Everyone here was an orphan. Their loved ones had died in disasters, and an organization called Schicksal took the children in, providing them with food and shelter from the wind and rain.
Their only requirement was some check-ups.
The adults said the children here were very lucky—they were born with precious antibodies…
"Liar… all of you are big liars!" Sirin said through tears and hatred.
But what awaited the children was only endless pain and death.
They were nothing more than consumable items with numbers, waiting for the inevitable day when they would be completely destroyed.
"No… no! I don't want to die! I want to make all those who deceived and used me pay!"
Sirin stumbled and crawled to the door, using all her strength to shake the hard bars.
"Let me out! Let me out!"
The bars didn't budge, but the slightly ajar door beside them creaked open from her desperate shaking.
Had that researcher forgotten to lock it, or had he simply assumed that the little white mouse, after finishing the experiment, had no strength left to resist? She had no time to think about it now.
This was her only chance.
—Escape from here, leave this literal hell!
"It hurts, it hurts, every step hurts so much…"
Sirin struggled to walk outward.
Shouts rang out around her: "Hey, a test subject has escaped! What are the guards doing?! Stop her!"
Sirin, terrified, fled in panic: "No… don't come near me!!"
"Catch her! Don't let her get away!"
A group of guards closed in directly, not caring about her life or death, trying to pin her down.
"It hurts, it hurts! Don't touch me!"
"You're all liars! You're devils!"
"I'll kill you… I'll kill all of you!"
"Get away, get away! Stay away from me!"
Sirin struggled desperately. She hated these people, hated all of humanity…
The researchers were still shouting: "Catch that test subject! She's rare research material—take her alive! Release all the Honkai Beasts we captured last time!"
Her struggles made it hard for the guards to handle her, so they let the Honkai Beasts beat her half to death first.
"I'll make you all pay…"
"I'll make you all disappear!!!"
"Aaahhhhhh—AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Under the Honkai Beasts' assault, she was constantly knocked flying, trampled, and let out miserable screams…
The researcher was still watching the show: "Heh heh, looks like that's all you've got. Surviving this long is impressive—worth studying thoroughly!"
Sirin was dragged back into hell once more.
No!
That place was perhaps far crueler than hell.
For the test subjects who managed to survive, what awaited them was only larger doses of injections and even more endless experiments.
She didn't know when such days would end—or if an end had never existed from the beginning.
In the never-ending pain, she cursed, she wailed, she begged.
If only I had power, if only I had power…
"I'll return the pain those hypocritical, selfish adults inflicted on me—hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times over!"
And then—
Just like the fairy tales she had listened to in her mother's arms as a child, her god appeared.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
The dream continued.
That night, the Babylon Laboratory truly turned into hell.
The girl who had gained power fulfilled every wish she had once made.
She finally escaped that lonely tower and discarded the name of "test subject."
From that moment on, people began to call her—the Second Herrscher.
The TV screen switched.
Theresa met Sirin and desperately apologized: "I'm sorry… I know you suffered terribly."
Sirin snorted coldly: "Only now do you remember? Only now do you come with your fake apologies? It's too late… too late!"
Theresa said heartbrokenly: "If only I had noticed sooner… if only I could have saved you all earlier…"
"..."
Sirin recognized this white-haired girl.
In the past, it was she who had rescued the imprisoned children.
She still remembered the girl smiling and reaching out to them, saying—"Please trust me! Come with me!"
"All you do is say pretty words…" She looked about the same age as Sirin herself and carried the same aura.
Her smile made Sirin think of Aurora, of Agatha, of Bella…
But…
"You should feel honored to sacrifice yourselves for the Valkyries, for Schicksal!" For some reason, this sentence suddenly surfaced in Sirin's mind.
"…Yes, I remember now."
Sirin saw the Schicksal emblem on Theresa's clothes and the Schicksal weapon in her hand.
The people behind her must all be Schicksal Valkyries.
"Those damned adults once smiled and told me that the experiments on us were to create Stigmata for the Valkyries."
"It's you… it's all because of you! I'm not your sacrifice!"
"I'll prove that my power is stronger than yours!"
"No one from Schicksal will survive!"
"This is… my revenge!"
"Let me show you how fragile human weapons really are!"
Sirin's power began to spiral out of control.
Tesla controlled her mech to confront her.
Countless mechs were annihilated under the Herrscher of the Void's power, and countless Honkai Beasts surged toward the Valkyries like a tidal wave.
Tesla, as the overall commander from the rear of the battlefield, directly activated Silver Bullet!
BOOM!!!
Amid the explosions and roaring, the Herrscher's consciousness paused.
Gulp gulp~
But Sirin's memory did not end here.
God favored her once again, placing an unpromised blessing into her hands.
The Herrscher's dream continued once more, surging boundlessly toward an unseen horizon just as before, sweeping away everything, devouring all things.
But this time…
The TV screen was different from before.
Cecilia's voice rang out: "Have you been drinking too much? You can't even recognize your own daughter?"
Sirin was surprised. This… was this also the power of the feather?
They were treating her as their daughter?
Perfect!
Let her end them all right here…
When this scene appeared, the audience knew where it was—this was the battle against the Second Honkai that Fu Hua had mentioned during her live stream.
Before Sirin could act,
Cecilia's actions interrupted her.
She handed her a piece of cake: "Here, Sirin, this cake was specially saved for you~"
"Cake?"
In Sirin's memory, the only time she had eaten cake was when her mother was still alive and took her to have some…
"If… if I just take one bite…"
She scooped a bite of cake and put it in her mouth: "This taste… it's really delicious…"
…Just like… the taste when her mother took her to eat it.
Cecilia said gently: "I'm sorry, Sirin, for leaving you lonely these past two days. So tomorrow, let's go shopping together!"
"Shop… shopping?!"
Before she realized it, Sirin was pulled out and went shopping with them.
This left her somewhat astonished, constantly asking herself what she was doing and why she hadn't killed them yet.
She clearly knew these two weren't her real parents!!
But when she saw how gently and lovingly Cecilia treated her,
She couldn't bring herself to do it.
Whatever. This is an illusion I created anyway. If I want, I can act at any time. No rush. Let's see what else they can pull off.
Ordinary, happy daily life…
If there had been no Honkai, if Mama hadn't died… could I have had this kind of happiness too?
She followed the two of them to clothing stores, to eat desserts.
Her heart kept sinking deeper and deeper.
BOOM!
A sudden explosive roar, accompanied by a powerful shockwave, violently struck, shattering all the glass on nearby buildings.
"An ex-explosion?"
"Tch, these little glass shards can't hurt me at all."
Sirin didn't care at all and had no intention of dodging.
"Sirin! Danger!"
Cecilia, however, threw herself over without hesitation, wrapping Sirin in her arms and shielding her from the flying glass shards.
"What are you d—" Sirin wanted to scold her.
But she felt herself enveloped by the warmest thing in the world, leaving her completely unable to speak.
She could only hear Cecilia's gentle voice: "Don't be afraid. Mama will protect you. Mama is here, right by your side. Ich liebe dich, Sirin."
"Mama…" Sirin called out that title for the first time.
Not long after…
The illusion was shattered by external attacks.
Sirin glared at her in fury: "Liar… liar! You liar! You already knew I wasn't your daughter! You tricked me!!!"
Cecilia hurriedly said: "Sirin… listen to me…"
Sirin was furious beyond measure: "You knew I wasn't your daughter and still pretended to care, secretly getting close to me… Sure enough, your goal was to eliminate me! You're just like everyone else—liars! Big liars!"
Cecilia desperately tried to explain: "No, Sirin! I actually…"
Sirin could no longer hear anything: "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! All of you get away from me! Why did you trick me? Why? Why?!!"
But the surrounding Valkyrie troops gave her no chance.
Now that she was out of the illusion, they all began attacking her together.
Sirin let out a pained wail: "It hurts! Stop! Don't, don't hurt me anymore! I don't want to die… I don't want to die!"
"AAAAAHHHH"
The final volley, the final attack, struck her completely.
Sirin's consciousness fell into darkness: "…Am I dead?"
"I can't feel anything anymore… only cold…"
"In the end, I was… all alone after all."
"Mama, I'm so cold… Mama…"
Cecilia's incredibly gentle voice rang out: "It's okay now, Sirin. It's okay. Sirin, poor child, I never meant to deceive you. In the illusion, I saw your loneliness and your pain."
"I truly wanted to become your mama, to make up for what you lost."
"Unfortunately, at that time, I couldn't change anything."
"At the very least, at the end of your life—let you feel warmth."
"Sirin…"
"Ich liebe dich."
Gulp gulp~
In the endless darkness, I dreamed a false dream.
I missed the warmth she once gave me—that warmth made me feel at peace.
I thought more than once: if I could become an ordinary person again…
Could I live happily with her?
If…
I were given one more chance…
I want to hear her voice one more time: [Ich liebe dich]
Seeing this.
Everyone who had previously been shouting that the plot was flat, that this episode had no blade at all, fell completely silent.
The audience had once hated the Herrscher of the Void, hated her for bringing pain to Kiana, hated how she kept pushing Kiana to the brink of collapse.
But they had never known that the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, was actually such a tragic person.
In the chat group:
"If I remember correctly, the Babylon Tower experiments were orchestrated by Otto. The final tragedy of the Second Honkai was also caused by Otto—he forced Cecilia to her death."
"Yes, you're not wrong. Fu Hua mentioned a bit during her live stream, and Kiana mentioned it the first time she encountered the illusion thinking she was saving her mom."
"Damn it!! Sirin just wanted to live, just wanted a mother's love—what did she do wrong? What did she do wrong!!"
"Compared to the Herrscher of Domination, those researchers are even more despicable. Dog Otto deserves to die even more!!"
"I finally understand why Kiana almost got depressed. After fighting the Herrscher of the Void for so long, the truth turns out to be this? Everything was caused by humans themselves."
"Right now I just want Otto dead. All of this is that dog's fault. Almost every tragedy in the entire series comes from his hands."
"AAAAAHHHHHH, dog Otto! When the hell are you going to die! Why are you such a piece of trash!"
"Wuwuwu, my Sirin, poor Sirin. So that German phrase 'I love you' meant so much to Sirin."
"Cecilia was clearly about to turn Sirin around, but damn Otto ruined everything."
"Who was it that said no blade? Who said the dog director was replaced? I swear there's definitely something big coming up!"
"This episode isn't even over yet. It won't really continue, right?"
Inside the company.
After seeing this memory in the dream, all the actors fell completely silent.
Pardofelis, who had previously questioned whether Kiana's claim was false advertising, was now glued to the screen, unwilling to miss even a single moment of the plot.
And the TV continued.
After waking up, Kiana—because she cared so deeply about what happened in the dream and wanted to know what [Ich liebe dich] truly meant to Sirin—went to talk with Seele and the others.
She also learned more detailed information from Theresa about what had happened back then.
Back in her room.
Kiana showed a happy smile: "Everyone cares so much about me. Even when I asked strange questions, not a single person laughed at me. They all gave serious answers."
"Everyone is caring for me and helping me in their own ways. I really… am so lucky."
"Thank you… thank you all…"
Tap—
"Who's there?!"
Kiana called out.
In this deep underground base, rest time was always deathly quiet, which made any sound feel especially unnatural.
"Strange, everyone should be asleep by now. Did something fall?"
Gulp gulp—
Something was rolling on the floor.
The monotonous, mechanical sound carried an eerie inappropriateness.
Kiana immediately became alert. She slowly moved her steps, silently approaching the door.
She couldn't sense any presence or hostility outside.
But even so, she couldn't let her guard down. The moment she confirmed danger, she would immediately notify everyone!
She prepared for attack, then suddenly yanked the door open.
"..."
"Why… why is this… the Theater of Domination?!"
The instant the door opened, she was transferred into the Theater of Domination. That familiar puppet stood in front of her once again.
"Hee hee—hehehe!"
"Kiana, you're here! You finally came! We've been waiting for you for so long!"
Kiana was shocked: "We…? Why…"
The puppet said: "The operation was clearly a success, and the puppets should have disappeared. Want to know what happened? You really want to know, right?"
"Then come on, come on! Let me see your resolve!"
"Hee hee hee hee hee!"
After saying that, the puppet suddenly vanished.
Kiana looked at this familiar theater, extremely vigilant: "There are still puppets alive, and the Theater of Domination hasn't disappeared… No wonder Bronya said the authority of the Herrscher of Reason hadn't returned."
"But… why? Is there a fish that slipped through the net, or are there more than a thousand of them?"
Unable to figure out the situation,
She could only chase after the puppet that had just disappeared to gather more information.
The puppet laughed from afar: "Hee hee, you came, you followed! As expected, we weren't wrong—you're the one most qualified!"
Kiana demanded: "Qualified? What nonsense are you spouting?"
The puppet said: "I know you, Kiana. The hero who saved our city—the Herrscher of the Void, Kiana!"
Kiana instantly understood: "You're someone who lived in Arc City?"