"All the information you know."
Selene stared at Fu Hua, her voice soft yet commanding. "I expect you to speak for yourself rather than forcing to search your mories."
"Phew..." Fu Hua took a deep breath, her mind racing. For Selene’s inquiry, the answer was far more complicated than one might expect.
But Fu Hua was a person who upheld her promises. Since she had already surrendered and even drunk the celebratory wine Selene poured for her, she resolved to be forthright.
She had no intention of hiding the truth.
Fu Hua valued her promises deeply. After her mission for the Ember Project had failed, she had remained steadfast, keeping her word to Danzhu and Cangxuan for millennia, despite no written contract, no penalties for breaking it.
Even when surrounded by seven rebellious disciples who sought her life, she had stood firm for thousands of years without wavering.
"I almost wish you would just search my mories yourself, Selene Your Majesty..." Fu Hua, normally so rigid and serious, cracked a rare, self-deprecating joke as she pondered the matter.
After all, how much worse could things get? Back then, 1,500 years ago, what Kevin had planned was no more noble than what Selene proposed now.
At the end of the previous civilization, while Fu Hua could understand Dr. i’s actions, it didn’t an she liked them.
Fu Hua had never forgotten how Kevin, Dr. i, and others had killed her captain, Himiko. Even now, that event still weighed heavily on her heart.
Himiko had been the captain of Fu Hua’s Fire Moth Fifth Squad. She was the one who had taught Fu Hua how to fight, shaping her into a soldier—a ntor akin to a guiding star. (Note: Himiko from the previous era was the Seventh Herrscher of Flascion. Her Herrscher core was later forged into [Judgnt of Shamash], and her design inspired Hiko’s character in the current era.)
Kevin’s decision to kill Himiko had dealt a devastating blow to Fu Hua, already struggling to cope with the trauma of the Sixth Herrscher incident. The ordeal had forced her into regular therapy sessions.
While Fu Hua could rationalize their actions as necessary for the greater good, it left a thorn buried deep in her heart.
It was akin to imagining Hiko surviving The Final Lesson only for Kevin and Dr. i to execute her in front of Kiana.
Although the comparison isn’t perfect, it paints a clear picture of how Fu Hua had felt in that mont.
That she hadn’t imdiately lashed out or defected was a testant to Himiko’s teachings. Fu Hua had suppressed her emotions for the sake of unity, ensuring the Fire Moth’s resolve against the impending advent of the Herrscher of the End.
Dr. i’s inhumane experints, too, had drawn Fu Hua’s ire—she had openly condemned them countless tis during the era.
"If only you had been here 50,000 years ago..." Fu Hua murmured softly.
There was no sanctity here—no one was spotless, least of all Dr. i. If the Herrscher of the End from the previous era had been as reasonable as Selene, seeking coexistence rather than extermination, Fu Hua might very well have defected.
"Ha?"
For now, her purpose was clear: to maintain the status quo, preserve the remnants of Schicksal, protect as many people as possible, and minimize unnecessary slaughter from Selene.
Crossing her arms and resting her chin on one hand, Fu Hua contemplated briefly before eting Selene’s crimson gaze. Her tone steady, she began, "The Lunar Battle... there’s no doubt—we lost."
"The Herrscher of the End erged on the moon. To prevent it from reaching Earth, Kevin, Eden, Kalpas, Su, Kosma, Mobius, and I chose to face it there."
Aponia, following Alicia’s death, requested Vill-V to help fuse her consciousness with the Elysian Realm. As such, she did not participate in the Lunar Battle against the Herrscher of the End.
"But she was too strong. Within just five minutes, Kalpas and Kosma fell in battle."
"Kalpas, Kosma... Hmm, confirm those two. And who else?" Selene’s expression remained unchanged, her interest unwavering as she pressed for more details.
From Aponia’s mories, Selene had already gathered much. The sixth Fla-Chaser, [Decimation] Kalpas, was a ferocious and unruly fighter, his combat style akin to a rabid beast in close quarters. That he was the first to fall to the Herrscher of the End seed entirely logical.
The other, the ninth Fla-Chaser, [Daybreak] Kosma, was barely more than a child. Among the thirteen, only Griseo was younger than him.
Kosma’s fusion with the Honkai Beast DNA of Vishnu granted him the ability to absorb and evolve from other Honkai Beasts.
This potential for growth was imnse, and Dr. i had originally intended for Kosma to lead the Ark Project.
However, Kosma had rejected the plan, feeling it made him look like a deserter. Instead, he chose to join his seniors in ascending to the moon and facing the Herrscher of the End.
As a late-ga hero, his potential required ti to mature. Facing the final and strongest Herrscher so prematurely sealed Kosma’s tragic fate.
Among the eight fusion warriors who set foot on the moon, Kosma was undoubtedly the weakest. He followed Kalpas into death shortly after.
"Then, to buy us ti, Vill-V sacrificed herself as well."
Vill-V? The one responsible for the Fire Moth’s engineering and construction projects?
"In the end, through the Moonlight Throne’s sacrificial overload operation, Kevin, in his Judgnt form, delivered an all-out strike that temporarily shut down the Herrscher of the End for 12 hours. Only then did we manage to retreat from the battlefield.
As she recounted, Fu Hua stood in place, lightly gasping for breath. The glass in her hand trembled as her fingers tightened around it. It was clear she was recalling the despair of that battle.
The faint clinking of glass echoed.
"You need not worry. I am not her..." Selene’s voice broke the tension as she handed Fu Hua a glass filled with a light, fruit-flavored alcoholic drink, her expression calm yet smiling.
"Try this. It’s my favorite drink recently. Though it’s not as strong as vodka, it has its own charm," Selene said, her voice imbued with an inexplicable calming magic.
"Thank you."
Fu Hua instinctively thanked her and took a small sip.
After a mont’s pause, she continued, "After the Lunar Battle, I entered a stasis pod with Cangxuan and Danzhu to carry out the Ember Project."
The Ember Project—to pass down knowledge and technology from the pre-civilization era to the next.
As part of Dr. i’s plan to preserve humanity’s genetic legacy through the Stigmata Project, Cangxuan (Fuxi) and Danzhu (Nuwa) were tasked with safeguarding the Xuanyuan Sword and serving as the next civilization’s pioneers.
Fu Hua chose to settle in Shenzhou, taking on the na Chi Yuan (Jingwei), to protect them.
anwhile, Danzhu discovered that early humans in this new civilization held a deep reverence for the supernatural. Inspired, she began spreading pre-civilization knowledge through stories imbued with mythic elents.
For instance, her tale of molding their likenesses from yellow clay beca the well-known legend of Nuwa creating humanity.
The Xuanyuan Sword was forged using the core of the pre-civilization Herrscher of Binding. Due to the Herrscher’s unique nature, the Tenth Divine Key differed from others—it existed as multiple pieces rather than a singular artifact.
The Xuanyuan Sword, Nuwa’s Resolve, and Taixu’s Grasp are all manifestations of the Tenth Divine Key.
Fu Hua herself holds over a hundred copies of the Xuanyuan Sword. So were gifted to capable allies, others were damaged in battle, and many were used to suppress Honkai outbreaks.
"’The Ember Project’... This isn’t about planting the seeds of the current civilization. It’s rely the extension of the previous one. To the Honkai, it’s a lingering poison."
Hearing this, Selene shook her head and remarked, "It’s clear that your actions severely disrupted the Honkai’s judgnt on civilization’s natural developnt. This invited its retaliation."
Fu Hua froze in place, either lost in thought or revisiting mories she wished to forget.
"You’re correct," she finally admitted. "The Honkai soon responded. Though it did not birth Herrschers, even the ergence of Honkai Beasts was sothing this fragile, nascent civilization could not withstand."
In 2100 BCE, the actions of Cangxuan and Danzhu in imparting knowledge far beyond the current era led to the birth of the Judgnt-class Honkai Beast Chiyou.
"That was no coincidence. The Honkai has always been watching the world," Fu Hua said, her voice steady as her gaze fixed on Selene.
When Chiyou erged in the South China Sea, Fu Hua was too far away to intervene in ti. As a result, Danzhu and Cangxuan perished. Ji Lin, the first bearer of the Xuanyuan Sword from the Youxiong Tribe, sacrificed herself to seal Chiyou. Thus, the Ember Project was declared a failure.
"After that," Fu Hua continued, her tone tinged with regret, "I no longer shared advanced knowledge with this civilization’s people. The Ember Project proved unworkable."
She shifted slightly, hesitating before continuing, "I then honored my promise to Danzhu by remaining in Shenzhou, protecting it until the Pioneers began to awaken one by one. By the end of the 5th century, every ten years, we would convene with Kevin and the surviving Fla-Chasers via remote projection to exchange information."
According to Dr. i’s instructions, the surviving Fla-Chasers each carried out different plans.
Whether due to i’s overabundance of contingency asures, the passage of 50,000 years eroding their camaraderie, or simply the Fla-Chasers’ vastly differing personalities and worldviews, their relationships in the current era grew cold and fragnted.
So beca indifferent, others grew extre. There were those who fought, those who settled down to live in peace, and those who remained in solitary slumber.
"One day, though I cannot recall exactly when, I received word that the Ark Project had failed." Fu Hua’s expression softened, tinged with pity.
The Ark Project—an initiative to seek a new ho for humanity among the stars—was originally ant to be carried out by Kosma.
However, with Kosma choosing to stay behind and fight, the mission fell to the youngest of the Fla-Chasers, the eleventh-ranked [Star] Griseo.
Selene pondered for a mont before interjecting, "The little girl who paints?"
In Aponia’s mories, aside from Kalpas, Griseo was the one she cared for most deeply. Griseo, in turn, referred to Aponia as her mother.
Griseo once painted a piece titled Sunflower, a solitary bloom rooted in shadows and wilting in isolation. She gifted this to Aponia.
"That little girl seems to have never painted anything for you, though..."
Delving into the mory fragnts of the Elysian Realm and cross-referencing with Aponia’s recollections, Selene noted that Fu Hua appeared to have never received a painting from Griseo.
"They didn’t," Fu Hua shook her head. "I was a field operative, rarely stationed at the base. My missions kept away from Griseo, so we weren’t particularly familiar."
"That’s truly a pity," Selene clicked her tongue, her tone filled with interest. "It’s said that every painting she gave carried profound aning. I’d love to know—if we ever t, what sort of painting she’d create for ."
The Imperial Capital? The sun? An angel? A savior? The cosmos? The galaxy?
Fu Hua remained silent.
A little girl, alone in a cramped tallic vessel, drifting through the vast and endless darkness of space for fifty thousand years under the embrace of the stars.
Losing contact over 1,500 years ago—it only confird the grim reality. The Ark, deteriorating with age, must have failed. Fu Hua knew what that ant. Griseo’s strength was not sufficient to endure prolonged survival in space without a habitable ho.
The result was all too clear.
"And what about Kevin and Su? What’s their story?"
Returning to the topic of Kevin, Fu Hua found herself reflecting on how different the Kevin of 50,000 years ago had been compared to the cold and unrecognizable man he had beco after Dr. i’s death.
By the late 5th century, after losing contact with Griseo on the Ark Project and watching the Ember Project fail due to Honkai accelerating as civilization advanced, Kevin made a desperate decision.
anwhile, Su, the seventh-ranked [Bodhi] of the Fla-Chasers, observed for 50,000 years within the Second Divine Key, Cosmic Juggernaut, as part of the Hengsha Project, yet found no answers.
In light of this, Kevin resolved to prematurely initiate the Stigmata Project.
He repurposed the organization founded by Grey Serpent into World Serpent, aiming to use artificial intervention to activate and reorganize the genetic modifications i had introduced into a few descendants during embryonic developnt.
In essence, it was a plan to sacrifice the majority of humanity to ensure the survival of the species.
This approach mirrored that of Cocolia in Nagazora—artificially inducing Herrscher awakenings, instigating a Great Honkai outbreak to cull the weak and leave only the resilient behind.
Due to the dispersal of Honkai resistance genes through human genetics, Kevin chose the British Isles as a testing ground for this experint.
Kevin’s actions sparked fierce opposition from Su, who believed Kevin had strayed too far from the path. Su was unwilling to see Kevin destroy humanity’s future.
Aside from overseeing the Hengsha Project, Su was also tasked by Dr. i with enacting the Overseer Project, designed to prevent the Pioneers from spiraling out of control.
"All right," Selene said, her voice steady as she processed Fu Hua’s account. "I think I understand your tangled relationships and convoluted plans now. So Kevin was locked in a black box by his own comrade for 1,500 years. How ironic."
"His thods, one could say, were even more like the Herrscher of the End than I am."
Leaning against the railing, Selene raised her glass, offering Fu Hua a toast.
Having obtained the information she sought, Selene’s thoughts began to settle as she pieced together the fragnts of knowledge into a coherent whole.
"And the remaining ones—Mobius, Pardofelis..."
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