Chapter 8 EX: The First Celestial
Disclaimer:
Just to remind everyone that this is an alternate universe story. While I do follow some of the canon plot lines, many other aspects are changed that may include a character's personality, relationships and backstory (At least for the reincarnated flamechasers and GGZ characters).
Note:
if you're confused on why I chose the name Senba academy in the previous chapter.
Honkai isn't consistent with naming Chiba/Senba academy so I just chose one and decided to use Senba academy instead of Chiba.
Now let's head back to the story.
On her bed Sakuya groaned quietly. She couldn't sleep amidst the blizzard that was happening outside and yesterday's headache certainly didn't help.
"Want to hear a story?" Jyahnar asked, seeing that her host wouldn't sleep anytime soon and would most likely die from boredom.
"Sure. What kind?"
"What do you want to know?" Sakuya thought hard for a moment. What exactly does she want to know more about Jyahnar?
"What about your backstory? You said that you were the first celestial that humans encountered, no?" Sakuya asked. She would be lying if she said was never curious about the celestial's life before meeting her.
"That would be a long story. But we do have the whole night if you're not planning on sleeping."
"I don't care." Sakuya got up from her bed and sat down on a chair near her window to look at the snow storm outside. "I don't think I'd be able to sleep anyway and Natalia said I shouldn't keep going to the stigmata space in my subconscious just to sleep."
"To start we'll have to go back all the way to Era Zero. The era before the cycle began. That is when I arrived here." It was a pretty surprising turn of events as it's usually her that tells a story to Jyahnar and not the other way around.
"Era zero? So you're saying that you came from that era?" Sakuya asked her Honkai EGO. The girl had nothing to do right now other than listen to her MANTIS Ego talking about her past.
"Yes, it is the first ever era to experience the Honkai and it was the Honkai's first attempt in testing Humanity."
"But there isn't much information known about it."
"It was lost due to time and distance. A lot has changed since that period, from the humans, the planet and even to the Honkai themselves."
Sakuya could feel the MANTIS Ego closing her eyes as she reminisced about her past.
"Just like the other celestials that descended. I also came from a meteor. Each celestial brought along some change to the human race as a whole."
Before coming to earth, this celestial had no name and it is no different than a natural calamity as it ravaged and destroyed each planet it came across.
No matter how barren the planet is or how primitive the inhabitants are. It only knows one thing and that is to fulfill its base instinctual nature to destroy and wreak havoc upon anything and anyone it comes across.
Mayhem soon follows wherever It goes. Spreading the true meaning of Houkai (Collapse) to many worlds it visited.
That all changed until it discovered a planet. A planet ravaged by Its own kin. A planet with a civilization that is on the brink of collapse. Yet those mortals fought back as soon as Its meteor landed on the surface of a planet called earth.
98% of earth has been decimated by the Honkai and these so-called humans refuse to give up. Even when their numbers grew thinner their spirit to survive never faltered.
It has never seen a species so interesting as this. No matter where It goes those humans always fought back and for the first time, the beast struggled to fulfill Its most basic desires. For the first time the celestial became curious over why things were the way they were.
It wanted to know how long a human can withstand such calamities. Instead of mindlessly destroying places It decides to play with them instead. Testing out the limit of what those humans can do and will do.
Until It met a white haired girl a few days later, she wasn't even a real human. She was just a mere artificial human and yet she was more tenacious than any other human It has ever encountered.
A mere artificial human was brave enough to fight her alone while the other humans either cower in fear or gave up trying to defeat the celestial. That human became her first ever subject of interest.
It has fought different humans and clones before. Those human clones are usually more suicidal than the regular humans as they view themselves as indispensable while the regular humans fought to protect their own home land. But this one artificial human had a dream to bring peace by eradicating the Honkai.
It of course laughs at this absurd idea. It was so amusing to watch that, It even defied Its basic desire to kill and destroy and chose to spare this human instead.
The white haired girl escaped not with fear in her eyes but rather something different. Something akin to motivation or what those humans called determination.
"Human. I hope we will meet again and don't you dare die before we do."
Naturally the white haired girl was shocked to hear something like that from her enemy. It was also Its first time speaking in their language but despite all of that It spoke rather fluently.
"Kiana. That's my name. If you want to remember me that is." And so that interesting human left to go back to her master.
"Kiana…" For the first time, It felt a sense of ecstasy. It couldn't wait to meet that human again and so It ponders. What should that Human, No what should Kiana called It as?
It realizes that each human calls themselves differently. Apparently each human has their own name and their names became part of their identity.
It doesn't want her to keep calling It as a Honkai beast or Celestial forever. It needed a name, a name that It would eventually keep until this day. "…Jyahnar, Yeah that's a good name. Next time we meet I will introduce myself properly to you, Kiana."
It decides that It should also change Its own appearance to better suit the situation. So she decided to take on the form of a fair skinned woman with blue hair and eyes and clad herself in a black robe to hide her skin just like the humans she had encountered before.
"Much better." She hums as she walks forward. Charred landscape filled her field of view as she traveled through the ashen path that was once a thriving human village.
She couldn't care less about these humans that once lived here as to her only one human mattered. Everything else is just background noise or an obstacle.
Time passed by as the beast roamed around the desolate planet aimlessly. She didn't have anywhere she wanted to go nor did she need to go somewhere. The act is purely to satiate her growing curiosity on why this species is so different from the others she had encountered before arriving on earth.
Is it the planet themselves that caused it? Or maybe it is natural to the human species? Or maybe it is her kin that made this planet's dominant species act the way they do.
So many questions swirled around her thoughts. It was an interesting experience to say the least as Jyahnar had never needed to think this much before.
Each time she met and fought that white haired girl, she couldn't help but get excited. Her chest was thumping hard and she couldn't get Kiana out of her head. The white haired girl is special compared to the rest.
'Is this what Humans called love? Ah, what a nice feeling.' Jyahnar thought as she looked up at the stars above with the human she desperately wanted by her side, Just unconscious as Jyahnar just grabbed her to a nearby island.
At that time the beast doesn't know any better. It was her first time feeling a whole ray of emotions. She doesn't really know what caused her to act so differently, but one thing is for sure she wanted Kiana to stay with her.
She wanted this human for herself. But unfortunately the human that she wanted attention from didn't recuperate the same feeling even after a few days of them staying together.
"I'm sorry, Jyahnar." Kiana apologizes. The white haired girl is adamant that she has some places to be although she does find that this celestial is different from the rest.
"But that doesn't mean we can't be friends. I don't know what you're feeling since I'm not good with dealing with emotions myself. Maybe I should ask ." Kiana stood up as she observed the burning wreckage of a battleship floating on the ocean in front of them.
While they weren't fighting the celestial. Kiana still felt indebted to her that her life was saved.
"So you're going to go back?" A tinge of sadness is heard in her voice.
"Yeah. But I'll be back once I save everyone from the Honkai!" Kiana gave the celestial a bright smile. Seeing that smile gave ease to the anxious celestial.
"Fine. Don't die on me now. My beloved human." Jyahnar mimics the expression of the human beside her. She didn't know that talking like this could feel so nice. It is a totally different experience than what she used to.
And so as the white haired girl leaves on a small boat. The celestial found herself a new goal, to observe this peculiar human. Will she fulfill her dream? Or will she not?
Though unfortunately her observation was cut short as Jyahnar found out what would happen if a human became an apostle of Honkai, A Herrscher is born from that process.
Succumbing all of their humanity to the corruption of the Honkai. She knew that her kin could do something like this but this is the first time she saw that very process happening in front of her eyes.
It was amazing and yet her chest felt empty. It didn't feel as fulfilling as she thought it would feel.
But the newly born Herrscher didn't care if her opponent was a Honkai or a human. Jyahnar was surprised that she showed hostility against her. She didn't even do anything to provoke the Herrscher.
Though it isn't a big matter, that Herrscher just needed to be taught a lesson. At least that's what she thought at the time. The fight even though the humans do eventually give her their support, but the overwhelming difference of their power is evident.
No matter what the celestial did, She could only cause light wounds at best. For the first time in her life, The celestial experienced hopelessness.
She couldn't win no matter what she did. She was scared. She used everything she had just to survive this fight that had been dragged on for almost a day.
Jyahnar wonders if that human Kiana is really no longer there. When she looked at the Herrscher's yellow eyes they felt very different from the warm and friendly gaze that Kiana had or the strong and fearless gaze of a warrior when Kiana fought her.
This Herrscher had none of those, she only saw the cold eye of an apex predator, No, what she saw is more akin to a cold and indiscriminate gaze of a goddess of destruction.
The birth of the Herrscher of the end also marked Jyahnar's first ever loss. Back then she really thought that she was going to die as The Herrscher commences her final act on judgement day.
A bright white yellowish circle with a cross like pattern in the middle of the circle filled up the entire evening sky. Even those that weren't anywhere near the Herrscher of the end could see that ominous pattern.
Soon destruction follows as the Herrscher poured her seemingly unlimited amount of energy into one single move. It instantly destroyed all of the planet's crust into a scorching hot sea of molten lava in just a few days after the end of judgement day.
In the center of it all the pattern could still be seen carved into the planet's now molten surface, the humans called that phenomenon as the Honkai "Dead Spot". Where it signifies the end of a cycle and the end of an era.
But fortunately this isn't the end for the celestial as she woke up after an unknown amount of time had passed. She noticed that she had somehow been transported into a cave or some sort.
At least for now she's safe from the scorching lava that is on the surface. She may be a celestial class Honkai beast but drowning in lava for a long period of time would kill her eventually especially after the long and exhausting fight she just had with the Herrscher of the end.
"Celestial Jyahnar or as the Humans called you Herrscher of the sea, welcome to the world of living." A girl's voice can be heard as well as a blinding light from whatever holographic screen she is looking at.
"You!? Kiana?" Jyahnar blinked a couple times to make sure that her eyes isn't deceiving her. The girl in front of her looked somewhat similar to Kiana with purple diamond like patterns on her skin all over her body while a golden halo hovered above her head.
"You mean this vessel?" The girl points at herself. Her voice also doesn't sound like a human as she sounded more like a robot or android to be precise.
"Kiana is long dead I'm afraid. The moment she became a Herrscher she had passed on from this world. I am merely an android sort to speak. Made by my creator Dr Mei from the corpse of the Herrscher of the end and was enhanced with a solium exterior but unfortunately even I would struggle to fight against a Herrscher alone since I do not possess a Herrscher core myself. So please don't ask me for a fight as I am not built for such a purpose."
"…Why was she chosen? She doesn't despair no matter what I do. How come GOD chose her and succeeded?" Jyahnar asked.
"I can't answer that question. But judging from this corpse's memories she seems to be a bit fond of you."
"Does she-" Before the celestial could even say anything the android already shakes her head.
"No Jyahnar. She doesn't love you back, nor is what you feel is actually what humans call love. That is called an obsession."
"Obsessed? What are you getting at?" That word ticked her off slightly. How dare a mere android replica of that human say that to her.
"That is exactly what I said. You're obsessed with wanting that human for yourself, no? Not as a lover but your love for her is similar to wanting to own her as a pet like Humans owning a cat as their pet." Without any fear in the android's eyes, she gave the celestial a calm and emotionless response.
"…" The android isn't exactly wrong, then this whole time the beast must've misinterpreted that feeling of wanting to possess something as love.
Feelings are more complicated than Jyahnar would have imagined. Maybe this is because she spends too much time on this planet already. But why doesn't she want to leave?
It is like something is keeping her there. Is this what humans call attachment? She wonders if she's defective or any Honkai that could think could also feel this type of emotions like her.
"Then why are you keeping me alive? You could've left me to die."
"I need someone to protect me or fight for me. Humans are too weak and most of them are dead. You also cannot die from old age so you're a perfect bodyguard for me." Araya replied, staring back at the celestial through her holographic screen. Quite unfortunate that Dr. Mei hasn't programmed emotions into this android AI system.
"And if I decide to destroy humanity what would you do?"
"Then I'll help the humans to deal with you. But I'll have to ask you this question first, Do you want to destroy the planet?"
"…Not really." Jyahnar looks away. Yeah she still had one last business before she decides this planet's fate at least. Her pride as a destroyer was hurt badly when she was completely destroyed in that one sided fight against the Herrscher of the end.
Even if it is a different Herrscher of the end. She wanted nothing more than revenge to the Herrscher that humiliated her and maybe just maybe avenge her first friend? At least Kiana view her as a friend so it counts?.
"Not now at least, this planet's destruction is not my business right now."
"That's good since this war has only just begun."
True to the android's prediction, as the next era of humans began to flourish the Honkai began to show their presence as well.
As humans developed weapons to fight against them, the Honkai also started to develop more and more Honkai beast types. Now this era has more problems to deal with other than regular zombies.
It also became apparent to Jyahnar that both humans and her kin continue to adapt towards their new environment. While the celestial do occasionally helped the humans in the background or against a Herrscher.
She found out that this era began to spawn in different and unique power Herrschers. Herrschers that controlled the elements made their first appearance in this era, from Fire, Ice, Wind, Lightning and Gravity/Earth.
All of them ravage the city the appeared on, creating their own separate Honkai Impacts. Though with Jyahnar's help the humans do eventually quell their Herrscher problem and made weapons using the valuable Herrscher cores that those fallen Herrschers left behind, turning them into divine keys.
Yet those new divine keys aren't enough to beat the unbeatable Herrscher of the end. Even with the celestial's intervention the results are the same. The earth once again was set ablaze by the divine power of this malevolent god like being.
But these humans left blueprints of their work hoping that the next era can do better.
As thousands of years go by, the next era of Humans began to become more sophisticated, creating better and more futuristic weaponry. Pushing back the Honkai with better efficiency than ever before.
When they thought that they could win this war, the Honkai retaliated back. 3 new Herrschers emerge in this era alongside the elemental ones.
The first emergence of the Herrscher of reason, void and corruption shook this era by surprise as they didn't expect to meet this new type of enemy. If it wasn't for Jyahnar again they might've lost more lives.
The celestial was starting to get tired of helping these incompetent humans. Jyahnar wonders if leaving them be instead of being the solution for their Herrscher problem is a better option. Since these Humans would eventually need to adapt as well.
And so as this era fell too in the end, not even this era's more technological advance weaponry is enough to deal any significant damage to the Herrscher of the end.
This time Jyahnar decided to hibernate and observe those humans instead of actively helping them. The celestial thought it would greatly help the humans if they solve their own problem. She isn't obligated to help them after all and her theory was somewhat correct.
As In the next era new Herrschers appeared like the Herrscher of sentience, dominance and death. The humans were able to deal with these Herrscher threats much better than their ancestors in the previous era but the amount of casualties it took far exceeded what Jyahnar and Araya had previously anticipated.
Coupled with the emergence of a new problem, Human greed. It effectively caused the human organization that fought against the Honkai to be split into many different factions.
While their goal is similar they all disagree with the methods that the other factions use and somehow this was enough to cause many skirmishes and even a war to erupt amongst the humans.
It made Jyahnar question how these stupid humans managed to survive all this years. Even if Araya managed the reincarnation cycle to ensure the most important humans that contributed many things into this war to live again. Araya can't control what those humans eventually would do in their lives.
It is like playing a real time strategy game where your role as the player is either to directly intervene with powers beyond that of a Herrscher and stop the enemies yourself or spawning important characters/heroes and let the AI handle the rest of what your character would do in their life.
It's not like they have infinite life either; once they die they can only be reincarnated as a different version of themselves in the next era. Their appearance, personality or even experience might coincidentally be similar but they would all be different people in the end.
Their greed became so uncontrollable that they are using the Honkai to empower themselves and play god to their fellow humans. Although Jyahnar didn't see any problem with that, but if you view these actions from the perspective of a Human. Some of the things they do can be very very questionable.
It isn't the first era that did experiments on humans but the 3rd era is the era where that sort of experiments run rampant without anything, like morals, ethnic or even human rights holding it back. Leading to many humans being sacrificed in vain.
While some of the knowledge they had was still used in the future era that came after. This era is the only era where Humanity almost ended themselves due to a power imbalance and inner conflict of all things.
"I don't know If I could call humans smart or stupid at this point."
"They are simple but also complicated creatures. Sometimes the things they do are hypocritical or irrational that can't be explained by logic or emotions."
"… I don't understand why Kiana, an artificial human would want to save a species like that."
"That is something I couldn't explain. I am only doing what my creator programmed me to do. Maybe you'll eventually find your answer or maybe that would be left unanswered eternally. I'm sure even the humans would have difficulty answering that if they were ever in your position."
Thousands of years later the 4th era Human civilization came. The final era where a new recurring Herrscher will first awaken.
The era where the Honkai made a weapon specifically to kill itself as a failsafe as Humans began to harness and try to replicate the power that the Honkai possessed.
The Herrscher of binding first appeared in this era. No one could ever foresaw it happening. Humanity's greatest saintess, a woman that was their greatest hope at defeating the Honkai became their ultimate despair.
It goes to show that no one is safe from the Honkai's corruptive nature. Although it is mostly the humans fault that it happened as tragedy struck the poor saintess repeatedly and barely anyone treated her like a regular human being outside of her family which was taken away from her as they died in her arms.
She was a woman who sworn to protect these people became their greatest enemy in the end. Not even the celestial could save them as Jyahnar knew that fight would give her an unnecessary amount of injury if she fought the Herrscher head on.
Though in the end she was quelled by the very humans that destroyed her life. The Herrscher's awakening left scars that buried deep into this era human civilization which lead to this era's downfall.
Each era comes and goes like the wind. Truthfully Jyahnar was starting to lose her interest to observe these humans any longer. For years she had hoped that some human would piqued her interest but no unfortunately they're all just a herd of ants to her.
She was hibernating at that time when a new meteor containing another celestial had struck earth. Leaving behind pink crystal formation around the crater as well as a little girl with pink hair.
She is undoubtedly a Honkai beast yet she already takes on the appearance of a human as she began to roam around the human civilization just like her predecessor Jyahnar.
Though unlike her predecessor. She experienced the good and the bad side of humanity with a human perspective in mind. After all no species would be perfect but it doesn't mean that they couldn't be more beautiful than the petals of a delicate flower.
That is what this now teenage looking pink haired girl came into conclusion in her travels. She, just like Jyahnar, chose a name for herself, a name that is now known as Elysia.
Jyahnar walked down the streets of the golden courtyard in her blue priest robe like outfit, with one goal in mind, that is finding the whereabouts of this new celestial who hides her true identity just to blend in with these humans.
Naturally both celestials knew of each other's existence as they could feel each other's signature aura. Though this revelation of course puzzled the first celestial. Why does Elysia decide to play along with these humans? Even if she's curious, these humans are like ants to them.
Did she know something that Jyahnar didn't know? Even to this day the celestial still doesn't understand how Elysia managed to love these humans so much to the point that she loves them more than the humans themselves.
"St-State your business here." The guards outside of a large fire moth headquarters stopped the celestial in her tracks. They didn't know why but her presence alone is very suffocating. Despite that they're willing to fight their fear and stand their ground.
"Elysia. I am looking for her. This is something personal, move aside from before I forced you to move."
"Hiek! W-We can't do that, please wait here." The guard taps something on his phone presumably he's trying to get the upper ups permission after all no ordinary guest can enter that place randomly.
"Ara~ Looking for me?" Jyahnar turned around at the source of the voice. There it is, She found the other celestial that she was looking for. Elysia, A pink haired woman who have herself a pair of elf ears? She's already a honkai beast so the meta morph surgery that Araya said this world soldiers had shouldn't affect her much.
Unless she purposefully changed her appearance to suit her own needs. Though it does work well with her disguise.
"You know you could've called me instead of barging into my work place." Elysia grabbed the priestess's hand and began to drag her away. "Sorry for the inconvenience~. My friend can be a little hot headed. Please leave a message to Dr. Mobius that I'll be going on a date with this lady okay~?"
Just like that the two celestials managed to get away without much suspicion on their back as Elysia booked an entire café for them to talk.
"Jyahnar. That's my name. Now then why are you masquerading as a Human, Elysia?"
"Hmm? I can't do that? Ah I just wanted to see what humans view the world they live in. Most of them are simple creatures you know." Elysia looked down at her cup of coffee.
Her slim and gentle fingers gently follow the top of the cup, circling it again and again until she finally stops after a couple of laps. "Even small things like these could make a person satisfied."
"That's not what I wanted to know. You are Honkai and Honkai are meant to destroy civilization like these. You may look Human but you can't change your nature."
"Then why didn't you destroy this planet's civilization?" Elysia asked. Naturally it caught the celestial off guard. Why didn't she do it?
"I tried once. Grew bored of it, keeping these humans alive is far more entertaining." As much as Jyahnar wanted to know the true reason behind her rebellion against her most basic nature. Boredom is the best answer she could come up with.
"Aren't you a sadist? Hehe, Now why does that remind me of a certain someone?" Elysia looked up onto the ceiling of the café. "But she probably won't matter to you. If you're curious about my reasoning why don't I show the beauty of humans to you?"
"I've seen enough. I've been here on this accursed planet longer than you do."
"But have you seen it from the perspective of these humans? Why are they so desperate? Why can they sometimes be so hypocritical?"
"I don't need to. We're not humans, why should I see their problems from their perspective?"
"Not every human causes trouble you know. Some are cute and innocent like me~." Jyahnar's eyebrows twitched. Did she really just heard that right?
"Others are more passive, some have an unbending will. Just like a garden of flowers they're all beautiful and unique and just like a garden naturally weeds do exist and sometimes a human can be as generic as a garden's bush.-"
"-If your worldview is too narrow you'll end up ignoring all of those blooming flowers! So why don't you try to see it from a bigger picture or maybe change the angle of where you're seeing them."
"Ha. Don't tell me what to do." Jyahnar crossed her she had enough of hearing this human pretender. "Fine, how about this? If you beat me in a battle then I'll listen to you."
"Hmm deal~. Oh and be gentle with me okay? I know a good spot."
"Just do it on an island if you don't want humans to see you fight like a Honkai." Jyahnar stood up from her chair and leaves.
"Owh. At least finish your coffee." The pink haired girl frowned a little. She ended up drinking both of them before she left the café as well.
Although both left in seemingly bad terms in that café that day. Jyahnar couldn't help but wanting more of those interactions.
The two of them are fundamentally different, one loves humans so much to the point that she wanted to become a human herself rejecting her nature and the other viewed the species as nothing more than intelligent ants.
It left a lingering question that hasn't been answered yet till this day. While they're born Honkai, why are they fundamentally different from the rest of their kin? Is having intelligence and a will of their own really be the only difference?
Even their GOD/Creator didn't seem to force them to do anything. Each decision they make is of their own free will.
Though at least the both of them have one thing in common. They're both obsessed with humans. An obsession that led them to choose a different path for themselves.
Till this day Jyahnar still regretted the fact that she let go of her so easily. Elysia, her only true friend and rival. While her reincarnation do exist, they're different from the one she knew.
Jyahnar was ultimately the one that is too naïve and prideful back then. She still remembered her bright and warm smile each time they met for their annual spar or just a casual meet up.
They were different from the smiles she gave to those humans. They were more sincere, If only the two of them could reach the common from their opposite world view. Would Elysia still make that decision? Truthfully Jyahnar didn't know.
It was only her wishful thinking to have someone of her kin to be similar to the Elysia she knew or at least someone that has realized that in life their purpose isn't solely to destroy.
At the very least she wanted to have a fitting conclusion to their battle. Be it winning or losing it doesn't matter to her anymore. The other 2 celestials that came after her was just like her but they unfortunately couldn't be reasoned with.
Each celestials always brought some change to this world whether it be good or bad. Elysia brought hope to humanity and hope for most Herrschers to be able to retain or regain their humanity back.
The 3rd brought a more stable and powerful form of the stigmata. It also allowed the humans to regain resistance to Honkai radiation naturally through evolution. But it also made those natural stigmatas a double edge sword.
Its influence made it so that those Stigmata could evolve into a Herrscher stigmata given the right condition and unlike the other Herrschers. It is impossible to save those humans who had gone through this process. While the condition to meet those criteria is unknown other than the fact that they have to go through a lot of suffering.
It is undeniable that these evolved stigmata will spawn a much more powerful Herrscher variant than the normal 12 Herrschers (And sometimes other unique ones) that humanity used to deal with.
Though Jyahnar have only seen it a couple of times due to how rare it is for a stigmata user to survive from that process alone. As most of then not they wouldn't be able to handle the amount of Honkai energy needed to develop a Herrscher core in their body.
The most recent one being the 4th celestial, So far no changes had yet to occur other than the fact that it survived. While it is still alive, they're no different than a comatose patient in a vegetative state, slowly dying with time. It managed to survive for 3 Eras straight by hijacking the Herrscher of finality's corpse that was left on the moon.
Using those corpses of the strongest Herrscher to keep itself alive by using the left over Honkai energy to slowly heal their broken core and body. Of course it is futile in the end as they could never recover unless an external force came and help them.
Though for reasons unknown in this era things were different for that dying celestial. Jyahnar could tell that their Honkai energy reserves is decreasing much more rapidly in this era than the previous one. Maybe in the end of this era she would see another one of her kin die.
But at least she doesn't feel as alone anymore as Elysia had opened her eyes. Her Kiana isn't the only human that interest her anymore.
And in this Era, Sakuya became the subject she's most interested in. That is why she let a part of her consciousness be with this human. Though her real body might not share the same experience but at least this human can tell her real self a story someday.
As Jyahnar finished telling Sakuya the simplified version of events of her past. Sakuya was left with a question in mind.
"Why did you suddenly changed the Herrscher of the end to the Herrscher of finality when you were telling me the story about the original Elysia?"
"That is because, Herrscher of Finality is the true and final evolution of the Herrscher of the end, no one knew how she could evolve into such monstrosity.-"
"- She became the true embodiment of deus ex machina, the power to "end" anything once she fully manifested. Now armed with the power to manipulate even time itself the Herrscher became the sole reason why humanity hasn't escaped the cycle it created.-"
"- For reasons unknown all Herrscher of finality will always be "KIANA" unless Kiana had died prematurely, Maybe it was created because of her regret of not being able to stop herself or maybe it is just the Herrscher's twisted hobby of tormenting the earth and the solar system in a perpetual 50K cycle of samsara." Jyahnar explained.
"I see. But it seems like you skipped a lot of stuff when you are telling me your backstory."
"We'd be here for days if I were to tell a more detailed version. It is already morning, look outside." Sakuya looked at her window and saw the sun starting to rise. Seems like she really did listen to the celestial's story for the whole night.
"Fine. I'll brew myself some coffee then. Good morning to you too Jyahnar." The girl got up from the chair she was sitting on and did some morning stretches.
Insomnia or not she's already used with not sleeping at night, at least knocking herself out each night to visit her stigmata space is a good alternative than having no sleep at all. Though one or two days a week of no sleep wouldn't kill her either, at least if she does it on the weekend.
"…Sakuya. Try to find other ways to get a good night's sleep. You need them so you wouldn't go insane." Sakuya was surprised to hear that from her out of all people. Though she already trusts her enough to the point that she told her, her life story.
Guess this gentler side of the Honkai EGO isn't that bad. It made Sakuya wonder if there really was any difference between humans and some Honkai variants at the end of the day.
In case you're wondering about the era zero stuff, i only took Era Zero GGZ as a reference for this chapter. You don't really need to know era zero GGZ since most of the stuff i write here are original.
Now that i think about it Celestial and Descenders from Genshin do have similarities that they're both aliens. What a coincidence that the idea matches since I've thought about the celestial class Honkai beast way before Genshin did a lore dump about Descenders.
Thankfully my exams are over but unfortunately i don't get even a month of holiday, RIP.
Anyway thanks for reading this chapter. I'm really grateful that people took the time and read what i made.