You wanted healing, but you wrote Honkai Impact 3rd?

Now, it was time to draw the final curtain on the story of this civilization...

[Mei calculated that the next Herrscher would be the last, and thus named it the End.]

The End symbolized finality, completion.

But this naming did not mean that the Herrscher and the Honkai were finally coming to an end.

The Herrscher of the End would bring humanity its end.

[One hour before the start of the End battle.]

[Before them lay an abyss of infinite darkness and an endless bone-white desert. On this dead land stood eight Flame Chasers united by a single goal, about to face the final chapter of this long war.]

[After this great battle that would decide the fate of all humanity, would any of them still stand here to greet the dawn of a new day?]

[The Herrscher of the End... would awaken in one hour.]

The falling star of the End was about to descend, and the free birds would flee from their destined annihilation.

But what they sought was not their own safety or lives.

They wanted to lead more people to become free birds—but things did not go as planned...

Thump... thump... thump!

That was the sound of the audience's hearts stopping.

They were entering the finale just like that?

They had imagined this day would come, but not so soon.

The last line Su Nian had written also didn't sound too promising.

It was like she was giving them a warning shot in advance.

Why give a warning shot? Of course, to brace them for when their minds might collapse later.

[Will anyone still be here? No Survivors!]

[Even so... Kevin's character card says he's the one who crosses the End, so this is in the bag!]

["Bearing the Insignia of the Savior, I cannot lose!" #(Sarcastic)]

[Don't underestimate the bonds between me and my comrades!]

[Next, Kevin and the others are definitely going to charge at the End shouting about friendship, bonds, the future, and all that!]

[Promise me you won't be too optimistic. The more optimistic you are, the harder the blade falls.]

The audience had different thoughts and attitudes. Su Nian had entered the finale without any buildup...

Though with civilization already destroyed to this extent, it was only right to reach the finale. But Su Nian had never said how many Herrschers there were.

Among the audience were all kinds of people—some had watched from the very beginning, others had joined midway.

That was why Su Nian's story felt so unexpected.

[From now on... can humanity still move forward?]

[Kevin's answer was... yes.]

[If there is still a shred of doubt, just look back at the Earth behind them—the Earth that gave birth to them. It was like a blue marble, suspended in the endless void.]

[It radiated a warm light, as if struggling to resist the embrace of darkness.]

Behind them was humanity's only home. They had no ground to retreat.

At this moment, looking back, all the conflicts, anger, attachment, and pain that had ever happened... none of it mattered anymore.

Only the future mattered.

Even if humanity continued on and flourished again, pain and conflict would return.

But what always mattered was the future.

Without a future, nothing else could be discussed.

This battle... was ultimately despairing.

But the good news was that not everyone died.

Su Nian's description wavered back and forth, seemingly giving the audience a sliver of hope, letting them cling to their naive thoughts just a little longer.

But against the End, all struggles were futile.

The arrival of the End itself meant that civilization had reached its end. Its emergence meant the Cocoon of the End wanted to restart or directly destroy the world—it was basically unstoppable...

Taste the pain!

Once The Past's Paradise was fully introduced, as long as they looked back at the past, they would immediately taste the bitterness of regret.

The theme would be fulfilled. As long as their mouths weren't as stubborn as Mobius's, they would definitely admit to feeling regret.

But... the story of the Thirteen Heroes of Fire wasn't just about regret. The meaning within it, the many different emotions—different people would read it differently.

Chapter 40: The End Battle Ends in Crushing Defeat, A Half-Day Farewell

The Moth of the Fire had only ten Flame Chasers left, and those who could fight remained here.

Su was not skilled in direct combat, so he stayed on Earth to command.

Griseo, however, had to execute the Ark Project—failure was not an option.

The eight Flame Chasers standing on the moon were the last combat strength they could muster.

[Humanity's final fighting force faced their showdown with the End.]

[The moment the Herrscher of the End was activated, Pardofelis gambled all her luck to open that "door."]

[She endured Honkai radiation lethal even to Flame Chasers at close range, opening the invasion "door" for the super AI developed by Mei—Prometheus XVII.]

Thus, Pardofelis, who feared death more than anyone, was the first to fall in the battle against the End.

This was her... staking all her luck, and the mission she bore.

The moment of Pardofelis's death might have been when she used up her lifetime's fortune...

[Despite all preparations, the Herrscher's power still exceeded everyone's expectations.]

[It was like a god. All the Flame Chasers fought with everything they had, coordinating perfectly, yet under Kevin's repeated attacks with the Heaven-Fire, the Herrscher of the End remained unscathed.]

[They failed to inflict any damage on It.]

[In just five minutes, two Flame Chasers fell in battle.]

[In the span of a single exchange, four Flame Chasers fell one after another.]

The first to die were likely Pardofelis, Chijie, Vill-V, and Cosmo.

Su Nian's expression did not change, still as calm as ever, but the audience could almost sense a thick malice on his face.

In the time it took to speak, four Flame Chasers were swiftly slain!

They died far too quickly—these were the Moth of the Fire's mightiest warriors, yet they perished so carelessly.

They didn't even leave a ripple.

Is this your strength?!

Su Nian even used the third-person pronoun "It" for the Herrscher of the End.

The pronoun of a god!

The Herrscher of the End was not like a god—here, It was a god.

This was a battle between mortals and a deity.

But these mortals could only defeat the god's messengers, unable to harm the god itself.

Su Nian's hands did not stop; the story continued.

[The Moonlight Throne's attack only drained 2% of the Herrscher of the End's energy.]

[To stop the End from descending on Earth, Mei ordered the Moonlight Throne's limiters removed, overloading it to accelerate the consumption of the Herrscher's Honkai energy.]

The Moonlight Throne could convert Honkai energy into any form of energy—after all, Honkai energy itself was a versatile, high-grade power source.

Because Honkai energy was so convenient, players joked that its true meaning was: Honkai can do anything, abbreviated as Honkai energy.

By some unknown method, the Moonlight Throne directly extracted Honkai energy from the End's body, buying them an opportunity.

[Finally, before the Moonlight Throne was destroyed, 30% of the Herrscher of the End's Honkai energy was channeled into the moon.]

[Combined with Kevin's all-out strike, the End temporarily ceased activity—but only temporarily...]

And still, no damage was dealt; they had merely knocked the End offline for a moment.

It bought civilization a final twelve hours.

[After twelve hours, the Herrscher would regain mobility, and humanity, having lost the Moonlight Throne, would have no means of resistance.]

[All the Moth of the Fire's lifelong efforts only delayed civilization's end by twelve hours.]

This seemed like an ant trying to shake a tree...

The End was simply too powerful.

The story's despair reached its peak.

But this story did not end in despair.

Humanity must never lose hope.

No matter how powerful It was, It could not surpass human wisdom. Humanity had ultimately triumphed over Honkai.

Their efforts were by no means in vain.

[Earlier, the moment the End awakened, Pardofelis succeeded in opening the door, and Prometheus, with her help, managed to hack into the Herrscher of the End.]

[It placed a shackle called the Will of Honkai on the Cocoon of the End, ensuring the Herrschers of the current civilization remained consistent with the Previous Civilization.]

[This was to provide a breeding ground for the Stigmata Project.]

And it also left a backdoor for Kevin to inherit the Power of the End.

There was no Will of Honkai in the world before—but now there was.

Under normal circumstances, the types of Herrschers that appear are random. Prometheus hacked the backdoor and fixed the order and types of Herrschers.

You can think of it like this: when the exam setter modifies the college entrance exam paper, the questions are exactly the same as the previous year's.

Unfortunately, the big question you can't solve (can't defeat)—the Herrscher of the End—still remains unsolvable (undefeatable).

So you have to find a way around it.

As long as the Herrscher of the End is on your side...

Next, the story isn't over yet!

If you think the tragedy ends here, then you're far too naive.

It gives the audience no time to react. They're still reeling from the shock of the story's conclusion, unable to snap out of it.

Next up, the romantic subplot that had been built up through a stretch of narrative text... Kevin's love story.

It has to be cut off here too.

[Inside the Moth of the Fire base, Su rushes toward Mei's office, bringing the news that Kevin is still alive.]

[They'll be reunited soon.]

Seeing this, Kevin, who was staring at the livestream, let out a sigh of relief.

Even though the Kevin in this story had been through a lot, in the end, no blade truly fell on him.

The Previous Civilization clearly couldn't defeat the Herrscher of the End, but they still had a plan.

As long as he was alive, there was still hope.

With Mei by his side, he had boundless strength. The Herrscher of the End? Just a temporary setback.

But as Su Nian continued writing, Kevin's eyes caught something wrong.

Kevin had just been noisily slurping noodles, but then he suddenly started coughing violently.

"Cough... cough, cough!" The noodles choked him.