Love Train, this ability originated from Funny Valentine after he gathered the Saint's Corpse. Takatsuki felt that, just like Requiem, the evolution of this stemmed from personal needs. Funny Valentine wanted his country to be strong, to forever expel all bad things and only leave the good.
So his power was to transfer misfortune and attacks to other places in the world, because he didn't care about anything else besides his own country.
However, Takatsuki was not such a person, and after being transformed by Heaven's Stairway, Love Train also became a power suitable for Takatsuki, and it was the power he needed: the power to connect with others.
Although the description was simple, the more unadorned the description, the more terrifying the power it contained.
Taking out the Shadowkhan Mask, Takatsuki was still in his Lord character card. The Lord absorbed the Shadowkhan power from the mask to create the Shadowkhan.
But this had both pros and cons.
The advantage was that the negative emotions of the Shadowkhan Mask could not affect Takatsuki, the user, while the disadvantage was that the number of Shadowkhan summoned in this way had a limit, exactly one hundred.
The principle of the Shadowkhan Mask was to summon soldiers from one's own shadow using the darkness in one's heart. The greater the darkness, the more could be summoned. Therefore, as long as one had boundless darkness in their heart, theoretically, the summoned soldiers could even drown the entire world.
However, the forcibly absorbed Shadowkhan power lost the ability to connect to the darkness. It could only summon soldiers from shadows based on its unique properties. However, this shadow was not just one's own shadow, but any shadow could be used. But the number was limited to one hundred. It seemed that without the support of darkness, this was the limit.
And now, Takatsuki was going to use this power in a new way.
He threw the Shadowkhan Mask backward, and Heaven's Stairway reached out to catch it, placing its hand on the mask.
Takatsuki immediately felt a bond form between him and the mask. He could freely take power from the mask and also infuse his own power into it.
He didn't know if this applied to all people and objects, or if it was only because he was dealing with an inanimate object.
Takatsuki felt two forces within the mask: one was cold and evil, and the other was pure darkness.
Without needing to distinguish, Takatsuki knew what he needed. When the Shadowkhan Mask was worn, the evil power would continuously trigger the host's darkness, but the Shadowkhan was not purely the power of darkness.
Heaven's Stairway reached out and extracted the pure darkness from the Shadowkhan Mask. Immediately, many cracks appeared on the Shadowkhan Mask.
Now, the Shadowkhan Mask had lost the ability to summon the Shadowkhan, retaining only the ability to awaken the host's darkness.
Casually putting it back, Takatsuki watched Heaven's Stairway toy with the black orb in its hand.
Although it was energy extracted by Heaven's Stairway, it seemed unable to use it itself, and ultimately, it merged into Takatsuki's body.
"It's indeed enough for one hundred people…"
Feeling the energy within him, Takatsuki silently summoned all of the Shadowkhan in a place unseen outside the window, using the shadows of the night. Exactly one hundred.
The Shadowkhan would not die, but they could be dispersed. After being dispersed, they would turn back into shadows and needed to be re-summoned near the controller.
One hundred was enough. At least Takatsuki didn't expect them to fight Honkai Beast.
Waving his hand to dismiss the Shadowkhan, Takatsuki looked at the night outside the window and pondered. This power of Love Train was not actually meant for the Shadowkhan Mask; it was just unlucky. This power was prepared for Mei and Kiana. Mei was fine, but if Kiana underwent Herrscher transformation due to a large amount of Honkai Energy, and the Herrscher of the Void awakened, he could use the power of Love Train to transfer the Honkai Energy or even the Herrscher of the Void's authority to her.
"Knock, knock."
As the knocking sounded, Kiana's voice rang out from outside: "Takatsuki, we're done washing, you can go."
Along with Kiana's voice, there was also Theresa's crisp roar of anger, as if she was telling Kiana to wear more clothes?
"Okay, I'll be there in a moment."
After the others had finished their bath, Takatsuki finally entered his own bathroom to wash.
Before soaking in a hot spring, one needs to wash first. After all, soaking in a hot spring is not for washing away dirt in the spring itself, so to prevent polluting the spring, one needs to wash beforehand to remove dirt from the body and prevent polluting the hot spring.
After quickly washing his entire body in five minutes and walking out of the room in a bathrobe, Takatsuki saw Kiana and Bronya sitting in front of the TV in the living room playing games, Mei sitting on the sofa behind reading a book, and Himeko, unmoving, drinking beer.
"Wah-ah-ah! What are you looking at! Go soak in the hot spring already!"
Before Takatsuki could look for another moment, Theresa, dressed in a Houmu pajama, jumped in front of him, raising her hands and hopping, seemingly trying to block his view, looking very cute.
"What's the big deal? I've seen this scene for days now."
The several people who had finished soaking in the hot spring weren't wearing much clothing, just simple nightgowns. In contrast, Theresa, the oldest here, was dressed the most heavily and childishly.
"That's still not allowed!"
Himeko, sitting by the dining table, said with a laugh while drinking: "Alright, Theresa, little brother Takatsuki has been living with us for days now, don't worry."
"Shut up! You bombshell! You're the one dressed the most immodestly here!"
Upon hearing Himeko's words, Theresa immediately abandoned Takatsuki and ran directly towards Himeko.
Takatsuki also took the opportunity to slip away.
Submerging his body into the hot spring, Takatsuki let out a long sigh. Sitting in front of the computer for long hours typing had brought him considerable fatigue, and soaking in a hot spring could provide excellent relaxation.
He scooped up a handful of water, looking at it, and it seemed no different from ordinary water.
But Takatsuki knew that this hot spring was created using power and had miraculous effects.
He did not know its principle, but he was very much looking forward to the strange power. After obtaining two character cards with power, Takatsuki also tried switching to feel it. The power that could be skillfully perceived and used in the character card state was completely imperceptible after removing the character card.
He had felt a hint of a shared origin when practicing Hamon, but he didn't know why he still hadn't awakened his own power by now.
Slowly, his body from the neck down was completely submerged in the hot spring. Unbeknownst to him, the noisy sounds in the villa had stopped, and it was very late. They had probably gone back to their rooms to rest.
No windows of any room overlooked the hot spring area. The only glass sliding door connecting to the living room had been urgently fitted with a curtain by Theresa because of the hot spring.
It was clear that Theresa was very wary of him, but this also made Takatsuki feel more at ease. After all, he was a hot-blooded, adolescent male, and seeing such tempting scenes every day would also make him feel stifled.
As for the hot spring, even if the others allowed Takatsuki to mix-bathe with them, he felt he would refuse…
"Takatsuki…"
Just as Takatsuki was closing his eyes, a faint voice reached his ears.