Honkai Impact 3rd: Yumeji Satsuki's lies

Deep beneath the ocean, where sunlight could only pierce through the dark blue depths in faint, silvery streaks, Fu Hua pushed herself to the limit, each powerful kick propelling her forward while dragging two people along with her—Yumeji and the unconscious body of Queen Xuanyuan.

She had provided Yumeji with oxygen using the regulator from her diving suit, but time was not on their side. They had to reach the surface before the currents grew stronger and dragged them back down into the abyss.

The surrounding space was steeped in gloom, littered with floating debris from the wreckage of the destroyed submarine. Jagged metal shards reflected light in twisted, distorted patterns, as if they were etching the memory of the battle that had just taken place.

Yumeji's legs were still numb from the pressure, but Fu Hua couldn't afford to stop for even a second. With each forceful kick, she propelled them upward, weaving through dangerous whirlpools and powerful undercurrents trying to pull them back down.

At last, they broke free from the ocean's suffocating depths, bursting through the surface in a froth of white foam. A gust of salty sea wind hit them, carrying the biting cold and the scent of brine.

Before them, shattered remnants of warships drifted like makeshift rafts on the water's surface. Kiana and the others were already waiting, their eyes filled with worry and tension.

"Fu Hua! Yumeji!!" Kiana shouted, rushing to the edge of a floating wreckage, reaching out her hand.

Fu Hua, exhausted but determined, lifted Yumeji first. He was barely conscious, gasping for air, but still alive.

The girls quickly pulled him onto the wooden plank, letting him collapse onto the soaked surface. Yet, as they extended their hands toward the last person, an unspoken chill ran through them.

Chiyou—or rather, the one whose will had been overtaken by Chiyou—Queen Xuanyuan, lay motionless on the water. Her skin was as pale as wax, yet her short black hair still caught the faint glimmers of the rising sun.

Her breaths were weak but had not yet ceased entirely. The group exchanged uneasy glances, unsure of what to do with her.

Then...

Yumeji suddenly jerked upright, coughing violently, expelling the last remnants of seawater from his lungs. Bracing himself against the plank, he struggled to regain his senses, his vision still blurred.

A strong gust of wind swept past, carrying the salty tang of the ocean mixed with the acrid scent of scorched metal, filling Yumeji's lungs as he took a deep breath. As his eyesight cleared, the sight before him made his heart sink.

The ocean around them was no longer a pristine blue. It was tainted with death, saturated with Honkai energy. Wreckage from sunken ships drifted aimlessly, turning the sea into a vast battlefield frozen in time.

Thick clouds of dust and debris still blanketed the sky, reflecting the aftermath of their struggle. Even though the first light of dawn was beginning to peek over the horizon, it was not enough to dispel the lingering darkness.

Yumeji inhaled deeply, feeling the sharp chill of the air seep into his lungs before turning to Himeko.

"Himeko-sensei…" His voice was hoarse, but steady.

"Can you give me… the thing you retrieved?"

Himeko was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I suppose so, but it's nothing more than a broken sword now. What do you plan to do with it, Yumeji?"

From her hands, a shattered blade slowly came into view. It was the remnants of the Xuanyuan Sword, once belonging to Queen Xuanyuan. Now, only the hilt and a fraction of its blade remained—an artifact of a fallen past, a symbol of a lost kingdom.

Yumeji accepted it in silence, his fingers tightening around the worn grip. A faint smile crossed his lips.

"What I want to do…" he murmured.

"…is fulfill a promise to someone. And give a certain girl a special parting gift."

The moment those words left his lips, a brilliant light erupted from the sword.

Electric-blue currents crackled around his hand, surging through the hilt and coiling up the shattered blade. His left eye instantly lit up, glowing turquoise blue color, reflecting the energy circulating within the broken weapon.

The embedded gems along the sword's remains began to shimmer, one by one, each radiating with an ethereal glow. Their light gathered, flowing like a living river, converging at the central gem.

At first, that core gemstone had been clear, symbolizing the element of Air. But as it absorbed the energy from the others, its color began to shift. It deepened into a pure, radiant blue—a hue belonging to one element alone: Heaven.

Then, in an instant, the gemstone erupted with a dazzling brilliance.

A pillar of azure light shot into the sky, piercing through the thick layers of storm clouds as if reaching for the distant cosmos. The sheer force of its radiance tore apart the oppressive fog of Honkai energy that had polluted the air, purging the battlefield of its lingering corruption.

The very fabric of the atmosphere trembled beneath the sword's purifying power, and the heavy darkness that had loomed over them dissipated like mist before the morning sun.

As the last traces of dust and shadow vanished, a sky of pure blue emerged above them, reflecting the first golden rays of dawn.

Sunlight, warm and unyielding, finally bathed the ocean in its glow—restoring life to the battlefield that had once been a graveyard.

---

The seemingly dead sea surface rippled, reflecting the first rays of dawn. But none of them paid any attention to its beauty, as all eyes were now fixed on Yumeji.

Kiana was silent, her eyes trembling slightly as she witnessed the scene before her.

"Impossible…" Bronya muttered, but no one responded.

They had seen this power before, on the day Yumeji freed Himeko from Honkai's control. But this time, it was more than just controlling the air, more than manipulating pressure or summoning strong winds. The power he was displaying had surpassed the boundaries of reason, reaching something divine.

A miracle. A pure miracle that seemed to come from the gods.

Yumeji paid no attention to the whispers around him. He couldn't hear anything. He was just immersed in a state of complete ecstasy, as if he were just a means to complete a supreme ritual.

A brilliant light gathered on the broken blade in his hand. Rays of pure light circulated between the gem cores before all of them converged on one point—the colorless gem core now glowed, emitting a pure turquoise light like the clear sky. The broken blade was no longer a lifeless remnant. It was reborn. It was transforming into a completely new entity.

The light gradually condensed, and when it withdrew, a new sword appeared in his palm. No longer the golden sword of an emperor. The New Xuanyuan Sword was now pure white, as if carved from pure pearl. Something beyond mere matter, an entity connected to the sky itself.

Yumeji looked at the sword in his hand, his eyes hazy but filled with a strange determination. Without hesitation, he stabbed it into the sea.

The moment the blade touched the water, a sound rang out.

A harmony of nature.

A clear sound like the hum of all things, cleansing all that was tainted. A ripple spread out, expanding in circles from the center of the sword. The turbid water filled with Honkai energy slowly cleared, returning to its original blue color. Not only the sea, but the sky also reflected this change—the dark clouds were torn apart, and the brilliant dawn covered the entire dead sea.

The floating wrecks, the lifeless corpses, and even the sea creatures that had died in battle… All of them gradually dissolved into shimmering particles of light, floating in the air like magical dew drops, before converging together into a rainbow halo across the sky.

Life flowed once more.

It was not a resurrection, it was not a reversal of fate. Yumeji simply reversed the destruction, returning what should have belonged to this world. New lives would be born to replace what was lost.

The wheel of reincarnation continued to turn, never stopping.

In a corner of the sea, on a rescue ship, Captain Xu Jie and the soldiers who survived the battle with Chiyou stood still. They had witnessed the fierce battle with that Honkai Beast with their own eyes, and had seen the terrible destruction it caused with their own eyes. Yet now, before their eyes, the sea had returned to its original beauty, as if the battle had never happened.

A gentle breeze blew by, carrying streaks of light from the rainbow halo on the horizon. A few streaks of light drifted towards the ship.

The soldiers instinctively backed away, not understanding what was happening. But when the light dissipated, silhouettes appeared behind it, leaving them all stunned.

The dead.

Their fallen comrades.

They stood there, in their neat uniforms, straight and upright like soldiers who always maintained discipline in the ranks.

Xu Jie swallowed, his eyes stinging. He raised his hand, adjusted his military cap, then took a deep breath before speaking in a calm but trembling voice:

"Everyone! Stand at attention!"

No one hesitated. All the living soldiers stood up straight at the same time, raising their hands in a military salute. No one said a word, only the sound of the ocean and the sparkling rays of light reflected in their eyes.

On the other side, the dead soldiers also stood up straight, raising their hands in salute back.

A moment that seemed to last forever.

Then, as the gentle wind blew by, those figures gradually disappeared in the rainbow light, flying up into the deep blue sky.

In the gentle breeze, the white-capped waves lapped against the rocky shore, reflecting the brilliant rainbows in the newly purified sky.

Zhang Shijie and Lieutenant Liu stood silently on the rough stone floor, their eyes following the halos of light slowly dissipating into the air. The space around them seemed to be suffocated by solemnity, an atmosphere so sacred that even the sound of the waves seemed to be silent.

Liu gently raised her hand, her fingertips drawing a soft line in the air, forming the sign of the cross.

The movement was unintentional, it was just an unconscious reflex—something deep inside her urged her to do so. Realizing what she had just done, she was slightly startled, but before she could lower her hand, Zhang Shijie spoke in a calm voice:

"Are you religious?"

Lieutenant Liu hesitated for a moment, her eyes still glued to the brilliant light in the sky before her. A moment later, she shook her head slightly, the corners of her lips pursed slightly, her eyes filled with an unnamed emotion:

"No... but this scene... it made me do it unconsciously. As if I was standing before something more sacred than the divine."

Zhang Shijie didn't say anything more. He just silently raised his hand to his forehead, making a solemn salute towards the streaks of light still lingering in the sky.

Around them, the air force soldiers standing near the fighter jets also imitated that action, no one gave orders, no one told anyone—just a natural harmony, as if their minds were all drawn into the same emotional flow.

In another corner, where Yumeji's group was gathered, a pair of opaque eyes opened slightly. Those eyes belonged to Queen Xuan Yuan—a soul that had been sleeping at the bottom of the ocean for a long, long thousand years. Her eyes were hazy for a moment, as if her mind had not yet caught up with reality, but then, the image reflected in her pupils gradually became clear—a clear blue sky, no more toxic clouds, no more smoke from war...

A sky that she had not seen for a long time.

A sob escaped her throat. Soon, hot tears began to roll down her pale cheeks. She choked and raised her hand to cover her mouth, but her body trembled uncontrollably. A thousand years. A thousand long years under the deep sea, shrouded in darkness, tormented by loneliness, imprisoned in a world without sunlight...

And now, for the first time in a thousand years, she could see the sky again.

Kiana and the others were speechless. They could only stand there, watching the Xuan Yuan Queen cry, watching her tears fall onto the sand, melting into the clear sea water. An indescribable feeling rose in their hearts—something light yet heavy.

Then suddenly—

A light burst forth from the gem on the Xuan Yuan Sword. It emitted a ray of light like a stained glass window of a cathedral of memories, shades of gold, red, blue, purple blending together to form a brilliant picture of time. And within that light, a figure gradually appeared.

A man with long, fiery red hair.

His body was slightly transparent, as if he were just a spirit being, but his deep eyes were filled with emotions and memories. He walked slowly towards the Xuan Yuan Queen, without a word, without a sound—only his existence as a testament to the past.

Xuan Yuan raised her head, her tear-filled eyes wide open in surprise. She held her breath, her hand unconsciously reaching out but stopping in midair, as if afraid that if she touched it, the figure would instantly disappear.

"Jiang Zhu..."

She whispered his name, her voice trembling as if her heart could not bear the surging emotions. In front of her was none other than the person she once loved deeply, the person who had gone through glorious and tragic years with her, the person she had to leave behind when she decided to seal Xi You a thousand years ago.

Jiang Zhu just smiled silently. He didn't say anything, just reached out to lightly touch Xuan Yuan's cheek, his movements as gentle as a gentle spring breeze. And then, he turned to look at Yumeji.

The black-purple haired boy stood there, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression calm but a strange light flashed in his eyes. When their eyes met, Yumeji's lips curved slightly, her voice as light as a breeze:

"Long time no see, my old friend."

Not the Yumeji of this world.

Not his memories.

But for a moment, when he looked at Jiang Zhu, he could feel ancient memories—memories belonging to another version of himself, a person who used the name "Feng Yue" to approach Jiang Zhu and Xuan Yuan a thousand years ago.

A story buried by time.

But now, it is once again revived under the clear blue sky.