This world-shaking yet absurdly short war finally came to a close.
Schicksal Headquarters was rendered a total pile of rubble, with uncounted Schicksal troops buried at the bottom of the Mediterranean.
As for the deceased Overseer, Otto Apocalypse, his corpse was burned into plain ashes in a trial broadcast live to the entire world.
The Schicksal organization, which had ruled the world for five hundred long years, thus met its utter demise.
“Grandpa…
is dead?”
Theresa stood there in a daze.
She was currently on the bridge of the Hyperion, surrounded by Himeko, Fu Hua, Kiana, Raiden Mei, and the newly arrived Amber.
“But…
but that’s impossible.
How could this happen?”
She couldn’t accept this reality at all.
To her, Otto was an insanely complex figure.
Theresa despised her grandfather’s ruthless, unprincipled methods, yet found it impossible to sever the familial warmth she had known since childhood—a grandfather who had indulged and spoiled her unconditionally.
However, everything had unfolded way too fast.
Theresa had been tied up dealing with the Judgment-class Honkai Beast in the South China Sea, combined with the global chaos sweeping the world, leaving her no time to monitor the situation at Schicksal HQ.
By the time Theresa snapped back to reality, Schicksal HQ had already fallen, Otto was dead, and all she could see was her grandfather’s final face during that public live-streamed execution trial.
“Why…
why…
why did Grandpa have to die?!”
Tears streamed down Theresa’s face uncontrollably, her heart feeling torn to shreds.
Amber kept her head lowered, avoiding Theresa’s gaze as glistening teardrops fell from the edge of her mask onto the deck.
“Auntie…”
Kiana stepped forward wanting to comfort Theresa, but couldn’t find the words.
“Hey, hey!
I hate to interrupt the pity party, but right now is seriously NOT the time for getting all emotional!”
The voice of Ai-chan, the Hyperion’s AI, echoed across the bridge.
“We’ve got about six incoming missiles locked onto us!
If we don’t brace yourselves ASAP, you guys can go visit Otto together in the afterlife!”
Ai-chan bantered playfully.
In truth, she had already prepped defensive measures; intercepting incoming missiles was piece of cake for her.
As for who actually launched them?
That didn’t even matter anymore.
Now that Schicksal was dead, once the Valkyries worldwide got over their initial panic, they would naturally rally around Overseer Otto’s sole granddaughter—Theresa Apocalypse.
Naturally, nobody in power wanted to see Schicksal rise from the ashes ever again.
Theresa and the others realized this immediately.
“We gotta…”
BOOM!!!!!
Just as Theresa was about to order an emergency retreat, a blinding flash turned the far distance as bright as daylight.
The searing light stung their eyes violently, followed by a terrifying shockwave and a deafening roar, accompanied by invisible electromagnetic pulses (EMP).
The shockwave violently jolted the entire Hyperion.
Right after, the EMP nearly knocked the battleship offline.
Even so, groans of pain erupted across the ship.
The intense light radiation severely scorched the eyes of many crew members, leaving only the Valkyries relatively unscathed.
“What just happened?!”
Theresa shouted after regaining her footing, squinting through the painful glare.
“Detected a high-yield weapon detonation resembling a Honkai Fission Missile!
But…
but I didn’t detect a single trace of Honkai Energy from it!!!”
Ai-chan screamed in a panic, terror echoing clearly in her voice.
Even though she was just an AI, she could still feel fear.
She knew that if the Hyperion had been any closer, total system failure and a full-ship crash would have been guaranteed.
“A Honkai Fission Missile?!
Are those Schicksal’s enemies?!
Did they hijack Schicksal’s armory?!”
Theresa’s heart dropped into her stomach.
She knew all too well how terrifying Honkai Fission Missiles were—weapons capable of wiping entire nations off the map.
Up until now, only Schicksal possessed such terrifying ordnance.
“No, that’s not it!
Zero Honkai Energy detected!
And…
that missile was launched from the North!!!”
Ai-chan’s words sent a chill straight down everyone’s spine.
No Honkai Energy, launched from the North…
did that mean the northern nations now possessed Honkai Fission Missiles completely free of Honkai radiation pollution?!
“Principal Theresa!
An incoming broadcast message is hijacking all frequencies!
I can’t block it!”
Ai-chan shrieked again.
[JUDGMENT DAY HAS ARRIVED]
Every single display onboard the Hyperion showed those eerie words.
“What ‘Judgment Day’?”
Kiana asked, completely bewildered.
Floating high above the South China Sea, the crew of the Hyperion had no idea that every city on Earth with a population over one million had just received a nuclear warhead to go along with that broadcast message.
If someone were watching Earth from space, they would see over 300 nuclear warheads soaring into the atmosphere from all corners of the globe before swooping down toward their respective targets, bringing total “nuclear peace” to humanity.
On this day, the entire planet experienced the hottest day in human history.
In the Honkai world, nuclear weapons technically didn’t exist—or rather, Honkai Fission Missiles served as their equivalent.
Pure nuclear fusion or fission warheads were unheard of.
These nukes were, of course, mass-produced by Bronya.
At this very moment, Gray Wind’s nanobots were working nonstop deep underground, pumping out a 1-megaton nuclear warhead every hour—a manufacturing time that was dropping lower by the second.
“It’s all over.”
Deep beneath Siberia, Bronya stretched comfortably, waiting for the nuclear detonation countdown.
“3.”
“2.”
“1.”
well, that was just an illusion.
A couple hundred nukes were barely a scratch to the planet’s crust, let alone shaking the Earth.
Still, those hundreds of warheads were more than enough to deliver complete nuclear peace to humanity.
And for this, Bronya received a massive payout from the Honkai itself.
“Such absolute power!”
Bronya closed her eyes, feeling a boundless ocean of Honkai Energy surging into her body like a tidal wave.
Right now, Bronya could truly accomplish anything!
However, her Herrscher Core couldn’t withstand such monstrous energy.
The instant the Honkai Energy flooded her, her core shattered completely.
Yet Bronya remained totally unharmed.
Because right now, she had ascended as the true Herrscher of Reason!
No longer a mere projection of the Cocoon of Finality, but a genuine Herrscher who commanded the fundamental truths of all creation!
Carrying a bewildered Gray Wind with her, Bronya instantly teleported onto the deck of the Project Bunny Flagship.
The ship was completely unmanned—or rather, it never had a crew to begin with, operating as a fully automated warship.
Wanting a touch of dramatic flair, Bronya gently laid her hand on the bridge console.
A dazzling blue light burst forth across the entire vessel.
Visually, the Project Bunny Flagship didn’t seem to change at all.
“Project Bunny, head to Earth-Moon orbit.”
Bronya said excitedly, having applied a tiny bit of modification to the flagship.
“Understood, Sister Bronya!”
A mini-version of Bronya teleported right next to her.
Though her expression was solemn, her voice was soft, squeaky, and ridiculously adorable.
Which made sense—this body of Project Bunny had been manufactured less than a minute ago.
“So cute!”
Bronya beamed with joy, pulling the cute little Project Bunny into a tight hug and nuzzling her cheeks frantically.
Beside them, Gray Wind felt a tiny bit jealous, but was promptly pulled into Bronya’s embrace as well.
While Bronya was busy playing with Project Bunny and Gray Wind, the Project Bunny Flagship glided through an artificial wormhole created by its wormhole generator, arriving smoothly in Earth-Moon orbit.
“Commence Neutron Sweep.”
Bronya uttered nonchalantly.
“Understood.”
The adorable Project Bunny nodded cutely before getting scooped up by Bronya again.
Out in space, the Project Bunny Flagship fired its planet-sterilizing weapon—the Neutron Sweep—straight at Earth.
A horrifying beam of light plunged onto the planet’s surface.
In an instant, every single biological lifeform on Earth—including the human survivors of the nuclear Judgment Day—was efficiently swept clean.
Whether it was the former 1st Herrscher Welt, the 2nd Herrscher Sirin, or the 3rd Herrscher Raiden Mei, all met their demise like mere ants before the overwhelming power of the Neutron Sweep.
From that moment on, aside from inorganic matter and a few plants, Earth harbored no signs of life whatsoever.
“Aaaand done!”
Staring at the main quest completion screen on his monitor, Ren let out a satisfied laugh.
Honkai: Civilization was genuinely a blast to play.
Having finished Playthrough 1, he could technically jump straight into Playthrough 2, but Ren was in no rush.
He figured he’d try out a few other games first.
A good game ought to be savored slowly.
However, what Ren didn’t know was that on the far side of the Moon, a wormhole suddenly tore open in deep space, and a massive warship slowly emerged from within…