The rain finally began to ease.
Ashen clouds still hung low over Arc City, but the violet-black vortex tearing space apart above the tower was now in its final stages of collapse.
As the last blue arc of electricity died out in the air, Su Yu came crashing down onto the ruined rooftop platform of Arc City Tower, Rita still in his arms.
He stumbled forward a few steps, and even before he'd fully steadied himself, some instinct kept him holding her exactly as he had.
His arm was locked tight around her waist; her hands were wrapped around his neck, her body pressed close against his chest.
"We're down," Su Yu said, drawing a deep breath.
The violet-black vortex sealed itself shut the instant the two of them cleared it, without a sound.
Rainwater gathered again along the edge of the rooftop, as if the sky had finally found its order once more.
Two people were already waiting on the roof.
One was Welt Yang, his trademark brown curls thoroughly soaked and plastered to his forehead.
Behind his glasses, his deep-set eyes watched the two of them land in that intimate pose with the calm of a man settling in to watch a show.
The other was Kiana, arms crossed, brows furrowed, her expression practically screaming that this man was going to get himself in trouble sooner or later.
Her eyes were fixed on Su Yu's hands — the ones still clamped firmly around the maid's waist.
"How much longer are you planning to keep holding that maid?"
Kiana's voice was ice-cold.
It felt exactly like watching a stray cat make off with an offering meant for the household shrine — the air instantly filled with the sharp tang of spilled vinegar.
Only then did Su Yu seem to snap back to reality, his body going rigid.
He glanced down.
Rita sat quietly nestled in his arms, her flawless face carrying a calm tinted faintly with color.
"Ah — sorry about that."
Su Yu awkwardly set her down.
But the instant he let go, Rita did something that made his heart stop for a full two beats.
She leaned forward, as though utterly unaware that two other people stood nearby, and something cool and soft brushed lightly against his cheek.
It wasn't even really a kiss — the barest touch, quick as a dragonfly skimming water, fast enough to seem like an illusion.
But it had happened.
The air on the rooftop froze solid.
Kiana's eyes bulged nearly out of her skull, and a shriek tore from her throat like a cat with its tail stepped on. "You — what exactly are you two doing?!"
Her mismatched eyes went wide, her whole body coiled like a spring ready to snap.
Welt had been studying the residual readings after the sky's crack sealed itself, but in that instant he sensed with uncanny precision that a chaotic love-triangle showdown was about to unfold.
Old Yang calmly pushed up his glasses, gaze fixed intently on the rain rippling along the edge of the rooftop, as though those ripples held quantum mechanical data worth a fortune.
Clearly, he'd decided Su Yu was on his own now.
The corner of Su Yu's mouth twitched.
Fine. Fine. So that's how it's going to be.
He glanced at Kiana, red-faced and on the verge of exploding, then at Rita standing beside her, sizing him up with that mischievous glint in her eyes, and felt his temples throb like they were about to burst.
Rita raised a hand and, with elegant poise, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
Her smile turned soft and sweet, as though the "wicked woman" who'd just bitten his nose a moment ago had never existed.
"You misunderstand, Su Yu. It was only a cheek kiss."
She paused, a hint of amusement rising in those wine-red eyes.
"Though, I will say — you are the first man to receive such treatment from Rita in the course of a mission."
Kiana had gone completely feral. Like a cat whose territory had been violated, she shoved herself bodily between Su Yu and Rita, glaring at Rita with the wariness of someone guarding against a thief.
"Y-you, he, he —"
She pointed a trembling finger between the two of them.
"Weren't you two supposed to be in there destroying the core?! What exactly were you doing in there, you shameless — ! Destroying the core is one thing, but why would you need to do... to do the kind of thing only couples do?!"
Rita regarded her with an amused expression, the sort one might give a little sister throwing a tantrum.
"Oh? Couples?" She gave a light laugh, her tone soft enough to send a shiver down the spine. "We merely shared a bit of spoils. After all, in that space, we left no small number of lasting marks on Su Yu."
"Marks?"
"Mm. The pain that belongs to battle..." Rita pointed at the still-fading red mark she'd bitten into the bridge of Su Yu's nose. "It's still branded on him, isn't it?"
Kiana followed her finger to Su Yu's nose.
It really was a red mark.
Given the conversation, that ambiguous little mark practically screamed a dozen scandalous conclusions.
"Su Yu!!"
Kiana's face flushed instantly, a red ten times deeper than the one that had colored her cheeks at the sight of the cheek kiss.
"You — you have that kind of fetish?! I — I never knew you were such a pervert!"
Su Yu rubbed his temples, feeling the situation had officially spiraled out of control.
He touched the still-throbbing mark on his nose, utterly exhausted. "It's not what you think. Things got complicated in there. It's... never mind, it's too much trouble to explain."
"Rita and I ran into Durandal in there, and there was a bit of a misunderstanding..."
"Durandal?"
Kiana froze at the name.
The fury in her eyes was instantly swept aside by a far more complicated confusion.
That name — once Schicksal's signature "S-rank Valkyrie," the figure whose back had been called humanity's strongest countless times, the idol Kiana had once chased as her own personal goal.
"You mean Schicksal's strongest S-rank Valkyrie?"
Kiana murmured the words.
But two seconds later, she snapped back.
"Wait, no!!"
Kiana jerked her head back up, her eyes turning fierce again.
"Su Yu, you're changing the subject again! You think I'm that easy to fool? I don't care about Durandal or your complicated misunderstanding! You explain that kiss to me right now, in detail!!"
The air was thick with joy — no, thick with the crushing scent of jealousy.
Just as Kiana was about to fully erupt —
A weak, rasping cough drifted over from the direction of the rooftop door.
The cough wasn't loud amid the pouring rain, but each one carried an oddly deliberate rhythm.
Bronie's voice followed close behind it.
Good news.
The crack has closed, and comms are back online.
Bad news.
Bronie's voice was coming from the doorway.
The heavy rooftop door swung open.
Several figures came into view.
Leading them was Durandal, holding an inflatable mallet.
Behind her trailed Bronie, doing her best to shrink into the background, along with a cluster of studio staff who hadn't managed to evacuate in time.
Durandal took in the scene on the rooftop.
She saw Su Yu, dressed in the Key of Blankness, his hair a mess, looking thoroughly worse for wear.
She saw Rita, in her Argent Knight: Artemis armor, Skadi Ondurgud still radiating a cold gleam, a smile tugging at her lips.
She saw Welt off to the side, staring down at his own fingers.
Finally, her gaze settled on Kiana's face, twisted with anger.
And on Kiana's body — the unmistakable White Comet armor, which froze everyone else in place on the spot.
Durandal, still holding her mallet aloft, went rigid where she stood.
"You all..."
She blinked those large, dreamy, water-bright eyes.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Behind her, Bronie poked half her head out from behind Durandal.
She glanced at Su Yu, thoroughly disheveled, then at Kiana, clearly still not recovered from what had just happened, and finally let her eyes settle on the communication terminal still streaming data across the rooftop.
Su Yu's eyes met Bronie's.
In that instant, every unanswered question found its answer.
Why had Arc City Tower suddenly regained power? Why had the tower's lockdown been lifted at that crucial moment?
Bronie's look toward Su Yu carried thirty percent helplessness, seventy percent cold resignation.
Her expression seemed to say:
Boss, I'm just as devastated as you. There was nothing I could do. That's just how it happened.
The power came back, the lockdown lifted, and Durandal came charging up here with an army in tow.
"Um, this is... a bit complicated," Su Yu said.
A voice suddenly sounded in Su Yu's ear.
It was Fenghuang.
"Since you were negotiating with Durandal earlier, and then destroying the Honkai energy core, I never got the chance to warn you."
Su Yu's stomach dropped.
"Simply put..." Fenghuang paused, "Bronie got caught by Durandal."
Su Yu's expression froze completely.
The wind on the rooftop seemed to pick up right on cue.
"So?" Durandal said.
She stepped forward in her delicate pink heels, one step at a time, closing the distance until she stood right in front of Su Yu.
Post-rain wind stirred her long pink curls; a few strands brushed his cheek, carrying a scent like sweet fruit.
"Su Yu..."
Her voice drew out, and those bewitching eyes of hers seemed capable of seeing through any lie.
"So that 'ultra-realistic 4D haptic feedback test' you kept mentioning — was that just Rita putting on a full suit of armor up here and doing some sort of dance routine with something invisible?"
She raised her inflatable mallet and gave his shoulder a light tap.
The force wasn't much, but at this particular moment, each little tap felt like a countdown ticking away his life expectancy.
"Th-this, this, this?!!"
But right at that moment —
Nuwa, standing behind Durandal, let out a strange yelp, instantly transforming from a wilted, sleep-deprived eggplant into full-blown lead-artist mode.
"That level of accuracy! That sheen! Those engraving lines!!"
She barreled forward without a second thought, ignoring the rain entirely, staring at Su Yu with an expression of pure hunger.
There might even have been a suspicious trickle of drool at the corner of her mouth.
But to be precise, she wasn't looking at Su Yu himself.
She was looking at the Key of Blankness he was wearing.
"Is this the legendary cosplay prop?! The detail on this — this — Su Yu, that's so unfair of you! Sneaking off to do an exclusive photoshoot up here on the roof without me!"
As Nuwa spoke, she wedged herself against him, pounding wildly on his shoulder.
Kiana wasn't listening to a word Nuwa said.
Her gaze stayed glued to Su Yu's face, hunting for some sign — proof that he'd just been "kissed against his will" or that "it was all a big accident."
But Su Yu just shrugged helplessly, looking exactly like some poor sap who'd just crawled out of a mudpit with no idea what to do next.
"This... it's a long story," Su Yu said with a bitter smile, his eyes sliding past Nuwa toward the man standing a short distance off, currently doing his best impression of an invisible bystander. "Old Yang, you could back me up here, couldn't you?"
Standing in the tower's shadow, Welt silently pushed up his glasses.
Looking at this crowd of young and middle-aged adults who had apparently thrown the concept of "crisis awareness" completely out the window, he felt a bone-deep weariness settle over him.
In his life he had watched Herrschers destroy worlds, watched civilizations fall, watched comrades die fighting Honkai — and yet today, for perhaps the very first time, he genuinely, if only slightly, could not make sense of the situation unfolding before him.
"Su Yu! You sly dog, you!"
Nuwa was still going full throttle.
She'd apparently forgotten to even ask what exactly was going on, and had already surged toward Rita instead.
"That metallic texture! That paint finish! And Skadi Ondurgud — how did you manage to replicate even the frost patterns along the blade edge so perfectly? Did you blow the studio's entire six-month revenue on this cosplay set?!"
Shrieking, she even reached out to touch the cold armored plate of Rita's skirt.
Rita shifted slightly to the side, dodging Nuwa's not-entirely-clean fingers with elegant precision.
"My apologies, Miss Nuwa. The energy circuits on this armor are quite sensitive — improper contact might risk giving your fingers a bit of frostbite."
"Ohhh! Is that so? That's so hardcore! I knew you couldn't have settled for some cheap cosplay build!" Nuwa completely ignored the frostbite warning, spinning around to shout at the staff behind her. "Everyone, come look! This is the so-called 'high-tech testing site' we've been hearing about!"
At her command, the crowd of onlooking staff surged forward like a tide.
Camera flashes instantly flooded the rooftop.
"Director Su is unbelievable! That level of accuracy — this isn't just White Comet, this is basically the real White Comet come to life!"
"And that thing on Rita — Argent Knight: Artemis?! Even the pattern on the scythe is identical! This is way too gorgeous!"
A steady stream of murmurs rippled through the crowd — "This must have cost a fortune," "The old rascal finally decided to splurge on the players" — leaving Su Yu with a splitting headache.
Bronie, having slipped off to the side, began quietly briefing Su Yu through his earpiece.
"Long story short, I got distracted while helping analyze the data for you, and by the time Durandal pushed the door open, she caught me controlling the tower's power systems and reading the combat footage you two were sending back."
"Durandal stood behind me watching for a long while, and then out of nowhere she asked, 'Su Yu and Rita are fighting a Honkai Beast, and this footage looks so real — is this what you meant by the 4D haptic feedback test?'"
"I nearly choked on my own breath right there."
"Thankfully, you'd already primed them earlier, so I just went along and confirmed it was a test in progress."
"Then Durandal demanded I release the lockdown immediately, said she had to come up to the rooftop and see for herself what you two were up to... and, well, you know the rest."
Know the rest, my foot.
Su Yu felt like crying without tears. Since when did Durandal learn to be this sharp? And Bronie — what happened to your top-tier hacker vigilance?
"I — that wasn't my fault! I only kept the base systems powered after the outage, so my alarm system never went off —"
Bronie, apparently realizing how weak that sounded, quickly tried to cover herself.
"Anyway, all you need to do now is keep running with the '4D haptic tech test' story. Time to give the performance of your life, Boss!"
Su Yu exchanged a glance with Kiana, whose jealousy had, at least for the moment, given way to the realization that if they didn't sell this well, everything would be exposed.
"Ah — everyone, please, no pushing, one at a time!"
The next moment, Kiana forced a smile onto her face, the kind that came only from obligation.
Su Yu likewise plastered on his best "open for business" smile, waving at the excited crowd of staff and pulling a still-babbling Nuwa in front of the cameras.
"Ha, well, the plan was actually to sneak this armor back and surprise you all after the test finished — didn't expect to get caught red-handed, haha!"
Su Yu paused, reached out to pull Kiana closer, and had Rita take a step forward as well.
"Ellie, look — everyone's here. To celebrate the test's success, how about putting that mallet away? If you don't come pose for a photo, my whole design's going to waste!"
He turned to look at Durandal, standing at the outer edge of the crowd.
Miss Pink Elf stood there, her lovely crystalline eyes flickering with an unreadable light in the darkness.
She watched the man in front of her, smiling like a con artist.
Then she surveyed the wreckage covering the rooftop.
Durandal's instincts were screaming at her.
The mallet spun silently once between her fingertips.
As she approached, flanked by a few of the staff, Durandal's gaze didn't linger on the so-called "armor" at all — instead, she carefully scanned every corner of the rooftop.
The place looked like it had been hit by a tornado, but then again, that made sense — there had just been a torrential downpour.
But the real problem was this:
There was no equipment.
No cables.
"Su Yu..."
Durandal stopped right in front of him.
She leaned in slightly, drawing close to his cheek.
The Pink Elf's faint fragrance hit his senses directly, tightening something in his chest.
"Weren't you supposed to be testing the latest 4D haptic feedback tech?"
She blinked, tracing a fingertip lightly through the air.
"Then where's the equipment? Where are those huge Honkai Beast models? And come to think of it, there was so much commotion earlier — the whole tower was shaking — did all your testing equipment just vanish because these people cheered too loud?"
The air froze solid.
Nuwa stopped mid-photo, staring blankly between Su Yu and Durandal.
Durandal tilted her head, the smile still on her lips, though her tone had turned openly accusatory.
"Or is it that... what you were really testing wasn't an engine at all?"
Su Yu felt a pressure he'd never experienced before crash down on him.
If he couldn't come up with a flawless answer right now, this Pink Elf standing in front of him might genuinely bash that inflatable mallet straight through his skull.
And if he got caught here — his double life as the shameless old moneygrubber harvesting Emotion Points on one side, and as an active organizer for the Honkai Alliance on the other, would both come crashing down (sob).
Kids, will I actually live to see tomorrow's sunrise?
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