In the dark depths of the water, four pairs of eyes—one male, three female—stared at each other.
Kiana: "Kia Kia Ki?"
Mei: "Mei Mei Me?"
Bronya: "Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck?"
"Acting cute, are we?"
Fuli, hugging the Mikazuki Munechika, looked as calm as an old god. "Don't rush, don't rush. Just wait a little longer. Reinforcements will arrive any moment."
[Will there really be reinforcements?]
Dr. MEI, visible only to him, slowly shook her head. [What happened to the promised Third Eruption? You must be thinking exactly that right now.]
As the leader of the Fire Moth and a top-tier researcher, Dr. MEI's growth hadn't happened overnight.
In the process, she had seen too many people who couldn't let go of their pride and persisted in their mistakes to the bitter end.
Like those high-ranking (insect) officials of the Previous Era.
Such people became more stubborn as they aged. Their thinking fossilized, unable to accept new things, while they were particularly averse to having their 'authority' challenged. When holding high positions, they often caused even greater losses.
She just hadn't expected Fuli to have such a personality too. Hitting a brick wall yet refusing to turn back, only regretting it when it was too late.
If it were anyone else, Dr. MEI truly wouldn't bother caring.
The Finality Coordinator System was, after all, just a window. She wasn't Prometheus, who seemed cold but was actually lonely to death. Worst case scenario, she would just return to the moon and wait for the World Serpent to launch Project Stigmata.
But not Fuli.
Fuli alone, she could not ignore.
As one of the key elements for the World Serpent to activate Project Stigmata, Dr. MEI, residing in the moon's Bubble Universe, shouldn't have been awakened so early.
What woke her was an unexpected factor.
Three days ago, at dawn, an extremely powerful Honkai tide suddenly swept across the entire surface of the planet, then vanished without a trace within a trillionth of a second.
Its expansion and dissipation were so decisive that people on Earth barely noticed.
As a survivor of the Previous Era's Battle of Finality, the apparent Will of Honkai, Prometheus No. 17 on the moon acutely captured the crux of the issue.
—The nature of that power was of the same origin as the Cocoon of Finality she temporarily inhabited.
It was Time.
Some existence, manipulating the authority of time, had sent a soul from the distant future back to the current spacetime.
In the memories of Prometheus and the startled Dr. MEI, there was only one existence capable of such large-scale spacetime manipulation:
The manifestation of the Cocoon of Finality's mighty power, possessing numerous aliases such as the mobile despair dissemination mechanism, the light of sacred truth, the sum of Herrschers, and the God of the Final Descent. An Ultimate Humanoid Annihilation Weapon for celestial suppression that viewed imaginary tides between galaxies as nothing and soared through the universe destroying countless civilizations—The Herrscher of Finality!
The idea that the future Herrscher of Finality had sent Fuli's soul back to the year 2014 naturally intruded into their minds.
Keep in mind, Finality is essentially a civilization-sweeping device incarnated by the 'Cocoon'; it possesses no self-awareness.
In other words, [Using authority to send Fuli back] is equivalent to [The future Herrscher of Finality possesses a self]. The extended conclusion is [Earth's civilization has obtained its own Finality.]
Perhaps it was Kevin usurping the power of Finality, or some other lucky soul favored by fate, such as that Kiana Kaslana who housed the Herrscher of the Void's core.
Regardless, Fuli's rebirth meant that the power of Finality was in the hands of civilization.
This mighty power needs no elaboration. Burning mountains and boiling seas would be an understatement; shifting stars and changing constellations would be a realistic description.
With Finality escorting Earth, they could even break out of the Imaginary Tide at the edge of the solar system and compete with the powerhouses soaring through the galaxy.
Is this a good thing?
Of course it is!
However, before Prometheus and Dr. MEI could rejoice for long, they calmly realized a problem.
—Fuli was sent back.
Becoming Finality means controlling time. But if such a powerhouse really acted recklessly according to their whims, given their mindset, they couldn't possibly have successfully embraced the Cocoon of Finality.
Yet Fuli was still sent back.
What does this indicate?
It indicates that in the future, Earth's civilization encountered a catastrophe that even the Herrscher of Finality could not handle!
So much so that the person involved had to send Fuli—a guy who knew nothing—back to this current year of 2014, attempting to influence and change things through his actions!
That is why Prometheus used the imaginary window created by Fuli's return to disguise herself as the AI of the Finality Coordinator System, coming to his side to observe him continuously.
That is why, in the eyes of Dr. MEI who cared for civilization, Fuli, as the sole clue, absolutely could not die.
[So, Host, run.]
What was terrifying was never Finality, but the unknown.
Even if 'Kiana, who is suspected to become the Herrscher of Finality in the future and crossed time to send him back' died here, Dr. MEI would absolutely not allow anything to happen to him!
...
Facing Dr. MEI's sincere advice, Fuli rubbed the notch on his scabbard and let out a long sigh:
[If the one beside me right now were Prometheus, she definitely wouldn't be painstakingly persuading me to leave the others behind like you are. Instead, she'd have popcorn and soda ready, sitting obediently in the corner of my retina, waiting for the upcoming IMAX blockbuster.]
"Lady Cocolia!!!"
By the shore of the artificial lake, the person involved in directing the troops to complete the encirclement felt her heart skip a beat.
She turned around to look at Yuya, who was running over in a panic.
"Just now, the surveillance satellite barely captured a blurry black shadow coated in stealth paint moving north from the artificial island in the far southeast at an atmospheric flight speed of 620 km/h! If nothing unexpected happens, it will be here, it will be here..."
The adjutant couldn't finish her sentence, and Cocolia's heart, which had just settled, hung in suspense again.
City-level units in the Far East are below prefecture-level. Even an international metropolis like Nagazora City occupies an area of only a little over three thousand square kilometers.
With such an area, anything appearing in the sky would be visible at a glance.
—It was an invincible creation forged by humanity's most advanced Honkai science. The Hyperion, cruising in the sky, was stopping quietly right there.
The pale hull, filled with violent aesthetics, was like a light-absorbing black hole. Not only did it swallow the sunlight shining upon it whole, but it also attracted the eyes of everyone in the city.
Directly above the deck, the winged emblem symbolizing Schicksal seemed ready to take flight.
Memorizing Dr. MEI's surprised expression with her mouth slightly open, Fuli smiled brightly and sunny: [Who told you the reinforcements I was waiting for were the Third Eruption?]
He was someone who always thought about danger, change, and retreat. His main principle was to always be prepared in advance, unlike a certain Cao thief seeking thrills who only realized the space under the bed was solid, the wardrobe was checkered, the curtains were transparent, and the AC unit was built-in after the husband was already knocking on the door.
Remember?
The morning after defeating Jizo Mitama, during the window of opportunity when Kiana ran off to change clothes, Fuli, holding the memory eraser, had specifically spoken to Susannah alone about something.
What he spoke of was precisely the imminent outbreak of the Third Eruption in Nagazora City.
From the very beginning, Fuli never intended to stop the Third Eruption.
The reason was simple: he didn't have the ability.
In his cognition, the Great Eruption was despair, death, the manifestation of the eighteen levels of hell, a natural disaster sweeping through civilization. How could a mere B-rank rookie possibly stop such a supernatural disaster?
However, being unable to stop it didn't mean he had to turn a blind eye to it.
Yes, Nagazora City was full of Far Easterners living decent little lives, who had nothing to do with Fuli, a Shenzhou native.
But even YHWH in the Old Testament, whose style was comparable to an evil god, dared to declare that as long as there was one righteous man, he wouldn't kill everyone in Sodom. Not everyone in Nagazora City was a good person, but there were certainly people who shouldn't die.
So he told Susannah about the impending Great Eruption. Using the memory eraser, he hinted to this girl—who was about to go to St. Freya for observation—to deliver these words as a "prophet" to Theresa Apocalypse, the branch leader of the Schicksal Far East Branch, at an appropriate time.
Appropriate time: meaning ten minutes or so before the Great Eruption occurred, to avoid a false alarm.
If it were any other branch leader, they would 100% treat this as a joke, throw it to the back of their mind, and have Susannah dragged out.
But Theresa... she would at least hesitate and choose to listen to what followed.
At that point, the intelligence Fuli, the rebirther, had asked Susannah to bring her would be enough to substantiate the little girl's identity as a 'prophet'.
Dr. MEI muttered to herself: [So these were the reinforcements you were certain of all along...]
[Sō Da Yo~]
The boy mischievously spoke a phrase in Japanese because he felt it fit the scene perfectly.
A moment of kindness brought about a divine move capable of reversing the situation. And given the incompatibility between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy—most importantly, the relationship of Kiana being Theresa's niece—even if the Third Eruption didn't actually happen, Theresa would absolutely not ignore them!
"Checkmate! Cocolia!"
...
"Eh? What about the promised Third Eruption?"
Fuli didn't need to say this, but someone had to say it eventually.
Otherwise, wouldn't this book become synopsis fraud (lol)?
The person who said this on the boy's behalf was none other than Susannah, standing at the edge of the airship deck looking out.
The apprentice Valkyrie, peeking her head out, looked down at the busy traffic of Nagazora City (fire trucks rushing to save the unlucky victims affected by the ring road viaduct collapse), the thriving flames (onlookers angrily blasting the officials for incompetence), and felt like there were a dozen Durandals crawling all over her body.
She had sworn confidently that a Great Eruption was about to happen in Nagazora City!
Although it was better that the prophecy failed and everyone was safe, she had no way to explain herself!
"The Third Eruption indeed didn't happen."
A large hand reached out from behind, ruffling Susannah's adorably dazed orange short hair. A red-haired lady, giving off a vibe of raging fire, strode valiantly to the edge of the deck.
She tossed aside the empty cola can in her hand, her expression playful as she swept her gaze over the Titan troops gathering below. "But consider it an unexpected harvest."
Her phoenix eyes were long and narrow with slightly upturned corners. Within her squinted eyes, golden pupils shone faintly like gold, leaking a lazy and seductive allure that captured the soul.
Susannah stared blankly for a moment, so captivated by the mature lady's charm that she didn't even notice the lightning flashing past her.
It was an obsidian chain emitting a silvery-white glow. It wrapped around the can about to fall to the earth, carried it away, and skillfully tossed it into a fixed trash bin tens of meters away.
Then, it returned to its owner, affectionately nuzzled her small face, and retracted into the black and gold cross that was taller than an adult.
Oath of Judah. A Divine Key made by scientists of the Previous Era using the core of the 11th Herrscher, the Herrscher of Binding. Generally speaking, its ability could be summarized as nullifying Honkai energy and weakening other forms of energy to varying degrees.
The white-haired little radish carrying such a lethal weapon clapped her tender little hands. "The Principal commends using carbonated drinks instead of beer to quench thirst during work hours, but next time remember not to litter, Auntie Himeko!"
Murata Himeko, one of the only two A-rank Valkyries in the Far East Branch, turned her head lazily, suddenly putting on an incredibly surprised look as she looked around. "Eh eh eh? Where is she? Who was talking just now? Big Sister Himeko, with a net height of 1.67 meters, has no clue at all. Did you see anyone, Student Susannah?"
Miss Himeko, please don't drag me into this ahhh!!!
Coming back to her senses, Susannah realized she had been pulled into the intrigue between the two giants of the Far East Branch. Her face immediately fell, and her brain went into chaos.
"Um, um."
She was Emo for a moment, then finally closed her eyes and shouted, "Principal Theresa is indeed tiny, and you have to look down a bit to see her, but the Principal is truly very cute!"
With a petite stature of 1.45 meters, exquisite features like a doll, skin that was a delicate, soft white from rarely seeing the sun, and eyes as clear as the vast sky... paired with a white side ponytail resting perfectly on her left shoulder, she was visually flawless. Her temperament of a "little adult" made one want to scoop her into their arms and pamper her fiercely. In short, Theresa is the world's number one cutie!
"Don't bully children! Besides, even if you can't see me, you can definitely see the two-meter-tall Judah, right!"
The World's Number One Cutie, Lord Principal, came to the edge of the deck and stood next to Himeko. As she moved, the hem of her smaller-sized nun's habit lifted slightly, revealing half of a graceful calf that looked like it was carved from beautiful jade.
"Bully children? Do you mean bullying Susannah? Or bullying you, this forty-something legal loli?"
Himeko, speaking sarcastically, was clearly still retaliating for that "Auntie" comment from her old friend. Before the other could throw a tantrum, she quickly changed the subject. "Let's put that aside. Grandma Theresa, regarding someone causing trouble on your turf, does our great Branch Leader have nothing to say?"
"What does Anti-Entropy dogs biting each other have to do with this Principal!"
Theresa flipped her white hair disdainfully.
...