Chapter 77: The Herrscher is actually me?

It was nighttime, and the brightly lit city was full of opportunities. Some people lived and died here, while others became slaves to money.

In a shadowy corner of the city, a hooded figure sat on the ground, using cardboard as a cushion. His hand gripped his shoulder tightly, and a reddish-brown liquid seemed to be leaking from it.

"Hiss—!" The painful sound escaped him, scaring off a stray cat nearby.

Under the play of light and shadow, the figure's white hair and silver-white eyes glimmered, revealing his identity—Orion Astra. Sitting on the cold ground, he couldn't calm the fear in his heart. Since arriving in the world of Honkai Impact, nothing has gone right.

From the moment he entered this world, his body felt out of control. An overwhelming desire for destruction filled him. Faced with danger, Orion fought back his instinct for destruction with his will alone.

He couldn't remember how many fighter jets he had destroyed in the sky or how many shots were sent his way.

It wasn't until his hands were stained with steel and the ground was covered in blood that a small piece of his sanity returned.

"This can't go on!" he thought, using all his mental strength to turn his will into a "sword," forcing his consciousness to split in two. The pain was indescribable—like cutting himself in half.

But he succeeded, finally regaining control of his mind and body, casting aside the strange will and desire for destruction that had overtaken him.

Based on the experience of dying once, Orion burned nearly all of his will, rebuilt a body in the void, and placed himself inside it.

Stumbling, Orion left the spot. Relying on instinct, he walked into a busy city, avoiding all the cameras, and arrived in a quiet corner.

In his mind, a memory began to play that wasn't originally his.

"Orion Astra, 18 years old, is an ordinary student at Celestia Academy in Skydrift City. He came to a nearby city for a holiday visit but suddenly lost consciousness without knowing why. After that, everything's a blur."

It seemed that in this world, there was also a high school student named Orion Astra. He looked almost identical to him, close to a clone or alternate version of him.

"Who did this?!"

An angry voice echoed in the alley, but luckily no one was around this early in the morning.

Though the memory didn't provide an answer, Orion understood in his heart.

In the quiet depths of his mind, a dark and crystalline gem pulsing with a strange, otherworldly light. It was the core of a Herrscher that lay inside him, radiating a raw and unfiltered power.

"Am I a Herrscher?"

The thought felt absurd, but the core inside him made it clear: he had become the messenger of the "Honkai" and was now on Earth.

The "Herrscher of Reason."

Honkai is an ancient disaster in this world. It tests human civilization in various ways: strong winds, lightning, viruses, wars... all the disasters in human history may have been guided by the Honkai. They are part of the Honkai's test on humanity.

And when enough Honkai energy, known as Honkai energy, builds up, a powerful messenger—called a Herrscher—is born on Earth.

The Herrscher has the power to destroy everything and a natural hatred for human civilization. This is why Orion had trouble controlling himself just now.

"..."

Orion also felt like this world was strange. In the Astral Express world, imaginary energy flows everywhere like air. As an Emulator of a Path, Orion had almost unlimited access to this imaginary energy. While he couldn't compare to an Aeon like Remembrance Aeon Fuli, he at least never ran out of it.

But here, in this world, imaginary energy—also known as "Honkai Energy"—is extremely scarce. For Orion, he tried to use his abilities and found that he was unable to get enough energy.

It felt like a colossal dam reduced to a mere trickle, a vast reservoir of strength once at his command now reduced to barely a whisper of its former self. Orion had been accustomed to the vast amounts of energy flowing freely. But now, no matter how much he strained or how deeply he reached inward, nothing more came.

"It's a pretty hopeless situation."

Even though he said this, the silver light in Orion's eyes hadn't faded. He had faced far worse challenges and kept his calm. His powers might be out of reach, and his body had become a vessel for the Herrscher Core, but he hadn't lost hope.

His hastily constructed body was slowly recovering. Though it felt like his organs had been rearranged, some of his remaining energy was traveling through his body, slowly healing him.

His memory reminded him that his break would end tomorrow, and he had to return to school. If he didn't show up, his friends might get suspicious and report him to the authorities.

"Looks like I won't be getting any sleep tonight."

With a wry smile, Orion dragged his broken but still human body and began to make his way back to the city.

Far off in the starry sky, in a place where time and space had no meaning, two powerful beings were having a conversation, with galaxies flowing between them. One of them laughed in a strange, absurd way, almost ripping through the void, shaking everything.

If Orion were there, he might recognize something familiar in that laughter. When he left the world of the Astral Express, he had heard a similar laugh.

"Despair, fear, absurdity, ridicule, coldness, cruelty..."

An exaggerated mask appeared, stretching across the universe like a white wall, blocking the world's path. Above it was a clown's mask, surrounded by playing cards and circus props.

The scene was so strange that any creature facing it would lose their mind and descend into madness.

The strange, wordless being seemed to know about Orion's current situation, and its laughter grew louder, as if excited to see Orion put on a good show.

"A performance that couldn't be refused."

And the other being made no objection.