Reanna, who had already awakened, rose to her feet and slowly said to everyone:
"Taking inspiration from the Berlin Disaster three years ago, Headquarters secretly developed a bomb capable of instantly recreating the destructive force of a Honkai eruption—the Honkai Fission Bomb."
As Schicksal's chief Valkyrie, she knew many secrets that the others from the branches did not.
"What is that...?"
Joyce asked in confusion.
"...Through a physical chain reaction, the Honkai Fission Bomb artificially gathers and detonates a massive amount of Honkai energy from the Imaginary side within an extremely short period, achieving the effect of destroying everything around it."
Reanna explained.
Because of its terrifying destructive power, the experts and scholars who developed it unanimously regarded it as the ultimate trump card for fighting Herrschers and Honkai Beasts in the future.
Yet unexpectedly, it was now being used against their own people first.
Reanna glanced at Joyce. Well... in a sense, it really was being used against a Herrscher.
Producing a Honkai Fission Bomb was extraordinarily troublesome and complicated in this era. Even with Schicksal's current financial resources and research capabilities, it could only produce one every ten years.
Therefore, it could be regarded as Otto's final measure, his last trump card for eliminating dissidents.
All they needed to do was deal with it next.
After her explanation, everyone quickly understood what they were about to face.
Joyce said with some difficulty:
"Once that Honkai Fission Bomb explodes here..."
Reanna nodded and calmly said:
"That's right. Not only would we be unable to save ourselves, but all the efforts Miss Edison and Ming Yu made earlier to protect this city would also become meaningless."
"...This is too absurd!"
The blue-haired young man clenched his fists.
"Don't panic. I have a plan that can counter Otto's final measure."
Reanna said with a smile.
As a battle-hardened warrior, she could always find a path to survival amid despair.
Then, she calmly laid out the plan for everyone:
The principle was very simple. Before the Honkai Fission Bomb struck the ground and exploded, she would use Abyss Flower's power of decay to destroy its detonation mechanism in midair.
Her Soulium body had built-in rocket thrusters. Her ability to rapidly approach Edison while carrying Ming Yu earlier had relied on precisely that mobility.
As long as she could accurately determine the missile's position, she could approach it in the air.
Of course, as the one carrying out this tactic at close range, she and her Abyss Flower would inevitably be caught in the blast and lose all tactical value afterward.
More precisely, the specially crafted Abyss Flower might survive the Honkai eruption and merely fall into the ocean. But the ordinary Soulium that made up Reanna herself would likely evaporate instantly under a Honkai energy impact and heat of that magnitude.
The Valkyrie named Reanna would completely vanish from this world as well.
"But even if I successfully destroy the detonator, the missile, which already contains a certain amount of Honkai energy, will still continue flying through sheer inertia due to its enormous kinetic energy. It will fall inside the city and cause destruction."
Reanna continued.
Though it would no longer be able to launch an instantaneous attack through a chain reaction, it would still be a devastating strike accompanied by Honkai energy contamination for ordinary people and buildings—enough to destroy more than half the city.
"So, Welt, I need you... after I destroy the Honkai Fission Bomb, to protect this city from the aftermath at all costs."
Reanna demanded.
This was not a casual request.
She had already seen how Star of Eden's power could create an energy barrier to protect its user.
Therefore, by amplifying Star of Eden's power based on that foundation and principle, it could create a shield capable of protecting the entire city.
—A massive barrier with a radius of twenty kilometers.
"But this kind of creation from nothing may very well exceed the upper limit of your Honkai energy output and endanger your life..."
Reanna warned.
"I agree with this plan."
Joyce replied without hesitation.
Einstein seemed to want to say something, but ultimately chose silence.
The atmosphere became incredibly heavy, and no one spoke for a while.
"Everyone, I have a solution that can give us the best of both worlds. Perhaps no one will need to be sacrificed. Would you like to hear it?"
At that moment, Ming Yu suddenly spoke.
Perhaps because he was not one of the "people in the story," when Joyce and the others considered countermeasures, they would not actively include his abilities unless he brought them up himself.
If it were only Joyce and Reanna facing that Honkai Fission Bomb, they might truly have no other choice but to repeat everything that had already happened in history.
But with his help... everything would be entirely different.
"...What solution?"
Tesla asked hurriedly, as if waking from a dream.
"Just as you saw earlier, I can use electromagnetic induction to launch objects. And before they hit their target, I can continuously accelerate them to increase their power and speed."
Ming Yu explained:
"If it were an ordinary object, even metal made of Soulium would burn away from the heat of air friction after exceeding a certain distance. But now... we have a special piece of ammunition."
With a slight curl of his finger, he drew Star of Eden, which had rolled onto the ground, to his side.
That was right. This was the special ammunition he had been referring to.
Whether in terms of size or shape, it was exceptionally suitable for being launched as Railgun ammunition.
Moreover, its special material as a God Key would ensure that it retained its structural integrity until it struck the target.
"As long as the angle is right, there is enough electricity, and the coordinates are accurate... I can launch this ammunition and precisely hit that Honkai Fission Bomb."
Star of Eden would take the place of the self-sacrificing Reanna.
Of course, that alone was far from enough.
Ming Yu said solemnly:
"Joyce, I need you to remotely activate Star of Eden's Zeroth Power at the instant it strikes the Honkai Fission Bomb."
Having learned all the information about Star of Eden, Joyce knew that its Zeroth Power was the ability to create something called a Pseudo-Black Hole.
A black hole—he had once read about that physical concept in Einstein's papers.
In most cases, a true black hole was the result of the gravitational collapse caused when the core of a star more than three times the mass of the sun exhausted its nuclear fusion fuel.
Everything would eventually collapse into a single point, and around that point, nearly infinite gravity would capture everything.
Nothing could escape its grasp—not even light, not even... Honkai energy.
Although the Pseudo-Black Hole created through the power of a God Key was far less powerful than a true black hole, its effect was nearly identical. Only the range it could affect was limited to the area around the Pseudo-Black Hole.
"...You intend to use the Pseudo-Black Hole created by Star of Eden to swallow that Honkai Fission Bomb?"
Joyce suddenly understood Ming Yu's plan.
As long as Star of Eden could strike the Honkai Fission Bomb and instantly create a Pseudo-Black Hole, they could use the properties of a black hole to completely devour the Honkai Fission Bomb.
Both its detonating mechanism and its warhead filled with Honkai energy would be completely absorbed by the black hole, leaving it unable to unleash the destructive force that would ruin the city.
From that perspective, it was a nearly perfect plan.
Ming Yu nodded and said:
"This requires the combined cooperation of the three of us. Reanna will go into the air and provide accurate coordinates, I will launch Star of Eden, and you... will create the Pseudo-Black Hole."
Without any one of them, the plan could not be completed.
Reanna took a deep breath and expressed her agreement with the plan:
"I agree with this plan."
Naturally, the rest of them had no objections.
One plan would sacrifice two people, while the other would allow everyone to reach a happy ending. There was no need to say which one they would choose.
With less than ten minutes before the Honkai Fission Bomb reached the city, no one hesitated any longer. They immediately divided the work and began cooperating.
Although Ming Yu had already fired a Railgun shot when saving Edison earlier, exhausting most of his strength, he had found an ample energy supply for the next strike.
—Several electrical cables torn from nearby buildings were wrapped around him, and at that moment, he was madly drawing power from the city.
In a modern society, obtaining electricity was never difficult.
It would probably cause a temporary blackout across the surrounding area, but that was far better than letting the Honkai Fission Bomb hit the ground.
Reanna had already taken Joyce into the sky to find a suitable observation point.
Endless lightning gathered around Ming Yu before condensing in his hand.
The azure Star of Eden was being driven by electromagnetic induction, continuously spinning as it warmed up.
Based on the coordinates and data sent by Reanna, Einstein, Tesla, and the others were precisely calculating Star of Eden's firing angle.
Soon, Tesla finished the calculations, raised her head, and rushed over. She adjusted Ming Yu's angle and ordered:
"Five seconds from now, fire hard in this direction!"
Ming Yu nodded, focusing intently as he controlled Star of Eden in his hand. The ammunition was loaded, ready to fire.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1—
Railgun: Star of Eden VER, fire.
An azure meteor flying against the current shot up from the ground, streaking toward the heavens at a speed ordinary people could not even look directly at.
Unlike the purple meteor from before, this one was a meteor that brought hope.
"—Let that tyrant in the sky get a good look at how stars shatter."
Hello, everyone. This is your trash author who just finished six updates for the lolis.
Anyway, let me start by asking for votes, blades, and first-day subscriptions.
From the time this book began to when it went premium, only three weeks had passed.
Originally, I had planned to put it behind a paywall before National Day—a legendary two-week rush to premium—because I wanted to participate in the National Day limited-time writing event. But due to my weak writing speed and a relapse of laziness, it ended up being delayed by another week.
Anyway, that brings us to the moment it goes premium.
Before I knew it, this was already the fourth book I had started on this account. (There was actually another one before this, but it has been completely humanely destroyed as a dark chapter of history, ww.)
One Genshin book, one Genshin x Honkai book, and one Honkai book.
As for the subject matter of the fourth book, unsurprisingly, I chose Honkai again.
I did consider writing something when Blue Archive launched, but after taking a look at BA's popularity on MaoMao, I decided against it.
The cheat ability I gave the protagonist of my previous book was the power to travel across two worlds. This time, I did not make things so fancy. I plan to properly tell a story within a single world.
I wonder whether anyone recognized which work inspired Ming Yu's time-reversal cheat ability. Let me mention it here: it was the ability of Rat from the extremely obscure Nisio Isin work, "Juni Taisen."
(Although the anime adaptation was quite bad and fell apart, I personally unexpectedly liked it.)
Of course, there are many works involving time reversal, and their reversal abilities are all broadly similar, such as Steins;Gate and Re:Zero.
However, if time reversal alone is used as the cheat ability, it is difficult for it to support the length of a long story while still being distinctive.
(Readters who have read my previous two books should know that I basically plan my works with a target of at least one million characters.)
Before you continue