By the time they drove out of the underground parking garage beneath Arc City Tower, evening had already settled outside.
The snow had stopped at some point without anyone noticing; the accumulated slush on the road had been churned by passing traffic into gray-black mud, splashing against the curb.
Su Yu turned the wheel hard to the left, and the car swung onto the main road leading to Anti-Entropy Entertainment.
Kiana was curled up in the passenger seat, the seatbelt cutting diagonally across the fabric over her chest, crumpling a fold into her dark-colored coat.
She sat with her head lowered, both hands raised holding her phone, its cold white glow lighting up her face.
Elysia's signature pink hair bobbed on the livestream feed as she narrated the plot of Second Eruption.
A low, somber piece of background music drifted from the phone.
The scene cut to a white room, cold as some kind of container.
The purple-haired little girl was strapped to an examination table, surrounded by a group of expressionless researchers in white lab coats.
No one spoke to her. No one cared whether she was in pain or afraid.
Kiana's brow furrowed.
Her breathing lost its rhythm for a few beats, her chest rising and falling more visibly than before.
"No wonder..." Her voice came out muffled. "Back then, Sirin was never treated like a person. To her, this world was nothing but malice. No wonder that once she gained that power, she wanted to tear the whole world apart..."
She didn't finish the thought. She just set the phone down on her knee and turned to look out the window.
In the driver's seat, Su Yu said nothing.
He kept his eyes on the road ahead, both hands resting on the wheel.
In truth, his consciousness was rapidly conversing on an entirely different plane.
In his consciousness space, Fenghuang's voice was steady and calm, though it carried an unusual weight of concern.
"Until recently, I could still sense some response from the Herrscher of the Void — mostly her telling me to stop bothering her, but it still counted as a kind of regular contact. I've kept a careful distance from her — neither fully withdrawn, nor too close."
"But starting yesterday, her responses have cut off completely."
"I can tell she hasn't vanished, but her current state is abnormal. It isn't sleep, and it isn't energy recovery. It's more like she's trapped in some tangle of chaotic thoughts, unable to respond to any outside stimulus."
Su Yu began turning this over in his mind.
It had been more than a month since the Herrscher of the Void had last communicated with him directly.
After that brief moment of tenderness that day, she'd gone right back to her usual self — full of jealousy and threats.
She'd warned Su Yu not to make a move on that idiot Paramecium while she was recovering her power in dormancy, or else she'd make sure he regretted it when she got back.
Still, she'd rarely shared one piece of good news.
Her power was recovering.
Honkai energy had originally been eroding her and Kiana's personalities without either of them realizing it, and she represented the half that embodied "malice."
But now, with Su Yu's help, that malice was being peeled away layer by layer.
She was starting to reclaim her own humanity — the parts of her that had been crushed for so long under the weight of the laboratory, her hatred, and the Herrscher Core were slowly coming back to life.
Fenghuang had warned Su Yu about this before.
Everything about the Herrscher of the Void was anchored to a single point.
— "Love."
"A Herrscher's feelings are the kind of thing that grow so heavy they tip into madness."
"Back when you were still mortal, you already defeated her once — in that brutal battle inside the consciousness space, you made her afraid of you. Later, during the days when Kiana trained under me in pursuit of the Eminence of Taixuan, the Herrscher of the Void was forced to play the role of Kiana, and step by step she felt warmth and light from you despite herself."
"Do you think that means she's been won over? I'm afraid it isn't nearly that simple."
"The reason she hasn't touched Kiana, the reason she hasn't torn this world apart — it's all because of you."
"Because you want to protect Kiana. Because you're determined to protect this world, and all these humans you'd otherwise call ants."
"She's come to see you as something that belongs to her, and at the same time she's terrified of losing you. That's why she's held back every claw and fang, and avoided doing anything that might make you resent her."
This kind of feeling was a dance performed on a tightrope.
You were her sole tether to this world.
If anything happened to you, that Queen would lose her mind entirely.
There was no other possible outcome.
Fenghuang's old warning still played vividly in his mind, and Su Yu understood she hadn't spoken idly. What Sirin felt for him really was that heavy, that complicated.
He pulled his thoughts back, returning to the matter of Sirin's unresponsiveness.
"What do you think?" Su Yu asked Fenghuang in his mind.
Fenghuang was silent for a moment.
"I can't reach her core consciousness. She shuts out everyone but you — only your mind can get in there."
She paused, and her tone gained a touch of reassurance.
"But priorities matter. Maybe she's just sulking. Right now, the urgent thing is to focus on the Spatial Rift that could arrive at any moment."
Su Yu nodded and told Fenghuang to keep a close watch on her.
"One more thing — it would be better if you told Kiana about this yourself." Fenghuang's voice paused in his mind. "The Herrscher of the Void is bonded to her. If something happens to her, it will affect Kiana too."
The exchange of thoughts ended.
Su Yu drew his attention back to the present.
He turned his head slightly and glanced at the white-haired girl in the passenger seat, still frowning at her phone.
"Kiana."
"Hm?"
"How have you been feeling lately? Physically, I mean."
Kiana blinked, her expression shifting from heaviness to suspicion.
She tilted her head and studied him for a few seconds, her heterochromatic eyes narrowing.
"Why ask that all of a sudden? Don't tell me you're about to say I've gained weight."
"Mm. Confirmed. Everything's in perfect shape."
"Hey!" Kiana sat up straight. "How can you be so sure? What's that supposed to mean?!"
Su Yu watched her puff up with indignation, then turned his eyes back to the road ahead.
He chose his words carefully, waiting until Kiana's flare of indignation had faded a little before he spoke again.
"She's in trouble."
Kiana froze.
The livestream was still running on her phone screen, Elysia's voice still coming through the speaker, but Kiana didn't seem to be listening anymore.
Her expression gradually grew strained. She pressed her lips together, and in the end all she managed was a quiet "Oh."
She turned the phone off. The screen went black, reflecting a blurred outline of her own face.
The silence stretched for a moment before Kiana spoke again.
"You're telling me this..." Her voice was quieter now. "Is it because whatever's wrong with her might end up affecting me?"
"Yes."
Kiana studied the side of his face for two seconds.
Then her shoulders relaxed, and the corner of her mouth curled upward without her quite meaning it to.
She leaned her head back against the seat, eyes on the ceiling of the car, an unmistakable lightness creeping into her voice.
"I knew it. So it's about me after all... hmph."
She looked more than a little pleased with herself.
"Ask me anything you want! I'll tell you everything I know!"
"Have you had any contact with her recently?"
"No."
Kiana answered quickly, but her expression turned a little odd, as if she were hesitating over whether to bring something up.
The last time she'd exchanged words with that woman had been more than two months ago.
That was around when Su Yu had run into Kevin and Mei, and then vanished off the grid for several days afterward.
Kiana had had nightmares for several nights straight.
The dreams were full of that golden eye and those sharp taunts.
But which parts had been real exchanges of consciousness and which had been hallucinations born from her own fear — even now, she couldn't tell.
"What did she say to you back then?"
"Nothing but useless garbage." Kiana turned her face to the side, forcing her voice into a tone of indifference. "That this power was wasted on me. That I couldn't protect you at all. On and on with the same nonsense, over and over."
As she spoke, her fingers stayed wrapped around the phone, but her grip tightened more than she meant it to.
Su Yu noticed, but didn't press the point.
"That does sound like something she'd say." A trace of amusement crept into his voice. "What else did she talk about, specifically?"
Kiana's eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips pressed into a thin line.
She fell silent, her gaze dropping to her own knees.
The car heater hummed on.
A memory suddenly surfaced in her mind.
It was from the time she'd finally completed a stage of her training in the Tai Xu Illusory Realm and briefly regained control of her own body.
The instant she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Su Yu pinned down on the bed.
That woman had used Kiana's foot to pin down Su Yu's chest and stomach, used Kiana's mouth to say those humiliating things, used Kiana's voice to order him to submit.
By the time her own consciousness had fully taken back control of the body, the lingering spasms were still surging through her limbs in waves.
And the sole of her foot, pressed against his skin, felt scalding hot, the sticky sensation clinging to her toes.
In that moment, Kiana felt like she could have fried an egg on her own forehead.
She kept telling herself: that was Sirin, perversely tormenting Su Yu.
Whatever Su Yu had been subjected to, it was only because that woman had stolen her body.
But—
In the abandoned building.
During the fight against Rita, the maid who had just crossed over from another world.
That haughty, untouchable Herrscher of the Void had voluntarily handed over control of the core, letting Kiana go back to protect Su Yu.
Afterward Su Yu had recovered, and soon enough the Honkai threat arrived — a hundred-and-eighty-day countdown to judgment day crashing down on everyone's heads.
Su Yu had gotten so busy he had to ration even his sleeping hours.
Kiana never brought that matter up again — but that didn't mean it had turned a page in her heart.
She was well aware of one thing.
In that scene, the body's consciousness had been the Herrscher of the Void's to command.
And the way that woman had reacted — that current-like sensation running through her body — all pointed to one thing.
She wanted to do that with Su Yu.
And she'd had a violent physical reaction to prove it.
...
Kiana clenched her back teeth, forcing herself to push those images out of her mind.
Now wasn't the time to think about this.
A rift could arrive at any moment; spatial disturbances followed no pattern anyone could predict, and every single person in Arc City was standing on an invisible bomb.
Su Yu already carried more than enough weight on his shoulders. She couldn't afford to distract him with this kind of messy, complicated business.
Once this crisis was dealt with, she'd settle the score with him then.
"Do you really understand, Kiana?"
Kiana closed her eyes, and Sirin's voice surfaced in her mind as clearly as if it had been carved there.
"Everything you have now — your identity, your sense of security — he gave all of it to you."
"If it weren't for him, you'd have already rotted away in that rainy night in this world, along with all your pathetic guilt."
"You keep saying you want to protect him. ..."
Sirin let out a cold laugh, a sound full of bleakness.
"But what have you actually done?"
"Your head's so full of your mission — you have to protect the world—"
"You have to go back to that broken world to save your Mei, to pay off sins you can never fully repay!"
"But!!"
"Who, then, is going to save that foolish human being?!"
Kiana opened her eyes.
Her own face reflected back at her in the car window.
Her lips moved slightly, as if trying to argue back.
But the words stuck in her throat and wouldn't come out.
"Haven't you realized it yet?"
"Even if that fool survives this time by luck, in the end you and he will still be torn apart."
"Because of your foolishness and your stubbornness, you're bound to throw yourself right back into that mire."
"He pulled you out of the Abyss, out of the stable, ordinary life he could have lived instead."
"But you're fated to abandon him for the sake of your worlds, your responsibilities."
"Heh."
"How utterly pathetic, Kiana."
The car fell quiet for a moment.
Kiana took a deep breath and repeated the words to Su Yu, word for word.
Su Yu listened, then smiled faintly.
"Same sharp tongue as always. I'll check in on her later with the Squad Monitor — but for now, let's handle the rift first."
Kiana took a deep breath and nodded firmly, pushing those tangled thoughts back down.
The car turned a corner, and the gray-black silhouette of Anti-Entropy Entertainment's building came into view.
Kiana turned her face toward the driver's seat.
"By the way — I've been too swept up in everything to ask you this properly."
She paused, then added with deliberately feigned casualness:
"What kind of stupid things did that woman do with my body while I wasn't around?"
Su Yu brought the car to a stop, the click of the handbrake sharp and clear.
He laughed out loud. "What, planning to collect blackmail material so you can drag her over the coals later?"
"That's called intelligence gathering!" Kiana puffed out her chest, spouting nonsense with perfect solemnity. "Anyway, you'd better come clean about everything later. Understood?"
Faced with Kiana's blatant threat, Su Yu nodded.
"All right."
He pulled the key out, and he and Kiana got out of the car one after the other. Bronie's voice came through the comm channel, still chewing gum, a little muffled.
"Haxxor Bunny online. Boss, I have to point out — the plot of Second Eruption is exceeding all expectations. Elysia is completely absorbed in it — it's been at least half an hour since she rallied the livestream chat to gang up on you."
The corner of Su Yu's mouth twitched, and he said, a little helplessly, "Haven't you already seen the script? Do I really need to spell out the ending for you?"
"Of course, Boss, I'm just giving you a heads-up." Bronie whistled. "Enjoy this peace while it lasts, because pretty soon your real headache is going to be figuring out how to break the news to Elysia after the world's already saved. It's not your fault — blame the world for that one."
"Thanks a lot."
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