Myriad Phenomena Severance. With one thought, all becomes void; with another, all becomes eternal.
Although the process had been a bit rocky (and utterly delightful), with Otto's self-sacrificing assistance, Chen Li was finally able to see history and time itself.
The Elation Die was a wonderful thing! He had to use it more often. Truly, one must seize the day!
Of course, now was not the time for such frivolous thoughts.
Chen Li currently found himself in a vast emptiness, one hand propping up his chin, the other holding a pair of scissors as he watched a film reel of constantly changing scenes play out before him.
He didn't quite understand why the river of time wasn't actually a river, but when the tip of his scissors touched a specific frame of the film, he knew exactly what he was doing, and what price he would have to pay for it.
His hand ran along the film, seeing the anchor points he had left behind in this world called Honkai.
First, naturally, was the point in time when he had first appeared during the Second Eruption. Chen Li had to rewind much, much further, all the way back 50,000 years, to see his true first "appearance."
After he had vanished from that era, things had progressed just as he had imagined.
With Chen Li gone, the higher-ups of the Flame-Chasers and the UN, who only followed his direct orders, no longer had any reason to obey him. This was a loophole he had intentionally left. Those executives diligently carried out the "Civilization Fabrication Project" he had established, but beyond that, they didn't do a single decent thing.
Fortunately, Chen Li's relationships with Mobius, Elysia, Vill-V, and the others were still shallow at that point, which was considered normal in the eyes of the higher-ups, so they weren't particularly affected. Of course, it was also possible that Elysia and the others were simply too strong to mess with, and that the higher-ups still harbored a lingering fear of Chen Li's existence...
Although Chen Li had left two Curios for the Previous Era, with the one for Mobius being especially potent and theoretically world-changing, the reason the Previous Era was still destroyed according to the original script was because of those executives. While they didn't dare to make any moves against those who had been in contact with Chen Li, they had subconsciously ostracized them.
Mobius's Curio was special. While it could create miracles in her hands, she was powerless without sufficient research funding. The Curio allowed Mobius to take a step forward, but the higher-ups took a step further in holding her back. With one step gained and one step lost, combined with the Herrscher of Finality acting as the Great Equalizer and 50,000 years of blank time, the Curios might as well have not existed.
Mobius's Curio was a highly specialized item that required a massive amount of materials and research support. It was easily hamstrung.
"Heh, this damn group of higher-ups... they're a fucking bunch of geniuses!" Chen Li chuckled with bitter amusement after a preliminary review of this history.
He wasn't here to enjoy a recap of the Previous Era's fight against the Herrschers, but to check on the gifts he had left for this world.
One by one, he tracked the special-attribute weapons he had personally forged, which had been left in the Previous Era, tempered by war and hardship, and successfully passed down through 50,000 years.
Watching the past in this void was free, but watching the future had a price. Probably because the past cannot be changed, but the future is unknowable.
And the price... was Star Stones, of course.
After painfully spending 300 Star Stones, Chen Li recorded the whereabouts of all his surviving items and the fruits of the various plans he had set in motion in the past. He would just have to wait to collect them one by one in the future.
Having done all this, Chen Li began to slowly maneuver the scissors, positioning the blades at the very end of the Second Eruption, right where he currently was.
Snip!
With a crisp sound as the scissors closed, the countless cycles constructed by the Cocoon of Finality finally had a breach.
For this, Chen Li would pay a price of ten years of his life.
This was the price for severing. The price for splicing—the "let the world forget me" part—was a separate charge. But Chen Li didn't mind.
From this point on, the civilizations were independent. Chen Li could let his imagination run wild in the Previous Era, and the Current Era, from the Second Eruption onward, would not undergo any unsettling changes due to alterations in the past.
But if it were that simple, he would only need the severing function. Splicing held its own unique charm.
Chen Li only needed to pay the price. Any potential time paradoxes or historical contradictions would be resolved by [Myriad Phenomena Severance].
The power of a Curio... was so reassuring!
Of course, the price was certainly not cheap.
And just when it seemed everything was over, Chen Li's scissors moved again.
This time, they landed just before the Second Eruption occurred. To be precise, it was at the moment after Sirin became the Herrscher of the Void and eliminated the researchers at the Tower of Babylon, but before she was seduced by the Honkai consciousness, before she reached the birthplace of the Emperor-class Honkai Beast Ashura and tore apart her own human heart to fully become the Herrscher of the Void.
This time, after cutting, Chen Li chose to "sever." Since it was his second use, it only cost him three years.
But with these two cuts, the entire Second Eruption became a photograph that Chen Li had snipped out.
He then grabbed this photograph, turned, and fled, leaving the void behind.
And just as he had expected, the moment he brought this piece of history into reality, the photograph began to fade, dissolving back into the river of time like ice in water.
"Now that won't do. I worked so hard for so long, I should get something out of it."
Unflustered, Chen Li took out a photo album and inserted the fading photograph into it.
The world seemed to pause for an instant, but it also felt as if nothing had happened.
Yet Cecilia felt as if her life force was no longer draining away.
Spacetime... had been paused.
And a sense of finality began to bloom in her heart.
At this moment, Chen Li slowly walked toward Sirin and Cecilia.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting," he said, a hint of apology in his voice.
"Is there something you need from us? Or is saving us not a difficult task for you?" Cecilia asked wearily.
"I came to you because I want to ask you to make a choice," Chen Li said.
"A choice?"
"That's right. Don't you feel a sense of an ending approaching?" Chen Li asked.
"I do, but what is this?"
"It's just another chance. I have pulled you into a special pocket of time. Nothing that happens here will be recorded by time itself. When this time is over, those who were meant to die will still die, and regrets will remain. You can think of this space as an Easter egg."
As he spoke, Chen Li showed the album to Cecilia and Sirin. This "Easter egg time" was actually the preparation time for the Curio in his hands.
"This photograph is a piece of history, and I have placed it inside this Curio. This way, you have another option: to go to a world with a fabricated history. There, time is frozen at the moment Herrscher of the Void Sirin slaughtered the Babylon Labs researchers, but before she fully accepted the Honkai's influence and became the true Herrscher of the Void. You will have a chance to make a different choice," Chen Li explained.
"This..." Cecilia couldn't comprehend such power.
"You can also call it... a 'What If'."
"What if Sirin had only slaughtered those damnable researchers, but wasn't seduced by the Honkai consciousness? What if she didn't fully join the Honkai's side, but instead became a Herrscher who fought for humanity, like Welt... and what if, in her subsequent adventures, she met you, Cecilia? Don't you think a world like that would be beautiful?" Chen Li asked.
"...It would still be just a fictional world," Cecilia said, shaking her head.
"You shouldn't see it that way. While it does borrow the power of fiction, the world itself... is real. It's a parallel world created in the name of 'What If,' just like how Otto wants to revive Kallen," Chen Li said, looking displeased at Cecilia for "slandering" his Curio.
This was a one-star Curio. A one-star Curio forged with only 50 Crystals. It was constructed using the [Fictional Historian] Entry along with [Memory], [Consciousness], and other Entries from Fenghuang Down.
The reason this Curio could become a one-star item with only 50 Crystals was because its requirements were extremely strict, and the number of parallel worlds it could create was limited. In other words, its negative effects were immense, which in turn expanded the limits of its power.
Just like the Elation Die.
Its usage requirements were twofold: a photograph and a name.
The photograph was what Chen Li had just brought out from the river of time, an object that carried the memory of that history. Of course, it didn't mean Chen Li had to spend over a decade of his life every time he wanted to cut history out of the river of time with his scissors. There were cheaper methods; he just didn't know them yet.
The name was the most crucial part... and the name of Chen Li's first photograph was "Second Eruption."
That's right, naming the photograph required an Entry that Chen Li had extracted from the event itself. If he didn't have an Entry extracted from the current event, he would need to expend much more effort to form a sentence with other Entries—for example: What if [the Herrscher of the Void was not seduced by the Honkai, but instead joined humanity's side, and met a woman who could become her mother].
Even more critically, all of the words above would need to be "dyed" with Miracle Crystals. But an Entry extracted directly from the event didn't need to be dyed.
Perhaps this was the difference between a five-star "signature weapon" and a standard five-star weapon?
"Then what is this choice you mentioned?"
"Cecilia, as someone on the brink of death, you can choose to enter this parallel world with your memories intact. This is a privilege only available at the moment a parallel world is created."
"Oh, and Your Majesty, don't look at me. You have to go. This is a world I created specifically to atone for your sins. If you don't go, there's no protagonist," Chen Li said, pinching the cheek of the exhausted but still breathing Sirin.
"But..." Cecilia looked reluctantly toward the circle of plants summoned by Abyss Flower, where Siegfried lay.
"Mr. Siegfried won't die, so he doesn't have to go. And going to the parallel world is just one option. The other is to take a nap. In a dozen or so years, someone will wake you up. With your strength, Cecilia, winning the Revival Games will be simple."
"I choose the latter," Cecilia said firmly.
She still had people she cared about in this world; she couldn't so easily abandon her bonds here.
"Miracle was right. The longer you live in a world, the deeper you fall into its web of causality. The best time to escape a world's causality is before you are even born."
Chen Li was not surprised by Cecilia's choice.
"Well then... farewell, Your Majesty. Oh, no, as part of the price, all of you will forget me, including you. I hope you'll be happy in the other world." Chen Li crouched in front of Sirin and waved.
The moment Sirin's consciousness faded, she would be forced to make a choice, to go to that parallel world. In fact, everyone who had died for any reason during the Second Eruption would be passively chosen to enter the parallel world and live again. This was why Chen Li said he was atoning for Sirin's sins.
Of course, Chen Li hadn't just impulsively spent a fortune to create this Curio.
Because something this miraculous would surely generate Miracle Cards!
Chen Li looked at the two Miracle Cards floating in front of him, absolutely beaming.
The Miracle Card requirement from the starter missions was finally fulfilled!
And with this Curio, there would surely be a steady stream of clients with similar needs, providing him with even more Miracle Cards! Create a world with "XX"... Chen Li simply couldn't imagine a world where this Curio wouldn't be in high demand.
However, his happiness was short-lived, because...
"Your Majesty, can you let go? You're practically dead..." Chen Li tried to reason with Sirin, who was staring straight at him, using every last ounce of her strength to clutch the hem of his clothes without letting go.
Chen Li couldn't shake the feeling that her expression was saying: I'll be watching you forever! Forever! It made him subconsciously wonder if he had done something to wrong her.
He wracked his brain. He hadn't tricked her into bed or anything.
Could it be that she found out I left several tooth marks on her Herrscher Cores? No way...
Or maybe she felt resentful that he had been fooling her from start to finish. That didn't seem right either. He had just seen resentment on the other Otto's face, and it looked nothing like the expression in Sirin's eyes right now.
"Oh, I get it. You want one last hug, right? Makes sense. In the parallel world, you won't have a handsome temporary retainer like me anymore."
Chen Li understood everything. Under Cecilia's rather worried gaze, he took Sirin from her arms and gave her a gentle hug.
But the next moment, Chen Li felt a sudden coldness on his ear.
"Hiss—what are you biting my ear for?!?"
---o---