Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

"The Herrscher is a product of excessive emotional repression. If I don't vent it, I might become the Herrscher of the Stars again someday."

Jiang Cheng held up the Star Sea Harmony with his right hand, softly calling upon all the power within his body, the most fundamental gravity of the universe influencing this world.

Feeling the viscous liquid appear at my feet, climb onto my shoes, and wet my trouser legs, it felt like tentacles, wrapping around me with a twisted and eerie feeling of nausea.

The deep blue in his eyes lit up, shedding the last trace of black that belonged to mortal pupils, as if the deep ocean reflected the stars in the sky.

"Starry Sea Harmony, Zero Rated Power".

"The stars..."

"—Descend!"

……

A fleeting moment of beauty belonging only to the stars, in the back mountains that were once the town of Vostok-51 and have now been transformed into a more lush village, extreme gravity destroys and distorts the rain that falls here, along with the dark clouds in the more distant sky.

On a bright, clear day, an absolute rarity in human history, I finally looked up at this place that witnessed the birth of a certain fairy from paradise.

Jiang Cheng stood there quietly, head tilted back, waiting silently, his gaze fixed on the distance, his dark pupils piercing through the clouds and breaking through the edge of the sky.

at last……

at last……

That glory has finally faded.

Meteors, distorted by gravity from beyond the planet, fall, breaking through the atmosphere and leaving brilliant streaks in the darkening sky, where no rain is falling, shimmering with the purest and most flawless pink.

Just like more than 50,000 years ago, when a young girl fell from the sky, willingly plunging into the cruel human world, people looked up and saw the starry sky.

……

--meteor.

Meteoroids traveling in interstellar space are attracted by Earth's gravity and produce light trails as they pass through Earth's atmosphere at high speed, resulting in electron transitions.

It is neither as eternal as the stars nor as ancient as the sun. Even with all its strength, it cannot achieve the brightness of light. It cannot spread its light and brightness to the world like the sun. Even its beauty and poetry cannot compare to the less prominent moonlight. Yet, it is willing to give its all in an instant, as if the brushstrokes of a god have drawn the night sky, shimmering with bright white lines, like the reappearance of the Milky Way.

Throughout history, countless people have gone crazy for it, devoting their entire lives just to see a shooting star and witness a landscape that doesn't belong to the confines of a single planet.

At this moment, in bustling technological cities, in quiet and simple towns, in lakes where fish swim gently, and in grasslands where countless animals tread.

In this world, soon to be shrouded in calamity and trapped beneath the cocoon of the end, a shooting star streaks across the sky, as if the gods have heard the prayers of mortals and bestowed their own gift, the most perfect present.

It wasn't a simple fall, nor did it rub against the atmosphere outside the world to produce a dazzling light due to its different burning patterns, but that doesn't mean that the brilliance of this meteor is inferior to that of something from outer space.

The simple, honest residents of the town looked up and excitedly recounted this beauty that had nothing to do with them—a miracle from the moon and stars.

People living in the city, with their days and nights reversed and almost no freedom or peace, listlessly raise their heads and look up at the sky. In the endless, deep night, falling stars trail pink flames.

Light burst forth freely in the unobstructed sky, the endless twilight seemingly divided by a force of will, the two halves of clouds tacitly separated by the pink shooting star still falling downwards.

No language can describe this scene. All the words that mankind has created over thousands of years seem to lose their color and become dull at this moment. Even the most learned person can only be speechless.

Only the purest fairy tales, fairy tales unbound by any common sense, can appear in the mouths of children, in the mouths of children who are still unrestrained and undefined, and who still possess the most perfect imagination.

"Mom... what's that?"

A young child reached out his hand, his innocent eyes reflecting the light of dusk, his chubby fingers pointing to the sky, to that fairytale-like miracle.

Her mother simply hugged her even tighter, and her eyes, tainted by the mundane realities of daily life and countless trivial matters, seemed to become purer and more transparent at that moment.

Unlike children who have not yet developed their worldview.

Adults are more able to appreciate the weight of this miracle.

This 'shock' is enough for the entire world to witness—office workers still working overtime late into the night, office workers who have just returned home, middle-aged men having barbecues by the roadside, and young students at the peak of their lives...

On this planet, which is already on the verge of despair and on the verge of collapse, no one is unworthy to see this meteor shower commemorating 50,000 years ago.

Satellites observing from the sky will record that one day, a gift from the gods, seemingly only existing in fairy tales, will descend upon this beautiful world.

Pink bands of light divided the sky.

The goddess of stars and moon descended to earth.

That was a memory etched into the planet 50,000 years ago. Under the infinite blurring effect of the power known as the gravity field, its flawless brilliance was enough to make any viewer remember it firmly in their heart, never to be forgotten.

This beauty is not something that can be seen on this planet; it is a miracle that has been accumulated over countless years and waited for over a long period of time.

It belongs to humanity, to the planet, to this world—a unique, irreplaceable, inimitable, and absolutely unparalleled miracle.

——Aliceia.

……

……

Still lying quietly in the paradise of the past, the once furious Velvet has had her anger (hope) extinguished by the long passage of time. She almost no longer puts her thoughts on that fairy, because the top genius has realized that it is meaningless to do anything.

The once flawless person is now nothing but a complete waste. Having lost everything, his heart has long been shattered into scattered sand.

Even when it gets wet, it cannot clump together, and it cannot even maintain its integrity. It is one of the few types of waste materials in the world that cannot be used as building materials.

No matter how much Wilvi pleaded, blamed, humbled, or arrogantly she tried, she couldn't make the sand build a tower, nor could she make the lovely fairy, like Sleeping Beauty, open her eyes and reveal even the slightest bit of the truth, or any part of her or the boy's experiences.

Even the most indomitable Kevin was helpless in the face of this situation. Even Eden, who thought he knew Alicia best, could not touch or get close to even a tiny bit of that broken heart.

That was a forbidden zone where everyone except Jiangcheng stopped; it was a place where even if you went in, even if you saw it, it would be meaningless due to the endless sand and dust.

Even if it's as a friend from another world, out of love for her, or simply out of respect and affection for Alicia herself.

All he could do was what he could – wipe the face of the girl with her eyes tightly closed with a towel, trying to ease her pain a little with this simple act and the just-right touch.

This was a task that was to be taken on by multiple people in turns, and at this moment, having taken over the responsibility from the one with the Golden Inscription, the new Inscription of Discipline picked up the towel.

Gently dip it into the almost perfectly adjusted basin of water, wring it out to maintain the humidity at just the right level, ensuring there are no problems. Now that everything is in perfect condition, gently touch that soft, white skin with your soothing hands through the towel.

The lively and agile fairy lay obediently on the ground like a puppet, enduring being wiped, but even this act could not awaken the slightest bit of her consciousness.

"Ugh……"

Unbeknownst to her, sighing had become Aponia's most common behavior. The nun, who had always tried to save more people from the unseen fate, encountered for the first time something visible yet for which she was helpless.

"What...what happened to Alicia? What kind of disaster could have turned 'her' into this state?"

Unfortunately, this was a problem that even the golden Eden could not touch. The fairy's most sincere friend could only shake his head helplessly, his bright golden eyes as deep and strange as if he were truly drunk.

"I don't know the reason for this, and I can't figure out what could have happened to make her like this."

"Compared to me, who is actually a completely unqualified friend, you, as a mental fusion warrior, should know more than I do."

……

"Knowing Ellie, shall I...do it?"

Eh?

is that true?

Aponia fell silent, her whole body stiff, with only her hands, which were wiping the fairy, still moving. Her delicate, soft fingertips, which had once been responsible for holding others' hands, offering blessings and listening, were now wiping her skin.

If it weren't for the fact that she didn't fit the character's persona, this nun, who was once considered the fiercest and most wicked, would probably be asking Kusakabe the three questions right now.

I can't do it, I really can't. This ability, which is almost only effective on people, is completely useless for exploring Alicia's heart.

"Ah...that's true."

—No one responded.

No one answered.

The questions buried deep in one's heart can only resonate within; those spoken aloud merely echo alone within the room.

This is something that even Vilvi couldn't figure out. Only the "Memory Body" Alicia might be able to see a little bit about it, but even that girl was unwilling to talk about it or tell everyone.

It seems that it's because—'Only another version of myself can tell you about this. I can only vaguely sense some extremely painful suffering and see some blurry images. If I were to describe it, it would definitely be incomplete, unable to fully summarize the entire event, and I might even get many very important things wrong.'

Even if I can only see a little bit, I have a vague feeling that the turmoil here is much greater than what the other Miss Wilhelm experienced. If I cannot reveal the truth, if I speak recklessly and mislead the public, it will only make things worse.

'You don't actually need to think about it with common sense. Perhaps, quite the opposite, it's possible that people who shouldn't have done certain things did them.'

There were no musical notes, and the playfulness he usually displayed in his voice had vanished, replaced by a rare seriousness on his lively face.

The subsequent words took the riddle to the extreme, almost entirely consisting of emphasizing the danger and importance, and subtly hinting at other things.

Eden really couldn't understand when Alicia had contracted such a terrible thing, the Riddler, it was just awful—although when she became a hero in Paradise, even she couldn't help but unconsciously become a Riddler to those modern people who came to try.

However, these two things should not be confused at all.

The importance of the two is clearly unequal.

Most of the modern people who came to the trial did not have the ability to know the truth. Even if we did not explain everything to them with riddles, they could not do anything and would only get into trouble because of it.

Alicia's is naturally not on the same level.

Is there anything in this world that neither Alicia nor Velvi, the "Memory Entity," can know?

Even if Wilvi alone cannot bear it, as merely a memory of Paradise, none of the others, the shadows left behind by the previous civilization, are capable of assisting.

Aren't Kevin and his friends still living in this era?

Can't we ask them for help?

Why on earth…

They won't even say a word?

Ugh……

Eden could only end the conversation with a sigh. His eyes, which should have been as bright as flowing gold, were now frozen, reflecting Sleeping Beauty's flawlessness like a dead sea, a fallen bird, or a withered flower.

No matter how beautiful the words used to embellish or describe it, they cannot change the fact that the girl before me has a dead, empty heart.

Kevin and his group lacked the ability to intervene, so they could only leave and wait silently until they were useful. Velvey was currently interrogating the "memory" Ellie, abandoning the possibility of obtaining the truth from Ellie, hoping to learn a little about the truth through the same person in different worlds, placing her hopes on so-called empathy and similar personalities.

Su was also pulled over to test and explore whether the "memory body" Ellie could deduce the general direction of what would happen next through her empathy, her past with the boy, her few interactions with the fairy at the banquet in her memory, and the little clues and details.

I don't need too much, at least some information that can be inferred will do. Eden, as a friend, wanted to stop it but was powerless to do so, because even Alicia herself did not want her to interfere in her and Velvi's affairs.

Although she still mostly showed rejection and was unwilling to express her feelings, only willing to describe some generalities, she was not as withdrawn as Alicia lying on the ground and was willing to cooperate with Su to explore the truth.

Perhaps she also wanted to know why her other self had become like this, why a girl who should have been as lovely as a flower had withered away like this?

In the story of these three people, is there no room for me to intervene?

……