Who Isn't a Herrscher?

Luo Mio did not understand what he meant.

Finality Luo Mio continued.

"This time, it wasn't me or anyone else who pulled you into this space. It was precisely 'It,' the one you looked directly at just now."

Luo Mio looked at him. From the beginning until now, neither his actions nor his tone had carried any hostility toward him. Letting down a trace of his guard, he asked.

"What was that? What did 'It' want by bringing me into this space?"

Upon hearing Luo Mio's question, Finality Luo Mio showed surprise for the first time.

"You don't know?"

What did he mean...?

Seeing the confusion in Luo Mio's eyes, Finality Luo Mio seemed to understand something.

"I see. The system didn't tell you? You never asked it?"

Luo Mio frowned at him. "The system said my authority level is too low right now."

"Authority level too low?"

Finality Luo Mio looked surprised again, then stared at Luo Mio.

Under his intense stare, Luo Mio felt as though everything about him had been seen through, sending chills down his spine.

"W-What is it...?"

Before long, Finality Luo Mio shifted his gaze toward the sapling in the distance, then looked back at Luo Mio.

"The system was right. Your 'authority' isn't sufficient yet."

"If you were rashly told everything, your soul would be unable to withstand the information of those 'higher existences' and would collapse, eventually dissipating."

Hearing Finality Luo Mio's kind reminder and the concern in his tone, Luo Mio frowned in confusion.

"Since you're my Herrscher personality, you were the one who came out during Wallenstein's rampage, right?"

"Yes, it was me."

Luo Mio looked at him, an unusual gleam flickering in his eyes.

"Then the rampage I had eleven years ago was also you..."

"No, that wasn't me. If I had manifested then, this world would have long since been reset and destroyed."

Before Luo Mio could finish, Finality Luo Mio cut him off.

"What?!"

"But wouldn't that destroy and alter the world?" Luo Mio recalled the World Rule the system had told him about when he had transmigrated.

(No matter whether inside or outside a world, no matter how strong you are, within a world, your existence and rank will always be below that world!)

"No, I didn't break the rules established by the world..."

"Finish what you're saying! Don't leave me hanging!" Luo Mio complained.

"Did you forget? Ever since you entered the Chivalry of a Failed Knight World, the course of this world has been altered."

Luo Mio blinked.

Indeed, the system had said that ever since I entered this world, it had quietly begun to change...

But...

"But even if my power and your power are overwhelmingly strong, our existence would still be lowered within this world, right?"

Finality Luo Mio spoke the words Luo Mio wanted to say.

Finality Luo Mio looked at him.

"Did you forget?!"

"Ever since you descended upon this world, Honkai Energy descended with you!"

The moment Luo Mio heard that, it was as though his mind had suddenly connected all the dots.

The Golden Meteor Shower sixteen years ago... Honkai...

The rules of the world had changed along with it.

Dialogue (2)

That Golden Meteor Shower sixteen years ago had brought Honkai...

Honkai was a mechanism born from the competition between the 'Tree' and the 'Sea,' one that selected and corrected the developmental direction of the "leaves (worlds)" on the Tree.

Therefore, in theory, once Honkai entered this world, it became one of this world's rules.

Finality's mission was destruction—correction—and resetting the world, so It would not be expelled or erased by the world.

"Then why haven't any Honkai-related incidents erupted anywhere in the world during these sixteen years?" Luo Mio thought of something and asked Finality Luo Mio.

The manifestations of Honkai were impossible to grasp, predict, or foresee. Wars, pandemics, climate disasters, comet impacts—there was no pattern to them.

As Luo Mio's current guardian, Saikyo Neine was ranked third in the world within the KOK League. The amount of intelligence she could access was practically countless, aside from certain exceptionally special incidents, such as the true core intelligence of the Golden Meteor Shower incident, which had not been documented.

And as her ward, Luo Mio would sometimes take her communication pass to look up information, but among the cases he had investigated, not a single one had been related to a Honkai outbreak.

"You know about a 'Honkai Source,' right?"

Luo Mio nodded.

Honkai Energy possessed the characteristic of mutual attraction. It attracted and gathered together, then formed a "Honkai Source."

"Because the most important 'Honkai Source' split into two."

"Split into two?" Luo Mio was somewhat confused.

"!"

(At the critical moment, "Samurai Ryoma" cleaved that meteorite in half... one half fell into the depths of the Pacific Ocean...)

Luo Mio recalled what Arisugawa had said that day.

"What about the other half?"

The Herrscher of Finality looked at him and slowly spoke.

"Why did the other half of the divided Honkai Source vanish without a trace? Why is there nearly infinite Honkai Energy within your body? Why does your Honkai Energy constantly seek to corrupt your mind? Why is your ability mental enhancement? There is only one answer! Because!"

"You, Todo Reika, are the other Honkai Source that descended into this world and split into two!"

"..."

Luo Mio stared expressionlessly at Finality Luo Mio's impassioned declaration, then said flatly, "There are only two of us here. There aren't any runners at the starting line."

"..."

Hearing Luo Mio's absolute mood-killer of a response, Finality Luo Mio stood there awkwardly.

"And why should I believe you?" Luo Mio asked, folding his arms.

Finality Luo Mio glanced at him, then rattled off rapidly and smoothly.

"F drive—Program Files—Study Materials Collection—C97—All of Kimi no Sei da, volumes one and two."

Luo Mio's mouth fell slightly open.

"Bonus—Ama Lilith, and the artist is Tamagyu niu..."

"Stop talking!"

Luo Mio instantly cut off his chant. Closing his eyes, he held his forehead and sucked in a breath of cold air...

Though there was no cold air.

Luo Mio's lips twitched, because not even the system knew that memory, let alone a teacher.

According to the system, aside from surface-level memories, even they could not view deeply buried memories.

"I told you, I am you, and you are me. Besides, why would I harm myself?"

Luo Mio gave him a deadpan look.

"What kind of stuff do I like...

"As long as it gets me going."

...to read?"

Luo Mio looked at him with a complicated expression.

"Believe me now?"

After hearing Finality Luo Mio's words, Luo Mio slowly pulled his thoughts back to the main subject.

He thought over what Finality Luo Mio had just said.

When he had first heard Arisugawa mention the split half of the meteor, he had already suspected that he was that missing half of the "meteor." Even after hearing Finality Luo Mio's answer, he could not help but feel somewhat shocked.

At the same time, he asked.

"Then the 'missing soul' you mentioned earlier—was that the other half of the Honkai Source that fell into the Pacific Ocean?"

Finality Luo Mio wagged his index finger.

"It's both a 'soul' and a 'body.'"

"A body?"

Finality Luo Mio nodded.

"You'll naturally find out later. Of course, you can also understand it as a 'Herrscher Core.'"

A Herrscher Core...

"Then what was that Golden Debris in Wallenstein's hand before?"

Luo Mio asked him.

That Golden Debris Wallenstein had taken out had made him completely unable to control the Honkai Energy surging from within his body, causing him to lose consciousness and go berserk in the end.

"That wasn't a rampage. If I hadn't appeared, then that would have been a true rampage."

"The golden stone particles in that person's hand were fragments left behind when old man Ryoma cleaved that meteorite in two."

"Fragments?"

"That's right. Some residual fragment particles left after it was split in half."

Some...

The Human Experimentation Arisugawa had mentioned...

"Is there anything else you want to ask?"

Finality Luo Mio looked at Luo Mio, who had lowered his head in quiet thought.

Luo Mio raised his head to look at Finality Luo Mio and blinked.

"You're another me, meaning my Herrscher personality, right?"

Finality Luo Mio nodded.

"Then according to what I know of the usual situation, shouldn't you be in my other half of the 'soul' that fell into the depths of the Pacific Ocean?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"What do you mean?"

"Between a pitch-black, silent seabed with nothing there and a land where you can look at scenery and beautiful women everywhere, which would you choose?"

"That last part was the point, wasn't it?" Luo Mio rolled his eyes.

Luo Mio's Herrscher of Finality personality was practically another version of himself.

"Oh, right. You'd better be careful about something."

Finality Luo Mio suddenly said.

"Huh?" Hearing the gravity in Finality Luo Mio's tone, Luo Mio froze for a moment and asked, "Careful about what?"

"For now, it's best if you avoid coming into contact with those remaining Golden Debris fragments."