Chapter 123: The End of Act 1
It had not been long since the fire that burned Australia. Before humans even noticed, the eighth apostle of Honkai had already descended upon the world, bringing yet another destruction.
She was a thin girl who came from a rather unfortunate family.
Her parents didn't seem to treat her very well. Her body lacked the proper health and was obviously the result of long-term abuse and torture.
However, from the moment she was born, her original parents had already become the first pair of victims under the infection of her power, so there was no need to worry too much.
She didn't care about her original body's past experiences. Now, she had only one mission: to bring destruction to human civilization.
This time, she did not intend to make any noise but planned to carry out her plan silently and invisibly.
Unlike her seven predecessors who had been defeated by humans, she had no intention of openly attacking.
This approach derived from her special ability and the experience she gained from the failures of the first seven Herrschers.
The war between Honkai and humanity had gone through six major conflicts, and human society was no longer completely ignorant of Honkai.
They had a mature organization to fight against Honkai. When was it established? During the First Herrscher period, the Second Herrscher period, or even earlier?
They studied Herrschers and Honkai, created weapons that utilized Honkai energy, and developed fusion warriors combined with Honkai beasts.
In her opinion, simply destroying human society was no longer feasible.
If she wanted to destroy human civilization completely, she had first to uncover this behemoth hidden within society and eliminate it.
Once the resistance was gone, everything else would become much simpler.
However, this mysterious organization protecting humanity hid their intelligence and information well, and as someone newly born, she had no way of uncovering them yet.
But it didn't matter. She had patience and the means to find the answer.
As the Herrscher of Sentience of this era, her abilities allowed her to locate and destroy this hidden behemoth.
Using her abilities, she began spreading a memetic weapon through human electronic networks.
By setting a specific word as a keyword, anyone who saw it through an electronic device would be infected by her power and pulled into her dreams, where they would be trapped.
This covert mental attack allowed her to hide her true form effectively and not be easily discovered. Simultaneously, she used this keyword-based positioning to locate her greatest enemy.
Soon, a disease called "sleeping sickness" spread across human society. In just one month, more than two million people were infected.
Hospitals reached capacity. A large number of patients, unable to receive help, fainted on the streets and died peacefully in their sleep.
Although this caused no large-scale physical destruction, the loss of life rivaled that of any previous Honkai disaster.
If this continued, all of humanity would fall into an eternal dream.
But she knew the mysterious organization protecting humanity would not sit idly by.
They would find her and try to eliminate her, and this would be her chance to uncover their location.
"When you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares back."
She kept changing the contaminated words—[HONKAI], [MOTH]... until one day, she found the answer.
[Fire Moth].
…
She successfully pinpointed the Fire Moth base and invaded it.
For the Herrscher of Sentience, physical barriers posed no challenge.
In a matter of moments, all the untrained personnel within the Fire Moth base fell into a deep sleep, captured by her power.
She thought she could easily conquer the Fire Moth and fulfill her mission of destroying civilization. But she underestimated their countermeasures.
During the month she spread chaos, they had developed ways to counter her abilities.
They created drugs to resist her memetic contamination, devices to infiltrate her dreams, and even organized fusion warriors trained in spiritual resistance to locate her position in reality.
"what…"
In a remote, dilapidated hut, a thin girl gritted her teeth as she wrote names in blood on a picture book.
The scientist who invented the drug to resist her memetic contamination was Mobius.
The one who developed the dream-infiltrating device was Vill-V.
She wanted to kill these two to stop their knowledge from becoming a threat, but she failed—they did not appear in her dreams.
Likewise, several other powerful warriors of the Fire Moth, like Kevin and Elysia, remained unaffected.
Even if she couldn't succeed this time, she hoped to clear the way for future Herrschers. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.
Oh, and there was the person who exposed her real location—a man with extraordinary spiritual aptitude.
Her real coordinates were revealed, for a Herrscher who thrived in the spiritual realm, being located in reality was catastrophic.
Soon, a familiar figure entered her hideout.
Gray hair, purple-red eyes.
Panting, he pointed a Fire Moth-standard pistol at her. An invisible force restrained her, rendering her unable to move.
"Hehehe…"
Facing death, she wasn't afraid. Instead, she chuckled.
She recognized the man who had exposed her true form—Su, a doctor who had recently joined the Fire Moth and undergone fusion warrior enhancements.
He had pinpointed her location and was now the first to confront her.
What would he do? Kill her? It made sense; not long ago, he had killed his beloved mentor with his own hands.
But for someone consumed by hatred and anger—
Such emotions could be turned into a weapon against humanity itself.
She extended her hand, planting seeds of hatred within him.
If he killed her out of vengeance, he might fall into the abyss and become another Herrscher of Sentience.
She nearly succeeded.
If not for a third party's interference.
A sense of peace and tranquility filled the room, washing over both of them.
The Herrscher of Sentience felt fear for the first time.
It was a powerful spiritual force stronger than hers, stronger than any Herrscher.
Before she could react, countless chains of light bound her.
Before her consciousness faded, she glimpsed a name from the memories of the Fire Moth soldiers.
Aponia.
…
Back in reality, Kirataka stood atop a skyscraper, overlooking the Queen's Hotel and the bustling crowd below.
'That was the experience of the Eighth Herrscher of the previous era,' he thought.
Each time he touched a Divine Key, he relived memories of its past like this.
But now, he had to focus on more pressing matters.
"...Tell me, where is the Serenity Gem stored?"
Fu Hua's clear voice rang out.
The recollection was only a moment, and he did not miss the scene of Fu Hua interrogating Watt.
Perhaps because of the resistance to the Divine Key that the [Electronic Succubus] brought him, Fenghuang Down's illusion did not have any complete effect on him.
In addition, the memories he entered after touching the Divine Key actually helped him completely get rid of the illusion and return his consciousness to reality.
This was what he had expected, but he still pretended that he was in an illusion and unable to move, and listened to Fu Hua's interrogation in this state.
The counterfeit of the First Herrscher, who had already been controlled by Fenghuang Down, had no chance of resistance and could only honestly reveal all the information:
"The Serenity Gem is placed underground not far from the Queen's Hotel, in a safe. The access code is..."
Fu Hua and Kirataka both took note of this location.
Then, she continued to ask Watt:
"…What is Cocolia planning to do in this country?"
This has been the question she has been wondering since she accepted the mission.
This was not the first time she had dealt with Cocolia. If she just wanted to obtain the Serenity Gem and Dr. Maki, given the cautious character of that old fox, she would not have gone to the trouble of arranging for people to bring the gem and people to Singapore, a neutral country.
She must be planning something.
Watt answered honestly:
"Trigger an artificial eruption, replicate the disaster in Nagazora, and allow the Sixth Herrscher to be born in this city."
"...!"
This answer made Fu Hua's face change drastically.
Afterwards, she asked several more questions and found out all of Cocolia's arrangements in Singapore.
After finding out everything she wanted to know, she hit Watt hard on the neck, causing him to faint.
The anti-entropy personnel have been dealt with, so the next one is another mysterious person.
She came in front of Kirataka.
But before asking the question, Fu Hua fell into deep thought.
The electromagnetic pulse attack suffered by the Queen Hotel, and the lightning she just observed downstairs.
There are not many people who have such fighting ability—Mei, and Kirataka...
Although from the outside, the other person did not seem to be someone she knew, they might have just used some kind of disguise.
She knew that there was a master of disguise from the Central Intelligence Department of Schicksal stationed in Singapore, who was also an A-level Valkyrie [Ghost].
Therefore, one cannot easily determine a person's identity just by looking at their appearance.
So, Fu Hua asked the man in front of her a simple question:
"…Who are you?"
It was a pity that this time she couldn't get the answer she wanted.
Kirataka's body suddenly started to move, and he abruptly punched her chest with extremely fast movements.
"…!"
Caught off guard, Fu Hua had to barely parry the sneak attack but was pushed back slightly.
Compared to being attacked, she was more concerned about another thing—
Fenghuang Down… had no effect on this person?
Fu Hua raised her head in surprise and looked at Kirataka:
"Who… are you?"
Kirataka did not answer the question directly, but just smiled and said:
"Is this question important, Immortal Phoenix?"
"…"
'Did he know her past reputation in Taixuan?'
Fu Hua's expression became solemn.
Otto was almost the only person in Schicksal who knew her past, and the others who knew her past had either passed away or disappeared.
Several names flashed through her mind, but none of them matched the person in front of her.
Anyway, she decided to take down the opponent first.
Fu Hua's figure disappeared from the spot, quickly approached Kirataka, and waved her fist at him.
Since Fenghuang Down couldn't be used, she'd rely on pure martial arts to defeat the opponent.
Her punches fell like a torrential rain, and in Kirataka's eyes, it seemed as if countless fists were reaching out in front of him at the same time.
This was her full-strength attack, and right now, she was not even at her prime but was only one-tenth of her original condition.
If it had been before, he would have had no way to deal with this sudden attack.
However, purely physical attacks had no effect on him now, at least… within fifty-nine seconds.
Kirataka's mind moved, and he activated the [Infinity].
The invisible barrier reappeared on his body surface, and all of Fu Hua's attacks were blocked before they could hit his body.
It was so close, yet it seemed like a world away.
Fu Hua, who did not feel the touch of her fists hitting flesh, also realized that something was wrong, and she temporarily retracted her fist.
Kirataka was not in a hurry to launch an attack — after all, he could only protect himself in front of Fu Hua by activating the [Infinity]. If he took the initiative to attack, he would probably not be able to touch the Immortal Phoenix at all.
He whispered to the gray-haired woman in front of him:
"Why… why are you working for Otto?"
Kiana was an insider and participant in most of Otto's plans involving Fu Hua.
Not only Fu Hua, but also Rita and Durandal.
Leaving aside the two S-rank Valkyries trained by Otto, if possible, he would like to persuade Fu Hua to rebel earlier, just like Seele did.
In this way, not only could a powerful combat force be gained, but this respectable pioneer could also avoid the fate of having her head pierced by the Judgment of Shamash.
Although she did not die, she lost her body for a long period of time, and even gave the Honkai Will an opportunity to bring down the consciousness of the Eighth Herrscher.
This pioneer's life had already been quite hard, so he wished for her to suffer less if possible.
Fu Hua was slightly stunned, obviously not expecting the other party to ask such a question.
She thought for a moment and replied calmly:
"…He helped me a long time ago. This is my promise. Besides, Shenzhou also needs the protection of Schicksal."
Although she had always known what Otto was planning in secret, on the surface, Schicksal was still the main force against Honkai.
If Otto ever truly intended to do something catastrophic to the world, she would stop him.
"Is that so?"
Kirataka shrugged and then walked towards the edge of the rooftop.
Under her gaze, he leisurely stood on the edge of the rooftop.
He had drawn Fu Hua to the battlefield between him and Watt, on the one hand, to use her power of Fenghuang Down to make Watt voluntarily reveal the location of the Serenity Gem, and on the other hand, to obtain Fenghuang Down's projection.
Now, he had overheard the storage location of the Serenity Gem and had also successfully obtained Fenghuang Down's projection.
As far as the results were concerned, both goals had been achieved, which was already a great harvest.
He had accomplished everything he wanted to do this time, and this timeline that he had caused chaos with his own hands should also come to an end.
So…
Under the gaze of the person in front of him, Kirataka's body fell backward and began to fall from a high altitude.
At the same time, he silently activated his ability in his heart.
'——Let's go back in time.'
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