Elysia: "Pardofelis, how could you tell everyone about those things? I'm just a sweet, elegant, adorable young girl."
Theresa: "But you're the second of the Flame-Chasers."
Elysia: "Yes, Kevin is the first. You know, Kevin and I fought once, and you can probably guess the outcome without me saying it—I lost."
Eden: "But Elysia, I heard you didn't go all out in that battle."
Elysia: "Oh my, Eden, don't be so particular. We should be focusing on Kevin and Su's battle. Facing Kevin while he's wielding Fehu... I'm really worried for him."
That was what she said, but no one present was blind.
Elysia practically had the words I care so much, I want to watch the drama unfold written all over her face.
On the screen, Kevin and Su's battle continued. Unfortunately, the First Flame-Chaser was simply too powerful, and the fight had been utterly one-sided from the very beginning.
"Star of Eden, Zero Nominal Power—Pseudo Black Hole!"
Holding Star of Eden and Black Abyss White Flower, Su activated Star of Eden's Zero Nominal Power at the first opportunity.
The pseudo black hole could devour everything around it, but it could not swallow the flames in Kevin's hand.
The heavenly fire pierced through the pseudo black hole, interrupting Su's movement and shattering Star of Eden along with it.
Star of Eden had shattered again.
Now, only Black Abyss White Flower remained in Su's hand. He thrust it fiercely at Kevin, but Kevin neither dodged nor blocked, allowing its spearhead to pierce straight into his chest.
His Hypervariable Factor activated, regenerating all of Kevin's wounds and rendering Black Abyss White Flower useless.
Kevin grabbed Black Abyss White Flower and crushed its spearhead with a squeeze of his hand.
"The situation is worse than I expected, but there's still a chance. Twist the space!"
This was a space created by Su, and Thousand Worlds was his final trump card. But before he could reverse it after creating the space, Kevin shattered it with a single sword strike.
"Kevin, I knew I wasn't your opponent, but I never expected to lose this quickly."
Su's blood splattered across the ground. The victor had already been decided.
Raiden Mei: "Seriously? Divine Keys can just break like that? He can even destroy a black hole? Is Fehu really that strong?"
Theresa: "No. I've seen Siegfried use Fehu before, and it was nowhere near this level. And even Black Abyss White Flower couldn't deal any effective damage to Kevin. Isn't he just a monster?!"
Theresa simply could not understand why someone could recover instantly after being pierced by Black Abyss White Flower.
An all-defense, maxed-out attack Hexagonal Warrior—how was anyone supposed to fight that?
Could Heavy Machinery Rabbit ram him to death?
Kiana: "Bronya, we used to call you weak, but now I think I owe you an apology. It's not your fault you couldn't beat Kevin."
Bronya: "Sigh, defeated before I could even make my name."
Himeko Murata: "You've had it rough, Bronya."
Who made someone clear the beginner village, obtain the Herrscher of Reason's core equipment, and then immediately fight an SSS-rank final boss?
Bronya would rather duel the Herrscher of the Void and the Herrscher of Thunder alone than run into Kevin.
A monster. He was nothing less than a monster!
And back then, when she first saw Kevin, she had charged straight at him on her motorcycle without hesitation. It seemed Bronya had been a little too arrogant.
Was it too late to honestly apologize to the traffic police and voluntarily hand over her driver's license?
Pardofelis: "Boss Kevin is just as absurdly strong as ever."
Eden: "Though smashing a Divine Key with one sword strike is rather expensive. I wonder whether Su still has the funds to repair them."
Kiana: "At this rate, isn't Su completely unable to beat him? Then how did he stop Kevin and the Stigmata Project?"
Hua: "I don't know, but based on my experience, Su has no chance at all of turning this around."
Out of three Divine Keys, two had been destroyed. Both Star of Eden and Black Abyss White Flower had been shattered by Kevin, and repairing them would take a long time.
No matter how Hua considered it, she could not find any possibility of helping Su turn defeat into victory. She turned her gaze back to the screen, waiting to see whether a change might appear.
On the screen, Kevin stood opposite Su and slowly lowered Fehu in his hand.
Without Black Abyss White Flower and Star of Eden, Su had already lost the right to continue fighting. If they kept going, his life would certainly be in danger.
"It's all over, Su. Give up. You cannot shake my resolve, and I will not stop moving forward, even if my hands are stained with blood."
Kevin stood amid the flames, his gaze filled with determination. "I will bear all of these sins myself."
"Kevin, stop. We have no right to do as we please in this era. Our civilization was destroyed long ago," Su said, clutching his wound.
Even if the Stigmata Project succeeded, the survivors would become a new species. They would not be a continuation of civilization at all.
"The Stigmata Project is nothing more than sacrificing modern civilization so that the zombies of the Previous Era can continue to linger on."
"Then are you saying we should just watch this era's civilization be destroyed by the Honkai and repeat our tragedy?" Kevin asked. "Then what is the purpose of pioneers?"
"What we should do is treat the people of this civilization as equals and seek a way to fight the Honkai alongside them. Not decide their fate on our own like gods!"
The fate of this era should be decided by the people of this era themselves.
Implementing the Stigmata Project would distribute Honkai Energy among all humanity to prevent the birth of the Finality, but it would also cause hundreds of millions to die.
Such a price was absolutely not worth paying for a civilization.
"There is no need for further consideration. I found the answer to this question Fifty Thousand Years ago."
The heavenly fire in Kevin's hand ignited once more, as though he had returned to that day Fifty Thousand Years ago.
Fifty Thousand Years ago, he had once sworn an oath upon the Scorched Earth: "No matter the cost, humanity will defeat the Honkai!"
"I'm sorry, Kevin. To stop your madness, I am willing to pay any price as well."
At some point, Su had quietly moved close to the great tree within the World Bubble.
—Observer Project.
A plan established to prevent Kevin from losing control. It held the authority to judge whether Kevin had gone out of control, as well as the means to stop the strongest person in the world.
Second Divine Key, First Nominal Power.
"Kevin, from the moment you entered the Sumeru World-Bubble, the Second Divine Key's First Nominal Power had already been activated. We will sink together to the bottom of the Sea of Quanta."
There, even the strongest Kevin could not escape through his own power.
"You're wrong, Su. I can feel that the passage to the Sea of Quanta has not fully opened yet. As long as I destroy the Divine Key's core before then, your plan will fail."
Kevin raised Fehu in his hand, activating its Zero Nominal Power in an instant.
With just one strike, he could shatter Thousand Worlds.
"I won't let you succeed!"
Su rushed forward. Even if he could only stop Kevin for one second with his own body, even if he had to wager his life, he would buy enough time.
—Freeze.
Yet the searing heat and pain never reached Su. When he opened his eyes, he found that Kevin's sword strike had gone wide.
And the Fehu in Kevin's hand had been frozen by Kevin himself.
Kevin Went to Puppet Academy?
"Kevin, why did you do that?" Su asked.
That strike would have incinerated either him or Thousand Worlds, yet Kevin's attack had stopped.
Fehu froze into a block of ice, fell to the ground, and shattered into pieces.
Yet Kevin remained silent, offering no answer to Su's question. Or perhaps even he himself did not know why.
Perhaps the current Kevin harbored doubts about the Stigmata Project as well.
"Forget it. It's all over."
Su shook his head. Things had developed to this point, but at least he had achieved his original goal. "The two of us will both be trapped in the Sea of Quanta..."
Before he could finish, Kevin grabbed him by the collar and threw him out of the Sumeru World-Bubble.
"Su, leave this place and continue carrying out your Hengsha Project."
From afar, Su only heard Kevin leave behind those words. Then Kevin sank with the World Bubble to the bottom of the Sea of Quanta, and the scene ended there.
Pardofelis: "So Boss Kevin willingly sealed himself away. I was wondering how Su could possibly beat Boss Kevin... Ahem, I misspoke. I mean, those two really have such a great relationship."
Though she complained without restraint, Pardofelis's survival instincts were still incredibly strong the moment she sensed something was wrong.
She could not beat Kevin, but that did not mean she could beat Su either.
Kiana: "Pardo, neither of them is here. Do you really need to be this scared?"
Pardofelis: "Hey! I'm just worried you'll rat me out... Ahem, I mean, what if Boss Kevin and the others find out by accident? Better safe than sorry."
Pardofelis: "From the battle footage just now, how could this little body of mine possibly withstand them?"
Theresa: "To be fair, that really was incredible."
Kiana: "I thought the Immortal Crimson Bird knocking the Herrscher of the Void down with one punch was already unbeatable. I never imagined someone could use three Divine Keys at once and still lose!"
Bronya: "Bronya only feels that Divine Keys have dropped several ranks in value."
In everyone's minds, Divine Keys had originally been powerful weapons capable of rivaling Herrschers.
The most familiar example was the Oath of Judah in Theresa's hands, which had increased that launcher's combat strength by who knew how much.
But Kevin and Su's battle had left them utterly dumbfounded.
Star of Eden had not even fully deployed its pseudo black hole before Kevin slashed it apart. Even the black hole had been burned away.
Then Black Abyss White Flower, which supposedly possessed the power of creation and death, pierced Kevin's chest and had no effect whatsoever. It was not even as useful as the Hypervariable Factor's self-healing.
And Black Abyss White Flower had been crushed in a single squeeze.
Kiana: "I want to confirm something. The Divine Keys in Su's hands weren't really cheap knockoffs... no, low-grade imitations, right?"
Elysia: "Divine Keys are ultimately just tools. Their effects depend on the user, like Fehu in Kevin's hands and the Oath of Judah in Theresa's hands."
Theresa: "Wait, why did you have to drag me out just to mock me?"
Kiana: "Because compared to them, Auntie, you really are pretty embarrassing."
Once, someone had held the Oath of Judah and still been instantly defeated by a single Void Lance from the Herrscher of the Void.
Kiana knew who it was, but she was not saying.
Bronya: "Bronya noticed something. Kevin himself did not really want to carry out the Stigmata Project, did he? It would be more accurate to say he was strongly opposed to it?"
Raiden Mei: "Probably. Otherwise, he would not have given up on carrying out the Stigmata Project at the final moment, even though he had clearly won."
Pardofelis: "Sigh, that Stigmata Project doesn't sound very reliable. When the time comes, it might be hard to say whether World Serpent or the Honkai is the villain trying to destroy the world."
Elysia: "The Stigmata Project is only a final trump card. As long as other plans are still underway, it will not be activated."
Kiana: "But it seems all of Fire Moth's other plans failed."
Hua: "..."
That really hit where it hurt.
Himeko Murata: "No matter what, we will never allow Kevin to carry out the Stigmata Project in our world."
Bronya: "But Teacher Himeko, we can't beat him."
Raiden Mei: "How about someone suggest something? Kevin does not seem very supportive of the Stigmata Project either. Maybe we can find a way to make him change his mind."
Eden: "Theoretically, as long as we find another possibility for defeating the Honkai and show it to Kevin, he will abandon the Stigmata Project."
Elysia: "But both the Ark Project and the Kindling Project failed, and Su's Hengsha Project has made no progress either. Only the Stigmata Project remains."
Pardofelis: "This is difficult. Besides Dr. Mei and Su, I really can't think of anyone else who could stop something Boss Kevin has decided on."
Elysia: "What a headache."
There was no solution. Kevin had become obsessed, and Su had only managed to trap him with great difficulty. He could not persuade him to turn back at all.
Now they could only hope no one went to the Sea of Quanta to cause trouble and let Kevin out early.
The Q&A began.
There were countless side jobs in the world, and Boss Kevin held half of them. What was one of Kevin's side jobs at Puppet Academy?
Before you continue