Welt let out a bitter smile.
By habit, he reached up to adjust his glasses—only to realize they were long gone.
Seeing him fumble at the empty space, Kiana's irritation eased slightly. Remembering the gravity-based technique he'd used to test her, she thought to herself that this man truly had a lifelong bond with gravity.
"The Nameless on the train are all worried about you."
She stepped out of her Herrscher state and said, "You've stayed here long enough—it's time to go back."
"I can't leave yet."
Welt shook his head. "You already know what's going on, so I won't beat around the bush. The Honkai energy on this planet isn't the same as the one from my home world, Earth."
That was one of the things Kiana had wanted to confirm. It was why she'd spoken with Welt back at the Space Station.
Visiting Earth herself wasn't realistic—having Welt come to Izumo to see for himself was much easier.
Different...
The answer wasn't surprising. Kiana simply nodded, showing little reaction.
"But there are too many similarities," Welt continued. "Especially in how this energy erodes the human body."
Kiana understood immediately.
Though it wasn't the same energy, Welt wasn't an ordinary man.
"You're worried you might infect the others on the train?"
Kiana said, "As long as you don't actively use Honkai energy, they won't be affected."
"It's influencing my Path."
Kiana looked at him, a bit surprised, then thought for a moment and suggested, "Ruan has some research in that area. How about I take you to the Space Station for a bit?"
That... sounded a little like selling him off.
She added another option, "Or I can strip you of your Herrscher core."
"You can do that?"
Welt looked at her, astonished. If it was possible, he'd prefer not to keep such an unknown power within himself.
It wasn't fear—but caution. He worried that the power might harm his companions on the Astral Express without him realizing it.
An unidentified force like that... was best kept far away.
Izumo truly was a strange and eerie place.
"Why wouldn't I be able to?"
Kiana arched an eyebrow. Since Welt had already given his implicit consent, there was nothing more to discuss. She extended her right hand, and golden light of divine purity bloomed from her palm.
From Welt's body, Kiana effortlessly extracted a Herrscher core.
After storing it away, she quickly pulled Welt into her protective barrier—the Honkai energy here was far too dense.
Having lost his core, Welt looked considerably weakened. Yet in Kiana's eyes, traces of Honkai still clung to him.
After a brief thought, Kiana seemed to recall something and handed Welt a mass-produced Stigmata—it would help stabilize his current condition.
"Rest for a bit. I'll take you back to the train later. As for this place... don't come back. Even I wouldn't want to return unless absolutely necessary."
The weary Welt gave a faint thanks and found a place to sit, quietly sorting through his thoughts and recent experiences.
In the end, he still didn't fully trust Kiana. He wasn't much inclined to converse either.
Rather than asking for answers, he trusted the truths he uncovered himself.
Once she'd finally dealt with Welt, Kiana turned her attention to Acheron, who seemed somewhat absent-minded.
"Mei? What's wrong? Do you want to visit the shrine?"
The shrine...
Acheron hesitated, then nodded slightly. "Since Mr. Welt is fine now, come with me to the shrine."
"Of course!"
Acheron wasn't an outsider—Kiana's attitude toward her was completely different.
After saying a few more words to Welt—and firmly refusing his offer to accompany them—Kiana and Acheron began walking toward the direction of the shrine from their memories.
Because of the harsh environment, Izumo had no surviving animals, and even plants were rare.
Nagazora City had long been abandoned. Under normal circumstances, it would have become overrun with weeds.
But the extreme conditions here had frozen time itself. Nothing had changed—the surroundings were almost exactly as they remembered.
The walk stirred many memories for Kiana.
Especially as they approached the shrine, the recollections came flooding back stronger than ever.
The first time Kiana met Acheron—it had been here, within this shrine, where she had seen her standing beneath the cherry blossom tree, dressed in a shrine maiden's garb.
"It was right here," Kiana said softly. "I saw you standing under the sakura tree."
It felt like something that had happened ages ago, yet returning here made it seem as if it had only been yesterday.
"I remember, too," Acheron replied quietly. "You came to ask me to teach you swordsmanship."
The cherry blossom tree had long since withered, but some old ema plaques still hung from its barren branches. They brought back even more memories of the shrine.
Kiana scratched her cheek and laughed awkwardly. Back then, she hadn't truly come to learn—she'd just wanted an excuse to get closer to Acheron.
She honestly hadn't realized that this place was the Izumo of the background world.
"Kiana."
Standing at the entrance of the shrine, Acheron made no move to step inside. Instead, she turned around to face Kiana.
"What is it?"
"Do you remember the Stigmata—the trial Sirin mentioned?"
Acheron's gaze was steady. "I don't think it can be delayed any longer. I can feel it—now is the best time."
The reason she said "best" was likely because they were in Izumo, where the Honkai energy concentration was especially high.
"Now?"
Kiana hadn't expected her to bring it up so suddenly. She froze, then frowned, instinctively reaching out to grab Acheron's hand.
"It's my fault for not learning enough about it," she muttered under her breath.
"There won't be any danger," Acheron reassured her. "I want to see for myself what kind of trial Sirin spoke of—and what lies at its end."
To return to Izumo and find Kiana, she had endured countless struggles and walked a long, harsh road upon the Path of Nihility.
Enemies capable of forcing her into a corner... were few.
Kiana hesitated, wanting to say that there was no need to reach the end—but looking into Acheron's eyes, she couldn't bring herself to say something so discouraging.
After steadying her emotions, she nodded. "So we're doing it now? I'll stay right beside you."
She briefly considered whether she should try to enter Acheron's Stigmata Trial as well, to offer support.
But on second thought...
Acheron was capable of cutting an Emanator in half with a single strike. A mere Stigmata Trial shouldn't pose much of a threat to her.
Though the Stigmata might contain hidden information, it was something Kiana had bought herself, after all.
It should be safe—at least, theoretically.
The System had been reliable so far.
"Let's begin."
Acheron's voice was calm. "I already talked with Sirin. The time flow in the Stigmata space is different from reality, so it shouldn't take long."
The so-called Stigmata Trial would have been difficult for Acheron before the Final Eruption—but for her now, it was little more than a mild challenge.
Enough to make her take it somewhat seriously, but no more than that.
After all...
The enemies within the trial were all opponents she had once faced—those who had troubled her, even driven her into desperate situations.
Among them appeared one she remembered most clearly—the Kami, Almighty Thunder.
This version was far stronger than the one she had once fought—not the weakened form she and her comrades had barely managed to slay.
Yet no matter how powerful, to her now, it took only a single strike to defeat.
Within the Stigmata space, Acheron cleared one stage after another, a strange sense of déjà vu stirring within her.
It felt as though she were a max-level warrior returning to a beginner's village just to crush weaklings.
The feeling... wasn't unpleasant.
That sensation lasted until she reached the very top of the tower, where it vanished entirely. The staircase she had ascended was gone, and the environment of the top floor was nothing like the ones below.
It felt as though she had stepped into another realm—another world entirely.
Like the real Izumo, the sky here was shrouded in gray gloom, the air heavy and oppressive.
Yet the surroundings did not resemble any place within Izumo.
This wasn't like the earlier floors at all.
It seemed as if a great battle had once taken place here. Acheron recognized the traces—she had seen war on this scale before—and she was certain this battlefield was not of Izumo.
These weren't marks of an even fight, but of overwhelming force—of a mighty being crushing everything in its path.
This was the final floor.
Though the earlier trials hadn't posed her any real danger, the scale of destruction here made her cautious.
Perhaps the final enemy... was the very being that had caused these scars.
She thought so, keeping her senses sharp, alert to any ambush or fatal surprise.
If she were to fail here out of carelessness, Acheron wasn't sure how she would face Kiana and the others afterward.
Was this... once an academy?
She walked forward for some time, yet saw no enemies, suffered no attack. It became clear that the final floor was unlike the rest.
But surely there had to be an enemy, right?
It couldn't be that the last stage was a puzzle instead?
Information about the Stigmata surfaced in her mind—memories of Kiana and Sirin's earlier discussions.
A special Stigmata...
Only a special kind could enter the Tower within the Stigmata space and undertake this mysterious trial.
Ordinary Stigmata, as Bronya once explained, were "blank"—empty canvases filled by one's own will and memories.
Could it be that what made special Stigmata different... was that they weren't blank, but contained hidden fragments of the past?
Seeing no trace of an enemy, Acheron frowned. Was she meant to seek one out herself?
The area looked vast.
Was the way to clear this final stage to uncover some buried memory—or to find and defeat an unseen foe?
There were no hints.
After a moment's thought, Acheron decided to keep moving forward. Perhaps, by reaching the center, she would find a clue.
Meanwhile, in the real world—
Kiana sat at the shrine's entrance beside Acheron's body. Acheron sat perfectly straight, not at all like someone unconscious.
Kiana was deeply curious about the contents of the trial.
From what Sirin had told her, she knew of the tower's existence. But the only "tower" she could think of was the kind found in video games—something like a Aincrad.
Resting her chin on her hand, Kiana stared at Acheron's calm face, lost in thought.
If only she had succeeded back then...
How wonderful that would've been.
The weight of old memories dulled her gaze. She looked up at the darkened sky.
Once, they could still see the black sun hanging over Izumo. But now—neither the sun nor the stars were visible.
A suffocating canopy of thick clouds and perpetual drizzle had become Izumo's new normal.
Even the shrine...
Though the shrine had not yet collapsed, it looked nothing like the one in her memories. The withered cherry blossom tree and the decaying buildings...
They evoked a painful sense of change—the world moving on while everything she cherished faded.
She hated that feeling.
Kiana gazed at the lifeless sakura tree, lost in thought, before suddenly standing up.
She didn't care about the rest of Izumo.
But the shrine—
The Narukami Shrine was different. She wanted it to return to how it once looked in her memories.
Even if only for a moment.
"Can Honkai energy do that?"
Standing beneath the tree, Kiana looked up at its brittle branches, uncertain.
She had never used her power for something like this. This was the first time she had ever thought of such a thing—to preserve a place that meant the most to her.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand on the trunk, trying to will it back to life.
Even if she couldn't revive it, she wanted it to bloom.
With that wish, Kiana decided to restore the shrine to its former glory before Acheron awoke.
Meanwhile, still within the trial, Acheron had no idea of Kiana's thoughts. She remained deep inside the final layer of the trial, searching for the clue that would lead to victory.
Aside from the remnants of a great battle, she found nothing of worth on her path.
Not a single scrap of writing.
It was so clean—too clean—that she abandoned her initial theory. The place was far too pristine for a puzzle. There was nothing to decipher.
"So the enemy... where are they?"
If this wasn't about uncovering the past, then the trial must involve an enemy. But she had been walking for so long, and still hadn't seen a single trace of one.
Could the solution to this final layer be to destroy the space itself? Would she need to cut through it with all her strength?
Acheron touched the hilt of her blade but hesitated, setting the thought aside for now.
If that wasn't the right approach, one strike might end the trial in failure.
She decided to keep walking a bit farther.
If she found nothing after that, then she would reconsider cutting her way through.
With that thought, Acheron left the ruins behind and entered a more open area.
This time, her patience was rewarded.
After walking straight for four or five minutes, crossing the empty wasteland beyond the ruins, she finally saw something—something different.
But the discovery brought her no joy.
Because the sight before her was far too shocking.
Even knowing that none of this was real, her pupils trembled violently. Her reason and composure shattered in an instant.
Even her breathing became difficult.
"K... Kiana..."