True Name / An Experiment Goes Awry ...

"You motherf—..."

True Name

After dealing with Himeko, that unstable factor, Su Jue's tea had finished boiling as well. He returned to the living room and found Kiana hugging a comic book as she read.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." He set down a plate piled with snacks. Naturally, Su Jue had little interest in snacks, so they were actually all Himeko's. He had no idea whether they suited Kiana's tastes.

Kiana, who had been reading the comic, suddenly came back to her senses and hurriedly put it down. Yet the strange look in her eyes could not be concealed. Her gaze shifted repeatedly between the comic and Su Jue before she finally gave in to her curiosity and asked, "Su Jue, what's with this Magical Girl ☆ Sirin?"

A swarm of question marks popped into his head. Su Jue took the comic from her hands. It was a very traditional girls' manga. Judging from the synopsis, it told the story of magical girl Sirin constantly becoming the strongest magical girl in order to save the world. But he clearly remembered that there should not have been anything like this in his home...

He casually flipped through the manuscript and found that the comic was only about half finished. Su Jue checked the code printed at the end and, sure enough, it was one of his own company's projects. It was probably a sample Kiana Company had sent over while preparing to release a new comic. Only, the timing and location of its appearance were rather unfortunate. Faced with Kiana's questioning gaze, Su Jue could only force out a lie. "I only bought it because I thought the name sounded a little like yours. I actually rarely read comics."

"Is that so?" Yet the suspicion on Kiana's face did not fade. Instead, his hasty brush-off only made her more curious. "Then why is your name listed among the creators?"

"..." He opened the first page of the comic and, sure enough, saw his own name. Su Jue's heart skipped a beat. He remembered now. This comic had probably been created based on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica material he had provided back then. He had not expected those people to directly put his name on it.

"Ah, well." Fortunately, this was only a sample. It probably had not been released yet, so there was still time to make changes.

Since he could no longer hide it, Su Jue simply stopped pretending.

"Actually, because I was a little short on money, I usually took on part-time jobs to earn extra cash. I thought it was just their own little pastime, but I didn't expect the work to actually get published, so I bought a copy." Honest-looking Su Jue scratched his head, seeming a little embarrassed. "When you told me your name was Sirin, I thought it sounded nice, so I used it in the comic. I didn't mean anything else by it."

"The name sounds nice..." Kiana gave him a long look, took the comic back, and muttered so quietly it was nearly impossible to hear, "Actually, Kiana is a pretty nice name too."

Then why didn't you tell me your real name from the beginning?

Looking at the name Sirin in the comic, Kiana did not know whether she was angry at herself or dissatisfied with the Herrscher of Void. She picked up a pen from the table and carefully wrote down her name on the paper—Kiana Kaslana.

"Let me introduce myself properly. Kiana Kaslana. That's my real name, so forget the name Sirin." Although she had already mentioned her name in her previous message, a written note and a face-to-face introduction were ultimately different.

Seeing Kiana so serious, Su Jue could not help laughing. He took the slip of paper with her name on it and wrote his own name on the same sheet.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Su Jue. Please take care of me." With a meticulous expression on his face, Su Jue carefully folded the slip bearing his name and placed it in Kiana's hand, as if they were exchanging not names, but vital state secrets.

Su Jue's handwriting on the note in her hand was elegant and neat. In contrast, Kiana's writing carried the same style she had always had at St. Freya. Comparing the two, the girl's face flushed red.

"No, I need to write it again. Give it back."

Su Jue folded the note and slipped it into his pocket, giving her no chance to revise it. With utter seriousness, he explained, "No. According to Western tradition, only the true name written down on the first stroke can represent a person. If you change it, it means you don't care about the other person."

Clearly, with Kiana's literary knowledge, she had never heard of such a thing. After Su Jue's barrage of nonsense, she could only half-believe and half-doubtfully accept his explanation.

Imitating Su Jue's movements, Kiana solemnly placed the note bearing his name into her pocket. But as she did, her movements froze when she touched her broken star hairpin.

"What's wrong?"

Looking at the puzzled young man before her, his eyes shimmered beneath the lamplight, clear and bright as dustless glass.

"No, it's nothing." At that moment, she suddenly felt that all the doubts and worries of the past few days were so insignificant.

Whether it was him or not no longer mattered.

Though they both wished time could remain here forever, Su Jue and Kiana each carried their own mission. And one day in the future, they would stand on opposing sides and end each other's lives.

Once they embarked on different journeys, the time they had shared became especially precious.

At the first light of dawn the next day, Kiana had already left. Just like their first meeting, this farewell ended with her silent departure.

Standing alone atop a building in the residential district, she let the morning sunlight fall over her. Only after she saw the young man inside wake up did she smile faintly, leap from the roof, and head toward Sky City.

"Sirin, Herrscher of Void, I will never let you take my body from me."

Kiana's figure disappeared. As if sensing something, Su Jue turned his gaze toward where she had just stood.

"Kiana... But this time, I won't let my emotions sway me again."

Threads spread throughout the entire room gleamed in the sunlight. Su Jue gave them a gentle tug, and his whole body instantly entered the Theater of Domination.

After Kiana left, Himeko, sporting two huge dark circles under her eyes, finally managed to walk back from the outskirts. The moment she pushed open the door, her eyes widened round.

"Wait, why are the snacks I hid here?" She stared at the garbage on the floor in near hysteria, her heart bleeding.

That damned Herrscher had not only kicked her out and made her squat in the wilderness all night, but had also secretly devoured all her snacks.

She hurried into the kitchen and opened the false panel behind the cabinet. Only when she saw that the alcohol inside was still intact did she breathe a sigh of relief. She had nothing left now, and even her personal freedom was restricted. If the alcohol she had hidden was gone too, Himeko had been ready to rebel on the spot.

But when she thought of what Su Jue looked like in his Herrscher form, she swallowed and tucked that unreliable thought away again.

"It's only a few snacks. It's not that bad. Besides, the alcohol is still here, so things aren't too terrible." She could only comfort herself like this.

But what exactly had happened last night? Why was the house, which had originally been perfectly tidy, now such a mess? Looking at the piles of books stacked against the walls, Himeko was at a loss.

Could it be that Su Jue had truly failed to suppress his urges and brought a girl home?

After thinking it over carefully, Himeko felt that someone with that guy's personality should not be capable of such a thing—unless that person was Kiana.

"Wait, what did you do to my student?!"

Experimental Incident

"After the Second Honkai Eruption ended, Shencheng Pharmaceuticals began providing free medical aid to people affected by Honkai across the world. This humanitarian assistance has continued to this day. Following the Third Honkai Eruption, Shencheng Pharmaceuticals further increased its support for the Far East and Shenzhou, aiming to provide safe and reliable treatment for everyone in need."

"Trust Shencheng Pharmaceuticals. We will bring you a better tomorrow."

The electronic advertisement promoting Shencheng Pharmaceuticals continued playing repeatedly on the billboard. No one noticed the hooded girl beneath it quietly raise her head, a strand of white hair falling loose. Kiana looked at the wildly exaggerated advertising copy, and her gaze grew colder still.

Over this period of investigation, Kiana had finally made progress. After successfully infiltrating a nearby hospital and finding the patient transfer records, she discovered a startling fact. Eighty percent of the civilians infected during Honkai attack incidents had been transferred to Shencheng Pharmaceuticals for treatment. Even more patients had gone there on their own after hearing the company's promotions. Yet among the transfer records, there were very few records of patients recovering and being discharged.

More importantly, she found that before receiving treatment, these patients had to sign a voluntary testing agreement. Kiana was not good at academic subjects, but that did not stop her from recognizing that something was wrong. This was clearly supposed to be treatment, so why were they signing a testing agreement?

Thus, she gradually shifted her attention from the aimless broad search to Shencheng Pharmaceuticals itself. The more she investigated, the more alarmed she became. This company was not merely a pharmaceutical corporation—it even had its own industrial district. And according to several subtle clues, Shencheng Pharmaceuticals had an inseparable cooperative relationship with Schicksal. Every year, it received a large quantity of Honkai Energy suppressant agents provided by Schicksal. Yet the Honkai disasters and infected zombie incidents in Sky City had not decreased. On the contrary, they were becoming more numerous and frequent.

Although Kiana was filled with hatred toward Schicksal, she understood that Schicksal was humanity's primary force against Honkai. Otto's research into Honkai Energy should not have resulted in something like this—unless he was deliberately inducing Honkai Energy outbreaks, just as he had done to her.

However, Shenzhou was not Schicksal's territory. Otto could not possibly go to such lengths just to cause trouble here.

Honkai Beasts were always drawn to higher concentrations of Honkai Energy. The Honkai Energy within Kiana's body could now be effectively suppressed, so she had no idea what else was attracting them.

But without question, Shencheng Pharmaceuticals was absolutely involved.

She raised her head. The towering headquarters building of Shencheng Pharmaceuticals had already come into view in the distance. This time, Kiana intended to take a risk and infiltrate the company's headquarters to investigate.

"Gurgle~"

Bubbles continuously rose through the pale yellow liquid. The girl inside the cultivation tank had her eyes tightly shut, like a quiet corpse. Her light blue short hair drifted with the bubbles in the solution, dreamlike beneath the lights. No one noticed a flash of gold quietly emerge, then vanish.

In the laboratory, Jackal frowned deeply as she examined the experimental data on the electronic screen.

When the experiments had first begun, she discovered that Ink Moth's daughter possessed extremely strong adaptability to Honkai Energy—so strong that it had shocked Jackal. Such powerful adaptability would undoubtedly allow the girl to withstand more stigmata mutation agents, greatly advancing the progress of the stigmata experiment.

But the initial delight had now vanished completely. Over several consecutive days of research, she had poured in nearly a million worth of experimental materials. The Honkai Energy agents she had prepared could almost have triggered a large-scale Honkai disaster. Yet when applied to this little girl, they sank like stones into the sea, unable to stir even a single ripple.

"Can a human really possess this level of Honkai Energy resistance?" Even the always-proud Jackal was beginning to question her life. But there was no other choice. The materials had already been invested, and even the sunk costs pained her. She could only continue intensifying the research.

"Dr. Jackal, we've used up this entire batch of Honkai Energy suppressants supplied by Schicksal. Are you really planning to continue?" Jackal's assistant wiped away a cold sweat. He had personally participated in Griseo's experiments and watched resources accumulated over a long period get squandered for nothing. If most of these resources had been used on the patients, they might have yielded a great deal of data already, rather than leaving them as clueless as they were now.

"Do you think you understand research better than I do?" A cold voice sounded. The assistant raised his head and met a pair of golden eyes. The Alubis mask engraved with the symbol of life, Ankh, covered half of Jackal's face, making her look exceptionally dangerous.

The assistant swallowed and immediately dared not say another word. He knew well that Jackal was a true mad scientist who never showed mercy to anyone. If he questioned her again, the next test subject would definitely be him.

"If Schicksal's suppressants are gone, apply for more. We've reached a critical stage in stigmata research. Even if Schicksal notices our trail, it doesn't matter. The Venerable Lord will soon return. Schicksal is nothing to fear." Having issued the order in an even tone, Jackal ignored her assistant and turned her attention back to Griseo in the cultivation tank.

By then, the girl's body was covered in needle marks, and quite a few patches of skin had even been cut open alive. In just a few days, Jackal had conducted dozens of experiments on her. At first, the girl had screamed in agony, but gradually her cries had grown weaker. Now, she had lost consciousness entirely.

"Knowing full well that your daughter would suffer inhuman treatment, you still resolutely sent her to me. Ink Moth, should I call you foolish or naive?"

With a faintly mocking remark, Jackal used a mechanical arm to inject the last remaining mutation agent into Griseo's body. As the medicine entered her, Griseo's previously numb body began to twitch. Cracks from Honkai corrosion started appearing across her skin.

Jackal was delighted by this. The girl's compatibility with Honkai Energy was simply too strong. At last, there was a change. Whether that change was good or bad, it meant the experiment was progressing.

"Has it finally begun? Whether you awaken a stigmata or become a zombie will depend on whether you can endure it."

As the Honkai patterns spread, strange markings gradually emerged across her skin. They were chaotic and disordered, yet carried a peculiar kind of rule. Once the markings appeared, the Honkai Energy density throughout the laboratory rapidly surged, surpassing the established threshold in an instant.

Jackal's expression changed. She quickly pressed the emergency stop button and injected a large amount of stabilizing agent. Yet the markings on Griseo's body showed no sign of stopping, and chaotic, concentrated Honkai Energy continued to emerge.

Within mere dozens of seconds, some researchers in the laboratory had already begun showing signs of turning into zombies. Under the corrosion of the overwhelming Honkai Energy, they transformed into walking-corpse-like monsters and were immediately gunned down by the security system.

Crack—

The cultivation tank's glass shattered completely. Griseo opened her eyes and met Jackal's golden gaze.

The Special Ability of Stigmata

The instant Griseo's body began to mutate, Su Jue sensed the changes within her. An entirely new power was quietly emerging and feeding back to him through the abilities of the Herrscher of Domination.

It was an exceedingly complex energy system, storing and converting Honkai Energy through a special method before ultimately forming something called a Stigmata Space. Yet the Stigmata Space was not completely independent. It exchanged power with a much larger Stigmata Space through the Imaginary Space, gaining abilities from a higher dimension.

Rather than calling it a system of power, it was more accurate to call it an inheritance.

Unfortunately, although Griseo had developed a stigmata, as a puppet, her awakening was ultimately incomplete. Furthermore, as a Herrscher, Su Jue could not deceive the administrator of the higher-dimensional Stigmata Space. He could only rely on the power of the stigmata itself.

And this stigmata felt extremely familiar to him, as though it had always belonged to him.

Could it be that Griseo truly carried Su Jue's genes, and that Jackal's stigmata experiment had coincidentally activated the stigmata Su Jue himself should have possessed?

The speculation was too bold. Su Jue did not dare think further.

On the other side, seeing the stigmata successfully appear on Griseo's body, Jackal was filled with delight. The pool she had spent a fortune rolling in had finally paid out; she was even more excited than Su Jue himself. But before she could approach, a powerful force erupted in an instant and flung her away.

Laboratory facilities and equipment scattered everywhere. Jackal herself nearly lost consciousness from the blow, but as an expert at accidents, she naturally had prepared for such situations. She immediately pressed the button on her body.

The nearby assistants had completely turned into zombies under the corrosion of Honkai Energy. Yet they could not even get close to Griseo. Before they reached her, invisible power shredded them apart.

"What a perfect weapon." Watching Griseo effortlessly slaughter the zombies, Jackal nodded in satisfaction. "But first, calm down."

As she spoke, thick fog began to spread throughout the laboratory without anyone noticing when it had started. It was specially formulated HSN Gas. It caused no harm to ordinary people, but the instant it came into contact with Valkyries, it disrupted the Honkai Energy within their bodies and caused them to lose all their power.

Jackal had originally planned to use it after Schicksal's people arrived. But now that her test subject had gone out of control, recovering it naturally took priority.

Seeing Griseo standing still, Jackal relaxed. At the same time, her special weapon arrived at the scene.

As the metal gate opened, the modified ultimate weapon that had been submerged in cultivation fluid, Death Weaver, finally appeared in the laboratory. It was the killing weapon Jackal had been most satisfied with so far—a spider-like monster created from a Schicksal Valkyrie's body, combined with mechanical prosthetics.

"Death Weaver, capture her." Jackal gave the order, then got to her feet and headed for the door. The gas here was becoming too concentrated. Before long, even she would be affected.

Yet just as she opened the laboratory hatch, a black shadow shot out at incredible speed. Jackal was startled. Could the test subject still move?

Unfortunately, no one had the chance to answer her question before she saw Death Weaver lying in the passageway, its spider limbs twisted and broken at strange angles from the impact.

If it had truly only been Griseo awakening, Jackal could have suppressed her with ease. But the one controlling her now was a Herrscher.

"Big sister, good evening. The experiments you performed on me hurt for a very, very long time." An innocent, childlike voice echoed through the laboratory. Through the thick gas, Jackal could not see the girl clearly, but the continuously warping architecture around her told her that the monster she had created was approaching.

Her light blue short hair fluttered without wind, with only the streak of crimson highlights glaringly eye-catching. Wearing a white lab coat stripped from a researcher and barefoot, Griseo walked step by step toward Jackal.

Fear finally appeared in Jackal's eyes. Gritting her teeth, she activated every weapon available. Machine guns installed in the walls spewed flames, covering Griseo's entire position. Yet all the bullets stopped one meter from her, as if blocked by an invisible wall.

"Is this the power of a stigmata?"

No, this was actually the power of a Herrscher.

Griseo's stigmata was an ability similar to telekinesis. It was not very powerful on its own, but under the enhancement of the Herrscher of a Thousand, it had reached the peak of an A-rank Valkyrie. Jackal's research capabilities were formidable, but she was not a combat type. She had no chance of defeating Griseo as she was now.

Crack—

Jackal's left leg suddenly snapped. As Griseo crushed it further, her lower leg gradually shattered into fragments.

"Damn it!" She cursed continuously, but ran for her life surprisingly quickly. No one knew what she had injected into herself, but her body swiftly transformed into a Honkai Beast, and she sprinted toward the exit.

With a light raise of her right hand, a broken steel beam shot out and pinned Jackal, in her Honkai Beast form, to the wall.

At the same time, Su Jue discovered the flaw in Griseo's ability. When he controlled her himself, he first had to apply the power of domination to Griseo. Then, through Griseo, he could draw upon the stigmata's power, which in turn fed power back through the Imaginary Space and manifested it in reality.

In other words, there was a great deal of delay. To use the power precisely, he had to control his speed. Once he moved intensely, the ability could easily go out of control.

"Huh? Where did my big sister go? Why did she turn into a monster?" Pinned to the wall and unable to move, Jackal was frantic. She could only keep praying for Raven to come save her quickly.

Fortunately, Raven did not disappoint her expectations. Red arrow feathers shot toward Griseo and blocked her movements. Su Jue attempted to control the surrounding debris and attack Raven, but the disadvantage of high delay was painfully obvious against the agile Raven. Although Raven could not do anything to Su Jue either, taking Jackal away was not a problem.

Forget it. Jackal could not be killed anyway. Torturing her a little was enough—consider it repayment for using him as an experiment.

Glancing back at the blood-soaked laboratory, Su Jue sighed. He did not know how many test subjects had suffered cruel torment here.

Boom—