Hum—
The starship once again initiated high-dimensional traversal.
Below, Earth spun as time flowed; everything on the holographic display accelerated in fast-forward.
After the first Herrscher and most of Schicksal's scientists were taken away, word of the incident quickly reached Schicksal's high command.
At Schicksal Headquarters—
Otto stared, dumbfounded, as he listened to his subordinate's report.
"The Herrscher was... taken by a ship?!"
Even after nearly five centuries, Otto still appeared as young as ever.
Half a millennium of life had tempered his composure, yet this explosive revelation shattered his calm entirely.
From the on-site reports, the insignia on that vessel, and the presence of that familiar Shenzhou immortal—
There was no mistaking it.
All evidence pointed toward the same entity Schicksal had sought for centuries: the Starsea Empire.
"Why... why now of all times? ..."
Since the Schicksal War, the Starsea Empire had vanished from history—as if erased from existence. No trace of them had been found since.
Those within Schicksal who knew the truth had mixed feelings—part relief, part regret.
If a full-scale war had erupted back then, with Schicksal's level of technology, they wouldn't have stood a chance.
Their disappearance had lasted nearly five hundred years.
Leadership had changed countless times; Schicksal had evolved from a theocratic order into a modern technocratic-military organization.
Many had even forgotten the Empire's existence entirely, believing Schicksal's technological progress had only tenuous historical ties to it.
But now—the Starsea Empire had returned to their world's stage.
"Archbishop, we've compared the evidence with ancient records. Both the ship's design and those angel-like constructs perfectly match the descriptions."
One subordinate spoke gravely.
By the twentieth century, no one mistook the Angeloids for divine messengers anymore—they were quickly identified as some form of autonomous combat androids.
"..."
Otto frowned deeply.
His thoughts raced as he pieced together centuries of events, trying to discern the Starsea Empire's true objective.
They had taken Kallen, the Immortal Phoenix, the Six Disciples of Taixuan, and the Divine Keys...
Centuries of silence—only to reappear and directly abduct a Herrscher and Schicksal's top scientists.
"Honkai... Herrschers... and the researchers studying Honkai energy..."
"Could it be... they're also after the Honkai?"
He felt a faint pattern behind their actions—but no matter how he tried, he couldn't grasp the missing piece.
It was like a puzzle with one vital part gone.
"To conquer Earth and humanity? No... if that were their goal, they could have done it in the 15th century..."
No matter how long he pondered, even Otto—who fancied himself the smartest man alive—could not find the answer.
"Kallen... Starsea Empire..."
Otto gazed up at the heavens, contemplating what must be done to find Kallen—and how to prepare for a confrontation with the Starsea Empire.
"Honkai energy... starships..."
He replayed the Schicksal War in his mind over and over.
Then, a thought struck him.
To face a mighty enemy, one needed not just advanced technology—but powerful warriors as well.
Ideally, power that could be fully controlled by his own hands.
"...Warriors? Valkyries?"
Naturally, the idea came to him.
"..."
"Uh, if I remember correctly," Gudako said, peering over Setsuna's shoulder as they observed the unfolding events from orbit, "didn't he originally screw over Einstein, lock Welt Joyce in a lab for years, and eventually fall out with Planck and the others?"
"Now that Welt and Einstein are gone... what's he gonna do?"
Below, chaos rippled through Schicksal.
The entire organization was thrown into disarray, desperately searching for any trace of the Herrscher or the missing scientists.
They even launched several near-Earth satellites to scan for clues of the Starsea Empire in orbit—only to find nothing at all.
"This event has over thirty possible outcomes. To ensure that everyone meant to appear will appear, we've already guided the worldline toward a precise direction."
Grey tapped the holographic tree diagram and gestured for Setsuna to proceed.
Whoosh—
The transdimensional starship advanced along the temporal axis.
Below, the world accelerated rapidly.
Two years later—
At Schicksal Headquarters, deep beneath the surface, Otto stood with a team of scientists inside a secret laboratory. Before them, rows of incubation pods lined the walls.
"Type A-1 clone experiment—begin."
Inside the pods floated countless young girls with nearly identical faces. Each was cloned from the DNA of Schicksal's greatest Valkyrie from five centuries ago—Kallen Kaslana. If successful, they would produce warriors of unparalleled power.
Click—
However, as soon as the clones were removed from the incubation chambers, their bodies began dissolving at a visible rate, vanishing within seconds.
"Failure. None of the clones can survive outside the chamber."
Otto's expression darkened as he reviewed the results.
Over the next several months, he repeated the experiment countless times, refining the cloning procedure.
"Human DNA can sustain life, but if we want soldiers more adaptable to Honkai energy... perhaps we need to take a different approach."
"Add Honkai Beast DNA, perhaps... Vishnu's cells?"
After repeated failures with the A-1 and A-2 types, success finally arrived.
The hybrid subject infused with high-tier Honkai Beast—Vishnu—cells survived.
These clones could now move freely outside their tanks. However, for unknown reasons, their physical growth halted at the age of twelve.
Many possessed immense physical strength but lacked any self-awareness, mindless shells without consciousness.
Only one clone showed a difference from the rest.
"Hm..."
A silver-haired, blue-eyed girl in a Schicksal nun's uniform stepped out of her pod, gazing around in confusion.
"Where... am I? Who am I?"
She looked around the underground chamber in bewilderment.
[Experiment A-310: successful.]
[Vital signs stable. Honkai energy compatibility: 69%...]
The holographic interface displayed a cold mechanical report.
Otto examined A-310's data carefully.
"A-310? Is that my name? And who are you?" the girl asked curiously.
"She can already process language and respond logically?"
"Why does this one differ from the others—she's questioning her own existence?"
Otto and the researchers exchanged astonished glances.
"Interesting... she might truly possess self-awareness."
"A-310," Otto said. "If you can pass the trials I give you, I will tell you my name—and grant you your own."
"If you wish to obtain everything, then fight for it. Fail, and you lose everything. Only one of you may survive."
Bzzz—
The communication link ended.
Otto watched the newly born girl enter combat. Her courage and strength far exceeded expectations.
She passed every test.
In the end, she stood as the sole survivor.
Otto was elated.
Before the Schicksal high council, he made his declaration.
"A-310. I have decided to adopt her as my granddaughter."
"Her name shall be... Theresa Apocalypse."
"???"
"Wait, what?!"
Aboard the transdimensional starship, Setsuna was stunned.
He realized this event occurred about twenty years earlier than in the original timeline.
It was absurd—but made sense. Without the first Herrscher and the Anti-Entropy scientists, Otto naturally turned to other means to strengthen Schicksal.
"Theresa's twelve now... if we jump to the era before the Second Honkai War..."
"She'd be around sixty?" Setsuna rubbed his temples.
"Well, she doesn't age anyway," Grey replied nonchalantly.
"That makes her a legal loli! A legal loli!!"
"Are we going to take Theresa now?" Fu Hua asked curiously.
"Otto seemed to have intended to cultivate her as a combat tool for Schicksal. Though strangely enough, he seems to care about that little girl."
It was difficult to imagine that a man as cold and calculating as Otto—who would sacrifice anything for his goals—would spend so much effort on a clone.
"Probably because he saw something of Kallen in her," Grey shrugged, her fingers gliding across a holographic interface filled with millions of lines of code.
"If we take her now, correcting the future timeline will be a nightmare. It's not yet time."
"No need to rush. According to my calculations, about sixty years from now, Theresa and Kiana will come to find the Commander themselves."
"?"
Setsuna couldn't quite understand how that bizarre prediction came about.
After thinking about it, he remembered that the Honkai-1 Space Station had run detailed simulations and models of the entire Honkai world. Their predictions about the future were unlikely to be wrong.
Besides, with the transdimensional starship's ability to freely traverse timelines, even if something went wrong, they could simply reload from an earlier point.
"Guh..."
Kallen's expression was complicated as she looked below.
Seeing her own clone was undeniably strange.
Especially since Otto—who regarded human life as expendable—was treating that child with such care. It made her frown deeply.
"That's a bit too much..."
"This is only the beginning. The truly monstrous behavior comes later," Grey smirked.
"Commander, let's keep moving."
"The next timeline... around forty years later."
"Alright."
Whoosh—
The transdimensional starship continued traveling forward along the temporal axis.
Time flowed.
Below, the world accelerated.
Setsuna watched as Theresa rapidly grew under Schicksal's training, quickly becoming a B-rank Valkyrie.
Under Otto's deliberate arrangements, she fought Honkai Beasts and soon proved her worth, eventually being appointed as the head of the Apocalypse family.
Since Judas' Oath was still in Kallen's possession, Theresa temporarily used standard Schicksal weaponry instead.
Meanwhile, another of Schicksal's three great families—the Schariac family—began stepping onto the stage of history.
Planck, Einstein, and the First Herrscher had all been taken away earlier, so the Anti-Entropy rebellion never happened.
Schicksal expanded rapidly, soon becoming the dominant power across the entire planet.
Otto consolidated nearly all of humanity's resources to combat the Honkai and continue developing spaceflight technology.
With the help of the Previous Era's Herrscher Cores and Honkai energy, technological progress on Earth accelerated dramatically.
Cities became increasingly modernized, with small personal aircraft flying freely through the atmosphere.
Schicksal's lunar expedition succeeded, reaching the Moon to uncover its hidden secrets.
However, most of the valuable lunar relics had already been taken centuries earlier by the Science Division.
The Schicksal expedition only discovered that the lunar soil contained large reserves of Honkai energy—and what seemed to be remnants of ancient research facilities and battlefields.
The scientists couldn't make sense of it.
Even after sending multiple lunar expeditions, all they brought back were samples of Honkai-infused regolith—no new discoveries.
"???"
Otto couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
He was certain that something monumental lay hidden on the Moon, yet no usable data could be found.
Meanwhile—
Setsuna watched familiar figures from the original timeline being born, one after another.
From time to time, the Science Division dispatched Angeloids to subtly intervene at various points in history.
"Hurry! It's 1972! We need to send someone down there—make sure the two Schariac ancestors meet! Otherwise, no Cecilia!"
"It's already 1985?! Quick! Make sure Himeko's parents meet each other!"
"And Cheng Lixue—save her already!"
Ever since the recovery of the Herrscher of Reason, subtle yet vast changes rippled across the planet's worldlines.
The fates of countless people diverged from the original path, reshaped by the butterfly effect.
Ever since Setsuna had taken Fu Hua away, the part of the original story where Fu Hua adopted Cheng Lixue vanished.
To ensure she would still grow up safely, certain adjustments had to be made.
The Science Division's task was to use mathematical predictions and simulations to correct and stabilize the future over the vast flow of time.
...
"Uh, I just realized something good about having a transdimensional starship," Formidable said, touching her hair.
"When we visited the DITF and Re:Zero worlds, we brought back a bunch of little girls. We had to raise and educate them slowly. But now, with this ship, we can just travel to the future and meet them after they've grown up."
"Actually, 02, Ram, and Rem all have ways to grow up faster," Grey replied, clicking her tongue. "Though... those methods are kind of shady."
"Oh? ..."
Einstein, Edison, and the others watched the bustling Science Division at work aboard the ship, astonished as they subtly altered the flow of human destiny through minute manipulations. It was yet another wonder atop the mountain of Starsea Empire technologies that had already shocked them.
But even all that advanced tech paled compared to this—tampering with fate itself on a higher-dimensional level.
"Hmm—" Einstein tilted her head back, gazing into the endless void beyond the viewport.
"Could it be that, in an even higher dimension, someone is using similar technology to manipulate our fates? That every coincidence that changed our lives was inevitable in the eyes of those higher beings—that our destinies were determined from the moment we were born?"
"...You have quite the imagination," Kayo Senju muttered, her face dark with exasperation. "But such 'brain-in-a-vat' theories can never be proven. Just live happily while you can."
"We'll explore higher dimensions someday," Einstein murmured. "Perhaps then, we'll find the answer to that question..."
"Why are you so fixated on ensuring specific people appear?" Edison asked curiously.
"Because the Commander considers all of them his wives. If even one is missing, he'll come complain to me," Grey said flatly, not even looking up.
"Also... I think tampering with the natives' fates is kinda fun—like playing The Sims: Plus Edition."
"???"
The Honkai scientists looked at Setsuna with newfound respect—and mild terror.
"Ahem, time's up."
Watching Earth orbit the Sun a few more times, Grey glanced at the chronometer and reminded Setsuna.
Boom—
The starship descended from higher-dimensional space, re-entering the Solar System.
The control console displayed the current date clearly: Year 1991.
In just a few hours, they had leaped forward forty years.
Below them, Earth had grown even more prosperous.
Skyscrapers pierced the clouds, and countless satellites orbited the planet. The most distant unmanned probe had already passed Uranus' orbit, sailing toward the edge of the Solar System.
With Honkai energy aiding development, aerospace technology was far ahead of what Earth should have achieved in this era.
At this rate, true long-distance manned spaceflight wasn't far off.
"Alright," Setsuna said, glancing at the display. "At this point in the timeline, the individuals we need to retrieve include these."
He and Grey summoned the Angeloids.
With a snap of his fingers, several profiles appeared in the air.
"Cecilia Schariac, Patrick Highsmith, Cheng Lixue..."
He skimmed through them.
Some matched the original timeline. For instance, Cecilia was still the saint of the Schariac family—one of Schicksal's three great houses—wielding the family's unique ability to manipulate Honkai energy at high level, and the Sixth Divine Key, Black Abyss.
As for Cheng Lixue, due to Fu Hua's absence, she had been adopted by another family with the help of the Angeloids. Relying on her natural talent, she eventually joined Schicksal's Valkyrie Corps.
Her combat style wasn't based on Fu Hua's Edge of Taixuan, but an unfamiliar sword art Setsuna had never heard of.
"Hey, Hua, when we get back, you wouldn't mind taking another disciple, would you? Cheng Lixue's a good kid."
He smiled at Fu Hua. Teaching her Taixuan techniques seemed only logical.
"Hm? If you say so..." Fu Hua looked puzzled but agreed.
"Operation start."
Click—
The ship's lower bay door opened as Grey led the Angeloids aboard a shuttle bound for Earth.
"By my command—bring the Commander's mother-in-law aboard!"
"Ah, I can already sense the future capital being the stage for a grand family drama," Grey sighed.
—
—
40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:
Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven