Gray Serpent, a senior cadre of World Serpent, one of its founding members.
His true identity: the first self-aware artificial lifeform created by Mobius, a Fusion Warrior of the Previous Era, and the de facto founder of World Serpent.
In reality, "Gray Serpent" was a collective consciousness.
Composed of numerous slightly distinct individuals, together forming the entity "Gray Serpent."
All "Gray Serpents" shared one memory, yet each had unique experiences, personalities, and even hobbies—some loved poetry, others obsessed over firearms.
This existence mechanism bore a vague resemblance to the "Shirakis."
At World Serpent's base, Gray Serpent's crimson electronic eyes dimmed, a faint electric spark blooming at his spinal connector.
His vision filled with a cascade of dense numbers and letters, multiplying like a virus, engulfing his field of view, transforming the world into a digital sea of data.
Then, a flood of information—global, varied, useful, and useless—surged like waves.
The Serpent's gaze spanned the globe, and this was why.
Countless signal nodes were scattered worldwide, each a modified human with part of their brain removed, replaced by quantum computers, fused with the remaining brain to form a quantum mind.
Of course, they were all willing.
Not the "willing" of forced overtime, but true consent.
Infected by Honkai energy, they faced death or experimentation—the latter offered a slim chance of survival.
Through these nodes, vast internet data was sifted for valuable intel, aggregated into the Gray Serpent network.
Thanks to this, "Gray Serpent" became a notorious underworld info broker.
Today was another hopeful… ahem, normal workday for Mr. Gray Serpent.
But upon entering the digital sea of data, Gray Serpent fell abruptly silent, his red electronic eyes flickering faintly.
Staring at Kiana's message, he hesitated for two seconds before forwarding it to the Gray Serpent network, like tossing a stone into a calm lake, ripples exploding.
"The Herrscher of the Void—how does she know we have the Desire Gem?" Gray Serpent 404.
"No, the first question is, is this real? Neither the Herrscher nor her vessel should have the ability to leave messages in the digital deep… *cough*." A high-EQ Gray Serpent.
"Heh, this is intriguing~" Gray Serpent.
"No doubt, something unexpected has happened to the Herrscher of the Void." Gray Serpent.
"Trading the Desire Gem for Serpent Lord? Not a bad deal." Gray Serpent 9527 mused, as if saying, "Oh, not bad," "Worth considering!"
Instantly, the lively Gray Serpent network went quiet, all Serpents staring at 9527.
"Just kidding~! I pity your lack of humor." Gray Serpent 9527 shook his head, sighed, logged off, disconnected, powered down, and bolted in one fluid motion.
The network returned to deathly silence, only ripples of data exchange stirring, like rain on a lake.
After a long pause, the "rain" ceased, the network reverting to its initial calm.
"Good. As we the 'Gray Serpent Resolution' vote, let's make contact with the Herrscher of the Void."
The red glow in Gray Serpent's eyes steadied, as if detaching from the vast consciousness network.
Not long after, on Hyperion.
[Unknown signal accessing comms. Hyperion defenses ineffective. Noise interference… system overload…]
"What? What's happening?"
The sudden anomaly caught everyone off guard. Theresa leapt from the captain's chair. Mei, chatting with Kiana, looked bewildered. Bronya's face turned grave.
The console's holo-screen projected a figure cloaked in a black coat, wearing a white mask etched with blade marks, one crimson electronic eye gleaming.
"That's Gray Serpent!"
"To infiltrate Hyperion so easily…"
"This guy was killed by the Herrscher of the Void… was it a decoy?"
"Death is life lived; life is death on the way." A poetic, melodic voice rang out. Gray Serpent, holding a black umbrella, gave an elegant greeting.
"Ladies, no need for surprise. Serpents don't yield to death. Though slain by the Void Queen, until the Serpent's grand ambition is fulfilled, I'll return from hell as many times as needed."
"As for my purpose?" Gray Serpent's gaze fixed on Kiana through the screen, his right hand pressing his left chest, bowing gentlemanly. "I'm here at the esteemed Void Queen's invitation."
"Void Queen… invitation…" Theresa, Mei, and Bronya looked at Kiana, puzzled.
"Tch, this AI's so lame, getting hacked so easily. All that processing power's probably spent stealing electricity!"
Kiana lifted the petite Theresa from the captain's chair and plopped herself down.
She closed her eyes, then slowly opened them, revealing dreamy, dazzling gold-blue heterochromatic eyes, ringed with diamond-cross patterns.
"Just another Gray Serpent instance. 'Return from hell'? That's laughable☆~!"
Her iconic queenly voice, with a slight bassy echo, instantly tensed the three Valkyries.
The Herrscher of the Void!
Kiana's white Valkyrie armor shifted, her bodysuit morphing like flowing particles into a black-and-white off-shoulder dress.
As the trio assumed battle stances, faces taut with alertness, the white-haired girl's blue left eye winked at them, halting their movements.
"Sirin's our ally now!"
Kiana's past words echoed in their minds. Except for the stoic Bronya, Theresa and Mei's expressions grew subtle.
Was Kiana serious!?
Sirin's golden eye flicked over the trio, then slanted toward the holo-projected Gray Serpent, exuding imperious queenly dominance.
Gray Serpent remained outwardly calm, but inwardly, a tsunami raged.
Something's off!
This Herrscher of the Void was very off!
How did she know Gray Serpent was multiple instances?
How did she leave a message in the digital sea's depths?
And this oppressive aura…
"Have you completed 'Ascension'?" Gray Serpent's crimson eye flickered, betraying inner turmoil.
"Ascension? Not quite." Kiana flicked a soft strand of bangs, leisurely crossing her long, black-stockinged legs, reclining comfortably in the captain's chair. "But in effect, you could say so."
"The Herrscher of the Void can be St. Freya's Valkyrie, Kiana Kaslana, or another her—Sirin."
Terrifying Honkai energy gathered around the rising white-haired girl, flanking her like an emperor's guard.
"Oh? Truly astonishing!"
Gray Serpent twirled his umbrella, surprised by the world-ending Herrscher's demeanor. "Pardon my boldness, K4… no, Ms. Kiana Kaslana, may I know how you achieved this?"
Gray Serpent sensed treating this white-haired girl as a pawn to toy with, as before, would spell disaster!
"Want to know?" Her azure eyes twinkled with amusement. Kiana winked playfully. "It's a secret~!"
The trio and Theresa froze, never having seen Kiana like this.
It felt vaguely familiar. Theresa frowned, pondering, then looked up, stunned—Kiana's figure seemed to overlap with a black-haired youth.
Her boyfriend's influence was this strong?
"Heh~" Gray Serpent chuckled lowly. "Then, esteemed Void Queen, what brings you to me?"
His voice deepened, tinged with gravity—a sign of taking Kiana seriously.
"I do have business with World Serpent." Kiana's lips curved in a faint smile. "Let's make a deal~!"
"I'm all ears."
"I want to enter Elysian Realm."
The white-haired girl's casual words nearly short-circuited Gray Serpent's brain.
Impossible!
Elysian Realm was World Serpent's greatest secret, known only to senior cadres. How could the Herrscher of the Void know!?
The meeting between Gray Serpent's instance and Kiana was livestreamed across the Gray Serpent network, which now fell deathly silent.
Even the wisest instances couldn't fathom what had happened.
The Herrscher of the Void, a pawn in the clash of powers, seemed to have leapt off the chessboard.
No, more than that…
Gazing at the white-haired girl's intrigued gold-blue eyes, Gray Serpent felt a chill.
What was going on!?