ALL NOVEL Chapter 213: Kurikara
[Ren, the Divine Key will reach the boundary between the Sea of Quanta and Imaginary space in 30 seconds. You have a two-second window.]
Otto's voice crackled through the comm, but Ren remained unresponsive, standing alone at the highest point in Nagazora, overlooking the city.
His gaze swept across the devastated landscape, searching for a familiar figure, but the chaos, the blinding light from the experiment… Kiana was a flickering candle in a raging inferno.
She didn't come?
He had deliberately kept her away. Everything was proceeding according to plan. Yet, a strange sense of regret, of longing, settled over him. Like a man on death row yearning for a final glimpse of his family, like a criminal hoping for a last-minute intervention,
Ren found himself wishing for a farewell.
He couldn't explain the feeling, attributing it to the encroaching influence of his manufactured emotions.
[Ren! Respond immediately!]
Otto's increasingly frantic voice grated on his nerves. Ren severed the connection, tossing the communicator into the ruins.
Even Otto, with his usual composure, was losing his patience. Just as he was about to order Durandal to intervene, a surge of power coursed through the Cosmic Juggernaut Portal, tearing a deep rift in the veil of the Imaginary.
The experiment hadn't failed. In fact, Ren's precise control had made it easier than anticipated.
Otto swallowed his frustration. Whatever Ren's game was, as long as he cooperated, a little insubordination was tolerable.
"Continue the experiment."
With Ren's assistance, the Cosmic Juggernaut Portal reached the Imaginary space, beginning the process of establishing the final coordinates.
But Ren's task wasn't simply opening the gate. He had to maintain its stability.
As the Gem of Haste pulsed with power, his body temperature spiked. The damp ground beneath him evaporated instantly, his breath scorching the air.
His skin, like decaying wood, grew dry and brittle, his blood coagulating into dark patches.
Nagazora's Honkai energy swirled around him, drawn into a vortex, converging into a raging inferno that scorched the barrier of the Imaginary space.
The ground began to melt, rivers of lava flowing through the ruins.
He took one last look at the city, still no sign of Kiana. He didn't wait any longer. Like a falling star, he soared skyward, plunging into the mirror-like portal.
The space shattered, fragments of data raining down from the Imaginary space and the Sea of Quanta. Ren grasped a fragment, his mind flooded with information.
Prepared for the onslaught, the Herrscher of Dominance's shared consciousness allowed him to process the data quickly.
A witch, holding a lantern. Even across worlds, he could almost smell the rosemary, the thorns and withered irises as alluring and dangerous as a viper.
Fallen Rosemary.
But she wasn't what he sought. He needed something higher, a way to reach the Imaginary Tree.
He had sacrificed so much, even abandoning the "Ren" persona, to assist Otto with this experiment. He had his reasons.
Beyond escaping the Will of the Honkai's control, his other objective was the experiment itself. His true self was still far from the Imaginary Tree, a distance he couldn't cross alone. That's why he had accelerated Otto's progress.
Helping Kiana had been a secondary objective, a mere experiment in simulating human emotion.
Quantum Shadows, like a rising tide, poured from the turbulent spatial rift. Ren swung his greatsword, cutting them down. In the darkness, faint golden rays of light filtered through.
The light of the Imaginary Tree. He could even see the Theater of Domination, nestled amongst its branches.
Otto can't find this.
As Ren and Otto continued gathering data, Kiana, having said her farewell to Benares, stood, her resolve renewed.
She embraced the dragon, her voice soft. "Goodbye, Bella."
The memories of Sirin, finally resurfacing, allowed her to truly accept Benares, but it was too late.
She turned and ran towards her goal, unaware that as her tears fell upon Benares's scales, a near-invisible thread, like a vine, began to grow.
Long after Benares had fallen silent, the threads finally coalesced, forming a cocoon, or perhaps, an egg.
The cocoon pulsed gently, a silent lullaby.
As it dissolved, like snowflakes melting in the sun, a strand of lavender hair spilled out. A delicate girl lay within, fast asleep.
Bella.
Long ago, Ren had planted a seed, a fragment of the Herrscher of Dominance's core, within Benares. It was this core, mimicking the Herrscher of the Void's aura, that had allowed him to control the dragon.
With Benares's death, the core had become a seed, extracting Bella's consciousness, allowing her to be reborn through the Herrscher of Dominance's power.
As long as nothing went wrong, Bella would be reborn as a puppet.
As long as nothing went wrong.
A sudden twitch. A broken clock hand moved. The damaged buildings around them began to reform, time reversing. The shattered remains of Nihilius reassembled.
The mecha, though weakened, was still a deadly threat to the newly forming Bella.
Nihilius locked onto Bella, raising its clock-hand sword, then swung.
Crack.
Debris rained down as cracks spread across the clock-hand sword, shattering it completely.
Lightning crackled around Nihilius, paralyzing it.
"Just in time," Mei muttered, relieved. Unable to shake her concern for Kiana, she had returned to the city. Liuli had alerted her to the danger, allowing her to intervene just in time to save Bella.
Lightning and steel flashed. Nihilius, already weakened from its previous encounter with Kiana, was easily dispatched. Mei sheathed her katana, looking at Liuli and Theresa, who had arrived moments after her.
"Now what?"
"Benares, now deceased, was property of the Obsidian Concord. Its consciousness, preserved by us, belongs to me. However, its body still holds immense power. It would make a suitable companion for you."
"But… it was Kiana's…"
"After this, you will never see her again. Don't you want something to remember her by?"
Mei remained silent, her resolve wavering. She couldn't deny the allure of such a powerful companion.
She touched the dragon's corpse. The Herrscher of Thunder's power flowed into it, deconstructing and reforming it, giving it new life.
"Awaken, Kurikara."