Just moments after the Hyperion broke through the storm, Mo Wang was already standing in the heart of it.
After his wild, kiwi-surfing adventure through the hurricane, he had finally landed in a clearing filled with white flowers.
The scene before him was something most people would never see in their lifetime—and for good reason.
The entire island of New Zealand was isolated by a thick, impenetrable barrier of wind.
The heavy dark clouds in the sky were threaded together by a web of violent tornadoes that constantly sucked up everything on the ground, giving one the distinct and unsettling illusion that the world was about to end.
But even in such a dangerous, apocalyptic environment, there was no trace of panic in Mo Wang's eyes.
He even... had the mood to take a picture.
"Nice! This is a keeper."
Mo Wang pulled out a camera from somewhere—the same model as a certain pink-haired good brother's—and took several pictures of the apocalyptic scenery.
A satisfied smile appeared on his face as he reviewed the shots on the small screen.
"Now this is what a Honkai Eruption should look like," he muttered to himself with a professional-sounding critique. "The scenes in the game are always so small-scale. They don't fit the identity of a Herrscher as a so-called messenger of God at all. This is much better for the portfolio."
He couldn't help but comment. After all, when miHoYo was making Honkai Impact 3rd, their technical capabilities were far from what they are today.
This led to the in-game events, especially in the early chapters, feeling a bit underwhelming. The Third Eruption in Nagazora felt more like a localized zombie outbreak than a world-ending catastrophe.
And poor Wendy, in the original game, was probably the most pathetic Herrscher in history. The plot described a powerful Honkai Eruption, but in-game, she couldn't even lift a flower with her wind powers.
Even when the early chapters were eventually remade with better graphics and more intense battles, Wendy's part was completely skipped over. She remained a footnote, a forgotten boss.
Jokes aside, Mo Wang was also genuinely confused by the current situation. "This seems a bit... off-script. Was there a description of a continent-wide super-hurricane in the game?"
In the original plot, Wendy's Herrscher transformation was a relatively minor event. The Oceania Branch was paralyzed, sure, but the local area was mostly calm.
When Kiana's team found her, she was still sitting in her wheelchair and snapped out of her Herrscher state on her own, without much of a fight.
This? This was a continent-wide natural disaster. The power on display was leagues beyond the weakest Herrscher who got taken down by three B-rank Valkyries and a single Titan mech. This was an extinction-level event in the making.
"Someone's definitely been messing with the script," he grumbled, putting the camera away.
Along the way, the traces left by Wendy were still very obvious. Or rather, Wendy, who had been corroded by the Honkai consciousness, had no intention of hiding herself. It didn't take a genius to follow the trail of destruction.
And soon, Mo Wang arrived at the clearing filled with white flowers. He wasn't surprised to find this place.
After all, since the Honkai had already forcefully reset so much of the plot, it might as well throw in the original final battleground for good measure.
In the sea of flowers not far away, a massive tornado that connected the sky and the earth roared, and at its center was a cocoon woven from the wind itself. Wendy was curled up inside, peaceful and still.
Looking at her exquisite face through the swirling winds, Mo Wang had the strange feeling that he wasn't here to fight a boss, but to save Sleeping Beauty from her thorny prison. The contrast between the apocalyptic storm and the serene girl at its center was jarring.
"Well, no matter how much of a Sleeping Beauty you are, it's time to wake up," he said, stretching his arms. "After causing this much trouble, it would be completely unreasonable not to give you a spanking."
A huge golden cross—a projection of the Oath of Judah—materialized beside him.
"Let's start with a simple wake-up call."
Golden chains gushed out from the cross, shooting towards the cocoon like streams of liquid light. At that moment, as if sensing the threat, Wendy's eyes trembled. She slowly opened them.
The surrounding winds instantly became more violent, mixed with sharp, invisible blades of air that created a piercing shriek.
The golden chains were shredded like paper before they even got close, and the projected cross itself shattered into golden dust with a sorrowful clang. A trace of surprise appeared on Mo Wang's face.
RUMBLE!
The wind cocoon exploded outward in a shockwave of pure force. Cyan feathers drifted down from the sky, and the girl at the center of it all descended gracefully.
She landed softly on the grass, a faint, divine smile on her lips. Her eyes, now glowing with a dangerous cyan light, looked directly at Mo Wang.
And Mo Wang, who saw the Wendy in front of him, was completely dumbfounded.
What? You thought he was scared? Attracted by her beauty?
Shallow! Too shallow. Although Mo Wang did like beautiful girls, was he the kind of person who couldn't function when he saw one?
No, he was dumbfounded because the girl in front of him was not the Wendy from Honkai Impact 3rd.
"Holy crap! Who are you, young lady?!"
The Wendy in front of him had changed completely. Her originally thin frame, a result of long-term malnourishment, had filled out, now rivaling Kiana's figure.
(Though, to be fair, in the original concept art, Wendy's figure was always on par with Kiana's. It was only the in-game model that made her look so frail.)
But that was the least of it. More importantly, her drab patient's gown had been replaced by a flowing, Greek-style outfit made of elegant white and cyan cloth strips that left little to the imagination.
"Isn't that your outfit from Honkai Gakuen 2?!" Mo Wang blurted out, pointing an accusing finger. "Why the hell are you wearing the clothes of the Wendy from the neighboring game? That's copyright infringement! Or... world-hopping! Or something!"
He fell into deep thought, a look of profound confusion on his face. In Honkai Gakuen 2, Wendy was a much more significant character, a powerful and tragic figure. The outfit she was wearing now was her iconic look from that game.
Could it be that because he'd messed with the plot so much, the Honkai Will got pissed off and just dragged the super-buffed version of Wendy over from a parallel universe?
This was too much!!
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