Seiya went to return home, and something just felt off.
It was a day like any other.
He’d sold off the firewood that he’d collected at the loggers and then attempted to return home.
Standard procedure for the day, intending to go home and hang out with Sirin.
Passing through Belarus, he saw a group of people in black-and-white suits, their faces covered.
One of them looked at him for a second and, upon noticing his gender, moved away.
Seiya, who had originally tensed up, felt his stiffened shoulders relax before tensing once again.
His eyes fell upon the golden insignia emblazoned on the uniforms of the unfeeling men and women who had arrived there as enforcers.
And his heart dropped.
Schicksal.
Shit.
He hurried back as quickly as he could, abandoning the straw and thatched basket he used to collect firewood, though he kept his axe with him.
Slinking through the backstreets of Belarus, he made a point to avoid anyone there.
Looking toward the main street, it was akin to a war zone.
Children were being picked up left and right.
In the distance, he saw a fourteen-year-old girl with unique hair attempt to retaliate by throwing something at the Schicksal operatives.
Seeing her signs of rebellion, they ruthlessly knocked her out.
Seiya squinted.
That face and hair looked familiar…
And then his eyes widened.
‘Holy shit, that’s Bella!’
His mind panicked, and he immediately started rushing home, a pang of sympathy striking him for the girl currently being roughhoused.
He’d liked Benares as a character when he’d played through Honkai Impact 3rd, and this one was just a teenager, not a dragon.
Ultimately, though, his concern was tied more to the little voidling he’d been practically raising for almost two years now.
Besides, Bella would sort of come back when Sirin awakened, right?
He clutched the fire axe in his hands, his grip tightening around the wooden handle.
He hadn’t killed anyone before, but if he needed to, he would do it.
Without hesitation for his little angel.
Images of a purple-haired, golden-eyed girl rushed through his mind.
Her smile as she presented food she’d worked hard on to him, and the sweet way she called him brother.
And she’d finally said “I love you!” without being prompted.
Chibi Seiya ignited in rage.
No mercy!
These people weren’t humans, so killing them wouldn’t be murder!
Once he arrived at his house, his stomach dropped at the sight of the closed windows and the kicked-in door.
Some hope flashed in his eyes as he heard screams he recognized coming from the back door.
Two soldiers were dragging away his little Sirin.
The shorter of the two was distinctly female, clad in tight, form-fitting armor appointed to the personnel in charge of collecting test subjects.
Upon hearing Sirin’s loud yell, she struck her across the face with the back of her hand, her expression darkening.
The other operative jabbed Sirin in the shoulder, knocking her out cold as a red slap mark blossomed across her face.
Rage enveloped Seiya.
A crackle of Honkai energy flickered across his back, unseen beneath his shirt, and the [Void Stigmata] glowed for an instant.
The taller one—a man—spotted him approaching.
He sighed as if he didn’t have time for this and spoke into the communication device strapped to his waist.
“Operation finished up.
Commanding all units to fall back to Babylon Labs after eliminating any surviving witnesses.”
He spoke sternly and coldly into the device, his commanding voice rasping through the skulls of every Schicksal agent currently in Belarus, completely ignoring Seiya as he bundled into the armored vehicle and lowered Sirin into the backseat.
He signaled to the woman with a crossing motion, as if saying:
Take care of him.
Permanently.
A sadistic gleam crossed the woman’s face as her previously darkened expression twisted with delight at the opportunity to spill blood.
Seemingly disgusted by her behavior, the older man turned on the vehicle and drove off into the tundra with Sirin bundled in the backseat.
Seiya attempted to chase after him, but the woman blocked his path with a sneer.
“Not so fast, pretty boy.
You have to deal with me before going over to save your little sister there.”
She licked her lips as her eyes filled with a feral look.
The woman assumed, seeing his resemblance to the girl in the back, that the little squealing brat was his sister.
He looked too young to be her father.
Eyeing the fire axe in his hands, the woman’s confidence remained intact.
She was wearing high-quality Schicksal armor!
There was no way a brat like that would be able to even remotely cut through it!
He looked weak, with his lithe frame and slender waist.
The woman hummed in anticipation.
She really did like killing pretty boys.
They always squealed like pigs when they died.
All their pretty faces, reduced to ugly tears when faced with death.
She was death.
And so she braced her gauntlets, arms held in front of her as if showing off her armor in order to make the young man lose hope.
Oh, the look of dread on their faces was always so delicious!
And then her head fell off.
Seiya had bounded forward with unbelievable speed.
The soles of his feet had little turbines of wind spinning across them, as well as around his ankles, though it was barely noticeable within the perpetual snowstorm.
One single clean cut, and her head rolled, splashes of crimson staining the otherwise unblemished white snow.
He stepped away from the pool of blood.
He didn’t feel sick or like retching, as happened in the manga and anime he consumed.
He just felt a cold sense of satisfaction at having eliminated the one who had slapped his Sirin and kidnapped her.
Chibi Seiya whooped in joy.
If the woman had been alive to see what happened—or if her detached head had retained consciousness—she would have spotted his golden eyes glowing faintly.
It would take too much time to hesitate.
And he didn’t have time now.
He couldn’t lose his cool.
‘The old man, presumably the one in charge, called into his radio to tell everyone to clean up.
Got to hurry out of here.’
He bounded into the cabin, grabbed as many warm onigiri as he could, along with a bowl of goulash, and then rushed off into the winter snowstorm, far from Belarus, not bothering to hide the body.
His eyes grew moist.
Sirin had prepared these for him before getting kidnapped.
‘Wait for me, my little cutie.
I’ll be sure to save you.’
He didn’t know how yet.
But Seiya couldn’t bring himself to linger on the consequences for a second longer instead of taking action.
‘Good thing the woman was arrogant.
She didn’t have her guard up, so I killed her easily.’
He wasn’t glad to be alive.
That was the bare minimum.
Right now, his little angel had been taken.
And he knew where.
Seiya’s eyes scanned the large tower in the distance, stretching into the sky.
“Hmm.
Tower of Babylon.
Accurate for these arrogant scum,” he muttered.
Any respect he may have once had for Otto Apocalypse crumbled in an instant.
Thus spoke Apocalypse?
How about Apocalypse never speaks again?
His heart thumped in his chest, all the satisfaction and adrenaline slowly fading away.
His eyes became resolute, though a hint of trepidation seeped into his chest.
He took his supplies and bundled himself into a ditch a few hundred meters away from Belarus.
He doubted these mercenaries would check there.
Because there was no way someone that weak was a Valkyrie.
A weary and tired expression adorned his usually cheerful face.
The plot of Honkai Impact 3rd… had begun.
Chapter here.
Not much else to say?
I mean, story’s ramping up a bit.
I have everything planned out.
You’ll get an extra chapter, if miraculously, this has 10k views by tomorrow.
Toodles.
On a different note, how many cheaters should this arc be divided into?
Do note that after this is over, we’ll be switching off of Seiya for a bit.