After returning to miHoYo Studio from the base out in the suburbs.
Su Yu briefly got up to speed on the game's testing status, then called over Kiana, who was squeezed together with Bronie playing games.
He gave Kiana a rough rundown of what had just happened on the training grounds. When she heard about Rita's nasty squad drill, Kiana couldn't help but let the corner of her mouth twitch.
"Didn't I say so before? That woman called Rita Rossweisse is definitely a bad woman."
Su Yu deeply agreed with this.
"We need to step up our game too, Lord CTO. Let's continue our unfinished [Main Story]."
Kiana thought about it. The main story really hadn't been run in a long time; her memory was still stuck on that "Gratitude Arc" she'd told Su Yu about twenty days ago.
That is, the time when Auntie suddenly sprouted rabbit ears and then went bouncing around all over St. Freya Academy.
She nodded. "Then let's begin."
Before long.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the blinds, cutting alternating stripes of light and shadow across the wooden floor of the CTO studio.
The air conditioner's cool breeze blew gently, keeping the midsummer heat entirely outside.
Su Yu sat at the computer, tapped a few keys, and stopped.
On the low sofa beside him, Kiana hugged a giant HOMU pillow, her eyes closed, her brow slightly furrowed.
The iced black tea on the desk had condensed a layer of water droplets on its outer wall, sliding down the plastic bottle and pooling into a small puddle on the desktop.
They were extracting the memory data of Honkai Impact 3rd's Chapter Three—"Poem of the Wind."
"We arrived at the Oceania Branch in New Zealand..." Kiana's voice rose in the quiet room, her pace a bit slow. "But we'd just landed when Teacher Himeko said we were a step too late."
Su Yu didn't interject; his fingers hovered above the keyboard.
"A day earlier, a Honkai eruption had happened there. Zombies and Honkai Beasts were everywhere. The entire branch was almost paralyzed." Kiana opened her eyes, her gaze falling unfocused on the row of figures in front of her. "That thing called the Gem of Desire was gone too."
"The Gem of Desire." Su Yu repeated the term.
"Teacher Himeko said it was one of three high-intensity Honkai energy crystals Schicksal obtained fourteen years ago." Kiana shifted her posture, resting her chin on the pillow. "Three years ago, Schicksal wanted to use it to develop a weapon that could fight Herrschers. They failed. So the stone had been kept at the Oceania Branch ever since."
Su Yu typed this background into the document. The clatter of the keyboard echoed through the room.
"During the search for the gem, Auntie... Theresa sent a communication." Kiana continued, a bit of hesitation now in her voice. "She said that 'Moonlight Throne' battleship was a little off."
"No traces of it ever being activated. Of its twenty-four anti-gravity engines, only one was turning. The weapon systems were all frozen." Kiana paused, seeming to recall those dry figures. "Theresa said the ship's Honkai reactor had a maximum output of twelve thousand HW, while the Hyperion only has thirteen hundred eighty HW."
Su Yu's typing hand stopped.
Even without looking at the units, the sheer gap in the numbers was intuitive enough.
"When Mei erupted with the power of the Third Herrscher, that single strike that punched through the Hyperion was thirty-two hundred HW." Kiana's voice dropped lower. "Theresa said that to fully activate the Moonlight Throne, you'd need the energy of four Herrschers."
Four.
The air in the room seemed to freeze for an instant. Kiana's right hand unconsciously clenched the ear of the HOMU pillow. That voice had once said in her mind—"four more keys are needed."
Su Yu took a tissue from the desk, wiped up the puddle, and tossed the crumpled ball into the trash can.
He sat there, listening to Kiana piece these fragments together bit by bit, as if watching someone walk their own path all over again.
"On the way to the branch, Teacher Himeko and Theresa talked about the origin of the Gem of Desire." Kiana raised her head, leaning against the back of the sofa. "Fourteen years ago, in the Second Eruption, it was one of the core fragments stripped from the Second Herrscher, Sirin. In that battle, five A-rank Valkyries were killed in action..."
She took a deep breath.
"Even the S-rank Valkyrie, Cecilia... was no match for Sirin."
Su Yu swiveled his chair to face Kiana.
"Theresa originally wanted to Live and Die Together with Cecilia. But Otto stopped her, ordering her to forcibly launch the Honkai Fission Missile."
She paused.
"The missile was useless. But Cecilia seized that momentary opening, sacrificed herself, and shattered the Second Herrscher's core. It broke into four gems."
Kiana looked at her own reflection on the desktop, her voice dry.
"Teacher Himeko said the Gem of Desire is a part of the Second Herrscher's core. Later, when Theresa's unit went to recover the core fragments, they encountered Anti-Entropy for the first time."
"Schicksal had no combat strength left at that point. In the end, Otto concealed the truth and only handed over the Second Herrscher's corpse and one amplification gem. That was the one that later ended up on Mei."
Fenghuang's voice came through Kiana's Spiritual Link, and at the same time reached Su Yu's consciousness.
"The truth of the matter is far more complex than what you've heard."
"At least when she was telling these things, Theresa herself didn't know the truth. Her memory was altered by Otto using Yu Ducheng. Everything you just said is Schicksal's official public account."
Kiana's hands suddenly clenched tight.
"Squad Monitor... you mean, Mama Cecilia had another cause of death?"
Fenghuang was silent for a few seconds.
"In fact, even without that Honkai Fission Missile, she wouldn't have lived much longer."
Silence.
Only the low-frequency hum of the air conditioner's main unit could be heard in the studio.
"Otto secretly launched a project called 'Sacred Blood' a long time ago." Fenghuang's voice was especially clear in this deathly stillness. "Cecilia was the vessel that held the Sacred Blood. Her blood could drastically weaken the Honkai energy in the air—to a Herrscher, it was a lethal poison."
Kiana's eyes grew wider and wider.
The HOMU pillow slid from her arms and dropped onto the wooden floor.
She didn't pick it up.
"Cecilia was a pawn in Otto's plan from the very beginning. The purpose of Project Sacred Blood was to create a humanoid weapon capable of countering Herrschers. Her blood, her body, her everything—all of it was cultivated for that purpose."
Kiana fell silent.
That "Mama" she had seen countless times in her childhood dreams—forever gentle, forever strong, admired by all Valkyries.
That savior-hero who was enshrined on an altar in Schicksal's official archives, who had valiantly sacrificed herself for humanity.
Was actually... also a disposable, throwaway consumable in that blond man's insane plan?
Su Yu stood up, went to the water dispenser and drew a cup of lukewarm water, and gently set it on the tea table in front of Kiana.
The motion was very gentle, almost tender.
"Squad Monitor..." Kiana stared fixedly at that cup of water, her voice dry, almost squeezing out one word at a time through gritted teeth. "Can you tell me... what kind of person Mama Cecilia really was? Did she... live in a lot of pain?"
"I didn't have much contact with her; most of it also comes from that pile of Schicksal archives." Fenghuang answered. "But I can tell you one thing."
Kiana abruptly lifted her head, her eyes slightly red.
"If she hadn't sacrificed herself in the Second Eruption to release all of the Sacred Blood," Fenghuang's tone gained something extra, "the whole of Siberia, and even places further away, would have become a purgatory with no living soul left."
"Otto did treat her as a tool. But she, with her own will, saved countless people. She was a true Valkyrie who fought to the very last drop of her blood."
The room fell quiet again.
Kiana slowly loosened her tightly clenched fists.
Four deep crescent-shaped red marks were left in her palms.
She picked up the glass on the table and took a sip of water.
The warm water slid down her throat, dispersing some of that dryness.
Sad? Of course sad—she practically wanted to scatter that bastard Otto's ashes.
Angry? Of course angry—she wished she could charge into Schicksal Headquarters right now and give Otto a set of the Kaslana ancestral Gun Kata.
But when she heard those last few words from Fenghuang, something very heavy, yet very solid, filled the hollow in her chest.
Her mother had not been defined by those conspiracies and schemes.
So what if she was a tool? So what if she was a pawn?
Her mother, in the final moment of her life, was still a hero who stood tall between heaven and earth.
"I understand."
Kiana set down the water cup and picked the HOMU pillow back up, hugging it to her chest.
She took a deep breath and straightened her spine.
Since the story of that world had been deliberately erased and tampered with by that old villain Otto.
Since those who had risked their lives to protect the world had even been stripped of the right to have the world know the truth.
Then she would do it! In this alternate world without any Honkai energy, she would tell these stories to everyone, exactly as they were, without a single punctuation mark off! And let players all over the world greet Otto's whole family together!
"As for the detailed grudges of the Second Eruption, we'll fill them in later when we make the prequel. There's too much information right now—easy to crash the system." Fenghuang said. "For now, let's finish playing through the main story's Chapter Three, otherwise Su Yu will have to pull another all-nighter tonight and lose more hair."
Kiana nodded.
She pulled over the jacket Su Yu had draped on the sofa beside her, wrapped herself up a little tighter like a silkworm, adjusted her sitting posture, and began again.
"We followed the signal and found the location of the Gem of Desire."
Her pace returned to normal.
"And then we discovered that the true body of the Gem of Desire was a girl sitting in a wheelchair."
"Her name was Wendy."
Kiana pinched the cuff of the jacket with her fingers.
"She looked barely older than that little shorty Bronya. Sitting in a wheelchair, her legs completely without sensation, like an exquisite but fragile porcelain doll."
Su Yu typed, not interjecting.
"Schicksal used to raise her as a candidate for S-rank Valkyrie. But later, to test the power of the Gem of Desire, the higher-ups forcibly implanted the gem into her calf. The experiment failed, and her legs were completely paralyzed. After that, she was treated as a discarded pawn and thrown to New Zealand."
Kiana's voice had no rise or fall, as if she were reciting a report.
Kiana's fingers holding the jacket suddenly clenched tight.
"We wanted to save her—me, Mei, Bronya, all three of us wanted to save her."
She paused.
"But Wendy had already been devoured by the Gem of Desire. Her long-term disability, being abandoned by the organization, her envy toward people with healthy legs—these negative emotions were infinitely amplified by the gem—she awakened as the Fourth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Wind."
Kiana's gaze fell on the desktop, on that small puddle beside the thermos.
"Can you imagine that scene? A girl who couldn't even stand up suddenly flipped over her wheelchair, rode a tornado up into the sky, ground the three of us into the dirt, and then fled."
Su Yu's fingers stopped for a second, then continued typing.
"After discussing with Mei and Bronya, we felt we couldn't just leave Wendy alone. But Schicksal had already dispatched an S-rank Valkyrie, who would arrive at New Zealand very soon."
At this point, Kiana's expression turned somewhat odd.
"That Valkyrie's name was Durandal, captain of the 'Immortal Blades.' But Auntie—I mean, Theresa—told me not to worry about the S-rank Valkyrie for now."
"And then, she did something, uh, absolutely jaw-dropping."
At this, Kiana's expression became a bit awkward.
"She publicly broadcast Durandal's location over the public airwaves. She said those Anti-Entropy guys would definitely never pass up the chance to ambush an S-rank Valkyrie."
Su Yu was silent for a good while. This too counted as a classic maneuver of early "Silly Theresa." That white-haired shorty had no idea she was screwing over her own niece.
Truly a great auntie in every sense.
"Even though it was a bit unfair to Durandal, we really had no other choice at the time." Kiana scratched her head sheepishly. "If I get the chance later, I'll apologize to her face-to-face."
Su Yu imagined that scene, the corner of his mouth curving silently.
"What kind of person is Durandal?"
"Hm? Wouldn't it be easier to get an answer by asking that Rita?"
"I want to hear your take." Su Yu said.
Kiana thought about it. "Even if you ask me that, I've never actually met Durandal in person. But Auntie said at the time that she was a real pervert."
Although he knew the "pervert" from Kiana's mouth meant something else, the moment Su Yu thought about the intersection of these two people, he found it too amusing.
Truly a good little sister.
"She said that if Durandal saw the way I am now, I'd absolutely be trained to death."
"Auntie's exact words were, if there's truly such a pervert in the world, it's her."
"If among Schicksal's three current Valkyries, two rely on astonishing talent, then she relies on astonishing effort."
But Kiana pursed her lips. "I think Theresa's phrasing is weird. If Durandal really were an ordinary person, doing it a hundred times would be useless."
"Theresa added another line afterward: at least Durandal herself believes she's the hardworking type, so she thinks effort can accomplish anything."
Su Yu nodded. If Rita was the symbol of hard work, then Durandal must be the symbol of both talent and hard work.
Calling her Schicksal's grind-king really wasn't wrong in the slightest.
It's not scary if you have talent—what's scary is if you have talent AND work hard. That's exactly why Durandal could open up a whole class of her own.
"Anyway, honestly, I'm genuinely a little scared of that person. Auntie said that if Durandal found out my theory grades were like this, she'd absolutely force me to study for twenty-six hours a day."
"That sounds like an absolute nightmare. Right then I felt like not meeting the S-rank Valkyrie was no big deal after all."
"After all, the moment I see a textbook, I regret being born into this world!"
Watching Kiana clutch her hair with a look of utter collapse, Su Yu just sighed and cast a sympathetic gaze toward her.
"Wh-why are you looking at me with that kind of look?"
"Nothing. It's just that I'm honestly quite looking forward to seeing you do twenty-six hours of worksheets a day."
"Hey!! Are you trying to murder this young lady?!"
Kiana unceremoniously grabbed a cushion and hurled it at Su Yu.
"So what happened next? What else did Theresa tell you?"
Su Yu caught the cushion and cheerfully continued to ask.
"She said that back when Durandal was still an A-rank Valkyrie, she'd served as her subordinate for a while."
The moment Theresa's dark history came up, Kiana instantly got fired up.
"In her eyes, a superior should be stern and unsmiling, full of dignity, and should work day and night handling unfinished business. As a result, the moment Theresa slacked off even a little, she'd get lectured for ages."
"You tell me, what kind of upside-down, topsy-turvy world is that?! Right then I felt so grateful that my superior was a lazy, mooching-along-to-die type like Himeko—"
"And then Teacher Himeko's speechless voice came over the comms channel and gave me a good scolding right there."
At this point, the corner of Kiana's mouth curved up slightly.
"You have no idea how amazing Durandal is. She very quickly drove back those Anti-Entropy units, and even sent a demand to Theresa, asking why her own coordinates had been leaked to Anti-Entropy."
"At the time, Theresa was the only one who knew Durandal's location."
"Everyone started brainstorming, trying to think of an excuse that could fool Durandal. Both Mei's and Bronya's ideas were rejected. Guess whose method ended up being adopted in the end?"
At this point, she proudly tilted up her chin, her whole body radiating a "come praise me" aura.
"Could it be?!" Su Yu obligingly made a shocked expression.
"That's right, it was this young lady's brilliance that successfully defused this crisis!" Kiana said smugly. "Durandal's unit's route happened to be the Gold Coast tourist route that's been so famous lately!"
"As long as we lied and said the Anti-Entropy units were just there for a vacation and unluckily ran into Durandal's group, then it would all make sense!"
"Auntie Himeko said at the time that even a Paramecium wouldn't believe my excuse, but after Theresa reported it up—Durandal just believed it right away."
"At that moment I thought Durandal was a reasonable person; maybe I could become good friends with her~"
Watching Kiana's expression, her tail practically curling up to the sky, the corner of Su Yu's mouth was already harder to press down than an AK.
The Kaslanas all share one brain—that saying clearly wasn't just for fun.
"Ahem, anyway, after resolving the problem on Durandal's side, we finally caught up to Wendy."
Kiana coughed and returned to the main topic.
"Bronya tried to win her over. Because Bronya herself also had paralyzed legs and could only move with Project Bunny. She used her own experience to talk to Wendy, telling her that even with a broken body, there were still comrades, still hope."
Kiana's voice softened.
"Wendy wavered. It proved that talk-jutsu still has its uses at the critical moment. Her reason began to return, and we all thought at the time that this farce would soon end peacefully, and everyone could go have a nice meal together."
"But that vixen Cocolia forcibly activated Bronya's biochip, making her point her cannon back at Wendy."
"And so the hard-won trust completely collapsed."
At this point, Kiana's face darkened.
"If it weren't for that Cocolia, maybe none of the things that followed would have happened."
"Facing the out-of-control Wendy, Mei and I fell into a hard fight, deadlocked with Wendy for quite a while."
"But Cocolia suddenly attacked the battlefield with her Titan mech units. Her goal was very clear: to seize the Gem of Desire inside Wendy, and to take Mei away."
Her fingers clawed at the fabric of the jacket, then loosened.
"We'd just finished fighting the Herrscher of Wind; our stamina was already bottomed out. We couldn't hold back Anti-Entropy's mech army at all."
Su Yu's fingers hovered above the keyboard, not falling.
"Even worse, Cocolia commanded Bronya to capture Mei."
Kiana's voice broke off here.
"I desperately wanted to stop it, but my body had no strength left at all. If Schicksal's units hadn't been approaching at high speed, I'm afraid I too would have—"
She drew a breath.
"I just sat there on the ground."
Kiana's voice was very soft.
"Unable to do anything."
"Teacher Himeko, who rushed over, only rescued me. Both Mei and Wendy were taken away by Anti-Entropy's units. In remorse, all I could do was first return to St. Freya Academy, and with the help of Theresa and Himeko, formulate a plan to save Mei."
In the CTO studio, only the air conditioner was still dutifully running, emitting a monotonous hum.
After a good while, Kiana's voice, heavily nasal, came out again from under the jacket.
"Su Yu."
"Hm? The tissues are on the desk. Want me to get you a fresh screen protector to stick on the keyboard to guard against tears?"
"Screw off." Kiana cursed in a muffled voice, then said with utmost seriousness, "My mama's story—when you make the prequel later, you absolutely have to make it a top-tier CG. You have to make her look so cool she kills every player dead."
Su Yu set down his water cup. "Absolutely. Even if we blow the whole budget, we'll make it happen."
"And that poor unlucky Wendy's story too. We can't let her just die like that, all vague and unexplained."
"Mm, I've already noted down the outline. Guaranteed to slice the players until they weep buckets."
"And Bronya's sacrifice. And Mei's. And everyone at St. Freya's."
Su Yu stopped his work, turned his head, and quietly looked at her.
Kiana's eyes were bright red, like a wronged little rabbit, but she stubbornly refused to shed a single tear.
She buried her face into that jacket carrying Su Yu's scent, and in a muffled voice, she voiced a grand wish: "This young lady will make everyone in this world remember their names!"
Su Yu didn't answer.
He felt that any words of comfort at this moment would seem pale and powerless. He turned back around, fingers flying across the keyboard, and at the very top of a newly created document, solemnly typed two lines of bold black text:
[Honkai Impact 3rd · Main Story Chapter Three · Poem of the Wind]
[Dedicated to all who have fought in the darkness and been toyed with by fate]
Then he turned the monitor at an angle, the screen's glow shining onto Kiana's face. "Take a look. Is this opening grand enough?"
Kiana poked her head out from the collar of the jacket and spotted those two lines at a glance.
Her nose instantly stung again.
"Barely passable, I guess. Okay, sentimental time is over! Don't think you can slack off while you're at it."
She patted her cheeks and returned to that energetic Paramecium state.
"Keep grinding! The next chapter is the part where we storm Anti-Entropy's lair to save Mei. I want you to write this part to be blood-boiling!"
Su Yu's hands landed back on the keyboard, giving off crisp clacking sounds: "Roger that, Miss Kaslana. Ready to be tortured anytime."
Outside the window, the brilliant midsummer sun slanted in through the gaps in the blinds, casting jumping ripples of light onto the soft white hair over Kiana's forehead.
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