CHAPTER 475: I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

She remembered! Theresa remembered everything!

The past of fighting alongside Anti-Entropy in Siberia... once the chaotic veil Otto had cast over it was lifted, all the memories snapped back into place, as clear as if they had just happened.

Theresa shook her head, still feeling a bit dizzy, but in the next moment, she was forced into full alertness—

BOOM!

Directly in front of the bridge’s viewport, the tallest tower in the Helheim district—the one marked as Michael, Kiana, and Mei’s location—collapsed amidst a violent explosion.

The explosion was followed by a torrent of fire that shot into the sky and spread in all directions. The sudden burst of intense heat roiled the air currents within the floating Airport, and combined with the shockwave from the initial blast, the entire Hyperion began to shake.

Before Theresa could react, a golden light flashed in the void before them, and a figure both familiar and strange appeared in the air directly in front of the Hyperion.

"Report, Principal! Target spotted directly ahead of the Hyperion! Do we lock on and engage... wait a minute, Principal, isn’t that—"

"Tch!"

Theresa’s fingers clenched into tight fists.

"That’s Kiana... but it’s also not Kiana."

"Ah... It must be the Second Herrscher."

Even from a thousand meters away, the light radiating from those bright golden eyes was blindingly sharp, a stark contrast to Kiana’s original, signature Kaslana-blue eyes. But aside from that, there didn’t seem to be much difference.

In the next instant, everyone on the Hyperion felt a wave of dizziness. When they came to, they saw the tiny black silhouette of the floating Airport in the distance outside the viewport.

"What was... Ai-chan, re-establish our position!"

"Yes, Principal... This is... our position has shifted nearly a thousand kilometers to the southwest..."

"So this is the power of the Second Herrscher..."

Himeko, who hadn’t experienced the Second Honkai Eruption, found it incredible. The entire Hyperion had been moved in an instant, and over a considerable distance. To her, it felt like a power level that shattered all scales of measurement.

"Hoo..."

Theresa leaned on the control console, slowly exhaling. Her mind raced.

So, what would happen now that the Second Herrscher had appeared? That was the question she had to answer.

Given the Second Herrscher’s temperament from her memories, and... the newly recovered memories of her experiences before becoming a Herrscher, Theresa felt they’d be lucky if she didn’t try to destroy Schicksal HQ. If that was the case, did it mean Durandal would go head-to-head with her?

No, that was the best-case scenario. Knowing her grandfather, she was more inclined to believe he would order Durandal to ignore the Second Herrscher. As for the floating Airport being destroyed? If Otto cared about such things, he wouldn’t be Otto.

And the worst-case scenario was that Otto would use every conceivable and inconceivable method to hinder them.

The whole affair had been a chaotic mess from the start. But back then, amidst the chaos, there were still opportunities to be seized. Now, Theresa just wished her head was bigger and her hair was thicker. The increasingly tangled web of allies and enemies was as frustrating as a dry, knotted mess of hair.

"Set a course back to the floating Airport. Ai-chan, try to access HQ’s communication system. I know the chances are slim, but now that a Herrscher has appeared, we should try to avoid conflict with HQ if we can."

"Theresa, how are you going to deal with the Second Herrscher? Attack her? Her body is still Kiana’s, after all..." Himeko reminded her softly from the side.

"Of course I know that!" Theresa bit out each word, then turned to Einstein and Tesla. "Doctors, if..."

"Alright, save it. We know what you want to say. And on this matter, Anti-Entropy’s position is the same as yours. A Kiana who has mastered a Herrscher’s power, a Second Herrscher who fights for humanity, is clearly more valuable. That’s been the consensus within all of Anti-Entropy from the start. As for Azure Empyrea... I don’t know about Mount Taixuan, but she herself feels the same way."

"Is that so..."

Theresa wasn’t sure if Tesla was speaking from the heart or simply providing an explanation for the Valkyries on the Hyperion who couldn’t quite wrap their heads around the situation.

When she had called on everyone to attack Schicksal HQ, she hadn’t dared to reveal the full truth about Kiana’s situation. Now that everyone had seen the Second Herrscher, there was no hiding it.

When the person they had to save was their former classmate, it was natural for them to feel a sense of shared sorrow. But when that person became a Herrscher, would their Valkyrie instincts still see her as someone to be saved?

Of course, not everyone had the inclination for such independent (and pedantic) thought. For many, a plausible explanation was all they needed to accept orders from above.

Still, it was hard to say whether Tesla’s words were an explanation on her behalf or a genuine sentiment. After all, unlike Theresa and Himeko, she and Einstein hadn’t spent two or three years with Kiana. They didn’t have what one might call an "emotional attachment."

"Alright, it will take about forty minutes for the Hyperion to return to the battlefield. And we need to be prepared to break through the floating Airport’s outer defenses by force again. So... I’m sorry, but we have no time to rest. Himeko, Dr. Tesla, and Bronya, come with me for a moment. I need a briefing. Uh... I’ll leave the bridge to you, Dr. Einstein."

...

"Heh... Can’t bring yourself to strike down your so-called ’comrades’? How laughable. Are you really so lost in humanity’s little games that you can’t break free?"

The Second Herrscher gently covered her right eye and sneered softly.

She could have let the spatial turbulence tear the Hyperion to shreds the moment it was pulled into the rift, but the other consciousness in her body had briefly interfered with the operation of her Authority, and she hadn’t managed to strike the killing blow.

"Or do you really think you’re Kiana Kaslana? Don’t forget, you’re just K-423. You’re a clone without even a name. ’Kiana’ was just a bit of charity from the man whose everything you stole."

She let out a low chuckle, forcefully suppressing the other, agitated consciousness in her mind.

She turned her head to look behind her. That was where her Lord and that Azure Empyrea were fighting. She was curious. For a being of her Lord’s caliber, what would his battles be like?

To her surprise, it wasn’t the spectacle of Authorities flying everywhere and light pollution she had imagined. After the initial burst of power, the two of them had quickly reverted to the most primitive and inefficient form of combat: fists and feet.

"Ugh... My Lord must have his reasons for doing this."

She turned away, silently looking in another direction. There, without needing to look closely, she could see the mountain-like spine of the giant dragon.

But the once snow-white exoskeleton of its back was now covered in scars. It resembled a mountain in late spring, half-melted snow mixing with patches of scorched black and deathly white, an ugly sight.

"Bella... I never thought we’d see each other again."

A barely perceptible tenderness appeared in the Second Herrscher’s eyes. This Honkai Beast, to whom she had given the name of her dearest friend, was the only being in this world, besides her Lord, that she could trust.

But that name was also a silent accusation against the atrocities that had occurred in the Tower of Babylon.

As long as someone remembered the names "Sirin" and "Benares," the most powerful proof of humanity’s sins—sins committed out of greed for a god’s power—would remain.

No... no, no, no...

It was better if no one remembered those names. Rather than living on in such an abstract way as proof of humanity’s evil, it would be better to wipe this dark collective of greed, depravity, cunning, and deceit from the face of the Earth!

It was a long, long time ago. In the gloomy, foul-smelling Tower of Babylon, they were occasionally given the chance to read. Though the time was fleeting, though their bodies and minds were exhausted after the experiments to the point where even keeping their eyes open was a struggle, it was still the brightest memory of her childhood.

But the stories in the books were not all happy. She still remembered one, a story so simple and childish that even her past self found it too fake to be true.

The gist of the story was that a god created his children, humans, but as flawed creations, they could not inherit all of the god’s power. So, the god split his power into two parts and bestowed them upon the humans he had created. He gave the power of "life" to one group, the superhumans, and the power of "wisdom" to the other, the subhumans, hoping that the creations bearing his authority would live happily in the world he had made.

But reality did not unfold as the god had imagined. The superhumans who received the power of "life" were far stronger than the other humans, but they had no consciousness. Aside from their shape, they were no different from beasts. And the subhumans who received "wisdom" were incredibly frail.

They had no claws, no sharp teeth, no thick hides, no swift speed. They often had to band together in large numbers just to survive in this dangerous world.

If it had ended there, it would have been fine. But the story obviously couldn’t end there. The subhumans who had mastered wisdom gradually unleashed a power that even the god had not anticipated. They were so weak, yet they gathered more of their kind under the banner of faith in their god.

With the wisdom bestowed upon them, they created all sorts of tools and weapons. And after all that, the first thing they did was to capture and domesticate their own kind who had been given the power of "life," forcing them to fight their battles.

Tens of thousands of years later, the subhumans with "wisdom" could finally proudly declare themselves the lords of all creation. They used wisdom to build civilizations, used wisdom to gain power the god had not granted them, and yet, they were corrupted by that same wisdom.

They used wisdom to chase after everything their desires craved, but the world was not infinite, while their desires were endless. To fulfill their desires, they had to take what belonged to others.

Moreover, the humans who had once banded together to conquer nature because they were too weak individually, had now lost even that unity, because they had gained greater power, because individuals could now achieve what once required a collective. And so, the world fell into utter collapse.

The superhumans who were given "life" were even more miserable.

They were no longer needed by their own kind, because their own kind could now create weapons far more powerful than them. Yet at the same time, they were feared by their own kind, because they were born with greater strength than ordinary people. And so, amidst their constant infighting, the subhumans still did not forget to persecute these "aberrations"...

At the end of the story, the god finally grew enraged by humanity’s actions. He found the twelve surviving superhumans who had escaped the subhumans’ persecution and gave them the command to "destroy civilization."

For a long time, Sirin found this story utterly absurd.

She didn’t read much, but even she felt this was not a topic for a children’s fairy tale. But she had once fantasized, imagining the people in white coats as the story’s subhumans, who, despite their great wisdom, used it for evil.

And she imagined herself and Bella as the superhumans chosen by the god... even though she knew it was just a story, a story so absurd that even she, who had read so few books, found it ridiculous, she couldn’t help but harbor a tiny, unrealistic hope that it was true.

She had never imagined... never in her wildest dreams... that the story was real. She had truly become the superhuman chosen by the god and granted greater power. And the god had indeed let her go and destroy the civilization created by these wretched subhumans.

But... Bella, and the other friends who were tortured to death in the Tower of Babylon, would never have the chance to see this story come true.

Sirin revered her god and was grateful for everything he had given her. But she still couldn’t erase that faint, hidden resentment in her heart—why hadn’t her god acted sooner? Why had he chosen only her, and abandoned Bella, abandoned the other children in that hell?

"Do you understand now? This is your past. Not the past of Kiana Kaslana, not the past of K-423, but the past of Sirin. You want to save the world, to protect humanity? Laughable. That is a clear betrayal of your own past."

As her consciousness fully awakened, the memories belonging to "Kiana," or rather K-423, began to merge with Sirin’s. This was just the first step. When the memories of the two consciousnesses became indistinguishable, their personalities would gradually merge into one.

But in this process, one personality had to be dominant, and Sirin had no intention of letting Kiana hold her back.

Well, apologies, it seems she was already being held back.

Sirin sneered, and her figure vanished, leaving only a void where she had stood.

CLANG!

Before Benares’s lowered head, the tip of a black spear was stopped by an invisible force in the void. Feeling a strange sense of familiarity, Durandal instinctively retreated at high speed. In the next moment, countless Lances of the Void rained down, each one landing exactly where her figure had been a moment before.

"Abyss Flower? Hmph, let’s see how much of Cecilia’s skill you have."

Click, clack, clack—

The crisp sound of footsteps echoed from the void. Durandal stood tall, lifting her head slightly to look at the "acquaintance" who was walking down from the void, step by step.

"Kiana? No, that ability to manipulate space... you’re the Second Herrscher?"

Even as she said it, the image of Abyss Flower being blocked by an invisible barrier flashed through her mind. It was just a casual use of the Herrscher’s Authority, well within the scope of spatial manipulation, but it made Durandal involuntarily recall her recent battle with that man...

"Why does he have this power too? Overseer... who exactly are you working with?"

No one would answer her question. She could only temporarily bury the doubt and steel herself to face the Herrscher.

But the Second Herrscher seemed to pay her no mind. During their standoff, she even turned aside to gently stroke the scars on Benares’s face.

"Hmph!"

SNAP!

With a snap of her fingers, the vines that bound Benares all broke. The dragon-like Honkai Beast let out a soft cry, nuzzled its head against the Herrscher, then slowly beat its wings, following meekly behind her.

"To hurt my Bella like this... Human, you truly don’t know the difference between life and death..."

The Second Herrscher turned her head slightly, her golden eyes looking down at Durandal.

But her opponent’s deadpan reply caught the Herrscher off guard.

"My apologies. I have been a Valkyrie for many years. I know the difference between life and death."

After a pause, her expression became unprecedentedly serious and earnest.

"Although I don’t understand how you, who were eliminated sixteen years ago, have been revived, on the day I became an S-rank Valkyrie, the Overseer told me that an S-rank Valkyrie is a Herrscher-killer. Unfortunately, it is only now, after so many years, that I have my first opportunity to fight a Herrscher... By the way, the original owner of this weapon, Abyss Flower, Cecilia Schariac, died in battle against you, didn’t she? Rest assured, what has been, will not necessarily be again."

Sirin’s face suddenly twisted. Perhaps it was her opponent’s dismissive tone that triggered certain memories, causing a primal pain in her chest. Or perhaps it was the name she mentioned, the one name that was the sole exception in her heart.

"You... understand nothing!"

Durandal’s pupils constricted. In the next instant, three Lances of the Void tore through space, aimed at her brow, neck, and heart.

She reversed her grip on Abyss Flower. An attack of this level was just a bit fast, but still within her reaction time. But just as she thought Abyss Flower would easily parry the lances, their slender, sharp tips passed through the spear without any resistance.

"A projection? No!"

Countless possibilities flashed through her mind. But faced with the same move, Durandal’s reaction was far faster than a certain former S-rank Valkyrie. She didn’t waste even a fraction of a second on thought or hesitation. The moment the spear tips passed through her weapon, she twisted her body.

As expected, the lance aimed at her throat pierced her ponytail as she spun, and the end of her hair was severed by the unstoppable spatial authority. It was no illusion!

"Fast reactions. But... how long can you last?"

The voice came from behind her. Durandal’s eyes widened in fury as she turned, her spear already sweeping backward, only to be blocked and locked in place by several floating Lances of the Void.

"King!"

The self-driven phantom formed and swung its greatsword in less than a tenth of a second, but Sirin had already leaped into a spatial rift.

Durandal’s nose twitched. This was going to be troublesome.

"Bianka..."

"Yes!"

Otto’s voice and a giant crystal of Honkai energy appeared overhead at the same time. Durandal only had time to give a quick reply as she was pulled back by King to dodge.

"Overseer... what’s wrong?"

After dodging the attack, she realized Otto’s voice was unprecedentedly weak.

"It’s nothing, just a small problem. I’ve transferred to a new body, and Amber is still helping me with the adjustments. But enough of that. Bianka, remember this: Theresa and the others will need about forty minutes to return to the battlefield. Your mission is to hold off the Second Herrscher. The moment the Hyperion returns, you are to leave immediately. Understood?"

Durandal mentally formed a question mark.

But she was somewhat used to the Overseer’s erratic thinking.

He didn’t want her to think; he only wanted her to do what he thought. So she didn’t need to question.

Of course, she didn’t like the order, but an order had to be carried out. So, she decided to carry it out in a different way.

For instance—let’s see if the Second Herrscher can last for forty minutes.