Behind-the-scenes video of the beginning of Honkai.

Alicia (Memory): "Alright everyone, stop laughing at Mei. Although Mei's call this time... was indeed full of flaws, it's undeniable that Mei really misses 'Alicia'. Therefore, a miracle might happen again?"

Chapter 286 The Essence of the End

At Mei's call, she seemed to hear a very familiar voice, a voice she had longed for, ringing in her ears. It was the voice of the girl she had always missed, the person she had always wanted to see again, responding to her.

"I didn't expect anyone to actually make it this far. Perhaps I should give them a proper greeting?"

The first thing that catches Mei's eye is a pair of long, white legs, with delicate bare feet painted with purple nail polish, which looks very alluring.

As the camera pans upwards, a familiar, beautiful face comes into view, with long pink hair cascading down like a waterfall of stars, and eyes that sparkle like a starry sky.

Alicia greeted Mei cheerfully, "Hi, how are you feeling?"

"It really was you... Alicia..."

"Is it you calling me, Raiden Mei, the Herrscher of the new generation?" Alicia smiled slightly and whispered everything to Raiden Mei, "Fate has linked us together, allowing you to reach this place at the end of the world."

Hearing Alicia's slightly unfamiliar tone, Raiden Mei was taken aback for a moment: "...Alicia?"

Alicia tilted her head in confusion, asking with a puzzled look, "What's wrong, the new generation of Herrschers?"

Raiden Mei paused for a moment, a hint of melancholy creeping into her eyes. This seemed to be a different Alicia from the one she knew in Paradise: "Is... that so?"

"What's wrong?" Alicia asked Mei softly. "You look very sad."

Raiden Mei gently shook her head: "No... I'm fine..."

For Raiden Mei, Alicia was a dear friend she missed dearly, but for the Alicia before her, Raiden Mei was nothing more than a Herrscher of the new generation who had awakened her, and had no other significance.

"Pfft..." Seeing Raiden Mei's expression, Alicia couldn't hold back any longer and covered her mouth, bursting into unrestrained laughter, "Hahahaha..."

"Oh dear, I've always wanted to try this! How was it, Mei? Were you startled by the pink fairy?"

"Uh..." After a brief moment of surprise, Raiden Mei understood what was going on, but instead chuckled, "...Haha, this is indeed the 'Alicia' I know."

"Oh? Are you happy? Of course, it makes no difference~" Alicia smiled. "After all, Alicia will always be in Mei's heart, right?"

"Of course, if we don't use such a romantic way of putting it... to put it another way, I'm not a real being, but a projection of the 'Origin's' power within your heart." Alicia held up a slender finger and pointed it at Raiden Mei's heart. "That's why the Alicia that Mei knows can be so miraculously unified like this, isn't it?"

"Oh, I see!" Raiden Mei nodded as if she suddenly understood. She watched as Alicia stood in front of Raiden Mei, surrounded by blooming flowers.

The two looked at each other silently, speechless for a moment, as if quietly enjoying this brief reunion.

"Therefore, this is neither the paradise of the past nor the space of the Holy Mark, but my own Herrscher core. Everything I just experienced was the process of the 'Primordial Authority' merging with myself..."

"Wow, a perfect answer!" Alicia clapped applause in admiration. "It seems that after experiencing the baptism of Paradise, Mei has become a great detective!"

Next, Alicia explained everything to Raiden Mei. Before Raiden Mei found it, the power of the Origin had been dormant here for 50,000 years.

That place is the prelude to the end, the herald of a new era, and the starting point of all stories that have happened and those that have yet to come—the "Land of Origin".

The backdoor left by Velvet in the singularity for Raiden Mei was used to awaken the sleeping miracle by utilizing Raiden Mei's legacy and memories.

The 'Herrscher of Origin', which had ceased to exist in the original human history, is reawakened and reappears in the deepest part of Raiden Mei's soul.

"Then let's move to a place that's more suitable for girls to talk, shall we?"

Alicia (Memory): "Oh, just thinking that Mei missed me so much makes me so happy!"

Mei: "Um... it seems like we haven't even started to get to know each other in this world yet..."

Although Mei envies the good relationship between herself and Alicia in the parallel world, she has not yet met Alicia in person.

Alicia (Memory): "It's alright. A beautiful girl like Mei is bound to become friends with the Pink Fairy, right?"

Kiana: "I always feel that Mei is so gentle when she talks to Alicia!"

Rowling: "There's no doubt about it, it's true."

Bronya: "Sister Rowling, do you have any thoughts on this? It seems that Sister Mei has a unique feeling for Alicia."

Rowling: "..."

While Alicia was transferring Raiden Mei to the council hall of the Paradise of the Past in her memories and they were talking, Kiana was also beginning her inheritance.

Kiana looked around at the darkness and began to walk aimlessly.

Kevin, who possessed the memory of the Lost Paradise, also led Kiana to a vortex passage, where Kiana lost her way in the darkness.

Here Kiana encountered familiar places such as St. Freya Academy, Destiny Airport, Abyss City, Sky City, Long Sky City, the Siberian Snowfield, Chaldea, and more.

I also saw familiar faces like Rowling, Jiuxiao, Mei, Bronya, class monitor Fu Hua, Aunt Theresa, and teacher Himeko.

Those were all microcosms of her life's ups and downs, some joyful, some painful, all part of her journey of growth.

"Nice to meet you, Kiana Kaslana!" A cold yet slightly warm voice came from the darkness.

"Who!" Kiana immediately became alert, and the Flamebringer Greatsword in her hand burst into flames.

However, the other party seemed oblivious to Kiana's wariness and continued to reply, "I am Kevin Kaslana's shadow, an artificial consciousness belonging to the Kaslana Stigmata."

"For convenience, you can simply call me the Will of the Holy Mark!"

"You are Kevin's Stigmata Will!?"

"Yes, I already knew you would be here. But before that, I want to ask you, how much do you know about the End?"

"The End!? It's the understanding that last Herrscher, who destroyed the previous civilization, had of it..."

Kiana also shared the information she knew about the Herrscher of the End, but in their eyes, Kiana only knew about one-tenth of it. After all, the information about the End that the current civilization knew was something that the previous civilization deliberately wanted them to know.

"The essence of the End is to embrace one's own kind. That is the 'final conclusion' that previous civilizations could reach. The End is not a thing of Earth. It is a mechanism that controls destiny, endlessly reincarnating human civilization—all so that its creators can have their own kind."

"The Herrscher of the End is catalyzed by the 'Cocoon of the End.' As long as humanity cannot completely coexist with the Honkai, the energy of the Imaginary Element will be continuously injected into the 'Cocoon of the End,' which will then catalyze the emergence of new Herrschers of the End, ultimately destroying civilization. The original Stigmata Project was designed to exploit the weaknesses of the End and dominate it in a way that it could not refuse."

"However, unfortunately, as you have seen, the Stigmata Project was seized by the Ice Queen and became a way for her to dominate civilization. From a human perspective, humanity wants to become a civilization in a different way. This Stigmata Project is more in line with the screening of the End Cocoon. This is why we cannot judge whether what the Ice Queen did was right or wrong!"

"So, in that case..." Kiana tentatively asked, "What do I need to do to defeat the Ice Queen who rules over civilization?"

Chapter 287 Kiana's Trial, Cruel Reality

The will of the Stigmata replied: "What you truly need is to pass my test and thus master the true power of the End. As we all know, the power of the End originates from the Cocoon of the End, and the Cocoon is actually a mirror for civilization. When you master the power of the End, you will be the Cocoon of the End. At that time, the way you embrace humanity will be the way the Cocoon embraces humanity. When you become the Herrscher of the End, you will naturally have the possibility of defeating the Ice Queen."

"How can I become the Herald of the End!?"

Although she was somewhat surprised that she could become the Herrscher of the End, Kiana couldn't care less at the moment. After all, the threat of the Ice Queen could come at any time, and she had to quickly gain power to defeat her.

"Then, Kiana, why not face your destiny head-on?" A passage appeared before Kiana, who was looking on in astonishment. The will of the Stigmata said, "Go, Kiana, this is the test you will have to face sooner or later."

Once inside the passage, the surrounding darkness completely vanished, replaced by a brand new world.

Kiana looked around: "This place... is all solid ice... could this be Kevin's dream?"

The will of the Stigmata walked beside her and said, "This is the deepest part of the Kaslana Stigmata space. In terms of the Chimera Project, this is indeed his dream."

Kiana inquired of the Stigmata's Will, "...The Chimera Project?"

The will of the Stigmata explained, "I think you should know that the source of the so-called Kaslana bloodline is the Honkai Beast genes that were integrated into Kevin's body."

"The power of various Honkai Beasts converged and fused within his body, which is why his fusion gene is called Chimera. But what few people know is that this is also the starting point for the existence of the Stigmata Space."

"The power of the end that Kevin used was obtained with the help of Prometheus from the previous civilization. Just before Kevin fought against Alaya-vijnana, he also left a channel in this Stigmata space that could connect to the Cocoon of the End. As long as you can get the coordinates of the channel, the successor can master the power of the end through this channel."

"Then how do I obtain the coordinates to master the power of the end!?"

After all, she knew nothing about these things, so Kiana could only ask the Will of the Stigmata beside her.

"It's very simple, just defeat me!"

The Stigmata's will transformed into the form of an Abyss in front of Kiana, and a weapon similar to Kevin's, the Blazing Annihilation, appeared in its hand.

"what do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says! Kiana Kaslana's power of the End is not something you can handle right now. If you can't even beat me, then getting the coordinates is useless, because if you accept the power of the End, you will be devoured by it on the spot. So I don't want to send you to your death, and I don't think the Ice Queen did anything wrong!"

"So you betrayed Kevin and wanted to kill me here to help the Ice Queen?"

"No, I've just made a different choice. Kiana, if the characters from the stories in the book were to come to life and build their own world, extending their infinite possibilities into the future... what do you think such a world would be like compared to the current human world?"

Kiana shook her head: "I don't know, but it shouldn't be too bad."

"And that's what I want to tell you: the characters in books and stories don't experience the pain of birth, aging, sickness, and death, nor are they in danger of the world being destroyed. Do you still think that's just not bad?"

"You mean what the Ice Queen is doing right now! What a joke, living in a fake world, what kind of life is that!"

Kiana's Flame Greatsword displayed unprecedented speed, the greatsword in her hand moving like a phantom, striking the Will of the Stigmata hundreds of times in a very short time. Unfortunately, all of this was meaningless and caused no damage.

"useless!"

A storm of ice erupted in the sky, and the blast wave blew Kiana away.

"Who knows what's true and what's false? If you believe it's true, then it's true. Humans only yearn for things that are good to them and don't care about unnecessary details. After all, what human would want to live in pain forever, in endless darkness? Once they have light, no one would want to choose darkness again."

"Human beings are full of errors and often degenerate. Although they can create beauty and miracles, they often destroy everything, even themselves, because of their arrogance. This is why they are always dominated by failure."

"...Is this considered boasting? The Will of the Holy Mark!"

Kiana looked at the Stigmata Will with a sarcastic expression. Now that the Stigmata Will had been identified as an enemy, all Kiana wanted to do was to cut it to pieces.

The Will of the Holy Mark shook its head: "No, I'm just relaying a concept. In the past, like Kevin, I was just a cold-eyed bystander, carrying out those mechanical missions. I loathed Kevin's fate, loathed their weakness... until a person who lost the name Kaslana, her unwavering will in the face of fate made me realize my own foolishness."

"Then how did you..."

"It is precisely because I discovered my own folly that I realized how cruel reality is. Not everyone is like her and you, possessing great power and able to control their own destiny. Kiana, have you ever thought about this? Most humans are just dust in history. No one cares about their deaths, and no one saves their lives!"

"Rather than let them live out their lives in what they consider a beautiful world, they should be allowed to endure such suffering and hardship. After all, the Holy Marks are just new humans transformed from the old humans. Both humanity and civilization have been preserved, which is why I agree with the Ice Queen's plan!"

"This is Kaslana's Stigmata Space. Every portion of Kaslana's power here is completely equal. If you want to prove your point, then come and challenge me one by one. Fight me, and you can obtain the power of the end!"

This is a test he gave Kiana. If Kiana can't even convince him, then she shouldn't go out and seek death.

Kiana stood up. She knew very well that she could not back down in this battle, nor did she have any reason to back down!

She had to fight. Whether it was to prove herself or to obtain the power of the end, she had to fight.

The will of the Holy Mark continued to speak: "You believe that civilization is what you see it to be, and that humanity is what you have continued to produce generation after generation, but this is nothing but an arrogant delusion!"

The moment the words fell, Kiana's attack arrived in front of him. The Stigmata Will, which had been motionless, blocked Kiana's attack with its greatsword at an extremely tricky angle. At the same time, it used a little force, and Kiana was sent flying by the greatsword.

Kiana got up from the ground. Now she understood that she was obviously no match for the will of the Stigmata. If the will of the Stigmata hadn't been without murderous intent, Kiana probably would have been dead long ago.

This made Kiana even more incredulous. Was this what they meant by perfectly equal power in the Stigmata Space? Where was the equality? She was completely utterly defeated.