Kiana: I Came to Find You, Idiot Shopkeeper

The previous memories were neither ambiguous nor hazy.

Kiana could clearly remember that just a few seconds before, the Class President and Bronya each imbued their respective Herrscher Core into the greatsword, and finally, guided by the former's consciousness, they used the Honkai Energy of the Void Sword God to shape and unleash the final blow against the Thousand Herrscher.

In that instant, the red-haired beauty flashed by like a phantom, giving a final embrace, and at that moment, the power of the Herrscher of Flames was fully revived through the Plague Gem.

This inherited power was completely concentrated in the same sword form, intensifying the entanglement of all forces like a raging fire, and then erupting all at once, tearing the sky apart like a meteor, severing the noisy and hypocritical giant puppet in two.

After defeating the enemy and shattering the entire Dominion Theater, as the girl fell like embers amidst the ruins, countless memories that should not have belonged to her flashed through her mind in a daze.

--In Changkong City, she once met and became acquainted with a boy as beautiful as a poem. They spent the most carefree and joyful time together before entering St. Freya Academy and after their separation from their father.

But in the end, that person died beneath the falling cherry blossoms at Kiyomizu Temple, just like the happiness he had once possessed, vanishing like smoke.

The remaining memories surged forth like a tide, as if breaking through a barrier resembling fate, continuing to tell the story that was not yet finished.

It's still in Changkong City, still in that coffee shop.

She, who has lost her memory, and he, who retains it, meet again along their original paths.

"Give me a latte, with ice and extra sugar."

You've been accepted.

The two, after an initial somewhat amusing exchange, reverted to the path of the previous timeline.

This time, however, the boy did not die from the Honkai. He successfully survived the Third Honkai Outbreak and joined St. Freya Academy like himself. He also completed his first mission well and saved the academy from being harmed by the Herrscher of Corruption of the previous era, thus falling into a deep sleep.

But that idiot eventually Awakened.

Although there have been some bumps along the way, the future is still moving in a positive direction.

Until... that mission carried out beneath the Nine Nether.

Kiana, promise me that no matter how this ends, no matter what happens or what difficulties you encounter in the future, you will never give up.

Even when the difficulty seems so hopeless that you feel nothing matters, don't give up.

--You are a very important friend to me, and that has nothing to do with your name, your life, or your past.

That person's words became her final lament; without realizing it, she had lost her friends more than once.

The girl's eyes were lowered, and the tears that kept overflowing evaporated in the flames. Suddenly, she curled her lips into a complex smile.

Oh, I see.

This is one of the reasons why, even after my world has been turned upside down countless times, my chest has never felt completely desolate. It's like a constant source of comfort and warmth in my ears, reassuring me that the road ahead is not yet over.

Even if the cycle repeats itself, the orbit will be reset to zero.

That girl, whose life seemed so illusory, still seemed to have received a divine revelation, overcoming the torment of reality and the decadence of her spirit with a more resolute, courageous, and rapid pace than before.

Therefore, she broke free from Sirin's will before Himeko completely burned out, and was able to accompany her teacher through the last month of her life.

Although regrets still exist, the flame was sown much earlier, so that at the moment all the memories of the world lines were restored, the weary souls connected with many powers were strangely sublimated, causing the remaining embers that should have become nothingness to once again shine with an extremely beautiful brilliance according to emotions.

The girl fell from the endless, dark crevice like a meteor from the heavens, as if she were a mad, demonic being.

The smile on her lips faded, and tears blurred the azure color of her eyes, only to evaporate again in the blazing heat.

There are no more enemies.

The Thousand Herrscher has been defeated.

Kiana, however, harbored a complex mix of emotions stemming from the convergence of several world lines.

She was powerless to do anything about it, and couldn't even control herself.

I can weave a path home for them, but I can't offer any help to that person who is like a phantom and doesn't exist.

A thought suddenly flashed through Kiana's mind.

If... miracles truly exist in this world.

She wanted to have the chance to help that boy find happiness, even if it was just once, even if it would be completely forgotten like before.

It was as if heaven had taken pity on us, or as if a series of coincidences had been piled up.

The girl was frozen in that instant, embodying the unprecedentedly powerful Herrscher of Flames, with four Herrscher Core superimposed upon her, before falling into the demon-infested World Bubble of the Burial Grounds.

A strong wind howled, and demons lurked all around.

Kiana gazed at the earth around her, scorched by the lingering flames of power emanating from the Void Sword God. Her azure eyes were filled with the [Ashes] filled the world and the vast expanse of fireflies that had ignited them. The darkness of the entire world was illuminated by this, and the confusion in her heart was burned away as well. A smile appeared on her lips.

This... is not the new Dominion Theater.

Although it's hard to believe immediately, the thought of wishing to bring happiness to that person in the previous breath is suddenly transported to a strange place.

To call this an accident or a coincidence would be a stretch.

Regardless of whether this is a world that responds to a wish and a miracle, or a refracted space that has fallen from the Dominion Theater.

Kiana will find him.

Regardless of whether it was someone she had known before, she felt she had to see them at least once to be satisfied.

The girl, guided by a strange intuition welling up inside her, gently stroked the four Herrscher Core on the greatsword. Strangely, she felt no discomfort whatsoever. It seemed that with the emergence of those memories, some unknown change had occurred within her, altering her previous ability to barely control multiple cores.

Kiana can currently maintain the four-core state of Flamefall without much trouble, but...

Her pale fingertips lightly tapped the cores of the Herrscher of Reason and the Herrscher of Reason, letting the two jewel-like cores fall into her palm.

I'm not used to using these two powers, so there's no need to force myself to maintain the connection.

The girl silently watched as the large number of demons, whose fireflies had been extinguished, surged toward this direction. She did not pull out the sword that was half embedded in the earth. Her cloak and ponytail, which fluttered like snowflakes, swayed and floated in the air currents.

It's amazing.

She was completely unaware of the fatigue from the continuous battles and the exertion of using all her strength. Apart from her physical endurance proving the existence of past battles, everything seemed to be reborn, erasing the weariness of the past.

She was unaware that her soul had been sublimated through the overlapping records of the [Lostbelt], but her innate instincts, like those of a wild beast, remained clear: the utilization rate of her powers and the upper limit threshold of the complex Imaginary Space had increased incredibly much, as if she were sinking into a deep dream.

It's even enough for me to recklessly push the limits beyond my previous limits.

Kiana lowered her eyes, her ten fingers gently gripping the hilt of her sword. Her golden soul resonated with a joyful melody, playing the frequency of the power within the Plague Gem. She easily reached a level she had never been able to achieve before, accompanied by the surging of the Heaven and Earth Qi, unleashing a vast ocean of fire.

The vast vacuum realm swept through, ignoring the laws of physics, burning away the strange chains and veins that enveloped the entire World Bubble, relentlessly and without end.

She opened her eyes, gazing at the magnificent scene that had returned to silence and splendor amidst the flames, feeling the restless Herrscher Authority of the Void stirring within her chest. Her lips curled slightly, and she murmured with a smile:

"I don't know if it's really what I think, but... I've come to find you, Idiot Shopkeeper."

Canghai City.

Bronya's expression was solemn. She used the transformation mode of Heavy Cannon Rabbit to coat herself with an invisible membrane that blended into the night, and carefully brought her body close to the behemoth that was passing through a large sea of clouds in the sky.

Sea-Mountain Series No. 17, a large bionic mechanical warship -- [Kunpeng].

This is a special main-city-class warship corresponding to the Immortal Martial Series.

In each of the thirty-six main urban areas around the world, there is a warship of the Shan Hai Series and a Soul Steel puppet of the Immortal Martial Series.

According to the information provided by Su Muxi, a single warship of the Shan Hai Series is enough to barely qualify as Herrscher- level combat power.

Moreover, the [Kunpeng] is a rare Shan Hai Series warship that is equipped with the Herrscher Core and can even wield its power.

Even if the use of powers is something His Your Excellency does at will, summoning people to conduct research and development on an external system, it is probably not compatible enough with the original mechanisms and weaponry of [Kunpeng].

But this is ultimately the power of the Herrscher of Reason. No Law of Herrscher has the power more suitable for manipulation and refinement using human technology than the power of the First Herrscher.

Therefore, as long as [Kunpeng] is thoroughly crafted into a multifunctional and complete large-scale Divine Key.

Even if Bronya considered herself to have regained her status as the Herrscher of Reason, she would still find such an enemy troublesome.

Although she had planned many details from Xiao Xi and learned that the system by which the other party used the Herrscher Authority was rather rigid and inflexible, sometimes even less effective than her own weaponry on the warship, she was currently in an extremely weak state.

In other words, they can't beat the judges above, but they can crush the emperor below.

She's seen it all, and escaping death is commonplace for her. She even managed to fight Herrscher of the higher level during her early days as B-rank Valkyrie. Her subsequent experience of inheriting the Herrscher of Reason Core and riding a motorcycle in the Sea of Quantum is something no ordinary person could achieve.

Moreover, she played a significant role in the major battles that will be carefully counted later, and in the reason why that timeline barely managed to defeat the Honkai. She can be described as a seasoned warrior who often walks on the line between life and death.

However, without companions to support and coordinate with each other, and having lost the Herrscher Core, it is still somewhat worrying to provoke the core war preparation center of a major city in this world.

If the plan to steal the core fails, escape will be virtually impossible.

Even if one obtains the Herrscher Core, a struggle and battle are still inevitable.

Bronya is used to strategizing and planning, and is quite different from Kiana, who is very smart but prefers direct confrontation. So she naturally asked Su Muxi for a data tracker of the [Kunpeng]'s daily travels around Canghai City, intending to analyze when this behemoth would be closest to the Guanyin Tower in Canghai City.

Once the accurate data is calculated, several time-limited plans can be devised. Guanyin Tower can be used as a save point for forced escape from battle. After teleporting to [Moon Worship Palace], Su Muxi can use the wonders she possesses and the corresponding teleportation permissions to go to other main urban areas to avoid battle and lie in wait.

In this way, regardless of success or failure, there is always a way to retreat.

However, this operation, which could have showcased intelligence and planning, was ruined by Su Muxi's statement that she could control the daily movement of [Kunpeng].

In short, because Su Muxi is using her permission to provide off-site assistance, this [Kunpeng] will now be hovering back and forth in the high sky above the Guanyin Tower area.

Li Sushang had revived three minutes earlier to play Flying Chess with Su Muxi. Unless [Kunpeng] fell directly from the sky and crashed into Guanyin Tower, her brain's permission would remain in His Your Highness's important judgment, thus allowing her to continue playing Flying Chess with him.

In a sense, if this Your Highness were not confined to his quarters, he would be completely lawless in this world.

Bronya stared silently at the countless screens in front of her. Even though Su Muxi had provided a lot of help, she ultimately did not have full permission for [Kunpeng].

Or rather, for Su Muxi, this special warship from the Shan Hai Series was like a toy that required application and registration before it could be taken out for a spin.

During a previous conversation, I overheard her saying that she had driven all the warships in the Shan Hai Series like toy cars, and that her way of playing was to drive them into the World Bubble that were fished out by the predecessor of the Anchor of Sin Domain to hunt down demons.

For Su Muxi, this was roughly equivalent to playing a VR shooting game in a large arcade.

His Your Excellency deliberately added thirty-six more teleportation anchor points to the [Moon Worship Palace]. This practice of preferring to put the nuclear switch in a child's hands is both lamentable in its level of indulgence and incomprehensible as to why, even with such a roundabout method, the other party is unwilling to be given true freedom.

Of course, at least for now, once His Your Highness got tired of using these teleportation points, the relevant permits were revoked for security reasons.

Otherwise, Bronya wouldn't have needed to go through all this trouble to retrieve the Herrscher Core. She could have simply had Su Muxi walk through the portal and take the Herrscher Core openly and honestly, and the [Kunpeng]'s intelligent system wouldn't have objected.

But Bronya eventually obtained the key item that allowed her to hack into [Kunpeng] from the other party.

That is, Su Muxi's personal account permission.

She certainly couldn't just swagger into the warship with this account, but for a top hacker, the leverage that the account itself could create was valuable enough.

At the very least, the original Bronya would have had no chance of hacking into [Kunpeng] without bypassing the [Heavenly Eye] system controlled by the Tome of Cangxuan, the world's total intelligent system.

However, with His Your Highness's personal account, there would be an extra short period of undetected hacking space, at least enough to create a hole in the ubiquitous detection equipment, thereby silently infiltrating the Kunpeng's interior.

At this moment, thousands of meters above the ground.

A strong wind whistled past my ears, while the neon lights below and the surrounding night intertwined and echoed each other.

The girl transformed her Heavy Cannon Rabbit arm armor into a shield that adhered to the massive creature's soul steel shell. The dress-style nano-armor, which did not defy the rules of gravity, revealed her safety shorts and long, fair legs in the wind.

Her well-developed breasts had to be pressed against the cold shell, like a strip of algae clinging to the belly of a blue whale, yet they were pressed into soft semicircles.

Bronya didn't care about these details. She slowly exhaled, finally managing to bypass the [Kunpeng]'s security system and reach the outer shell beneath. After that, she only needed to follow the realistic outer shell created by the bionic module of this giant beast, find the area that was essentially designed like an exhaust fan, and blend in like a fish.

Her seasoned veteran-like demeanor allowed her to overlook the discomfort and psychological issues caused by such height and being suspended upside down, but it would obviously be better to reach the interior sooner and resolve this thrilling mission.

By hacking into a portion of the map, Heavy Cannon Rabbit was able to analyze the specific 3D map. Combined with the [Kunpeng] design blueprint data provided by His Your Highness, it was enough to guide her effortlessly to the nearest entrance, much like a navigation map in a game.

After climbing for ten minutes, the girl finally stepped into the interior through a gap.

We really have to thank the fact that the warships in the Shan Hai Series all adopt the appearance of mythical beasts designed in combination with Shenzhou culture. For this purpose, they spared no effort to use bionic technology to restore the historical and mythological descriptions to the greatest extent possible, and also carried out very modern modifications and mechanical colors.

The advantage of doing this is that it is very distinctive and resembles a large work of art. The disadvantage is that it deliberately leaves some "entrances" that are not needed in the first place.

Of course, if they hadn't used Su Muxi's account permission as a springboard to bypass [Heavenly Eye], these flaws wouldn't be flaws at all.

Even so, after entering the [Kunpeng], Bronya really wanted to complain about the extremely luxurious and massive interior. There was clearly no one else inside except for a Soul Steel doll that had been sleeping for many years, but the interior still adopted an ingenious ancient style design, and at a glance it was full of magnificent palaces.

These details reveal that the Your Excellency who commissioned the design of the Shan Hai Series didn't actually care how perfect these special warships were; it seemed she only needed them to serve as functional and aesthetically pleasing props.

The girl gazed at the vast amounts of cloud energy that the [Kunpeng]'s circulation system was drawing from the outside world, her expression indifferent.

With such embellishment, the palaces here seem like a true fairyland.

However, along the way, they did not see any area that resembled a warship. Instead, it seemed to be a palace that simply floated in the air and did not have much combat functionality.

Bronya understood why. The entire bionic mechanical warship was made of Soul Steel and used space folding technology. In theory, [Kunpeng] could instantly fold all the palaces and reverse them into another form that resembled a war fortress.

Her goal is to provide energy to the region.

Normally, to reach that area, without permission to directly command it to fold in front of you, you can only awkwardly try to enter different palaces one by one, much like solving a Rubik's Cube. You also need to take out the corresponding network key to enter the inverted space area.

The difficulty is so high that it's practically impossible to do.

But once the blueprints were available, the warship was like an area in an RPG game that had been explored and marked on the map, posing no significant obstacle for Bronya.

She carefully avoided the area where numerous constructs were dormant, using her hacking privileges to circle around again and again, finally reaching the central third floor via the self-propelled wooden elevator, and arriving at the eighth side hall from the left.

The girl watched as the Heavy Cannon Rabbit was gradually connected to the bronze cauldron, and finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

The side hall rippled like flowing mercury, but Bronya stood still, miraculously unaffected by these seemingly material ripples.

With a calm expression, she gazed at the area that had collapsed from its original state and was gradually distorting in the dim light, and finally stepped into the energy supply zone of this warship.

The energy supply zones of [Kunpeng] consist of three categories and regions.

One is a composite Honkai fission furnace.

Secondly, it is World Bubble farm that records Sequence Number.

The third is the Herrscher of Reason Core was recently embedded into this power supply system.

At this very moment, the jewel-like blue core was quietly suspended inside the liquid soul steel instrument.

The girl's fingertips extended slightly, and she could feel the gravitational pull between the core and herself. Clutching a faint hope, she whispered:

"Mr. Welt, are you here?"

The Herrscher of Reason Core did not respond.

Bronya was not surprised by this. Even if Welt could house his consciousness in the core, losing his physical body would not be completely fatal. However, in front of His Your Excellency, who controlled the Udu-dust and mind-controlled the whole world through the [Dragon Court], the hope of playing the trick of putting consciousness into the core was indeed too slim.

The girl set aside her fluctuating emotions and reached out her palm toward the core. The Heaven and Earth Qi lit up the entire room like fireflies, seemingly weaving together to form a bridge. With a crisp sound like a silver bottle breaking, the gem-like substance tore through the constraints and pressure of the liquid soul steel and embedded itself in the pendant in front of her chest.

Whether by coincidence or not, it was printed on the reverse side of the inscription, which was meant to symbolize immortality.

She felt an unforgettable sense of fullness in her body. The connection between her soul and power was completed almost instantly. Her core absorbed a large amount of the Heaven and Earth Qi from the Imaginary Space, filling the room, which was filled with the red light of the alarm, into an ocean with an extremely high concentration of Honkai Energy.

Bronya's orange-tinged eyes were lowered, yet she allowed her pure white dress to layer itself into an even more magnificent style. She sat in the lap of the Heavy Cannon Rabbit behind her, like a knight, her fingertips caressing the pendant watch that was integrated with the newly extended collar, revealing an indescribable smile.

This feeling of nostalgia always reminds me of when everyone was still around.

The girl only lingered in that feeling for a moment before countless blue light bands formed a protective shield around her.

The next second, various advanced weapons were instantly reconstructed around the area as the memory expanded. Honkai Energy drawn from the core surged into them, and in an instant, the brilliance shone brightly, dissolving and penetrating the Soul Steel high wall that sealed off the area.

At this moment, the hacker's abilities, which were better utilized with the restoration of power, forcibly reconnected the energy zone to the control authorization and issued the order to reverse back to the side hall.

During this time, Bronya skillfully controlled the Heavy Cannon Rabbit behind her to switch to her most familiar motorcycle mode. She glanced indifferently at the side hall that had finished reversing. In front of her were thick walls, and it would obviously be a huge waste of time to leave according to the rules here.

Thus, the Heaven and Earth Qi, like the tracks of a tank, trampled everything in front of them into nothingness, and even paved a road for passengers.

The motorcycle beneath the girl shot out like lightning, its engine roaring. She had to leave before [Kunpeng] used space-folding technology to flip all the palaces unrelated to the war to the inside, otherwise the [Heavenly Eye] controlled by the Tome of Cangxuan would soon discover the anomaly.

By then, it would be extremely difficult for Heavy Cannon Rabbit to hack into the warship's system, cleverly peel back the veneer of space technology, and easily enter or break out.

At that time, they will most likely face an endless series of away games.

To avoid a long and pointless battle like the Colosseum in ancient Rome, she had to ignore the traffic regulations she had memorized eight years later, driving her motorcycle with extreme ferocity and rage, ignoring almost every obstacle along the way.

The band of light in front of the girl was like a tunnel across the sea, and the main cannons around her were like soldiers expanding their territory, guarding their monarch and charging headlong in the predetermined direction.

The numerous constructs, like worker ants, continuously revived, forming an impregnable city wall, together with the living Soul Steel, resisting the vast army shaped by the power.

The palaces did not immediately fold into another space, but they had all melted into liquid soul steel, forcing the runway that Bronya had created to become increasingly unconventional, requiring it to spiral forward from various angles almost every time it passed a node.

Each construct, more troublesome than a Titan, is as fragile as paper before the Herrscher of Reason. However, if they delay for even a few more seconds, the palace, which changes its own space, will force her to spend more time hacking and disarming it.

And in the seventeenth second after Bronya was detected by the [Kunpeng] intelligent system.

The Tome of Cangxuan began to take over, and the [Heavenly Eye] system thus came into full coverage.

She silently sensed the failed hacking attempt, stopped her motorcycle, looked at the approaching area from all directions, and sighed.

But at that moment, the fire, which seemed to tear the heavens and earth apart like an inverted sea of clouds, sliced open the Kunpeng's shell like a drawn sword.

A white-haired girl stands in the sky; the scenery reflected in her eyes surpasses even the neon lights of the entire city.