The So-Called Honkai
"I'm done, I'm done! No more fighting!"
After just a few brief exchanges, Ishtar found her wrists grabbed and pinned against a stone wall by Xia Yu.
"I admit defeat, alright?!"
"The wise submit to circumstances, Lady Ishtar," hearing this, Xia Yu said with a beaming smile as she tilted Ishtar's chin up with her right hand. "Actually, I think you could struggle a little more."
"No more struggling..." Ishtar said tearfully. "You... you are simply... ahhhh! You're infuriating me to death!"
'Seriously, is this person sick in the head or what?'
She hadn't even unleashed a few moves before being utterly pinned down. Since you have this kind of ability, why on earth did you stay cooped up in the temple with me for so long?
Ishtar was still very self-aware. Although her strength was great, that was only in comparison to Servants. Among the goddesses currently in Mesopotamia, she could probably be considered the weakest.
This was mainly because she had lost the Bull of Heaven.
Without that weapon of mass destruction, she felt a bit lacking in confidence whenever she went out.
And with her like this, when facing a Herrscher who was equivalent to a Beast, her chances of winning could easily be imagined.
"You've been amusing yourself at my expense all these days, haven't you!" she said, flustered and exasperated. "How dare you offend a goddess like this... I... I..."
She stuttered for a long time, but couldn't manage to say anything else.
Mainly because she really couldn't think of how she could possibly threaten the other party.
"Actually, that's not the case," hearing this, Xia Yu shook her head and said, "Ishtar, you're still quite cute."
"What do you mean cute..." Hearing this, Ishtar's face flushed crimson, and she immediately opened her mouth to object, "As the Goddess of Beauty, shouldn't the word 'sexy' be used to describe me?"
Who on earth uses 'cute' to describe a Goddess of Beauty!
"Sexy..." Xia Yu looked down at her flat chest, then looked at her own, and proceeded to puff out her chest toward Ishtar.
Everything was understood without words.
'With your proportions, you call yourself sexy... Even though you wear so little all over, it doesn't feel the slightest bit provocative...'
Xia Yu couldn't figure out why, since she and Ereshkigal were both summoned using the exact same vessel, Ereshkigal was so much larger than her.
Was it because Ishtar's personality was closer to Rin's, so she was influenced more? (laughs)
"You!" Looking at her half-smiling expression, Ishtar wanted to say something in a fit of rage, but looking down at the rolling waves before her... and then looking at her own disappointing chest, she shut her mouth in deep frustration.
No matter how one looked at it, the other party had much more womanly charm than herself.
"My dear Ishtar," Xia Yu leaned close to her ear, "Honestly, I feel that when the title of Goddess of Beauty was being assigned back then, you must have gone through the back door, right?"
"What do you know!" Ishtar's entire face turned red with anger. "Mesopotamia has its own aesthetic standards!"
"So your local gods all like this type?" Xia Yu smiled slightly. "Oh, got it."
"No... I..." Ishtar didn't even know what to say anymore, only suddenly realizing at the very end that she had been led completely off track.
"Wait, let's first discuss the issue of you tricking me!"
She struggled with effort to pull both her hands free from Xia Yu's left hand, pushing the latter—who was leaning far too close—slightly outward. "Since you clearly have that kind of strength, why did you pretend to be captured by me!"
"Actually, back then, it was mainly because I thought it would be fun," Xia Yu smiled upon hearing this. She withdrew her hands, found a patch of grass, lay down directly, and looked up at the starry sky. "As you know, I absolutely adore Ereshkigal, but after being rejected by her, I left the Underworld."
"Not long after arriving in Uruk, I ran into you. Aren't you and her twin sisters? I also wanted to understand her a bit better through you, her sister and arch-rival."
"And since you also mentioned that you wanted to abduct me, I just went along with it."
"It's for that gloomy woman again!" Ishtar sat down beside her with a thoroughly displeased look on her face. "What exactly does she have that's worth you liking so much?"
"It sounds funny, but I've actually never even seen her face," Xia Yu said with a smile. "Rather than liking, I'd prefer to call this emotion an aspiration."
"A girl watching over the world all by herself in the loneliness of the Underworld... For some reason, when I praised her as the Flower of the Underworld back then, she was very happy."
Speaking up to this point, Xia Yu turned her head to look at Ishtar. "Hey, Ishtar, do you think she would like flowers?"
"...How would I know," Ishtar lowered her head upon hearing this. "Why don't you go ask her yourself!"
"I think she would probably like them," Xia Yu smiled. "Because, up until now, she has never touched a single flower with her own hands, right?"
"Probably," Ishtar looked at the deeply thoughtful Kiana, feeling very unsettled in her heart.
Back then, she had brought this person back specifically to provoke that gloomy woman, so by all accounts, she shouldn't feel anything toward these kinds of words.
But now... she clutched her heart.
Possessiveness.
Ishtar was very familiar with this desire.
As the number one problem child of Mesopotamia, she had developed this kind of desire toward quite a few things.
"Is it really absolutely have to be her?" Ishtar asked in a low voice.
"Not necessarily," Xia Yu shook her head upon hearing this. "Mainly, I just really want to get to know her."
"And then cook for her too?"
"That depends on whether the Underworld allows my ingredients to enter," Xia Yu threw her hands up.
"The rules of the Underworld aren't actually that rigid," Ishtar pulled her legs close, murmuring, "As long as your ingredients aren't alive."
"Then I can certainly guarantee that," Xia Yu nodded. "Also, something's wrong with you."
"Your mood is very low," she sat up, taking Ishtar by the shoulders and looking into her eyes as she said, "Why?"
"Why? You're asking me why?" Ishtar rolled her eyes at her upon hearing this. "You've done so many... shameful things to me, and you still dare to ask me why?"
"Shameful..." Xia Yu paused upon hearing this. It did seem a bit excessive... Sigh, this irrepressible instinct... though it didn't seem like she had tried very hard to suppress it either.
Was it because she had gotten used to it, so she started letting her true nature fly free?
She didn't understand it either.
"Shameful?" Xia Yu tilted her head, suddenly leaning close to her. "Like this?"
"Of course!" Ishtar's entire face turned red with anger. Looking at Kiana's exquisite face that had suddenly approached, her earlobes were so hot they looked as if they were about to drip blood. "Don't suddenly lean close to people!"
"Sorry," hearing this, Xia Yu withdrew her approach. "Mhm, so this kind of behavior is inappropriate for you."
"You only just realized?" Ishtar felt dying of shame and indignation.
"Mainly because I used to live in St. Freya Academy all the time, which is an all-girls school, so I got used to being intimate with my friends on a regular basis," Xia Yu said with a straight face. "And after that disaster, my life consisted of endless fighting and killing... I didn't have time to understand these things."
"So you really are only seventeen?" Hearing the word 'Academy,' Ishtar reached out to touch her arm, using a specific Magecraft to start calculating. "You really are seventeen..."
She had originally thought the Kiana before her was at least a century old, mainly because to possess this level of strength at this age...
She truly couldn't figure it out.
"Is that Honkai thing really that effective?" she asked suspiciously. "A seventeen-year-old girl can actually possess power comparable to a Beast?"
"The full name of Honkai Energy is 'Honkai is omnipotent,'" Xia Yu said with a straight face. "But actually, it's quite difficult. Trying to maintain one's sanity under Herrscherfication is truly not easy at all."
If it weren't for Elysia, they wouldn't have stood a single chance.
"Furthermore, Herrschers aren't common cabbage either; there are only a dozen or so in a civilization of billions."
"A dozen or so isn't a lot?!" Ishtar sucked in a breath of cold air upon hearing this. "A dozen or so Beasts rampaging on the planet at the same time?"
'Your civilization is that resilient?'
"First of all, the appearance of Herrschers isn't all at once," Xia Yu shook her head. "Rather, they appear one by one. Secondly, humans aren't without high-end power on their side either."
"For instance, the strongest Valkyrie, Bianka - Durandal. Defeating a Herrscher in a head-on clash isn't an issue for her."
"And there are also Herrschers who stand on the side of humanity: the Herrscher of Reason, the Herrscher of Thunder, the Herrscher of Sentience... and me. We are all jointly confronting that destined ruin."
"Then how did you come here?" Ishtar asked curiously. "Possessing the power of at least four Beasts at the same time is truly terrifying."
"Before coming here, I was locked in a life-and-death struggle against It inside the theater of the Herrscher of Dominance," speaking of this, Xia Yu's face was full of disgust. "That thing was simply too foul."
"After receiving help from my companions, I ultimately became this Herrscher of Flamescion, breaking through the theater of the Herrscher of Dominance in one fell swoop. But that theater wasn't in reality; it was within the void."
"Naturally, I fell into this endless void, and I also got to know quite a few friends along the way, like the Firefly that Ritsuka and the others mentioned."
Xia Yu felt a bit melancholy. "Now my daily routine is wandering through the void, entering whatever world I happen to find to see if it's my homeland. Only a short while ago did I discover this Singularity of yours."
"I see," hearing this, Ishtar couldn't help but feel a bit bad for the young girl before her, instinctively asking, "Have you... never thought about finding a place to settle down comfortably?"
"No, in my world, there are still many people waiting for me," Xia Yu shook her head. "The Honkai has not been defeated yet, so I cannot stop here."
"Then what is that destined ruin you just mentioned?" Ishtar asked, hugging her legs.
Xia Yu sighed upon hearing this. "It's that final Herrscher, and also the strongest Herrscher."
"In my world, before our civilization, there existed another advanced civilization. They likewise encountered the Honkai disaster. Unlike our Valkyries, their combat forces for dealing with Herrschers were called Fusion Warriors."
"Those strongest Fusion Warriors weren't any weaker than Herrschers either; you can just think of them as Grand Servants."
"At the end of the Previous Era, the Herrscher of Finality descended. Facing the Herrscher of Finality, humanity dispatched their final and strongest eight Fusion Warriors. The ultimate decisive battle against the Honkai unfolded on the Moon. The power of the Herrscher of Finality was beyond estimation, and the warriors' attacks basically had no effect."
"Just 5 minutes into the battle, two warriors had already sacrificed themselves. But all of this did not shake Dr. MEI's resolve. While the Fusion Warriors drew the Herrscher of Finality's attention, the secret weapon located in geocentric orbit—the Moonlight Throne system—had already locked onto the Herrscher of Finality."
Xia Yu explained, "The Moonlight Throne's attack struck the Herrscher of Finality, converting the Honkai Energy inside her body into thermal energy. Regrettably, the Herrscher of Finality's energy was too powerful, and the Moonlight Throne did not achieve the anticipated result. According to observations, after the Moonlight Throne hit, the Honkai Energy within the Herrscher of Finality's body only dissipated by about 2%."
"The Herrscher of Finality, who was virtually unaffected, quickly cornered the remaining six warriors into a desperate situation. The most brilliant scholar of the Previous Era, Dr. MEI, immediately ordered the release of the Moonlight Throne's restriction protocols, operating it under an overload of 200% power."
"After the Moonlight Throne overloaded, it could no longer convert the Honkai Energy inside the Herrscher's body into thermal energy, but it accelerated the depletion of the Honkai Energy inside her body. This depleted Honkai Energy seeped into the lunar soil. Before the Moonlight Throne burned out, about 30% of the energy within the Herrscher of Finality's body was depleted."
"Afterward, a full-power strike from the strongest Fusion Warrior, Kevin, caused the Herrscher of Finality to temporarily cease her activities, but it was only temporary. Having lost the Moonlight Throne, humanity no longer possessed any means to inflict an effective attack on the Herrscher of Finality."
"The Herrscher of Finality, with her remaining 70% energy, only needed about 12 hours to regain her mobility. Whether it was despair, anger, or engaging in a doomsday revelry, all that remained for humanity were these final 12 hours. Kevin and the others were forced to retreat back to the underground shelters, entering cryopods to await their awakening ten thousand years later. Ultimately, the Herrscher of Finality came to Earth and utilized the Authority of Time to reset Earth back to its state from 50,000 years ago."
"What do you mean reset back to fifty thousand years ago?" Ishtar was dumbfounded upon hearing this.
"One of the Authorities of the Herrscher of Finality is looping the planet, purging civilization, and resetting everything back to the very beginning. It sounds terrifying, right?" Xia Yu explained. "The so-called 'Finality' is 'Time.' As long as humanity cannot thoroughly coexist with the Honkai, imaginary energy will still continuously pour into the Cocoon of Finality, catalyzing a new Herrscher of Finality."
"Is it really that unreasonable?" Ishtar felt completely unwell upon hearing this. "Fifty thousand years... how are you supposed to fight that?"
"It really is just that unreasonable," Xia Yu sighed. "It is the strongest Herrscher after all. Never mind civilizations, destroying a planet isn't a hard task for Her."
"The reason the Earth on my side managed to survive was entirely due to the Cocoon of Finality, which is the origin of the Honkai. It isn't a mechanism purely intended for destroying civilizations, but rather a type of... trial-like thing meant for filtering civilizations."
"It's just that the time this trial has been running seems to be too long, the program has developed issues, and the intensity was directly ramped up to the maximum..."
"So I have a reason why I absolutely must go back," speaking up to this point, Xia Yu reached out to press against her chest. "Since I obtained this power, I have the responsibility to raise my sword and charge toward that Finality for the sake of the world."
"This is my mission."
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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