Chapter 917: Himiko

The motorcycle could not go any further about two hundred meters from the edge of the sea of flame.

Heimu balanced on one leg, parked the bike beside a utility pole that the shockwave had snapped at the waist, and shut off the engine.

The air was filled with a sharp burnt smell, and a wave of heat pressed against them like a transparent wall.

Hua got down from the rear seat, took off the helmet and placed it on the seat.

She turned, and her blue eyes reflected the still‑burning ruins ahead.

The Martial Arts Hall was gone.

The old house whose outer wall was covered with vines, the wooden sign at the doorway written in brush with "Hua's Martial Arts Hall", the hanging orchid on the windowsill that Hua watered every morning before leaving, and the half‑eaten pickled radish on the living‑room coffee table—all were turned in the same massive impact crater into an indistinguishable heap of charred fragments.

The crater's diameter was so large it almost covered the whole block; its ragged edges looked as if something that fell from the sky had forcibly gouged out a piece.

The bottom of the crater was still burning, orange Flame leaping out through the cracks in the rubble, while black smoke rose in strands, coalescing in mid‑air into a dense cloud.

At the very center of the crater stood a humanoid blaze.

Heimu squinted, the dark‑purple pupils contracting into two thin slits in the intense light of the Flame.

That thing stood roughly a head taller than an ordinary person, its whole body enveloped in scorching white fire, the Flame's edge shimmering with a thin golden halo, making its outline appear unstable, like a TV screen with a weak signal.

The ground beneath its feet had melted into a semi‑molten orange‑red slurry, and the surrounding air twisted violently under the heat, refracting the scene behind it into an abstract painting.

Its face—or what should be its face—had only two golden specks brighter than the surrounding fire, slowly rotating as if scanning the ruins it had personally shattered.

Heimu stared at the blaze for a few seconds, and a distant entry in a mental database automatically popped up as a match.

Jizi.

No, this isn't Jizi.

Himiko.

Flame Herrscher.

Seventh Herrscher of the Pre‑Civilization.

In the Pre‑Civilization storyline of Honkai 3, this person was Hua's captain, Hua's most respected comrade, and the one who, after becoming a Herrscher in the seventh Honkai, personally drove Hua into a corner.

What her appearance meant to Hua was obvious to anyone who had read the Script.

In Heimu's recollection, this character's bond with Hua was cruelly deep, and her Herrscher‑transformation and death were among the core trauma nodes in Hua's growth arc.

Thus, in a Painted World about Hua, a Flame Herrscher falling from the sky onto Hua's head actually makes sense from a dramaturgical standpoint.

The protagonist's spiritual mentor and key bond appears in the form of an enemy, forcing the protagonist to confront their deepest fear—a trope used ten thousand times in hot‑blooded comics, and in Hua's Adventure Record it's textbook‑level plot progression.

"That's so damn reasonable!"

Heimu shouted the line in her mind, but her face remained lazy, the curve of her mouth unmoving.

She clenched her right hand at her side, then released it.

What on earth is Ailixiya doing?

Isn't this Painted World supposed to be a hot‑blooded shōnen manga?

The cover shows Hua striking a cool punch in a cyber‑retro city, and the story should be a youthful tale of a girl battling monsters, leveling up, and inheriting a Martial Arts Hall.

But the scene before her now is: Apocalyptic Wasteland, Flame Herrscher, a tide of spreading Collapse Beasts, fireballs raining from the sky, and pits everywhere on the ground.

This plot direction is no longer "hot‑blooded"; it's "char‑grilled."

If Ailixiya stuffed a few apocalyptic prophecies and tragic monologues in there, the album's rating could jump straight from "shōnen" to "healing genre," healing readers into complete melancholy.

"Father."

The voice came from Heimu's right side.

Heimu turned her head; Hua stood still, hands at her sides, ice‑blue eyes staring straight at the ruins.

Her lips moved, uttered those two words, and then fell silent.

There were no tears in her eye sockets, her expression didn't crumble; she simply stood there.

Heimu watched Hua set down the helmet and suddenly realized something.

From the moment they left school until now, all her attention had been on the Task of "fulfilling Hua's wish."

But that goal itself, in front of the Flame Herrscher that just fell from the sky, had become a completely false proposition.

Hua's father was first stabbed to death by an unknown assailant in the living room, and now even the living room has been smashed into a massive burning crater.

She exerted huge effort, rewound seven or eight times, looping around the Painted World's rules again and again, only to find that this wish was doomed from the start to be doubly negated—physically and narratively.

That's a bit hellish.

Heimu shifted her gaze from Hua's face and cleared her throat in an extremely unnatural way.

She said nothing.

Now isn't the time to speak.

"Your father may already be in fragments"—that can't be said.

"We seem to have arrived late"—that also can't be spoken.

"Actually, your father died several times in the rewinds I just performed, you just didn't remember"—if that were spoken, Hua would probably cut them in half on the spot.

She chose Shut Up (Cocktail Technique).

The current problem is: how to clear this stage.

The Flame Herrscher has already respawned, standing at the exact center of the ruins, its whole body emitting fire hot enough to melt asphalt into lava, aura fully unleashed, pressure maxed out.

According to the normal plot logic of the album, this kind of BOSS battle is definitely to be completed by the protagonist Hua.

Hua awakens Great Void Sword Qi, breaks through herself, bids a final farewell to her former captain, and delivers a climactic hot‑blooded punch.

But the problem is that the current Hua is still in the early part of the album's story; she hasn't even brushed Great Void Sword Qi, her attribute panel is roughly "Martial Arts Hall girl·ordinary high‑school student" level, sending her to fight the Flame Herrscher is essentially the same as a hamster dueling a microwave oven.

So she goes herself?

Heimu lowered her head and glanced at her hand.

The Painted World's rule constraints still exist, even though she just successfully altered Kaluoer's wound data.

But the output needed to counter a Herrscher‑level enemy and the micro‑adjustment she just made differ by roughly a galaxy's distance.

She lifted her head again and looked at Hua.

Her System Panel unfolded at the edge of her vision, and she brought up Hua's attribute window.

A translucent interface floated beside Hua's body outline, densely listing various parameters.

Heimu gave it a quick glance.