Regarding the question of whether one thousand lives are enough to beat Honkai Impact 3rd.

Otherwise, given his original Honkai energy resistance and adaptability, he wouldn't have been able to control that level of Honkai energy to cut through the storm.

But only now do they realize that the price of such combat power is fueled by lifespan.

The quiet but exceptionally gentle and earnest boy may have accepted this fate long ago.

But just like that day when he went to Changkong City alone, it was without reason or logic.

When they encountered a crisis, Su Qing'an, without any reason or logic, came to the Netherworld.

Clad in jet-black armor, he cleaved through the storm, forced to draw his sword against his own family, burning his remaining lifespan to fight against the spirits of the dead from thousands of years ago.

Now, Su Qing'an silently faces these facts that he had long understood.

Kiana felt a little cold, but her blood was clearly burning from the intense battle.

But that chilling aura remained unrestrained, arrogantly eroding her body and oppressing her nerves, causing the girl to involuntarily feel fear. Beneath her feet was a gradually dissipating energy clone.

Just like the life-or-death battles she fought during her wandering days, she ultimately did not lose.

Ever since Kiana started wandering alone, she has forgotten what fear is.

Either death or life.

Finding her father, to add some weight to this empty life, is the reason Kiana has been struggling and fighting for.

Perhaps she had many more reasons to fight later, but this one reason was the original intention.

Only when it comes to this kind of thing can her emotions truly be stirred.

But now she was afraid, like a timid girl huddled in a corner of the room, clutching a doll, fearing the storm and thunder outside.

Others cannot understand that feeling because adults and children see the world differently.

When Su Qing'an was lying unconscious in bed, she only felt worried and anxious, but not intensely fearful.

Because he was there, as if time had stood still and would never leave.

But things are different now; many things are not as straightforward as Kiana thought.

It consumes lifespan.

How much longer can I live?

All those bright red words, coupled with the boy's silent response, made the girl realize that she had known nothing all along.

She never understood how much cruel reality and suffering was hidden behind the faint, gentle smile on the boy's face in those ordinary days.

He never says anything and hides himself too well.

You went to Changkong City that day, and Yuno returned on the same day.

Yes, Yuno has become a pseudo-Herrscher.

How could she possibly have complete control over herself from the very beginning?

She knew the former Sato Yuno; she was just an ordinary girl with a weak will.

If she couldn't do it on her own, then there must be other factors that forced Sato Yuno to overcome all her cowardice.

That day, Su Qing'an went to Changkong City.

Then many things become logical and natural. Where in the world are there so many coincidences?

Sato Yuno's maturity and changes must have come at a price, perhaps from the city reduced to ruins, the broken promise, the loss of her parents, and so on...

Su Qing'an's sacrifice.

It must hurt a lot to have artificial stigmata, right?

With such poor Honkai energy resistance, the cost of being eroded by artificial stigmata is far higher than that of a normal Valkyrie.

It's impossible for a man to receive an artificial stigmata transplant, which is why Kiana never believed that Su Qing'an had received one.

His acting was so good, and he hid in the blind spots of logic, so all those past laughs and joys seemed so natural.

The overwhelming, heart-wrenching sorrow that surged up almost stunned Kiana, but then the sharp sword energy tore through a corner of the wall, and she looked in that direction to see a black knight, his body radiating flames and blood, silently wielding his sword.

The girl had previously thought that it was the built-in multi-core power reactor of some advanced armor that made Su Qing'an's combat power so ridiculously exaggerated. She thought that an S-class Valkyrie might be just like that.

She even secretly wondered, almost jokingly, whether the headmaster, a former S-class Valkyrie, could really defeat Su Qing'an now.

The joke isn't funny anymore.

He's burning his life.

The boy is burning through his remaining years at a visible pace.

The resulting combat power seemed so justified, yet so...speechlessly tragic.

She shouted with all her might:

"Su Qing'an! Stop swinging your sword, come back!"

no respond.

The team voice chat that Bronya had connected to was disconnected by Su Qing'an the moment Ji Xuanyuan spoke.

He understood the possible reactions people might have, but he absolutely did not want Kiana to face that possible outcome so early, so choosing not to answer was the most convenient course of action.

...

Raiden Mei once thought Su Qing'an was a very arrogant person, but in their subsequent interactions, she discovered that he was not at all like she had imagined. How should I put it?

When you see him quietly doing a lot of nice things, you might find it funny, just like Raiden Mei did back then.

Compared to the high walls he built around himself, Su Qing'an was perhaps the truly aloof one; in his eyes, beautiful faces seemed no different from those of stray cats on the street.

He might prepare cat food and high-quality cat food for the latter, but he would only get a cold expression and a polite response from the former.

Over the next six months or so, they became much more familiar with each other.

Su Qing'an is a very slow-to-warm-up person.

It's quite rare for someone like that to consider you a friend.

Raiden Mei was supposed to be the weakest of the three.

But in that instant, the girl's Hokushin Ittō-ryū completely shattered the restraints, and at the same moment, an almost invisible purple current spread through her limbs, allowing her to reach a brand new realm.

The scalpel successfully severed the enemy's body, and she became the second to kill her opponent.

Raiden Mei sheathed her sword, her slender hand gripping the hilt so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

She didn't want Su Qing'an to die.

...

Bronya always felt that Su Qing'an was a very gentle person. These thoughts would always emerge in many details of their interactions, making the little girl feel that the boy was like an older brother to her.

In her previous life, no one had ever played such a role.

Even with Mei, Bronya couldn't develop a complete sense of dependence because the girl was confused and young. But Su Qing'an was completely different. It wasn't about ability or anything else; it was simply a reassuring and dependable atmosphere.

It was like the earnestness in his eyes when he occasionally wiped the stains from the corner of her lips; or the gentleness in his expression when he patted her head and said Bronya was cute; and the patience when he made her coffee and the warmth when he handed her a marshmallow.

Su Qing'an is a very, very good person.

The Reloaded Bunny eventually broke through all the defenses and successfully connected to the boy's voice module.

Ignoring the enemies on the ground, reduced to ashes by artillery fire, the little girl whispered:

"Bronya doesn't want Sue to die."

"Xiao Su, please come back."

161. Rin, please help me one last time.

Su Qing'an remained silent.

Perhaps more than the time that will eventually be lost and the untraceable future, what the boy fears most are these reactions that he had long anticipated.

He never wanted anyone he cared about to feel sad for him.

...But if the other person really cares about him, how could he not feel sad about such an outcome?

The boy kept hiding, but the answer he kept hidden in a corner was eventually revealed to the public and became known to everyone.

Clearly... this ending could have been gentler, but now Su Qing'an is forced to confront the things he has always feared most.

...

He was wielding a sword.

Like a meteor, like a storm, like a sudden downpour.

The immense power twisted into an increasingly exaggerated expressiveness outside the boy's body.

All the myriad flames and gamma particles abandoned their ability to increase mobility. They were originally the most powerful accelerants for each thruster, but now, with Su Qing'an's whispers and the resounding clang of [Thousand Stars] growing stronger with each breath, they were all entangled in [Calming the Waves].

The Spear of Longinus.

Every minute and every second, the Honkai energy absorbed by the reactor was continuously poured into the Honkai energy shaping form that had been shaped into the form of the Holy Lance.

Blood-red Honkai energy adhered to the outer shell of the sword, and the constantly flashing edges, like lightning, were proof of its arrogance. The extremely high temperature continuously scorched the skin and bones from the heat insulation layer of the armor.

The boy's hand was burned in less than three seconds after he grasped the holy lance. As the strongest move of the armor core, even Otto only envisioned its use as a strike to be unleashed once it was completed.

But Su Qing'an was completely different. When he commanded the intelligent formula to condense the Holy Lance onto his own blade, he had already made up his mind to use it for a long time.

The boy seemed to be trying to tame a wild beast, but even though the Holy Lance had submitted and become the outer shell of the blade, the high-frequency vibration and distortion of Honkai energy made it impossible for him to even use Honkai energy to shape and cover his palms to avoid being hurt.

He had to do everything he could to become stronger, even if it meant his hand would disappear later.

Bronya whispered again:

"Bronya will fight for you, and Mei and Kiana will help too. Su doesn't need to fight so hard."

Her usually calm tone betrayed an uncontrollable change:

Bronya didn't know how to express her feelings, even though Bronya shouldn't be able to perceive emotions.

"But, for some reason, Bronya knew."

Bronya knew she was very sad right now.

"So, Xiao Su, please come back."