The end was not the conclusion—it was the beginning.
In this struggle of invasion and resistance, there were no victors. Beneath Its shadow, both Takamagahara and Izumo were trapped in the same tragic fate, a cycle that would never end.
And so... everything was meaningless.
That was why he had said that the path of salvation might not exist—because at its end...
"Mei?"
"You're here..."
Mei came back to her senses from the memory of that day and forced a faint smile when she heard Kiana's voice.
She still didn't know exactly what the White-Haired Oni had seen in Takamagahara, only that he had told them they were all bound by a predetermined fate, and none could escape it.
Its shadow was everywhere.
Half a month had passed since that day.
"Are you still thinking about it?"
Kiana looked at her, worry in her eyes. Since that day, Mei had often seemed distracted, weighed down by unspoken thoughts.
Kiana no longer felt certain that the Raiden Mei before her could still become Acheron.
The truth the White-Haired Oni revealed had been far too terrifying. After hearing such despairing words, everyone had left in silence that day.
We are all bound by predetermined fate.
Then what about Kiana?
Since that day, Mei had often thought about that question. Only now, after long contemplation, had she made up her mind.
"You don't have to worry so much."
Kiana tried to comfort her awkwardly. "Our goal has always been to sever Izumo's connection with Nihility. Whatever the truth behind Izumo and Takamagahara is, our objective hasn't changed."
Mei only looked at her—earnestly, as if wanting to etch her face into memory, never to forget.
"You went with Sirin to see Himeko today to sell more Stigmata, didn't you?" she asked with a faint smile.
"The Honkai's effects are spreading fast. We can't possibly handle everything ourselves. I don't mind, but Sirin might start killing people if this keeps up."
The White-Haired Oni's arrival had accelerated the fragmentation of Izumo's command structure. Just recently, it had splintered into several factions.
With the apocalypse looming, humanity had lost the unity it once held for a thousand years. On the surface, everything still appeared the same—but everyone knew there was no going back.
Over the past few days, countless ships had launched from Izumo. According to Sirin, the technology division had stopped developing anti-Kami weapons and was now entirely focused on aerospace engineering.
Some planned to flee their homeland.
With crises breaking out everywhere, they couldn't be everywhere at once. The frequency of Honkai disasters was increasing. After returning from Takamagahara, Kiana had started distributing mass-produced Stigmata.
Half a month had passed. She had sold so many that even she had lost count.
"Kiana."
"Hmm?"
"You... should leave Izumo."
Mei didn't dare meet Kiana's eyes, afraid she would refuse—or worse, that all her mental preparation over these days would crumble in an instant.
"...What did you say?"
Taking a deep breath, Mei spoke softly, pleadingly: "Kiana, you don't belong here. I don't want you to risk your life trying to sever Izumo's connection to Nihility."
Such an abstract thing—how could it even be cut?
She couldn't imagine how.
Kiana looked at her silently for a moment, then nodded. "...Alright."
She agreed?
Mei blinked, stunned, relief flooding through her. She had feared that Kiana's stubbornness would make her stay—to die with Izumo.
"You'll come with me," Kiana said calmly. "If you leave with me, I'll go now."
"...This is my homeland."
"That's exactly why I can't go."
Kiana's tone was firm. She had already disrupted the flow of events. To leave now—abandoning all of this to Mei—was something she could never do.
"I can't leave, but you can, Kiana. You're not from Izumo. You've only been on this planet a short while. You haven't yet been tainted by It. You still have the chance to choose!"
It wasn't just the planet—all of them were within Nihility's domain. Its shadow had already marked them all.
Mei gave a bitter smile, her hand brushing over the pair of crimson Oni horns that marked her difference from others.
"You don't need to persuade me. I know what I have to do. This so-called predetermined fate—it doesn't actually exist. And even if it were destined to happen, I'll crush that possibility with my own hands!"
Her resolve hadn't changed.
Even after learning more, she only became more certain of her original belief. No matter the cost, she had to change Izumo's fate.
Fear still lingered in her heart.
Because she had already altered too much. The mere introduction of the Honkai had pushed Izumo in an entirely different direction—
One that led ever downward into the abyss.
"Kiana..."
"Fate means nothing. What I want... is to surpass it!"
From the very first day she activated the system, that had been her belief. Over time, this conviction had become not just her path—but her only path.
But sacrifice...
Izumo had entered an age of unending calamity. Honkai Eruptions and Kami-induced chaos spread one after another, plunging the planet into what felt like a countdown to its own extinction.
Wisdom Supreme, Father of Lands, Nether Lord, Omen Ward, and finally Woes Eighty—all of them brought ruin upon the world in turn.
The corruption and disasters unleashed by Woes Eighty, in particular, dealt Izumo an unprecedented blow—plunging it into the darkest period in its history.
All of this had happened within half a month.
From the prosperity that existed during Almighty Thunder's era to the apocalypse brought by Woes Eighty, barely three months had passed.
Every Kami had been slain. The ignorant believed the end of days was finally over, rejoicing as if a new dawn awaited them.
But to those who knew the truth—
The real catastrophe was only beginning.
On the day after Woes Eighty's fall, in the few surviving cities, a massive transformation occurred among the populace.
People began to change—
Becoming monsters like those Sirin and the others had seen in Takamagahara. Mindless, hostile shadows that attacked any living being they saw.
It was then that Kiana sought out the White-Haired Oni, who had spent those days tirelessly saving people and rallying followers in preparation for the end.
She knew.
He was the only one who would support her after hearing what she intended to do.
Because the White-Haired Oni was the embodiment of reason—he understood that no matter how humanity struggled, they could never escape extinction.
"I've been waiting for you," he said when Kiana arrived.
He wasn't surprised to see her.
"You knew I'd come?"
"I was betting you wouldn't leave."
He glanced at the suffocating skies and the darkening earth. "At this point, the Honkai is our only hope. Isn't that what you believe?"
"...I have an idea," Kiana said, taking a deep breath and revealing her final card. "If we're lucky... it might save Izumo."
"Then do it."
The White-Haired Oni didn't even ask what would happen if she failed. His answer came swift and certain: "The future can't possibly be worse than this, can it?"
That... wasn't necessarily true.
An uneasy look crossed Kiana's face, one that the White-Haired Oni immediately noticed.
He fell silent in thought.
Could things truly become worse?
They already knew the truth—they knew their enemy. But precisely because they knew, despair had taken deeper root.
For the true cause of it all was not even a conscious act of malice. Just a ripple of power—unintentional and indifferent—had driven two worlds to destruction.
That pitch-black sun.
The White-Haired Oni knew the chance of continuation was almost zero. Without direction or understanding, they could not break the cycle. In the future, everything they had experienced might simply repeat again.
Could the ending Kiana spoke of really be worse than that?
"Using the Honkai to fight against Nihility—would that cause something even worse?"
"I don't know."
"...Unknown, then. I see. Indeed, it's the unknown that is often the most frightening."
"No, you misunderstand," Kiana said, shaking her head. "I can become a Herrscher. And in that form, I can do things beyond imagination."
"But I don't know if I'll be able to remain sane in that state. If I lose control, I might kill everyone before Nihility even consumes the world."
She didn't know whether she could stay rational after forcibly transforming. If not...
She remembered that apocalyptic scene—the world-cleansing of Finality.
That could very well become Izumo's fate.
"I can't promise that form of me will be able to sever Nihility's shadow—or that I'll remain myself."
Just a faint glimmer of hope?
The White-Haired Oni's eyes dimmed slightly. "How much chance of success do you think you have?"
Kiana took a deep breath and exhaled four words: "Less than ten percent."
It was nothing more than a gamble.
To give Izumo a choice—to die by Nihility's hand, or by hers.
The White-Haired Oni said nothing.
"I want you to support me—and convince Himeko and the others," Kiana said. "Prepare for evacuation and distribute the Stigmata. Whether it's escaping Izumo or building shelters, there must be no one left on the surface."
The White-Haired Oni regarded her with curiosity. He wondered why Kiana was so sure he would agree to her reckless gamble.
"Less than ten percent, and you think I'll help you?"
"You will," Kiana replied firmly. "Because Izumo has no other choice. Only by facing death can we hope to find life."
"To live facing death..."
Whether her plan succeeded or failed, it meant abandoning countless lives—saving only a few who could survive.
But indeed, they had no choice.
Kiana's plan was still better than his own desperate thought—to embrace Nihility in order to survive. He might preserve his mind for a time, but what of the others?
Under that corruption, how long could any of them last?
Sooner or later, all would be twisted.
No matter the path taken, Izumo's road seemed to lead to only one destination.
Should they gamble, then?
Slow decay—or a final wager?
The White-Haired Oni already knew his answer. Though Kiana's plan differed from what he had envisioned, having a choice was better than having none.
However...
"I'll give you my answer tomorrow."
"Then I'll come again tomorrow," Kiana said. "I'll await your decision—I believe you'll make the right one."
Rising to her feet, she left.
By now, she no longer agonized over death. In just a few days, she had witnessed too much of it—too much to save.
No matter how much she wanted to act, it was all in vain.
She didn't go to see Raiden Mei that day. In fact, ever since deciding to fight Nihility by invoking Finality, she had been avoiding her.
Could a few months truly change a person?
She wasn't sure.
The Honkai had hastened the approach of doomsday. Neither she nor anyone else had time left to grow.
Kiana felt a twinge of regret—but it was far too late for that now. Whatever this path led to, she could only keep walking forward.
To be safe, she hoped Mei would leave Izumo before she transformed into a Herrscher.
Just as Mei didn't want her to stay and be caught in the disaster, Kiana didn't want to drag Mei into it either.
After all, Mei wasn't the Herrscher of Thunder.
Without thinking about success or the consequences of failure, Kiana told herself that what she was doing was simply to test the limits of the Honkai's power.
That way, the weight on her heart wouldn't feel so heavy.
"Why did you come to find me?"
The second person Kiana sought out was Sirin.
She truly was busy.
She had barely returned to camp when Kiana appeared at her door. Sirin, who had just been about to rest, was surprised by her arrival.
Although only a few days had passed since they last met, so much had happened each day that it almost felt like ages had gone by.
"I need to ask you for a favor."
Kiana had waited two hours at the camp just to see her.
"Ah? What happened?"
Looking a bit tired, Sirin straightened up, forcing herself alert. "What do you need me to do?"
Kiana sat down in front of her, clearly intending for a long conversation. Her actions made Sirin uneasy.
"Can Izumo still be saved?"
The question hit like a bomb, turning Sirin's composure upside down.
"...The Twelve Kami are all dead. Izumo should at least be able to hold on for a while longer, shouldn't it?"
If anyone else had said that, Sirin would have lashed out immediately.
"What do you think the ending will be?"
"...Didn't the White-Haired Oni already say it?"
Everything he had spoken of was slowly being proven true. Even if she wanted to deceive herself, she couldn't.
What could she do?
Pretend to know nothing—and keep doing what she was supposed to—until she could no longer fight.
"But you," Sirin said, gazing at Kiana with a complicated expression. "The Honkai isn't what you imagined—it's not strong enough to truly fight Nihility."
"When will you leave?"
Sirin assumed Kiana would leave Izumo. She wasn't from this world—she shouldn't stay and face the end with them.
Kiana shook her head. "I still want to make one final attempt."
The Honkai concentration was rising by the day. Creatures born from Nihility's influence—zombies, Honkai beasts—now filled Izumo in a chaos of monsters.
Just yesterday, Kiana had dealt with a newly-born Herrscher. Thanks to her Saint's power, she defeated it easily.
"Final attempt?"
"Yes. The last attempt."
Kiana nodded, her gaze steady as she met Sirin's eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't have a better solution. All I can offer Izumo... is a chance to live by facing death."