Laughter has a price, and Kiana had already come to grasp exactly what that price was.
Clutching her head in both hands, she retreated to the living room.
She had to get away from Theresa.
“It wasn’t even me who said it—stupid Theresa!”
Xiyue, meanwhile, had no idea her offhand remark had just earned Kiana a beating.
She kept clearing the story, and after finishing the rundown on Anti-Entropy and Theresa’s identity, she moved on to answer a question players had always wanted answered: if Anti-Entropy’s mecha were so powerful, why not send machines onto the battlefield instead of using Valkyries?
It was a game setting, but the game obligingly borrowed Theresa’s mouth to fill in that bit of lore.
Theresa: “Regrettably, that’s impossible.
Schicksal has tried developing unmanned Honkai-energy weapons too, but every attempt failed.
First, a mecha’s Honkai-energy utilization rate is only twenty percent.”
“Second, the instability of Honkai energy destroys the weapon’s physical structure—these weapons break down after just one or two uses.”
“In short, it’s not cost-effective.”
Wants to Buy an Island: Not cost-effective?
Put simply, raising Valkyries costs far less than building mecha.
The Schicksal Overseer really has worked out a fine little scheme, heh heh.
As a member of the World Serpent, she understood a great deal about Schicksal’s affairs—including things others didn’t.
As a result, her impression of Otto was none too favorable.
Theresa, seeing the comment snipe at her own grandfather Otto, badly wanted to retort, but couldn’t find the words.
Luckily the story kept moving.
Himeko: “Schicksal also discovered, over the course of long research, that a Valkyrie’s body is the finest vessel and converter for Honkai energy.
Honkai energy can only be stored stably within a Valkyrie’s body.”
“However, the price of this is that the human body serving as the vessel is continuously eroded by the Honkai.
Their lifespans are drastically shortened—they die while still young.”
No Exams Thanks: Wait—does that mean Anti-Entropy’s approach is actually the right one?
Just as Kiana raised her doubt, Himeko provided the explanation.
“Anti-Entropy’s Honkai-energy utilization rate has always run lower than Schicksal’s.
They’ve poured in enormous resources and still manage less than twenty percent—it’s only that they’re unwilling to use human beings as vessels.”
Miss Pink Elf♪: Put that way, Anti-Entropy as an organization seems a touch more humane than Schicksal.
World’s Cutest: Perhaps it’s because the old man who founded Anti-Entropy was a more humane sort than Schicksal’s lot.
On the matter of humanity, Theresa had to admit Anti-Entropy’s leader did better than Schicksal.
Kitty Snuggles: Do all these Valkyries have such short lifespans?
Then all the Valkyries in the game live such brief lives.
Ah!
That’s just too sad.
Mmgh!
World’s Cutest: Sigh.
It can’t be helped.
To stand against the Honkai, someone must always step forward and fight it.
Miss Pink Elf♪: To think these beautiful Valkyries die in the flower of youth—my whole world’s gone gray.
It’s all the Honkai’s fault.
Humanity will surely triumph over the Herrschers, triumph over the Honkai!
Elysia’s sorrowful, pitying gaze hardened into resolve in an instant as she spoke.
Watching their comments, Xiyue wanted to say something, but found she had nothing to say.
The relationship between the two organizations was, honestly, complicated—not something you could lay out in a sentence or two.
Still.
Schicksal’s Valkyries were undeniably great, fighting for all that is beautiful in the world, and they truly delivered on it.
Even if the world wasn’t beautiful, the Valkyries of this era did right by humanity—just like the Thirteen Flame-Chasers of the era before.
Seeing the mood in the stream turn heavy, Xiyue hurried to break it up.
“Okay, okay—let’s keep watching the story.”
“Didn’t your host tell you?
This is a wholesome, heartwarming game, so its ending is naturally a happy, everybody-wins reunion!”
“Now let’s keep going through the plot~”
“See, Bronya recovered, didn’t she?
So let’s pull ourselves together and watch Kiana rescue the beauty Mei.”
With that, she pressed on.
With Bronya acting as their insider, the trio quickly made it inside Anti-Entropy—and learned through Bronya that Anti-Entropy was preparing to dissect Mei and extract the Herrscher Core from her body.
Aaaargh, I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them all.
Who said they could lay eyes on Mei’s body?!
So infuriating—can we fast-forward to Kiana saving Mei already, I’m dying here.
Xiyue ignored the paramecium and kept clearing the story.
When the three entered the lab, Kiana caught on—but right on the heels of that came Cocolia’s voice.
“Oh my, I’d always heard you were a fool, Kiana—but at the critical moment you’re rather sharp, aren’t you.”
Kitty Snuggles: Pfft~ Even a rival organization knows Kiana’s a dummy—that’s our Emperor Tuna for you~
No Exams Thanks: Kiana is Emperor Kiana, not some Emperor Bug, you awful Kitty—Kiana is NOT a dummy!
Back in the real world, Theresa turned her head to look at Kiana fuming and swinging around like a monkey, pressed a hand to her forehead in resignation, and sighed softly.
“What a disgrace to the family!”
Now that Cocolia had gone into full AoE-taunt mode, how could she possibly stop at mocking Kiana alone?
She turned her attention to Theresa.
Theresa eyed her and spoke first.
“So you’re Miss Cocolia?”
“That’s right, I’m Cocolia.
And would you be Theresa Apocalypse?”
“My, my—to think such a major figure has come.
I’d always heard you were an outstanding warrior, yet you’ve fallen so easily into a trap like this.
Truly, you don’t live up to your reputation.”
When Xiyue heard Cocolia say the words “would you be,” the reflex carved into her very DNA stirred, and she nearly blurted out.
“Would the one who approaches be Theresa: Starlit Astrologos?”
Luckily she reeled it back in time, or she’d have lost serious face.
Couldn’t be helped—that Honkai Kingdoms event was truly absurd.
Back then she’d figured it was just a crystal-farming gag event, never dreaming it was an even more “healing” one.
The brocade zither laments a thousand years; beneath the moon, she crosses the River of Oblivion.
Xiyue felt a pang in her heart, but quickly suppressed the feeling and kept clearing the story.
Inwardly, though, she made up her mind: a story like this absolutely had to be streamed out for everyone to see.
Joy is better shared than savored alone!
To keep a story this perfect from so many people would be a desecration of the story itself!