As night fell... the emergency center of St. Freya High School, which should have been quiet at this time, had its red light constantly on.... In the emergency room, several fully-equipped doctors were doing their best to save the woman on the operating table...
In the Siberian forest, although Theresa and her team ultimately defeated the Honkai Beast and the Honkai Zombie, they also paid a considerable price... First, Li Xuan was seriously injured. Of course, this kind of wound from a sword is quite easy to fully heal at St. Freya High School... but because he was stabbed by [Abyss], Li Xuan was left with some side effects...
Secondly, the most serious injury... would probably be Murata Himeko's. Although she had no visible injuries on her body, her naturally weak Honkai energy adaptability meant that after fighting for so long in a place with such an abnormally high concentration of Honkai energy, the Honkai energy finally broke through the immune defense of her 'Artificial Stigmata'... and eroded her body...
Ordinary Honkai Zombies are new creatures formed when humans are eroded by Honkai energy... If the erosion of Honkai energy in Himeko cannot be suppressed... she will eventually become a Honkai Zombie as well.
After all, before becoming a Valkyrie, Murata Himeko was just an ordinary girl. She didn't have Li Xuan's natural stigmata resistance to Honkai energy, nor Kiana's inherited Honkai energy immunity in her bloodline. She wasn't like Mei, who was originally a Herrscher and wasn't afraid of Honkai energy at all. Even Theresa now has a Natural Stigmata... The only one with a somewhat similar constitution, Bronya, was only attacking from a distance the whole time, so she didn't get close to the area with super high Honkai energy for long... so she was fine...
"Quick, quick! Try injecting the patient with HD423 to suppress the Honkai energy in her body..." The busty doctor, Yu Qingqing, directed the other sweating doctors to operate the equipment and begin injecting a Honkai energy inhibitor into Murata Himeko's body...
"Attempt failed! The Honkai energy concentration in the patient's body is rising rapidly!..." The synthesized female voice spoke coldly, "Approaching dangerous levels. The patient is about to undergo zombification..."
On the Honkai energy detector, red colors kept appearing on Murata Himeko's virtual body... and began to spread across her entire body... When the body is completely dyed red, she will be a Honkai Zombie...
"Damn it!" Yu Qingqing slammed her fist on the console table, making a 'bang!' sound... The other doctors looked at her helplessly, waiting for her orders...
"There's no other way... use 'that'..." Yu Qingqing waved her hand in resignation. The top priority now was to save Himeko's life... even if it meant sacrificing some of her lifespan, it didn't matter...
'Sigh... Hang in there...' Yu Qingqing thought, praying as she looked at Himeko on the operating table, whose skin was already turning an ashen gray.
............
"..." Outside the emergency room door, Kiana sat hugging her knees, lost in a daze... The events of the day flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern...
The reason she was the only one waiting for Himeko's surgery to finish was that Theresa had confidently assured everyone of the certain busty doctor's skills. Besides, Theresa had a lot to deal with, so she left... Mei and Theresa had gone home early to make dinner....
As for Li Xuan... he was already in the medical ward... Although his condition wasn't serious, he wouldn't be able to attend school for a while. His little girlfriend should be taking care of him now...
'Am I too weak?....' Kiana couldn't help but ask herself. If she hadn't been so weak, Li Xuan wouldn't have been injured trying to save her, and Himeko wouldn't have had to fight so desperately in a place with such high concentrations of Honkai energy...
"..." Kiana, her mind in a jumble, buried her face in her thighs. Her thoughts became fragmented... and then she sank into darkness...
...........................
"Kiana!" A voice suddenly came from down the hallway of the medical ward....
"Huh?!..." Kiana wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and scrambled to her feet, looking in the direction of the voice... Then her eyes widened... filled with disbelief...
"...Dad!!" Kiana cried out. "Why are you here?!" In her memory, her dad, who had been missing for four years, was now standing before her, holding [Judgment of Shamash] and frowning at her....
"....." Siegfried Kaslana stood there without a word, just watching Kiana silently. The [Judgment of Shamash] in his hands glowed like molten lava...
"Dad...." Kiana's lips quivered, and a mist veiled her sparkling eyes... like a wanderer seeing her parents again after a long time... A sense of grievance and nostalgia rose from the bottom of her heart... a feeling that couldn't be described with words enveloped Kiana's whole body.
"Where have you been for the past four years?!" Kiana lowered her head and said loudly, like a pouting child. "Disappearing without a word, and now showing up just like that!!"
"That's too much! Damn it! Stand right there and don't move!" Kiana clenched her fists and walked towards Siegfried, seemingly full of anger, while shouting, "I know all your embarrassing secrets! You've even touched the butts of many Valkyrie big sisters..."
"I'll teach you a good lesson! You jerk dad!" Kiana shouted, raising her small fists.
"Swoosh!..." The next moment... an orange-red laser beam shot out from the barrel of [Judgment of Shamash], piercing through her left shoulder as Kiana stared in a daze...
"Why... why?..." Kiana bent over. She could feel a warm stream flowing from her left shoulder, and her strength seemed to be draining away... Scarlet liquid dripped onto the floor like blooming roses... 'Maybe this is how Li Xuan felt before...' she thought, staring at the blood...
"Sorry, Kiana... you've also been corrupted by Honkai energy..." Siegfried walked up to Kiana, a tear rolling down his resolute face... He said softly, "Before you turn into a monster and destroy the world... I have to eliminate you..."
"Monster?" Kiana looked up in confusion, her now-golden eyes looking ahead... There was nothing there, only a void...
...............
"Aaaaargh!!" Kiana suddenly lifted her head, and the white-haired furball's forehead slammed hard into the chin of the person in front of her...
"Ah!... Ouch, ouch...." A somewhat scruffy-looking middle-aged man clutched his chin, looking like he was in agony.
"Kiana-san, what's wrong?..." Kiana's history teacher, 'Welt Yang', took a small step back to keep some distance from her. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"....." Kiana remained silent for a moment, then pushed Teacher Yang aside and ran off... Her figure quickly disappeared down the other end of the corridor...
"...Eh, what's wrong?" Welt Yang rubbed his stubbled chin and mumbled to himself, but he couldn't figure it out.
"Never mind..." Welt Yang put his hands into the pockets of his green 'Schicksal' uniform jacket and looked at the still-lit red light of the emergency room. In a voice only he could hear, he said softly, "Himeko... I'm here..."
...................
On the morning of the day after Li Xuan and the others returned to St. Freya High School from the Siberian forest...
"How many times have I told you... don't rush into everything yourself... You have to act within your capabilities, act within your capabilities..." Theresa said, nagging as she sat on a chair by the hospital bed, clumsily peeling an apple with her small hands.
"Ah... I open my eyes and you're here nagging. You're going to annoy me to death... old lady!" Himeko said, full of morning grumpiness.
"Ha?!... And I came to see you so early!" Theresa said angrily, stuffing the peeled apple into her own small mouth indignantly.
"Oh~~~" Himeko responded with a long, drawn-out sound, not taking it seriously at all.
"Never mind... I'm a bigger person, so I won't hold it against you..." Theresa said with a sigh. She swallowed the apple in her mouth and said in a low voice, "This time, your body has been corroded by Honkai energy again... You know what that means, right?"
"It just means my life's gotten shorter again..." Himeko said, pulling the white blanket over her head.
"...As long as you know..." Theresa said helplessly. "...If you want to restore your body, you need a 'Natural Stigmata'... only then can you restore your lifespan and even become stronger..."
"How can something like that be so easy to get..." Himeko said in a muffled voice. Natural Stigmata can't just be transplanted...
"I recently found some news about 'Natural Stigmata'..." Theresa said, dropping a bombshell.
"Hmm?!" Himeko instantly poked her somewhat messy head out from under the covers, her eyes fixed on Theresa.
"It's all thanks to you..." Theresa pulled out a worn-out scroll from her sleeve. "I found this among the relics you excavated from that Divine Land tomb last time..."
"It's about the first Valkyrie in history, and also the strongest... the legendary hero of the Divine Land—'Ji Xuanyuan', or perhaps—[Yellow Emperor]"
The unknown fate of the world has begun to turn... After taking a huge detour, it continues back to where it should be.
(End of this chapter)