Half an hour later.
With a thunderous roar of engines, the aft thrusters erupted in a torrent of energy that seemed to tear the very atmosphere apart. The Anti-Entropy airship climbed away from the base, piercing through the cloud cover and charting a course toward the predetermined target point in New Zealand's coastal waters.
"Silver Wing — are you certain you can keep this child's consciousness intact after she becomes a Herrscher?"
On the deck, Little Bianca turned to look at the silver-haired girl pushing the wheelchair.
After spending some time together, Bianca had come to clearly sense that the consciousness inhabiting the silver-haired girl was markedly different in personality from the Bronya she knew — and so had begun addressing her by codename.
"I believe in Bro— in Silver Wing sis!"
Before the silver-haired girl could even open her mouth, Wendy spoke from her wheelchair in a voice soft with gentle certainty, casting a few extra curious glances toward Little Bianca as she did.
She knew full well that the person inside was Schicksal's most powerful S-rank Valkyrie — yet the sight of a twelve-year-old little loli made Wendy feel decidedly strange about the whole situation.
Little Bianca shook her head with a small laugh and scratched her cheek. "It's not that I don't trust you — it's just…"
It was just that she genuinely could not imagine what method, aside from sheer personal willpower, existed in this era to sever the Cocoon of Finality's influence over a Herrscher.
"You'll see in a moment."
To Bianca's bewilderment and Rita's barely concealed envy, Silver Wing leaned in close to the golden-haired little loli, reached out, and gave those cheeks — soft as freshly kneaded glutinous rice dough — an unhurried squeeze.
Before Bianca could mount any flustered, indignant resistance, Daylight seized back control of the body — and, to Rita's violently contracting pupils and Kiana's utterly baffled stare, struck a cooperative pose and pressed up snugly against Silver Wing in a little nuzzle.
The air on the deck went abruptly silent.
The high-altitude winds meant nothing to an S-rank Valkyrie — but Rita's heart felt like it had been dunked in ice water. Not just cold. It hurt.
She hadn't even gotten to hug little Lady Bianca in her loli form yet!
And Silver Wing had just gone and grabbed her face without a second thought!
How could she — how could she do something so utterly, insufferably enviable — so utterly rude!
Rita stood rooted to the spot, watching little-little Bianca and the silver-haired girl nestled together in their rather intimate little pose, grinding her back molars hard enough to crack. The envy, jealousy, and barely suppressed resentment in her chest surged clear past the resentment gauge and almost took on physical form.
She wanted to hug little Bianca too!
Kiana, meanwhile, furrowed her brow. The girl she liked getting along well with her sister should have been something to celebrate — so why did something feel off?
[H-hey — other me? What exactly are you doing?]
With control of the body in a constant tug-of-war, Bianca had adapted well and grown used to the frequent switching. What struck her as strange now was the relationship between her other self and Silver Wing.
[Actually — Bronya and I are sisters.]
The slightly childlike, girlish voice that said this left Bianca utterly dumbfounded.
Since when were she and Bronya sisters?
[You know — we share the same husband. That kind of sisters.]
WHAT?!
Even a future, fully grown Bianca couldn't stop her brain from going completely blank at those words — as if a thermobaric bomb had detonated inside her skull, obliterating every thought and shattering her worldview in one blast.
She understood every single word individually. So why, strung together like that, did they make absolutely no sense?
Was this actually a human language?
The vertigo hit her like a hundred-ton hammer to the head. Her breathing nearly stopped.
Just what kind of world had her other self and Silver Wing come from?!
[I'm kidding.]
Daylight was thoroughly delighted.
Even all grown up, she was still Bianca — hilariously gullible. So fun to tease.
[…Hah… hah…]
So it was just a joke.
Bianca felt the personality gap between herself and her parallel world isotope firsthand.
Even if someone unscrewed her head and handed it to her, she would never come up with a joke like that.
Noticing Rita on the verge of gnawing her handkerchief to shreds, Silver Wing let the soft little Bianca go.
She could only say — thank goodness this box had been pulled in the Honkai World. If Daylight's character card had come out on the Star Rail side instead, it would have been a truly harrowing test of Caelus's emotional fortitude.
Pursue it?
That would be a bit inhuman.
Leave it?
What a waste.
Using it over here to mess with Bianca and Rita was, frankly, ideal.
Amid the bizarre and uniquely awkward atmosphere that Silver Wing and Daylight's combined antics had produced, the Anti-Entropy airship arrived at the optimal coordinates Einstein and Tesla had spent twelve hours calculating.
40.21° South latitude. The Tasman Sea, situated between Australia and New Zealand.
"Detecting Honkai energy reaction — concentration and yield both rising."
Tesla's characteristically breezy voice crackled through the comms, volume raised as she relayed the data.
"I think you could tell that without the data."
Silver Wing swept the data-stream projection screen aside and swept her gaze across the boundless ocean surface, lifting her eyes to the horizon where black clouds churned and roiled — every sign of a sudden, violent storm rolling in.
Countless Honkai energy vortices were converging on this location, drawn by the sinister crimson and the ethereal crystalline-pink luminous trails.
"Wendy — if believing in yourself feels too hard right now, then try believing in me, who believes in you."
Sensing the tension in Wendy's body and the tightening grip of her hand, Silver Wing freed herself gently and placed her palm on the girl's head, giving it a soft ruffle.
"Mm!"
The warm feeling settled in her chest, and Wendy gave a firm, earnest nod.
"Let's begin."
Silver Wing and Wendy boarded a small aerial craft and departed the airship.
"Bianca — barring any surprises, Durandal will be the first to arrive here. I'm leaving her to you."
Daylight activated Auto-Battle and returned control of the body to Bianca.
The golden-haired little loli let her smile fade and gave a serious nod. "Understood."
"Rin. Elysia."
Silver Wing glanced at the two pink-haired girls at her side.
"Oh my — this is the first time I've ever used this power to do something… naughty."
Elysia's expression was exactly that of a model student being dragged over the school fence by her best friend to sneak off to an internet café — she gulped, visibly nervous.
In theory, the Authority of the Origin Herrscher encompassed the ability to draw in Honkai energy, trigger a Great Eruption, and create Herrschers.
As the zeroth-sequence Herrscher, the Cocoon of Finality may well have created the Origin Herrscher specifically to accelerate civilization's 'embrace' of Honkai — it was simply that Elysia had chosen to become human.
Now, here in the Tasman Sea, the Honkai energy drawn out from New Zealand, the Gem of Desire, and a suitable vessel had piled up like accumulated dynamite, waiting for the smallest spark to set it all off.
Under normal circumstances, that spark would be the vessel's despair in the crucible of brutal, lethal circumstances.
But now — it would be the Origin Authority wielded by Elysia, supported in full by the divine Rin's Authority of [Memory].
Nowhere near the genuine, complete Origin Authority — but more than enough to light the fuse.
HMMM — BOOM!
——
High above the Tasman Sea near Australia, a predominantly white warship tore through the cloud cover and surged toward New Zealand.
Aboard it was the Immortal Blades squad, led by the most powerful S-rank Valkyrie herself — Durandal — who had originally been standing by in Australia after pacifying Honkai outbreaks in the Oceania region.
Ten hours ago, new orders had come down from the Bishop: proceed to New Zealand to reinforce Rita.
"Warning! Warning! High-level Honkai energy reaction detected!"
Without warning, the Immortal Blades intelligence operative who had been monitoring and measuring the scale of Honkai energy activity let out a sharp, ringing report.
"A large-scale Honkai energy reaction of unknown origin has been detected 279.9 kilometers ahead!! The growth trajectory of the Honkai source is showing a state of rapid exponential surge!"
"As of this moment, the scale of the Honkai source has reached 2,825 HW and is still climbing… Lady Durandal — it's a Great Eruption!"
"A Great Eruption — erupting in open sea?"
Staring at the marker on the projection screen, Durandal's brow furrowed deeply, an expression of puzzled skepticism crossing her face.
In theory, a Great Eruption shouldn't occur in a sea region far from any human population. That simply wasn't how it worked.
"I'll go on ahead."
After a brief silence, Durandal moved with swift, decisive steps. To the startled cries of the Immortal Blades squad members, she didn't hesitate for a single second — she slammed straight through the door and stepped off into open air.
Just like that, she dropped from thousands of meters up.
She spread her limbs mid-fall. The howling winds whipped her golden hair into a frenzy. The light wings on either side of her armored skirt ignited with blazing cerulean gamma particles, propelling Durandal across the sky like a meteor, trailing a long white line of sonic boom cloud in her wake.
Mach 3.
In a mere five minutes, Durandal reached the vicinity of the Honkai source — and beheld a scene of apocalyptic grandeur.
Thunderous black clouds rampaged across the heavens like splattered ink. Terrifying tsunamis churned across a vast stretch of sea. An enormous storm stood like a blade of steel rammed vertically into the ocean, sweeping everything between sky and sea.
And at the center of that storm — a beautiful figure, laughing wildly.
A pure white scarf coiled around her neck like flowing clouds, its frayed edges torn like remnant snow shredded by gales. A sky-blue dress traced a graceful silhouette. Azure-green wind wings extended from her waist. Snow-pale legs and jade feet fully bared to the storm.
A single glance was all Durandal needed to confirm — this was the Herrscher born from the Great Eruption.
She paid no attention to the Anti-Entropy airship hovering in the distance. There was nothing to say.
Durandal had always been a woman of action. A massive pure-white knight's lance materialized in her hand, its edge flashing cold light.
In the next instant, the most powerful S-rank Valkyrie erupted into supersonic speed.
A cerulean comet — closing the distance to the towering jade-green storm in the blink of an eye.
But just as Durandal bore down on the Herrscher at full speed, her pupils abruptly contracted in the next instant.
A bolt of azure-blue lightning shot out from the airship, blazing through the breaking dawn — and hurtled toward her at an equally supersonic velocity.
Two comets — one deep cerulean blue, one sky azure — carved two beautiful yet lethal trajectories across the air before colliding head-on, their paths merging in a violent clash.
A tremendous explosion erupted outward alongside a shockwave that sent waves surging across the sea in every direction. The two comets separated just as quickly as they had clashed, peeling apart an instant after impact.
It had been over in a heartbeat — but that fraction of a second's close-quarters exchange was more than enough for Durandal to get a clear look at the figure who had come blazing out of the dawn light. Her deep cerulean pupils shrank to pinpoints. An expression of pure, speechless disbelief spread across her face.
"You — who are you?!"
Golden hair. Blue eyes. That face — young, unformed, and yet utterly, unmistakably familiar.
It was unmistakably herself. At twelve years old.
The golden-haired little loli laughed and scratched her head. "A self-introduction? Sure, I'll do one — I'm Bianca Ataegina."
"Daughter of Siegfried and Cecilia. Kiana's older sister."
"My past self — could I ask you, please, not to interfere over there?"
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