For most people in Changkong City, this day was nothing more than another ordinary one. Office workers went to their jobs as usual, students headed off to school.
At least, that's how it should have been.
No one knew exactly when or where the anomaly began.
Dark clouds swallowed the sky, thunder flashing endlessly within them.
A massive monster, easily half the height of a building, suddenly appeared. In the streets, winged creatures swarmed and dove like clouds of insects.
Worse still, before some even had time to react, people beside them suddenly transformed into something like the zombies in movies, lunging forward to bite and tear.
A peaceful city, in a single instant, was plunged into hell.
This was the Third Honkai Eruption—the birth of the Herrscher of Thunder.
People scattered in panic. Yet two figures moved against the fleeing tide, heading toward the heart of the lightning storm.
Both were silent. The younger, a black-haired boy, constantly tried to rescue those attacked by Honkai beasts or trapped beneath rubble. The other, an older white-haired boy, swung a baseball bat with expressionless precision, swatting away one beast after another, utterly ignoring the fallen at his feet.
"Kevin! Give me a hand here!" Kosma called out as he tried to lift a collapsed wall. "There's someone trapped underneath!"
Kevin sent a charging-type Honkai beast flying with a single swing. He glanced at Kosma, then walked over and helped him heave the wall aside.
"You all right?" Kosma asked the mother and child they'd freed. "Go! There'll be help if you head that way!"
The woman gave a bitter smile and pushed her child out from the rubble. "Take him and run. My leg's already done for… You're barely older than my boy — don't worry about me. Just go!"
"Mom!" the boy cried, looking back. Kosma turned toward Kevin, but Kevin acted as though he hadn't seen or heard a thing, already moving toward a Chariot-Class Honkai beast lumbering in their direction.
Gritting his teeth, Kosma kept trying to pull the woman out, the boy helping beside him.
At that moment, a Seraph-Class Honkai beast barreled toward them. Kosma's eyes sharpened — he snatched up a chunk of rubble and hurled it.
The stone struck the beast's head dead-on. It didn't do much damage, but it was enough to throw off its charge, sending it crashing into another pile of debris.
Still, staying in one spot too long was clearly unwise. A quick glance around told Kosma that more and more zombies were closing in — and likely more Seraph-Class beasts as well.
"Forget me! Take my boy and run!" the woman screamed.
Kosma pressed his lips into a thin line. With Kevin drawing away the most dangerous beast, the smartest choice now was to grab the child and escape.
(Between two evils… choose the lesser…?)
Just as Kosma resolved to run with the boy, a single gunshot rang out, dropping the nearest zombie. Then more shots followed in quick succession, felling the enemies around them.
Kosma let out a breath. The Fire Moth had finally arrived.
"Hey! You two okay? Over here — we've got wounded!" A fully armed soldier waved to his comrades.
Several soldiers moved in, helping the woman out of the rubble. Then Kosma spotted several charging-type Honkai beasts rushing toward them. He opened his mouth to shout a warning — but a flash of cold light cut past, and the beasts fell instantly.
Even through the soldier's gear, Kosma recognized their savior at a glance. "Sakura?"
Sakura gave a small nod, then told the soldiers to hurry and evacuate the two survivors from the battlefield. Only then did she turn to Kosma.
"On the way here, we ran into Su and Mei. They said you two were inside. Kevin can handle himself, but you—don't push your current limits."
She let the words hang, then tossed him a set of equipment. "Silas said you're the type who won't listen no matter what, so he told me to bring this to you. You… haven't forgotten how to fight, have you?"
"Of course not." Kosma quickly donned the equipment and immediately threw himself into battle.
Elsewhere—
Trying to smash a Chariot-Class Honkai beast half the height of a building with just a baseball bat was clearly unrealistic, so Kevin planned to lure it beneath a dangerously unstable building and use the collapse to crush it.
But before his plan could begin, a beam of light struck the creature, wiping it out in a single hit.
Kevin turned to look behind him. A soldier of Fire Moth was walking toward him, lifting their visor as they approached.
"Long time no see, Kevin."
Kevin froze for a moment, then the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. He nodded.
"Long time no see, Silas."
As Silas tossed the gear he had brought to Kevin, he opened a private comm channel.
"I've got eyes on Kevin. Mm, next, we'll regroup at rendezvous point."
"Elysia?" Kevin asked while putting on the gear.
Silas nodded. "Yeah."
Kevin wasn't particularly surprised. If everyone had been reborn, and someone who shouldn't be here like Silas was here, then the only person who could have pulled that off was Elysia.
"That gun…" Kevin began.
"A prototype weapon designed by Vill-V. Powered by Honkai energy. A one-of-a-kind piece, actually. Fits my current needs perfectly." As Silas spoke, he took another shot, dropping a Honkai beast with ease.
Vill-V… Kevin wordlessly dispatched another beast, wondering if Vill-V had been reborn with all eight of her personas intact.
"And you and Elysia… what's your relationship now?" Kevin suddenly asked as they moved toward the rendezvous point.
Silas nearly stumbled. He gave Kevin an odd look—
Seriously? Mister Straight-Laced worrying about that?
"…Well… I guess we've gone back to how we were in the very beginning. We talked things out, cleared up the old misunderstandings, so there's no need for us to be so awkward with each other anymore."
Kevin did some quick mental math. Back to the start… so Silas was pursuing Elysia again?
"What about Lilith, then?" he asked.
Silas's eye twitched. "What do you mean 'what about'? I mean, Elysia and I are on the same team now as comrades-in-arms. Our relationship… isn't something I want to think about right now."
Kevin didn't say anything more.
Even if Elysia was already making her move, in his mind, Lilith still seemed the better choice.
After all, Lilith and Silas had the most seamless coordination. In the previous life, when the Thirteen Fallen Angels formed, no individual member was stronger than him or Kalpas, but their strength lay in teamwork—especially the tacit understanding between Lilith and Silas. Their cooperation was so perfect that they barely needed eye contact to know what the other needed or intended to do.
He had witnessed their coordinated battles with his own eyes.
It was the very first time he was defeated—taken down by the two of them working together.
Elysia… her fighting style just didn't suit Silas.
No matter what, his opinion wouldn't change.
"Speaking of which," Silas remarked, "Kosma actually followed you in here, leaving Dystopia alone in the safe zone. She was throwing quite the tantrum when I saw her."
"His choice," Kevin replied flatly. Then, with a hint of dryness: "And you're not much older than Dystopia now, are you?" Who are you calling "little girl"?
"Well, we're all reborn, so seeing her really does feel like looking at a little girl," Silas chuckled softly.
As they spoke, the two reached the outskirts of the Honkai outbreak's epicenter.
"With Honkai radiation this dense, there probably aren't any survivors left, right?" Silas glanced at the Honkai energy detector he carried. "We're actually among the earliest to arrive."
The Fire Moth's tactic for this outbreak was to surround the area from the outside and gradually push toward the center, waiting for the Honkai energy radiation to drop after the Herrscher and her associated Honkai beasts were fully born before launching the final assault.
After all, the Honkai energy emitted right after a Herrscher's birth was unbearable for ordinary people. Silas estimated that only he, Kevin, and Elysia could enter now.
"Silas!" Elysia's voice came from behind. Silas turned to see Elysia waving at him while walking over with Dystopia.
Silas frowned and stepped forward. "Elysia, how could you bring someone with no combat experience here?"
"Miss Dystopia requested it herself. You know, I just find it really hard to say no to cute girls," Elysia shrugged, looking playful and adorable.
Silas sighed helplessly. He knew Elysia wasn't the type to do such a thing lightly. If Dystopia really wasn't fit for battle, Elysia wouldn't have agreed.
There was only one downside to this… letting a civilian join the fight meant Elysia would owe a ten-thousand-word self-criticism report.
Oh wait, he'd also brought Kevin, who was still basically a civilian, into the fight. So maybe that's okay then…
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