A golden light flashed from the Gate of Vows. As if immaterial, it passed through the roof of the abandoned house without damaging a single tile, soaring into the sky and piercing the clouds, its end nowhere in sight.
The clouds in the blue sky were pierced and scattered by the golden light. An unknown power surged from the heavens, bringing with it a suffocating force that seemed to reshape the world. The azure sky turned pitch-black, like a night of torrential rain. Suddenly, a single point of white light appeared in the dark sky, and then it was unstoppable. Countless white lights appeared one after another over the city, twinkling and forming a magnificent starry sky, scattering starlight just like the night sky back home.
"Uh… (⊙o⊙)…" Kiana stared blankly out the window, lost in thought. But she quickly snapped out of it and tugged on Raiden Mei's clothes. "Mei, that... that thing!" Kiana's voice was a bit loud from excitement.
"Kiana~ keep it down, Bronya's sleeping," Mei said with a frown, her gaze gentle as she looked at Bronya Zaychik, whose head was resting on her lap.
Normally, Kiana would have been jealous and thrown a fit by now, clinging to Mei and wailing things like, "Mei doesn't love me anymore... I'm gonna die!" But today, she was uncharacteristically quiet, which actually made Mei feel a little uneasy.
"Kiana, what's with you today…" Mei turned her head and said curiously, but she stopped mid-sentence. She stared blankly in the direction Kiana was looking, at the golden light and the star-filled sky outside the window, just like the ones she had seen before.
"Me-Mei, let's go down and see what's going on!" Kiana suggested, her eyes darting around. A girl's curiosity is no less than a boy's, and sometimes even greater. How could she not want to go and see?
"Huh? Oh, okay." Still a bit dazed and confused, Mei was half-pushed, half-dragged out by Kiana. She didn't even notice Bronya Zaychik, who had been sleeping comfortably on her lap, as she was pulled downstairs by Kiana.
Thump! Bronya Zaychik's head hit the ground, dealing one thousand points of damage to herself. Then… she rolled over, rubbed her head, and went back to sleep. She had no intention of waking up until her system alarm went off.
Meanwhile, Li Xuan was crying so hard he could barely open his eyes, a mixture of helplessness and joy in his heart. He hadn't expected to see a golden light on his very first pull, so naturally, his titanium-alloy eyes were blinded. The feeling was somewhat complex.
Of course, Li Xuan was eager to see the unknown item he had wished for, but he couldn't open his eyes. Tears streamed down his face like he'd been chewing on Extra gum—they just wouldn't stop.
The golden light finally began to fade, and the twinkling stars in the night sky vanished without a sound, as if the whole scene had been a fleeting illusion. Li Xuan finally recovered, and with tears still streaming down his face, he opened his eyes and saw the item on the Gate of Vows: a multi-colored stone!
Li Xuan reached out and picked up the strange stone, which was covered in patterns of moons, water droplets, flames, leaves, and five-pointed stars. The moment his hands touched the stone, a piece of information popped into his mind.
"Stone of Stellar Resonance, possessing the power of Divine Core Awakening."
Divine Core? What the heck is that? Li Xuan stared at the stone, completely baffled.
Meanwhile, thousands of meters up in the sky, a warship floated above the clouds. This was the Hyperion, a battleship belonging to Schicksal—an organization dedicated to the deep study of the Honkai—and the location of St. Freya High School, where those who fight the Honkai are trained.
"Ahh~" A petite, silver-haired girl in a nun's habit sat in a leather chair, sipping a freshly brewed cup of West Lake Dragon Well tea with her eyes closed, looking perfectly at ease. However, just as she took her first sip, an alarm suddenly blared from the computer in front of her.
"Pfft!~~~~" The silver-haired nun spat out a mouthful of tea. At the same time, the door to her room was violently thrown open.
"Headmaster! The Honkai energy detector just picked up a strange energy fluctuation in Nagazora City!" said a girl with a cute, chubby face, dressed in a sharp green military uniform.
"No kidding, I saw it already… uh… clean up my desk," the silver-haired nun said irritably, pointing at the tea-soaked table.
"Ye-yes! Mission accepted!" the chubby-faced girl said with a comically serious expression, giving a military salute.
"Sigh~" The nun sighed and turned to look at the scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling window. "What a pain," she muttered, her cheeks puffed out in annoyance.
"It appeared again," a girl with long, sakura-pink hair and old-fashioned clothes said to herself somewhere in Nagazora City, watching the golden light slowly fade.
She lowered her head and murmured, "Li Xuan, how are you doing?"
I really want to eat Li Xuan's 'noodles with the taste of home,' Yae Sakura thought.