Mei smiled gently at Kevin's childish behavior.
The Final Twelve Hours of Civilization
In the data space, Ziegfried saw the beginning and end of the Previous Era's battle against Finality. The Finality Herrscher was terrifying. Just five minutes into the battle, two warriors had already fallen, and even the warriors' combined firepower could not harm the Herrscher.
While the warriors drew the Finality Herrscher's attention, Dr. Mei used the Moonlight Throne in Earth's orbit to lock onto the Finality Herrscher.
Unfortunately, the Honkai energy within the Finality Herrscher was far too immense. Although the Moonlight Throne's attack hit the Finality Herrscher, it failed to achieve Dr. Mei's expected result. Only 2% of the Honkai energy in the Finality Herrscher's body was lost.
The nearly unaffected Finality Herrscher quickly drove the remaining six warriors into a desperate situation.
If the warriors failed, human civilization would be destroyed along with them. At the critical moment, Dr. Mei ordered the Moonlight Throne's restriction protocols lifted.
Operating at 200% overload, the Moonlight Throne could no longer convert the Herrscher's Honkai energy into thermal energy, but it accelerated the loss of Honkai energy from the Herrscher's body. Before the Moonlight Throne burned out, 30% of the Honkai energy lost from the Herrscher's body seeped into the lunar soil.
Afterward, warrior Kevin's full-power strike temporarily stopped the Finality Herrscher's movements.
But only temporarily.
With the Moonlight Throne gone, humanity had lost its means of dealing effective damage to the Finality Herrscher. Once the Finality Herrscher regained mobility twelve hours later, there would be no stopping her.
In the time that followed, whether in despair, rage, or a final carnival at the end of the world, humanity had only these twelve hours left...
Playback complete.
"She's so powerful. Humanity is practically ants in her hands."
"A battleship forged from the combined wisdom of the Previous Era's humanity could only stop her briefly. I can't imagine how the people of the Current Era are supposed to make it through what comes next..."
"So this was the end of the Previous Era... Destroyed by the Finality Herrscher?"
"What happened next?! I want to see what came after the battle against Finality, not this [viewer profanity] Ziegfried!"
"Kevin, you looked really cool." As his best friend, Su teased, "Tell me, how long did you beg Yaqing before he gave you the role of the 'hero'?"
"What are you talking about?! What kind of nonsense is that?!" Kevin nearly jumped up in agitation. Pointing at Yaqing, he said, "It was clearly Yaqing who begged me, and only then did I reluctantly agree to voice this character."
"Really?" Yaqing mercilessly exposed him. "Who was it that, after reading the script, pounded his chest and guaranteed that I absolutely had to save this role for him?"
"Pfft."
Mei's laughter shattered Kevin's last line of defense. He stared at Yaqing in disbelief, his eyes seeming to say, You [World Serpent profanity] betrayed me?
"Tsk. What terrifying computational power in research. To actually convert Honkai energy into thermal energy... If the story has technology like that, why stay on Earth?" Mobius frowned.
"Yeah, Brother Yaqing. If we can't beat her, then let's run! Build a huge spaceship. The universe is so big, I refuse to believe every planet has Honkai!" Of everyone, Kitty was the least willing to fight.
Yaqing shook his head. "Honkai never descends because of Earth. It descends because of humanity. No matter where humanity flees, as long as civilization exists, Honkai will arrive on schedule."
"Ah..." Kitty lowered her head.
Elysia looked around, then began counting on her pale little fingers again.
Elysia's strange behavior caught Mobius's attention. She asked curiously, "Elysia, what are you calculating?"
If someone claimed Elysia was calculating data for the Moonlight Throne, Mobius would be the first not to believe it. But she could not figure out what Elysia could possibly be calculating at a time like this.
"Oh, Mobius, I'm calculating which of us the remaining warriors, aside from Kevin, are based on." Elysia deliberately glanced at Yaqing.
"Huh? You're that sure the other warriors are modeled after us?" Mobius asked skeptically, suspecting Yaqing had leaked something to a certain pink fatty.
"It's a beautiful woman's sixth sense~" Elysia blinked. "I'm sure Professor Mo~bi~us has one too~"
"Hmph." Mobius let out a soft snort.
"Humanity grew up in cruel environments to begin with." Otto sighed. "Even through a screen, I can feel the suffocating pressure humanity faced back then. After learning civilization was on a countdown, how despairing must they have been?"
"Otto, Little Yaqing's script is really good." Kallen said as she stuffed potato chips into her mouth. "After watching this movie, I can't bring myself to watch any other soap operas."
"Yes, his literary talent has long surpassed mine." Otto helplessly brushed the chip crumbs from his blanket.
Kallen rolled her eyes at Otto. Others might not know him, but how could she not? Several years ago, Otto had once used the alias Rakshasa to create an anime called Saintess Redemption Chronicle. Unsurprisingly, it flopped miserably.
Otto insisted that people simply did not know how to appreciate it. They had failed to appreciate the Saintess's wish or understand the Saintess's beauty.
In any case, he had acted like a complete fanatic. In the end, Yaqing had taken the blame, claiming it was his debut work. But everyone in Schicksal could tell Rakshasa was Otto. They merely went along with it to save their president's face.
After waking up, Ziegfried learned that Einstein had already downloaded all the Moonlight Throne information contained in the Honkai Steel. Having witnessed the battle against Finality on the moon, Ziegfried was clearly not very confident in the Moonlight Throne.
Einstein, however, felt differently. The enemy they had to face now was not the Finality Herrscher, but the Herrscher of the Void. Before the Finality Herrscher descended, they still had plenty of time to improve and research the Moonlight Throne.
Ziegfried neither agreed nor disagreed. All his attention remained on the white-haired young man wielding the Judgement of Shamash in the database. He always felt that person was calling to him.
Ziegfried asked Einstein to replay the record. He had many questions for that mysterious young man. Why could he survive after using An-Utu? There was not even a single burn on his body.
When Ziegfried reached out to pat the young man's shoulder, the young man, whom he had assumed was merely a data projection, suddenly grabbed Ziegfried's outstretched arm.
"I've finally found you, my descendant."
"Just as I suspected, Kevin really did survive into the Current Era and even left behind a bloodline." Mei frowned.
"But how did he do it? The Current Era and the Previous Era are separated by fifty thousand years," Vill-V raised the question.
"Heh. Have you forgotten about injecting Honkai Beast genes?" Mobius sneered. "What if injecting Honkai Beast genes also extended one's lifespan?"
"Oh my, why are we discussing this again!" Elysia lightened the mood. "Let's just watch the movie properly. Rather than discussing that, why not discuss Kevin's descendants? Who was the other half?"
The moment Elysia finished speaking, the theater fell silent for a moment.
Kevin and Mei's faces turned as red as monkey butts.
"Who else could it be? It must be... mmph."
To keep Mei from dying of embarrassment, Yaqing promptly covered Snakey's mouth.
The Kaslana Curse
"Mmph, mmph..."
Mobius glared at Yaqing in dissatisfaction, then seemed to think of something. Her eyes immediately turned sultry.
Yaqing abruptly pulled his hand away. Feeling the dampness on his palm, he wiped it on his clothes.
"Yaqing!"
Yaqing's "disgusted" gesture pierced Snakey's heart. Gritting her teeth, she seized Yaqing by the neck with both hands.
"I'll [World Serpent profanity] kill you!"
Yaqing cooperatively stuck out his tongue.
Watching Yaqing and Snakey interact, Elysia and Su exchanged looks, gentle yet teasing smiles appearing on their lips at the same time.
Kevin said that when Ziegfried met him, it would mean humanity's decisive battle against Honkai had begun once again.
"Now, I will tell you the secret of Kaslana power."
"What?!"
Ziegfried was stunned by the enormous amount of information contained in Kevin's words. At that moment, Kevin suddenly stabbed the Judgement of Shamash into Ziegfried's chest without warning.
"As long as you can control the power of those Honkai Beasts hidden within Kaslana genes."
Kevin then pulled out the Judgement of Shamash and forcefully shoved Ziegfried away.
"Then you will surpass humanity's limits and even—rise above Herrschers."
"Then, remember this..."
The screen abruptly went black.
"Those who inherit the Kaslana name must defeat Honkai, no matter the cost!"
Kevin's tone was incomparably stern.
"Another power-up?!" Sirin declared that this was impossible to play.
"I really am cool." Kevin stared excitedly at his own entrance.
"Yeah, you stabbed your own descendant the moment you appeared." Mei covered her mouth and laughed.
"Kevin, if I didn't know you also had the Kaslana surname, I would've thought you wanted to kill Ziegfried." Sakura had not expected the most serious injury Ziegfried had suffered since appearing would come from his own ancestor.
"But my Kaslana has nothing to do with Schicksal's Kaslana." Kevin scratched his head.
Thanks to Theresa's precedent, no one was surprised to learn Kevin also carried Honkai Beast genes.
Einstein watched Ziegfried's constantly twitching fingers and the wildly chaotic brainwave signals on the screen. Just as she was about to stop the process, the connector Ziegfried was wearing shattered with a bang. Einstein instinctively took a step back and accidentally fell to the floor.
Ziegfried's face twisted viciously as he let out a beast-like roar. Most striking were his eyes: the whites had been consumed by pitch black, while his pupils emitted an eerie blue glow. They had completely transformed into the eyes of a Honkai Beast.
Forty-five minutes later, the recovered Ziegfried stared at the ice pillars that had appeared in the room and could not help reaching out. The bone-piercing cold at his fingertips cleared his mind considerably.
Einstein, her bandages freshly replaced, walked to his side. Looking at the ice pillar radiating cold air, she informed Ziegfried that after analyzing the monitoring data, she had discovered a Honkai Beast energy reaction within him at the time. The ice pillar before them was precisely that Honkai Beast's ability.
The cold of ice immediately made Einstein think of the legend that the Kaslana ancestor possessed the ability to withstand heavenly fire. It was reasonable to infer that the Kaslana ancestor possessed Honkai Beast DNA, though that DNA had become inactive after centuries of inheritance.
Einstein casually handed Ziegfried a cup of coffee.
"So this is what humans look like after receiving Honkai Beast genes?" Kevin was deeply curious. Since Ziegfried carried "his" genes, there was a strong possibility this would also be his future model.
"What an experiment that defies human ethics." Mei glanced at Mobius. If anyone could carry out such a mad experiment, Mobius was the first person she would think of.
"Hah, you mean I did it in the story? Don't pin every bad thing on Mobius." Mobius patted Yaqing's head, raising a finger. "If you ask me, Mei is far more likely. That little follower obviously wouldn't end up on my operating table, but you're different."
Yaqing glanced at her. She really did understand those two.
Ziegfried took the coffee and drained it in one gulp. He understood perfectly well that to defeat the Second Herrscher, he had to master this power. Looking at the paper cup crushed into a ball in his hand, he was about to ask how he could gain and control this power when Einstein spoke first.
"Mr. Ziegfried, how does the coffee taste?"
"The taste?" Although Ziegfried did not understand why Einstein had suddenly asked about the coffee's taste, he still tried hard to remember. His expression changed. He realized it—the coffee had been freshly poured from a boiling pot right before his eyes, so why had it felt cold in his mouth?
Seeing the change in Ziegfried's expression, Einstein understood. She explained, "The Honkai Beast power inside you also numbed your nerves when it erupted. For a long period of time, your body temperature will remain low, and you will lose your sense of touch."
Einstein took out a palm-sized, highly mechanical square case from behind her back. With a click, it opened to reveal three injections—the activators left behind by the Previous Era.
According to Anti-Entropy's records, the Previous Era implanted Honkai Beast genes into human bodies. They called Honkai Beast DNA "meta-morph factors," and the purpose of the activators was to activate those Honkai Beast genes.
The activators' side effects were also severe. Activated Honkai Beast DNA would damage a person's nervous system and circulatory system, causing irreversible harm. If used excessively, a person's cells would be devoured by Honkai Beast DNA—
"Until they finally become Honkai Beasts."
Einstein told Ziegfried to think carefully about the cost of gaining this power before using the activators.
Ziegfried stared blankly at the injection in his hand.
"The dragon slayer becomes the dragon." Kevin sighed.
"With the power to fight dragons, will he become a friend, or a new storm?" Yaqing said.
"Very good, not bad! Hahahaha, let this battlefield be drenched in even more blood!!!" Kalpas roared with laughter.
"Kalpas!" Sakura scolded.
Realizing there were children present, Kalpas immediately fell silent.
"Kalpas is really gentle, isn't he~?" Elysia smiled.
"Hey, Mei, have you considered that this gene had been passed down for hundreds, thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of years, and it could still lower Ziegfried's body temperature? Then what about the source?" Mobius smiled sweetly.
Vill-V analyzed rationally, "Judging from Kevin's performance in the battle against Finality, he used the Judgement of Shamash without restraint and showed no concern about backlash. By then, he had probably already fully mastered this power, and his surface body temperature was approaching below zero."
"His surface body temperature was approaching below zero?" Su gave Kevin and Mei a strange look, especially Mei. He could not help sighing inwardly. She truly was a woman who looked strong on the outside but burned hot within.
As expected of best friends, the moment Su thought that, Kevin thought of it too. He nearly jumped up. "If my surface body temperature was approaching below zero, then how did I have descendants? Could it be..."
It had been nothing at first, but once Kevin shouted that, everyone looked over.
Mei was already somewhat socially anxious. Now, embarrassed and furious, she fiercely pinched the soft flesh at Kevin's waist, then buried her head against the back of the front-row seat.
Before you continue