After calming down a bit, Bronya and Seele continued searching through the Fire Moth base for a way to counter the Herrscher of Binding.
“Since the Herrscher of Binding’s authority is to nullify Honkai energy… Seele, focus on finding weapons that don’t rely on Honkai energy, or ones that can convert large amounts of Honkai energy into other forms of output.”
“I understand.”
Since the Fire Moth base was filled with various protective measures everywhere, Seele didn’t have the same level of hacking skills as Bronya. Splitting up wouldn’t just fail to improve their efficiency—it might actually cause all sorts of accidents in this unfamiliar place. So, after weighing the pros and cons, the two decided to stick together.
Before long, they were stopped by soldiers stationed at the base for questioning. Fortunately, Seele had learned a fair bit about Fire Moth during her time in the Elysian Realm, and combined with having studied the map, she managed to talk their way out of it.
“Seele really is amazing. If it were Bronya, she probably would’ve blown it.”
Once they were sure it was safe, Bronya gave Seele a thumbs-up. Seele felt as if she had been transported back to the orphanage, to the time when she and Bronya had just met.
Back then, she had been even more timid and fearful than she was now, terrified that she couldn’t do anything right, that one wrong move would mess everything up.
And she remembered—even for the tiniest improvements, like reading two more pages of a book, getting one more question right, or finishing her meal more cleanly than the day before—such trivial little things. Whenever Bronya noticed, she would always encourage her. It was through these small gestures that Bronya had pulled Seele, step by step, out of the darkness and into the light.
Now, Seele could carry on a fluent conversation with complete strangers without needing any mental preparation from anyone. But she would never forget that it was thanks to Bronya and her other self’s protection that she had gradually transformed from lonely and withdrawn to outgoing and cheerful.
Seele herself wasn’t sure if she had harbored special feelings for Bronya back then. But in any case, after she took the initiative to offer her first kiss, their relationship had been firmly established.
In front of the archive room door, Bronya was going all out to breach the security. Seele couldn’t help much in this area, so she just chatted with her other self, or let her mind wander while keeping an eye on their surroundings.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and the two walked in, beginning to flip through Fire Moth’s research materials.
“MM reagent… needs to be injected into the human body—that’s definitely a no… Hmm? The Extraterrestrial Plan?”
[The facts have proven that from the First Herrscher to the Seventh Herrscher, Herrschers would descend randomly in any corner of the world, upon any person. No one can guarantee which corner of the Earth won’t be eroded by Honkai.]
[And now, the space technologies of major nations have matured. We are fully capable of transferring people from all countries to Venus, Mars, or even beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, reaching even farther destinations.]
[I know this plan faces numerous difficulties and requires coordination and cooperation across countless departments. But even if we have to pay a heavy price, it’s still better than watching Honkai destroy the Earth bit by bit.]
[…Indeed, up until now, we’ve achieved victory after victory in our battles against Honkai. But looking at the bigger picture, the destruction Honkai inflicts on the world grows greater with each outbreak. How many more Herrschers will appear? Unknown. What will their authorities be? Unknown. How soon will the next Herrscher come? Still unknown.]
[Before the world suffers irreversible damage, while humanity’s future can still remain in human hands—do not hesitate…]
“Looks like this was a speech given by a representative at a UN-related conference after the Seventh Herrscher. But such a radical proposal ended up being rejected… What comes after this is…”
[In hindsight, that representative’s proposal might have been right. The Seventh Herrscher turned all of Australia into scorched earth. The Eighth Herrscher killed countless people worldwide through memetic attacks. The Ninth Herrscher… sank the entire Mu continent. From then on, humanity could only adopt a purely defensive stance against Honkai…]
[But even if we had known back then what would happen now, that plan was never meant to be realized… Not because retreat is shameful, but because implementing such a plan would inevitably trigger global panic. Conflicts and tensions between those who leave first and those who leave later would be unavoidable, and no one could come up with a proper solution to that problem. Perhaps Honkai wouldn’t even have to destroy us—humanity would wipe itself out in a global civil war first.]
[However, while the Extraterrestrial Plan was overly impractical, it wasn’t entirely useless. Its detailed arrangements provided tremendous assistance in refining and improving the Ark Project…]
“Ark… Project?”
In the end, this material didn’t offer anything useful for their current predicament. Seele hurriedly moved on to the next document.
“Dammit, why do I need further authentication just to use the catalog search?”
That’s right—breaking through the Fire Moth database’s security had been much easier than Bronya had anticipated. She had logged in within less than a minute. But once inside, she discovered that entering keywords for targeted searches required additional clearance. Otherwise, she could only flip through the vast sea of archives page by page, following some unknown order.
Needless to say, this design was clearly meant to mess with people. It was just like how Otto, before he could search for knowledge on combating Honkai in the Void Archives’ library, first had to read through the entirety of Postpartum Care for Sows—same energy, really.
And the security protocols for the advanced clearance had been personally designed by Dr. Mei and Vill-V. To this day, Bronya still hadn’t cracked that defense. In all her years as a hacker, this was the first time she felt sweat trickling down her back. She knew time was of the essence—she had to race against the clock.
“If only Enoxia were here…”
Ever since she learned that Enoxia was the Herrscher of Corruption, a lot of things from before suddenly made sense. Like why, whenever they played games together—except for the times Enoxia deliberately let her win—Bronya had never won a single round. No matter how much you grind or spend or how skilled you are, you can’t beat someone who’s basically a cheater even the game admins can’t touch.
What Bronya didn’t know, however, was that everything she was experiencing right now was something Enoxia had crafted using data collected from the Elysian Realm. In other words, Bronya and Seele had entered a data space similar to the Elysian Realm that offered the same immersive experience—except the content was the Previous Era’s Eleventh Herrscher.
“Miss Enoxia, Bronya seems to be having quite a bit of trouble.”
Enoxia let out a light sigh:
“I just copied Vill-V’s security program verbatim—I didn’t expect it to actually stump her here… If this were really back then… well, actually, if it were truly the Previous Era, Bronya would already be close with the other Flame-Chasers by this point. As long as she had the right approach, Dr. Mei would’ve given her the clearance. I didn’t think this through—I made things harder for her for no reason.”
“Well then… let me give her a little outside assistance. Sirin, Missterine—this won’t cause any problems, will it?”
The memory of altering data and causing a major bug in St. Freya’s data space, which forced the remaining students to retake their exams collectively, was still fresh in her mind. This was the Sea of Quanta—she didn’t dare take any reckless liberties.
“The current world bubble is very stable. Such a minor adjustment won’t be a problem for us.”
Enoxia then activated the Herrscher of Corruption’s authority. Just as Bronya was spiraling into a vicious cycle of getting more anxious the more she couldn’t solve it, and not being able to solve it because she was getting more anxious—the program in front of her suddenly unlocked itself.
She found it very suspicious, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She entered her keywords and immediately began browsing.
“Moonlight Throne? Looks like Anti-Entropy’s naming conventions are also tied to the Previous Era… This is it. Seele, I need to read through its detailed data. It’d be best if no one disturbs me. If anything unexpected comes up, I’m counting on you.”
Watching Bronya’s confident expression, Enoxia sighed once more:
“Such a pity—Bronya hasn’t fully grasped the Herrscher of Reason’s authority… Oh well, let’s just call it… a lesson learned the hard way.”
