Listening to Bronya's explanation, Kiana thought for a moment and said: "But from your description…"
"Whether it's the matter itself or our current situation, there are still many doubtful points, right?"
Bronya agreed: "Of course. Why does this place look like the Moon from fifty thousand years ago?"
"Why has Bronya turned into the appearance I had when I was a sniper back then?"
"And… why did Bronya see Welt Joyce's figure?"
"Why was Bronya able to free Kiana from her dream?"
"What role did that Hare play in all this?"
"…In short, we have too many unanswerable questions, and Bronya has not yet recovered the power of the Herrscher of Reason."
"Kiana, you seem to be doing okay?"
After a long explanation, Bronya looked at Kiana with concern.
"Mm. The Herrscher Core is stable, and the flow of energy is normal."
"However, speaking of Hare…"
At this point, Kiana paused for two seconds, as if thinking about what words to use to describe the other party.
Finally, Kiana said: "For some reason, she always gives me a chilling feeling."
"It's different from Otto or Kevin. It feels more like the oppressive sensation from the Herrscher of the Void."
Bronya said in surprise: "Herrscher of the Void? They seem very different."
Kiana explained: "How should I put it… it has nothing to do with her personality or way of speaking."
"It's closer to the threat brought by her mode of existence itself."
"Mm… it seems difficult to describe clearly this way."
Bronya said: "Then let's start from the parts that are easier to analyze… Huh?"
As if noticing something, Bronya's voice suddenly stopped, letting out a sound of surprise.
Kiana followed Bronya's gaze and saw a ghostly figure appear.
"This silhouette is…"
Bronya answered: "Welt Joyce. He appeared again."
Just like before, Joyce's figure disappeared.
Bronya and Kiana chased after him, only to find another portal that looked like a dreamy gem.
Kiana said: "This is…"
Bronya nodded: "Mm. Earlier, Bronya investigated a similar memory fragment, or rather, a spatial structure."
"Then Kiana came out."
Kiana immediately realized: "Then this time, could Mei also…"
Before she could finish, Bronya's voice rang out: "Kiana, watch out!"
Accompanied by a blinding flash of lightning, what appeared was not an attack, but the person Kiana had been thinking about.
"Mei!"
Hearing Kiana's call, Mei quickly reacted: "Kiana, Bronya…"
"I didn't hurt you, did I?"
Kiana quickly said: "No, no, of course not."
"But Mei is really amazing. You were able to break free from such a strange binding without Bronya's power."
Mei explained: "It might just be that those illusions themselves had weakened."
"However… you mentioned Bronya…"
"I see. This is the memory of the Herrscher of Reason."
Bronya asked at the right moment: "…Mei, what did you see?"
Mei recalled: "I saw someone… a dark-haired boy…"
"He was being questioned by people in white coats."
"What is your name? Where did you live before? What nationality are you?"
"But the boy answered them with another question——Who am I?"
"Since this is related to Bronya's memory, and since this boy's appearance matches what the Anti-Entropy people have passed down…"
"Then I think he should be Welt Joyce, the first Herrscher of Reason."
Bronya said: "We also followed his intermittently appearing figure to reach here."
"But even so…"
"We cannot forget that we fell into almost the same predicament as before again because of Hare, or rather, the power of the Stigmata Plan."
Kiana pondered: "…Does that mean everything we are currently encountering might also come from Hare's conspiracy?"
Bronya shook her head: "I don't know, but no matter what."
"We must find her flaws and discover targeted methods to counter her abilities."
"Otherwise, the initiative will always remain in the opponent's hands."
Mei agreed: "Mm. Moreover, if we think one layer further."
"How to seize the initiative from Kevin's hands——that is also a very difficult problem."
Kiana sighed: "Yeah. To fight against the power of Finality and surpass the Stigmata Plan…"
"We at least need to establish stable contact with the scientists from Anti-Entropy and Schicksal."
"Speaking of which… I always have a feeling that Mr. Welt and the others actually prepared some plans long ago."
"But for various other reasons, they have never revealed them to us."
Mei asked in confusion: "…Long ago?"
Kiana nodded: "Mm, at least one or two years ago."
Mei became even more puzzled: "Wasn't that… when we were all still studying at St. Freya?"
Bronya realized: "Kiana, could you be referring to…"
Kiana said: "…Mei, Bronya, do you still remember the phantom battleship that Teacher Himeko led us to capture?"
Bronya answered: "Of course. Bronya tried to crack its main control system but found that there was no password set at all."
"All operating permissions were in an open state. At the time, Teacher Himeko was worried it was a trap."
"Although Bronya's biochip was indeed interfered with afterward, what happened in New Zealand proved that was an independent incident."
"It had no direct connection with the strange state of the battleship's main control system."
Mei pondered: "That being the case, although the series of events afterward were all related to Cocolia…"
"We still don't know what exactly was going on with that phantom battleship."
Bronya added: "At that time, Bronya discovered a strange email in the battleship's main control computer."
"Dear Kiana, hello. This battleship, the Moonlight Throne, is finally being returned to you after fourteen years."
"You will ascend the throne and shape a new world, but before that, you still need to find four keys."
"…"
As Bronya continued to recall and narrate, the viewers in front of the TV felt as if they had returned to when they first started watching Honkai Impact 3rd.
Especially the old viewers from the beginning, who in a daze seemed to see Kiana's original appearance.
At that time, Kiana was still very inexperienced, but also very lively, cheerful, and full of youthful vitality…
After coming back to their senses, the former main trio had each welcomed their own growth.
Kiana had changed the most and the least, Mei had been the Herrscher of Thunder slashing across the world from beginning to end.
Only Bronya was the most miserable, becoming the Herrscher of Reason yet frequently getting tormented.
Because Heavy Rabbit had transformed into motorcycle form back then, she was also jokingly called "license revoked."
"So nostalgic. When I first got into the game, I never thought I'd be fed knives by the dog director."
"At that time… Mei was even the gentle cooking wife…"
"Damn, the foreshadowing started all the way back then? What ancient foreshadowing recovery!"
"Can Honkai Impact 3rd viewers who are healthy, sunny, positive, and upward even look directly at those words?"
"Of course we can! Easily can! Completely can! Because this world has never been beautiful (Thousand Herrscher voice)!"
"Good good good, a group of naturally evil remnants of the Thousand Herrschers. I'll personally…"
"Shit, the more I recall the old plot, the more I want to stab the dog director now!"
"I dare say the dog director definitely has some psychological trauma. Those knives are revenge against society!"
"…"
No matter how lively the group chats were, the plot on the TV continued.
After some discussion, Kiana and the other two all felt that defeating Honkai was not a path that only the Stigmata Plan could take.
Facing Kiana's gaze, Mei smiled slightly: "What? Is it strange for me to say something like that?"
Kiana quickly said: "No… I thought…"
Bronya sighed: "Ah, Kiana really is an idiot."
"You've already done that kind of thing with Mei, yet you're still fussing over this now?"
That short sentence left countless viewers across the country with question marks all over their faces.
A line that the actors in the company particularly liked.
"Ah?" ×n
Including on the TV.
A blush flashed across Kiana's pretty face as she glared at Bronya: "Uh… Bronya!!"
Mei said with a smile: "Bronya is still so unforgiving even when she's in the right."
"Alright. No matter how we consider the future, we are still currently under Hare's control."
"Before seizing the initiative from Kevin's hands, we first need to find a way to break free from her influence."
Kiana guessed: "Could it be… that the first Herrscher of Reason appeared to guide us precisely for this matter?"
Bronya said: "I don't know. Bronya feels things might not be that simple."
"But no matter what, for us right now, this is indeed the only clue."
"Let's stay vigilant and continue exploring forward."
Afterward, the trio immediately began to move, exploring this Moon from fifty thousand years ago.
They soon encountered Eidos Seeds and also found another memory fragment.
Mei examined it and said: "I see. Earlier, I came to your side from a similar crack."
Kiana asked in confusion: "But this time, Joyce didn't appear."
Bronya nodded: "Mm. If that really was Joyce's will…"
"Perhaps this memory fragment does not have any other existences sealed within it."
"However, as a clue, it is still worth investigating."
As she spoke, the girl with twin braids touched the fragment. Memories from the past flooded into her mind.
It was the memory of Maxim giving young Bronya a birthday present.
Bronya's already soft voice sounded even more childish and adorable.
But compared to that, the disaster brought by Honkai that Maxim spoke of was even more glaring.
Mei spoke: "This is… something from when Bronya was little?"
Bronya said: "Sorry for making you see this."
Kiana quickly said: "No need. After all, I can also be considered a child who grew up in Siberia."
"The people there… really had it hard."
Bronya did not dwell on it and continued: "…Uncle Maxim was a comrade-in-arms of Bronya's father Alexei."
"He was also his childhood playmate."
"Bronya doesn't remember her parents…"
"From the time I became sensible, it was Uncle Maxim who took care of Bronya and taught Bronya how to survive on the battlefield."
Mei asked: "This was before you met Cocolia?"
Bronya nodded: "Mm. It happened on Bronya's tenth birthday. The following summer…"
"Uncle Maxim, who was saving money to repair our house, was shot dead by a misfired gun at work."
"The person who shot him was a boy not much older than Bronya, who was being sent to the battlefield for the first time."
"Uncle Maxim's gang disbanded just like that."
"In the winter that followed, Bronya had to find ways to make money herself… and eventually met Mother Cocolia by chance."
Mei was silent for a moment: "…Bronya."
Not just Mei, but the audience was also learning about Bronya's past for the first time.
No matter how delicate she looked, she had always been a strong girl.
Of course, the Bronya outside the plot wasn't that miserable.
She had both parents, a good relationship with Cocolia, and had grown up healthy in the warmth of a family.
On the TV.
Bronya comforted them in return: "They are all things of the past."
"Bronya, the children at the orphanage, Mother Cocolia, Uncle Maxim."
"We were just ordinary people on that land in Siberia. There was nothing special about us."
"Rome wasn't built in a day… The problems of that land cannot be solved by the efforts of any single individual."
"Although Kiana's mom and dad, along with everyone from Anti-Entropy, saved countless lives."
"The social impact and secondary disasters brought by the Second Eruption still destroyed the faith on that land."
"The country collapsed, war broke out. The once orderly Siberia became a paradise for outlaws."
"If a place falls into such a state, even after several generations, it may be very difficult to return to normal."
"But… the hometown in Bronya's cognition had always been filled with chaos."
"Compared to the previous generation who watched their familiar lives be completely destroyed, Bronya's generation could actually be considered somewhat luckier."
Mei sighed: "…Even if we defeat Honkai, there will still be countless tasks that we need to complete together with everyone."
Kiana also said: "Rather, defeating Honkai is only the first step in changing the world."
"To make this imperfect world a little more beautiful, we naturally cannot do it without every single person who constitutes it."
"Just as Durandal once said——the world is actually a canvas."
"Its beauty depends on the colors each of us paints on it."