Honkai Impact 3rd : This is My Revenge-Chapter 41 - 040 : One Percent

Not long ago, outside the World Serpent headquarters...

Whoosh~

A dull sound of air being torn echoed.

The Helios had arrived in the sky above this sandy region.

At this moment, if one looked up, they could see the streaks of fire tearing across the sky.

The Domination Puppets occupying the Moon had been using the authorities of the Herrscher of Reason and the Herrscher of Void to hurl giant meteorites at Earth.

They were impossible to intercept entirely.

Now, countless lives were being lost every moment.

The people aboard the Helios were growing increasingly anxious.

After all, during their journey, even this high-speed ship had nearly been struck by indiscriminately falling lunar meteorites several times.

Currently, due to Kevin’s betrayal and Otto’s silence, the high-tier combatants assigned by Welt to stop Ling ke numbered only ten.

They were: Raiden Mei, Bronya, Seele, Rozaliya, Liliya, Theresa, Fu Hua, Rita, Durandal, and... Kiana (K-423), who didn’t even know how to refer to herself anymore.

Without a doubt, their individual states were far from ideal.

But even so, they had no choice but to shoulder this heavy responsibility.

This was evident from the fact that even Seele, Rozaliya, and Liliya, who had only recently begun professional training under Theresa, were forced onto the battlefield.

Finally...

"This..."

As the Helios hovered in mid-air, its hatch opened, and the ten stood at the entrance, looking down.

Instantly, their eyes widened in shock.

Because at this moment, in their field of vision, there were thousands upon thousands of... the same face.

Kevin Kaslana.

(TL/N: 💀)

"How are we supposed to fight this?"

At this moment, hearing Rozaliya’s offhand remark, they all felt the weight of their breaths.

An atmosphere of despair began to spread.

Suddenly...

Whoosh~

Durandal didn’t overthink it.

Clad in the "Bright Knight: Excelsis" battlesuit, she leaped out of the hatch alone, just as she had done countless times before on missions.

Even in mid-air, she had already activated the high-consumption power of the Abyss Flower... the "Unyielding Star Anchor."

Perhaps, the reason she acted this way wasn’t entirely due to confidence in her own strength.

But rather... her mind was in turmoil.

Having lost her childhood memories, her earliest recollections were of her time in the orphanage.

Her experiences were similar to Rita’s—she had met the Valkyrie named "Ragna Lothbrok"... admired her, aspired to be like her.

Eventually, she joined the Valkyrie forces, gradually rising to become an S-rank Valkyrie, even the strongest S-rank Valkyrie in history.

She had always believed that hard work would be rewarded, that her strength was the result of relentless training.

Yet, just today...

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She had learned from the enemy’s mouth that the beliefs she had held dear were empty, nothing but toxic platitudes to others.

Even her mentor was her mother’s killer.

He had manipulated her life, and Rita Rossweisse, her most trusted comrade, had kept her in the dark all along.

Now, Durandal didn’t want to think about those overly complicated matters.

She only wanted to fight, and... in this way, vent the negative emotions that had built up inside her.

Perhaps... dying on the battlefield wouldn’t be so bad.

After all, everything was... fake...

Boom!

It was entirely by chance.

Durandal herself hadn’t expected that her reckless attack, the moment it struck the ground, would reveal a startling truth.

Namely: not all the "Kevins" were as powerful as the World Serpent’s leader.

This fact was immediately noticed by those aboard the Helios.

Instantly...

"Durandal..."

At the hatch, Rita, clad in the "Argent Knight: Artemis" battlesuit, looked down at the golden-haired girl who was clearly venting her emotions, her expression complex.

She didn’t know how to explain her own stance to her.

To tell Durandal that she had truly cared for her.

But missions are missions, and emotions are emotions?

Who can say for sure?

And who would be willing to listen?

Clearly, Durandal wouldn’t accept such an explanation.

Rita knew this all too well.

However, even though she was equally unsettled... she knew what she had to do now.

Fight alongside her!

And in doing so, hopefully resolve the current crisis threatening the entire world!

After all, if the world were destroyed... what else would matter?

So...

"Durandal and I will clear the path ahead."

She looked at the others beside her, her gaze finally settling on the petite figure standing next to a massive cross. "Lady Theresa, the rest will be up to you."

With that, she didn’t wait for a response, leaping out of the hatch with a determination to face death head-on.

Faced with this situation...

Raiden Mei, Bronya, Seele, Theresa, Fu Hua, and... K-423 exchanged glances.

Finally...

"We’ll deal with everything else after this battle."

Theresa’s expression was serious.

She looked at the white-haired girl beside her. "Silly niece, no matter what, you’re my family."

"Your identity was acknowledged by Cecilia and that idiot Siegfried."

"And as a member of the Kaslana family..."

Theresa pointed downward. "Now is the time to fulfill your duty as a ’knight.’"

Hearing this, K-423... Kian* was momentarily stunned.

She instinctively looked down at the golden-haired figure cutting through the enemy like a hot knife through butter.

Before coming here, they had sat in silence in the ship’s cabin.

No one knew how to break the silence.

Now...

"I’ve taken a name that wasn’t mine to begin with."

Kiana clenched her fists. "Even if I have to return it to you... I should say it to your face, clearly and directly."

"For now, let’s fight side by side!"

(TL/N: ahh kiana.. you are so wholesome❤️‍🩹)

As soon as she finished speaking, seeing Kiana take action, Raiden Mei and Bronya quickly followed.

Seele stuck close to her Bronya sister.

Sigh~

Theresa, holding the Oath of Judah, looked down at the situation and sighed helplessly. "Why are there so many idiots in the Kaslana family? Really..."

"Wah! Liliya, why are you pushing me...?"

A sudden cry interrupted Theresa’s thoughts.

The A-Twins had jumped—well, more like fallen—out of the hatch in a rather undignified manner.

...

Theresa’s eyelid twitched.

Well, at least experienced veterans wouldn’t be so reckless.

Like herself, and...

"Let’s go, Fu Hua."

She turned to look beside her... Huh? Where’d she go?

Clearly, Fu Hua had no intention of waiting in line to jump.

After muttering a few words to herself, she had already joined the battle on her own.

Seeing this, Theresa’s eyebrow twitched, but she ultimately decided to spare the Helios’ hatch and leaped down, dragging Judah’s chains behind her.

"Anyone who bullies my dear niece deserves a beating!"

"Judah, let’s go!"

"Let those bastards see the power of a former S-rank Valkyrie!"

---

On the ground.

Thousands of "Kevins" were being torn apart by Durandal, who was wielding the Abyss Flower like a whirlwind.

She had fought the real Kevin before.

She knew that he hadn’t been serious back then, but even at that level, these "Kevins" were nowhere close.

To put it simply:

"Although these imposters’ attack methods and combat skills are identical to the World Serpent’s leader..."

"Their base strength is far inferior to that of the strongest MANTIS warrior."

"They don’t even have ’one percent’ of his power."

Indeed, this was the truth that Durandal’s sharp combat instincts had picked up.

Right now, the tens of thousands of "Kevins" guarding the World Serpent headquarters each wielded a replica of the Judgement of Shamash.

They could also use ice attacks derived from the Herrscher of Ice, Parvati.

But the intensity of these ice and fire attacks was nowhere near the real deal.

This matched the intelligence that the Herrscher of Dominance wasn’t top-tier in individual combat.

However, on average, these "Kevins" were still at the level of an ordinary S-rank Valkyrie.

Thus, while Durandal could cut through them like a hot knife through butter, Rita was struggling.

And it wasn’t just her.

Right now, both Bronya and Kiana had lost their Herrscher powers, and they were also having a tough time.

If it weren’t for Raiden Mei and her summoned Kurikara constantly supporting them, the frontlines would have collapsed long ago.

On the other hand, Fu Hua, who also couldn’t use her Herrscher powers, and Theresa, who had long since retired, were holding their own.

It was precisely because he was keeping an eye on the battle outside the World Serpent headquarters that...

"As expected, the power of a Pathstrider is incredibly useful."

Inside the Dominator Theater, Ling ke’s main body sneered, offering this calm assessment.

Clearly, the tens of thousands of "Kevins" were all derived from the same game character template.

Its name was—

[Game Character Template: Sparkle]

[From: Honkai: Star Rail]

[Character Traits: Leveling System, HP System, Infinite Stamina, Indestructible Equipment, Quantum Attribute...]

[Game Skills: Basic Attack: Solo Act, Skill: Dreaming Fish, Ultimate: One Person, A Thousand Roles, Secret Technique: Unreliable Narrator...]

[Background Talents: Masked Fool, Synesthesia Beacon, Imaginary Storage, Drama Master, Mimicry Master, Transformation Ability, Clone Ability, Illusion Ability...]

[Related Introduction: A powerful Pathstrider walking the Path of Elation, bearing a thousand masks, capable of taking on countless forms...]

This was currently the most versatile game character template in Lingke’s possession.

Although he had only recently drawn it, and its template level wasn’t very high yet.

Its corresponding background talents were incredibly useful... to an explosive degree!

Most importantly...

Right now, Ling ke had assigned almost all of his deployed Domination Puppets to use this game character template, turning them all into "Domination Puppet: Sparkle."

This way, as the falling meteorites continued to break through the defenses of nations worldwide, destroying town after town on Earth’s surface, Ling ke, the ruthless "World-Ending Player," could not only efficiently harvest a massive amount of points, but the Sparkle template would also gain a sea of experience points, leveling up rapidly.

Of course, the "World-Ending Player System" wasn’t so limited... it wasn’t just the currently active game character template that could gain experience.

Rather: all game character templates with a "Leveling System" trait could have experience allocated to them from the "System Experience Pool" accumulated by Ling ke, the main body (host).

Now, as Ling ke allocated the accumulated experience points...

The "Kevins" guarding the World Serpent headquarters... their strength was growing.

Starting from Lv.1...

Lv.23

Lv.39

Lv.55

Game character templates from the system weren’t restricted by level caps.

Thus, in just a few seconds...

"Good, now they have ’one percent’ of the original’s strength."

He laughed in anticipation. "The remaining experience will be poured into the Gilgamesh template."

"This way, my ’Branch-Cutting’ Plan, which originally had 13 hours left, is now only 1% away from completion."

"Just a little more time..."

"Soon, very soon..."

Ling ke grew more and more excited. "I will fulfill that... promise I made to myself..."

"To complete my revenge in this world!"