After Li Mu finished speaking, the room fell into an awkward, unnatural silence.
After a long moment, Kevin pointed at her own face and said flatly, "Do you think I'm an idiot or something?"
Li Mu carefully studied Kevin's current appearance.
He was not sure if it was just his imagination, but ever since she turned into a girl, her face seemed to carry a bit of built-in airheadedness. Probably part of Kiana's baseline design.
So he nodded honestly.
"To be fair, you do look a little dumb right now. But honestly? It fits the character pretty well."
Kevin picked up the mirror beside her and hurled it at his face. "I'd rather believe I'm the chosen savior of the world than believe you're some reborn-from-the-future mastermind!"
Li Mu had expected this reaction. He casually caught the flying mirror.
If he put himself in her shoes, he would probably think the same. Anyone claiming to be a reborn time traveler would sound like a lunatic.
Fortunately, Li Mu had already prepared a way to convince her.
He rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out a mechanical helmet shaped suspiciously like a cat's head. Before Kevin could react, he shoved it straight onto her head.
"Wait, where did you even pull that thing from—mmph!"
The moment the helmet sealed over her head, Kevin started struggling wildly.
Then, in the very next second, she froze.
The darkness caused by the helmet vanished abruptly, replaced by a vast, pale wasteland steeped in desolation and killing intent.
Before she could even process what she was seeing, a soul-deep terror rippled across the sky.
Kevin instinctively looked up.
Her vision collided with a colossal face that blotted out most of the heavens, along with fingers that were slowly closing in, massive as mountain ranges, as if they were about to sever the world in two.
The face belonged to a woman.
A woman who felt eerily familiar, as if Kevin had seen her somewhere before.
Behind that face floated a lonely sphere in the void, its surface cracked and glowing with magma.
Kevin recognized it instantly.
That sphere was Earth, the cradle of human civilization.
And she finally understood where she was.
This pale wasteland was Earth's satellite, the Moon.
The Moon that had accompanied Earth for billions of years was now being held in the hands of a woman so enormous she defied comprehension.
"What… is this…?"
Kevin was completely overwhelmed, unable to even form coherent words.
Then she heard the sound of frantic footsteps behind her.
Just as she was about to turn around, a figure brushed past her shoulder and charged toward the godlike presence at the end of the world.
In that fleeting glance, Kevin caught a clear view of the runner.
White hair. Blue eyes. A body covered in scars. Eyes filled with boundless sorrow, the hollow despair left behind after rage had burned itself out.
He wielded a greatsword wreathed in flames, like a single spark rising against an endless night, fragile and on the verge of being extinguished.
Kevin felt a surge of solemn grief.
But what unsettled her even more was his face.
That man looked exactly like her.
No, more than that. He was her. An older, more mature version of herself.
"This is… me?"
Kevin whispered.
A familiar voice answered from beside her.
"That's right. That's you. The you from the future of the original timeline."
Kevin turned her head.
Li Mu stood there, staring at the scene as well. More precisely, he was staring at the woman who held the Moon in her clasped hands like a deity.
His voice carried a deep sorrow, less like an explanation and more like a funeral elegy.
"This moment takes place only a little over ten years from now."
"Under the relentless advance of Honkai, humanity endured twelve Great Eruptions under the leadership of an organization called MOTH."
"Countless heroic stories were written during that time. One brilliant figure after another rose, people worthy of being remembered by history."
"But in the end, they all died, one catastrophe after another."
"As of this point in time, out of a global population of seven billion, fewer than one hundred thousand humans remain."
"The civilization known as humanity can be declared extinct."
Li Mu raised his gaze toward the god holding the Moon, regret heavy in his tone.
"And the cause of all this is the ultimate calamity born from Honkai. A godlike enemy: the Herrscher."
"And the one standing before us now is the strongest of them all. Her name is the Herrscher of Finality."
The moment his words fell, a raging torrent of blazing fire ignited at the edge of the horizon.
Like a blade of light, it surged upward and struck at the god in the sky.
Boom!
A burst of fire as brilliant as a dying star exploded in the cold vacuum, erasing everything in its wake, including Li Mu and Kevin.
…
Back in Li Mu's living room, Kevin tore the helmet off her head.
Her chest heaved violently as she gulped down air, trying to suppress the lingering terror.
Li Mu took out two cartons of milk, stabbed straws into them, and slid one across the table to her.
"Now that you've seen it, what do you think?"
Kevin looked up. Li Mu's expression was calm. He sipped his milk quietly, eyes fixed on her.
"That just now… was that really the future?"
Her tone still carried doubt, but deep down, she already believed it.
The moment she saw herself charging alone across the Moon toward the Herrscher of Finality, she believed.
"More accurately, that's what happens in the original history," Li Mu said between sips.
"This world is far more complicated than it looks. Beneath peaceful everyday life, the supernatural disaster known as Honkai has always been lurking."
"For thousands, even tens of thousands of years, it has walked alongside humanity. But limited by humanity's level of civilization and technology, it never became a true threat."
"Then came the Industrial Revolution. Human technology advanced explosively, and Honkai finally bared its fangs."
"From now on, over the next few years, the disasters will escalate rapidly. In less than twenty years, humanity's population will plunge from seven billion to under one hundred thousand."
Kevin felt her scalp go numb as she listened.
But compared to the distant tragedy of the future, one thing mattered to her far more.
"You said everything I care about, everything that cares about me, will disappear. My parents, my family, my friends…"
Li Mu answered without mercy.
"Yes. All of them die."
Kevin's face drained of color, as if all the blood had been sucked out of her body.
Li Mu did not comfort her. Instead, he pressed her sinking heart even deeper.
"You will be one of the few survivors of that final battle. As a pioneer, you will lead what remains of humanity into cryogenic sleep and reach the next era after tens of thousands of years."
"For the promise of completely defeating Honkai, you will become a savior, carrying the future of all humanity on your shoulders."
"So tell me, Kevin. Is that kind of ending acceptable to you?"
Kevin was silent.
Li Mu did not interrupt. He simply drank his milk.
Finally, Kevin spoke in a hoarse voice. "If everything I care about is gone… then what's the point of living at all?"
Li Mu set down his empty milk carton and looked at her intensely.
"Exactly. If everything we know and care about disappears, what meaning does the continuation of civilization even have?"
"In the original history, you, me, Su, and many other pioneers slept through time to reach the next era, preserving human civilization and planning to help the next generation overcome Honkai."
"That plan, spanning fifty thousand years, ultimately succeeded. Humanity survived, and the future became bright."
"But what does that have to do with us?"
"Everything we care about exists in this era."
"That's why, in the era fifty thousand years later, I paid an enormous price to return to this point in time."
"To rewrite everything. To let this era survive."
Li Mu clenched his fists tightly, as if trying to grasp the world itself.
"Compared to the powerless me in the original history, the current me carries memories from the future."
"I have a mind tempered by endless hardship, and the wisdom that came with it."
"Right now, I can do anything."
Kevin looked up and saw an intensity in his eyes she had never seen before.
And she agreed with him.
Everything she cared about was here, in this era. If it was destroyed, she had no reason to keep living.
She sighed. "Alright. I believe you really did come back from the future… probably. So what's your plan?"
Li Mu pointed upward.
"Before that, Kevin, you need to understand where Honkai comes from, and why it seeks to destroy humanity."
"A god. A literal god. Let's call it the Cocoon."
"It casts down threads and weaves fate, replaying the drama of civilization on the stage of Earth over and over, searching for a civilization capable of withstanding its embrace."
"Even though, to any civilization, that embrace is equivalent to destruction."
"And what we call Honkai is simply the way it embraces."
Kevin could not help but comment, "So this Cocoon destroys worlds just so someone can hug it? Sounds like it's seriously starved for affection."
Li Mu laughed.
"With our current power, destroying the Cocoon of Finality is impossible. If we want civilization to survive, the only option is to accept its embrace and seize control."
"And you, Kevin, are the one qualified to endure that embrace."
Kevin blinked. "So Mu… are you saying your way to save the world is—"
"Exactly!" Li Mu stood up and looked at her blank expression. "My friend, to save all of humanity, please become… the Great Sage Equal to Heaven—no, wait. The God of Earth!"
His voice was passionate, stirring enough that Kevin almost felt moved.
Almost.
Then her suppressed intelligence broke free and reclaimed the high ground.
She spotted the problem.
"Hold on! Nice try, but you almost talked me in circles!"
Kevin looked down at herself and glared at him.
"What does saving the world have to do with turning me into a girl?"
"Don't tell me this so-called Cocoon of Finality is sexist?"
To her surprise, Li Mu nodded solemnly.
"You know what? It actually is sexist."
"And on top of that, it's into girls."
"…What?"
…
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