"…"
Under the dim emergency light, the girl bound by the tall, holy golden cross hung her head in silence, her face shrouded in shadow.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Li Xuan asked, staring at the girl. He was now certain that she wasn't a Honkai Zombie or anything of the sort, but a human. Otherwise, she would already be dead. However, having watched that certain anime and Future Diary, he could confidently judge that she was a rather dangerous yandere…
"…"
The girl silently lifted her head, for the first time revealing the face that had been hidden in the shadows.
A face as fair as jade, with delicate features, a pair of deep blue eyes like the sea, and slightly furrowed willow-leaf eyebrows. Though still tinged with childishness, one could imagine the nation-toppling beauty she would become…
"Do you really think… you can capture me?" the girl said with a slight, mocking curve of her lips.
The girl, bound by what seemed like chains of light, smiled faintly. The red mark on her exposed chest was as crimson as blood. She seemed utterly unconcerned by the snake-like chains of light coiled around her, nor by the circle of spears planted around her, their sharp obsidian tips pointing at her.
"Can you still escape?…" Li Xuan asked, looking at the girl before him with some surprise.
Then… the next scene once again shattered his worldview.
The girl, who was bound like a dumpling, was gradually disappearing. Starting from her hands, she was being erased as if by an artist's eraser on a pencil drawing, as if she had never existed at all…
"How is this possible?!…" Faced with this bizarre scene, the hairs on the back of Li Xuan's neck stood on end. He began to doubt whether he was facing a human at all! This was just like a ghost…
A flicker of gloom and sorrow passed through the depths of the girl's eyes as her entire being vanished into thin air, as if she had never been there.
The slackened chains of light clattered, and the obsidian spearheads pulled out of the ground, automatically retracting back into the dual gun mounts of Judah's Oath.
"She actually disappeared?!" Li Xuan's eyes were wide with disbelief. He rubbed his smooth chin. It seems the waters of this Honkai world run very, very deep. He once again experienced the meaning of 'there's always a higher mountain out there'…
Whoosh~
Suddenly, Li Xuan heard the sound of a sharp object cutting through the air behind his head.
In an instant, Li Xuan's pupils contracted. His powerful physique gave him excellent reflexes. In that moment, he used all his strength to turn around and clumsily raised his hands like a bear. A layer of azure shield appeared…
Thud!
With a sound like a fist hitting a sandbag, the immense force from his hands sent Li Xuan staggering back nearly ten steps before he could stop.
"What a thick~ turtle shell~" a teasing girl's voice came from the darkness.
"Damn it!" Li Xuan was not pleased. Being sneak-attacked was not a pleasant feeling.
"Heehee~ Seele doesn't have time to play with you, big brother~" the girl's soft, sweet voice echoed from the surrounding darkness. "I still have to find my dearest, dearest Bronya-oneechan~ So bye-bye~" The girl's voice faded, and with it, the feeling of being watched that Li Xuan had felt.
Seele?! Isn't Seele Bronya's sister?! He wasn't as careless as Kiana Kaslana; he had listened carefully to every word Bronya had said at breakfast.
So the question was…
Who was the person Seele said she wanted to kill? The answer was obvious now… besides Bronya, who else could it be?!
So… Bronya was in danger! Li Xuan shuddered violently. Enduring the dull pain in his chest, he quickly walked to where 'Judah's Oath' was deeply embedded in the ground and gently touched the emblem in the center of the cross.
In a faint glow, Judah once again transformed back into the unremarkable toy box…
Li Xuan stored the toy box in his ring and ran back the way he had come…
......................
"Huff, huff~"
Bronya ran down the corridor. It had been a long time since she had run this fast. Although the 'running' was mostly done by the armor on her legs… the strenuous exercise still made her face flush.
Her hands could not reach that figure…
Just as she could not change anyone, nor could she change any situation…
Unless one of them stopped, this chase would likely continue indefinitely…
"Seele!—" Bronya used all her strength to shout the name that had haunted her dreams.
As if hearing her call, the figure in front of her froze, then stopped and turned around.
The girl who turned around—
"Sister… is that you… Bronya-oneechan?" the girl said, as if in disbelief. Skin as fair as jade, with delicate features, and a pair of deep blue eyes like the sea, gazing at Bronya…
This was the first, shattered reunion between the girl named Bronya and the girl named Seele after four years of separation…
(End of Chapter)