Chapter 149: World Instance — Chiyou's Descent
"Rovel! Are you alright?!"
Himeko's voice echoed through the damp, oppressive cavern. Footsteps splashed against the shallow puddles as she and Fu Hua finally broke free from the maddening, shifting walls of the Eight Trigrams maze. They spotted him standing quietly in the dim light, seemingly unharmed.
Rovel turned, offering a faint, reassuring smile. "I'm fine. But... Shenzhou is going to have a massive problem very soon." He let out a soft, heavy sigh.
Just minutes prior, the remnant soul of the primordial warrior—the surprisingly petite Ji Lin—had entrusted him with a heavy burden.
[S-Rank Quest: Redemption]
[Quest Objective: Enter the belly of the beast, Chiyou. Save Ji Lin, whose soul has fallen into the abyss of darkness, consumed by five millennia of loneliness, fear, and remorse.]
[Quest Reward: Stigmata — Ji Lin]
[Quest Failure: Stigmata — Ji Lin will be permanently erased from existence.]
Five thousand years. The ancient seal binding Chiyou had eroded away with the tides of time. Its awakening was no longer a distant possibility; it was an imminent reality. When that massive beast opened its eyes, the entirety of Shenzhou would be plunged into an apocalyptic nightmare.
"Just as I suspected," Rovel murmured, his gaze sweeping over the ancient stone architecture. "A massive Eight Trigrams formation of this scale was never meant to be a simple labyrinth. Beneath these very stones, something far more terrifying is being suppressed."
Fu Hua adjusted her glasses, her expression tightening. She had sensed the unnatural, suffocating flow of energy while deciphering the maze's mechanisms, but her sole priority had been locating Rovel. She hadn't allowed herself to dwell on the ominous undertones.
"Are you saying... it's the legendary Chiyou?" Himeko stepped forward, her amber eyes locking onto Rovel.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Rovel nodded, his tone deadpan.
Himeko pinched her chin, her tactical mind already spinning. "Could it be an Emperor-class Honkai Beast? If it is, I'll probably need to authorize the activation of the Nexus System."
"It's not that simple, Himeko." Rovel offered her a sympathetic, almost pitying look. "It's a Judgment-class."
"Judgment..." Himeko muttered, the word rolling off her tongue before her brain fully processed it. Then, she froze. Her head snapped up, eyes wide with absolute disbelief. "Hey, Rovel. Do you have any idea what a Judgment-class Honkai Beast actually means?!"
"Of course I do," Rovel replied smoothly, leaning against a nearby pillar. "Currently, Schicksal only has detailed records of a single Judgment-class entity: the Herrscher of the Void's companion beast, Benares."
He paused, letting the weight of that name sink in. "And Benares's combat power is easily on par with an S-Rank Valkyrie. Am I right?"
Himeko's silence was all the confirmation he needed. Rovel mentally reviewed the terrifying definition of a Judgment-class disaster. Even when severely crippled and heavily injured, Benares had nearly wiped out the elite Snow Wolf Squad the moment Cecilia Schariac stepped off the battlefield.
A single, casual flap of its wings birthed a hurricane.
A slam of its massive tail fractured tectonic plates, triggering localized earthquakes.
A single breath of its roaring flames could incinerate an entire mountain range into white ash.
That was a Judgment-class Honkai Beast. An absolute, walking natural disaster, second only to a true Herrscher. Against a creature with such absurdly dense armor and explosive power, conventional tactics were useless. Even an elite operative like Rita Rossweisse would find her assassination-style combat completely ineffective against a beast the size of a mountain.
Himeko gritted her teeth, her hand already flying to her earpiece. "...In that case, we have no choice but to notify Theresa. If we are truly dealing with a Judgment-class threat, I'm afraid nothing short of the Hyperion's main cannon will even scratch its hide."
She quickly relayed the grim situation over the comms.
Static crackled for a brief second before Theresa's voice, stripped of all her usual childishness, rang out. "Understood. I'm adjusting the coordinates now. The Hyperion is heading your way at maximum speed."
"Then we need to evacuate this area immediately," Fu Hua stated, her tone sharp and urgent.
Before either of them could take a single step, the cavern floor violently lurched. Dust rained from the ceiling as a deep, guttural rumble echoed from the very bowels of the earth.
Simultaneously, a cold, mechanical chime echoed directly inside Rovel's mind.
[Ding! World Instance 'Chiyou's Descent' has been activated. Location: Nanwu City, Shenzhou.]
[Time remaining until Chiyou fully revives: 24 hours.]
[Please select your faction:]
[Faction 1: Seal/Kill Chiyou.]
[Faction 2: Collect Honkai Energy, accelerate Chiyou's revival, and assist in its evolution.]
[Note: You can harvest Honkai Energy for Chiyou by hunting and killing 'Faction 1' players.]
[If Chiyou cannot be stopped, Shenzhou will face total destruction. All Descenders registered within the Shenzhou territory will receive the black penalty title: Stray Dog. Duration: 3 months.]
[Stray Dog: EXP gain -50%, Skill Proficiency gain efficiency -100%.]
[If Chiyou is successfully stopped, all Descenders in the Shenzhou territory will receive the blessing buff: Xuanyuan's Blessing. Duration: 1 month.]
[Xuanyuan's Blessing: EXP gain +50%, Skill Proficiency gain efficiency +100%.]
In the next second, the previously quiet global forums erupted into absolute chaos.
"Holy crap, this is targeted! The system is blatantly targeting us!"
"Huh? What do you mean targeted? Isn't this just another faction competition like the last event?"
"Open your eyes and read the patch notes, idiot! Whether it's the victory buff or the failure penalty, the scope is strictly limited to Shenzhou Descenders! This isn't a standard faction war; it's a massive national siege!"
"Shenzhou Descenders are going to be fighting against the rest of the entire world!"
"Could it be because our Shenzhou player base suffered the fewest casualties in the last event? Did our average power level trigger this World Instance to balance things out?"
"Who cares why?! If they want a war, we'll give them a war! We beat those foreign bastards back before, and we'll crush them again!"
"Fight!" x 10086
Amidst the roaring battle cries, a few analytical voices chimed in. "It won't be that simple. Based on the latest census, there are only about 1.2 million active Shenzhou players. Even if every single one of us locks into Faction 1, the sheer numbers of the global player base mean we might be fighting one against seven."
Then, the discordant, cowardly voices began to surface.
"Does anyone understand how this broken system works?! I'm a Chinese-American, why the hell is the game classifying me as a Shenzhou Descender?!"
"What's with that comment above? Disgusting."
"It's the truth! What kind of garbage classification is this? I don't want to lose my stats over some stupid server event! So annoying!"
[System Prompt: You may spend 250 EXP to permanently renounce your Shenzhou Descender registration and leave the territory.]
"Oh, there's a way out?! Good deal! I'm leaving, I want to leave right now!"
[Ding! 250 EXP has been deducted. You have successfully left the Shenzhou Descender territory.]
"Family, listen up! You can just drop 250 EXP to wipe your Shenzhou tag! No need to stay and die for a sinking ship. I've already swapped to Faction 2. I'm safely on the winning side~"
"Wait for me! I'm jumping ship too!"
Despite the loud, obnoxious minority fleeing at the first sign of hardship, the overwhelming majority of Shenzhou players gritted their teeth and locked in Faction 1.
A handful of neighboring countries extended olive branches, officially announcing their allied Descenders would join Faction 1 to assist Shenzhou. However, the vast majority of the global servers chose a predatory silence. They were either waiting to scavenge the remains, or they were already marching toward Shenzhou with weapons drawn.
With all teleportation arrays disabled for the duration of the event, millions of players were forced to mobilize via conventional transport, converging on Nanwu City like a massive, incoming storm.
Rovel didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second. He selected Faction 1.
'This damn game really knows how to stir the pot,'he thought, swiping away the interface.'Deciding the life and death of an ancient beast through a massive player war?'
He knew the lore. In the original timeline of Honkai Impact 3rd, Chiyou was only defeated because its internal core—its heart—was shattered from the inside before it could achieve full resurrection.
God only knew what kind of apocalyptic stats a fully-formed, one-hundred-percent Chiyou would boast.
Even Ji Lin, an Awakened Stigmata wielder of immense power, could only manage to seal the beast, sacrificing herself in the process. She couldn't kill it. That alone proved that even if Chiyou was slightly inferior to Benares in raw destructive output, it was still a genuine Judgment-class threat.
Worse yet, Chiyou possessed terrifying growth potential. It expanded its physical mass by literally devouring entire landmasses and cities.
If they wanted to kill it, they had to strike fast and hard, utterly annihilating it before it breached the coastline of Nanwu City. If it managed to drag itself onto land and start eating, the casualty rate would be catastrophic.
"Let's move!" Rovel shouted over the rumbling earth.
The three of them sprinted through the collapsing tunnels, finally bursting out into the cavernous exit of Jiuyou. The smell of salt and stagnant water hit their noses.
Just as they prepared to leap toward the surface, a shimmering, transparent barrier of blue light suddenly materialized in front of them, floating upward from the depths.
Himeko stopped in her tracks, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Bronya?! What are you doing here? This entire sector is a red zone!"
A small figure hoisted herself over the rocky ledge, her twin drill-tails dripping with seawater. Bronya panted softly, her usually stoic face tight with exertion. Behind her, she was dragging two very familiar figures.
"Apologies, Major Himeko," Bronya said, her voice flat but strained. "A large squadron of Anti-Entropy mechs has been pursuing us. The numbers were too great. Bronya and Mei could not engage them effectively while carrying the idiot Kiana."
She hauled Kiana Kaslana and Raiden Mei over the ledge, letting them collapse onto the damp stone.
"I... I didn't hold anyone back!" Kiana protested weakly, her voice raspy. She pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, violently coughing up a mouthful of briny seawater. Her usually pristine white hair was plastered to her face, leaving her looking thoroughly miserable and disheveled.
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