But looking at Kiana like this, Lucius suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over him internally.
Good, good — still the same dumb deer he knew. The sudden uptick in intelligence from a moment ago was apparently an isolated incident.
With that thought, Lucius cheered right back up.
"Hey — good friend, let me show you something interesting."
Lucius reached out and sliced open a spatial rift, then took Kiana by the hand and walked through.
Kiana followed curiously. The moment she stepped through the rift, she felt a tremor beneath her feet.
She looked around and found the ground was a strange mixture of white and purple, resembling some kind of peculiar chitin-like material.
Looking further out, the distant edge of the space was a pitch-black sky — as though they were standing on a continent adrift in infinite darkness.
But what truly caught Kiana's gaze was the enormous rift in the distance, seemingly splitting the entire sky in two. Through that tear, she could see a silent snowfield with great feathery flakes falling — the Siberian snowfield.
And the rift that seemed to split the sky in half... had been torn open by an unimaginably massive pair of claws.
Only now did the scene around her fully assemble itself in Kiana's mind.
They were standing on top of a creature of unimaginably enormous scale — a creature so vast that even extending a single arm was almost enough to rival the entire Siberian snowfield in breadth.
Kiana's blue eyes finally filled with genuine shock. She immediately turned to Lucius beside her: "Lucius — what… what IS this?!"
"A Honkai Beast."
"A Honkai Beast?"
Hearing Lucius's answer, Kiana thought about every Honkai Beast she had encountered. Even Emperor-class ones were only a few hundred meters in size.
But this one... its size was probably comparable to the moon.
"This is really a Honkai Beast?"
"Shocked by its size?" Lucius naturally knew what Kiana was thinking, so he explained: "The place we're standing right now is a Stigma space. This Honkai Beast before us is the consciousness of the Soldier God System. It still has a very long way to go before it reaches maturity."
"Do Honkai Beasts have Stigmata too?" Though Kiana didn't know much about Stigmata, she knew it was something unique to humans.
"Ordinary Honkai Beasts naturally don't. But this particular Honkai Beast is, in a certain sense, the endpoint of the Stigma — it is the Stigma itself."
"You could call it humanity's chimera. Or... the Apocalyptic Beast made manifest."
"A chimera?" Kiana murmured. "That feels somehow familiar… wait! Isn't that what I was supposed to become in the original timeline?!"
"Correct. In a certain sense, you could even think of it as another 'Kevin.'"
Hearing Lucius's words, Kiana felt an ominous premonition. But when she looked down at the heart embedded in her chest, only desolation and quiet grief remained in her eyes.
"So you'd rather create a whole new 'Kevin' than have me play the role of Kevin myself?"
Feeling Kiana's gaze boring into him like she was about to put holes through him, Lucius countered: "If you played Kevin — who would play Kiana?"
Kiana thought about it, and realized that was actually a fair point. The resentment in her eyes gave way to pure existential despair. Even the usually energetic little ahoge at the top of her head drooped and lay flat.
Lucius wisely ignored the dejection on Kiana's face and steered the conversation in a new direction.
"This world needs a 'Kevin' who can temporarily bear the power of Finality."
"In the original timeline, only you — having fully completed the Chimera Project, having fused all Honkai Beast genes, capable of manifesting the Savior's Body of the Thousand Beasts of Brahma — could achieve that."
"We don't have you in your Savior form, but the underlying concept can be borrowed."
"Kevin's consciousness can be replaced by the awakened Kaslana Stigma space's consciousness."
"Kevin's Savior Body — Mei and Mobius have already begun the Chimera Project using the Soldier God's body as a foundation. Theoretically, fusing the Super Mutation Factors of all Honkai Beasts to create the Thousand Beasts of Brahma's body is achievable."
"A Thousand Beasts of Brahma body constructed from all Honkai Beast genes, with thirteen Herrscher authorities as its pillars, combined with the Kaslana Stigma space's consciousness — if completed, it should be capable of bearing the power of Finality for a limited time."
"However, the project's completion rate hasn't even exceeded ten percent yet." Lucius looked toward the spatial rift torn open by the colossal beast, seeing the snow-covered Siberia beyond it. "What it can do right now is only this — swapping reality and illusion, exchanging the Shaniayat Stigma space's Siberia with the real Siberia."
But after hearing Lucius's explanation, Kiana had a flash of insight and suddenly thought of the most important question.
"Wait — Lucius, you still haven't told me what you were hiding."
Although what Lucius had revealed was stunning, Kiana felt that for someone like him, this kind of information wouldn't be something he'd conceal from her.
Which meant what Lucius was hiding was something else entirely...
Meeting Kiana's searching gaze, Lucius was silent for a moment, then said: "As you can see, Siberia — the stage for the Second Honkai War — is already prepared. All that remains is putting the characters in place. You already know now: the main characters of the Second Honkai War are Cecilia and Siegfried... I had originally planned to tell you after the script was finished."
Saying this, Lucius shrugged: "By that point the script would already be completed. Even if you were unhappy about it, all you could do would be to pound the ground and wail that there was nothing you could do anymore."
But hearing Lucius's seemingly thoughtless words, Kiana actually felt touched.
Personally, she didn't want her parents drawn into this mess. After all, her own life had already been ruined — but theirs still had a future to look forward to.
Yet for the continuation of this world, for everyone including her loved ones to survive, she would inevitably have to push her father and mother onto the stage.
And Lucius had essentially taken on the role of the villain on her behalf in advance — bearing a guilt that never should have been his to carry.
"Lucius — you really are my best friend." Kiana was deeply moved. She felt a warmth spreading through her heart. "Lucius — hand the plan involving my parents over to me. This guilt is not something I can let you carry alone!"
"Good friend, your kindness moves me — but unfortunately this is something only I can do." Lucius declined Kiana's request.
After all, the image of Kiana driving a hundred-ton truck to reincarnate Siegfried and Cecilia into Siberia was just a little too abstract.
Kiana didn't know this reasoning, and hearing his refusal only made her feel even more moved.
As someone who had been his best friend for all this time, Kiana knew that once Lucius set his mind to something, it was basically impossible to change.
But the warmth in her heart still drove her to want to do something. Thinking for a moment, she reached out and grabbed Lucius's arm. "Come with me — let me show you the city district where I grew up. Tell me what you want to eat and I'll treat you today."
Kiana had originally felt a slight resistance to heading into the city — she knew Siegfried and Cecilia were there right now — but this emotional warmth in her chest softened that worry considerably.
"Mm... Munich is a big city. It's not like we'd bump into Mom and Dad by coincidence."
Munich. In the heart of the city stood a company building bearing the Kaslana family crest.
It was now noon. Sunlight pierced through the clouds and fell upon the building, filtering through the glass and settling onto the large desk of the CEO's office.
Seated at the CEO's chair was a white-haired, blue-eyed man in a perfectly tailored suit, his expression stern and composed — the very image of a commanding executive.
At this moment, he was signing his name on a document in front of him.
— Siegfried.
After signing, Siegfried set down his pen casually, then raised his head to look out the floor-to-ceiling window.
"Quitting time already!"
Siegfried blinked, then leaped out of his chair with barely contained eagerness and headed to the changing room.
He changed out of the suit and put on a completely ordinary set of casual clothes, then bolted out of his office.
Exchanging quick greetings with employees he passed along the way, he left the company building at something very close to a run.
Standing in front of the building, he quickly oriented himself, then retrieved a bicycle from the parking spot below and rode off down the street.
Thanks to his exceptional fitness and the short distance involved, Siegfried arrived at his destination quickly.
He checked the time and let out a sigh of relief.
"Good — not too late."
He got off the bicycle and looked toward his destination.
— An arcade.
By any reasonable standard, establishments like this were already rare in the current era — let alone at a prime location where every square meter was worth a fortune.
The only reason this arcade existed here was, naturally, because he had built it himself.
He walked to the door, produced a key, and pushed it open.
Looking at the interior — nearly identical to the one in his memories — he couldn't help smiling with satisfaction.
"Perfect. Just like it. Cecilia is definitely going to love this."
Their wedding anniversary was in a few days, and Siegfried had been racking his brain over what gift to give her.
Roses?
Too cliché.
A ring?
He'd given her one last year, too. Made from a shark's tooth, no less.
Clothes?
The wardrobe at home was already full.
Siegfried had been stuck on the gift problem until he was flipping through their photo albums and came across a picture of the two of them taking Kevin to play arcade games — and inspiration struck.
He had decided to give Cecilia an entire arcade, decorated to match the exact layout of the one where the two of them had first met.
Looking around at the recreation before him, nostalgia settled on Siegfried's face. He murmured with feeling: "All these years have just flown by… the little brat Kevin is almost as tall as me now."
Siegfried's mind drifted to the memory of meeting Cecilia for the first time. His rebellious younger self, stumbling across her when she was hopelessly lost, leading to an unexpectedly extraordinary adventure.
And this arcade was the single most unforgettable stop on that adventure.
He even remembered — despite being a gaming prodigy himself — losing to Cecilia on their very first match.
Yes. Though Cecilia looked quiet and gentle on the surface, she was in fact a flat-out gaming genius.
He had originally planned to buy the original arcade they had met in — but when he went by not long ago, he found the place had long since been demolished.
So he had settled for the next best thing and recreated the layout from memory.
"Perfect — virtually identical. Cecilia is definitely going to be thrilled."
As his thoughts ran on, Siegfried suddenly remembered something from the previous evening.
When Cecilia had come home last night, she had looked at him with a very strange expression, and said things to him like 'I'm here for you' and 'you have to stay strong' — words that made no sense whatsoever.
Siegfried had found it rather puzzling. After giving it considerable thought, he concluded there must be some kind of distance growing between them, such that they weren't in perfect sync anymore.
"They always say children are the bridge between a husband and wife. Maybe I should… bring Kevin back for a visit?"
"And now that I think about it, it's almost been two whole years since I've seen that kid. Hm… I do miss him. I wonder if he's grown taller, whether he's turned into a man like his old dad..."
Just as Siegfried was pondering all of this, a bright, energetic girl's voice drifted in from outside.
"Lucius, look look — there's actually an arcade here! Dad used to take me to places like this all the time. Though his skills were absolutely terrible — he couldn't even beat me."
Hearing the voice from outside, Siegfried couldn't help laughing to himself. "Someone whose gaming skills can't even beat their own daughter — how useless. If I ever meet them, I'm definitely giving them a good ribbing..."
On the streets of Munich.
Lucius walked alongside Kiana, wandering through the city.
In his hand was a piece of bread — golden and crispy on the outside, sprinkled with coarse salt crystals — which he was working his way through.
"Lucius — how is it?" Kiana chewed on a meat cutlet and looked at him.
"Not bad."
"That's all you have to say? That feels incredibly underwhelming." Kiana complained.
At that, Lucius took a bite of the pretzel in his hand.
Then his eyes lit up brilliantly, and across his face spread the expression of someone who had never tasted anything so good in their entire life.
"It's… it's incredible… sob sob sob!"
Watching Lucius's dramatic performance, Kiana couldn't hold back her laughter.
And then Lucius laughed too.
Kiana then rummaged in the takeout bag she was carrying and produced a small insulated container.
Opening it revealed a small round bread roll stuffed with a grilled sausage, drizzled with mustard.
Kiana produced a long skewer from somewhere, threaded the sausage onto it, and handed it to Lucius.
"Here — try this. Thuringian bratwurst. You're from Shenzhou, you're probably not used to eating it stuffed inside bread anyway, so eat it the way they do at Shenzhou temple fairs!" Then Kiana proceeded to nibble away at the remaining bread herself, though her eyes lingered wistfully on the sausage in Lucius's hand.
Having been best friends for this long, Lucius naturally knew Kiana's eating habits. She was a committed carnivore through and through, and never particularly enjoyed eating plain bread on its own.
Lucius turned to Kiana and said: "Hey — good friend."
"What is it?" Kiana blinked and looked at him.
"Open up."
"Hm?"
Before Kiana could even finish expressing her confusion, Lucius had already slid the sausage into her mouth.
"Mmm mmm mmm... Lucius, aren't you going to eat?"
"I'm full."
This was a lie. Lucius simply found feeding Kiana to be a highly entertaining activity.
Suddenly, Kiana said with mild surprise: "Lucius — look look, there's actually an arcade here!"
Lucius followed where Kiana was pointing and found it was indeed an arcade.
"Dad used to take me to places like this all the time." Kiana's eyes were touched with fond memory, but then she couldn't help laughing. "Though his skills were absolutely terrible — he couldn't even beat me."
Looking over the shop exterior, Lucius asked: "By the way — how does a place like this still exist in this day and age?"
Kiana studied the surroundings carefully and said with some uncertainty: "Opening in a location like this — it's probably some kind of retro-themed nostalgia arcade, right?"
She quickly let the thought drop. Crunching through the last of her bread in a few bites, she rubbed her hands together with growing excitement and looked at Lucius.
"Lucius — want to try playing some arcade games?"
"Sure, I don't mind——"
Before Lucius could finish his sentence, Kiana had already grabbed him and dragged him inside.
The moment they entered, she called out cheerfully: "Excuse me, two machines please~"
Hearing the door, Siegfried automatically looked over — and found a white-haired, blue-eyed girl dragging a black-haired young man rushing in.
The scene sent him straight back to memories of when he and Cecilia had first met. He felt like he himself had dragged Cecilia into that arcade in exactly this same way.
"Haah... youth." Siegfried sighed wistfully in his heart — but still prepared to turn them away. "I'm sorry, this is a private collection, not open to——hm?"
Mid-sentence, Siegfried froze, staring at the white-haired girl who had rushed in first. He had the distinct feeling he had seen her somewhere before.
And Kiana, upon seeing the shop owner, also froze. The words tumbled out of her before she could stop herself: "Dad..."
She caught herself and clamped both hands over her mouth.
"Dad...?"
Siegfried furrowed his brow, repeating the word, looking at Kiana in confusion.
And Kiana felt cold sweat erupting from every pore.
IT'S ALL OVER!!!
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