Fire Moth Base.
As the boundary of the Binding Barrier kept extending further into the base, facilities in multiple areas suffered varying degrees of damage due to the sudden disappearance of Honkai energy. Quite a few soldiers and researchers who hadn’t managed to flee in time died on the spot from the loss of bioelectricity in their bodies.
Hua took an enormous risk. With the help of Fenghuang Down, she dragged the fallen Qian Jie out of the barrier and eventually delivered him to Mobius’s laboratory.
Of course, it wouldn’t be accurate to say that humanity had no effect on the Binding Herrscher at all. After a thousand soldiers—including dozens of MANTIS warriors—had all perished, the speed at which the Binding Barrier expanded and nullified Honkai energy within its range slowed down noticeably.
Thus, a seemingly straightforward approach emerged: overwhelm the Binding Barrier by throwing bodies at it until it reached its limit.
But rationally speaking, no one knew where the Binding Herrscher’s ceiling lay—just how many lives would need to be sacrificed? And emotionally speaking, issuing an order for entire units to march to their deaths was not something many were willing to do.
Fire Moth’s final command was this: all units, especially the MANTIS soldiers, were to engage the Binding Herrscher with everything they had.
At this moment, Bronya and Seele stepped out of the archives. The engine of the Moonlight Throne was clearly not suited for indoor construction, so Bronya needed to find a relatively open space.
Along the way, they saw countless soldiers charging toward the direction of the Binding Barrier. Some had flames flickering across their bodies, while others radiated waves of biting cold. Some bore wings on their backs, others were covered in scales. Some had feet transformed into eagle talons, others had hands turned into bear paws…
“Are they all… MANTIS soldiers?”
Neither Bronya nor Seele had ever witnessed such a sight before. If they hadn’t already learned about the MANTIS soldiers beforehand, they might have wondered whether they had entered a bubble world within the Sea of Quanta or been transported to some other planet entirely.
But no matter how formidable these MANTIS warriors appeared, the moment they rushed into the Binding Barrier, they dropped like stones. They never even got the chance to use their abilities against the Binding Herrscher before losing all combat effectiveness.
Did the Binding Herrscher, like other Herrschers, act as a source of Honkai energy, radiating it outward in all directions? The answer was, of course, yes. After all, the Binding Herrscher itself was unaffected by the Binding Barrier. High concentrations of Honkai energy still emanated from it, spreading in every direction.
However, because the Binding Barrier stretched for a full hundred kilometers, ordinary people would die from the loss of bioelectricity long before they could be infected and turned into zombies. So when fighting the Binding Herrscher, there was no need to worry about allies who had just been fighting beside you suddenly transforming into Honkai beasts.
Thus, Seele and Bronya moved unhindered through the Fire Moth base until they stopped at a semi-open training ground. Bronya remembered this place—it was one of Fire Moth’s weapon-testing facilities. About a kilometer ahead of her, a faint, shimmering curtain of light hung in the air.
“Materials, mass, volume, density…”
Bronya recalled the data she had just gathered and activated the authority of the Herrscher of Reason. A cannon over a hundred meters in length materialized out of thin air above her.
So this is… the authority of the Herrscher of Reason… Herrschers really are outrageously powerful, each and every one of them.
Dark Seele, who hadn’t spoken in a while, witnessed this through White Seele’s perspective. Although she had already learned a fair bit about the Herrscher of Reason’s authority during her time with World Serpent, actually seeing Bronya conjure such a complex weapon out of nothing, simply by expending Honkai energy, still struck her hard.
“Fire!”
A high-energy beam shot forth, and the moment it collided with the Binding Barrier, a deafening roar erupted. A gaping hole over ten meters in radius appeared in the shimmering curtain above.
“Great—it worked!”
But just as Seele and Bronya’s faces lit up with joy, their smiles froze. Because the hole in the barrier was healing at a visible rate.
“Output power… still too low, huh…”
Just as Bronya was pondering how to construct a more powerful weapon, a jade-green bodhi leaf drifted down from above her head. The moment it touched her, it sank into her body. Then, an unfamiliar voice spoke directly inside her mind:
“Miss Herrscher of Reason, hello. Please don’t be alarmed. This is my ability—it can connect to other people’s minds. You can think of it as an unimpeded phone call.
“You’ve just proven with your actions that, at least when it comes to fighting the Binding Herrscher, we’re on the same side. But with that level of output, it’s still just a drop in the bucket against the Binding Barrier.”
“Please tell me—what level of output would be needed to break through the Binding Barrier’s limit?”
Though Bronya had no idea who this person was, she was certain that the Binding Herrscher didn’t possess such an ability. So she reasoned that this was likely another MANTIS soldier, perhaps with powers similar to Fenghuang Down. After that analysis, Bronya decided to trust him.
“According to Mei’s calculations, to break through the Binding Barrier’s limit, you’d need to increase your current output by… 104 times.”
“…”
Bronya stood frozen, unable to respond for a long time.
“Because the data in this base is incomplete, the engine you just constructed is actually a watered-down version of the Moonlight Throne. According to Mei’s estimates, if the real Moonlight Throne could be put into operation, and with its limiters removed, it would have a 100% chance of shattering the Binding Barrier.”
“Then… is the Moonlight Throne unable to be deployed in the short term for some reason?”
“That’s one reason. After the Mu Continent sank, the core technology was lost, so the Moonlight Throne still can’t take off. Besides that, Mei believes the time isn’t right yet… The Moonlight Throne is the most powerful weapon we currently have, and Mei thinks it should be saved to deliver the final, decisive blow against the very source of Honkai when we face the end.”
Bronya had learned from the doctors of Anti-Entropy that the origin of the Moonlight Throne in the current era lay in the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in caves near Khirbet Qumran, northwest of the Dead Sea.
Welt Yang’s father, Elias Nokianpää, had accidentally found Planck’s constant and the reduced Planck’s constant within them—values identical to the research results of Planck and Schrödinger. Using a Caesar cipher to decode the scrolls, he uncovered a conversion formula that could revert Honkai energy into ordinary, controllable energy.
In 1955, Schrödinger, along with two other North American branch researchers, proved through experiments that his discovery was correct. And based on that discovery, Edison proposed the “Moonlight Throne Project”—a plan to convert Honkai energy into other forms of energy, thereby rendering it harmless. That project ultimately led to the founding of Anti-Entropy… as well as Anti-Entropy’s tragedy.
But without a doubt, the fact that Anti-Entropy was eventually able to build the Moonlight Throne traced all the way back to the Previous Era’s legacy. So Bronya and the doctors of Anti-Entropy were all eager to know just how powerful the Previous Era’s Moonlight Throne really was. And the information conveyed by this MANTIS soldier still surprised Bronya.
Because according to him, the Moonlight Throne’s all-out, no-holds-barred attack would unleash energy… far beyond anything she currently knew any Herrscher to be capable of.
At the same time, this meant that even if she drained every last drop of Honkai energy within her body, Bronya couldn’t build such a weapon.
“It seems… that path won’t work. No matter. Fire Moth has other plans… You can try other methods as well.”
The voice in her head faded away. Bronya snapped back to reality and saw Seele standing in place, looking extremely anxious and at a loss. Bronya recounted everything that had just happened.
“As long as Bronya-sis is okay… So that’s how I look to others when I’m talking to the other me, huh…”
Seele realized this wasn’t the time to dwell on such thoughts. She shook her head vigorously.
“Then… Bronya-sis, what do we do now? Even when I was drifting alone in the Sea of Quanta, the other me was always by my side, and I still had the courage to move forward. But now… I… for the first time, I feel like I don’t know where to go, like I don’t know what I should do… It’s despair.”
Bronya stepped forward and gently pulled the trembling Seele into her arms, soothing her with tender care. Even so, as she watched the Binding Barrier continue to expand deeper into the base, a pale sense of helplessness lingered in her heart.
“If everything we’re seeing is history that the Previous Era once lived through… then they must have felt even more hopeless than we do, right…”
In the distance, the sounds of roaring and explosions rang out one after another—Fire Moth’s missiles, along with the various abilities of the MANTIS soldiers.
But just a few minutes later, the clamor faded into silence. That could only mean one thing: humanity’s resistance had once again ended in failure.
Yet the silence didn’t last long. A new wave of sounds broke the stillness—the next batch of MANTIS warriors was charging into the Binding Barrier once more. Bronya listened to those sounds, and her gaze grew steadily more resolute. She gently patted Seele on the back, and Seele instinctively pulled away from her embrace.
“Bronya-sis, are you going to…”
“Seele, Bronya may not be able to shatter the Binding Barrier through sheer volume, but Bronya is certain that what she just did wasn’t her limit. Bronya wants to see what she can achieve when she gives everything she has. Even if she can’t accomplish the original goal, Bronya thinks… at least that way, there will be fewer casualties.”
With that, Bronya took a step forward and closed her eyes. Seele could clearly sense that something within Bronya had changed.
Soon, a Moonlight Throne engine identical to the one before appeared above her left side. But she showed no sign of stopping. A second Moonlight Throne materialized above her right.
Meanwhile, Seele was still pacing in circles, not knowing what to do.
“You idiot! If you keep spinning like that, I’m going to get dizzy before you do!”
“Ah… I’m sorry… But, other me, what should I do right now…”
A few seconds later, a long sigh echoed through Seele’s mental space.
“Let me ask you—why did we come to the Sea of Quanta?”
“Um… to assist the doctors with their research, since we’re familiar with the Sea of Quanta…”
“And?”
“…To protect Bronya-sis…”
“So there you have it. Honestly, being too kind isn’t always a good thing. I know you’re too soft-hearted to watch others die, but if you had to choose between those strangers and Bronya, you already know what you’d pick, don’t you?”
“I…”
“Sometimes, you need to let go of that savior complex and respect other people’s fates. When Honkai strikes, countless lives are lost—do you think you can save everyone? Me? I don’t go around saving people left and right. As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters…”
“…Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m only keeping you safe because we share one body—if you go down, I go down too. In the end, I’m doing this for myself.”
After successfully filtering out the last part of Dark Seele’s rant, White Seele replied gratefully:
“Thank you, other me. I understand now. Just as you’re the most important person in my heart, Bronya-sis is also the most important person in my heart. You’re right—compared to everyone else, Bronya-sis matters more. So even if I’m no match for a Herrscher, at the very least, I can protect Bronya-sis.”
“Ugh, I already said—forget it. The process was questionable, but the result is right. As long as you know what you need to do now.”
“But… so Bronya really is the most important to her, huh… I guess that makes sense, since I’m just—”
This time, however, Dark Seele’s final, faint muttering was heard loud and clear by White Seele.
“Other me, so you actually care about that? But we’re one and the same—you belong to ‘me,’ not to ‘other people.'”
Hearing that, Dark Seele’s face instantly flushed red in their mental space:
“Why is your hearing so sharp all of a sudden! Bronya’s about to make her move—stop worrying about me!”
Seele turned her attention back to Bronya. By now, ten engines surrounded her. With such an enormous target, she didn’t need to waste any focus on precise aiming.
“Moonlight Throne, full power output—FIRE!”
Ten beams of light shot toward the shimmering curtain, unleashing an even more tremendous roar.
Before she could even observe the results of this attack, Bronya’s vision went dark, and she collapsed into Seele’s arms, unconscious.
In the distance, the breach in the Binding Barrier once again healed at a visible pace. The miracle they had been hoping for did not seem to come…
