Canghai City.
Among the gathered crowd waiting for relocation—
"I'm telling you, Hua, you were seriously amazing back there!" The dark-skinned girl chattered excitedly around Hua. "It was like—bam! wham!—and that monster was down! You were so cool. Even though you're a girl, I think I might have a little crush on you."
Hua looked at the girl with a faint, awkward smile. "Ah, it's nothing, Carol…"
It had been several months since her rebirth, and the Third Eruption had arrived right on schedule. She had tried to change fate, keeping her father far away from any potential Honkai energy exposure… yet he still contracted Honkai disease.
No medicine could cure it.
Everything was unfolding exactly along the original path of destiny.
Now, the aftermath of the Third Eruption had finally reached Canghai City, the closest city to Changkong, and the government had begun arranging emergency evacuation for residents. Carol was a girl Hua had casually saved on her way to the shelters.
All of this was exactly the same as before.
Even though in her last life she had erased many memories with Key of Sentience, she still remembered this girl. They had joined Fire Moth together, and later… Carol had sacrificed herself during the Seventh Herrscher incident. In that tragedy, their entire squad had perished—only Hua survived to the bitter end.
Hua often wondered—why had she been the one to be reborn? If it had been Silas, Kevin, or Elysia, surely they could have done better than her.
Silas…
Her mind drifted back to the final battle against the Herrscher of Finality, to the man who had stood unyielding until the very end.
"Silas, your body is—"
"You mean I can't hold on any longer? That humanity is already finished? Stand tall, Hua. Humanity will endure, and I… will carve the path forward for them!"
A path forward for humanity…?
Where was this so-called path? Silas, the future you wanted to carve, the one you placed your hopes in—did it truly exist?
She didn't know the answer. All her life, she had simply followed orders, occasionally lifting her head to gaze at those who walked ahead of her.
Compared to them, she had neither outstanding talent nor unshakable conviction…
Yet in the end, the one who survived was someone as ordinary as her.
Silas… I wish I could hear your voice again, hear your answer. If you had been the one reborn, humanity might truly have had a chance to defeat the Honkai.
Fire Moth Headquarters,
"So… you and Sakura danced together in the courtyard? Just the two of you?" Elysia stirred her milk tea with a straw, smiling.
"That's right. On that point, she and I felt the same—until now, I still find those situations a bit nerve-wracking. I guess I'm just not used to them." Silas glanced at the clock. "It's already seven. Why isn't Dr. Mobius up yet?"
"Well, she was pretty upset yesterday." Elysia chuckled. "If I'm not mistaken, she probably had a little to drink after she got back."
"Oh." Silas nodded and glanced at his schedule. "In that case, for her instant noodles today I'll just—"
"Elysia…" Mobius's gritted-teeth voice cut through the air. "What exactly are you telling Silas?!"
One second later and her precious instant noodles would've been gone!
"I'm just telling the truth~" Elysia shrugged playfully. "Our dear Dr. Mobius does like to drink a little when she's sulking."
Feeling Silas's gaze on her, Mobius refused to admit that yes, she had drunk a bit yesterday and, being a lightweight, had passed out—only to be dragged out of bed today after Klein tried everything short of cold-water torture.
"Hmph. It was just a dance. Why would I be upset over that?" she said.
Elysia's lips curved into a mischievous smile. "But~ I never said why you were sulking."
"...Elysia!" Mobius snapped.
Damn it! She really couldn't get along with Elysia!
Suddenly, a rush of hurried footsteps echoed through the hall. All three turned their heads toward the source of the sound, just in time to see a squad of fully armed Fire Moth soldiers sprint past them.
Leading the group was Vincent.
As they passed, Vincent gave the three a friendly wave before hurrying off again.
Silas immediately pulled out his device to check the latest reports.
"What happened?" Elysia glanced at Silas. Then, standing right beside him, Mobius suddenly got a mischievous idea—she leaned down slightly, pretending to look at the data with him. The result was a rather ambiguous pose between the two.
Elysia: "!"
Silas, however, didn't react much. After scanning the report, he said flatly, "Nothing serious. There's a concentration of Honkai energy detected in a small coastal city near the Indian Ocean. It's suspected that a Honkai outbreak might occur there. Hmm… that Vincent… they're probably heading over to investigate."
Elysia narrowed her eyes at him. "Vincent just greeted you yesterday, didn't he? And you've already forgotten? Silas, what's with your memory?"
Silas stayed silent.
It wasn't like he'd ever tried to remember the guy's full name anyway—recalling "Vincent" was already an accomplishment.
—
Visakha City, Indian Ocean Coastline
Visakha City was a newly emerging coastal town. Thanks to its convenient transportation links, the local government planned to develop it further as a hub for expanding foreign trade.
But the anomaly struck in the midst of its rising prosperity.
The first to notice something wrong was a child. He happened to look up at the sky—only to see it fractured, as if a massive hole had been torn open.
Soon, more and more people tilted their heads upward. Inside the rift floated a black, inverted triangular pyramid. Each of its faces bore a crystal-like object radiating a different color of light, and along each edge, crystalline lines pulsed with a white glow.
"It's a UFO!" someone shouted.
People quickly whipped out their phones to record the scene, but the Fire Moth liaison stationed in Visakha froze the moment he saw it. His experience told him this was no UFO—it was an entirely new type of Honkai Beast.
He immediately attempted to contact Fire Moth headquarters to relay the news.
But in that instant… time stopped forever.
The Honkai had arrived.
Once the government received the report, they swiftly sealed off all routes into Visakha, locking down any information about the outbreak. Military forces began massing on the outskirts of the city.
All soldiers were given strict orders: under no circumstances were they to speak of what they had seen. Lacking any real experience in combating the Honkai, the government's only option was to surround Visakha City with military forces and wait for Fire Moth reinforcements.
Fire Moth's response was swift—more accurately, they had dispatched a recon team the moment their sensors detected the buildup of Honkai energy. But the outbreak's onset was far faster than anyone had anticipated.
Thus, when Vincent arrived in a nearby city, he immediately reported to Fire Moth HQ. His orders: lead his squad into Visakha for reconnaissance, while the Indian Ocean branch would send additional forces to back them up.
Ending the transmission, Vincent turned to his adjutant. "Scott, what's the situation?"
Scott frowned at the readings on his instrument. "Not good, Captain. The scanners show Honkai energy converging toward the city center. There's a high-level energy spike there…"
Vincent's eyes narrowed. He knew exactly what that meant—multiple Emperor-class Honkai Beasts could emerge from such conditions. If given enough time, and based on research published internally by Dr. Mobius, there was even the possibility of a Judgment-class being born.
…Troublesome.
He quickly contacted HQ again, requesting further reinforcements just in case.
Then, with his team in tow, Vincent entered Visakha City.
Throughout the operation, he maintained constant contact with HQ, ensuring that Fire Moth's analysts received firsthand intel. The team swept through several buildings on the outskirts, only to arrive at a chilling conclusion: every single person in the city had vanished in an instant.
The streets were empty. The houses were empty. Not a single trace of life remained.
At the same time, the Honkai energy levels on the city's periphery had returned to normal.
Taking a deep breath, Vincent led his team deeper in aboard a Honkai-resistant vehicle, heading for the city center.
Halfway there, they finally saw human figures—but all of them were frozen mid-action, unmoving. Vincent lifted his gaze to see the same inverted triangular pyramid floating in the skies above the city center.
He immediately took a photo and transmitted it to Fire Moth HQ. Meanwhile, Scott, after checking each frozen "person," reported something far worse:
"All of them have already been converted into a form similar to Honkai energy storage units. Confirmed—dead."
Even as he spoke, some of those figures began to dissolve into motes of light, drawn into the floating pyramid above.
"No more time. We must stop its birth!" Vincent barked.
At once, every recon squad member jumped back into the vehicle, accelerating at maximum speed toward the city center.
Vincent's expression was like still water. He understood well—his life might end here.
The vehicle carried a specially designed bomb for destroying Honkai Beasts. If it came to it, they would launch a suicide attack. Even if they couldn't prevent this Honkai Beast from being born, they would at least stop its evolution beyond the Emperor-class.
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