(Volume VIII: The day we are family)
Barren plains of gravel, scattered piles of rock, and dust that choked the air with every gust of wind. These, along with the skeletal remains of a forgotten civilization, made up her world.
"Cough, cough—"
A gust of wind blasted sand into her face, forcing a pair of sharp coughs from beneath Bianka's cloak. She waved a hand in front of her face and pulled the tattered rags she wore tighter, wrapping herself up more securely.
"I feel like... it's somewhere around here." The coughing fit broke her mechanical pace, and for a moment, Bianka felt truly alive again.
It wasn't a feeling she particularly enjoyed...
"Meow~" A cat's cry came from the pack on Bianka's back. She froze for a second, then her hand fumbled anxiously at her waist, pulling two strips of jerky from one of the pouches hanging there.
"Sorry, Stan. I forgot to feed you."
A white cat emerged lazily from the pack on her back, draped itself over her shoulder, and began to listlessly lick the jerky she offered.
Once Stan had the strip of meat firmly in his mouth, Bianka withdrew her hand and stuffed the other piece into her own.
She had found this jerky in the last town, a place that was completely empty and looked like it had been abandoned for months.
The jerky must have been made with a lethal amount of salt. When she first found it, a single lick had been overwhelmingly briny. Now... she shoved a whole piece into her mouth and felt almost nothing.
Bianka's expression contorted. The overpowering, throat-burning saltiness finally registered.
She fumbled for the canteen at her waist, tilted her head back, and took a long swig. Only then did the harsh flavor begin to subside.
The water softened the jerky in her mouth, and Bianka figured a piece this big would keep her chewing for a good while.
She shook the canteen, feeling how much water that one gulp had taken. After a moment's thought, she subconsciously glanced at her hands, then fell silent. Shaking her head, she reattached the nearly empty canteen to her waist.
"Stan, we'll definitely find water." Although she was talking to herself, Bianka couldn't help but use Stan's name.
She didn't notice the cat on her shoulder, still gnawing on its jerky, seem to roll its eyes before turning and scurrying back into the backpack.
The wind picked up, sweeping across the desert with furious sand, burying a clump of withered grass beneath the yellow dunes.
Bianka crouched behind a rock that offered some shelter from the wind. She pulled out her phone and waited a few seconds. The black screen flickered to life. The moment it connected to a network, Bianka quickly tapped into the [Spark] app and opened her bookmarked bounty board.
[Request posted by Wickstan Shelter: Signs of Honkai Beast activity near our shelter! Requesting immediate assistance!]
After confirming the location, time, and other details of the request and comparing them to her surroundings, Bianka decisively turned off her phone.
Seeing the 9% battery display, Bianka couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment.
These days, she only allowed herself a single glance at the requests on her phone each day. This extreme power-saving method was the only reason her phone still had any charge left.
But now, only 9% remained. She hadn't charged her phone once since leaving the Fire MOTHs.
In truth, she had come across a few places to charge it along the way—charging piles, small generators, and even some quick-swap power cells.
But Bianka didn't know how to use them... This phone was the only one she had, and she didn't dare just experiment. What if she broke it?
Putting her phone away, Bianka let out a long sigh. She began to unload the various packs, large and small, from her body, including the one carrying Stan.
"Stan, you stay here and don't run off. This won't take long." Looking at Stan as he poked his head out of the bag, Bianka wanted to reach out and stroke his fluffy head, but she held back.
She had Honkai energy in her body; she couldn't get too close to Stan...
Bianka was completely unaware that carrying Stan on her back every day was already "getting too close."
Stan was more than used to Bianka's routine. Over the past month, she would often leave him with her things like this, depart, and then return a short while later, covered in dust.
After meowing once at Bianka, Stan retreated back into the bag, not wanting to spend a second longer outside.
Bianka gave a helpless laugh, then stood up and walked in the direction her senses were guiding her.
Ever since she decided to leave the Fire MOTHs, Bianka had just picked a direction and walked. She didn't know where she was going, her mind consumed with a single thought: avoid settlements, avoid anyone she might meet on the road.
Back then, Bianka had even avoided the zombies and Deadwalkers she came across. She didn't want to see anything that moved, terrified of confusing the living with the dead.
Perhaps because it had been so long since she'd been near any sign of life, Bianka noticed that the Honkai Beast features on her body were slowly receding, leaving behind only some markings resembling Honkai energy corrosion.
But Bianka could feel the Honkai Beast's power still inside her. It felt like it could erupt again at the slightest provocation, seizing control of her body.
She could also activate that power at will, but she had no idea what would happen if she did. All she could remember was the moment she had lost her senses, the scene of her attempting to attack Himeko and the others still vivid in her mind.
Her subconscious was pointing out where the settlements were, guiding her to places with people, with life. Her body was telling her—You must kill them.
This impulse constantly tried to seduce her, but thankfully, this subconscious whisper—not even strong enough to be called an auditory hallucination—had no effect on Bianka. Instead, she used this strange sense to avoid all the settlements along her path, eventually stepping into this land of yellow sand.
After recovering somewhat, Bianka began trying to make use of what remained of her. She didn't dare to fight the Deadwalkers and zombies she encountered, but she showed no mercy to the bizarrely shaped Honkai Beasts.
She took them all on, one by one. Every scattered Honkai Beast she met along the way was single-handedly shattered to pieces by Bianka.