The kid might bungle the incantation, but damn, does he hit hard.
That phrase was the perfect way to describe Fuli right now. All things considered, this first-ever joint spellcasting—spearheaded by "Fuli-eren of the Funeral"—was incredibly effective.
The once-dilapidated Hanging Gardens were restored to their former glory. Even though it was nothing more than a fleeting illusion, the sight still left everyone in awe. However, their attention quickly shifted as two figures strolled into the flowerbeds, one after the other. The group held their breath, observing with rapt concentration.
Both intruders bore a striking resemblance to Hyacine. The one with a softer, gentler aura even shared her exact hair color. She wore a soothing, faint smile, radiating a serene and healing presence.
"Hyacinthia..." Hyacine murmured unconsciously.
This was her direct ancestor—the first-generation healer who founded the Twilight Courtyard, and the last survivor of the Sky Kingdom.
The woman walking ahead of her, however, was a complete contrast. Vibrant, waist-length red hair was tied up in a high ponytail, whipping back and forth like a dancing flame.
"The Daythunder Knight, Seliose..."
Hyacine continued in a low voice, half-introducing them to the group and half-confirming a name that had previously only existed in legends.
The Seliose in the projection seemed to be in a foul mood. She marched straight to a public bench by the flowerbed, slumped down, threw an arm over the backrest, and immediately started complaining.
"Dammit! Why did those old fossil professors have to make the exam so incredibly hard?! Aren't they just deliberately torturing academic washouts like me?"
"But you still passed, didn't you, dear sister?" Hyacinthia sat down beside her, her voice as gentle as a spring breeze rippling over a lake. "The professors were absolutely shocked when they saw your paper. They were gasping, wondering how Seliose, the eternal dead-last student who only sleeps and doodles in class, suddenly had a stroke of genius."
"Are you being passive-aggressive again?!" Seliose rolled her eyes at her younger sister and went right back to grumbling. "When it comes to math, if I don't get it, I don't get it! I'm not some crazy prodigy like you. You're a Chrysos Heir and a Demigod of the Eye of Twilight! Didn't those old geezers just slap the title of 'Priestess of the Sky' onto you recently, too? Sounds so damn impressive!"
"To be precise, it was an entirely unforeseen coincidence that maximized the expression of the Stigmata of Wind's gene sequence within my body, leading to my awakening," Hyacinthia corrected smoothly. "It has nothing to do with being a Demigod. The Eye of Twilight isn't a god in the traditional sense, anyway. It's just our honorific title for the Key of Radiant Skies."
She continued, "As for my status as a Chrysos Heir, all it gives me is a photographic memory and the ability to grow stronger without training. I don't even know which Divine Authority I'm supposedly destined to slay."
"Is anyone hearing this?! We've got a massive humblebragger over here!" Seliose howled at the sky, wildly kicking her long, athletic legs.
"So, when we get back tonight, do you still need me to tutor you, sister? During the exam, I noticed your series connection for the energy nodes in question three looked a bit..."
"No! Absolutely not! I already passed! A single extra point is just a waste of effort!"
"But sister... you promised you'd always protect your Hyacinthia," the younger girl whimpered, pretending to wipe away tears. "I finally managed to scrape a passing grade to meet the bare minimum requirements for the Sky Guard's combat training, but now..."
"Ahhh! Fine! I'll study! I'll study, okay?!"
Even knowing her sister was completely faking it, Seliose still clutched her head in defeat, utterly helpless against being manipulated once again.
She couldn't help but mutter under her breath, "It's just... having the older sister get tutored by the younger sister is so embarrassing if anyone finds out."
"Then we simply won't tell anyone." Hyacinthia plucked a fallen petal from her sister's red hair. Her beaming face showed absolutely zero traces of crying. "As long as we keep it a secret, no one will ever know."
"Fair point." Seliose thought about it and agreed. Besides, she really didn't want to miss the chance to join the Sky Guard over poor grades.
As the awakener of the Stigmata of Wind, Hyacinthia had the privilege of designating a personal knight to protect her. However, no matter how much the young girl might try to pull strings for her sister, if Seliose's skills were too terrible, the higher-ups would definitely veto the appointment.
Seliose had sworn on their parents' deathbeds that she would protect her only younger sister with her life. Yet, the thought of her sister being trapped generation after generation in this deep-sea cage made Seliose's sis-con tendencies flare up with restless determination.
"Alright! Then it's settled!"
The red-haired girl suddenly sprang up from the bench. She drew the longsword at her waist and pointed the tip straight at the artificial dome. "One of these days, I'm going to cleave open this fake sky and let us all live under the real stars!"
Her clear voice echoed through the illusion of the empty garden. Her vibrant red ponytail fluttered fiercely with the swing of her blade, almost looking as if it were truly glowing.
"Yes, yes, my older sister is mighty. My sister is the blazing sun that will one day rise for us," Hyacinthia replied, resting her chin on her hand, her eyes overflowing with affection.
"Oh, hey, I like the sound of that!" Seliose, currently at an age where her chuunibyou soul was burning bright, immediately lit up. "Then when I get super strong, I'll call myself the Daythunder Knight! I'll ride a legendary Pegasus and soar freely through the real sky!"
"I eagerly await the day your dream comes true," Hyacinthia said, before gently but seriously reminding her, "But it's probably best not to declare things like that in public—especially not in front of the conservative elders or the Guard Captains."
"I know, I know." Seliose curled her lip, sheathing her sword before sitting back down beside her. "Still, the clashes between the conservatives and the radicals have been getting really out of hand lately. Even the academy is full of rumors about it."
"It's not that I don't understand the conservatives' perspective." Hyacinthia hugged her knees, her unfocused gaze drifting toward the swaying flowers deep within the garden. "Guarding the Celestial Frescos and maintaining the seal on that thing is the vow our ancestors made to the Flame-Chasers. It is the very foundation and responsibility of the Skyfolk's continued existence."
She sighed softly. "But those radicals... they think slowly accumulating power to defeat the Calamity is too passive. They actually plan to partially break the Celestial Fresco' sealing structure. They're even considering releasing the sealed Calamity prematurely to force the Flame-Chasers to intervene, or to use it as a bargaining chip... To me, that kind of thinking is sheer madness."
"Exactly!" Seliose agreed wholeheartedly. "The least they could do is wait for this Daythunder Knight to grow up! Can't they wait to discuss all this until I'm strong enough to suppress that stupid Calamity myself?!"
Hilarious. That was classic radical thinking right there.
"You say that as if you'll easily be able to beat it once you've grown up," Hyacinthia teased.
"Of course I will!"
"Hard to say."
"Ahhh! Hyacinthia, you're making me mad again! Take this!"
Seliose let out a battle cry, lunging with flailing arms to tickle her younger sister. But she lost her balance and tumbled backward into the flowerbeds. At first, Hyacinthia didn't think much of it, but after waiting a few moments and hearing zero movement, she grew concerned.
"Sister?"
Puzzled, she stood up, lifted her skirt slightly, and cautiously approached the edge of the flowerbed.
"Shh—!"
To her surprise, Seliose had taken off her outer shirt and was crouching in the bushes, making a 'hush' gesture. After waiting a split second longer, she suddenly pounced.
Doo, dodo! Dooo—!
Panicked squeaks and chirps muffled through the bundled-up shirt. Something inside was frantically thrashing and struggling.
"Haha! I caught it!"
Clutching the mysterious, weirdly-vocalizing creature bundled in her shirt, Seliose burst into excited laughter. The artificial light from the dome illuminated her upper body—now clad only in a sports bra—highlighting her gorgeous, athletic, and powerful physique.
"What is it?" Hyacinthia leaned in.
"A creature not in the academy's bestiary. Must be a new species."
Seliose tied her shirt into a tight bundle, then wound up her arm and swung it around in a rapid-fire 360-degree spin. The bundle became an improvised meteor hammer, whipping through the air with a furious WHOOSH, tossing the little creature inside like a salad.
She only stopped when she was absolutely certain the unknown critter was thoroughly dizzy. Only then did she carefully peek inside.
It was a chubby, octopus-like creature about the size of a hand. Its pale blue body had a semi-transparent, jelly-like texture. It wore a tiny crown on its head and sprouted a pair of miniature wings on its back. Right now, it was sprawled spread-eagle on the flattened shirt, its eyes spun into dizzy little mosquito coils. It was so ugly it was actually kind of adorable.
"Should we take it back as a pet?" Seliose's eyes sparkled. "If we can't keep it alive, it'll make great emergency rations! Just look at these little tentacles—I bet they'd be delicious grilled!"
But then she noticed her sister's expression had gone completely wrong.
"Hyacinthia?"
"Sister..." Feeling the Golden Blood boiling within her veins, the younger girl gulped hard. Her voice was dry and strained. "This thing... it—no, He is a Divine Authority... one that was just recently born and is still in its most primitive, ignorant phase..."
The moment those words dropped, the surrounding time-illusion began to violently distort.
In the blink of an eye, the fragrant, vibrant garden was replaced by charred, dilapidated desolation.
After a brief, stunned silence, Raven was the first to speak.
She pointed at the spot where the little creature had appeared in the projection, then pointed straight up at the ocean above them, her mouth twitching. "That little squirt Seliose was holding... Don't tell me that's the great 'Sea God' currently throwing a tantrum out there?"
"That's not the only problem," Mimi floated up and down nervously. "Didn't the journal say the Chrysos Heir was the older sister, the Daythunder Knight? Why did it suddenly switch to the younger sister, Hyacinthia?"
Compared to that, the younger sister awakening the Stigmata of Wind and controlling the Celestial Frescos was the least surprising revelation. But putting that aside—
"A Calamity..." Fuli's guarded gaze shifted to Raven. "The Previous Era's Fourth Herrscher's companion wasn't a Honkai Beast, but a Calamity?"
As a disaster born alongside civilization, the Honkai manifested in bizarre and highly varied forms. War, plagues, climate catastrophes, comet strikes—even the descent of giant mechas were all within the realm of possibility.
And "Calamities"—officially classified as Localized Extreme Rule-Based Disasters—were a manifestation of the Honkai that differed from biological entities, leaning far more toward abstract phenomena and the warping of natural laws.
For instance, when Fuli had accompanied Fu Hua back to Mount Taixu to sweep the graves (Volume 6, Chapter 10), the lingering obsession of Cheng Lixue had manifested as an anomalous blizzard. That phenomenon could be classified as a relatively weak, localized Calamity.
Calamities were usually triggered by Honkai energy, but once formed, they possessed their own unique internal logic and state of existence. Breaking or neutralizing them often required fulfilling very specific conditions. Usually, these were handled by the UN's "Calamity Containment Agency"—which was precisely where the organization got its name.
But the idea that a sequential Herrscher's companion was a Calamity? Fuli had never heard of such a thing.
If hundred-meter-tall Honkai Beasts were the ultimate "stat checks," then Calamities were the ultimate "mechanic checks."
For lower-rated Calamities, you could still rely on the semi-idealistic nature of Honkai energy and sheer power to brute-force a solution. But when dealing with something on the level of a Herrscher's companion, the complexity would be so absurd that even high-ranking Sequence authorities would get a massive headache trying to deal with it.
But surprisingly, Raven—the target of Fuli's inquiry—also frowned deeply, her rose-red eyes filled with confusion and deep thought.
"A Calamity?" She racked her brain, recalling the encrypted data archives within World Serpent, before shaking her head firmly. "No! Our records clearly state that the Herrscher of Wind's companion was a powerful Honkai Beast designated as 'Stormterror'!"
"Either the records are wrong," Hyacine murmured, "or Seliose and my ancestor were lying."
Logically and emotionally, she leaned toward the former. The sisters had absolutely no reason to lie about this in private. They couldn't possibly have predicted that, thousands of years later, a group of outsiders would use time regression to eavesdrop on their conversation.
But the implication that World Serpent—a monolithic faction spanning two entire civilized eras—had its highest-tier core intelligence rewritten... that was a terrifying thought.
Doo doo!
Little Ica struggled out of Hyacine's arms and took flight. It seemed to have recovered a bit of strength, or perhaps it was drawn by some deep, instinctual calling. Flapping its tiny wings, it flew slowly toward the suffocating darkness closer to the heart of the city.
The group exchanged glances, seeing the same heavy solemnity and suspicion mirrored in each other's eyes. Processing the massive lore drop they had just witnessed, they quickly followed after the little creature.
Meanwhile, in the northwest industrial zone...
At the edge of a massive platform constructed from high-strength alloys, the air began to ripple like the surface of a disturbed lake, outlining a glowing triangular portal.
The dimensional gateway quickly stabilized, and a tall, elegant figure stepped through with unhurried grace. She looked like a peerless goddess who had just descended from a sanctuary on Mount Olympus. Short, curly golden hair cascaded over a flawless, jade-like back. She wore a golden laurel wreath symbolizing divine authority, with a few playful strands of hair framing her delicate ears.
"So, this is the coordinate Eden transmitted... inside the ruins of the Sky Kingdom?" She gazed up at the artificial firmament speckled with dark red, fake stars. A flash of unmistakable disgust crossed her face.
"Aya, the aura here is super weird. Be careful!"
A shorter figure stepped out a second later, earnestly warning her companion with the adorable demeanor of a child trying to act like a grown-up.
These were the reinforcements Eden had casually mentioned earlier—but had completely forgotten to warn Fuli's group about.
The moment the "Sea God" officially made its grand entrance, its overwhelming bio-magnetic field had completely severed all communication between the inside and the outside world. Whether it was World Serpent's internal executive channel or the Mythic Sequence Alliance's online meeting space, everything was utterly jammed.
However, there had been a brief, fleeting window between Eden using her synchronization to pinpoint the ruins' exact coordinates and Dystopia recklessly provoking the Sea God into a raging fury. During that tiny window, Eden, adopting a casual "well, we're already here" mindset, forwarded the Sky Kingdom's spatial coordinates to the Chrysos Heirs who had participated in the previous online meeting.
Who would actually answer the call and show up? Even Eden hadn't been sure at the time.
But she believed someone wouldn't be able to resist the allure of ancient secrets, or would simply step up to answer Hyacine's plea for help.
And she was right.
The Red symbolizing "Doorways"—the Chrysos Heir corresponding to the Roman god of gates, Janus: Tribios.
The Gold symbolizing "Romance"—the Chrysos Heir corresponding to the Greek Queen of the Gods, Hera, and simultaneously the Roman Queen of the Gods, Juno Moneta: Aglaea.
Even though the former's main body was currently on a goodwill visit to the Luofu, meaning it was only Tribbie who came, they had still successfully teleported in via the Hundred Realms Gate, intervening in this clearly massive Sky Kingdom incident.
"The air here is so murky. It's mixed with the smell of the deep sea, stale energy residue, and this indescribable, heavy feeling," Tribbie said, fanning her tiny hand in front of her nose. She looked up at the stunning beauty beside her. "How are you feeling, Aya? Do you feel sick or anything?"
Aglaea was dressed in a pure white, Greek-style silk gown with a slit running dangerously high, all the way up to her hip. A golden belt cinched her waist, highlighting an impossibly exaggerated hourglass figure. Strappy golden gladiator heels adorned her feet, and her entire being exuded an unapproachable, divine aura that made people feel they could only gaze in worship, never touch.
"Please do not underestimate the adaptability and resilience of a Critical-Class Chrysos Heir, my teacher," Aglaea replied. She glanced sideways, her majestic and deeply maternal face suddenly curling into a teasing, playful smirk. "Or perhaps... is it because a certain young man you are quite fond of happens to be in this city? Are you so overly excited and eager to see him that you forgot I am no longer the little Greek girl who used to trail behind you?"
A young man she was quite fond of. Naturally, this absolutely excluded a certain Margrave and Princess's Knight by the name of Fuli.
"Aya!!!"
The tiny wings on Tribbie's back fluttered wildly as her cute, youthful face instantly flushed beet red.
It was true that Tribbie, Trianne, Trinnon, and Typhon were split from Tribios's body by Mobius during the London White Moon Incident. However, they essentially still shared the exact same soul—meaning their memories, emotions, and even romantic tastes were all fully linked.
But putting that aside for a moment... Considering Aglaea hailed from the Greek region, and right now, as she teased her teacher, those two impossibly massive mounds of snowy white cleavage were trembling heavily with her every breath...
Did that mean she technically counted as "Greek Milk"?