Honkai Impact: Starting from Wandering with Kiana

Penglai Temple's Jiuxiao tilted his head in confusion.

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Outside the door, Bronya patted her slightly flushed face.

Damn it, what was I thinking? Aren't Jiuxiao and Penglai Temple Jiuxiao siblings? It's normal for them to be close.

We can't have an orthopedic drama unfolding under these circumstances!

But let it happen. It's an apocalyptic celebration anyway, who cares?

Forget it, there's no point in thinking about it.

Bronya stopped thinking about it and turned to leave.

click-

The door to Jiuxiao's room opened, and Jiuxiao and Penglai Temple Jiuxiao walked out.

"So fast...?"

Bronya looked at Jiuxiao with a mixture of surprise and disdain.

"Bronya, you're overthinking it. We're not in that kind of relationship."

Jiuxiao helplessly shrugged.

As for Jiuxiao of Penglai Temple, she was still clueless and didn't understand anything. Her lack of memory also resulted in incomplete understanding of many things.

Chapter 255 The Significance of the Moth Chasing the Flame

Bronya looked at Penglai Temple with satisfaction: "Seele told me what happened today. She speaks very highly of you, saying you're willing to sacrifice yourself in a mission to protect someone important..."

"Ah... didn't Seele say it was a secret..." Penglai Temple Nine Heavens scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly.

"Seele got really excited talking about you, so she accidentally let it slip. But since you disobeyed, you still need to accept some punishment. Let me think, what kind of punishment should I give you? How about you two come with me on a secret mission?"

Bronya smiled slightly and left the base with Penglai Temple Jiuxiao and Jiuxiao who was watching the show from the side, saying that she was going to punish the two of them and then patrol at night.

One of humanity's greatest discoveries was the discovery of electricity and the subsequent use of it. The widespread use of electricity ushered in a new era for humankind.

The light of electric lights dispelled the deathly silence of the night, allowing people to move about even in the darkness. But now, disaster has destroyed everything, and people have returned to a primitive state.

Leaving the dim light of the underground station, Jiu Xiao, Bronya, and the other two walked in the darkness, relying only on the faint light provided by the almost invisible moon.

Bronya led the way, looking at the darkness ahead, and began to mutter to herself.

"For humans, the most vulnerable time is the night. When they can't see the light, their inner fears are exposed, and their hearts become extremely fragile."

That's why people long for the dawn, but now even dawn has become a luxury. The damage left by the Great Collapse five years ago—that deathly spot hanging in the sky has blocked out the sunlight—and afterwards, driven by the Honkai creatures, we could only hide in narrow underground tunnels.

Even so, we face many difficulties. The lack of supplies and the loss of personnel have turned survival into a life-or-death struggle. But hope remains, so we will not give up the fight.

Jiuxiao looked up at the "death mark," a cross of the end that was so similar to the pattern on the back of his hand...

So... was that death mark left by Kiana?

Jiuxiao reached out his hand towards the death mark, wanting to try to remove or absorb it.

It failed, it failed as expected.

This world is strange. Jiuxiao can leave his own mark or "death spot" here, but it is difficult for him to change some of the things that already exist in this world.

Hidden from everyone else, Penglai Temple's Jiuxiao gripped his twin daggers tightly, his hands trembling slightly.

Suddenly Bronya stopped, and the group came to a stop in front of a tall building.

"We've arrived. This is it. The Honkai creatures in the darkness don't stop resting either, so we need to hurry."

"What? Are they abandoning patrols?"

"I'm sorry, I deceived you. My real purpose wasn't patrolling, I just wanted to bring you here. Come with me, we can talk on the way."

Bronya waved and went into the building first.

Without electricity, the skyscrapers, devoid of light, resembled a gigantic monster devouring pedestrians in the darkness.

Jiuxiao and Penglai Temple Jiuxiao held hands and followed Bronya into the pitch-black building in the darkness.

"It's so dark here. There's still a sliver of starlight outside, but here you can't see anything at all..."

"Yes, be careful. Some buildings have collapsed and are piled up on the road. It's easy to slip and fall if you can't see them."

Bronya, with one hand supporting herself against the wall and the other holding the hand of Penglaiji Jiuxiao behind her, led the way with practiced ease.

Hmm... However, Bronya didn't realize in the darkness that the person she was holding, Penglaiji Jiuxiao, was actually being held in Jiuxiao's arms, and the two of them were floating in the air together.

"This is a place I stumbled upon. Whenever I feel lost, I come here to quietly contemplate our future. It's like a secret base."

But please don't tell Seele, or she'll definitely follow me relentlessly. This is our secret.

With Bronya's gentle introduction, the three of them slowly climbed to the top floor of the building.

The cold wind howled incessantly high above, causing the three people's shawls and coats to echo its howling.

Bronya spoke up again to warn Jiuxiao and Penglai Temple Jiuxiao, "Be careful, this place is much more dangerous than before! Be careful not to slip!"

"Yeah. But it's really dark here, I can't see anything."

Upon hearing Bronya's reminder, Penglaiji Jiuxiao tightened her grip on Jiuxiao's neck.

However, if it weren't so dark, Penglai Temple's Jiuxiao would definitely have noticed that Jiuxiao was rolling his eyes at him speechlessly.

"There's nothing we can do. The dust and smoke from the Great Collapse have obscured the sky, even the starlight, which is why it's so dark."

After Bronya finished explaining, she estimated the time and looked into the distance.

"It seems we've arrived at just the right time. You'll soon find out exactly what we're here to protect."

A moment after Bronya finished speaking, the light of dawn broke through the heavy obstacles of smoke and dust on the horizon and reached the crowd with all its might.

It tears apart the boundless, deathly darkness, allowing the dawn of hope to shine on every inch of the land.

The clouds dispersed, the fog lifted, and the moon shone brightly; dawn broke…

But what appeared before everyone was not a thriving morning, but a dilapidated ruin with collapsed high-rise buildings.

Bronya, completely absorbed in the fleeting scene of light, softly spoke to Jiuxiao and the other person:

"This is the state of our world now, a sight that can only be seen at the moment of sunrise, when the sunlight rises from the far horizon and shines through the cracks of death spots."

Although it only lasted a few minutes, this fleeting moment became my motivation to fight.

It makes me believe that the world is still alive, and that even if I am trapped in an endless abyss of darkness, I must strive to climb upwards toward the light.

Embraced by this tenacious planet, we, along with it, chase and witness fleeting miracles, even if it means burning ourselves out in its light.

"Is this the meaning of our fight? This kind of fight... is just too tragic..."

"Don't be so pessimistic... Our fight is not about dying. Blindly rushing into a flame like moths to a flame will only result in the needless sacrifice of one's life. What we are pursuing is hope. Because we understand the value of life, we cherish our families even more, and that's why we want to live."

Chasing the flame of hope, yet cherishing every moment we have now. This is who we are; this is the meaning of the existence of the "moth chasing the flame."

"But does hope really exist? This land is clearly already..." Penglai Temple Jiuxiao didn't finish her sentence. Just as Jiuxiao said, everyone knew the truth, but they were choosing to escape.

Bronya turned around and glanced at Penglai Temple Jiuxiao and Jiuxiao, then nodded firmly.

“It exists. I hope it always exists. The death spots that hang over the sky are not an inescapable curse, as long as the person who created it is killed.”

She stretched out her hand and pointed to the distant sky.

"That's right, that's our ultimate goal: to completely eliminate the culprit behind this cataclysmic event—Kiana."

Chapter 256 Because I am Judas's master

The dawn lasted only a short while before the sky darkened again.

Jiuxiao, along with Bronya and Penglai Temple Jiuxiao, leaped directly from the sky to send them back to the Firemoth base, and then ran out again.

It's impossible to ignore that death mark. According to people's memories, that death mark should have been caused by Kiana's Honkai energy, but after actually experiencing it, it's clearly not.

Because that was caused by the Nine Heavens of Penglai Temple...

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A streak of light streaked across the sky, and the exploding sonic boom cloud burst open, scattering the dust and leaving a long, short streak of sunlight in the sky.

Unlike the ruins elsewhere, the academy city of Changkong is shrouded in a thick, opaque fog. The closer one gets to Chiba Academy, the thicker the fog becomes.

But neither Senba Academy nor the dense fog was Jiuxiao's destination.

In a small house not far from Chiyu Academy, Jiuxiao quietly descended.

With a crisp snap of his fingers, all the Honkai creatures surrounding the house turned to dust and vanished.

click-

The door, which hadn't been used for years, creaked and groaned as Jiu Xiao pushed it open and entered the house.