On the desolate land, let alone humans, not even a single living creature could be seen.
War?
Merely using war to describe this scene is completely insufficient.
Even the battlefield once seen in Belobog cannot compare to this place.
In this dangerous environment, ordinary people would not live long just by standing here.
The air was filled with dust containing radiation and Honkai Energy. Just breathing, no, not even breathing, ordinary people would enter a countdown to life just by existing here.
This was the Previous Era's twelfth Honkai, a land plowed by nuclear bombs.
The 12th Herrscher of Corruption controlled all of humanity's weapons and launched all nuclear bombs at the only three remaining cities. Of course, some surrounding areas were also affected.
This resulted in the land now being filled with residual radiation after the nuclear explosion.
Takatsuki didn't expect to arrive in the Previous Era so suddenly. He had specifically researched the Strongest Valkyrie of each era of Destiny, but he didn't expect them to be unrecognized by Throne of Heroes.
He didn't expect that the system's judgment was based on Takatsuki's own knowledge before he transmigrated.
And Takatsuki didn't have a detailed understanding of the Honkai 3rd background before transmigrating. For example, he only learned about Reanna, the previous user of the Abyss Flower and the strongest Valkyrie, through the Saint Freya textbooks in this world.
In order to investigate why there was such a setting, Takatsuki discovered a hidden setting that Throne of Heroes did not directly put on the surface.
Legendary degree!
In Type-Moon, it was once mentioned that an Heroic Spirit's abilities would be strengthened or even altered based on their fame, and there would even be additional enhancements in places where their legend was widespread.
Although the Throne of Heroes that Takatsuki was currently in had a theoretically time-transcending setting, Takatsuki couldn't fully grasp this aspect of the setting largely because the current Throne of Heroes was still not in its complete state. In fact, the original Throne of Heroes should be able to summon Heroic Spirits from the world itself, rather than requiring Takatsuki to gather them one by one.
And this series of reasons was because Throne of Heroes was not a complete entity.
Or rather, it had not established a connection with any world, because Throne of Heroes was located within the space opened up by the system.
However, this does not mean that it cannot establish connections with other worlds.
The method of establishing a connection can be said to be both difficult and simple: it is to manifest before others.
To have the Heroic Spirits belonging to Throne of Heroes create new legends in this world, to let everyone know of the existence of Heroic Spirits, thereby forming a legendary degree and establishing a connection with this world.
This sounds simple but is extremely difficult to implement, because a so-called legend certainly isn't enough to be known by just a few people.
Temporarily setting aside these future matters, Takatsuki chose a direction.
Just as he lifted the time stop, a violent explosion occurred in that direction.
After stopping time again, Takatsuki arrived at the site of the explosion.
There were only broken walls and ruins, and within the plaza that had turned into ruins, a cherry-haired girl leaned against a wall, holding an ice-blue katana. On top of the girl's head were ears like a rabbit's, making one involuntarily wonder about the girl's race.
Creak...
As the time freeze was lifted and the system's do-not-disturb mode was turned off, the sound of Takatsuki's footsteps on the shattered stones echoed crisply.
The cherry-haired girl looked up at the newcomer.
"Kevin…?"
"I'm sorry, I am not him."
Takatsuki said with his arms crossed: "You can think of me as the messenger of death. You should know, you are about to die, hero of humanity."
Sakura lowered her eyelids: "Messenger of death… Rin, is she dead too?"
"Well, her situation is a bit complicated, but I came for you, Sakura. As a hero of humanity, you are qualified to enter Throne of Heroes and become a Heroic Spirit guarding the world. As long as you sign this contract, you can become a Heroic Spirit, and I can grant you a wish that does not affect human history."
Takatsuki squatted down in front of Sakura and offered her the contract.
"A wish, huh…"
Sakura looked down at the contract in front of her: "Can you take us back to our hometown… I promised her I would take her to the plaza where the cherry blossoms bloom."
"Is that all?"
Takatsuki looked up at the surroundings, then paused and said, "If you want to see cherry blossoms…"
Sakura lowered her eyes, and saw Takatsuki stand up. In just a moment, a pink petal drifted down in front of her.
She laboriously raised her head and looked at the sky, only to see that the once ravaged plaza, now filled with cherry blossoms on its ruins, blooming at an unknown time. Although it wasn't the season for cherry blossoms to bloom, cherry blossom petals continuously fell.
"Ah… ah… the cherry blossoms of my hometown… Rin, do you see them?"
Sakura looked dazedly at the continuously falling cherry blossoms, not noticing Takatsuki silently putting several pens into the golden Hamon.
Although he had lost the ability to stimulate plant growth, Takatsuki created these cherry blossom trees by relying on the drawing ability of the Brush Brush Fruit.
However, these cherry blossoms are living things and cannot exist forever, but it doesn't matter, he is just fulfilling a dying girl's wish.
Just as he obtained the contract signed by Sakura and was about to leave, leaving this last bit of time to the girl whose time was running out, an uninvited guest found this place.
No, perhaps Takatsuki was the uninvited guest.
"Who are you?"
White hair and sky-blue eyes.
Without needing to confirm, Takatsuki knew who the person in front of him was.
Kevin, also the first Kaslana.
And at this moment, Takatsuki also understood why Sakura had mistaken him for Kevin, because their appearances, their faces, were as if carved from the same mold.
"My task is complete. The rest of the time is for you two."
As soon as Takatsuki finished speaking and took a step, a blast of ice immediately froze the spot where he had been.
"What an impatient personality, Kevin, despite having such a low body temperature."
The ice did not freeze Takatsuki, because he had activated do-not-disturb mode the moment he saw Kevin.
Although his posture could be seen and his voice heard, he was actually unable to interfere with this world, and naturally, nothing in this world could interfere with him either.
"See you next time, hero of humanity."
As Takatsuki's words fell, his figure gradually disappeared.
"Wait!"
But no matter how Kevin tried, he couldn't stop Takatsuki from disappearing.
Not being interfered with by anything, coupled with the invisibility of the Snake Talisman, the two combined were simply too perfect.
Although Takatsuki had not truly left, no one could discover his presence.