The Elysian Realm. Or, as it was also known, the Golden Garden.
Originally, near the end of the Previous Civilization Era, it had belonged to the world's most famous artist, who had also happened to be the world's wealthiest person. Eden.
She had stayed behind in her own era, in the end.
What a waste.
Before that, though, she'd gifted the Golden Garden to her friends, and they had planted a seed called 'hope' within it.
That was her blessing to the future.
Today, however…
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Domination Puppet Ling Ke stepped into the hall.
He took in the bar counter not far off, the archives on the other side, the workshop behind him, and the Door directly ahead.
Everything felt so familiar, and so foreign at the same time.
He walked slowly to the center of the hall.
"Just as I expected. Not a single Flame-Chaser wants to see me."
Surveying the silent space around him, Ling Ke, watching from behind the scenes, wasn't surprised by this result.
He knew the version of himself that existed now was rotten through.
Exactly like this era.
Genuinely, unambiguously no longer qualified to pursue anything that might be called beautiful.
Of course, he didn't care for such things anymore either.
So…
A villain had a villain's methods.
He'd come here to see one person.
Someone who, strictly speaking, didn't quite count as a 'memory body.'
"Show yourself, Aponia."
"I don't want to waste any more time."
"Kevin has already chosen to stand on my side."
"Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."
"As for you, or rather, all of you. Are you going to buy your era a 'second chance,' or watch with your own eyes as the Earth crumbles into cosmic dust?"
"Pick one."
His voice was cold beyond measure.
And then, finally…
*Fwoom.*
The air in the Realm's hall shifted.
A blistering, scorching presence surged through it.
In an instant…
Bang!
Domination Puppet Ling Ke was sent flying backward.
The right side of his face was already burned black.
And where he'd been standing a moment before, a masked male figure had appeared.
"Weak. Too weak."
The man was Kalpas, the sixth of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, a Fusion Warrior bearing the emblem of Oblivion. He spoke with arrogant contempt. "You're nowhere close to the last Herrscher who came here."
"At least she could hang on for a few seconds longer against me."
Silence.
In that instant, it wasn't only Domination Puppet Ling Ke who froze.
Inside the vast Theater of Domination, across every corner of Earth, and on the moon too, every Domination Puppet's movement locked up for a beat.
"Heh."
Inside the Theater of Domination, Ling Ke, sitting alone on his throne, let out a cold laugh.
"Of all the people to compare me to, it had to be Raiden Mei."
If the great minds of this era had been gathered in one place to witness this, their jaws would have hit the floor.
The Herrscher of Dominance. The one who left Otto uneasy, drove Kevin to sudden defection, put Welt between a rock and a hard place.
Apparently, a single blunt remark from a hot-headed brute had been enough to crack him.
And the kicker was that Kalpas hadn't meant it that way at all. It was a thoughtless comment that had landed by pure accident.
"Anger? No, that's not quite right."
"Grief-stricken fury? Hmm, closer."
"A clown seething with impotent rage? Maybe."
"But even if I am a clown, so what? As long as I get my revenge. Heh."
"A clown with power. However ridiculous he might look, how many people would actually dare to laugh at him?"
"That's just how the world works."
Ling Ke smiled self-mockingly. 'I just didn't think I still had this kind of "humanity"-adjacent weakness left in me.'
Still, he was no longer who he used to be.
The old him might have fallen into the trap of trying to prove himself. Might have turned into an overgrown child throwing a tantrum, trying every method to convince whoever had made that remark that he was superior to Raiden Mei.
But the Ling Ke of now knew that was the stupidest possible move.
Why prove anything?
Why seek approval?
Because some remark had gotten under his skin?
Fine.
Then he'd just get under everyone else's skin harder.
So…
"It seems you really favor that Herrscher you just mentioned. Even respect her, maybe."
In the hall of the Realm, Domination Puppet Ling Ke slowly rose to his feet.
The right side of his face had split open.
But no blood flowed from the wound, not the way it would from a normal person.
Instead, flakes of wood peeled away, revealing the real fracture beneath.
Wearing that half-shattered, horrifying, genuinely puppet-like face, he calmly smoothed his clothes and brushed the fragments off his body as if nothing had happened.
In one of the cracks, a fabricated eyeball and a row of teeth were visible.
This was what a real 'monster' looked like.
And this monster…
"Yeah. Raiden Mei. She's special."
"How should I put it?"
"Endearing? Pure and unspoiled? Effortlessly charming? Breathtakingly radiant? Kind and considerate? Unshakably resilient?"
Domination Puppet Ling Ke pressed a hand to his forehead like an actor on stage, reciting some script line from memory. "A real miscalculation. 'I' already have incredibly strong learning abilities, and I still forgot to pick up a little poetry on the side."
"Now I can't find the right words to describe what she actually is."
"But even so…"
He looked at Kalpas, grinned. More fragments fell from his face. "Just imagine. If I could take that beautiful face of hers, her soul, her power, her convictions…"
"And have every bit of it defiled. Desecrated. Dragged through the mud…"
"Until she submits. Until she falls. Damned beyond salvation."
He spread his hands wide. "There wouldn't be anything in this world more beautiful than that, would there?"
"Tch."
Kalpas clicked his tongue.
This guy was even more unhinged than he was.
The reason Kalpas had shown up in the hall of the Realm at all, becoming the first Flame-Chaser to meet Domination Puppet Ling Ke face to face, was simple. The Herrscher's story had some similarities to what had happened to Sakura's sister.
But now…
"You've turned into a real monster."
The moment the words left his mouth, he was already drawing back his fist for another strike.
But just then…
"Time's running short."
Domination Puppet Ling Ke pulled a pocket watch from somewhere, flicked it open with his right hand, and poked at it with his left. He spoke evenly. "Counting from when I became a Herrscher and was reborn, I'm still a very curious child."
"Running a few small experiments on the moon isn't unreasonable, is it?"
"For instance, using the Herrscher of Reason's Authority to install a few planetary, no, satellite thrusters?"
"Pop quiz."
Domination Puppet Ling Ke's voice suddenly jumped several registers. He raised his right hand, finger up, the pocket watch flying off as he gestured wildly. "When the moon falls, and assuming we make sure it doesn't break apart at the Roche limit first, where should we aim the impact?"
"The Indian Ocean? The Far East plate boundary? Yellowstone?"
Kalpas didn't understand any of this.
But Ling Ke's threat had been conveyed, indirectly, to every learned person inside the Realm.
And on that foundation…
"In the next thirteen hours, either my revenge plan succeeds, or the Earth comes apart at the seams."
"To be or not to be. Your choice."
"Either way, I'm not the one who needs to hurry."
Having said that, he kept his arms spread wide in the exact same posture, completely unchanged.
Not even bothering with the pretense of defending himself.
And then, finally…
"Please stop, Kalpas."
"You…"
A voice like a divine chord rang out through the hall of the Realm.
A nun appeared there, her eyes unfocused in the same way Ling Ke's were. Unlike his, though, hers held a faint flicker of life beneath the surface.
In that moment, a certain hot-headed brute was bound entirely by her single word. Or rather, by the power contained within that one word.
He trembled from head to toe, but couldn't advance a single inch further.
He could only grit his teeth and force out a few syllables.
"A-po-ni-aaaa!"
Seeing this…
"Oh. So that's what real impotent rage looks like."
Domination Puppet Ling Ke leaned in toward the immobilized Kalpas like a curious child, muttering that highly inappropriate observation.
His expression said 'I've learned something today,' which made the veins on Kalpas's forehead bulge.
But at this moment, he was just an unnecessary side character.
The real figures standing at the center of the 'stage' were the black-haired young man, and the nun toyed with by 'fate.'
From the shadows…
"A performative personality."
Eden, the fourth of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, bearing the emblem of Gold, hadn't revealed herself. She shook her head and sighed. "Ling Ke is hollow inside. He's been filling himself up with things learned from outside, crudely, recklessly."
"Pitiful. Tragic. A shame."
At the same time, in the hall of the Realm.
A voice rang out.
"Lost traveler, what is it you seek from me?"
The nun, Aponia, the third of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, bearing the emblem of Discipline, spoke slowly.
In response…
"An exact coordinate."
"A coordinate in 'time.'"
Domination Puppet Ling Ke didn't bother with any indirection. He asked straight out. "Tell me, Aponia."
"The Third Honkai Eruption of the Previous Civilization Era. How long ago did it actually happen?"
"I want the answer precise to the day."