"How could this be?"
Xia Qi's eyes were full of confusion as she looked at those familiar figures, her face showing bewilderment, helplessness, and sorrow.
She was very sad.
"Bronya?"
Himeko placed a hand on Xia Qi's shoulder, her gaze full of concern and worry.
"Bronya... is fine..."
Xia Qi shook her head.
Then she swiped away all those icons and quickly searched for information about the Hyperion itself.
But apart from its basic identification data, everything else in the Hyperion's database appeared to be corrupted.
The voyage logs only contained records from the past month and a half. Anything before that had turned into lines of garbled code, and it was unclear whether they could be recovered.
The data also showed that Himeko was not the captain.
Her personal information marked her as an SSS-rank Valkyrie with no title, replaced instead by the designation Vermilion Knight: Eclipse.
The captain was someone else.
But that data was corrupted, with only a single column remaining intact.
[Gender: Male]
This also brought to mind the blank spaces in the photos back in the lounge, everyone gathered around a figure, their faces bright with happy smiles.
Kiana and Raiden Mei stood on either side of that blank space, intimately clinging to thin air.
What they currently understood was this: the Hyperion and the "Bronya" before them came from the same world, one in which Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and World Serpent all had personnel serving as Valkyries aboard.
Then that male captain must also have been an exceptionally remarkable person.
But why was his data the only one corrupted?
His figure in the photos had vanished. The handwriting on the gift tags had disappeared.
"Bronya, do you remember who the captain of the Hyperion was? And the Herrscher of Truth, what does that mean?"
Everyone looked at Xia Qi, waiting for her answer.
"Bronya doesn't know who the captain is."
Xia Qi shook her head, genuine confusion in her eyes, along with a quiet undercurrent of self-doubt.
"Bronya is indeed the Herrscher of Truth. That is another, more powerful and complete form of Bronya's Herrscher abilities. But Bronya's memories contain no captain."
Xia Qi answered emphatically.
Indeed, her powers originated from the game Honkai Impact 3rd. The Valkyries in the game were the ones standing before her now. This world had no captain, so naturally, her memories contained none.
If one had to say anything...
Her original self could be considered a captain of sorts, but certainly not the kind who could charge through the Quantum Sea alongside Kiana and the others.
"..."
Everyone fell silent.
"Why do you not appear in your Herrscher of Truth form?"
Kevin stared at Xia Qi, his gaze icy and piercing.
"Because I cannot."
Xia Qi shook her head.
"Why not?"
"..."
Xia Qi fell silent, a look of confusion crossing her face.
"Bronya doesn't know. Bronya has a bad feeling that if she were to reveal her Herrscher of Truth aspect... something terrible would happen."
She was serious.
Because she truly felt that if she appeared in the real world in any of her forms, Finality, Origin, or Truth, something would immediately lock onto her.
But recalling the story of Honkai Impact 3rd, Xia Qi felt deeply confused.
What could give her such a premonition of doom, even without transforming?
"..."
Kevin was silent for a moment, then turned to look at the Valkyrie icons, one after another marked "Deceased," and then at Bronya, who looked back at them with an expression of deep confusion. He felt an overwhelming sense of oppression settle over him.
"I will leave the Quantum Sea with you afterward."
He spoke to Xia Qi calmly.
Xia Qi looked at Kevin, her expression hardening.
She stared silently back at him.
"Kevin... your plan cannot succeed."
"..."
Hearing her firmly spoken words, Kevin met her gaze, his expression turning cold and dark.
"It seems our respective worlds developed roughly the same."
"..."
Xia Qi held his gaze, her eyes carrying firm resolve and a hint of hostility.
"Plan?"
Welt turned to look at Kevin, his expression heavy and solemn.
"Yes. Kevin's plan, the Stigma Project..." Xia Qi, while keeping her eyes on Kevin, explained his plan in full to everyone.
But she stated only the plan itself. Regarding future events, she remained completely silent.
"In your world, you stopped me."
Kevin stared at Xia Qi, asking calmly.
His calmness was like the stillness before a storm. That oppressive aura, pushed to its limit, felt like a hand slowly closing around everyone's throats.
"That's right."
Xia Qi stared back at Kevin expressionlessly, the Honkai energy around her faintly stirring.
At this moment, if she and Welt acted together against Kevin while he was still in a weakened state, they could defeat him.
But there was everyone else present to consider.
Xia Qi felt uneasy, though she noticed Welt subtly turn his head and glance at her. The composure and steadiness in his eyes gave her a flicker of reassurance.
When the fight starts, I just need to focus on restraining Kevin. Welt will protect everyone else.
Just as Xia Qi was thinking this, Kevin spoke again, his voice icy:
"How... did you save the world?"
"..."
Xia Qi was stunned, a look of astonishment appearing in her eyes.
But then she fell silent, searched through her memories, thought carefully, and told him part of the story.
"..."
Kevin listened coldly throughout. Upon hearing of his failure, his expression didn't change.
It was only upon learning that in Xia Qi's world, everything had improved, and then been erased by some unknown existence without anyone even noticing, as though a portion of their memory had simply been wiped away, just like the captain in the database whose existence was known but all information had vanished from the lounge photos...
After hearing Xia Qi's words, ice slowly began creeping across the bridge's deck and walls.
"How... did you revive MEI? And the other Flame-Chasers?"
Hearing his question, Welt, Einstein, and Kiana all looked at Xia Qi, their hearts tense, watching her in silence.
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