Honkai Double Traverse, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

Her voice did not rise; it was even softer than usual, yet it felt like nails, driving into the air word by word, driving into—

It drove only into Raiden Mei's chest.

"Only you—are not allowed."

"—Why?"

Raiden Mei wanted to ask, or to be precise, she had already asked—she had already directly raised her challenge.

Why was she the one not allowed?

Clearly, Xilian was the one with the more petite figure.

With her taller frame and longer reach, it was only natural that she could offer Jiang Cheng a more secure embrace.

"In short—it's just not allowed. I am A-Cheng's guardian, and I say this matter is—"

"—Not. Al. Lowed!"

The girl named Xilian enunciated every word at this moment.

"...I must do this."

Raiden Mei raised her head, and for the first time, there was no evasion in those deep purple eyes.

The girl who should have naturally looked away at this moment—the girl who had dodged the gazes of others countless times, who had chosen to lower her head and retreat countless times—had finally found her resolve.

"Only by doing this can I make up for..."

In the rearview mirror, Kiana rested her chin on her hand, watching this silent yet tension-filled standoff.

Her gaze shifted back and forth between the purple-haired girl with her head held high and the pink-haired girl who refused to yield a single step.

Then, she looked at Jiang Cheng and signaled with her eyes.

—Is there any way to solve this?

Jiang Cheng's expression.

—No way.

"Tch."

"Considering you at least kept me from being dragged into the Great Honkai out of ignorance... I'll let you off easy."

She pushed the car door open, letting the door, which had been completely totaled by repeated impacts, detach from the frame like scrap metal, and stepped onto the ruined door.

"Creak—"

The harsh sound did not draw the attention of the two girls until this girl, who had initially seemed a bit silly—her IQ seemingly lowered by an ordinary school life—stepped toward Jiang Cheng without hesitation. In his dazed vision, he clearly saw a soft, fair palm reaching out toward him.

—She grabbed him.

With a strength that stood in complete, jarring contrast to her beautiful, delicate figure, she pulled Jiang Cheng directly into the air.

Her left arm wrapped around his back, while her right hand followed through to hook under his knees—cradling him in her arms in a perfect bridal carry.

"----?!"

By the time the two girls noticed this scene, Jiang Cheng was already lying blankly in Kiana's arms.

Azure blue pupils.

Deep purple beautiful eyes.

At this moment, both were stunned, left only to stare blankly at this heaven-defying scene before them.

"What are you still standing there for?"

"One of you is only the height of an elementary schooler, and the other is covered in overflowing Honkai Energy. If you carry him, Jiang Cheng will either have his legs dragging on the ground or turn to ash halfway there."

"In the end, wouldn't I have to waste my effort anyway?"

She shrugged impatiently and didn't linger—turning to leave immediately.

Despite her height not being particularly tall, she possessed long legs that seemed to exceed the golden ratio, and once she started running—

In just an instant, a distance of nearly a kilometer was put between them.

"Ah—?"

Both girls opened their mouths in near-identical fashion.

"Ah what? If you're going to 'ah,' then keep up."

Her voice drifted back from far ahead.

"Do you think I'm happy about carrying such a heavy burden, or happy about giving him my first embrace?"

"Even when I was working as a courier sorter, I never had to carry anything as weirdly shaped as this."

Xilian immediately ran to catch up.

Raiden Mei bit her lower lip hard, her jade-like fingertips digging into each other until blood seeped from between them.

"Crackle—"

Her deep purple eyes closed gently.

It had been torn open.

The common sense belonging to ordinary people, the things they desperately tried to conceal, had been torn asunder without a moment's hesitation.

"Haa."

She exhaled a long breath, turned, and stepped forward, following without hesitation.

It was only at this moment that Jiang Cheng realized why he had been able to see such clear disdain in Kiana's eyes earlier.

He really had to thank her; even if Xilian had been the one carrying him, it would have worked, but if one could be comfortable, who would choose to suffer?

Moreover, although Kiana seemed dissatisfied with her words, in this reverse princess carry, Jiang Cheng felt almost no jolting. She considered the angle of her landing and how to disperse the force with every step, including the terrain beneath her feet.

The sensation he experienced—

If he had to describe it.

It could only be compared to "two mounds of freshly whipped, sweet cream trembling violently behind him."

Even though the silver-haired beauty's slender, feminine body was firm and elastic, that specific area was as soft, ripe, and delicate as vanilla ice cream that would melt in one's palm at the slightest touch. The moment they made contact, he felt the exquisite smoothness of the girl's skin through the thin, almost non-existent layer of fabric.

She was truly treating him like a wounded patient.

Carefree on the outside, but actually very attentive on the inside.

It was no wonder she was the Kiana he had "stanned" for three years, only slightly overshadowed by Elysia in the future.

Due to the traffic jam, running on foot allowed them to choose paths and shortcuts that vehicles couldn't access, making them seem even faster than before.

Jiang Cheng tried his best to find valuable information amidst his shaking vision, observing the surrounding environment.

A sea of people.

A surging tide of humanity.

Beyond the noisy, arguing crowds and the piles of miscellaneous debris, at the edge of his vision, he finally saw it—

The highway exit.

Personnel in black uniforms were setting up roadblocks.

Metal barriers, caution tape, yellow "No Entry" signs, and the vaguely visible, bulging outlines at their waists—outlines of things that could not be easily brandished.

Without the Miracle Orb left behind, he could not travel to the current area of the past or present, nor did he have large-scale equipment to enhance the power of his prayers.

He only used prayer as a tool; he was not a demigod himself, nor had he become a Remembrancer or stepped onto a Path. Even if he used prayer again, he couldn't easily bypass the blockade—

He feared that with his current half-baked level of prayer, he would be detected by the interconnected monitoring equipment just a few steps further.

Next, the battle would begin.

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath.

He conceived a reason in his mind that would force Kiana, Raiden Mei, and Xilian to attack them...

"Bang—!"

Indeed.jpg

14. Instant Combat, Slaughtering the Enemy

A crisp sound, like the crunching of colliding bones, accompanied by a violent jolt. Jiang Cheng's train of thought was instantly interrupted.

Reflected in his pupils was an enemy kicked into the air—now flying backward in a very twisted posture, slamming heavily against the wall.

"Hiss..."

He couldn't help but gasp.

—After landing, the stability that contrasted with the previous impact, and the soft, creamy, snow-white sensation, came from the back of his head.

But at this moment, he had no attention to spare for such things.

"Xilian."

A voice full of personal flair escaped her lips, and her gaze instantly locked with the two girls.

"Can you still use that invisibility power of yours?"

"I can. I'll try my best to divide the battlefield so those big metal guys can't get through~"

The natural, pink-haired, lively girl nodded with a seriousness that was almost stern.

"Senior Mei."

"I... will not hold you back again."

"Unveil the curtain of time, stir the ripples of the past."

A voice that only Jiang Cheng could clearly understand whispered that soft prayer once more.

The fog-shrouded Glazed Realm manifested in the world again.

Unlike any previous appearance, no crystals emerged directly this time.

In their place was a nearly endless expanse of mist.

--It permeated every corner of his vision, every patch of land he could see, so thick that even looking up, he could not catch a glimpse of the bright sky.

"Tap, tap--"

Kiana's footsteps crossed the ground rapidly, her white sneakers clicking crisply against the floor.

Though both her hands were occupied, tightly cradling the dazed boy, it did not hinder her mobility in the slightest; her long legs vaulted through the air with ease, and even--

"Get out of this young lady's way!"

The sole of her sneaker slammed hard onto a helmet.

The combined weight of the two, pulled by gravity, compressed the staff member into the ground like a spring.

Close behind her.

Raiden Mei found a steel pipe from somewhere and smashed it hard against an employee's head, then snatched the katana from that employee's waist, transforming into a dual-wielder.

Xilian was even more swift and decisive, drawing her Ritual Sword once again; the sharp blade glinted with a cold light, drawing blood with every strike.

She simply made sure not to aim for any vital parts.