Kiana wanted to explain that she had always resisted the Honkai—that even though she had regained her mories at the ti, all she could think about was finding i, and her loss of control had left her in turmoil.
But none of that was an excuse.
"Sorry."
She lowered her head even further.
She truly should have told Ruan i earlier. As Ruan i said, this was important.
"Because of Izumo?"
Hearing their conversation, Acheron imdiately understood why Kiana had forcibly triggered her Herrscher transformation.
"Did that incident leave so lasting effect?"
"No... um... sigh..."
Kiana's expression shifted several tis before she finally gave up resisting their gazes.
"I'll just tell you the truth."
Taking a deep breath, she didn't continue speaking imdiately but instead turned to i. "Do you rember when we first t?"
"At Narukami Shrine."
That day had been uneventful, but Acheron rembered it vividly—because that was when they first t.
She had never told Kiana this, but from that first encounter, she had already been drawn to her. Yet the chains of her duty as shrine maiden had kept her from approaching or even speaking to her.
Fortunately, Kiana had felt the sa way.
After that, she often ca to see her.
"At that ti, I had only just arrived in Izumo. I ca to that world from beyond. Rember? That's what I always told you."
"Mm."
Acheron frowned slightly. It was obvious that Kiana didn't belong to Izumo—so why bring it up again now, and in such a tone?
Kiana had never fit in with Izumo. There were no traces of her past anywhere in that world. She could only have co from beyond it.
"I really don't belong to Izumo—but neither do I belong to any world in this universe."
"Just as I once told Ruan, my body exists because of the Honkai. From the mont I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Izumo."
"At the sa ti, I knew that if I accepted the Honkai and bound myself to Izumo, I could bring the Honkai into that world."
"I feared its power, and I didn't want anyone to die because of it. Its strength was terrifying. So I ignored it, choosing instead to live as an ordinary person—until I t you, i."
"That was when I learned that the world was already within Nihility's reach—that it was about to be consud and erased from existence."
"It was a dood world. The only way out was the Honkai. So I made my choice—to bind myself to that world and accept the Honkai."
"My Herrscher transformation increases the world's Honkai energy as a whole. When I complete my transformation, the Honkai will rewrite Izumo's laws entirely."
"It's a gradual process. But ti was running out—and the Honkai began affecting the Kami. We had to slay them, one by one, while preparing for the final mont."
"Izumo's fall to Nihility was inevitable. All I could do was gamble."
Kiana's voice grew complicated. "I gambled that once the Honkai covered the entire world, it could drive out Nihility's influence—and save what little remained of that broken land."
"So I forced the Herrscher transformation, spreading the Honkai energy across the world, trying to rewrite its very laws. My reasoning wasn't entirely wrong, but I hadn't expected that Nihility could also assimilate the power of what it eroded. And Izumo... was already too close to Nihility's domain."
"Needless to say, it failed. Nihility's power was endless, and the Honkai energy trying to engulf the world beca trapped in an eternal stalemate."
"The constant assimilation of Nihility's power only made the world's Honkai energy denser and heavier, turning Izumo into what it is now."
After finishing her account of Izumo, Kiana added for Ruan i's benefit, "That's why my progress is completely stuck."
Ruan i closed her eyes in thought.
"So that's why you fell under Nihility's influence—why you lost consciousness and your mories..."
"...Yes."
"You should have told all this sooner."
Ruan i opened her eyes and looked straight at her. "There's no need to go back. We're heading to Euphorion instead."
"No. Izumo doesn't matter anymore."
Kiana's expression grew complicated. "Unless Izumo is completely severed from Nihility, going there would be aningless."
"To stop all of this, the only option might be for to reach one hundred percent Herrscher completion."
But Izumo now only had Jyahnar left.
The last ti she visited, there had been no system notification indicating any progress. With the world frozen in stasis, Izumo could no longer provide her with any form of assistance.
She would have to find another way.
"If that place doesn't work, then what about choosing a world far from the Aeons? You could bind a new world and start over."
Izumo was a place they would have to revisit eventually.
But Kiana wasn't wrong—the transformation process there had reached its final, immovable step. Without resolving that issue, there would be no progress at all.
"I... have thought about that."
If she wanted to solve Izumo's problem—and the problem of the Honkai—the only way forward was to complete her Herrscher transformation.
"That's simple enough. We'll go back and try it."
"No, that won't work."
Kiana shook her head. "I've traveled through many worlds, but I never received any prompt that could let bind to another one."
Impossible?
Then there must be a hidden condition.
Ruan i lowered her head in thought. "Is it because the previous objective wasn't completed? Or is there so hidden requirent involved?"
Kiana's arrival in Izumo might not have been a coincidence. Perhaps the Honkai had deliberately chosen it—because it was suitable.
It might be a sequence of stages.
But Ruan i doubted that. It was more likely that so hidden condition hadn't been t.
"...I'm not sure which it is, but..."
Kiana glanced briefly at the silent Acheron, her voice softening. "It's probably the second one."
Because of a ssage she had once heard—'the compatibility between this world and the Honkai'—Kiana suspected that was the hidden requirent.
"Compatibility?"
"When I selected Izumo, I heard the Honkai notify that the compatibility between Izumo and the Honkai was 87.9 percent."
"Compatibility?"
Ruan i frowned. She had studied the Honkai within Kiana's body for quite so ti but had never encountered such a concept.
The Honkai energy within Kiana could assimilate and erode any other energy. How could such a thing even be asured?
If Kiana herself had known, she wouldn't have looked so conflicted. "I'm not exactly sure how it works either," she admitted. "But I have a destination in mind."
"If i hadn't seen my ssage and co looking for , and if you hadn't suddenly called back, Ruan, I probably would've gone there to try it out."
"You already have a target in mind?"
Ruan i raised an eyebrow, her curiosity fully piqued. She regretted missing out on witnessing the changes Kiana had triggered in Izumo.
If they could recreate that phenonon elsewhere, it would be ideal.
As for potential risks—so what if an entire planet was used as an experintal site?
That was hardly an issue.
In Ruan i's view, it was worth it.
Ruan i was never an ordinary person.
She only did what interested her. As for how others viewed it—or what consequences it might bring—she didn't care.
Once she was done, she simply cleaned up the aftermath.
After all, she was the kind of person who dared to study even Propagation, sothing most others wouldn't dare approach.
Acheron frowned slightly, clearly disapproving.
"Where are you planning to conduct the experint?"
Kiana hesitated for a mont, her expression conflicted, before finally speaking a na unfamiliar to the others—but one she rembered clearly.
"Jarilo-VI."
What exactly was the compatibility between Izumo and the Honkai?
Kiana believed it stemd from shared traits—similar people, similar experiences.
After realizing that crucial clue, one world's na appeared instantly in her mind.
Jarilo-VI.
Compared to Izumo, that world had no connection to the Honkai—aside from Cocolia, Bronya, and Seele, the mother and daughter. There was no real link.
Nothing like Izumo.
Even if Kiana was right, Jarilo-VI's compatibility would surely be low—perhaps not even reaching fifty percent.
But she wanted to see it for herself.
To confirm her theory. As long as the system responded, she could be certain.
Compatibility referred to the alignnt between worlds and the Honkai.
That was important.
With Izumo's progress frozen, she had no choice but to find another path.
"Jarilo-VI?"
It was a world neither of them had heard of.
Ruan i imdiately looked it up.
"So our next stop is there?"
Acheron hadn't heard of it either, nor did she understand what Kiana ant by "compatibility."
Ordinary worlds wouldn't work. It had to et certain criteria.
But compatibility—what did it actually an?
"This world, like the IPC, follows the Path of Preservation. According to records, it was invaded by the Antimatter Legion centuries ago and lost contact long ago."
Ruan i quickly found the data on Jarilo-VI, though all of it was several hundred years old.
The information ca from the IPC archives.
The world had long been declared dead.
After an invasion from the Legion and centuries of silence, that planet was almost certainly extinguished.
"So people still survived. The planet hasn't completely gone dark."
"Hasn't gone dark yet? Then it must be the power of Preservation protecting it."
If that world's people had the strength to defend themselves, they wouldn't still be isolated.
Kiana's claim that a few survivors remained likely ant they were clinging to life under the protection of Preservation's power.
What was special about such a world?
Did Kiana require a place on the brink of collapse, a dying world teetering on extinction?
Did the Honkai need such near-death worlds as incubation grounds?
Ruan i boldly entertained the thought.
Kiana didn't comnt on the Aeon of Preservation. She only said, "If nothing goes wrong, my next destination will be Jarilo-VI."
"I can't be certain yet, but once I get there, I should be able to confirm my theory."
"I'm coming with you."
Ruan i looked up, breaking from her thoughts. "Let's head back and make preparations. We'll set a travel route. I want to see that world with my own eyes."
"But I can't be sure yet."
Kiana was taken aback by Ruan i's imdiate decision to accompany her. "What if I'm wrong?"
If that were the case, the trip would've been for nothing.
Kiana herself didn't mind, but dragging Ruan i along for sothing uncertain felt like wasting her ti.
"So what?"
"Trial and error is a necessary part of any experint," Ruan i replied calmly.
Acheron stopped Kiana, who was about to protest again. "Whether it's true or not, we won't know unless we see it ourselves. Waiting until everything's confird will only waste more ti."
In truth, she wasn't keen on Ruan i joining them. Even though it was their first eting, having Ruan i around made her feel uneasy.
Especially after hearing everything earlier.
It wasn't hostility—not exactly—but there was a complex, uncomfortable feeling she couldn't shake.
"Alright."
With both Ruan i and i saying the sa thing, Kiana had no room left to refuse. She nodded in agreent.
Jarilo-VI wasn't particularly dangerous.
At worst, it would only delay them by a couple of days.
That thought allowed Kiana to relax.
The spacecraft took several days to return. During that ti, everything remained peaceful—aside from the first day, when there was a faint sense of tension between Acheron and Ruan i. After that, the two barely interacted.
Mainly because they almost never spoke.
Acheron wasn't the sa as before—these days, she rarely wasted words on anything unnecessary.
Ruan i, absorbed in her own world, had never been fond of socializing to begin with. She certainly wouldn't waste her ti on idle conversation.
"Rest for a day. We'll depart tomorrow."
Upon their return, Ruan i left only that brief instruction before vanishing into her lab.
Since Acheron was with her, Kiana decided not to follow. Instead, she gave up on the idea of observing Ruan i's work and took Acheron on a walk around the facility.
She began introducing the place to her.
"All the flora and fauna here have had their genes modified by Ruan. We can't bring them to other worlds."
Kiana explained as she showed her around, ending with that important note.
Acheron nodded quietly.
The strange plants didn't hold much appeal for her.
After several days of traveling together, though her interactions with Ruan i had been minimal, Acheron had observed enough to understand the dynamic between Ruan i and Kiana.
They simply hadn't had much ti alone.
Now that Ruan i was gone, the opportunity was perfect.
With three people together, there were always words that couldn't be said in front of another.
"Kiana."
"What is it?"
"If Ruan asked you to stay by her side forever... what would you do?"
Acheron still couldn't let the matter go.
Kiana had said sothing to Ruan i that she couldn't forget.
What about her?
That question had been weighing on Acheron's mind for days.
"That's impossible."
Kiana shook her head firmly. "i, don't overthink it. Ruan's interest in cos from the Honkai. Once she unravels its mysteries, she'll lose interest in entirely."
"I've always understood that."
Kiana wasn't saddened by it. She had long known what kind of person Ruan i was—and she also knew she held a small but special place in Ruan's heart.
That was enough for her to believe that even after Ruan lost interest, they would still remain friends.
Lose interest in Kiana, huh?
Acheron quietly recalled Ruan i's attitude toward her.
Kiana might have a point.
But Ruan i—a genius, a scientific eccentric—
Was she truly interested only in the Honkai?
User Comments
0 comments from readers