(Volume X: Year of the Branch Bearer)
"Wooo—Hooo—"
"This is..."
A dull ache throbbed in her chest, and the roar of the wind filled her ears. The young girl's vision shifted from darkness to light. What greeted her was a frost-colored sky and sparse clouds—not to mention, she strangely found herself suspended in mid-air.
Suspended. She couldn't feel anything that could be called a "foothold" beneath her, only the biting, knife-like cold wind gusting past.
The girl felt something was wrong. It was definitely a first-person perspective, but no matter how hard she tried, no matter how she commanded her body in her mind, the image didn't show the slightest sign of changing.
"Why... is it like this... Where is this... Is this... me?"
After what seemed like a while, or perhaps everything happened in the blink of an eye, the scene before the girl's eyes began to change. First, those few elongated wisps of cloud drifted upwards, out of her line of sight. Then, a thin golden line appeared, separating the equally snow-white ground from the frost-colored sky.
She roughly understood; her gaze was turning towards a certain point on the ground.
Finally, her gaze settled on a sea of forest, laden with white snow.
"Despicable insect, to actually take away the Gem of Serenity bestowed upon me by the God-sama... Who allowed you to do that! Hehe... Hahahahaha! Even so, what can you possibly do with your feeble strength? Whether you resist or not, it won't change the fact that you will die here. Better to surrender obediently, save everyone some effort. And for her sake, I can grant you a death without pain, a death too quick for pain."
The girl, shocked, wanted to touch her own throat. The voice emanating from it was as tender as a young girl's, but the problem was, it wasn't her own voice. Of course, just like before, the commands her brain issued to her body received no feedback.
There was another point worth noting—although the girl's voice reaching her ears was definitely not hers, not her voice at any stage of her life, and she couldn't produce such an arrogant, perverse, and hostility-filled sound, this voice was still familiar enough. She seemed to have heard it at some time, somewhere, but if she tried to delve deeper, she couldn't recall it.
"What? Nothing to say? You all have merely usurped that insignificant bit of power left behind by the God-sama. How can you compare to me, who has been blessed by the great God-sama? Surrender obediently!"
The voice blew through the dense pine forest with the cold wind, but apart from sweeping some snow off the pine needles, it brought no change.
"Ugh... Who on earth is this! What era is this, still going on about 'God-sama'... Haven't they been to school?"
The girl complained internally, but then she felt her body take a step forward into the void. That familiar voice followed:
"Tch! Cowardly turtle..."
As soon as the words fell, the golden line that demarcated heaven and earth seemed to become a little more dazzling. The girl felt her vision dim slightly, and its vertical range also narrowed somewhat, as if the person truly controlling this body had squinted in the golden light.
A feeling of dread suddenly welled up in her heart.
"Watch out!"
The girl screamed in her mind, but her voice clearly couldn't reach the ears of the person controlling this body. She remained stunned in place until the next moment, when a fiery red light tore the entire forest in half. She slightly turned her body, and the pillar of light condensed from flames grazed past her shoulder, instantly extending to the limit of her vision.
"Ah—"
The girl first heard a pained grunt, and only then did she feel the burning sensation on her left arm.
"So... so strong... Is this a battle between the powerful? But this feeling... why is it so familiar?"
Before she could think further, the vast scenery before her eyes was suddenly stretched into various abstract threads. It turned out that the owner of the body had begun to dodge rapidly to the right.
"Damn it, such insect... such insect actually dared to injure me..."
Hearing that familiar voice muttering in her mind, the girl didn't know what to think for a moment. Oh, she suddenly knew how to describe it—chuunibyou, way too chuunibyou.
However, she couldn't help but worry. The lightsaber that pierced heaven and earth was sweeping from left to right, constantly following her... following the body she was in. Even though there was still some distance, the heat radiating from the lightsaber felt like it could melt a person.
"If I get hit by this lightsaber, I'll definitely die!"
"If I get hit by this lightsaber, I'll definitely die!"
The girl's thoughts were rarely in sync with the owner of the body, and just then, a line of small black text suddenly popped up in her vision:
"Spatial Coordinates (37, 24, 1.5), Spatial Power Deposition Point, Solidify."
The girl completely didn't understand the meaning of this sentence, let alone how a line of black text could appear in a normal person's vision. But she keenly sensed that something within her body had been drawn out, a small portion. Subsequently, this body's dodging speed suddenly slowed down.
The body leaned back due to inertia, its feet just pushing against the seemingly empty void.
"Jump!"
No command was needed. The girl's body spun and rose, flipping over the menacing lightsaber.
"Good chance!"
The lightsaber's swinging speed began to slow, but it was somewhat too late to change moves now.
The girl's body shot forward like a cannonball. A spatial rift opened on her path, giving the opponent no chance to react. The girl flew out from the other side of the spatial rift, her feet squarely kicking the fiery red sword body.
"Die!"
"Boom—"
The unseen enemy flew backward, followed by countless pine trees collapsing in his wake, along with white snow and mud flung into the air by the impact. The girl soared into the air, looking at the newly formed thousand-meter-long gully in the pine forest, and nodded with satisfaction.
"Are you an idiot? Don't stop here!"
Another line of small text appeared in her vision. The girl heard that voice give a soft "Hmm?" The owner of that voice had an arrogant personality, and the writer of this line of small text had an even more unfriendly tone. The girl was genuinely afraid the two would start fighting in her consciousness.
But the anticipated conflict didn't occur. The owner of that voice was like a young girl being criticized by a teacher in class, even more respectful than the girl herself when facing a teacher.
"Yes, it's my faul—"
Before that voice could finish its apology, the girl's vision caught a flash of light blooming in the smoke and dust.
"Dodge quickly!"
The girl screamed internally, but even at such a critical moment, her body completely disobeyed her commands. As for the owner of that previously arrogant voice, she was now frozen in place, unable to react at all.
Suddenly, a strange gravity pressed down, as if this body was resisting the advent of another consciousness.
"You're slow, Herrscher!"
The next moment, a familiar yet unfamiliar face appeared in the girl's vision.
"Stinky old dad!"
But... was that really her dad?
Purple veins crawled across half his face, sharp teeth peeked out from between his lips, and cyan horns pushed aside the bangs on his forehead, not to mention the monster-like left arm and the tail dragging behind him.
Of course, there was also the fiercely burning fire sword tightly gripped in his hand.
"This is... Wait! Why am I fighting stinky old dad?"
"Die! Herrscher!"
The fire sword slashed horizontally, but the girl only felt her vision flip backward, until heaven and earth were inverted. It seemed the person controlling the body had dodged this fatal blow with a backbend.
"Damn it! Stop! You guys stop! Don't fight anymore!"
The girl screamed desperately. She didn't understand what all this, happening so vividly before her eyes, meant. Was it the past that had already occurred, or a future she was destined to walk towards?
But regardless, one thing was certain: she had no control over this body, and her voice would not be heard by anyone.
It seemed she could only watch helplessly as everything unfolded, watching herself fight her stinky old dad, and then... Herrscher? What was a Herrscher?
The body flipped backward, a full two rotations. A slight, insignificant distance opened up between the girl and her old dad, a distance so small that she could clearly see the upturned corners of her dad's mouth.
"Not good!"
"Not good!"
The two consciousnesses synchronized again. Unlike last time, this time they had both lost control of the body.
But the third party now controlling this body reacted much faster than them. By the time they screamed "Not good!" in their minds, an almost invisible barrier had already condensed in front of her.
The barrier reflected some light. Although extremely blurry, it was at least enough for the girl, Kiana, to see her own purple hair— "What's going on? This isn't me?"
The next instant, the Cleaver of Shamash in Siegfried's hand once again shot out a huge pillar of light, crashing into the hastily formed barrier. Cracks immediately spread across the barrier, but the girl controlling the barrier merely tilted her hand to one side.
The barrier also tilted at an angle, and the thick pillar of light slid off to the side, leaving a several-thousand-meter-long canyon in the distant snowfield.
The white snow melted under the high temperature, turning into a hazy mist, yet it still couldn't conceal the scar carved by the lightsaber.
"This is the power of God-sama! insect like you can't understand it!"
That chuunibyou voice shouted triumphantly in her mind, as if she herself had performed such an extreme maneuver.
The body began to fall with gravity, but a spatial rift opened precisely beneath her feet. Her vision experienced a moment of darkness, and in a daze, she was already above the enemy's head.
"Ah! Stinky old dad, dodge quickly!"
Kiana, on the other hand, shouted this, almost forgetting that Siegfried was her enemy at this moment.
However... no matter whose voice it was, it didn't matter, because the consciousness truly controlling this body now wouldn't hesitate for anyone's voice.
He controlled the girl's waist to rotate, from top to bottom, a heavy whip kick landing on Siegfried's face.
"Bang!"
"Dad!"
Siegfried, at the last moment, grabbed the girl's leg, pulling her down with him as they crashed into the vast snowfield.
"Damn it! Why, why do you resist God-sama!"
The figure of the girl called a Herrscher, flying backward, broke through the rising smoke and dust. Siegfried's figure passed through the gap the girl had opened in the floating dust a moment before, relentlessly pursuing her.
With a wave of the Herrscher's hand, a torrent of scattered stones rained down on Siegfried's path. However, the latter ignored them, brandishing his greatsword to knock away the debris砸ing from all directions. What he couldn't block, he endured directly with his body.
For a moment, the Herrscher actually couldn't widen the distance.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
The chuunibyou girl was fuming impotently, while Kiana worried about her dad's situation. But the Herrscher's lips also curled up under the third party's control.
"Bang—"
A huge purple cube appeared out of thin air, imprisoning Siegfried and the hundred-meter space around him.
Less than three seconds later, as a scorching sword light flashed, the purple cube shattered. But the Herrscher was already hovering high in the air. What followed was a dazzling golden light. The entire sky was filled with spatial rifts of various sizes. Lances of the Void protruded their sharp spearheads from them, and as the Herrscher's hand swept down...
"Wait! God-sama!"
Hearing the chuunibyou girl's cry, the Herrscher's descending hand paused for a beat. It was this single moment of hesitation; the Herrscher's feet were suddenly grabbed by a cyan vine and flung back to the ground. All the spatial rifts and Lances of the Void came to naught.
"That's... impossible, Cecilia, you—"
The chuunibyou girl screamed in despair and anger, while Kiana froze the moment she heard that name. Then, a wave of dread washed over her.
The Herrscher struggled to get up from the ground, and the light and shadow between heaven and earth were once again dyed blood red—Siegfried raised his greatsword high. The soaring flames reached the heavens, broke through the clouds, as if intending to race all the way to connect with the sun.
The Herrscher wanted to escape, but not only were her feet caught by the vines, now there was also a pile of ice crystals. Unless she was willing to sever her own legs, she couldn't escape at all.
At this moment, the consciousness controlling the Herrscher's body chose the simplest and most direct method. She stretched out her hands, and just like before, invisible barriers stacked layer upon layer, hundreds, even thousands of them. Even the light and shadow in front of her were refracted to some extent because of this.
And Kiana finally saw her current appearance clearly—long purple hair, golden eyes, a small physique... Was this still... Kiana Kaslana? No, who was this? And Cecilia... such a familiar name, it seemed to be... a very important person... But why couldn't she remember?
"Hyaah!"
Before she could think much, Siegfried slashed down. The imaginary barriers shattered layer by layer like fragile glass panes, but countless more layers waited behind, as if endless.
The lightsaber shattered hundreds of layers of imaginary barriers in one go, but it seemed to have reached its limit. The violent energy couldn't break through the last few layers and actually began to refract and spin around.
"That's it! How could insect like you possibly break through God-sama's defense!"
The chuunibyou girl laughed wildly, until she saw a pinkish-white feather slowly float down in front of her.
"This is..."
The consciousness that had been silent since taking over the girl's body suddenly displayed a line of incomprehensible small text in the girl's vision:
"Yabai..."
(Translator's Note: "Yabai" is a Japanese slang term meaning "dangerous," "awful," or sometimes, surprisingly, "amazing." Here, it likely means dangerous/oh no.)
"It seems, in the end, I still have to make a move."
It was an indifferent yet gentle female voice, accompanied by a helpless sigh, and then, the cry of a phoenix that threatened to pierce eardrums—
The Herrscher looked up. The empty sky also began to burn. An Azure Empyrea dived down, slashing through her body like a sword.
"Aaaah... Ah? Hahaha! Empty bluff! It's useless!"
The chuunibyou girl laughed loudly, her body even punching the air excitedly. Only then did she realize something was wrong:
"God-sama? God-sama?"
She seemed to realize something—that sword strike hadn't harmed her, it had only severed her connection with God-sama.
Having lost the power of the so-called "God," the imaginary barriers began to disintegrate on their own.
"No, no, no... Impossible... How could I lose to you!"
In despair, dark Honkai Energy compressed to its extreme in the girl's hands.
"Then, let's die together... Ah!"
A blood arrow flew from an oblique angle, easily piercing the Herrscher's body. The Honkai Energy condensed in her hands also dissipated.
The last layer of the imaginary barrier also shattered into pieces in the raging fire. The girl stared blankly at all this, blankly awaiting her own death.
Then, she felt someone embrace her from behind.
"Silly child, let's go home together."
"Mo... Cecilia!"
The Herrscher's head only had time to turn halfway. She only had time to see those lilies that had, at some unknown point, bloomed all over the snowfield. And, contrasting with the lily-covered snowfield, was a sky filled with streaks like a meteor shower...
Then, a wave of heat surged from within her body. Her vision was filled with nothing but unquenchable flames...
"Ah, ouch—"
Kiana yelped and jumped out of bed. But the low mezzanine limited her movement. Her head hit the ceiling hard, and then her foot, caught on the bedsheet, slipped. Her whole body rolled from the mezzanine bed down to the first-floor floor.
"Hiss—"
She sucked in a cold breath. Her head was ringing from the impact, her ankle throbbed unbearably, and her whole body still retained the burning heat and heart-piercing pain, plus the already full and now violently shaken, almost-about-to-explode... er...
Despite this, Kiana lay on the cold floor and slowly closed her eyes—sometimes, if you go back to sleep immediately after waking up suddenly, the dream might continue... She still wanted to know what happened next. How was her dad? What about that purple-haired woman? Who exactly was that Cecilia? And that so-called God-sama... No! Shouldn't the strangest thing be why she was having such a dream?
"Ding-a-ling-ling—"
The alarm clock, inconveniently, rang at this very moment. The girl sighed in dismay, reluctantly got up from the floor, and limped towards the wooden ladder with her swollen ankle. Stepping onto one or two rungs, she tiptoed and slapped the incessantly ringing alarm clock.
The alarm clock finally shut up, but the girl's sleepiness was completely dispelled. Besides, if she delayed any longer, she would be late for school.
Leaning against the wall, she reached the bathroom in just two steps. The space here was utilized to the extreme. A toilet, a sink, a showerhead hanging on one wall, a basket for toiletries, and a towel rack were all crammed into a tiny one-square-meter area.
This was her bathroom, a bathroom where taking a shower required maneuvering between the sink and the toilet.
Kiana brushed her teeth while sitting on the toilet, the strange feeling in her heart emptying out along with her body's overnight accumulation.
But drowsily, she closed her eyes again on the toilet...
"Hah!"
Startled awake, Kiana abruptly stood up, leaned on the sink, spat out the white foam, and splashed some water on her face.
Dragging her swollen right foot, one hand on the wall, the other picking at the sleep in her eyes, she went to the alarm clock.
"Damn it... How did I fall asleep again. Phew... Thankfully, there are still twenty minutes. It's just this foot, I don't know if I'll make it in time..."
She sighed. Thankfully, she had been too lazy to change out of her pajamas last night. Her shirt was wrinkled, but at least she didn't have to change. It seemed she had also forgotten to do her homework last night, but that was even better. No need to pack her schoolbag, because the zipper hadn't even been opened.
She coolly slung her schoolbag over her shoulder, slipped her left foot into a sneaker. When it came to her right foot, she hesitated for a moment, looked at her swollen ankle, then grabbed the other sneaker and stuffed it into the water bottle pocket on the side of her bag. Her right foot stepped into a slipper.
"Alright! Kiana, move out!"