"I, ah, like Kiana the most."
Facing Mei's direct attack, Kiana's face instantly flushed into red tomato, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Re-really? Mei, do you like me the most?" Kiana's hands restlessly rubbed the corner of her clothes, turning her head away shyly.
"Of course!" Mei took one of Kiana's hands, her eyes gazing gently at Kiana, then continued:
"Kiana is my lifesaver, and... in my most helpless, darkest moments, Kiana was like a ray of light that illuminated me."
Mei's hand caressed Kiana's cheek, her beautiful eyes filled with tender affection.
"Perhaps to you, it was just a normal act of seeing injustice, simply for the sake of your sense of justice... But at that time, Kiana's actions, to me, were like someone in a desert without water suddenly seeing an oasis. Kiana, you gave me the hope to live."
Mei's words were practically a confession. Kiana felt her heart rate accelerating, her head a little dizzy, her whole body feeling light-headed, almost unable to think.
Within the consciousness space, Verna was dumbfounded. Is this plot correct? Was Mei's favorability towards Kiana this high in the early stages?
Verna fell into deep thought, but then suddenly remembered that MHY often retcons things.
It seemed... it could make sense? According to Mei's words, Kiana appeared during her most helpless time, the one who extended a hand of salvation to her. It was normal to have such feelings.
Moreover, they had experienced so much together now. With various factors Overlay, it was quite normal for Mei to say this. Just like that, Verna try to convinced herself.
"Mei..." Outside, Kiana felt her throat dry. She hadn't expected that the usually gentle and easily shy Mei would suddenly say such words.
'I once met a ray of light, like sunlight... I fell into the vast blue, gazing at that moonlight. During that suffocating time, you pushed open the door to my heart, bringing happiness, pushing open my window.'
The distance between Mei and Kiana grew closer and closer. Kiana's heart beat faster and faster, shyness and anticipation flashed in her eyes, and she slowly closed them.
"I will always protect Mei, no matter what the cost." Kiana, with her eyes closed, also responded to Mei's confession-like words. Under the night sky, the distance between their two hearts grew closer and closer. Bronya lay on Mei's lap, not daring to open her eyes at all.
'Wuwuwu Seele, Bronya misses you so much!' Bronya bit her small handkerchief, thinking of Seele in the Sea of Quanta. She didn't want to eat a dog food!
"Crack!" A huge sound echoed outside the apartment, breaking the ambiguous atmosphere. A gigantic Temple-class Honkai Beast raised its greatsword and smashed it onto the apartment building, splashing large amounts of dust and debris, turning the apartment building into a split apartment.
Kiana, Mei, and Bronya fell from the apartment building to the ground. Without giving them time to breathe, the Honkai Beast's greatsword transformed into a knight's lance and thrust towards the three people on the ground.
How to put it, this Honkai Beast was very bold. Among the three people, two were current Herrschers, its direct superiors, who is in an intimate moment, maybe it just manifestation of all lonely people in nagazora...
Bronya reacted quickly, her expression unchanged. She held a Homu doll in her right hand and extended her left hand flat.
Project Bunny appeared behind Bronya. The ferocious steel beast raised the lance in its left hand and held a shield in its right, protecting Bronya to avoid being affected by the shockwaves of their collision.
Beast VS Beast. The tips of their weapon collided, and they began to wrestle, evenly matched for a moment.
But this one Temple class, just have common sense in it, it use the other free hand to attack Project Bunny sheild, breaking the strugle and crashing Project Bunny through multiple building.
It stand there, scanning the smoke dust for any sign of that piece of metal.
Bunny, the strongest? Combatant in the team, goes off just like that...
After all the debris slid off Project Bunny, Project Bunny finally couldn't hold on and reverted to its quantum state.
As for Bronya, she leaned against the wall, which now had a spiderweb-like crater, her head lowered as she passed out.
Within the consciousness space, Verna looked at this scene, shook her head, and sighed. It was from here that Bronya perhaps began her legend of never winning.
After all, Project Bunny should have been able to win, but it somehow choose to head 1 by 1 with temple, between floating and grounded unit which one you think will win?
The fact that it can even hold for a moment is already astonishing.
Verna remained silent, only shaking her head repeatedly, sighing for Bronya.
"Bronya!" Mei, seeing Bronya get knocked flying, anxiously turned her head and called out, forgetting that the Honkai Beast was right beside her at that moment.
A whooshing sound echoed. Mei suddenly turned her head. The Temple-class Honkai Beast's greatsword was cleaving down towards her's head. Mei's pupils constricted. Time seemed to slow down at that instant. She could only watch the greatsword slowly descend, but her body couldn't move at all...
No, even if she could move, at this distance, she probably couldn't escape.
'Clearly... I just open my heart to Kiana... Is it going to end like this?'
"Mei!" It was Kiana's voice, anxious, panicked...
Gunfire rang out. In an emergency, Kiana, without training, instinctively grasped a bit of void's authority. An orange-black miniature black hole appeared, pulling the Temple-class Honkai Beast's greatsword, gaining precious time.
"If you keep thinking about Bronya, I... might get jealous, you know." Kiana knew that she had just had a sudden burst of power, but it didn't matter. This one second was enough.
She ran forward with all her might, reaching out to Mei, pushing off the ground with her toes, and lunging towards Mei, pushing her out of the Honkai Beast's attack range.
The orange-black black hole pulling the Honkai Beast's greatsword disappeared, and the blade fell again.
Blood splattered.
Mei was knocked to the ground by Kiana, and warm liquid stained her face.
"Ki... Kiana..." Mei's pupils trembled. Her hand touched the hideous and huge wound on Kiana's back. Her stable emotions collapsed again with Kiana's injury.
"Ahhh—ah!" Mei let out a mournful wail. The Honkai Beast raised its sword again, thrusting it towards Mei, but this time, thunder rang out, lightning raged, and a transparent protective barrier shielded Mei, who was holding Kiana.
Honkai energy gathered on her body, and a half-wing of shimmering lightning coalesced.
The mark of the Gem of Conquest was imprinted on her hip.
The Queen of Thunder held Kiana's body, her crimson eyes slightly lifted, looking at the Temple-class Honkai Beast that had caused all of this.
"Disappear, you scum!"
...