Chapter 231: Fu Hua's True Heart
"Looks like it's all going smoothly." Aponia, who seemed to have just finished a meeting with Mobius, walked into the laboratory and looked over at Fu Hua, who was moving about in the area that had been specially cleared out.
Fu Hua had completely transformed her appearance by now. The crisp, capable outfit she usually wore had been replaced by a set of red garments, faintly traced with flame-like flowing patterns.
Her originally blue-green hair had also turned snow white, with a few accents of red highlights, and her eyes burned red as though surrounded by raging flames.
Behind her floated tail feathers that blazed like a phoenix's, and from head to toe she resembled a crimson bird wreathed in fire. Even Fu Hua's feet were completely encased in armor that resembled feathers.
"Mm." Fu Hua nodded, clenching her fist and feeling the strength she hadn't used in so long. A layer of flame surfaced over Fu Hua's fist, then slowly went out.
"Mm, looks like lifting the Divine Sound really did do you a lot of good," Mobius said with a nod. "Anywhere feeling off?"
"Not for the moment." Fu Hua shook her head. "But if I want to release this form, I'm afraid it'll take a while."
Irene raised an eyebrow at that and asked, "So Honkai Form isn't something you can just dismiss whenever you like?"
"Of course not." Mobius looked at Irene and shook her head, regarding him with a somewhat exasperated look — or rather, the look you give a fool.
"As the Herrscher of Death, surely you understand just how vastly different human tissue is from Honkai Beast tissue?"
Hearing Mobius's words, Irene's expression stiffened for a moment. He certainly did know this — the body tissue of the vast majority of Honkai Beasts could practically be described as silicon-based.
The handful of exceptions weren't much better either. You could say they were a hundred thousand miles apart from human tissue.
Seeing the expression on Irene's face, Mobius spread her hands. "See, you know it yourself. Active Honkai Reaction is essentially fully transforming into a Honkai Beast form."
"After most MANTIS use this technique, they can't change back into humans — only a small handful can."
After most MANTIS finished their transformations, they could usually only hold onto a brief moment of sanity before being completely taken over by the consciousness of the Honkai Beast.
In the end, only that handful had more or less mastered the ability to maintain their sense of self while in Honkai Form. Changing back — that came even later.
"Sorry, I remembered that Dr. Mobius seemed to be able to retract it at will, so I assumed everyone could," Irene said, looking at Mobius. If he remembered correctly, in order to make up for her shortcomings in combat skill, Mobius really did use Active Honkai Reaction as an on-the-fly active combat technique.
"My way of reverting is a little different from everyone else's." Mobius folded her arms and looked at Irene. "You should know that Sesha's resurrection isn't strictly speaking a resurrection."
"Mm — strictly speaking, it's absorbing energy to heal oneself. Once the energy is used up, what's supposed to die still dies." Irene nodded. He was quite clear on this ability. It was called infinite resurrection, but in reality...
Mobius used to be an extra-large mature beauty, with a figure rivaling Aponia and Eden, but now only a loli body was left of her — that was the result of dying too many times.
Death-resurrection required extra energy, otherwise it consumed her own; and there wasn't always a sufficient energy source conveniently in her surroundings each time.
So after a few more deaths, Mobius had gradually shrunk down — or to put it another way, become more childlike.
Thinking of this, Irene's expression suddenly turned a little odd. He looked at Mobius and said in a strange tone, "So, Mobius, the method you use to return to human form — it wouldn't be...?"
"Suicide." Mobius crossed her arms and looked at Irene. "By reversing the situation where Sesha's death-resurrection consumes energy and actively embracing death, the energy consumption works out just right — enough for me to recover my human body, rather than turn into a Honkai Beast."
"That's why I can pull it off — activating and releasing at will."
As Mobius spoke, she pointed at Fu Hua. "But she can't. Hua's ability is self-healing — monstrously efficient self-healing. Mm, come to think of it, I suspect that Hua's body hasn't really grown much, and that's also because of the self-healing acting up."
"Her DNA was fixed in that very moment, so this is how it is. As a result, if Hua wants to return from Active Honkai Reaction to her human form, she needs an extremely long stabilization period."
Fu Hua reflexively pushed up her glasses, but in her currently transformed state she had long since stopped wearing them, and instead her sharp claws scratched her face slightly. Yet the moment the claw left, that tiny wound healed up on its own.
"Looks like I'll have to get used to it again." Fu Hua looked at her sharp claws. It really had been too long since she'd transformed into this form, too long since she'd drawn on the power of Honkai Form.
She'd have to get used to it again, but it wouldn't take too long.
"Mm — looks like Master is going to need a bit more grooming time each day." Irene looked at Fu Hua and smiled. Fu Hua looked back at Irene a little puzzled, and Irene pointed at the fiery-red feathers that had drifted down to the floor at some point.
"Whoa, old fossil, you're shedding!" Little Senti, off to one side, pointed at the feathers on the ground — and was promptly bonked on the head. Fu Hua nonchalantly withdrew her hand and gave a soft cough.
"It's a normal phenomenon. Grooming is going to take a bit more time, that's all."
Irene's gaze drifted to Fu Hua's feet. Drifting off into some thought, she suddenly looked up at Fu Hua. "Come to think of it, Master, are you wearing shoes right now or are you barefoot?"
If Irene remembered correctly, the bridge-voice line for Fu Hua in this state in the game had mentioned this form of hers — apparently she counted as being unshod.
"Hm?" Fu Hua looked at Irene. There was nothing to hide about this, so she answered directly, "Mm — I should be considered barefoot. What's on top right now just looks like a layer of armor, but it's actually my flesh."
"Oh — so she really is barefoot." Irene nodded thoughtfully. Beside her, Little Senti leaned over and poked Irene's cheek.
"Irene, why is it that sometimes the things you focus on are so weird?"
"It's not like me being all over the place is anything new." Irene spread his hands and reached out to rub Little Senti's cheek. "This is just a bit of curious investigative spirit."
"And besides, aren't you curious too, Little Senti?"
"Curious? What do I have to be curious about?" Little Senti folded her arms and turned to look at Fu Hua. "It's not like there's nothing about it in my memories — though every Honkai transformation isn't exactly a pleasant experience."
Active Honkai Reaction wasn't an easy thing to endure. In the early days, when Fu Hua underwent it, she could even lose control, and at times like that it would even take Kevin to pin her down.
In fact, only Kevin or Elysia could really carry out the task, because those two had the strength to pin Fu Hua down within a short period of time. Otherwise, Garuda's self-healing made Fu Hua extremely difficult to handle.
"But I do think right now the old fossil looks more like an old mother hen," Little Senti said with a nod. She was a bird now, and an old fossil at that — yep, an old mother hen.
"Well then, doesn't that make Little Senti a chick?" Irene said, laughing as he dodged Little Senti's attacks. "What? I didn't say anything wrong. Little Senti, don't you shed too?"
"That's Fenghuang Down!"
"Where would you get Fenghuang Down from? Don't talk nonsense." Irene slipped behind Fu Hua in a flash. "Whenever you use your Authority, you toss feathers around like there's no tomorrow, so you shed too."
"If Master's an old mother hen, then doesn't that make you a baby chick, Little Senti?"
"Hey!" Little Senti glared at Irene and clenched her fist. "At the start you were calling me Master so nicely, and now it's this attitude, huh? Looks like I need to give my disciple a good lesson."
"If you two are going to fool around, then get out of here to do it." Mobius folded her arms and looked at them. "This is my laboratory — it can't accommodate two Herrschers messing around in here."
Irene definitely knew her limits, but Little Senti not necessarily — even a bit of messing around could cause huge losses for her.
Fu Hua also reached out and grabbed hold of Little Senti and Irene. "All right, let's head outside. We've troubled Aponia and Dr. Mobius enough."
"Time is getting more and more pressing now. Increasing our combat strength is exactly what we ought to be doing, so there's no need for thanks," Mobius said with a wave of her hand.
"Hua, the situation you've ended up in is, after all, my responsibility. Of course I have to deal with it," Aponia said as she looked at Fu Hua with an apologetic expression.
The trouble her Authority caused really was too much.
After Fu Hua nodded, she pulled Little Senti and Irene with her toward the door — really looking like a mother hen, with Irene and Little Senti, those two chicks itching to scrap, between her wings.
Once outside, the three of them came out onto a rooftop terrace. Irene stood beside Fu Hua, watching the steam constantly rising off of her body.
That was the moisture evaporating off Hua's body from her elevated temperature. After all, this was still underwater, and the humidity was very high. Even though each person's room had dehumidifiers installed to ensure that daily life wasn't affected,
the corridors and such only had the bare minimum guaranteed — after all, Anti-Entropy's budget was limited.
"Looks like the bedding and such will all have to be switched out to heat-resistant materials for Master."
Fu Hua looked down at the steam rising off her body and also nodded. "True. If I lay down on the bed as I am now, I'm afraid it would catch fire."
"Stuff like that doesn't really matter, does it?" Little Senti said, leaning against the railing and looking at Fu Hua. "What I want to know is, now that you don't have Divine Sound anymore, do you still have your Sword Heart?"
"Can you still use Taixuan Sword God?"
Fu Hua shook her head. Without the Sword Heart, naturally she couldn't use Taixuan Sword Qi. Even her previous self had been the same — she'd had to rely on Fenghuang Down to simulate a Sword Heart in order to wield Taixuan Sword Qi.
Now her Sword Heart wasn't merely shattered — it was simply gone, so all the more she couldn't use it.
"But it doesn't matter." Fu Hua raised her head and looked at Haiyuan City, still glowing with light up ahead. "If the Sword Heart is gone, I'll just forge it anew. If anything, I was the one taking a shortcut before."
Possessing Divine Sound had caused Fu Hua's state of mind to become, you might say, frozen solid like ice, with no more ripples. Then later, when she was completely dominated by Divine Sound — in that very moment, Fu Hua's Sword Heart had emerged.
And now.
"Irene, I remember you saying once that without bone-deep remorse, you can't achieve transformative growth — but no one ever wants to endure those regrets, right?"
Irene nodded. "That was learned from Master too — that life lived through is nothing but defeat followed by success. But in the process of that defeat, how much will be lost? Who can accept that?"
"Divine Sound really did make me sink into obsession — a demon must be cut down." Fu Hua propped herself on the railing and gazed into the distance. "But — perhaps from the very beginning, I never needed any voice to steady me."
"What I sought was nothing more than what's right in front of me." Fu Hua murmured softly as she looked at the calm scene before her. "Clear rivers and tranquil seas — what I've sought from the very beginning has only ever been this simple."
"Actually, what everyone else seeks is just as simple." Irene propped himself against the railing. "Originally, everyone was just an ordinary person, nothing special — none of them deserved to be called heroes."
"But... there are always those who want to break that peaceful life, and there are always those who choose to stand up — to stand by the riverside and shelter the lights of countless homes behind them."
"Mm." Fu Hua nodded. From the very beginning, they had understood — standing on the battlefield against the Honkai, there could be no regret, and there was no regret.
What the enemy sought to destroy was the whole of their lives — everything they treasured, the peaceful lives they had once known. So there was no room to retreat, and therefore no possibility of regret.
"What the common people seek is nothing more than peace in front of them — nothing more than small bits of warmth in the ordinary days," Fu Hua said as she gazed at the tranquil seascape before her. Through the curtain wall she could see plenty of schools of fish drifting calmly back and forth outside.
Little Senti suddenly looked up at Fu Hua. In her eyes, she could sense Fu Hua's aura gradually condensing, as though something were slowly awakening.
In Fu Hua's eyes, the scenes of days past gradually surfaced. What had driven her to stand guard over the earth — from the very beginning, perhaps it had never been only Divine Sound.
When she first accepted Himiko's invitation and chose to become a warrior fighting against the Honkai, what she had wanted to protect was only her father, her friends — to preserve everything she had once experienced.
It was only later that what she wanted to protect grew more and more. But traced back to the root, what she wanted to protect was nothing more than the peaceful lives of everyone.
"All things of the past — entrusted to this sword." Fu Hua, gazing at the distant view, suddenly spoke. This was the original creed upheld by the Taixuan Sword Sect: in order to fight against the Honkai, everything of the past was bound up in the sword.
"But the life you lived in the past is an important cornerstone of who you are." Irene suddenly spoke up at that moment. He, too, had sensed the aura gradually condensing on Fu Hua.
"Mm — so, every single thing of the past is indispensable." Fu Hua nodded. "From the very beginning, I never needed Divine Sound. My promises and my convictions have never changed since the start."
As soon as those words left her, the feathers on Fu Hua's body, which had still been giving off little flickers of flame from time to time, suddenly went quiet. Only the tie fluttering at her chest still emanated a vivid crimson glow.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Little Senti looked at Fu Hua and clicked her tongue. "No way — old fossil, you just..."
"I just understood, that's all." Fu Hua reached out and patted Little Senti's head. Having severed the false Sword Heart that had been formed by Divine Sound, Fu Hua had long since understood what it was she had always wanted to protect.
Her heart had long since risen up through countless setbacks. Without breaking, there is no building? Fu Hua had been through it countless times. From the very beginning, Fu Hua had never needed any so-called Divine Sound.
Extinguish all illusion, and only then comprehend the true mark; let the heart become crystal, the more it is tempered, the brighter it shines.
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