In a deep, pitch-black space.
His body drifted through what seemed like an endless abyss without consciousness, his eyes vacant as he wandered, wandered endlessly...
As time slowly passed, his consciousness seemed to awaken, and he looked around in confusion.
This was...
Luo Mio looked at the darkness around him.
My Consciousness Space?
Luo Mio was confused.
Teacher!
System!
Luo Mio shouted, but in this endless void, neither Fu Hua nor the teacher answered him.
Empty, soundless, silent.
There was no sound at all, only Luo Mio's cries.
What exactly was this?
Meanwhile, deep in the mountains outside Tokyo.
At Akatsuki Academy, Edelweiss had accepted Tsukikage Bakuga's invitation to stay there.
Void was in her room. Even in the dead of night, she happily lay on her bed playing video games.
"Hehehehe..."
"!"
Suddenly, her laughter stopped. She froze on the bed, then immediately stood and went to the window.
Liuli's golden eyes revealed a worried look as she gazed toward the sky.
Edelweiss entered the room carrying desserts. Seeing Void standing by the window, she looked puzzled.
"Void?"
In the deep sea.
Beside the half-golden crystal, three enormous figures stood guard around it.
A white dragon that existed only in mythological books, something that should never have appeared in the modern world. Its wings were white and blue, and four terrifying, horrifying auras could be felt from its body.
From its white roots to the crimson tips of its tails, deep violet flames flickered faintly across its body as though resisting the frigid temperature of the deep sea. Its figure resembled the ancient Chinese divine beast, the Nine-Tailed Fox, made manifest.
The final figure used a body even larger than the other two colossal beasts to shield the crystal. The oppressive force brought by its massive form far surpassed that of the other two beasts.
The three colossal beasts sensed something and raised their heads toward the sea surface. Just as they were about to move—
The golden crystal slowly began to emit energy, and the three beasts stopped moving as well.
They sank back into silence.
Inside Luo Mio and Ikki's hotel room.
Ikki lay peacefully asleep on the bed, red-and-white feathers floating around him to form a barrier.
Luo Mio, meanwhile, seemed to have fallen unconscious, completely unresponsive.
However, purple patterns covered his entire body. As they flickered, they spread purple energy into the surroundings.
Yet Luo Mio and Ikki were not the only ones in the room.
There was a crimson figure and a ball of blue light—Fu Hua and the system from within Luo Mio's consciousness.
"I didn't expect Mio's rampage this time to throw both of us out of the Consciousness Space." Fu Hua, dressed in crimson and pure white, looked at Luo Mio and said with a frown.
Then her crimson eyes turned toward the small blue ball of light beside her as she asked, "Do you have no way to deal with this?"
The system's voice came from the little ball of light. "No. The host's current condition isn't caused by the Honkai Energy inside his body going berserk. Another existence has intervened."
Fu Hua's beautiful crimson eyes turned toward Luo Mio on the bed. She sighed and said, "Just as Mio said, you're really a useless system."
Upon hearing that, the little ball of light immediately began flailing about.
"I'm only an auxiliary system meant to help the host grow stronger! You're making things difficult for me, aren't you?!"
Her crimson eyes glanced at the little ball of light.
"Then tell me, how did you pull me out of the Honkai World in the first place?"
"Uh..."
The little ball of light instantly quieted down.
"Back then, I borrowed part of the world authority granted by the Main World to enter. It's different now."
"How is it different?"
"I'm in the Chivalry of a Failed Knight World now. I can't connect to the Main World's authority."
"Just as Mio said. Useless."
The little ball of light began flailing around again.
What was going on?...
Luo Mio examined this pitch-black space.
Because he realized this was not his Consciousness Space. Whenever he had entered his Consciousness Space in the past, Feather of the Dust's red-and-white power would decorate it. After he absorbed those golden crystal fragments earlier, tiny golden lights like stars had even appeared within the space.
But now, there was only silent stillness and endless nothingness.
"It seems the seed has sprouted."
!
A voice suddenly sounded behind Luo Mio.
Luo Mio turned around.
Someone identical to Luo Mio stood behind him. No... it was "Luo Mio."
The only difference was "Luo Mio's" golden eyes and the platinum halo above his head.
Luo Mio looked at him and asked gravely, "Who are you...?"
"Luo Mio" looked at him and smiled.
"Don't you already know perfectly well?"
"..." Luo Mio's pupils contracted. If he had not been in soul form, his back would probably have been drenched in cold sweat by now.
Finality...
From what Arisugawa had said about the meteor shower incident sixteen years ago, and from the rampage caused earlier by the golden crystal fragment in Wallenstein's possession, he had vaguely realized that an incomparably terrifying, despair-inducing "monster" existed within him.
"You're really harsh on yourself, calling yourself a monster."
Golden-eyed "Luo Mio" spoke as though he could read minds.
Luo Mio was startled. He did not care that golden-eyed "Luo Mio" had read his thoughts; rather, he noticed what he had said.
"You said, 'yourself'?" Luo Mio was deeply shaken, because he thought of a piece of information about Herrschers.
Herrscher personality...
When a great Honkai eruption occurred with a Honkai Energy concentration exceeding 2000 HW, "Honkai," the unfathomable will of a god, bestowed a "Herrscher Core" upon humans with extremely high adaptability to Honkai Energy.
But it could not be denied that Honkai Consciousness was a god with a terrible sense of humor. Most of those chosen by It as Herrschers or Quasi-Herrschers were girls who had experienced or possessed painful memories.
And a Herrscher personality was a new personality born from a Herrscher Core.
Then this guy before him was very likely...
And he himself...
"Calling yourself 'this guy.'"
Golden-eyed "Luo Mio" helplessly scratched the back of his head, then the corners of his mouth curled upward slightly.
"Besides, I'm not a personality created by that foul-tempered Honkai Consciousness!"
Luo Mio stared at him in shock upon hearing that.
A personality not created by Honkai Consciousness...
Then Luo Mio's eyes sharpened. He stared fixedly at the "Luo Mio" identical to himself and demanded,
"Was it you who dragged my consciousness in here?!"
Golden eyes... no, Finality Luo Mio did not get angry at his question. His dazzling golden eyes, eyes that somehow contained only emptiness, looked gently at Luo Mio.
"No. I wasn't the one who pulled your consciousness in here."
"Huh?"
Luo Mio froze after hearing Finality Luo Mio's words.
Not him...
Luo Mio suddenly thought of something.
It seems the seed has sprouted.
"What did you mean by 'seed'?" Luo Mio asked Finality.
Finality Luo Mio did not answer. He merely raised a hand and pointed toward a corner of the space.
Luo Mio looked in the direction he indicated.
"!"
What was that...
Luo Mio stared at that part of the space, the corner of his eye twitching.
Within the pitch-black, abyss-like space, a slender sapling had taken root where Finality Luo Mio pointed. It was so frail that any random gust of wind in the real world could bend it over.
Yet that slender, fragile sapling gave Luo Mio incomparable, terrifying pressure! It was like an ant facing a giant statue—no, even more exaggerated than that.
Crack!
A cracking sound suddenly came from Luo Mio's soul. His soul seemed to turn into glass as fractures spread continuously across his entire body.
"You stared at it for too long."
Finality Luo Mio placed his hand on Luo Mio's shoulder in his soul form.
A gentle power flowed into him.
The power gradually restored the cracks caused by Luo Mio's shattered state.
Luo Mio clenched his hand and looked at his soul body, which had already returned to normal.
"Before you recover your 'soul,' you'd better not look directly at it."
"Huh?"
Before you continue