Honkai Impact: Become Their Hero Chapter 122: Xuanyuan Reborn, Chiyou's End

"Why did you deliberately spare its life?"

Ji Xuanyuan's lingering spirit appeared beside Elias. Through the Xuanyuan Sword, she had witnessed the entire battle.

This young man was far stronger than she had imagined—thousands of tis more powerful.

The Chiyou Honkai Beast that had once driven her and Chiyuan to the brink now couldn't even withstand a single blow from him.

And yet, that only made her more confused.

Why had Elias intentionally misaligned his second strike?

She could sense the destructive force contained in the Might of An-Utu. If Elias had used that blade first, Chiyou wouldn't have had even a second to linger—it would've been reduced to ash.

"To save soone, of course. Your true self—the real Ji Xuanyuan—is still inside Chiyou, right? I think she can still be rescued."

"...That's unnecessary. Trapped inside Chiyou for thousands of years, the real must have long since perished. Even if I miraculously survived, my mind would surely be..."

Ji Xuanyuan's gaze dimd as she shook her head.

Chiyou had been sealed for 5,000 years—but that ant she had been sealed for 5,000 years as well. She was certain the odds were grim. Even if her body lived, her soul may have been lost.

Better to slay Chiyou now than risk letting it live.

"Don't give up. Even if there's only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, never give up. I'm going to rewrite this imperfect ending into the one I want—that's sothing a very dear teacher of mine once taught ."

"Elias..."

"Don't worry. Your real self can definitely be saved. And you've seen my power—if Chiyou tries anything, I'll just slash it again."

Elias tapped the Might of An-Utu against Surtr. Those two slashes earlier weren't even full-power; he could still pull off five or six more.

Most importantly, he knew the story. The real Ji Xuanyuan was still alive inside Chiyou—there was still hope. And abandoning that hope would go against everything he believed in.

"Elias, what were you just—"

"Are we still going to send it into the Sea of Quanta?"

At that mont, Raiden i and Welt arrived.

i's eyes shone with admiration.

Welt looked at Elias with awe.

"Perfect timing. I'm heading into Chiyou's body to rescue soone. i, Welt—watch its condition from outside and don't let it recover."

"Rescue? Inside Chiyou? You an—you're trying to save Ji Xuanyuan, the one who sealed it five thousand years ago?!"

Welt looked shocked.

Ever since Elias entered his life, surprises ca daily. This boy always made the impossible sound casual.

i, unfamiliar with Shenzhou's myths, simply squeezed Elias' hand in concern.

"Don't worry, i. I'll be back soon"

"...Hehe. Even if you were just an ordinary person, I know you'd still go. That's just who you are."

i gave a helpless smile.

She knew his personality well—Elias never needed a reason to save soone.

Elias blinked, then reached out and gently patted her head, giving her a kiss on the horn.

"I'll be right back."

"Okay. I'll be waiting here."

(Originally, I was aiming for her forehead... but those horns would totally stab ...)

Elias approached the barely conscious Chiyou and—with a single kick—forced open its all-devouring maw and dove inside.

The interior was shrouded in darkness, but as the Herrscher of Fire, Elias' fire illuminated everything around him.

After running for what felt like ages, Elias couldn't help but marvel—Chiyou's interior was like a pocket dinsion. Vast, boundless, and filled with floating land masses that resembled islands.

"Ji Xuanyuan, are these...?"

"Yes. These are the lands of Shenzhou, devoured by that abomination five thousand years ago."

"Damn that monster... Tch. I better hurry. Let trace the Honkai energy flow inside Chiyou… this way!"

From his past life, Elias rembered that the giant beast Chiyou had three cores. Five thousand years ago, Fuxi and Nuwa had sacrificed themselves to seal two of them. The remaining core—the heart—was sealed by Ji Xuanyuan using the Xuanyuan Sword.

Using his Herrscher-level Honkai sense, Elias quickly identified the direction of the heart and rushed toward it.

Before long, he arrived.

He stood on a dark crimson platform, where a massive floating purple crystal—Chiyou's heart—radiated Honkai energy at a level rivaling a Herrscher.

As Elias approached, a voice echoed in his mind—the sa voice he'd heard when first drawing the Xuanyuan Sword.

"Chosen by the Honkai… the one who freed from a thousand-year seal. I do not wish to kill you. But if you insist on walking to your death, then I shall grant your wish."

"That voice—it really is..."

A mont later, a girl astride a black horse appeared before Elias.

Her skin was deathly pale. Her once gentle vermilion eyes now burned gold with cruelty.

Most of her ornate hair ornants were gone. Her long hair had been shorn. The crimson gem on her forehead, now muddled with chaos, mirrored the darkness in her soul.

She looked exactly like the Ji Xuanyuan within the Xuanyuan Sword.

But the difference in aura was stark—light and dark, gold and void, White Seele and Dark Seele.

Yet the malevolence, hatred, and despair within her eclipsed even Dark Seele by leagues.

"[]... why have you beco like this?"

The spirit Ji Xuanyuan appeared again, looking at her darker self with disbelief, pity, and sorrow.

She was alive. Truly alive.

But perhaps... in another sense, already long dead.

The once brave and kind girl who sealed Chiyou now stood twisted in utter despair.

"Why? After millennia fighting alone in endless darkness... in this cold, empty place devoid of warmth or light, I fell. Now, I am nothing but hatred—for everything I once protected."

Dark Ji Xuanyuan's voice trembled with madness and sorrow.

She raised a black Xuanyuan Sword and pointed it at Elias.

As if debating how best to kill him.

"So that's how it is. And I suppose... Chiyou's recent actions were directed by your will, weren't they?"

"Yes. That's right. You're clever, boy."

Dark Ji Xuanyuan admitted it without hesitation.

Long ago, Chiyou's mind had already eroded—no matter how powerful, even a Judgnt-class Honkai Beast couldn't maintain its sense of self across millennia.

A beast's will was never as resilient as a human's.

When Ji Xuanyuan entered Chiyou and sealed it from within, her consciousness didn't fade.

But Chiyou's massive body beca her prison.

Over the centuries, soaked in corruption and isolation, without warmth or hope, not even a glimr of light—Ji Xuanyuan's heart was consud by darkness.

And from that despair, Dark Ji Xuanyuan was born.

Fate, it seed, was a cruel joke.

Chiyou's massive body had beco a prison that confined Ji Xuanyuan for five thousand years.

And now, the Ji Xuanyuan consud by darkness had taken control of the Judgent-class Honkai Beast's hollow shell.

The dragonslayer had beco the dragon.

Dark Ji Xuanyuan was now consud by one thing—hatred.

She sought revenge, revenge on everything she once protected.

Sensing her pitch-black will, the lifeless Chiyou had responded. Upon its unsealing, it surfaced with vengeance in mind.

"The Ji Xuanyuan of the past no longer exists. I am now nothing more than a spirit of vengeance. You have no more questions, do you? Then you may die in peace."

Dark Ji Xuanyuan yanked the reins. Her black warhorse charged at Elias, and the black Xuanyuan Sword struck with killing intent.

Elias raised Surtr to block the thrust, but didn't counter.

His stillness caused Dark Ji Xuanyuan to frown.

"So you truly seek death."

"I'm just confirming sothing."

"What's there to confirm?!"

She slashed again.

The Xuanyuan Sword, dyed pitch-black by millennia of solitude, carried not only overwhelming Honkai energy but also her despair and resentnt.

Elias t her strikes again and again, as if deliberately shouldering her pain.

Clang!

He easily blocked a strike aid at his chest.

Thud!

He dodged the warhorse's crushing hoof.

Whoosh!

He caught a sweeping arc of sword energy with his bare hand.

"Enough. It's enough. Elias, please... kill this version of . I beg you."

The Ji Xuanyuan spirit in the Xuanyuan Sword spoke in anguish.

To her, Elias was still holding back because he believed this fallen self could still be saved—either because of her origin as Shenzhou's founder or his own ideals.

Across from them, Dark Ji Xuanyuan's fury flared.

"Why won't you fight back?! I don't want your pity! I don't want your salvation! If you don't kill , Chiyou—under my influence—will continue to lash out at the world!"

"...Is it truly vengeance you seek?"

Elias' voice was calm.

Ji Xuanyuan and Dark Ji Xuanyuan both froze.

"What did you say?"

"To , this looks more like a cry for release disguised as vengeance. Ji Xuanyuan—you want to die, don't you?"

"...You speak nonsense."

"Eh?"

The Xuanyuan spirit's eyes widened. She sensed it—her blackened self had faltered.

When Elias looked at her, she turned away as if to flee his gaze.

He smiled gently.

Even in darkness, Ji Xuanyuan's will to protect remained.

"If you truly wished to destroy the world, you wouldn't target . Since it's your will guiding Chiyou, then you must know I could've killed it with a single strike."

"I'm your invincible enemy. One move from , and you're gone."

"Yet you keep attacking, trying to provoke into striking you down."

"You're seeking death—aren't you, Ji Xuanyuan?"

Elias slowly stowed both his swords. The burning Honkai energy around him began to recede.

Dark Ji Xuanyuan clenched her teeth. With a growl, she raised her black Xuanyuan Sword and brought it down upon Elias.

"You. Are. Wrong!!"

"Elias, watch out!"

The Xuanyuan spirit panicked and tried to act—intending to block the deadly strike with the golden Xuanyuan Sword she inhabited.

But Elias held the blade firmly, unmoving.

The white-haired youth looked calmly and confidently at the dark-clad girl.

Not the slightest trace of fear flickered in his golden eyes, even though the blade could end his life.

And just as the black Xuanyuan Sword ca within an inch of his forehead, the strike—ant to be unstoppable—halted.

"That's the best proof. You won't kill . All of your earlier strikes avoided my vitals."

"..."

Dark Ji Xuanyuan fell silent and released the hilt of the black Xuanyuan Sword.

She looked at Elias with complex eyes, the youth's golden irises seemingly able to peer directly into her soul, understanding her desire for release.

"I won't kill you. I ca to save you."

Elias spoke with unwavering sincerity.

"...Thank you for your kindness. But it's impossible now. In these thousands of years of darkness, my heart has broken. I've forgotten hope, forgotten kindness, forgotten love. Forgotten all the good that once was."

No longer trying to maintain a facade, Dark Ji Xuanyuan spoke honestly.

"This body actually died long ago. What moves it now is only my hatred, my resentnt, my obsession."

She placed Elias' hand to her chest—there was no heartbeat.

"Although my will influences Chiyou, I cannot control it. This beast, affected by my negative emotions, acts instinctively to destroy the world."

That, she could not allow.

Dark Ji Xuanyuan clenched her small hands.

She was a walking corpse filled with nothing but darkness, unable to end her own existence. Unable to reclaim the kindness of her past. And as long as this emotion-tainted existence remained, Chiyou would continue to destroy.

"Your na is Elias, right? Thank you for your kindness... but can you please grant release?"

Her request ca with resignation.

She had no place in the world—not like this.

Elias felt the sincerity in her will to die and nodded.

"Of course. I'll set you free."

"Thank you..."

"But not through death!"

The gentle youth's voice suddenly turned firm, unyielding. No room for debate.

He would free Ji Xuanyuan.

But not by death—by rebirth.

Elias pressed his hand against her unmoving chest and activated the power of the Herrscher of Rebirth. Into this long-dead body, he poured life.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Strong heartbeats echoed from Dark Ji Xuanyuan's chest. Her eyes flew wide with shock.

She hadn't expected the rhythm of life to return after millennia.

"But... my personality is already..."

"It doesn't matter. The kindness you lost—" Elias smiled, "—is right here."

"!!!"

He pointed to the remnant spirit of Ji Xuanyuan hovering beside him, then held up the golden Xuanyuan Sword still gleaming on his hip.

Though her true body had fallen to darkness inside Chiyou, the sword that sealed the beast and housed her soul remained.

It still held all the kindness and humanity she once possessed.

"If your remnant soul rges with your body, you'll reclaim what you lost. And the remnant won't need to fear fading away anymore."

That was why Elias had refused the spirit's sacrifice earlier.

Though it was only a fragnt, it was the key to Ji Xuanyuan's rebirth.

As for the final question:

What of the beast that caused all of this—Chiyou?

The answer couldn't be clearer.

"Shamash, Unsheathed!"

Elias grasped the Might of An-Utu once more. The roaring fla enveloped the blade as he brought it down upon Chiyou's heart.

This ti, he didn't hold back.

BOOM—!!

The searing fire burned through Chiyou's heart and tore through its colossal form from within. Its inner world crumbled. Its life extinguished.

A mont later, sunlight pierced Chiyou's corpse, shining upon Elias and Ji Xuanyuan.

"Ahh... so warm..."

Tears welled in Ji Xuanyuan's eyes.

She gazed upon the blue sky and white clouds she hadn't seen for thousands of years.

In that mont, she was finally—and truly—set free.

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