The soldiers at Fire Moth HQ gathered in urgency, preparing to confront Uka, who was closing in on the base. The upper echelon, meanwhile, was focused on investigating the possibility of an information leak. After all, Fire Moth was an organization that operated entirely in the shadows—unknown to the world until the Eighth Herrscher incident ended. Now, with Uka's movements making it blatantly obvious that its target was HQ itself, it was hard not to suspect that someone had leaked their location.
To keep the higher-ups from wasting time on a pointless witch hunt, Vill-V deliberately provoked the Third Herrscher's core, causing it to emit a powerful Honkai energy signature and electromagnetic waves. This would mislead the higher-ups into thinking Uka's target was the Third Herrscher's core instead.
With that settled, a battle plan was quickly drawn up: a small squad would take the Herrscher core and leave the base, luring Uka away. If Uka reached Fire Moth HQ, the damage would be catastrophic, and the organization's secrecy might be compromised.
Once Uka was drawn off, Fire Moth would rapidly deploy Honkai energy suppression devices to contain and ultimately kill it.
Naturally, Silas accepted the mission without hesitation.
"Silas… are you really certain it's your companion Honkai Beast?" Mobius asked before departure. Her deduction had been reasonable, but it was still only that—a deduction.
"More certain than ever," Silas replied, taking the Third Herrscher's core and boarding the aircraft.
Come on, it was so obviously the Tachyon Dragon—no, Uka—that was coming for him. If he didn't go, who else would?
To be safe, Elysia decided to board with him. The craft had two seats, and if anything went wrong, she could still handle it.
With ten minutes left before Uka reached HQ, they took off.
In the command room, everyone had their eyes glued to the red dot representing Uka. Soon, someone shouted:
"It's changing course—it is heading for the Third Herrscher's core!"
The higher-ups breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the plan to proceed as intended.
Meanwhile, staring at the fast-approaching red dot on the radar, Silas suddenly felt something reaching out to him in his mind. Just as he turned to glance back, a massive shadow fell over them.
Looking up, he locked eyes with Uka.
Whoa—handsome!
Three metallic tails extended from behind Uka, wrapping around the aircraft and shaking it violently.
"It wants to take me," Silas told Elysia. "Or more precisely… it wants to take us as a package deal."
After all, protecting its master was almost an instinct for any companion Honkai Beast.
Through their mental link, Silas understood Uka's thoughts—it had been hurt by humans and now viewed them as enemies. It wanted to remove him from their midst. As for Elysia… since she was also a Herrscher, Uka had no intention of harming her. If it had been anyone else, Uka would have torn the aircraft apart and taken Silas directly.
"Silas, keep the locator active—HQ's reinforcements will be there soon!" came Ato's voice over comms.
Silas continued communicating with Uka, trying to explain that humanity wasn't the enemy—at least, not his enemy right now.
Elysia looked up at Uka, frowning slightly. Hmm… not very cute. Definitely not as cute as her Maheśvara.
Neither of them seemed all that tense now. Once they confirmed that Uka would listen to Silas, there wasn't much to worry about—though back at HQ, everyone else was nearly panicking.
Fire Moth's reinforcements arrived quickly—though, in truth, it was only because Uka had slowed down. Hm… maybe they should just start calling it the Tachyon Dragon again. If Silas hadn't convinced it to play along for Fire Moth's sake, it would've flown the aircraft straight into space.
Though, honestly… in his current state, heading into space would probably just get him killed.
According to the plan, the Fire Moth support aircraft fired a Honkai energy suppression device at the Tachyon Dragon. For a Honkai Beast, this was essentially the equivalent of a tranquilizer dart.
The Tachyon Dragon released its grip on Silas's aircraft. But since its master hadn't said it couldn't fight back, the moment it let go, it immediately used Temporal Reversal, sending the fired suppression device right back where it came from.
The Fire Moth soldiers were left utterly dumbfounded.
Elysia reached out and took Silas's hand. With the comms channel open, she couldn't speak to him directly, so she could only hope he understood her intent.
Silas understood perfectly—Elysia didn't want any unnecessary casualties. Strictly speaking, the Tachyon Dragon was one of their own, and killing one of their own should be avoided whenever possible.
Fortunately, one of the soldiers reacted quickly. When the first shot failed, they immediately fired a second. And since the Tachyon Dragon had only been pretending to charge an attack under Silas's orders, they managed to land the hit. Otherwise, no matter how fast their reflexes, the Tachyon Dragon could have easily turned and obliterated all reinforcements with a single annihilating Temporal Spiral.
Struck by the suppression device, the Tachyon Dragon climbed rapidly, heading straight into outer space. Fire Moth aircraft lacked the ability to fight in space, and so they had no choice but to break off pursuit.
To the soldiers who didn't know the truth, the outcome was disheartening.
From then on, with the Tachyon Dragon's unique Honkai energy signature now recorded, Fire Moth would maintain constant long-term monitoring to ensure they could respond the next time it appeared.
Not long after, a funeral was held for the Fire Moth soldiers who had died during the incident.
Since it had been his Honkai Beast responsible for the deaths, Silas—despite not having much of a conscience—felt he should at least attend.
"Uka is your companion Honkai Beast, right, Silas? Doesn't that mean Mr. Vincent's sacrifice was meaningless?" Pardo whispered from behind him.
"Not at all," Silas replied softly. "Vincent's sacrifice wasn't meaningless. If he hadn't acted, Uka would have expanded the Honkai zone to absorb enough energy for itself. The casualties would've been far worse."
The attacks from Vincent and the others had indeed caused the Tachyon Dragon to see humans as enemies, but it had also prompted it to seek him out as quickly as possible after absorbing a certain amount of Honkai energy—instead of continuing to gather energy while trapped in that containment cube.
In that sense, Vincent and the others hadn't died for nothing. They'd protected the lives of most of the people there.
Ato, representing the soldiers, placed a bouquet of flowers before Vincent's memorial, then returned to formation and explained quietly to Silas:
"His fiancée, Elsa, died in the Second Eruption. He spent a long time in despair after that… Maybe, for him, this was the best ending he could hope for."
But those words struck Silas as ironic—self-ironic, even—because at the root of it all, this entire incident was ultimately his fault.
He wouldn't mourn or feel regret over the deaths of most people—he had never cared about that.
But Vincent's death… that, at least, was something he couldn't quite ignore.
The best possible ending? For him… was it really the best possible ending?
"I'm going to train," he said simply, then left.
Italian Peninsula — City of Puglia, inside a certain villa
A silver-haired girl sat at a grand piano, eyes closed, her fingers dancing across the keys. The melody she played shifted between lighthearted playfulness and graceful elegance. There was no heaviness in the entire piece—it felt as if she were telling a story straight from a fairy tale.
Behind her, a young man stood silently, listening with rapt attention. He didn't dare interrupt, afraid to disturb her and shatter the harmony of the music.
Only when the last note faded did he finally speak.
"Ah, my dearest Lilith, what a beautiful, dreamlike piece… Forgive this ignorant fool, but I've never heard it before. Might I know its name?"
Lilith opened her eyes. Her amethyst-like pupils were utterly devoid of emotion, yet her expression was gentle.
She answered, "Ah, my dear Adams, this piece is called 'For the Untainted'. You could say… it's something I composed myself."
"For the Untainted? What a splendid name. I daresay even Eden herself couldn't write something so exquisite," Adams said earnestly. "Surely, there is no one but you who could be worthy of such a title."
"No, my dear Adams… I am not worthy of being called 'untainted.'" Lilith's gaze never turned toward him.
Adams brushed it off. Since his fiancée had said so herself, there was no point in arguing. Instead, he changed the subject.
"In a few days, that Eden will be performing here. Shall we go watch together?"
"Eden?" Lilith softly repeated the name, then smiled faintly. "Alright. In fact, I'd like to ask her if she could give me some advice on this piece."
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