"You're a monster. You'll always be a monster."
"Monster! Monster! Black-clawed monster!"
The puppets intensified their assault—their voices echoed from all directions.
There were men, women, young, old...
As if the whole world was calling Veliona a monster.
"Don't act like you know me! What I am has nothing to do with you!"
The words had barely fallen—
Dozens of puppets appeared out of thin air.
They laughed brazenly:
"Nailed it! Nailed it! Hahahaha!"
[This Herrscher is making my blood pressure rise.]
[I hereby crown her the Herrscher of Verbal Domination.]
[The more I watch, the more this Herrscher feels oddly familiar.]
...
Veliona was fighting the puppets.
Naturally, Seele wasn't exempt either. Having lost Veliona's strength, she quickly became overwhelmed by the Honkai Beasts the puppets summoned.
The puppets twisted their joints grotesquely, forming the shape of "乆," and resumed their trademark sarcastic barrage.
But no matter what they said, Seele—soft on the outside yet immensely strong within—never wavered.
"Don't act like you know her!"
Instead, her defiant echo of Veliona's words only enraged the puppets further.
They decided to kill Seele on the spot.
More and more Honkai Beasts surged around her.
Under pressure and exhaustion, her vision began to blur.
But even then, she was still worried about Veliona.
In the end...
She lost consciousness.
In the midst of her blackout, she seemed to hear Veliona calling her name.
When Seele came to again—
The scene around her had become that familiar workshop entrance.
In front of her was an anxious-looking Bronya.
She told Bronya everything she had just experienced, hiding nothing.
Seeing this, Mobius let loose in the stream:
"Shifting the narrative, flipping right and wrong, taking part for the whole... Tsk tsk, those puppets are just a garbage heap."
"If they actually had the skill to present a coherent argument, I might give them some credit—but this?"
"Even what Kalpas says sounds more convincing than their nonsense."
She paused.
"My advice is, if they expect to win people over with mere words, they'd better give up now.
They can barely convince themselves, let alone others."
"Even a Herrscher should recognize their limits. They simply don't have what it takes."
[When it comes to sarcasm, Mobius-sama reigns supreme! (leans back tactically)]
[So satisfying! Mobius nailed it!]
[Though Kalpas might find it a bit rude, LOL]
Kalpas: "..."
After a moment, Kalpas gave a merciless conclusion:
"Scum worth slaying."
"A rare moment of agreement between Mobius and Kalpas."
Elysia commented before focusing again on the main story.
Unlike Mobius and Kalpas, she didn't voice any evaluation of this Herrscher.
The story continued.
After explaining everything, Seele and Bronya entered the warehouse together.
Inside the sculptor's residence, they found a mysterious theater ticket with strange writing on it.
Later, they returned to Anti-Entropy to report their findings and were soon dispatched on another related mission.
A few days later, to collect data, Seele and Kiana worked together to eliminate infected mechs near a device, and recovered another ticket with odd text.
But after returning to Anti-Entropy, Veliona became furious that Seele kept bringing up Kiana, and the two had a fierce argument.
At that moment, the puppets seized the opportunity and dragged the enraged Veliona into the Theater of Domination.
Once again, the puppets mocked her with biting sarcasm—
Exposing, one by one, all the things Veliona cared about, tearing through her defenses without restraint.
"Shut up!"
"Shut up!"
"Shut up!!"
Veliona's repeated shouts made her growing agitation obvious.
Normally, she wouldn't have broken down so easily,
But after that explosive fight with Seele, her mental state was already fragile.
The puppets, sensing victory, stopped while they were ahead and released Veliona from the Theater of Domination.
Back in her inner world, alone, Veliona could no longer control her emotions.
"Bastards! Bastards! BASTARDS!!"
She cursed over and over, her voice gradually tinged with sobs.
Some keen-eyed players even noticed a subtle detail.
Elysia suddenly gasped:
"Wait... did Veliona's subtitle color change? It's getting close to the puppet's text color!"
"That's right," Mobius confirmed. "Looks like what the puppets said about making Veliona 'one of them' wasn't just talk."
Players who had sensed trouble for Veliona and Seele were now genuinely panicking.
[??? Veliona's color really changed?!]
[No way? No way? NO WAY?!]
[I don't believe it! Veliona and Seele are so sweet—how could...]
[Is this going to be another Sentience vs. the Ancient One moment?! Come on, miHoYo, have some humanity!]
...
The next day, the story only fueled more dread.
Because Veliona didn't wake Seele up, she overslept for the first time.
Everyone at the base was shocked.
During training:
"Other me, look—they brought in new training bots." Seele said.
But... there was no reply.
At lunch, at noon—
In the meeting room, at 3 PM—
In Seele's room, at 11 PM—
An entire day passed, and Veliona never appeared.
It was as if she'd vanished completely.
Seele tossed and turned in bed before finally opening her eyes and letting out a soft sigh.
"Other me... don't be mad anymore, okay?
I know you're always thinking of me. You're always by my side, protecting me.
Everything you say is for my sake—I understand."
"You always want to fight in my place because you're afraid I'll get hurt.
But I'm afraid you'll get hurt too."
"To me, you're irreplaceable. You're important.
I want to become strong, like you—
Strong enough to protect you."
"You don't want me to get too close to others,
Don't want me to get hurt,
Don't want me to be lied to or betrayed,
Afraid I'll turn back into the coward who only cried inside boxes."
"It's okay. I'm not afraid.
Because... I have you."
Seele's words calmed the anxious hearts of all the players.
Even the background music in the game suddenly lightened.
Earlier, everyone was still worried about what Seele would do next—
But now... she had entered lullaby mode.
"Go Seele~!" Fairy Miss gave her full support.
Seele continued:
"You always want me to care more about myself—
But you are a part of that 'self' I care about, too."
"I thought about it seriously, and in the end, there's only one answer—"
"You are me.
I am you.
We are equals.
You want me to be happy—
And I want you to be happy, too."
Seele's heartfelt confession moved Veliona deeply—
So much so that Veliona decided she'd listen to a few more lines before coming out.
But she waited, and waited...
Only to find Seele had fallen asleep.
Veliona was instantly annoyed.
She scribbled "Seele" on Seele's face as "revenge"...
But wiped it off at the last second.
Even more touching—Veliona's text color gradually returned to red.
Details—miHoYo always delivers.
[Seele, that was beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! (voice cracking)]
[So when it's fluff we praise the characters, but when it's pain we curse the writers, huh?]
[You! Yeah, you in the comment above—are you secretly one of the writers?! (lol)]
[I'm not! (deleted 50-cent comment)]
[Ancient One, learn from this! Look at her!]
[Sentience: People like her can't be real! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!]
...
"Hehehe~~" Elysia couldn't hold back her auntie grin.
Mobius nodded. "Not bad."
Kalpas, too, gave approval. "Seele... not bad."
Meanwhile, the Seele twins watching the livestream were exchanging glances, cheeks slightly flushed.
They hadn't felt it while dubbing,
But now that they were watching it...
Yeah, kind of embarrassing.
"I'm not like the in-game Seele. I don't need anyone to comfort me." 'Seele' said stubbornly.
"The things in-game Seele said... I probably couldn't say them that well." Seele replied softly.
"What?! You couldn't say them?"
'Seele's' voice suddenly rose a few notches.
Seele blinked. "Umm..."
Realizing she had misspoken, 'Seele' stood up abruptly before Seele could answer.
"I'm... thirsty. I'll go get some water."
After 'Seele' left the room, Seele sat quietly for a while, then opened her chat app.
Seele: [Hokuto-oniichan.]
The Hokuto-oniichan who could write a script so in tune with Veliona's heart—
He could definitely help her too.
At that moment, in the miHoYo studio watching the stream with everyone else, Hokuto felt his phone vibrate.
He picked it up and glanced at it.
"Seele?"
"Hm?" Duck Duck beside him heard it. "Seele?"
"Yeah, looks like she needs something from me," Hokuto replied.
Bronya looked even more surprised:
"Seele messaged you? Since when did you and Seele...
How many people have you been hitting on behind miHoYo's back?"
Hokuto: "..."
Kiana nodded rapidly:
"Yeah, seriously! And gender clearly doesn't matter to you either."
Hokuto: "???"
"You guys go back to watching the stream."
Hokuto rolled his eyes.
"I'll chat with Seele for a bit."
Hokuto: [What's up, Seele?]
Seele: [It's like this... I want to open up to 'Seele' too. Hokuto-oniichan, can you give me some advice?]
Hokuto: [Simple. Tonight, just climb into 'Seele's' bed and tell her everything in your heart while she pretends to be asleep.]
Seele: [Will that really work...?]
Hokuto: [Would I ever lie to the adorable Seele? (serious)]