Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

Changguang nodded confidently – Yes, a harmonious family!

"As a result, the theocratic forces and the Far East branch, two of the three parties in the alliance, have already been hampered by these tedious matters—"

"They also need to convince the members of the East District that I have a biological daughter—although I do, I have never publicly acknowledged her existence since they arrived and announced my little princess's existence, though I haven't denied it either—"

"The people in the East District are currently in a state of skepticism... However—perhaps my 'good' son-in-law is also a natural leader?"

The blond man watched the footage from the monitor with great interest. A purple-haired girl stood on a high platform, shouting something. The hastily assembled Valkyrie force, after a brief period of chaos, split into...

Several small teams are then dispatched to the nodes of each transaction.

"In short... their progress has to stop now, and the power of anti-entropy alone is not enough to worry about—"

Waving his hand to let Changguang leave first, Otto looked at the Anti-Entropy Titans patrolling in formation in the images transmitted from the Third Airport and sighed—

"After all, my old friend... hasn't been around for a long time... don't you agree, Joyce?"

The blond man looked at the man standing next to Titan in the monitor and uttered his name in a nostalgic tone... Then, the Archbishop of Destiny quickly sensed something was amiss—

"Joyce? Walter Joyce?! What are you doing here?!"

Otto stared wide-eyed at the young man with indigo hair chatting with Theresa on the monitor, his tone filled with disbelief.

"A clone? No, that's not right... That smile, that expression... Welt Joyce himself?! No, Joyce should have been confirmed dead when he met the successor of the Herrscher of Reason during the Second Honkai Impact..."

The bishop of Destiny watched the indigo-haired man in the video, constantly speculating on various possibilities, only to reject them one by one, until the man in the video seemed to notice the surveillance camera.

The indigo-haired youth in the video looked up, cracked his fist in front of the monitor, and mouthed something to Otto—

[Otto Apocalypse, my old friend, let's settle this score from over fifty years ago, you old bastard.]

"Haha...you're back too, old friend—but the old debts I owe you...I guess I can't pay them back yet—"

The blond man stared at Joyce on the screen with a puzzled expression, but one thing he was certain of was that Joyce standing in the Third Airport was the same First Herrscher from back then.

"My old friend, don't block my way this time..."

Finally, only a soft sigh remained in the room.

Chapter 161 The war has begun; it's a continuation of the previous war.jpg

“This is a well-laid plan, Theresa.”

Jiuxiao was leaning against a container in the airport, humming a tune leisurely. She had just escaped from the complicated tasks of reorganizing the troops and establishing a new command structure.

"I know you're anxious to find your niece, but being anxious won't help—"

“I can take advantage of that bishop’s daughter-obsessed nature and use Snow’s name to take over half of Schicksal’s headquarters, making it an asset for us in the future—Otto Apocalypse can also use this to delay our progress with half of Schicksal.”

“I know Jiuxiao, but…”

"But the longer this drags on... the more dangerous Kiana becomes, and the bigger our troubles will be, right?"

Theresa nodded, continuing Jiu Xiao's words—

“Wu Ni has disappeared. No one in the academy has found her. We can only guess that she went out to play or was captured by her grandfather. Wendy, as a branch that intimidates European countries and prevents them from supporting Schicksal headquarters, is now wandering around Europe. Although the Oceania branch is on our side, they have not recovered from the trauma of the Fourth Honkai Impact.”

"Although the West Asia branch is on our side, the Honkai activities in West Asia have recently become active again, and they are also unable to spare any combat power to support us."

“You should think about it from a different perspective—Theresa, ah...you look like a typical pessimist right now—”

Jiuxiao shrugged and began to explain—

“Wendy helped us hold back the support of all the European branches, and two branches even surrendered and defected directly because of this. As for the West Asian branch, we couldn’t rely on their military support—we valued their financial assistance—they are oil tycoons who are rolling in money.”

"And the Oceania branch—as Oceania is truly far from the central government, and they are directly connected with Anti-Entropy, they can serve as our backup base and springboard."

"And Wuni, Theresa, to put it more positively, that Herrscher who can become invisible and intangible [memory] might be residing in Kiana's body or mind right now? After all, their relationship is pretty good, isn't it?"

Jiuxiao paused, then, seeing Theresa's brows gradually relax, continued:

"And in a hurry... the archbishop is probably not in much better shape than us right now..."

Jiuxiao revealed a somewhat amused smile.

"Grandpa? What's his hurry?"

Theresa was a little curious.

“I just had Mr. Joyce do you a favor—given that bishop’s personality, the Third Airport of Destiny is definitely under his surveillance right now.”

"So Grandpa saw Mr. Joyce?"

“That’s right, I deliberately let Mr. Joyce, who is the true First Herrscher, make a good impression on that Archbishop.”

"Now that bishop is even more eager than we are; he'd love for the plan to proceed as quickly as possible—if, at first, Bishop Otto's delaying tactics could slow us down and leave us in a state of chaos..."

"Now that bishop will also feel the same way—he knows perfectly well what the First Herrscher's ability is. The time he originally gained by using half of his Destiny to delay has now become a stone that has shot itself in the foot."

"Given enough time, Mr. Walter Joyce could muster a massive army, and he is doing just that now."

"He's anxious, and we're anxious too. The best we can do is compromise—neither of us getting anxious will make a difference."

--------------------------

"Mr. Joyce will later have to face his old friend—Bishop Otto of Destiny."

"And then, we'll also have to deal with one of your old friends, Dean—"

Jiuxiao looked towards the main island at the center of destiny—Kiana was right there, and the bishop of destiny was probably getting restless too.

"Old friends? What old friends do I have to deal with...?"

Theresa was completely bewildered, not quite understanding what was happening.

"Second Herrscher Sirin - wouldn't you consider her an old friend...? You should be very clear about the other consciousness within Kiana's body."

"Oh no, that body was originally created for a Herrscher..."

The purple-haired Valkyrie leaned against the container, her fingers rhythmically tapping on the box, pointing out the final enemy the group would face.

"Wait, Jiuxiao, do you know Kiana's...!"

“I met her nominal father, Siegfried Kaslana, in Singapore.”

Jiuxiao directly shifted the blame to Siegfried, who was not even there, and Theresa's questions were immediately interrupted and resolved by Jiuxiao's words.

"I see... Wait?! You saw Siegfried back then? In that mission report..."

“Oh, my dear Dean Theresa—we went to Singapore on vacation—only Fu Hua and Kiana were on the mission.”

"Kiana touched the Tranquility Gem and awakened Sirin's consciousness. She was then knocked unconscious by Snow who happened to be passing by. Besides, she was brought out by Fu Hua to farm credits, so naturally she wouldn't see Siegfried, and of course she wouldn't mention it to you."

"And Fu Hua—the one who knocked Kiana unconscious and kidnapped her to headquarters—do you think she'll tell the truth...?"

"As for us, we only started writing our mission reports properly after Simon arrived, so there's no point in expecting anything from us."

Jiuxiao whistled, glossing over the topic.

"Alright... just how many secrets are you and Snow hiding..."

Theresa muttered a complaint under her breath, then thought of the old friend she had mentioned earlier and fell silent.

"Sirin... why did Grandpa go to awaken the Second Herrscher? She already caused enough pain to humanity during the Second Honkai Impact, why did he have to awaken her again?"

“He has his demands, and we have our goals, Dean Theresa—understanding your opponent is something you do after the dust has settled.”

"We don't need to understand him now—even if he wanted to reverse time, to bring the dead back to life—to make the withered branches of the tree sprout new leaves again..."

"None of that is relevant to us right now... We don't have time to think about these things. Let's just do what we need to do."

“Theresa, the war has begun. It is a continuation of the last war—countless warriors have gathered here for her. Whether the tragedy of sixteen years ago will repeat itself depends on us now—”

“The Archbishop of Destiny who awakened and resurrected Sirin, your ‘good’ grandfather, Otto Apocalypse, is destined not to appear on the battlefield to defeat her until his purpose is achieved, and—he will also be an obstacle for us; oh, of course—Mr. Joyce has much more to say to him.”

Chapter 162 We Have One Last Plan.jpg

"We must defeat the Second Herrscher, who was resurrected using Kiana's body, no matter the cost."

Jiuxiao looked at the situation map on the projection and said.

“That child is my student, and I made a promise to them! I will not let this happen!”

"Absolutely not—I will bring her back, as a teacher!"

Meanwhile, Himeko slammed her hand on the table in the makeshift command post—

The red-haired Valkyrie spoke firmly, brooking no argument.

“Himeko-san...while I support your idea—if her will is truly corrupted by the Herrscher consciousness, we may find it very difficult to awaken Kiana.”

Joyce sighed.

"Furthermore, according to Ms. Theresa's description... Kiana seemed to be in a hallucination before being defeated by Fu Hua, repeatedly saying things like, 'You saved my mother, and my mother gave me back...'"

"However, her nominal mother, Ms. Cecilia Shaniat, had already perished in the Second Collapse in 2000."

Jiuxiao added from the side.

"And Fu Hua did indeed inform Kiana of this, after which Kiana went berserk and was knocked down and taken away by Fu Hua."

"In other words, in the illusion, this Miss Kiana most likely dreamed of the Second Honkai Impact and saved her mother in the dream...?"

Joyce stroked his chin, guessing somewhat uncertainly.

"Then she was shattered by Fu Hua's ruthless reality, which led to her going berserk... If that's the case, we could try to awaken the Second Herrscher after suppressing her by using Theresa's connections."

"Leaving aside the fact that suppressing the Second Herrscher is no easy task... it's probably impossible to awaken Kiana simply by relying on this kind of relationship."

"After the Singapore mission, Snow accessed Schicksal's classified database and found our Kiana's codename—"

“K423, 'K' stands for Kaslana, and 423, Headmistress Theresa, you should understand Schicksal's naming conventions better than I do.”

"Cloning experiment subject number 423..."

Jiuxiao's words and Theresa's reply brought a temporary silence to the command center.

"According to the confidential documents unearthed by our young lady... the first 422 experimental subjects who fused with the genes of the real Kiana and Sirin were destroyed without developing consciousness—"

"And after hundreds of failures, the bishop chose a very radical approach—he implanted the core of the Second Herrscher into Subject 423—and then... the Kiana we know was born."

"Or rather, Sirin? After all, she is a personality born from the Herrscher core—a personality with a kind side."

"As for why such a personality was born... Snow's reply to me was 'Perhaps the respectable lady in the records, who was as gentle as a mother, did something for her at the end of her life,' which should be the most credible guess."