Silence flowed slowly through the air, as if time itself had slowed its pace.
This tranquility didn't last long, however. Fu Hua suddenly felt a continuous, warm, damp sensation spreading across her chest.
Is he missing his family?
A soft wave of tender pity welled up in her heart.
It made sense. Ever since he was eight years old, her younger cousin hadn't had a single proper family member to rely on.
Thinking of this, the young girl unconsciously tightened her arms around Fuli, as if trying to channel tens of thousands of years of accumulated maternal love directly into him.
Until a muffled voice drifted up from her chest: "Cousin... could you loosen your grip a bit? I think my nose is bleeding..."
"Ah! I'm sorry!"
Snapping back to reality, Hua immediately let go as if she had been burned. Fuli seized the opportunity to take a step back, escaping from that overly solid, rock-hard embrace.
Only then did the young girl notice that a dark, wet stain had spread across the front of her clothes. It wasn't the tears she had imagined, but rather a splash of bright red liquid.
In short, a nosebleed.
"Little cousin..."
Fu Hua hesitated, her cheeks flushing slightly. Deep down, she actually felt a tiny bit happy. She supposed this counted as her feminine charms finally being validated by someone else.
Little did she know, on the other side...
Fuli pulled out a few tissues, wiping his face with lingering trauma.
Holy crap! They're so hard they literally gave me a nosebleed! he thought as he wiped his face. Other women have to be described as having 'frontal armor' because of censorship... but my cousin is literally hard as steel!
His invincible Golden Armor only worked against Critical-tier attacks and below. The current Fu Hua was a bona fide S-rank, naturally placing her far outside its defensive threshold.
He couldn't help but recall the Eminence technique from the Edge of Taixu. When activated, it drastically strengthened the user's body. However, frequent use inevitably led to highly developed muscles, as every activation intensely stimulated muscle growth.
During the five hundred years she had lost her power, Fu Hua had relied almost exclusively on martial arts to fight her enemies. Putting himself in her shoes, developing a pair of pectoral muscles that rivaled the original Ultraman's... actually seemed pretty reasonable?
Of course, even if someone beat him to death, Fuli would absolutely never share this brilliant deduction with the person in question.
So what if she was over fifty-five thousand years old? Deep down, wasn't she still just a young girl who cared about her figure?
It was just that her future child was going to be incredibly unlucky. What if they couldn't even chew through it when breastfeeding...
Well, the main reason was likely that Hua had just recovered her power and hadn't fully adjusted to her newly restored state. Once some time passed and she grew accustomed to her S-rank body, she would be able to freely control and soften her physique.
During the Eternal Heaven incident, he and Fuli had slept in the same bed, hugging each other every single night, and the boy hadn't complained about anything back then.
It didn't take long for Fuli to wipe the blood off his face.
Summoning a small wisp of flame, he burned the bloody tissues to ash, then called out to Fu Hua, planning to head back to the waiting room together.
Suddenly, rapid footsteps echoed down the hall. A figure dashed out from the corner at the end of the corridor, panting heavily.
"You... I knew you'd be here!"
It was Yuno, and the anxiety on her face was impossible to miss.
"I'll explain on the way, just come with me! Hurry!"
Without giving them a chance to ask questions, she sprinted forward, grabbed each of them by the hand, and immediately bolted in the opposite direction of the waiting room.
The two cousins exchanged a bewildered glance. Confirming it was really her, they didn't resist, allowing the girl to drag them toward their destination.
---||---
Rewinding time slightly...
Not long after Fuli and Fu Hua left the waiting room, Cyrene's lively, melodious voice echoed over the PA system:
[Little Miyuki? Is competitor Miyuki Asakura from St. Freya present? Your match is about to begin~ Please head to Arena A-310 immediately~♪]
With so many participants in the Wardance Ceremony, it was naturally impossible to run the matches one by one; doing so would take until the end of the world. Running multiple arenas simultaneously was the only logical arrangement.
"Oho, looks like it's our turn."
Himeko tossed a crystal-clear grape into the air, catching it in her mouth and chewing it down. She stood up and raised a fist in the air. "Let's go, you two! Fight, and forge a path to victory!"
"Right."
Yuno nodded. She walked over to the corner of the room and forcefully shoved Miyuki Asakura's pale, drifting soul back into her mouth.
Lightly patting her friend's freezing-cold cheeks, she encouraged her, "Miss Himeko and I will be cheering for you from the stands. Class Monitor Fu Hua's match should end quickly, and Mr. Fuli and the others will probably head over as soon as they're done."
To sum it up in one sentence: You got this! Look alive! Don't embarrass us!
Perhaps the mention of the name 'Fuli' stimulated the young girl's sensitive nerves. Miyuki took several deep breaths, forced herself to stand up, and took a step with legs that felt like they were filled with lead.
THUD!
She made it exactly two steps before walking face-first into the doorframe.
"Is she already so nervous she can't even see straight?"
Himeko rubbed her temples, though she had absolutely no intention of letting the girl forfeit.
In the Honkaiverse, there were plenty of techniques and arts that could manipulate a person's mind and spirit—Robin's Tuning being a prime example.
The problem was that the Deva Path was a top-tier Creation-type Stigmata. Its true power didn't just lie in its terrifying energy recovery rate and healing abilities; it also provided maxed-out resistance against external mental interference.
Any mind-altering skill that wasn't strong enough would be actively resisted and weakened by the Stigmata's power, and whatever residual effect managed to slip through would instantly be healed away by the Deva Path.
But if someone tried to brute-force it and overloaded the interference, it would inevitably cause irreversible damage to Miyuki's currently immature psyche, practically turning her into a vegetable.
Since they couldn't rely on external help, the young girl had to overcome her inner demons on her own. And forcing her to experience more high-pressure situations—especially a highly publicized, formal event like this—was undeniably the most crucial path to tempering her willpower.
The St. Freya trio walked down the corridor leading to Arena A-310. Compared to the massive main venue next door that could hold tens of thousands of spectators, this arena was much smaller and far quieter.
Even so, the funnel-shaped stands surrounding the central stage were still packed with over a thousand people.
"Eh? Is that the lucky girl who awakened a rare healing-type Stigmata?"
"Uwaah! Her legs are literally shaking. Can she actually do this? If not, she should just forfeit, hahaha!"
The vast majority of the audience were trainee Valkyries from St. Freya who had come to watch their classmate fight.
The remaining crowd mostly consisted of unlucky gamblers who had been duped by Carmella's sensationalist article and placed their bets on Miyuki Asakura.
"Hey! The pink-haired chick down there! Get your act together, you hear me?!"
"I bet my entire life savings on you! If you dare lose, I'll make you regret it!"
These people's words were far less civilized than the students', constantly spewing vulgarities and insults.
"Eek!"
Stimulated by the shouting, Miyuki flinched violently, causing the massive guitar case on her back to tilt sideways.
But ultimately, bolstered by the encouragement of her master and her best friend, she walked out onto the battlefield alone, struggling to climb up onto the elevated fighting ring.
Yunli, who was serving as the referee for this match, was honestly a bit speechless. She handed over a snake-shaped badge equipped with the Status Restoration Tech, asking, "Speaking as a referee, I shouldn't be saying this. But competitor Miyuki Asakura, are you absolutely certain you are ready for this?"
She paused, then added in a serious tone, "I must state beforehand: accepting this badge means you acknowledge and fully accept all potential risks of this match. My duty is strictly to maintain basic fairness. Even if your opponent attempts to take your life during the fight, as long as it does not violate the rules, I absolutely will not intervene."
To be completely honest, Yunli had zero faith in the girl standing before her.
Excluding those rule-breaking, bug-level anomalies, the historical powerhouses simulated by the system tended to be stronger the closer they were to the modern era. And Baiheng—the hero who had nearly dragged Shuhu down with her—was one of the absolute best among them.
Even if she had relied on the apocalyptic power of an Imaginary Implosion Bomb—a blast strong enough to shatter the earth's crust and trigger global earthquakes and localized mega-tsunamis—she was still the one who had created and seized that singular, impossible opportunity.
"I..."
Miyuki bit her lower lip. Silently, she extended her pale, trembling hand and took the snake-shaped badge, an act no different from signing a death warrant.
The save-state sampling process was completed in an instant. Following protocol, Yunli retreated to the safe zone at the edge of the arena, then activated the pocket-dimension generator.
Countless massive trees instantly burst from the ground. In the blink of an eye, an endless, violently vibrant primeval jungle swallowed the entire arena, stretching for miles in every direction—like the First Hokage's Deep Forest Emergence.
Compared to the colossal pocket dimension next door that perfectly replicated Mount Taixu and a hundred miles of surrounding landscape, this forest looked incredibly shabby.
But this was actually the standard configuration for the Wardance Ceremony. The arena next door had been specifically tailor-made to welcome the Celestial Phoenix home; naturally, the two couldn't be compared.
With the battlefield fully loaded, Miyuki Asakura glanced up at the camera drones hovering in the air. Desperately trying to calm her racing heart, she swung her guitar case off her back, reached inside, and gripped the wide, heavy hilt of the Sunfire Greatsword.
Thanks to the Far East Branch's monumental contributions during the Third Eruption, as well as Theresa's official credit for 'subduing' the Herrscher of Thunder, Schicksal had poured a massive amount of resources into St. Freya over the past six months.
As the absolute ace of the Far East Branch, Himeko had naturally received a massive gear upgrade. Not only had she been equipped with the latest custom-model Valkyrie battlesuit, but her weapon had also been swapped out for the far more imposing and powerful Godslayer: Surtr.
Because of this, she had gifted her old Sunfire Greatsword to her one and only disciple as a token of encouragement and a symbol of passing the torch.
Seeing Miyuki casually heft a weapon that clearly weighed a ton without much effort, low gasps of surprise rippled through the audience. Their expectations for her rose just a tiny fraction.
Unfortunately, the moment the next competitor stepped onto the field, that fragile sliver of expectation was utterly obliterated.
Through the camera feeds, a figure silently appeared at the edge of the jungle.
Silky light-purple hair cascaded down like a waterfall. Fluffy, lively animal ears twitched slightly, seemingly capturing every microscopic disturbance in the air.
Her outfit was primarily a pure, elegant white, perfectly accentuating her lithe, athletic figure while looking highly practical and sharply tailored for combat.
The atmosphere in the arena instantly exploded.
"Is that... one of the legendary High-Cloud Quintet?!"
"It is! It's Lady Baiheng! Lady Baiheng! I'm a huge fan!"
The legend of the High-Cloud Quintet wasn't ancient history; the previous Luofu General, Jing Yuan, had been one of its core members.
And unlike Dan Feng and Yingxing, who caused the Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae, or Jingliu, who had betrayed the Alliance, the pilot Baiheng had lived a life of minor mishaps but unparalleled honor. She was incredibly straightforward, possessed a boisterous, heroic personality, and had died a tragic, heroic death fighting an impossibly powerful foe.
As a result, she enjoyed stratospheric popularity among the citizens of the Alliance.
Compared to the roaring crowd, Baiheng herself merely lowered her head, examining her own hands with a look of novel curiosity.
"So going all out still didn't manage to take Shuhu down with me, huh? Fine, I guess that old bastard got lucky!"
Reading the stream of information uploaded into her mind regarding this era and her current state, she shrugged nonchalantly. A free, easygoing smile curved her lips.
"Sorry, sorry, bringing up irrelevant people the moment I open my mouth. So, you're my opponent this time?"
"Y-Yes!" Miyuki replied loudly.
"There's no need to be so polite to your enemy," Baiheng chuckled, shaking her head. She smoothly raised the antique, exquisitely carved longbow in her hand. "Because even if you act like that, I won't be holding back."
Before her words even finished echoing, her figure leapt lightly backward, vanishing into the shadows of the dense jungle like a drop of water merging into the ocean. Her presence melted seamlessly into the surrounding environment.
And then—
THWACK!
A sickening, heavy impact echoed through the air!
"Eh?"
Before Miyuki even registered what had happened, an agonizing, bone-piercing pain exploded from the left side of her body.
Gripping her greatsword with both hands, she looked down from the corner of her eye.
A terrifying, fist-sized hole had been blown straight through her left calf!
Flesh was mangled, bone was shattered, and warm blood was spraying out like a fountain, rapidly staining the grass and dirt beneath her feet red.
"OOOOHHH! What did I just see?!"
The commentator's hyper-excited voice boomed through the speakers, echoing across the arena. "In just a single exchange, Lady Baiheng has completely crippled her opponent's mobility! Miss Pink Elf! Was that strike Lady Baiheng's signature ultimate technique, the Tunneling Effect?!"
"No."
Sitting at the caster's desk, Cyrene shook her head, a trace of genuine worry on her youthful face. "Miss Baiheng's Tunneling Effect involves turning part or all of her body into mist. In that state, not only can she perfectly conceal herself, but she becomes immune to the vast majority of physical attacks."
She pointed at the monitor screens displaying the arena. "But none of the cameras captured any signs of mist generation. In other words... she merely relied on her masterful stealth techniques to hide, and then... fired a completely ordinary arrow."
"JUST AN ORDINARY ARROW?!!" The commentator's voice cracked from sheer shock and excitement. "As expected of the legendary High-Cloud Quintet! To flawlessly analyze and perfectly utilize a completely unfamiliar simulated environment the exact second she spawned in! Heavens! What terrifying combat instinct!"
"Isn't he praising her a bit too much?! Asakura is doing amazing too! She's heavily injured but still refusing to drop her weapon!"
Outside the arena, Yuno couldn't help but yell in frustration, deeply worried for her friend. She knew the commentator had to hype up the crowd, but wasn't this a bit too blatantly biased?!
While the outside world reacted, back inside the arena, the edges of the horrific wound on Miyuki's calf were already writhing wildly. It healed completely in the blink of an eye.
Yet, the excruciating agony of having her muscles and bones pierced and torn apart didn't fade from her mind. If anything, because the usually slow healing process was forcefully compressed into a single instant, the phantom pain was even sharper and more violently intense.
I can't stay here! I can't just stand still!
Fighting through the heart-stopping pain, she charged deep into the dense jungle, desperately trying to use the massive tree trunks for cover against the lethal arrows that could come from anywhere.
The dense jungle was dark. Branches and leaves constantly whipped and scratched against the girl's seemingly delicate cheeks and arms.
CLANG!
Another deafening, sharp metallic crack rang out.
An almost entirely silent arrow was deflected by the broad flat of her greatsword by the narrowest of margins. The massive kinetic force tore the skin between Miyuki's thumb and index finger, instantly numbing her entire arm and nearly tearing the weapon from her grasp.
But nearly wasn't entirely.
I can't disappoint Master!
The words Himeko had spoken when handing her the Sunfire Greatsword—a symbol of trust and inheritance—seemed to echo in her ears, granting the girl the courage to fight desperately for her life.
I can't disappoint Yuno!
Her best friend's constant support and encouragement were the only warmth she could clearly feel right now amidst the agonizing pain.
And Principal Theresa, who's watching the broadcast, and Miss Elysia, who's a guest commentator... they're all watching me!
If I just fall down here...
The terror brought on by that thought far outweighed the physical agony tearing through her body.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Relying entirely on the muscle memory drilled into her through brutal training, Miyuki swung her greatsword again and again, parrying the sudden, lethal arrows flying at her from the shadows.
She kept forcing her legs to move, desperately trying to reverse-engineer the enemy's location by tracking the trajectory of the arrows.
Unfortunately, it was useless.
The sheer gap in skill between her and a legendary hero couldn't be bridged by willpower alone. Semi-transparent arrows, formed entirely of Honkai energy, silently threaded the needle through the gaps in the leaves, striking their target with terrifying precision.
BOOOOM—!
As if struck by an invisible, multi-ton sledgehammer—carrying enough terrifying kinetic force to casually punch through a Titan Mech—Miyuki's body was sent violently tumbling backward for dozens of meters.
She crashed through several umbrella-thick trees along the way. Her internal organs screamed and shuddered. Thankfully, she managed to jam the Sunfire Greatsword into the dirt, dragging a long trench through the ground to stop her momentum and keep herself from entirely collapsing.
"Sorry about this. For a girl who looks so pampered, you've got an incredible amount of backbone..."
Baiheng's voice drifted out from an unknown direction, carrying a trace of genuine apology. "If this were any other time, I might have dragged this out a bit longer just to see where your absolute limits lie."
"But the commotion coming from the Celestial Phoenix's arena next door is just too massive. It's making me itch to go see what's happening. Plus, I can sense one of my old friends nearby."
Her tone suddenly dropped, turning freezing cold. It was the solemn chill of an apex predator preparing to deliver the killing blow. "So I want to wrap this up as quickly as possible. Even if I can't participate, I at least want to go watch the show and catch up with that stubborn block of ice."
THWIP! THWIP!
The speed at which new wounds appeared was actually faster than the shrieking sound of the arrows tearing through the air. Even though Miyuki barely managed to parry the first shot, the second arrow completely obliterated her entire right leg. Losing her balance, she slammed into the ground, splashing up a massive spray of mud mixed with her own blood.
Celestial... Phoenix? An old friend?
What is she talking about?
A massive wave of chaotic noise erupted from the grandstands, answering part of the young girl's confusion.
"Look at the net! The legendary Celestial Phoenix has actually returned!"
"Oh my god! She's right next door! Her match is happening at the exact same time as this one!"
"Dammit! If I had known, I would have bought tickets for that arena! Now look at me, stuck here watching a totally one-sided beatdown!"
"Is it too late to leave and head over there now?!"
"The Luofu security locked down the corridors! They said it would cause a stampede!"
"AAAAAAHH I REGRET THIS SO MUCH! Not only did I lose all my money on this bet, but I'm missing out on witnessing a once-in-a-millennium historical event!"
Just like that, almost every single person's attention was dragged away by the earth-shattering news next door. Nobody cared anymore about the doomed, one-sided match happening below them.
But they quickly realized that no matter how much they complained, it was useless. They were trapped here.
And so, an utterly irrational, toxic malice began to sprout and spread through the stands like poisonous vines. The target was the unlucky girl on the stage who had wasted their precious time.
"This is so pathetic to watch! Just forfeit already!"
"A rookie who isn't even an official Valkyrie actually thought she could beat one of the legendary High-Cloud Quintet? Keep dreaming!"
"She got incredibly lucky and awakened a natural Stigmata, and now she thinks she's somebody important?"
"I heard she even has a crush on that Fuli guy from Hyperion."
"Her? Ptooey! As if she deserves him!"
The fiercely malicious mockery and degrading insults acted like countless frozen, poisoned needles, piercing directly into Miyuki Asakura's ears.
The arrows never stopped coming. The speed at which new, horrific injuries appeared on her body was staggering.
The power of the Deva Path Stigmata constantly repaired the young girl's body, but the agonizing, tearing sensation of flesh being destroyed followed instantly by the maddening, creeping itch of hyper-regeneration was enough to shatter her fragile mind.
"Master... Yuno..."
She desperately tried to protect her vital organs, curling into a ball. Her cherry-blossom pink hair, matted with mud and blood, hung in a messy tangle, covering most of her face and hiding the utter, overflowing despair in her eyes.
"Tch. Fickle crowd."
Hidden somewhere in the canopy, Baiheng frowned slightly. She was clearly incredibly disgusted by the audience kicking a person while they were down.
It was true. When the eyes of the world were focused on the absolute center of the stage, naturally, no one would notice whose desperate, throat-tearing screams were buried in the background noise.
But that didn't make her waver. She merely looked down at the trembling figure below and spoke again, her voice clear and entirely calm: "Give up, little girl. There's no point in continuing this."
The Deva Path's regeneration was comparable to the First Zeroth Power of the Abyss Flower. With Miyuki desperately shielding her vitals, given Baiheng's currently simulated state, it would actually take a while to permanently put her down.
"..."
Miyuki's fingers unconsciously dug deeply into the mud. She didn't respond.
So Baiheng decided to use words.
"That companion of yours, her name is Yuno, right?" She seemed able to perceive the situation outside the arena, accurately pointing out Yuno's presence. "Yuno cares about you a lot. Your relationship seems pretty good. Are you best friends?"
"...Yeah," the girl squeezed out a hoarse reply from the back of her throat.
"Well, you're both hosts of Creation-sequence abilities. It's perfectly normal to be naturally drawn to each other and develop a good relationship," Baiheng explained reasonably, trying to persuade her gently. "Even if it's just to stop her from worrying about you, why not forfeit? From the looks of it, you don't have any tricks left anyway. As for those idiots screaming in the stands, just treat their words like farts in the wind. In my eyes, the fact that you've managed to hold on this long makes you ten thousand times stronger than any of them."
Miyuki instantly froze, her entire body stiffening as if struck by an invisible bolt of lightning.
She didn't hear a single word of the second half of the sentence. She just stared blankly ahead and asked, "Naturally... drawn to each other?"
"Hm? You didn't know?"
Baiheng seemed slightly surprised, but then shrugged nonchalantly. "Going by the common sense of this era that was uploaded into my head, it's basically like the concept of 'Stand Users attract other Stand Users.' People with similar ability affinities are naturally far more likely to become friends than ordinary people."
Yuno became my friend...
Just because our abilities are similar?
The moment that thought sprouted, it acted like the most vicious, fatal curse imaginable, violently twisting and ballooning uncontrollably inside Miyuki's chaotic, breaking mind.
CRACK!
The tiny, fragile pillar of mental support she had desperately built—founded entirely on the care and encouragement of her best friend—let out a sickening sound as it finally, completely shattered.
The ambient, ownerless Honkai energy in the air began to violently surge, rapidly converging toward the pink-haired girl curled on the ground.
---||---