The Moon was a stark contrast to the vibrant world she had been in prior. KIANA looked at her hands and examined herself, moving around. She had been able to move freely back with Elysia, but this was the first time she was able to move in the real world on her own, so she was relishing the new feeling.

KIANA turned her gaze outward and looked around, but she couldn't actually see that far without rocks getting in the way. It seemed that rather than the surface of the Moon she remembered, she was instead in some crater of sorts. She looked behind her and saw… oh.

It was her.

Rather, it was her corpse.

A large fragmented statue, with a faint purple glow that was only now fading with her absence.

She was a lot smaller now, wasn't she? She supposed that 'becoming human' also meant 'becoming the size of humans'.

As she looked, her memories started appearing unbidden at the forefront of her mind.

A green girl who didn't seem to die. A woman whose golden voice pierced the cold void. A white and red girl who wielded the feathers of Sentience.

She looked away, not wishing to drown in her own memories. But one last memory appeared.

A man of ice who wielded flames.

To her knowledge, those four did not die on the Moon. How many of them were still alive? Elysia had said she died 50,000 years ago. Could humans live that long? She paused, realizing that even if they were still alive, it was in her best interests to avoid them.

After all, she was their sworn enemy.

She began floating up out of the crater, but stopped as she passed her corpse's head. The lingering glow had completely faded by now, and more cracks had formed in it. Some pieces were already beginning to fall off. KIANA held out a hand and touched the statue of her past.

'Thank you, Elysia.' And with that thought, the statue crumbled entirely.

As she exited the crater, she looked around, realizing that the area had changed in 50,000 years. The Palace of Selene was there as always, as were the buildings constructed by the humans prior to her awakening. However, there were some new buildings too. She floated closer to one and saw that unlike the older buildings that depicted what looked like a moth, these buildings had an emblem depicting what looked kind of like a snake. Were humans divided into factions based on other animals?

She floated a little closer to the snake marked building. At the moment, there didn't seem to be anyone around. Did humans try to settle on the Moon here in spite of the abundant Honkai in the area? Her corpse had been here for 50,000 years and based on what she saw, it had only stopped emitting Honkai when she was reborn.

No, the place didn't show any signs of ruin, so it was likely that they possessed a means to defeat whatever Honkai Beasts appeared. They were more than likely an anti-Honkai organization from the Current Era.

Either way, it was commendable that these snake people would try to set up a settlement so close to her resting spot. However, that meant that there may be people here that recognized her, so it would be best if she left swiftly.

Her goal was to live a new life, not pick up 50,000 year old feuds.

As she left the base behind, she realized that the base's undamaged appearance may not have just been because they had the means to fend off the Honkai.

Rather, there were no Honkai Beasts around.

She figured that there should have been plenty of Honkai Beasts around here, if only because of the Honkai radiating from her corpse.

An old memory came to her mind.

That weapon, the cannon they called 'Selene'. It should have been useless against her, as all their attacks were. But this one somehow managed to hurt. She could feel her energy leaving her, almost as if the blast was peeling the Honkai off of her.

After that, there was fire.

She let out an involuntary shudder at the memories of the only weapons that harmed her back then.

That's right, about a third of her energy had been torn from her by that cannon. That Honkai should have seeped into the Moon here, and yet.

It wasn't here.

Something must have happened here while she was dead. That was the only explanation for why there was so little Honkai here. Had the humans found a way to move it? Or was it something else?

No matter, it wasn't important. Not anymore.

She turned her gaze upwards and saw, peeking out of the horizon, was her target, Earth.

.

.

.

Target was perhaps a bad choice of words, given her prior actions involving Earth. Goal might be better.

However, staring at the Earth, she realized that there was a new problem.

The Moon was kind of far from the Earth. The last time she made this trip it took a couple hours.

She was not looking forward to this.

However, the longer she waited, the longer it would take, so she began her long trek towards the home of humanity.

*Thunk* "Gagh!"

At least, she was going to, but something decided to get in her way.

As she looked to see who was about to taste oblivion, she realized that the culprit was a barrier.

One she only noticed after slamming her head into it.

She quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard her, and when she was confident nobody had, turned her attention back to the translucent barrier.

Hmm, would anybody mind if she shattered the barrier?

She paused just before going through with said shattering when she remembered the human settlement here that was almost certainly responsible for the barrier, and likely had a reason for setting it up.

It'd make a bad first impression for the humans if her first action was breaking something of theirs.

But that meant she had to find another way around this obstacle.

Maybe she could turn around and see if she could go out another way? No, she could see that this barrier was a dome, there wouldn't be an end to it.

Could she maybe go ask the humans to bring her to Earth? No, she was avoiding them in the first place because they would almost certainly be suspicious of someone else on the Moon.

At times like this it sure would be handy to have the Herrscher of the Void's powers.

It only made sense, didn't it? Time and Space were pretty closely connected, so shouldn't she as the Herrscher that controls Time also be able to control Space?

Her internal rant came to a sudden halt as she remembered Elysia's words.

"Origin is the tie that connects all Herrschers, and Origin and Finality are more closely intertwined than any other."

Finality was linked to the Origin, which connected all Herrscher authorities. It was from Finality that all Herrschers were born,

So that meant that it stood to reason that she had access to the other Herrscher powers.

Right?

There was only one way to find out, so she looked deep within herself, reaching out to something she wasn't expecting to need to at all in this new life of hers.

The Cocoon of Finality.

Born as Finality itself, connecting to the Cocoon was as natural as breathing, not that she needed to breathe in the first place. It would be very simple to accept all that the Cocoon offered then and there.

However, she did not fully embrace it. Not yet. Possibly not ever if she wished to live a simple life. It would not be good to fully draw upon her powers of Finality. Even taking just a fraction of the authority of Finality could create a cataclysmic Honkai Eruption.

Instead, she bypassed the Cocoon entirely, and reached out further.

For a moment, she thought she could see a blank figure watching her, but it was just a flicker.

And then…

Shade of Finality: Void

She was suddenly moved in an instant.

KIANA blinked for a moment, before turning around and seeing the barrier now behind her.

It was barely any distance, but it was just enough for her to get past the barrier.

She felt a new emotion, perhaps pride or a sense of accomplishment.

And also a sense of relief as she realized that this discovery not only solved her barrier issue, but also her travel time issue.

She didn't need to spend hours flying to Earth if she could just warp there, after all.

Focusing her efforts on the Earth and calling upon her new power once more, she grasped it and suddenly…

…She was still on the Moon.

In fact, the Earth looked no closer at all.

Actually, if she looked closely enough, it looked like there was…

A translucent blue wall.

She warped back behind the barrier.

KIANA felt yet another new emotion.

Perhaps this was disappointment, or maybe embarrassment.

It took many more attempts before she could get back outside of the barrier, one of which came dangerously close to the human settlement on the Moon, but finally, she was once again outside of the barrier.

Now that she was out of the barrier, she thought over her newly discovered power. Her theory had been proven correct, and she was able to replicate the powers of the 2nd Herrscher, albeit to a lesser extent. Not to mention her lack of experience, demonstrated by the last several minutes. She would have to practice more.

However, this new power brought up some new questions with it. Was she able to recreate the other Herrscher authorities? It would certainly prove useful if she needed them, given their versatility. Doubly effective as she likely wouldn't be able to use her own authority of Finality without risking the very humanity she wished to live alongside. She would have to test it later when she was able, but for now, she turned her attention back to the Earth.

Not willing to risk another incident that could put her back inside, she resolved to travel to Earth the old fashioned way.

As she began floating upwards, her thoughts turned back to Elysia, a Herrscher like herself, that was able to defy her purpose and become human. In just a few hours, she would see for herself the humanity that Elysia loved.

So the Herrscher of Finality began her journey to Earth, as she once did 50,000 years ago.

Where once she traveled to destroy all life, she now traveled again to live her own life.