Having received a name meant that Kiana had accepted her—a fact that should have brought joy. Yet, the words that followed made Jyahnar's heart stir.
"But..."
"Just take it as an order!"
Kiana didn't give her the chance to argue, her tone leaving no room for discussion. She had absolutely no interest in being called Master by a beautiful girl. If no one heard it, it only felt mildly awkward.
But if anyone did hear it...
She would die of embarrassment.
There were many ways a person could die—but social death in front of someone you knew, and for such a misunderstood reason? That was the worst.
She couldn't even imagine what kind of face Robin would make if this girl called her Master in front of her.
Even before her memories had fully returned, Kiana had felt a certain fondness for Robin. And after remembering everything, that fondness hadn't diminished in the slightest.
After what they had been through together on Kasbelina-VIII and during their journey, Kiana now truly regarded Robin as a friend.
At this very moment, Robin was waiting outside for her to return safely. And as for the one before her now—Jyahnar.
Kiana looked at her with a complicated expression. Jyahnar it was, then. She couldn't just take back the name she had already given.
And besides, she was Kiana of Finality now.
Having a planetary-class companion Honkai Beast named Jyahnar didn't sound all that strange.
No doubt, Jyahnar would want to follow her—and when that happened, she'd inevitably meet Robin soon enough.
After all, Robin had come here with her.
Kiana's simple phrase, "That's an order," immediately silenced Jyahnar's protests.
The command's priority was absolute.
Her master's command forbade her from calling Kiana, Master—and from treating herself as a servant.
But then what was she supposed to do?
The entire Honkai Beast felt uneasy.
Her master had just given her a name, clearly acknowledging her—yet now she was forbidden from serving as a subordinate.
"Mas—... You don't want me anymore?"
She tried to say Master, but Kiana's sharp gaze forced the word back down. Jyahnar's posture wilted, as though shrouded in shadow—rain seemed ready to fall upon her at any moment.
Good. She can be corrected.
Kiana exhaled a small sigh of relief. As long as she could break the habit, stop calling her Master, things would be fine.
As for not wanting her?
That wasn't something Kiana could decide even if she wanted to.
This was a Planet-class Honkai Beast—and one she had just named Jyahnar, right beside the realm of Nihility.
With a gentle smile, Kiana stepped forward and took her hands, looking earnestly into her eyes. "I don't need a servant. I want you to be my friend."
"...Friend...?"
Jyahnar lowered her gaze, staring at their joined hands. This human body felt... rather pleasant.
She didn't want a servant. She wanted a friend.
Friend.
Jyahnar understood the word. Not through observation of humans, but because she could perceive fragments of information carried by the Honkai itself.
It was a unique ability—hers alone.
When she had nothing to do but wait, longing for her master's return, she would use this ability to pass the time.
Thus, she wasn't completely ignorant of humanity.
"Yes, friend!"
Kiana nodded firmly, deliberately emphasizing the word friend.
She absolutely didn't want Robin thinking she had some strange fetish when they eventually met again.
"Friend?"
Jyahnar still found it hard to believe. Her master, upon meeting her for the first time, had reached out her hand—and asked to be friends.
It was... unbelievable.
Her emotions tangled within her, but beyond the confusion, she felt something else—an intense, pure happiness at hearing those words.
Kiana noticed the shift in her expression and smiled gently. "Looks like you've accepted it."
"I am yours—born because of you. Familiar, servant, friend... whatever you wish me to be."
Jyahnar's blue eyes sparkled, filled with a devotion so pure that it seemed as though her entire world revolved solely around Kiana.
Kiana had never seen a gaze like that before—one of such absolute, singular focus.
Meeting those clear, brilliant eyes, she froze for a few seconds, unable to react.
When she finally came back to her senses...
Her heartbeat faltered for a few beats.
The once-determined Kiana, who had so firmly declared "treat me as a friend," now found her resolve wavering. Her steadfast gaze crumbled, and she turned her eyes aside, flustered.
"Ahem... how long have you been here?"
She cleared her throat to cover the sudden rush of stray thoughts in her mind—and the way her heart was beating far too fast.
Damn it... paper-thin defense.
The girl hadn't done anything—she had merely looked at her with such wholehearted sincerity—and yet, that alone had undone her.
Pathetic.
She silently scolded herself.
"How long? Time? I don't know."
Jyahnar searched through her memories, her ethereal voice echoing faintly. "From the moment I became aware, this place has always been like this. I could feel traces of the Honkai you left behind... but I couldn't find you."
"After I left, huh?"
Kiana frowned slightly, then relaxed. That meant not much time had passed.
She had been teleported away from Izumo in a half-conscious state about a year ago.
Since Jyahnar had never seen her before, that meant the creature must have been born sometime within the past year—a short time, relatively speaking.
"I don't know how to measure time," Jyahnar continued thoughtfully. "It's always the same here—no day, no night. Human technology vanished long ago."
"I remember... that human. She came thirty-two times. I drove her away thirty-two times."
Unable to recall specific events, Jyahnar could only describe the one human she had ever encountered.
Kiana froze.
That human? Drove her away... thirty-two times?
Who would keep trying to enter Izumo again and again—enough to leave such a deep impression on Jyahnar?
Kiana's composure shattered.
"Are you sure? You've seen a human who tried to enter Izumo thirty-two times? What did she look like? Where is she now?"
That kind of persistence, that obsession with Izumo...
Thirty-two attempts within a single year—that said everything.
Before Jyahnar's birth, she might have tried even more times.
There was no doubt in Kiana's mind—it could only be Raiden Mei.
Only she would do something like that.
She's alive!
Kiana's heart surged with emotion—joy, relief, and the ache of guilt and longing.
Jyahnar didn't understand her excitement.
"I remember her—a small human, though quite strong. But I would never allow any human to defile your domain!"
Kiana blinked, then asked urgently, "Did you fight her?"
"A mere human. She couldn't even reach me."
Kiana exhaled in relief. "Good... I was overthinking it."
If they had actually fought, Izumo wouldn't have remained intact.
"This isn't my domain, you know."
Kiana smiled wryly. This was Mei's homeland—their world. What Jyahnar said earlier was completely backwards.
"It belongs to the human you mentioned. This is her homeland, her world."
Jyahnar looked puzzled. "But she bears traces of Honkai energy on her body. This place belongs to the Honkai—and you are the Honkai."
Kiana shook her head and chose not to argue further. "So where is that human now?"
That was what she truly wanted to know.
Now that she was sure Mei was still alive, the next step was finding her—to reunite at last.
"I'm not sure."
She only woke up whenever that human tried to enter this world—to make things more difficult for her.
After successfully driving her away, what that human did or where she went was none of Jyahnar's concern.
After all, she wasn't Kiana.
Her duty was to remain here, guarding this place and waiting for Kiana's return. Until Kiana came back, no ignorant being was to set foot in this world.
"Then do you remember when she came last?"
Jyahnar thought for a moment. "Two."
"Two?"
"If she had continued coming, it would've been thirty-four times by now. But she only came thirty-two times. Two of those intervals, she didn't show up."
Taking an average, Jyahnar arrived at the answer Kiana sought—there had indeed been a period when she hadn't seen that human again.
"Maybe she gave up."
"She stopped coming, huh..."
So Mei must have left Euphorion and gone to another world?
Kiana pressed her lips together and sighed softly.
Even as she told herself that having news at all was already good, she couldn't suppress the disappointment and regret of missing Mei once again.
"You wish to find her?"
"Yeah. I just..."
Kiana had been about to say she came here precisely for that purpose—but when she met Jyahnar's eyes, she swallowed the words and altered them mid-sentence. "I really want to find her. She's my most important friend."
Most important?
Someone closer to her than herself?
A faint pang of irritation rippled through Jyahnar's heart. Instead of liking this "important friend," she felt a strange sense of dissatisfaction.
Kiana was the Herrscher of Finality, and she herself was a Planet-class Honkai Beast—a companion born from that same power.
They should have been the closest of all.
"I'll keep an eye out for her," Jyahnar said quietly.
"Thank you."
Kiana smiled politely, assuming Jyahnar would naturally accompany her when she left, so she didn't take the words too seriously.
She had learned that Mei was still alive, met a powerful and loyal new ally, and seen what Izumo had become.
Her mission here was complete.
Looking up at the gray sky, she noted there was still no signal—disrupted by the power of Nihility and the Honkai. She couldn't contact Robin at all.
They had confirmed this on the ship before she left.
It was time to return.
"I'm heading back," she said, turning to Jyahnar. "Will you come with me?"
Jyahnar froze. "You're leaving?"
Kiana nodded and pointed skyward. "I came here with a friend. If it were just me, I might stay a while longer—but my friend's still up there waiting for me. I don't want her to worry too much."
"I want to be with you!"
Seeing that Kiana truly meant to leave, Jyahnar panicked. She had stayed here because the environment suited her—and because she had been waiting for Kiana.
Now that Kiana had finally come, she was going to leave?
Born for Kiana's sake, Jyahnar naturally wanted to stay by her side, to protect her—to ensure no insignificant being ever offended her again.
Kiana had expected this reaction. Smiling, she said, "Then get ready—we'll be leaving soon."
Get ready...
Kiana suddenly froze, realizing something she had overlooked. Swallowing slightly, she looked down at the ground beneath her feet.
"You can take human form, right?"
"Human form?"
Jyahnar lowered her head to look at her current form, then followed Kiana's gaze toward her true body.
"Yes, I mean taking human form," Kiana said quickly. Thinking about that enormous size of hers, she added, "You're... a little too big."
Since her birth, Jyahnar had never considered this problem. She liked her original form and had never thought about becoming human.
"I don't know how."
Kiana froze for a moment, her expression stiff. "Th-then... can you at least shrink down? Maybe to my size?"
"But I already shrank."
"Huh?" Kiana blinked in confusion.
Jyahnar replied earnestly, "The form you see outside—that's already my reduced size."
Kiana: "..."
Just how enormous was this Planet-class Honkai Beast supposed to be?!
If what she saw now—something the size of a continent—was after shrinking, then was her full body literally as big as a planet?!
She had forgotten this was Izumo, and how its environment had changed.
It was precisely because of the birth of this Planet-class Honkai Beast—and the fact that most of the Honkai energy assimilated with Nihility had been feeding into Jyahnar—that Kiana could still move freely on this planet without losing her sanity.
"Uh, maybe... you should just stay here for now?"
Kiana's expression twisted slightly as she awkwardly backpedaled. "I just remembered—I won't be staying out there for long. Once I finish what I need to do, I'll come back soon."
Jyahnar: "..."
She wasn't stupid. She could easily tell why Kiana was suddenly changing her mind.
Her mood sank instantly.
"You're the only one I can truly trust here," Kiana added quickly, trying to smooth things over. "And I just realized, someone has to stay home and guard the place."
The phrase trust and rely on only you made Jyahnar's emotions flip from gloom to joy. Whether Kiana meant it sincerely or not, it didn't matter.
"I will guard this place for you. I won't let anyone disturb this world!"
"Ahem, and you don't have to be so formal with me," Kiana said, wincing a little. "All that 'you' and 'your' stuff makes me feel old."
As she said that, another thought occurred to her, and she frowned slightly. "Jyahnar... how do you even know how to talk like that? Is this kind of thing encoded into Honkai DNA or something?"
Jyahnar was a Honkai Beast, right?
Not some mystical divine beast with inherited wisdom like in those old fantasy novels?
So if she had never met a human before, how could she speak so naturally? Understanding was one thing—but how did she know all this?
Something didn't add up.
"You... no," Jyahnar corrected herself slowly, frowning as her speech grew thoughtful. "I've never seen any living human before. But from some... interesting things, I've learned much about them."
"Interesting things?"
As Kiana asked that question, both she and Jyahnar returned from the mental realm—Kiana's consciousness slipping out of the dim spiritual space and back into the physical world.
When she looked around in confusion, the human-shaped Jyahnar—born from her imagination—appeared beside her once more.
But in reality, she was just a projected image.
A crystal of condensed Honkai energy floated before the projection, guided by Jyahnar's will, and drifted toward Kiana.
Though her lips didn't move, her voice still reached Kiana's ears. "These little things. They hold vast amounts of information."
Information inside Honkai Crystals?
Puzzled, Kiana accepted the violet crystal Jyahnar offered. She examined it closely, felt its energy, and then—her eyes went wide.
What she saw defied belief. Shock spread across her face.
"This... this is impossible..."
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