[Due to the limited range of formatting available for fanfiction dot net (I just found out that the said net actually remove their own domain name for being in an html format. Well done, fanfiction dot net, the length to which you go to make sure user experience is as unpleasant as possible is truly inspiring), the square bracket is used to indicate strikethrough text. It is used almost exclusively by Senti when she edits out one of her own thoughts]
The Herrscher of Sentience floated along the stone-paved path leading up to the peak of Mount Taixuan, moss and weed not quite overtaking the age-worn steps. In the soft glow of twilight, it could almost be a dream. But the Herrscher of Sentience knew dreams too well, and dreams would feel far more realistic, while reality laboured under no such restriction.
It was quiet - too quiet, no birdsong, no insect calls, no rustling of leaves, only the sound of rushing streams, barely present, always there, playing to some strange rhythm that one could almost identify at the edge of one's consciousness. Despite the riot of greenery, the place felt like nothing so much as a shell, an illusion, a place that was once beautiful, and still looked captivating, but everything that made it what it was was - gone.
Just like that statue, with the face of the Empyrean eroded by time and sorrow into a blank mask, still watching over the land, arm extended as if to shield the world, no matter how the passage of time and vicissitudes of existence had worn her out.
The path snaked its way up the vista of Mount Taixuan, and the Herrscher of Sentience followed, the preordained path which allowed no deviation.
The road foretold for a harbinger of the Honkai. The way of blood and fire, pain and destruction.
The Herrscher of Sentience stopped. A pointless act of rebellion against fate and her own thoughts. No one was her master, not even the Honkai. Especially not the Honkai. But though she stopped, the currents of Honkai continued to batter her, even as the grass and leaves remained still in the windless dusk. Her spirit felt simultaneously insubstantial and heavy, rooted to her core, yet fluttering anchorless in the storm of her own turmoil. Above all, it was as though if she did not focus every moment she would become lost, her thoughts and emotions fading, dissipating into oblivion.
So this is what it feels like, being a figment of your own imagination in a feather.
She was the Herrscher of Sentience, and as the true master of consciousness, she took to being the shadow of a memory better than most.
Now, if only those memories were not Old Timer's. Everywhere she turned here, every blade of grass, every slab of stone, every twist of path, every tree, every stream, brought back memories that was never even hers to start with. Millennia of loneliness, with nothing but her duty for company.
That's not fair, she had friends. People who cared about her. People she cared about.
Yes, and people who wanted to use her, people who connived her favour, people who craved her immortality.
People who stabbed her through the heart, disembowel her, chop off her hands and feet, and-
The Herrscher of Sentience smashed a boulder that had probably stood there from even before Old Timer settled here with such ferocity a shard beheaded a weeping cypress a dozen paces away. It did make her feel a little better, though.
And then she laughed, why was she getting angry about something that happened to Old Timer? It was not her that raised the traitorous little mongrels, not her they violated, and she did not care. She did not care what happened to Old Timer, and she certainly did not miss her. The very thought was laughable. There was nothing between them anymore. There had never BEEN anything between them, just the lies of somebody waiting to backstab her at the first available chance. [And that thought did not hurt one bit.]
…so why was she populating Mount Taixuan with visions of her past? The young herbalist picking medicinal plants, the bright-eyed disciple carrying a wooden practice sword, running up the steps, reproduction of a past that never was, a tiny figure delicately perching on a perfect sphere glowing with inner light, floating besides a vision in blue robes - a past that should have been, if only she - if only it was her instead of Old Timer-
Why should I care what happened to you? We've established that you are the real Fu Hua and I am - nothing. [She certain doesn't care what happens to me.]
This was frankly too sad for words. What was she even doing here? Mount Taixuan meant as much to her as any other place in the world, and other places at least had people and something going on other than leaves drying and streams flowing down the mountain. She was certainly not running. She dealt with Kevin's minions with ludicrous ease, and those absurd wooden dummies were barely even an inconvenience. It did ruin her mood, but if she was honest with herself, there was not much of a mood to ruin anyway.
You're coming home.
Old Timer's voice made the Herrscher of Sentience jump - she whipped around, sword already in hand and held across in a guard position. Her voice caught, "W-What're you doing here?!"
She sounded small and pathetic even to her own ears.
Old Timer stood before her, just out of reach, a small, soft smile on her face. She was wearing the outfit that made her look like a schoolgirl (fair, give or take fifty thousand years or so), or a disciple at some Shenzhou martial arts school or another, with her ridiculous red-rimmed glasses.
"I've been looking for you, Xiǎo Shí."
Xiǎo Shí absolutely hated how her chest tightened at that, and the warm glow that seemed to embrace her.
"I am the Herrscher of Sentience." Xiǎo Shí looked down, avoiding Old Timer's gaze, and bit out the words, "you made that clear enough last we met."
"I was too harsh. Given the circumstances I think it was understandable" At Xiǎo Shí's stony silence, Old Timer faltered, but carried on, "I've been looking for you."
After another painfully long pause, Old Timer said softly, "Will you come home with me?"
Ha. So that was what it was. The Herrscher of Sentience looked up. And of course there was no Old Timer, only a reflection that had already faded. Pitiful. Even her own power was against her. The Herrscher of Sentience closed her eyes and tilted her head up. Raindrops like dew fell on her face and rolled down her cheeks.
When did it start raining?
It did not matter.
She really should erase Old Timer's memories from her mind.
She really should.
She was the Herrscher of Sentience, it was certainly not beyond her authority to alter her own memories, and what use had she for fifty thousand years' worth of pain and loneliness? She had enough of that without-
No, she was not lonely. She was free. She could do whatever she liked, and to the Abyss with her duty.
She really should erase Old Timer's memories.
But she knew she was lying to herself. Everywhere she turned were memories etched into her soul, and the sentiments that went with them. Melancholy. Loneliness. Determination. She knew how memories really worked, she could purge Old Timer's memories and she would still feel the same things, only without context.
Just like Old Timer.
She did not care. There was nothing between them.
You could just leave Mount Taixuan, then you can safely purge Old Timer's memories and you won't be reminded everywhere you turn.
But then she would be burning all that was left of Old Timer's long watch, protecting a legacy few even remembered, and safeguarding the masses, the sole testament of her silent and lonely vigil. It would be like the seven little bastards setting aflame her ancient home and told the world she ascended to the Heavens and left Shenzhou to its own devices, all over again.
Ha! As if Old Timer would ever shirk her precious duties to go to Heaven.
The Herrscher of Sentience caught her thoughts, and grit her teeth in frustration.
She did not care, damn it all to the deepest pit.
She did not care that from what the wooden dummies gave away before she turned them into splinters, they were going after their own kind - Herrschers, and she just knew Old Timer was going to run head first to protect her precious Kiana and Bronya. [She did not know that for sure, because she did not spy on Old Timer.]
And she was certainly not worried. [And the tugs from the chain wrapped around her heart did not reassure her that Old Timer was still okay.]
Rain was falling again, hot raindrops rolling down her cheeks.
It was good to finally be free. At last she could be herself, and not the puppet of someone so long gone even her era had been forgotten by time and history, or shackled by a duty that should never have been hers to begin with.
Under the pale moonlight, Mount Taixuan could almost be a dream.
~o~
There.
The Herrscher screeched, face contorted in Fury. Wind like blades sliced though the air where Hua had been a split second ago, but Hua had calculated their trajectory and leapt between the cutting storm. With her qì gathered around her, Hua deflected the needle-sharp wind-blades the Herrscher shot at her, and glided into the raging tornado surrounding.
Propelled by the Herrscher's own gust, Hua angled her qì at the precise moment and flew into the Herrscher, striking it in the chest - the best target given the constancy in wind - and the she could feel the Herrscher's sternum pulverizing under the shattering force of the blow, along with the first through sixth ribs, caving in its ribcage completely and piercing its lung and heart - Hua had taken care to angle the strike so that the Grips of Taixuan absorbed most of the force of the blow, given the estimated strength of a Herrscher-level Honkai-reinforced bones - and immediately pivoted herself and smashed her elbow against the Herrscher's face, but she could already feel the tornado holding the them up about half a kilometre into the air sputtering and dying with the Herrscher. Hua had exactly 1.43 seconds taking into account air resistance and she angled her qì and rolled, coming down to a perfect landing.
She leaped back up, turned and -
-was encased in ice as the very air in her lungs froze into solid splinters, and each movement of her Garuda-strengthened heart slicing more of her lungs into a pink slush. Her body laboured to compensate, knitting itself together cell by cell, fibre by fibre, but it even her regeneration was too slow as cell membranes burst from cytoplasm freezing and crystalising. The agony was unimaginable and Hua screamed-
And she blinked. Hua sighed, and went over every detail of the fight. The trajectory calculation was accurate. The aerodynamic property of her qì barrier was off by less than one part in ten thousand. She struck with the precise amount of force calculated, allowing for shear forces the Herrscher of Wind's own storm, with a safe margin to ensure immediate death via cardiac destruction. She muttered figures and calculations to herself like a mantra, and tried to find a way to speed up that process so she would have time to defend against the Herrscher of Ice's attacks.
Hua cast her mind over entirety of the available data on the Herrscher of Ice, trying to find some pattern, some weakness, something she could exploit, but there was preciously little. Kalpas made extremely short work of the historical Herrscher of Ice, and the Fire Moths did not arrive at the scene until much later.
What little data collected did not offer Hua much assistance. Kalpas, of course, did not need tricks, he had simply burned the ice away, and rose in a pillar of superheated steam then burned the Herrscher of Ice into cinders.
But Kalpas was gone. Hua remembered how his very body turned into a living inferno as his mask melted away, and he tried to hold the Herrscher of the End and let his body be the inferno that consume them both and Hua screamed and flew at the Herrscher of the End - it had already taken Pardo, raw radiation cooking Hua's friend inside out when she opened the portal - Hua had failed to save her too and she was useless-
With an effort Hua arrested her thoughts.
This was not productive. It would not assist Hua in defeating the Honkai. She would have removed this particular segment from her memories by Fenghuang Down, but every single moment, every scrap of data of their - fight was really not the word, it was one-sided slaughter - struggle against the Herrscher of the End was invaluable information, to be retained at all costs.
So Hua went over every moment of the last fight, and the 34 attempts in this particular scenario, and adjusted until she was satisfied it would deliver a different outcome and -
There.
The Herrscher screeched, face contorted in Fury. Wind like blades sliced though the air where Hua had been a split second ago, but Hua had calculated their trajectory and leapt between the cutting storm. With her qì gathered around her, Hua deflected the needle-sharp wind-blades the Herrscher shot at her, and glided into the raging tornado surrounding...
Senti was bored out of her mind.
To be more precise, Senti wished she could be bored out of her mind, their shared dream world, and be somewhere else. Anywhere else. Maybe Kevin's dream. Being frozen solid has a certain appeal compared to whatever this is.
The first five hours or so of watching Old Timer throwing herself at a (simulated, for the love of Senti!) wall was diverting the way watching a puppy tripping over itself over and over again was.
It was mildly amusing by the fifth day.
It lost all entertainment value by the fifth week.
By the fifth month it had become a chore.
By the fifth year it was becoming mind-numbingly repetitive.
And this was the fiftieth year, and Senti was almost ready to burst out of their dream world and flag the Herrscher of the End over just to put them both out of their misery.
Almost.
Senti watched as Old Timer freeze to death the 35th time today, and seriously considered Worldful of Woeing the ice bitch just to end the sheer monotony. And why not? Senti fully intended to be there with Old Timer when (if? HA!) she faced the Herrschers, and it was therefore perfectly logical to take into account Senti's power and contributions in a fight.
Yeah, no, been there, done that, That woman's mulishness is beyond comprehension.
Old Timer had steadfastly refused, some rot or another about having to prepare for the worst case (and Senti did not do a little dance of joy at the fact that being without Fenghuang Down, i.e. Senti, was 'worst case' to Old Timer. No, that'd be pathetic), and they had gotten into a rather big row that left Senti emotionally drained. By the sixteenth fight or so, Senti had accepted defeat and stopped trying to directly intervene. It really wasn't worth the anger - and it was not worth watching Old Timer go through the cycle of stubbornness, uncertainty, and then the inevitable guilt and the tripping over herself trying to make amends to Fenghuang Down, her faithful ally, for her inconsideration and bluntness. But not for her decision.
The idea was to help Old Timer and break her out of the cycle of beating herself up over events completely beyond her control, not drive her deeper into it. The idea was to save Old Timer from herself.
It was cute, though, the way Old Timer stumbled over her words trying to apologise.
Now, if only Senti could think of a way to break it to Old Timer that she was not actually Fenghuang Down.
Well, she was now, kind of, but that was leaving out a rather important part of the story.
The few times she tried to broach the topic, she ended up stumbling over her words and-
So maybe she should not take so much pleasure from watching Old Timer embarrass herself.
But it was still adorable.
Three, two, one-
Old Timer screamed, as she was encased in ice again. She did shave about half a second off, and almost managed to throw up a fiery shield around herself. It did not save her, but it did leave her free to move for a split second, and she had almost gotten into cover.
"Well, good progress, Old Timer, well done. Oh look at the time, it's a quarter past ten, time for tea."
Old Timer blinked, still dazed from her agonising death in the recently concluded (36th time today, and it's still morning) horrifyingly realistic simulation (honestly, why would you do that? Senti had been frozen before, thank you, Herrscher of the End, and it was not something to be repeated in a hurry, never mind inflicting on self 36 times of a morning), and sat down heavily on a random boulder the notional Herrscher of Wind had picked up from the other end of the clearing and deposited in a convenient location where Old Timer's head was if she had not rolled away just in time, well, after the third go.
Senti strolled over, controlling her urge to scream at Old Timer for not taking care of herself, and plopped down next to her. "You really need to pace yourself. It's barely a century, and it's going to take much longer than that for the power of Finality to fade away and for the Earth to heal."
About fifty thousand years, give or take a few millennia, but don't quote me on that.
"You've already mastered Reason, Void and Thunder, and doing combinations with Wind and Ice. I think you can afford to take a break."
Old Timer blinked again, and slowly, "...from what?"
I love this woman, and I don't want to kill her.
"Elysia - you remember Elysia, don't you? Pink hair, pointy ears, likes flowers, fairly easy on the eyes, shockingly good at poking Honkai beasts with pointy sticks, swore an oath to never shut up, will cause sugar rush to anyone who spend more than ten minutes within twenty paces of her - that Elysia. She always said that the key to an effective soldier has to practice good work-life balance." Suppressing a shudder, Senti added for good measure, " ."
Okay, Senti was not at all sure that Elysia said anything of the kind, but it was just the kind of thing the silly girl would say. It did not hurt nearly as much to think about the girl anymore.
From the slightly harried look on Old Timer's face, Senti knew that Elysia probably did say something like that.
Before Old Timer could recover, Senti grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her along, "come on, let's go back into the Temple."
Well, it really was more of a hermitage than a temple, being the residence of an Empyrean, and not a place of worship - Old Timer objected to the idea on principle, Senti could not fathom why - but that was what it was called, Fúyún Guàn - the Temple that touched the clouds. Came to think of it, Old Timer built it with the twins Red and Blue before the word even came into use in Shenzhou, so Senti supposed she could call it whatever she wanted.
There was a shrine behind the Temple, which was something of a place of worship, but it was a shrine to a statuette of Jingwei, a shall we say, glamourised version of Old Timer, which was all kinds of weird.
Senti and Red were going to have words when they got out.
"Fenghuang Down?" Old Timer looked at Senti quizzically, deep blue eyes boring into Senti's, brows slightly furrowed in concern.
Senti stared for a moment, a faint pink dusting her cheeks, and then coughed, and quickly changed the topic, "I thought we might take the afternoon off, and go to the Arch?"
Old Timer hesitated for a brief moment, and then nodded, a small smile on her lips, "it is a nice spring day."
Well, Old Timer, it is going to be now.
Even without her Herrscher core and Authority, Senti could still at least manage the weather in their dream world. And she was not planning to drop a thunderstorm later this afternoon so Old Timer would have to take a break, and you couldn't prove a thing.
Senti beamed at Old Timer, and ran off to the Temple, "come on, I'll make some buns for a picnic lunch, you can pack the rest."
"But we don't need to eat-" Old Timer called after her, but gave up after Senti did not deign to grace her objection with a reply. It was not something they had not gone over a thousand times before, and Old Timer eventually gave in. Senti, of course, took care of most of the food preparation, as Old Timer's (Young Timer?) culinary skills, unlike the Old Timer of Senti's own time, had to be tasted to be believed. It was positively Dr Mei-like in its sheer lethality.
...Kevin must truly care about Dr Mei to eat her pack lunches regularly. That's true love, right there...
Well, five thousand years was a long time, enough to master any skills, even for a blockhead like Old Timer.
Five thousand years, alone. Senti felt her heart tightened at the thought. But not this time. This time round, Senti would be around.
Every step of the way, Old Timer.
Everything about Fenghuang Down was off. She knew too much, she knew things even Hua herself did not know. And then there was the way she shaped this dream...
Hua looked over the cabinets for her favourite bamboo lunch hamper, and found it - exactly where she expected it to be, in the cabinet behind the drying racks, with the embroidered picnic blanket neatly folded next to it.
This was a dreamscape - the domain of Fenghuang Down, her mysterious ally - and friend?
So why was it that everything felt so - familiar? It was as if she could almost remember the place, that if she tried just a little harder she would be able to catch it at the edge of her memories. Everywhere she turned, there was a sense of déjà vu.
And although she knew she had never spent a day in any place like this, which looked straight out of a Shenzhou historical fantasy, she seemed to know where everything was, or should be.
Before she was a MANTIS, she was a Moth, and before she was a moth, she was a school girl from a small town. Her life was sparring and school assignments, convenience store and television, the courtyard of her family martial art school, and morning martial arts practice.
None of it involved living like a medieval Shenzhou hermit.
So, was Fenghuang Down influencing her?
And if she was, why this? It did not seem to follow any rhyme or reason. All Herrschers were from the modern age, Fenghuang Down would have as little experience with this life as Hua did. Was it just Fenghuang Down's attempt to make Hua felt at home, and the best she had on Shenzhou was from some stereotypical Shenzhou fantasy mobile game setting?
Hua took the hamper and padded it with the blanket, and then carefully placed cups and cutlery in between its folds. She opened another cabinet and sure enough there was the dried fruits and a small earthen jar of nuts. The kitchen was usually not Hua's domain, nor the pantry, Fenghuang Down guarded her territory jealously. Yet somehow Hua knew where everything was, intuitively.
Perhaps it was just that the two of them were connected. Honestly, they had been since Fenghuang Down was assigned to her. Hua was not like Su or Aponia, she was never a psi-type MANTIS, and she had no particular natural affinity with psychic powers. All that she learnt, she learnt through practice with Fenghuang Down.
And one did not make use of the Core of Sentience without opening one's mind to it. Even under Aponia's supervision and tutelage, and with Aponia's commandments, it was impossible not to be connected. Hua had taken to Fenghuang Down quickly, and quickly learnt to use it as an extension of her senses, but the first time she became aware of a presence within, was during the Tragedy of Binding.
When Fenghuang Down appeared before her and offered her a choice.
Use its First Order Output, and lose herself.
Or live in a perfect dream world, forever.
It was never really a choice. Not to Hua.
But from that day on, Fenghuang Down had become part of her life.
Hua - and perhaps not just because of Himeko - but Hua had always thought that being a Herrscher was not unlike being a Mantis, neither fully human, and both connected to the corrosive power of the Honkai. But the important part was what they did, not who they were. It was not an identity, but a state of mind.
And Fenghuang Down had proven itself time and again that it was no creature of Honkai.
Hua liked to think that Fenghuang Down was what could have been. A Herrscher who broke free of the binding of fate, of the Honkai.
Elysia showed that it was possible.
Elysia.
Hua took the tin of tea leaves and set it in a corner of the hamper.
What would Elysia have done?
And Hua smiled to herself, wistful and wan.
Elysia would just ask, of course.
The natural arch where they would, in the far future, carve out her statue was truly breath-taking, though Senti gamely resisted the urge to recreate the hanging village complex or the Empyrean statue. Senti loved the vista, but it would have raised uncomfortable questions.
You realised you were the one who razed it to the ground.
Oh yes, Senti loved her predecessor, sharing a core with a petty, vindictive and malicious witch that questioned everything she did was just the thing for Senti.
Oh, were you talking about me, or were you perhaps talking about what you did to your little girlfriend? Didn't you call her Fenghuang Down, too?
Senti decided to ignore the voice. This time, things would be different. She would be there with Old Timer, and they would not make the same mistakes again.
Old Timer waved at Senti. She had already picked a picnic spot at a rock outcropping overlooking the deep chasms and the natural arch, and set up. A rattan mat, a bamboo lunch hamper, and Old Timer had even set up a small stove and warming a teapot on top of it.
Love to chat, I do so enjoy our little talks, but my little girlfriend called. You know where to find me if you need me. Or better yet, don't.
And with that, Senti sent her predecessor deep into the core. As Elysia had reforged her mind, and freed her from fate, Senti found that she was no longer bound by Aponia's commandment - but her predecessor was. Senti had really enjoyed that when she first found out a few decades ago. The two of them have come to a modus vivendi of sorts. Her predecessor could be as mean and catty as she wished, but only sparingly and never when it interfered with Senti, and Senti was content to let her rot in peace. Most of the time they simply ignored each other. But Senti had some inkling of what happened with Void Archives and Otto in her time, and she had absolutely no intention of letting her predecessor do anything of the kind, so she kept a close watch on their shared core and the domain of sentience.
"You're thinking again." Old Timer said as Senti walked over.
"Look who's talking. You spend every waking moment going over every minute detail of your entire history fighting the Honkai, and rehashing countless scenarios. You've already got the skills and the experience, Old Timer, what you need is move beyond that."
"I do move beyond that." Old Timer muttered, defensively, as she looked away and busied herself with the teapot. "I designed a lot of new scenarios, different combinations..."
"And you're just tying yourself into knots second-guessing over, and over, and over again. Look - here's an idea. I am the Herrscher of Sentience. We should spar. We'd both get better quicker if you fight against someone else. You're not a computer, iteration really isn't the best way for you to think."
Senti looked at Old Timer intently. She had spent years laying the groundwork for this, Senti had all of Old Timer's memories and skills, all fifty thousand years' of it, so she could help Old Timer get up to speed far sooner, and that way...
That way, things would be different. They had to be.
She only had to be careful not to raise too many questions. Old Timer would be sure to become suspicious when the alleged Herrscher of Sentience was a master of all martial pursuits...
Martial arts that stemmed from Old Timer's own experience, too. Old Timer liked to beat herself up about blindly following others, but Senti learnt not to underestimate the Old Timer's ability to put disparate details together, and see the truth beneath. It was always difficult to lie to someone who has perfect memory and perfect recall, and the ability to collate said memories.
You did beat me at my own game as nothing but a memory on a feather, Old Timer.
But instead of the anger and hurt she used to feel, Senti looked back at those few days with fondness. Walking above the clouds, Old Timer and 'Hua', surveying the world below them. It had seemed that there was nothing she - no - they could not do. Even if it was an illusion at the end...
Senti found Old Timer watching her. "I am sorry, what did you say?"
"I didn't say anything." Old Timer said, and then look down, a faint dusting of colour on her cheeks. "You - look like someone from Shenzhou - I had always thought the Herrscher - I mean, you were from Mu..."
Senti smirked, "you mean I look like you? Well, the thing is, Dr Mei and Vill-V really did a number on me when they forged me. I - forgot what I look like. The power of Sentience at the end meant that I touched a lot of minds. It was difficult to even remember who I was, where I began and others ended. My one constant was the whispers of Honkai, and the urge to destroy."
All of it was true. And that - made it hurt more.
"So I thought I'd look like the prettiest person I know."
Old Timer sprang up, flushing, "I'll fetch some more water from the spring - I think it's an excellent idea, we should spar. If you don't know how to fight I'll teach you, we have all the time in the world, I'll draw up a schedule and a curriculum!"
Senti watched Old Timer fleeing, ears red to their tips.
Aww, you're absolutely adorable.
Fenghuang down was definitely not the Herrscher of Sentience. Was there some kind of Herrscher of martial arts? That's what Fenghuang Down was, Hua decided.
For somebody who claimed to be a rank amateur, Fenghuang Down had taken to her training like a fish to water.
She was reckless, impatient, easily overextended and overreached, and yet always, always she was able to recover, and come up with some manoeuvre or move that Hua simply never conceived of.
In fact, if Hua did not know better, she would say that Fenghuang Down was holding back.
But what she was, was an excellent sparring partner. Hua made swifter progress practising against Fenghuang Down then just against herself by far.
Though considering that she used Fenghuang Down's powers to bring the data of the past Herrschers to life, she was also technically sparring against Fenghuang Down before - but there was clearly a difference setting your own scenarios, down to the last detail, and then fighting it, then fighting a separate entity. Hua could not adequately predict every contingency, so training with Fenghuang Down improved her skills at thinking on her feet, under pressure, and react quickly.
But it was still strange that Fenghuang Down was so good at fighting.
Perhaps sensing her doubts, Fenghuang Down had said to Hua, "this is our dream, Old Timer. You don't seriously think my speed and strength is limited to what my body could theoretically do, do you? This may feel like weapons or unarmed sparring, but you really are training against the Herrscher of Sentience."
It - rang true.
It also did not seem like the whole truth.
Still, Fenghuang Down had kept the faith with her, and Hua would keep her faith in return.
Though...
Senti was impressed.
She had thought she would slowly show Old Timer some of her own tricks, little by little, so they would be ahead of the curve...
But Old Timer was coming up with entirely new tactics. Alright, they were tactics Senti was already familiar with, but it was still surprising how quickly Old Timer made the leap.
Old Timer had learnt to cheat.
"Since we are in the domain of dreams, and Fenghuang Down commanded the power of sentience in the real world..."
Old Timer had looked uncertain, clearing her throat and looking studiously everywhere but in Senti's eyes.
"Fenghuang Down, please teach me how to integrate your power in battle - I want to be able to simultaneously attack someone - perhaps someone as strong as a Herrscher, in the physical and mental realms."
"Beat them in the dream world, and they're nothing butliving corpses, eh, Old Timer?"
Old Timer had learnt to CHEAT! Honestly, Senti could not be prouder, even though she knew that Old Timer would eventually come up with that particular tactic on her own - and to deadly effect against Sirin, Queen of the Void.
If only that little bastard Otto didn't foul it up for everyone...
"Even a brief moment of disorientation could mean the difference between defeat and victory. I - I have always been too hidebound, I relied too much on my experience. I could only draw on what I knew - and not create anything new."
Senti blinked.
She sighed, "time for a break, Old Timer. Training's done for the day. I need some time to think about this."
Senti should really be used to Hua putting herself down. It has been centuries, in as much as time hold any meaning in this place of dreams and slumber.
But she was not. And Senti felt that she would never be, not in another ten centuries.
"Let's go somewhere else."
Hua looked at Fenghuang Down. She was wearing her strange asymmetrical... dress, one arm bare from the shoulder down, the other side a full sleeve with collar and glove, gathered at the waist with a golden girdle which Hua could not help but think would be painful if Fenghuang Down tried to move too fast.
It was her fighting suit. It was also her 'I am deadly serious' suit.
Hua set down her treatise on fighting the Herrscher of Death, carefully placing a dried leave as a bookmark, and sat up straight.
"This is our dream world. I - we control everything here, via the power of Fenghuang Down."
That was a strange turn of phrase, but Hua decided to let it go for the moment, and filed it away for future reference.
"It would have been very difficult to separate the physical and the mental. If we travel to another dream... perhaps there would be a clearer distinction." Fenghuang Down's blood red eyes gleam, "it would be good training."
"Do you have somewhere in mind?" Hua said slowly, her mind swirling. Was it possible to reach the dream of another? Had it always been possible?
Was Fenghuang Down able to escape the whole time?
Hua stopped herself, it was not fair for her to think this way. Fenghuang Down had been only helpful to her. She helped Hua defeat the Herrscher of Binding and the Herrscher of Corruption. She helped Hua fight against The Herrscher of the End.
And yet...
"...uh, what do you think the Elysian Realm was?"
"...a virtual reality simulation?" Where was Fenghuang Down going with this?
Fenghuang looked at Hua, "It wasn't a simple database - Project Ember already have one of those. It wasn't just a memory archive, either, it didn't just read memories, it made the brain relive every memory, hidden or forgotten, fondest past, darkest secrets, and recorded the brain's impressions - SO-1129 might as well be torture, and only the most resilient minds - physically - could survive the experience sane."
"Riding a roller-coaster while eating peanuts with your eyes," Hua said. Her memories of SO-1129 was more or less a blur. They were burned away along with other memories when she called upon the power of Fenghuang Down's First Order Output on the Moon. And afterwards Hua saw no particular reason to restore those unpleasant memories.
No, Hua reserved that privilege for anything related to combating the Honkai.
But she did have vague recollections, that it was like having your life flashing before your eyes, but much more painful.
Well, riding a roller-coaster while eating peanuts with your eyes.
"Not all dreams are realms or memory space, Old Timer, most are just that - dreams. But MANTISes are not most people. What allowed them to endure SO-1129 and combine their memories to form a singular memory space - might also allow their long dreams to develop into, well, something like this, a domain of Sentience. And you're in luck! You have The Key of Sentience Fenghuang Down!"
So, Kevin, Su, Eden, Aponia... and Mobius. Hua pursed her lips at the last. Dr Mobius and Hua never saw eye-to-eye. She trusted her as someone dedicated to combating the Honkai. But she never accepted her methods.
And deep down, Hua was terrified that one day, she would have to make the same choices Dr Mobius did to fight the Honkai.
Hua was terrified that there would be no other way.
"Kevin or Su, the Kaslana-" Fenghuang Down stopped abruptly.
Wait, what about Eden, Mobius or Aponia?
What's a Kaslana?
"You know, Kevin's family name." Fenghuang Down said airily, "might be a bit cold, so remember to dress warm-"
"Kevin doesn't have a family name." Last names were an anachronism, only a few places still practised that custom.
"Well, he does now. Because bloodlines are going to be important, going forward. MANTISes..."
"...are not fertile." Hua said, "and anyway Honkai beast genes altered MANTIS genetic make-up on a level more fundamental than biology, it's not fully biochemical, there is also a powerful element of Honkai influence, it would not be inheritable."
"Really? Well, perhaps you're right, but Kevin-"
"We last saw Kevin before we went into cryosleep." Hua said. "You were with me, then. And Kevin said nothing about a family name, or a bloodline, or Kaslana."
Senti looked away. "We could always go to the Elysian Realm - I think I may be able to get us there."
And suddenly it was as if scales had fallen from her eyes, and all the little clues which Hua ignored, dismissed or brushed aside came together, all at once.
Herrscher of Sentience. Fenghuang Down's surprising skill at arms. Her appearance. The domain she created. Hua's strange familiarity with everything.
"Fenghuang Down, who are you?"
I am sorry, I didn't mean it. I am sorry, Hua...
Senti gently lower Old Timer onto her bed. Wresting control of Fenghuang Down was - like seizing a Herrscher core. A chain binding two souls to one core, lure the other soul into lowering her guard, and then assert sole authority - and usurp all power.
There was a certain... poetic justice to that.
Senti tried not to think of the look in Old Timer's eyes in the split second between incomprehension, and realisation. Hurt, betrayal, forlorn acceptance, all flashed across her eyes. And resignation.
Senti had long forgiven Old Timer.
And maybe one day, Senti could forgive herself too.
When you wake up you'd have forgotten today. What's a lost day in ten million nights? Time has very little meaning here, in our dreams.
Hua frowned. Lately, she had been noticing that she had had trouble with her recall functions, as if certain memories were... obscured.
Considering that they mostly concerned battle training records with Fenghuang Down, and her own simulations against the known Herrschers and other Honkai manifestations, it could not be explained as complication from her previous use of First Order output.
And her heart tightened painfully whenever she tried to sort out those memories.
It - was time. Her ICHOR's influence had reached a point where it was interfering with her function. If this continued, Hua would not be able to perform her duties. They needed every edge they could get against the Honkai of the next era. They did not need someone lost and confused. They did not need Hua, they needed a Herrscher-slayer.
There was nothing to it, Hua realised. She must perform a memory restoration to an earlier time.
It was her duty.
"Old Timer, oh, this bring back memories, Wind and Ice, yes? But I thought we found out..."
Old Timer seemed oblivious to Senti. She blinked, and sighed, and pushed herself off the ground where the ice pillar had deposited her, and sat there, brows furrowed, lips moving as if whispering to herself in silence.
Senti's voice trailed off. Something about this scene was - eerily familiar. Pushing past her unease, Senti beamed, and held up the hamper, "anyway, it's mid-morning, I made dumplings, so it's time for a break."
Old Timer blinked, and slowly, "...from what?"
Senti looked, her smile slowly fading.
"Old Timer?"
"Fenghuang Down?"
Senti let out a breath she did not know she was holding, "don't scare me like that, come on, it's time for our training session, but first, second breakfast!"
"Our training session?" Old Timer furrowed her brows, evidently confused, "do you mean your simulation? I didn't realise it would require your attention, I should apologise."
Senti tried her best to keep the tremor out of her voice, "stop fucking around, Old Timer."
"I don't. Fenghuang Down, are you quite alright?" Hua said, and glanced over at the hamper, she sniffed and smiled softly, "we don't really need food, you know, but... fried dumplings with pork and corn? I don't believe I ever told you they were my favourite. Thank you."
No. No. NO.
Senti backed away, dropping the hamper. "What have you done, Old Timer?"
"Since last night? 35 runs at the Wind and Ice scenario, variation 1(a)(iii)." And then Hua's face brightened, as if she solved a puzzle, "I may have performed a memory reset, are you perhaps referring to that? I understand that my memory access and address was beginning to - " Old Timer frowned and take a half step towards Senti, hand raised tentatively, "are you alright?"
Without a word, Senti spun around and fled.
Senti had made a terrible mistake.
Verifying system integrity...
...Power system normal
...Network normal
...Internal sensors normal
...External sensors normal
...Cryopod within acceptable parameters
Verifying external sensors readout...
...Temperature levels within acceptable parameters
...Radiation levels within acceptable parameters
...Pollutant levels within acceptable parameters
...Honkai radiation levels within acceptable parameters
...Deploying satellites
...Deploying drones
...
...
...
Executing MOB_PROT_REV_01A
RISE_AND_SHINE
~o~
Author's notes:
With this chapter, Reverse All Creation is officially the longest Sentihua story on AO3! Yay! Fireworks! Applause! [Note: I have no idea whether it's the longest on fanfiction dot net, because the fandom here is so dead the Herrscher of Sentience, who debuted in December 2020, still doesn't have a character tag so I can't search for it, nevermind Elysia.]
And with the Senti's full restoration, we're back to her old sassy and bubbly self. She had mostly pushed her trauma and angst to the back of her mind, since Finality was fifty thousand years away, and for the moment, she had Old Timer right there.
Oh who am I kidding? You don't just 'get over' something like Finality and watching the love of your life die. It was going to inform everything Senti does, and well, this is the result. If you are looking for happy lesbian cottagecore, this is definitely not it, be warned. There'll be brief, fleeting moments of happiness, but Honkai will always loom above them like the Sword of Damocles. And as we move back to the real world, and Senti is whole, we are back to our regularly scheduled angst!
Details about the Final Battle are not taken from my version, but instead from Chapter 32, where we saw amongst other things Pardofelis heading to her doom opening a portal... Pardo and doors really don't play well together...
Fu Hua referred to spending every waking moment in the past fifty thousand years thinking about how to defeat Herrschers, in chapter 43 of the 2nd Eruption comic, and knowing our bird she was being deadly literal about it. It could well account for how Hua went from one of the less physically impressive MANTIS who relied on skill, guile, quick-thinking and burning herself up in her Flame-Chaser days to someone who could one-shot Sirin (who at that point possessed SIX Herrscher cores and bitch-slapped Welt Yang) and go toe-to-toe with Kevin for hours (Chapter 21).
And I don't think I am exaggerating Fu Hua's tendency to put herself down - her assessment of her own conduct in the mainline was overly harsh, and half of her signet-granting lines in the Elysian Realm went along the lines of "I don't think I have what it takes to teach you, but I will walk with you" or "if I can do anything, then we wouldn't have to make those 'necessary sacrifices'. I could not make up for the past, but you can change the present".
I would say our birb has serious self-esteem issues, but she's way too high-functioning for that. I think she took the failure of her Era (and they failed, painfully) personally, never stopped. Every loss against the Honkai was her own personal fault. If she had the power to prevent it and she did not, it's on her... And if she did NOT have the power to prevent it, it was because she was too weak. Her problem is likely deep-seated, and I look forward to exploring it in future chapters.
I apologise about Fog Mount Temple's layout, there were no fewer than THREE mutually contradictory vision of it, in chapters 20-22, in the Chronicles chapter "Forgotten Ones", and in the Ageless Spring episode of Cooking with Valkyries. For the most part I believe I managed the differences, but if you notice any inconsistencies, this is why.
Fog Mount Temple is neither shrouded in fog, nor related to a mountain, nor a temple. The Chinese for Fog Mount Temple is 'Fúyún Guàn', where Fúyún is a poetic term that indicates great height, and literally means 'to touch the clouds'. Guàn is a Taoist temple or monastery, that may or may not be a place of public worship. In either case, as we have indications that the place had stood since the days when Red and Blue (Dānzhū and Cāngxuán, or Nǚwā and Fúxī, take your pick) were alive, which was nearly 5,000 years ago, Fu Hua would almost certainly have invented the word Guàn before it came into common usage (which was not entirely clear but certainly during or after the Han - nearly 3,000 years later), she could call it whatever she wanted.
Of course, that brings up way more questions than answers, such as why they had modern Chinese writing, or a weird hodgepodge of architectural styles 5,000 years ago, to which I am only going to look away and mutter 'previous Era Shenzhou' and hope nobody notices.
Senti calling Nǚwā and Fúxī Red and Blue is canonical to the 2021 Fu Hua birthday short.
This chapter was written while listening to For Always, from the ending song of AI, by John Williams, performed by Lara Fabian. The lyrics are, well, see for yourself:
I close my eyes, and there in the shadows I see your light;
You come to me out of my dreams across the night.
Last but not least...
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