After exploring several micro world bubbles, Seele and the others confirmed traces left behind by the Previous Era's Fire Moth.
Afterward, Seele entered another micro world bubble and couldn't help but sigh: "It's almost like some kind of…"
"Space that has collapsed into nothingness…"
Immediately after, two afterimages suddenly appeared, startling Seele, but she was quickly drawn in by the content of their conversation.
It was Vill-V and Prometheus. The former said slowly: "…We've arrived on the Moon, Number 17."
Prometheus replied expressionlessly: "Yes, we've arrived on the Moon."
"According to the predetermined plan, we will challenge the Herrscher of the End here."
"But—to be realistic, I don't believe this operation of ours has any chance of success."
Vill-V nodded: "Yeah, I don't think so either."
"Everyone… doesn't think so."
Prometheus was stunned: "This…"
Vill-V said softly yet firmly: "We simply have to do something… that must be done."
Many viewers never expected that these grand heroes of the Previous Era, on the verge of facing the Herrscher of the End, would utter such discouraging words.
But the next moment, a sly figure passed by, instantly capturing the attention of viewers nationwide.
It was none other than the catgirl Pardofelis.
Even now, if someone posted in the chat group: "Mei-senpai… I don't want to die…"
It would guarantee an instant meltdown among a massive wave of cat fans.
Not to mention that this cat, though only an afterimage, was the actual body of a Flame-Chaser from fifty thousand years ago.
"Wuwu, facing the End, why did a mere mortal hero like Cat have to come to the Moon!"
"Pardofelis, run away! Go back to Earth and carry out the Project Stigma with Hua—wouldn't that be better?"
"I can't take it anymore—the more I watch, the more it hurts. Die, dog director!"
"Thirteen people died more than forty times—dog director, you have no heart!!"
"…"
Quite a few viewers were directly triggered into Elysian Realm PTSD and started cursing a certain dog director furiously.
Of course, said director remained completely unfazed and even felt a little like laughing.
On the television.
Prometheus watched Pardofelis walk away and couldn't help sighing: "Pardofelis… she's always been such an optimist."
Vill-V pursed her lips: "Maybe. But do you know?"
"Today… she has to shoulder a duty that will almost certainly require her to sacrifice herself."
That single short sentence instantly prompted a flood of exclamation and question marks from viewers nationwide.
Prometheus also asked: "Almost certainly… sacrifice herself…?"
Vill-V answered: "That's right. At the exact moment the Herrscher of the End is activated, she has to bet every last bit of her luck."
"—To open that door!"
"That door… the one that will allow you to successfully intrude."
Those words struck another knife straight into the audience's hearts.
So Prometheus was only able to hack into and form a Honkai consciousness thanks to Pardofelis's sacrifice?
Perhaps precisely because, among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, Pardofelis was the one most like an ordinary person.
The stronger the audience's sense of immersion, the harder it became to accept.
Such a weak, pitiful, and helpless little cat—why did she have to be the one sacrificed!
In the end, they could only curse the dog director even harder.
Prometheus couldn't help asking: "But… isn't there a way to put the Herrscher of the End into a dormant state first and then deal with it?"
"Our attacks… should at least be able to achieve that temporarily, right?"
Vill-V nodded: "We can. But the moment the Herrscher of the End pauses activity, the window to open the door will disappear along with it."
"So no matter who goes to open it…"
"They would at least have to withstand close-range exposure to a lethal dose of Honkai Energy radiation—even for a MANTIS."
"…"
Prometheus seemed to let out a sigh.
"Yes… you've seen it."
"Even so… Pardofelis didn't show the slightest hesitation."
"I think it's not that she's fearless of death."
"She's simply… like the rest of us, carrying a fate that only she can fulfill."
As she spoke, the Vill-V who seemed to be her true self showed a complicated expression.
Prometheus said seriously: "Your fates… should never have been like this."
Vill-V sighed: "…Yeah, I've thought the same."
"Just like that film Elysia once had us shoot."
"Hua, who specializes in ancient martial arts; Pardo, who loves fishing and napping; Su, the benevolent healer…"
"Sakura, who always works late; me, who shuts myself away; Kevin, who pounds away at cold code; Kalpas, the butler skilled at making desserts…"
"And Mobius, a university professor; Kosma, still in high school; the famous little painter Griseo; Eden, the landlord of the Golden Courtyard; Aponia, the night-shift nurse…"
"Of course, and also the pink fairy lady running her online account as a freelance professional—Elysia."
"—That's the plain, ordinary life we should have had, isn't it?"
"But… just like Kevin said…"
"We all knew this world could no longer be saved."
"Yet we still had to become heroes."
"After all—even a weak, helpless, and self-loathing existence."
"Would still want to create just a little bit of meaning for having lived in this world, right?"
Vill-V's words caused many viewers—who had been raging at the dog director or even grabbing knives—to suddenly calm down.
At Fire Moth Interstellar Entertainment Company.
Eden, who was watching via livestream, smiled lightly and said: "Golden Courtyard—what a nice idea."
The other Flame-Chasers, including the other actors, all felt a touch of emotion.
Although Honkai Impact 3rd was full of knives, this TV drama seemed to genuinely want to teach everyone something.
To see life clearly, to understand life, and then to cherish it—even continue to love it.
Kosma wiped tears with a tissue while Kevin leaned over to Kalpas and asked:
"Kalpas, are you really good at making desserts?"
Kalpas said irritably: "Barely passable. You want some?"
Kevin shook his head: "I want to learn from you, then make some desserts for MEI with my own hands."
That one short sentence nearly choked Kalpas to death with dog food.
Afterward, no matter how much Kevin pestered him, Kalpas couldn't be bothered to respond to this PDA-spreading guy anymore.
Even the dog director isn't as good at showing off as you!
Elysia sat beside Hessian, watching the playful chaos among everyone, and couldn't help showing a breathtakingly beautiful smile.
Click!
Setting the photo as her wallpaper, Hessian chuckled: "As expected of my wife Elysia—every angle looks good."
Elysia hugged Hessian's arm and laughed: "The same goes for you, hubby."
"But you've taken so many photos—hundreds already, right? Aren't you getting tired of it?"
Come on, this is Elysia—Hessian's goal was to collect ten thousand collectible photos.
Unbeknownst to him, Kalpas—who had once again been force-fed dog food—silently turned his gaze back to the television.
He was wrong; the dog director wasn't any better.
On the screen.
Prometheus said firmly: "…I'll do my best not to let your meaning go to waste."
Vill-V replied: "Thank you. But I hope even more… that you'll treat it as meaning that belongs to you."
…
Watching the afterimages disappear, Seele said with a sense of loss: "They're gone again."
Everything that had just happened was ultimately only lingering illusions from the past.
Just as Seele was about to report what she'd seen to Durandal and the others.
A voice suddenly rang out: "The signal here is a bit unstable right now—you might have to wait a little longer."
Seele said warily: "—Who is it?"
The next moment, the green-haired twin-tailed big-sister Ai appeared and greeted her: "No need to be nervous, classmate Seele."
"I mean no harm. I can only appear like this under conditions of extremely unstable spatial signals."
Seele asked: "You… shouldn't be someone from this world bubble, right?"
Ai readily admitted: "Of course not. After all, in such a tiny and shattered world bubble."
"All remnants no longer react with the outside world."
"They're just images… nothing more."
Seele didn't dwell on that point and instead asked: "…You said earlier that you mean no harm."
"So are you here to help us?"
Ai said regretfully: "I really wish I could say yes to that."
"Unfortunately, the current me still can't do anything."
"Even the knowledge I've gained so far… would be of little immediate use to you all."
"But—how should I put it? At least when spatial signals are unstable, I can appear like this in undefended areas."
"And chat with you a little in the darkness."
Facing this unknown stranger who openly admitted to being a mascot—no, more like a chat companion.
Seele nodded: "…I understand. Then, can I ask another question?"
"Why do you know my name?"
Ai answered: "Because in the future, I've seen you in the Sea of Quanta."
"Ah, please forgive my very strange way of expressing time."
"I am a lifeform existing within a time crystal… my perception of past and future is probably very different from yours."
Seele asked curiously: "But if that's the case… then for you, isn't the future also part of the past?"
Ai denied: "Not entirely. Just like space crystals."
"Time crystals aren't perfectly symmetrical either—even for me, the future is still woven together from the past and luck."
"It's just that information like names has sufficient stability."
"It won't change easily due to some random factors… which is why I can accurately call your name."
"Miss Seele Vollerei."
Seele said thoughtfully: "So… you really are some form of person from the future?"
Ai nodded: "Mm, you could say that."
"And the cause is very clear—the Stigmata Project."
"I believe you've already discovered that the Stigmata Project has distorted Earth's space."
"And forcibly teleported you all to the Moon."
"From an engineering perspective, such large-scale spatial modification is impossible without leaving vulnerabilities."
"And one of the results was the accidental creation of the time crystal that allowed me to be born."
Seeing that Seele could follow, Ai continued explaining: "Originally, in a world dominated by the Cocoon."
"Such a phenomenon had zero chance of occurring…"
"But the Stigmata Project truly caused your world to temporarily go off the rails."
"This process shares the same logic as the Herrscher of the End destroying the world."
"Only in those people's eyes, they were instead trying to save the world from the End's grasp."
Seele quickly asked: "The people you're talking about… do you mean World Serpent?"
Ai admitted: "Of course. Who else would be so audaciously bold?"
"And isn't your mission precisely to put the brakes on both them and the End?"
At this moment, Ai's words undoubtedly affirmed the legitimacy of the protagonists' actions.
But Seele scratched her head: "Logically, yes…"
"But honestly, we're just taking it one step at a time, crossing the river by feeling the stones."
Ai said affirmatively: "I don't think you need to worry about that."
"After all, true innovations are often achieved precisely in the process of acting while summarizing."
"As for so-called meticulous planning and decisive victory from a thousand miles away… that's ultimately a phenomenon of static societies."
"Whether it can be done in a modern environment still requires case-by-case analysis."
"But that said… yes, since I can appear here."
"Then there is indeed one thing in which I can slightly help you."
Seeing the confusion on Seele's face, Ai went straight to the point:
"Right now, you should be trying to find certain world bubbles that hold value for you through channels in the Sea of Quanta."
"That's correct, isn't it?"
Seele admitted: "Yes… you could say that."
Ai said slowly: "Then as an existence within a time crystal, I can indeed help you to a certain extent reverse the decoherence process."
"And directly locate the world bubble most closely connected to you."
Seele's eyes lit up: "That way, we could use this coordinate to make our way back to Earth?"
Ai, however, denied: "No, I don't think so."
"That place is still affiliated space of the Moon—a region once destroyed by the End more than once."
"Perhaps… rather than a way back to Earth, what you can find there is familiar people instead."
The mysterious figure who claimed to come from a time crystal made her body translucent in the unstable space.
Just as she was about to vanish completely, a string of special data was injected into the Genius device Seele was holding.
Just as Ai had said, it was indeed a very special world bubble.
It seemed completely isolated from the outside world, unwilling to let anyone probe its secrets.
Like… the cage imprisoning a princess in a fairy tale.
The scene shifted.
Kiana lay asleep amid a sea of blue-and-white flowers like a sleeping beauty.
"Kiana, wake up!"
"Kiana!"
A familiar childish voice kept calling Kiana, trying to awaken the sleeping beauty.
Not long after, a pair of azure-blue eyes slowly opened, causing countless viewers to hold their breath.