The Magic Box / The Starchaser Invaders

The Twelfth Herrscher, the last Herrscher Finality, is seen by men as the one who brings an end to this civilization and the strongest Herrscher to bring divine punishment upon humanity.

Because she used human weapons to defeat humanity, or rather... humanity defeated itself.

"Sakura, thank you... I wanted to say so much to you, but in the end, only this sentence remains... Thank you..."

The man turned around and looked at the pink-haired girl who seemed to be sleeping in an ice coffin. A natural, human-like smile appeared on his metallic face.

"That encounter was purely accidental."

"The agreement we made back then was just a farce."

"But in any case, this is the ending we all reached together."

"If there's any difference between me now and I was then..."

The man grabbed the Twelfth Herrscher by the neck, and they fell to the ground together. He attacked with all his might, while the Herrscher showed no mercy, wanting to take the life of this last human.

That's right. Although this person's body was made of soul steel, and it was impossible to tell from his appearance that he was human, she could sense that he was human!

"Bang!"

They crashed to the ground, and the man grabbed her shoulder, his Soul Steel arm piercing through her chest and tearing out the Herrscher Core.

At the last moment, the Herrscher completed her attack on him, piercing his skull with a blade made of Soul Steel.

"Clatter".

The lifeless body lay on the ground.

"Splash..."

A rain shower washes away the post-apocalyptic world.

It's like tears, it's like sin, it's like hope...

It landed on the man's motionless body.

After his death, the Herrscher Core was bound by a vessel formed from the last command he gave on his arm.

After that, the Soul Steel Doll and the Herrscher Core will enter a period of silence lasting millions of years.

From that moment on, the consciousness within the Herrscher Core began to invade her body, which was composed of Soul Steel, and the last insignificant emotion left by the man within it merged into her consciousness.

That is just the memory of a tiny individual among billions of people.

That was merely the probability that he calculated, which was infinitely close to zero.

That was just a miracle that humans naively prayed for from non-existent gods.

In the very end, he asked himself that question again, "Do you believe miracles can happen?"

His consciousness faded away.

"I don't believe in miracles... but there are many miracles in the history of science."

"But if a miracle called 'emotion' truly exists... please let it happen... even if it's only one in ten million... one in a billion... I sincerely pray for it..."

"This is just a tiny, insignificant wish of a mere human being..."

"But even here and now... I am praying for you..."

"Praying for that civilization that may be so far in the future..."

"A miracle has happened..."

The records left behind by the man have all disappeared in the long river of time; in the end, he was unable to leave anything for later civilizations.

Just as he was ultimately powerless to save humanity.

This is just a meaningless story.

This is a story that begins with a farce and ends with a heavy rain.

This is a story of moving from disability to normalcy, yearning for change and experiencing emotions, and ultimately transforming.

This is a story whose final emotional interpretation is unclear.

This is the wrong story.

This is the correct story.

This is the story of how "I" became a "person".

Chapter Seventy-Three: The Magic Box

Disappeared?

The sudden disappearance of the Honkai Beast startled Lin and Sakura. Before they could determine whether the Honkai Beast had become invisible or escaped, Lin noticed something rushing toward him at high speed.

A familiar feeling welled up in his heart. Lin Cong the massive amount of data. He quickly bent backward, and a transparent Wind Blade sliced through the trees behind him, creating a gap that was a hundred meters long.

Glaciers, Wind Blade...

A flash of purple lightning momentarily paralyzed Sakura's body, followed by a heavy whooshing sound. She gritted her teeth and forced her powerless body to dodge the blow from the unseen giant arm.

It didn't disappear, but rather... it became invisible?

"Light refraction..."

After it unleashed its Wind Blade, Lin immediately activated the heat detector, and sure enough, the deformed Honkai Beast was right in front of them.

The power possessed by the Fourth Herrscher was later verified to be the ability to create ideal fluids, and the refraction of light can be seen as a branch of this power. However, the Fourth Herrscher itself did not demonstrate the diverse uses of this power.

Ice, wind, and lightning—this Honkai Beast has now displayed three abilities. Is it because it devoured those two Honkai Beasts?

"Here it comes." Sakura activated the thermal imaging in her Contact Lens. She slashed at the incoming tentacle with her sword, and the mud-like tentacle broke in two, thrashing on the ground, looking utterly disgusting.

Having missed the best opportunity to retreat, their only option was to kill the Honkai Beast here.

Honkai Beast have seemingly bulky bodies, but their tentacles are as agile as venomous snakes. Even though they look soft, their terrifying weight and speed make them into iron whips that can disintegrate a person with just a slight graze.

But what worries Lin even more is another kind of speculation.

Before he could voice his suspicions, his worst fears came true in the next second.

"Roar!"

The whirlwind whipped up by the Honkai Beast wasn't as powerful as the Fourth Herrscher's ability to easily blow down half a city, but it was still enough to blow people off the ground. Amidst it, both Lin and Sakura saw some shimmering points of light.

Those are sharp ice crystals that have condensed.

"Bass!"

With the help of the wind, the ice crystals were launched faster than bullets. Lin and Ying instinctively used their knives to block them. The terrifying force made their arms numb, and the cold air contained in the shattered ice shards was penetrating their bodies.

So, they really do combine their abilities!

Having already been overwhelmed by attacks from powers that were indistinguishable from superpowers, many people are grateful that at least Herrscher only uses one power. If the powers of multiple Herrscher were to appear in one Herrscher, or if multiple Herrscher were to cooperate with each other at the same time, that would be the most terrifying disaster.

Now, even though their abilities are far less powerful than those of the Herrscher Authority, Honkai Beast have emerged with more specialized ways of using their abilities.

However, ice does not ionize and therefore does not conduct electricity, which limits the Honkai Beast's ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields. Therefore...

Just as Lin was quickly thinking of a solution, something unexpected happened.

An ugly flame was ignited.

"..."

The temperature, which had been dropping rapidly due to the chill, suddenly rose to a level that made them feel hot.

Flames ignited on those tentacles.

"Sakura, step back." Lin instinctively told Sakura to retreat.

It was too late. Sakura had already retreated as fast as she could when she heard Lin give the order to retreat, but the terrifying temperature had already melted the ice into liquid. The Honkai Beast were even spontaneously creating large blocks of ice and melting them, and water instantly spread behind them.

"Crackling and popping."

A terrifying electric current flowed from the liquid and connected to Sakura's body.

"... What are your purposes?"

The girl sat quietly in a corner of the room. The surveillance cameras above her and Xingcai were useless to her and Xingcai. Xingcai could easily use the power of technology to interfere with human surveillance systems.

Civilizations that have already ventured beyond their galaxies possess technology far beyond what current human civilization can match.

If there is any Earth civilization with a technological level comparable to or even stronger than Xingcai, it would probably be the one that preceded it, having undergone twelve cycles of Honkai and just a hair's breadth away from its Finality.

That civilization didn't leave the planet, but that doesn't mean they lacked the ability...

The weapon the girl used to Death Star Xingcai was an ordinary Soul Steel weapon from the Previous Civilization period. The technology contained within it surpassed the strength of Xingcai's physical structure, which is why she was able to kill them so easily.

But for humanity today, this alien civilization, which shows no signs of friendliness, has arrived too early and at the worst possible time...

"We just want somewhere to settle down..."

"No, there was a Star Intrusion in the database last night. After analyzing its source, I found that it was connected to the same place as you." The girl's calm, unwavering voice came from inside the helmet. "In other words, if that Star is a 'hawk,' it means that you still have connections with the 'hawks.' If that Star is a 'dove,' it means that your goal is not to obtain some areas for settlement at all."

"As for me, I'm more inclined to believe that you and it are not from any faction. From the beginning, Starfall has never had any faction; that's just a lie you told humanity."

"..."

The camera continued to rotate, seemingly oblivious to what was happening.

The space seemed to freeze.

After a long silence, Xingcai uttered an indescribable voice. "What are you? You are not even human."

"No, I am 'human'," the girl said with unprecedented certainty. "Now, answer my question: what is your purpose?"

"Don't lie to me. I can tell whether what you say is a lie. If you don't answer, I will tell other humans the truth about your existence."

"Humans will not believe you."

"So do you think they'll believe their fellow countrymen, or you?"

"..."

If the girl's analysis is correct, then Xingcai is a group of "creatures" with only rational logic and no emotions.

This aligns with their claim that after changing bodies, all emotions are discarded.

Therefore, the girl believed that they would definitely be able to analyze and arrive at the conclusion she wanted them to reach.

"If you don't believe me, then I will now explain your physical structure to prove that the information I have is not wrong."

"Your bodies are not 'transparent', nor is it due to any special material; rather, it is because you have intentionally concealed them, using technological means that humanity has not yet acquired, to keep your bodies in a state where they cannot be observed."

Therefore, it only has an outline, but not even a vague shape.

"You are not 'metal-like lifeforms' either, but rather... Honkai creature."

"You are a group of miniature Honkai Beast."

Chapter Seventy-Four: The Starry Invaders

"Your body composition is highly similar to that of Honkai Beast, which means that you modified yourselves from the beginning to be suitable for the Honkai Energy environment. The so-called inability to survive on the native planet is a lie."

The girl clearly stated the content of Xingcai and Kevin's conversation, all of which came from her eavesdropping on their conversation.

Moreover, not only do they share a high degree of physical similarity with Honkai Beast, the girl also discovered that Xingcai's outer shell is actually a "container," and its contents are the true body.

In other words, the stars that Kevin and the others saw were just "Honkai Beast" whose size had been deliberately compressed.

They can revert to the size of a normal Honkai Beast by leaving their shell.

Their true forms... are twisted entities that cannot be described using Earth's creatures or the Honkai Beast that have already appeared.

"Are you what humans call a 'Herrscher'?"

Just then, Xingcai, who had been silent, spoke a sentence after completing her analysis of the girl.

The girl simply sat there calmly, asking in a questioning tone, "Tell me, what is your purpose?"

"Doctor Einstein, this is the latest achievement."