The full moon hung high in the sky, casting pale light over a land soaked in blood.
The outer perimeter of the Divine City Pharmaceuticals industrial zone bore clear marks of fierce combat—and the inside was no different.
It was evident that the Valkyries of Undying Blade had tried to break through the anti-Honkai serum defenses in a desperate attempt to rescue their vice captain.
As expected of the strongest Valkyrie unit under Schicksal's command.
Unfortunately, their enemies were simply too powerful.
Armed with serum weapons specifically designed to suppress Valkyries, even the elite of Undying Blade had failed to reach the heart of this serpent's den.
Kagura walked cautiously through the bloodstained corridors of the industrial facility, her golden eyes scanning the scene carefully.
The area was much like the one at the entrance—littered with metal canisters.
Clearly, World Serpent had deployed anti-Honkai gas to incapacitate the Valkyries.
The aftermath spoke volumes: the fierce resistance, the violence, and the methodical suppression of the invading team.
What stood out was the absence of Valkyrie bodies.
Only blood trails and scattered Deadwalker remains remained.
That meant the Valkyries hadn't been killed—they were captured before death could claim them.
No doubt, for experimentation.
From what she had learned so far, World Serpent was attempting to awaken the Stigmata gene hidden within ordinary humans by exposing them to Honkai energy during controlled disasters.
Those who survived would be proven capable of wielding Honkai power.
Naturally, Valkyries—already adapted to Honkai energy and born with Stigmata—made ideal test subjects.
"Disgusting…" Kagura frowned, her brows furrowed in revulsion. "I'm really starting to hate this organization. No respect for life at all… they're even worse than Thanos."
She shook her head. "Whatever. First things first—let's find Miss Rita."
Channeling the power of her Infinity Stones, Kagura sharpened her senses and began following faint, nearly imperceptible traces left behind—evidence of Rita's movements.
In this ruined, Honkai-ridden world, she didn't have access to Rhodes Island's vast intelligence network.
She couldn't rely on the internet or satellite surveillance.
But the Infinity Stones more than made up for that.
[Time Stone: Time Manipulation]
[Time Visualization: Activated]
This was a subtle but highly useful ability of the Time Stone.
By activating "Time Visualization," Kagura could highlight the time trails of objects within her field of vision.
When scanning the ground, for instance, she could clearly see footprints glowing in different colors, each hue representing a different point in time.
With this technique, she quickly picked out Rita's footsteps among the chaos and began tracking her direction. But that wasn't all—
[Soul Stone: Activated]
[Soul Detection: Engaged]
An orange glow flickered in Kagura's eyes.
Her vision cleared, and distant flickers of red flame appeared—each representing a soul.
Among them, one spark burned gold: Rita.
Using the Soul Stone, Kagura could detect souls through any barrier—walls, underground bunkers, electromagnetic shielding.
It didn't matter.
Even if Rita were sealed in a reinforced nuclear biohazard chamber deep below the surface, Kagura could still sense her soul from hundreds of meters away.
With her target marked and the trail clear, all that remained was to navigate the path.
Auto-navigation: unlocked!
"Ehehe~ This brilliant beauty is just too amazing!" Kagura puffed up with pride.
...Of course, this wasn't a video game. There was no convenient "autopilot" button, and the path ahead wasn't exactly a stroll through the park.
'Bzzzt—!'
Just as Kagura delved deeper into the research facility, nearby machinery whirred to life.
Something—or someone—was coming up via an elevator.
'Beep—beep—!'
At the same time, a nearby holographic screen flickered on.
On it appeared a short-haired woman dressed in a black-and-white combat suit, a raven-feather motif adorning her shoulders and a hood shaped like a crow's beak pulled over her head.
She was clearly one of World Serpent's operatives.
And by the way... she had a massive chest.
On par with Miss Himeko's, even.
"Oh? We'd heard rumors of a woman immune to the 'Spear of Godslaying' serum, but I didn't expect you'd be foolish enough to come alone."
The woman sneered. "Heh. You really don't take World Serpent seriously, do you?"
Kagura gave her a sideways glance and answered coolly, "Yeah. I don't. Why would I take a bunch of deranged maniacs seriously?"
Kagura stared at the screen where the image of "Raven" appeared.
Her lips curled into a cold, unimpressed smile.
"Even your so-called 'Supreme Leader' isn't much to look at," she said mockingly. "All you people know how to do is rely on dirty, underhanded tricks. What else can you even do?"
"Hmph. Bold words like that always come with a price," Raven replied flatly.
Her tone barely changed, as if the fate of World Serpent didn't concern her personally.
"The last woman who sounded as confident as you… is currently enjoying one of our little 'gifts.' Looks like you're also dying to kneel before the Serpent, huh?"
As she spoke, the nearby elevator doors hissed open.
A large squad of Death Weavers—World Serpent's specialized anti-Valkyrie kill units—emerged from the lifts with a slow, menacing stride.
And they weren't alone.
More corrupted Honkai monstrosities followed: grotesque beasts warped by science, mutated Deadwalkers with awakened powers, and twisted hybrid creatures that looked like something out of a nightmare biotech lab.
It was as if someone had thrown every biological experiment into one terrifying stew.
"Well now, you've really gone all out with the welcoming party," Kagura muttered, her grin growing sharper, a spark of madness glinting in her golden eyes.
"They're trash, all of them—but at least they make it crystal clear just how deranged your organization truly is. Hmph… I suppose that makes it worth it."
As she finished speaking, her eyes flashed with a piercing blue glow.
'Vmmmmm—!'
With a flick of her wrist, a glowing blue circle surged outward like a shockwave.
[Spatial Domination]
[Imaginary Ring Blade—Activated!]
In that moment, Raven could almost see a phantom—an echo of the Queen of the Void, the Herrscher of the Void herself.
It was just like the legendary scene from the Siberian battlefield back in 2000, where circular space blades had sliced through entire legions with ease.
Indeed, this move of Kagura's was inspired by the Herrscher of the Void.
She had adapted the Void's spatial manipulation technique and merged it with the power of the Space Stone.
But unlike standard space-cutting attacks, Kagura's "Ring Blade" condensed the spatial energy into a closed loop—a deadly ring of imaginary force that could slice through anything in its path.
The genius of it was efficiency: by spending only the energy for a single spatial cut, she could launch a rotating attack that struck multiple enemies at once.
'Vmmm—!'
The blue ring expanded outward, slicing through the very fabric of space itself.
Everything in its radius—no matter how durable—was carved open like butter.
And even if some enemies managed to avoid the outward wave, they weren't safe.
Once the ring reached its designated maximum size, it would collapse inward—slicing again from behind with the same spatial force, catching any would-be survivors completely off guard.
Simple, yet devastatingly effective.
While the Infinity Stones didn't require an energy core to use, they did cause fatigue over time.
That's why Kagura focused so much on improving efficiency—refining her use of the stones to reduce physical toll while maximizing impact.
For the Space Stone especially—whose powers were brute-force, high-consumption, but highly practical—this kind of fine control was essential.
After her blade passed, time itself seemed to hold its breath.
'Splurt—!'
In the next instant, blood exploded across the lab, painting the research hall in a curtain of crimson.
The grotesque Honkai beasts collapsed like felled weeds.
Even the feared Death Weavers—those smug, elite hunters—had no chance against Kagura's spatial onslaught.
One by one, they were cleaved in half, rendered useless in an instant.
Blood sprayed. Sparks flew.
At the center of it all stood a silver-haired, golden-eyed girl—calm, unshaken, and untouchable.
Everything around her had been dissected by her unstoppable blade.
The machines and devices she had cut through had edges so smooth, they looked like mirrored glass—beautiful, but terrifying in their perfection.
"How pathetic. This is the price I'm supposed to pay for speaking my mind?" She scoffed and turned toward the direction where Rita's soul signal pulsed steadily.
"Come on—show me everything you've got. Don't you dare bore me on my way to destroying your entire insane little organization."