Kiana dragged Seele into the dazzling, neon-lit sprawl of the unknown city, practically vibrating with smug satisfaction.
Standing near the edge of a towering skyscraper, she looked down at the multi-tiered metropolis.
She planted her hands on her hips, tossing her head back with an arrogant laugh.
“Hahahaha!
Who else could pull this off?
Who said I couldn’t find your home?
Gotta admit, your place is pretty nice!”
The prosperous city burned bright against the night sky, a radiant, multi-dimensional labyrinth of glass and steel.
Elevated tracks crisscrossed through the glowing canyons, ferrying endless streams of pedestrians through the lively districts below.
A rich, spicy aroma drifted up from the street-level food stalls, making Kiana’s mouth water.
She swallowed hard, her eyes sparkling.
“I helped you get back, so it’s not too much to ask for a meal, right?”
Seele nervously pinched the hem of her short skirt, shrinking back from the ledge.
“Seele…
Seele doesn’t have any money.
And…
and my home isn’t here.”
The snowy plains of Siberia were a desolate, frozen wasteland year-round.
She had never seen a city this vibrant or prosperous in her entire life.
Kiana’s triumphant laughter died in her throat.
She blinked.
“Then where are we?”
Seele shook her head, her voice small.
“Big Sister Queen, thank you for helping Seele.
But let’s go back first.”
“No way, let me try one more time.
I don’t believe my coordinates were that far off!”
Kiana stubbornly refused to give up.
Suddenly, Seele’s posture shifted.
Her timid demeanor vanished, and her eyes flashed a brilliant, blood-red.
Without a word, she lunged forward, tackling Kiana to the concrete roof.
A high-caliber bullet whizzed through the exact space Kiana’s head had occupied a fraction of a second prior, sparking violently as it ricocheted off the metal railing behind them.
“A bullet?!” Kiana scrambled up, her heart skipping a beat.
She and Seele simultaneously snapped their gazes toward the trajectory of the shot.
Standing on the rooftop of the adjacent building was a white-haired girl who looked ninety percent identical to Kiana herself.
Her azure eyes burned with raw, unadulterated hatred.
Her slender frame was wrapped in a heavy coat, while a skin-tight, gel-like combat suit perfectly accentuated the curves of her legs.
“Kiana?” Kiana blurted out in shock, completely bewildered as to why another version of herself was attacking her.
Wait.
That familiar, oppressive aura rolling off the sniper…
it was exactly what she had sensed earlier.
Did that mean this other Kiana was the one who had unconsciously drawn her to this world?
A sudden spasm of agony twisted the sniper’s face.
She dropped her weapon, clutching her head as a piercing scream tore from her throat.
“Ahhh!!”
When she opened her eyes again, the azure blue had been swallowed by a chilling, golden-yellow hue.
The cross-shaped pupils were identical to the Herrscher of the Void’s.
“You damn imposter!
Die!”
The girl spat the words with venomous hatred.
She clenched her hand, and a spike-shaped Spear of the Void materialized out of thin air.
The Spear of the Void shot forward with explosive force.
It cleanly sheared through the metal railing, leaving a perfectly smooth, circular cut.
Kiana hurriedly summoned a Spear of the Void of her own, flattening the spatial energy into a makeshift shield to block the lethal strike.
Clang!
‘Damn it!’ The Herrscher of the Void gritted her teeth, feeling the sluggish response of her Honkai energy.
The lingering suppression from the Godsbane Spear was still wreaking havoc on her internal reserves, causing her overall strength to plummet.
“Let’s run!” Kiana grabbed Seele’s hand, kicking off the concrete and leaping across the dizzying gap to the next building.
The other Kiana’s assault didn’t stop.
She drew her pistols, firing a relentless barrage of bullets infused with spatial energy.
Each shot easily punched through the surrounding walls, carving out perfect, circular voids wherever they struck.
“This can’t go on.
Big Sister Queen, let’s go back quickly!” Seele pleaded anxiously as they landed heavily on the exposed girders of an unfinished construction site.
“I can’t.
Going back requires precise coordinates, and I rushed the jump here.
The teleport needs time to recalibrate, and I am not just going to sit here and take this!”
With no other options, Kiana opened the multiversal chat group interface and sent out an emergency distress signal.
[Dump Truck Hater: I’m coming right now.
The system shows I can still travel to your location.]
The chat group’s travel function anchored itself to the physical coordinates of its members, making it incredibly easy for Frez to initiate a jump.
Back in his own world, Frez turned to the blonde man beside him.
“Bishop Otto, lend me the Void Archives.
I’m going to save someone.”
“Take it.”
A glowing golden cube materialized in Otto’s palm, and he calmly handed it over.
“This is a good friend of mine.
I expect you to ensure it doesn’t get damaged.”
“No problem.”
[Dump Truck Hater: Accept the request quickly!]
[Kiana: Agreed!]
The moment Frez materialized on the unfinished building, Kiana didn’t waste a single breath.
“I’m taking Seele and running first!”
With a flash of spatial distortion, the two girls vanished.
As the Herrscher of the Void, even in a weakened state, if she wanted to retreat, absolutely no one could stop her.
“Human, are you here to seek death too?” The white-haired girl hovering in the air looked down at him.
Her face occasionally twitched in pain, but she still let out a haughty, disdainful laugh, clearly viewing Frez as nothing more than a minor annoyance.
“It seems the Herrscher of the Void’s persona is currently dominant,” Frez observed, tilting his head.
“Kiana Kaslana, are you still conscious in there?”
“Run…
get away…
fast…”
Kiana and the Herrscher of the Void began wrestling for control once more.
The host’s innate kindness made her violently reject the idea of slaughtering an innocent bystander, and she forcibly clamped down on her darker half to buy this strange man time to escape.
“True enough.
Under normal circumstances, I’d definitely run if I ran into you.”
Relying purely on Satoru Gojo’s combat template to fight a fully realized Herrscher of the Void?
Don’t be ridiculous.
He would honestly rather fight Ryomen Sukuna.
At least with Sukuna, he had full intel on his cursed techniques and could put up a decent fight.
Facing a Herrscher was a complete crush in both raw stats and fundamental mechanics.
In a straight brawl, his chances of winning were zero.
“Void Archives, I’m counting on you.”
[Don’t worry.
With me here, there won’t be any accidents,] the golden cube chimed in his mind.
[But young man, I must remind you first: I am not a combat-oriented Divine Key.
I cannot fight your battles for you.]
“What about your Mimic Divine Keys?” Frez asked quickly.
“Can you mimic the most important one right now—Fenghuang Down?”
He needed the psychic manipulation of Fenghuang Down to suppress the Herrscher of the Void’s consciousness and help Kiana regain control.
What use were pure destructive weapons like the Judgment of Shamash or the Black Abyss White Flower in a hostage situation?
[Is there such a thing?]
The Void Archives’ innocent-sounding reply left Frez completely speechless.
He stared at the cube, realizing he had been played.
“Nigerundayo!”
Frez spun on his heel and sprinted in the opposite direction without a microsecond of hesitation.
Any hesitation right now wasn’t bravery; it was sheer stupidity.
He would gladly throw hands with Kiana in her White Comet battlesuit, but a Kiana fully possessed by the Herrscher of the Void?
Forget it.
He really didn’t want to end up like the actual Satoru Gojo while wearing his template.
Becoming a half-and-half statistic was not on his bucket list.
“Thinking of running?
It’s not that easy!”
The Herrscher of the Void ruthlessly crushed Kiana’s resistance, her golden eyes flaring with absolute authority.
The unfinished concrete structure beneath Frez’s feet suddenly groaned and collapsed inward, the spatial fabric twisting the debris into a massive, Rubik’s-like cube that completely sealed him inside.
“Whoa, you can even make a bootleg Prison Realm?” Frez muttered, looking at the encroaching walls.
The reinforced concrete ground against the invisible barrier of his Limitless technique, shrieking as it tried to crush him.
It couldn’t breach the infinite space separating them, but Frez could feel the sheer, overwhelming spatial pressure behind the attack steadily multiplying.
“Whatever.
Blue!
Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!”
Frez pulled down his sunglasses.
Surging blue and crimson cursed energy erupted from his fingertips.
One positive, one negative—the two opposing forces violently collided and merged into a singularity.
Bypassing the long incantation, he simply flicked his finger forward.
“Hollow Purple!”
The reinforced concrete wall in front of him was instantly erased from existence, leaving a massive, perfectly smooth tunnel in its wake.
The giant orb of destructive, annihilating mass shot toward the Herrscher of the Void in the blink of an eye.
Instead of dodging, the Herrscher merely raised a hand.
A Spear of the Void expanded outward, twisting the fabric of reality into a gaping spatial portal that simply swallowed the Hollow Purple whole, redirecting the attack into the void.
“Space-types are so annoying,” Frez grumbled, dropping his hand.
The Herrscher of the Void floated above him, looking down at him with the cold, detached gaze one might reserve for a struggling ant.
“Heh.
Insect.”
“That’s enough out of you.”
Frez vanished from the concrete ruins.
With a slight, dangerous smile, he reappeared directly behind the Herrscher of the Void.
He raised one hand, crossing his fingers into a specific seal, his lips moving slightly as he whispered the name of the technique.
“Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void.”
[Akarin’s Note:
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