Tears of Ice / The Day the Stars and You Disappeared

Should we choose something that is mostly cumbersome, riddled with contradictions, and rife with terrible differences, or something that is perfectly identical?

As a scientist, and one who is trying to save humanity from its dire straits, he cannot view this choice from a personal perspective, but must consider it from the perspective of "humanity."

Then the answer is obvious.

"Lin, I'd like to ask, did you come up with this hypothesis?" Sakura sighed softly after scrutinizing Lin for a long time.

"It has an even older prototype, which can probably be traced back to mythology... But if you're asking about the Giant Hypothesis, then it was indeed proposed by me." Lin ate the food in his bowl, speaking clearly, "I... humans can complete the human evolution part of the Giant Hypothesis. At that time, perhaps the Honkai won't even need to be defeated, and it will disappear automatically."

"Does that sound cruel?" he asked.

However, to everyone's surprise, Sakura shook her head with a sigh of relief, covering her mouth and chuckling softly. "How can you judge whether something is cruel or not if it won't happen?"

"... I might do that."

"But when you ask whether it is cruel or not, you have already assumed that it is a cruel thing. Otherwise, you would not say that it is a hypothesis, but would say that it is a 'plan'."

Sometimes, knowing him too well isn't necessarily a good thing.

However, she was right; Lin did not intend to do that.

"Redefining humanity and then letting the redefined humanity survive is no different from the Honkai." Lin looked out the window, as if still searching for the thunder of Changkong City. "Humans are different individuals. After their consciousness is integrated, they may become a perfect creature, but that is no longer human."

"Alright, alright, Doctor Lin, who's so soft-hearted, let's eat quickly."

"... Of course, after the consciousness is integrated, I won't be able to eat your cooking, and I won't have any ideals of giving up. Just for that reason alone, I won't do it." Lin rarely showed a smile, one of the few smiles he had since becoming the leader of Meteor's Demise.

Creatures without emotions may be able to travel very far, reaching places unreachable by humans.

But what he wanted to save was not those kinds of creatures, but simply humans.

Chapter 101 Tears of Ice

From that day on, people looked up at the starry sky and saw ice crystals lighting up hope on the burnt-out earth, the dim starlight reflected in the transparent ice pillars.

The extinguished fireworks were sealed within the cold air.

The instigator of the disaster was killed by a spear made of ice.

A name that ushered in the era of Flame-Chaser, along with the name of the Firemoth, drifted over the ruins of Australia.

He was the first Flame-Chaser.

But no one knew that before him, there was someone else...

The battle is almost over.

This was the most massive battle since the Honkai was born. The villains who betrayed humanity burned Australia for seven days and seven nights, turning the prosperous land of humanity into a wasteland, the oasis into barren land, and life into death.

Of Australia's total population of 25.7 million, 23 million perished in the fires, and the remaining survivors will likely suffer from PTSD for the rest of their lives, living in fear of the raging flames.

After traversing four-fifths of the map of Australia, the high and mighty Lord of Flames was stopped by the Savior, who exuded an aura of icy coldness.

No one can describe how spectacular the battle was; flames devoured the sky, while ice and snow encased and froze the fire before it died down, even leaving unextinguished flames within the ice.

The dark path that the Seventh Herrscher had traversed was now covered in ice and snow, transforming into another extreme scene.

That indescribable Ice and Snow Manipulation Ability even surpassed that of the former Fifth Herrscher.

That is a savior created by mankind. After half a century of research, they have finally made the Honkai completely their own. The Man-made deity is about to judge the villains of destruction.

But all of that has nothing to do with China.

She pushed aside a corner of the ruins, her face covered in dust searching in the dim light, and soon she found the person buried under the collapsed wall.

Hua stepped forward and lifted the wall, intending to call for First Aid Team, but when she saw the lower half of the person below the wall turned to dust, she silently stopped.

She knelt down and closed his eyes; it was the only thing she could do for him.

Hua had seen countless corpses here, but many more had not even left behind a corpse.

The destructive power of the Seventh Herrscher is unpredictable. In this Honkai, no Honkai creature were even born, because the flames that incinerate everything would indiscriminately engulf all living beings, friend or foe.

Only in the ruins left by the Seventh Herrscher's rampage can a few Honkai creature be born from Honkai Energy, while most host bodies that can be corrupted don't even have the chance to become Honkai creature.

Hua leaned against the charred, broken wall, listening to the sounds of energy colliding in the distance. Now, she no longer felt that burning heat; instead, she felt a chilling frost that penetrated to her very core.

This means that Kevin has gained the upper hand.

Humanity has once again triumphed over the Honkai.

But Hua could only stand there blankly.

She did not see the moment Himiko into the Herrscher, nor did she see the moment Himiko died.

It was as if it were all just a dream to her. Whether it was meeting Himiko or leaving now, Himiko, like everyone else she had lost in the past, vanished like a bubble.

Himiko's words, her love of drinking, her carefree yet reliable personality, and the lingering smell of alcohol whenever they affectionately embraced...

They were all meaningless, erased from this world.

In the early stages of the Seventh Honkai Eruption, the nearest branch was the Branch 19. Logically, the Branch 19 should have been the first to be affected by the birth of Herrscher. However, the Seventh Herrscher changed her route and avoided the Branch 19, giving them time to retreat.

The Seventh Herrscher had no reason to avoid the Branch 19, just as she had no reason to let Lin go.

But Hua's intuition told her that the Seventh Herrscher was intentionally distancing herself from them.

Why?

Hua wanted to ask the Seventh Herrscher herself if she still remembered her and if she could still call out her name.

And... is she still Himiko?

Kehua cannot go.

She could only stand there, waiting for news that Kevin had defeated the Seventh Herrscher.

This is not a beautiful story, not even a tragedy; reality is just reality, without any dramatic elements.

Just like a person named Himiko once stood here.

Now, there's nothing left here.

Amidst a sky full of stars, humanity ushered in Icy Dawn.

Kevin lowered his hand, and the overflowing chill began to subside.

The Incarnation of Destruction was nailed to human buildings.

This battle was extremely difficult, not only because of the Seventh Herrscher's terrifying destructive power, but also because of his inability to control his abilities, as evidenced by the fact that the frozen land, which spread for hundreds of kilometers, was covered in ice.

But he still won.

Humanity won again.

All communication equipment was destroyed in the battle just now, but Mei will soon detect that the Herrscher's Honkai Energy reaction has disappeared. Until then, he can do whatever he wants here.

Then he looked at the corpse of the Seventh Herrscher, the one who had been there ever since he and Mei joined the Firemoth.

They met at a ball, Kevin remembered, it was a ball after the Third Honkai War Impact.

Himiko, who spent the longest time among the Moths of Flame, looked no different from when they first met.

But Kevin had already become the Flame-Chaser who killed her with his own hands.

Kevin wasn't particularly sentimental, perhaps because he hadn't had much interaction with Himiko. She was Lin's former captain, Hua's mentor, and a warrior with a good reputation in the Fire Moths. He would occasionally run into her because of Lin.

Is that all?

But Kevin doesn't think he's that cold-blooded. Even if a stranger dies, he should feel some sadness.

That's probably just because there's no way to feel sorry for Herrscher. The corpses beneath her feet are enough to fill the ocean, and wherever she goes, there is only death. Why should there be any sympathy for a monster that tries to destroy humanity?

But Himiko is Himiko, and the Seventh Herrscher is the Seventh Herrscher. Kevin would never treat them as the same person. Himiko had already died when she became the Seventh Herrscher, and he would not believe that the Seventh Herrscher would still retain Himiko's consciousness.

This is the lesson he learned from the Sixth Herrscher.

What is it that causes it to stand here so empty?

Kevin thought of Lin as he stepped into the operating room, his eyes containing something Kevin had never seen before.

Kevin understood.

Lin wanted to personally defeat the Seventh Herrscher and grant Himiko liberation.

But Lin failed to do so; he didn't even qualify to step onto the battlefield.

Kevin calmly walked towards the corpse of the Seventh Herrscher, knelt on one knee beside her, and reached out to close her vacant eyes.

During the Hypervariable Surgery, he lost his body temperature, but that may only be a small part of what he lost.

"Click".

Kevin stopped.

A frozen drop of water fell from the corner of the Seventh Herrscher's eye and landed on the ground.

That tear was not burned away by the flames.

Yet, in the cold, it lost its form.

Chapter 102 the Day the Stars and You Disappeared

Behind the dusty pages of history lies a little-known past.

The man who became the savior of humanity failed to save his wife or the entire human civilization, just as he had told himself from the beginning.

"He can't do it."

But at the end of history, he abandoned his Savior identity and prayed for a miracle as just a human being, yet he saved countless new civilizations tens of thousands of years later.

In the end, the only one who succeeded was the boy who liked to lie on the grass by the river, bathing in the morning breeze.

"Locating coordinates."

"Drop----"

"Target location complete. High Honkai Energy reaction detected at the target location. The Honkai Energy concentration is expected to drop to normal levels in thirteen hours. The recovery plan will begin in thirteen hours."

Prometheus Unit 3 stood in the Titan's cockpit, circled the "spectacle" once, and then hovered in the air, observing its condition.

In the battles against Xingcai and the Seventh Herrscher, the Titan unit were almost completely wiped out. Humanity's proud cutting-edge technology was like a toy to be kneaded at will in the face of even more terrifying technological levels and power. After the successful creation of the Flame-Chaser project, the Titan, a weapon that shone brightly in the battles against the Fourth and Sixth Herrscher, was completely abandoned.

The Titan that Number Three is currently piloting is just one of the few remaining Autonomous Titan from the Titan unit.

The reason she piloted the Titan here was because of May's orders to retrieve the core of the Herrscher of Reason.

The scene captured by the monitor in front of us is nothing short of a miracle.

A towering, massive building, resembling Launch Tower, stood on the earth. Its silvery-white metal shell gleamed in the sunlight, and lingering, substantial blue Honkai Energy remained on the muzzle of its cannon at the top.

The area occupied by this single Launch Tower is comparable to half of the Headquarters Base, and there are a total of six identical Launch Tower in this area that was specially selected to house the Launch Tower.

After the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Civilization retrieved the Herrscher Core, they came to this place. Later, according to the monitoring of the Fire Moth, the Honkai Energy reaction that erupted was twice the total Honkai Energy emitted by the Seventh Herrscher when it burned Australia.

In other words, based on the scale of a large-scale Honkai, the Honkai Energy converted from the six Launch Tower recreated by the Herrscher of Reason is enough to trigger twelve large-scale Honkai.

Seven seconds after the high- Honkai Energy reaction occurred, Emperor-class Honkai Beast in the world ceased activity and lost all signs of life.

The Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Civilization annihilated the Star Color Collective Consciousness from outer space, erasing them from Earth's Star Rail and preventing them from attracting even more terrifying alien civilizations and Planetary Honkai Beast.

Humanity was saved by the Herrscher.

This legend, akin to Prometheus stealing fire in mythology, is the most incredible event since the war between humanity and Honkai.

That Herrscher of Reason should have been celebrated as a miracle of "humans who regained their humanity after being Honkai by Honkai".

But she left nothing behind in history.

No one knows that there was once a Herrscher who fought for humanity and gave his life.

No one knew that a girl who called herself MSA-970 once existed here.

She lay alone in the towering structure, gazing up at the starry sky.

The Herrscher Core on her chest lost its color, turning from its original azure blue to gray. A crack appeared as if it was about to collapse under the weight, but it was quickly repaired by her last bit of power.