As night fell, the academy girls drifted into slumber, while the white-haired young Knight once again ventured into the Dreamscape.
On the crumbling eaves and shattered walls, a brown-haired boy sobbed as he pressed down on the indigo-haired youth's profusely bleeding wound.
"Why! The blood... it won't stop..." The boy's voice trembled with sobs.
"Haha... Don't force yourself. I can feel it—my life has reached its end..." The gravely wounded man chuckled weakly, gently stopping the boy's futile efforts.
"No! You won't die! You're Welt, our hero!"
The boy pressed firmly on the wound, refusing to let go.
"Welt, huh... That's a good name, isn't it?" The youth mustered his last strength for a smile as he looked at the boy.
"Mm..."
"Then... you are Welt now. The Herrscher Core, and the mission to protect this world—I entrust it all to you, Welt."
The gray Herrscher Core materialized in the youth's hand, which he placed into the boy's grasp.
In his final moments, the youth closed his eyes, fell silent, and drifted into a peaceful slumber.
-
"This is New York City on November 24, 1955. Overseer Otto Apocalypse of Schicksal launched a Honkai Energy Fission Bomb, attacking the city."
"At the time, the severely wounded First Herrscher, Welt Joyce, stood as the sole shield against the catastrophic disaster threatening to engulf the city."
"...Throughout his life, he never seemed to accomplish any grand feats. He simply acted on instinct, protecting what he cherished and opposing what he detested."
"Yet this very ordinariness became the essence of greatness itself. Even though he ultimately couldn't save everyone."
"And this greatness would continue to be passed down over the next seventy years, first through Welt Joyce, then through Welt Yang—"
"They are Welt. They—are the guardians of the world."
Hermit recounted the stories of Anti-Entropy's two generations of leaders to the young Knight. Though her account was brief, the white-haired girl could still feel the weight and mission embedded in that name.
The scene shifted, and their gaze returned to the snowy plains. There, the avenger who vowed to incinerate civilization now clashed with the guardians of the world, the Authorities of Reason and Void colliding in a cataclysmic confrontation.
As if conjured from infinite human ingenuity, Welt Yang unleashed a torrent of artillery fire that shattered Sirin's Imaginary Barrier—a testament to civilization's unwavering resolve in the face of annihilation.
A colossal, translucent hand swept between mechs and warships, tearing these creations of civilization to pieces, unleashing her hatred for humanity.
Yet, as Welt had said, as long as he lived, this army would never fall.
However, as a Natural Herrscher, Sirin possessed a natural affinity for the Core and Authority, far surpassing Welt Yang, who had inherited Joyce's Core. The Titans' and warships' barrage, though briefly suppressing the Second Herrscher, was swiftly swallowed by spatial vortices, its energy redirected against them.
"The battlefield has reached a stalemate, yet this was precisely the man's intention. He merely needed to stall, to stall until—civilization's ultimate sword and hammer could fall."
"Far beyond the battlefield, a miniature missile launcher had entered combat readiness, armed with this era's God-Slaying Weapon—a radiance equal to the sun itself. A nuclear weapon developed by Anti-Entropy's Dr. Einstein... the Silver Bullet."
"He will die, perish on the snowy plains of Siberia... He will die here, having left himself no retreat from the very beginning; he will die, with the Second Herrscher's life as his burial offering."
"Just like the Welt of the past, they both interpreted the meaning of duty and the essence of protection through the sacrifice of their own lives."
Hermit explained to the young woman the reasons behind the man's refusal to retreat. Kiana gazed at the battle-scarred man with profound respect.
"Isn't he afraid...?"
Kiana watched Welt Yang in the arena. His face showed not a trace of fear or hesitation, even as the trajectories of the nuclear warheads became visible in the sky. He remained utterly unwavering.
"Warriors fear not death, for they are death incarnate; heroes fear not death, for some things are more sublime than life itself—and this man embodies both in this moment."
Hermit's voice carried admiration and reverence.
"...Don't lose, Teacher Yang."
The young Knight Lady silently prayed for Welt Yang in the arena. Even though the man would later appear before her unscathed as her history teacher, the girl still earnestly prayed for him in that moment...
-
As the nuclear warhead fell, the Second Herrscher, sensing the impending crisis, poured all her power into swallowing it with imaginary space and burying it deep beneath the earth. However, the warhead's high-speed descent left her with too little time...
The nuclear blast tore through the earth's surface, incinerating everything around it. A mushroom cloud billowed across the Siberian plains, engulfing the Second Herrscher, who no longer had the strength to maintain her Imaginary Barrier.
Did we win?
Kiana watched nervously as the mushroom cloud gradually dissipated over the scorched earth. A purple figure lay collapsed on the ground, her arms struggling to push herself up before collapsing again in exhaustion. She turned her head to look at the man before her, her eyes burning with hatred and terror.
Welt Yang gazed into the girl's eyes and understood—he realized that this girl was beyond redemption. Fury and hatred had already warped her mind beyond repair.
The man raised the divine key in his hand, activating the Star of Eden's Zeroth Power. A crimson-purple, otherworldly black hole swirled into existence, sucking the Herrscher girl toward it. Welt's gaze lingered on Sirin, struggling at the black hole's edge, and a flicker of pity and reluctance crossed his face.
In the end, all this coalesced into a sorrowful sigh—
"Farewell, Second Herrscher..."
...Yet, as fate would have it, things never go so smoothly. Just as Kiana breathed a sigh of relief, a sudden twist erupted—
A devastating blow slammed into Welt's abdomen the moment he sensed it coming. This single strike instantly shattered Welt Yang's remaining combat capabilities, leaving him utterly powerless in his weakened state.
"#@¥%" (Kaslana family curse)
Kiana pointed at the man who had suddenly appeared in the clearing, wearing a clown mask, and spat out a stream of curses.
"Hermit! Who the ¥#!@ is this son of a bitch?!"
The hot-blooded young woman seemed to have forgotten again that this was a hallucination, ready to charge in and beat someone up in her rage.
The feeling was as infuriating as watching a movie about to reach its happily-ever-after ending, only for a dump truck to suddenly barrel in from nowhere and crush the Hero—who had just defeated the Demon Lord and was heading home to reunite with his family—into a bloody smear.
"You mean the blond man with the mask?"
"That's Clown Alpha. Oh... he also has another name—Schicksal Overseer Otto Apocalypse."
Under the young Knight's incredulous gaze, Hermit uttered a name she never would have imagined. The girl suddenly snapped to attention.
"Wait a minute! Didn't you call yourself Hermit Omega just now?!"
"..."
"Are you sure you're focusing on the right thing...?"