Recaps

Kiana woke from a dream of Sirin and asked Bronya what Sirin meant to her, prompting them to discuss the pain and regret behind the Second Eruption. After sparring, they discovered Bronya’s Herrscher of Reason authority was still dormant, while Kiana’s Herrscher of the Void power had never been taken as expected.

• Kiana woke from a dream of Sirin and saw Sirin’s face reflected in the mirror.
• Kiana asked Bronya what Sirin meant to her, and Bronya admitted she still hated the Herrscher of the Void who had killed her parents.
• Bronya told Kiana that the Sirin inside her, awakened by Otto, disgusted her because she was tormenting Kiana.
• Kiana and Bronya sparred, briefly recapturing the ease of their days at St. Freya Academy.
• Bronya revealed that the Herrscher of Reason’s authority remained dormant despite the Dolls’ defeat.
• Kiana told Bronya that her own Herrscher of the Void authority had remained intact and easy to use during the fighting, raising questions about what had happened in the Theater.

Kiana questioned why the enemy had not taken the Herrscher of the Void's Authority, then sought advice about Sirin and her own choices. After failing to get answers from Dr. Tesla, she collided with a panicked Seele in the corridor.

• Bronya warned Kiana that the enemy's decision not to seize the Herrscher of the Void's Authority was suspicious and urged her to stay alert.
• Kiana helped Veliona get wasabi-flavored peanuts from a vending machine, and Veliona offered her advice about choosing her own path.
• Kiana asked Theresa about Sirin, and Theresa explained that Sirin had lacked guidance and that Cecilia had tried to save her.
• Theresa told Kiana she believed in passing on Cecilia's kindness, and Kiana said she would think carefully about her eventual choice.
• Kiana failed to get information from the busy Dr. Tesla, then collided with a rushing Seele, who anxiously apologized.

Seele reassured Kiana that she had not said anything strange, and Kiana reflected on how much her friends cared for her before an eerie noise led her into the Theatre of Domination. There, a Doll revealed that Kiana had once rescued it in Arc City, then said its hope in her had been misplaced.

• Seele asked Kiana whether she had said anything strange, and Kiana said she did not remember and thanked Seele for her advice.
• Kiana went to bed feeling grateful for her friends’ care, but a heavy thud and mechanical rumbling outside her room startled her awake.
• Kiana opened her door and was pulled into the Theatre of Domination, where a Doll greeted her and challenged her to chase it.
• The Doll called Kiana the Herrscher of the Void and said it had survived Arc City, where she had rescued it as a student during a Honkai Beast attack.
• The Doll recalled how Kiana had given it hope, then said it had been wrong to believe that following her light would make everything better.

The Doll confronted Kiana with the suffering of a disaster survivor whose family had been ostracized after Kiana saved her, then blamed Kiana for rescuing the people who tormented her. Kiana defended her choice to stop the disaster, but the Doll revealed that it knew her identity as Sirin and hinted that Kiana was its real target.

• The Doll recounted how the survivor's family was shunned after the disaster, leaving her parents broken and her own life filled with anguish.
• The Doll accused Kiana's heroism of worsening the survivor's suffering, while Kiana said the Doll magnified people's dark emotions and insisted her host was not fragile.
• The Doll told Kiana that her host was still alive but was slowly breaking under rejection from the people around her.
• The Doll blamed Kiana for saving the survivor's tormentors, but Kiana said she would stop the disaster again even to save people who did not deserve it.
• The Doll called Kiana the source of evil and addressed her as Kiana, Test Subject K423, and the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, prompting Kiana to realize she was the real target.

The Dolls revealed that their plan was to force Kiana into the Theater and use her as a vessel, then staged a humiliating trial to break her. The livestream viewers erupted in anger and rushed into the game to destroy Dolls.

• The Doll explained that the Dolls had lured Kiana into the Theater so they could use her in their play.
• Kiana confronted three Dolls on a platform, and they revealed they wanted to unleash the fully awakened Herrscher of the Void and turn Anti-Entropy against her.
• The Dolls transformed the platform into a tribunal and surrounded Kiana with a jeering audience.
• The Dolls mocked Kiana’s identity and blamed her for the suffering of Siegfried, her friends, and her mentor.
• PD, Hanser, Sister Zhou, and other livestream viewers erupted in anger, and players deleted hundreds of millions of Dolls in the virtual world.

Kiana rejected the Doll’s attempts to shake her faith in her companions, but the Doll confronted her with the Gem of Haste and claimed Himeko was already dead. The livestream ended on that revelation, leaving PD and the viewers desperate for confirmation.

• Kiana halted the trial and rejected the Doll’s accusations, insisting that her companions’ trust had made her resolve unshakable.
• The Doll accused Cecilia and Himeko of risking humanity to save Kiana, then targeted Kiana’s grief over someone she had promised to bring back.
• The Doll revealed the Gem of Haste, and Kiana froze as she recognized the crystal she believed was embedded in Himeko’s armor.
• The image froze as the Doll declared that Himeko was already dead.
• After the stream ended, PD erupted in anger while viewers demanded answers, and Lin Yuhao could not reassure them.

As Lin Yuhao and his colleagues watched Hanser’s livestream for a hint about Himeko, the new story showed the Hyperion base under attack and the Herrscher of Domination cores mysteriously vanishing. The chapter ended as Theresa and Seele arrived at the base’s perimeter.

• Lin Yuhao told the anxious Qin Xiaofeng and his coworkers to keep watching Hanser’s stream for the story’s turning point.
• Hanser started “Flame That Ignites Tomorrow,” revealing a level-one alert aboard the Hyperion as the mechs malfunctioned and attacked.
• Fu Hua and Bronya rushed to the vault, destroyed the attacking mechs, and found Tesla and Einstein trapped nearby.
• Einstein explained that all recovered Herrscher of Domination cores had collapsed and been annihilated without signs of forced entry.
• Theresa hurried to the base’s perimeter with Seele.

After Kiana disappeared from Salt Lake Base, the awakened Tenth Herrscher’s doll hosts began attacking people around the world, and the team concluded Kiana had been taken into the Theatre of Domination. Raiden Mei entered the theater to reach her, where a doll tried to break her resolve, but Mei remained confident in their bond.

• Theresa and the others discovered that Kiana was missing, her tracking signal had vanished, and a doll had been left in her room.
• Surveillance footage showed hundreds of confirmed doll hosts losing control, and Einstein concluded that the Tenth Herrscher had returned and targeted Kiana.
• Raiden Mei entered the Theatre of Domination before the infiltration device reached its required safety rating and fought through the puppets blocking her way.
• A doll revealed that Kiana had already entered the theater and taunted Mei about leaving her behind, while hinting at another hidden variable.
• Mei rejected the doll’s attempts to weaken her and said that distance and their different positions would not shake her bond with Kiana.