Gradually Falling into Honkai

Su Qing'an walked into the house, went straight into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out the necessary ingredients, and under Mei's strange gaze, naturally put on an apron and began to cook.

The girl sat at the dining table on the edge of the kitchen, her eyes fixed on the data displayed on the tablet, and asked softly:

Where is Miss Fu?

The boy watched as the eggs slowly spread out in the pan, turning golden brown. His mind wandered, and after a moment of silence, he replied:

She's in Sydney.

Mei was stunned for a moment. She remembered that she should have given Fu Hua an indefinite leave, so it was only right that Fu Hua stay in the safety of her home.

But in reality, that little girl was facing unimaginable hardships in one of the most dangerous cities in all of Australia, and even in the world today.

Are you going to see a friend?

If that's the case, then it's definitely a terrible day to go visit.

She looked at his back, which was wearing an apron, with some confusion.

Why is the person who should be most anxious and worried about this quietly frying eggs in the kitchen, as if the peaceful daily life has not been broken, and can still enjoy the warm afternoon sun without thinking about those messy troubles?

Mei thought again that perhaps Su Qing'an wasn't unconcerned, nor had he forgotten the current danger. He simply couldn't calm down without resorting to a lifestyle that suited his usual peaceful routine. For example, when helping Kevin attach the [Stigmata] and powers, he had to make coffee on the side to briefly forget the noise and sorrow.

She had initially thought that Su Qing'an brought her here not only to temporarily avoid the missionaries' eyes and ears, but also to protect Fu Hua together. However, it seems that this is not the case now.

Mei asked:

"Aren't you worried? Even if Kevin is there, the crisis there goes far beyond just the Seventh Herrscher."

Su Qing'an flipped the egg over and responded softly:

"She's stronger than you think, Mei."

Sensing the emptiness in his Mind Lake, he continued:

"Moreover, I'm used to frequently entrusting important things to her."

"This time is no exception."

Back in Canghai City, the boy had a habit of occasionally throwing Little Feather into Fu Hua's head. At this crucial time when the Seventh Herrscher was about to appear, he naturally chose the safest approach as always, not wanting to restrict her personal freedom.

Previously, this approach was limited to a short period of time and distance. However, now that the Black Abyss White Flower is available, the permission for the Herrscher Core to link to the Imaginary Space has eliminated the distance restrictions that Udu-dust had given to Fu Hua.

The farther away it is from itself, the more Honkai Energy it consumes.

With the support of the Herrscher Core, this restriction was lifted. As long as the consumed Honkai Energy cannot be output to the upper limit of the license at once, Udu-dust will not return to itself on its own.

Su Qing'an was able to clearly perceive Fu Hua's specific situation through this, and he could synchronize with Little Feather's perspective and even have a conversation with her.

Since Udu-dust is still unable to be observed, and Su Qing'an had not mentioned it before, Mei could not fully understand the other party's words. She could only understand that the other party probably had some means with Fu Hua that could reassure her.

But this level of understanding was enough. Mei had no intention of digging deeper into all of the other person's secrets, and she had no time to care about any extra information now.

As the nominal and legal leader of all of Australia, it is my natural duty to be responsible for the lives of my soldiers and the inhabitants of this continent.

Although Prometheus has temporarily relinquished control of all Mechanical Force to evacuate survivors and fight Honkai Beast, she still has other trivial matters to worry about.

Himeko becoming Herrscher is a huge blow to Australia right now. Regardless of the impact on public opinion and the remaining social order after this news spreads, the current situation is such that the lack of a truly capable leader who can coordinate forces, organize resistance, and provide the right response will cause significant problems.

At the very least, this forced Mei to shoulder responsibilities that a researcher shouldn't have had to bear, and to try her best to make up for the gaps caused by the other party's absence.

Mei didn't have any expectations about the probability that Himeko wasn't Herrscher entity, but if Kevin brought unexpected news, she would gladly accept it.

Unfortunately... after a brief phone call with Kevin, she realized that no miracle or unexpected event had occurred to grant the answer that had long been in her heart.

She looked at the email message on her tablet, remained silent for a moment. It contained clear images captured by Kevin's special equipment, but his equipment had already malfunctioned in the very first minute of the battle, and the earpiece that was supposed to transmit sound had fallen silent.

The Seventh Herrscher is stronger than imagined.

Based on the initial data, Mei was almost certain that Kevin was no match for the Seventh Herrscher. She had always been raising her predictions about the Seventh Herrscher's combat strength, but even so, it still far exceeded her expectations.

She couldn't understand why such a dramatic increase in the index had occurred; whether the combined combat power of all previous Herrscher could reach the full level of the Herrscher of Flames was still unknown.

Is this really a level that Honkai Energy?

If the next Herrscher simply accumulates a year of incubation and dormancy, can human civilization be declared defeated outright?

Mei's intuition tells her that the Seventh Herrscher is a special being, but she can hardly find a real answer as to where this specialness comes from.

The distance between the Seventh Herrscher and the Sixth Herrscher cannot be fully explained by the law that Herrscher only get stronger.

This law itself has already had pluralistic exceptions, so using it as a definitive reason is not reassuring enough.

She began to ponder what special event had occurred between the Seventh Herrscher and the Sixth Herrscher that could have caused such a change.

The first thing to be affected was the [Creation] power that existed within Su Qing'an's soul, which Seele, as the Herrscher of Death, unequivocally and completely betrayed.

Could it be that the Honkai Consciousness is feeling the urgency regarding this?

This is probably the first time that something like this has happened, with humans taking what belongs to Him.

Perhaps the Sixth Herrscher's inaction angered Him, leading Him to deliberately and drastically strengthen the next Herrscher?

It cannot be extended further.

This approach is flawed.

Mei immediately dismissed her own guess.

The Honkai Consciousness may want to reclaim what belongs to it, but if we follow past speculations and ideas, it will not intentionally strengthen the Herrscher at this moment.

Because whether He is a god, a vast mechanism, or even nature itself, He does not generate emotions.

Acting impulsively is not an option; continuing to develop existing ideas is the only feasible approach.

After witnessing the Fourth Herrscher die from the Honkai Fission Bomb, He still did not deliberately alter the birthplace of the Fifth Herrscher. Later, He disregarded the strength of the Sixth Herrscher and rapidly accelerated her birth, making her weaker.

All the facts show that the Honkai Consciousness doesn't care how many times it suffers a defeat in stages, so naturally there's no need for it to deliberately pursue the rapid demise of civilizations.

This represents a fact.

That is the power of the Seventh Herrscher, unrelated to the will of the Honkai Consciousness itself.

After lifting this veil, the girl vaguely understood the answer as her thoughts raced. Herrscher of Flamescion's question was similar to the inevitable feedback that would be obtained after certain conditions were met.

If the mechanism of the Honkai Filter is specifically designed to target civilizations, then perhaps she has already understood the reason behind it.

Before the appearance of the Seventh Herrscher, apart from the special events of Su Qing'an obtaining power and the success of the Divine Key Project, only the first official success of the Fusion Warrior experiment was noteworthy.

This success brought civilization the powerful warrior Kevin Kaslana.

The deeper value lies in the fact that this represents the possibility of mass production of Fusion Warrior. It is not a unique or coincidental accumulation of variables, but a research result that can be replicated again based on data and examples.

The very existence of Fusion Warrior represents a massive subversion of complex elements such as past perceptions, understanding of survival, culture, and even social ideology.

If similar technology were to appear in a world where Honkai does not exist, she has no doubt that the existing global order would be irreversibly altered.

It is no exaggeration to say that the success of the Fusion Warrior Project was a leap forward and an evolution for the entire civilization.

Therefore, if the Honkai of civilizations, which aims to filter out other civilizations, is a perfect mechanism as it anticipates, it will inevitably bring about corresponding changes to the changes in civilizations.

Thus, Dr. Mei arrived at a simple yet alarming formula.

In other words, the more advanced a civilization's technology becomes, the more terrifying the Honkai will be.

This provides a definitive explanation for the Seventh Herrscher's power.

Her very existence may be a calamity and side effect of the successful Fusion Warrior Project, but even if this fact is deduced, it doesn't make much sense.

At least, that's true for the war at this stage.

Mei jotted these guesses down on her tablet and then put them out of her mind.

Humanity cannot afford to stop developing technology; otherwise, civilization will inevitably succumb to the threat of future enemies and face destruction.

But the girl wasn't worried about this. She believed that as long as the technology was developed beyond the limits of Honkai, the formula would naturally break down on its own.

Even if this limit itself might not exist, or even if it does, it might not be possible to reach the end. Many negative assumptions and pessimistic views followed, but in the end, Me overcame these distractions and continued to calmly carry out the work at hand without being affected in any way.

Mei reminded him while handling her tasks:

"Mr. Su, if you have any means of contacting her, it would be best to keep her away from Sydney."

"The Seventh Herrscher is far stronger than we initially imagined, and there's a high chance Kevin wouldn't be a match for her in a one-on-one fight."

"At that time, a Herrscher is no longer restrained and has entered a berserk state will most likely not choose to leave directly, but will burn the entire Sydney to ashes."

"I don't know what you gave Miss Fu, but even if it's just a Black Abyss White Flower that she can use without limit, it's meaningless to directly confront the Seventh Herrscher."

She paused for a moment, then continued:

"And Sydney could very well become the next Orank and Barcelona; you should understand what I mean."

Su Qing'an placed the egg pancake in a bowl with a cartoon pattern. Although Seele would never admit it, he knew it was a bowl that she liked.

The boy cut a perfectly thin egg pancake with a knife, put it in his mouth, savoring its chewiness, elasticity, and perfectly balanced texture, and then swallowed it all. He placed the bowl and plate in the sink and said softly:

"I will go to Sydney and bring her and Kevin back."

Mei responded rationally:

"Do you believe there are no missionary spies in this area?"

Su Qing'an stated:

"That's why I brought you here."

"There were no informants of her in the previous branches or along the route, so I speculate that she hasn't been in Australia for very long, which is why this happened."

Mei retorted:

"The area covered by the route ahead is clearly within her capabilities, and if the assassination fails, her informants in the vicinity will be at risk of being removed."

"The reason you didn't notice is likely just because she realized this beforehand and chose to bury the pieces elsewhere, which doesn't prove that other enemies won't come later."

Su Qing'an said softly:

"You're right, but the timing of her assassination attempt was too coincidental, almost as if she knew the Honkai would erupt at that moment."

Mei frowned and asked:

"You suspect that the birth of the Seventh Herrscher is closely related to her?"

Su Qing'an lowered his eyes as he washed the dishes. Feeling the warmth of the water on his hands, he softly said:

"This is just a suspicion, but I know she must understand that the Seventh Herrscher would be born in Australia, and given the level of combat power you mentioned, it would be quite normal for the entire Australia to be burned down in a short period of time."

"Whether Honkai creatures of this level can coexist peacefully is another matter, but at least the Seventh Herrscher's area-of-effect attacks might not take its existence into account. So, since it knows that Herrscher is about to be born, given its cautious nature, it would be reasonable for it to simply leave far away."

Mei said helplessly:

"You profiled it?"

The boy remained noncommittal.

"After the Yakarta incident, I tried it out of interest."

"The conclusion is that the other party lacks human morality, but possesses excellent learning abilities. They will readily accept human wisdom and experience, incorporating them into their own knowledge system to deal with humans."

"Extremely hates humanity, cunning and cruel yet not arrogant, emotionally unstable, indifferent to their own life in every sense of the word, yet incredibly appreciative in their actions."

"I've already left Australia, that's my assessment. And as long as they don't come in person, even if these informants pose a danger, the troops stationed nearby are sufficient to handle them."

Mei no longer intended to utter these mere speculations as an excuse; she unabashedly projected the video stored on the device into the void.

The porcelain bowl in Su Qing'an's hand fell into the sink with a crisp sound. The water continued to flow, its transparent crystalline surface washing over the smooth bowl, turning into a cloying mess, as if it were praying to turn back time and return to the daily routine of the past.

He gazed at the striking, vibrant red hair, the Amber eyes that should have held a hint of gentleness, and the all-too-familiar face. His pupils trembled, and his lips moved, but he remained silent.

It's Himeko.

It's Murata Himeko.

Yes... it's my older sister.

Even though Himeko wasn't Murata Himeko, whom she spent every day with, or her real older sister or family member, they still shared the same soul.

For Su Qing'an, who can observe souls, this similarity is far more accurate and undeniable than appearance.

Now, he is witnessing his opponent heading towards the most tragic end, yet he is powerless to stop it. He is overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow, and his swordsmanship, which was bound by self-punishment, begins to waver.

The boy understood a cruel reality the moment he saw the Seventh Herrscher.

He was unable to offer the other person salvation.

Kenshin, already wounded and scarred, was unable to assist Kevin, let alone fight him, unable to... Soul Scale.

Unable to sever the Soul Link, even if one has a way to fight the other, the only outcome will be killing them with one's own hands.

It shouldn't be like this, but I just can't do that.

In the previous timeline, Su Qing'an willingly gave up his natural Stigmata so that Himeko could survive. If he were to indirectly or even personally kill her here, would he still be the same person he was in the beginning?

The stronger a person's soul, the more infectious their emotions become.

The boy's eyes, which once shone like the lights of countless homes in the night, revealing an unyielding will and solitary courage, are now like a lifeless lake and a withered rose, leaving only an impression of despair and sorrow.

Everything about the concept of Su Qing'an is being squeezed and crushed under the conflict of the core will, and is one step closer to the end of collapse.

But the penalty for breach of contract has a fatal constraint, much like the Gulf of Alaska, which has two seas that can never merge due to their different densities. This constraint gives all emotions different levels of density, so that personality and will can still be maintained in their original state.

But it's like a worn-out doll that's been patched up; even if it has the same shape as before, it won't have the original toughness and durability.

Looking at his face, Mei felt a pang of pity, and her tone unconsciously softened and soothed:

"Mr. Su, you cannot participate in this battle."