Bronya watched Kiana make a fuss while munching on sunflower seeds beside her. A battlefield of love. Fun. Time to watch the show.
Thinking it had nothing to do with her, Bronya happily enjoyed the spectacle. But soon, she would be unable to keep eating popcorn—tonight.
Duel Through Time
That night, Bronya, Mei, and Kiana moved according to the markers displayed on the top of the box.
After school, they had suddenly noticed that the previously unremarkable box lid had developed something resembling a radar.
Curious, they followed the signals displayed on the radar and headed toward the marked points of light.
One area on the radar particularly intrigued them. A cluster of light points had gathered there, as if a party were being held. Compared to the scattered points around it, it was especially eye-catching.
Since they were interested in the points of light, they naturally had to go to where there were the most.
The group followed the radar's guidance to that mysterious area. Before they even arrived, they heard endless screams coming from there.
Several students at the scene stared gravely at a woman with an unusual style, as though they were guarding against the final boss.
A pile of "corpses" lay at their feet!
Bai Chen was sweating buckets. There were noticeably more people today, and after taking down a few of them, even his hands were getting sore.
Why had Bai Chen only defeated a few people when so many "bodies" were lying on the ground?
Because while he had been dueling others, the students present had been unable to restrain themselves and started dueling on their own. More than half the people on the ground had actually been taken out by each other.
The few people still standing and confronting him had all survived that round of mutual slaughter.
Who knew whether they had misunderstood something? After winning, they had even taken away their opponents' Dignity!
Bai Chen could only say it had been a helpless measure for the mission. But what were they doing?!
At that moment, he felt that he might have set a rather bad precedent.
"Who's next?"
Bai Chen was already in too deep to back out, so he could only put on an act.
"Bronya will be next."
The students around them froze.
Bronya eagerly stepped forward and took out her deck. She had carefully studied the rules of this thing during the day!
"Bronya?!"
When Bai Chen saw Bronya and the two people behind her, his soul nearly left his body. He had never planned on taking Bronya's Dignity!
With his energy already drained by the gauntlet of duels, and now facing Bronya, who was especially skilled at games...
This time, his Dignity was going to be taken instead!
Then Bai Chen noticed Kiana's gaze gradually turning dangerous. All the trouble he had caused while wearing her face had been exposed!
"No! I'll be the next one to duel! It's getting late. Before tonight is over, I must personally reclaim my Dignity!"
The student council president suddenly jumped out and stopped Bronya from stealing her target.
Just as Bronya was preparing to wait for the next round, several people jumped out and interrupted their conversation.
"Wait! I got here before all of you, so I should be first! It's not just you who had your Dignity taken!"
"I'm going first!"
"No, I should go first!"
"Then let's all go at once!"
Someone said that amid the chaos. Everyone present froze. Only the last one standing deserved to have Dignity!
"Fine!"
Without another thought, they did not even seek Bai Chen's consent before throwing out their cards!
Seeing that this first duel had a special mode, Bronya became interested as well and decisively threw out her prepared cards.
Watching the situation unfold, Bai Chen drew his cards with sweat pouring down his face. In a daze, he saw something like fighting spirit rising from those people's bodies!
No!
Bai Chen rubbed his eyes and realized he had not seen wrong!
There really was a kind of gas visible only to him rising from their bodies!
Several streams of that aura surged straight into his body. The instant they entered, the special flames within Bai Chen burst out of control.
!
It was his first time encountering such a situation, and Bai Chen was clearly stunned.
"Bai Chen?"
Noticing that something was wrong with Bai Chen, Bronya immediately put away her deck and quickly moved to his side, preparing to check on him.
Bai Chen felt no pain. Instead, he felt as though a blockage that had clogged him up for days had suddenly been cleared, bringing an incredible sense of relief.
It was just that because it had been blocked for so long, Bai Chen could not control that feeling for a moment.
"?"
The students absorbed in playing cards finally noticed something was wrong. Why was he suddenly covered in flames while playing cards? Had he drunk too much Jiaduobao?
By the way, why were there two students who looked like Kiana here? The Kiana standing with Mei, with her face uncovered, had to be the real Kiana. Then the one who had been playing cards with them for the past few days...
Bai Chen was becoming less and less able to control the surging sensation inside him. A massive silver curtain of light suddenly appeared behind Bronya and moved toward Bai Chen!
"Bronya!"
Bai Chen cried out and rushed forward, grabbing Bronya's arm and throwing her to the side.
Almost the next second, the silver curtain enveloped Bai Chen and vanished from where it stood.
Bai Chen disappeared along with it.
"Little Bai!"
Kiana frowned tightly as she stared at the place where Bai Chen had disappeared, but she could not find a single clue there.
This time, Kiana was not as panicked. Bai Chen had run into this kind of accident so many times that she was getting used to it.
She was only a little worried now. Bai Chen would return safely every time, right?
On Bai Chen's side, the instant he was enveloped by the curtain of light, he felt a force dragging him somewhere.
Bai Chen instinctively felt that if he allowed this force to drag him away, he might leave the Honkai world just like that!
The ability he had tried to activate for so long without success had suddenly made a major move today!
He could not leave this world yet! At the very least, before Himeko was completely safe, he would not simply walk away!
As Bai Chen resisted with all his might, the force gradually weakened as well. After all, that power was ultimately under his control.
As that force disappeared, light suddenly appeared before Bai Chen's eyes. In the distance stood an incomparably huge tree radiating a mysterious glow!
Then, amid a bout of shaking, Bai Chen lost consciousness. With the help of the box in his pocket, which emitted a faint blue glow, his unconscious body gradually drifted toward a mysterious region.
"Are you all right, classmate? Sleeping here will make you catch a chill easily."
Afterward, Bai Chen saw a short-haired girl who made people want to cherish her. Her black short hair had blue inner highlights, and her pair of azure eyes were as beautiful as a glowing sea.
"Seele?"
This World
"Do you know me?"
Seele asked softly and timidly. She looked somewhat worried that Bai Chen would not dare approach because of his shyness, and it inevitably stirred Bai Chen's protective instincts.
Though Seele was actually a few months older than him.
The Second Honkai Eruption had broken out in early 2000. Bronya had been born in the middle of that year, while Seele had been born two months after Bronya...
All right, she was the youngest among the main cast.
Bai Chen did not immediately answer Seele's question. He first looked around and discovered that he was actually inside St. Freya Academy.
If it were not for the daylight and the impossible sight of Seele appearing before him, he would truly have thought he had not traveled through time at all.
Now that he had confirmed his surroundings...
It was time to test Seele.
"I do know Seele, but I'm not sure whether you're the Seele I'm looking for."
The instant Bai Chen spoke, Seele visibly shrank back a step.
Why was this obviously frail-looking kid saying something so strange right away? What did he mean, he was not sure whether she was the one he was looking for?
Bai Chen did not care about such minor details at all. He had no intention of hiding anything if the Seele before him was truly the Seele from the main world.
He had to take her back, let her and Bronya find Cocolia, and give Cocolia the ultimate humiliation!
"Were you not the Seele who disappeared after participating in the orphanage experiments with Bronya?"
Bai Chen asked Seele.
The moment Seele heard those words, her vigilance instantly shot to its peak!
Until not long ago, Seele had been trapped in a void-like space, so lonely that she could barely endure it.
But an accident had occurred then. A purplish-pink ball of light had descended like a meteor, blasting a hole straight through her emo space!
The powerful turbulence that followed had swept her into this strange world.
And now, a suspicious boy who seemed to know about her past had appeared. This guy was suspicious in every possible way!
"Seele, let me take over! That brat is definitely not right. He definitely wants to do something to you!"
Black Seele urgently said from within Seele. She could indeed sense a power from Bai Chen that could threaten them.
"But he has an aura that feels familiar."
Seele hesitated. That aura felt as familiar as Bronya's.
If she let her other self come out, then a fight would break out even if there had been no reason to fight before.
"It looks like you really are the Seele they were looking for. Bronya has been searching for you for a long time."
By observing Seele's reactions, Bai Chen knew that this was the Seele he had been looking for, not some similar person from a World Bubble.
Knowing he had found the right person, Bai Chen relaxed and smiled. He had thought he would need to wait for some plot point to save Seele, but now it seemed he could complete the mission early.
"Bronya? You know Bronya?"
Hearing Bai Chen say Bronya's name, and hearing him call her Big Sister just like she did, Seele unconsciously lowered her guard a little.
"Idiot! Since he knows about the experiments, he obviously knows your Bronya too! He's trying to get close to you!"
Seeing this little fool trust someone so easily, Black Seele was furious and wished she could come out right now...
And take Seele away!
Nonsense. She was not stupid. Although the brat before them looked younger than her, the dangerous aura he carried was no joke!
"Let's walk and talk."
Bai Chen felt that standing around in one spot was rather boring, so he planned to take a walk around the school first.
Along the way, Bai Chen told Seele about Bronya's life after Seele had disappeared, as well as the awful things Cocolia had done.
He also wildly embellished and altered the story. For example, after Seele had left, Bronya had lost the love of her life and watched everything around her crumble.
Cocolia had instantly become a deranged lunatic, sacrificing countless lives to revive Seele!
Those heavily altered stories left Seele completely bewildered. She even thought a little shyly that perhaps she was that important to everyone.
"So, I actually came to take you back this time."
Although this incident had been purely accidental, since he had encountered Seele, Bai Chen's objective naturally changed.
Bai Chen had now discovered that he could use the power of the Dimensional Wall in a simple way. He could not travel freely through it like Brother Xiao Ming, but he should at least be able to perform basic spatial travel.
However, because he had just released that power once, he could not use the Dimensional Wall ability right now. After sleeping for a while, he should probably be able to use it again.
Haha, when they returned this time, he would definitely give Bronya a surprise.
"Huh? Really? Then can we go back tomorrow?"
Having unconsciously come to trust Bai Chen, Seele asked excitedly.
My other self, did you hear that? That's great! We can go back tomorrow!
"I know, I know. You're really noisy... Just be careful, all right?"
Annoyed by Seele's chatter, Black Seele replied helplessly.
"Right, have you met a white-haired man? He gives off the feeling of an ice pop that only speaks in riddles."
Bai Chen recalled Kevin's image in his mind.
Before you continue