Honkai Impact 3rd: The Girl Who Chases the Flame

Just as students don't get sexually aroused by their teachers, Joyce had a similar mindset.

……

"...Sorry for making you come out with me."

Melutina, who had calmed down, huddled in the car and said apologetically to Joyce.

"It's okay, I don't understand it either."

Joyce wisely refrained from asking why.

"What a kind young man, no wonder he was able to achieve such a miracle..."

Melutina smiled bitterly.

"But the world may not treat kind people kindly."

"Dr. Linnaeus?"

“My real name is Melutina… Many years ago, I was just Melutina, without Karl, without von, without Linna.”

Melutina leaned against the car window.

“Those are my friend’s things.”

"...That should be a ruin."

Joyce had a vague sense of something.

"Yes, because it belonged to my friend who died 50,000 years ago."

Melutina said softly.

"You heard about it on the bus, right? Before this civilization, there was another civilization."

"Dr. Linnaeus was... a person from the previous civilization era?"

Joyce gasped.

"...Isn't it incredible? I'm over 50,000 years old, although I actually have memories of only a few thousand years."

Melutina said with a wry smile,

"My era has been dead for a very, very long time..."

"...Why tell me? You don't seem to have explicitly told Dr. Planck."

Joyce paused for a moment before asking, without doubt, because he knew Melutina wouldn't joke like that.

"Because you are special, Walter Joyce, as you know, the catastrophe that happened in Berlin called the Collapse."

"Yes, I know. They think I survived all of this, so I'm special... or some kind of monster."

Joyce nodded. He had experienced many human experiments, and they always told him it was for the sake of humanity…

Although Joyce simply thought those people were rather selfish, and perhaps there were scientists among them acting for the sake of humanity, Joyce couldn't see that in the eyes of most of them.

"In previous civilizations, this kind of disaster had been thoroughly studied, because a civilization that was at least hundreds of years more advanced than this one could be destroyed in an instant by this kind of disaster."

Melutina looked at Joyce, seemingly hesitant, but ultimately made up her mind.

"Based on the research results at the time, Berlin was clearly just the beginning. And they weren't wrong, you really are special, it's just that they were too incompetent to understand what you really are."

"Berlin... Berlin has seen hundreds of thousands die! Is this just the beginning?"

Joyce felt a chill run down her spine.

"The mainland was burned, the land sank, mind control... I've seen everything you can imagine and everything you can't imagine."

Melutina glanced at him.

“Every major Honkai catastrophe gives birth to a special life form known as the Herrscher. They are the apostles of Honkai and the cause of Honkai.”

Unfortunately, Welt Joyce, you are the First Herrscher.

"This is impossible!"

Joyce stuck her head into the car, gripping the window tightly with her hands.

"I am...I am an apostle of the Honkai? I caused the devastation in Berlin? This is impossible! I have no recollection of it!"

"Calm down, Joyce, this isn't your fault, I promise."

Melutina reached out and grasped his pale fingertips.

"This is the Honkai's fault. It chose you and then caused the Honkai to erupt. Every Herrscher was innocent at the beginning, and I have always firmly believed that."

The fact that she's a Herrscher doesn't mean she's a bad person, absolutely not!

Melutina spoke these words with absolute certainty; it was the first time Joyce had ever heard her speak like that, and...

Melutina used "she".

“Dr. Linnaeus, but I have no power. I can’t do anything.”

Joyce looked somewhat dejected.

“Your situation is very special, even miraculous. Believe me, Joyce, you will not stand against humanity, it’s just that the time is not right yet. You will know everything about yourself.”

Melutina shook her head.

“I am a scientist from a previous civilization. I came to this era of civilization as a pioneer. I hold another key from the previous civilization in my hand… The Bishop of Destiny has already obtained one, and he has always wanted the other, but I did not give it to him.”

"Don't you trust him? That Bishop of Destiny."

Joyce asked.

“No, I believe in him, at least in the fight against the Honkai. But he is not the one who can inherit our will. I am waiting... I am waiting for you, waiting for all of you. Joyce, you are the ones I want to entrust the key to.”

Melutina stared intently at him.

"Yes, you, you, Einstein, Tesla, Planck, Schrödinger, Edison... you are my hope, my... hope!"

Chapter Four: The Key of God

"Merutina, I want to write a song for you."

"Me? I think Kevin might be more suitable."

"No, you're more suitable."

"why?"

"That's just how I see it, my friend."

……

"Eden, what's wrong?"

"Ah... Meditie, did you bring all the materials for Project Fireseed?"

"Hmm, why do I need to make a backup? Isn't Eden enough?"

"Just in case, that's all."

“Eden is certainly cautious.”

"Meddy, get some sleep."

"Eden... I still think of her."

"...Me too, Medie. No matter how much I drink, my heart is always so heavy."

"She...she is my hero."

"So you should live like her."

"It's us."

"Yes, that's right, it's us."

"...Eden, have you finished writing your song?"

"Once it's finished writing, you'll see it right away."

Will Eden sing for me?

"Yes, Medie, I will...sing for you."

.........

"You're lying...you're bluffing...you..."

"Hey, Melutina! Melutina!"

The familiar voice instantly snapped Melutina out of her daze.

“Frei…Delica.”

Melutina pressed her head, her voice incredibly weak.

"You have a fever, it started last night."

Tesla sighed and handed her a glass of hot water.

"You can't just say you're in a bad state anymore. Did that Soul Steel artifact from yesterday really take you that badly?"

"..."

Melutina didn't reply, but turned her head away.

"A fever? That's something I haven't had in many years."

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about it, then forget it. You've talked quite a bit with Joyce, though. I don't think his face is any better looking."

Tesla sighed.

"But this is nothing like you, so paranoid, so crazy, so angry... You know what? Just now, I didn't recognize you at all."

"If I said that's the real me, would you think I'm annoying?"

Melutina turned her head, and her pale and sickly face still looked quite beautiful, with a unique kind of beauty. It shouldn't be Tesla's imagination; she felt that this kind of sickly beauty suited her very well.

"That's not the real you. Maybe you think you are, but I don't think so. If I had to say..."

Tesla thought about it.