthinking it.
At Golden Courtyard, everyone looked toward Kevin. Kalpas spoke first. "Heh, Kevin, this is your character setting? Specializing in bullying little girls?"
Kevin was dumbfounded as well. That scene had not been there when he did the voice acting. He was clearly supposed to be a warrior guiding the younger generation. He hurriedly said, "Impossible! Yaqing clearly said my character was a hero! Right, you..."
Kevin looked toward Yaqing's seat, but where was Yaqing?
"Where did he go?"
Elysia raised her little hand. "Yaqing just got a call and went outside to answer it."
"What?!!"
After leaving the theater, Yaqing received a call from Seele. As for why Yaqing knew Seele, that was a long story.
"Hello, Seele. What's wrong?"
"Brother Yaqing." Seele's gentle voice carried a hint of resentment. "You clearly said the character based on Seele wouldn't appear so soon..."
"Seele, that wasn't you. That was another you."
It would have been better if Yaqing had not explained. The moment he did, the Seele on the other end seemed to become a different person.
"Ha, what do you mean by that, Yaqing?"
"Long time no see, 'Seele.'"
"Don't change the subject. Explain this properly first—why was I kneeling in front of that man?!"
"So I could meet Seele."
"Ha?!"
Without further explanation, Yaqing hung up. He realized there were hardly any normal people around him: Mobius was crazy to the bone, Elysia was intensely obsessed with women, Vill-V had multiple personalities, Seele had a split personality, and Kosma was a chuunibyou shut-in.
At an orphanage far away in Siberia, 'Seele' nearly crushed her phone in her grip. Gritting her teeth, she said, "That bastard!"
"Other me, don't be angry..."
"One of them seemed to have discovered the source of the existence of five parallel truths."
On the screen was Mei, dressed in a white lab-coat-like research uniform and wearing glasses. Behind her stood a girl whose face could not be seen, only her silhouette and that unmistakable spiral-curled hair.
"One of these sources was God's holy land upon Earth. Through the other four truths, she glimpsed God's secret."
Having just returned to his seat, Yaqing heard Mobius's sarcastic voice as she leaned over the back of his chair. "Ah! God's secret..."
As a scientist, Mobius acknowledged Mei's intelligence, but she absolutely would not accept that Mei's intelligence surpassed her own. Mobius did not believe in God, but hearing the movie say that human wisdom could not rival God made her feel somewhat sour.
If Mei could glimpse God's secret, did that mean she had already surpassed humanity's limits?
"Was that me?" Mei asked curiously, then looked at Kevin. "Kevin, was this what you wanted to tell me before we watched you?"
"Ah? Right." Kevin had no way to explain himself. First, he could not talk about his character in the movie. Second, he truly had not known Yaqing would write Mei into the movie as well.
This was nothing less than a backstab from his good brother.
Kevin's resentful gaze made Yaqing deeply uncomfortable, so he grabbed another handful from Elysia's popcorn bucket.
"That figure looks so familiar! It's Mei!" Kiana's eyes widened. "And that silhouette looks like Bronya."
"No, that wasn't me," Mei said.
Bronya was still angry.
"With an incomplete understanding of truth, she built massive structures upon the moon. But her plan failed. God's final apostle still completed her mission!" A massive figure stood in space, Earth looking like a toy in her palm as she gazed down with cold eyes.
"However, she also permanently sealed part of God's power on the moon."
Hearing that God's power was also on the moon, Sirin understood God's meaning. She promised God that she would completely eliminate filthy humanity in exchange for God's power.
God reached out and touched Sirin's forehead with an index finger.
Four gemstone-like cores descended, making Sirin the unprecedented Herrscher with five cores.
"God granted me a crown, drawing lightning into bow and arrow. Shatter all things—the King of Conquest!"
"God granted me authority, commanding endless storms. A thousand miles in a single step—the King of Desire!"
"God granted me brocade robes, dispensing the wine of death. Sweetly enter dreams—the King of Serenity!"
"God granted me a sharp sword, wrapped in immortal flames. Sparks set the plains ablaze—the King of Plague!"
Beneath Sirin's words, like a hymn of worship, she raised her hand. The ruins shattered completely into rubble, which she hurled toward Earth as meteors.
"Ring the bell of the end!"
Why Birds Fly
Four meteors streaked through the atmosphere, landing respectively in the Mariana Trench, Moscow, and Los Angeles. The location of the last one was never made clear. More than ten million people died or were injured worldwide, causing global panic.
The movie's pacing was extremely tight, yet it specifically gave one scene to a purple-haired young woman clutching a little girl in her arms beneath a massive screen in the city, anxiously watching the announcement displayed above.
During the three days following the meteors' descent, Siegfried repeatedly requested to see Otto, but the only response he received was Amber's cold refusal. Faced with Otto's inaction, Siegfried could do nothing but rage.
Fury filled his mind and prevented him from thinking clearly. Siegfried stormed into Welt's hospital room and demanded to know whether he intended to sit around and wait for death, only to be told that Anti-Entropy had long since launched a counterattack.
Silver bullets could not hit a Herrscher with spatial powers, while detonating them from a distance would cause them to malfunction due to the massive electromagnetic pulse, turning them into space junk.
Tesla and Welt suspected that Sirin had acquired new power on the moon and was learning how to use it.
The disaster effects produced through the collaboration between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy stunned every viewer. The incredibly realistic scenes were astonishing, breaking through the barrier between animation and reality, leaving everyone both amazed and afraid.
"Using meteors to attack is so cool," Kevin praised, his eyes shining.
"Cool!" Kosma echoed.
"Now that's more like it." Kalpas nodded. "That's what an enemy of humanity should be like."
"Putting Herrschers aside, I'm more curious about the Previous Era. They already possessed the ability to seal God, so how exactly did they disappear?" Mei asked.
Everything revealed in the story so far spoke of the Previous Era's power and prosperity: the Star of Eden, capable of creating black holes; the Oath of Judah, capable of locking onto enemies across extreme distances; and the equally renowned Judgement of Shamash.
In response to Mei's curiosity, Yaqing looked at Kevin and smiled. "Kevin, tell me, why do birds fly?"
"What?" Kevin froze.
"Heh." Mobius gave a disdainful snort and mocked him, "Yaqing, you really are getting more childish with age. Such a simple question actually came out of your mouth. Birds fly because their bones are full of hollow spaces, making them light yet strong. At the same time, birds..."
"I wasn't asking you, Senior Mobius." Yaqing looked at Kevin and repeated, "Kevin, why do birds fly?"
Kevin's mind went blank. He answered instinctively, "Because they have to fly into the sky."
"When Doomsday Star descended in the Cretaceous, only free birds could escape their predetermined extinction." Yaqing said, "And that is a reflection of the Previous Era."
"You mean the Previous Era was destroyed by Herrschers?"
"The Previous Era was destroyed by humanity," Yaqing said softly.
Only Elysia heard him clearly.
On the moon, Sirin bestowed Benares with a pseudo-Herrscher of Thunder core, granting her intelligence and elevating her from a Honkai Beast to a pseudo-Herrscher. The enormous body of the dragon-like Honkai Beast transformed into that of a young girl. This was the source of the anomalous electromagnetic pulse Anti-Entropy had investigated.
Bella, who had only just taken human form, did not understand why Sirin had stopped attacking humanity and was instead defending the moon.
"Are you doubting me, Bella?" Sirin turned around, her golden eyes indifferent.
Bella was frightened and hurriedly lowered her head, not daring to look directly at Sirin.
Sirin walked before Bella, crouched down, and stroked her cheek. Her reason was that humans were like ants, and they could not be dealt with by simply throwing down a few meteors. Humanity was cunning and treacherous, and Sirin admitted that she had lost to human cunning.
Sirin discovered that the lunar ruins contained vast amounts of knowledge from the Previous Era, including knowledge related to Herrschers. She wanted to learn it in order to better wield Herrscher energy.
"Oh, right, Bella. Come help me with a small favor."
Before you continue