After becoming a Corpse-Human, Rabbaso had hunted isolated humans around Cairo, offering blood to Dio on one hand and using them to cultivate his Stand on the other. Yellow Temperance had now grown to more than a dozen times the size of a human.
So he did not care at all when Kiana used Killer Queen to shave away part of his Stand. Compared to Yellow Temperance's sheer volume, the tiny piece a single hand could erase was nothing.
"Trying to make me suffocate? This water is where you country bumpkin will be buried!"
Yellow Temperance had already broken through Killer Queen's blockade and wrapped around Kiana's body. A burning pain spread across every place covered by Yellow Temperance.
Yellow Temperance was a Stand that ate. Anything it touched would be slowly corroded and consumed as if it had fallen into stomach acid. Once contaminated by it, there was no escaping.
A vampire...
Killer Queen suddenly gave up attacking Yellow Temperance. That little bit of damage was merely a drop in the bucket to Yellow Temperance. Before she could kill it, Kiana herself would be eaten up first.
Killer Queen swung toward the space above them.
Rabbaso felt the surroundings suddenly change, and the two of them abruptly moved upward several meters.
"Hey, hey, weren't you trying to drag me underwater just now? Why are you trying to leave now? I'm having such a good meal!"
Though he said that, while controlling Yellow Temperance to keep pulling Kiana downward, Rabbaso silently had Yellow Temperance continue wrapping around himself.
After all, he was still a Corpse-Human who feared sunlight.
Kiana ignored Rabbaso's taunts. Unable to speak underwater, she could only keep erasing space above them, bringing the two of them closer and closer to the surface.
By the time Kiana burst out of the water with Rabbaso, her body was nearly completely covered by Yellow Temperance.
"Hahaha! So what if you escaped? You can't fight back anymore!"
Wrapped in Yellow Temperance and connected to Kiana, Rabbaso was not worried about her escaping at all, because she could no longer break free.
"So what..."
Kiana's expression did not change despite the burning sensation coursing through her entire body. She took a deep breath.
"Hm?"
Before Rabbaso could figure out where his ominous feeling came from, golden energy suddenly erupted from Kiana's body.
"Even if it's a Stand, it's still a living creature!"
Kiana did not understand the principles behind Yellow Temperance, nor did she know its biological form.
But she knew that ordinary people could touch this Stand, ordinary objects could block it, and it ate things that existed in reality. That meant it had to be a living creature!
And living creatures were the best conductors for Ripple!
"AAAAAHHHH!!!!"
If the pain of Kiana being digested was like having hydrochloric acid poured over her skin, then Rabbaso's pain was like having magma poured over him.
He instinctively lost control over Yellow Temperance. Its connection broke, and his entire body fell into the water, while the Yellow Temperance covering Kiana fell away one after another.
No, he had not lost control! He had deliberately severed the connection to save himself!
Floating in the river, Kiana saw a figure climbing onto the riverbank not far away.
His body was already horribly incomplete. His left leg and left arm had completely vanished, a huge hole had been torn through his abdomen, and even a third of his head was gone.
Yet even so, he was still alive!
"Don't run!"
Seeing such terrifying vitality, Kiana knew she could not let this guy escape. Otherwise, who knew how many people would suffer because of him.
Without another word, she swam toward the riverbank.
The Gatekeeper of Hell
"That place... as long as I reach that place..."
Though nearly half his body was missing, and molten magma-like substance still dripped from the severed wounds, Rabbaso was alive.
Corpse-Humans truly had formidable vitality.
Rabbaso had immediately cut off the connection to the part of his Stand on Kiana's body, saving his own life.
Still, that was only because Kiana's Ripple was not very strong. If it had been someone else, he would have been completely vaporized on the spot.
Because Kiana lacked patience, she had never practiced Ripple much. Yet with her physical abilities and that legendary bloodline, even as a complete beginner, she had successfully used Ripple to defeat Rabbaso.
"Don't run!"
Now that she no longer needed Killer Queen for defense, Kiana could devote it entirely to mobility.
As she pursued him at high speed, she continuously erased the space in front of her, achieving an effect like teleportation.
"Damn it! As long as I reach that place!"
Rabbaso used Yellow Temperance like an elastic rope, flinging it out to stick to walls before pulling himself over.
Fortunately, his Stand was enormous enough to support such use while keeping his body shielded from sunlight.
"I finally made it!"
Seeing the mansion before him draw closer and closer, Rabbaso's eyes filled with wild joy.
At that moment, Kiana had also closed to within several meters behind him.
"Ah! Stay away from me!"
He flung a huge mass of Yellow Temperance slime toward Kiana, while using the inertia of another tether to fly toward the mansion's gate.
Kiana hurriedly dodged the portion of the Stand Rabbaso had discarded to save himself, then saw him slam into the gate of a mansion with a tremendous crash.
"AAAAH! Finally! Lord Dio! Please destroy these fools who dared offend you!"
Rabbaso sprawled on the ground. With only one leg and one arm left, he could not even stand without his Stand's help.
As he spoke, a figure appeared atop the gate. Sunlight shone down from behind it, and its shadow completely covered Rabbaso.
It was a peregrine falcon, yet both Rabbaso and Kiana saw a humanlike coldness in its eyes.
Petsha, a peregrine falcon that had once soared leisurely through the Nile Valley, had long ago been used for hunting. It could reach speeds of three hundred kilometers per hour, and its eyes could precisely find a prey's weakness at such high speed before tearing it apart with perfect accuracy.
This peregrine falcon was the gatekeeper Dio had tamed to guard his residence.
On the land of Egypt, no living creature could cross this gate to hell under its watch without being discovered.
And as a gatekeeper, when facing the "traitor" who had led an enemy to its doorstep...
"Hey! Petsha! Hurry! Hurry and inform Lord Dio!"
Rabbaso saw the shadow blocking the sunlight in front of him and recognized Dio's pet.
Though he knew it was the gatekeeper Dio had stationed here, and that it was also a Stand user, in his eyes, an animal was an animal. It could not compare with him.
"Forget it! I'll report to Lord Dio myself. You stop that little bitch for me!"
Using Yellow Temperance to cover himself, Rabbaso barely managed to brace himself against the gate and stand. But because he was focused on getting up, he did not see the cold look in Petsha's eyes.
Meanwhile, Kiana stopped in her tracks. Though she could not read a peregrine falcon's expression, her instincts told her that bird was dangerous.
But...
Rabbaso felt that something was wrong.
The temperature around him seemed to be dropping?
That could not be right. He had become a vampire—why would he fear the cold?
Before he could react, his Stand reacted before him.
Yellow Temperance suddenly hardened, and then...
Squelch!
"AAAAAHHHH!"
Yellow Temperance changed in response to stimulation, and even Rabbaso himself could not control those changes. When exposed to high temperatures, it splattered apart. When exposed to low temperatures, it solidified and grew spikes.
But regardless, the amount of Yellow Temperance itself did not change.
Now, the Yellow Temperance wrapped around Rabbaso was stimulated by the low temperature and produced countless spikes, turning Rabbaso into a porcupine.
"AAAAAHHHH! What are you doing?!"
Rabbaso wanted to raise his head, but the Yellow Temperance wrapped around his entire body could not move. He could only stare at the ground and notice that the shadow beneath his feet was growing larger and larger.
Kiana watched the scene before her in horror. Rabbaso was fixed in place, while a massive icicle slowly formed in the air above him, then... fell.
BOOM!
A huge storm of freezing air swept through the street, and Kiana instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes.
When her vision cleared again, all she saw were the remains of Rabbaso's corpse gradually turning to ash beneath the sunlight.
"How could this..."
Though she had wanted to kill someone who had completely betrayed humanity, she had never imagined that Rabbaso would be killed by his own companion.
"Aren't you companions..."
It seemed as if she were asking Petsha, or perhaps asking herself. Kiana stood there blankly.
Petsha landed atop a streetlamp and looked down at Kiana.
Though her eyes saw a peregrine falcon, Kiana felt that she was not looking at a bird, but at a person—a monster.
Though it was not a Honkai Beast, Kiana felt that this thing was even more terrifying than any Honkai Beast she had seen.
She swiftly drew her twin pistols.
BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
The sound of bullets colliding with and shattering icicles exploded through the air.
Petsha let out a sharp cry and shot from the streetlamp toward the sky like a rocket.
The distance it opened in an instant was beyond even White Ivory and Black Ebony's range. But even if they had enough range, it would be difficult to hit such a high-speed peregrine falcon with bullets.
As a bird Stand user, its greatest advantage was that it could fly. What humanity had taken thousands of years to achieve was an inborn advantage for it.
Petsha's Stand could create low temperatures and icicles, launching them like missiles. Attacking from above not only meant they did not lose momentum due to distance, but gravity further increased their lethality.
The huge icicles were also not something tiny bullets could destroy.
The gatekeeper of hell, Petsha, displayed absolute air superiority before Kiana.
Kiana VS Petsha
Killer Queen!
Even bullets could not completely shatter the massive icicles. Kiana could only summon Killer Queen and teleport herself beyond their attack range.
The icicles were simply too long. Even Killer Queen could only erase a small portion of their front ends.
"This stupid bird! How dare it look down on me!"
Though this humanlike peregrine falcon gave her the creeps, Kiana still could not accept that she could not even defeat a bird. When she had been wandering alone, she had defeated more Honkai Beasts than she could count.
The black-and-white twin pistols in her hands spun once, and dense gunfire once again blew apart the falling icicles one by one.
Perhaps realizing that ordinary small icicles could not harm Kiana at all, Petsha stopped attacking and began circling above her head.
Bang!
Even Black Ebony's bullets could not hit Petsha. Air superiority combined with its speed advantage made Petsha invincible against Kiana.
After dodging several icicles that even dense barrages of bullets could not completely destroy, Kiana realized that she might have no way to deal with this guy at all.
"Can I really not even beat a bird?!"
Though she was unwilling to accept it, Kiana had to admit that, for now, this beast was stronger!
Fortunately, since the icicles were being dropped from high altitude, their accuracy was not very high. And with Killer Queen's teleportation, Kiana's mobility had improved greatly.
"Just wait until I find Qin Mo and the others. I'll make you pay!"
The wounds on her body from Yellow Temperance's gnawing had long since scabbed over, but under such intense movement, blood began spurting from them again.
But!
Before you continue