Chapter 206: Kiana's Discovery
"Is everyone alright?" The others drifted slowly over to Irene's side, looking at Anna, who lay with her eyes closed in Irene's arms, the darkness gradually fading from her body.
"For now, at least." Irene patted Anna's head. "But she took a hit from the Taixuan Sword God technique, so she's definitely going to need time to recover — especially since it was mine."
Irene's Taixuan Sword Qi differed from Fu Hua's in some key ways. Fu Hua's was the purest form of the art, targeting consciousness directly — fitting, since it derived from the Key of Consciousness itself.
For others, the technique naturally shifted to match their individual traits. Cheng Lixue's, for instance, was a continuous, flowing Sword Qi, like a steady rain.
Irene's, shaped by her identity as the Herrscher of Death, manifested as a dual strike: a black blade that stripped away vitality and shattered all defenses, and a white blade that severed the will and struck directly at the soul.
She had held back during that last attack, too. If she had swung the white blade at full force, it could very easily have caused irreparable damage to Anna.
"Good thing it didn't spiral out of control." Irene glanced down at Coral Island below. Fortunately, Anna must have retained some of her own will — otherwise she wouldn't have lifted such a massive ice island into the air.
As a Valkyrie, her core instinct was to protect ordinary people. Her consciousness had driven her to get as far away from the populated area as possible.
As for the ice island itself — maybe Anna had brought it along hoping someone would come and put a stop to her. Whether there was any real logic behind that, from someone in Anna's state at the time, was probably asking too much. Give her a break.
Managing to hold onto any semblance of self after being hijacked by the Will of the Honkai was already a remarkable feat.
That was why Anna had barely put up any real resistance throughout the entire fight. She had been waiting for someone to come and stop her. Of course she hadn't fought back.
Most of the hostile actions had probably been the Herrscher personality's instinctive resistance — but even those, Anna had been dragging back by the ankle, so they never amounted to anything threatening.
That said, it didn't hurt that the people who'd shown up were hardly a pushover bunch either. In any case, no one had gotten seriously hurt, and a clean resolution was the best outcome anyone could have asked for.
"Right, that leaves her to rest and recover. After taking a beating from all of us, getting shot by the Seven Thunders of Retribution, and having the Staff of the Netherworld cut off her Honkai energy, she's going to need a good long while."
The group descended slowly — and at that moment, a streak of light came flying in from the distance and landed hard on the ground. It was Durandal.
Durandal hit the ground and immediately spotted Anna cradled in Irene's arms. Watching Anna's chest rise and fall, she let out a quiet breath of relief.
"I was going to come over, but it looked like you wrapped things up too fast." That had genuinely been her plan — but when she saw that Anna seemed to be on the receiving end of a thorough thrashing, she'd stayed put.
Coral Island was hardly peaceful, after all. The unusual environment and the Herrscher's presence had triggered a surge of Honkai energy, spawning Honkai Beasts everywhere.
The Immortal Blades were an elite squad, but fighting Honkai Beasts born from a Herrscher's aura while simultaneously protecting civilians being dug out of the ice was no small task.
Not that they were ever in danger of taking casualties — otherwise they wouldn't be called the strongest squad. The weakest member of the Immortal Blades was already a top-tier B-Rank Valkyrie.
Each of them was one solid record of merit away from crossing into A-Rank at any time. That was the standard a squad had to meet before anyone would call it elite.
They received Schicksal's best resources as a matter of course. Every new development in arms and equipment was issued to the Immortal Blades first — partly to serve as field testers, but mostly to keep their combat capability at the peak.
Still, Durandal hadn't wanted to leave any margin for things to go wrong, so she'd spent the whole time clearing the island. Once she'd confirmed that Anna didn't seem to be causing any serious trouble, she'd kept her head down and kept sweeping. Only now, noticing the fight above had ended, had she come to check — to make sure Anna hadn't been killed.
"Don't worry, she's fine." Irene smiled at Durandal. "She just needs proper rest for a while."
"Understood." Durandal gave a nod. As long as she was alive, that was what mattered. As for the damage to Coral Island — there was nothing to be done about that. Anna herself certainly hadn't wanted to become a Herrscher.
What was strange was that this Honkai eruption had come out of nowhere. The monitoring equipment on Coral Island had detected absolutely no buildup in Honkai energy beforehand.
If there had been any warning, evacuation procedures would have begun immediately. Things never would have escalated to this point.
In that respect, Anna was a victim too. Their job was to make sure she didn't cause any real harm — and now, Irene had already seen to that.
It was at this point that Rita finally leapt down from a tall building nearby, landing beside the group. She first checked on Anna — still breathing, still alive — and let out a soft sigh of relief. Then she turned to Durandal.
"Lady Durandal, the evacuation is proceeding steadily. Thanks to Miss Irene, all the civilians who've been extracted are in stable condition."
"Good. Noted." Durandal gave a brief nod. This wasn't her area of responsibility; she just needed to be kept informed. Rita was handling the rest.
At that moment, Durandal's gaze drifted to Kiana — with a faint look of puzzlement. The reason was simple: Kiana had been staring at her ever since she'd landed.
"Is something the matter, Miss Kiana?"
"Ah — no, nothing!" Kiana shook her head, though she kept sneaking glances at Durandal with a vaguely suspicious expression. No particular reason. She just had this odd sense of familiarity.
If she hadn't just seen Cecilia earlier, maybe it wouldn't have struck her. But now — why did Durandal remind her so much of her mom?
Kiana's eyes bounced back and forth between the Abyss Flower in Durandal's hand and Durandal's face. Yeah... the resemblance was real. Honestly, if she dyed her hair white—
You could probably pass her off as Mom's daughter and people would believe it…
Hm? Mom's daughter?
Kiana, standing at the back of the group, did a full dramatic lean backwards. Had she just stumbled onto something huge? Wait, no, that couldn't be right.
If that were the case, she shouldn't be called Bianca Durandal Atazhina. She'd be named after Mom's family.
So — maybe she was a relative on Mom's side? But wait, Mom's family name was Shanat, wasn't it? What was Atazhina supposed to be?
Kiana felt her brain spinning at full speed and getting absolutely nowhere. Then what appeared to be a surge of pure Kaslana instinct kicked in.
Her gaze locked straight onto Irene. If her suspicion was right, Sister Irene would surely have the answers she was looking for.
All one could say was that the Kaslana Family's talent for outsourcing their thinking was truly something special.
"Since the evacuation is proceeding smoothly, we won't get in the way any further." Irene smiled at the two of them and moved to leave.
However, Rita suddenly spoke up: "Miss Irene, isn't this a bit improper? Anna is, after all, one of ours — just walking off with her without so much as a word doesn't seem quite right."
"Oh? And what exactly does Miss Rita suggest?" Irene turned to look at her, a flicker of something odd crossing her eyes. As far as she could recall, Rita wasn't the type to misread a situation.
The way things stood right now — were they supposed to pick a fight to get Anna back? Durandal was certainly formidable, but with this many people on their side, a group effort would be enough to pin her down.
And if they genuinely couldn't hold down this particular super-goose, Irene could always just yell for Kevin. She didn't believe for a second he'd dare not show up. And if he didn't, next time she'd bring the entire Elysian Realm to kick down his door.
Up in the air, silently watching all of this unfold, Kevin suddenly felt a chill crawl up his spine.
"Hm?" Kevin glanced around in mild confusion. Who on earth was cursing him out these days? — Actually, scratch that, there genuinely was a whole crowd of people who might be doing exactly that now.
With his current physical constitution, there was no way anything could make him shiver involuntarily. Which meant someone had absolutely just been bad-mouthing him, and probably not in a flattering way.
"Could it be Elysia?" Elysia's face flashed through Kevin's mind. She was probably the only one who'd bother thinking about him at a moment like this. He just hoped it wasn't one of her deeply embarrassing pranks.
Setting the thought aside, Kevin returned his attention to the scene below. It looked like Irene's group was in some sort of standoff with Schicksal — or perhaps negotiating something.
And from the looks of it, things weren't going smoothly. Should he go down and help?
But as the Sovereign of the World Serpent, jumping directly into the fray might not be appropriate. He'd watch a little longer.
On the ground, Rita smiled pleasantly at Irene. "Rita naturally has no wish to stop any of you. It's just that Anna is one of ours, and taking her away without a word really does seem a bit improper. After all—"
Rita gave a subtle tap to the badge on her own chest. Irene's eyes swept over the Immortal Blades insignia — and she understood Rita's meaning immediately.
Ah, right. Better go through some formality, or it'd be easy for Otto to make trouble over it.
"There's nothing much to say about it." Irene shifted Anna over to Mei's waiting arms. "Do you actually think you can stop us from leaving?"
"Don't forget — it's my ability that's keeping all the civilians stable right now."
At Irene's words, Durandal's brow furrowed slightly, as if she were about to say something — but Rita nudged her arm, and Durandal glanced at Rita once before closing her mouth and standing to the side in silence.
"Well, when you put it that way, I suppose it really is quite the tricky situation." Rita and Irene traded lines like they were running through a script together. After a couple of exchanges, Rita took a step back with Durandal in tow.
"We can let Miss Irene leave, but…"
"I know. I won't do anything to those civilians. If anything, when they wake up, they might just find themselves feeling healthier than ever."
Irene gave a nod, then turned and shot a look at Kiana. Kiana blinked, still processing — and then Sirin immediately came online, opening a portal behind the group.
Everyone turned and stepped through. Rita smiled to herself, then looked over at Durandal.
"There. Now we have something to report to Overseer Otto — though I imagine the Overseer doesn't actually need it."
Rita knew perfectly well that the two of them were never going to stop a group of Herrschers. Especially with Kevin hanging around somewhere in the vicinity and conspicuously not intervening.
And from what she could tell, Kevin and Irene were well acquainted. Under circumstances like these, there was never any realistic way to block Irene's exit.
Besides, Irene had only gotten involved to save Anna in the first place. They were friends. Attacking someone over that — regardless of whether they could win — wasn't something that could be justified on any grounds.
All they needed was to play the scene out slightly. That way, they'd have something to bring back to the Overseer. Although, given that the Overseer had already said some things didn't need handling — Rita suspected whether the report even mattered.
But having it was certainly better than not. It cost nothing but a few words.
Durandal, on the other hand, clearly hadn't quite processed what had just happened.
"Rita — was it really alright, what we just did?" Durandal scratched her head. It felt an awful lot like they'd just half-heartedly shuffled through the motions.
"What's wrong with it?" Rita smiled at her. "Come on, Lady Durandal. There are other areas that still need clearing."
"…Okay." Durandal nodded, a little blankly. Fine, she'd leave this sort of thing to Rita. Her job was just to sweep the area clean of Honkai Beasts.
As for Irene's group — they hadn't actually gone far. The portal had only opened to a nearby building. Everyone except Kiana, who was still catching up, had already seen through it: Irene and Rita had simply been acting out a scene for each other's benefit.
With their dynamic vision, Rita's deliberate gesture toward her badge had been perfectly legible. It hadn't taken much to figure out what was going on.
All for the Overseer's benefit.
Sure enough, after a short while, Kevin dropped down from the air. On a nearby rooftop, Raven and Chen Tianwu made their way over as well.
Chen Tianwu's eyes went straight to Anna, still unconscious in Mei's arms. He opened his mouth — but before he could get a word out, Irene spoke first: "She's fine. Just unconscious. She needs rest."
"If you ever have the time to drop by, you'd be welcome."
The news that Anna was alright seemed to release the tension from Chen Tianwu's shoulders. Irene then reached out and plucked the Seven Thunders of Retribution from where it had been drifting nearby, playing dead.
Raven watched this and had to cover her face with both hands. She had never — not once — handled that ancestral heirloom so casually. One wrong move, and that wretched thing would genuinely abandon you mid-combat.
Leave it floating in mid-air to follow her on its own? Not a chance. The moment she tried something like that, the Seven Thunders of Retribution would zap her — and for a good while afterward, any attempt to use it in battle would be completely futile.
"Here, this is yours." Irene held the Seven Thunders of Retribution out to Raven. It had been a loan, after all; the formality had to be observed.
Raven waved a hand, looking utterly drained of the will to care. "Keep it. It probably likes you more. That damn thing has never once…"
Before Raven could finish her sentence, the Seven Thunders of Retribution — still playing dead in Irene's hand — sent a bolt of electricity flying straight into Raven.
"...Tch." Raven twitched at the corner of her mouth, eyeing the Seven Thunders of Retribution as it turned its back on all their shared history without a second thought. That rotten thing had absolutely zero sense of loyalty.
Kevin, meanwhile, said nothing. He looked in silence at Anna, unconscious in Mei's arms. After a moment, he finally spoke: "No complications?"
"We won't know until she wakes up." Irene also glanced over at Anna. "But don't worry. There won't be complications. Have a little faith in this civilization."
"Understood. I'll look forward to the answer you give us." Kevin gave a nod. His gaze settled, at last, on the Seven Thunders of Retribution in Irene's hand.
"As for that Divine Key — consider it yours."
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