Chapter Text
[Eastern Siberia, January 2010]
[Ten years since the Second Eruption]
The little girl sighed, staring up at the cloudy sky.
Siberia was once beautiful.
At least that was what the grown-ups often told her.
She was reminded of it as she sat against a broken down military vehicle's left rear wheel, her silver hair, arranged in a pair of drills, faintly drifting in the breeze as she held onto her Dragunov sniper rifle like a lifeline.
She occasionally adjusted her orange dress and warm blue coat as her gray eyes focused on the descending sun as it disappeared in the horizon, bathing the snowy landscape in orange.
Siberia was once beautiful, until disaster struck and destroyed it all. Though the lands themselves had been restored, the same couldn't be said for its soul, replaced with a void occupied by both the desperate and the opportunistic.
If given a choice, she should choose to be amongst the opportunistic, or at least her uncle had told her so.
Said uncle was currently in front of the vehicle, holding its hood open while muttering curses under his breath.
The little girl assumed whatever he was trying wasn't going well.
For them to be stranded there for over half an hour was a matter of misfortune. Her uncle had brought her along to his latest task — a relatively safe protection job — and afterwards decided on a whim to introduce her to a few sights nearby while everyone else went straight home.
Her uncle's car deciding to break down along the way clearly hadn't been part of the plan.
She almost felt bad for all the teasing her uncle was sure to fall victim to when they got home. Many of the other mercenaries already joked about the old car being on the verge of becoming scrap metal. The longer it took to get home, the worse he'd have to suffer.
Still, she wouldn't be of any help fixing the car, and so she continued to sit there and look around. Fortunately, they had stopped on a rather tall hill, the slope mere meters in front of her promising not only a painful trip below if she rolled down but also a nice view of the surrounding area.
If she were to be asked to describe the snowy plains and distant villages across the forest underneath, then she'd likely call it beautiful if she hadn't known better.
But the problem was that Siberia was once beautiful.
And a distant explosion reminded the girl of why, the sudden ball of fire in the distance nearly making her jump.
Her uncle cursed a bit more loudly. "What the hell is going on now? Is that bastard Gantulga at it again?"
The girl paused for a moment to remember who that was.
One of the warlords who operated around that area, if memory didn't fail her. Probably one of the foreigners, if the name was anything to go by.
"I'll check it," she told her uncle as she rose to her feet, rifle still in her grasp as she approached the slope.
It was then that the girl realized she left her binoculars in the car.
She was about to turn around when she saw more explosions in the distance.
It was curiosity that led her to ignore her uncle's safety lessons and raise her rifle instead, looking through the scope.
Her blood ran cold, the weapon nearly falling out of her hands.
Far away, there were things she could only describe as monsters rampaging, and various women with swords and guns and other weapons fighting them.
For a long moment, the girl stood frozen, her mind attempting to understand what her eyes observed. She heard tales of monsters who walked across Siberia in search of victims, but even if she had believed those to be more than uninspired bedtime stories, she would still be paralyzed by the sight of so many.
Behind her came the sound of the car starting up alongside a sigh of relief. Her uncle had finally fixed it.
The girl found herself caring little for it. Rather than walking away to resume her journey home, she instead moved her rifle around, an eye still looking through the scope, trying to understand what she was staring at.
"Alexeievna?" her uncle called out.
She didn't reply, her scope focusing on a fair-skinned white-haired girl clad in a cloak whose back was turned against her, facing a grown man who seemed to be related to her and who held a pair of strange pistols.
More important was the fact she was floating around and casually creating strange lances to launch at her foes.
Perhaps the girl was dreaming. Or she had eaten something bad. There were only so many explanations for what she was seeing.
"Alexeievna?" her uncle called again. "What are you— Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"
The panic in her uncle's approaching voice at seeing her use a sniper rifle as a replacement for binoculars didn't register. Nothing did aside from the being she found herself watching.
A brunette pale woman in a dark uniform similar to the others suddenly broke through all the monsters, running at the white-haired girl with a massive sword in her hands.
Through the scope, the silver-haired girl saw the woman hesitate at the sight of the white-haired girl.
Hesitation meant death on the battlefield.
Then she noticed a light glow next to the white-haired girl.
She was about to do something bad. For a split second, the silver-haired girl wondered if she should do something about it.
And then the white-haired girl suddenly spun around.
Despite the distance between them, glowing yellow orbs glared back at the silver-haired girl, meeting her eyes with extreme accuracy.
It was on reflex.
The girl pulled the trigger.
But she didn't brace at all, letting go of the weapon and falling back on the snow with a terrorized look that she was certain she never made before.
Her uncle swore loudly then, and the girl realized the large man was right next to her. Before she knew what was happening, one of his arms grabbed her while the other reached for the dropped weapon, wasting no time afterwards to rush back to the car.
He must've thought she had just shot at the forces of a local warlord.
She wished it had been that simple.
The girl was so shaken she could barely tell what was happening. One moment her uncle was carrying her, and then next she was strapped to the car's back seat as the man sped away.
… She had no way to understand the consequences of her actions.
Ø
When the mysterious sniper took their shot and a projectile was fired directly at her, the Herrscher of the Void didn't even need to think.
A pair of portals was enough for the bullet to miss its mark, instead hitting the snow by her side.
For a short moment, the Herrscher of the Void felt like grinning. She had just foiled whatever plan these worms had. Clearly the sniper, one of those foolish Valkyries no doubt, had been waiting for that chance.
And then that female Valkyrie's massive sword made contact with her midsection, and the Herrscher noticed her mistake.
The Herrscher didn't even have time to curse her momentary distraction as her small, weak vessel was launched across several meters, hitting snow and sinking with a painful sensation on her side.
She scrambled to her feet with a scowl on her face and vengeance in her eyes, ready to murder the worm who dared to lay a hand on her.
Instead, she was met with that accursed man several meters away, pointing his Divine Key at her.
"... Papa?" the Herrscher called out to him.
She saw his eyes waver. For a moment, she thought she could still take him by surprise, perhaps at least remove an arm.
Said hopes were dashed when the man pulled the trigger not even a moment later.
But rather than firing at her, the flames exploded against the ground before her. In front of her eyes, the world was encased in light, and then smoke.
Before she could even begin to celebrate the man's weakness, his inability to harm the flesh puppet he decided to call his daughter, a shadow moved by her side.
This time, the vessel proved too sluggish. She barely had time to raise an arm before it approached, and suddenly something was jabbed into her neck.
She pushed the figure away, but the deed was done.
She could feel her grasp on the vessel begin to fail. What sort of poison had the humans concocted?
In a last-ditch effort, the Herrscher of the Void summoned as many lances as she could, not even bothering to aim, launching them haphazardly in every direction through the smoke in hopes of doing something.
A strangled scream came from nearby, alerting her that perhaps her lances had, in fact, hit something, but she couldn't even feel pleased by such a small accomplishment. Not when her consciousness was on the verge of sinking into an abyss.
She attempted to summon more lances. To continue her attack at all costs.
But it was to no avail.
Shadows began to cover her vision. The body refused her commands to keep moving before her enemies could reach her.
"Not yet...! I haven't… even…!"
Her legs failed her. As the smoke began to dissipate, her vessel hit the snow with a soft thud.
"Kgh…!"
She couldn't move. She was so tired.
It was over.
"..."
She could hardly see anything anymore. Her ears only caught the howl of the wind across the Siberian plains.
"... Kiana! Are… in there…?!"
A pair of arms embraced her, taking her somewhere, and she hated how comfortable they felt.
Even so, as darkness claimed her consciousness, the Herrscher drowned in that comfort. Against her better judgment, she sank into the feeling of being put to sleep rather than torn apart until her mind gave in.
Still, she swore.
Whenever the gift of consciousness decided to grace her once more, she would be ready.
This wasn't over.
Not by a long shot.
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Ø
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Through the Moonlit Void
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[Eastern Siberia, February 2010]
The Siberian village coated white by snow lay quiet under the starlit sky, a serene blanket of darkness interrupted only by the faint flickering of lanterns lighting the cobblestone paths. The air carried a crisp chill, typical of the region, as if to dissuade any from venturing into the frigid lands beyond the village's borders.
If that was nature's warning, then unfortunately a certain Kiana Kaslana would have to ignore it.
The young girl, no older than eleven, tiptoed cautiously as she moved behind buildings, a pair of braids dangling over her shoulders as her blue eyes searched her surroundings at each stop. She was clad in a brown, heavy coat and mittens, and on her back was a similarly colored backpack styled after a chameleon that was almost as big as herself, in no small part thanks to all the things the villagers saw fit to give her the previous day.
Despite the hour, the village wasn't entirely still. Though most of its residents were resting, women in familiar black uniforms that wouldn't be out of place in a comic could be spotted around the area, wandering around, sitting down for a rest, and just generally making Kiana's life more difficult.
Maybe Kiana would've stayed for a while longer if it wasn't for them, but there was nothing she could do now. One of the few messages her father left behind was for her to keep an eye out for Schicksal and avoid them like a plague, after all.
Well, even if he hadn't left that message, the fact the Valkyries were asking around for a girl that fit her description had to be enough to justify her escape.
Kiana's feet left a trail behind the houses, each step bringing her closer to the village's front gate that would lead her beyond the walls surrounding it. The utensils within her backpack clinked with each movement, forcing her to walk far slower than she wanted to.
Her father had left her his phone with a built-in Honkai radar and the contact of some "Mr. Thunder," alongside a note explaining that she should call the mysterious man whenever she needed help, but none of that would solve her current problem.
No, she had to be a proper Kaslana and deal with this herself, at least this once.
Still, the situation wasn't as dire as it could have been.
Peeking from behind a house, she was greeted with the sight of a Valkyrie's back as she spoke to a villager, a unassuming middle-aged woman who was more than happy to play coy and go on about how she never saw a child that matched the description, how they'd have better luck on another village to the north who was far more distant than she made it sound, and even inviting her to turn in early at the village's inn instead of continuing such a fruitless search deep into the night.
When the Valkyrie was distracted, the villager shot Kiana a look carrying an unspoken message.
The girl nodded, continuing on her way as silently as possible.
Living in Siberia had given these villagers a certain bias toward groups of people who came looking for missing children, especially children untarnished enough to fetch a high price.
It didn't take long for the village to collectively decide that the Valkyries were their enemies.
Kiana felt a little bit warm at how they went so far to protect a child who wasn't even their own.
In the beginning, she had the nagging feeling that they were only pretending to be nice and would happily sell her away if it benefited them. Kiana didn't understand why, but that belief was almost ingrained in her mind.
Now, she wouldn't even dare to think like that again. She'd have to remember to apologize if she ever came back in the future, even though she had the sense to not act out on her bias during her stay.
Of course, she also felt worried that the Valkyries would do something bad to the villagers for not giving them what they wanted, but so far they hadn't. Kiana hoped that wouldn't change after she was gone.
… Well, if the Valkyries did have a habit of wiping out villages on a whim, surely the horror stories would have arrived before the women themselves did.
Besides, there was no use in worrying about that when she should be focusing on leaving.
Right foot forward, left foot forward, and little by little she inched closer to her goal. It was only a matter of minutes until she reached the gate and was able to leave these Valkyries behind—
"————"
For just a moment, Kiana's vision went black and a loud ringing reached her ears. Her body lost its strength, causing her to stumble and fall face first on the snow, her backpack weighing down on her even worse than before.
When her senses returned in full, she felt her panic rising.
That definitely made some noise, didn't it? She couldn't hear anything for a moment there, but there's no way it didn't.
Cursing under her breath, Kiana scrambled to her feet, trying to control her hastened breathing as she resumed walking.
She couldn't believe it. The stupid episodes were happening more and more often lately, but she had hoped that whatever problem she had would be polite enough to wait until she had finished her escape.
Maybe she should have told Mr. Vache about them when she visited the Cioara Clinic for the last time, but she avoided the topic because the man was already overprotective enough. Kiana wouldn't be surprised if half of her backpack's weight was just medicine.
Only now did it hit her that not telling anyone that she was occasionally blacking out had been a stupid move.
The only thing she could do was pray that no one felt like checking whatever noise she made—
Kiana heard a yawn from behind her, and the sounds of footsteps on snow from that very same direction made themselves clear to her.
The girl froze, still staring forward.
"Hm?" a tired female voice began. "What are you doing, kid?"
"..."
Slowly, the white-haired girl turned around.
As luck would have it, one of the Valkyries did decide to check the noise.
However, the bright-skinned Asian woman in question looked dazed, her red hair tied in a messy ponytail and orange eyes almost glazed over. It seemed as if she hadn't gotten a decent rest in a while.
Kiana felt a little bit of hope at that.
People were really, really stupid when they were tired. Or at least her father was. She hoped that was the norm.
So she put on her best smile as she stared at the woman.
"I'm going camping nearby with Papa," Kiana told her as if it was a matter of course. "Did I wake you up, miss?"
The woman simply stared blankly at her for a few seconds.
"... Just be careful," she mumbled, turning around and walking — or shambling, more like — away with another yawn.
For a few more seconds, Kiana stood there, halfway expecting the woman to come back with questions.
She didn't, disappearing around the corner of a house, and that was that.
Kiana let out a sigh of relief before resuming her journey, moving just a tiny bit faster than before.
She couldn't wait to be as far from these Valkyries as possible.
An hour later, Kiana decided that she'd rather deal with the Valkyries.
As it turned out, trekking uphill on snow sucked.
Her feet sank into just enough to make walking a chore, and her large backpack, though not sentient, apparently really wanted her to roll down back to the bottom of the hill.
In an attempt to distract herself from her circumstances, Kiana began to wonder about her next step. With Schicksal pursuing her, it didn't sound very smart to stay in some random village for long.
But then what did that leave? Would she need to spend the rest of her life moving from place to place?
The villagers had told her about a relatively close village to the east that would definitely give her shelter, but she wouldn't be able to stay there for long with Schicksal this close.
They also mentioned a mercenary group to the west, settled around the Ural Mountains, that might take her in, talking about how their leader had a soft spot for children, but the situation was the same. If she went there, she shouldn't stay for more than a little while.
Kiana wasn't raring to start a fight between Siberian mercenaries and Valkyries, after all.
Finally, she could also head south and seek a place called the Cocolia Orphanage for shelter, but the same issue applied. How could a plain orphanage stand a chance if Schicksal came knocking?
The girl tried to think hard about her future, but by the time all of her patience was spent — more specifically two minutes later — she could only come up with one idea.
She had to look for her father.
Of course, he’d left her behind, but there had to be a good reason. The most she could gather was that it had something to do with Schicksal, the mess that happened back during their last outing, and keeping her safe, but if the Valkyries were already following her, why shouldn't she just go to him? She could even try to ask that "Mr. Thunder" to help look for him, assuming he was as reliable as her father made him sound.
Staying in that village hadn't been bad, but she already missed living with her father. Even if he couldn't do chores that well, or if the breakfast he made was always a bit burned, or—
"————"
Darkness took her again.
When Kiana's senses returned, she was lying on the snow facefirst.
Weighed down by her oversized backpack, she flipped to her side and spat out some snow, bringing up a hand to clean her face.
… Again, trekking uphill on snow sucked.
Kiana sighed, untangling herself from her backpack and rolling away onto her back.
Above her, the stars seemed less comforting and more mocking, shining towards her as if asking why exactly she was looking at them instead of being on her way.
Or maybe Kiana was just miffed in general and projecting her feelings onto the stars.
Her dumb thoughts aside, the hill she had been climbing was quite tall, all things considered. Under the moonlight, she could see the vast expanses of snow-covered forests that occupied so much of Siberia, the distant Ural Mountains that may or may not become one of her stops, a bunch of figures in the distance running towards her, the village where she came from a bit behind them…
…
Oh, there were figures in the distance running towards her.
Actually, those were Valkyries.
That was bad.
Kiana rushed to her feet, grabbing her backpack with the Kaslana strength that the villagers repeatedly told her a child shouldn't have and quickly putting it on.
Did that woman that Kiana ran into get some rest and come back to her senses?
That was bad. Really, really bad.
Kiana couldn't get caught this early. Or at all, honestly, but it'd be embarrassing for her adventure to end on its very first night.
Feeling her heart pick up its pace, she turned to continue climbing the hill, trying to rein in her growing panic and think calmly—
"————"
Her body stopped responding again and she fell flat on her face.
Ø
Murata Himeko, the temporary captain of the Valkyrie Assault Squad, cursed under her breath for the umpteenth time as she made her way towards the fallen girl uphill alongside her squad, running on snow with her Schicksal greatsword in hand despite the discomfort.
It was bad enough that her very, very stupid sleep-deprived self had allowed the target to escape, but now she had just watched the girl in question collapse on her face on snow, her heavy backpack pushing her even further into the snow.
That was as good as a death sentence in such situations.
Failing to capture the girl was one thing, but Himeko would be damned if she caused her to die while attempting to escape. If her hospitalized captain didn't kill her for it, Himeko would urge her to reconsider.
And to think that a mere month ago they were only investigating a sudden surge of Honkai energy in Siberia, and suddenly they were given the task of hunting down a Herrscher that just so happened to be a little girl.
(Possible Herrscher, Himeko reminded herself, because it wasn't officially confirmed despite the fact the girl was so obviously one, or at least the result of an experiment attempting to recreate one. Ragna refused to tell her about it whenever she asked.)
So maybe Himeko was still a bit miffed about the girl's sudden rampage a month ago, but considering the (possible) Herrscher hadn't been going around burning down villages and laughing maniacally, the woman was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But answers could wait until the mission was accomplished and the Herrscher was secure.
Although the rest of her squad was understandably wary, gripping their weapons as they all approached the fallen girl, Himeko placed her greatsword on her back instead, trusting the fancy Honkai technology to keep it in place as she lowered herself to the ground, flipping the girl to her side so she could at least breathe properly.
The girl's skin was cold to the touch, but Himeko didn't let that discourage her as she checked for a pulse—
"Now," a man's voice suddenly sounded from uphill, "what do you girls think you're doing?"
Himeko froze.
All the Valkyries were ready for a fight in a matter of moments, but Himeko knew that wouldn't accomplish anything.
Cursing under her breath yet again, the woman glanced up, grimacing at the man looking down at them from mere meters away.
If the blue jacket, white hair, and azure eyes held in a cold gaze weren't enough of a dead giveaway, the way the man aimed both halves of the Judgment of Shamash at the group of Valkyries would be enough to tell who they were dealing with.
"Here's a suggestion," Siegfried Kaslana told them with a levity that his face didn't show, both his arms steady as they held the Shamash handguns, "get away from my daughter and no one's becoming charcoal today."
Honestly? Himeko was just glad there was a warning at all.
Whether the man had been lurking around all along or simply returned when told the Valkyries were approaching the village where the target resided, he still had the perfect chance to scorch them all before they could muster up any resistance.
She could tell that the other Valkyries were raring to go after the man who so easily fled with their target, back on the same day Captain Ragna was taken out of the fight. Some of her squad even believed he had something to do with the Captain's injury, despite the woman herself reporting the target's rampage as the cause.
So, before anyone could seal their fate as barbecue, Himeko brought up a hand, signaling them to stand down.
"Return to the Eos—" their aircraft, "—and await further instructions."
Himeko could already hear the objections from the other Valkyries. "A-Are you serious? Himeko, that's—"
"I know who that is, and this is an order," she said, using the same authoritative tone Ragna used whenever she had no time to explain something.
They finally got the message, movements hesitant as they began to descend the hill one by one towards their aircraft.
Even so, Himeko didn't move, still crouching by the little girl.
Siegfried raised an eyebrow.
"You failed first aid training multiple times," Himeko said, looking straight at the man with a steely expression. "At least according to Captain Ragna."
He narrowed his eyes.
Himeko continued, "I'm inclined to believe her if you're willing to waste this much time while your daughter has hypothermia."
She saw him hesitate, his aim growing unsteady for a moment.
Her gaze never left his.
Finally, the man sighed, lowering his weapons.
"Try anything funny and you're toast," he told her in a resigned tone.
That was good enough for her.
As she got to work, Himeko could only hope the girl was having something resembling a good dream.
Ø
[???, February 2010]
Instead of waking up eating more snow, Kiana instead opened her eyes to a completely black landscape surrounding her, devoid of anything besides an invisible floor under her feet.
That was new, she thought, perhaps a bit too casually, but only because the alternative when facing this kind of situation was completely losing it.
She blinked, glancing down at herself with wide eyes. Despite the darkness, her form was perfectly bright. She was wearing the same coat and mittens, but her backpack was nowhere to be seen.
Not that she particularly cared about where her backpack went. That ranked really low in her list of worries at the moment.
As it should, considering she was standing in some dark void. Again, new experience.
Crap, was she dead?
Oh no, bad line of thought. It only pushed her closer to a panic attack.
"You're actually conscious," a girl's bored voice echoed in the void, nearly giving Kiana a heart attack. "How unexpected."
The white-haired girl felt like saying something about how she actually just passed out. As she spun around to face the source of the voice, however, her breath caught in her throat.
What greeted her merely meters away was a large throne made of stone, cracked and chipped by time but no less sturdy.
Atop it sat a girl around her age with porcelain skin, long lilac hair, and impassive yellow eyes, clad in an intricate white and dark purple dress.
Her piercing gaze seemed to simultaneously stare into Kiana's soul and treat her as nothing worthy of note. Kiana had no idea how to face it head-on, leaving her with an uncertain look that was definitely unbefitting of a Kaslana.
"Who are you?!" Kiana asked the mysterious girl, tensing up and mentally readying herself for a fight. "Are you the one who made me attack Papa and those Valkyries?!"
"Oh? You actually remember that much?" Now she looked mildly interested. "Even more unexpected. Did I not push you down to the depths of your mind? Then again, it was quite an unfortunately brief affair, I suppose. Too little time to finish drowning you in the darkness of sleep."
So that was a yes. "I saw it all in a dream! I don't know who you are, but—"
"Silence."
"?!"
Kiana didn't know what happened.
One moment she was ready to face the girl before her, and then an unbelievable pressure suddenly fell down on her, nearly making forget her own thoughts as it attempted to force her down to her knees.
As she fought to remain standing, the purple-haired girl continued to stare at her, gaze almost bored. Whatever kind of attack she was pulling off, Kiana was fairly certain she could keep it up for a long time.
Even so, the Kaslana didn't yield, staying on her feet despite her body's protests.
Then, a sigh left the mysterious girl's lips.
"You Kaslanas," she spoke the name as if it was a curse, "are far too stubborn. It's not even entertaining."
She slowly rose from her throne, feet gracefully touching the invisible floor beneath.
"Very well," she began. "I suppose I could sate your curiosity, if only as a reward for lasting a little bit longer than I expected."
A cruel smile crossed the girl's lips.
"I am the one who once brought this wretched world down to its knees in a matter of hours, showing humanity the price of their endless arrogance."
Slowly, she began to walk towards Kiana.
"I am the one who ravaged this world for my amusement, striking fear and bringing death to all those you called your mightiest warriors!"
Kiana knew she had to move, but her legs refused to move under the unending pressure.
"I am the herald of your end! Sent to extinguish all you insects under the divine command of God!"
As the girl approached, a dark purple energy gathered around her.
"I am Sirin, the Queen of Honkai!"
Her voice echoed endlessly, as if coming from everywhere within the void at once.
"The foolish man you call your father may have defeated me once, but he, in his endless arrogance, failed to notice I hadn't been fully vanquished. And now, with my rebirth, this world shall be reduced to a desolate wasteland covered in rivers of blood! Know that you have only him to blame!"
Despite being a Kaslana, Kiana wasn't able to stop the fear from showing in her face as the girl stopped in front of her.
Sirin relished that expression, her smile becoming a feral grin.
"And a worm like you… is not even fit to witness my return."
Saying that, Sirin attacked.
Kiana closed her eyes in fright.
She felt something push her entire existence away, deeper than a physical touch, as if her very soul was under attack.
And then… she felt nothing.
…
…
…
No, it was not that she felt nothing more.
To be more specific, absolutely nothing happened beyond that.
The pressure she felt also disappeared a few moments later.
"What…?" she heard Sirin say.
Kiana took that as proof that she was still alive, slowly opening her eyes.
Though Sirin was still in front of her with an outstretched hand towards her face, the energy that the other girl gathered was gone, and Sirin's stupefied face was rather compelling evidence that such a thing wasn't supposed to happen.
The white-haired girl blinked. "Uh…"
That sound seemed to break Sirin out of her daze, and she brought back her hand, letting it bathe in purple energy before thrusting it towards Kiana again.
She couldn't stop herself from flinching at the motion, and once again she felt a strange spiritual push, but it was even weaker than the previous one.
For a second time, nothing happened, the energy fizzling out like a faulty lightbulb.
Sirin looked positively perplexed as she brought her hand up to stare at it.
"Wait, why…" she spoke, her mind clearly having trouble processing what happened. "Nyet, I refuse to believe this. There's no way…"
Kiana felt a realization wash over her, not her own but Sirin's, the loud thought reaching her as if they had some sort of connection.
This girl didn't have enough energy to just erase her outright.
She had spent most of it intimidating Kiana.
At that moment, the Kaslana felt something within her give away.
This had to be the strangest dream ever.
It was too much. Everything about the situation she found herself in was so… implausible.
Honestly, Kiana couldn't help it.
She laughed.
Not just once. No, she simply couldn't stop after she began, not when faced with such a surreal situation.
So she laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
When Sirin gave her a startled look, it only made her laugh harder. The purple-haired girl grit her teeth and glared at Kiana in response, but that had the very same effect, and the laughter grew louder.
And then the Herrscher lunged at her with all the fury of a slightly older child.
"Whoa!" Kiana took several steps back just in time to evade the Herrscher's fist, a wide grin on her face. "Hey, careful! You could've hurt your hand there!"
Sirin was positively seething as she regarded the white-haired girl.
"So what if I can't remove you from my new body immediately?" she began, her voice dripping in venom as she brought up both her fists. "It shouldn't be difficult to kill a worm like you the old-fashioned way!"
Kiana's grin didn't diminish as she fell into the fighting stance her father taught her. "If you wanna fight, that's fine by me! Looks like I'm beating up my first Herrscher today!"
Yellow eyes narrowed at the declaration. "Die!"
Sirin lunged at her, throwing another fist, and while Kiana easily evaded it, she was surprised to see that Sirin's form was actually… serviceable.
Not as good as her father, but Sirin actually dodged the first punch Kiana threw, so that had to count for something.
Unfortunately, she seemed to forget Kiana had two arms, a misconception the Kaslana quickly cleared up by driving her other fist directly into the purple-haired girl's stomach.
Sirin gasped in pain, stepping back clutching her midsection with utter disbelief on her face, as if she couldn't believe she had taken a hit.
Kiana huffed, lowering herself back to her stance. "What? Can't keep up, Herrscher? Didn't you want your rivers of blood?"
The purple-haired girl stopped to give Kiana a wide-eyed stare for a few seconds.
"... I'll make sure not even God can bring you back."
Kiana let out a laugh. "How are you doing that? Got any fancy Honkai magic tricks left?"
Sirin slowly brought up a hand.
Purple energy gathered around it as it began glowing, crackling with power.
"I don't even care if it takes everything I have left," Sirin spoke slowly, voice once again echoing and full of purpose. "I will purge every trace of your existence today."
"Oh, look, you can still make some pretty sparkles," Kiana scoffed. "Hey, do your worst. Maybe it'll actually tickle this time—"
She wasn't ready for Sirin to lunge at her with far more speed than before, right arm readying a punch. With no time to evade properly, Kiana hastily brought her hands up to block.
Of course, she also didn't expect to feel like she was hit by a swinging tree, her body unable to withstand the force as she was sent flying away with a surprised yelp.
Her body hit the floor at least three times before she stuck to it, her back sliding against the solid nothingness beneath for at least a dozen meters before she came to a stop.
And then she noticed that everything hurt a decent amount.
Kiana groaned, slowly rising to her feet despite the lingering pain. "Ow, okay, so probably not a dream—"
A shrill noise was all the warning she had to dive to the side, a purple laser as wide as a baseball sailing past the spot where her head was a second before.
Just like that, Kiana's earlier cheer was mostly gone.
The girl scrambled to her feet, eyeing her foe warily.
Sirin calmly walked towards her, glowing purple hand raised and cold fury in her gaze.
"You're just like a cockroach, aren't you?" Sirin spat out the words. "Disgusting. Is every Kaslana like this?"
Despite the dire situation, Kiana still let out a (slightly nervous) laugh. "Just the good ones."
Sirin's eloquent response was to shoot another laser.
Kiana barely managed to move out of the way, the bright energy cutting some strands of hair.
"Stay still if you wish for a quick death."
She didn't wish for any kind of death, actually, but she had the feeling saying as much wouldn't help the situation.
"Now, hold on," Kiana began, moving back at the same pace as the approaching girl, doing her best to imitate her father's confident smile. "I get that we started on the wrong foot, but what if—"
"Die."
Kiana hastily leaned aside to let the laser sail past.
"Do you mind?!" she shouted at the approaching girl, indignant. "It's rude to try to kill people while they're talking! Besides, I thought you were running out of energy to waste it like this?"
Sirin actually came to a stop a few meters away, seemingly considering Kiana's words.
She lowered her glowing hand.
"Huh." Kiana blinked. "I'll be honest, I didn't expect you to just stop and…"
The Kaslana trailed off as the energy surrounding Sirin's hand erupted into a glowing blade encasing everything from her wrist down.
Kiana stared at it for a moment.
"... A sword instead of shooting lasers. You focused more on the 'wasting energy' part than the 'it would be rude to kill me' part, didn't you?"
Sirin smirked. "Guess."
Then she rushed at Kiana.
The white-haired girl bit back a curse as she ducked under a slash, jumping back to avoid another as she began to rush backwards, away from the slash-happy Herrscher.
Sirin easily followed her movements with a wide grin, moving towards Kiana at the same pace while waving her energy sword around.
"Hey—" The blade almost caught her nose as she leaned back. "—I get that this looks cool—" A sidestep, just big enough to keep Kiana's shoulder attached. "—but if we could just talk— Crap!"
The dangers of walking backwards quickly revealed themselves as Kiana lost her balance, tripping and falling on her back.
Sirin's blade followed her down with a stab.
Against all common sense, Kiana brought up both hands just in time to grab the blade by its sides, holding it in place mere millimeters away from her neck.
Fortunately, the blade was surprisingly solid, and the energy was merely warm rather than burning, allowing Kiana to push it away even as Sirin put her weight behind it.
The purple-haired girl didn't seem amused by her blade's failure to meet flesh, her smirk giving way to a glower.
"Like I was saying…" Kiana forced the words out amidst the struggle. "What's gonna happen when you actually run out of energy? Shouldn't you worry about that?"
"I will," came the Herrscher's venomous reply, "as soon as you're gone and I have my new vessel!"
Not a notion that Kiana wanted to entertain.
She wracked her brain, trying to look for a way out that preferably didn't involve getting stabbed.
"But do you really think you can kill me fast enough?" Kiana continued, trying to focus despite the circumstances. "I mean, there were some Valkyries chasing me like five minutes ago. Isn't it bad if they catch you?"
Sirin snarled, bringing the blade close enough to touch Kiana's neck. "That won't be an issue if you just die already!"
It'd really help if she had some kind of weapon, but she didn't have her backpack with her. The whole situation was really unfair, considering Sirin could wave energy around like it was one of the comics her dad showed her.
Personally, Kiana didn't want to know how it felt to be slashed apart in some weird dark place that didn't even seem to be the real world.
… Wait. Not the real world.
"I mean, does killing me have to be the only option here?" Kiana asked, pushing the blade back a few centimeters. "It might get really dull in here with just one person!"
"Minds are only meant to have one person, you fool!"
A very interesting choice of words, and one that Kiana was quite thankful for.
She rather liked the confirmation that she was on the right track.
Her eyes fell on the energy blade threatening to pierce her.
'Disappear!'
And it did.
Because this, as it turned out, was within her mind.
Sirin's eyes widened as her blade of energy faded on the spot, leaving to fall forward towards Kiana.
The Kaslana wasted no time, willing a weapon just like Sirin's to manifest as she pointed her hand at her falling foe, her efforts being rewarded by a light blue energy gathering around said hand.
For a split-second, Kiana saw the panic on Sirin's face, and the way her purple energy once again surrounded the hand that previously held her energy blade.
A pair of simultaneous hisses sounded as both weapons gained their form at once.
And, just like that, Kiana's gambit worked. The light blue blade being emitted by her own hand was going right through the Herrscher's chest, Sirin unable to do anything but stare in disbelief at the sight of the solid energy puncturing her form and keeping her from falling further towards the white-haired girl.
Unfortunately, Kiana miscalculated some details.
For one, she genuinely didn't expect Sirin to be able to reform her blade so quickly.
If she had, then perhaps there wouldn't also be an energy blade, this one strikingly purple, currently piercing her heart.
For a moment, both girls were still, neither quite understanding what happened. There was no blood, no smell of charred flesh, nothing to confirm what happened besides their own eyes.
That, and the pain that suddenly sparked all over her body, forcing a hiss out of Kiana's lips as her weapon disappeared. Sirin seemed to share the same experience, her energy blade dissipating as she fell face first on Kiana's shoulder with a bloodless hole through her chest, much like Kiana's own.
The impact had the both of them groaning in agony.
"You—" Sirin began, echo gone from her voice. "You absolute… mudachka… I should just—" A sharp breath. "—just finish killing you…"
Kiana grit her teeth. She wanted the Herrscher off of her, but she had the feeling any movement whatsoever would put them both through hell, a notion Sirin seemed to share considering she hadn't tried anything yet.
"H-How…" The white-haired girl took a deep breath. It didn't help. "How are we… not dead?"
Sirin sighed like that was an idiotic question. "Mindscape… tupitsa …"
"Oh…" Kiana blinked, grimacing even as the pain became slightly more manageable. "So… we're gonna be fine?"
The Herrscher didn't reply.
Kiana didn't like the sound of that.
"We're gonna be fine… right?" she tried again.
Sirin shuddered against her shoulder, gripping Kiana's coat. "This is… unfair… So, so, so unfair …! I was this close, so why…? Why?!"
Kiana heard a sniffle.
The Herrscher was crying. She had a crying Herrscher on top of her.
That painted a very bad picture of the situation.
It was then that Kiana noticed that it wasn't that the pain was subsiding. She was just starting to feel numb instead.
"... Did we actually stab something important?" she still asked dazedly. "Are we going to die?"
A low growl escaped Sirin's lips. "Congratulations on defeating your first Herrscher," she spat out in a tearful voice. "I'll make sure to haunt you in Hell."
So they were going to die.
That was…
…
Oh. Kiana was going to die.
She felt herself seize up as it hit her.
Kiana was going to die there, right after leaving the safety of the village.
On a logical level, she understood she should be proud of it as a Kaslana. Even though she had a Herrscher of all things sealed within her for whatever reason, Kiana was about to put an end to the threat for the very low price of just her own life.
That sounded even more heroic than all the tales her father had told her about the Kaslanas, but…
"... I don't wanna die," Kiana spoke up, barely even in control of her own mouth. "I just got started! There's no way I can die here!"
She knew that made her a bad Kaslana, but she couldn't help it.
Sirin sighed. "What you want doesn't matter. Get ready to be braindead first and proper dead second."
"No, I just can't!" the white-haired girl repeated. "I… Papa's gonna—"
"That bastard wouldn't be able to do anything even if he was here!" Sirin glared up at her, uncaring about her tearful face. "We're going to die no matter what because you couldn't just give me this stupid body!"
"You're the one who started it!" Kiana shouted back, her own tears threatening to fall. "Can't you do some Herrscher magic to fix this?!"
Sirin gave her a disbelieving look. "Do I look like God to you?! If I had enough energy in my Core, I'd already have healed myself!"
"Then just take it from me!" Kiana told her. "I made that laser sword thing, didn't I?! So I have energy too!"
"I don't even know where the hell you got that energy from—"
The Herrscher suddenly stopped as her brain caught up to the conversation.
"That's right, I got energy from somewhere! " Kiana continued. "So you can get some from me, right?!"
"..."
For a few seconds, Sirin simply stared at Kiana.
Then she rushed to sit up, straddling Kiana in a movement that would have certainly hurt had they both not been numb enough by that point.
"I'll actually make sure you die first if you're lying," Sirin said as she pointed an open palm towards Kiana, letting energy gather around her hand.
Rather than attacking, however, Kiana instead felt like something was rummaging around her very existence. It wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but it felt weird.
And then she felt it.
Within her was something akin to a closed lid, just barely allowing some energy to reach her. Only now that Sirin was so close to it did Kiana notice its existence.
"Here it is," Sirin said, smirking. "Now, all I need to do is—"
Just then, Kiana forcefully willed the lid shut completely, not allowing even a drip of energy to reach either her or the purple-haired girl.
Sirin seemed momentarily confused before fixing a glare on her. "Human, is this some sort of joke—"
"Heal me first," Kiana cut her off, giving the Herrscher a level stare.
"... What?" Sirin looked like she could barely believe what she was hearing.
"I want you to heal me first," she repeated, "and then I'm gonna let you heal yourself. After I'm done."
The Herrscher snarled. "Do you expect me to believe that? You'd happily let me die afterwards!"
"And you wouldn't do that to me?" Kiana huffed. "But I swear on my honor as a Kaslana that I'm not letting you die in exchange for this. If that's not good enough, then I guess we're just gonna die together."
Sirin's glare was outright withering.
Kiana met her gaze unflinchingly.
They stood there for what felt like minutes, their bodies growing more numb by the moment as their end approached.
And then the Herrscher's body actually flickered for a second.
The momentary panic on her face was actually rather human.
"Fine!" Sirin almost growled at her. "I'll heal you first, so get out of the way!"
That was good enough for Kiana.
She let go of the mysterious lid, allowing Sirin to once again reach for it and slowly pry it open.
And then it blew open all at once, energy bursting forth like a fountain and making Kiana's entire form glow like a lighthouse.
"What in—" Sirin recoiled in surprise, covering her eyes. "This is… What are you?! Are all Kaslanas like this?!"
"I-I don't know!" Kiana told her, watching in amazement as the hole in her chest began to close by itself and feeling returned to her "body."
As soon as her wound was gone, her glow dimmed as if it had never been there.
"This is cheating!" the purple-haired girl said. "This has to be cheating! I didn't even do anything besides—"
She cut herself off, giving Kiana a wide stare.
Kiana had a feeling she knew what the Herrscher was thinking.
Now, Kiana, or her consciousness or whatever, was fully healed, meaning she had no reason to help Sirin. It was the logical conclusion of their unfair deal, regardless of whatever nonsense caused Kiana to recover without much of Sirin's involvement.
And that would've been the smart choice, all things considered.
Still, against all logic…
Kiana didn't like the idea of just letting someone wither away in front of her when she could do something, even if it was a Herrscher.
Maybe it was because Kiana gave her word, and breaking it would go against everything her father taught her.
Maybe it was because Sirin had technically been the one to save her, despite also being the one to almost kill her in the first place.
Maybe it was because she saw the Herrscher crying and panicking, acting more like a normal person rather than an unfeeling monster.
And maybe it also had something to do with how Sirin wasn't actively trying to kill her at the moment. That made empathizing with her a fair bit easier.
… Well, Kiana hadn't been making many smart choices that day, and it seemed she was going to continue that trend.
She was already a bad Kaslana, anyway.
"So?" she began, tilting her head at Sirin. "Aren't you gonna grab some energy too?"
Sirin gave her an incredulous look.
For several seconds, she didn't move, as if waiting for Kiana to retract the offer.
"Are you serious?" the Herrscher eventually asked.
Kiana shrugged. "I mean, if you actually wanna die that badly…"
That was the push the Herrscher needed.
Disbelief was still clear on her face as she reached towards Kiana's energy once more, siphoning it. Little by little, the hole in her chest also closed up.
And then she was as healthy as when Kiana first saw her.
Kiana made sure to close the lid shut as soon as Sirin was done, just in case she got any ideas.
"That's that, then," Kiana said with a smile. "Now, if you could just get off me…?"
Sirin was almost in a daze as she did so, rising to her feet and taking several steps away, allowing Kiana to rise to her feet.
"Are you stupid?" Sirin asked bluntly. "You actually gave me energy? Did you hit your head when you were little? Wait, no, I know you did."
"Hey!" Kiana narrowed her eyes. "I gave my word, didn't I?"
"A human's word is worthless!" the Herrscher shot back. "Humans love to lie!"
"Well, I didn't, did I?!" Kiana yelled at the ungrateful girl, pointing at her. "You're fine now, so the least you could do is thank me!"
"And why would I thank you when you're the one who stabbed me?!" Sirin countered, walking up to Kiana and trying to slap her pointed hand away with more force than necessary—
Sirin immediately recoiled, cradling her hand as if she had slapped a wall.
Kiana's arm didn't even budge.
"What, still hurt?" Kiana crossed her arms. "Well, I'm not giving you any more energy if you're going to be like this!"
Rather than responding, Sirin glared at Kiana and reached out to her.
"Hey!" Kiana leaned back just in time to avoid the girl's hand. "Do you really wanna go at it again? After all that?"
"Stay still, worm," the purple-haired girl told her. "This is important."
"Like hell it is!" Kiana shot back as Sirin tried to grab her again, taking a step back to avoid her attempt. "Do you think I'll just let you—"
The instant Kiana was distracted, Sirin took her chance and moved close enough to push her away.
Or at least she attempted to, because the only result she attained was pushing herself away from Kiana, as if the Kaslana was bolted to the floor.
Except she clearly wasn't, taking a step back with a dumbfounded expression at what just happened.
"Eh?" Kiana blinked. "Were you always this weak?"
"I'm not weak, you worm!" Sirin snarled. "You did something, didn't you?! Made some kind of barrier!"
"Did I?" The white-haired girl looked at her own hands with a puzzled look. "I don't remember doing anything. Are you sure you're not the one who's weaker?"
"Am not!" As usual, Sirin only seemed to get more annoyed at that. "At least make your lies believable! Either you made a barrier or you sealed my strength!"
Kiana blinked, staring. "So… you do admit you might be weaker?"
"Shut it!" Sirin clicked her tongue in annoyance, turning away with a huff as she began to think.
'This… cheater!' Her anger was already starting to boil once more. 'Just what the hell did I awaken within her?! This is so unfair…! If only I still had God's blessings with me, I might've been able to overpower whatever she did, but those humans had to steal them all!'
"Eh?" Kiana tilted her head. "What do you mean 'God's blessings'?"
Sirin spun back to her, staring in surprise. "What? I said that out loud?"
"Didn't you?" Kiana tilted her head in confusion. "You didn't notice yourself muttering?"
"Don't be stupid! I don't mutter!" Sirin shot back indignantly.
'I don't get it! How did she hear that?!' she thought with growing horror. ' Wait, can she hear my—"
"—thoughts?" Kiana finished, surprised. "Is that what's going on?"
Sirin looked outright scandalized.
"Don't read my mind," she spoke plainly.
Kiana huffed. "It's not like I did it on purpose. Maybe you're the one thinking too loud? Anyway, what was that about blessings?"
Sirin grit her teeth. "I don't have to tell you a single—"
"You mean they were gems with Herrscher powers?" Kiana blurted out, a mix of horror and awe growing in her features. "You were how many Herrschers at once?! Five?! Six?! How is that fair?!"
"I— You weren't supposed to—" Sirin sputtered unintelligibly. "Stop looking into my mind! Don't you know what privacy means?!"
"You had a dragon?!" Kiana blatantly ignored her. "Wait, you mean she's still alive?!"
"Shut up and leave Bella out of this!" the Herrscher snapped at her. "Get out of my head! I don't know what kind of magic you did, but I'm not letting you get away with this disrespect!"
Gathering energy around her palm, Sirin stepped forward and punched Kiana right on her face.
It did even less than a breeze.
"So," Kiana spoke, completely ignoring the attack, "does that mean you kinda need those four extra gems to go all 'herald of the end' and stuff?"
Sirin didn't respond, instead punching Kiana again to no effect.
"Wait, it sounds like those gems are still out there," Kiana continued as if nothing was happening, looking away deep in thought. "It wouldn't be nice if a bad guy got their hands on all of them…"
The Herrscher didn't cease, delivering an endless flurry of punches that the other girl didn't even register.
Well, whatever Sirin was doing with her own energy seemed to be preventing her from hurting her hands, considering she didn't stop punching for a moment, but even with all that effort Kiana still couldn't feel a thing.
"You! Worm!" Sirin shouted. "Die! Die! Die!"
"Hm…"
Kiana simply stood there. Thinking and ignoring the Herrscher currently punching her.
"Die! Perish! Meet! Your! End! You disrespectful worm!" Sirin shouted pointlessly as she continued. "Argh! I swear to God, the instant I get my Cores back—"
"...!"
Kiana suddenly perked up. Without warning, she grabbed both of Sirin's wrists, bringing her punching session to an abrupt end as she looked at the Herrscher with an excited smile.
"I figured it out!" she told Sirin with sparkling eyes.
Sirin was too bewildered to reply with the proper amount of venom. "W-What?"
"I figured out where to go from here!" she clarified, letting go of Sirin. "I know what we need to do next!"
"There is no 'we,' you fool," the Herrscher shot back. "There is only 'me' and the worm currently occupying my new body! "
"Y'know, I just realized something." Kiana showed no signs of hearing the other girl, instead walking past her, forcing Sirin to turn around. "I'm actually pretty weak, now that I think about it. Dad had to protect me whenever we went out to fight Honkai Beasts, and you took over my body without even a fight a while back. No wonder dad just left me somewhere safe instead of bringing me along for whatever he's up to."
"It's my body," Sirin protested, half-heartedly following the other girl. "But at least you seem to finally understand where a worm like you stands."
"Yeah, something like that," Kiana replied in a dismissive tone that only served to anger Sirin further. "But, see, I think I know a way to fix that."
Sirin rolled her eyes. "Yes, by giving me this body and erasing your own pathetic existence."
Kiana had a big grin as she glanced back at Sirin.
"What if I just use God's blessings instead?"
The Herrscher stopped walking.
"What."
Her eyes widened as she realized where Kiana was walking to.
Before them sat the mental projection of Sirin's moon throne where she greeted the girl during her arrival.
"You only became the 'herald of the end' or something because of those gems, right?" Kiana stopped right in front of the throne, crossing her arms as she eyed it appraisingly. "And now they're scattered out there somewhere for bad guys to grab. So, isn't the answer simple?"
Without further ado, Kiana moved. Right in front of the Herrscher of the Void, the girl shamelessly sat on her throne.
As if that hadn't been enough disrespect, she crossed one leg over another and leaned on the stone armrest, a self-satisfied smirk reaching her features as she met Sirin's wide eyes.
"So I can be a hero like dad, I'll take God's blessings for myself," she declared, "and become the next Queen of Honkai!"
"..."
It was with an uncharacteristically blank gaze that Sirin regarded Kiana for several seconds.
The white-haired girl in question simply grinned back.
And then, after what felt like an eternity…
Sirin's eye twitched.
"What."
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[???, February 2010]
During his time in the Sea of Quanta, the progenitor of House Kaslana had made it a habit to take the role of a Will of Stigma.
Of course, he didn't actually need to. Usually, the Stigma would be managed by an AI that took his appearance, an artificial Form made especially for the job.
Still, in his situation, there were only so many ways he could make himself useful. A person could only stew in distant regrets lost to time for so long.
Even so, centuries on the task didn't prepare the man for what he saw that day.
"...!"
A little girl, the artificial Kaslana who inherited the Second Herrscher's genes, facing the living hate that the Herrscher left behind within her own mind long before she could possibly be ready for such a trial.
And almost winning.
He watched as life slowly seeped out from the both of them. Though calling it a soul would be rather presumptuous, they still damaged the very core of each other's sentience.
"..."
It would have been exceedingly easy to do nothing. To simply witness the remnants of the Herrscher who once brought disaster upon the world scatter into nothingness, all for the price of a single girl's life.
Perhaps he would even have done so in the distant past. To sacrifice the lives of others for the greater good was something he had already grown used to.
And yet, a single stray thought made itself known at the last moment.
What would his old friend think of him?
"... Hmph."
Thus, he allowed the girl to harness some of the power of the Kaslana Stigma.
When she naively offered the power to the successor of the Herrscher of the Void out of pity, he took that chance to subdue the weakened Herrscher while her sentience was wholly exposed to the Kaslana Stigma.
And while the consciousness who declared herself the Herrscher of the Void had ultimately survived the ordeal, she was effectively neutered as long as the girl continued to push her down, no more than a servant of the Kaslana Stigma who failed to realize her situation.
"..."
In no uncertain terms, it hadn't been worth it. The vengeful Herrscher's continued existence was still a risk. If the girl whose body served as the Herrscher's prison ever faltered or gave up entirely, the consequences would be catastrophic.
But the long centuries by himself seemed to have had an effect on him.
For the man, anything resembling a conscience should have been left frozen and shattered in a bygone era, and yet now he felt strangely pleased.
He wondered what his old friend would say if he were still by his side.
After all, the man currently known as Kevin Kaslana was not someone who would readily accept sparing a Herrscher, precautions or not. And now he had done just that on what amounted to a whim.
Not even he could explain his own decision.
"... The future, huh…"
Perhaps it had been hope that had moved his hand. Hope in Project EMBER. In the idea that a different approach was the true path to victory.
Then again, finding a proper reasoning did not matter anymore. Not after the deed was done. Now, the only thing left to do was to stop observing, step away, and allow the girl to carve her own path.
Despite everything, he was surprised to discover that he held high hopes for her.
Perhaps she would become something great enough to surpass even the man himself.
"I'll take God's blessings for myself, and become the next Queen of Honkai!"
…
…
…
"... What," he found himself saying at the same time as the Herrscher.
On second thought, it might be a good idea to keep a closer eye on the girl in the long run.
Just in case.