"Good thing I made it in time~" Hina leaned on the steering wheel and let out a huge sigh of relief, "Thank goodness someone was willing to lend me a car, or I really wouldn't have made it."
"Hina, what are you doing here!" Anna urgently looked at Hina while pulling open the car door and sitting in the passenger seat, "It's very dangerous here!"
"Pat."
Hina affectionately hit Anna on the head.
"You know it's dangerous, too! What are those monsters? You know something, don't you!" She chastised the stunned Anna, "You rushed in for others, but did you ever think about what we would do if something happened to you!"
"You… you came in too, didn't you…" Scolded by Hina, Anna's confidence instantly wavered.
"I only came in for you! Honestly, before you consider others, think about yourself first!" Hina was very angry, "I know being kind and helpful is good, but I never taught you to save people recklessly, did I?"
"Ah! Seriously! Hina, you're a nun! How can you say such things!"
"So what if I'm a nun! Does a nun have to be selfless and devoted to everyone?"
…
After finding a small road, Hina drove the car toward the city exit. They drove in silence, as if sulking.
"Anna, what happened to you these past few days?" After a long silence, Hina finally broke the deadlock and asked Anna, "I know you are very warm-hearted, a good child, but I don't think you would normally do this. The way you've been acting this past half a month, especially today, makes you feel like… you've matured."
"Didn't you just lecture me?"
"I lectured you only because you didn't consider yourself. If you don't love yourself, of course, others need to love you."
"…"
"Thinking about it carefully, things started to change after you brought Mr. Lin to the orphanage. Is that person related to the current situation?"
"…He told me about the current disaster. He saved many people, but now he can't even stand up."
"I see."
Hearing Anna say this, Hina had pretty much figured out the situation.
"I… I feel like I should do something. I can't just stand by. After learning the truth from the uncle, I feel like this is the meaning of my life." Anna's fingers dug into her palms, "The day I met the uncle, I understood that this was my 'destiny.'"
Their meeting must have a meaning; it was a certainty brought about by chance.
"…Little Anna, you've changed a lot. I almost don't recognize you." Hina was silent for a moment, then shook her head helplessly.
"Clatter."
They had reached the city entrance. Hina stopped the car and said to Anna, "Anna, you get out and go to the shelter to look after them."
"Me? Wait a minute, what about you, Hina?"
"Didn't you say there was still someone in the city who hadn't left?" Hina shifted the gear and glanced at Anna, "I'm going to look for him."
"No!" Anna instinctively retorted.
"Anna…"
Anna tried to reach for the steering wheel, "You go. I can drive too. Let me go."
"Anna!"
The snow on the eaves was shaken down.
"You're so annoying!" Anna yelled at Hina, "It was Hina who taught me how to change…"
"That's not true, Anna."
"…"
"…"
After more than ten seconds of silence, Hina spoke softly to Anna, "At that time, I actually saw my past self in you."
"Your past self… Hina…" Anna only realized the meaning of the sentence after coming back to her senses.
That time? Does she mean when she was a child?
"I told you I investigated your family, right? That was true, but it wasn't after we met, but before I met you." Hina spoke to Anna in a gentle tone, "I used to investigate the past of the children to heal their emotional trauma."
Anna knew Hina had lied to her when they first met, but she hadn't expected there to be more concealment besides the phrase "the new nun."
With little time left, Hina didn't give Anna time to think or feel sentimental. She blurted out everything that happened back then.
"My family was very similar to yours, but the difference is that my parents eventually drove me away; they didn't die."
"So, during that time, I was similar to you, hating them, and similarly believing that this was my destiny. So, I gradually began to believe in God and a mysterious fate, as an unfaithful believer."
"But after I saw you, and saw my own shadow in you, I wanted to start changing myself. Because you couldn't be like me."
"It wasn't me who changed you, Anna. It was you who changed me."
…
The gentle smile disappeared in the ice crystals and white mist.
Anna, whose right eye was stuck shut with blood, covered her forehead and slowly struggled to her feet. She looked around blankly.
What happened?
After Hina finished her last sentence, Anna heard a loud bang. The sound seemed to come from right next to her ear, yet also from a distant place.
And then… and then…
Anna put her hand down. Her open left eye stared dully at the distance. An ice-blue figure was quietly floating in the air, looking down at her with an expressionless face.
Is that… Hina?
Anna remembered.
After the loud bang, Anna saw a gem-like object instantly appear in Hina's chest, radiating a cold, icy-blue light. Then she was thrown backward by the impact.
What happened to Hina?
Hina looked at her like a stranger, cold-blooded and ruthless, observing the stunned Anna with icy-blue eyes that weren't there before.
'Herrschers are also products of the Honkai, only born in large-scale Honkai outbreaks. They are the most concrete manifestation of the Honkai, capable of controlling Honkai Beasts and zombies. Their birth is a devastating blow to human society.'
'They… are Herrschers all females… no, are they all human females?'
Memories of her conversation with Hua flashed across her mind like lightning.
This made Anna stare in disbelief.
Hina… became a Herrscher?
Hina, who was talking to her just a second ago, had suddenly turned into the humanoid monster Herrscher Hua spoke of?
"Bi… na?" Anna reached out to Hina in the air, murmuring.
However, the next moment—
"Swish!"
Anna looked down at the ice spike "growing" out of her stomach. The blood on it turned into scarlet ice crystals, dissipating with her life in the cold wind.
Unable to speak a single word, a chill quickly covered her entire body.
"Thud." Anna fell to the ground.
That pure white beret gently slipped from her head.