Elysia, controlling Himeko, cleared away part of the Honkai Beasts on the deck.
Then, accompanied by a deafening roar, the revived demon dragon Benares descended from the sky!
Yet facing this Judgment-class Honkai Beast, there was not the slightest trace of retreat in Murata Himeko's eyes.
She lifted her head, that iconic wine-red hair whipping in the raging wind.
None of her usual drunken haze, none of that dejection after a failed blind date.
She gripped that ship-slaying sword that looked like it could cleave a mountain in two, the blade angled up at the giant dragon in the sky, her gaze cold as freshly-quenched iron.
Fusion Armor: Crimson, launch.
The stream froze for half a second, then the danmaku surged out like floodgates thrown open.
[Holy crap! Teacher Himeko is insanely cool!]
[This is what the Hyperion's strongest fighting force looks like! This is what safety feels like!]
[The reliable adult has arrived! We're good, this wave's in the bag!]
[What's Schicksal Headquarters even worth! Big Sis Himeko is number one under heaven! Cut them all down!]
[Greatsword? Dragon Ride? Just tell us when the cat drops!]
Elysia sat in the gaming chair, her tear-streaked eyes lit up in an instant by the scene on the screen.
She clasped both hands together in front of her chest, her body leaning forward on its own.
"Wooow-"
She let out a piercing sound of admiration, the nasal thickness in her voice completely swept away by excitement.
"The way Teacher Himeko looks in this armor - it's really got so much flavor!"
She pointed at the screen, her tone brimming with the delight of discovering something beautiful.
"Look at the way she swings that blade, that figure so full of power, paired with this armor - just perfect! And that spot below her neck... that little mole, ahh, it pushes the charm of a mature woman to the absolute limit."
Elysia turned her head and threw a playful wink at the camera.
Vague as her words were, her gaze had already lingered on the mole at Himeko's chest for quite a while.
Ellie's true intentions were plain for all to see.
"Everyone, don't worry, okay!"
She raised the controller a little higher and waved it hard, as if cheering all her viewers on.
"With someone as strong and reliable as Teacher Himeko leading the team, once we beat this giant Honkai Beast, we'll definitely rescue Kiana back safe and sound!"
"This kind of righteous, hero's-journey plot - I've seen plenty of it! Big Boss Su is definitely thinking the same way!"
The danmaku echoed her in agreement, the viewers reaching an unprecedented consensus in this moment, convinced this was absolutely the counterattack before dawn.
But.
Kiana, sitting beside Elysia, hadn't caught the rhythm of this carnival at all.
She stared hard at that red-haired woman on the screen, the one swinging her ship-slaying sword and cutting a swath through the swarming Zombies and Honkai Beasts.
No cheer, no sigh of relief.
Out of nowhere, a sharp, wringing pain shot through her heart.
It was a strange feeling.
As if a large chunk somewhere inside her chest had gone hollow, and the scene on the screen was taking a blunt knife and sawing back and forth at the edge of that emptiness.
Kiana's breathing began to quicken.
She'd forgotten that stretch of history.
After the Data space, her memory was a stretch of pure darkness.
But as she watched Himeko now, watched that ship-slaying sword, a voice in her subconscious was screaming madly: something important, something irreplaceable, was being wrenched out of her life.
"Ngh..."
Kiana clenched her teeth, refusing to let a cry of pain escape, only a suppressed, muffled groan slipping from her throat.
Just as she was about to be drowned by this inexplicable suffocation.
Deep in her mind, in what was called the Sea of Consciousness.
A feather giving off a faint red glow drifted slowly down.
The feather fell into the darkness, rippling out circle after circle of sorrowful, gentle waves.
[Kiana.]
It was Fenghuang.
[Don't look away.]
Fenghuang's voice was like a hand, steadily catching Kiana's about-to-fall consciousness.
[Watch her. Watch Murata Himeko.]
In Kiana's mind, that crimson feather burned with a faint light.
"Back then, for the sake of the so-called greater good, I aided a tyrant and, with my own hands, pushed you toward an Abyss beyond return... It was I who snapped the hope of your survival."
Fenghuang's voice was full of heartbreaking guilt and self-reproach.
[But please, watch your teacher. She is using her own life to light the road ahead for you.]
Kiana's vision blurred.
She opened her mouth wide, gulping in the cold air by the mouthful.
She didn't dare blink, terrified of missing a single motion of that red-haired woman on the screen.
The battle in the game raged on.
Relying on the Crimson armor's overwhelming firepower, Himeko fought the just-revived Benares to a dead standstill by sheer force.
But if the fight dragged on like this, the transport ship wouldn't hold out long enough for a victor to be decided.
And just as everyone was sweating for Himeko, a dazzling light suddenly streaked across the sky.
It was actually Fu Hua, clad in the Shadow Knight: Moonwheel armor!
Before Elysia could even react, Fu Hua used herself as bait, luring Benares away and helping Himeko break free of the crisis.
"See, what did I tell you!"
This part of the plot brought the smile back to Elysia's face.
"How could Ah Hua possibly be a bad person! There has to be some misunderstanding here! She's helping Teacher Himeko!"
But even with Benares led away, the battle still wasn't over.
Those Honkai Beasts kept appearing in an endless stream, and though they were no match for Himeko, there were simply far, far too many of them.
Himeko alone, in the end, couldn't be in two places at once.
But what no one expected was this.
The conservative faction from Anti-Entropy - Einstein and Tesla - actually dispatched Anti-Entropy's mech corps to reinforce them!
Watching those rows upon rows of mechs shed their tactical camouflage and reveal their true forms, even Elysia found her eyes going wide.
After all, these mechs had shown up as enemies in earlier stages.
Fighting shoulder to shoulder with them was an unheard-of first.
As for why Einstein and Tesla would reinforce Himeko.
It was because they and Cocolia were not of one mind.
Both Einstein and Tesla had witnessed the disasters the Honkai brought, and to stop a Herrscher from reviving again, they chose to cooperate with Theresa and the others, jointly assaulting the Schicksal airport.
For this operation, the two mobilized nearly seventy percent of their mechs - their elite deployed in full.
Though the two worried about what Cocolia, guarding the Headquarters, might do.
For now, nothing was more urgent than stopping the Honkai from descending again.
[Man, I always used to think Anti-Entropy was a pure villain! After all, Mei becoming a Herrscher, and all that stuff with Wendy, had Anti-Entropy's hand behind it!]
[Can't put it that way. Is Schicksal really so righteous? I doubt it, honestly. Did you forget the experiments Schicksal ran at the Babylon Laboratory?]
[True. Babylon is probably just one corner of Schicksal's darkness. Who knows what other monstrous things Otto did in secret?]
[Heh, you don't know what Otto did? All I'll say is finish the main story and then go read the Chronicles plot - you'll know then!]
[6, Ellie's already going pretty fast, how are there still pros in here?]
It was already seven-thirty in the evening. Elysia had been streaming since ten that morning and had barely eaten a thing, utterly absorbed in the game, forgetting food and sleep entirely.
The plot of the first seven chapters alone added up to nearly six hours, never mind the monster-fighting and interacting with the audience in the stream.
So saying Ellie's pace was already very fast was no joke.
Because this open-beta launch version, the moment it went live, was the previous life's version 1.8, Crimson Soul - and the richness of eight versions' worth of content could hardly be overstated.
The Corps system, the Dorm system, and for Chronicles plot there were the Chiyou Chapter and the Xuanyuan Chapter, as well as Eternal Recollections.
Not to mention the open-world [Yae Village] and [Schicksal Headquarters] gameplay.
Add to that the first-period raid battle that simply had to be tasted - who knew whether the Fortune Gods squad could recreate their terror in this world...
It could be said the sheer volume of content in this launch was enough to bring many veteran Captains from the previous life's launch to tears.
After all, back then even the main story of The Queen's Descent was only served up nearly a year after launch, and the players who cleared Chapter Six's Babylon Laboratory all turned into restless, anxious wrecks, waiting wide-eyed for the main-story update.
By comparison, the players of this world were, in a sense, genuinely fortunate - at least they wouldn't get cruelly left on a cliffhanger.
The camera returned to the stream.
With Anti-Entropy's mech corps at her side, Himeko tore open a bloody path, and together they broke into the interior of the Third Airport, meaning to shut down the Honkai Reactor there and buy time for the Hyperion.
Tesla, meanwhile, stayed aboard the Hyperion to arrange the secret weapon; they planned to rendezvous again at the Third Airport later.
The whole of Chapter Seven's plot wasn't very long, mainly recounting how Himeko reached cooperation with Anti-Entropy and stormed the Schicksal airport with them.
But the ending CG that followed left everyone shaken.
The Judgment-class Honkai Beast Benares tore through the clouds, its massive body blotting out the sky, its roar deafening.
Above it, Fu Hua's expression didn't change; calmly, she released Moonwheel's limiter.
"Fourth-generation Valkyrie armor, Shadow Knight: Moonwheel - limiter released!"
Fu Hua lowered the armor's mask over her face.
The next second, terrifying golden Honkai energy erupted from within her body like a volcano!
That golden radiance was so blinding that Elysia narrowed her eyes on reflex.
"Wooow! Is the Squad Monitor finally getting serious? This armor's effects are way too gorgeous!"
Elysia rubbed her hands excitedly and immediately took control, entering the world BOSS subjugation battle.
In this stunning subjugation gameplay, players had to coordinate with Fu Hua to break the four hearts on Benares's body.
Right after, an epic-tier CG that made every player online tingle played out.
Above the clouds, Fu Hua leapt high; on her right arm, the Divine Key [Void Grasp] burst with dazzling red-gold light.
"Mere fireflies and candles, and you dare vie with the Void Flame for brilliance?"
"Ice mountains and sheer cliffs - nothing but a faint chill."
"This weak flicker of lightning - let it be snuffed out here and now!"
BOOM-!!!
The Void Grasp turned into a giant fist that tore the heavens, and with the force of crushing dead wood it slammed down hard on the crown of Benares's head!
The overweening Judgment-class dragon let out a mournful wail, plunging toward the ground like a kite with a cut string.
"This way, it can do no more evil."
Fu Hua slowly lowered her stance.
In this moment, the entire stream's danmaku completely exploded.
[Holy shit!!! So cool! It's really just too cool!!]
[This is what you call an A-rank Valkyrie?! Are all of Schicksal's A-ranks monsters like this, tearing dragons apart barehanded?!]
[You people up front, the Squad Monitor's strength can't be measured by rank at all! Go play the side story The Forgotten! The Squad Monitor is a guardian of Shenzhou who's lived a thousand years!]
[A max-level big shot hiding in the newbie village, huh! Love it, love it!]
Elysia watched the danmaku's frantic lore-dumping, her beautiful eyes full of adoring stars. She clapped her hands excitedly: "See, I told you! The Squad Monitor looks stiff and old-fashioned normally, but she's actually this amazing! With such a reliable adult around, this rescue op is absolutely in the bag!"
Just then, a forced comm from Schicksal Headquarters popped up on the game screen.
Rita's elegant yet dangerous voice came through, announcing that the Far East Branch had defected and demanding Fu Hua return to Headquarters at once to suppress it.
"Ahh, look!"
Elysia pointed at the screen and planted the ultimate flag before the camera with total conviction. "Schicksal Headquarters is calling the Squad Monitor back! Everyone, don't panic - someone as good as the Squad Monitor is definitely going to seize this chance to head back and be a mole!"
"When Theresa and Teacher Himeko fight their way up to Schicksal, the Squad Monitor will absolutely turn on them at the critical moment and give us a huge surprise! Kiana is totally safe!"
[Makes sense!]
[So it's Infernal Affairs!]
[Squad Monitor, my superman!]
The stream brimmed with a cheerful air, everyone immersed in the blind optimism of "the strongest ally is already in position."
But.
Kiana, sitting beside Elysia, couldn't laugh at all right now.
Her face was pale as a sheet of paper.
Watching Fu Hua on the screen blaze with golden light like a god, Kiana felt not even the faintest sliver of safety.
On the contrary, a chill that seemed ready to freeze her marrow was surging madly up her spine.
That golden light, in her subconscious, was no hope at all - it was a wall of despair towering high.
In the depths of her sealed, fragmentary memories, an instinctive rejection welled up.
She remembered the suffocation of being crushed one-sidedly by this power, without even a shred of room to resist.
["Kiana..."]
In her mind, that always-calm, old-fashioned voice now carried a deep self-loathing and an unresolvable bitterness.
["The Void Grasp shattered the dragon's heart, but it couldn't shatter the confusion in my own heart."]
Fenghuang's voice trembled, as if she were tearing apart her own former pride with her bare hands and holding it out before Kiana.
["I used this power that guarded Shenzhou for a thousand years to drive away the calamity before my eyes... yet I had no idea I was stepping, one pace at a time, into the death trap Otto had woven for you all."]
["Your trembling now is right, Kiana. Do not trust that strong, reliable Squad Monitor on the screen at this moment... because very soon, this power - the so-called strongest ally that all of you placed such high hopes in - will turn into the coldest blade thrust straight at Teacher Himeko."]
["But please, keep your eyes wide open and watch on. See how foolish I was back then, and see... how Teacher Himeko, with nothing but a mortal body, lit the road ahead for us all."]
In reality, Elysia was still cheerfully debating with the danmaku over what cool pose the Squad Monitor would strike when she switched sides.
And Kiana, sitting at her side, slowly drew in a breath of cold air.
She didn't speak up to interrupt Elysia's smiling face, only waited like a silent statue for that sharp knife named "reality" to cruelly cleave this false revelry open.
After Elysia finished the subjugation event's story, she wasted no time opening the newly unlocked Chapter Eight, The Queen's Descent.
Looking at Chapter Eight's cover art, at the white-haired girl on it, Elysia blanked for a moment at first.
That was unmistakably the likeness of Kiana Kaslana.
Yet the hairstyle, the aura about her, even those normally clear-and-foolish azure eyes - all of it had undergone an earth-shaking change.
Golden pupils radiated an endless pressure, the corners of her mouth curved into a dangerous arc, watching with amusement the girl held in her arms - Raiden Mei.
"Wooow-!!!"
From the stream's microphone came Elysia's gasp of wonder, along with a suspicious "slurp."
This Miss Pink Elf's eyes lit up in an instant into two pink stars; she leaned in toward the screen in her excitement, cupping her burning cheeks in both hands, and let out a straight-ball of praise.
"So-so pretty...! This is way too badass! Is this really that silly little Chongchong we know?"
By now the danmaku had completely boiled over, so dense it blotted out half the screen:
[What the? Is this really Kiana?!]
[Way too gorgeous! Silly little Chongchong swaps her eye color and hairstyle and turns straight into a cold queen?!]
[Woof woof woof! Your Majesty the Queen, step on me!!]
[Why is the Second Herrscher princess carrying Mei? Wait, this pose... I'm screenshotting like crazy!]
Watching the danmaku's chatter, the smile in Elysia's eyes deepened. She pointed at the cover on the screen and, in a certain tone, switched on her "good-girl connoisseur" berserk mode.
"Ahh, everyone, don't panic! Look closely at what she's doing!"
Elysia analyzed with a beaming smile, her tone brimming with the excitement of having found an exquisite ship.
"Sure, Kiana's changed her hairstyle and eye color and looks all fierce, but look at the way she's holding Mei - isn't it especially steady, especially gentle? It's just like she's declaring, this girl is mine, and no one else is allowed to touch her!"
At this, Elysia clapped her hands excitedly and declared to the camera with total conviction: "I'll bet on it! Even if Kiana became a Herrscher Queen, it's absolutely because she loves Mei too much!"
"She definitely wants to use this power to keep Mei protected at her side! What comes next is absolutely the classic hero's-journey plot of going against the whole world for you!"
[Makes sense!]
[After all, the Third Herrscher earlier didn't destroy the world because of Kiana, and this time it's Kiana's turn to protect Mei!]
[Both of them rushing toward each other - I'm dying from the sweetness!]
[Brother Su is a genius, I love this plot!]
Carried along by Elysia, the whole stream was immersed in a cheerful air of "passionate cuddling, sugar guaranteed."
Everyone waited, full of anticipation, to watch this hero's-journey grand drama of "deep sisterly affection."
But.
Kiana, sitting beside Elysia, couldn't make even the faintest sound right now.
The clamor around her seemed sealed off behind a thick pane of glass.
Kiana stared hard at that white-haired, gold-eyed "self" on the screen, her stomach churning wildly.
"Kiana? Kiana?"
Elysia called her several times in a row, and she heard none of them.
"Ah, wh-what is it?"
Kiana lifted her head, somewhat flustered, and met Elysia's slightly worried expression.
"You look terrible - is it because you're too tired?"
Elysia asked with concern, then her gaze went past Kiana's shoulder, out beyond the streaming room, and she pointed at the transparent glass door.
"Look outside - Producer Su seems to be waiting for you over there. Does he have something important to talk to you about?"
Kiana looked in the direction Elysia pointed, and sure enough she saw Su Yu standing in the corridor with both hands in his pockets.
He watched this way in silence, his eyes seeming to carry a trace of complicated emotion.
"I... I'll step out for a bit."
Kiana forced out a smile, briefly composed herself, stood, and pushed open the streaming room's door.
The corridor's lighting was a little dimmer than the streaming room's.
The moment Kiana stepped out, before she could even ask, Su Yu said nothing.
He reached out and took hold of Kiana's somewhat cold, faintly trembling hand.
"Huh?" Kiana blanked for a moment, staring dumbly at her captured wrist.
Su Yu didn't explain, just led her by the hand through the quiet corridor, all the way back to his own spacious, quiet office.
He shut the office door, sealing out the clamor outside and the laughter of the streaming room entirely.
Su Yu turned around, looking at the pale-faced white-haired girl before him who was forcing herself to stay strong, and his usually teasing gaze turned more gentle and earnest than ever before.
"I know..." Su Yu said softly, his voice low and warm, "watching those memories that already happened, living through that feeling of loss and helplessness all over again - it's truly painful for you."
He gripped Kiana's hand a little tighter, passing that human warmth into her palm.
"So don't force yourself to shoulder it alone, Kiana. The road ahead, I'll face it together with you."
Hearing Su Yu's rare, serious and gentle words, the tip of Kiana's nose stung faintly, but she still shook her head stubbornly.
"I'm fine."
She said it in a low voice, trying to pull her hand back, but she couldn't break free.
"This is something I have to face sooner or later. Those who were hurt because of me... the price everyone paid for me - I have to see it through to the end with my own eyes. I've already prepared myself for it."
But the moment her words fell.
A light "flick."
Su Yu suddenly raised his free hand and, without the slightest ceremony, flicked Kiana square on her smooth forehead.
"Ow ow ow! What are you doing, idiot!" Kiana glared at Su Yu with teary eyes, that heavy air of grave, world-carrying sorrow blasted clean away by that one flick.
Su Yu watched her come vividly alive again, the corner of his mouth curving back into a smile: "Who told me to be your keeper? Watching my own cat sit here sulking in secret, I can't just pretend I didn't see it."
"You're the cat!" Kiana shot back, puffing up her cheeks.
Su Yu chuckled, then put away the joking look, his gaze fixed blazingly on Kiana's eyes, his tone turning solemn: "Kiana, do you know? Teacher Himeko... there's a possibility she can come back."
"Huh?" The hand covering Kiana's forehead froze abruptly.
She even thought she was hearing things; her pupils dilated in an instant as she stared hard at Su Yu's face.
"During the time you were sleeping, I received a new long-term mission - [Save Himeko]."
Facing Kiana's shocked gaze, Su Yu laid out completely, before this future Herrscher of Flame, the ultimate plan he and Sirin had buried deep in their hearts.
"We're going to take the tears and the most extreme emotions of this world's players and turn them into an Anchor capable of overturning the rules. In the gap between the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta, we'll forcibly anchor Teacher Himeko's about-to-dissipate existence."
"And when the day comes that the time is ripe... it will be you, Kiana, who uses the Authority of the Herrscher of the Void to personally tear open that rift and pull Teacher Himeko back from the Abyss!"
"And your longing for Teacher Himeko, that fierce yearning for her to come back, will become the most central source of power in this world, guiding her home."
These words stirred up towering waves in Kiana's heart.
There was a possibility of saving Teacher Himeko?!
This game called Honkai Impact 3rd, the emotions and tears of these strangers online... could really become the miracle that crossed dimensions and brought Teacher Himeko back?!
It sounded like an outright fantasy, but watching Su Yu's eyes - eyes that absolutely weren't joking - Kiana's heart trembled violently.
Just then, Fenghuang's voice sounded in Kiana's Sea of Consciousness:
["Kiana, this is indeed true. It is no delusion; Su Yu is not merely comforting you."]
With this confirmation from Fenghuang, the Immortal, the last sliver of doubt in Kiana's mind was shattered completely!
The moment she learned this news, Kiana's spirit soared to its very peak.
The gloom that had shrouded her face was swept away in a flash, as if by the rising sun.
"If that's the case-" she looked straight at Su Yu, her eyes reddening, "if that's the case, then I'll watch to the very last moment! If my tears and everyone's feelings can really bring back Teacher Himeko, then today I'm going to become an all-out, thoroughgoing crybaby!!"
Watching this Kaslana come back to life before him, Su Yu smiled with relief.
He bent slightly and extended a hand toward Kiana: "So... for this world, and just as much to save Teacher Himeko, let's become swindlers who cheat the whole world of its tears - what do you say, Miss Kiana?"
"I'm in!" Without a moment's hesitation, Kiana slapped her hand into Su Yu's palm and gripped it tight.
Su Yu smiled and patted his own chest, guaranteeing it with total conviction: "Cry all you want, Kiana - my shoulder's right here! Lean on it the whole night, free of charge!"
Kiana, who had been so moved that tears were swirling in her eyes, heard this mood-ruining line and her cheeks flushed red in an instant.
She yanked her hand back, turned her face away, and muttered tsundere-ly: "Wh-who wants to borrow your shoulder, idiot..."
That said, she still very honestly sat down right next to Su Yu.
In the studio, Kiana had long since stopped needing to obey any activity range.
Even outside the studio, a range of ten meters was more than enough for Kiana to romp around wherever she pleased.
But right now, she simply wanted to sit leaning against Su Yu.
For no particular reason.
Because a ship, after all, is meant to dock against the harbor.
____
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