Though they'd lost a little time thanks to Sirin's sudden "gift," when Lynelle thought about the Honkai fission bomb hurtling toward them—ready to blast them into oblivion—she decided it was time to cut short the mother-daughter moment (if you could call it that).
After all, if she didn't play that trump card now, Sirin and Cecilia would really be heading for a resurrection match—permanently.
Feeling both pairs of eyes fixed on her, Lynelle took a deep breath and pulled out a Curio from her system's backpack.
It looked a bit like a child's toy, but unlike the earlier Punklordian Regards, this one seemed closer to a work of art.
--+--
[Wish Upon a Star (Consumable)]
[Type: Curio]
[Rarity: 4-Star]
--+--
Wish Upon a Stars scattered across the cosmos—rumor had it they could grant any wish. But whether those wishes came true exactly as hoped, whether they demanded some hidden price… all of that remained a mystery.
After being modified by the system, the Wish Upon a Star would no longer twist the user's desire or extract some unknown cost.
In exchange, however, its wish-granting became unpredictable—it would directly read the user's deepest current longing and fulfill it.
Once used, the Curio would vanish from the backpack, replaced by another one-time-use item capable of fulfilling that wish. This new item had to be used within one minute, or it would disappear on its own.
--+--
[Remaining Uses: (1/1).]
--+--
This was exactly why Lynelle had insisted to Welt earlier that she could only use this Curio under the most desperate circumstances.
After all, without a psychic or hypnotist guiding her thoughts, it was nearly impossible for an ordinary person to control their subconscious desires. It was like that famous experiment—'If I tell you not to imagine a starry sky, the first thing that'll pop into your head is a starry sky.'
So, to make sure the item worked as intended, Lynelle had to create a "no other choice" scenario for herself.
That way, when she made her wish, her mind wouldn't wander.
Otherwise, if she happened to glance at Sirin's bare feet and some random thought like 'I wanna lick them' crossed her mind… well, it'd be game over.
"What's… that toy?"
Ignoring Cecilia's puzzled question, Lynelle solemnly cupped the Wish Upon a Star in both hands and closed her eyes.
"Answer me, Wish Upon a Star!"
"Let Cecilia and Sirin witness the future's end with their own eyes!"
Instantly, the Wish Upon a Star emitted a dazzling white light—then vanished.
In its place, another item appeared in Lynelle's backpack.
--+--
[Something Unto Death (Consumable)]
[Type: Drop Item]
[Rarity: 5-Star]
[After use, Something Unto Death can mark up to five targets according to the user's will. Once their bodies die, their souls enter a "Dream-Death" state. Souls in this state can be preserved for a maximum of one day.]
[If a soul is not placed into a suitable body within that time, it will dissipate automatically.]
[Remaining Uses: (1/1).]
--+--
[Pfft— Cough, cough, cough… What in the world?!]
At the exact moment Lynelle "drew" the item via the Wish Upon a Star, the customer service rep Kiana-chan—who'd been nervously watching from the system space—spat out her soda in shock.
[No way, why did Lynelle pull this?! Shouldn't her biggest wish be to keep Cecilia and Sirin alive? Even if she got something random, it should've been Fruit of the Alien Tree or Ambergris Cheese! What is this??]
Kiana-chan clutched her head, completely short-circuiting.
[Wait—check the system logs! Let me see how the Wish Upon a Star interpreted her wish…]
A few seconds later, Kiana-chan looked utterly burnt out.
She'd realized the Wish Upon a Star hadn't malfunctioned, and Lynelle hadn't messed up. The problem was… she'd oversimplified things.
In fact, just as Lynelle had privately reasoned, during the Second Honkai War, Otto might allow Siegfried to live, he might allow Welt to live, he might even allow most of the Snowwolf Squad to survive.
But there was no way he would let Sirin and Cecilia live—especially after he'd learned a method to resurrect Kallen from the Honkai God.
On one hand, Otto needed to create a new Herrscher of the Void.
Just like Kiana in the main timeline, she would need a long "upbringing"—only by breaking free through love, achieving metamorphosis, then pushing further through hatred of him, could she finally master Imaginary Reformation.
Sirin, as she was, didn't fit the bill—neither in timing nor in her current state. So Otto had to eliminate her and create a new Herrscher of the Void from scratch.
On the other hand, if Cecilia survived, given that most of the Snowwolf Squad was still alive and Cecilia's influence as a saint in Schicksal, one rallying cry from her could cause a generational collapse in Schicksal's top-tier combat power.
And if she defected to Anti-Entropy?
The balance between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy would flip entirely—especially now that Otto's Soulium-body was likely destroyed and his control over Schicksal had already weakened considerably.
So, under these conditions, the true desire surfacing from Lynelle's heart wasn't simply "let Cecilia and Sirin live." It was layered with an additional prerequisite: "without Otto finding out."
At the same time, because Lynelle's memories as a "transmigrator" had resurfaced after the second-round memory reset—and because many of the Honkai fanworks she'd read in her past life featured Cecilia as a "back-attaching spirit" or "possession" trope—that subconscious imagery shaped the form of the Curio. And so, [Something Unto Death] was tenderly selected.
Of course, at this point, the Wish Upon a Star had fully lived up to Lynelle's wish.
After all, the underlying rule of the Honkai Impact 3rd world was: "A consciousness can be matched to a new vessel, but a vessel cannot gather a scattered consciousness."
As long as Sirin's and Cecilia's souls were preserved, bringing them back later would be straightforward.
So why was Kiana-chan so panicked?
The answer was…
Staring at the two newly appeared, slumbering presences in her system space, Kiana-chan felt like crying but had no tears.
She knew it—once Lynelle preserved Cecilia's and Sirin's souls, she'd just shove them into her own body.
But… Lynelle's body already had someone living inside!
Sirin was less of a problem; her soul was badly damaged, so she probably wouldn't wake for a long time.
But this Cecilia…
She'd wake up in a week at most (panic!)!
Which meant that Kiana-chan—who'd never experienced a mother's love—was about to unlock the achievement "cohabiting with Mama Cecilia" within a week?
She was so not mentally prepared for this, aaaah!
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.