“The Herrscher…
has fallen silent…” The command base sank into a prolonged silence.
“Did someone use a nuclear weapon?” someone asked aloud.
“It wasn’t a nuclear weapon,” Ato was the first to grasp what had happened.
“The strike precisely destroyed only the Herrscher.
It looked earth-shattering, but it caused no damage whatsoever to the surrounding battlefield.
The soldiers on the front line also reported no adverse effects aside from the blinding light.” “This is a powerful force unknown to us.” Ato issued his orders.
“Send every remaining drone on the front line to search the area.
Have the combat personnel enter the ruins and rescue any survivors.” After firing that arrow which pierced heaven and earth, Elysia let her bow fall weakly.
The longbow immediately dissolved into motes of light and vanished.
Every ounce of strength had left her body, leaving her no choice but to lean helplessly against a broken wall nearby.
Was this my fault?
she wondered.
In the original storyline from her previous life, the First Herrscher had been killed with conventional weapons.
It had not even caused any destruction worth mentioning, which showed just how limited its strength had been.
Yet the First Herrscher here had destroyed the entirety of Lamington City the moment it appeared, claiming millions of lives, then completed its metamorphosis only a few hours later.
Without her, how great a price would humanity have paid to eliminate it?
Her arrival had created a butterfly effect, causing the Cocoon of Finality to raise the difficulty and indirectly leading to the deaths of so many people.
Self-attribution, she thought heavily.
She knew perfectly well that the Honkai was the root of everything.
Even if events had followed the original storyline, the ultimate outcome would still have been the complete collapse of civilization.
But she simply could not stop herself from thinking this way.
So many lives should not have ended at this point.
They might have enjoyed several more years of peace, but because of her, their lives had been cut abruptly short.
And…
she truly had cared about them.
The moments she had shared with them could never be forgotten.
But had she truly protected them?
And what would happen from now on?
Would future Herrschers complete their metamorphosis the instant they were born, or would they emerge already fully matured?
There were still so many people in this world she cared about.
Could she truly protect them all?
When someone changed history, they naturally had to bear the price of changing it.
Elysia stood amid the boundless ruins in silence.
Honkai…
Why must you bring such cruel destruction…?
A long while later, the sound of rock cracking apart came from underground, drawing Elysia slightly back to herself.
The ground began to tremble.
Then a dark-gold drilling machine adorned with interlocking gears burst out of the ruins, sending up a vast cloud of dust.
Its top hatch was kicked open, and a girl dressed in an intensely mechanical style poked her head out.
“Finally, I’m out!
I almost thought I’d suffocate underground.” Vill-V leaned out and cheered, only for the endless ruins stretching to the horizon to enter her sight.
She immediately froze.
“What…
happened here…?” “Vill-V…” Tears silently streamed down Elysia’s face.
“Boss.” Vill-V turned around, intending to ask what had happened, only to see the bottomless grief in Elysia’s eyes.
Those eyes had once shimmered with lively laughter, but now every spark within them had been extinguished by sorrow.
Vill-V fell silent for a moment, then sighed and jumped down from the vehicle.
She handed Elysia a communicator.
“Contact me if anything comes up.
I’m going to rescue people first.” Rescue people.
The words sent a tremor through Elysia’s heart, which had been drowning in despair.
That’s right.
People with sufficiently high Honkai resistance can survive a Honkai Eruption.
I still have a chance to make up for at least part of my mistake.
She did not take the communicator.
Instead, she seized Vill-V’s hand, a faint light kindling in her eyes like embers stirring beneath ash.
“Take me with you,” was all she said.
Along the way, she and Vill-V maintained only the most basic communication.
With her extraordinary senses, Elysia could accurately distinguish heartbeats from every other kind of noise, while Vill-V used the mechanical arms deployed from the drilling vehicle to clear away rubble and free survivors.
Working together, the two of them rescued several thousand people.
On their way back into the ruins after settling the survivors, Vill-V turned to glance at Elysia.
She was contacting the administrators of branches in various regions, ordering them to organize personnel and bring supplies as quickly as possible.
The light was also gradually returning to eyes that had previously resembled stagnant water.
Thank goodness.
Vill-V breathed a sigh of relief.
If Elysia had truly collapsed completely, she would have had to find time to serve as a therapist too.
After notifying the final branch, Elysia switched off her phone and slowly closed her eyes.
After her initial moment of disorientation, she had gradually pulled herself together.
The past cannot be undone, but the future can still be pursued.
Remember the dead and protect the living.
That was what she should do.
As for everything tormenting her, she would return every last bit of it to the Cocoon of Finality without the slightest reservation.
Seeing that she had mostly recovered, Vill-V finally found the courage to ask the question on her mind.
“Boss Ely, what happened earlier?” “A Herrscher descended and destroyed the entire city.
Its Authority was structural analysis, which made it extremely difficult to deal with.
The military couldn’t stop it at all.” Elysia recounted the events in a distracted, fragmentary manner.
“I see.” Vill-V pieced together the general situation from her scattered words.
The Herrscher was likely the agent responsible for this catastrophe.
“Then I rushed back and sniped it from a distance with a bow.
After that, you appeared.” “Mm-hmm.
Mm…?” Vill-V’s brows twitched.
Something incredibly important seemed to have just drifted past as though it were nothing.
A bow?
Was the arrow tipped with a nuclear warhead?
Elysia also realized that her explanation had been somewhat cursory.
After thinking for a moment, she asked in return, “Vill-V, how has your investigation into the Honkai been progressing?” “I only have the most basic understanding.
It emerges alongside civilization and serves as the cause behind various disasters, things like that.” At this point, Vill-V also caught on.
“So this was caused by the Honkai?” “Yes.
A Honkai Eruption.
The previous Honkai incidents were merely waves by comparison.
A Honkai Eruption is a periodic flood.” “Periodic?
This kind of disaster will happen again?” Vill-V nearly lost her grip on the steering wheel.
“Did MOTH, the organization you joined earlier, tell you this?” Throughout their travels, Elysia and Vill-V had remained in constant contact, and Elysia hid virtually nothing from her.
Vill-V therefore had a general understanding of her movements.
Elysia had originally considered revealing some information about the Honkai, but Vill-V had insisted on finding the answers herself and refused.
“They currently know only the most superficial part of it.” Elysia leaned back in her seat and exhaled deeply.
“They know nothing about the Honkai’s origin, its purpose, the true nature of Herrschers, or the truth of this world.” “Then doesn’t that make this the perfect job for a genius like me?” Vill-V’s interest was piqued.
“Give me some time, and I’ll definitely uncover it.” “Finding the answers to those questions takes an extraordinary amount of time.” In the original storyline, even MEI, whose intellect rivaled Vill-V’s, had only glimpsed the truth after more than a decade of relentless research.
“So I’ll give you the answers directly.
“The Honkai is a man-made disaster caused by the Cocoon of Finality, which was deployed through a parallel truth by a higher-dimensional civilization.
Its purpose is to manipulate the development of civilization and ultimately create a unified consciousness.
“Herrschers are the apostles of the Honkai and projections of the Herrscher of Finality.
Their purpose is to destroy civilization.
As for this world, every time a cycle of civilization is destroyed by the Honkai, the Herrscher of Finality on the moon uses the Authority of Time to restart civilization.
It repeats the trial endlessly, and this cycle has continued for at least several million years.
“This may be difficult to believe, but you can verify it yourself in the future.” This was the conclusion she had drawn after monitoring the Cocoon of Finality for several years during her childhood.
Cross-referenced with the memories of her previous life, it was absolutely reliable.
With every sentence Elysia spoke, Vill-V’s expression grew graver, not only because of the Honkai, but also because of Elysia herself.
“So the Honkai really is nothing good.” She abruptly changed the subject.
“Then how do you know all of this, Boss Ely?” Elysia fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.
“How long have we known each other, Vill-V?” “Three or four years, I think.
But why are you asking…” Vill-V stopped herself.
She sensed that she might soon come into contact with Elysia’s deepest secret.
“No matter what you hear next, can you trust me, Vill-V?
I’ve already lost enough today.
I don’t want to lose you too.” A trace of pleading entered Elysia’s voice.
“You’re not about to tell me that you’re actually on the Honkai’s side, and that’s why you know so much, are you?” Vill-V joked half-seriously, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
Elysia did not respond.
She merely sighed, and the air instantly froze.
“You can’t be serious…” The corner of Vill-V’s eye twitched.
“Fifteen years ago, MOTH discovered an enormous wreckage on the moon.
They named it—the Remains of Finality.” Elysia spoke so calmly that it sounded as though she were telling someone else’s story.
“While researching the Remains of Finality, an operational error caused part of it to separate and fall to Earth.
They called that fragment Origin.
After Origin fell into Vostok 51 in the form of an infant, it was discovered and sent to the local orphanage.” “That was you…” Vill-V finished the rest for her.
“Correct.
I am the first Herrscher, the Herrscher of Origin.
As for this information, you can think of it as my factory settings.
I was born knowing it.” She still concealed the fact that she was a transmigrator.
Since she had come to this world, she intended to live on as Elysia.
She would simply find substitute explanations for her foreknowledge.
Anything that could not be explained could be attributed to the all-purpose Authority of Origin.
With the understanding she had built in her previous life, Elysia did not reject her identity as a Herrscher.
A Herrscher’s Authority was merely a tool.
What mattered was who wielded it and how.
What she truly worried about was how others would see her.
Rather than hiding it and constantly evading the issue, it was better to reveal the truth from the very beginning.
As the Honkai intensified, the entire world would gradually descend into hysteria.
If Elysia revealed her identity then, people would probably decide that a Herrscher had possessed her body and order her extermination.
Of course, she would only reveal this to those worthy of her trust.
“The Herrscher of Origin…
No wonder.” Most of Vill-V’s earlier doubts disappeared.
“And because you separated directly from the Remains of Finality, your level of existence should naturally surpass these projections of the Herrscher of Finality.
That’s why you could kill it so easily.” “Mm.
Exactly.” “Oh…” Vill-V drew out the word, then rested one hand against her chin and pondered for a moment.
“Then it all makes sense.” She immediately switched the vehicle to autopilot, turned around, and studied Elysia with the fascination of someone observing an exceedingly rare animal.
“Aren’t you afraid?
I’m the same kind of being as that world-destroying Herrscher.” “Why would I be afraid?” Vill-V looked genuinely puzzled.
“Huh?” Elysia froze.
“Would it help unemployed people find work?
Would it help ordinary citizens fight crime?
Would it stand on humanity’s side against the Honkai?” Vill-V looked into Elysia’s eyes.
“Elysia, I once told you that becoming another person is not difficult for me.
That’s because I can see through people very easily.
And in my eyes, Elysia, you have always been a good person.” “I see…” Elysia was deeply moved.
“As for this ‘truth,’ I’ll accept it with gratitude.” Vill-V winked.
“This truly is…
the finest ‘secret behind the performance’ I’ve ever received.”