Chapter 20: Part (4): Rhapsody of the New Moon

He no longer knew how many years he had been asleep.

His memory stretched far, so far that he couldn’t even tell how long he had existed in this state — a hundred years? A thousand? Or perhaps several thousand?

Inside that pitch-black box, time didn’t exist. All he could feel was boredom.

Yes — no hatred, no lingering obsession.
Although the last memory he had before falling into slumber told him that he had been defeated by a human girl — one wielding a golden greatsword and commanding thunder, frost, and flame.

At first, he was furious. His rage and hatred were overwhelming.
But he had no idea how many years had passed before, suddenly, all that anger faded.

Unlike his kin — who were more like beasts than sentient beings — he saw himself as an emperor.
An emperor thinks.
And after thought comes acceptance.
So within that box, only boredom remained.

He was bored to the point he even forgot who he was.

Until, one day, a human brat opened the box.

A brat covered in blood, on the brink of death.

[I don’t care what you are. I don’t care what the price is.
But if you have power, then give it to me.
I’ll kill those bastards!]

That brat screamed — and swallowed both the box and him whole.

At that instant, he felt it.
The boy’s blazing anger — like fire.
Then, a sorrow as deep as the ocean.
And beneath that, a will as solid as mountains.

What a contradiction of a human — one who embodied rage, sorrow, and resilience all at once.
Just like himself.

But humans couldn’t possibly withstand his power. He knew that well.
So he laughed and unleashed all of it into the boy’s body, letting him use it freely.

The reason was simple — he just wanted to see how long this little creature could dance before collapsing into ruin.

Nothing more.

But then… he discovered a treasure.

That boy — his adaptability to the power of collapse was beyond imagination.
His ocean-deep sorrow became a coolant, allowing him to absorb power at an incredible rate.
His mountain-like will kept his body from being torn apart.
And his fiery anger — it ignited that power completely.

After who knows how many years sealed in darkness, the first being he encountered upon awakening…
turned out to be his perfect vessel!

What incredible fortune.
And what incredible amusement.

He hid himself deep within the boy’s consciousness, lurking in the depths of his memory,
digging into everything that made him who he was.

He mocked his happiness,
laughed at his sorrow,
and reveled in his fury.

He absorbed all of the boy’s knowledge of this world.
And as he learned more — his curiosity turned to silence,
and that silence into rage.

He came to understand just how powerful humanity had become.

And then, he found the most important word of all —
“Honkai.”

The gate of memory burst open.
His forgotten identity and purpose returned to him.
He finally remembered who he was…
what his mission was…
and why he existed.

“Two thousand years…”

Furious winds and snow devoured the cavern, freezing everything solid.
Even the shards of ice flying through the air struck the stone and ice pillars with bullet-like force, leaving cracks and holes wherever they hit.

Yet at the center of the storm, he stood untouched.

Around him, a three-meter-wide sphere of golden fire burned brilliantly.
The flames melted the storm itself — the opposing element became its fuel, feeding the inferno until it blazed like an industrial furnace.

“You— new-born king of our kind. You have no idea who I am, do you?”

He raised his hand, and golden tongues of fire wrapped around his wrist, condensing and shaping themselves into a flaming greatsword.

It was the first time in countless years that he had displayed aggression.
The black Honkai beast before him — itself a king-class creature — could feel the danger radiating from him. Its instincts screamed of death.

It growled deeply, summoning hundreds of ice spears within the storm.
In mere seconds, they took shape — each half a meter long, sharp as polished lances, orbiting around the sun-like figure in the snow.

“You don’t need to know who I am, and I don’t need to know you.
But one rule has existed since the dawn of our kind —
even our gods, the Herrschers, cannot break it.”

He grinned — muscles in his sword arm tightening like steel cables — and lunged.
His killing intent burned hotter than his flames.

The meaning was clear:

“When kings meet, they either walk away… or fight to the death!”

“ROOOOOAAARRR!!!!”

The black Honkai beast’s bellow shattered the storm.
Its armor glowed with purple energy as the floating ice spears lit up, each radiating Honkai power.

The first spear shot out — fast and precise — but before it even reached the golden flame, it began to melt.
By the time it touched the outer layer, it evaporated completely, leaving only sizzling steam.

He didn’t even turn his head.

But suddenly — the golden aura behind him flared with purple light!

A powerful Honkai energy reaction — too close!
He turned too late. He swung his sword, summoning a fiery wall just in time to block the blast—

BOOM!

The explosion was like a high-yield grenade detonating at his feet, so forceful that it expelled the oxygen from the air, dimming the glow of his flames.

“Hah! Clever one, aren’t you?!”

He laughed amid the blast — amused.
So the beast wasn’t a mere animal after all. It understood — even used — chemical and physical principles like removing oxygen to snuff out flames.

But before his laughter stopped, the hundred ice spears launched all at once!

Suddenly, the storm’s core became clear — the golden field around him flickered, its surface turning from gold to dark red arcs of light.

“My flames don’t need fuel to burn!”

He shattered his own defensive field — like smashing a glass jar full of gunpowder onto burning coals.

Blinding light erupted.

If a single ice spear had the power of a grenade —
then this was a truck full of gasoline exploding in their midst!

Every spear, every particle of Honkai energy was consumed by the inferno.

In the world of Honkai, there was one immutable rule —
two opposing elements could coexist only until the stronger annihilated the weaker.

This strike — was the wrath of an ancient king.

And he himself —
was one of the supreme monarchs among the Honkai beasts.

In his prime, he had even challenged Chi-You, the demonic dragon whose Honkai energy surpassed even that of the Herrschers.
Though he lost, fighting for an entire day earned him his title —

The Emperor of Flame — Zhuoyan Jinwu (Blazing Sun Golden Crow)!

The shockwave nearly tore the cavern apart, debris raining down on him.
He swung his burning sword, slicing through the storm with sheer heat, carving pockets of molten air through the blizzard.

The black beast — massive, armored — felt fear.
Not merely instinctive — but aware.

It couldn’t understand what this human-shaped being was.

A kindred?
A human?
A god?

No — he was something in between.
A hybrid — carrying the dominance of its kind, the form of a man, and the aura of a god.

An aberration.

Realizing this filled the black beast with primal unease.
It intensified the storm — temperatures plunged to minus thirty degrees Celsius, the world turning white.

The blizzard became cataclysmic — a force that could suffocate any living thing that entered.

But he stood firm — his golden flames a radiant sun in the pale void.

The storm slowed his advance — his eight-hundred-degree aura faltering slightly.
Yet he still moved forward, one step every five seconds, golden eyes gleaming through the snow like a reaper’s.

“Enough. I’ve had it with your cowardice.”

He spoke coldly, spinning the burning greatsword in both hands, left and right.

The fire within his aura churned violently, heat compressed within the sphere — like loading an air cannon with volatile gas.

Danger. Danger. Danger. DANGER!

The beast’s instincts screamed.
It understood nothing of physics — but it knew death when it saw it.

So it charged.

Its massive body, its armor, its weight — the entire cavern shook as it thundered forward, like a train barreling down the tracks!

Then came the shrieking sound — a piercing whistle slicing the storm.

The beast didn’t understand what it meant.
If it had, it would have known that such a sound could only occur at the center of a tornado, where air moved so fast it turned solid.
A mass of air dense enough to break bones.

“Just realizing now? Too late!”

Jinwu roared, swinging his sword and unleashing the compressed inferno —

A fiery explosion tore through the blizzard.
Flame and wind collided at their limits, creating a phenomenon unseen in nature —

A tornado of fire.

A burning serpent coiled skyward, twisting with the storm —
its heat surpassing a thousand degrees,
its form condensing into living flame.

Then it shattered, exploding into countless embers that filled the cavern, consuming everything.

The black Honkai beast roared, refusing to retreat — it crashed headlong into the inferno!

The firestorm distorted violently — heat and force twisting space.
It should have burned the creature into ash instantly…

But—

“How tough is this thing?!”

Jinwu shouted, momentarily stunned.
It was his first time using this body’s knowledge to manipulate his power — and even he was surprised by the result.

Before he could react, the reflected shockwave slammed him into the rock wall.
The blast forced his own burning aura into his lungs — nearly bursting them from the inside.

“Damn it!”