Honkai, I Alone Save Everything

But could those tactical mechs really gain any advantage against the Third Herrscher?

Only after fighting her directly did she truly grasp the Herrscher's power.

Bronya originally wanted to say something to Cocolia, but she found that the chip's communication had already abruptly stopped.

—It was the Third Herrscher blocking the electromagnetic waves, cutting off communication.

She had lost her mobility, lost her heavy armor bunny, and lost the means to communicate with the outside world.

...She had truly been pushed into a corner.

"I can sense there's another chip inside your brain... What would happen if I destroyed it?"

The Third Herrscher lightly flicked her finger, conjuring Bronya with Honkai energy.

She extended a finger, her fingertip glowing with a strong purple light.

As this light surged, the silver-haired girl seemed to fall into extreme agony.

"Disappear, insect."

The Third Herrscher didn't inject lightning power into her body, but used a more unexpected authority.

Bronya's body abruptly began to disappear from bottom to top, being decomposed and dissipated bit by bit.

—Although her authority looked like a natural force controlling lightning, she also possessed the ability to decompose living beings and objects into atoms.

"..."

Bronya remained silent.

Without emotions, she had long since lost her fear of death.

He who lives by the sword dies by the sword; she, as the Ural Silver Wolf, had long since stained her hands with countless blood, and had long anticipated that she would one day die by someone else's hand.

It was just that, whether serving the military as a child soldier or following Cocolia's orders on missions, she had never had the right to choose for herself.

This was her life... always living under the control and orders of others.

In the final moments of her life, the only friends the girl recalled were those from the orphanage.

Apricot, Rosalia, and Lilia, and of course, Seele...

A tear involuntarily slid from the corner of her eye, but before it could fall, it was decomposed along with her body, dissipating completely into the world as if it had never existed.

Having done all this, the Third Herrscher lightly clapped her hands, and as if sensing something, turned her head to look into the distance.

More than ten deep blue tactical mechs were flying towards Chiba Academy at extreme speed. It wasn't hard to guess that those mechs, like the girl just now, were coming for her.

The black-haired girl casually waved her hand, and the sky suddenly darkened. Countless lightning bolts descended from the heavens, transforming into a dense barrage that struck the mechs directly.

Just like the girl's mechanical dolls, these tactical mechs were easily paralyzed.

Uninteresting, boring, useless.

Then, the Third Herrscher looked towards Ming Yu on another rooftop.

Besides the silver-haired girl and the tactical mechs from earlier, there was a stranger here.

Those red eyes looked coldly at Ming Yu.

Unlike the silver-haired girl, he appeared to be just an ordinary person.

An ordinary person approaching her so closely would only have one outcome.

As expected, the other party waved his hand and said with some helplessness:

"No need for you to act. I'm already at my limit."

Saying that, Ming Yu looked down at the Honkai energy patterns that had spread all over his body.

This was an erosion phenomenon caused by being unable to withstand excessively high-intensity Honkai energy. If it progressed further, he would probably turn into a Dead Soldier.

—Close contact with a Herrscher, with his current physical condition, would result in this outcome.

And he had indeed witnessed the end of this timeline.

Bronya fought to her death while trying to capture the Third Herrscher... This was the ending of this timeline that he had seen.

Now, he would erase this future.

Chapter Six: This Is Reality

After erasing Bronya's future of dying in battle, Ming Yu returned to the time when he first met Bronya on the streets of the East District with Xiaokong.

"..."

He lightly covered his head.

Erasing a future that had already happened was probably like experiencing an incredibly realistic dream.

Although that future had disappeared, everything he had experienced had been transformed into clear memories and poured into his mind.

The future could be erased, but he couldn't forget everything he had experienced. The pain of his entire body being eroded by Honkai energy was not pleasant.

Well, of course, it was still much better than Bronya, who had lost her life in that timeline.

"Big brother, what's wrong?"

Xiaokong noticed his unusual behavior and asked with some concern.

"It's nothing, I'm just a little tired."

Ming Yu smiled and patted the girl's head, then adjusted his emotions and said to Bronya in front of him:

"Thank you for your help."

Bronya nodded slightly, then waved goodbye to them and left the street.

Ming Yu watched the silver-haired girl's receding figure, then took Xiaokong's hand and continued on the road towards the depths of the East District.

Since he now knew that if Bronya went to find Raiden Mei, a life-and-death battle would break out between them, leading to Bronya's death, Ming Yu naturally abandoned that choice.

No matter what, he wouldn't let a girl he was very familiar with die in Changkong City.

Even setting aside personal preference, what would happen to everything in the future if Bronya died here?

The Herrscher of Reason would have no successor, and Old Yang would be permanently stuck in the sea, unable to get out?

Speaking of the future...

Ming Yu had originally considered that after leaving Changkong City this time, he would go to a safer city and lie low until the Honkai ended.

From now until the Herrscher of Finality arrived, there were only about three to four years. It wasn't long, nor was it short.

With his ability to rewind time, it would be very simple to avoid disasters and live a good life. If he could survive these few years, and after Kiana became the Herrscher of Finality and eliminated the Honkai disaster, even if the world wasn't completely peaceful, at least until the invasion of the Sky People in the Post-Honkai Odyssey era, there shouldn't be any dangerous enemies.

But now, after experiencing Bronya's death, he had to consider a possibility and discovered a problem he might have overlooked before.

—That is, the future development of this world would not necessarily lead to a Happy Ending like the main storyline of the "Honkai Impact 3rd" he was familiar with.

This was, after all, the real world, not the game plot he once knew. The future would not necessarily proceed step by step as he knew it.

He already knew that Bronya's early contact with the Third Herrscher would lead to a tragic death... What about others?

The original plot should have been Kiana searching all the way within Chiba Academy, eventually encountering the Third Herrscher and awakening Raiden Mei's personality. However, would the reality here proceed like the plot he knew?

Obviously, even the current Kiana was absolutely no match for the Herrscher of Thunder—unless she was forced to unleash the power of the Herrscher of the Void within her.

What if the Herrscher of Thunder killed Kiana, just like she killed Bronya...?

Otto's meticulously planned important existence would then disappear.

Moving further, when Aunt Himeko arrived in Changkong City aboard the Hyperion, she also had a conflict with the Third Herrscher.

As an A-rank Valkyrie, even with the support of the Hyperion's Nexus System, she could only barely hold on against the Herrscher of Thunder for a while; she couldn't confront the Herrscher head-on at all.

If Kiana hadn't stopped the Herrscher of Thunder, it was highly possible that Himeko, and even the entire Hyperion, would have turned to ashes on the spot.

What if Aunt Himeko also died in Changkong City like this...?

Not only would "The Last Lesson" be gone, but Theresa would also likely be killed by Kiana according to Otto's script.

Like a butterfly's gentle flap causing a hurricane, many things are interconnected. The future truly holds countless possibilities.

This was something he, who could rewind time over and over again, felt particularly deeply.

He couldn't be sure how the future would develop, nor could he deny that the worst-case scenarios he had just thought of might not happen.

The future that was actually achieved through countless coincidences, barely overcoming Finality, was just one of countless futures.

...So, the best approach was to participate in it himself.

Not to avoid those dangers, but to find a way to face them and solve them.

For others, life is only once, but for Ming Yu, it was not so.

"..."

Did he have feelings for those familiar girls? Of course, he did.

If he could start trying to interfere slowly from now on, perhaps some of the regrets that had not yet happened could be mended.

Cocolia's conspiracy, Otto's conspiracy, World Serpent's [Stigmata Project]...

Of course, the prerequisite for everything was that he must have enough strength. Otherwise, it would all be empty talk.

At present, he needed to find a way to approach the Third Herrscher—she was the focus of various forces in Changkong City, and undoubtedly, Ming Yu's target as well.

Judging from the situation when he approached the Third Herrscher with Bronya last time, she didn't seem to have particularly strong hostility towards humans and didn't show any tendency to attack proactively.

This provided a prerequisite for Ming Yu to try to approach the Third Herrscher.

However, with his current body's Honkai energy resistance, he couldn't even stay near the Third Herrscher for a long time. If he wanted to do something, it seemed a bit difficult.

Therefore, he needed some additional assistance.

Ming Yu shook his head, planning to take things one step at a time. Anyway, he could try all sorts of possibilities.

In short, after abandoning the future of leaving with Bronya, his immediate priority was to find Raven with Xiaokong.

Things had to be done step by step... Once Xiaokong was safe, it would be much more convenient for him to act alone.

After arranging his future plans, Ming Yu led the purple-haired girl beside him deeper into the East District.

Chapter 7: Raven's Nest and the Cherry Blossom Interceptor

Finding Raven's location was not a difficult task for Ming Yu.

Although Changkong City was vast and the East District covered a considerable area, for Ming Yu, who could advance in multiple directions at any intersection to conduct a "carpet search," it was only a matter of time before he found Raven.

Or rather, before Raven found him.

"Don't move."

In one of the branching paths, after Ming Yu turned into the corner of an alley, a voice came from high above.

Immediately, a claw extended abruptly from behind him to his neck, threatening him into stillness.

A murderous aura locked onto Ming Yu from behind, but it quickly vanished within a few seconds.

Raven likely had her own method of judging whether someone was trained, and after confirming they were just ordinary people, she dispelled her hostility.

"You... are survivors?"

After retracting her claws, Raven said with some surprise.

Although she had indeed rescued many children in Changkong City today, this was the first time she had encountered survivors like Ming Yu and Xiaokong, who were physically intact and mentally clear.

Adults fleeing in panic often met death, while young children lacked the strength and courage to escape far.

The children she had already rescued were all unconscious when she first found them.

"Yes, hello, may I ask who you are..."

Ming Yu asked as a matter of course.

"Mmm... you can just call me [Raven]. Alright, turn around now."

The gray-haired woman said casually.

Ming Yu pulled Xiaokong around and saw the gray-haired woman's full face.

She had short gray hair, crimson eyes with snake-like pupils, and wore a cape predominantly black with wine-red accents. Her outfit was a tight black and gray combat suit that covered her entire body, reinforced with numerous belts. Her left shoulder bore a feather decoration, and her cuffs resembled bird wings.