Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

The hermit suppressed his emotions and reverted to his cold tone.

"Uh... I don't know, but surely it can't be too small to accommodate everyone?"

"That's the right answer, Kiana—they won't be able to accommodate it... Every additional foreign authority that doesn't belong to them adds to the burden on the Herrschers, let alone five..."

"Her current safety is solely due to the Tranquility Gem."

"The Second Herrscher, engrossed in the near-infinite power bestowed upon her by her [God], has forgotten her own body..."

"So, this 'god' doesn't sound like a good thing either..."

"Ha... God's thinking is different from humans. He only told the Second Herrscher about the existence of these powers, and the gems were given to her by the Second Herrscher at her own request..."

"That person probably just found it amusing and bestowed this power upon her. After all... for Him, it was completely insignificant, and He might even find it entertaining?"

"In other words, these gods are all a bunch of entertainers."

Kiana rolled her eyes upon hearing this.

"There's nothing wrong with what you're saying..."

The hermit nodded, acknowledging Kiana's assessment.

"Let's get back to the heart of the story—the meteorite just dropped by the Second Herrscher has caused at least tens of millions of casualties on Earth, and Schicksal and Anti-Entropy have had to respond to it."

"—In response to the Second Herrscher's provocation against Welt Yang, the First Herrscher and leader of Anti-Entropy..."

"The Second Herrscher, having gained new power, is clearly no longer satisfied with the status quo..."

"She wanted more power—and to kill the First Herald she saw as a traitor to God, to prove her loyalty to the gods..."

"The Second Herrscher invited Welt Yang to the moon... for a final duel—"

"And her countdown to destruction has officially begun from this moment..."

"Why do I suddenly feel so sorry for the Second Herrscher? Her boss is just a joker, and she didn't even realize her body was failing..."

Kiana muttered to herself, while the hermit, who overheard the girl's murmurs, merely sighed.

"This child was a tragedy from the very beginning, both before and after becoming a Herrscher..."

—Then the scene began to change again.

Chapter 77 Today's title was all taken advantage of by the author.jpg

On February 10, 2000, at the Anti-Entropy Base, 10 minutes before the launch of Alahato, the Hermit and Kiana stood on the launch vehicle, ready to hitch a ride.

Kiana looked at the spot where the two were, hesitated, and then hugged the tip of the launch vehicle tightly.

"I understand the logic, so why are we standing on the rocket's outer shell?!"

Kiana, looking at the Hermit who could somehow stand firmly on the rocket shell, was on the verge of collapse and screamed.

"Hmm? Is there a problem?" The Hermit looked at Kiana, who was trembling and clutching the rocket casing, with a puzzled expression.

"Of course there's a problem, and a big one at that!" Kiana shouted angrily, posing her probing question—

"When you're on a plane, do you stand on the wing?!"

"Logically speaking, it's not impossible to stand outside if you don't intend to pay."

The hermit lowered her head, pretended to think for a moment, and then gave Kiana her answer.

"Besides, isn't it fun to stand on a rocket...? This is the Dreamland, so we can ignore some of the laws of physics for now..."

"What a joke! This launch vehicle is probably carrying a mecha! It'll just disintegrate once it's in space!"

"You want to think like you're in space...?! Get inside Alahato and behave yourself!"

"If you don't want to try, then forget it. Others don't even have this opportunity."

The hermit shook his head and snapped his fingers. The two men's gazes fell upon Allahatore in the launch vehicle. Yang and Siegfried were already in the cockpit, silently waiting for takeoff.

"Huh, why aren't they saying a word?" Kiana asked, puzzled by the silence of the two.

"Because they are burdened with worries, and your father is facing a difficult choice at this moment."

The hermit looked at the two silent figures in the cockpit and explained to Kiana, who was somewhat bewildered.

"What choice?"

"Comrades and family... the Kaslana family's will is now in conflict..."

"On the remains of those stone pillars left behind by the Second Herrscher, the doctors from Anti-Entropy discovered some kind of technology that could seal Honkai energy, but most of those meteorites burned up when they passed through the atmosphere."

"And as you saw before, these fragments containing technical data come from the ruins on the far side of the moon, where the Second Herrscher resided..."

“Walter Young offered Siegfried two options—he would distract the Second Herrscher, who might still be at the center of the ruins, while Siegfried would take away these valuable technological fragments to buy humanity a chance to catch its breath.”

"Or a plan proposed by Siegfried himself—he would pilot the Arahatto alongside Yang to defeat the Second Herrscher, even if the chances were slim."

"—To fight alongside your comrades, or to return to your family with the hope of humanity... This difficult choice is constantly tormenting your father's spirit..."

"We cannot judge whether he is right or wrong. Humans are always contradictory. We often hope to find a balance, but not everyone can stand in the middle of the scales."

"Your father must now stand on one side of the scales."

"Family and the world, or even comrades who once fought alongside me—"

The hermit looked at Siegfried, who was sitting cross-legged in a chair in the scene. The man looked preoccupied until Walter handed him a bottle of whiskey.

Kiana, listening to the hermit's tale, fell into deep thought...

"Comrades, family, and the fate of the world... I want it all..."

The pensive girl was drawn to the sound of the two people talking in front of her, and then her gaze turned interested.

"So, Teacher Yang and Dad both ran away from home before... Dad actually likes watching cartoons, uh, and Teacher Yang even drew them? And Dad used to be afraid of teachers too..."

Kiana, gradually drawn in by the gossip, veered off-topic and began to anticipate what even more explosive news the two men could uncover.

"Wait a minute... Mom fell from the sky and Dad picked her up???"

Kiana stared incredulously at Siegfried in front of her.

"...That's right, your father picked up Ms. Cecilia from the sky on the street back then. Guess...who knocked her away?"

The hermit spoke with a mocking smile, looking at Kiana, whose face was full of gossip.

"Could it be Teacher Yang...?"

Sensing the hint in the hermit's tone, Kiana turned to look at Welt Young on the other side of the seat.

"You're right. The leader of Anti-Entropy fought Cecilia back then, and Yang used Eden's Star to send your mother flying."

"Uh... Teacher Yang, is this considered matchmaking? That's how it's called in China, right...?"

"Perhaps, a very unconventional matchmaker." The hermit shook his head indifferently, steer the conversation back on track—

"They arrived... and your father, Siegfried, ultimately made his own choice..."

"...What did Dad choose?"

"Family and the world—for Siegfried, Cecilia Schariac and Kiana Kaslana, his lovers and children, were too heavy a weight to be placed on the scales of his heart, which tipped the scales toward his family, but it was not enough."

"What truly made him decide was Walter's final request—"

He said to him: "The fate of this world will depend on your decision, Siegfried. Is the survival of humanity more important to you, or the life of a single person?"

"A choice between one person and tens of millions of others; a choice between one person and hundreds of billions of lives."

"The weak ultimately possess their own rules of victory—they give, they sacrifice...this is the cornerstone and ladder of civilization."

--

"Well... Teacher Yang won in the end, after all, I had seen him before I went to St. Freya Academy."

Kiana looked at the hermit, but this time she didn't receive his approval; instead, she received the complete opposite answer—

“Walter Yang’s body has only recovered briefly and is far from capable of defeating the Second Herrscher who has obtained four gems and completed her Ascension. All he can do is the same as before—delay as much as possible...buy your father time to collect the fragments.”

The hermit shook his head, rejecting the girl's conjecture.

"...Then, Teacher Yang?"

"The Herrscher of Reason is a very special Herrscher. It doesn't matter that his physical body is destroyed. He can reconstruct his body at any time if he wants, although it will take a long time."

"So, after being defeated, Teacher Yang hid his consciousness inside the Herrscher core?"

"That's right, and the Second Herrscher was completely unaware of this; she ecstatically integrated this core into her own power..."

"Even if she didn't finish high school... she wouldn't actually know how to use this Herrscher core..."

The Hermit watched as the Second Herrscher, consumed by ecstasy after merging the Core of Reason into herself, offered her assessment—

"She's just accelerating the process of slow suicide from four times to five times the speed..."

The title of Chapter 78 was eaten by the author.

The scene returned to the Tower of Babel on the snowy plains, and Kiana looked at the peaceful scene before her with a sense of confusion.

"Shouldn't we go check on the Second Herrscher...?"

The girl turned to look at the hermit beside her. Everything here was too peaceful, and the young knight could not find any reason to linger here.

"Isn't she here now?"

The hermit looked up at the top of the tower, where a warship had just emerged from the clouds and appeared before the Tower of Babel.

"A warship loaded with Honkai Beasts..." Kiana stared wide-eyed at the battleship in the sky.

"It's all bark and no bite. That warship is just an empty shell; it doesn't even have the ability to fire cannons. It's all show and no substance."

The hermit sharply commented on the Second Herald's masterpiece, his words filled with pity for Zhang Yu.

"Uh...it's not that bad, at least the appearance is quite similar..."

"That's true. As a transport ship, it carries at least 10,000 Honkai Beasts, while there are only two A-rank Valkyries in the Tower of Babel, and if you include Ms. Patrick, the Anti-Entropy undercover agent who is on guard outside, there are only three."

Armored convoys poured out of the gates opened by the Tower of Babel and retreated toward the edge of the snowfield.

"Patrick, the former Schicksal A-rank Valkyrie, was killed by a Temple-class Honkai Beast during the beast tide brought about by the return of the Second Herrscher, in order to cover her former comrades in the Snow Wolf Squad."

"Salome, one of the two A-rank Valkyries who covered the retreat of the investigation team convoy stationed in the tower, died while trying to stop the plasma dropped by the Judgment-class Honkai Beast Benares in its humanoid form."