"Roar—!"
After its blade shattered, the brown bear Honkai Beast roared at Yae Sakura. The tentacles on its back swept toward her and wrapped her up in one swift motion.
After catching Yae Sakura, the tentacle slowly brought her before the brown bear Honkai Beast. Its foul-smelling maw was only an inch or two away from her.
At the end of another tentacle, where Yae Sakura had just cut it off, a new section was gradually growing back. Meanwhile, the tentacle wrapped around Yae Sakura was steadily tightening.
"Creak..."
Near Yae Sakura, the sound of bones twisting under the tentacle's force could even be heard.
Just as things were about to go terribly wrong... the sound of a bullet tearing through the air rang out. At the same time, the tentacle binding Yae Sakura exploded.
"Sakura! Are you all right?!"
Before Yae Sakura could fall to the ground, Kallen dashed out from the side and caught her in her arms, carrying her away from the brown bear Honkai Beast.
"Mm... I'm fine."
Yae Sakura covered her sprained arm as she lay in Kallen's embrace.
Xu Yanwu stood beside them, feeling rather conflicted.
Earlier, Yae Sakura had forcefully kissed Kallen and even wiped down Kallen's body.
But now, she was acting like such a bashful little girl...
Why did Xu Yanwu suddenly feel as though the cabbage he had raised had been rooted through by the cabbage from the neighboring vegetable patch...
Xu Yanwu had just chased them out from the shrine. After gathering energy in his heart, he had come here for the small black crystal on the brown bear Honkai Beast.
That was a huge amount of Honkai Energy.
Although Xu Yanwu knew Yae Sakura would be fine, still...
Damn it! How dare a big stupid bear like you lay a hand on our Sakura?
Today, I'll... Kallen! Shoot it with your Fairy Bow!
"A Honkai Beast? Why is there a Honkai Beast here?"
Kallen looked at the charging brown bear Honkai Beast in confusion, but she knew this was not the time to dwell on it.
One arm held the injured Sakura, while her other hand rose. Honkai Energy continuously gathered at the muzzle of the Fairy Bow in Kallen's hand.
All-encompassing, Fairy Bow!
Boom!
A thick beam of light blasted from the tiny muzzle. The immense recoil forced even Kallen, with her frightening strength, to take a few steps back.
Cracks spread across the ground beneath Kallen's feet.
When the brown bear Honkai Beast saw the pillar of light before it, panic appeared on its face. It tried to stop its charge, but the momentum of its massive body made it impossible to evade the cannon blast. It slammed head-on into it.
After dealing with the brown bear Honkai Beast, Kallen released Sakura from her arms and stared solemnly at its corpse.
Yae Sakura asked Kallen curiously, "What are you looking at?"
"Idiot!"
Kallen turned and scolded Yae Sakura, "Why did you face danger alone like that?!"
Yae Sakura froze. Her gaze drifted away as she lowered her head. "Because... you were injured..."
"I didn't want to drag you down... Besides, protecting the village is also my duty..."
"Then you won't be alone anymore!" Kallen shouted.
Yae Sakura looked at Kallen in slight astonishment at those words.
Kallen patted her chest and said, "Because! I'll fight alongside you!"
In an instant, the atmosphere between the two of them turned pink...
As Xu Yanwu worked hard to absorb the energy of the freshly slain brown bear Honkai Beast, he watched the pair of lilies over there with an exceedingly complicated expression.
Come to think of it... one was a nun, the other a Miko... both served gods... They really were a good match when you thought about it...
Though neither of them believed in their own god...
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
From the nearby bushes,
came the sudden sound of something disturbing the grass. Kallen immediately became alert and even aimed her weapon at the bushes.
However, what crawled out was neither a Honkai Beast nor anything else. It was a heavily injured villager from Yae Village.
"That power just now..."
The Yae Village villager's face was filled with astonishment. With a thud, he knelt before Kallen.
"It must be the Divine Lord revealing herself! Please! Please protect our village!"
Hey, hey, hey, your god is right over here, right beside you! And I would never reveal myself to help people like you who killed Rin...
Xu Yanwu grumbled. Ever since his heart had drawn close to his body, the emotions that had originally been sealed within it seemed to be returning as well... For one, he felt that he had started grumbling much more often...
Seeing the Yae Village villager continuously kowtowing, Kallen could not help softening again.
"Mm!"
Kallen said, "I'll definitely protect everyone!"
"Silly girl... They aren't worth protecting..."
A faint voice reached Kallen's ears.
"Who?!"
Kallen vigilantly looked toward the brown bear Honkai Beast, but there was nothing there apart from its corpse.
"Kallen, what's wrong?"
Yae Sakura asked Kallen this.
After hesitating for a moment, Kallen still shook her head.
"It's nothing. Maybe I heard wrong... We should leave first. It would be troublesome if another Honkai Beast appeared."
However, before returning to Yae Village with Yae Sakura, Kallen still turned back to look once more in the direction of the brown bear Honkai Beast's corpse.
Was it really just an illusion? That voice sounded like one she had heard somewhere before...
After they left, a small bulge suddenly rose from atop the brown bear Honkai Beast's corpse. A tiny black crystal emerged from it.
Then it disappeared into the air.
—That night—
Though it was dead, no wild animals dared approach the brown bear Honkai Beast's corpse.
However, the person wearing the Fox God mask appeared beside the brown bear Honkai Beast's corpse.
When the masked person reached out toward the brown bear Honkai Beast, its corpse did not react in the slightest.
"What is going on?!"
The masked person's voice was full of rage.
"Where did the crystal go?! It couldn't have vanished!"
"Who took the crystal?!"
"Kallen? No... Kallen never left Yae Village afterward..."
"Damn it! Who was it?!"
As though venting anger, under the moonlight, a flash of blade light swept across the brown bear Honkai Beast's corpse, cutting it into scattered pieces.
"Just wait... This isn't over yet... Everything has only just begun..."
Before you continue