"…"
"..."
Fu Hua, who had just regained control of her body, and the Herrscher of Sentience stared at each other in silence.
Senti had used the Immortal's body for over a week, while Fu Hua had been trapped inside the server.
Now, after molecular-level reconstruction, the two of them shared identical memories, nearly identical appearances, and the same figure.
The only way to tell them apart was through expression—Senti was far more flamboyant than Fu Hua.
She lounged carelessly in a chair, legs crossed, glancing down at her body.
Then she closed her eyes, summoning Honkai energy.
Boom—
A shockwave rippled through the room—not too large, not too small.
"Not bad. At least no weaker than before."
"Pretty good. I remember even Dr. Mei in the Previous Era didn't have this technology."
Senti flashed a bright smile at Setsuna and Grey, giving them a thumbs-up.
"Only thing is, the memories in my head are still identical. Ugh, headache. That old fossil crammed way too much junk in here. I need to delete some."
She turned toward Fu Hua.
"Since we're two people now, if I delete stuff from my head, it's got nothing to do with you, right?"
"Do as you please."
Fu Hua snorted.
Seeing a Herrscher with the same memories and body as her only made her curious.
"Stare…"
Suddenly, when she turned her head, she found Setsuna, Grey, Tohru, and the others staring at her nervously.
"What? Is there a problem?"
Puzzled, Fu Hua touched her face, wondering if something was stuck there.
"Immortal, how do you feel seeing little Senti?"
Setsuna pointed at Senti.
"Hm? Feel?"
"She's a bit noisy, but not a bad person. Willing to fight against the Honkai—I've never seen a Herrscher like that. You said she's connected to Elysia and me, right?"
"With her here, we can also learn more about the Honkai. Hah, if only Herrschers in the Previous Era had been this easy to talk to."
Fu Hua thought for a moment and sighed.
"Looked at this way, Honkai forcing her into my body might actually be a good thing."
"I even considered sharing one body with her to fight together against Honkai. But thanks to your advanced technology, that won't be necessary."
"..."
Everyone exchanged glances.
Tohru cautiously spoke first:
"You don't want to fight her?"
"Fight? Why? Her jokes can be a bit much, but you can discipline her in the future."
Fu Hua asked back in confusion.
"..."
"Congratulations, you're cured."
The dragon girl exhaled in relief, patting the Immortal's shoulder.
Fu Hua—who used to be utterly fanatical—had changed.
Before, at the first sign of Honkai corruption, she would cut it down without hesitation.
Now, faced with a Herrscher alive before her, the Immortal only thought it enough that Setsuna kept her under control.
She even considered sharing her body with Senti to fight Honkai together.
Half a month ago, if Senti had appeared before Fu Hua, Taixuan Eminence would've cracked her skull instantly.
This wasn't the same Immortal as before.
"Huh?"
Fu Hua finally realized.
"Oh, so when Senti occupied your body, most of the Blade Mantra's influence got erased?"
Grey's fingers tapped rapidly on the holographic console.
"When you uploaded consciousness, the link between your soul and body was cut."
"And since Senti is the Herrscher of Sentience, she can't be bound by Blade Mantra. Occupying your body was like using Honkai energy to scrub it clean."
"As a result, most of the Blade Mantra's effects faded. As long as you live a more normal life, there won't be a problem."
Her loneliness had been born of centuries of solitary wandering. Now, not only did she have little Cangxuan for company, but also a large group of companions.
Setsuna suspected Grey or Senti might have "led her astray."
"I see…"
Fu Hua nodded thoughtfully.
Back when she received treatment from Tohru, Fu Hua had felt a subtle shift.
After the Herrscher of Sentience had occupied her body, her thoughts had become much clearer.
It was as if a long-held obsession constantly pushing her forward had finally been released.
"Hey, hurry up and thank me, old fossil!!!"
"I'm your lifesaver!!!"
Senti stood proudly before her, hands on her hips.
"…Thank you."
Fu Hua responded calmly.
"!!!"
The straightforward answer left Senti momentarily speechless.
"Hah! From now on, we'll go our separate ways. Don't interfere with me, and I won't interfere with you."
After some thought, the Herrscher waved her hand flamboyantly.
"Our memories up to now are the same, but from here on out, our paths split!"
"I used your body for a few days, cured your illness—we're even."
"Mm."
Fu Hua nodded in agreement.
"..."
"By the way, doesn't that mean Senti is technically stronger than Fu Hua now?"
Grey suddenly noticed a flaw.
She essentially had Herrscher Authority on top of Fu Hua's peak Immortal physique…
"Not necessarily…"
Setsuna shook his head.
"If both of them clashed with Taixuan Eminence, Senti would probably get pounded into the floor by Fu Hua."
"That move requires complete serenity of mind to unleash its full power… not really Senti's thing."
...
With Senti gaining a new body, the incident caused by consciousness uploading finally came to a close.
Senti was quite satisfied with her new body—except for its size.
She spent her days wandering the station, occasionally cooperating with the research lolis for experiments.
She was the first Herrscher the Starsea Empire had ever met—and in a sense, the easiest to get along with.
As long as you knew the right way to deal with her, even the lolis could wrap her around their little fingers.
"Um, we'd like to conduct some deeper research on your Honkai energy level and Authority. Could you help us out?"
One morning, a loli knocked on her door, stepping into Senti's room.
"Hah? Why? Figure it out yourselves."
"I'm busy."
Without looking up, Senti stayed engrossed in the history book in her hands.
The Starsea Empire's war records spanned multiple dimensions, and she found them fascinating.
"Great Herrscher of Sentience, we've run into difficulties in our Honkai research. We need your assistance."
The little loli bowed slightly.
Smack—
Senti blinked, closed the holographic screen, stood up, and straightened her clothes.
"Lead the way."
...
Meanwhile—
Setsuna scratched off items on his notebook checklist.
"2.1 Fu Hua, illness cured, ok…"
"2.1 Senti, unexpected gain, big profit."
"Kallen, Yae Sakura, Yae Rin—all fine, currently being taught basic knowledge…"
"…What else was there again?…"
He recalled the era of Saga of the Shattered Swords. At that time, most of modern civilization hadn't even been born yet.
Some remnants from the Previous Era still lingered here.
Some could not be touched, to avoid disturbing the worldline. Others could be acted on after evaluation.
Suddenly, inspiration struck.
"The Ark Project?! I remember the Previous Era launched a starship into space!"
"Fifty thousand years… As far as I know, they didn't have jump technology. It couldn't have gone too far…"
Shwoosh—
He pulled up the comms interface.
"Summon the fleet."
...
A few hours later—
Setsuna gathered with several shipgirls, along with Fu Hua and Senti, inside the station's conference room.
It was the first time the Immortal had taken part in a formal action plan, while the Herrscher of Sentience was purely there to stir things up and watch the fun.
"Mm… simply put, I just remembered something."
Setsuna projected a star map onto the holographic interface.
"In the Previous Era, aside from Fu Hua carrying out the Project EMBER, there was also the Ark Project, correct?"
"You people launched a spacecraft into space, intending to head toward the next era or find a new world?"
He looked toward the Immortal.
"The Ark… Project…"
Hearing the name, Fu Hua froze.
To her, those memories were thousands, even tens of thousands of years old.
In the Previous Era, to face the End, four salvation projects were devised: the Project ARK, the VALUKA Project, the Project EMBER, and the Project STIGMA.
Fu Hua, along with Cangxuan and Dan Zhu, carried out the Project EMBER—after humanity's extinction and rebirth, they would use Previous Era technology to guide the growth of the new civilization.
The Project ARK, however, was simple:
Build a spaceship capable of interstellar travel, carrying with it all the Previous Era's technological achievements and genetic samples, and set out to find a new world.
If the human sanctuaries failed to evade the End, the Ark's crew would serve as the Previous Era's final vanguard against Honkai—seeking a new home for humanity, and resisting Honkai along the way.
"Tsk tsk, couldn't win so you ran? How weak."
Senti clicked her tongue, mocking.
"..."
Fu Hua shot her a glare, then closed her eyes for a moment, recalling.
Her gaze drifted to the stars outside the viewport.
"The Ark Project was carried out by Griseo. Before the Final Herrscher struck, she departed Earth aboard the Ark."
"After its launch, it was supposed to make regular contact with us. But as it grew more distant from Earth, the communication delays grew longer and longer."
"About a thousand years ago, Kevin told me the Ark had gone silent. They concluded the project had failed."
Fu Hua let out a sigh.
The Previous Era's MANTIS cadres held projection meetings every ten years.
But with Griseo's Ark adrift in space for over fifty millennia, and the last two scheduled contacts receiving no signal…
They could only assume the worst.
The Project ARK had failed. The status of the ship was unknown.
And with the current civilization's technology, launching another spacecraft of that scale was impossible.
Thus, the focus had shifted to other salvation projects.
"You didn't set a destination? Like Alpha Centauri or something?"
Yukikaze tilted her head.
"Still stuck on Alpha Centauri, Alpha Centauri—have you been playing too much Three-Body?!"
Bonk—
Richelieu smacked her lightly.
"No."
Fu Hua shook her head.
"The Ark's AI was fully autonomous. Besides, our astronautics at the time weren't advanced enough for long-range stellar navigation or exploration."
"The Ark wasn't a defined migration plan with a target star. It was… more of a plan to preserve civilization's fire after extinction, a flight to escape annihilation."
She couldn't help but envy the Starsea Empire's interstellar capabilities.
If the Previous Era had faster-than-light ships, evacuating all of Earth to another system would have been easy.
Of course, the more likely scenario was that, before they could master FTL, the Final Herrscher would've wiped out civilization dozens of times.
"So Griseo's Ark has no known destination, no known route. Tch, a bit troublesome."
Setsuna gazed at the star map, deep in thought.
Thankfully, the Previous Era hadn't developed FTL. Otherwise, if Griseo had run at lightspeed for fifty thousand years, finding her would be impossible.
"Transfer more shipgirls from the capital. Begin a carpet search of the cosmos centered on the solar system."
Setsuna ordered.
Then he froze for a moment.
"Wait—so the one I'll be fishing up, will it be Big Griseo… or Little Griseo?…"
"Eh? Big and little?"
Fu Hua blinked, not following.
"I remember Griseo was still a quiet, reserved little girl when she departed?"
"She'll grow up."
Setsuna glanced at Fu Hua and Senti, both of whom had figures fit to launch carrier-based aircraft.
"Much bigger than you two, hm."
...
Shwoosh—Shwoosh—
"Iron Blood First Fleet has reached the target zone."
"Eagle Union Second Fleet, standing by."
"Sakura Empire First Fleet, ready."
"…"
Not long after, hundreds of starships emerged from transit anchors, an overwhelming fleet stationed beside the space station.
Under starlight, they loomed, majestic and solemn.
The natives inside the station panicked.
"Spaceships! So many spaceships!"
The Yae sisters clung to each other, trembling.
"Whoa?! Can I go play on them?!"
Senti asked eagerly.
"As long as you don't cause trouble, sure."
Setsuna divided search directions for each fleet via the holographic interface.
Searching space for a single starship wasn't as simple as splitting north, south, east, and west. Space was three-dimensional.
"The target may have long been lost in the cosmos, continuing on in autonomous mode."
"Primary objective is to capture and investigate the vessel. Secondary, conduct exploration of this sector."
Setsuna ordered.
"Understood."
Boom!!!—
The hundreds of ships roared to life, engines painting brilliant rainbows across the stars before vanishing into the void.
...
The Ark "Stars" had launched fifty thousand years ago.
Griseo had not taken part in the battle against the Final Herrscher. Instead, she replaced Kosma as executor of the Ark Project.
The ship carried all the Previous Era's accumulated knowledge, as well as countless human embryos and biological seeds.
If it found a habitable planet, it could rebuild civilization from scratch.
But the journey was unbearably long.
When faced with interstellar distances spanning light years, tens or even thousands, the Ark was but a leaf adrift in the ocean.
It couldn't even reach sub-light speeds, only creeping alone through the cosmos.
Inside the solitary craft, the girl painted endlessly on her canvas.
She rarely spoke, expressing all her thoughts through brushstrokes.
After undergoing Meta-Morph surgery, Griseo no longer feared the limits of lifespan.
Even after being named one of the Flame-Chasers Thirteen, she never fully grasped the meaning of Honkai, nor could she sense the world's disaster.
Her world was small—so small it contained only the gentle Elysia, Eden, and a single studio. Yet when she gazed at someone, it felt as if her eyes held the entire world, her brush spilling forth colors to create it anew.
On Earth, her self-portrait had been a starry sky. She was "Stars."
But in endless space, her canvases filled only with Earth's landscapes and memories of her companions.
Paint, paint…
Day after day, she sat in a corner of the ship, coloring her heart.
Sometimes, through the viewport, she glimpsed the Sun shrinking into a distant dot, Earth disappearing from sight.
At last, after countless ages of flight—
Her brush crumbled into ash. No image remained in her mind worth painting.
The Ark still drifted, alone, through the void.
"Griseo, it's time to sleep."
The girl sighed, lying down inside the stasis pod.
"Ark Project, continue. Enter autonomous mode."
Shwoosh—
As liquid filled the pod, engulfing her body, Griseo's consciousness sank into darkness.
Perhaps only when the Ark found a new home, or returned to Earth, would she awaken again.
...
Who knew how much time had passed.
In the boundless void—
The Ark's receivers suddenly picked up foreign signals.
[Royal Navy First Carrier Fleet, target located]
[Confirmed. Threat neutralized]
[Deploying shuttlecraft. Preparing to board, over.]
—
—
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