"Cecilia!" Elysia looked at Cecilia, whom Otto had ordered to halt the rescue operation. There was sorrow and struggle in her eyes, like an angel who had seen through all the suffering of the human world.
"She really is selfless and devoted to others, but people with that kind of altruistic personality probably don't end well later in the story." Mobius deliberately glanced at Yaqing. Only after seeing no reaction on his face did she dare say it.
"Could someone like that, so selfless and altruistic, really exist in reality?" Mei raised a question from the depths of her soul.
Yaqing and Mobius almost turned their heads at the same time, looking at Elysia, whose cheeks were stuffed like a hamster's.
"Everyone's staring at me. I'm going to get embarrassed." Elysia turned her face aside.
"By the way, why was it a Valkyrie squad fighting Honkai on the front lines? Even the male soldiers only had one Ziegfried?" Sakura asked doubtfully.
"Isn't it obvious? Someone must have done it for the box office." Mobius curled her lips.
"You could say that was part of it." Yaqing smiled. "The bigger reason will have to wait until the Previous Era movie is released."
"Oh? Hearing you say that, you don't just want to make a movie. You want to create an IP too?"
"What I wanted to create from the beginning was the Honkai IP."
Burning Frozen Earth
"Over thousands of years, as human civilization continued to develop, Honkai Beasts continued to evolve as well."
Otto's magnetic, gentlemanly voice served as narration, explaining the basic setting of Honkai Beasts to the audience.
"By the second millennium AD, Honkai Beasts were already nothing like they used to be."
"The shells of Honkai Beasts are extremely tough. Ordinary bullets cannot harm them in the slightest. To pierce those shells, at least anti-tank rockets are needed. But even after breaking through the shell, when facing an Emperor-class Honkai Beast over ten meters tall—"
"Even anti-tank rockets can only destroy a small part of its body."
Otto described the brutality of humanity's battle against Honkai Beasts. According to Schicksal's data, eliminating a single Emperor-class Honkai Beast required the sacrifice of five thousand fully armed soldiers.
Using ordinary troops against Honkai Beasts was therefore no different from wasting lives and resources, yet Schicksal could only deploy a mere five hundred Valkyries.
With such a massive numerical disparity, Otto's decision to carpet-bomb the Siberian Snowfield with heavy weaponry before the Valkyrie squads entered it had been entirely correct.
"Heavy weapons can kill Emperor-class Honkai Beasts." Mobius leaned over the back of the front-row seat. "Then why not just develop weapons in large quantities? Even the Void Herrscher would feel threatened by nuclear bombs."
Everyone understood what Mobius meant: use nuclear bombs to bombard the Herrscher until she was half-dead, then kill her. But that required a premise. Mei quickly spotted the problem. "What if a later Herrscher could forcibly control the nuclear launch silos?"
Yaqing froze, his eyes widening as he looked at Mei. His expression was almost comical, though he quickly composed himself.
You're invincible, kid.
Yaqing was certain he had never let Mei read the script.
"How could that be?" Mobius waved a hand. "If someone could forcibly control nuclear launch silos, then what would her authority be? An electromagnetic network?"
Mobius brushed aside Yaqing's hand tugging at the corner of her clothes and continued, "Sirin has already obtained the Herrscher of Thunder Core, yet she hasn't shown any ability to control networks. If there really is a Herrscher who can control nuclear launch silos, I, Mobius, will put on that outfit Elysia gave me!"
Yaqing helplessly covered his forehead. Once Mobius got carried away, no one could stop her.
Elysia became excited instead. "Really? Mobius, have you finally come around? Do you want to wear the little dress I gave you?~?"
Mei smiled without quite smiling. "Then Senior Mobius, don't go back on your word."
By then, Mobius had sensed that something was wrong, but she still stubbornly said, "Never!"
Missiles carved arcs across the sky before falling upon the Siberian Snowfield like raindrops. After an hour of relentless bombardment, Schicksal's weapons stockpile was nearly depleted, and the Siberian Snowfield had completely become burning frozen earth.
At exactly noon on February 16, Otto ordered all Valkyrie squads to officially enter the Siberian Snowfield.
The northern force led by Ziegfried quickly encountered several hundred surviving Honkai Beasts. After a fierce battle, Ziegfried seemed to sense something and looked up into the air.
In midair, the scantily clad Benares rested a hand beneath her chin and gazed indifferently at the people below as energy gathered behind her.
The pressure brought by the massive electromagnetic sphere gave Ziegfried no time to think. He ordered all troops to retreat and pointed Judgement of Shamash at the dragon girl in the sky.
Meanwhile, within the Tower of Babylon, Sirin observed Benares's battle through the Void Herrscher's authority. She dismissed Schicksal's missile bombardment with contempt. "As long as I want to, I can create however many Honkai Beasts I please."
Just as Sirin was about to continue acting,
she suddenly noticed someone had arrived behind her. Turning around, she saw Otto, Fu Hua, and Cheng Lixue. She immediately understood that the so-called Valkyrie squads were merely expendable pawns meant to draw her attention.
"Otto and the other two just walked right up to the final boss?" Kevin could not understand Otto's move.
"That's confidence. Confidence in Fu Hua, most likely. After all, she lived from fifty thousand years ago into the Current Era. No one knows what methods she truly possesses," Mei analyzed.
"Confidence that Fu Hua wouldn't lose to a Herrscher..."
"Hua is actually that strong?!" Kitty was shocked.
"To this battlefield—"
"Cough, cough."
Sakura's light cough interrupted Kalpas's incantation.
Facing the arrival of Otto's group, Sirin lifted her head with a confident and inflated smile. She had been feeling bored, and remembering that they were the ones who had ruined her puppets, she decided killing them would be far more interesting than slaughtering puppets.
"Make this entertaining for me!☆"
Otto and Cheng Lixue could only remain silent.
After hearing her opponent say she wanted to have fun, the honest Fu Hua obediently stepped forward according to the plan. A faint red light shone across her body, and her gray-blue hair suddenly turned white.
"Let me fight her alone. Neither you nor Lixue should interfere."
Feeling that she had been underestimated, Sirin angrily said, "You only defeated that useless Agata. Don't get so full of yourself, insect!"
Cheng Lixue worried whether Fu Hua could handle the Second Herrscher alone and asked Bishop Otto, "Do we really not need to help Master?"
"She alone is enough."
Otto was extremely confident in Fu Hua's strength.
"My old friend, within the domain of the Feather of the Wind, you can unleash your greatest power." Otto's inner voice was revealed to the audience.
"When that power lost for five hundred years returns to your body—"
"You will be the strongest person in this world."
"Old antique, your character setting is actually the strongest person in the world?!" Little Knowledge had barely finished being surprised before she became anxious. If Fu Hua was the strongest person in the world, how was she supposed to surpass her?!
"Class Monitor is so cool!" Kiana's eyes sparkled with stars.
"She's becoming more and more like a pufferfish." Bronya wore a strange expression but did not say it aloud.
"Class Monitor, go! Beat that stinky Sirin until she cries! Stop her from acting so smug!"
Kiana's words made Bronya realize she had simply been overthinking it.
"Right, Fu Hua, how old did Yaqing make you in your character setting?" Theresa only then noticed something strange. "Why did Grandpa in the story say you had power that was lost for five hundred years? Are you really some ancient monster?"
"Uh... Principal, that isn't funny at all." The words "ancient monster" hurt this twenty-year-old girl's heart.
"Sorry, sorry." Theresa knew she had misspoken and stuck out her tongue cutely.
"Ugh, Aunt, how old are you? Why are you still acting cute?!"
"Kiana!"
Fifty Thousand Years of Longing
In the next instant, Fu Hua threw a punch.
Sirin watched Fu Hua rush toward her. The pride of a Herrscher and confidence in her authority made her believe that no matter how fast or powerful the punch was, human strength could never pass through a Herrscher's Imaginary Barrier.
Yet less than a second later, Sirin discovered she was wrong. What came at her was not merely her opponent's fist, but hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of golden fist shadows descending like a storm.
Most of the fist shadows did not pass through the Herrscher's barrier, but one in ten thousand slipped through the gaps in the Imaginary Barrier. With no chance to evade, Sirin was struck.
A golden fist shadow smashed viciously into Sirin's pretty face, leaving her utterly stunned. The instant she wavered, the Imaginary Barrier collapsed as well. Countless fist shadows struck her body. Though the damage was not severe, they enraged Sirin.
"Get away from me!"
Acting on instinct, Sirin used her most lethal close-range ability—the authority of the Herrscher of Death. Everything within this black mist would be corroded into nothing, yet it could not corrode the flames that had burned upon Fu Hua's fists for five thousand years.
"Cun! Jin! Opening! The Heavens!"
"Hua is actually that strong! Even a six-Core Herrscher had no ability to fight back before Hua!" Kitty was excited, Kitty was shocked, Kitty was happy.
"This is a Previous Era warrior. Her strength completely crushes that of the Current Era. I really can't imagine how powerful the Finality Herrscher must have been to fight nine of them alone and leave them utterly unable to resist," Mei said gravely.
"How unambitious. I can imagine it." Mobius spoke lazily.
Mei was helpless. "Senior Mobius, do you really need to contradict me every time I say something?"
"Hmph." Mobius gave a soft, haughty snort.
After taking Cun Jin: Opening the Heavens head-on, Sirin fell from the top of the Tower of Babylon. Fu Hua said without looking back, "Lixue, lend me Ruoshui."
Sirin lay on the ground before barely managing to climb back up. Her head felt as though it were about to explode. She had no idea what had happened and fell into utter self-doubt.
"I was defeated?! How is that possible?!"
At that moment, a fiery red meteor fell from atop the Tower of Babylon. Looking closely, it was Fu Hua, sword in hand.
Sirin finally reacted. Anger filled her mind, and in her fury, she raised a hand and activated the authority of the Herrscher of Wind. A wind blade carved an enormous mark across the surface of the Tower of Babylon.
Yet it could not strike her opponent.
The unscathed Fu Hua reached the ground. Looking at her figure, a familiar and hateful feeling filled Sirin's heart. It was the feeling she had experienced every day before becoming a Herrscher: fear.
At that moment, Sirin trembled all over. Her Herrscher's pride had been shattered by the ant she had considered beneath her.
"Y-you... don't come any closer!"
The current Sirin had none of the bearing of a world-ending Herrscher. She was like a little girl terrified of an adult, hoping to stop her opponent's advance with flames three times stronger than those of the Pseudo Herrscher of Flame.
The flames of the Herrscher of Flame stirred Fu Hua's memories from fifty thousand years ago.
When they first met, she had been a girl sitting with her knees drawn to her chest. She reached out a hand to Fu Hua, and that had been the path to salvation. Yet she had become humanity's enemy, becoming a calamity that would destroy the world. When the chains of impermanence descended with the storm, the flames too were about to fade away.
The flames she wielded were enough to burn all of Australia, yet they could not leave even a trace upon that black armor of impermanence.
"Himeko?!"
"Miss Himeko?!"
"Aunt Himeko?!"
Seeing Fu Hua's memory, everyone looked uncertainly at the slightly tipsy Himeko.
"Was that me?" Himeko's drunken eyes were hazy as she leaned toward Fu Hua. "Looks like I was just background scenery. That's normal enough."
"Hey, hey, hey, Himeko, what are you doing?! Don't take off your clothes!"
"Old antique, hurry up and do something!"
"Uh..." Fu Hua did not know what to say.
That was a longing fifty thousand years in the making. For fifty thousand years, Fu Hua had constantly thought about how to fight Herrschers. Flame, Death, Void, Wind—regardless of which Herrscher she faced, she had long since found a method to counter them.
Fu Hua raised Ruoshui in her hand, her fingertip sliding across the blade. A water swallow took shape behind her. This was the Taixu Sword Form, Sword Manifestation: Swift.
"N-no..."
Before Sirin's terrified, widened golden eyes, Ruoshui pierced through her abdomen.
"I can't deal with this at all!" Sirin wanted nothing more than to flip the table. A fifty-thousand-year-old monster was actually coming after a newborn Herrscher who was not even eighteen.
She had not been that angry while recording the voice acting without seeing the visuals. But now, seeing every moment of herself going from smugness—to rage—to getting humiliated—to fear—to being pierced through, Sirin had never imagined it would turn out like this. She could already picture Kiana's mocking expression.
Before you continue