Honkai Double Transmigration, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

The status between them seemed to shift, over and over again.

The former Thunder Queen looked down from on high at the girl who held a baseball bat with a devil-may-care attitude.

"Just take it that I find it novel."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"After all, it's hard for me to imagine someone who, when faced with a problem, wouldn't choose to run away, but instead..."

She shrugged, appearing indifferent.

Yet, she hesitated and weighed the final two words for a long time.

"--Face it."

Raiden Mei's gaze swept over Kiana, who refused to show any weakness—despite looking like an unreliable, silly girl, at this moment, her temperament was as cold and aloof as a broken moon hanging high, a princess separated from the crowd.

Her figure was slender, her skin a whiteness that had never seen the sun, as exquisite as if she knew nothing of the mortal world.

To think it was someone like this...

She withdrew her gaze and gently closed her eyes.

She turned and stepped forward.

"Gather at the designated location, Kiana."

"..."

Watching her leave, Kiana suddenly let out a sigh of relief, her small hand gently stroking her firm, full chest.

"Whew..."

"Haa..."

The tense little face instantly shattered.

The cold, aloof exterior was like a smashed mirror, revealing the true face beneath in an instant.

"Thump-thump—thump-thump—"

Her heartbeat had genuinely accelerated.

Even the flow of her blood seemed to be speeding up, surging through her veins, and she could hear the clear sound of it rushing.

If it weren't for the sake of looking cool, she probably would have found an excuse to make a strategic retreat long ago.

There was no helping it; she was already stuck at the critical point.

If she hadn't kept going, she felt...

This young lady would have regretted it for the rest of her life.

Whew.

Jiang Cheng, you'd better be properly grateful to this young lady.

There was still a whole process to go; Senior Mei clearly hadn't revealed her true heart yet. Well... the time had been too short.

If they could spend a few more months together, Senior Mei would probably slowly accept and adapt.

--Who told you to die so quickly?

Kiana let out a long sigh.

She drew her revolver from her waist, but couldn't help closing her eyes for a moment, as if drifting into a long, slumbering state.

--Face it.

--Face it.

If only everyone could learn to face things.

Don't always hide away, refusing to see people, like rats that would die the moment they touched the light.

At the same moment.

Jiang Cheng had completely let himself go.

In the eyes of onlookers, that young man, dressed in a dust-covered, blood-stained ancient Greek-style white robe with a cold, sage-like expression, wore a jarring smile as if he had broken down.

Uncontrollable excitement, uncontrollable joy.

--The pressure was being vented.

The present, the past. The anger from before he transmigrated, when he watched these bastards commit evil deeds as a player without ever facing punishment.

Finally, finally, he found release in this moment.

Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!!!

Uncontrollable emotions drove him to clench his fist and smash it fiercely into the face of the last man, who looked at him with terror.

"Crunch--!"

A wonderful, melodious, crisp sound of bones snapping.

If...

If he could hunt down Laigushi as well.

It would surely be ten thousand times more pleasurable than the current thrill, right?!

No need for constant worry, fear, or the suspicion that a condescending gaze was fixed upon him.

Complete peace of mind, absolute freedom.

--A pity that it was impossible.

His expression shifted instantly to one of calm.

Fanaticism was merely a fleeting state; to survive well in this world, one still had to rely on reason.

Although he kept saying he would accumulate enough power in this world, in all likelihood, even if he drained this world dry, he wouldn't be able to scrape together the strength to kill Laigushi head-on. The core issue was that he could rarely get his hands on the highest-tier powers. Even Erosion—if he didn't intend to be greedy and instead played it safe by following Grey Snake and the World Serpent path—was something he would never touch in this lifetime. Moreover, behind Laigushi lay the calculations and interference of an Aeon; he was merely the first enemy he had to defeat.

--Get the first pot of gold first.

Jiang Cheng calmly stepped over the remains of the staff members.

Up ahead, Kiana was waving—

"Jiang Cheng, hurry over, the path is cleared."

"A-Cheng? I'm here to pick you up~"

Jiang Cheng sprinted forward. This enhancement derived from Honkai Energy could not be sustained for long, but it felt quite smooth during short bursts; other than having to endure the pain, it had no flaws.

His once sub-health body could now easily run at speeds several times faster than a world-class sprinter.

Upon arriving, he could see that the faces of the three girls were all a bit disheveled.

It wasn't from injuries, but from the blood and grime of others.

Their powerful physical constitutions prevented wounds, yet their jade-white skin was still stained with dust.

Everyone's weapons were somewhat coated in grit, save for that Ritual Sword, as bright as moonlight—

Still sharp, brilliant, and dazzling.

"Now, the warning sirens have sounded, and there are only a few thousand meters left before we exit the city. I know of a stretch of wilderness nearby; we'll run there first, and then here—"

Kiana held a map torn from a staff member and reached out to mark a point on it.

"—we split up."

Jiang Cheng calmly finished the second half of the sentence.

"After splitting up, Raiden Mei will head to the left, while I, Xilian, and Kiana will temporarily hide from the Great Honkai on the right."

"If Raiden Mei's self-awareness remains intact and she can still control her body after becoming a Herrscher—at least to the point of being able to communicate—she should come find me immediately. Of course, if she loses her self-awareness but still comes to find us first, then Kiana will kill her, and we will seek another way out..."

"Though that won't be necessary either."

Jiang Cheng gave a self-deprecating smile.

"By that time, I'll basically be as good as dead. I'm already in a state of being beyond saving; even if I had the resources to receive the best medical care, I'd still have to painfully linger on a hospital bed, and even then, I'd have at most ten years."

"—Three years."

Kiana retorted without hesitation.

The girl, who looked like a high-mountain flower in appearance alone, lifted her beautifully contoured, elegant chin.

"It was ten years just a moment ago, but now, having endured even longer Erosion and fought using Honkai Energy, you have at most three years of life left, and you must replace most of your organs with machinery."

"Isn't that... perfectly enough?"

PS:

Hard-won, from a master.

Honkai: Inner World Film Production Guide

Kiana is the lively and cheerful type, yet prone to sorrow; she is heavy-hearted, which can also be understood as being deeply emotional.

At a very young age, she discovered that her only family had run away for no reason. She dragged her young body across Europe, and based on the slightest trail of clues, she crossed half the globe to Nagazora.

Before meeting Raiden Mei and being forced to stay in Nagazora, she likely had very few friends she could see for more than three days in a row, or perhaps no friends at all. Assuming the Three-Year Sakura plot is canon, Kiana at this stage might be quite fragile—snow that shatters at a touch.

She only became more lively and cheerful later at St. Freya, though she eventually became the Void Drifter under Otto's interference.

Unconditional trust, choosing to face everything rather than run away—in her eyes, that seemed even more ethereal and illusory than a fairy tale.

20. Nagazora Escape—Failure (Revised)

The atmosphere on the scene instantly grew heavy.

The air seemed to have been replaced by some kind of solid.

Xilian's fingertips were tensed to the limit, her knuckles turning white. Her face, obscured by her pink bangs, revealed no clear expression, yet one could only feel, by instinct, that a storm was brewing.

If one were to liken her eyes to a pool of clear spring water.

Then, the spring water at this moment must have been cast with an overflowing amount of stones, reaching its absolute limit of containment.

"----!"

Raiden Mei gritted her teeth tightly.

She had caused all of this with her own hands; the injuries on Jiang Cheng's body were the direct result of her own corruption.

Having clearly realized this was her responsibility during the previous warning, she now bit down on her lower lip so hard it was on the verge of bleeding, the delicate flesh nearly mangled.

Genuine, thin streaks of blood swallowed the pristine white.

Both her teeth and her skin were stained with scarlet blood at this moment.

A mere few simple sentences had pushed everyone's mental state to the brink of collapse—

Seemingly falling into a mindless state once again, becoming even worse than a tuna whose brain had degenerated, Kiana suddenly turned around, her gaze fixed entirely upon her.

"Senior Mei, if you don't want Jiang Cheng to die just like this, then you had better be worthy of his trust."

"...Kiana?"

Even though everything she had displayed before was completely different from the tuna in her memory.

Yet at this very moment, the girl before her reached a level that made even Jiang Cheng feel like a stranger.

"If we can fight fewer enemies, of course we should fight fewer. You don't think I don't know how powerful a Herrscher is, do you?"

"Besides, I already told you—" Kiana tilted her head up, pointing a thumb at herself.

"The future you saw has already been shattered!"

"...Thank you."