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

"Ah, are you awake now? Let's continue with the question from before."

What is most important to you?

"This has nothing to do with you, does it?" Sato Yuno looked at the strange shrine maiden warily.

The opponent was neither a simple Herrscher nor a simple pseudo-Herrscher; that massive Honkai energy was like an ever-burning lighthouse on a calm sea.

She was clearly smiling, but her murderous intent was habitually emanating from her.

Brutal, terrifying, desperate—the other person was the embodiment of these words.

Sato Yuno's hatred, despair, murderous intent, and anger were already deep enough, but compared to the shrine maiden before her, they were like a stream compared to the ocean, utterly insignificant.

"As expected, it's impossible to tell you directly. Lies or evasive answers are both possible. It's better to let it ask you."

The shrine maiden let out a hypocritical sigh; from the beginning, she had no intention of getting an answer from Sato Yuno.

Amidst the vibrations of red Honkai energy, black mist permeated the air.

Sato Yuno reacted quickly. While preventing the opponent from making a move, she used her power to transform all things into a prison. However, the black mist almost continuously eroded everything, whether it was the ground or the products of the power. In just a moment, everything was under the control of the priestess.

"Powers also have different levels, little girl." She walked up to the immobile Sato Yuno, her lips curving into a smile that was arrogant and condescending.

"Let me see what's most important to you."

"Oh? The flaw is actually a human? Hahahahaha."

The witch laughed, and her laughter grew louder and louder until she bent over with laughter.

She felt as if she had witnessed something utterly ridiculous: a dark fox shadow was uncontrollably baring its fangs and claws behind her.

"Hey, really? Being able to use power means you've been acknowledged by Him, so shouldn't your mind only be filled with hatred for humanity? Isn't that a contradiction?"

"For you. For you who have become a pseudo-Herrscher. The most important thing is actually a human being. How ridiculous, hahahahaha."

The fox shadow behind the shrine maiden was also laughing. Their eerie, synchronized laughter spread outwards, turning large amounts of ruins into ashes. In the dark dust, the black fox shadow and the girl laughed, creating a fantastical and terrifying scene.

“You’re more interesting than you look, my fellow countryman. Ah, no, you’re a fake.”

Abruptly stopping her laughter, the shrine maiden looked coldly at Sato Yuno, her rapid change of expression making her seem somewhat neurotic.

“You are a fake,” she repeated, word by word.

"No, this won't do."

"You hate humans too, don't you? You want to destroy them all the time, don't you?" The shrine maiden gently traced a faint line of blood across Sato Yuno's pale cheek with her fingertips. As if remembering something, her calm tone vanished instantly, replaced by fury. She roared:

"Right! Humans! Those are humans!"

"Filthy! Selfish! Boring! Disgusting! How can I not want to destroy a world full of such creatures?"

The fox shadow behind her roared restlessly, following her will. The heavy voice reached Sato Yuno's ears, as if a king was giving her an inviolable command.

"So you have to do it too. I originally wanted to corrupt you and make you a fun puppet, but it's much more interesting to have you kill that human with your own hands."

"Otherwise, you're just a fake; you don't even qualify to be a puppet."

The shrine maiden leaned down and whispered softly in Sato Yuno's ear, her voice gentle and graceful.

"Let me go, you bastard! What do you think you're doing!" the girl roared, her eyes fixed on the monster before her, her murderous intent surging. At this moment, Sato Yuno was like a wild beast ready to devour its prey.

But the beast had its claws and teeth severed and was trapped in a cage.

"What? What a ridiculous question. Didn't I already say? I want you to kill him. How can humans become objects of affection for my fellow human beings?"

The witch leaned close to the girl's face, their noses almost touching, her breath brushing against her cheeks, her words echoing clearly in her ears.

The priestess carries an indelible hatred for humanity. Even after countless years, as she once again treads this land, the hatred remains like a leech, impossible to eradicate.

Therefore, she had to do it.

If I don't do this, I'll feel unhappy; if I don't do this, I'll recall things I don't want to remember.

"I refuse." She answered through gritted teeth. The black mist had already corroded her body. The massive blood loss and near-death injuries she had suffered had left her inevitably weak, even after healing. Under these circumstances, she could only speak with the priestess's permission, and only then could she follow her own will.

But Sato Yuno's will was never within the shrine maiden's consideration. She smiled, a faint smile, like a human holding the key to a cage calmly looking at a roaring beast, full of indifferent mockery.

"Go and bring him back, Sato Yuno," the shrine maiden commanded, stating the girl's name.

No. Refuse.

The will is rebelling.

But the body's involuntary actions seem to be the other party's power.

Eroding everything, controlling all.

If memories can be eroded, the body is naturally no exception.

Sato Yuno is now like a puppet in the hands of a shrine maiden. As the shrine maiden dances with transparent threads between her fingers, her body mechanically moves toward Su Qing'an.

61. Important things

"Is it him? Hmm, apart from his decent looks, he's just average." The shrine maiden casually commented.

The black mist brushed across the boy's cheek, then vanished without a trace.

Sato Yuno dug through the huge ancient tree and used vines to pull Su Qing'an out. The ancient tree was as brittle as paper. In the minute that it was locked by the Binding Key, her creation had lost its special characteristics and was even more fragile than normal plants.

Su Qing'an remained asleep. During the previous treatment, she had deliberately mixed in a harmless toxin that induces sleep to ensure he wouldn't wake up.

What were the reasons and feelings behind this?

It's probably an escape.

Why doesn't the self, who is a pseudo-Herrscher, want to kill this human?

She chose to refuse to think.

However, if the other party wakes up, this contradiction will be magnified instantly, forcing her to confront the fact and come up with an answer.

She was instinctively afraid of the answer, so she did it subconsciously.

Will she be completely distorted into a pseudo-Herrscher or revert to her original form as Sato Yuno?

The consciousness corrupted by the collapse rejected the latter, while the original Sato Yuno rejected the former, thus a compromise was reached.

However, this compromise was shattered by the shrine maiden's actions, which were no different from those of a villain.

"Kill him," the priestess said, and the fox shadow behind her sneered, its fox ears making it look like a bloodthirsty monster.

The girl slowly and awkwardly picked up the spear she had dropped.

She was resisting, the Honkai energy within her body frantically gathering to form a massive vortex, and the core of the pseudo-Herrscher trembled restlessly.

However, the black mist entangled the pseudo-Herrscher core, suppressing the roaring Honkai energy storm within Sato Yuno's body.

On the surface, she is no different from an ordinary girl. Only when the vines, which pulsate unsteadily due to Honkai energy, sometimes swell and sometimes bear strange flowers can one see the traces of her struggle.

Why refuse?

Why did the witch say that this human being was the most important thing to her?

Sato Yuno was puzzled.

It was just killing a human being; it was just an interesting collectible.

Why, why, why?

Why is my heart trembling?

Why am I so scared?

Why did she hate the witch's actions to a degree that far exceeded her desire to destroy the world and her disgust for normal humans?

And why was her first reaction when she picked up the spear that she wanted to cut off her own hand?

There are so many whys and confusions, but resistance came even earlier than all these doubts.

Her body was refusing, her soul was refusing, and the girl's stubborn eyes and trembling fingertips spoke of her will.

Neither Sato Yuno herself nor the shrine maiden realized that the more she struggled and refused, the more her emotions surged, even to the point of gradually breaking through the erosion of her broken consciousness.

The gun tip was pointed at his heart.

His steps halted, and his hand gripping the spear trembled.

This human being is very important to me.

Su Qing'an is very important to me.

Why is it important?

Memories began to break free of their shackles once again.

Because, because, because.

Because everyone is dead.

And at the very end of despair, only he, even after such a calamity had passed for so long, still chose to find her and still chose to save her.

Strangely enough, the first reaction of that person upon seeing himself transformed into this form was not fear or fleeing, but joy; the boy at that moment revealed an exceptionally pure and happy smile.

She's not usually a very cheerful person, but her smile is surprisingly beautiful.

In Sato Yuno's memory, his sword-wielding posture was dazzling beyond compare. What ultimately crushed despair and overwhelmed hatred was his warm embrace, carrying a distinct smell of rust, and that one sentence:

"Sato, I don't know what that guy was talking to you about, but so-called gods are all bad things, so wake up, you're not completely without anything."

He said, "It's not that I have nothing left."

At that moment, even Yoshino Sato herself didn't know what she was feeling.

All I know is that it is something enough to sever hatred and despair.

Since you've said that, then you are my last treasure.

She woke up.

The attempt to erode the consciousness of the collapsed entity failed once again, and the true entity named Sato Yuno was reawakened.

This time, the Honkai consciousness and her connection are close to breaking.

“I don’t want to. Kill…him,” the Honkai energy exploded. Unlike the previous simple resistance of struggling against the chaos, Sato Yuno detonated the Honkai energy in order to break free from the shrine maiden’s control.

Fine beads of blood seeped from large patches of her skin, her bones were shattered, and her heart nearly died in that instant. It was only the girl's immediate and extreme use of her powers that saved her life.