Jiang Cheng didn't feel the slightest discomfort.
"Now, I can at least understand why you trust me." Kiana took in the scene and gave a slight nod.
"Herrscher authority?"
Jiang Cheng's gaze focused on the lightning dancing along the blade and the purple-black bolts linking together in the air.
"It's Stigmata, you idiot."
Kiana pursed her lips in displeasure.
She pointed out his mistake without hesitation.
The aloof goddess's bearing vanished in an instant, replaced by the easygoing air of a good buddy.
"Stinky Old Man said these patterns were the manifestation of Stigmata, and that they were a unique effect found only in people with innate Stigmata."
"Never mind."
The white-haired girl shook her head.
"With your visual acuity, you wouldn't be able to see it. Being able to tell that the flashes up ahead are lightning is already your limit."
"All you need to know is that once innate Stigmata manifest, even a little kid who's never learned to fight will instantly gain powerful combat skills as if they were instinctive. Just like I did back then."
"Your worry that I couldn't beat a Titan Mech is completely baseless. If those mechs were really that powerful, what would we need Valkyries for?"
As Jiang Cheng listened to Kiana's explanation, a related case surfaced in his memory—
Seele.
Not that Seele. The one without a surname.
It was Seele Vollerei.
Just an ordinary, delicate little girl who looked like she'd topple over if you pushed her. After a group of elite mercenaries captured her, the consciousness within her Stigmata manifested on its own, and she easily killed every last one of them.
"By the way, do you know how Valkyries are ranked? B-rank Valkyries are actually pretty strong."
Jiang Cheng was ready to correct this girl, who was about to spend three years as a B-rank Valkyrie.
"Aren't there only B, A, and S ranks?"
Kiana tilted her head naturally, her icy blue eyes clear and bright.
"When I fought Honkai Beasts in Europe, the lowest-ranked Valkyries I saw were B-rank."
Faced with that innocent gaze, Jiang Cheng gave in.
"...Never mind. Go ahead."
16. You wretched things, die!
"You... Forget it."
Kiana wore an expression like a kitten whose tail had just been stepped on.
—There was no point trying to talk to him.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the outer defense line beginning to contract. The part of her mind that hadn't yet shut down sounded a clear warning.
The surrounding fog was still spreading, but it was obvious that this thing couldn't solve everything once and for all.
Forced to swallow the questions she'd been about to ask, Kiana turned without hesitation and unleashed all her pent-up frustration on the enemies still blocking her way.
"Wait—!"
"I only make three thousand a month. I surrender—"
"—Bang!"
Several fully armed staff members had just started to raise their hands in surrender when the baseball bat picked them off one by one with a knock to the head.
...They slept very peacefully.
Kiana stepped over their bodies without hesitation and shot another man through the wrist.
The bullet, designed to take on Honkai Beasts made entirely of silicon, blew his entire hand into a cloud of blood in an instant.
He didn't even feel any pain. He just stared blankly at where his hand had been—now there was nothing there, not even the faintest sensation.
The man behind him had just raised his gun when he suffered the same fate—
"Bang—!"
Jiang Cheng squeezed the trigger.
The gun kicked hard in his hands. The recoil was strong enough to seriously damage his bones if he didn't absorb it, but he braced against it with his own arms.
Was a fivefold increase in physical strength really this powerful?
There was no time to dwell on things like that now. He could only keep his eyes fixed on the enemies.
He wasn't as merciful as Kiana, who could target nonessential parts of the body even in the middle of intense combat and take her opponents out of the fight.
He worried they could still fight with their other hand or their feet, and he didn't have enough bullets to blow off all four limbs of every person.
So—
He mercifully shot them all in the head.
His visual acuity had improved along with his physical abilities, making the enemies seem to move in slow motion.
He couldn't dodge the bullets flying at him. His enhanced physique still wasn't enough to let him evade gunfire. But the only thing he truly needed to dodge was the people themselves.
He watched for the moment they raised their hands, then avoided the line of fire.
And then—
"—Bang, bang, bang!"
"—Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"
He couldn't hit them all in the head, but he hit every one of them in the abdomen.
Bones, flesh, nerves... red, white, green, and yellow all mixed together into a disgusting, sticky mess.
Their armor, their bones—none of the gear on their bodies could withstand the oversized bullets in his hands.
Another shot blew an enemy apart, turning him into a cloud of blood.
—Any normal person who'd lived in the modern world would have felt sick at the sight.
It wasn't cowardice.
The urge to vomit came purely from disgust.
It was like someone had mixed together a mass of damp, sticky things that reeked, then set them down right in front of you.
But maybe it was because he'd been oppressed for so long in Aedes Elysiae. As a Star Rail player, he'd always known Laigushi was watching the entire world, yet there was nothing he could change—and he himself could be discovered at any moment.
Jiang Cheng even found himself wondering whether he'd already been discovered, and Laigushi simply hadn't cared.
—Life went on in an environment this precarious.
"Anger/fear" had reached its limit, yet there was no way to let it out.
He'd made cold, clear judgments, only to realize in the end that beyond giving up, there was nothing he could do to fight back.
As Jiang Cheng watched the horrifying scene and felt the truth of it—that he'd killed his enemies with his own hands and changed his fate—he felt no nausea or revulsion. Instead, without even seeming to notice it himself, the corners of his lips lifted.
Ha...
Hahahahahahahaha!
You damned things, you wretched things! You lackeys! Every last one of you can die by this bullet!!!
"Bang, bang, bang—!"
Headshot! Headshot! Headshot!!!
Even when playing games, he'd never been this accurate.
The gun in his hands seemed to respond to his every thought. Its margin of error was almost negligible.
Where he aimed, the bullets hit.
One shot after another, as if the gun were locked on to their heads. He didn't even need to aim.
He shot their arms, and the arms came right off. Their thick thighs were blown off at the root. As for those hiding behind obstacles... the bullets punched straight through the obstacles too!
Jiang Cheng even made rare use of his legs. After breaking their arms, he rushed straight up to them, ripped off their masks and protective suits, then fired two more shots to break both their hands.
—Kill!
Jiang Cheng wanted to beat them to death with his own fists, one punch at a time.
But before he'd even thrown ten punches, before he'd actually beaten them to death—
Just the act of ripping off their protective suits made them howl in agony. Purple patterns spread in an instant, covering all the exposed skin.
In less than a few minutes, the people who'd been alive and well had turned into piles of dust.
Huh? Was Honkai Energy's erosion really this fast?
As the Titan in front of her crashed to the ground with a rumble, Raiden Mei didn't spare it another glance. She stayed alert, watching her surroundings.
If there had been a pilot inside, that strike would have left nothing of him.
—It didn't matter.
"When did you become like this?"
At the edge of her peripheral vision, Kiana approached with the baseball bat in hand. She looked as carefree as ever, but her eyes stayed fixed on Mei as if she'd locked on to her.
"Probably about three minutes ago, when you pointed out that I was the source of the Erosion affecting Jiang Cheng."
"Unable to run from myself, unable to hide from myself. Every layer I'd tried to cover things with was torn away, clean and swift, until I even began to feel resentful—"
Her voice held no emotion at all now. It was even colder than it had been back when she was the Thunder Queen.
"You showed up, convinced you were right, and made it impossible for me to keep pretending I was still that Mei—"
"...Do you want to fight me?"
Kiana slung the baseball bat over her shoulder. Her lower lip lifted slightly, lending her a wild edge, and she didn't back down in the slightest.
"I have no such intention."
Raiden Mei didn't even feel like turning to look at her. She kept moving forward, slashing coldly with her blade.
It was as if she'd torn through another layer of false pretenses, exposing the truth beneath—so cold she didn't even care to adjust the path of her swing.
The mechs were chopped apart just as before.
And the people? It was as if the ancient samurai's trial of the sword had returned for a limited engagement, cutting them cleanly in half.
It didn't matter how sickening it was to bring her blade down. It didn't matter if blood splashed across her face.
As long as she killed them.
As long as she could be sure—
Killing them would make it easier for Jiang Cheng to escape.
After all, someone like me could never bear the weight of another person's complete trust.
"So, are you going to give up on yourself like this and wait for Jiang Cheng to abandon you and leave on his own?"
Kiana challenged her coldly.
Before you continue