The line for the Ferris wheel, even the VIP one, was surprisingly long. Apparently, a lot of couples considered it the grand finale of their Homu Land experience.
As they waited for the next cabin to descend, a slow, gleaming lantern against the deepening twilight, Sirin found herself with a rare moment of silence. Not just external silence, but internal silence as well.
Wait a minute... she thought, a small frown creasing her brow. The idiot has been quiet for a while now.
Usually, Kiana was a constant, yapping presence in the back of her mind, offering unsolicited advice, cheering her on, or just screaming insults at her. But for the past hour or so? Nothing. Not a peep.
Sirin's brow furrowed deeper. Where had she gone?
A smug, logical conclusion quickly formed in her mind.
Hmph. She probably couldn't handle seeing me have such a good time with her body and her boyfriend. She must have run off to some dark corner of our mind to cry her eyes out. Makes sense.
A tiny, cruel smile touched her lips. Good. Maybe now I can finally have some peace and quiet.
She didn't dwell on it. There was no need to. Just as the thought crossed her mind, the doors to their private VIP cabin slid open with a soft hiss, revealing a plush, comfortable interior.
"Your chariot awaits, my Queen," Mo Wang said with a theatrical bow.
Sirin rolled her eyes, but a small blush still crept up her neck as he took her hand and led her inside. The topic of the missing idiot was immediately forgotten.
---||---
A few moments before, in a place far removed from the neon lights and cheerful music of Homu Land...
Kiana stretched.
After taking a much-needed break from screaming at Sirin for being a flustered, useless Herrscher, she found herself in a strange new state. She was lucid. More aware than she had ever been when Sirin was in control.
Most of the time, when Sirin took over, Kiana's consciousness was either completely suppressed or only experienced brief, chaotic flashes of awareness—usually right after Mo Wang had thoroughly "defeated" Sirin and knocked the Queen right out of her.
But this time was different. Sirin, so focused on her "date," had left the back door to their shared mind completely unguarded.
Kiana looked around. The mindscape was… weird. It wasn't a solid place, but a vast, dark void dotted with floating islands of light, each connected by faint, shimmering threads. It was like jumping between thoughts, between memories.
Curiosity overriding everything else, she took a leap.
She landed on an island that smelled of fresh rain and ozone. A memory played out before her: the first time she'd met Mei on the rooftop of Chiba Academy, the world around them crackling with lightning and a strange, newfound sense of belonging.
She jumped again.
This island felt warm and tasted faintly of strawberry pocky. She saw herself in Mo Wang's infirmary bed, her heart hammering in her chest as his face drew closer, the world narrowing down to just the two of them before their lips met for the first time. The memory was so vivid she could almost feel the phantom tingle on her lips.
She continued her journey, hopping from one associative memory to another—the smell of Himeko's cheap coffee an booze, the feeling of Bronya's Project Bunny armor slap, the sound of Theresa's indignant shrieks. It was a bizarre, non-linear tour of her own life.
Finally, she saw it in the distance. A central island, larger and brighter than all the others, with countless threads of memory leading towards it. She took a running leap and landed softly on its shore.
This place was different. It felt ancient, powerful, and deeply sad. In the center of the island, a massive, pulsating yellow gem floated, easily the size of a car. It was the source of the island's light.
But it was bound.
Thick, heavy chains, some pitch-black and others stark white, were wrapped around the gem, suppressing its brilliant light and anchoring it to the island. They pulsed with a familiar energy, an energy she recognized as Mo Wang's.
Kiana didn't know it, but she was standing in a place she should never have been able to reach. This was the heart of Sirin's domain, the seat of the Herrscher of the Void. In the original timeline, her journey here was a life-or-death struggle against a hostile, all-powerful entity.
But why could she be here now? Why did it feel… welcoming?
A strange understanding bloomed in her mind, a fusion of her own feelings and the echoes of Sirin's.
That the answer.
The Sirin Kiana shared body with wasn't the same one from the Second Eruption.
That Sirin had died in Cecilia's arms. When her core was transplanted into the clone K-423, two new egos were born from her lingering will.
One carried the original Sirin's desperate, hidden yearning for a normal life—that ego became Kiana. The other carried all her resentment, her hatred, and her memories—that ego became the Sirin Kiana knew.
They were two extensions of the same soul, a hero and a villain born from the same tragedy.
In any other world, they would be irreconcilable.
But in this world, there was Mo Wang.
He had sealed the core's connection to the Imaginary Space, cutting off Sirin's primary source of power. He had rendered her a queen without a kingdom, a god without divinity. She couldn't destroy the world. She couldn't even beat him in a fight.
All she could do was watch. Watch Kiana live the life she secretly craved. Watch Kiana fall in love.
She wanted to destroy it. She wanted to tear them apart. But a traitorous, deeply buried part of her… wanted it for herself. She secretly enjoyed it when Mo Wang "ravaged" her, mistaking her for Kiana.
In those moments, she felt desired, loved, even if she told herself it was an illusion, that he only loved the "good" half of her.
That deep, internal conflict, that desperate attempt to imitate Kiana on the date today… it had subconsciously lowered her mental barriers. Her feelings, her memories, her very essence had started to leak into Kiana's side of the mind.
And Kiana's had leaked right back.
That was why Kiana had been acting more like an "Empress" lately, more possessive and confident. It was Sirin's influence. And it was why Sirin had become more of an idiot pufferfish, easily flustered and driven by simple emotions. It was Kiana's influence.
If this continued, they would eventually dilute each other until they overlapped completely, becoming one single person.
But that was a thought for another time.
As Kiana stepped closer to the chained gem, she spotted a figure on the other side of it, almost hidden in the gem's pulsating glow.
It was a boy. He looked young, no older than twelve, with short, messy black hair. He was dressed in strange, old-fashioned heavy clothes.
His face… it was familiar. So, so familiar. It looked like…
Before she could place it, the boy's head snapped up. His eyes met hers for a fleeting second—eyes filled with a loneliness that mirrored her own—and then he turned and ran, disappearing behind the massive gem.
"Hey! Wait!" Kiana shouted, her voice echoing in the vast mindscape.
And Kiana, without a second thought, ran after him
---
Translator Note:
Sorry I didn't upload yesterday. I haven't had much time these past few days because I've had a lot of schedules: work, college, exams, and I'm really busy. Today's math calculus, please help me...
But I made time for this. Other fanfics have batch chapters, so I can still keep going, but I'm working on this one. Actually, this date arc was finished in the original RAW a few chapters ago, but I didn't like it, so I changed it.
Someone might have predicted it already: Childhood friend Mo Wang x Kiana!
If anyone asks about the harem, don't worry, it's still the same, only Kiana is the Empress in the harem! i watch too much chinese drama duh.