Ryn had a dream, and this dream was different from any other...
In a sea of flowers, Kiana and Mei, both wearing their Senba Academy uniforms, were lying on the grass together.
The sunlight shone upon them, highlighting the youthfulness of the young girls.
But then the scene shifted, and the entire sky was covered by a giant eye. The cloudless, sun-drenched sky was instantly shrouded in dark clouds, with lightning and thunder.
Kiana and Mei had also changed their clothes... Both had wings formed from the materialization of her authority behind their backs, and Honkai energy circuits covered their entire bodies.
The warmth from just moments ago was gone. Kiana held a long spear, pointing it at Mei. Mei's despairing eyes became firm, and she stood up from the ground to face Kiana.
After a brief stare-down, the two began to fight to the death.
The thunder signified the Queen of Thunder's fury, but no matter how furious she was, in the face of Finality, she was just a child throwing a tantrum.
The earth was sundered, the sky was torn apart... The two fought from the ground to the sky, and then all the way into space.
At the end of the battle, Kiana grabbed the exhausted Mei by the neck. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes as Kiana choked the life out of Mei...
After Mei's death, a light emanated from Kiana's head. The light of Finality struck the Earth's surface...
The surface was cleared, all life was extinguished, and the entire planet was branded with the Cross of Finality.
The dream ended...
Ryn looked at the Stigmata in his hand. The cross in the center of the Stigmata's pattern was so similar to the Cross of Finality from his dream...
"I..."
Ryn wanted to say something, but he found that he couldn't get any words out.
Neither the loving harmony of Kiana and Mei nor their final life-and-death struggle had as strong an oppressive feeling as the giant eye that had obscured the entire sky... Kiana and Mei's final dance felt as if they were puppets controlled by that giant eye.
The dream was so real, as real as reality itself... but Ryn was certain that the Kiana and Mei in the dream were not the ones he knew. That was definitely not the world Ryn was in.
Then there was only one truth... It was a memory recorded in the Stigmata...
Ryn placed his hand on his chest, feeling the Stigmata pulsing with him. The moment the Stigmata and Ryn's will reached resonance, Ryn successfully projected his will into the Stigmata Space.
The Stigmata Consciousness had already told him how to enter the Stigmata Space, but Ryn couldn't find the resonance with it. But this time, the dream, so clear it terrified him, had allowed Ryn to touch the boundary of resonance with the Stigmata.
This was the first time Ryn had successfully entered the Stigmata Space, and the interior of the Stigmata Space left him stunned...
This was the same grassy field from the dream, the very same one where that Kiana and Mei had lain together...
Originally, Ryn had entered the Stigmata Space this time to ask the Stigmata Consciousness about the dream, but now Ryn's jaw had dropped...
Because on that grassy field, a white-haired furball Kiana was lazily lying on her side, eating popcorn and watching a TV series playing on a large screen not far away, occasionally scratching her butt...
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The moment Ryn achieved resonance with the Stigmata, the Oath of Judah, powered by Ryn's Honkai energy, began to glow. Before the bewildered eyes of Kiana and the others...
Judah turned into... Kiana?!
"Huh?! Judah, why did you turn into me?"
"I don't know, I'm Soulium. This is a passive response to Ryn's will, taking on his shape... I think you should go ask Ryn why his energy has your shape, Kiana..."
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"Oh my~ You're finally in."
Stigmata Kiana put her hands behind her back, and with a small wave, made the popcorn and the big screen disappear. Then she skipped over to Ryn's side, looking him up and down.
"Why are you so shocked? You've already seen all of Kiana. I'm the same as her, you know~ Oh, how embarrassing~"
Stigmata Kiana covered her face and crouched down to the side, squirming shyly.
After squirming for a bit, she looked at the petrified Ryn, tapped her lip with a finger, and said curiously:
"You don't like Kiana? I can turn into Sirin too, you know!"
Stigmata Kiana snapped her fingers, and with a flash of holy light, the Stigmata Consciousness transformed into the form of the angelic little Sirin.
Stigmata Sirin spread her arms and flew towards Ryn.
"Ryn, hug!"
Ryn snapped out of his shock and dodged the Stigmata Consciousness's lunge.
"That's enough... are you messing with me!! One moment you're Kiana, the next you're Sirin! Why don't you turn into Kika and Mei?!"
"Tsk, to think you'd reject a hug from someone as cute as me." The Stigmata Consciousness tutted and changed back into Kiana's form. "I can't do that. Why would I randomly turn into Kika and Mei? Besides, what do you mean 'turn into' Kiana and Sirin? I *am* Kiana and Sirin!!"
"What do you mean..."
"It's the literal meaning. This Stigmata of yours belongs to *that person*, and that person is Kiana Kaslana! And as the administrator of this Stigmata, is it strange for me to be Kiana and Sirin?"
The Stigmata Consciousness waved her hand, and the scene in the Stigmata Space shifted, showing countless fragments of time.
There were scenes in a laboratory, in a Herrscher Crucible... and in every one... Kiana and Sirin were constantly struggling...
"Do you believe in fate? No matter how many times the world is reset, some things seem to be eternal nodes in time that can never be changed...
Even if you directly switch worlds and the node is changed, it's merely a superficial change in form; the substance within will not be altered...
The fusion of Kiana and the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, is an absolute point in time. This is a reality that can never be changed!"
"The only things that differ are the process and the outcome... Will she break down and become Finality, or a child of fusion, or will nothing happen? Who knows."
Stigmata Kiana shrugged. In any case, that was something her original self experienced; what did it have to do with her?
Ryn thought of the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, inside Kiana. Could this also be the absolute point in time the Stigmata spoke of? Sirin had been fused into Kiana's body by someone...
"So..."
"Don't ask me. The truth is something you need to verify for yourself. My perspective is synchronized with yours. How would I know what's going on in your world...
But I can tell you with certainty that the Kiana you know and perceive is Kiana Kaslana! Just as you and Penglaiji Ryn are parallel world counterparts, she is the parallel world counterpart of Kiana Kaslana."