The world is in Honkai.
This is Honkai in the literal sense.
Kevin holds the Judgment of Shamash, urgently crafted for him by Vill-V, while his opponents are a group of Vipralopa-class Honkai Beasts.
Indeed, this already rare Vipralopa-class Honkai Beast has now become almost commonplace.
And facing these formidable foes, he can calmly unleash the true power of Heaven's Fire.
Although he has not yet undergone the Chimera Project's modifications, the current Kevin is still a force to be reckoned with.
As the first warrior of Fire Moth, his strength is beyond doubt.
"It's just a pity that I still don't have enough time to adapt to Heaven's Fire."
He thinks to himself.
Meanwhile, Kosma is also fighting alongside Ato.
Ato is panting heavily and says to Kosma, "Kid, are you alright? If you're fine, get back in there."
Kosma nods silently.
Just moments ago, he was wielding his weapon against a Honkai Beast and nearly got knocked away.
If Ato hadn't arrived in time, he might not even be breathing right now.
The silent boy is not good at expressing gratitude, so he continues to fight with his weapon.
However, the counterattack feels like Kindling facing the ice and snow on the prairie.
Though there are still a few sparks, they are about to extinguish.
Warriors like Kevin are holding up, but for ordinary warriors, the situation has already collapsed.
"Europe has lost contact, multiple regions in Asia have lost contact, North America has already deployed tactical nuclear weapons…"
"The Mu Continent is calling for help, but there are no troops left…"
"The higher-ups are also arguing; some believe all forces should consolidate into a defensive line, prioritizing the abandonment of other areas. But others are opposing…"
Countless rumors intertwine, striking at everyone's hearts, shaking the will of every resistor.
Until a beam of light appears from the distant sky.
"Brilliant light, illuminating the earth!"
It feels as if a deity has descended from the horizon, bestowing blessings upon everyone.
All those fighting feel as if their exhausted spirits have been infused with some mysterious power, igniting their fervor.
Kevin defeats a Vipralopa-class Honkai Beast, lifts his head, his eyes filled with uncertainty.
"Is that… Elysia?"
However, Elysia's appearance is not what shocks him the most.
What shocks him the most is that all the Honkai Beasts are disappearing.
No, to be precise, they are being stripped away.
Kevin cannot help but look up, and then he sees a figure almost identical to him.
From fifty thousand years in the future, Kevin Kaslana.
…
…
In Fire Moth's First Research Institute.
Chen Ran is resting with his eyes closed, maintaining a global connection while Sirin is absent.
Mobius is conducting experiments on Durandal.
"What on earth is happening outside?"
For the first time, she feels the urgency of racing against time.
There is no choice; the Honkai Energy outside is simply too dense.
Of course, the key issue is that the difficulty of the experiment far exceeds her expectations.
What she thought would be a special super transformation surgery has now become impossible to capture the simulated power of Finality, let alone implant it.
"Well, I can only use this method."
A glint of determination flashes in Mobius's eyes.
Nuwa, who is assisting her, has a bad premonition.
"Doctor, what are you planning to do?"
"Since all capturing methods have failed, there is only one last resort left." She states directly: "To rely on consciousness to capture."
"But if you do that, you will…"
"Isn't it just death? Moreover… whether it is death or not is still uncertain."
Under Nuwa's astonished gaze, Mobius aims a gun at herself.
"Ending life in this manner is indeed embarrassing, but it is the fastest way."
"Nuwa, if I'm not here, you will carry out the next experiment."
With a dull thud, Mobius collapses to the ground.
However, before Nuwa can feel sorrow, she is shocked to see Mobius's entire body suddenly turn into a viscous black sludge and fall to the ground.
Moments later, Durandal, connected through Bia, awakens from her slumber.
Nuwa suppresses her astonishment and sadness, saying, "Just one last step, injecting you with the serum to maintain consciousness, and it will be done."
"No need."
Durandal speaks: "I have not been Honkai corrupted, and I feel that my current state is quite good."
The girl's state is indeed quite good.
She can feel the power surging within her, and one could even say that at this moment, Durandal feels as if she has inherited the power of an entire world.
She looks at the now chaotic First Research Institute and says, "The doctor is fine, but Chen Ran…"
"I'm fine too."
Chen Ran's voice is slightly hoarse as he speaks: "However, I can feel something coming down."
After his words, everyone feels their bodies being pulled away.
It is as if their souls are being forcibly extracted from their shells, and everyone feels the world spinning.
When Durandal and the others regain their senses, they find themselves standing on the moon, facing a familiar figure.
"Wendy?"
The girl's eyes show a hint of astonishment.
Wendy then directly leaps into Chen Ran's arms.
"Great, we did it."
Wendy hugs Chen Ran, tears of joy streaming down her face: "This time, we won't have to part again."
Afterward, besides Wendy, others begin to appear one after another.
Kiana, Cecilia, Raiden Mei…
Even Seele and Bronya, who should have gone to Saint Freya, as well as Sin.
Chen Ran and Durandal simultaneously ask, "What is going on?"
Wendy hesitates slightly and says, "It's a global connection."
She does not tell Chen Ran about the 666 cycles of reincarnation but says: "Elysia connected the Project Stigma core with the global connection core."
"Stacking the two epochs to construct a miracle beyond Finality."
"Beyond Finality? This is the first time I've heard Elysia say something like that."
Mobius appears out of nowhere, with a terrified Nuwa beside her.
"Doctor, you…"
"I told you, I will not die."
Her eyes narrow slightly as she says: "But can someone tell me what the other epoch is?"
Wendy instinctively looks at Chen Ran.
Chen Ran gives a wry smile and explains everything he has done during this time.
He has reached the future, and Elysia knows, Vill-V knows. But Mobius does not know yet.
After she learns all this, a strange meaning arises within her.
"So, such an important matter, you kept it from me from the beginning?"
She says somewhat reluctantly: "If I could traverse the future, I think my experiments could be faster."
Nuwa weakly says: "Doctor, maybe that's why Senior Chen Ran didn't tell you."
"Shut up!"
"Oh."
Nuwa immediately falls silent.
At this moment, a gentle voice comes through.
"Everyone is here, it feels like this is not a battle, but a gathering."
Vill-V looks at Chen Ran, then at Wendy in his arms, her eyes filled with a strange meaning.
"So, this Herrscher in front of us is actually an important anchor point connecting the two epochs."
Wendy is not meeting Vill-V for the first time, but she has only seen her in the Elysian Realm before.
She says: "Elysia told me that only a Herrscher's body can simultaneously bear the anchor points locked by two consciousness spaces. Originally, one was me, and one was Sirin."
"But Sirin has another task."
Afterward, under Wendy's explanation, everyone understands what has happened.
Mobius: "Is all of this Elysia's plan? That's impossible."
Vill-V: "Indeed, it doesn't seem like her method."
However, at this moment, Elysia is not here.
As a channel bridging two worlds, there was much for her to do.
Wendy also knew that explaining things now would be troublesome, so she said, "This is a battlefield artificially opened against the Honkai; at least here, we don't have to worry about ordinary people dying."
"The overlap of two eras will surely attract the Herrscher of Finality, and we only have this one chance to fight for our lives."
Durandal took a deep breath: "Leave it to me."
Kiana immediately expressed her dissatisfaction, saying, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm here too! This Miss is quite strong."
Raiden Mei: "Although I don't quite understand what's happening, I won't refuse to fight."
Of course, only a few people expressed their stance.
Many others remained silent and at a loss.
For example, Kevin.
He had never imagined standing alongside his future self from fifty thousand years later.
The Kevin from fifty thousand years later seemed colder, yet still unchanged in essence.
He said, "It was Elysia who found me and told me that all of this is MEI's plan."
"We will act as Kindling, igniting the entire Imaginary Tree."
Kevin took a deep breath.
"I understand."
"In short, it means fighting continuously until the very end."
Kevin once again grasped the Judgment of Shamash.
As his words fell, the dense Honkai Energy surged violently in this place.
The so-called Project Stigma was a plan that originated from the power attached to Finality.
In the space formed by Stigmata, there was no Honkai.
However, after Elysia relied on the Herrscher of Sentience to establish a global connection, it also meant that the battlefield against the Honkai had already taken shape.
"The concentration of Honkai Energy is continuously rising; this concentration has already exceeded 13,000 hw, and it will be difficult to estimate further."
Vill-V raised an instrument, her expression inscrutable.
Durandal also spoke: "I can feel a familiar presence."
Kiana: "Is it time for the decisive battle?"
Everyone either felt uneasy, anxious, or looked forward to the source of the Honkai Energy.
Each person felt a tingling sensation on their scalp.
Consciousness is a special form of Honkai; on this battlefield constructed by consciousness, there is actually no dimensional gap between people and Finality.
Once this gap is erased, the Herrscher of Finality can no longer bind humans with any physical laws.
Yet even so, the level of Honkai Energy controlled by Finality is not something any individual can compare to.
It is a kind of power that is hard to describe.
When she descends, even the starry sky on the moon becomes dim.
It is a very peculiar feeling.
Even the starry sky constructed by consciousness is also the opposite of the universe, existing in reality.
But in front of Finality, the entire starry sky seems like a canvas that can be altered at will.
Before anyone had seen the nature of Finality, the emotion named fear had already begun to rise.
This fear cannot be suppressed.
Like a mouse seeing a cat, it is an instinct that comes from deep within.
Even the strongest mouse, when faced with a cat, will always think of running rather than fighting.
Those who can stand here have all fought against the Honkai for their lives.
But even so, fear still comes along.
And after casting aside fear, there is restlessness.
The time of Finality's arrival is not short, but some have already begun to aim in that direction, taking out weapons to attack.
Chen Ran: "Why are there still weapons?"
Wendy: "You should ask Elysia about that."
War was about to break out.
They watched as bullets, propelled by force, quickly reached the place with the highest concentration of Honkai Energy.
There, a humanoid silhouette awaited.
When the bullets reached that figure, they vanished into thin air.
"Disappeared?"
Mobius elongated her voice: "How is that possible? Or is Finality's authority to collapse space?"
"I'll give it a try."
Kiana controlled the authority of the Herrscher of the Void, shooting the spear of subspace at that silhouette.
However, the result was the same.
Vill-V instinctively began to think.
"Is it a conversion between matter and consciousness? So Finality's authority is actually the ability to change the dimensions of any object."
"When our means of attack approach Finality, she can perform a special transformation on the object; if it is consciousness, it becomes matter, and if it is matter, it changes to consciousness."
Chen Ran: "Isn't this ability similar to that of the Imaginary Tree?"
The Imaginary Tree also has the ability to change properties.
Mobius: "I noticed this during the experiments as well."
She looked at Durandal.
Durandal said: "Then, to defeat her, we can use the same power, right?"
Although the last two words were phrased as a question, she still charged towards Finality.
At this moment, she had not obtained the Kaslana Stigmata's celestial inheritance and had lost the ability to communicate with the microcosm.
However, possessing a trace of Finality's power, she had enough capability on this battlefield.
This was a heavy bet that Chen Ran placed on all possibilities.
He had bet correctly.
When Durandal struck that humanoid silhouette with the Lance and it did not disappear, everyone gasped in surprise.
Wendy: "In that case, I can help too."
"Tempest, bow to me!"
Raiden Mei: "???"
The moon was originally a windless place, and everyone's words relied on the connection of consciousness.
However, Wendy unleashed a powerful storm, assisting Durandal in her assault on Finality.
The center of the highest concentration of Honkai Energy was ultimately dispersed.
At this moment, the appearance of Finality was finally captured by everyone.
It was a giant.
To be precise, she had chosen to appear in the form of a giant.
Like a sculpture that had not been painted, with smooth lines and all the beauty of art, yet it did not resemble normal life.
Cecilia: "It looks quite ordinary."
She held the Abyss Flower in her hand and also joined the battlefield.
Then, Kevin, holding the Judgment of Shamash, joined in as well.
The others did not participate but quietly waited for the right moment.
To be honest, at this moment, people saw hope in defeating Finality.
In everyone's sight, even Durandal and the others were pushing Finality back step by step. To be precise, Finality did not fight back, did not retaliate, like a sculpture.
However, Chen Ran's gaze grew increasingly serious.
He always felt that something was still missing, or rather, Finality seemed to be waiting for something.
For some reason, Chen Ran thought of his past conversation with the Will Overseer.
"We have always been communicating normally, just in a way that humans cannot yet understand; Honkai is our language, and every disaster is a voice we emit."
"Every Destruction is our embrace of civilization."
Chen Ran pondered.
Honkai as a language?
Then, have people now gained the right to understand this language of Honkai?
He suddenly thought of Otto's painstaking efforts to finally bring 'God' down in "Honkai Impact 2."
So, is destruction the best way to communicate?
Then, can human consciousness be seen as another form of communication with the 'Will Overseer'?
Perhaps human consciousness is what another 'Will Overseer' has bestowed.
And the contact between Honkai and humanity is merely an exchange between two 'wills.'
The 'intelligent beings' referred to by the Will Overseer do not denote humans themselves, but rather another 'Will Overseer' beyond human consciousness.
So, if communication with the Will Overseer can be achieved through the Herrscher Core, then the Stigmata hidden within the human body is the answer.
Chen Ran suddenly understood.
"Global connection is just the beginning."
"What we need to do next is the stacking of all Stigmata."
He is the architect of the global connection, so naturally, he also has the authority of an administrator.
And as Chen Ran manipulated these, Mobius exclaimed, "What are you doing?"
"Looking for help."
The power known as Stigmata began to pry open the entire space, and everyone felt their bodies infused with another kind of mysterious substance.
"This is... a voice?"
Mobius was somewhat uncertain.
Having 'died once,' she was more sensitive to such things.
Chen Ran said, "This is the source of human consciousness."
"In human cognition, life is a miracle born from a series of random probabilities, but no one has ever explained what allows a series of inorganic materials to arrange into organic matter and begin to manipulate properties freely, exhibiting signs of life."
"Human consciousness seems to come from nowhere."
"But if Honkai is the language of communication between the universe and civilization, then humanity is responding to Honkai in another language of civilization."
"The power stacked by Stigmata is the miracle that transcends Finality."
When Chen Ran stacked the powers of all Stigmata, the Herrscher of Finality began to move.
Honkai surged like a tide, beginning to lock onto Chen Ran, rather than attacking Durandal and the others.
Honkai Energy transformed into a tangible form, appearing as bows and arrows.
Then it shot towards Chen Ran, aiming to pierce him.
Everything came too quickly; even everyone had not reacted in time, only able to watch helplessly as the arrows made of Honkai Energy pierced into Chen Ran's body.
Then, it disappeared.
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