"Thud!~" The short, men's-style boots landed heavily on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust from the dry earth.
"Hah… hah…" Li Xuan gasped for breath, gently setting Yae Sakura, who was on his back, onto the grass by the roadside. Then he plopped down onto the grass himself to rest. After all, he had been carrying a person while running for nearly half an hour from Nagazora City. Even with the boost from 'Gale Arts (High Tier)' and his own terrifying stamina, he was bound to feel some fatigue.
"How are you? Feeling better, Sakura?" Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Li Xuan turned his head to ask Yae Sakura beside him.
"Mhm!~" Yae Sakura said with a smile. Her once-pale face had regained its rosy complexion. As a Pseudo-Herrscher, as long as she wasn't completely killed, she could use Honkai energy to continuously repair her injuries, not to mention she had only been hit by a Titan Mecha.
"Li Xuan-kun…" Yae Sakura looked around and said with curiosity, "Where is this place?!..." In Yae Sakura's view, it looked just like the paths in her old hometown—a winding dirt path, lush green grass on the roadside, and the chirping of birds coming from the woods on both sides.
"Haaaah~" Li Xuan took a deep breath, finally calming his somewhat ragged breathing. "This is a relatively remote suburb of Nagazora City…"
'Why does the Honkai energy concentration here feel no less than in Nagazora City?!' Li Xuan thought with some confusion. Thanks to his Stigmata, he could faintly sense the free-floating Honkai energy in the air around him.
Logically, the farther away from the center of Nagazora City, the lower the Honkai energy concentration should be. Could his senses be wrong? Li Xuan glanced at Yae Sakura, who was sitting beside him with her eyes closed, relaxing.
"…" Li Xuan hesitated for a moment in thought. He gently rubbed the silver ring on his finger with his right thumb, his mind entering the ring. Then he took out a weapon that had been placed in a corner of the ring…
"Come out! Liv~" Li Xuan said, tossing the silver gun he had taken from the ring onto the empty ground in front of him.
"?" Yae Sakura looked at Li Xuan-kun curiously as he threw his weapon away. Was this some kind of secret technique?
The gun, gleaming with a silver metallic luster under the sun, suddenly burst forth with a white light. Countless particles of light swirled around the gun within the glow, like a magnificent star cluster in the cosmos. The shape of the gun in the light began to slowly transform…
In just a few seconds, the shape of the gun in the light changed into that of a young girl. A slender leg, clad in a white over-the-knee sock and a small black leather shoe, stepped out from the light.
"Master! I missed you so much!~" the girl in the light cried out loudly, then threw herself into the unprepared Li Xuan's arms.
"Ugh!..." Li Xuan nearly spat out a mouthful of blood… Her headbutt had landed squarely on his stomach…
"Master… What's wrong?!" Liv, dressed in a black and white maid outfit, asked in confusion as she saw Li Xuan clutching his stomach, hunched over on the ground.
"..." My stomach hurts… Li Xuan thought helplessly, but he still raised his trembling head and forced a smile. "I'm just a little excited…" After all, Liv hadn't done it on purpose, so Li Xuan couldn't bring himself to blame her… He could only pretend to be very happy…
"Is that so?! Hehe~" Liv, who hadn't been out for a few days, seemed to scratch her cheek shyly with her fair, slender fingers. Her gaze began to wander around, and then… she saw…
"Eh?! Ma-Master… Wh-Who is she?!" Liv suddenly pointed at the pink-haired girl leaning against Li Xuan and asked in shock.
"Ahem… Her name is Yae Sakura. She's my friend and partner!" Li Xuan, who had finally recovered, said to Liv with a smile. It was perfectly normal for Liv not to have seen Yae Sakura, as she had been in the ring for the past few days.
"Stare...…." Liv silently stared at Yae Sakura beside Li Xuan for a good while, then pouted and turned her head away.
How dare she lean on Master so casually!...... 'Fox spirit!~' Liv thought secretly.
Of course… from a certain perspective, Liv's thought… was valid… Yae Sakura could indeed be considered a fox spirit…
"By the way, Master… where are Miss Mei and little sister Bronya?!" Liv looked around but didn't see the girls who were always with her master, and asked in confusion.
"..." Wait… you forgot Kiana, didn't you?! Li Xuan thought helplessly.
"Them… they're temporarily missing…" Li Xuan's mood suddenly grew heavy. After encountering the Honkai Beast horde and that terrifying, though later vanishing, humanoid Honkai Beast, the three of them had disappeared as if into thin air…. Li Xuan had only vaguely seen Mei and a sky full of lightning… then he lost consciousness. Was it just his imagination?
But… he was really worried, yet there was nothing he could do…
"…It's alright, Master." Seeing Li Xuan's pained expression, Liv quickly came forward to comfort him. To Liv, her world consisted of only her master… everyone else was worlds apart from him.
"Yes! Master!" Liv suddenly said in a loud voice.
"What's wrong?" Li Xuan looked up, confused, pushing his worries aside.
"..." Liv bent down and pulled out two silver smoothbore guns from under the hem of her maid dress, which was embroidered with black and purple patterns, and looked warily at the path ahead.
"A powerful Honkai energy has appeared!" Liv said with a grave expression. As a Gun-musume who had undergone a Divine Core Awakening, she was extremely sensitive to Honkai energy reactions… just as bees are naturally born to collect honey.
..................…..
"Principal! An unknown Honkai energy reaction has appeared in the outskirts of Nagazora City!" The door to St. Freya High School's principal's office was thrown open, and a panting Yuudachi rushed in, shouting.
"What?!" Theresa, who had been looking at the troubling budget figures on a document, instantly stood up.
"The Hyperion has already sent the detection data and analysis results to your computer…" Yuudachi reminded her.
"." Theresa frowned with her delicate, small brows and turned on the computer she had previously shut down. After waiting ten-odd seconds for it to boot up, Theresa entered the commander interface and indeed found the report sent from the Hyperion.
Theresa moved the cursor and opened the report…
'...The Honkai energy in the outskirts of Nagazora City at this time seems to be composed of two different types of Honkai energy. One is from the Honkai outbreak in Nagazora City, while the other seems to be an energy that has existed for a much longer time… Now, this Honkai energy from ancient times is being catalyzed by the modern Honkai energy, continuously strengthening…'
"Sigh!~ Tell Major Himeko to investigate after she's dealt with the Anti-Entropy mechs in Nagazora City!" Theresa closed her eyes in resignation, her small, fair hand rubbing her temple as she spoke.
"Yes!" Yuudachi said with a slight bow and turned to leave.
"It's truly one thing after another…" Theresa turned around and looked into the distance through the window behind her desk… A single withered yellow leaf slowly drifted down from a seemingly lush green tree.
The time for dust to return to dust, and earth to earth, was coming again…
(End of Chapter)