Inside one of the Newborn World Serpent's temporary shelters, a facility they had used once before...
Vwoom~
The exhausted group passed through a golden-orange spatial gate and emerged directly inside.
No one was in the mood to speak.
They stayed only long enough to retrieve a few essential items before departing together for another backup base, one whose coordinates Dr. Einstein had never known and which had never been activated before.
By then, MEI had temporarily transferred the Herrscher of the Void's Core to Elysia's Original Body, who was also wearing a Key of Blankness.
MEI's mental state had reached its lowest point.
The death of her father left her wanting nothing more than to be alone in silence. She had no desire to deal with anything, and even her research could no longer stir the slightest interest within her.
An air of absolute despair surrounded her, as though she were ready to abandon everything.
Seeing her like this...
"..."
Kevin had no idea how to comfort her.
After all, MEI was not the only person who had abruptly lost someone dear to her that day.
Meanwhile, in another room, the younger Kevin reached the bedside but collapsed onto the floor instead.
He rested the back of his head against the edge of the bed, desperately trying to hold back his tears.
But in the end...
Thud~
Thud~
Thud~
Still too young to endure such grief, he could only strike the back of his head repeatedly against the soft edge of the mattress.
Had the bed not cushioned each blow, he might have injured himself badly enough to draw blood.
Elsewhere...
"..."
After completing the teleportation, Elysia did not keep the Herrscher of the Void's Core on her person.
Her Sim, who appeared more capable of enduring such pain, thoughtfully accepted that heavy responsibility instead.
She would be responsible for preserving everyone's escape route.
Elysia's Original Body now held a palm-sized electronic device.
On its screen played a recording from a day when she and Eden had gone shopping together. Some fans had recognized Eden, and the two women had fled hand in hand, laughing as they ran.
Back then, Elysia's life had been relatively carefree.
Even after joining The Moths Who Chase the Flames and beginning to undertake missions, her daily life had remained comfortable.
But now...
So this is the pain you've endured more than once?
My "other self"... this truly is too much to bear.
That night, Elysia was not the only person suffering.
Nor were they the only ones.
Sim Kosma, Aponia, and...
"..."
In South America, Pardo lay inside her small tent with her right hand resting against her forehead, tears gathering in her eyes.
When the Newborn World Serpent Headquarters came under attack that day, she...
She had been asleep.
Yes, the timing had truly been that cruel.
Pardo clearly possessed the power to prevent the tragedy.
Yet at the most critical moment, she had failed to wake up.
By the time she finally did, everything was already over.
The global uprising. The birth of the Sixth Herrscher.
She had missed all of it.
Everything happened within an incredibly short period.
And through it all, Pardo had remained asleep.
Now...
"It's happening again! It's happening again!!!"
It was just like the Eleventh Honkai Eruption from the original timeline she remembered.
Back then, the Tragedy of Binding had erupted in full while she was unconscious.
Her familiar comrades and the members of her squad had all perished within the hundred-kilometer radius of the Grace Field.
She had not even known when they died.
And today, it had happened again...
"Can."
Meow?
Pardo turned toward her ever-present companion.
"What should I do?"
Meow~
Clearly, the cat had no answer either.
Can-chan could only hop over to Pardo and gently pat her shoulder with its soft paw pads.
Beyond that, there was nothing more it could do.
"No!"
Pardo abruptly sat upright.
"There is one thing I can do."
Two days passed.
For all of humanity, they were two days of numbness.
Within the Newborn World Serpent, many remained weighed down by grief after the destruction of their headquarters.
Kevin, however, refused to give up.
On the day of the incident, after everyone else had evacuated to safety, Kevin returned to the ruins of the former headquarters.
He stood beside the abyssal crater, a chasm that rivaled even the sinkhole left by Sundown Alley in the Middle East.
He searched for any trace of the Herrscher of Stars, determined to eliminate her as quickly as possible.
This time, he would not repeat his past mistakes.
However...
He failed.
It was not that Kevin allowed the Herrscher of Stars to escape without fighting her that day.
The problem was simply that he could not kill her.
The two met in a fierce head-on battle and fought to a stalemate.
In fact, by wielding her Authority of Gravity with extraordinary skill, the Herrscher of Stars held a slight advantage.
Yes.
An ordinary Herrscher of Stars who possessed the Authority of Gravity would normally do little more than manipulate gravity.
It would be much like a certain Herrscher of Thunder who controlled electromagnetism yet knew only how to function as a glorified power bank.
But the Herrscher of Stars born that day had a top-tier research scientist as her vessel.
When she wielded the Authority of Gravity, she directly...
Used gravity to influence time.
That's right.
This was the reason Kevin could not defeat the newly born Herrscher of Stars.
What she produced was not an ordinary "Global Time Fracture" that could be shattered through brute force.
It had not reached the level of the "Absolute Time Fracture" available only to the Herrscher of Finality, but it was still something formidable.
A "Temporal Flow Shift."
Fighting the current Herrscher of Stars meant struggling within a field of chaotic temporal flow, like trying to move through thick mud.
Kevin never knew whether his next movement would suddenly slow to a crawl or accelerate so violently that he lost his balance.
The Herrscher of Stars, however, knew the precise locations of every "Acceleration Zone" and "Deceleration Strip."
By accelerating herself, she could become a "Speedster" capable of rivaling the Herrscher of Thunder.
On top of that, the turbulent gravitational fields she generated could be reduced to relentless pulling forces that came from every direction.
During the battle, Kevin's Judgement of Shamash would suddenly become unbearably heavy, only to turn as light as a feather a moment later.
At other times, a violent gravitational pull would form between the weapon and his own head.
One second, Kevin would be gripping his Flame Sword securely. The next, his legs would refuse to obey him.
There was no reliable way to defend against it.
This was yet another demonstration of what one of the universe's four fundamental forces could achieve in battle.
Because of this...
From that day onward, Kevin Kaslana, the "Returnee," was no longer invincible.
A being had appeared on present-day Earth who could rival him, or perhaps even surpass him slightly.
Their fierce battle nearly destroyed the entire African continent.
In the end, however, Kevin had no choice but to retreat.
As a MANTIS, he possessed an inherent disadvantage when confronting a true Herrscher.
A MANTIS could not continuously replenish Honkai Energy through a direct connection to Imaginary Space.
It was true that Kevin possessed an extraordinarily long "mana bar."
But the newly born Herrscher of Stars could match him even in that regard.
Moreover, her "mana regeneration" had been completely maxed out.
In a short battle, neither of them could secure victory.
But if the battle continued...
Kevin's probability of defeat would only increase.
After observing their confrontation, Ling Ke offered his assessment:
"It was like Super Vegeta's first humiliating encounter with Android 18."
In short, the Herrscher of Stars possessed an exceptionally unconventional fighting style.
Combined with the advanced scientific knowledge of her vessel, Dr. Einstein, the newborn Herrscher consciousness displayed an even more brilliant level of combat performance.
After Kevin failed to defeat her alone, several other Flame-Chaser-level combatants rushed to the battlefield.
Among them were Sim Elysia, wearing the Key of Blankness; Sim Su, who had stepped onto the Path of Nihility; and Sakura, wielding the Divine Keys Seven Thunders of Retribution and Jizo Mitama.
Even then, the Herrscher of Stars escaped without suffering any injuries.
It could not be helped.
Against an enemy who had constructed her own "Field," overwhelming her through sheer numbers was no longer practical.
Too many people moving within that turbulent gravitational field would only increase the risk of friendly fire.
Unless they possessed, like Ling Ke, an absurd number of combatants capable of drowning her in sheer force, numbers would accomplish nothing.
Kevin and the others clearly lacked that option.
Ordinary combatants would be killed instantly merely by approaching the special "Field" where time and gravity had descended into chaos.
Its lethality was only slightly weaker than the "Grace Field" deployed by the Herrscher of Binding in the original timeline.
Thus, even in a direct confrontation, the Herrscher of Stars had already become effectively invincible.
Afterward, the atmosphere within the Newborn World Serpent grew even heavier.
Even Kevin's morale suffered a serious blow.
He had believed the emergence of the Herrscher of Stars and her immense power were the worst possible news.
The next piece of bad news arrived almost immediately.
Aponia could no longer forcibly control the high-ranking members of the major factions.
They had gone berserk, and their methods of enforcing "Discipline" had become utterly extreme.
Everyone immediately understood that this was undoubtedly the work of the Herrscher of Blood.
Prometheus Prime had already extracted and analyzed clues from the special synthesized audio recording.
MEI was currently in no condition to work. Vill-V and Sim Vill-V were missing, while no one could establish contact with Sim Mobius.
As a result, the newly born super-AI cluster had become the foremost scholar remaining within their faction.
Yet at this critical moment...
"High-energy fluctuations from the Herrscher of Stars detected."
"She... is heading toward the Mu Continent."
Only a few people were present in the backup base's war room that day.
Clearly, not everyone could recover from psychological trauma as easily as the protagonists of a hot-blooded story.
One attendee, however, was particularly unexpected.
Kiana, someone who had not even been born in this era, was present.
Besides Kiana and Kevin Kaslana, only Sim Su, who had already stepped onto the Path of Nihility, and Sim Eden had gathered there.
Only four people remained in a room that had once been packed.
Sim Kevin was not absent because his mental state had deteriorated.
Vill-V's previous covert operation had simply become known to everyone.
After being burned once, Sim Kevin was no longer willing to interfere in matters that were not his responsibility.
His exact words had been:
"You make the decisions. I'll handle the execution."
Sim Elysia had reached a similar decision.
Having already endured far more suffering, she was indeed much more resilient than the "younger generation."
Inside the war room...
Prometheus Prime continued her report.
"At present, there are no signs that the Herrscher of Stars has joined forces with either the Herrscher of Blood or the Herrscher of Thunder."
"However, after reaching the Mu Continent, she forcibly activated every mechanical factory and began continuously producing ELFs."
"At the same time, the deployed ELF Units are rapidly constructing Sea of Quanta Portals."
After hearing this...
"Could Dr. Einstein still retain some control over her body despite the Herrscher consciousness?" Kiana asked.
Sim Su shook her head.
"No. I believe you have misunderstood, Miss Kiana."
Her eyes remained closed as she patiently explained.
"You may not be aware that the Sea of Quanta Portal is more than a path to survival. It can transform regions into World Bubbles and create sanctuaries similar to Subspace Fields..."
"But it can also be used as a high-yield weapon."
"A weapon capable of tearing continents apart, far more terrifying than a nuclear bomb."
At that point, Sim Eden joined the explanation.
"In the original timeline of this era, even the Ninth Herrscher, who nearly devoured the entire Mu Continent by creating a massive Pseudo-Black Hole, could not produce such devastation so easily."
"In other words, there is a limit to how much destruction a Herrscher can cause through her own power."
"But if she uses external forces, as the Herrscher of Blood did..."
That was precisely why Herrschers of this kind were the most terrifying of all.
Look at the Herrscher of Blood.
In a direct confrontation, she could not defeat Kevin or Elysia. She might not even have been capable of defeating Kalpas, Sakura, or Fu Hua.
Yet she had single-handedly thrown the entire world into chaos and caused billions of deaths.
Operation Impostor. Operation Cold Wave. Operation Long-life Species. And...
In short, if this continued, and the Herrscher of Stars was allowed to use her intelligence to complete one Sea of Quanta Portal after another...
"Over the coming days, I'll make repeated trips and destroy as many of those portals under construction as possible," Kevin declared.
"It could be a trap," Sim Su warned.
"I know."
Kevin nodded.
"But we have no other choice. We must act."
He felt a small measure of relief.
Fortunately, although Sim Elysia didn't attend today's meeting, she isn't the one who has fallen into despair.
With her help, the Key of Blankness can wield the Herrscher of the Void's Authority and allow us to travel rapidly across the globe.
At the very least, our efficiency in destroying the Sea of Quanta Portals won't be too low.
However...
Kevin had oversimplified the problem.
"The situation is considerably more complicated than that, Mr. Kevin," Prometheus Prime interjected.
As she spoke, she projected an image onto one wall of the conference room.
The scene revealed...
!!!
Everyone in the room gasped in shock.
Even Sim Su's eyes opened slightly.
At the construction site of a Sea of Quanta Portal, a large number of humans were working alongside a still relatively small contingent of ELF Units, transporting materials together.
The implication was unmistakable.
It was as though the enemy were openly declaring:
You want to destroy my Sea of Quanta Portals?
Fine.
Then you'll have to slaughter these innocent humans with your own hands.
They were all "hostages."
Every one of them believed they were desperately fighting for a future for themselves and their descendants.
They believed they were building an escape route, a hope for survival.
In reality, they were merely one unfortunate person after another, being exploited by the Herrscher of Stars.
Clearly, despite not yet joining forces with the Herrscher of Blood or the Herrscher of Thunder, the newly born Herrscher of Stars was already taking advantage of the chaos created by those two, particularly the rampage of the Disciplines.
How ironic, Ling Ke mused.
At that moment, aboard the Astral Express, he lounged sideways across the circular sofa in the Observation Car while Sirin gently cleaned his ears.
To protect humanity, you must first destroy it.
And that was not all.
Kevin and the others still clung to their mission of "Deliverance."
But if they attempted to destroy the soon-to-be-weaponized Sea of Quanta Portals...
...the very survivors they sought to save would brand them as villains determined to destroy the world.
Now, it seemed...