Chat Group : Another Fate From Honkai

"Heavy Bunny, fire!"

The stern voice command coming from the distance despite sounding like it was delivered by a little girl, and it didn't quite match the serious tone of the battlefield.

Behind Bronya, her floating mech assistant raised its plasma cannon arm.

Invisible waves of energy condensed at the muzzle, forming a glowing orb of power.

With a delicate hand stretched out and finger pointed at the oncoming Temple-class Honkai Beast, the girl fired.

But unfortunately, unlike Mei, who had fully become a Herrscher, or the paramecium girl who randomly awakened the Herrscher of the Void's powers, Bronya was undoubtedly the weakest among the Big Three.

Heavy Bunny was indeed a rare piece of quantum gear but when it came to raw power, it was laughably outmatched by the strength of a Herrscher.

Ever since the Herrscher of Reason's Core was intercepted by Nagami, Bronya had been fighting an uphill battle.

The Temple-class Honkai Beast before her stood a towering thirty meters tall—yet another over-nourished product of this bizarre Honkai outbreak.

It raised its massive silicon-based shield, nearly ten meters long, while explosions and smoke roiled in its wake.

As with every world: if there's smoke, nobody's really hurt. A universal law, apparently.

With a deafening crash, the monster plowed through a building.

Its silver-white spear pierced through the dust cloud, lunging straight at Bronya.

"Heavy Bunny—Prime Field!"

A hexagonal energy shield burst forth from the mech's outstretched arm.

It barely deflected the attack, but Bronya was still sent sliding back more than ten meters by the force of the impact.

"Bronya, stop heading toward the eastern coastline!"

From above, a tiny white-haired girl with bright fierce blue eyes dropped from the sky.

With a swing of her oversized golden cross—one clearly far larger than her entire body—Theresa struck a pose that looked like she was teeing off in golf.

The Honkai Beast raised its gelatinous arm to swat her like a fly.

But Theresa's small frame erupted with an explosive force.

With a sound like a bomb going off, she sent the beast flying with a single swing of Judah.

"Understood," Bronya replied flatly, her expression as unreadable as ever, while her curled twintails swayed slightly.

After receiving her response, Theresa nodded and then launched herself into the sky with a powerful stomp.

She soared tens of meters in an instant, riding Judah like a hoverboard as she shot toward Rita, who was currently besieged by Emperor-class Honkai Beasts.

A flicker of emotion passed through Bronya's silvery-gray eyes as she looked toward the far eastern horizon.

'I wonder how Nagami is doing right now…'

He was supposed to be her best partner—and yet while Nagami was out there fighting life-or-death battles, she couldn't even lend him a hand.

'What kind of partner does that make me?'

"…Seele… What should Bronya do?" she murmured under her breath, clenching her tiny fists.

The expression on her usually stoic face clearly showed frustration.

'How can Bronya help him…?'

"You've already helped him a lot, you know~"

A familiar warmth touched the top of her head.

The sensation fed directly into her brain through her neural implants, jolting her out of her thoughts.

Her head snapped up.

Reflecting in her silver eyes was a white-haired boy she had never seen before.

His emerald green eyes sparkled like a galaxy, drawing attention and refusing to let go.

"Who are you?" Bronya took a step back, raising her arms defensively, cautious of this stranger who had appeared out of nowhere.

There was something oddly familiar about him—but Bronya was certain she'd never met him.

"Me? I'm Kanami," the boy said casually. "As for the details, just ask Nagami later. I'm too lazy to explain it again."

Her wariness didn't seem to bother him at all. He smiled gently and added, "You can think of me as… family to him."

"Kanami…? Nagami's family?"

Bronya raised an eyebrow, surprised and confused.

Nagami was from Japan—based on naming customs, his family should also have the surname Kazomu, right?

But there was undeniably something in this boy that reminded her of Nagami.

That trace of familiarity left her uncertain.

"Mhm~"

Kanami twirled a golden cube in his fingers as he spoke.

Bronya's attention was immediately drawn to the strange item.

The cube's golden surface shimmered faintly with streams of data—and it was trembling?

It looked almost like… a kitten shivering before the king of beasts.

"Alright, alright! I'm not going to kill you—just a simple heart transplant surgery, that's all. Relax, there's absolutely nothing to worry about!"

Bronya blinked, her pupils slightly widening as she tilted her head in confusion.

The boy seemed to be talking to the object in his hands.

"Hey, listen—once you use the core I made, it won't be long before you're strong enough to beat the crap out of Otto.

And if you're still struggling, go find Nagami. He'll definitely help you fulfill that wish."

Countless hexagrams shimmered in the boy's eyes, as brilliant as a sea of stars.

Glowing blue particles and stardust-like light twisted and twirled around his hands, finally condensing into a radiant blue gem.

Using the Alpha Stigma Eyes and the Herrscher of Reason's powers while in Kanami's state, he couldn't quite reach the level of a complete formula solver or someone who could assemble all formulae.

—but he was still far beyond anything Nagami could currently achieve.

Creating a Herrscher Core was the easy part.

The hard part was granting it the corresponding authority—essentially, a piece of the world's permissions.

The Will of the Honkai couldn't defy the rules of the world.

Part of the reason was because it acted as the examiner of civilization—the Imaginary Tree wouldn't assign that level of authority to it.

On top of that, the rules of the world weren't something that could be easily rewritten.

So, even Kanami couldn't create a permanent Herrscher Core.

The moment he saw the gem on the Xuanyuan Sword, Kanami had already deciphered how the Will of the Honkai generated temporary accounts—and even improved the method.

Now, the core in his hand was no different from an original.

The only difference was that this one would gradually lose its authority over time.

If he ever got the chance to appear again, he could extend its duration.

Though technically still a temporary account, Kanami's core would last far longer than the one the Honkai Will gave to Ji Lin.

That didn't mean Kanami was stronger than the Honkai Will—it was just that the Honkai Will, as a civilization's examiner, was severely restricted by the world's rules.

Meanwhile, as someone existing within the world, Kanami only had to deal with the difficulty of modifying those rules—he wouldn't be suppressed, even if he failed to change them.

"The surgery was a success! Congratulations, you're now a perfect little sphere~"

The boy's warm and friendly smile was completely at odds with his words, nearly causing the golden cube in his hands to jump in fright.

Wrapped around his right hand was a band of void crystal—the core of the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Era.

The original Void Archives core had already been replaced.

Casually tossing the trembling cube into the imaginary space, Kanami held out his right hand to Bronya. "This is a gift from Nagami!"

"A gift from Nagami? How's the battle going on his side? Is he okay?"

Of course, she cared more about her partner's condition than the current situation.

Bronya looked at the boy, whose smile only grew softer.

"With me stepping in? Of course he's fine. But for now, you should focus on this. With it, you'll be able to help Nagami in the future."

Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the blue core in his hand.

Bronya could sense the immense power radiating from it.

"Wait... is this—"

"That's right, it's your driver's license~"

"...???"

Bronya blinked, utterly bewildered, as a row of question marks practically popped up above her head.