[Activation successful]
[New world detected: "Izumo." Binding in progress…]
[Compatibility analysis in progress…]
[Warning: This world's Honkai compatibility has reached 87.9%. For every 1% of your growth, the world's Honkai Energy Concentration will automatically increase by 0.879%.]
[You have received Honkai's gift. Finality Progress permanently increased by 5%. Skill reward granted.]
[Auto-drawing skill… You have received the Blessing of 'Void.' Skill obtained — "Phase Shuttle."]
Name: Kiana
Faction: Honkai
Talent: Authority of Finality
Skill: Phase Shuttle (Void)
Finality Progress: 5%
Honkai Energy Concentration (Izumo): 4.395%
Summary: Your existence will bring about unknown change. As you begin your journey, remember to monitor the world's Honkai Energy Concentration at all times.
Her movements, slowed by pain and fatigue, suddenly felt liberated. A surge of energy erupted from within her body—endless, inexhaustible. It was as if her physical limits had been shattered.
And alongside that power came a new sensation.
She could feel another space—an alternate plane of existence. She could move freely between it and this one, at will.
The once-agonizing pain no longer mattered. Kiana clenched her newly empowered fists tightly.
"This… this is the real me!"
She marveled at the sensation of Honkai Energy coursing through her veins. It was like a machine that had finally been plugged back into its power source—an entirely different being from the one she was just moments ago.
Feeling her newfound strength, she once again rushed toward the grotesque Kami before her, launching herself forward like a cannonball. "Mei, move aside!"
Raiden Mei didn't know what had just happened to Kiana, but her trust in her was absolute. Even without understanding what kind of transformation was taking place behind her, she reacted instantly—disengaging and leaping to the side.
The moment Mei cleared the way, a white blur crashed forward with explosive force. Kiana's punch shattered through the wall of tentacles and struck the Kami's body head-on, sending it flying seven or eight meters away into a heap of shattered rocks, the impact throwing up clouds of dust.
It was a strength far beyond human comprehension.
Kiana, who had just punched the octopus-like Kami into the rubble, was exhilarated—but beneath the thrill, she couldn't forget the cost of this power. Her emotions were tangled, excitement mixed with unease.
So what? Don't think—just fight!
She clenched her fists again and dove into the rubble.
"From here on out—it's my stage!"
"Kiana!"
Mei reached out in shock, unable to stop her. Kiana was moving so fast that she could barely catch her silhouette.
Had the sword been holding her back before?
There was no time to dwell on it. Mei gripped her blade tightly and followed Kiana into the rubble.
The octopus-like Kami wasn't among the strongest of its kind. The only reason it had survived this long was its extreme caution.
It drifted along rivers like the water spirits and evil gods of legend, dragging nearby humans into the depths to devour them wherever it went.
A thousand years ago, when Takamagahara had first descended upon this world, it had fought against the resistance forces of that era.
Low-level Kami had limited intelligence, but this one still remembered the swordsman who had once sliced it in half with a single strike—nearly killing it on the spot.
Since then, it had spent centuries hiding, waiting. Only now, after sensing that all the demon-slaying swordsmen had withdrawn—and detecting the presence of Almighty Thunder in this region—had it dared to emerge again.
Its tentacles flailed wildly, the countless limbs extending from beneath its head writhing like a mass of grotesque worms.
It wanted to flee back to the river.
"Trying to run now? Too late!"
Kiana fearlessly grabbed one of its retreating limbs, her arms flexing with superhuman strength as she yanked the massive Kami to a halt.
"Get back here!!"
With a roar, she hurled the creature over her shoulder in a clean throw. The enormous Kami—roughly the size of a minivan, with more than a dozen tentacles—slammed hard into the ground.
When Mei arrived, she was just in time to see Kiana flipping the Kami over her shoulder in a stunning display of brute force.
Kiana…
No—this wasn't the time to be stunned.
The Kami lay dazed, its several pairs of crimson eyes wide open. Amid the bloodlust, there was something else in them—confusion.
Was this… really human strength?
No—it had to run!
The tides had turned completely, and the octopus-like Kami no longer had any will to fight. It turned and tried to flee as fast as it could.
But what greeted it was a fist of steel crashing down from above, slamming it hard into the ground.
Its tentacles flailed wildly in panic, lashing out in every direction—even striking its own body in the chaos. The blows that struck the ground landed with heavy thuds, while those that struck itself sounded disturbingly crisp.
But hitting Kiana was no easy task. When she couldn't dodge, she simply grabbed hold of a tentacle mid-swing and used it to slam the Kami back and forth across the ground.
"Scaring people, are you?! Think you can eat humans too?! Let's see how your tentacles taste compared to the ones they sell at food stalls!"
It was a scene of pure brutality.
For a moment, it was impossible to tell which one was the real monster.
Kiana didn't even need to use her Phase Shuttle skill—her body, now reinforced by Honkai Energy, was more than enough to overpower the creature completely.
The octopus Kami looked terrifying, but aside from its insane regeneration, its speed and strength weren't even that great—not compared to Kiana, even before her Honkai awakening. It was being pounded one-sidedly, its limbs shattered over and over.
Its regenerative power, however, was truly monstrous. She had no idea how to counter it.
So right now, all she could do was keep beating it down.
The Kami's once-menacing form was now pitiful, being swung around like a punching bag. Its tentacles and body were all in various states of damage—but every time it hit the ground and got pulled up again, its wounds healed almost instantly. The speed of its recovery was absurd.
After slamming it a dozen more times, Kiana finally lost her patience. "So this is the power of a Kami, huh? Erosion, is it? Let's see if you can erode Honkai itself!"
The world's Honkai Energy concentration was still below 5%.
But Kiana wasn't an ordinary human. Grabbing the Kami's head, she instinctively released her Honkai Energy without any guidance.
The Kami, who had nearly given up resisting after realizing she couldn't kill it, suddenly convulsed violently upon contact with the energy—as though struck by lightning.
Its body twitched uncontrollably, grotesque spasms running through it, and from its mouth came a shriek beyond description.
Startled, Kiana threw it aside, keeping her guard up as she watched the creature writhe in pain.
The Kami thrashed on the ground, and when its tentacles tried to attack her again, she tore them off with brute force.
Strange markings began to spread across its body—the visible traces of Honkai corrosion.
Its aura flared sharply, surging for an instant. Kiana's eyes widened. Crap—did I overdo it? Did I just turn it into a Honkai creature?
But before her panic could take hold, the Kami's body began to melt—like butter under heat—into a mass of black sludge.
Its movements slowed, then stopped entirely, the liquefaction spreading faster and faster. Within a minute, it would be completely dissolved.
"Is… is it dead?"
Kiana let out a cautious breath and turned toward Mei—only to hear the familiar sound of her sword being drawn again.
"What's wrong?" she called, alarmed.
When she turned around, she saw Mei slicing through a short tentacle—less than a meter long—that had sprouted new tendrils from its surface. With a clean motion, Mei severed it in two using Hokushin Ittō-ryū.
The sound that followed was sharp—almost like glass breaking.
The cut-off tentacle fell to the ground and began to vaporize, turning into a strange black-and-red mist. Not just that one—the hundreds of severed tentacles scattered across the ground, and even the Kami's melted, tar-like remains that Kiana had corroded with Honkai Energy—all began to boil violently.
It was like watching water brought to a full boil. Bubbles formed, burst, and then the black-red gas rapidly evaporated into the air—drawn by some unseen force, converging toward the sword in Raiden Mei's hands.