Thanks for the invitation! I am in Honkai, still connected

In Raiden Mei's bedroom, the young and pretty girl was hugging a pillow, asleep.

She hadn't managed to ask the questions she wanted to, having pondered them for a long time. Feeling a bit tired, she had then drifted off to sleep.

Not long after she had fallen asleep, she woke up.

"Boom—Rumble—Boom—!!!"

Like a demolition site setting off explosives, a violent roar resounded throughout the entire area.

The thunderous crashes, like a great church bell, repeatedly echoed throughout the entire apartment complex.

Raiden Mei's eyes snapped open, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

The tremendous noise caused by the Subspace Lances bombarding the ground originated right in front of her apartment.

To be sleeping near an area being bombarded by Subspace Lances, honestly, that was beyond the capabilities of a normal human being.

Raiden Mei was a normal person, at least before a certain tsundere Herrscher personality emerged.

She clearly couldn't just bury her head under the covers and continue to sleep soundly, knowing her home was being bombed.

The girl, wearing only her pajamas, scrambled out of bed, hastily pushed open her bedroom door, and ran towards the balcony.

Then, she saw a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.

The apartment Miss Mei rented for convenient school access was very high-class; therefore, the surrounding roads and greenery were quite beautiful.

But—

The scene before her was not quite the same as she remembered.

The beautifully decorated balcony railing was gone. The green area in front was reduced to a few scattered, mangled remains. The walking path paved with cobblestones had been replaced by a caved-in sinkhole, seemingly caused by the groundwater being drained.

A faint smell of blood permeated the air, making the surroundings feel even more desolate and terrifying.

What happened?

She茫然地looked around and saw the young man, whose eyes seemed much redder than usual, wiping the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief. The white handkerchief was stained with a vivid red.

And beside him, the girl with clear bite marks on her neck lay unconscious, lost to the world.

"Sorry, did I disturb your sleep?"

The handsome young man tossed the handkerchief into his shadow, then offered her an apologetic smile, elegant and well-mannered.

Abnormally pale skin, red eyes, prominent canines, nocturnal activity, blood-sucking...

A series of seemingly unrelated words converged, pointing to a race that existed only in legend.

The Blood Kin, or rather, vampires.

Is this... a vampire feeding?

A layer of goosebumps rose on Miss Mei's skin.

The scene before her perfectly matched the depictions of vampires feeding in movies and literature.

And she, since childhood, had been afraid of ghosts, ghouls, and similar things.

"Zihan, what on earth is going on?"

After a long while, Miss Mei finally caught her breath and asked the young man who had given her quite a scare.

After receiving some basic education on Honkai-ology, she could roughly understand that all supernatural events in this world were, in essence, Honkai energy incidents.

Li Zihan's current appearance was probably also the result of Honkai energy modification.

Just like how her hair color had turned purplish-black after her Stigmata awakened.

"The Second Herrscher, Sirin, hidden within Kiana's body, woke up. To make her fall dormant again, I used Judah to restrict Sirin's power."

"Then, through bodily fluid exchange, specifically blood-sucking, I extracted the Honkai energy from her body."

The young man, having drunk a considerable amount of blood, yawned. Just as people feel sleepy after a full meal, vampires apparently also feel drowsy after feeding.

"Due to insufficient Honkai energy activity and density in her body, the Second Herrscher Sirin has temporarily lost control of the body."

The Second Herrscher Sirin was lurking within Kiana's body?!

Miss Mei, suddenly and thoroughly shocked, widened her eyes, a storm raging in her heart.

A Herrscher, that was an enemy of civilization!

Why would such a dangerous thing be hidden within Kiana?

Moreover, it sounded like that Herrscher had just reawakened, only to be sealed away again by Li Zihan using a method that looked slightly terrifying.

"What on earth is going on?"

Miss Mei's tone became strained.

She truly couldn't imagine that the cheerful girl who had pulled her out of darkness could actually be a Herrscher.

And... if Kiana's body harbored a Herrscher hostile to humanity...

She would definitely be killed.

Raiden Mei's heart couldn't help but fill with panic.

She looked towards Li Zihan.

Before this, he had collaborated with the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy to kill the entity known as the "Herrscher of Erosion"...

The tachi at his waist was that Herrscher's last mark upon this world.

She seemed to understand why Li Zihan had been constantly hovering around Kiana.

Li Zihan called himself a hero, and Kiana's body harbored a monster that could destroy human civilization.

It was the duty of a hero to hunt monsters.

Perhaps, he, calling himself a hero, had come to Nagazora City precisely to hunt down the Herrscher of Erosion and Kiana.

Her face turned pale as she pieced these thoughts together.

The only two friends in her life were in a hunter-and-prey relationship.

This truth was difficult for her to accept.

"Zihan, will you... kill Kiana?"

Raiden Mei's voice grew increasingly bitter.

Why would I kill the Paramecium?

Li Zihan looked at the girl, who was clearly lost in some troubling thoughts, feeling slightly bewildered.

What would I gain from killing her?

Besides, do I really seem that unreasonable?

"If I didn't know Kiana, and only knew she was the Second Herrscher, I probably would have killed her directly," Li Zihan shrugged and said.

He didn't have a habit of executing beautiful girls he was on good terms with.

These words, in a sense quite cruel, reached Miss Mei's ears, yet allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief.

It sounded like Kiana wouldn't die.

"My relationship with Kiana is pretty good. As a typical double-standard dog, I'll naturally turn a blind eye to this, and I won't even tell her about her Herrscher side."

The young man, who felt that the Paramecium was more fun when she was silly and clueless, shrugged and continued, "As you can see, I myself possess the ability to grant or extract Honkai energy from others through bodily fluid exchange. As long as Sirin is suppressed, Kiana won't pose any threat to human civilization."

Is that so?

Miss Mei's heart finally settled down completely.

Suppressing the Herrscher personality by extracting bodily fluids containing Honkai energy?

Then, her brow furrowed.

The bodily fluids mentioned here, does it mean physiological bodily fluids, or just bodily fluids in the literal sense?

She recalled the scene where Li Zihan had suddenly kissed Kiana, and seemed to understand something.

If the "bodily fluids" he mentioned were the latter, and if the Second Herrscher had been on the verge of awakening at that time, then such an action seemed understandable.

After all, suddenly biting Kiana's neck to extract her Honkai energy would definitely arouse her suspicion.

And Li Zihan didn't really want Kiana to find out she was harboring a Herrscher.

So, did he have to resort to a different method?

Miss Mei seemed to have understood something.

She looked at the young man who still possessed the Plasma Kagehide, who could be considered her semi-fiancé, her expression slightly heavy.

"Zihan, in the future, when you want to extract someone's Honkai energy, can you try to use kissing less as a method?"