"That is..." Theresa gripped the Spear of Light in her hand, staring at the behemoth before her, an entity large enough to drive an ordinary Valkyrie to despair...
"......" The giant beast's head silently emerged from the shattered earth. Its ferocious head resembled that of a mythical dragon... A silver-white shell covered the top of its head, and ice-blue spikes extended from both sides of its skull like sharp blades...
"Bronya! Didn't you say there was only that Valkyrie's life signature? Why has another Honkai Beast appeared?!" Mei asked in astonishment, looking at the dragon-like Honkai Beast, turning to an equally shocked Bronya for answers...
"Bronya does not know..." Bronya stared at the tablet computer in her hand, her eyes filled with deep confusion. "According to the scan... this Honkai Beast has no signs of life... It should be dead..."
"But... why did it appear then....."
"Cough, cough..." Li Xuan groggily opened his eyes and saw... the giant beast in his field of vision. "It really looks similar... Can't mess with that, can't mess with that..." He muttered a few delirious words before fainting again... If it weren't for his good constitution, he would probably have started running a fever by now.
"Abyss... Flower..." In Theresa's eyes, Shigure Kira, whose mind was controlled by the 'Honkai', roared in a low voice. The Honkai energy in her body was completely channeled into the two weapons in her hands. Although the silver bracelets on her wrists were still intact... for some reason, they were completely ineffective at this moment...
In a faint white glow, the two intersecting silver-white lances and the pitch-black longsword slowly intertwined... They began to reveal their true form as a [Holy Relic]... the final form of a [Divine Key]...
'Abyss' coiled within the hollow interior of the lance 'Flower'. 'Flower' slowly unfolded and rotated like a true silver-white sacred flower... Its shape began to change rapidly... The spearhead, originally formed by folded parts, seemed to molt, extending an even sharper tip from within, slender like an amethyst and resembling a hornet's stinger...
The edges of the original silver-white lance's casing transformed to resemble the calyx of a newly opened flower. The calyx-like shaft was coated in a bewitching purple, and the grip turned from silver-white to black....
After more than a decade... this weapon, created by a human civilization fifty-two thousand years ago, once again revealed its true appearance... the form of one of the thirteen [Divine Keys]...
"Aaargh!!" 'Shigure Kira', leaping with all her might, jumped onto the giant beast's head. Without hesitation, she aimed the tip of the lance [Abyss Flower] in her hands at the back of the beast's head, an area not covered by the silver shell...
"Puchi!" The lance instantly pierced into the Honkai Beast's head. Even the Honkai Beast's tough skin was like thin paper under the tip of [Abyss Flower]...
"Roaaar!!!" The previously silent giant beast suddenly lifted its head, and the washbasin-sized, ice-blue crystal embedded in its head's shell lit up...
"How could this be..." Bronya stared at her tablet, her voice trembling as she murmured, "A Honkai Beast that was clearly dead... how could it come back to life..."
"As expected..." Theresa looked at the Honkai Beast confronting her with a grave expression. "The Holy Relic [Abyss Flower], possessing the strongest power of [Creation], can indeed resurrect a Honkai Beast..."
The [Holy Relic] that possesses the power to reverse the Herrscher of Death, to achieve creation, the opposite of death, and to seal the power of the 'Herrscher of Death'...
"All team members, listen up... Attack the Honkai Beast with all your might!" Theresa turned and shouted to the others behind her... It was a desperate situation; they had no choice but to fight to the death... Even Theresa herself had only encountered a Honkai Beast of this size a handful of times...
The next moment, everyone except Li Xuan and Yae Sakura raised their weapons... Project Bunny behind Bronya began to charge up. Mei and Himeko prepared to rush the Honkai Beast behind Theresa, while Kiana hastily reloaded her dual pistols with special bullets she had been saving for some time...
"Xuan-kun... I want to fight..." Yae Sakura lowered her head and whispered to the drowsy Li Xuan. She didn't know why she suddenly said that... But watching the others about to fight with all their might, she felt her blood begin to boil for some reason...
And most importantly... Yae Sakura was afraid of losing... If Theresa and the others lost, she wasn't sure if she could protect Li Xuan by herself against that giant beast... She also wanted to avenge Li Xuan... against the woman who had truly hurt her boyfriend... 'Shigure Kira'.
"Mm..." Li Xuan mumbled in his daze... Of course, if he were conscious, he probably wouldn't have agreed... because... after getting his response, Yae Sakura left him alone on the ground... If Li Xuan wasn't unconscious, he would probably be crying out loud... The snowy ground was very cold!
"..." Yae Sakura drew one of the two sheathed swords from her waist... It was an ancient blade, a katana named after her... 'Danying' (Yae Sakura). Its crimson blade shone with a pink luster in the light.
"Thump, thump!~" Yae Sakura seemed to hear her own heart beating, but no... she no longer had a heart. What was beating was the 'Familiar Core' that had replaced it... Streams of power began to flow through her body with the core's operation... The sword techniques of a 'Miko' preserved in her memory began to awaken.
Yae Sakura's azure eyes slowly transformed into bewitching golden, slitted pupils... and a pair of fluffy fox ears emerged from her beautiful, sakura-like long hair...
"Roaaar!" The Honkai Beast, whose life and death had been reversed by [Abyss Flower], finally fully revived. It straightened up from the earth, revealing half of its body to everyone's sight... It had the body of a giant serpent, half of which was covered in a white shell. Its sides were lined with diamond-shaped spikes, which were even embedded with pomelo-sized Honkai energy crystals... Near its head, on either side of its body, were two claws that looked like sharp blades...
"Begin the attack! Aim for the person on its head..." Theresa commanded loudly to the others. As she lifted the rather heavy 'Judah's Oath' and prepared to approach the Honkai Beast for combat... an unexpected figure suddenly sped past her...
"Sortie." A crisp voice reached Theresa's ears... The wind from the rapid movement rustled Theresa's white hair...
A sakura-colored figure, like a flash of light, rushed forward... Like a glimmering light!
(End of this chapter)