"How did you find me?…" a curious girlish question came from the pitch-black darkness in front of Li Xuan.
"Maybe I have some special powers," Li Xuan said with a slight smile. "You can't beat me…" Li Xuan had the confidence to say this. He was fully armed at the moment; even if he were facing ten Honkai Beasts, he would dare to say, 'I'll take on all ten by myself.'
"Hmm?!… Haha~" The girl, who had just stepped one foot out of the abyss-like darkness, paused. She chuckled softly as if she had heard something amusing. The laughter was slightly grating, making Li Xuan's brows furrow involuntarily.
"You are very strong, so I hope you won't interfere with me." The girl stopped, her upper body hidden in the darkness of the corner, obscuring her true face. She stopped laughing, her tone filled with threat and warning, like the low growl of a young lioness.
"What are you planning to do?" Li Xuan asked curiously. He didn't want to resort to fighting at the drop of a hat… Sitting down for tea seemed like a nice alternative. Of course… that was highly unlikely.
"I want to kill someone," the girl's previously icy voice suddenly became gentle, as if she were recalling something happy.
"An enemy?" Li Xuan inquired.
"No, the person I love the most…" the girl's voice was filled with elation, seemingly oblivious to the contradiction in her words…
"Killing the person you love with your own hands?!… I think you're crazy…"
"…That person is one of my friends, isn't it?" Li Xuan wasn't surprised. After all, this small place only had himself, the Honkai trio, and, oh right, the gun-girl 'Liv'.
"Bingo! You guessed it~" the girl said in a playful tone.
"Well, that's a real shame…" Li Xuan sighed. A box appeared out of thin air in his right hand. The box was purple, with clown patterns on its front sides, resembling a toy box. Li Xuan easily grabbed the silver iron handle and lifted it.
"That's Seele's Toy Box…" The girl in the darkness trembled slightly, as if she had seen something shocking.
"…I can't let you harm them. What's the point of having power if I can't even protect my own friends?!" Li Xuan said, as if to himself. It was a statement to the girl, and to himself.
Li Xuan let go, and the toy box fell to the ground. Click!~ With a crisp sound like a spring mechanism unfolding, the toy box melted into a puddle of liquid. The next moment, in a faint golden glow, it miraculously reformed, as if an unseen divine hand was molding the liquid like clay from the bottom up…
This miraculous scene was over in a mere second.
Where the toy box had been, a golden cross now stood silently… The dim emergency light on the wall cast a faint glow on the golden cross, which glinted with a cold light.
"Soul Steel of Judah's Oath, feel my soul… let us show our power…" Li Xuan reached out and gently touched the sword-and-shield-like emblem in the center of the cross, praying as he did so.
The red mark on the back of Li Xuan's right hand—his Stigmata—grew slightly hot.
The golden cross, which was about 1.6 meters tall and reached Li Xuan's shoulder, emitted a ding-click~ sound of a mechanism. Two wing-like metal frames unfolded from the sides of the cross. On the frames were spears with tips that glinted darkly, sharp with the aura of death.
"The toy box… give me back my toy box!" the girl in the darkness suddenly roared like a wild beast, her voice filled with endless sorrow, and… nostalgia.
"This is my weapon," Li Xuan said, pulling a spear engraved with the words 'Spear of Light' from Judah's Oath. He aimed the black tip, crafted from obsidian, in the girl's direction. Under the dim light, it flashed with a cold gleam.
"Die die die die die!!" the girl screamed. Her fair leg took a step forward under the light, and then… before her next step could land, her entire figure vanished.
Not good, how is she so fast! Li Xuan's pupils contracted. Her speed was so fast he couldn't even see her…
The void behind Li Xuan rippled slightly, and a petite figure appeared behind him. It was a girl in a low-cut formal dress, her medium-length dark hair swaying slightly. Her slightly longer bangs covered her face…
The girl swung her right hand, in which a scythe with a black handle and a snow-white blade had materialized. The scythe, representing death, traced a semi-circle in the air, its sharp blade cutting through the air without hesitation as it slashed towards Li Xuan.
In his urgency, Li Xuan thrust the spear behind him.
Clang ding!~
The obsidian met the scythe, producing a harsh scraping sound and sending sparks flying…
.............
And at this moment…
"According to Bronya's analysis, we are indeed in some kind of experimental facility…" Bronya, having ended her cold staring contest, turned to Mei.
"A laboratory? We're at the bottom of the sea, right?!…" Kiana immediately piped up. A school of fish swam merrily past the corridor on one side.
Outside the corridor was the sea…
"…Hmm, this feels so weird. And how did we even get to this godforsaken place?" Kiana asked curiously, staring at the fish swimming by.
"How did we get here… I remember we were on the beach before," Mei said, recalling.
"Yes, if Bronya's memory is not corrupted, Bronya did detect a chaotic Honkai energy reaction earlier…" Bronya said calmly.
"And then, what happened after that?…" Kiana murmured.
But what flashed through her mind was a boundless darkness, a sinking consciousness… a constantly twisting space, twisting, twisting…
"Ugh…" Kiana hammered her slightly dizzy head.
"Bronya speculates that the excessively chaotic Honkai energy reaction caused a spatial distortion that teleported us here…" Bronya said, somewhat uncertainly.
"Everyone!" Maid Liv, standing not far away, waved to the Honkai Yuri Trio. "I found this…" Liv pointed to the ground beside her.
On the long-sealed, dust-covered ground was a series of small footprints. The footprints led to the darkness on the other side of the building…
(End of Chapter)