The Vixen's Gambit: Tonight We Hunt

"Time flies, nearly a hundred years have passed."

A hundred years, this time was enough to turn tribes into city-states and forests into plains – but for MANTIS Soldiers, it almost left no trace on them.

"This future, there's no hope either..."

In the deserted garden, Elysia opened her eyes wearily.

Project VALUKA, this was one of the plans that belonged to the previous civilization, allowing the executor to observe countless other bubble universes with the power of the Second Divine Key, Cosmic Juggernaut, thereby finding a way to defeat the Honkai.

Originally, the executor of this plan was chosen to be Su, but in the current situation, it could only be executed by Elysia.

Hua had gone to the East to carry out Project Ember, and Kevin left without saying anything. Elysia didn't know what he was going to do.

And even though Elysia had been sitting here observing for a hundred years, witnessing countless worlds, she still hadn't seen any hopeful ending.

Humanity's defeat by the Honkai seemed to be an eternal destiny, whether it was the previous civilization or the current civilization.

"Lee..... What should I do?"

Holding the Eighth Divine Key, which had become her necklace, in front of her chest, a trace of confusion flashed in Elysia's eyes, a rare occurrence.

Not only had Project VALUKA made no progress, but even the fire of the previous civilization that Lee entrusted to her, Elysia had not been able to rekindle it.

Unlike the Might of An-Utu and Seven Thunders of Retribution, Divine Keys that you could know their usage just by looking at them, this Eighth Divine Key made Elysia feel helpless.

Lee was not a scientist like Mei and Vill-V, so the Eighth Divine Key made by her was not as easy to use as other Divine Keys. Elysia fell directly on the first step of activation.

Awakening the sleeping consciousness in the Divine Key..... It was naturally easy for Lee, who was an artificial Herrscher of Sentience, to do this, but for Elysia, who was not proficient in mental power, let alone reconstructing the consciousness of hundreds of millions of people, she couldn't even do it for one person's consciousness.

Unless she went to find Aponia and Su, who were proficient in mental power – but their consciousness was also sealed in the Eighth Divine Key, so if she wanted to find them for help, Elysia had to open this Divine Key first.

And if she couldn't activate it herself, Elysia could only wait until the technology of this world developed to a certain level, and let them create the machine specially designed to activate the core that Lee had asked Vill-V to design..... This was also Lee's idea, after all, if the technology had not developed to that level, even if the consciousness was awakened, these people would not be able to find bodies to accommodate their consciousness.

Faced with this Divine Key created by a dual-core driven Herrscher with all her strength, even Elysia was helpless against it. After all, when the other party made this thing, she used her own power.

Could she only wait? She originally thought that if she could awaken Mei and the others, it might accelerate the development of this civilization.....

Helplessly letting go of her hand, Elysia decided to leave this small world bubble created by her using Cosmic Juggernaut.

The hundred-year period had arrived, and it was time for the three separated warriors to meet again and exchange information. Originally, it was enough to meet every 10 years through the communication devices installed in shelters around the world, but Elysia felt that this was too distant, and finally forcibly changed it to meeting in person every 100 years.

Hua certainly would not have any objections, and Kevin..... He seemed to be indifferent to everything.

If only she could hear some good news.....

...

The meeting place was in the first tribe they arrived at after leaving the underground shelter where The Great Hibernation was located.

It had now become a city-state. A hundred years was enough for a civilization to undergo earth-shaking changes.

And when Elysia saw Kevin, he was silently standing in an uninhabited place outside the city.

"Long time no see, Kevin, did you miss me~"

Seeing an old friend she hadn't seen for many years, the smile on Elysia's lips became even brighter. She walked towards Kevin with light steps. "How have you been? You are quite famous here now. Everyone says that Kaslana has been protecting them."

".....It's not me."

Kevin replied calmly, "It's her."

Her?

Elysia followed Kevin's line of sight doubtfully, and then her pupils suddenly shrank.

Ah, she had forgotten..... This child had no way to live that long.

The tombstone engraved with the name Kaslana stood silently in this quiet flower garden. And the people of this civilization did not have the habit of erecting tombstones now, so the one who would do such a thing was only the man in front of her.

"I'm sorry....."

"Humans always die, that's reality." Kevin's attitude seemed abnormally calm, as if all this was nothing to him.

He turned around expressionlessly and walked towards the predetermined location, as if he had no feelings for the death of this child.

"Wait until Hua arrives, and listen to her progress on Project Ember."

"Okay....."

Kevin had already left, leaving only Elysia standing in place, looking at the bouquet in front of the tombstone with a complicated expression.

...

"That's it, Project Ember encountered more resistance than expected."

On the high mountain that humans could never reach now, Hua told her two companions about the situation she encountered. "Just teaching that level of technology has caused the Honkai to give birth to Judgement-class Honkai Beasts..... After not continuing to teach humans in this civilization technology beyond the current era, the situation has improved, and the strength of the Honkai Beasts has also been limited to below Emperor-class."

"I see....."

Elysia's heart was a little disappointed. She originally thought that if she could reconstruct the consciousness of those great scientists of the previous civilization, it could give the current civilization thousands of years of development time. As a result, the Honkai would also become stronger.....

"Well, although the progress is slower than expected, it's generally smooth – how is the situation with Project VALUKA?"

Faced with Hua's hopeful eyes, Elysia could only shake her head silently.

Hua was also obviously a little disappointed. After all, if these two highly anticipated methods, Project VALUKA and Project Ember, didn't work, wouldn't the humans of this civilization still have only one path to destruction by the Honkai.....

"Kevin, what do you think?" In the end, the eyes of the two were focused on the strongest person who had been silent.

"I think that Project Stigma can already begin to be implemented." Kevin said calmly but unquestionably.

".....?"

Elysia almost doubted her ears.

Project Stigma?

In this civilization that had just sprouted, it was necessary to carry out Project Stigma, which was equivalent to erasing the entire human race?