The local police arrived promptly. In no time, an officer came to the door to register Durandal's information and took her photo with a device.
Before leaving, the staff informed her that her documents would be delivered by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, and then they were gone.
From start to finish, the police didn't so much as glance at the wreckage of the estate or the visibly shaken mob boss.
It was as if the years of unspoken understanding between the two sides had simply evaporated.
Once they were alone, Durandal retracted her lance and was about to tell the woman she'd return tomorrow afternoon for her ID and the money, when the other woman stubbed out a cigarette she'd only taken a single puff from.
Tucking back a few stray strands of her messy hair, she revealed a face of striking local beauty and said, "Wait…"
Durandal frowned. "Is there something else?"
If this was an attempt at using feminine wiles, it was utterly lost on her.
As far as Durandal was concerned, right now, this woman ought to be praying for a quick departure of this so-called 'jinx.'
But what came next not only caught Durandal off guard—it even drew a soft, surprised sound from Elysia.
The woman said, "I want to know—where did your superhuman strength come from? And that figure flying over the town earlier, and those Fire Moth troops passing through… What's going on? Has something happened to this world… some catastrophe ordinary people don't know about?"
"And what would you do if you knew?"
Instead of answering directly, Durandal turned the question back on her.
By now, the woman seemed to have fully composed herself. She walked over to a leather sofa in the room, settled into a comfortable position, and gestured for Durandal and the spectating Elysia to sit as well.
Seeing this, Durandal decided there was no rush to leave and took a seat.
Then, the woman began to speak about her life.
It turned out she was the daughter of a former local mafia boss.
Her father had been overthrown and killed by his own subordinates in an act of betrayal. She had survived thanks to a combination of her wits and her looks.
Through careful planning, she eventually avenged her father and naturally ascended to become the new crime boss of the area.
"I'm telling you this because I want you to understand—even a seemingly weak woman like me has an incredibly strong will to survive."
"For that, I was even willing to serve the man who killed my father for three long years! So I need to know the truth. If this world is really headed for ruin, I refuse to just sit back and wait for the end."
The woman looked straight at Durandal as she spoke.
Durandal thought for a moment, then uttered two words: "Your name."
Hearing this, the woman's eyes lit up, and she quickly introduced herself, "I'm Connie."
"Connie, is it?"
Durandal's gaze rested on her, her words meant for Connie, but also for Elysia beside her.
"My power comes from humanity's greatest enemy—the Honkai—and also from the profound mutations humanity itself has undergone."
"I'm surprised you saw the Second Herrscher. Yes, the flying figure you witnessed is an emissary of the god born from the Honkai. Their purpose… Well, in short, the Fire Moth army mobilized to eliminate it."
Durandal avoided using phrases like "wiping out humanity" to describe the Herrschers—after all, in her memory, more than one or two Herrschers had ended up on humanity's side.
She closed her eyes, delving into the memories of this body, recalling what Otto had once explained to her about the mechanisms of the Honkai.
Knowledge from what he called the "Previous Era"—things the Fire Moth organization hadn't yet fully grasped, and even Elysia probably didn't fully understand.
"Let me start from the beginning—what is the Honkai?"
Durandal began her explanation calmly: "On the surface, the Honkai emerges alongside human civilization. The more humanity develops, the stronger the Honkai's suppression becomes."
"Each major Honkai eruption is accompanied by the birth of a Herrscher—yes, like the figure you saw earlier."
As she spoke, Durandal glanced briefly at Elysia. "So far, the Fire Moth believes that Herrschers are the Honkai's instruments for destroying human civilization. And based on the evidence so far, that does seem to be the case."
"But if we look at the Honkai from a more fundamental perspective, we realize it doesn't actually have any inherent 'bias.'"
"You could think of it as a kind of universal mechanism—one that tests all civilizations developed by sentient beings. The more advanced the civilization, the stronger the Honkai becomes. In other words, it isn't specifically targeting humanity."
"What's the difference between those two views?" Connie asked, puzzled.
"The biggest difference… probably lies in our mindset when fighting it."
Durandal paused thoughtfully. "'No matter the cost, humanity will overcome the Honkai.'"
That was the vow made by the originator of this body's bloodline, at a time when humanity had already suffered devastating defeat.
But confronting the Honkai with such an "avenger's" mentality… would only lead humanity to the same bleak end as the Previous Era.
If, instead, we treat it as an examination administered by an impartial arbiter, then the true attitude should be to prepare with all our might—even resorting to "cheating" if necessary—to pass.
Just as Connie assumed this was Durandal's own stance on fighting the Honkai, Durandal's tone shifted.
"But that kind of mindset is completely misguided. Let me give you an example: if the cost of defeating the Honkai was 99% of humanity, would you still do it?"
"I believe that wouldn't be a victory over the Honkai—it would be humanity committing a lone-wolf suicide attack, dealing eight hundred points of damage at the cost of a thousand."
"Because, after losing 99% of humanity, human civilization would cease to exist. That would actively help the Honkai filter human civilization out of the universe."
"After all, we must always remember: the law of the Honkai pervades the entire cosmos. It's as objectively real as quantum mechanics and relativity. Humanity can eliminate enemies we subjectively define, but how do we eliminate an objective natural law?"
"So then, our strategy should be…" Connie ventured hesitantly, "to eliminate the Honkai threats that endanger humanity's survival, while protecting humanity as a whole as much as possible?"
"Even if… that also means we're fighting against the full force of an objective natural law? We mustn't confuse the means with the end?"
Durandal nodded. "Exactly. Overcoming the Honkai isn't the goal, and humanity isn't the price. Protecting humanity is the goal. Defeating the Honkai is merely the method to achieve it."
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