This nearly 'dead' planet was extremely dangerous. The powers of Nihility and the Honkai intertwined chaotically.
Even under the protection of Trailblaze, they could still be affected.
Aside from Welt, none of the others had any real understanding of such phenomena, nor did they possess any resistance to Honkai energy. Therefore, for this expedition to Izumo, Welt went alone.
And that was the last they heard of him.
He vanished the moment he descended.
"I understand."
Kiana nodded with a complicated expression. From the train window, she could still see Izumo in the distance.
She wasn't even sure if these two types of Honkai were the same thing, nor whether Welt's resistance to the Honkai on Earth would be effective here. It was questionable at best.
"I'll go down and take a look."
"Do you need our help?"
Though Dan Heng didn't speak much, his concern for Welt's safety was evident.
"Help?"
"Yes. If there's anything we can do, don't hesitate to ask," Himeko said.
Kiana shook her head. "It's too dangerous here. I still have some ways to deal with Honkai energy, but if anyone accidentally comes into contact with Nihility... that would be troublesome."
"Mr. Welt only decided to explore this place because of what I said. How about this—you all stay on the train. Mei and I will go down to look for him."
Kiana feared that something unexpected might happen.
Especially with Himeko—it was best if she stayed far away from anything related to the Honkai. Kiana still held a good impression of her.
"Just wait here for our message. Once we find Mr. Welt, we'll return immediately."
After briefly exchanging a few more words with Himeko and gathering all the available information, Kiana took Acheron by the hand and departed.
Back again.
Still with Acheron by her side.
Kiana couldn't help but feel a little dazed.
"The last time I came here, it was to find Mei."
She turned her head toward Acheron, who had come with her this time.
"I didn't know you would come," Acheron said softly, her voice tinged with regret. "Had I stayed here a little longer back then, perhaps we could've met sooner."
"At least we're reunited now."
Kiana held Acheron's hand and led her through the barrier. Like falling stars, they descended once more—onto the soil of Izumo.
The concentration of Honkai energy here was two percent higher than during her previous visit.
Even Kiana found the environment uncomfortable. The rate of Herrscher transformation in her body began to increase abnormally.
Izumo... she had returned.
Standing upon familiar soil, yet surrounded by unfamiliar ruins, Acheron felt as though she had stepped into another lifetime.
How long had it been since she left this place?
She couldn't even remember clearly anymore.
Her old memories had long since faded, losing their colors—making it impossible to relive the feelings they once held.
"Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
Kiana deliberately spread a glowing light around them like a protective barrier. Her body didn't make direct contact with the high-density Honkai energy, nor did any signs of erosion appear.
Acheron was also under her protection, but still, Kiana asked out of concern, afraid she might be feeling uncomfortable.
"The Honkai energy here is extremely dense."
When Acheron reached her hand toward the world beyond the light barrier, Kiana quickly grabbed it back.
"Don't reach out. The concentration of Honkai energy here is abnormally high—look at those crystals."
Kiana pointed toward the ruins, where purple crystals had formed upon the broken walls and shattered structures. Her tone was grave. "Even I would be corroded if I wasn't in my Herrscher state."
As she spoke, Kiana deliberately exposed her right hand to the ambient Honkai energy. In an instant, deep violet marks of corrosion crawled across her skin.
She withdrew her hand and held it before Acheron. The corruption wasn't irreversible; once she stopped contact with the Honkai energy, the marks slowly began to fade.
Acheron frowned and gently took her hand, her voice filled with disapproval. "Don't use yourself as an experiment again."
"It just looks worse than it is. As long as I don't keep touching that level of Honkai energy, it'll fade away."
"What about Mr. Welt..."
Acheron lifted her gaze toward the depths of the ruined landscape. Izumo was vast—they had no idea where exactly Welt had landed.
Nor did they know whether he could endure the erosion of Honkai energy here.
"He's still alive."
Kiana withdrew her hand and said, "I can faintly sense the state of this planet. I saw signs of his life."
He was alive.
But his condition couldn't be good.
"Then let's find Mr. Welt first and send him back to the train."
"Alright."
Kiana had no objections. With Jyahnar not present, she had no interest in other Honkai creatures.
Taking Acheron's hand, she used her Phase Shuttle to quickly reach the area where she sensed that unfamiliar life signature.
When they arrived, Kiana finally realized—
It was a city.
A city abandoned, silent, and decayed.
A city... she knew well.
Standing in the middle of a square, Kiana looked up at the gray, crumbling skyscrapers before her. Her face froze with surprise, her expression filled with complexity.
This was...
"Nagazora City."
Acheron recognized it too. The moment she arrived, she knew where they were. Even after everything that had happened here, the place was unmistakable.
This was where she had first faced a powerful Kami—where she had first experienced combat of such intensity.
She still remembered the moment Kiana had descended from the sky, staff in hand, and slammed that spider into the ground.
Kiana gathered her scattered thoughts, her voice filled with emotion. "Mr. Welt really knows how to find places, huh? I didn't think he'd end up here. He should be in the underground shelter—let's look for him there."
She thought of Grandma Zaohua, who had once taken her in.
She thought of the convenience store owner who had pitied her, never minding that she had no identification, and offered her a job.
She thought of the children on the streets.
And of those days spent with Mei at the shrine.
"Do you remember this place?"
Walking beside her, Acheron pointed toward a sunken patch of ground nearby. "That's where you smashed the spider down."
"Eh? Eh—what?!"
Kiana blinked, stunned. She looked carefully at the cracked earth and couldn't hold back her disbelief. "It's been so long, and the marks are still here?"
She hadn't immediately recalled the beautiful spider demon—but Acheron's reminder brought it all back. The spider that had tried to devour her had once lurked atop that very building, birthing countless offspring.
"Yes, it's been a long time," Acheron murmured, her eyes filled with complex emotion. She still remembered the shock she'd felt back then—when Kiana leapt down and struck that spider, nearly stopping her heart.
Those days were long past.
She was far stronger now than she had been then. Yet when she thought about Kiana's reckless streak, her feelings were unexpectedly the same as before.
"So... should we visit the shrine?"
The Narukami Shrine, huh?
Memories related to the shrine surged back like a flood. As she recalled the past, Acheron fell silent for a moment, her hand resting lightly on the hilt of her blade before shaking her head.
Her home...
She had long since lost the right to return.
"Let's find Mr. Welt first."
The complex emotion faded in an instant.
"Alright, let's find him first."
Kiana nodded, recalling the past as she searched for the passage leading to the underground shelter.
Fortunately, her memory was still reliable. It didn't take long—just a few hundred meters away, she found the entrance.
The shelter had been upgraded after the Ark project failed to take everyone away. Many had been forced to hide underground.
Normally, the entrances were sealed tight.
But the heavy alloy gate before them now had a gaping hole, and across its surface were deep claw marks left by something sharp.
"This is..."
Kiana frowned, studying the marks carefully before glancing around the unnervingly quiet surroundings. "Looks like he was attacked by a Honkai Beast."
The strange thing was—there were no signs of any Honkai Beasts nearby.
Could Welt have taken them all out himself?
Kiana looked at the faint mark on her finger and sighed quietly in respect. To survive exposure in this kind of environment was already a miracle—let alone while fending off enemy attacks.
To have lived through that, lasting until she arrived here to find him...
What could she say?
Perhaps this was exactly what made him Welt Yang.
"The trail ends here. Whatever attacked him didn't follow him into the shelter."
Acheron examined the claw marks and stepped through the torn opening into the shelter.
From the traces left behind, it was clear that once the door had closed, it hadn't been opened again until recently.
A thick layer of dust coated the floor.
Footprints stood out clearly upon it.
The trail led deeper into the shelter.
If all went as expected, they would soon find the missing Welt.
The silent passage echoed with the sound of their footsteps. Standing beside Acheron, Kiana surveyed the shelter—nearly identical to how she remembered it.
She had failed once before.
Those who had taken refuge here...
The last time she came, Kiana already knew—there were no longer any living humans left in Izumo.
"...Wait!"
Suddenly sensing something, Kiana's eyes narrowed. She grabbed Acheron and swiftly pulled her back. In that same instant, a twisted field of black and crimson energy engulfed the spot where they had just been standing.
Danger.
Acheron's hand went to her blade.
"This is... a Herrscher!"
Kiana concentrated, feeling the aura grow stronger. Her expression darkened. No wonder Welt had been able to survive in this environment—he had become a Herrscher.
No—that wasn't right.
He had turned back into one.
A third set of footsteps echoed from the darkness. Narrowing her eyes, Kiana watched a figure emerge.
He removed his glasses, his hair slicked back with gel, making him look several years younger.
Around him pulsed a strange gravitational field.
And the cane that was always in his hand—was gone.
"Welt?"
Acheron's eyes narrowed. She could feel a faint sense of danger radiating from him. She had known from their first meeting that Welt was not as simple as he appeared—but now, that sense of threat had multiplied many times over.
"Are you still conscious?"
Acheron was no stranger to Herrschers. Setting aside Kiana, the Herrscher of Finality who transcended all others, she had faced and slain more than a few of their kind.
Her question was met not by words—but by the formation of a pseudo-black hole.
No, more accurately, the pseudo-black hole's target was Kiana. Acheron was merely caught in its range.
The orb of darkness, the size of a soccer ball, expanded rapidly the moment it appeared. Acheron reached for her blade, but Kiana stepped forward, her expression tense, pressing her hand against Acheron's to stop her.
In that brief instant, the pseudo-black hole swelled beyond a meter in diameter—and it was still growing.
The surrounding gravity distorted violently, making movement nearly impossible.
"Let me handle this."
As Kiana's words fell, her azure eyes were instantly dyed with gold. Acheron didn't even see how she moved—before her eyes, the rapidly expanding pseudo-black hole suddenly fizzled out like a punctured balloon and collapsed into nothingness.
In that moment, Kiana had completely transformed. Within those golden eyes shimmered a hint of divinity.
Her voice carried faint irritation. "You're too old to keep playing the hero."
With a slight motion of her spear, she and the now Herrscher-turned Welt vanished from the shelter in the blink of an eye.
Staring at the devastated corridor, on the verge of collapse, Acheron furrowed her brow—but her hand relaxed from her sword's hilt.
"So... he was testing Kiana?"
It seemed Mr. Welt hadn't lost consciousness or become a puppet, though he was clearly still under the influence of his Herrscher state.
Kiana had been irritated.
She could have freed Welt from that condition easily—but she hadn't chosen to.
Instead, she wanted to give him a beating.
A pseudo-black hole for a greeting...
Acheron cast one last deep glance toward the depths of the shelter, then lowered her gaze, silent for a long moment, before finally turning to leave.
She didn't have the courage to look further inside.
Having forgotten so much, she still feared seeing only bones and ruin.
The Stigmata on her back grew increasingly hot.
From the very moment she had set foot again upon this land, the Stigmata that Kiana had once given her began to behave abnormally.
It burned.
And the heat only grew stronger as time passed.
Still, finding Welt was more urgent, so she hadn't mentioned it to Kiana. In her heart, she already had a faint idea of what caused the Stigmata to flare.
—The Trial.
The trial that Sirin had once mentioned.
It seemed there was no longer any need to wait for the "right time." This was the right time.
As Acheron stepped out of the shelter, she instinctively looked up—and saw a battered figure hurled violently from the sky.
Kiana descended right after, landing with a sharp expression far colder than usual. "Are you clear-headed now, Welt?"
"If not, I don't mind knocking some sense into you a few more times."
"No need."
Dragged mercilessly through the fight, Welt climbed from the ruins, his appearance now back to normal—though the cane was still missing.
"You really don't hold back, do you?"
He was indeed clear-headed now. After being utterly crushed by Kiana's overwhelming power, he felt sharper and more lucid than ever before.
All those twisted thoughts from earlier had vanished.
"I don't think you have the right to say that," Kiana huffed. "And I see no reason to hold back against an enemy."
She snorted coldly. She could already guess what had been going through Welt's mind.
He had been testing her.
But that didn't mean she had to take it quietly.
To greet her with a pseudo-black hole to the face—honestly, the only reason he wasn't half-dead now was because Kiana remembered it was her own words that had dragged Welt into this mess in the first place.