At the same time—
Amidst the chaos, the white-haired little girl escaped from the laboratory, swallowed Sirin's Herrscher Core, and leapt from Schicksal Headquarters.
A special white Seraph-class Honkai Beast caught her midair and dove rapidly toward the ocean surface.
Just before hitting the water, it changed its flight path, skimming across the sea and flying off into the distance.
This escaped experimental subject was none other than K-423, the protagonist of Honkai Impact 3rd.
Durandal's—the real Kiana's—body was indeed very suitable for her.
But she wasn't the protagonist.
K-423, on the other hand, was a character whose good luck was literally written into her setting.
To avoid the future where she'd end up as the final boss defeated by the protagonist—
The Will of Ruler's true target from the start had been K-423's body.
Occupying Kiana Kaslana's body was merely to draw attention, allowing her own K-423 to escape.
After swallowing Sirin's Herrscher Core, the Will of Ruler sensed Sirin's consciousness within it.
Raising her hand, purple lines of corrosion from Honkai energy appeared along her arm.
"This body's adaptability to Honkai energy…"
K-423 frowned. Although her body wasn't as compatible as Kiana Kaslana's, that was within her expectations.
Relying on her absolute control over Honkai energy, she could barely use this body.
Moreover, there were some differences between the Honkai energy of the two universes.
Energy that didn't belong to her was difficult to control.
Forcing it would lead to her body being corroded by Honkai energy—unless she had a perfect vessel like Kiana Kaslana.
"Is this Prometheus' doing?"
K-423 used her own power to forcibly suppress the chaotic Honkai energy ravaging her body.
Without interference, she could still manipulate the energy from the Cocoon of Finality. But under the interference of the Will of Honkai, the foreign energy began to act up.
She realized that the Will of Honkai now was Prometheus of the previous civilization—a member of this world's human faction.
If that being targeted her—
That would be troublesome.
She had consumed eighty-five percent of her own Honkai energy just to project herself here.
The narrow passage between the two universes was unstable.
Her main body couldn't pass through at all—only a tiny fraction of her Honkai energy could be sent as support.
Transmitting too much at once could cause the unstable interdimensional channel between the universes to collapse and close.
Once that channel connecting this universe collapsed and closed, she'd lose this universe's coordinates.
Opening the channel again might not lead back to this same universe.
"Looks like I'll have to change plans."
With Prometheus—the Will of Honkai—interfering, most of the Honkai energy in this world was like undrinkable seawater: the more she absorbed, the thirstier she became. Converting it into usable 'fresh water' was far too time-consuming and inefficient.
Given her current condition, she stood no chance of seizing control of this world's Honkai energy from Prometheus, the super AI tied to the Cocoon of Finality.
After all, this world belonged to the Cocoon's domain.
A dragon from afar could never overpower the local serpent.
There was no need for her to cling to one single universe.
If this universe didn't work—she would just move to another.
Even though each time she cast Honkai energy to open interdimensional channels, the cost and resource drain were enormous.
If Prometheus hadn't turned against her, she could've played around with Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and World Serpent.
But now she couldn't.
Everyone was her enemy.
Under these constraints, dealing with Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and World Serpent was already troublesome enough.
Adding the Honkai itself on top of that—
Forget it.
If she could take Sirin and K-423 with her, that would already count as a victory.
K-423, riding the Seraph-class Honkai Beast, landed on an uninhabited island.
"Otto, that bastard… does he really think he can control everything?"
She suddenly laughed.
From her main body's perspective, the fact that K-423 escaped so easily from Schicksal was entirely Otto's doing.
At that moment, Otto at Schicksal Headquarters was secretly observing her every move through a satellite.
"This world's Honkai is far too gentle on you."
Since only a limited amount of Honkai energy could be transmitted at once, she would simply do it multiple times—continuously.
...
The Honkai Eruption incident at Schicksal Headquarters.
Cecilia and Siegfried's daughter—Kiana Kaslana—was suspected to have become a Herrscher.
Spies from Anti-Entropy and World Serpent quickly reported the intelligence they had gathered to their superiors.
...
Anti-Entropy
Tesla: "Hey, chicken-head, what do you think about this? I've got a feeling that lunatic Otto's behind another human experiment."
A Honkai Eruption at Schicksal Headquarters—eight or nine times out of ten—it was Otto's doing.
Given the precedent of the Second Herrscher, Tesla immediately thought of him the moment the incident occurred.
Einstein studied the report in her hand thoughtfully. This Honkai Eruption was different from the past—it had erupted directly from within Schicksal Headquarters.
Judging from the overall damage and casualty reports, even Otto himself hadn't anticipated it.
That wasn't his style.
That old fox always had everything planned before he acted.
"Dr. Tesla, we still need to investigate this matter carefully first," Einstein said calmly.
Something about this felt strange. The Honkai had appeared suddenly—and then vanished just as abruptly.
"What about our agreement with Siegfried? The plan to rescue his daughter?"
The sudden Honkai event had disrupted their operation.
Trying to extract Kiana, who was now suspected of becoming a Herrscher, from Schicksal would be far more difficult.
"We should first find out why the Honkai suddenly erupted at Schicksal Headquarters," Einstein replied flatly. "As for Siegfried's matter, we'll discuss how to proceed later."
Tesla ran her fingers through her red hair, frustrated. After thinking for a moment, she sighed helplessly. "Guess that's all we can do for now."
But before Anti-Entropy could even begin their investigation, an alarm blared throughout the base—another Honkai Eruption had been detected.
"What? Another Honkai Eruption?"
Tesla was stunned.
It hadn't even been that long—
And it was happening again.
She turned to look at the giant screen, which displayed countless red dots appearing across the world—each dot representing a small-scale Honkai eruption.
And—
The number of these small outbreaks was rapidly increasing.
"What the… hell is this Honkai doing?!"
Tesla swore under her breath.
"..."
Einstein stared at the surveillance feed. The small-scale outbreaks were all concentrated in densely populated urban centers—it looked intentional.
The Will of Honkai?!
Even though these were small-scale incidents, the situation was more than enough to give them a massive headache.
...
World Serpent
Gray Serpent had just finished reporting the incident at Schicksal to Kevin when he received new reports—Honkai Eruptions were occurring all over the world.
Within the Sea of Quanta, Kevin listened silently as the news of the spreading outbreaks came in. His expression remained emotionless, but inwardly he wondered if Prometheus' plan had failed.
If that were true, then the Project STIGMA would fail as well.
"Gray Serpent, at any cost—get me out of the Sea of Quanta."
Kevin issued the order.
If the Project STIGMA failed, all their sacrifices and efforts would have been for nothing.
Gray Serpent bowed respectfully. "Understood."