A blue-and-white tail came into view.
-----------------------------
Holding onto the tail, Bailu used both her hands and feet, skillfully climbing upward along it.
Back in the Scalegorge Waterscape, she had built a solid relationship with the big guy!
As for this little one, Godzilla treated her the same way he treated Stelle, with a laissez-faire attitude.
Anyway, as long as the kid is cute, that's enough. The adults can handle the rest.
As for why Bailu suddenly appeared on Jarilo-VI… Godzilla searched his mind for news from Luofu that had arrived recently.
A group of reckless fools had tried to challenge him.
He flicked his tail lightly, letting Bailu experience the thrill of speed, though his heart was full of disdain.
He withdrew his attention again.
A bunch of worms left behind by the times dare to dream of ruling the world?
...
While the friendship between Godzilla and Bailu glimmered, under Gepard's protection, Lingsha met Jarilo-VI's Great Guardian.
"I've long heard of the Great Guardian of Jarilo-VI, strong and formidable, truly a woman who stands equal to men. Seeing you today, your reputation proves true."
"Miss Lingsha, you flatter me," Bronya replied with a smile.
In the past, Bronya might have felt shy at such praise. But after so much experience, compliments? She could take more of them.
If possible, Bronya wished everyone who came to Jarilo-VI could wear such a friendly face. It would greatly reduce the chances of major incidents.
After dismissing her attendants, Bronya got straight to the point.
"Miss Lingsha, is your visit to Jarilo about those people?" Bronya fixed her eyes on Lingsha, trying to read her expression.
With a small nod, Lingsha said softly, "They are fools who tried to meddle in a realm that does not belong to them."
Bronya nodded, silently understanding.
Jarilo-VI was Godzilla's domain. To conduct an investigation here without being noticed, those people were thinking far too highly of themselves.
If she couldn't even maintain this level of control, how could she dare to bear the title of Great Guardian?
Looking at Bronya's confidence, Lingsha shook her head slightly.
A complete reshuffle in the next Alliance meeting seemed inevitable.
As for why Jing Yuan and the others hadn't taken action yet, there was a reason behind that.
Lingsha had considered that path, but the fools hidden within the Alliance were deeply rooted, many in high positions.
Without absolute evidence, even the mighty Arbiter-Generals could do nothing.
··
Honkai Impact World.
The battle on Coral Island still raged on.
Though its intensity was gradually fading as time went on.
"He's just a mere human! How can he be this strong?!"
The subspace spear was knocked away again. The Herrscher of the Void could no longer keep her composure, shock overflowed from her eyes.
"A warrior of the Previous Era." Theresa bit her lip, leaning against Judah, unable to respond for a long time.
As a pure brute-force fighter and weapons expert, she was used to overpowering others easily.
But this time, the result was clear, she was utterly crushed in the area she was best at, not even a glimmer of hope left.
Even Fu Hua was shaken by Kevin's strength.
Then again, unlike herself, Kevin didn't have to bear the burden of excessive memories, allowing him to retain his complete strength and experience.
While she had suffered one injury after another over the years, Kevin had only grown stronger, his fighting spirit unbroken. No wonder the gap had widened so much.
But this also meant things were getting worse.
With a grim face, Fu Hua's mind spun rapidly, trying to find a way to defeat Kevin.
Just then,
"ROAR!!"
A furious roar echoed through skies and earth. The shockwave scattered the clouds in the sky, and the overwhelming pressure flattened the surrounding area.
A massive, deep-blue figure spread its wings. As it appeared, the once-clear sky darkened, replaced by stormy blue streaked with flashes of thunder.
"Bella!" The Herrscher of the Void froze for a moment, blurting out in excitement.
"The dragon Benares," Theresa said instinctively.
The Herrscher of the Void shot the short girl an irritated glare, then lifted herself into the air.
In the blink of an eye, the great dragon folded its wings, shielding its queen behind it, glaring at Kevin with thunder-filled eyes.
Its aura was no weaker than that of a Herrscher's, commanding attention.
"The addition of a judgment-class Honkai beast won't change the situation," Durandal said, frowning slightly.
"ROAR!" Benares turned its head, growling angrily at Durandal.
Seeing this, the Herrscher of the Void gently stroked Benares' cold forehead, soothing it softly.
Though her pride refused to let her admit it, she knew, Bella's arrival wouldn't change much.
The man before them was a monster among monsters, one far beyond even Herrschers.
A monster like this… was human? Impossible.
Watching the tense standoff, Himeko furrowed her brow.
The situation was terrible.
"If only I could bring my railgun in here," Himeko muttered softly.
As someone more suited to logistics than direct combat, she could fix a train, but fighting a monster like this? Impossible.
She couldn't win. Not even close.
"The strongest fusion warrior of the Previous Era, Kevin Kaslana truly lives up to the name," said Welt from the future.
Even after everything he'd been through, this power still felt like standing before a natural disaster.
Not that he couldn't fight back, he could, but he chose not to interfere, knowing Kevin's pride.
[T/N: Yea, just because Kevin says he won't, you don't even try to save your student. Lol. ]
If Kevin said he wouldn't harm Kiana, that was an absolute guarantee.
So he stayed on the sidelines, watching.
But if Kevin ever decided to kill Kiana... then the Kiana who had crossed time through Godzilla's dream, the one who had become The Herrscher of Finality and one of the strongest Emanator, would not allow it.
[T/N: Again, how will she get to know, she did not come to the past.]
Unlike the others, Kevin's eyes lifted slightly as he looked at the massive Benares and said calmly, "You have a fine companion."
A judgment-class Honkai beast, back in the Previous Era, the discovery of one would have triggered a full-scale assault to annihilate it.
He hadn't expected to see one now, fighting alongside humans.
Was this an illusion…?
"This ends here." His voice was calm, as if he were asking what to have for breakfast tomorrow. But even before they could grasp his meaning, a crushing pressure gripped their hearts.
As the sharpest spear and strongest shield of the Previous Era's anti-Honkai force, the fusion warriors' power wasn't just physical.
They possessed the ability of Artificial Eruption, to release the Honkai beast within.
This granted them overwhelming strength capable of changing the tide of battle.
As a participant in Project Chimaera, Kevin was different. He had fused countless Honkai beast genes, giving him endlessly shifting forms, the embodiment of destruction itself.
This was true, absolute power.
Neither the weakened Fu Hua nor even Durandal, the strongest Valkyrie of Schicksal, could see any hope before him.
Of course, Kevin wouldn't use Artificial Eruption unless necessary.
But even now, without it, as he drew on every ounce of strength within his body,
"This is the Mark of Salvation!"
...
Centered on this place, the area within a ten-mile radius was shrouded in solid ice. From a distance, it looked like a land of snow and frost, and the chill pierced straight to the heart.
"Lord Durandal! Lady Theresa! Everyone, "
Rita, who had hurried over, looked at the land before her that seemed like another world, her delicate body trembling uncontrollably.
Fortunately, in response to her anxious call,
There was a loud bang!
A fist broke through the thick layer of ice above, shattering the frost that covered its owner.
"Lady Theresa!"
Theresa's appearance was like a signal. One after another, familiar sounds echoed as people broke through the ice and reappeared.
Seeing this scene, the turmoil in Rita's heart was barely soothed.
She was just about to speak when she noticed that everyone looked completely dispirited.
They only lost a battle, why such despair? Rita felt puzzled.
For them, a mere defeat shouldn't bring about such dejection.
They lose, they train harder, and win next time.
That was the way of Valkyries.
Suddenly, she noticed something was missing on the scene.
"Miss Kiana..." Rita hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"...Kiana was taken by World Serpent," Theresa said quietly, her voice low.
"What?!" At Theresa's words, Rita's eyes widened in disbelief.
Her gaze swept across the people present, but no matter how she searched, the familiar white-haired, silly girl was nowhere to be seen.
Rita had no choice but to accept the cruel truth, Kiana had really been captured.
How could that be possible?! There was the strongest Valkyrie of Schicksal, S-rank Valkyrie Theresa, two complete Herrschers, and... wasn't there even the leader of Anti-Entropy here?
Regardless, even without the strongest one among them, this force could easily crush the world itself.
Yet under such protection, someone still managed to capture Kiana.
A wave of helplessness welled up inside her.
She was on the opposite end of the city and was stuck with defeating the strengthened Honkai monsters and helping the other Valkyries.
But she could tell that even if she had been here, it would not be of much help.
An S-rank Valkyrie was already beyond human. Everyone involved in that fight couldn't even be called human anymore.
"Sorry, I still underestimated Kevin's strength." Fu Hua stood up, lips pressed tightly, expression solemn.
Mei raised her dazed face slightly, then shook her head slowly.
"No, it's not your fault, class monitor."
No one could have predicted that the leader of World Serpent would be so overwhelmingly powerful.
So powerful that the word "human" no longer applied.
Her eyes swept over the scene. When they met Welt's and Himeko's gazes, they briefly lingered before moving away.
Raiden Mei wanted to question why they hadn't fought during the battle.
But she quickly stopped herself. They were people from the future.
No matter what happened now, in the future they had already defeated Honkai, and they had met their future selves, along with Kiana. That meant Kiana would be fine.
If they acted rashly, things might turn for the worse instead.
Calming herself with that thought, Mei slowly steadied her heart.
But her hands remained tightly clenched.
'Kiana, no matter what the future holds, I will bring you back!'
Welt noticed Mei's determined gaze but said nothing.
In truth, his thoughts were the same as hers.
He could change this past, but only to the extent of saving lives from imminent danger, nothing more.
Those who toy with time are destined to be toyed with by time.
Of course, no rule is absolute. If one possessed absolute power, then manipulating time itself would not be difficult.
But that was not within his reach.
In Tesla's eyes, Welt didn't have many strengths, but self-awareness was definitely one of them.
Even if sometimes he didn't know when to stop.
[T/N: I call this pure bullshit, there are already people from HSR coming to this world, who knows if the future will be the same and it won't start to go in a different way. It would not be a problem saving someone from being killed, but helping them means it causes major changes. ]
"If we want to rescue Kiana, we have to understand our enemy. Fu Hua, you fought him just now. You should know something about him."
Durandal spoke in a low voice, her gaze firm as she looked at Fu Hua.
Everyone else also turned their attention to her.
They hadn't had time to ask earlier, but now they couldn't afford to delay.
Especially Mei, Theresa, and Himeko, this was about saving Kiana.
Meeting their expectant eyes, Fu Hua took a deep breath and began slowly.
"To explain Kevin and me... we have to go back to a very long time ago..."
...
Having withdrawn from Coral Island and rescued Raven and Chen Tianwu along the way, Kevin stopped on a small island.
"That pseudo-Herrscher from earlier..."
Recalling the figure he had glimpsed before leaving, Kevin's expression turned distant, though he quickly regained composure.
Just moments before he had been about to finish off the Herrscher of Ice, his gaze had caught a familiar silhouette.
Sakura was dead, there was no doubt about that.
Just like how the face of that Herrscher of Thunder resembled someone from his memory, so did that fleeting image of the past belong to someone from his era.
And what he had to do now was bring the person most important to him into this era.
The era most likely to defeat Honkai.
"It will work," Kevin murmured.
Just then,
"Lord, why didn't you finish off the Herrscher of Ice before leaving?" Raven asked curiously.
Although she and Owl had been waiting below, they had still witnessed Kevin's outburst of power.
Kevin was the strongest person Raven had ever seen in her life. Even Herrschers were nothing before that kind of force.
"There's no need. The objective is already achieved. Just a Herrscher, those people can handle the rest," Kevin replied calmly with a glance back.
"Alright then," Raven shrugged indifferently.
After all, she wasn't the one running World Serpent. As long as she got paid, that was all that mattered.
"By the way, can this thing still be repaired?"
She squatted down and poked at Chen Tianwu's frozen joints with her claw. From the high-speed friction earlier, the frost had melted slightly, but the cold still lingered.
"...If you don't use it to sharpen your claws, it should be fine," Chen Tianwu sighed, glancing at the sparks flying from Raven's fiddling.
Raven laughed awkwardly. "Heh, well, it was right there, you know."
Shaking his head, Chen Tianwu stood slowly, looking at Kevin. His tone was calm.
"Lord, can you send me back?"
"Hm?" At that request, Kevin paused, meeting Chen Tianwu's gaze. After a moment of silence, he said, "You can't do much if you go back."
"I know." Looking at the man whose dark circles almost matched Raven's cloak, Kevin stayed silent.
He knew that determination all too well. Once again, the image of that pink-haired figure surfaced before him.
Exhaling softly, Kevin spoke.
"Raven, send him back."
At those words, Raven froze instantly, her expression stiffening.
"Lord, I think I'm seriously injured... I might not be fit for that task."
She wasn't blind, the person Kevin was carrying... wasn't that Saint Freya's beloved Kiana Kaslana?
If she went back now, those women would tear her apart.
Kevin glanced at her coldly.
"Gray Serpent, triple Raven's payment for this mission."
"...Everything's negotiable," Raven said quickly.
At that moment, Kevin looked like a person draped in radiant light in her eyes.
As Raven hurried off, Kevin lowered his gaze to the peacefully sleeping white-haired girl.
His eyes softened, like an iceberg melting under sunlight.
He could no longer recall when emotions, memories, warmth,
All the things that made humans human, had disappeared from his world.
Until he saw that faint glimmer of hope again.
If that was all it took,
"I, Kevin Kaslana... will make it happen."
-------------------------
T/N: I doubt if Welt from the future would be able to defeat Kevin, but acting like a bystander and helping just because of some things may go wrong is too much.