"Damn... they really wouldn't let go." Ishiu glanced at the sea of tentacles behind him from the corner of his eye, dodging several more attacks as anxiety continued to build in his heart.
He had already given it everything he had, yet he still could not shake those things. There was only a short distance left to the boundary. Normally, he could cross that distance in the blink of an eye, but now, he could not even guarantee that he could get Seele there safely.
But even if he could not do it, he still had to try. Even if it meant sending Seele back alone...
At that critical moment, Ishiu silently made his decision. He reached into his clothes and pulled a dagger gleaming with a cold light from the inner pocket against his chest.
It was the birthday gift Bronya had given him. Ishiu loved the dagger and often took it out to practice with it. He had even learned some basic dagger fighting techniques from Bronya. He usually treasured it dearly, but now was the time to use it.
Ishiu changed the way he moved. Instead of weaving left and right to evade the tentacles, he pushed off with his feet and began sprinting forward with his head down.
The shortest distance between two points was a straight line. To ensure Seele's safety, Ishiu could no longer afford to advance at such a slow pace. He feared that the next second, the tide of tentacles filling the sky would swallow him whole.
However, while running this way increased his speed, it also meant he would be unable to dodge the tentacles directly ahead.
Ishiu gripped the dagger tightly in one hand while reaching behind himself with the other, grabbing Seele by the collar and forcibly pulling her into his arms.
"Ishiu-gege?" Seele looked bewildered. Instinctively, she clutched the front of Ishiu's clothes. With nowhere else to put her legs, she could only wrap them around his waist in a rather embarrassing position.
Ishiu pressed his lips tightly together and said nothing.
Almost there. He was almost there.
Just then, three tentacles, whistling through the air, reached Ishiu's back.
Ishiu's gaze sharpened. He reversed his grip on the dagger with his left hand and stabbed backward without even turning his head.
The sharp dagger pierced through all three tentacles. The severed tentacles dissolved like foam, turning into countless specks of starlight that scattered through the air.
Then even more tentacles surged toward him, like a giant fishing net crashing down over his head.
"Fuck!"
Ishiu cursed under his breath. He hesitated no longer. There was no way he could dodge this attack. That meant there was only one thing left to do.
"Ishiu-gege!"
Seele felt a tremendous force yank at her arm. Like a discarded doll, she was violently thrown by Ishiu into the rainbow-colored glow.
"No! No! Ishiu-gege! You liar! You promised you'd go back with Seele!"
Seele screamed louder than she ever had in her life. Her face was filled with shock and grief. Like a kitten about to be abandoned by its owner, she desperately reached for Ishiu, trying to return to the embrace that had made her feel so warm and safe.
Yet within that rainbow-colored glow, she felt an enormous pulling force from above dragging her away, as if it intended to pull her out of this space where she did not belong.
She screamed with all her strength until her throat seemed about to go hoarse. Tears once again spilled uncontrollably from her eyes, forming a glistening thread through the air before landing on Ishiu's face.
"Seele... I'm sorry..." A bitter smile rose on Ishiu's face. Countless tentacles wrapped around him like the strongest ropes. He no longer had the strength to struggle and could only watch as Seele cried and screamed, growing farther and farther away.
At least Seele was safe.
"Ishiu-gege! Seele was wrong! Seele shouldn't have called you a liar! Please don't be angry with Seele! Come with Seele..."
Seele had cried herself into a sobbing mess. Her voice grew softer and softer in Ishiu's ears. He could no longer see her figure. Darkness obscured his vision, and finally...
He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into endless darkness.
Ding! Congratulations, Host. Mission completed. Random reward being drawn-- Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the skill Seven Nights Assassination Technique - Flash Sheath. Ding! Detected that Host already possesses Seven Nights Assassination Technique - Flash Step. Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the complete Seven Nights Assassination Technique.
Dead Apostle Ancestor
Am I... dead?
Ishiu did not know what state he was in. In his last memories, he seemed to have been wrapped in endless darkness, and even his consciousness had become hazy.
Within such a space, he could no longer tell how much time had passed. It was as though time itself had become meaningless.
Yet at a time like this, the clearest memories in his mind were the two times he had faced death.
The first was when he had been struck by a car in his previous life. Lying on the cold ground, he watched the heavy wheels roll over his chest. Intense pain spread throughout his body, and he could only watch helplessly as his blood flowed across the ground.
The warmth in his body gradually faded, like Death's embrace lingering around him.
Until his consciousness finally sank into darkness.
The other time was when he had been caught by those tentacles.
Compared to his previous experience, this time he had not even felt pain—he had not felt anything at all. Yet Ishiu instinctively sensed that those seemingly gentle tentacles were something even more dangerous than death.
This continued for an unknown length of time until a light finally appeared in that deep, dark space. His consciousness almost instinctively drifted toward it. The light grew brighter and brighter...
Finally, he opened his eyes.
"Mm... an unfamiliar ceiling..."
Ishiu stared blankly at the wooden ceiling above him. He had been awake for half an hour. Though he had been confused at first, as time passed, the memories in his mind gradually returned, and he remembered what he had done before.
"Seele..."
Ishiu muttered her name. He did not know where he was, but it was at least not the Orphanage. He was lying in a bed, wrapped layer upon layer in bandages, unable to move at all like a mummy.
"Where is this, anyway?" Ishiu turned his head and looked around. He found himself in a perfectly ordinary room. The furniture and decorations looked no different from those in an ordinary teenage boy's room.
"Right... I think those tentacles caught me, and then... So this is the Sea of Quantum? It doesn't really look like it..." Ishiu's mind was full of questions, but he was wrapped up like a mummy and could not even move.
Pain also pulsed through every part of his body, just like... the injuries he had suffered in the laboratory.
"Right, before I passed out, I think I heard the system." As if remembering something, Ishiu hurriedly focused his mind on the system in his head. Checking the message history, he saw the notifications that had sounded at the very end.
"Whew... Looks like Seele is safe. Damn, it really gave me Flash Sheath this time? Doesn't that mean I'm about to take off?"
Ishiu immediately became excited. Not only did he know that Seele was safe, but he had finally obtained the complete Seven Nights Assassination Technique.
The wonders of Flash Step had already helped Ishiu tremendously. With Flash Sheath added to it, it was undoubtedly like adding wings to a tiger. Besides, they were originally part of the same system. Their combined power was far more than simple addition.
Both excited and nervous, Ishiu extracted Seven Nights Assassination Technique - Flash Sheath in the System Space. In an instant, a massive flood of memories poured into his mind. This was already the second time, so it was much easier for Ishiu to receive them. Moreover, Flash Sheath and Flash Step shared many similarities, making the process practically effortless.
Very quickly, the memories of Flash Sheath were completely implanted into Ishiu's mind and perfectly merged with Flash Step. Ishiu had now obtained the complete Seven Nights Assassination Technique.
After examining the memories related to the Seven Nights Assassination Technique, Ishiu could not help but praise it. This technique truly surpassed the limits of ordinary people. If his current self fought the version of himself from before he had obtained the complete Seven Nights Assassination Technique, Ishiu was confident he could easily kill his former self in a single move.
However, while examining those memories, Ishiu always felt that there was something extra in his mind. It was as though those things had been blocked behind a door. He could not directly retrieve the information and needed to seriously "open the door" first.
With a little curiosity, Ishiu slowly extended his consciousness into that "door." Then, in the very next second, his eyes felt as though they had caught fire. He instinctively shut them, veins bulging on his forehead. It took quite some time before the burning pain gradually faded.
But when Ishiu opened his eyes again, he was shocked to discover that the world before him had changed beyond recognition.
In Ishiu's vision, everything was divided apart by countless intersecting lines.
Those thin lines, like cracks, looked as though a child had taken a pencil and scribbled across a sheet of paper at random.
They were on the ceiling, on the walls, on the furniture, and even on the bed beneath him.
"What is this..." Ishiu looked at the suddenly transformed world in disbelief. The sensation was strange. In his field of vision, those crooked lines made everything look like dolls forcibly pieced together.
It gave him an inexplicable illusion—that if he simply traced those lines with a light stroke, the whole world would instantly collapse and fall apart.
No... perhaps it was not an illusion.
"Did I just... put in colored contacts?"
Ishiu looked at the mirror on the bedside table. It reflected his current appearance.
His former black-and-white eyes had disappeared, replaced by icy blue rings of light, with vividly rainbow-colored pupils at their centers.
That was way too anime.
Ishiu had once taken pride in his simple black hair and eyes while looking at the colorful hair and eyes of the children around him. He had never expected that one day, he would become like this too.
Ishiu stared blankly for a long time before finally coming back to himself and beginning to consider why he had turned out like this.
However, he had no leads whatsoever, and there was no information from the system either. After thinking for a long time without figuring anything out, Ishiu simply stopped thinking about it. For now, his eyes were basically just like wearing colored contacts, and the world he saw had changed a little. It was not a big problem. He could accept that.
After all, the most important thing was that he had survived.
(PS: To keep anyone from getting confused, here's a quick explanation. The protagonist is currently in a World Bubble within the Sea of Quantum, something like a Parallel World. Anyone who has played the main story of Honkai Impact 3rd should understand. The protagonist's Dead Apostle Ancestor also came from the Root, but that will remain a mystery for now and be explained later.)
Bronya: Ishiu, I'm Here to Break Off the Engagement!
Ishiu spent half the day studying his new eyes before finally figuring out how to use them. With a single thought, he could change them back, which made him breathe a sigh of relief. After all, he did not want to keep looking at a world that seemed as though it would break with the slightest touch.
Click.
Just as Ishiu was lost in thought, the door to his room opened, and a petite figure walked in.
When Ishiu saw who it was, he froze for a moment. Then he shut his eyes, violently shook his head, and opened them again.
He almost suspected that he was seeing things.
But no matter how many times he closed and opened his eyes, the person before him did not change at all. She was exactly like the person in his memories, even her expression matching with ninety-nine point nine-nine percent accuracy.
"Bronya..." Ishiu blankly spoke the visitor's name.
That was right. The person who had suddenly walked in was none other than Bronya, the person Ishiu knew best.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" A look of disgust appeared on Bronya's face. Her voice was still familiar, cool and clear with a slight childish softness.
Even that expression had the same feel to it.
"Bronya, I, you... Seele, how is Seele? Did she get back safely? And where is this? Are your legs better now?" If he had not been wrapped up like a rice dumpling, Ishiu probably would have leaped straight out of bed.
He could not help being excited. He had thought he was finished after being dragged into the Sea of Quantum, but against all expectations, it seemed he had returned?
However, faced with Ishiu's barrage of questions, Bronya took a slight step back, widening the distance between them. Then she frowned at him. "What nonsense are you talking about? Qiye Ishiu, did a Honkai Beast smash your brain stupid? And who is Seele? Some new girlfriend you met?"
"...Huh?"
Ishiu was completely dumbfounded.
"You really are hopeless. Fine, I'll help you one last time. After this, there will be nothing between us anymore. I'll also go to the Grand Elder and dissolve our engagement. Trash like you isn't worthy of Bronya." After saying this with an annoyed expression, Bronya turned and left without looking back. No matter how Ishiu called after her, she ignored him.
In the end, Ishiu was left alone in the room, staring wide-eyed and unable to understand what had happened, with a stomach full of complaints and nowhere to vent them.
Only after a long while, as though he were suffering from internet lag, did he shout into the room, "Fuck! What the hell is Qiye Ishiu supposed to mean?! Your brain is the one that got smashed stupid by a Honkai Beast! And what the hell do you mean Seele is my new girlfriend?! Why not say she's my little lover?! What engagement?! How am I trash?! I'm a fine young man of the new era! Why am I not worthy of a four-foot-nine Little Pudding like you?!"
Ishiu vented alone in the room for quite a while before he finally felt much better.
After venting, he began to think.
First of all, Bronya's attitude did not seem fake. The way she had looked at him was as if he were a stranger... no, perhaps a bug would have been more accurate. And she had acted strangely too. She did not even know Seele anymore. Under those circumstances, either Ishiu had gone crazy, or Bronya's brain had short-circuited.
Over the next few days, Ishiu remained in bed recovering. Only through the maid who occasionally came to care for him did he finally learn the truth.
He was not crazy, and Bronya's brain had not short-circuited. The reason for this situation was that Ishiu had... transmigrated again.
That was right. He had transmigrated once more, and this time, his body had come with him.
His identity here was the son of the current head of the Qiye Family. However, "Qiye Ishiu" had a terrible reputation. Since childhood, he had been an arrogant, overbearing playboy. Every day, he was either harassing respectable women or gambling. In short, he never did anything proper.
The Qiye Family was the only organization in this area capable of fighting Honkai Beasts. Without them, this town would have been destroyed by Honkai Beasts long ago. That was why "Qiye Ishiu" could act so arrogantly here without getting beaten to death, all because of the Qiye Family head.
Bronya was also a member of the Qiye Family. Unlike the useless "Qiye Ishiu," who knew only how to eat, drink, and play, she was the strongest exorcist of her generation. She had once killed a Knight-class Honkai Beast alone. She was a genius among geniuses.
Yet such a genius girl had been engaged to "Qiye Ishiu" from a very young age. Because "Qiye Ishiu" was so disappointing, no one in the family aside from the Qiye Family head had a favorable impression of him. Bronya had also constantly tried to find ways to dissolve their engagement.
"Qiye Ishiu" had been injured this time because of his own arrogance and overconfidence. He had tried to kill a Honkai Beast to prove himself, only to be rammed by the lowest-ranked Charge-class Honkai Beast and nearly die on the spot.
From then on, his status within the family plummeted. Bronya took the opportunity to propose ending their engagement. Under pressure, the Qiye Family head had forcibly preserved "Qiye Ishiu's" right to inherit the position of family head, but the elders had consequently stripped him of some of his authority.
After learning all this background information, Ishiu's first reaction was that he wanted to drag that "Qiye Ishiu" out and give him a brutal beating.
What the hell was all this?!
It was already 0202. Why was he still stuck in some useless loser getting his engagement broken off trope? Was there something wrong with this author's brain?
But no matter how much Ishiu complained, he could only silently accept it. After all, he still knew very little about his current surroundings.
After more than a week of rest, Ishiu was finally able to remove the mummy-like bandages. Though his body was still somewhat uncomfortable, his recovery had been unexpectedly good.
"Ishiu, has your body recovered?"
One day, while Ishiu was in his room thinking about how to get outside, a familiar voice sounded behind him. Accompanied by the crisp sound of the door opening, a tall, mature woman walked in.
"Mom, I've recovered pretty well. Can I go out now?" Ishiu turned around and looked at that familiar face, calling her Mom without the slightest hesitation.
Before you continue