Kevin said: "Yeah, I've already shouldered too much. Now I don't even dare slurp my noodles too loudly, afraid that fans outside might see me."
"…"
Kosma was speechless: "That's not what I meant. I originally thought that a hero stands in front of everyone, saves the world from peril, enjoys people's love, support, admiration, and respect. But in the end…"
Kevin put away his joking tone and spoke seriously: "The reason heroes become heroes isn't because they possess overwhelming power or an absolutely just heart. It's simply because, at the moment of crisis, they made that choice."
"Mmm…" Kosma nodded.
He took out his phone, wanting to see how everyone would evaluate him.
He opened the group chat.
The first messages that popped up were:
"Holy crap dude, what the hell is wrong with this damn director? Treating the Flame-Chasers like this? Stabbing them harder than anyone else—how much grudge do you even have?!"
"It hurts!! It really hurts so much. Griseo and Kosma genuinely made me feel awful."
"Just because she was afraid Kosma would be lonely, she offered up her own life. Kosma probably never even realized Griseo understood him that well, right?"
"The child who was always being protected by everyone… was actually protecting them all along. I'm going to cry myself to death."
"Damn it, I have no choice but to keep watching the livestream now. Kosma really is a hero."
"Kosma always yearned to be a hero, always thought himself too cowardly. But he didn't know—he had already become the hero in everyone's hearts long ago."
"AHHHHHHH, Herrscher of Corruption, I'm going to devour you alive! I want to become someone who exterminates Honkai too!!"
"I'm so pissed, so pissed! If I could jump into the TV right now, I'd be a die-hard anti-Honkai fighter!"
"I finally understand why so many people joined World Serpent. I want to join World Serpent too! What's wrong with experimenting on a whole city? As long as we can wipe out Honkai, wipe out Herrschers—I can become even more deranged, even more insane!"
"I used to think World Serpent was crazy. Now I feel like they're still not crazy enough, not deranged enough."
"Kevin!! Why can't you be even more deranged? Why didn't you just kill her before the Herrscher of Corruption even arrived?!"
"…"
At this moment, audiences across the entire country were roaring in fury.
The complaints directed at Kevin were countless.
After reading them, Kosma decisively turned off the screen. He felt this was something Kevin standing beside him absolutely could not know about.
"Ahem… Let's just keep watching TV."
Kevin gave a light nod and turned his gaze back to the screen.
On the television,
The Herrscher of Corruption was filled with incomparable rage.
Before this, the reasons others had chosen self-sacrifice already seemed absurd enough in her eyes.
"And now, for an even more absurd reason…"
"You're all just going to… throw away your lives so easily?"
Fu Hua's voice suddenly rang out: "…Buying time. As beings of data, this is the only thing we can do in front of you."
"And they… these two children… have already done their absolute best."
The Herrscher of Corruption stood in place, looking at the lone girl standing before her, seemingly trying to comprehend what, in her view, was utterly meaningless.
"So… it was you who brought them here after they had already become a painting, Fu Hua?"
Her tone was somewhat strange.
Before this… she had never displayed such an emotion—something close to exhaustion and helplessness.
"That painting… what did it look like? Could you let me see it too?"
Fu Hua replied: "It's already too late. You personally eroded that painting to nothing just moments ago."
"…I know."
"Can you describe it to me? I'm just… a little curious."
"…"
Recalling Griseo's final work, Fu Hua fell into momentary contemplation.
On that painting composed entirely of black and gray, countless lines burst forth chaotically, as if it were merely a child's carefree scribble.
She did not know the technique Griseo had used, nor could she speak of its deeper meaning.
But for some reason, that scene reminded Fu Hua of something she had once glimpsed in reality—
It was a question Griseo had once asked Kosma: "Kosma, Kosma! What does Daybreak mean?"
Kosma had answered: "Let's explain it with your Signet. The stars you can see in the sky… Daybreak is the light emitted by the one closest to us."
Griseo asked curiously: "So it's not special at all?"
Kosma gently shook his head and said: "No, it is very special. Although it arrives too early and cannot illuminate anything yet. But when people see it, they know—since stars fill the sky…"
"…then countless more rays of light are on their way… sooner or later."
Fu Hua took a deep breath: "…Describing it in words has already exceeded my ability."
"Moreover, I'm afraid you are not the viewer Griseo was hoping for."
The Herrscher of Corruption took a deep breath and said: "Then, Fu Hua… the feeling I experienced when I deleted Kosma—you must be feeling it right now too, aren't you?"
"The sensation of personally sending a comrade to death… isn't pleasant, is it."
Fu Hua said coldly: "This is not sorrow. It is the respect I must give them. Next… it will be my turn to fulfill my own mission…"
"…"
"Mission?" The Herrscher of Corruption's earlier emotion vanished in an instant. She asked: "Oh… Fu Hua, you mean… the so-called original plan? What exactly is that?"
Fu Hua assumed a combat stance: "I will reveal to you the true meaning… behind their sacrifice."
The true meaning?
The Herrscher of Corruption did not care about that.
She directly summoned countless monsters to block Fu Hua in place, while she herself went to pursue Mei.
As the omniscient and omnipotent being within the Elysian Realm, she was still unable to learn of their plan—this filled her with extreme unease. She had to hurry and catch up.
Fu Hua knew this as well.
What they lacked most right now was time. She had to stop the Herrscher of Corruption at all costs to buy even a little more time for Mei.
She immediately unleashed the power of Fenghuang Down, dragging the monsters into illusions while she struck them down with all her strength.
But at that very moment,
A brand-new virus arrived, causing the monsters that had been besieging Fu Hua to suddenly turn on and slaughter each other.
This scene took everyone by surprise.
Although Fu Hua did not understand what was happening, she quickly gave chase.
The Herrscher of Corruption stood angrily in the distance. She sensed it—this power belonged to Mobius, who should have already died, borrowing the virus power of the previous Herrscher of Corruption.
Faced with this, the Herrscher of Corruption launched a counterattack, directing her own virus toward Klein's side and eroding the data of Klein, who was in the process of replicating the virus to launch a counteroffensive…
At that moment,
She witnessed a scene she could not accept: Mobius, who had always clung desperately to survival, actually sacrificed her own life to repair the eroded portion of Klein, dying in her place.
"…"
"This really is difficult, isn't it?"
The Herrscher of Corruption looked at the arriving Fu Hua and said: "No matter what happens—even if hurt, even if betrayed… still loving everything equally and powerfully."
"Back then…"
"When faced with a similar situation, how did she manage it?"
Fu Hua answered: "No one knows. That's precisely why she is Elysia."
The Herrscher of Corruption said: "Then do you also believe… that I cannot do such a thing, and can never become her?"
The answer was obvious.
"…Fine, fine. Now I also admit it."
"Hah… hahahahaha…"
The Herrscher of Corruption let out a sharp laugh: "But that doesn't matter. The solution is very simple… All those things I cannot force myself to continue loving… as long as they all disappear, won't that settle it?"
"I finally understand. I don't need to force myself to love everything at all. I just need to create the things I'm willing to love, and destroy everything else. Isn't that… much simpler?"
The frenzied monsters around her—driven mad by Mobius's virus—suddenly fell silent in this moment and gradually began to disintegrate…
Her gaze locked onto Fu Hua.
"Fu Hua, next it's your turn…"
Before the Herrscher of Corruption could finish speaking,
In the very next instant, a blazing firelight pierced straight through her chest, bursting outward from within.
That radiance was like the death of a star.
It was none other than Judgment of Shamash—unsheathed!
Seeing this scene,
Audiences across the nation were stunned:
"What… what just happened?"
"Firelight? Firelight that pierces through everything? It erupted from inside the Herrscher of Corruption!"
"Holy crap! Who the hell is that? That flame… could it be Kevin?!"
"Damn! Has the counterattack finally begun? Are we finally going to slaughter the Herrscher of Corruption?!"
"So satisfying! This is seriously satisfying—I've been waiting for this! Should've killed this damn Herrscher ages ago!"
"Wait… who even is this? How can an attack come from inside the Herrscher?!"
"…"
Clearly, Hessian also knew everyone would be curious.
The TV screen immediately switched.
It arrived at a city shrouded in torrential rain.
"Wait for me to return. We will revisit yesterday."
From beginning to end, Su had never once intended to break the promise he made to his closest friend.
But he had never imagined that "yesterday" would reappear in this manner.
Su looked at the city: "So this is what the interior of the Herrscher of Corruption looks like…"
He maximized his psychosensory perception, attempting to feel everything around him as he usually did—
Unlike the depths of consciousness Aponia had once entered, after being fully eroded, the place he now stood in was the very integration point of all the Herrscher of Corruption's data.
"I cannot perceive any existence at all…"
"Except for being able to retain my self after erosion, as a psychosensory-type… do I no longer have anything special?"
"No matter. As long as I can find Kevin, my own abilities are insignificant."
"The triple solution to the riddle should be fully revealed right here."
He abandoned his own perception and walked deeper on foot.
"The Herrscher of Corruption's data has already become this vast… Searching for Kevin in it is like finding a needle in a haystack. But…"
An extremely familiar voice drifted over from the distance: "Come take a look, come take a look! Treasures on the shelf, pick whatever you like! Fake one, pay ten—no returns!"
"This voice… could it be…" Su immediately followed the source of the sound.
He quickly identified the person.
Indeed!
It was—Pardofelis.
He was about to speak.
Pardofelis took the initiative to greet him: "Oh my, this boss looks unfamiliar. First time here?"
"I just got a fresh batch of goods. You know how it is around here—not exactly peaceful. Gotta have something to protect yourself, right?"
"Wanna take a look…"
"…"
Only then did she suddenly realize that the other party hadn't just blinked for too long—he had never opened his eyes at all.
"Uh… no problem. Just tell me what you need, boss."
Su said: "Pardof… it's me, Su."
Pardofelis lowered her head awkwardly and laughed: "Uh… hahaha… yeah, I really couldn't tell."
"Alrighty then, uncle—what do you need?"
Su: "…"
Just as he was wondering whether her feigned ignorance had some purpose and was mentally preparing probing words,
He suddenly noticed the true abnormality on her body.
The beast tail that should have been produced by her Overload surgery was nowhere to be found—he immediately grasped the key implication.
He thought to himself: So that's how it is… The dream woven by the Herrscher of Corruption is the destination for memory bodies after complete erosion.
She, who had been sent here, has now sunk deeply into the dream as well?
At this thought, a ripple passed through his heart.
Once, he too had faced an enemy who used dreams as a weapon—and that battle had left him with a lifelong, unresolvable pain.
Could Kevin also… No, impossible.
He lowered his head in contemplation, but the unease in his heart refused to dissipate.
Still… even within an illusion, this was already a city ravaged by Honkai.
For Pardof… was this enough?
This girl who always appeared the greediest was, in truth, the most easily satisfied—he was not surprised by that.
…In any case, he had to find Kevin first.
Since she was the real Pardofelis, even within the dream, she should still be able to display that extraordinary talent of hers.
With this in mind, he spoke: "I'd like to ask you about someone."
Pardofelis said: "Oho! Go right ahead. I never pick and choose customers—people, objects, doesn't matter."
Su said: "His name is Kevin. About my age, pale white hair, looks… somewhat cold and stern."
"Ah… ah?" Pardofelis's eyes widened in shock: "You mean His Highness the Prince? How could anyone not have heard of him?"
"No big deal. But… hehe, boss, you know how dangerous the Honkai is around here."
"As for the fee…"
Hearing the title she used, Su's heart sank once again.
Without further hesitation, he removed one of his earrings.
"This was a gift from the ancients—priceless. Please lead the way."
Pardofelis's eyes spun greedily. After carefully confirming the value was genuine, she let out her usual laugh.
"Hehehe… how embarrassing…"
"Alright then, let's set off, boss. This doesn't include security fees—you better keep up~"