"How does it feel? As an observer of this grand drama?"
Perhaps feeling temporarily exhausted, or perhaps simply allowing the rescued ones who had lost their ability to speak to process the massive shock to their worldviews, the Goddess halted her steps as she continued her reverse march up history.
Within the Golden Palace of the Highest Heaven, the Goddess received the three individuals whose speech abilities had temporarily gone offline. The heroes who had previously marched upon the earth were now drinking and feasting in the magnificent court. Some even started acting wildly under the influence of alcohol, only to be taken down by their companions and dragged aside.
-
The blonde girl, sensing that the few before her were gradually regaining their senses, posed a question.
"Is this even reasonable?"
The first to speak was the black-haired girl named Cangxuan. Her deep blue eyes were filled with the thought: I cannot accept this. Hearing her, Nuwa nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Warriors who were either dead or missing for nearly several hundred years are suddenly summoned like familiars by some unknown entity. Then, they're sent to slaughter their way through a Sea of Honkai Beasts, a sight only seen in the Previous Era's civilization."
"And finally, we end up in a golden palace where a bunch of people are eating and drinking their fill???"
"What kind of chaotic script is this?"
Cangxuan slammed the table, expressing her protest and dissatisfaction. Then, she was swept by a glance from the girl with golden eyes and immediately flattened herself against the table.
The blonde girl merely swirled the wine glass in her hand, smiling as she observed Cangxuan.
"Reasonable? By the rationality of ordinary people, it would indeed be unreasonable... This is the Highest Heaven, the location of Valhalla, the paradise of the forgotten and the deceased, the Divine Realm."
"The price paid to step into this place is the end of one's life in the mortal world, or for one's existence to be forgotten by the people."
The blonde girl watched the people laughing and playing in the palace, then finished the fine wine in her glass with a satisfied expression.
"What do you think you paid to come here?"
The girl tossed the question back to the three people before her.
"In the stories Dad used to tell me, there was a legend about Northern Europe..."
Beside them, Kallen seemed to have realized something, looking at her surroundings with disbelief.
"...The legend says that the Great God Odin prophesied the arrival of Ragnarok and made countless preparations for it. He ordered the Valkyries to select fallen heroes from the mortal realm, bringing their spirits back to Valhalla. Those chosen warriors are known as Heroic Spirits."
"Wait... wait... wait... wait a minute, Whitey, are you saying we're all dead?"
Hearing Kallen's words, Nuwa suddenly had a realization and started throwing a tantrum.
"My limited edition figures! My collector's posters!!! No, I was perfectly alive, how did I suddenly die! Is this your doing, you blondey!?"
As if she'd just remembered something, Nuwa leaped up from the ground and glared fiercely at the blonde goddess before her.
"According to the established history, you truly are already dead—"
"Ah, no... please don't misunderstand—what I mean is, according to the world's history and the original course of fate... you are already dead people."
"The fact that you are alive now is what defies common sense—Nuwa and Miss Cangxuan, you were supposed to fight the first leader of the Shenzhou Tribes, Ji Xuanyuan, when that Fu was stretched too thin to help. You would have been the ones to fight Chiyou, sealing it beneath the sea at the cost of your lives."
"There would have been no Heavenly Army on this campaign, nor any God to cast down a verdict from fate..."
"And you, Kallen Kaslana—in the originally established history, no one would have blocked that Honkai Beast's fatal strike for you. You would have died at that moment."
"There would be no God to crush it to dust by seizing its secondary limbs, nor any man descending from the heavens with a Flame Sword, burning his own existence to nothingness just to save you."
"Events that, for you, just happened, are already a distant past in history and fate for the Lord of the Seat."
"So that means we're still alive now, right?"
Cangxuan asked the question they were most concerned about—
"The intersection of history and fate has been struck anew. As such, you are naturally alive."
The God nodded slightly, granting them the answer they most hoped to hear.
"Feel honored. You are among the few to set foot in the Land of Heroic Spirits as living beings."
"Wielding the Eternal Spear, ruling time, grasping royal authority, possessing wisdom, healing the wounded, weaving magic, humming poems, and bringing war and death..."
"Except you're not one-eyed, nor are you an old man..."
"Are you the Great God Odin from Norse mythology?"
Kallen Kaslana swore her heart had never beaten so fast. She could even hear it thumping rapidly in her chest right now.
This person in front of me might be a God. Ancestors of the Kaslana family, I've seen a God—
[If Miss Kallen knew that the Lord is actually her biological daughter in all but name, would she just slap him...]
Muninn and Huginn, seeing what the Saintess in front of them was thinking, exchanged a strange glance, ultimately swallowing the words they were about to say...
[Forget it. If the Lord doesn't say it himself, he must have his own reasons.]
-
"A God?"
The Shenzhou Team's reaction to this was much more subdued. Having come from the Previous Era, they felt nothing special about it. After all, how many cults from the Previous Era had worshipped the Honkai, and how many Herrschers had considered themselves gods?
This person was probably just another one. Her abilities seemed a bit too absurd, but it was all more or less the same. Nuwa even tried to dispel the superstitious beliefs Kallen was indulging in beside her...
"Miss Kallen, I must correct you on one point. According to research from the Previous Era, there are no individual gods in this world. Even the Will of Honkai itself is merely a hypothesis—"
Ignoring the blonde girl who looked like a complete charlatan, Nuwa bluntly lectured Kallen on scientific knowledge from the Previous Era...
"Oh, is that so? Then, Miss... what exactly are you...?"
Kallen forced herself to swallow the last word, looking at the blonde girl with some curiosity.
"What else could she be? A Herrscher or something like that? Those Herrschers have all sorts of bizarre powers. It's probably normal for one of them to be able to travel through time and space, right?"
Nuwa shrugged indifferently... then she heard the Lord of the Seat's ruthless and heart-stoppingly blunt reply—
"Me? I am the God of War of the Highest Heaven, the Supreme Being, the Lord of Men... As for this place, although my warriors and I like to call it the Highest Heaven, Valhalla, or the Hall of the Einherjar..."
"But for you, especially for the two of you from the Previous Era—there is another name for this place that you are much more familiar with..."
"—The Imaginary Tree, and specifically, its very top."
"And the Will of Honkai you are looking for... just walk out of here, step beyond the domain of the Highest Heaven, and you will be in His domain—"
"However, He is a fellow with no taste. His Divine Realm is completely empty, with just a white throne that He doesn't even sit on very often... and He's probably a mute too?"
"Anyway, He never opens His mouth to speak. I don't know what He was thinking when He gave Himself a mouth in His character creation..."