At the moment Seele opened the treasure chest, she, who also possessed a Stigmata, felt it.
[Someone has opened Pandora's Box. The wheels of fate begin to turn at this very moment.]
"Cut the crap and speak human." Ryn waved her hand in frustration. Ever since she got Cortana, the Stigmata Consciousness had made her create a subroutine for it.
At first, Ryn thought the Stigmata Consciousness had found something wrong with Cortana, but it turned out the entity was just using Cortana for holographic projections, binge-watching dramas and reading novels all day.
It used to apologize for its mistakes, but now it was well on its way to becoming a full-blown riddler. If it said or did something wrong, don't ask. The answer was always 'the will of fate.' It was never wrong.
[The Stigmata in this world are different from ours. Someone has forcibly unlocked the power sealed within a Stigmata, but unfortunately, that person couldn't handle it. The Stigmata Terminal has been forcefully activated. From now on, more and more people in this world will awaken their Stigmata.]
"Isn't that a good thing? Are their Stigmata like mine? Wouldn't that make fighting the Honkai easier?"
[Keep dreaming. You'll have everything in your dreams. What am I? How can Stigmata activated by a terminal compare to me? They can't even compare to naturally born Stigmata, let alone me.
It's both a good and a bad thing. With Stigmata, they can survive the corrosion of the Honkai. But these mass-produced Stigmata won't grant them immense power, merely increasing their Honkai energy adaptability and lifespan. With the emergence of a large number of ordinary people with extremely high Honkai adaptability, it means that if they die in a Honkai disaster, a large number of high-level Honkai Beasts or Honkai Zombies will appear, and even Herrscher vessels and Pseudo-Herrschers will continuously emerge.
Rejoice, you who have awakened your Stigmata on your own, for you shall all receive fate's gift. Wail, for your path to fighting the Honkai is fraught with thorns. Friends will no longer be friends, and enemies will no longer be enemies...]
As the Stigmata Consciousness spoke, it was secretly flipping through a few books in a place Ryn couldn't see. They were filled with eighth-grade syndrome-like pronouncements that it had secretly learned online.
Ryn held Kiana and thought for a while, finally realizing there was nothing she could do. So Ryn.exe stopped thinking again. After all, there was no point in overthinking it. She could only adapt to the situation as it came.
Ryn lay on the bed with Kiana, slowly stroking her slender waist. Kiana's waist was very slim, with a beautiful curve. As the saying goes... the three treasures of Honkai Impact 3rd are the Paramecium's waist, Bronya's butt, and Mei's back...
As for why Kiana was in her bed... that's a question worth pondering.
Kiana and she had been assigned separate bedrooms when they moved in. On the very first night, while she was sound asleep, Kiana snuck in stealthily, jumped up, and gave her a kick, waking her from her slumber.
Then, under Ryn's drowsy and bewildered gaze, Kiana slipped into the covers and squeezed her to the side.
"What are you looking at? Time for sleep~"
"If you're sleeping, go back to your own room. Why did you come over here and kick me!"
"Hmph~ I can't sleep alone... Speaking of which, that makes me angry. I'm over there suffering because I can't sleep, and you're sleeping so soundly. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, so I kicked you." Kiana puffed up her cheeks, looking just like a pouting child. "No more talking, sleep!"
"..."
Ryn was speechless. Was this really something she could be blamed for?
But it made sense. The two of them had been sleeping in each other's arms for the past few months. No wonder she felt like something was missing before bed. It turned out to be the ultimate, super-duper cute Kiana-brand pillow.
So Ryn reached out and hugged Kiana, who hugged her back, and the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms. After that, Kiana stopped sleeping in her own bedroom and came to sleep with her every night.
Back to the present.
As she stroked her, Ryn noticed Kiana looking at her faintly. When Kiana saw that Ryn had noticed her gaze, she gave him a light punch.
"Stop touching me... it tickles..."
There wasn't much resistance; the two were used to touching each other. It was just that Kiana had been napping and Ryn had woken her up.
She nuzzled her face against Kiana's. It was soft and very comfortable.
"I just heard some news. From now on, people will continuously awaken Stigmata. They might become our allies against the Honkai, they might just be ordinary people, or they might be corrupted by the Honkai and become formidable enemies... Kiana, what do you think we should do?"
"I don't know. But as long as they're not enemies, I'll do my best to protect them. If they become part of the Honkai's side and become our enemies, I won't hold back!"
Kiana hugged Ryn, listening to his thumping heartbeat. Though it held no special meaning, it made her feel at ease. Even though her nap was interrupted, so what? Should she get up? Of course not, she would continue sleeping—slowly, Kiana drifted off to sleep again.
[I really envy this girl, having you by her side. In the main body's memories, there was no one to accompany her. Her happiness was too fleeting, so brief that compared to her current memories spanning hundreds of millions of years, it's not even a drop in the ocean.]
"Is that so? Why don't you tell me your main body's story! You're always talking about your 'main body,' there must be a lot of stories, right?"
[Nope. I'm afraid she'll come through the internet and beat me up. I'm just a Stigmata Consciousness. If she really beats me a few times... I won't die, for sure, but the process of the main body hitting me will be recorded by the Stigmata, which means it'll be etched onto me. That's equivalent to me getting beaten up every single moment. So, no thanks!]
"You're so pathetic... Are all Stigmata consciousnesses like you?"
[How could that be? What's my status, my position? I'm second to one and invincible in the world, okay? It's mainly because she's too powerful. She influences the Stigmata, not the other way around. It's different from you people who rely on Stigmata.
Also, this world is a bit special. If I was just an undifferentiated consciousness before, then after entering this world, I've become a mature adult. The rules of this world allow Stigmata to develop self-awareness, which is truly amazing. In my world, many people have Stigmata, but only one or two have a Stigmata with self-awareness.
I'll tell you a little secret. Your alternate universe counterpart, Penglaiji Ryn's Stigmata, doesn't have a Stigmata Consciousness. It's the main body pretending to be one. When she's in a good mood, she'll drop a few riddles on that Ryn, making him all suspicious. It's hilarious. Hahaha... uh... can we pretend I didn't say that? What are you doing with that weapon!]
"Why don't you ask my spear what it has to say."
Ryn listened as the Stigmata's voice trailed off, followed by unending screams, interspersed with a few phrases.
"I was wrong! Don't spank my butt!" "How am I supposed to face anyone after this!" "Sis?! Mom?! I was wrong, hit somewhere else..."
According to an anonymous source, the Stigmata Consciousness was held down on a table by its main body and repeatedly spanked with a spear.