Above the land ravaged by lightning, as the smoke dissipated, a faint blue light appeared.
Holding the unconscious Kiana in her arms, Bai Mo looked at the departing Herrscher of Thunder with a bitter smile.
"The first time was supposed to be for Mei. That way, perhaps the disaster in Changkong City, and her own future, could have been better. But, it seems I overestimated myself. Doing this against an awakened Herrscher is a bit forced."
"Then…"
The blue light on her body gathered towards her palm again, and her eyes softly looked at the unconscious Kiana in her arms.
"Kiana, this first time, it's for you."
A long sword materialized under her feet, and she stepped on it, flying to a safe location to gently place Kiana down.
She placed one hand on Kiana's chest, and the blue stream of light swirled like threads, entering Kiana's body through her chest.
This process seemed simple, yet it was precisely this simple action that caused a fine sheen of sweat to appear on Bai Mo's forehead.
As time passed, Bai Mo's breathing gradually became heavy, and her face turned pale, but in the end, she smiled.
"Indeed, it's possible. Then, the End Plan is not impossible either."
She raised her hand, and blue threads were pulled out, bringing with them Sirin's Herrscher of the Void core.
However, at this moment, the core was permeated by the blue threads, completely surrounded and floating in Bai Mo's palm. As her half-open hand slowly opened completely, the blue threads were pulled out, along with faint wisps of black airflow.
The black qi was just a manifestation; Bai Mo didn't know what that thing specifically looked like, but she knew she had succeeded.
As the threads peeled off, gathered, and merged, soon, another black core, formed from the black qi within the herrscher core, appeared. It floated beside the Herrscher of the Void core, yet it emitted an aura that made people not want to approach it.
And the original Herrscher of the Void core, beneath its yellow light, gained a layer of white. That herrscher core, representing Honkai, now appeared sacred and beautiful.
Placing the purified Herrscher of the Void core on Kiana's chest, a relaxed smile appeared on Bai Mo's pale face.
"A Herrscher of the Void core that possesses all the Herrscher of the Void's Abilities and the ability to link to the Imaginary Tree, yet will no longer have Honkai affecting Sirin's will, nor Honkai fluctuations."
"I'm giving it back to you now, Kiana."
Gently placing the herrscher core back into Kiana's body, Bai Mo couldn't help but tease as she watched Kiana, who had been frowning the whole time, relax.
"If Schicksal discovers that the Herrscher of the Void core fluctuations in your body have disappeared, I wonder if they'll be surprised enough to drop their jaws."
"That would be very amusing, but…"
Raising her other hand and looking at the black herrscher core on it, Bai Mo laughed with a lightness she had never felt before: "This core, which only has a small amount of Herrscher Abilities but contains all of Sirin's will and Honkai influence, could even return and re-merge with Kiana if thrown into the Quantum Sea."
She retracted her hand and placed the black core on her chest.
This herrscher core was a combination of reality and illusion. No matter if it was the previous civilization or the current one, nothing could seal it.
After fifty thousand years of searching, Bai Mo finally found something that could seal it: herself, her body. Therefore, there was a cage within her body, and this cage was about to welcome its first guest.
"Sorry, Sirin. If I hadn't died in that experiment, if I could have escaped the Babylon Experimental Base with you, if I could have done more, perhaps you wouldn't have become the Herrscher of the Void later."
"But now I have no choice but to control you first, so please forgive me…"
Taking a deep breath, Bai Mo placed her palm over her chest, and the black herrscher core was placed inside her body.
A momentary dizziness in her brain was immediately followed by Sirin's resentment and the brainwashing-like influence of Honkai.
That feeling nearly made Bai Mo faint, but she still persevered.
After an unknown amount of time, when that feeling disappeared, Bai Mo was gasping for air as if she had been dehydrated.
"It… it succeeded…"
Her body completely relaxed at this moment. Looking at Kiana now, there was a smile on her face, which made Bai Mo unable to resist brushing aside her scattered white hair.
Gently caressing her cheek, Bai Mo's voice carried an undeniable weakness and joy.
"Kiana, when you wake up, the one who terrified you at twelve years old will be gone, and the one who would have plunged you into the abyss in the future will also be gone. However, perhaps you won't even notice."
"But it's okay, Kiana. In the future, no more Herrschers will need to be eliminated. They will all be like you, possessing enough Abilities to help you, yet at the same time, no longer be eroded by Honkai."
"However, you can't be lazy either. You must become stronger, continuously stronger, strong enough to kill me…"
She sat down with her back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling, Bai Mo couldn't help but smile bitterly again.
"Whew~ I seem a bit pessimistic."
"Let's put the future aside for now. After all, there's still trouble here."
Closing her eyes, Bai Mo's consciousness sank lower and lower, as if entering a bottomless abyss.
"Hehehehe… Should I say, great, how great?"
Within that dark cage, where was this place? Bai Mo herself couldn't quite explain it. It could be called a cage, or perhaps, just the depths of her consciousness.
In the sky, the Queen of Honkai, Sirin, descended from the air, looking down at Bai Mo below. A smile played on her lips, and her voice, neither angry nor playful, spoke.
"You look somewhat familiar, but it doesn't matter. Although I don't know how you did it, you clearly knew that doing so would awaken me, yet you still did it."
"Since that's the case, have you also prepared yourself, prepared to have your body taken by me?"
The Queen of Honkai's words were very intimidating, but Bai Mo showed no emotional fluctuations because of her words; she didn't even answer her.
"Hmm? What kind of look is that? Oh! Right, I don't have many Abilities now, so I'm definitely not your opponent, am I?"
Raising her hand, in this dark space, dozens of spatial portals appeared behind the Queen of Honkai, Sirin, and from within them, short spears emerged.
"Perhaps you're right, I really don't have many Abilities. But your situation, after doing all this, must be even worse."
With a gentle flick of her finger, dozens of short spears flew towards Bai Mo, but they stopped just before reaching her.
With the first soft sound, the short spears shattered, turning into yellow light particles that added a faint glow to the dark space.
"Hmm!?"
Sirin was a little surprised. She extended her hand and snapped her fingers, and with the sound came the compression of space.
Within that space, Bai Mo unhurriedly raised her hand, joining two fingers at her chest. Golden flames swirled around her fingers like flowing light.
"Sorry, Sirin, if I could, I truly wouldn't want to hurt you."
"Tai Xu Sword God."
The dark sky was illuminated, and golden flames erupted with dazzling light in the air. Within those flames, a giant sword burning with golden flames broke through everything and appeared above Sirin's head.
"This is!"
Sirin, of course, recognized this. That Valkyrie named Fu Hua almost killed her with this. And now, seeing this similar yet different Sword God again, Sirin knew that she could no longer resist.
The golden greatsword covered her body, but it did not kill her; it merely suppressed her. The restless black herrscher core also ceased its activity, completely suppressed.
Finally, looking at Bai Mo, who turned and walked away at the end of the flames, Sirin spoke, not in anger but with a smile, to remind her.
"Everyone's lives in this world intertwine, forming the concept above time: past, present, and future. Time never represents one person, and life never affects only one person."
"Every person's life will affect others, and so on, forming the future, a future for everyone. And now, you've pulled that silly girl back, saving her, who was supposed to be a vessel, from the life that was to come."
"So this void! Must also be filled by you!"
"Since you're going to bear all of this for that silly girl, then, are you ready? To endure all the pain of her life, to fill this empty space…"
When Bai Mo opened her eyes, only a few minutes had passed outside.
Turning her head to the side, Kiana still had a smile on her face, sleeping soundly.
Bai Mo wanted to reach out and pinch her face, but she figured Kiana would complain to her when she woke up.
Whenever she thought of these things, Bai Mo couldn't help but laugh out loud. Of course, only when she saw the dazed and clumsy Kiana would she briefly forget the fatigue brought by the ten-thousand-year cycle.
"Look at her, using my body, making such an idiotic expression. I really don't know why you're doing all this for her."
Sirin's mocking voice rang in her ears, instantly destroying the subtle atmosphere. Bai Mo was also helpless; she couldn't seal Sirin's consciousness, only prevent her from causing trouble, but as for her voice, she really couldn't do anything.
"Hey, how about we cooperate? Help me get my body back. We'd be better off together than you with a naive dummy, wouldn't we?"
Bai Mo turned her head away, ignoring her, and looked out at Changkong City. Outside, it was already chaos; the entire Changkong City was now a hell.
Honkai Beasts and Zombies were increasing, coupled with the Herrscher of Thunder's destruction, the situation was already out of control.
However, once the Herrscher of Thunder had wreaked enough havoc, Raiden Mei would temporarily regain control of her body. At that time, Bai Mo would just go and bring her back.
As for now, given Bai Mo's current condition, doing anything more would be very difficult.
"Let's rest for a bit. This time, it seems I'm truly tired."
Leaning back, Bai Mo closed her eyes.
Seeing that Bai Mo ignored her, Sirin snorted coldly and stopped speaking.
For a moment, the scene fell silent, with only Kiana's occasional murmurs in her dreams, sounding so out of place in the quiet atmosphere.
After an unknown amount of time, a slight jingle from Bai Mo's waist broke the silence.
Opening her eyes, the fatigue in them hadn't completely faded. Bai Mo took out a square box from her waist. It had a display, and looking at what was on it, Bai Mo frowned slightly.
"Eighteen hundred HW…"
This was a device for detecting Honkai Energy concentration. The eighteen hundred displayed on it made Bai Mo realize that the current situation might be even more dangerous than she imagined.
"This place should be very far from the Herrscher's location, yet the Honkai Energy concentration is already this high. Then outside…"
Sirin also suddenly appeared at this moment.
"Oh? Although it's my other half, a lowly imitator, you're quite capable, aren't you? At this rate, this city won't have many living people left."
Seeing Bai Mo pull a wireless communication earphone from the box, Sirin couldn't help but scoff: "What? Are you calling the police?"
"Please don't speak loudly when others are on the phone, thank you."
Bai Mo replied casually, which infuriated Sirin. For some reason, though it was a perfectly normal sentence, spoken in this atmosphere, in this situation, and by Bai Mo, it had a choking effect.
She gently tapped the back of the earphone, and a blue light flashed, looking very high-tech.
However, the call request lasted for a full minute before the other side finally picked up.
"Hello! Who is it! Speak quickly! I'm busy!"
On the other end was a very pleasant female voice, but it was a bit irritable.
"Hello, Dr. Tesla…"