"You know Kiana?"
Once they found a quiet spot, Sirin dropped all pretense, getting straight to the point with the man who called himself Welt Yang.
Her self-restraint, already fragile, completely vanished the moment she saw that irritating face.
In short—she couldn't stand him.
She didn't even bother pretending otherwise.
Welt's expression remained calm, but internally he couldn't help grumbling. Why was this Sirin so fixated on Kiana?
They weren't even the same age.
"You've already noticed, haven't you? Our worlds aren't the same—just similar."
Welt spoke evenly.
"Of course I can tell."
Sirin hesitated for a moment, then said, "But I still want to ask about Kiana. Don't waste time—answer my question first, then I'll tell you what you want to know."
She really was…
Welt took a deep breath, reminding himself not to argue with her. This was probably as polite as she got.
He sighed helplessly. "Fine, ask."
"Do you know Kiana?"
"Our worlds are different. The Kiana you're talking about—I couldn't possibly know her. In fact, I only arrived in this universe not long ago."
Not long ago?
Sirin's expression didn't change, but her heart did. "You just arrived in this universe too? So you weren't here before?"
Welt glanced at her, hesitated briefly, and then decided to answer honestly. "Yes. My home is far from here—a beautiful place with no Aeons, no Paths, only a disaster known as the Honkai."
Sirin's fingers clenched slightly at her side but relaxed soon after. A flood of thoughts rushed through her mind in that instant.
"And Kiana?"
Now Welt frowned, sensing something off. "Why are you asking about her?"
"She's the Herrscher of Finality, isn't she?"
Welt's expression shifted. "In your world too—Kiana is the Herrscher of Finality?"
If in his world Kiana Kaslana had become the Herrscher of Finality, that was one thing.
But in another similar world—where the Honkai also existed—the Herrscher of Finality was the same person.
He refused to believe that was mere coincidence.
Sirin didn't answer. Instead, she pulled out her terminal and said flatly, "Let's add each other. Easier to stay in contact."
"I haven't even started asking yet."
"Then hurry up. I'm busy."
Welt inhaled deeply, forcing down his frustration. After adding her contact, he finally began his questions.
"Your world has the Honkai too? Your Kiana is also the Herrscher of Finality? How did you defeat the Honkai?"
He asked all three at once—the things he most wanted to know.
"We didn't defeat the Honkai."
Sirin looked at him for a moment, then said quietly, "We already lost—to IX."
Welt: "..."
Only one question answered—and with it came a shocking revelation.
It seemed increasingly likely that this Welt had come from the same world as Kiana. Yet his words revealed no clear trace of her—only a deep wariness toward the Honkai.
Uncertain of Welt's stance toward Kiana—and Kiana's feelings toward him—Sirin decided not to press further.
Once she found Kiana, she could bring up this Welt Yang and see how she reacted.
After all, as one of the Nameless, he wasn't hard to find—unlike them.
"So your world had not only the Honkai… but also Nihility?"
That was… a hellish beginning.
Welt knew of IX—the Aeon of Nihility—a terrifying being.
To face both the Honkai and the erosion of Nihility at once… the fact that anyone had escaped such a world was already a miracle.
At that moment, Welt couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sympathy.
To think that after enduring both disasters and losing her home, Sirin could still speak so calmly—perhaps that alone was something extraordinary.
The only thing Welt found strange was how Sirin seemed to harbor some kind of prejudice against him—she had disliked him from the very first glance, even showing faint hostility.
Perhaps something unpleasant had happened between her and his counterpart in that other world.
"Of course."
Sirin looked straight at Welt, then suddenly asked an odd question. "Kiana… in your world, what's her relationship with Raiden Mei like?"
What kind of question was that?
Kiana and Raiden Mei's relationship?
This Sirin didn't seem the least bit curious about how his world had overcome the Honkai—instead, all she cared about was Kiana.
If she had only asked about the Kiana from her own world, that would've made sense—they were both Herrschers of Finality, after all.
But asking about her relationship with Raiden Mei? What was that supposed to mean?
Was that even a reasonable question?
Welt didn't even know what expression to make. He could only think her line of questioning was… oddly abstract.
"You're not curious how my world defeated the Honkai?" he asked helplessly.
"Defeated?"
Sirin raised an eyebrow. "Didn't Kiana just take the Honkai away? How's that considered a victory?"
Welt fell silent.
His instincts told him that the two of them were talking about the same event—but from different perspectives. And yet, nothing she said was technically wrong.
So, in her world, Kiana had chosen to take the Honkai away? How? In what way?
"Let's not talk about the Honkai. I don't care about that. Just answer my question."
Sirin had once cared deeply about the Honkai—she had even sought out the Geniuses of the Genius Society to study its origins, all for the sake of finding Kiana.
But now that she had reason to believe Kiana had left Izumo—and even left traces of herself with the Interastral Peace Corporation—her focus had shifted.
The Honkai no longer mattered.
As long as she found Kiana, the Honkai would naturally no longer be an unsolvable problem.
Compared to the Honkai, Nihility was far more troublesome.
"Don't care?"
Welt's expression nearly twisted in disbelief. He was now certain—this Sirin was truly abnormal. Her mind was entirely filled with Kiana.
Not caring about the Honkai? What could possibly be more important than that?
"Fine."
He wanted to argue, but given that Sirin clearly disliked him, pushing her too far might sour their talk completely. He decided to let it go.
They had time—and now that he had her contact, he could slowly piece together what exactly had happened in her world.
"How good?"
Was that really important?
An older man being asked by a younger woman about another girl's personal relationships—was this even appropriate?
Welt didn't know what to say.
He had no idea how Sirin's mind worked. She completely ignored the topic of the Honkai and instead fixated on Kiana's romantic life.
Really, what did it matter to her whom Kiana was close to in another world? What did it have to do with her at all?
He silently grumbled to himself.
"Then let me rephrase."
After hesitating for quite a while, Sirin finally lowered her voice and asked, "Does she… like your world's Raiden Mei?"
Welt hadn't denied the existence of a Raiden Mei, so Sirin knew she must exist there too.
That was the only question she cared about.
"Ahem… I'm not sure."
Sirin frowned, displeased, and followed up immediately, "Then what about me? What's her relationship with me?"
"...Pretty good."
Welt nearly choked on his own words. Adjusting his glasses, he forced the answer out with great restraint. "Good—about as good as with someone else."
"Really?"
She must have mistaken him for someone else!
After hearing Welt's answer, Sirin immediately came to the only reasonable conclusion. The Kiana she knew would never have been that close to her—not "as close as one person."
She had never sensed such feelings from her.
If things were truly as Welt described, then when Kiana saw someone resembling her, she should've at least shown some subtle emotional reaction.
But she hadn't.
If Welt wasn't lying to her, then the Kiana she knew probably wasn't from the same world as this Welt Yang.
How to put it…
She felt both relief and a tinge of disappointment.
It was a relief that Kiana's kindness toward them wasn't born from memories of another person—that her feelings weren't borrowed from a past connection.
After all, being treated as someone's replacement could never make anyone truly happy.
The disappointment came from the missed chance to learn more about Kiana's home world.
She had thought herself lucky—first finding a bounty that might have been left by Kiana, and then possibly running into someone connected to her past.
Still, she needed to confirm it.
First, she'd have to verify with the IPC whether the bounty for Raiden Mei really was issued by Kiana.
Once she found Kiana, she could bring up this Welt Yang and talk to her directly about it.
Even if it turned out not to be the same person, Welt's homeland was still of great value—for across the vast universe, he alone seemed to know the word "Honkai."
...
Elsewhere—the battlefield between the Xianzhou Yaoqing and the Abominations of Sakin Shadu.
Several days had passed.
The tide of battle had shifted drastically—and the cause of that shift was a passerby who had never intended to get involved.
The surviving Borisin who fled that day would likely look back on this moment and want to slap themselves for their recklessness.
If only they hadn't provoked her, none of this would have happened.
A powerful ally had torn through the Borisin fleet with sheer might, and the Yaoqing forces had acted decisively.
The battle-hardened Verdant Knights of the Yaoqing never missed an opportunity once it appeared.
They flooded through the gap Kiana had carved open, deploying overwhelming force and executing the "strike while the iron is hot" tactic to perfection.
Those who had once held the advantage now found themselves on the defensive. Before the IPC's promised reinforcements even arrived, the Yaoqing had already reclaimed the upper hand and turned the battle into a decisive victory.
Blood rained down in torrents.
Kiana now stood upon the surface of the planet—once a breeding ground for the Denizens of Abundance.
Beneath her feet lay the massive corpse of a wolf-like beast. The air reeked of blood and gunpowder, thick enough to choke on.
All around her were bodies—human and beast alike.
But the battle wasn't over yet. The Xianzhou's warships and soldiers were still clashing with the Abominations of Abundance across the battlefield.
Pulling her blade from the beast's skull, Kiana—drenched in blood and rain—lifted her head to gaze upon the war-torn world, her mind utterly blank.
The power she wielded had long since fallen out of balance.
Without realizing it, she had stopped using the power of the Paths altogether. Every strike she delivered now drew purely from Honkai energy.
Using the Honkai's power could lead to unpredictable chain reactions?
That wasn't something she cared about anymore. Days of sleepless, relentless combat—fighting like a machine built for killing—had pushed her into a state she had never known before.
The Borisin commander had already fallen, their remaining forces scattering. Some fled, others fought on in ignorance, but under the Yaoqing's siege, defeat was inevitable.
Just as Kiana prepared to move and sweep through another section of the battlefield, a streak of blue light descended from the sky.
The streak brought with it a powerful gust of wind.
Amid the gale, her expression remained cold, though a flicker of caution surfaced in her eyes. She gathered energy along the edge of her blade.
"Not bad, friend. You're even faster than me—took out those beasts' leader already, did you?"
As the light touched down and the storm dispersed, a fox-eared woman stood before her, her bloodstained armor gleaming faintly. Her sharp gaze met Kiana's guarded one, and there was a spark of genuine admiration in her eyes.
"With that kind of skill," she said with heartfelt enthusiasm, "we should spar sometime."
"...Spar?"
Kiana murmured, repeating the woman's words. After days of combat, this was the first time she had spoken to someone from the Yaoqing.
What was she even supposed to say?
She should be calming down now—talking about how much longer this war would last, or how soon she could leave.
But that thought vanished as quickly as it came. Looking at the woman before her, she felt only the most primal impulse.
It was then she realized—there was some unseen force interfering with her thoughts and movements.
The frenzy born from endless slaughter had seized control of her body. Raising her blade, she pointed the tip straight at the fox-woman before her. "No need to wait. We can do it now."
Days of relentless fighting had left her stained with a faint bloodlust.
"Now?"
This was still a planet overrun by Abominations. Even though the main force and their leader had been slain, this was no place for a duel.
Especially not while the war still raged.
Though she was eager to spar, the fox-woman had no intention of doing so now—least of all with someone who might be an Emanator like herself.
Before coming here, she had already heard from others about what this mysterious traveler had accomplished in the past few days.
The Yaoqing's rapid advance owed no small part to her unexpected arrival.
No—not now.
"Now."
"Not now. The enemies aren't completely dealt with yet. How about this—you wait two more days. Once I've cleared the battlefield, we can spar all you like. How about that?"
What am I doing?
The fragment of reason still left within her finally realized something was wrong. She tried to resist the force compelling her body to act. Though she hadn't yet lost control, she could barely restrain her emotions from overwhelming her rationality.
The rising urge made the fox-woman's words sound unbearably irritating. A duel shouldn't need a schedule—what, did she think they were friends?
She wanted to lower her blade, but her hand refused to move—still pointing directly at her opponent.
The Honkai... was this the influence of Herrscherization?
But she hadn't even entered the Herrscher state yet!
The fox-woman frowned, sensing danger as the girl stood silent. Those emotionless eyes staring at her were deeply unsettling. Raising her guard, she called out, "Friend, what do you think you're doing?"
Obedience was always the easy path—like following the will of heaven itself. But to go against it? That was like defying the cosmos.
Her wrist twitched—and a massive slash tore through the air. In a blinding flash of white, the entire mountain ahead was shattered to dust under the force of her strike.
Realizing something was wrong the instant the attack left her blade, the fox-woman dodged with blinding speed, frowning tightly as she landed.
"Friend, that's a dangerous joke to make!"
She wanted to talk—to reason with her. After all, this woman had done a great service to her and to the Yaoqing.
Even if this sudden assault was excessive, she didn't want to turn an ally into an enemy—not now, not after all that had been accomplished.
But her only answer was a merciless blade—and a pair of golden eyes, cold and inhuman.
Lifting her gunblade to block, the fox-woman's expression hardened. The impact drove her backward for dozens of meters before she could steady herself.
"What strength!"
The power behind that human frame was greater than any foe she had ever faced.
And that included some of the mountain-sized Abominations she had fought before.