I, Matou Sakura, Third of the Flame-Chasers! Chapter 2

Her still-functional left arm twitched slightly, then she took five bugs from her clothes.

Of course, they were dead. It would be disastrous if Old Worm could locate her through the bugs, so she had crushed them to death in advance while still at the Matou Family estate and taken certain precautions.

She had brought a total of five bugs from the Matou Family. They were admittedly ugly, but they possessed relatively pure Magic Power. After all, they were bugs used for modification—having no Magic Power would make no sense.

Just as before, she tossed them into her mouth, bit down, and swallowed them.

Divine Sound activated once more, urging her starving body to devour the shattered remains of the bugs, absorb their Magic Power, and turn it into energy to keep her body running.

Then, her left hand clamped tightly around her right arm, which had already begun to swell and rot.

Matou Sakura's expression did not change. Then she suddenly exerted force, tearing off her swollen, rotten right arm. Gritting her teeth, she directed the energy transformed from the bugs toward repairing the severed stump.

The gushing blood gradually slowed. Flesh buds writhed, rapidly growing from the wound, squirming and fusing together.

Haha...

She panted heavily, then adjusted her breathing once more.

Due to the massive blood loss, Matou Sakura's face had turned a frightening shade of pale.

All the energy from the five bugs had been used to repair the stump of her right arm, even overdrawing some of her body's vitality.

Her condition was terrible now. She urgently needed to replenish her energy.

She slowly rose to her feet, bracing her incomplete left arm against a nearby tree to keep her balance.

Though she was extremely weak, she still kept herself absolutely calm.

She had encountered worse situations in the Honkai World before—far worse than this.

Before becoming a Fusion Warrior, especially when she had been sent to the operating table, she had possessed only a head and a mutilated torso. Her limbs had long since been devoured by that pack of white Beasts.

So this was nothing.

Still, looking back on that not-so-distant past, it was almost laughable that the cowardly person she had once been had managed to come so far.

No system, no old grandpa, nothing at all. Just an ordinary person who had somehow arrived on Twilight Street. If it hadn't been for her help, she would have long since...

Forget it. She did not want to mention her right now.

Her swaying body continued onward in another direction.

Though she had dealt with the bloodstains along the way here, it would be best to leave from somewhere else to avoid any potential trouble.

According to the memories of the original body—Tohsaka Sakura—there should be a convenience store if she went out in this direction.

Though her body swayed, her steps remained incomparably firm.

Suddenly, a voice rang out in her mind.

"System loading..."

"What the hell!?"

It was still that small forest, only deeper within it.

Matou Sakura sat atop a branch about as thick as Kalpas's arm. Her face was still pale, but the weakness had vanished from her black eyes, replaced by a bright gleam.

She looked at the virtual screen before her—her system.

It sure came late.

If she were still in the Honkai World, even after becoming a Fusion Warrior, then with a system, while she could not claim a hundred percent certainty, she would at least have had even odds of defeating Finality—and perhaps even letting Elysia survive!

Thinking of that pink-haired girl, she could not help tightening her only remaining left hand.

Elysia, Sakura, Ling...

To her and the others, they were regrets that could never be casually erased.

Not even Mobius could do that!

And beyond them, there were far too many other regrets.

It was not as though she had never thought of changing those fates, but those damned fates had seemed impossible to alter.

That woman had tried to dissuade her. Even she, who knew fate, had been powerless to change it, much less Sakura at the time.

Man could conquer heaven?

That was nothing but a joke.

She possessed tremendous power and had been entrusted with the hopes of some people, yet back then... she could do nothing.

This was not a game. It was not as though entering the right password would grant someone immense power.

Helplessness, sorrow—there was far too much of it, so much that her heart had gone numb.

Even if it had come late, she did not want to say anything more.

Hope lay before her, right in her own hands.

Just as that bastard had said, no matter the price, they would ultimately defeat Honkai!

"System exchange commencing."

The cold voice slowly sounded, and the virtual screen before her began to change.

Although the system had appeared, she still needed to offer something to fully activate it and make it serve her!

"Humanity."

Her icy voice carried not the slightest emotion as the progress bar in her vision slowly began to rise.

Forty percent? She truly had not expected that she still possessed so-called humanity. Before and after Ling and Sakura's deaths, she had no idea how many humans she had killed.

After Ling died, even Kalpas had only killed those involved in murdering Ling.

Yet she had killed half of the upper ranks, destroyed a quarter of The Abyss, and was then stopped by Kevin, Su, Hua, and Kalpas together, even being locked inside the so-called Prison.

Heh... how ridiculous.

So what would she have to offer next?

Or rather, what did she still have left to offer?

The system would not accept just anything in exchange.

Clothes, hair, and such were completely unacceptable.

Otherwise, she would not even have minded giving up this body's so-called first time.

But now, she could be said to have nothing at all.

As if understanding her worries, the system suddenly displayed a window.

"Heh..."

Matou Sakura let out a cold laugh, then raised her right hand and violently pressed it against the virtual pop-up before her.

The virtual screen vanished, replaced by an entirely new one. At the same time, a familiar voice rang out in her mind.

Elysia?!

Kryptonian Bloodline

It was now noon, when the sun was at its fiercest.

Matou Sakura stood atop a tree, gazing directly at the sun in the sky that brought light and heat to all things in the world.

The surrounding trees were bathed in sunlight, yet there was little light around her.

The light shining upon Matou Sakura seemed to be swallowed by an invisible black hole, leaving nothing behind.

And that was indeed the case.

The instant sunlight touched her body, it transformed into her energy, wonderful power filling her frail body.

A wound split open on her incomplete right arm, and blood began to spill out again—but this time was different.

The surrounding light gradually faded, frantically devoured by the petite figure standing atop the tree.

The light became the purest energy, continuously surging and flowing through her small body.

Flesh began to grow, spreading along with newly formed bones.

Before long, a brand-new arm had taken shape, as tender as that of a newborn infant.

And this was only the beginning.

Feeling the power surging through her body, an intense longing appeared on Matou Sakura's youthful face.

It was a longing for power.

Only those who had once possessed power could truly understand its wonder.

The bloodline of the Kryptonians was truly terrifying.

Still, she had never expected the system's Newbie Gift Pack to be such an enormous gift.

Her body continued absorbing light. With herself as the center, everything within a radius of roughly five meters was dim.

The sun was clearly overhead, yet its light could not reach this place.

As Solar Energy entered her body and strengthened it, the cells that had once lain dormant gradually awakened.

Like beasts that had starved for ages, they eagerly opened their savage jaws and frantically devoured the Solar Energy pouring into her body.

Her infant-like arm gradually grew, rapidly becoming stronger at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Before long, her right arm had completely recovered.

She swung her new right hand, and the feeling of controlling it as easily as her own limb was simply wonderful.

Her incomplete body was restored at this moment, then joined in devouring Solar Energy as well.

Divine Sound quietly echoed in her heart. Every cell in her body moved according to her will, devouring the Solar Energy emitted by the sun even more frantically.

The immense Solar Energy was enough to kill a person instantly, but for Matou Sakura, who now possessed a Kryptonian Bloodline, it remained within an acceptable range.

Washed by Solar Energy, her frail body became stronger and healthier.

The exhaustion from using Divine Sound earlier rapidly recovered under the effects of Solar Energy and was further strengthened.

Her body gradually grew. Strengthening her body also accelerated its development, and her once well-fitting clothes became tight. Before long, the sound of fabric tearing rang out.

But at this moment, Matou Sakura had no attention to spare for any of that. She kept chanting Divine Sound's obscure, difficult cadence in her heart, stimulating her brain and body so that every cell within her desperately devoured the endless Solar Energy, accelerating her body's evolution.

Superman had spent more than a decade obtaining the power worthy of being called the God of Humanity. She could not wait that long.

She simply could not leave her body to absorb Solar Energy on its own like Superman did.

Through Divine Sound's stimulation of her brain and body, she could easily mobilize every cell in her body, even every drop of blood, keeping them active at every moment and using all their strength to absorb the Solar Energy drifting through the air, shortening as much as possible the more than ten years Clark had spent.

Her breathing changed. Even though Divine Sound had already mobilized every cell and drop of blood in her body, maintaining her body's maximum rate of absorption for the dense Solar Energy, she still felt it was far from enough.

The change in her breathing also stimulated her cells' vitality, pushing cells already in an overloaded state even further. If the Solar Energy she absorbed had not simultaneously strengthened her body, her blood would likely have burst by now, leaving her severely injured!

Who knew how much time had passed? The sun's radiance had gradually begun to dim.

A warm shade of yellow quietly emerged from the clouds.

Her strange breathing gradually settled. Matou Sakura quietly opened her eyes and broke into a brilliant smile.

Having power felt wonderful!

Surging power continuously coursed through her body. Now, she could effortlessly crush her former self to death. She would not even need to lift a hand—one breath would be enough to kill who she had once been. Even that Old Worm was nothing more than that!

Tonight, she would go find that guy.

She imagined he was equally desperate to find her and grind her bones to dust!

The ripples in her heart gradually calmed. She lowered her head and looked at the large expanse of snow-white skin exposed on her body.

Absorbing Solar Energy had accelerated her body's development. Although she was only five years old, her body was not much different from that of an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl.

Especially the pair of snowy peaks on her chest—they looked to be at the level of a sixteen-year-old girl.

Perhaps that was not quite the right way to describe it, but they were probably about half of Elysia's.

"What a bother."