Kallen Kaslana

In the legends of the Ming Empire, no one knew how many years that immortal had guarded the Land of Shenzhou. But one thing was certain: wherever humanity had left its traces across the Land of Shenzhou, there seemed to be signs of the immortal's presence.

And she had guarded the Land of Shenzhou alone against Honkai corruption.

When she arrived on the battlefield, even the Destiny Knights who risked corruption to wield Honkai Energy Weapons were as helpless as ants before a dragon. The Honkai Energy Weapons Destiny took such pride in were as fragile as toys children played with in the immortal's hands.

In their panic, Destiny deployed their final measure.

Another lone warrior.

Destiny's strongest Valkyrie from the Kaslana family—Kallen Kaslana!

Wielding Destiny's most powerful weapon, Oath of Judah—on the same level as the Holy Judgment of Heavenly Fire, which only the head of the Kaslana family was qualified to use—she was Destiny's ultimate trump card.

When Kallen Kaslana stood upon the grasslands and faced the Divine Land Immortal, she finally realized just how much pressure the enemy before her exerted on her.

Though she did not know whether Destiny's campaign of conquest was right or wrong, faced with such a formidable enemy, she decisively cast everything else from her mind and focused on preparing for battle with the Divine Land Immortal.

However... her focus did not change the outcome in the slightest.

The Divine Land Immortal's strength had completely surpassed Kallen's. After only a few exchanges, Kallen was defeated at the immortal's hands.

The Divine Land Immortal did not make another move against her, nor did she even injure her. Yet Kallen had undeniably lost to the Divine Land Immortal—the gauntlet had been only a few centimeters from her throat at that moment.

Kallen had no doubt that if the Divine Land Immortal had not held back, she would now have been one of the corpses scattered across this battlefield.

"The weapon in your hand exists to protect humanity. Someone who has not resolved themselves to protect cannot possibly unleash its true power."

Those were the only words the guardian of Shenzhou said to Kallen.

Later, because of Destiny's human experiments, Kallen fled with the Black Box. Escaping eastward all the way, she arrived at Mount Taixu, said to be where the immortal lived, hoping the immortal could seal the Black Box away.

But when Kallen reached Mount Taixu, all she saw was devastation. The once beautiful Mount Taixu... had become a field of ruins.

And the immortal who had lived there was nowhere to be found.

Shocked, Kallen searched through the ruins of Floating Clouds Temple on Mount Taixu, hoping to find some way to suppress the Black Box she had taken from Destiny.

In the end, Kallen found a jade-green Jade Ring amid the ruins.

The moment she held it in her hand, Kallen could clearly feel the Black Box's corruption of her weaken slightly.

Later still, to evade Destiny's pursuit, Kallen could only choose to take a ship to the remote Far East...

Yae Village.

Many years had passed since Rin's death.

Under the protection of Yae Sakura, the Miko of Yae Shrine, Yae Village had continued to live and work in peace... or at least, that was how it appeared.

But what Yae Sakura did most often was remain alone, ignoring everyone in the village.

Or she would occasionally sit on an empty hillside, softly humming a simple song...

Then one day, while bathing by the river, she noticed a faint tinge of red in the water.

"...Blood?"

Following the trail of blood, Yae Sakura found a woman dressed in a black-and-white nun's habit, unconscious on the riverbank.

In the woman's arms was a black box she held tightly, with a jade-green Jade Ring firmly pressed against its surface.

"A girl?"

Perhaps out of sympathy, perhaps out of kindness, or perhaps out of a Miko's duty, Yae Sakura ultimately brought the girl in the nun's habit back to Yae Shrine.

As she bandaged the girl's wounds, she noticed the Black Box resting beside them.

And then... she picked it up.

While unconscious, Kallen heard what seemed to be voices echoing beside her ears.

"A nun?"

"Is that Kallen?! Kallen Kaslana?!"

"Save Sakura... you are the one fate has chosen for her..."

"Don't let her continue like this..."

"No... wait... this feeling is... my heart?!"

After that, Kallen heard nothing more.

When Kallen awoke from her unconsciousness, all she felt was the pain from wounds all over her body.

Those wounds had been left on her by Valkyries of Destiny, once her colleagues, when they had hunted her down.

The moment she opened her eyes and found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, Kallen warily looked around.

It was a small room. There was the quilt covering her body, and a girl in clothing known in Japan as a Miko's outfit, holding medicine and feeding it to her.

"You're awake?"

Watching the Miko feed her medicine, Kallen knocked the Miko's hand away, backing up slightly as she watched her warily.

After Kallen slapped her hand away, the Miko sighed helplessly. She lowered her head and took the prepared medicine into her mouth, then, while Kallen was still weak, pulled her over and directly... kissed her?

Xu Yanwu: She clearly grew up in a small mountain village. Where did Sakura learn such a shameless trick...?

Feeling the bitter medicine being pushed into her mouth by the other woman's tongue, Kallen's eyes widened in disbelief, her thoughts thrown into disarray.

And while kissing her, the Miko's hands skillfully began undoing Kallen's clothes...

It was not until she had been kissed into reacting and more than half her clothes had been undone that Kallen, eyes spinning, pushed the Miko away. Her face flushed red with embarrassment. "Y-you, you, you... what exactly are you trying to do?!"

The violent movement pulled at the wound on Kallen's arm. The little lioness who had just flared up and pushed the Miko away now turned back into a little kitten, clutching her wound and whimpering, "Mm... it hurts..."

"Don't move around, or your wounds will split open."

The Miko gently rubbed Kallen's wound to ease her pain and said, "Don't misunderstand. You're covered in blood. I only wanted to wipe you down, which is why I took off your clothes."

"So please let me wipe you down, all right?"

For some reason, the Miko's smile now seemed... a little embarrassing to Kallen?

Kallen quietly averted her gaze and said with a blush, "O-okay."