"Murata Himeko? Wait a moment...?!" Fu Hua floated in the air, observing the nearly burning Vermillion figure in the alley, murmuring to herself.
She had just been in the room, watching Sirin and Kiana fall into a deep sleep.
With her current ghost-like form, Fu Hua could easily pass through walls and other obstacles.
Upon sensing subtle fluctuations of Honkai on the street, she immediately rushed out of the house.
Then, Fu Hua saw a somewhat familiar face appearing in front of her, the Valkyrie Murata Himeko, who served as a combat instructor at the Schikcsal HQ.
This Valkyrie had once served in the Valkyrie Assault Team and had been teammates with Luo Lin for a while.
So seeing her in this consciousness space dominated by Luo Lin's memories, Fu Hua was not surprised.
But it was the Battlesuit that Murata Himeko wore that shocked her—
"Isn't that the Eclipse Armor?! And is that Judgement of Shamash in her hand?!"
Fu Hua's mouth hung open. She knew the ins and outs of the Eclipse Armor. It was actually a technological relic from the previous civilization, researched under the leadership of Dr. Mei, the "Key of Blankness."
After the current civilization recovered it, they based the development of a new generation of Valkyrie Battlesuit on its technology.
This armor had always been kept in the deepest part of Schikcsal HQ, with a very high level of confidentiality. Apart from necessary researchers who had some knowledge of it, no one else had seen it, not even Fu Hua herself had seen it being used.
Yet now, she saw Murata Himeko, a person completely unrelated to Schikcsal's secrets, wearing this armor.
Himeko's movements in annihilating the Shadows were graceful and proficient, indicating a profound familiarity with the Eclipse Armor.
And then there was the Judgement of Shamash in her hand...
Fu Hua squinted, carefully observing the sword wrapped in substantial Honkai energy flames, with specks of golden light shimmering on the blade.
"You're Luo Lin!"
The Vermillion Knight raised her head, looking at Fu Hua floating in the sky, unable to help but smile bitterly. "You're quite sharp, Fu Hua. How did I expose myself?"
"The Judgement of Shamash in your hand... its style looks exactly the same as the Abyss Flower you used before," Fu Hua said.
Luo Lin looked down at the faintly golden Judgement of Shamash, at a loss for words for a moment.
The default appearance of all Mimicry Divine Keys of the "Key of Revelation" looked like this, and she wasn't a C language expert who could dissect the source code of the Divine Key and understand it thoroughly.
She couldn't even find an option to turn off the effect!
As for the mimicry Judgement of Shamash... Luo Lin had only been able to look at the simulation blueprints in the database of the "Key of Revelation" before, but now, she happened to encounter Siegrfried holding the "Judgement of Shamash."
With the original version available, she naturally had to take a closer look.
When interacting with Siegrfried, Luo Lin used the "Key of Revelation" to scan the Divine Key hidden in his pocket and finally found a way to simulate the Judgement of Shamash.
However, Luo Lin could currently only simulate the "Judgement of Shamash" form. She was still unable to simulate the dual-gun form or the evolved "Might of An-Utu" form...
"And how did you manage to have these two bodies?" Fu Hua stuffed her head back into the room and found another "Cecilia" sitting there. The white-haired Valkyrie was holding the sleeping Sirin and even smiled at her.
Fu Hua pulled her head out again, looking at the Vermillion Knight standing in the alley, her mind a mess.
"Um, both of these bodies are me... You can also consider it as an encounter of mine in a parallel world?" The Vermillion Knight Luo Lin inserted the "Mimic Judgement of Shamash" into the ground and spread her hands helplessly.
Sirin clung too tightly to Luo Lin. As long as "Cecilia" wasn't present, the Honkai energy inside the purple-haired girl would fluctuate, and there was even a possibility of going berserk.
Luo Lin could only use the function of summoning Valkyries in the formation to control the Vermillion Knight - Eclipse body to explore the vast consciousness space at night while letting "Cecilia" accompany Sirin to rest at home.
"But for now, I only have one consciousness, and I can only control one body at a time..." Luo Lin explained and muttered, "Maybe in the future, I can control more bodies simultaneously...?"
"Not everything can be attributed to encounters in parallel worlds!" Fu Hua fell silent for a moment, then retorted, "Well, since you want to keep it a secret... I won't force you to talk about it. After all, the most important thing now is to solve the troubles in this consciousness space."
"Yeah..." The Vermillion Knight picked up the Judgement of Shamash again and, using the hook of the "Moon Ring," jumped lightly to the rooftop, overlooking the brightly lit city.
The lively streets during the day were now deserted, with parked vehicles neatly arranged on the roadside, neon lights shining brightly, buildings clean and glassy, and no plants growing in the cracks of the streets due to long-term lack of human traffic.
However, it was not completely different, because Luo Lin also saw Quantum Shadows wandering on the streets, which was similar to the chaotic scenes of St. Fontaine when it suddenly encountered a Honkai event, and humans scattered and fled without caring about cars, and after a long time, everywhere was chaotic gray.
"Why are there so many Shadows... Do we have to clear them all out?" Fu Hua clenched her fists, feeling worried.
"I just killed a few Quantum Shadows and made some discoveries," Luo Lin pointed to the gradually dissipating blue Quantum light spots on the ground. "It seems that Quantum Shadows can't cause any harm to this world. At least when they slapped the ground with their palms, not even the floor tiles shook. It seems that even we are the same..."
The Vermillion Knight ignited the Judgement of Shamash again, planted it upside down into the ground, and while the high temperature distorted the surrounding scenery, the floor remained intact.
"And, these creatures that have been eliminated have revived." With sharp roars, the figures of Quantum Shadows reappeared in the alley below. They were quite calm, walking stiffly around, showing no signs of having been killed once.
The Vermillion Knight raised the Judgement of Shamash again, swiftly killing these resurrected Quantum Shadows, then climbed back to the rooftop. She and Fu Hua stared at the area together, watching those Shadows reappear—even the types and numbers of Shadows were exactly the same.
"It seems that killing Shadows is useless. We have to approach this from another angle..." Luo Lin sighed and opened the system task panel, looking at the task full of garbled characters.
[Current Objective: Spend a perfect day for *＆% to feel perfect (*＆%￥（）＆...%￥)]
"What does this garble represent? Could it be that I have to create a perfect day for her, and only then will this situation end?" Luo Lin pondered, but she quickly noticed something else below this garbled task.
It seemed like... a countdown timer?
[(*￥...10, 9...3, 2, 1...]
[Current Objective: Spend a perfect day for *＆% (Failed×)]
[Interruption of Task... Failed...]
[Restarting Task...]
"Huh?"
As the wind howled, pulling Luo Lin into the air, everything in her field of vision twisted and deformed, like a tunnel flashing with colorful light. At the same time, she felt like she was being tossed into a washing machine making her dizzy and unable to keep her eyes open.
It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it also felt like just a moment. Luo Lin's feet touched solid ground again, she retched but nothing came out.
With difficulty, she opened her eyes.
She found herself back in the living room of her rented apartment in Nagazora City, and the Vermillion Knight she summoned earlier had returned to the Formation Tab, hanging in the top right corner of her field of vision alongside her avatar.
What's going on? What happened?
"Mom!"
Upon hearing this voice, Luo Lin reached out, steadying the purple-haired girl who threw herself into her arms.
"Sirin?"
Sirin smiled and rubbed her head against Luo Lin's chest. "Mom, I want to eat something delicious! I want to eat the bread you made! Oh, and I want cookies too!"
—Haven't I seen this scene before?
Luo Lin reached out, grabbing her own bangs. The fine strands of hair between her fingers were still long and snowy white, and she still looked like "Cecilia".
Sirin tilted her head. "Mom?"
Taking a deep breath, Luo Lin patted the purple-haired girl's head. "Alright, darling, just wait a moment. I'll go to the kitchen and make it for you..."
She placed Sirin on the sofa and quickly went to the kitchen, calling out softly, "Fu Hua, Fu Hua, are you there?"
"I'm here..."
Fu Hua rose from under the floor, holding feathers stained with Quantum blue. "I was just checking the situation with the Fenghuang Down. It seems a bit precarious..."
"Don't you remember?"
"Remember what?"
Luo Lin realized something and turned to look at the window.
The sun was high, the sunlight was bright, it was a refreshing morning.
—Time... went back?!