Paimon frantically covered her ears, Lumine forbade her from looking, and she didn't dare to.
Yet, no matter how hard Paimon pressed her hands against her ears, Yuna's anguished wails pierced through. The tear-streaked little Paimon opened her mouth wide and wept uncontrollably.
Yae Miko closed her eyes, tears sliding down her cheeks.
She couldn't bear to witness this scene, she truly couldn't...
The ground was awash with blood, all blood. Yuna lay in the crimson pool, too weak to even cry out anymore.
The black-robed figure, wielding a bloodstained longsword, continued to advance. Yuna could only watch, her face contorted in unbearable pain and despair, her wide eyes fixed on the figure.
The black-robed figure raised the longsword high and brought it down with brutal force.
The expression on Yuna's face froze forever...
It wasn't over yet. The black-robed figure seized Yuna's soul from thin air. Because of the extreme pain she had suffered in death, her extracted soul was dazed and disoriented.
The black-robed figure extended its right hand, and purple-black Abyss Energy coalesced into a swirling vortex in its palm.
Yuna's soul was torn into the vortex. Her once dazed spirit suddenly widened its eyes, letting out piercing screams even more agonizing than when she was brutally murdered.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh—"
Ei's eyes blazed with unprecedented Electro energy as she slashed at the black-robed figure with lightning speed.
Even though she knew this moment had already occurred and that she was powerless to change it, Ei couldn't bear to witness it unfolding before her eyes.
The force of Ei's strike was only slightly weaker than the one that had vertically cleaved the colossal serpent in two. The entire Mt. Kanna was split asunder by her blade—no, not just Mt. Kanna, but the entirety of Tsurumi Island.
The vision abruptly ended after Ei unleashed this devastating strike.
After swinging her blade, Ei collapsed like a deflated balloon, dropping to one knee with her longsword braced against the ground, panting heavily.
Kuki Shinobu fainted again from overwhelming rage, and Yae Miko cradled her in her arms, tending to her condition.
Itto pounded the ground with his fists, each blow creating a massive crater in the earth.
-
Player World.
Jiang Mumu had long anticipated that the scene of the black-robed figure torturing Yuna would never be shown directly to the players.
As the black-robed figure raised its butcher's knife and approached Yuna, the scene cut to a chicken lying on a cutting board, fully prepared and waiting to be chopped.
The chef first chopped off the chicken's left wing with a single stroke. When attempting to sever the right wing, the dull blade required several repeated chops. The chef then slowly hacked off the chicken's thighs before finally decapitating it with a final, brutal strike.
Naturally, there was no voiceover. Otherwise, the mere audio would have been enough to give many players nightmares.
Even Ei had been so enraged that she split Tsurumi Island in two with a single strike. If the players had heard the actual sounds, some of them might have been traumatized beyond recovery—especially Yuna's fellow chefs...
They probably would have stormed Mihoyo's headquarters with knives in hand!
There was no help for it. It was all Yuna's fault for immersing herself so completely in her voice acting.
Still, even this sanitized version was enough. Though the players couldn't see the full horror, their imaginations filled in the gaps.
[Is this how they kill her? Starting with her hands—Aaaah!]
[Just end it already! Yuna hates pain the most!]
[I'm tired. Let's just destroy everything.]
[This game should be rated 18+, not 16+...]
[Fuck you, black-robed figure! Fuck the entire Abyss! Fuck Mihoyo!]
[Waaah, my Yuna...]
-
Overseas Live Stream
A burly, bearded man watching this scene cursed loudly, slamming his keyboard onto the desk until it shattered. Growing angrier, he stormed out of the room, returning moments later with a baseball bat. He then proceeded to smash his computer to pieces.
His live stream was immediately banned.
Similar desk-clearing incidents erupted across various countries. In China, popular streamer Penguin trashed his keyboard live on air, though he spared his computer.
Female streamers like Chen Xiyao and her colleagues wept uncontrollably, their voices choked with sobs.
-
Mt. Kanna.
The vision formed by the mist shattered, and everyone found themselves back in the cave.
As if suddenly realizing something, Itto stopped his earth-shattering attacks, leaped to his feet, and sprinted off in a specific direction.
Lost in the afterglow of the vision, no one paid any attention to what Itto was doing.
Yae Miko gently massaged Kuki Shinobu's temples, a faint aura of Yokai Power assisting.
This child has endured far too much in such a short time, Yae Miko thought. As her elder sister, I absolutely cannot allow this to leave any lasting scars. This is one of the few things I can do for her.
Ei vanished in a flash of Electro, reappearing instantly at the summit of Mt. Kanna.
With a swift strike of her blade, she completely obliterated the Altar.
The previous destruction wasn't enough! she thought.
From the sea she had cleaved open earlier, she retrieved Yuna's Hydro Vision. The once-brilliant Hydro Vision had now completely dimmed.
Lumine, her eyes red-rimmed, comforted Paimon, continuously wiping away the tears streaming down the little fairy's cheeks.
Just when I wipe them away, more keep coming...
-
On the other side, Itto arrived beneath the great tree, searching frantically.
Where is it? Where the hell is it?
He distinctly remembered it throwing it over here!
Itto plunged through the underbrush, heedless of the scratches tearing at his skin. They'd heal soon enough anyway.
"Found it!"
Itto sprinted over and yanked the Claymore half-buried in the ground free.
This was Yuna's weapon—her beloved Claymore!
He cradled the sword against his cheek, the frigid blade pressing against his burning skin, yet it couldn't quench the surging despair within him.
He staggered back several steps and collapsed against the tree, like a stone statue stripped of its spine, his eyes hollow.
No wailing, only deathly silent gasps. Each inhale tore through him with searing pain, each exhale felt like fragments of his soul drifting away.
Itto sat there for an eternity, until Kuki Shinobu, roused by Yae Miko, found him.
Shinobu's condition was even worse than Itto's. She took the Claymore from his hands and, mirroring his earlier actions, pressed her face tightly against the blade, desperate to offer a sliver of warmth to her sister's dying despair.
"Shinobu... my condolences..."
"It's time to go, Boss."
Kuki Shinobu hugged the Claymore and left the cave, with Itto slowly getting up and following behind.
Paimon had stopped crying, but the sorrow this time would likely linger for a long time.
Ei reached out and handed Kuki Shinobu the Hydro Vision they had just found. Shinobu clutched the extinguished Vision tightly against her chest.
"Yuna..."
The group emerged from the cave, their silence now heavier than when they had entered.
Though they had gained much on this journey, none of them could find any joy in their hearts.
Before, they had speculated endlessly about what Yuna had experienced to make her so terrified. Now, they knew.
The Abyss had once again provoked a god—this time, one who would never rest until vengeance was exacted.
Outside the cave, Lumine glanced back. An island had been split into two.
Another... Musoujin Gorge...