The next day.
Sunlight filtered through the drawn curtains, casting a soft glow over the real Kiana's face. Her eyelids fluttered ever so slightly.
That was such a good sleep...
She slowly blinked her eyes open. For the first ti, she realized that having a whole bed to herself wasn't half bad.
Ah, the classic "unfamiliar ceiling" and that piercingly bright light...
She squinted against the glare, and just then, a voice filled with pleasant surprise rang out beside her.
"She's awake!!"
Hearing the cry, she turned her head to see everyone suddenly rising from their seats to crowd around her bedside.
Theresa, i, Kiana, Bronya, Hiko, Fu Hua, and Yae Sakura.
Showti.
As she looked at them, her pupils contracted slightly. By now, she had already decided exactly how she was going to handle this transformation. She couldn't wait to experience the events to co; she had neither the ti nor the patience to keep waiting around for things to happen naturally.
Therefore, the primary goal of this transformation wasn't just to get cozy with the Valkyries anymore. It was to...
Speed up a few side plots.
"You guys..."
She opened her mouth, but her voice was so raspy she could barely find it. Her throat felt as though it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper.
"Don't try to talk yet..."
Theresa hurried to pour a glass of warm water and held it to Kiana's lips.
"Auntie..."
The real Kiana looked at her, tears spilling from the corners of her eyes as her body began to tremble—the very picture of overwhelming joy and excitent.
"Kiana, please, don't talk yet..." Theresa's eyes brimd with red. Seeing her like this made her want to burst into tears.
She held the glass to Kiana's mouth and adjusted the bed's elevation so she could drink more easily.
Gulp... gulp...
After a few swallows, Kiana broke into a fit of violent coughing. Her frail fra looked so fragile it seed as if she might fall apart at any mont.
"Easy now, take it slow..." Theresa fussed over her, her face a mask of urgent worry.
It took a while for her to settle down and for the coughing to subside.
"Kiana..." i watched her, her own eyes shimring with unshed tears.
"i..."
Kiana turned toward her and couldn't help but smile. It was a smile full of sheer relief. "You're all alive... thank goodness."
A heavy silence fell over the hospital room.
Then, Kiana's gaze landed on the other Kiana standing in the crowd. Her deep blue eyes widened.
"Who... who are you?"
"Well..." Theresa's face clouded over with a complicated expression. She had no idea how to break the cruel reality to her.
"Um..." The other Kiana was equally at a loss. She knew how much i and the others ant to her.
She also realized... that right now, this girl seed to believe that everyone was still alive—that everything she had endured before was just a nightmare, an illusion. Because of that, Kiana didn't dare tell her the truth. She didn't even know where to start.
"Kiana..." i took her hand, her voice thick with emotion as tears finally tracked down her cheeks. "We... we are all alive. But you... you've co to another world."
"...Another world?"
Kiana froze, her expression shifting to one of utter confusion and helplessness. She looked like soone who understood the words being said but simply couldn't believe them.
The light in her blue eyes died out instantly, and the spark of life that had just returned seed to vanish in a heartbeat.
She looked at i, at her tearful eyes, and then slowly turned her head to look at every single person in the room. Finally, her gaze settled back on the other Kiana.
She studied her—the girl who looked exactly like her—and whispered, "Another... world?"
"Yes..." i squeezed her hand, tears falling fast now. "You ca here from your world... this is... a different world."
Kiana went silent. She looked as though the very breath of life had left her, turning into a gray, crumbling statue.
"It wasn't... a nightmare?"
Her eyes were hollow as she muttered to herself, her voice a dry rasp.
Theresa's voice began to shake. "Kiana... you..."
"I knew it."
Kiana interrupted her, her voice soft, calm, and haunting.
Are you guys ready? Because I'm about to break your hearts.
"Hiko is dead..." She looked toward Hiko. "After returning from the Nine Realms, because she couldn't obtain the Stigmata of Ji Xuanyuan... her body was eroded by Honkai energy until she died."
Hiko's pupils shrank. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words ca out. Fu Hua pressed her lips into a thin line.
"i is dead..." Kiana turned to i. "She died in a sneak attack by Anti-Entropy Titans... buried under a hail of artillery fire."
i's body began to tremble. She could almost see it—the grief in her eyes turning into a creeping shadow of resentnt.
"Bronya is dead..." Kiana moved her gaze to Bronya. "Bronya and I... we held out until the very end. We were the only ones left on the battlefield... and then the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy arrived. He said that every Schicksal Valkyrie in Siberia had been slaughtered. Theresa... Mom... Dad... they're all dead."
Kiana's eyes went wide, her face pale with shock. Theresa stood there, paralyzed.
"I don't know you..." Kiana looked at Fu Hua, her eyes still empty. "But... Schicksal had an S-Rank Valkyrie nad Phoenix. You look just like her, but she wasn't at St. Freya."
Fu Hua remained silent. When she heard the news that Theresa, Cecilia, and Siegfried had all fallen in battle, she knew. In that tiline, perhaps she had never been with them at the academy.
"You..." Kiana then looked at Yae Sakura. "I've seen you before... in Nagazora, during that A-Rank Honkai Eruption. You sacrificed yourself to save Theresa... and beca her Stigmata."
Kiana went on as if reading from a casualty list, reciting every na and every cause of death.
"Everyone is dead... and now, only I am left."
The room beca terrifyingly quiet, save for the rustle of the trees outside the window swaying in the wind.
"Just now..." Kiana lowered her head, a tragic, broken smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I thought you were all alive. I thought it was all just a bad dream... I thought if I woke up, I'd be back in the past."
Her shoulders began to shake. Tears stread uncontrollably from her eyes.
"But I've always known... Hiko is dead... i is dead... Bronya is dead... everyone is dead... I knew it all along."
But as soon as the words left her mouth, the agony in her voice vanished.
"You aren't them," she whispered, her voice eerily calm.
That final reaction, more than anything else, felt like a knife to their hearts.
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