Chapter 384: Filial Piety Leads to Power
"Hss—"
In the same mysterious, sci-fi laboratory, Mobius leaned down beside the unclothed Sin Mal, whose body was riddled with tubes and cables. She exhaled a sound that was half-sniffing, half like a serpent flicking its tongue.
Then she lifted her head, gently tracing a finger along Sin Mal's delicate nose bridge, her smile sultry and wicked.
"The cells are regenerating. Gene reconstruction happens at this very stage. Yes… feel death. Understand death. This is a marvelous experience that few ever get to savor."
"Ah! Honkai—what a wondrous word! It draws life toward death… yet from death, it births ever-changing life!"
"When you approach the Honkai… you approach infinity!"
"To oppose the Honkai? Foolish! There's no need for that at all. It's the grand avenue leading to eternity. All we need to do is adapt to it—submit to it—and we shall behold the throne… that stands above billions of living beings!"
"Hahahaha!!!"
Mobius spread her arms wide and laughed triumphantly for the masterpiece she was about to complete.
Crack!
"#￥#￥%*&##!"
With a dull thud, the sturdy testing table suddenly split with cracks. Sin Mal's mouth spilled incoherent murmurs that held no meaning.
Her body began to tremble. Strange distortions rippled under her skin, as though countless tiny insects were swarming rapidly beneath the flesh.
Mobius leaned in, squinting.
"Hm?"
Just as the sound of curiosity escaped her lips, Sin Mal's eyes shot open—heterochromatic gold and red—and her hand lunged toward Mobius like lightning.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several black mechanical tentacles shot out from beneath Mobius' floating platform, pinning all of Sin Mal's limbs to the table.
Mobius leaned closer, lifting Sin Mal's chin, staring into her feral, beastlike expression.
"You're being naughty, my little lab mouse~~"
"Klein, sequences 1, 5 through 12, 16, and 23—give her one dose each."
Mobius brought her face near Sin Mal's, inhaling deeply as she spoke.
From Sin Mal's pheromones, she detected the onset of death-soldierification and Honkai-beastification—but that wasn't a problem. The experiment was designed for this.
"Yes, Doctor."
Klein administered the drugs as instructed.
Soon, Sin Mal fell silent again.
Her chest did not rise. Her face lost all color. Her body temperature cooled to match the room.
Perhaps it wasn't "sleeping" anymore—perhaps it was death.
…
Sip—
At that moment, Sigurd was drinking tea.
The resting room had shifted into a tranquil tea house. Fu Hua was preparing the tea, and accompanying them was Bronya, who had just returned from Eden's world.
As for Elysia, Senti, and the others—they weren't the type to sit still, and had gone off exploring for fun.
On the table, a projected screen displayed the footage of Sin Mal's experiment.
Bronya frowned.
"Sigurd…"
"Trust her. To obtain a higher-tier admission ticket, this is a trial she must face."
Sigurd lowered his gaze, fiddling calmly with the teacup, seemingly unmoved by the imagery in the projection.
Bronya's frown deepened as she said slowly:
"Based on the intel Bronya has gathered… Dr. Mobius is extremely dangerous."
"I know."
Sigurd answered simply.
Bronya hesitated for a moment, then took the initiative to turn off the projection. She reached out and held Sigurd's hand.
"Sigh~ Kiana, Sin Mal… none of them make life easy."
"If they did, they wouldn't be themselves."
"…Fair point. Don't worry, we can handle it. Worst case, we use the Life Equation."
"No need. She will succeed."
Sigurd gently squeezed Bronya's small hand and gave her a faint smile.
Sigurd had never believed Mobius would behave herself. If he weren't monitoring every detail of the situation—if he didn't have the ability to intercept any sudden mishap instantly—he never would have allowed Sin Mal to step into that laboratory.
Bronya gave a small nod in return to Sigurd's smile. The corners of her mouth lifted, her expression soft and gentle.
"Ahem! I'm still here, you know. Could you two mind the setting a little?"
Fu Hua, holding a teapot, looked toward the hand-holding pair with an expression that was equal parts exasperated and wounded.
Bronya raised a thumb calmly.
"Bronya doesn't mind Teacher Fu Hua watching."
"…Be careful or I'll hit you."
"In that case, I recommend Kiana. Thick skin, high resistance to beatings."
"Pfft! So you're redirecting the disaster? Is this how you stir trouble in the harem?"
Fu Hua shook her head with a laugh, throwing Bronya a teasing look before shifting that same look toward the ever-calm Sigurd.
Bronya folded her arms and responded in utter seriousness:
"Of course not. To deal with Kiana, Bronya doesn't need such complicated methods. With her kindergarden-level brainpower, Bronya has at least a thousand ways to handle her."
"Okay, okay—fine, I believe you. Drink your tea while it's still hot."
Fu Hua laughed as she poured for Sigurd and Bronya in turn.
The room was bright, the hearth beside them giving off a soft and pleasant warmth. The quiet, refined aura radiating from Fu Hua made the space feel especially serene.
Everything was peaceful. Everything was beautiful.
…
At the same time, in a world of towering glaciers—
A figure smashed through more than ten massive icebergs before crashing deep into the ground.
BOOM!!
A huge crater formed. Flames roared violently within it, vaporizing the ice for hundreds of meters around, scorching the earth into dry sand.
"Haa… haa… haa…"
Dragging her flaming greatsword along the ground, Kiana climbed step by step out of the crater she created. Her breathing was heavy, her body scorched and stained with blood—but her posture remained upright and proud.
"You're bleeding… aren't you?"
Lifting her head, Kiana stared across the vast expanse at Kevin, whose charred, cracked arm was already rapidly regenerating. A bright, triumphant grin spread across her face.
"Acceptable progress. Still far from enough."
Kevin gave his evaluation in that cold tone of his—though it was really just him talking to himself. The distance between them was far too great; even with his body, he couldn't hear her taunt.
Kiana exhaled, raising her sword once more.
This wasn't her first time making Kevin bleed. Kevin was strong—very strong—but the Herrscher of the Void combined with the modern Key of Flames was hardly a third-rate pairing. Kiana was strong too.
However, this time was different.
For the first time, she had drawn blood right at the start.
Before, she was always beaten into the ground until she could barely speak. But this time, her very first greeting had already forced Kevin to take damage.
That was a massive leap forward.
"Huu—"
Kiana inhaled deeply, lifted her blade, and vanished.
Kevin's expression sharpened. His gaze swept across the spatial distortions and black voids blooming around him. A heartbeat later, his head snapped upward.
"Ha!"
Kiana swung down from above, the blaze around her sword evaporating the ice beneath Kevin's feet.
Kevin's face didn't change. He simply lifted one hand to catch the strike.
BOOM!
A tremendous impact shook the peak, crumbling large chunks of rock and ice beneath him. Yet Kevin didn't retreat even a single step.
In the next instant, the blade he held froze over completely—but from within the sword, a torrential heat surged out, clashing head-on with Kevin's frost. Neither side fully overwhelmed the other.
In that brief stalemate, Kiana grinned. Her free hand rose and clenched.
"Break!"
A black void opened at Kevin's waist, its center overlapping perfectly with his body.
Then the void began to shrink with terrifying speed, threatening to slice Kevin clean in half.
Kevin's eyes narrowed. Still holding the blade, he yanked Kiana downward—directly into the radius of the spatial rupture she created.
Dodging wasn't his style. His approach was simple:
If escape isn't an option,drag the enemy in with you and see whose life force lasts longer.
But as Kevin yanked her downward, a sly glint flashed through Kiana's eyes. She suddenly released Laevatein, the blazing Key of Flames trapped in Kevin's grip, and let herself fall into a second, much smaller black hole.
Fwoosh!
The slicing-type singularity snapped shut. Kevin dropped into a low stance at the last instant, narrowly avoiding the spatial guillotine. Only a few strands of his silver hair drifted gently to the ground.
It sounded like a lot had happened, but in truth, not even half a second had passed since Kiana first appeared.
Kiana re-emerged in the distance, hands planted on her hips, a triumphant grin stretched across her face.
Kevin straightened calmly. With both hands, he grasped the still-burning sword, letting frost spread across the blade. Then he gave a casual twist.
Crack!
Laevatein split cleanly in two. Its heat vanished completely, going inert in his hands before he tossed the broken weapon aside.
"I use Shamash because I can freeze its fire whenever necessary. You, however… don't have that option. Without a God Key in hand, how much strength do you actually have left?"
"You're absolutely right! Weapons are nothing but branches—the fighter is the trunk and roots. Without that understanding, you'll never grow stronger. But… doesn't it strike you as odd? The God Key's flames disappearing that easily?"
"…Hm?"
Kevin looked down. He truly no longer sensed that overwhelming, inexhaustible Honkai heat within the shattered blade. His brows furrowed.
And then—Kiana raised her hand.
A pink gemstone rested in her palm.
"I should've realized earlier. Sigurd clearly has the ability to forge God Keys, yet he always chooses to use the raw gems directly, despite the burden. If you can endure their power, then why rely on an indirect vessel? How could a God Key ever match the strength of wielding the core itself!"
As she closed her fingers around the Plague Gem, magma-like crimson markings surged across her face.
Kevin's pupils tightened.
"You're insane. Directly channeling a Herrscher core is suicide."
"But Sig's done it more than once! And Sirin once held five—no, six—Herrscher authorities at once. In theory, I possess the same trait. So let me feel it—Sig's pain, Sig's power… everything he endured! This is my resolve!"
Kiana's body sizzled, her nerves screaming as every cell was burned alive, yet the smile on her lips only grew brighter. The light in her eyes shone like twin blazing stars.
"Get ready to fall, Ancestor. I'm not stopping here!"
Using a hoarse voice, Kiana challenged the distant ancestor whose blood ran through her veins, then charged forward—melting everything in her path.
Kevin watched her approach. He stepped forward as well, ice crystallizing in a storm around his outstretched fist.
"Your resolve… is acceptable."
Kevin murmured, driving his fist to meet hers.
BOOOOM!!!
Clouds were torn apart. The shockwave obliterated the entire mountain beneath their feet. Red and blue—melting heat and devouring frost—erupted in opposite directions, sweeping across the horizon until they vanished beyond sight.
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