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

A myriad of images flooded my mind...

...

...

On that day, Himeko Murata was floating on a piece of wood in a sea area beneath the Hyperion. She was rescued by Kiana and her friends who had escaped from the seabed. During the transport back to St. Freya Academy, the medical team discovered that her Honkai energy had almost completely disappeared and her body organs were almost brand new.

The degree of Honkai energy erosion has been reduced to a level lower than that of the initial transplanted artificial stigmata.

Su Qing'an's final embrace granted her an extra ten years of life.

The continuous fusion of natural sacred marks will further extend and lengthen this number.

...

...

That was also that day.

The Xuanyuan Sword and the boy's remains fell into the place he knew best in this world.

St. Freya Academy.

cemetery.

The immortal looked at the boy's clean face in the ice coffin. The plain white ancient clothes covered the wounded and blood-stained body, and the empty sleeves on the side indicated the incompleteness of the remains.

She wiped away the bloodstains with her own hands, and the clothes were changed by the young girl. It seemed like she hadn't done these old-fashioned things for a long time, but compared to the wonder that doing these things might bring, the emptiness and sorrow were much heavier.

Her eyes were like a still, lifeless sea, devoid of any ripples.

The man on the other end of the communicator whispered:

"He said that after he dies, he wants to fall into the sea at St. Freya."

But what the man didn't say was that he probably understood what Su Qing'an meant.

Because that person wouldn't care much about their fate after death.

Su Qing'an's reason for wanting to be buried at sea is very simple.

Fu Hua loves the sea, so he wanted to be closer to her, even if it was in this way.

The girl stood in front of the cemetery for a very long time.

Finally, she placed the Xuanyuan Sword and the "Calming the Waves" scroll beside the unfinished stone tablet and left silently.

She did not respond to Otto's words.

But on that day at the Destiny headquarters, Otto lost a physical body.

Even with so many constraints and a sense of duty, Fu Hua couldn't bring herself to break free of her last shred of pretense.

But she couldn't control the impulse.

Perhaps... we can't control it either.

After seeing the boy's eyes lose their light, the blankness that followed made her understand many answers.

Although it's only a little bit.

But... some things are beyond doubt.

Fu Hua likes Su Qing'an.

...

...

Because the immortal rode the Honkai energy to form a sword aura and slashed through the sky to leave, no one knew about it along the way.

Therefore, in Theresa's eyes on the Hyperion, it was as if Chi You's vital signs had completely disappeared just one hour after the team lost contact.

Soon after, the Valkyrie squad returned unharmed, carrying the unconscious but unharmed Himeko Murata.

Even though the mission seemed to have failed, Theresa still felt a sense of relief.

But she immediately realized that someone was missing, and her sense of relief was extinguished by the cold reality.

The person who disappeared was Su Qing'an, who chose to enter the Nine Netherworld without ever contacting her.

She looked at the several girls, who had just stepped onto the bridge. They were covered in the icy seawater, and their pale faces were covered with water droplets of an indistinguishable substance, which flowed silently down their backs.

The moment Chi You's vital signs disappeared, the underwater ruins completely collapsed, and the endless eddies and overflowing debris made the sea surface appear exceptionally magnificent.

Kiana, holding the still unconscious Sato Yuno, looked at the scene with a somewhat bewildered expression.

I feel so cold all over.

The seawater must be too cold.

She trembled all over, and a blush rose to her pale cheeks.

Immediately, amidst Mei's panicked cries of concern, Kiana lost consciousness.

Theresa didn't immediately ask the group what had happened. Perhaps she had already guessed the answer, but her elder's gentleness suppressed her intense unease, and she chose to first arrange for the medical team to begin treating the wounded.

In fact, all of them were injured to varying degrees. After Mei swung that final, unrestrained strike, her arm suffered from severe muscle fatigue and dislocation. According to the medical department's analysis, her neurons also exhibited a strange disorder.

Kiana almost awakened as a Herrscher, which increased the concentration of Honkai energy in her body, causing her body temperature to be extremely high, which manifested as a persistent fever.

The same goes for Sato Yuno; the onslaught of power and the collapse of consciousness is overwhelming her, and it will be difficult for her to wake up in the short term.

Bronya, being a ranged attacker, did not suffer much damage.

At this moment, the little girl was wearing the smallest size uniform of St. Freya. She was quietly squatting in a corner of the wall outside the medical room, hugging a Houmu doll, and was somewhat silent.

Her gray hair was combed into long strands that fell down her back, still damp as if it hadn't been dried with a hairdryer.

Theresa held a dry towel and gently dried Bronya's hair without saying a word. After drying it slightly, she picked up a silent hairdryer and dried the girl's hair.

Bronya obediently did not object to Theresa's actions. She listened to the soft sound of the wind brushing past her ears without any noise, but in a daze, she thought that person was still beside her, holding a sword, embarking on a long journey.

She unzipped the Houmu doll, revealing a built-in storage space for some items.

Bronya reached out and took out a colorful candy with a translucent outer shell. She carefully placed it in her palm and said to Theresa, who had been silent all along:

"Headmistress Theresa, Bronya will never be able to eat the candy that Su gave her again."

"——".

The hairdryer fell to the floor, and a suffocating silence engulfed the room.

Some things, even if you already know how they will end.

But the subconscious urge to escape and the sadness are still unavoidable.

Many people are like this, and Theresa Apocalypse is no exception.

That's why the pain still seems so unexpected after everything has been torn apart by reality.

She failed to protect her students.

This is the second time.

This is also the last time.

...

...

The next day, in the afternoon.

When Himeko Murata and Yuno Sato woke up, the funeral gradually began in earnest.

All the students of St. Freya Academy arrived as promised and changed into nuns' robes. Whenever a student died, the academy on the island would be shrouded in a gray mist.

Their expressions were filled with sadness and desolation. The procession through the cemetery was quiet and polite, and white flowers covered the steps in front of the tombstones.

Su Qing'an rarely interacts with people.

But in the coffee shop by the coastline, the sight of that boy quietly grinding coffee beans is a familiar scene at St. Freya Academy.

Posts about him are constantly appearing on the school forum. Some students who are experts in coffee can even try to figure out the boy's mood and preferences by looking at the menu he customizes for the day.

Among the most liked posts was a record post that was updated randomly, and its owner was the very person who took the photos of Su Qing'an and Fu Hua watching the sea together.

The post has now been abandoned and no one has chosen to respond, but the number of views continues to rise.

...

...

On the morning of [Month] [Day], Xiao Su enrolled in school. Her self-introduction consisted of only a cool and aloof statement: "My name is Su Qing'an." Thinking about it, that certainly fits Xiao Su's style.

On [Date], Xiao Su was practicing martial arts with Fu Hua.

On [Date], Xiao Su opened a coffee shop. I go there every day, since his black coffee is always delicious.

[On [Date], Xiao Su returned from his mission. While we won't reveal the specifics, he was unharmed, so everyone can rest assured. Although he's not in a great mood, running a coffee shop is something he enjoys, so please come the next day.]

On [Date], Xiao Su and Fu Hua were looking at the sea.

On [Date], Xiao Su fell asleep. I don't know when she will wake up. I sent her a bouquet of flowers; that's all I could do.

On [Date], Xiao Su woke up. It's good that he's alright.

[On [Month] [Day], although there were rumors that Xiao Su and Fu Hua went to Shenzhou to get engaged, I think they probably just happened to be on their way there for a vacation.]

The last post appeared after the funeral.

On [Date], Xiao Su died.

The poster then deleted their account, and their profile picture, like the last sentence, turned completely gray.

Sato Yuno lost her phone in the heavy rain. She looked up at the raindrops falling into her pupils, her turquoise eyes reflecting the seemingly dead sky.

The black umbrella fell to the ground.

The nun's habit, soaking wet, clung to the curves of the girl's body; the rain had chilled her to the bone.

It seems like nothing matters anymore.

In the day since waking up and just now, the Honkai consciousness has linked with Sato Yuno seven times in succession through the ocean of emotions.

Become a Lawyer.

Sato Yuno wondered if she had chosen to become a Herrscher that day, would she have had enough power to change the outcome?