She had said something like that before.
And Jyahnar... had clearly taken those words to heart. Could it be that because of that single promise, Jyahnar had gone and transformed into a human in such a short time?
That was just—
"Now, I have the right to stay by your side."
Jyahnar's gaze remained burning as she stared at Kiana, making Kiana feel a little embarrassed under her intensity.
"Um..." Kiana scratched her head. "So that's why you came to find me? Wait, Jyahnar—how did you even know I was here?"
Jyahnar turned her gaze toward the distant planet.
Her voice was calm as she answered Kiana's question. "Because you need me, Kiana. So I came."
"I... need you?"
Kiana froze. How was it that she didn't know she needed Jyahnar's help? Where did that idea even come from?
Two questions flashed through her mind.
If she didn't know better, she'd think Jyahnar was just making an excuse. After all, she'd used that kind of line before.
"This world bears Kiana's mark. I knew you might need me."
Jyahnar's calm reply only deepened Kiana's shock.
This world... bears my mark?
She must mean Jarilo-VI.
Kiana's eyes widened. "Wait, how do you know I marked this world? No, hold on—you knew this world was marked by me, so you came all the way from Izumo to help?"
Jyahnar nodded seriously.
"In human terms, Kiana, you are expanding your domain. As your companion Honkai Beast, I should be at your side."
So she came.
From faraway Izumo, crossing countless light-years to reach the world Kiana had marked.
Though the journey had taken time, she had finally found Kiana.
Jyahnar's mood was clearly good.
"It's not... quite like that," Kiana said awkwardly, lowering her voice. "I was just running an experiment—wait, you still haven't answered my question. How did you know I was here?"
"Because I'm your companion Honkai Beast, of course."
Jyahnar tilted her head, puzzled as to why Kiana would even ask something so obvious.
"But you can't possibly sense things from that far away, can you?" Kiana asked incredulously. "I can't even feel what's going on with you, so how—"
This made no sense!
She couldn't sense Jyahnar's condition at all—so how was it that her Honkai Beast could, in turn, track her across the stars?
"I can't sense your condition either," Jyahnar replied. "I only felt the presence of a new Honkai coordinate. I assumed you were assimilating a new world for the Honkai, so I came."
"You can sense Honkai coordinates?"
Kiana felt like a fake Herrscher at that moment. Why did Jyahnar have all these bizarre abilities when she didn't?
She couldn't even sense Izumo's state. If she'd been able to detect that place earlier, she wouldn't have taken so long to reach Euphorion.
"I can."
Kiana's expression turned awkward. She didn't even know what to say. "I... can't."
"That's only because you haven't fully mastered your power yet."
Jyahnar met her gaze seriously as she said that.
That explanation... actually made sense.
Kiana hadn't fully grasped her own strength yet. After all, despite all her time in Belobog, her progress had only reached 70%.
Still, if that was true—then didn't that mean Jyahnar's actual combat ability surpassed her own? In her current, incomplete Herrscher state, she might not even be Jyahnar's match.
The fact that Jyahnar could detect Honkai coordinates when she couldn't was proof enough.
As if hearing her thoughts, Jyahnar continued, "I'm a gift from the Honkai—to accompany you, and to help you, Kiana."
"Huh?"
The more Kiana listened, the more wrong this sounded. Especially when Jyahnar said she was a gift from the Honkai—her expression shifted dramatically.
Wait—was Jyahnar about to say the same kind of thing as the other version of herself from Honkai II? That the Honkai had ordered her to stay by Kiana's side... to become her companion or something?
Kiana cautiously glanced at Acheron.
Jyahnar didn't notice—or perhaps didn't care—that Kiana's gaze briefly shifted elsewhere. She continued speaking to herself. "Protecting Kiana, helping and accompanying Kiana—those are my missions."
"Those weird missions of yours... you sure you didn't just make them up yourself?" Kiana thought awkwardly. Last time, Jyahnar had acted just like this.
"Do you think I learned that from those Stigmata worlds?" Jyahnar shook her head. "No, I received this instruction from the Honkai itself after we last parted."
"An instruction from the Honkai?" Kiana's brows furrowed tightly. A sudden sense of urgency rose in her chest. "The Honkai still has consciousness? You came into contact with it?"
"Consciousness? No. From a human's perspective, it's more like... an intuition from beyond."
The thought had simply appeared in her mind one day.
Jyahnar found it completely reasonable.
...Was that really not just something she imagined out of nowhere?
Kiana fell silent, lost in thought.
The odds of that seemed... pretty high.
"Forget it. You're already here anyway."
Kiana couldn't make sense of it for now. If Ruan Mei were still around, maybe she could have examined Jyahnar and figured something out.
But Ruan Mei had just left today.
What unfortunate timing.
Feeling a twinge of regret, Kiana decided to set the matter aside for now. She kept Jyahnar's words in mind but didn't press further.
"I also brought something Kiana wanted."
Perhaps sensing that Kiana wasn't as happy as she'd expected, Jyahnar suddenly spoke again.
"Something I wanted?" Kiana blinked in confusion, looking at Jyahnar questioningly.
Jyahnar extended her delicate hand.
After a moment's hesitation, Kiana placed her own hand atop Jyahnar's.
The instant their hands touched, countless images flashed rapidly before Kiana's eyes.
Her eyes widened in shock. She gripped Jyahnar's hand tightly. "What... what was that?!"
Her voice rose, filled with disbelief.
Those images—
If she wasn't mistaken, they were scenes from various Stigmata worlds, featuring faces she knew all too well.
Welt of Izumo. Himeko. The others who had faced the end together in that world.
Jyahnar tilted her head, puzzled. "Aren't those what you asked me to collect?"
"Those Stigmata..."
"I thought you'd like them," Jyahnar said with complete sincerity. "So I gathered all those crystals and consumed them."
She went on to explain what she had done in Izumo. "There were too many crystals to view individually, so I connected them all together."
Then she looked at Kiana expectantly. "Do you like this gift, Kiana?"
After learning how much Kiana loved humans, Jyahnar had spent her time in Izumo both collecting what Kiana wanted and studying human knowledge within the Stigmata spaces.
At the very least, she had become more human than before.
A gift upon meeting again—
That truly caught Kiana off guard. In her imagination, her reunion with Jyahnar should have happened back in Izumo.
She should have been the one to seek Jyahnar out.
Not the other way around.
"This gift... really did surprise me."
Kiana's mind was a bit of a mess. Jyahnar had brought along fragments of the Stigmata worlds—and even connected them all together.
The more she thought about it, the more it resembled...
She steadied herself, forcing her thoughts back into order before smiling. "I really like your gift, Jyahnar. You were very thoughtful."
Seeing Kiana finally smile, Jyahnar's eyes curved slightly, her expression filled with gentle satisfaction.
Kiana's happiness was her happiness.
"But you misunderstood," Kiana said quickly. "I don't actually need help here, nor did I plan to... um... do what you said."
Expanding territory?
Where on earth had Jyahnar learned that from? Some Stigmata world's human culture?
"I know you can do it alone, Kiana. But I'm your companion Honkai Beast—I can assist you."
"I've already finished most of what I needed to do."
Having Jyahnar help?
Better not.
Though Kiana had never actually seen Jyahnar fight, she knew she was a Planet-class Honkai Beast. That impression alone made her wary.
Her idea of "help" might be very different from Kiana's.
Jyahnar was a Honkai Beast.
Just because she now looked human didn't mean she was human—she didn't share their emotions or moral sense.
Kiana knew that well.
"Finished?" Jyahnar's face showed visible confusion. She glanced toward the snowy planet in the distance and even took a moment to sense it again.
The Honkai energy on that planet wasn't dense—certainly nothing like Izumo, where the entire world had been assimilated.
It was still far from that stage.
"But this planet hasn't been fully corrupted by Honkai yet."
Jyahnar spoke her thoughts openly, kindly offering advice. "But that's alright. Just trigger one or two Honkai Eruptions, and the world will be completely assimilated into your dominion."
"...My dominion? I never had any intention like that!" Kiana looked utterly baffled.
"I think... you should at least understand what Kiana's goals are before giving her suggestions," Acheron finally interjected.
She had been silently observing Jyahnar, watching how she interacted with Kiana.
"Understand?" Jyahnar turned her gaze toward Acheron, her expression cooling slightly. Only now did she seem to notice the person standing beside Kiana—and she recognized her immediately. "Ah, it's you."
"...You know me? Then you were deliberately stopping me from entering Izumo? Forcing me away?" Acheron blinked, then frowned sharply, her eyes narrowing as she stared coldly at the girl named Jyahnar.
"Of course." Jyahnar nodded, seemingly oblivious to the hostility in Acheron's tone. "Of course I remember you. You were annoying. You disturbed my rest again and again."
Acheron's opinion of Jyahnar plummeted even further. Knowing that this creature was the reason she couldn't reach Kiana sooner—how could she not feel at least a little resentment?
"Mei, she's a Honkai Beast. She doesn't understand things like that," Kiana said quickly, realizing a confrontation might break out at any moment.
"Don't worry. I won't argue with non-human beings," Acheron replied coolly.
Jyahnar didn't seem to grasp the implication—or she simply didn't care. Ignoring Acheron entirely, she turned her gaze back to Kiana, eyes once again burning with fervor.
"I understand what Kiana wants," she said confidently. "You love that world, Izumo. That's why you asked me to gather those crystals, isn't it?"
"But that world wasn't fully converted. It was stalled by another energy. I knew Kiana wished to bring it completely under her control—so you searched for a second suitable world."
The first half of that statement made sense.
But... what exactly did she mean by the second half?
Kiana frowned instinctively, as if realizing something. Her expression turned serious. "What do you mean by that last sentence?"
Did Jyahnar know she needed to find a new world to progress further? That she had to locate one?
But she had never mentioned that to Jyahnar.
Then how did she know?
"Hm?" Jyahnar tilted her head, looking puzzled. "With a new place as support, the Honkai energy in Izumo can grow stronger—allowing it to be fully assimilated."
"Isn't that why you were searching for a new world as your next target, Kiana?"
Kiana's brow twitched, and she spoke urgently. "What does Jarilo's Honkai energy have to do with Izumo? They're so far apart—how could the two worlds possibly be connected?"
Jyahnar tilted her head again, thinking for a moment. Then she smiled. "Kiana needs to become the true Herrscher of Finality as soon as possible."
The more Kiana heard, the less she understood. Her confusion only deepened, and irritation began to build. "What's that supposed to mean?"
It made sense that Jyahnar knew Kiana hadn't yet become a complete Herrscher of Finality. She was powerful, yes—but still far from perfect. Jyahnar, being aligned with the Honkai itself, would naturally sense that.
But why would she urge Kiana to hurry and complete her transformation? Why did it matter whether she could only use her Herrscher power at certain times?
Would becoming the Herrscher of Finality reveal the meaning behind Jyahnar's words?
Kiana lowered her gaze in thought.
Jyahnar seemed to know far more about the Honkai than she did. At least from everything she'd said so far, much of it was completely new to Kiana.
Kiana had always believed that Jyahnar's birth was an accident—a strange side effect of Izumo's standoff between the Honkai and Nihility.
But now...
Perhaps it wasn't an accident at all.
Perhaps Jyahnar was right. Her existence might not have been born from the clash between Honkai and Nihility.
It might have been something else entirely—something like her own.
Kiana suddenly thought of her own creation.
If that were true, then what Jyahnar said about the Honkai speaking to her—about receiving guidance—might all be true.
"Wait... last time we met, you didn't tell me any of this, did you?"
Kiana regained a bit of composure.
"Before you came back, I spent most of my time asleep," Jyahnar explained. "I didn't care much for things like 'knowledge' or 'understanding.'"
It was only after meeting Kiana that something in her changed—as if she had been injected with new life. In her eagerness to learn how to become human, she had begun to think.
Kiana fell silent.
"You're making this sound way too mystical..." she muttered under her breath, then added more seriously, "Alright, tell me properly—why do you think all this? What's your reasoning?"
She never imagined there would come a day when she would have to ask someone else to explain the Honkai to her.
The very thing she had brought into being.
How absurd.
The world's turned upside down, she thought wryly.
—
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