Now, it was time to bring this civilization's story to an end...
Mei had calculated that the next Herrscher would be the last, and thus named it The End.
The End symbolized conclusion and finality.
But that name did not mean the Herrschers and Honkai were finally over.
The Herrscher of the End brought the end to humanity.
One hour before the battle against The End began.
Before them lay boundless, profound darkness and an endless bone-white desert. Eight Flame Chasers with the same goal stood upon this dead, silent land, about to witness the end of this long war.
After this great battle that would determine all humanity's fate ended, would any of them still be standing here to welcome the dawn of a new day?
The Herrscher of the End... would awaken in one hour.
The meteor of The End was about to fall, and free birds would escape their predetermined destruction.
But they did not seek safety and life for themselves.
They wanted to lead more people to become free birds, but things did not go as they wished...
Thump... thump... boom!
That was the sound of the audience's hearts stopping.
They were already heading into the finale?
They had considered that this day would come, but never expected it to come so quickly.
Su Nian's final line also did not look promising.
It was as if she were giving them a warning in advance.
Why give them a warning? Naturally, because she was afraid the audience would collapse later.
Could anyone still remain? No Survivors!
Still... Kevin's character card said he was the one who crossed The End. This was in the bag!
"Bearing the Insignia of the Savior, I cannot lose!" #(smirk)
Don't underestimate the bond between me and my comrades!
Next, Kevin and the others would definitely shout about friendship, bonds, the future, and all that before charging at The End!
Promise me you won't be too optimistic. The more optimistic you are, the harder the knife will cut.
The audience had different thoughts and attitudes. Su Nian had not laid any groundwork before suddenly entering the finale...
Although civilization had already been destroyed to this extent, so it made sense for it to be the finale, Su Nian had never said how many Herrschers there were.
The audience consisted of all kinds of people, some who had watched from the beginning, others who had joined midway through.
That was what made Su Nian's story feel so unexpected.
From now on... could humanity keep moving forward?
Kevin's answer was... yes.
If there was still even a trace of doubt, they only needed to look back at the Earth behind them—the Earth that had nurtured them. It hung in the boundless depths of space like a blue marble.
It radiated warm light, as though desperately resisting the embrace of darkness.
Behind them was humanity's only home. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Looking back now, all the conflicts, anger, attachments, and pain that had once occurred... no longer mattered.
Only the future mattered.
Even if humanity endured and prospered once more, pain and conflict would return in a different form.
But the future would always be what mattered.
Without a future, nothing could even be discussed.
This battle... was ultimately one of despair.
But the good news was, not everyone died.
Su Nian kept pulling them back and forth in her descriptions, seemingly giving the audience a tiny bit of hope, enough to confirm their naïve thoughts from earlier.
But before The End, all struggle was futile.
The arrival of The End itself meant that civilization had reached its limit. Its appearance meant the Cocoon of the End wanted to restart or outright destroy the world. It was basically impossible to stop...
Savor the pain!
Once the introduction to The Past's Paradise was complete, all they had to do was look back, and they would immediately taste regret.
The theme would be fulfilled. As long as their mouths were not as stubborn as Mobius's, they would certainly admit to feeling regret.
But... the story of the Thirteen Heroes of Fire was not only about regret. Its meaning held countless emotions of all kinds, and different people would feel differently when reading it.
Chapter 40: A Crushing Defeat in the Battle Against The End, Farewell at Noon
Only ten Flame-Chasers remained in Moth of the Fire, and everyone capable of fighting had stayed here.
Su was not suited to direct combat, so he remained on Earth to command.
Griseo, meanwhile, had to carry out the Ark Project. There could be no mistakes.
The eight Flame Chasers standing on the Moon were the last fighting force they could muster.
Humanity's final force faced off against The End.
The instant the Herrscher of the End was activated, Pardofelis gambled all her luck to open that "door."
At close range, she endured Honkai Energy radiation that was fatal even to Flame Chasers, opening the "door" for Prometheus XVII, the super AI Mei had developed, to invade.
And so, Pardo, the one most afraid of dying, became the first to fall in the battle against The End.
This was... the mission she bore after wagering all her luck.
The moment Pardo died, perhaps she had already used up all the luck of her life...
Although they had made ample preparations, the Herrscher's strength still exceeded everyone's expectations.
It was like a god. All the Flame Chasers coordinated with everything they had, yet despite Kevin's repeated Heavenly Fire attacks, the Herrscher of the End remained completely unharmed.
They had failed to inflict any damage upon It.
In just five minutes, two Flame-Chasers had died.
In the span of a few words, four Flame Chasers died one after another.
The first to die should have been Pardo, Chijie, Vill-V, and Cosmo.
Su Nian's expression did not change. She remained as calm as ever, but the audience seemed able to see intense malice on her face.
Four Flame Chasers slaughtered in an instant!
They had died far too quickly. They were all powerful warriors of Moth of the Fire, yet they had died so carelessly.
They had not even made a splash.
Is this your strength?!
Su Nian even used the divine third-person pronoun, "It," for the Herrscher of the End.
The pronoun for a god!
The Herrscher of the End was not merely like a god. Here, It was a god.
This was a confrontation between mortals and a god.
But these mortals could only defeat the god's envoys, unable to inflict even the slightest damage upon the god itself.
Su Nian's hands did not stop moving, and the story continued.
Even Moonlight Throne's attack only caused the Herrscher of the End to lose 2% of Its energy.
To prevent The End from descending upon Earth, Mei ordered Moonlight Throne's limiters removed, forcing it into overload to accelerate the consumption of the Herrscher's Honkai Energy.
Moonlight Throne could convert Honkai Energy into any form of energy. After all, Honkai Energy itself was an advanced universal energy source.
Because Honkai Energy was so useful, players joked that its true meaning was actually: Honkai can do anything, shortened to Honkai Energy.
No one knew what method they used, but Moonlight Throne directly extracted Honkai Energy from The End's body, finally buying them an opportunity.
Before Moonlight Throne was destroyed, 30% of the Honkai within the Herrscher of the End had been transferred into the Moon.
Combined with Kevin's all-out strike, The End temporarily ceased activity—but only temporarily...
And it still had not suffered any damage. They had merely temporarily crashed The End.
They had bought civilization its final twelve hours.
After twelve hours, the Herrscher would regain the ability to move. Without Moonlight Throne, humanity would have no power to resist.
The result of Moth of the Fire's lifelong efforts was merely to delay civilization's deadline by twelve hours.
It seemed like an ant trying to shake a tree...
The End was simply too powerful.
The story's air of despair reached its peak.
But this story did not end in despair.
Humanity could never lose hope.
No matter how powerful It was, It could not surpass human wisdom. Humanity would ultimately defeat Honkai.
Everything they had done was absolutely not in vain.
Earlier, at the instant The End awakened, Pardo had successfully opened the door, and with her help, Prometheus had successfully hacked into the Herrscher of the End.
It also placed shackles called the Will of Honkai upon the Cocoon of the End, making the Herrschers of the current civilization consistent with those of the Previous Civilization.
This was to provide fertile ground for the Stigmata Project.
It also provided a backdoor for Kevin to inherit the Power of the End.
There had originally been no Will of Honkai in the world, but now there was.
Under normal circumstances, the types of Herrschers that appeared were random. After Prometheus hacked the backdoor, she fixed the order and types of Herrschers.
You could understand it as the exam setter altering the college entrance examination so that its questions were exactly the same as the previous year's.
Unfortunately, if you could not solve the difficult question—the Herrscher of the End—you still could not solve it.
So they had to find a way around it.
As long as the Herrscher of the End was one of their own...
The story was not over yet!
If they thought the tragedy ended here, then they were being far too naïve.
It gave the audience no time to react. They were still stunned by the ending of the story, unable to come back to their senses.
Next, Kevin's romance arc, which had finally received some written development...
Would also be cut off here.
Inside the Moth of the Fire base, Su hurried toward Mei's office to bring news that Kevin was still alive.
They would soon be reunited.
Seeing this, Kevin, who had been staring at the livestream, let out a sigh of relief.
Although the Kevin in this story had experienced much, the blade had not truly fallen upon him in the end.
The Previous Civilization clearly had no way to defeat the Herrscher of the End, but it still had a plan.
As long as he was alive, there was hope.
As long as he was with Mei, he had endless strength. The Herrscher of the End? It was merely a temporary defeat.
But as Su Nian continued writing, Kevin saw something wrong.
Kevin had just been slurping down noodles, but then he immediately began coughing violently.
"Cough, cough... cough cough cough!" The noodles had gone down the wrong pipe.
Before you continue