Taut threads shimmered with a dull light in the air. As the other Kiana tugged at them, the already tight threads of Domination slowly closed in on the girl's neck.
"Since you're Kiana, and I'm Kiana, what's the difference between you and me?" A smirk played on her lips as she touched her fingertips together.
The sharp threads pressed into Kiana's pale neck, leaving a mark. It seemed a simple flick of her finger was all it would take to make the girl who looked exactly like her disappear from this world forever.
She raised an eyebrow, her gaze fixed on the girl's eyes, expecting to see panic and fear. To her disappointment, the girl's sapphire-blue eyes held no fear, only a detached calm and a hint of almost imperceptible mockery.
"If we're talking threats, this is exactly the kind of pathetic move the 'old me' would have come up with."
"Hm?"
The other Kiana froze, suddenly realizing that her back and chest were, at some point, targeted by countless sharp Lances of the Void. While she was threatening Kiana, Kiana had been threatening her right back.
More importantly, was the girl implying she was old and childish?
The other Kiana fell silent for a long moment before forcing out a few words. "You're much smarter than I thought."
"Thanks for the compliment. I don't have time to chat with you right now." The moment the words left her mouth, a scorching flame erupted from her hands.
In an instant, the threads of Domination coiling around her were incinerated and consumed. Against the blazing fire of the Flamescion, the webs, even empowered by the authority of Domination, stood no chance.
The raging inferno turned into a sea of fire, burning the sky crimson. Within the waves of flame, the two stood opposite each other, as if at opposite ends of the world.
"I don't know what your relationship with him is, or how you can even use his Herrscher powers, but it's clear you don't understand him, and you don't understand me." The greatsword in her hand slowly rose, its tip pointing directly at the Theater of Domination.
"Hah. What an arrogant thing to say. From the moment you were wanted by Schicksal and defected to Anti-Entropy, I've been by his side. If we're talking about time spent, I've been with him far longer than you have."
The other Kiana raised an eyebrow, weaving a lie.
"Is that so? Even if we're both Kiana, the lives we've lived are completely different. You keep talking about replacing me, but if you could really do it, why would you need to threaten me with something like this?"
The girl's voice remained completely unmoved, her tone even tinged with a hint of pity. "No, you understand perfectly well. You know Ren would never see us as the same person just because we share a name. You know you can never truly replace me. You know your heart's deepest desires will never be fulfilled. That's why you have the gall to threaten me with this."
Because he wouldn't care.
For some reason, despite being in the middle of a sea of flames, Kiana's face felt like an arctic ice pick, stabbing into the other Kiana's heart.
She opened her mouth to argue but was stunned to find she couldn't think of a single rebuttal. She stared blankly ahead, her lips trembling slightly.
The flames dyed the sky red, with only a few thin clouds retaining a hint of their original color. But when she looked at the girl before her, the first light of dawn broke through, draping her in a radiant glow.
"So dazzling..."
The resolve and confidence in the girl's eyes were so bright, like a singer standing at the center of the world's stage, basking in global adoration.
How could a man-made Bubble Universe, a broken world shrouded in despair, possibly shine with such a light?
"If... if I were the one he was looking at..."
Memories of the past surged through her mind like a tide, leaving behind pools of bitter, unswallowable sorrow when they receded.
For some reason, the other Kiana suddenly felt as if she understood many things, as if she had let go of a heavy burden. She looked at the girl before her and smiled, a mix of resignation and relief.
"I guess some things you just have to be forced to understand. Clinging to unrealistic fantasies about things that don't belong to you only brings you pain."
Kiana didn't quite grasp the meaning behind her words, but she could clearly sense that the hostility directed at her had weakened. She took a step forward, closing the distance to the Theater of Domination once more.
"In that case, step aside. You know my target isn't you."
"Can't do that. He doesn't want to see you right now. You should go back." Having let go of her inner turmoil, the other Kiana regained her usual composure. She pulled on her threads, and countless crude wooden puppets emerged from the void.
"Is that so? Then I guess I'll have to go to him myself and hear his answer."
The instant she finished speaking, Kiana's figure had already transformed into a meteor, shooting straight toward the puppets.
She swung her greatsword, and the weak puppets were sliced apart as easily as tofu. However, she failed to notice that the severed puppets didn't disappear. They were once again ensnared by the threads.
"The destructive power of the Herrscher of Flame is truly immense," the other Kiana remarked.
Though Kiana made it look easy, each of the puppets created by the authority of Domination possessed power at least on par with a Templar-class Honkai beast. Still, she showed no alarm. After a brief moment of admiration, she pulled on her threads again.
"But... the Herrscher of Domination's power isn't so simple to deal with, you know."
Invisible threads spread rapidly. The charging Kiana seemed to sense something was wrong. She swung her sword forward, only to find that the threads she should have shattered were completely unaffected.
"No physical form?" Before she could react, the invisible threads were already coiling around her. Kiana was cautious and immediately used her teleportation ability to escape. But the moment she reappeared, the remains of the puppets she had cut down exploded.
There was no smoke or fire, but the Honkai Energy within Kiana's body, which should have been stable as a Herrscher, erupted into severe chaos. It was clearly an attack aimed directly at Herrschers.
"Domination is called Domination because it controls abilities that target other Herrschers," the other Kiana's voice echoed in her ears. Kiana roared and swung her sword. But the blade only struck another puppet; the real her was long gone.
Looking around, all she could see were dense crowds of puppets. For a moment, Kiana felt helpless, like punching cotton—there was no solid impact.
"Kill one, and it becomes two. Kill a group, and they become countless more. The puppets are endless. How long can your stamina last?"
A swarm tactic was the simplest, yet also the most direct and effective. No matter how powerful a Herrscher was, as long as they couldn't annihilate all the puppets in an instant, they would eventually be overwhelmed by the endless battle.
"Unfortunately for you, I happen to have just the ability to break this stalemate." Kiana smiled faintly, her eyes turning a pure, solid gold in an instant.
She snapped her fingers. In the next second, the approaching puppets froze as if the pause button had been pressed, suspended in mid-air in various poses. Kiana took a step forward, and the authority of the Herrscher of the Void instantly froze the space all around her.
As she moved, the space behind her rapidly collapsed, forming a pitch-black hole that pulled in all the surrounding puppets. Until they vanished completely, none of them could escape the girl's grasp.