In The Honkai World: Transforming Into An IF-Route Valkyrie

Irene soared through the upper sky, the extreme velocity warping the world around her into a blur of distortion — and all she felt about it was pure exhilaration.

Flying free like this, whenever it happened, was its own kind of joy. A sense of freedom that transcended the mundane world.

"Irene." Fu Hua's voice sounded softly in her ear.

"Mm-hmm, I'm here — what is it, Master?"

"What do you make of that Herrscher of Sentience?"

Irene shrugged. "Not much to make of, honestly. The situation is pretty self-evident — or rather, I know how this goes. I've seen it before. Lived through it, even."

"Master can ask the others too, if you like. They've been through it as well."

That was no exaggeration. Over on Little Corruption's end, the Herrscher of Sentience had indeed appeared — and had given her quite a scare just a moment ago. Only, when it came to facing Spiritual Adam, a Herrscher whose domain was consciousness itself had proven less effective than Little Corruption.

The reasons were twofold. First, Little Senti didn't possess the soul-preservation technique that Little Corruption had — a technique Little Corruption had reverse-engineered from the Elysian Realm.

Second, Little Corruption had treated herself as an embedded virus, burrowing directly into Spiritual Adam's body and exploiting his internal state alongside the Corruption virus to barely manage the creation of the Regret Realm.

The Herrscher of Sentience, unfortunately, had no such trick up his sleeve. He couldn't turn himself into an embedded virus and hide inside Spiritual Adam — so Spiritual Adam had simply treated him as an external intrusion and purged him accordingly.

Of course, being the Herrscher of Sentience, he had lasted somewhat longer than others would have. But against a Spiritual Adam fueled by the psychic death of all humanity, even the Herrscher of Sentience had ultimately failed to hold back the collapsing tide.

"So then..."

"He's a good person, Master. Just... his head is a little, mm, not quite working at full capacity right now."

"ACHOO!!!" A thunderous sneeze erupted from somewhere in a distant corridor. [Fu Hua] rubbed her nose. "Strange — is someone talking about me?"

[Fu Hua] glanced around, and finally let her awareness settle on that one familiar presence she'd been tracking. Familiar as could be — and still no sign of movement.

"It's not Kevin being petty because I punched a few holes in his base, is it?"

[Fu Hua] looked back at the wall she'd smashed clean through, and the scattered wreckage of mechs littering the floor — damage beyond counting.

"Hmm..." [Fu Hua] pulled her gaze away, a trace of embarrassment crossing her face. "The Kevin I remember isn't that small-minded, right? Yeah. Surely not."

Meanwhile, in the surveillance room, Raven was watching [Fu Hua] through the security feeds — punching her way through every obstacle like a one-woman wrecking crew. "What a headache. Why would Lord Hua come here? This doesn't add up."

Raven's reason for being here was simple enough. She'd just brought the children over and settled them in this base — the island still wasn't finished being renovated, so there'd have been no point taking them there. Since it was still something of a half-holiday, Raven had planned to spend some quiet, relaxed time with her children, and also to find a moment to reach out to a certain someone and pay the agreed-upon fee.

Instead of that someone showing up, though, Fu Hua had come knocking. And from the looks of things, she'd nearly punched her way all the way through. Strange — how did Lord Hua even know they had a base here?

Well, no time to worry about that now. If Lord Hua kept dismantling things at this rate, the automated defense system they'd sunk a fortune into was going to be completely written off.

Irene was nowhere to be seen, for that matter — the surveillance on the Roost showed no one else had come to visit. And that communicator Gray Serpent had left for Irene, Raven had since claimed for herself, but hadn't been able to get through.

Were they actually being stiffed on payment? Raven watched the screen as yet another reinforced blast door was punched off its hinges by Fu Hua.

"Better leave this to the Sovereign..." Raven watched [Fu Hua] carve through the automated defense mechs like they weren't there, and quietly used her access privileges to shut the automated defense system down.

All she could do right now was minimize the losses. Fighting was out of the question — that was Lord Hua, after all.

On the other side, [Fu Hua] watched the automated defense mechs gradually pull back, lowered her fists, and gave her hands a shake to flick off the bits of metal stuck to them.

"Looks like the main act is finally showing up." [Fu Hua] looked down the corridor. Kevin stepped out from the darkness and regarded the soot-covered [Fu Hua].

"Well, well. Long time no see." [Fu Hua] gave Kevin a casual wave. Going by her memories, the two of them were old comrades — the kind of bond forged in life-and-death battles.

Kevin stopped a short distance away and looked at the cheerful [Fu Hua]. After a moment of silence, he spoke. "Who are you?"

"Oh come on. Tens of thousands of years and you've forgotten who I am?" [Fu Hua] stepped eagerly forward, going in for a friendly pat on the shoulder the way old friends do.

Kevin stepped aside, dodging the hand she'd raised — but [Fu Hua] was undeterred, hooking her arm around his shoulder anyway.

"Hmph, how long has it been and you've already forgotten me?" [Fu Hua] quietly rose onto her tiptoes — given Kevin's height, draping an arm over his shoulder was no small feat for her.

"We're good friends, aren't we? Even if it has been fifty thousand years since we last met."

"..." Kevin looked at her in silence, removed the arm she'd hooked around his shoulder, and swept his gaze around their surroundings. "Let's talk outside."

"Of course." [Fu Hua] followed without suspicion, walking with Kevin out of the base. Kevin led her some distance away before finally stopping and turning back to look at her.

"The scenery here isn't exactly much to look at." [Fu Hua] surveyed the wasteland around them. "By the way, Kevin — old friend shows up after all this time, and you can't even say hello?"

"You weren't this talkative before... Hua." Kevin studied [Fu Hua]. He had already seen through the true nature of the Fu Hua before him — those distinctive psychic fluctuations were hard to miss.

What puzzled him was the Herrscher of Sentience's current state of mind. Why keep emphasizing that they were good friends? Was she trying to stress the nature of their relationship, or was she...?

A flicker of anxiety crossed [Fu Hua]'s eyes, but she quickly spoke up again. "Well, it's been so long, hasn't it? And I did basically come back from death's door — a little change is perfectly normal, right?"

[Fu Hua]'s gaze was locked tight on Kevin's expression, but Kevin's face didn't shift by a single muscle. It was completely still, almost paralyzed — not even a flicker in his eyes.

"You feel somewhat different from before." Kevin made no move to expose [Fu Hua]'s anxiety. "It seems like you've changed quite a bit these past few days."

"That I have — walk back from death's door and of course you're going to change." A visible wave of relief passed through [Fu Hua]'s eyes; she let out a breath that was plain to see.

"Anyway, you can think of me as an improved version of the old Hua~"

"Mm." Kevin gave a small nod. He had a rough grasp of what this Herrscher was thinking — which meant he could test a few other things.

"Why are you here?"

"Otto told me." [Fu Hua] answered without the slightest hesitation, telling Kevin plainly why she'd come. "He said I could go look up some old friends. I thought about it — I'd already pretty much finished demolishing his place — so I came here."

"Is that so." Kevin nodded. Being found was hardly surprising — frankly, he'd never intended to hide. From the moment he'd left the Eye of the Deep and set off toward the Realm with Griseo, he'd made no attempt whatsoever to conceal himself.

The reason was simple: he needed to make a high-profile entrance and announce his arrival. At the very least, the anti-Honkai organizations of the Current Era needed to know he was here.

If an entity as conspicuous as him — broadcasting Honkai energy like a beacon — couldn't be sensed, then the anti-Honkai organizations of the Current Era might as well be written off as useless.

Now that he'd sorted that out, Kevin's hand materialized the massive, flame-wreathed greatsword of the Judgment of Shamash. "So then — friend or foe?"

"Oh my." [Fu Hua] looked at Kevin, slowly cracked her knuckles, and settled into a stance. "As expected of my old comrade — you really get me."

"Done already?" [Fu Hua] watched Kevin put the greatsword away. The surrounding terrain had been reduced to open, scorched wasteland in the meantime — though most of that was Kevin's Judgment of Shamash at work, nothing to do with her.

"Mm, that's enough." Kevin put the sword away and looked at [Fu Hua]. He had a rough picture of the situation now — but he wanted to see just how much of Fu Hua this Herrscher of Sentience actually resembled.

"Well, if you're not going to keep fighting, then forget it." [Fu Hua] dropped her stance as well. "It's not like I'm some battle-crazed maniac."

"Though I have to say — you're every bit as formidable as I remembered. Getting a real opening on you is no easy thing."

[Fu Hua] sighed. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was probably just a cut below Kevin. Roughly speaking — what had been fifty-fifty was now more like forty-sixty. But Kevin had the Judgment of Shamash, and her Fenghuang Down was useless against him.

She was going to need a proper weapon. [Fu Hua] turned the problem over in her mind — where to find something suitable? Oh, right — Taixuan Mountain. She seemed to recall burying several Divine Keys there.

She'd head back to Taixuan Mountain after this and dig all of them up. With a handful of divine armaments in hand, there was no reason she couldn't beat Kevin. Definitely. Absolutely.

Kevin watched [Fu Hua] stand down. From the exchange just now, he had confirmed that this Herrscher truly did possess Fu Hua's body — and Fu Hua's martial arts along with it.

On the other hand, she seemed reluctant to use the Authority that should rightfully be hers. Or rather, whenever she did use it, it was exclusively channeled through feathers — through the Fenghuang Down.

For a Herrscher of Sentience, that was putting the cart before the horse — or rather, voluntarily giving herself extra hurdles to clear.

Given all of that, he had a rough idea of the state the Herrscher of Sentience was in. He simply hadn't anticipated that Fu Hua's Hyperthymesia — a side effect of her being a MANTIS — would have this kind of use.

To think that accumulated memory had simply brainwashed the Herrscher of Sentience outright. She likely had Fu Hua's entire mindset filling her head right now — which is to say: defeat the Honkai, protect humanity.

But at the end of the day, this was a newly-born will. She possessed Fu Hua's memories, yet that was all she possessed of her. Compared to the real Fu Hua, what she lacked was experience; what she had in excess was a certain childlike naivety.

What it looked like in practice was someone who acted like an old acquaintance the moment they met you, spoke with the cadence of someone weathered and wise — but let slip, every so often, the instincts of a child.

Yes. She was a good candidate. A Herrscher worth bringing into the Elysian Realm. With that thought, Kevin looked at Little Senti and spoke. "Would you like to come to the World Serpent?"

"Huh?" Little Senti tilted her head — then seemed to misread the question entirely and waved her hands in quick denial. "Join your World Serpent? Mm, no, no — I have no interest in working under you."

"That's not what I mean." Kevin shook his head. He'd finally caught another good Herrscher — he wasn't letting this one go easily. "Only that there may be some old friends who'd like to see you."

"Old friends?" Little Senti raised an eyebrow at that — but her gaze didn't go to Kevin. Instead, it drifted upward, toward the sky. "You mean her?"

"My, looks like I'm a little late to the party." Irene's figure dropped from the sky like a missile and landed on the ground. "Long time no see, Kevin — and Master~"

"Ahem, ahem." Little Senti fanned away the dust that billowed up in front of her, recognized the voice, turned it over carefully in her mind — and immediately brightened. "Oh, it's you, Irene."

"It's me~" Irene, using the cover of the dust cloud, sent Fu Hua — who was trying to come out — back where she'd come from, and thought inwardly: See, Master? This kid was getting along just fine with Kevin a moment ago. She's probably not a bad person.

[That's not necessarily a safe conclusion.] Fu Hua, looking through Irene's eyes, surveyed the wasteland around them. It was obvious Kevin had been responsible for most of it — but it also meant the person in front of them had been in a fight with Kevin.

[Either way, be careful.]

[Relax, I know.] Irene gave a small nod. "Though could someone explain to me what this enormous crater all around us is about? Did you two actually have a fight?"

"Ah, just a little friendly sparring between old comrades." [Fu Hua] waved it off with total nonchalance — then turned to look Irene up and down, a flash of surprise crossing her face.

"Wait — your Taixuan Sword Qi. How on earth are you already at Sword God in the blink of an eye?"

A look of genuine astonishment filled [Fu Hua]'s eyes. Was that even reasonable? How many years had Irene been training in Taixuan Sword Qi? Going by her memories, it couldn't have been even two years.

There was cheating, and then there was this. She knew Irene was a Herrscher — but even Herrschers had to follow certain rules, surely. Was the mental state behind Taixuan Sword Qi really that easy to climb?

"Well, that's because Master taught so well, isn't it?" Irene smiled at [Fu Hua]. She knew perfectly well that the best approach with Little Senti right now was flattery.

As long as Little Senti's mood was kept in good shape, she wasn't the type to kick up a fuss on her own.

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