"Kiana...?"
The name slipped from Siegfried's throat like a whisper.
Under the pale moonlight, her snow-white hair shimmered with an almost ethereal glow, her curled locks exuding a noble air.
Her sky-blue eyes sparkled with spirit, and her delicate, fair face radiated elegance and grace—like a highborn lady straight out of a storybook.
Siegfried stared blankly at the girl before him, eyes wide with confusion.
In that moment, he seemed to see a shadow from his memories—an aura nearly identical to someone he once knew...
"Cecilia..."
He murmured the name under his breath, still dazed, almost convinced this was just a dream.
"Kiana, is it really you!? Kia—"
His voice was abruptly cut off, as if someone had closed a valve.
Silence fell.
The moment his gaze met the girl's icy stare, everything froze.
"I'm sorry, Siegfried-san. I'm not who you think I am."
The girl clenched her fists tightly, narrowing her eyes as if trying to suppress a rising fury.
Linked mentally with her other self, the girl's emotions were inevitably swayed by True Kiana's.
Siegfried's presence alone was enough to ignite that storm inside her.
"What are you saying, old man? Of course it's me! I'm standing right here!"
Kiana blinked and looked around, confused by their odd expressions.
Her bright blue eyes reflected both the girl and Siegfried's strange behavior.
Scratching her head, she looked utterly lost.
At this point, if she still didn't realize something was off, she might as well accept the title of "tuna-brain."
"You... Do you know Sirin?"
Kiana had never been able to understand—why did her father leave without a word?
Was it a secret mission that forced him to go alone?
But if that were the case, why hadn't he said anything?
Why hadn't he come to see her even once in nearly ten years?
Even though she now had Mei, Nagami, and other close friends by her side—bringing her warmth and happiness.
Those long nights alone always led to the same question gnawing at her mind:
Where did Siegfried go?
Tonight, for once, Kiana actually tried using her brain.
But the moment she began to think it through, a wave of resistance surged up inside her.
She couldn't think about it. She mustn't think about it.
Because if she uncovered the truth—
Her world might fall apart.
"Kiana, how many times has someone have to punish you with essays on Modern Honkai History?"
A slightly exasperated voice echoed above, followed by a blur dropping from the sky like a meteor.
The graceful figure landed with silent impact, like a snow lotus blooming in the icy heights.
True Kiana spun around effortlessly, her silky white hair sweeping into elegant waves.
"Even Mei figured out my name was fake. Yet you, you dummy, really believed it."
Kiana stared wide-eyed at the girl who looked exactly like her.
Her expression was blank, stunned—like a deer caught in headlights.
But the girl's warm smile somehow eased the tension in her heart, like being forgiven after making a huge mistake.
For some reason, she felt... relieved.
"Three... Kianas?"
Aside from Alvitr, who had quietly stepped back to observe from a distance, there was only one person who could utter that line in such utter disbelief.
Siegfried.
His eyes flew open, and his expression went slack, overwhelmed with shock.
The scene before him hit like a thunderclap—so powerful that he instinctively staggered back two steps.
"What is going on!? Kiana... Which one of you is really Kiana?!"
Grief and fury erupted all at once.
With all three Kianas standing before him, the only explanation his mind could conjure was that Otto had created more clones—or perhaps the clone he'd once saved wasn't the only one that survived.
Watching Siegfried, the heiress Kiana clenched her fists tightly.
'You've got a lot of nerve asking that.'
If you had just given them different names back then, maybe True Kiana and K-423 wouldn't have had to fight so bitterly.
Even without her or Nagami's help, they might've grown up as loving sisters.
'Heck, even if you'd called one of us "Dog Egg," it would've been better than this!'
Is that thing on your neck just for decoration!?
But with True Kiana present, she couldn't afford to make the first move.
She forced herself to hold back—for now.
"If you're asking who Kiana Kaslana is," True Kiana said calmly, "then it's her."
Kiana (K-423) blinked in confusion as True Kiana gently patted her on the head like a kind big sister.
It was the warmest smile she had ever seen from her.
Then True Kiana turned to Siegfried.
That same bright smile remained on her face as she stepped in front of him and said,
"Nice to meet you, Siegfried-san. I'm Kiana... Kiana Schariac."
But her voice had turned cold—sharp and cutting like a winter wind that pierced through bone, sending a chill straight to Siegfried's soul.
"What are you saying...? Sirin... Kiana Schariac? What does that even mean...?"
Somewhere deep in Kiana's mind, fragments of hazy memories flickered to life.
A snowfield engulfed in flames.
A pair of golden eyes reflected in a pool of blood.
A man, soaked in red and missing his left arm, collapsed in the snow as blood gushed endlessly from his body.
"Urgh...!"
Clutching her head, Kiana shook it violently, trying to dispel the images.
Now that True Kiana had acknowledged her own identity, she could no longer suppress it completely.
"Schariac..."
Siegfried turned away from her, as if he couldn't bear to meet her eyes.
He muttered the name softly, haunted by the truth unraveling before him.
The already weathered man seemed to age several more years in an instant.
He let out a heavy, suppressed sigh, opened his mouth as if to speak, and said,
"Kiana, I…"
"I…"
"…"
But in the end, no words came out.
Nothing he could say would change what he had done. In the face of his own choices, all words were empty.
"Oh? You're not going to speak after all? Or perhaps... you really have nothing to say to me, Siegfried-san?"
When True Kiana was young, her emotional anchor was this very man—a father who had long since faded into a distant memory.
As Cecilia's daughter, the True Kiana of the past had been a pure and gentle child.
Naturally, she held no hatred toward Siegfried or the other Kiana.
In fact, she used to imagine, more than once, that he would suddenly descend from the sky, sweep her away from this place, and take her home.
Even if the name Kiana had been given to a clone, she wouldn't have minded.
She'd have accepted it—as if an older sister had gifted something precious to her younger sibling.
That was the True Kiana of the past.
But people change.
The cold, sterile lab and the long, lonely years twisted that hope and kindness.
That's why her attitude toward her clone and Siegfried had changed.
After all, aside from Naruto Uzumaki, who could grow up in a village full of hostility and still keep their heart pure?
And what True Kiana endured wasn't just malice—it was the suffocating cruelty of pure emotional neglect.
The fact that she didn't go insane was a miracle in itself.
"But come to think of it... someone like me, who gave up that identity long ago, probably doesn't have the right to say anything to you either, but—"
In the next moment, True Kiana's fist lashed out.
With one explosive motion, her slender arm released a terrifying force as she drove her fist straight into Siegfried's gut!
It was all her strength.
No—perhaps she had even surpassed her own limits in that punch.
'BOOM—!!'
The deafening sound cracked through the air like thunder.
Siegfried's body lifted off the ground, hurled back over a hundred meters like a human cannonball, crashing into the ground with a sickening thud.
He didn't move.
"Phew... That felt so much better."
Exhaling a long breath, True Kiana turned and flashed a radiant smile at the noble-looking girl beside her.
"Dad! Dad! Are you okay?!"
The tuna Kiana panicked, immediately rushing to Siegfried's side to help him up.
But when she saw his face—eyes rolled back, red with pain, twisted in agony—her heart dropped.
"Sirin! What the hell are you doing?!"
"Kiana, are you sure you want to know what comes next? Are you really ready to face the truth?"
True Kiana's smile faded, replaced by a solemn expression as she looked at her, who was desperately shaking Siegfried.
"I… I…"
Kiana's long lashes trembled as a panic unlike anything she'd ever known welled up inside her.
Before she could speak, a trembling hand—his hand—rested gently on her shoulder.
Despite the pain wracking his body, Siegfried managed to smile—a pained, hollow smile and looked up at True Kiana.
"Can you… not tell her...?"
True Kiana curled her lips into a bitter smirk, shaking her head in disbelief.
"You really think she doesn't already know?"
She turned toward the stunned Bug-brain and said firmly:
"Isn't that right, Kiana? Or should I say… Sirin?"
The moment those words were spoken, a tidal wave of Honkai energy erupted from K-423's body.
Yes… deep down, she had known.
In countless long, dark nights, that scene would appear in her dreams again and again.
Snow blanketed the world in silence, but the searing heat in the air shattered that calm.
Everything burned, reduced to ashes.
And at the center of it all—
A little girl with hollow golden eyes, cradling a white-haired man.
Blood stained her pale face.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"
A scream of despair, as if drowning in a sea of sorrow.
Her right eye suddenly burst with blinding golden light.
Purple Honkai markings spread from the iris, crawling across her skin.
A raging wind howled around her, lifting her twin braids as her body began to float—hovering in a storm of unleashed energy.
Something ancient and terrible was about to awaken.
Even the distant ocean churned, waves rising thousands of meters into the air—
—But it wasn't because the Second Herrscher was awakening.
It was because C.C. had fired the railgun.
"Hmph!" ×2
In perfect sync, two cold scoffs echoed across the battlefield.
The heiress and True Kiana charged forward simultaneously, swift as twin blades cutting through the wind.
From both sides, they punched KIana right in her shimmering, golden, diamond-shaped eye.
"She might be a dumb little sister, but she's still OUR little sister. You think we'd let anyone else lay a finger on her?!" ×2
They had abandoned the title of Siegfried's daughter, but they had accepted this Kiana as their sister.
That was True Kiana's truth now—and for the heiress, it had always been the case.
Their deep blue eyes, like the vast ocean, now shimmered with golden light.
Saint Power.
In terms of raw ability, this power allowed the user to perfectly control Honkai energy at the microscopic level.
It could halt Honkai beasts in their tracks.
Even suppress a Herrscher Core.
In the face of this power, all Honkai must bow.
It made sense—this power wasn't ordinary.
If Herrschers were like rare cards, then the Herrscher of the End was the ultimate ceiling—Ohma Zi-O.
But Saint Power? That was Grand Zi-O.
More or less.
One difference, though— Saint Power never loses.
"GET BACK WHERE YOU BELONG!" ×2
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