I finally understood. Their greatest enemy was not the Herrscher, but humanity.
Someone earlier had put it well: Flame Chasers were dragging an entire civilization along. No wonder their progress had been so difficult.
I'm dying laughing. With people holding them back this badly, there was no way they could win!
It fit the theme too damn well. I knew this story couldn't possibly be full of hope!
Something felt off. This story was definitely going to end in tragedy...
What did tragedy ever do to you? As long as it was good, that was enough. It wasn't like there could really be a sad story that made you cry your eyes blind, right?
I must have been sick to actually think that as long as there was a savior, every crisis could be resolved with ease.
They seemed to be gradually understanding the thoughts Su Nian had hidden within her writing.
This civilization was doomed, but it was not because the heroes had not worked hard enough.
They were powerful, but there were simply too many hidden dangers buried beneath the surface.
It was as though they had foreseen the ending of this story.
The last person to hold the title of "Savior" had been Hōraiji Kyūshō from Honkai Gakuen 2.
And then, even players who had never played that game knew that Honkai Gakuen 2 had a wonderful ending where everyone reunited in the underworld.
This title represented humanity's hope.
But no one had ever defined hope as something that guaranteed victory.
The price of every victory was everything in the human world.
And in the end, even that everything was lost.
That kind of overly idealistic, beautiful story had only succeeded in the ending of Honkai Impact 3rd.
Even Izumo Nation from the neighboring Honkai: Star Rail had defeated the twelve gods who fell from Takamagahara, only to discover in the end that the pitch-black sun had long since enveloped both worlds from beyond.
So, as long as Old Mi's games had the word "Honkai" attached to them, escaping unscathed was already the greatest fortune.
But... who said that just because they had expected a tragedy, they would not still get stabbed by it?
If they didn't, then the writing simply was not tragic enough. The blade had not pierced straight into the softest part of their hearts.
The MiHoYo blade was not meant to catch you off guard.
It was when you had known something from the very beginning, yet never realized it.
However, no one had expected the Twelfth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Erosion, to actually be a sentient ultimate virus.
And it only revealed its true authority after Ling's death.
They cheered in celebration, but soon could no longer laugh. When the Herrscher was born, a massive Honkai eruption broke out, instantly turning them into zombies.
That was why there had been zombies in the base when Sakura arrived.
As Welt read this passage, he felt somewhat weary as well. Even taking a long breath could not ease the agitation in his heart.
So this was how the Herrscher appeared?
An electronic virus entity fit exceptionally well with the name Erosion.
Erosion itself was a conceptual type of power. What made this Herrscher special was that it descended into a human body, yet that body became the cage that imprisoned it.
If no one had opened that Pandora's box, would everything have turned out differently?
What this story lacked most was time.
But they could have had time to catch their breath... couldn't they?
"Humanity's dark side..." Welt casually glanced at Otto. If that man had appeared in Su Nian's story...
Fine. Welt had initially thought humanity might have ended much faster under the leadership of someone like Otto.
But setting prejudice aside, Otto was exactly the kind of unifying talent they lacked. If Otto had been there, these absurd incidents might truly not have happened.
Perhaps this story might even have had a slight turning point.
They would keep reading...
Ling's hatred for humanity drove her to infiltrate Moth of the Fire's network.
She took control of the nuclear missile launch system and launched the nuclear missiles simultaneously, destroying humanity's last three cities.
People and buildings were vaporized in an instant by the extreme heat of the nuclear explosions, leaving behind nothing but scorched earth.
Human civilization no longer had any possibility of survival. Things like hope seemed to have vanished from among them.
Only a little over thirty thousand people remained in the entire world.
Huh? She got her revenge that quickly? Karma came way too fast—I hadn't even had time to get so angry my lungs exploded and put me in the hospital.
This might be a little extreme, but I kind of feel satisfied right now...
The conservatives said you were being too conservative.
Cut ties with those idiotic assholes calling themselves righteous. Taking action was the way to go, meow!
I'm not exactly holding back a belly full of rage, but this story... they weren't going to kill off the protagonist at the end too, were they?
Couldn't they rebuild human civilization after defeating all the Herrschers? Adam, Eve, Eden—wouldn't there be a world without vile humans?
What the hell?
Let's see how Su Nian writes it. The story had only reached this point; it was time to fight the Herrscher.
Recently obsessed with Robin.jpg
Please, could I have some recommendation votes?
I didn't want to be a loser either. I just ended up playing Star Rail while writing.
And there were so many pictures in the author group too.
Beneath the Peaceful Life, There Was Beauty
Meanwhile, the moment Sakura saw Ling's corpse, her mind had already collapsed. Yet she still pulled herself together in a short amount of time.
She had to find her—find her little sister, who had already become a Herrscher.
Then... stop her!
The underground base had already fallen into paralysis. Sakura encountered Kevin, but this time, Kevin likewise failed to stop her.
Her resolve had been set. Ling had always been a child who feared loneliness. Whether she was a Herrscher or still her little sister, she needed Sakura right now.
Her blade left its sheath, and Sakura's strike completely "froze" space.
Time came to a halt, consciousness scattered, and everything became still.
For those few short seconds, she was the only one able to move within that lightless domain.
She left, running toward her little sister—and toward death.
How Sakura and Ling fought remained an unsolved mystery to this day.
The only thing Su Nian knew was that Sakura's attacks could even "freeze" space, yet she had died at the hands of the person closest to her.
Under Mei's control, the Herrscher fell into a trap. The isolation program confined it within the main control system, and at the final moment, the cause of the Herrscher's activity suffered an unexplained disruption.
In the end, Mei successfully trapped the Herrscher inside the "Black Box."
When Kevin found Sakura again, she was already lying amid boundless metal wreckage, barely clinging to life.
She had stayed with Ling until the very last moment... Until the end, Ling had remained her little sister...
She had protected the pride of being an older sister.
And successfully accompanied her little sister to the end.
When Otto charged at the tree, he had once seen that every Kallen in every world would die.
Likewise, according to what Su Nian knew, Sakura in every world had failed to save her little sister.
MiHoYo has no heart!
Even if Sakura always said on the bridge, "Captain's supplies always hit pity, Captain's stages always have zero drops."
That didn't mean they could stab the character this hard!
Su Nian could practically see that CG of Sakura gripping her weapon and collapsing amid the ruins.
Defeat CGs were always welcome, but this kind of defeat CG was clearly a little too ahead of its time.
Su Nian took a deep breath. She would finish writing this part of the story before entering her post-nut clarity.
Next came Kevin's famous scene.
Did they think Sakura's death was the final stab of this incident?
No, there was another stab waiting!
Sakura had once promised Ling that she would take her to the plaza where cherry blossoms bloomed.
Following Sakura's wishes, Kevin carried her body back to Sakura's homeland.
But that place had long been flattened by the Twelfth Herrscher after it seized control of the nuclear weapons.
All he saw was barren wasteland with nothing left.
Kevin stood in the plaza that had already become ruins, unable to see a single cherry blossom.
Upon the burned-out earth, Kevin made a promise to her—to everyone...
No matter the cost, humanity would definitely defeat the Honkai!
This sentence had appeared many times in Kevin's files.
It seemed to have become one of Kevin's signature quotes.
It also demonstrated Kevin's determination.
After copying this part of the story into everyone's profile card, Su Nian brought up Sakura's character card.
Character Card: Sakura Wielder of Blade of the Fleeting, ranked eighth among the Thirteen Heroes of Fire. Her homeland collapsed, and she traveled alone for thousands of miles. An unknown deal made her a moth that chased fire. As a member of Poisoned Cocoon, the covert operations unit, her sword was born in the shadows and had always been aimed at the most extraordinary enemies. She was a good older sister, a trustworthy comrade...
Sakura was one of the simplest people among the Thirteen Flame Chasers. Her life was even simpler and purer than Hua's.
She was Candle Moth's blade, a symbol of pure martial strength. Throughout her life, she had served as Poisoned Cocoon's sharp edge, swinging her sword for Moth of the Fire.
The bond between the sisters was deeply moving.
It was only a pity that Ling had been too sensible.
What if she had successfully escaped with Sakura back then?
Though when it came to escaping, it seemed they had never succeeded even once...
There were not that many what-ifs in the world.
Perhaps regret was like this. If this had happened, then that could have happened. Things could have been this way or that way...
Su Nian shook this part of the story from her mind.
Before she began writing again, she needed to properly plan out The Past's Paradise.
The Past's Paradise had to appear at this point in time. It was time to return to the title.
At first glance, the title The Past's Paradise seemed difficult to connect with the Thirteen Heroes of Fire.
But in miHoYo's setting, everyone first came to know all of them through The Past's Paradise.
After that came Eternal Paradise, along with the Herrscher of Erosion Werewolf game.
Su Nian had singled out The Past's Paradise and even made it the title of this story precisely for the story that would come next.
Before you continue