The area around the Tower of Babylon wasn't particularly noisy, but compared to the surrounding snowfields, it still had some sound.
Mei held her breath.
She crouched low, tiptoeing step by step toward the nearest Honkai beast.
She'd just been about to sneak up, leap into the air mid-flight, draw her blade, and land a super cool decapitation.
But the moment she jumped, Siegfried grabbed her by the scruff of the neck midair.
"Honkai beasts aren't something you can handle yet." He casually tossed Mei into a snowbank and looked over at Shiraha.
Shiraha blinked. "Me?"
Siegfried's lips twitched. "Out of the three of you, you're the only one who's actually developed your talent. If not you, then who? Kiana?"
He nodded toward the distance.
Over there, several Honkai beasts wandered among the ruins. The largest was the size of a three-story building, with thick limbs and reddish-white crystals covering its carapace, like a Star Beast.
Shiraha looked at his empty little hands, I'm supposed to fight something several stories tall?
First of all, Honkai beasts didn't have fixed sizes, they changed with Honkai concentration.
There were even mosquito-sized ones, but a standard Templar-class beast was already tank-sized, and Chariot- and Templar-classes were several stories tall.
An Emperor-class was usually around ten to twenty meters.
So at the start of a major Honkai eruption, the beasts born from it were at their strongest. As Honkai concentration faded, they'd gradually weaken along with the environment.
A Honkai beast under a Herrscher's command was vastly different from one without, even at the same class, the former could easily crush the latter.
"I heard that the leader of our Kaslana family could take down a Chariot-class Honkai beast with just a baseball bat, even without any training."
Siegfried recalled a little Kaslana family story. He wasn't sure who'd passed it down, but in the pre-modern era centuries ago, maybe something like that had really happened.
Shiraha glanced at him. "How old was your leader?"
Siegfried kept a straight face. "I heard he was even younger than you."
Shiraha smiled inwardly and didn't argue.
Whether Kevin had exaggerated it or the stories had gotten more ridiculous over time, Kevin taking down a Chariot-class at ten? Come on.
Elysia looked out from a distance, her voice bright. "Little Shiraha, do you feel like you've entered the main story? Finally starting to fight monsters and level up, instead of playing political games."
The Far East's political games were boring. Elysia didn't care much about the big shots there, in her impression, the Far East had always been… overlooked.
It had fallen too early in the Previous Era.
"Not really." Shiraha answered calmly. He glanced at Kiana, her pupils hadn't turned gold.
Siegfried was about to lead the kids forward when he had a sudden thought. "You kids aren't going to ask whether Honkai beasts deserve to live or not, are you?"
Shiraha: ….
Mei: ….
Kiana: ?
Shiraha's lips twitched. "I've never understood why any non-communicative species deserves human rights."
Herrschers?
If they couldn't communicate, they didn't need human rights either.
Forget it, that topic might be a bit sensitive for kids. Shiraha glanced at Mei and Kiana, then raised his hand toward the largest Honkai beast in the distance.
It looked like a Templar-class, about three stories tall, roughly ten meters, on the smaller side.
Bang!
An invisible burst of telekinesis exploded on its forehead, a wound far larger than a human head, but on the beast, it barely seemed to faze it.
Before leaving, Siegfried gave Shiraha's shoulder a firm squeeze, good, his Stigmata also reinforced his body. He wouldn't get crushed by a single stomp.
That made him leave decisively. "We three will go check out the tower first."
"But Shiraha—"
"Trust him. Without facing a little wind and rain, how can he become a great hero?"
Siegfried was pretty laid-back. A Templar-class was nothing to him, he could definitely save the kid before Shiraha hit game over.
Shiraha pressed his lips together. "It's fine, Mei-nee, you and Kiana go ahead and look inside. My Nee-chan is with me."
Elysia blinked beside him. "Are you sure I'm still needed?"
After all, for training like this, it was best to rely on yourself.
Shiraha glanced back at his Nee-chan, she was still too pure. If their roles were reversed, Shiraha would use every little thing to make her feel like they were one and the same.
The distant Templar-class had already locked on. Its massive body compacted the snow with each heavy step.
Siegfried moved faster, one kid in each hand, and dodged the beast's charge with ease.
Because Honkai beasts were silicon-based, charging, a clumsy-sounding move, was surprisingly effective for them.
Elysia thought for a moment and didn't retreat during the first wave.
"But come to think of it, your cute Nee-chan is never really not by your side."
She bent down slightly, resting her chin on Shiraha's shoulder from behind, her long hair falling and brushing against his neck, ticklish.
"You can practice techniques anytime, but pure pressure like this only comes once."
Shiraha looked up. "Looks like Nee-chan and I were thinking the same thing."
Dodge? Why dodge? There was no need to train against Honkai beasts, they'd never even make it to the final rounds, let alone win.
Only someone like Siegfried, who'd spent most of his life fighting beasts, would think about training kids in anti-beast combat from a young age.
The giant's stomp was closing in. Shiraha reached out, and because his Nee-chan was just behind his shoulder, their palms barely overlapped. She held his hand, fingers interlocking.
"Little Shiraha.... if something happens to you, big sister won't have any friends left."
Elysia's voice was soft.
The giant stomped down, a ten-meter-tall silicon-based creature, its body like solid rock. The enormous foot descended from above, bringing a howling wind, casting a shadow over Shiraha. The pressure ruffled his face slightly.
In the distance, Siegfried sprinted back, afraid he wouldn't make it. "Damn! that kid's not frozen in shock, is he?"
The next moment, the beast's foot came down fully. Siegfried's heart tightened, but he trusted in the physical resilience of a Stigmata bearer.
Halfway there, he reshaped the Divine Key into a greatsword, ready to cleave the beast, but he stopped himself at the last moment.
The beast's foot hadn't fully landed.
Elysia pretended to struggle, though she couldn't actually touch the beast, but it didn't matter. Shiraha couldn't either. A mass of compressed telekinesis held back a small gap.
It was heavy.
Shiraha instantly pushed aside any lingering thoughts of becoming a Herrscher. The strain continued. He briefly assessed his telekinetic limits.
"Nee-chan, give me a push."
It sounded odd, but Elysia could indeed touch Shiraha. She pressed against the back of his hand, pushing his bent arm back into extension.
The beast's strength? Don't make Elysia laugh.
"How's it feel?"
"Not exactly a life-or-death crisis, but this is probably my full output."
It felt a bit like being a close-quarters specialist, though that wasn't quite right. Shiraha held a little longer, gauging his limit…
In an instant, the gray sky above cleared. The beast stomped down again, but its massive body now had a narrow channel carved through it.
Telekinesis wasn't just for infighting. Shiraha used it to spring out through the gap, adjusting midair, and, mimicking his Nee-chan, drew an invisible bowstring.
Before the beast's claw could swipe at him, an invisible spiral arrow pierced through its skull.
Bang!
The next moment, Shiraha was knocked into the snow, and into Elysia's arms. He got up, shook his head, and felt no real pain, his telekinesis had blocked it in advance.
"The power of a Stigmata is really something."
Elysia murmured softly. Who would've imagined a ten-year-old easily taking down a Templar-class beast?
This was the power the doctors had dreamed of, flowing through bloodlines, completely different from Fusion Warriors, a power truly developable by the human body.
Shiraha glanced at his Nee-chan, then at Siegfried in the distance, whose expression was slightly twisted. He feigned weakness, wobbling unsteadily.
Elysia's expression changed. "Little Shiraha, did you exhaust yourself?"
You're from the Manticores, shouldn't you have good control over your power? How does fighting one Honkai beast leave you drained?
The next moment, Shiraha leaned into his Nee-chan's arms. Elysia squeezed here and there and found that the little guy was probably just tired.
Shiraha said nothing, just lay in the big sister's arms, watching the nearly ten-meter-tall beast crash to the ground.
The single-point breakthrough of telekinesis depended largely on the user's focus, and Shiraha was quite good at finesse.
"Little Shiraha?"
Elysia shook him gently. Shiraha nuzzled against her cheek. "It's fine.... I was just thinking… I really am cheating. Even in a fight, it's always two against one."
After all these years together, Shiraha rarely excluded his Nee-chan anymore. No matter how good someone was at pretending, habits formed over time were hard to break.
Siegfried first examined the beast, his lips twitching. Sometimes he really envied other Stigmata bearers' abilities, the Kaslana family was left with just brute strength and high regeneration.
"Sigh... you're an idiot too. When the beast charged, you should've dodged. Your telekinesis can be used for more than just offense, you can redirect yourself or even fly."
Siegfried sounded frustrated.
Shiraha didn't argue, just pressed his lips together and nodded. "I'll remember that next time."
"Sigh... forget it." Siegfried reached out and pulled Shiraha up. "In Anti-Entropy's greenhouse, you probably don't know how to fight properly."
"We'll train more in the coming days."
He wasn't too harsh on kids.
Shiraha nodded obediently.
Siegfried glanced back at him. "Want me to carry you?"
Shiraha shook his head. "No need, I have my Nee-chan."
Siegfried understood immediately, so it wasn't serious exhaustion. The imaginary friend was still moving… meaning there was still some room to push him.
A few minutes later, Siegfried didn't rush this time. They walked for a while before reaching the Tower of Babylon. Mei was running around, occasionally stopping to look at the surroundings.
Kiana stood alone in the center of the tower, reaching out to touch the Honkai reactor, though it had long since shut down.
"This is where the Second Eruption broke out, Schicksal's largest human research laboratory."
Siegfried's voice came from behind, unusually serious, stripped of his usual casual tone.
"The tower's been destroyed now. I remember it had fifty floors, about three hundred researchers, and…"
He paused. Shiraha finished softly, "And countless homeless children, most of them lured here under false pretenses."
Siegfried didn't argue, it was the truth.
"Go take a look. Anti-Entropy doesn't have buildings like this. Schicksal got better after that incident too, many labs now use death row inmates or paid volunteers."
And Valkyries, but Siegfried didn't say that aloud.
Schicksal had improved, but not by much. Cleaner teams and various labs still existed. For example, Dr. Magi would one day waste countless Valkyries and test subjects in a single experiment.
That experiment's final result? The successful development of Honkai serum.
Sigh. That's why Shiraha loved cheating.
Maybe it was the arrogance of a transmigrator, or something else entirely, he always felt he should be able to do everything perfectly, even though he knew it wasn't rational.
Elysia walked lightly. She'd rarely seen this kind of lab, the one she'd visited most was the First Lab, Mobius's.
There were plenty of beautiful girls there, and people occasionally died, but Elysia understood. In that era, countless like-minded people were willing to sacrifice their lives for their dreams.
Nothing major happened here. Kiana didn't turn into Sirin, she just listened quietly as her dad recounted the events of the Second Eruption.
By evening, they'd long left the tower and were staying in a small town with a bathhouse, a public one, to be exact.
Siegfried looked at the three kids. "Two per room, or one per room?"
The bathhouse had private rooms, usually a bit pricier. He knew this from his wandering days, he'd seen plenty of countries.
Kiana instinctively looked up, but Siegfried pushed her head back down. "I'm asking you and Mei."
Kiana let out a soft "oh." She looked at Mei. The two exchanged a glance and, in perfect unison, said:
"One each." ×2
Yeah right. Girls might smell nice, but Mei, the type who had a million friends at school and ignored family like Shiraha and her, who'd want to share a room with her?
"Three rooms." Siegfried turned to the front desk.
"Four!"
Shiraha's voice came from behind, firm and unwavering.
Who wants to share a room with an old man?
Even though his Nee-chan usually gave him space when he bathed, get lost, old man.
Even if he wanted to build bonds, Shiraha would choose someone his own age, not someone about to be left behind by the times.