I Am Honkai

Chapter 915: After Unwelcome Guests, Even Stronger Ones?

"Ha ha ha ha... come on, fight, fight! Don’t think about running! Oh ho, the power of the ’Sea’—tsk tsk tsk... and a ’Herrscher’ of the Sea of Quanta? Interesting, interesting. So it’s you, you vixen, who set your sights on little Griseo and the Ark? You’ve got some nerve! Who do you think you are, daring to snatch this Immortal’s target!"

"Damn it! It’s still not enough. If not for Sa’s true body being caught in that trans-dimensional spatial storm..."

"Still distracted in a fight? Take this—ah-da—!"

Bang!

With no warning whatsoever, a sudden clash erupted high in the heavens. Teyvat’s sky changed once again. Under the glow of the violet-red curtain beyond the firmament, the atmosphere rippled thickly. From the land of Fontaine, it looked as though a dazzling, dual-colored sun had risen in the dark crimson sky.

One side resembled a vortex from the abyssal sea, shimmering with the deep Sourcewater hue. Ripples spread outward like the pulse of a living being, beating continuously.

The other resembled a colossal sword forged from blazing celestial fire. Its body burned with flames as fierce as the sun itself. Accompanied by blinding flashes and thunderous roars, from afar it looked like a phoenix spreading its wings in rebirth.

Whether it was Teyvat’s moonlight, sunlight, or the starlight of the false sky, all of it was now replaced by this foreign radiance. Under the relentless flood of light, the world’s colors lost all order.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Visible to the naked eye, layers of powdery crimson shockwaves formed in the upper atmosphere from repeated sonic booms.

The elongated dual-colored sun clashed across the heavens, painting a battlefield worthy of myth. ’Tentacles extending from the sea’ and the ’phoenix’ fought savagely, intertwining and surging freely, their collision trails sketching fleeting abstract images across the sky as though it were a canvas.

Yet even the people of Fontaine, famed for their ultimate pursuit of art and fashion, felt no inclination to admire it.

The once lively, bustling city remained noisy.

The only difference was that the beautifully adorned noise—once filled with refined titles, metaphors, and embellishments—had been replaced by the purest outbursts of emotion.

Panicked cries from residents, shouts from Marechaussee officers, groans of the wounded, the sobbing of the elderly and weak, resistance from the discontent, prayers from the devout, wails and curses from the families and friends of the dead...

"Roar—!"

A Temple-class Honkai Beast was blasted down by a water tornado and subjected to concentrated fire. Its shield-bearing front was pierced through by anti-Honkai cannons mounted on mechs deployed from the Ark.

Through the gap in its collapsing pink-white outer armor, as its flesh softened, the water burst—clinging like bone-deep poison—found an outlet and surged violently inward. The Honkai Beast let out a shrill scream, its body swelling as if bloated, firing heat rays wildly before exploding. Within moments, its shattered remains disintegrated into fading violet-red particles.

"Hah..."

At the source of the rampaging Hydro element, once again restraining the Honkai Beasts pursuing Griseo as she activated the Ark, Neuvillette exhaled heavily and looked up with a frown, fatigue evident.

Of course, he had noticed the changes in the sky.

"Lady Griseo." Neuvillette spoke into the communicator in his hand.

"Herrscher. Suspected Eighth Herrscher—wavelength matches consciousness-type Honkai reaction."

The girl’s voice responded. Through the communicator, her normally emotionless tone carried a trace of tension.

Inside the Ark’s control room, after painting reality, slashing with a lightsaber, and deploying cross-shaped suppression fields to temporarily repel the Honkai Beasts attacking the opera house—while drawing their attention onto herself (or so she believed)—Griseo hurried forward, setting down the large pen-shaped lightsaber generator and her brush.

Beep beep beep beep...

Her slender fingers danced rapidly across the control panel.

All anti-Honkai weaponry and programs available on the Ark had been activated by Griseo. The loaded mechs and intelligent control robots had all been deployed into battle. The battle visible in the sky and the data analyzed by sensors filled her vision. On her usually indifferent face, a rare trace of panic appeared.

A Herrscher.

A true apostle of Honkai! The embodiment of catastrophe that overturns civilization and brings destruction! The greatest trial for any civilization facing Honkai!

Stay calm, Griseo told herself. Stay calm.

"Your Excellency Neuvillette, is the being fighting the Eighth Herrscher the god from your Celestia? If so, please convey my thanks. I am ready. Only the engine charge remains. Please cover me."

Though panic lingered, Griseo demonstrated the basic composure of a Flame-Chaser, swiftly adjusting her plan to reality. Clearly, with a Herrscher blocking the heavens, piloting the Ark through the spatial rift outside Teyvat was no longer possible. That left only one option—her gaze fell on the screen displaying the warp engine status.

Even if the warp engine was in poor condition, it didn’t matter. She had to leave. Remaining in Teyvat would only bring greater disaster.

From the moment she appeared and attacked the Honkai Beasts, they had focused entirely on her—this was Griseo’s conclusion.

There was still a chance. This was not the Second Herrscher. Using a spatial warp engine constructed from part of the Second Herrscher’s core, she could escape Teyvat—as long as she drew the Honkai Beasts away.

"The god of Celestia... the Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles?"

As Griseo rapidly adjusted the Ark’s engine, Neuvillette considered her words while manipulating water to overturn waves of Honkai Beasts.

The Eighth Herrscher—so that was the ’demon god’ of Honkai, as he understood it.

But... was that truly the Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles?

Neuvillette gazed in confusion at the figure being steadily forced back amid the phoenix’s clang!—a clear, metallic cry—its presence radiating a dark, abyssal depth even greater than the primordial sea.

The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles... her power didn’t seem like this.

He had never seen her, nor witnessed her strength. Yet... for some reason, his instincts told him that was not the Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles. It was not even of Teyvat—another malicious outsider.

"..." Neuvillette opened his mouth, but said nothing. He could not judge.

"Neuvillette! What are you standing there for? Fontaine still needs you—its Chief Justice—to command!"

A furious shout cut through his thoughts. From the outer sea of Erinnyes Island, a massive surge of water erupted as a colossal steel steam behemoth burst from the surface.

Clank! Clank!

A punch infused with Cryo element howled through the air, exploding across the shattered and churning coastline of the island. Vast stretches of the landing zone were frozen over. Behind the Palais Mermonia, the collapsed remnants of the pier trembled as metal constructs pierced through the piled ruins. With a kettle-like hiss of boiling steam, the cylindrical metal structure opened, and fully armed officers in black uniforms, along with a large force of clockwork reinforcements, poured out in an unending stream.

Their uniforms were completely different from Fontaine’s security forces—these were unmistakably the judicial prison guards of the Fortress of Meropide.

Neuvillette looked toward the burly man who leapt down from the massive metal vessel, walking across water and ice—

"Wriothesley."

With ash-black hair and ice-blue eyes, dressed in a dark gray suit, a rugged wolf-head chain accessory on his right chest, and a draped overcoat, his arms encased in brass-colored gauntlets that emitted a steam-engine-like hiss.

"How is the situation in the Fortress of Meropide?" Neuvillette continued to stall and restrain the Honkai Beasts as he called out.

"Not good. The lift system was damaged during the opera house’s tremors, cutting off communication. Then there was an undersea quake that shook the entire prison. After repairs, I brought most of my people up here to support. Hey—what exactly is going on? How did Fontaine end up like this?!"

Looking around, Wriothesley’s expression turned grim.

He could barely recognize Erinnyes Island! The sky looked even worse than the prophecy of Fontaine’s dissolution. And those pink-white monsters—what were they? Where was Lady Furina? A flood of questions filled his mind.

"There’s no time to explain. Trust me—have your people focus all efforts on supporting that airship and Lady Griseo." Neuvillette did not mince words, pointing toward the Ark, which was drawing in waves of Honkai Beasts.

"Understood."

Though he had reservations about some of Neuvillette’s decisions, Wriothesley would not question him at a time like this. The man’s integrity was beyond doubt.

"Sigewinne, tend to the wounded!"

He immediately gave orders to the nurse accompanying the Meropide guards.

"So scary..."

The air was thick with the stench of blood mixed with a burnt, putrid odor. As she followed her comrades onto land and reached the front lines near the opera house plaza, the petite nurse—with small horns, red eyes, white hair, and wearing a fluffy nurse outfit—froze at the sight of devastation: shattered land, scattered clockwork wreckage, wounded everywhere, and lifeless bodies piled aside.

Forgetting even the explosive flashes and thunder in the sky, she quickly opened her medical kit and threw herself into treating the injured.

Although the Honkai Beasts were primarily focused on the Ark and Griseo, and showed little intent to attack ordinary humans, a disaster was still a disaster. Even incidental effects brought immense suffering to Fontaine.

Especially when the beasts grew irritated by the ’ants’ interfering with them—the stray shockwaves of their energy blasts, the trampling and collisions of their massive forms, were more than enough to deal fatal blows to ordinary humans.

Life was, at times... far too fragile.

Shhk—

A longsword embedded in a fallen chariot-class Honkai Beast was pulled free. The blond young man’s grip trembled as he gasped for breath. These large beasts— their shells were too hard! Harder than even a Stonehide Lawachurl or an Ironhide Pyro Regisvine.

Below ten meters was manageable. But anything larger—without mech support equipped with anti-Honkai cannons—trying to cut them down by brute force alone was sheer despair...

"Watch out, Traveler!"

Bang!

A golden muzzle flash burst beside his ear. Seven Geo-element crystal shards fired from a parasol gun pierced through two flying Honkai Beasts like rag dolls.

"Strange. Don’t these monsters seem to be targeting you a bit too much?" Navia reloaded her jeweled, ribbon-adorned golden umbrella gun, wiping sweat from her brow as she exchanged a glance with Aether, half-joking.

"Who knows. Maybe it’s because I’m an outsider too," Aether replied, panting.

This feeling... it was awful. Completely different from Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, or Sumeru.

On such a vast battlefield, fighting mainly against Honkai Beasts—there was no commander to strike down, no conspirators to uncover, no puzzles to solve, no clues to gather. These creatures felt no fear. He couldn’t even make use of his unique role to perform a decisive strike on a leader.

His role was no different from that of a frontline soldier. It felt like all he could do was expend his strength in endless, repetitive slaughter, with no sign of an end...

Leaning on his sword, Aether squinted up at the clash in the heavens.

The Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles? Doesn’t look like it...

Crackle—!

Lightning flashed alongside a blade of light, tearing through the air. With a sharp clang!, like a streaking beam, several sub-ten-meter Honkai Beasts in front of the blond youth were cleanly sliced apart at an angle, as easily as cutting butter.

"One piece of good news and one piece of bad news."

Under a blue side hat, slightly purplish-black hair fluttered wildly in the wind. Holding a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, the ace duelist turned around, violet eyes filled with deep fatigue.

"Clorinde!" Paimon popped her head out from the side and waved.

"Mm."

Nodding, Clorinde continued, "The defensive line is temporarily stabilized. The Ark has drawn away most of the Honkai Beasts, and reinforcements from the Fortress of Meropide have arrived. Fontaine’s reserve forces and even the Fatui are on their way to support us."

"The bad news is..." she pointed at the sky, "this battle probably won’t end anytime soon."

"Let’s just hope that the one up there... is truly our god. If it is."

"We... are we really just going to sit here and wait?"

Aether felt unwilling to accept it.

"I don’t have a solution. The Academy’s technology isn’t nearly advanced enough. That altitude has always been a forbidden zone for all life in Teyvat—except for those outsiders... or gods," Clorinde replied bluntly, shaking her head.

"If the battle were to shift to the ground... could we even hold it?"

A trace of lingering fear appeared on Fontaine’s strongest duelist’s face.

This wasn’t cowardice before battle—it was a very real concern.

Fontaine’s people might be overly free-spirited and lacking in reverence. On one hand, their Hydro Archon’s conduct over the past five hundred years had been overly flamboyant, and on the other, she had rarely displayed true divine authority. Five hundred years without witnessing divine might...

But that didn’t mean they were fools. When a true catastrophe loomed before them—when the terror of a god-level battle threatening the world was right overhead—even Vision holders could not suppress their instinctive fear.

Look—even now, when the situation was so urgent and the Hydro Archon Furina was most needed to appear, the people of Fontaine no longer dared to act as boldly as before.

Not long ago, many had been dissatisfied with her, even calling for her impeachment and questioning her. Now, with divine power roaring across the heavens, clarity returned to many minds.

Some protesters had already begun to see her silence as punishment for their offense against divine authority—and were seeking redemption.

"..."

The roar of clockwork mechanisms and the barrage from anti-Honkai mechs continued unabated. The group fell into a heavy silence, then dispersed, each returning to their tasks—delaying the Honkai Beasts, stabilizing the opera house plaza’s defenses, or reclaiming and repairing the defensive line along Fountain Street.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Rumble—

The battle raged on. Under the Chief Justice’s coordination, nearly all of Fontaine’s forces were now working in tandem with Griseo’s Ark. And this was indeed the optimal strategy—Griseo seemed to attract the Honkai Beasts more than anyone else.

Inside the Ark’s control room, Griseo stared nervously at the engine parameters displayed on the screen.

Crackle!

From time to time, sparks burst from the headset-like device she wore—activated after detecting wave patterns similar to the Eighth Herrscher’s from the sensors—as its defensive barrier function engaged.

"Almost there. Just a bit more... reaching stable output threshold."

—81%—

Eighty-one percent charge!

The engine was in poor condition. Any higher—and there wouldn’t be enough time.

On the screen, the being fighting the Eighth Herrscher was growing weaker by the second. In less than three minutes, defeat was already apparent to any observer. Meanwhile, the Eighth Herrscher’s Honkai Energy fluctuations remained perfectly stable—neither rising nor falling, utterly without fluctuation... what terrifying control.

The Eighth Herrscher... was playing.

"Chief Justice Neuvillette, thank you," Griseo said, looking at the communicator.

In midair, rain poured down. Neuvillette understood—it was a final farewell.

Bzzz—!

The jump began.

Neuvillette saw the Ark shudder. In that instant, everything changed. Countless tiny, unknown particles of light appeared, enveloping the entire vessel. A dazzling beam shot forth from the bow, piercing through Teyvat’s spacetime. With a crisp crack, like shattering glass—

Within the fractured, glass-like atmosphere, the Ark’s light stretched into elongated streaks. The next moment—whoosh!—

The Ark vanished.

"Damn it!"

Almost simultaneously, a furious, manic female voice echoed across the heavens. Though no one understood the language she spoke, the meaning was eerily clear to all.

"What’s with that girl Griseo?!"

"I was kindly helping her deal with the mastermind behind the scenes—and even recording a live broadcast of the beatdown as a welcome gift! And she ignores my consciousness signal? What kind of blocker is that? Another one of Vill-V’s inventions? I should’ve just blasted through it!"

The voice came in fragments—sometimes comprehensible, sometimes not—but its irritated, embarrassed fury was unmistakable.

"Damn it, she actually used spatial warp to run... random unanchored jump? That bold?"

"Hey, hey, Kiana! That ability’s from the same source as yours! Hurry up and seal her warp channel! What—this is my fault? She’s like a startled rabbit, shrinking at the slightest touch and bolting at any movement!"

"Alright, alright, old antique, I get it, I get it. I’ll reflect on it. My fault for messing around, okay? You guys go intercept her—I’ll recover the items little Griseo left behind."

At the same time—

Rumble—!

Crimson—blood-red flames surged outward from the collision point of the two suns, stretching across Fontaine’s high-altitude skies. The scarlet ’phoenix’ tore apart the weakened entity from the Sea of Quanta.

Boom!

After a blinding flash, a pink-white incandescent spear descended like a pillar of heaven, drawing a bright line. Just as it was about to slam into the coastal crater cliffs left by the Ark’s departure—

Bzzz—

It stopped.

Seconds later, the shockwave—far exceeding the force of the Ark’s emergency descent—arrived. Yet over the nearby sea, a massive white hemispherical water dome surged upward in less than half a second, rising kilometers into the sky.

"Defensive formation! Prepare for impact!"

The disaster far surpassed anything before. Neuvillette shouted, nearly hoarse, as he raised his hand. The power of primordial water gathered, his incomplete authority of the ancient dragon pushed to its absolute limit as he desperately tried to shield Fontaine—

"Disperse."

The manic female voice spoke. With a casual gesture, she sliced through both the storm and the water dome. Instantly, the water collapsed, the hurricane dissipated, and the dust from the trembling earth settled gently—as though a grand performance had been abruptly cut short.

All that remained was an outer god, standing dominantly in the low sky.

"Tch. Annoying."

"Oh? Natives—oh, right, let’s be more refined—hello, inhabitants. Looks like you’ve been having quite the lively fight with my advance patrol?"

Clad in a black robe adorned with silver clouds, stars, and feather-like metallic ornaments fluttering wildly, the grinning outer god stood atop a floating sword. Beneath the diamond-shaped ruby on her forehead, her dark red eyes flickered with arcs of electricity as she gazed at them—not as people, but as toys.

In her hand, she held an unconscious gray-haired beauty, her body twisted, grievously wounded, barely clinging to life—adding an even more terrifying aura to her presence.

"A lively fight?"

The ability acted directly on consciousness. Neuvillette understood. For the first time, the ever-composed Chief Justice—known for his calm and humility—felt an unknown fire ignite within his chest.

Anger.

"You... what do you take life for?!"

"Life is life, isn’t it? What else would it be?"

The girl shrugged indifferently.

She wasn’t human. Such sentiments barely registered for her. If empathy were to exist, it would be for the Empire’s citizens—for those from her own world. But these beings... ah, creatures shaped from water and who-knows-what else. Elemental lifeforms? And they called themselves human?

Noticing the non-human nature of the elemental beings before her, her expression grew even more amused.

"Besides, if you’re neither citizens of the Empire nor from an affiliated allied world, aren’t you just meant to be killed or used as expendable material?"

She snapped her free hand lightly, pondering for a moment.

"You should thank me. I’m not someone who enjoys slaughter. Otherwise, interfering with my Empire’s patrol operations would’ve been enough to doom your world entirely."

"Don’t look at me like that. Does that make me the villain?" she said, her crimson eyes widening.

Bzzz—!

An invisible pressure descended like a physical force. The air nearly solidified. Moisture, dust, and grains of sand defied physics, floating slowly in midair.

Led by Neuvillette, the furious crowd found it hard to breathe, their bodies trembling uncontrollably—as if Teyvat’s gravity had suddenly increased tenfold.

"Today, I won’t alter your minds. Kneel," she declared, raising her chin.

Crack, crack...

Thud! Thud—

Countless people were forced to their knees. Just as the pressure concentrated on Neuvillette—

"...Sigh."

A soft sigh echoed, followed by a steady, magnetic male voice: "Even shattered jade retains its luster."

"I thought you’d keep hiding and watching the show," the girl said, unsurprised.

Step... step...

A black-haired, golden-eyed young man with a dignified and composed demeanor stepped forward. "Since you claim to be a righteous deity, why humiliate the representative of a nation? Such conduct does not befit a gentleman."

"Ha, well said. I like that." She nodded with satisfaction, then stretched her tone. "But haven’t you heard? Being refined and gentle is far too troublesome for me."

Step... step...

"Now that you’re all out, even better."

A kimono-clad woman who looked vaguely familiar, a bard-like singer, and a tiny figure like a shuttlecock...

"So, want to fight?" she asked eagerly, tightening her grip on Vita before casually tossing her aside. The dark red phoenix-pattern restraints flared brighter. "Fine! I’ll limit my power output to your level. Let’s have a skill-based duel..."

"Come!"

But in the next instant, all light was swallowed. The world suddenly darkened.

"What the hell?! Kiana, what are you doing?"

Frowning, she was about to follow the thread of her consciousness link—when suddenly, massive, unprecedented energy signatures flooded her senses.

"That is..."

No—this wasn’t simply night. They were humanoid forms. Enormous existences, suffocating presences that blotted out all vision, all light, all color.

"What the hell... why are they here?"

Realization struck. She slapped her forehead, her interest in fighting gone. "Oh right, this is a directly administered trial world—direction of Honkai World."

"Tch. Well then... looks like the ’villains’ have arrived. Perfect—just what you wanted."

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