The Maybach's tires screeched against the waterlogged asphalt.
Before the car had fully stopped, the flashing red-and-blue lights in the distance were already bleeding through the curtain of rain.
Both ends of the overpass were sealed off tight with yellow-and-black cordon tape, and Arc City Police Department's riot vehicles were parked crosswise in the middle of the road.
Chief Lewis stood beside the command vehicle, barking into a walkie-talkie — the gist being that the media choppers could clear off, since this was just a tanker truck rollover with nothing worth filming.
Behind the cordon, several unmarked black box vans were lined up in a row.
A car door slid open.
Tesla, in her signature red-and-black research uniform and a pair of anti-slip tactical boots, hopped down, cursing under her breath.
In her hand she held a handheld Honkai energy detector shaped like a hairdryer, several researchers in protective suits trailing behind her.
Rita stepped on the brake.
Su Yu shoved the door open, and the cold rain soaked his white shirt through in an instant.
Tesla strode over, pressed the detector's probe against Su Yu's shoulder, and flipped the switch. The numbers on the screen flickered a few times, then gave a short, clipped beep.
She swung the probe toward Kevin, who'd just been helped out of the passenger seat, then toward Kiana and Rita behind him.
The detector swept over each of them, one by one. All green.
Tesla stuffed the detector into the pocket at her waist.
"Looks like it's exactly as we figured — this world really does have a natural suppressive effect on Honkai energy."
She looked up at the group, her gaze lingering two seconds on Kevin's blood-caked face before she waved the medical team forward at once.
"You just came out of a Spatial Rift where Honkai energy was off the charts, but the moment it hits the outside air, it's broken down completely. Can't even detect a residue — clean as distilled water fresh off the line."
Kiana lowered her head and looked at her own hands.
Just now, inside the Spatial Rift, she'd been able to feel it clearly — the scorching rush of Honkai energy coursing through her veins, that power both familiar and dangerous.
But now, there was nothing.
As if someone had pulled the plug, and every last current had vanished in a single instant.
Rita flexed her fingers slightly as well, confirming the same fact.
The Honkai energy that had clung to her like a shadow back in the Honkai world was now utterly gone.
"Still, this might be good news."
Tesla watched the medical team lift Kevin onto the stretcher.
"According to what that guy Welt says, it means our world isn't within the embrace of that so-called Cocoon of Finality. Honkai energy can't sustain itself naturally here — it can only be forced in through brute methods like a Spatial Rift."
"Back to the lab first," Su Yu said, glancing at Tesla. "Is the recovery pod ready?"
"Finished preheating twenty minutes ago."
Before long.
Anti-Entropy Entertainment's underground laboratory.
The shadowless lamps overhead glared harshly.
Mobius stood beside the recovery pod, her long green hair loosely tied back.
She watched the pale green repair fluid gradually rise past Kevin's shoulders.
The pod's lid slowly closed with a faint hiss of venting air.
Siegfried stood a few meters away.
He'd long since shed the labor coveralls; his left shoulder was wrapped in thick bandages, the bloodstain already soaking through to the outermost layer.
His eyes were locked on Kevin's closed-eyed face inside the pod.
Su Yu stood beside him.
"Relax. He's fine."
Siegfried said nothing, staring at his son's face inside the recovery pod.
Kevin's expression was serene, nothing like that perpetual iceberg face of his — asleep, he looked like an ordinary young man.
Su Yu watched the vital-sign readings pulsing across the screen.
"He's just too exhausted right now. Once the first-stage Genetic Lock opened, the overload backlash on his nerves and muscles came flooding in. Damage on this level is nothing for a constitution like his. A little rest and he'll be bouncing around again. And besides…"
Su Yu turned his head.
"He'll come out stronger."
Siegfried's gaze shifted off the recovery pod and settled on Su Yu.
This young man was covered in wounds too.
The fabric over his left shoulder had been torn away in a great swath by a Honkai Beast's claws, exposing a wound underneath that had already begun to scab.
The knuckles of his right hand were swollen high — the mark of trading blows head-on with the Honkai Emperor.
But he stood there, spine ramrod straight, as if all those injuries had been grafted onto someone else's body.
Siegfried drew a breath.
"Su Yu."
"Hm?"
"I owe you an apology."
Siegfried's voice was a little rough.
He reached up and rubbed the back of his head — the very gesture Kevin fell into when he clawed at his hair in frustration.
"For a long time I was sure you and Anti-Entropy were up to something shady. I even broke into your base to steal intel, and what I walked away with was a fireproof kitchen cookbook."
He gave a bitter smile.
"If I hadn't been so pigheaded, charging over here to stick my nose in, maybe Kevin wouldn't have ended up in that kind of danger just now."
He rubbed his face, his coarse fingers rasping against the stubble.
"I'm not a fit father. These twenty years, I've owed him far too much."
Smack!
A white object cut an arc through the air, flying straight at Siegfried's face.
An agent's instincts don't just disappear.
Siegfried's right hand snapped up mid-air and caught the thing dead steady — a heavily worn baseball.
Siegfried froze for a moment, then turned his head.
Kiana stood five paces from him.
Hands on her hips, chin tilted up slightly, cheeks puffed out.
"Old man, what are you moping around here for?"
Kiana's voice echoed through the laboratory.
"It's already happened. What good does hanging your head over here do? You should be thinking about how to look forward, how to make up for all the years you've owed the kid, how to protect him. Not standing here beating yourself up!"
These words — Kiana had been holding them in for a long time.
When she finished saying them, even she went still for a beat.
Because these were words she'd actually wanted to say for a very long time.
Not to this Siegfried in front of her, but to that man in another world.
That one who'd vanished all at once — the irresponsible fool of a father who was always shouldering everything onto himself.
But she had no way to say them to that person anymore.
Now, looking at this man before her who also went by the name Siegfried, looking at the exhaustion and self-reproach on his face, she couldn't hold it back.
The words landed on Siegfried's ears.
The effect was ten thousand times greater than that baseball.
Siegfried's fingers slowly tightened, the ball's stitched seams pressing into his palm.
His hand slid into his trouser pocket and, through the fabric, found that crumpled paternity test report.
99.99%.
He looked again at the girl in front of him.
That pure Kaslana white hair.
That opening stance of Gun Kata she'd unleashed in the Rift, even fiercer than his own.
Siegfried's mind roared.
When exactly had he and Cecilia had this other child?
She clearly knows who I am.
She clearly recognized me long ago!
Siegfried's gaze refocused on Kiana's face.
Looking at that puffed-up face, so full of that exasperated "why-won't-you-shape-up" reproach, Siegfried completed the ultimate loop of logic in his head.
This child had recognized him long ago.
But she'd been enduring it all along.
And those words she'd just said — on the surface a scolding aimed at some "old man" — were really telling her own father: Stop blaming yourself. I don't hold it against you.
Siegfried's eyes reddened.
He clenched his fist, gripping that baseball tight.
"Kiddo."
There was a heavy nasal catch in Siegfried's voice.
"You're right. Thank you."
Kiana was thoroughly baffled by this out-of-nowhere thanks and the look on his face like he was about to cry.
She scratched at the ahoge on the back of her head and took half a step back.
"All right, all right, quit being so mushy, old man… go get your wounds looked at already."
The lab's automatic door slid open to both sides.
Welt Yang walked in.
He wore a dark gray suit, droplets of water he hadn't had time to wipe still clinging to his glasses.
When he saw Kevin inside the recovery pod, his steps hitched, then he kept walking forward.
Siegfried turned his head.
Two old comrades who, by this world's arrangement, hadn't seen each other in most of a lifetime — their eyes met.
Siegfried's mouth opened; he wanted to say something.
Something like "long time no see," or "I knew you'd be here," or "you little punk actually went and built mechs."
But Welt spoke first.
"We'll catch up later."
He pushed up his glasses, the water droplets sliding down along the rims.
"Siegfried, I imagine you still have a great many questions right now. About the Honkai, about the apocalypse six months from now."
He turned aside and jerked his chin toward the corridor.
"Come on. Conference room first."
Siegfried glanced at Kevin in the recovery pod, then at Welt.
"…Fine."
He stuffed the baseball into his pocket, wedged in alongside that paternity test.
The corridor on Anti-Entropy's underground Research Institute B3 level was long — so long that the fluorescent tubes overhead formed a single white line stretching out with no end in sight.
Su Yu walked at the front, Kiana half a step behind.
Siegfried came last.
As he entered, he instinctively swept the room's layout with his eyes — an Occupational Disease carved into his bones.
A long rectangular conference table, twelve chairs, three exits, ventilation ducts set into the ceiling, walls of soundproofing material.
People were already seated on both sides of the table.
Welt sat near the door, a laptop spread open before him.
Tesla sat across from him, three empty energy drink cans at her elbow and one freshly opened.
Einstein sat beside Tesla, swiping at something on a tablet without lifting his head.
Rita sat at the middle of the table's right side.
Even in the underground Research Institute's conference room, her posture was flawless — spine straight, hands folded on the tabletop.
On the wall at the far end of the table, a holographic screen projected the half-length image of Bronie, floating there.
Gray Spiral twin-tails, orange tactical goggles pushed up onto her forehead, bubble gum in her mouth — she looked like she'd patched in the signal straight from her own gaming chair at home.
Then there was Eden.
She sat at the inner spot on the table's left side, one leg crossed over the other, holding a cup of black tea she'd gotten from who knew where.
Her long hair spilled over her shoulders, and even in this basement reeking of disinfectant, her presence was like a spotlight cranked to its brightest.
Su Yu glanced at the empty head seat and, without standing on ceremony with anyone, simply pulled out the chair and sat down.
The chair back gave a soft creak.
Kiana took the seat to his right, and the second her bottom touched the cushion she started squirming side to side, trying to find a comfortable position.
Siegfried stood by the table, his gaze sweeping the remaining empty chairs.
Welt tilted his chin toward a chair at the middle of the table's left side.
That was where Kevin usually sat.
A thin jacket Kevin had forgotten there still hung on the chair back, folded neatly.
Siegfried picked up the jacket, looked at it for two seconds, draped it over the other side of the chair back, then sat down.
"All right. Since everyone's here, let me first report on the cleanup."
Welt shut the laptop's lid and clasped his ten fingers together on the tabletop.
He spoke without hurry, pausing half a beat after each sentence, as if leaving everyone time to digest.
"The instant the Spatial Rift appeared, we got in contact with Chief Lewis. With her help, the overpass was fully sealed off within fifteen minutes."
"The final public story is that a tanker truck caught fire and rolled over, triggering a chain-reaction pileup. The fire department and traffic police records are already in order, and the media has been kept in check as well."
Tesla took a swig from her fourth energy drink and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
"I read the press release. Written convincingly enough. It's just that 'the tanker driver was fatigued' excuse has been used too many times. Next time we need a fresh one — say, a marsh gas explosion or a gas leak."
Su Yu put a hand to his forehead. "What exactly is our Arc City going to turn into?"
Welt looked at Su Yu.
"This incident, though, requires us to submit a detailed report to the Shenzhou authorities. Su Yu, did you try to record what happened inside the Spatial Rift?"
Su Yu leaned back in his chair.
He pulled out his phone and tossed it on the table; the screen was already dark.
"Tried. That space has some kind of suppressive effect on electronics. Phones, action cameras, even that micro-recorder Bronie gave me — all went black-screen the moment they went in. The comms link to the outside cut out too. Signal dropped straight to zero."
On the holographic screen, Bronie popped a bubble.
"Same on my end. Once the signal entered the Rift's range it was like it fell into a black hole. Couldn't fish anything back out."
"Pity. No way to study the spatial curvature up close."
The conference room door wasn't shut, and a voice drifted in from outside.
A little languid, the final syllables drawn out long.
A young woman walked in from outside.
Hair a tousled mess, wearing a white lab coat clearly a size too big, a tablet in hand.
She walked as if sleepwalking, yet not one of the scientists present made any move to fault her bearing.
"Dr. Schrödinger."
Su Yu named the newcomer.
Over the past half month, as word of the Honkai threat spread within Anti-Entropy, Tesla and Einstein's old friends had returned one after another from all over the world.
Planck had taken over the particle physics lab, while this top expert in the quantum field, Schrödinger, had only flown back from Europe three days ago.
Schrödinger pulled out a chair and slumped into it whole.
"Su Yu, keep it short."
She yawned.
"I need you to tell us in detail what happened inside that space just now. The Honkai Beasts' behavioral patterns, the stability of the spatial structure, the frequency characteristics of the energy fluctuations — every detail you can recall."
She leaned back against the chair.
"This will serve as a very important reference for combat against the Honkai."
Su Yu straightened up.
"As it happens, Mr. Siegfried lived through the entire battle in the Rift's outer region."
He raised a hand and pointed at Siegfried.
"The events before Kiana and I destroyed the Honkai core — I'll let Mr. Siegfried relay those."
Siegfried had been letting his mind wander, and being called on out of nowhere left him startled for a moment.
"Me?"
Every gaze in the conference room fell on him.
Siegfried drew a breath and adjusted his posture.
"All right, let me think — where should I start."
He didn't waste words.
Twenty years as an S-rank agent had made his reporting ability impeccable.
Time, location, monster count, attack patterns, even the shell weak points of the different Honkai Beasts — he laid out that bloody battle on the overpass in the tersest possible terms.
He also specifically appended several anomalies he'd noticed during the fight: the pattern of the monsters' appearances, the shifts in Honkai energy concentration.
No emotional embellishment, all substance.
"After that the Honkai Emperor showed up, and Su Yu and Kiana arrived on the scene. As for what happened next, my vantage point was limited — all I could see was Su Yu and that big thing trading blows head-on."
Finished, Siegfried leaned back in his chair.
"That's all the information I can offer. Some of it might not be professional enough — after all, this is my first time dealing with something like this."
Schrödinger swiped rapidly across her tablet a few times, jotting down the key points.
She looked up.
"So then, you and Kiana entered the central zone of the Honkai core."
Schrödinger looked at Su Yu.
"What happened in there?"
Rita, standing against the wall, fixed her gaze on Su Yu's face in an instant.
The fingers folded before her tightened slightly, nails pressing into the backs of her hands.
She'd been waiting for this part all along.
She desperately wanted to know the situation with the Immortal Blades squad and Raiden Mei.
Su Yu turned back, facing everyone at the conference table.
"In the central zone of the Honkai core, we ran into someone."
He paused.
"World Serpent's officer. Codename Raven."
The air in the conference room seemed to hit a pause button.
"Putting it that way might leave you a little confused." Su Yu leaned back against his chair. "Simply put, it's yet another uninvited guest from the Honkai world."
After Su Yu said those words — "uninvited guest" — the reactions around the conference room varied.
The energy drink can in Tesla's hand stopped mid-air.
Einstein's fingers finally came to rest on his tablet, but didn't swipe.
The bubble gum in Bronie's mouth swelled halfway, then went flat.
Siegfried's brows knotted together.
"Hold on." He raised his right hand. "World Serpent, Raven, Honkai world? Could you explain something to me first — right now listening to you all is like listening to an alien language."
"Simply put." Su Yu leaned against his chair. "There are three major powers in the Honkai world. Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, World Serpent."
"You can think of World Serpent as a bunch of madmen bent on carrying humanity through evolution to cross over the Honkai. Raven is one of their officers."
"She was accidentally swept in by a Spatial Rift while carrying out a mission in the Honkai world." Su Yu's gaze swept over Rita. "Much the same as Rita's situation back then."
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