You're supposed to write healing, but you wrote Honkai Impact 3rd?

[I finally see it now—their greatest enemy isn't the Herrscher, but humanity itself.]

[Someone earlier was right: a Flame Chaser dragging an entire civilization behind them—no wonder their steps are so heavy.]

[LMAO, with that much dead weight, there's no way they can win!]

[Hits close to home, man. Too close. I knew this story couldn't be full of hope!]

[The vibe's off. This story is definitely heading for a tragic ending...]

[What's wrong with tragedy? As long as it's good, it's fine. It's not like a sad story will make you cry your eyes out, right?]

[I think I'm sick. I actually believed that as long as there was a savior, every crisis would be solved.]

They were gradually beginning to understand the hidden thoughts Su Nian had woven into her words.

This civilization was doomed, but it wasn't because the heroes weren't trying hard enough.

They were powerful—but the buried hidden dangers were simply too many.

It felt like they could already see the story's ending.

The title of "Savior"—the last one to hold it was Hōraiji Kyūshō from Honkai Gakuen 2.

And then, even players who hadn't played that game knew: Honkai Gakuen 2 had a happy ending where everyone reunited in the underworld.

That title represented humanity's hope.

But no one had ever defined that hope alone meant invincibility.

Every victory came at the cost of everything in the world.

And in the end, that everything was lost too.

That kind of ideal, beautiful story only succeeded in Honkai Impact 3rd's finale.

Even next door, in Honkai: Star Rail's Izumo Nation, after defeating twelve gods who fell from Takamagahara, they still discovered the pitch-black sun that had already enveloped them from outside both worlds.

So yeah, in Old Mi's games, as long as the word "Honkai" touched it, escaping unscathed was the best you could hope for.

But... who said that just because they predicted a tragedy, they wouldn't get hurt by it?

If anyone thought that, then the story just wasn't tragic enough—the blade hadn't pierced straight into the softest part of their hearts.

Mi's blade technique doesn't strike when you're off guard.

It strikes when you knew something from the very beginning, but didn't realize it.

[Yet no one expected that the Twelfth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Erosion, was actually a self-aware ultimate virus.]

[And only after Ling's death did her true authority reveal itself.]

[They cheered and celebrated, but soon their smiles faded. The moment the Herrscher was born, a great collapse erupted, instantly turning them into zombies.]

That was why, when Sakura arrived, zombies were already inside the base.

Welt read this passage and felt a wave of fatigue wash over him. Even a long sigh couldn't ease the restlessness in his heart.

So this was how the Herrscher made its entrance?

An electronic virus entity—it fit the name "Erosion" perfectly.

Erosion was always a conceptual ability, and this Herrscher's peculiarity was that it descended upon a human body, but that body became a cage imprisoning the Herrscher.

If no one had opened this Pandora's box, would everything have been different?

What this story lacked most was time.

But they could have had time to breathe... couldn't they?

"The dark side of humanity..." Welt glanced casually at Otto. If that guy appeared in Su Nian's story...

Well, he'd originally thought humanity might fall quickly under the leadership of someone like Otto.

But setting aside his bias, Otto was exactly the kind of unifying talent they lacked. If Otto had been there, these messes might never have happened.

This story might have had a turning point.

Let's keep reading for now...

[Ling's hatred for humanity drove her to infiltrate the Moth of the Fire's network.]

[She took control of the nuclear missile launch system and fired all the missiles at once, destroying the last three remaining cities of humanity.]

[People and buildings alike were vaporized in an instant by the nuclear blast's heat, leaving only scorched earth.]

Human civilization was now beyond recovery. Hope itself seemed to have vanished among them.

The entire world had only thirty thousand people left.

[Huh? That fast? Revenge served so quickly I didn't even have time to get mad enough to explode.]

[I know this might be a bit extreme, but I'm feeling kinda satisfied right now...]

[Conservatives say you're too conservative.]

[Cut ties with those idiots and strike—that's the way, meow!]

[I'm not exactly holding a belly full of rage, but this story... the ending won't end up stabbing the protagonist, will it?]

[Isn't it also possible to rebuild human civilization after defeating all the Herrschers? Adam, Eve, the Garden of Eden—a world without despicable humans?]

[Is he hard to fathom?]

[Let's just see how Su Nian writes it. The story's only gotten this far—time to fight the Herrscher.]

Recently obsessed with Robin.jpg

Please, may I have some recommendation tickets?

I don't want to be a nobody either, but I ended up playing Star Rail while writing.

And there are too many pictures in the author's group chat.

Chapter 36: The Beauty Beneath a Peaceful Life

[At the same time, upon witnessing Ling's corpse, Sakura's spirit had already shattered, yet she pulled herself together in a short time.]

[She had to go—find her sister, who had already become a Herrscher.]

[And then... stop her!]

[By now, the underground base had fallen into paralysis, and Sakura encountered Kevin. This time, Kevin failed to intercept her as well.]

[Her resolve was set. Ling was a child who feared loneliness deeply. Whether she was now a Herrscher or still her sister, she needed Sakura.]

[The blade left its sheath. Sakura's single strike completely "froze" space.]

[Time halted, consciousness scattered, everything ground to a standstill.]

[In those few seconds, within this lightless domain, only she could move.]

She left, rushing toward her sister—and toward death.

How the fight between Sakura and Ling actually played out remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

The only thing Su Nian could know was that Sakura's attack could "freeze" even space, yet she died at the hands of the one closest to her.

[Under Mei's control, the Herrscher fell into a trap, sealed within the main control system by an isolation program. At the final moment, the Herrscher's activity showed an unexplained disturbance.]

[In the end, Mei succeeded in trapping the Herrscher inside the "Black Box."]

[When Kevin found Sakura again, she was already collapsed amid an endless expanse of metal wreckage, barely breathing.]

[She had stayed with Ling until the very end... Until the last moment, Ling was still her sister...]

She upheld the pride of being an older sister.

And she succeeded in staying with her sister until the end.

When Otto charged the Tree, he once saw that Kallen would die in every world.

Similarly, from what Su Nian knew, in every world, Sakura failed to save her sister.

Heartless miHoYo!

Even if Sakura always said on the bridge: "Captain, your gacha is all pity; Captain, your domain drops are zero."

You can't just cut a character like that!

Su Nian could almost see that CG of Sakura gripping her weapon, collapsing in the ruins.

A defeat CG is always welcome, but clearly this kind of defeat CG was still a bit too ahead of its time.

Su Nian took a deep breath, finishing this segment of the story before entering the cooldown period.

Next up was Kevin's iconic moment.

Thought Sakura's death was the final blow of this incident?

No—one more cut!

Sakura had once promised Ling to take her to a plaza where cherry blossoms bloomed.

[According to Sakura's wishes, Kevin carried her remains back to her homeland.]

[But that place had long been leveled by the Twelfth Herrscher, who had seized control of the nuclear launch codes.]

[All he saw was barren wasteland, devoid of everything.]

[Kevin stood in the plaza that had been reduced to ruins, unable to see a single cherry blossom.]

[On the scorched earth, he made a vow to her, to everyone...]

[No matter the cost, humanity will surely defeat the Honkai!]

This line had been used many times in Kevin's files.

It seemed to have become part of Kevin's repertoire of quotes.

And it also showcased Kevin's resolve.

After copying this segment of the story into everyone's data cards, Su Nian pulled up Sakura's character card.

[Character Card: Sakura]

[Wields the Blade of the Fleeting. Ranks eighth among the Thirteen Heroes of Fire.]

[The homeland crumbled, a thousand miles walked alone, and an unknown transaction made her a moth to the flame.]

[As a member of the secret operations unit Poisoned Cocoon, her blade was born from the shadows, always aimed at the most special of enemies.]

[She was a good sister, a trustworthy comrade...]

Sakura was one of the simplest among the Thirteen Flame Chasers; her life was even simpler and purer than Hua's.

She was the blade of the Candle Moth, a pure symbol of martial strength, living her entire life as the sharp edge of Poisoned Cocoon, swinging her sword for the Moth of the Fire.

The bond between sisters was deeply moving.

It was just a pity that Ling was still too sensible.

What if she had successfully escaped with Sakura back then?

Though, when it came to escaping, it seemed they had never succeeded...

There weren't that many "what ifs" in the world either.

Perhaps regret was just like that—if only this or that had happened, things could have been different...

Su Nian shook this story out of her head.

Before she wrote again, she needed to plan out The Past's Paradise properly.

The Past's Paradise had to appear at this point in time, returning to the title.

At first glance, the title "The Past's Paradise" seemed hard to connect with the Thirteen Heroes of Fire.

But in miHoYo's setting, it was through The Past's Paradise that they were first introduced to all of them.

Then came Eternal Paradise, and the werewolf game with the Herrscher of Erosion.

Su Nian singled out The Past's Paradise, even using it as the title of this story, all for the sake of what came next.