Honkai Impact 3rd: My Days as a Captain in Schicksal

"I want...I want to be with everyone! Let's play together again at the school festival next year!" Suddenly, a girl's voice rang out loudly, her voice choked with sobs and tears.

A momentary commotion arose in the crowd, as if a piece of sodium had been thrown into calm water; the desperate shout seemed to stir up emotions that had long been suppressed in everyone's hearts.

Perhaps this is just a starting point, but it has truly inspired everyone to face the future with courage and hope.

"I want to protect everyone! I want to become someone as amazing as Himeko-sensei!!"

"I want to have a passionate and intense love affair!"

"I want to eat pork and green bean buns tomorrow!"

"I hope everyone can achieve their dreams!"

"I hope...I hope! I...I hope I can live on with everyone, laughing all the way!"

"I hope to stay with you all forever!"

"It's so great to have met everyone...!!!"

Keng Huo seemed to be infected as well. He was excited and wanted to shout something, but he could only make a weak sound from his hoarse throat. Even though it was quiet around him, the people next to him might not be able to hear him clearly.

Keng Huo opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but slowly closed his lips tightly.

He lowered his head, covered his chest with his hands, and slowly squatted down amidst the cheering and excited crowd.

Two streams of cold tears flowed from his eyes.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Hope of the Whole Village

"Brother..." In the darkness and silence, Keng Huo suddenly opened his eyes. A faint, indistinct voice came from all directions.

"Brother... save me..."

“Elisa…” His bewildered eyes gradually regained their light. He widened his eyes and anxiously scanned the surrounding darkness. “Elisa! Where are you! Don’t be afraid! Brother is coming to save you!”

"Brother...I'm so scared..." The weak voice gradually turned into a sob.

Keng Huo ran like a madman, shouting, "Elisa! Elisa, where are you! Your brother is here!"

"Brother...I'm here..."

"I'm here..."

A bright, blinding light suddenly appeared in front of Keng Huo. He instinctively squinted and shielded his eyes with his hands.

But then he felt something cool fall into his palm. Keng Huo opened his eyes, moved his hand away, and saw the phantom he least wanted to see in this life.

It was a vast, boundless snowfield, where the cold wind howled like a sharp knife, carrying snowflakes the size of goose feathers that pierced the air like icy blades.

But Keng Huo didn't notice any of this; his gaze was fixed on what was ahead.

His breathing suddenly became heavy.

His eyes became fiercer than ever before.

His expression instantly turned as ferocious as a demon.

He... is completely different from the Keng Huo that everyone at St. Freya Academy knows.

He transformed into a demon that crawled out of hell.

Keng Huo suddenly opened his eyes, but what he saw was not the snowfield, but the familiar ceiling.

Keng Huo's breathing gradually became steady. He slowly sat up, threw aside the towel he had torn and soaked with sweat, and lowered his head, as if he was thinking about something.

After an unknown amount of time, Keng Huo sighed softly, looking quite exhausted. He got out of bed, put on his slippers, picked up the towel that had fallen to the floor, and threw it into the trash can.

Keng Huo staggered to the bathroom, took off his clothes, went into the shower, and turned on the showerhead.

The pattering water seemed to clear his head a bit, and he recalled the desperate shouts and prayers of the Valkyries when he watched the fireworks in the square that night.

He remembered the words he had wanted to shout back then.

Keng Huo gave a wry smile, tried to speak, and found that his voice was still hoarse.

Keng Huo quickly washed himself, came out of the bathroom, poured himself a glass of water, and moistened his dry throat.

He returned to his bedroom and saw the towel he had thrown into the trash can.

The towel was too big for the trash can; a large part of it was sticking out and hanging on the floor.

Keng Huo frowned, stuck one foot in, and stepped the towel into the trash can. But when he tried to pull his foot out, it got stuck, pulling the towel out with him. He paused for a moment, then used his foot to lift the towel out again and stepped it into the trash can, but when he tried to pull it out, the towel came out with him again.

Keng Huo patiently tried a third time, but this time he got his entire foot stuck in the trash can. He shook his foot, trying to shake the trash can off, but found it was no use.

A nameless fire suddenly ignited in his heart, his eyes suddenly turned violent, and he suddenly performed a 180-degree spinning kick, sending the trash can flying like a cannonball.

Along with it, snack wrappers, crumbs from the wrappers, and the torn towel were also flung away.

There was also a television set that had been smashed by a trash can.

Keng Huo silently looked at the mess on the ground. A look of exhaustion crept onto his face. He slowly turned around, put his hands on the windowsill, and quietly looked at the moonlight outside the window.

The moonlight is beautiful tonight, so pure and white that it seems to be without any impurities. It is like a thin veil, gently enveloping the tranquil St. Freya Academy.

The trees in the green belt swayed gently, and purple flowers fell from the trees, carpeting the ground directly beneath the canopy.

The flowers fell and fell, seemingly without end.

Like many things in this world, you always think it will end completely at some point, but you never expect it to keep going, like a boxer who is beaten to a pulp but keeps getting back up in the ring.

Facing such an opponent only sends chills down one's spine.

And despair.

Keng Huo gazed silently at this promised land protected by Theresa, his expression gradually tinged with sorrow.

He spoke slowly, his expression complex, and muttered to himself in a hoarse voice, "Damn it... that TV must have cost at least five or six thousand... I've lost almost half a month's salary..."

Keng Huo slowly turned around, tidied up the mess on the floor by himself, and sat on the sofa in a daze. But after only a moment, he scratched his head helplessly.

"Since I'm so energetic and can't sleep anyway, I might as well finish what I haven't done yet."

Keng Huo got up and went to his closet. He took out the white cloth bag that Kiana had secretly given him, took out the contents one by one and placed them on the table. Then he drew all the curtains, turned off the lights, and sat quietly at the cleaned dining table.

This is his temporary workstation.

Keng Huo stroked the tabletop, and the area his hand touched suddenly emitted a faint purple light. Patterns appeared under his hand, intertwining and crisscrossing, like the gnarled roots of an ancient tree, or the bizarre lines and blocks of color in the brushstrokes of a mad painter.

He then took out a purplish-red heart, no bigger than a thumb, from the cloth bag. It seemed to be still beating slightly.

Then there were some messy and irregular metal blocks.

Keng Huo took a deep breath, calmed his heartbeat, and slowly closed his eyes.

After a while, when he opened his eyes, all his emotions had been driven out of his body, and his eyes were like ancient wells, deep and calm.

Keng Huo placed a crystal that shimmered with a deep blue light in the center of the table. The instant the crystal touched the table, the purple patterns on the surface seemed to come alive and began to twist and twitch wildly. The originally intertwined lines suddenly unfurled, like willow branches sprouting new shoots. Centered on the crystal, the patterns gradually began to shine, like a long-parched ditch receiving rain, illuminating the entire room as if it were filled with purple neon lights.

Keng Huo's hands were not idle. He took out a pen-like object from somewhere, which was as white and crystal clear as bone, neither gold nor jade, and looked like a crudely made product made in a rush. He stared solemnly at the lines that were twisting and extending wildly, and occasionally drew a stroke on the lines. The lines would also correct their course according to the traces he drew.

Some lines seemed to lose momentum and gradually darkened. Keng Huo swiftly grabbed the purplish-red heart, held it above the lines, and kneaded it fiercely. The juice squeezed from the heart dripped onto the workbench, surging like boiling water and making a hissing, corrosive sound. Keng Huo's pupils contracted, and he quickly used the white pen to spread the juice evenly with his other hand, while his hands and feet worked non-stop to draw the next lines. The liquid corroding the tabletop quieted down the moment it touched the white pen, like a drop of ordinary purplish-red ink, obediently extending into new lines along Keng Huo's pen tip.

Keng Huo stared intently at the lines, occasionally using various methods to repair and remedy them. As the lines spread into a clearer mass, more and more beads of sweat appeared on Keng Huo's forehead, and his hand speed increased, like a painter who had entered a meditative state, rapidly sketching with his pen on the worktable.

Beads of sweat dripped onto the table, blurring his vision, but he remained unmoved, his eyes wide open as if afraid of missing a single detail, oblivious to the stinging pain caused by the salty sweat flowing into his eyes.

After an unknown amount of time, the lines finally covered the entire table. The lines connected end to end, and the flow of Honkai energy within them seemed to form an endless cycle. Keng Huo suddenly grabbed the irregular metal blocks and, with the speed of a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, placed them almost simultaneously on several key nodes on the outer edge of the entire pattern.

The moment the metal blocks fell, the entire magic circle shone brightly, illuminating the room as if it were daytime. Light even burst out from the windows that were covered by curtains, making it look from the outside as if Keng Huo's house had exploded.

But Keng Huo couldn't care less about that now. He frowned and watched carefully as the lines seemed to be sucked away by a vacuum cleaner, frantically shrinking towards the dark blue crystal in the center of the table.

Keng Huo held his breath and took another pen from the pen rack next to him. The pen was made of the same material as the one he had just used to draw the pattern. However, this pen was obviously much more finely crafted, especially the tip, which was carefully polished into the shape of a tool used by a jade craftsman to polish and carve jade.

Keng Huo carefully poked the crystal that emitted a faint blue light with the pen. When he found that it was as soft as jelly and the pen tip easily pierced through it, a clear look of excitement flashed in his eyes.

He pressed his face close to the crystal, carefully outlining, picking, smoothing, and gathering it with the pen. For a moment, he seemed to transform into a jade master, removing the excess parts of the crystal and leaving only the most essential core.

Under Keng Huo's careful sketching, the crystal was gradually being shaped into a jade pendant. Just as the pendant was about to take shape, Keng Huo quickly used the white pen to cut the tip of his index finger and pressed the wound hard against the blue jelly.

Keng Huo's eyes went black as a sharp pain spread from his fingertips like a raging fire to his heart and then to his entire body. But he gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and silently recited the process of making the jade pendant. He unleashed his will, energy, and spirit in one go, channeling it all into the blue jelly connected to his heart and blood.

Keng Huo kept visualizing a scene in his mind: the back of a warrior in full armor, standing alone on land bathed in the glow of dawn, with a broken flagpole beside him, at the top of which lay half a tattered yellow flag, fluttering in the wind.

But apart from that, Keng Huo could not see anything else, only soldiers, land, half a flagpole and a flag; the rest of the scene was pitch black.

Keng Huo forced himself to calm his mind and wholeheartedly devoted himself to meditation.

The soldier planted the broken flag in the ground, stood up straight, yet seemed to be bowing slightly, facing forward.

Keng Huo continuously refined the details of the visualized image.

The camera slowly pulls back, revealing countless corpses at the soldier's feet and around him. They are all soldiers wearing the same standard armor as him, their young faces now forever asleep, blood and dirt smeared on their faces like battle markings.

Keng Huo could barely bear the excruciating pain emanating from his fingertips. The pain had spread to his brain, making it almost impossible for him to continue concentrating and meditating. However, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to continue meditating with sheer willpower.

The image zoomed in, the colors intensified, and a faint smell of blood seemed to linger in the air. The faint roars of wild beasts reached Keng Huo's ears, and he saw a ruined city appear behind the warrior.

Just how dilapidated must that city be?

Its city walls were dilapidated, full of large holes and collapses, and even the city gates had disappeared, not to mention the moat that was almost unrecognizable.

There was no one on the city wall, only the smoke from the seemingly exhausted beacon fires. There wasn't even a bird in the sky, and looking into the city through the large hole in the wall, there was no sign of human habitation.

It was like a dead city.

Whether it's the dilapidated buildings or the smoke and dust seemingly drifting above the ruins, they all silently tell this story.

This city is as deserted as Fengdu. Even if there are still people inside, they are probably all heartbroken.

Because the city was already filled with an aura of death.

Like an ancient tomb for thousands of people.

Keng Huo felt completely exhausted. He could no longer concentrate. He tried his best to visualize the next scene, but he was always interrupted by the noise in his mind and chaotic thoughts that popped up from nowhere.

"At least... let me see the enemy..."

Keng Huo bit his tongue hard, using the intense pain to force himself to focus his mind and try to visualize the enemy the warrior was facing.