"Yes, yes! No matter what the mission is, just leave it all to this young lady!"
The white-haired dumpling nodded like a pounding garlic mortar. Placing her small hand on her proudly puffed-out chest, she brimmed with confidence, looking just like a knight who had mastered her divine skills and was coming out of the mountains to protect her princess.
"I feel terrifyingly strong right now!"
Kiana clenched her pink fists, her azure, sky-like eyes seemingly burning with a raging fire.
It was like she had just watched a long, pulse-pounding compilation video of Yasuo pulling off flashy outplays, and then immediately logged on to insta-lock the Unforgiven.
She, Kiana Kaslana, had undergone a super evolution!
Kiana felt like she could easily toy with two hundred versions of herself from four months ago, taking them out with one bat strike each.
"During this period, you've done very well, Kiana. You've made great progress."
Silver Wing rubbed Kiana-cat's soft, squishy cheeks. "But if you want to perform the traditional art of a purple-skinned pufferfish, you should at least wait until you can take a strike of Kevin's Heavenly Fire unsheathed."
Kevin's method of teaching and training Kiana captured the essence of Master Kaido—beatings.
If he couldn't beat her to death, he'd beat her to the brink of death. If he did beat her to death, he'd wait for her mental state to recover and for her to return to the trial area from the respawn point, then continue beating her!
"Gah!"
She didn't understand the first half of Silver Wing's sentence, but she understood the second half. Kiana stopped abruptly, like a duck whose neck had been forcefully pinched.
She didn't dare to let her ego inflate anymore.
Four months of time...
Do you know how she survived these past four months?!
Being beaten black and blue was getting off lightly; Kiana was practically beaten to tears!
During the first month, she couldn't find any openings for an effective counterattack before quickly tasting defeat. That white-haired uncle, Kevin Kaslana, showed absolutely no mercy to a fellow family member. He even treated her like a baseball, batting her around in the air!
A warrior can be humiliated, but a Paramecium cannot!
In a fit of rage, Kiana provoked Kevin, telling him to switch his weapon to the Heavenly Fire Greatsword. Subsequently, she was turned into a charcoal-grilled Paramecium.
"It seems Kevin's teaching method is very effective on you."
Seeing the Kiana-cat, who possessed the pufferfish factor in her body, put away her inflated ego, Silver Wing's smile grew even brighter.
Although Kiana seemed like the type who would easily slack off and get cocky, the Kaslana teachings and her experience wandering from place to place ensured that once this white-haired dumpling suffered a certain degree of setbacks, she would rapidly grow and absorb those lessons.
Extreme battles to the death, walking the line between life and death, were able to be constantly repeated in a short period of time within the special environment of the Elysian Realm.
A certain transformation had already quietly begun.
The hardships and suffering she was supposed to experience while walking alone in Arc City in the original worldline—learning how to utilize that innate power through countless life-and-death struggles—were now spread out over a long period of time, spent in the company of her companions.
Although her resolve was nearly shattered, the girl named Kiana never once gave up or became discouraged.
Mainly because the moment Kiana showed any thought or tendency to give up, Kevin would mercilessly belittle the girl's determination and perseverance as a Kaslana.
That was the one thing Kiana couldn't stand the most!
Kevin had accurately grasped Kiana-cat's weak point. Even if her teeth were knocked out, the girl would swallow them down, forcing herself to persevere through sheer stubbornness and a refusal to admit defeat.
Being chronically beaten up, battered, and slashed to pieces was exchanged for an extremely exaggerated rate of growth.
These were experience points accumulated through blood and tears!
Even without having come into contact with the Authority of the Void yet, the current Kiana possessed the combat capabilities of a beginner A-rank Valkyrie.
One had to realize, it was currently only August 15, 2014.
In the original worldline, the original trio joined St. Freya Academy in April 2014 and underwent their initial enrollment training in May.
Afterward, it wasn't until April 2015 that Kiana passed the Valkyrie qualification exam and became a B-rank Valkyrie. One could imagine just how peaceful and comfortable campus life at St. Freya Academy was.
Under the tutelage of Master Kaido... cough, Kevin, with his Heavenly Fire unsheathed version of the Thunder Bagua—if you haven't learned the technique, just get slashed a few more times. Four months of this was equal to, and even surpassed, a whole year of teaching results from that group of Rayleighs at St. Freya Academy!
If it weren't for the fact that she was slashed to death several times a day, Kiana-cat would have puffed up into a pufferfish and floated off into the sky long ago!
The only drawback was that only her combat power had improved. As for the other basic knowledge required of a Valkyrie... it was better off ignored!
To a Paramecium's brain, all of that was just a burden.
"Sister Silver Wing, could it be about that matter?"
Hearing Silver Wing mention going on a long trip, Rin, who was sipping her drink and taking small bites of a sakura mochi, put away her lively and cheerful expression, her willow-leaf eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"Yes, we need to take a trip to New Zealand," Silver Wing nodded.
"New Zealand?"
"What are we going there for?"
Kiana and Mei exchanged a glance, both able to see the confusion in each other's eyes, before turning their heads in unison to look at Silver Wing.
"Our target is the[Schicksal] Oceania Branch. The Gem of Desire, one of the four gems scattered by the Herrscher of the Void after the Second Eruption, should be located there."
A trace of seriousness crept into Silver Wing's lazy tone.
"Next up is the Fourth—or should I say the Third? Regardless, a new Great Eruption is highly likely to break out in New Zealand."
"A Great Eruption!?"
Kiana and Mei exclaimed in shock.
"A Great Eruption... is it coming again?"
The gentle curve at the corners of Sakura's mouth vanished.
Ever since her younger sister arrived in the Elysian Realm, she had smiled much more often. But at this moment, Sakura seemed to return to her previous icy state.
"If we find that Gem of Desire, can we stop the disaster?"
Yae Sakura asked, looking at Silver Wing with solemn seriousness.
"It's hard to say. A Great Eruption cannot be completely prevented; we can only try our best to minimize its impact." Silver Wing shook her head.
The Great Eruption in Nagazora had already been snuffed out before it could fully form. Trying to restore the ambient Honkai energy concentration to its previous levels was impossible.
The other Enforcers of Anti-Entropy and Raiden Ryoma had already done everything they could, to no avail. Nagazora was bound to experience a Honkai Eruption in the future. Fortunately, they now had enough time to evacuate and relocate the citizens.
In the original timeline, the Fourth Eruption occurred around August and September of 2016, which was two years from now.
But now, the Third Eruption hadn't occurred. The surging energy gestating within the Imaginary space was like a child being forced back in before it could be born.
The nutrition and energy hadn't dissipated much. Under these circumstances, an early arrival of the Fourth Eruption was well within Silver Wing's expectations.
She had constantly been having Rin take time to monitor global weather changes on the network.
Discovering subtle changes in the weather and environment around Oceania and its surrounding maritime regions recently, she suspected that the Fourth Eruption might be brewing.
Regardless, the Fourth Eruption absolutely would not wait two years to break out.
"Silver Wing, what do you plan to do? Go stop the Eruption together with World Serpent?"
Sakura pondered for a moment before asking somewhat hesitantly.
She had never cared about matters outside the Elysian Realm before, not even having the interest to listen, but her mindset was different now.
"World Serpent wouldn't stop a Honkai Eruption."
Silver Wing chuckled lightly. "Gray Serpent should be in desperate need to turn the Gem of Desire into the Herrscher of Wind's core."
This was also the reason she had Rin monitor the network instead of waiting for news from World Serpent.
The scope of their cooperation was strictly limited to the Elysian Realm. Outside the Realm, let alone being friends, they were enemies with opposing stances.
World Serpent definitely wouldn't share intelligence with Silver Wing.
And in fact, that was exactly the case.
At this very moment, a Gray Serpent individual was already en route to New Zealand.
In accordance with the Sire's orders, he needed to help unseal the Sire as quickly as possible and prepare the food needed for the Sire to recover his body.
As a result, the Nagazora Eruption plan had failed on the verge of success. Furthermore, K423 and Raiden Mei—the two Herrscher vessels holding a gem and a core respectively—had been placed into the Elysian Realm by the Sire, making them untouchable.
Therefore, the only remaining items capable of helping the Sire unseal were those few gems in the possession of [Schicksal].
According to the intelligence gathered by World Serpent, the failed experimental vessel for the Gem of Desire was currently housed in the Oceania Branch in New Zealand.
Almost the very moment he received the news, Gray Serpent set off, leaving instructions to keep the intelligence strictly confidential to prevent Silver Wing from finding out.
The plan this time absolutely could not be ruined again!
"Is that so." Sakura furrowed her brows and let out a soft, helpless sigh.
Interacting with everyone had allowed her to learn a lot of news from the outside world. Sakura could roughly guess the state of Kevin's true body on the outside. She had no way to stop him, nor did she have any reason to.
The Thirteen Flame-Chasers in the Elysian Realm were all past failures. Moreover, they were nothing but data entities now, completely incapable of doing anything.
"Sakura, do you want to leave the Elysian Realm and come take a look at New Zealand with us?"
Silver Wing narrowed her pink-pupiled, silver eyes.
"Ah? Leave the Elysian Realm?" Sakura looked up in a daze.
"Mhm. Maybe we could also invite Elysia. Hmm, no need to call her, she's already here."
Silver Wing looked toward a certain direction.
"My~ Silver Wing, you guys are having a picnic together and actually didn't invite me? Aren't we best friends now?"
The buxom pink elf, who had run over after catching the scent of a group of beautiful girls, wore a bitter and miserable expression on her pretty face. Her tear-streaked appearance made one's heart ache, and her extremely aggrieved tone highlighted just how pitiful and helpless she was.
"Elysia, don't you have a bit too many 'best friends'?"
Mei couldn't help but retort. The buxom pink elf had said the exact same thing to her before.
"Mei~ Even though I know you don't mean what you say, I'll still get hurt."
With tears in her eyes, her gaze lowered, looking docile and pitiful, Elysia held her cheeks with both hands, surrounded by an extremely low-pressure aura that evoked pity.
"I knew you would come on your own, so I didn't go out of my way to call you."
Silver Wing smiled softly.
"Oh my, to think your understanding of me has already reached this level! It makes me a little shy!"
She instantly switched from teary-eyed to a radiantly sunny smile, causing Mei's mouth to twitch as she watched.
How does this person switch faces without a cooldown?
"How about I take you to help a Herrscher of the new era become a Herrscher of Human? You in?"
Silver Wing smiled radiantly.
"!"
Elysia had overheard parts of their conversation, but even she was shocked by this.
"Can I? Can I really, can I?"
Instantly transforming into a frantic broken record, Elysia tightly grasped Silver Wing's hands with both of hers, her eyes shining with brilliant light.
"Although we can briefly leave the Elysian Realm with Rin's help, our time is limited, right? Plus, we wouldn't possess any power in that state, would we?"
Sakura cast a surprised glance at her.
"That's how it is for now, but that might not be the case soon."
Silver Wing's lips curled into a light chuckle.
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉