World Modulation Mode in Honkai

In the distance, the white windmills on the mountain ridges slowly turned.

The sun overlooked the twilight streets, gazing at this peaceful and warm small border town.

Its gaze reached the church in the countryside, climbing the walls, reaching the roof, and peeking through the windows and door cracks into the church.

Inside the confessional prayer room, the light gradually dimmed, taking on a faint amber hue.

Time flowed silently.

At some point, the sun had already set behind the mountains, and the night began to fall, with the church in the maple forest bathed in the gentle warmth of the stars and moon.

In the clear, water-like night, the cross atop the church reflected a glow, appearing even more solemn and sacred.

Ye Feng stepped out of the prayer hall where the nuns prayed, letting out a sweet milk burp.

"Smells so good."

Ye Feng wiped the moisture from his lips and looked at the maple forest, which was as bright as daylight under the starlight, and muttered:

"Still, without the size difference, something feels missing."

Ye Feng thought carefully, actively seeking a reasonable opportunity to become a small boy just the height of Aponia's chest.

That height would be perfect, where he could reach her by standing on his tiptoes, rather than bending down or having Aponia sit down.

Ye Feng returned to his room while Aponia was still lying softly on the wooden bench in the front row of the church.

The nun's white veil and her silky hair flowed together, cascading along the bench.

One of her round, beautiful legs dangled limply, and her delicate high-heeled shoe had somehow fallen off, lying crookedly on the ground.

After an unknown amount of time, Aponia finally came back to her senses, and a faint glimmer of light returned to her world-weary, ascetic eyes.

The nun gently wiped the sweat from her body, like a woman who had suffered great humiliation, slowly and weakly buttoning up her clothes.

Then Aponia straightened her body and sat on the bench, her full and firm hips pressing against the hard wooden surface, forming a breathtaking curve.

She folded her hands elegantly, resting them on her thighs.

Her legs were gracefully together, but one foot was only in a white sock, while the other still wore a black high heel. The asymmetrical attire gave off a messy beauty that shouldn't exist in a church.

The nun, so improperly dressed, stood on the cold floor of the holy church.

Aponia's eyes flashed with a complex and painful sanctity.

She couldn't help but look up at the holy statue of the goddess, feeling a sense of...

Blasphemy.

Disrespect.

In the sacred and solemn church, every word and action should be bound by rules and restrictions.

Aponia stood up, with one foot in a high heel and the other in a white sock, and walked to the prayer station in front of the goddess statue.

She knelt devoutly, clasping her hands together and placing them on her chest.

The cold moonlight poured down through the transparent glass dome, wrapping the nun in a circle of pure, bright light, shining brilliantly and dreamlike in its purity.

"Lord, I am a sinner, unworthy of forgiveness.

But all of this is my fault, my sin.

The karmic burden has been formed, and if punishment must befall, I am willing to bear it.

I only hope that child, my little Feng, can grow up healthy and happy, and live a carefree life."

After this incident, Aponia deliberately distanced herself from Feng.

She often locked herself in the prayer room, confessing her sins to God and praying for Feng's happiness.

It is often said that the beginning is the hardest part, and once the first time is over, the following times come easier.

But that wasn't the case with Aponia, whose mind was as firm as a rock.

Once she made up her mind, there was almost no turning back.

The nun strictly adhered to the rules, though she had the gentle doting of a mother, she also practiced a self-destructive asceticism.

No matter how much Feng cried or made a fuss, Aponia never crossed the line.

The days passed peacefully, one after another.

Aponia only wished for Feng to grow up healthy, get married, and have children, watching over him as he lived a happy life. That would be Aponia's happiness.

But the more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen. Misfortune still came.

Her Ye Feng, the one she loved the most, the one she had pinned all her hopes on, contracted a strange disease.

The doctor from the town's private hospital, Dr. Mebius, called it 'Entropy Loss Syndrome,' where the body experiences reverse growth, constantly 'reverting' as if time is flowing backward, until it returns to the womb, and finally fades into nothingness.

By that time, it would be no different from death.

Currently, there is no treatment for the disease, not even a way to alleviate it.

Upon hearing the news, Aponia was struck as if by lightning, spending her days in tears.

Aponia hid in the prayer room, crying, believing that it was all her fault.

It was a punishment brought upon her for blaspheming the gods.

'In the end, I couldn't change anything.'

'I couldn't save anyone.'

'This is my sin, this is my fate.'

The nun knelt before the statue in confession.

A tear slid down her cheek, dropping to the ground and spreading like a blooming flower.

'I still... can't do anything...'

Is 'fate' really unchangeable?

All her attempts to defy fate would only drag herself and others into even more miserable and unpredictable circumstances.

"You're crying again."

A somewhat childish voice rang out.

Aponia's heart filled with panic. Before she could wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes, Feng had already walked up to her.

"I already told you, it has nothing to do with you, Mama Aponia."

Aponia, kneeling in prayer before the statue, was now not much taller than Ye Feng standing in front of her.

Ye Feng gently held Aponia's face, wiping away her tears.

Seeing the child being so well-behaved and considerate, Aponia's eyes filled with tears again, like a shattered statue of a goddess.

She gazed at Feng, remembering how he used to be the same height as her, but now he had become like this.

"It's all my fault. If you had met someone else instead of me back then, you'd be happier now... At the very least, you wouldn't be suffering so much."

"That's not true!"

Feng hugged the kneeling nun tightly.

"Dr. Mebius said that this disease is just hereditary. If that weren't the case, I wouldn't have been abandoned in the maple forest back then."

"Meeting Mama Aponia is the greatest happiness of my life. No one else will do, only Mama Aponia!"

Hearing the child's heartfelt words, Aponia's heart felt like it was breaking.

"...Little Feng."

Aponia hugged Feng in return, as if afraid he would disappear at any moment, holding him tightly to her chest.

The nun's plump, soft figure at that moment seemed like a bottomless abyss, as if it could swallow the little boy whole.

Feng enjoyed the bittersweet sensation of being both suffocated and blissfully content.

Once Aponia's emotions had slowly calmed, he finally spoke.

"Mama Aponia, I'm hungry."

"Eh?"

The same words, in the same place, Aponia had heard before. She had committed a sin.

Aponia released Feng, her watery gaze fixed on the small boy in front of her, and as if making a decision, she clenched her hands tightly over her stomach.

She glanced at the statue, its stone features dignified and solemn, coldly watching over all of humanity.

"I will bow my head and confess, but I will not stop moving forward."

---

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