"What is going on?"
"Where is my power? Where is my Authority?"
Refusing to believe it, she waved her hand forcefully again, even adding a sound effect with her mouth:
"Hah!!"
Still... absolutely no reaction.
She didn't even manage to rub out a single spark.
In this peaceful world that strictly adheres to the laws of physics, the so-called "Herrscher of the Void," stripped of her special effects and filters, looked just like a chuunibyou girl having an episode in the middle of the street.
The Herrscher of the Void maintained that hand grasping at the void, her expression freezing from ferocious to stunned, and then from stunned to a blank look of disbelief.
"How is this possible? How can this be? My power, my Authority..."
This time, Su Yu really couldn't hold it back.
Seeing that spectacular expression on the deity's face, looking as if she were constipated, was a moment more satisfying than clearing any AAA masterpiece.
"Do you understand now? Queen of Honkai."
"In this world, the power you take such pride in isn't worth a fart."
"You and I are now grasshoppers tied to the same rope."
"Only if I live can you continue to exist through Kiana's body. If I die..."
He grinned, revealing a smile that infuriated the Herrscher of the Void.
"...don't even think about living either!"
"Shut up!" The Herrscher of the Void seemed stung in her most sensitive nerve by these words, furious light erupting in her golden pupils.
Su Yu's muscles, originally limp, instantly tensed—the precursor to an explosion of his last accumulated strength.
This was the moment he had been waiting for.
If the Herrscher of the Void had truly completely occupied Kiana's body, she wouldn't be so eager to torture him.
She only wanted to use his pain to continue attacking Kiana's fragile nerves.
In that case, he had to bet everything on one throw.
Kiana, you trouble magnet. When this is over, I'm definitely docking your snacks. Three bags of chips!!
Su Yu's originally limp body tightened instantly like a fully drawn bow. Right when the opponent's emotions were out of control, which was also when she was most lax—
"Since your show is over, and since you don't dare to gamble your life with me..."
He sucked in a sharp breath, exerted force from his waist and abdomen, and then—
"Then get the hell out of her body!!"
THUD!!!
Su Yu didn't care about tactical maneuvers, nor did he care about being gentle with the fairer sex.
He jerked his head back violently, then, like a cannonball leaving the chamber, slammed it mercilessly into that high-and-mighty forehead.
"Ugh—!!"
The deity who had just been clamoring to destroy the world now screamed without a shred of dignity, like a little girl ambushed by a hoodlum.
The defenseless Herrscher of the Void saw black, as if smashed in the face by a sledgehammer.
The intense physical pain instantly crushed her arrogant consciousness, shattering her dignity as a god along with it.
Both cried out in pain simultaneously, clutching their foreheads and falling in different directions.
A large red welt instantly appeared on their foreheads, stinging fiercely, their brains buzzing.
But this pain was like a forced reboot switch. Not only did it knock the Herrscher of the Void out, but it also sobered Kiana up from that extreme self-destructive emotion.
She lay face up on the cold, rough concrete floor, gasping for air, her eyes still somewhat unfocused.
Beside her ears was the howling wind, the tsunami-like chants of "Encore! Encore!" from below.
And the coarse, painful, yet incredibly real sound of Su Yu's breathing, like a broken bellows.
Back.
She was really back.
Feeling the stinging pain on her forehead and the control over her own body...
"Wuwuwu... Waaaaah..."
Kiana curled up and bawled her eyes out right there on the dusty rooftop.
She cried without any regard for her image, like a child who had been lost for too long and finally found home, only to throw a tantrum out of sheer grievance.
In this instant, the image of Senba Academy from that year floated into Kiana's mind, of that girl she had held onto so tightly.
Mei... So, was this how you felt back then?
Kiana looked at the night sky dyed colorful by fireworks overhead. Through her tear-blurred vision, those distant memories surged back like a tide.
She remembered Raiden Mei standing at the edge of the rooftop, purple lightning of raging Honkai energy behind her, eyes as empty as a doll's.
She remembered rushing over, grabbing Mei's hand for dear life, refusing to let go even as the lightning scorched her hands, stubbornly believing that as long as she held onto Mei's hand, she would survive.
What was Mei thinking at that time?
Did she, like Kiana now, feel that living required more courage than dying? Did she also bear the labels of "monster" and "disaster," feeling that disappearing was the best ending for everyone?
It turned out...
She had never truly understood how much courage that girl she pulled back from the brink of hell needed to choose to keep living after that.
A belated understanding, mixed with salty tears, slowly seeped into her chaotic thoughts.
It turned out that being saved could hurt this much.
It turned out that being given hope was, in itself, a heavy burden.
After that, Raiden Mei installed a bomb in her own heart.
That wasn't cowardice.
That was a desperate, all-or-nothing gamble to fight the Herrscher of Thunder within her to the bitter end.
That was the most tragic method of battle she chose to protect Kiana and protect the world.
Did living on really require this much courage...?
"Mei... is this how you felt back then?"
Kiana gripped the clothes over her chest tightly. That was where her heart beat, and where the Herrscher Core had once been.
Tears blurred her vision, and blurred time and space.
"It hurts... it really... hurts."
At this moment, a wave of sound more violent than any before erupted from the dome arena below.
Eden's concert had entered its final encore segment.
That figure stood center stage once again, microphone in hand, looking up at the night sky filled with light—as if looking through the roof at these two souls who had just experienced life and death.
A pure white pillar of light rose from the center of the stage, piercing through the sea of stars formed by countless glow sticks, shooting straight into the firmament and illuminating the rooftop in brilliant white.
Eden opened her mouth, and the song rang out.
It was a song about redemption and reunion, the melody as gentle as the evening breeze of the Old World, yet filled with a power that pierced through time.
The lyrics melted into the night wind, passing through layers of barriers to fall upon the ears of the two bedraggled figures on the rooftop.
Kiana listened to the singing that seemed to come from the distant starry sky, feeling the rhythmic panting of the man beside her.
Su Yu's arm was still trembling, his knees were still seeping blood, and his breathing still carried the disorder of surviving a disaster.
"You were... watching just now too, right? Kiana?"
Su Yu turned his head, looking at the girl crying like a tear-streaked kitten, and pulled the corners of his mouth into a grimacing smile.
"Did you see clearly? That insufferably arrogant Queen who scared you so much you couldn't sleep..."
"Is now on the same starting line as you."
"No Honkai energy, no Subspace Lance, no Imaginary Space... Didn't she look just like that chuunibyou kid from the middle school next door who always thinks a black dragon is sealed in his right hand?"
"Even... cough cough, even worse than that kid."
"At least he wouldn't get sent flying by an otaku's headbutt."
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