Kiana and Fu Hua were quick to arrive at the entrance to the shrine. The building starting to go ablaze as the flames rose along the wooden walls. They pushed through he crowds of civilians that were fleeing the scene and headed straight for the danger.
As they ran towards the shrine entrance Kiana couldn't help but glance back at the fleeing civilians. A part of her, probably the Kaslana blood that boulder within her, felt the need to help these people. But the reminder that they were merely fragments of memory allowed the Kaslana to push forward. She realised that the thought was cruel in itself, but with Aunt Teri's life and Sakura's sanity on the line she couldn't afford to turn around for mere memory fragments.
Once they managed to make it through the crowd Kiana and Fu Hua spotted Kallen fitting a few zombies that had been pursuing the people just by the entrance to the temple. She was quick to turn towards the two valkyrie with a minor look of relief appearing on her face at seeing them, whether it was because she was relieved they were safe or because she was happy for back up neither of them knew. It was probably both.
"Kiana, Fu Hua, I'm glad you are well!!" Kallen expressed her relief as the crowds dispersed, her expression then shifted into a frown "Where have the two of you been?"
"We were out on the outskirts of the village when we saw the smoke and flames." Fu Hua said, "What's happening here?"
"It's Sakura…she's been exposed to the black box." Kallen explained as she cursed her own negligence, "I should have been more aware of my surroundings! The box, is slowly starting to influence her. How did I fail to consider that something like This could happen!"
"Stop it." Kiana said with a small frown on her face as she watched Kallen drown in self-guilt, "What happened to Sakura isn't your fault, and blaming yourself like this isn't going to help her. Whatever was in that box must have been preying on something within her."
"Can she still be saved?" Fu Hua asked.
"I'm not too sure, it depends with he strong the influence of the box is on her." Kallen said as she stood up straight and gained a determined expression on her face, her blue eyes shining against the moonlight, "She's still inside the shrine!! If we hurry we may be able to save her and prevent this disaster from getting any worse.
Kiana and Fu Hua nodded their heads in agreement and followed the elder Kaslana into the shrine. The flames surrounding the area continued to rage on as they entered the shrine grounds, and there in the centre was none other than Sakura, as she gazed into the sky, directly at the fool moon. Kiana could see the remorse, sorrow and guilt that were in her eyes as they were made crystal clear by the glow of the flames and the moon. She, along with Fu Hua and Kallen were also quick to notice the dark purple aura that surrounded the Miko priestess.
Kiana was sure that if her ability to sense Honkai energy worked within stigma spaces she would have been feeling waves of herrscher energy rolling off Sakura. However even as things were the oppressive aura coming from the pink haired woman was enough for the Kaslana to realise that they might just be too late.
"Why you…Rin?" She muttered, completely unaware to the group approaching from behind her, "Why did you have to be sacrificed for the village? Why did you have to be taken away from me?! What did you do to deserve this?!"
"Sakura!!" Kallen called out to the despaired miko priestess, "Plead don't listen to that thing!! It's lying to you, manipulating you, you have to wake up!! Plead don't listen to the voice from the box!!"
"I tried to save her from the wicked fate. But it wasn't enough." Sakura's cries contjued as though she hasn't heard Kallen calling out to her, "But they tied her hands and feet. They put her down on her knees right there…. right there. And all she did was smile at me and say, 'Sakura, kill me. Let me die to save this village .'"
'I want to die….as a human. And I want you to be the one who….kills me.'
The words spoken by Sakura reminded Kiana too much of the words that Kasumi had said to the Kaslana that night. It seemed that Sakura had been through something similar to despite the different circumstances that lead to them having to kill their respective sisters. Kiana found herself understanding the miko priestess a little bit more, and felt her heart go out to the Miko a little more. But the young Kaslana couldn't allow Kallen to continue to wallow in her grief forever.
"Sakura, it's not too late." Kiana wanted to say a lot more than this, but this wasn't the time to exchange sympathetic stories with the Miko, "If you want justice for what the village did to your sister, then that is your right. But this is not the way."
"It's already too late! Way too late!! Rin has been dead for four years now!" The Miko cried in rage, sorrow and anguish as tears streamed down her cheeks, "And the people who took her from me simply continue to move on with their lives while I suffer the loss of losing my beloved sister!! No more!!"
A dark shroud of energy then began to shroud the Miko in that moment. Kiana didn't need her sensory abilities to be able to tell that this was the moment that Sakura turned. She watched as two pink fox ears sprouted from the top of Sakura's hair, her eyes became slits and her nails became that much sharper. The situation had just turned real bad.
"…Sakura." Kallen trailed softly as she watched the transformation occur, Kiana could tell she had come to the same conclusion her. Sakura was now beyond saving, and there was nothing more the three of them do.
"Kallen, she's too far gone." Fu Hua spoke up, ever the voice of reason. Kiana agreed, but she knew there was still a way to save the Miko priestess.
If these events of the stigma space had been continuously repeating themselves for the past five hundred years, then that also meant this exact scene had to have repeated itself nearly thousands of times. All they had to do now was wait this cycle out to its nearing end, and survive the whole process. Which was going to be far from easy to do.
"I-" Kallen didn't get to finish her response as the virtual world around Kiana and Fu Hua suddenly came to a halt.
Almost as if someone had put pause on the entire movie. The flames had stopped dancing, the smoke had frozen mid air, and Sakura and Kallen were each frozen in their current positions. Something had happened within the stigma space in itself. The unasked question of both Valkyrie was answered when the black shroud that surrounded Sakura began to grow in size and form a black cloud above the pink haired Miko priestess. From the cloud two red eyes, or what Kiana assumed were eyes, suddenly appeared before the two valkyrie. Gazing down on them like a predator would its prey. Kiana was slightly unnerved if she was honest, but that didn't mean she was going to back down.
"So these are the warriors who dare step in the way of my freedom." The being announced itself, Kiana had already had her suspicions but that introduction had just more or less confirmed it.
…this was the herrscher within the stigma.
"So you're the herrscher roaming about this stigma space." Kiana said sounding a lot more confident than she actually was. From the corner of her eyes she saw Fu Hua's eyes widen slightly in surprise before narrowing and setting herself into a battle stance.
"Roaming about?!! Foolish child, this stigma is my domain!! It is you who trespasses!" The herrscher declared as its voice vibrated throughout the room, "And the punishment for trespassing is a slow and gruesome death."
"You'll find that we're harder to kill than you think." Fu Hua said.
"Hahaha!! You think I'll spare you a moment of my time?! No, the two of you will perish here while I settle within my new host. I will have my freedom and purge this world of the cancer known as humanity, I will have the vengeance that I have sought for fifty thousand years!! The same one that was denied to me five hundred years ago!!" The herrscher declared before glaring at the two valkyrie in front of it with eyes burning of pure hatred and bloodlust, "I will not be stopped by you or anyone else. You will be dealt with here, just like the child before you."
That caught the attention of the two valkyrie. The only other person who had entered this stigma space had been the principal. So that meant she had been actively involved in the previous data sector that Fu Hua and Kiana had initially arrived in. Whatever happened in the previous data space had obviously compromised the principal to the point where the herrscher before them assumed she was dead, but the fact that Bronya had been able to detect her presence within the data space meant that she was still very much alive, and Kiana wasn't going to rule out that possibility just yet.
"All that remains is for me to deal with Sakura and this body will be mine!!" The herrscher declared hysterically, "Five hundred years I've been trapped within this realm. Thousands of times I watched these events play out!! And yet once we get our first taste of freedom, she throws that all away and gives our power to that child!! Despicable!! But now I will be free from that which has bound me!!"
So that was how the stigma had ended up on the principals person, something must have happened on her recent mission that lead to Sakura passing her stigma to Theresa in order to help her. Regardless the mess they found themselves in now was getting larger and larger by the minute, this herrscher could not be allowed to leave the stigma realm and possess the principals' body
"You talk as if we would let you get away with all these atrocities." Fu Hua declared breaking the herrscher from its monologue, something Kiana was honestly happy for. While she was glad the herrschers loud mouth had given her a lot of information that she could use against it, she also understood that time was of the essence.
"We won't, we're going to rescue Sakura from the five hundred years of torment that you've had her endure. And you're not going to escape this place. We'll stop you!!" Kiana declared as the grip on her blade tightened.
"Hehehe, you're more than welcome to try descendent of Kallen, but your attempts will end in failure. Sakura is already mine to break." The herrscher declared as the black cloud around the miko priestess began to recede back into the body of the miko, before departing the herrscher spoke its final words, "But if you insist, then you're more than welcome to die trying."
Upon the herrscher completely receding the digital world around them resumed once more as if nothing had changed.
"-know." Kallen said finishing her response to Fu Hua's earlier statement, "We may have no choice but to seal her now. Forgive me Sakura." The elder Kaslana said as Kiana and Fu Hua watched with wide eyes as she summoned the Oath of Judah, the golden cross emitting distinct glow as it stood tall behind its wielder.
It made sense to Kiana that the divine key would be present within the stigma realm. Kallen had used the weapon to seal Sakura five hundred years ago, it made sense that data on the weapon would have been recorded within the stigma space. It worked well for them especially since Kallen was on their side.
"Fu Hua." Kiana whispered as she leaned in towards the class monitor, the blue haired valkyrie turned towards the Kaslana, "Let's follow the plot for now, I have an idea that I want to test out." Kiana explained as she got herself ready for a fight, The class monitor simply nodded her head trusting Kiana's judgment on the matter before entering her own stance once more.
"Freedom at last!!" Sakura declared though the voice that came through her mouth was not her own, but rather that of the herrscher that had corrupted her mind. The corrupted Sakura turned its gaze to the three individuals that stood in front of her, her eyes narrowed on Kallen specifically "Fifty thousand years I have been locked within that box! Fifty thousand years my anger and hatred has been allowed to grow and fester. All I could think about in that time was having my revenge and the destruction of mankind by my hand."
"You will not get that revenge you fiend. Depart from Sakura's body, she has nothing to do with this!!" Kallen declared as se summoned one of the golden spears of Judah into her right arm and pointed it at the possessed Sakura.
"Leave her? Sakura does not want me gone Kallen! She has gladly accepted my power in order to get revenge on the people that wronged her, something that we share in common. You cannot save her, she does not want to be saved!!" The herrscher said as it slowly drew on the sword that was strapped to Sakura's waist. "I will lay waste to those of this village all those that reside in it, and then I will move on to the rest of the world!! Mankind is nothing but a cancerous species that must be wiped of the face of the earth!! It is filled with people that will only take advantage of those below them, and those that would harm even the innocent!! You may have gotten in the way of my revenge before Kallen, but now you are too late!! This girl will serve as the vessel of my vengeance, and the first to die by my hand will be you!!" The herrscher said as it suddenly dashed forward in a blur of speed that surprised the valkyrie, but Kiana quick to react and moved forward to intercept the attack.
"Not so fast!!" Kiana said as her blade met that of the corrupted miko, the great sword clashing with the katana causing sparks to fly around them. Kiana was surprised not only by the durability of the katana against her larger sword but by the immense strength possessed by Sakura now. Though it really shouldn't have been surprised seeing she was now a herrscher, even if a pseudo-herrscher she was still far stronger than the Kaslana.
And that statement was proved true when the momentary stalement between the two ended when the herrscher pushed Kiana back a few meters by applying more strength to the blade in hand. The young Kaslana managed to stop herself before she reached the wall of flames that were near the edge of the shrine.
"Kiana are you okay?" Fu Hua asked as she approached the Kaslana's side, with Kallen not too far behind her. Both of them however did not take their eyes of the herrscher in front of them in case she tried for a surprise attack.
"I'm fine, but she a lot stronger now than whatever she showed us in the woods. Be prepared for anything." Kiana warned, she knew that Fu Hua would already be aware of this, the warning was more for Kallen than the class monitor.
"What did you expect child?!!" The herrscher questioned as though offended by Kiana's statement which it most likely was. "I am an envoy of the honkai, a god amongst men. My power is nothing the three of you can possibly hope to match. The three of you shall meet you deaths here today." The herrscher said as it slowly began to walk towards the three valkyrie.
"Our best chance of suppressing and sealing the herrscher is to work together. I know that this is asking a lot of the two of you, but can I count on the two of you for your assistance?" Kallen asked with a small smile.
"Of course, you should even need to ask at this point." Fu Hua stated as she tightened the black bandages around her hands.
"Heh, as if we would have refused anyway. Sakura helped us out when we were looking for our mentor, despite her own troubles and responsibilities. This is the least that we can do for her in her hour of need." Kiana said as she held her blade with both hands.
"Thank you." Kallen said, to which both valkyrie nodded their heads, "I can seal the herrscher with the Oath of Judah, but I need an opening in order for me to do so." Kallen went on to explain, to which both valkyrie nodded their heads in understanding.
"We'll do what we can to give you that opening." Fu Hua said.
"And I'll support from the back until I see it." Kallen said with a nod of her own. All three of them knew that the upcoming battle would be anything but easy, but they had to stop Sakura here and now.
"Are you done?" The corrupted miko asked mockingly, it had been standing silently as the three valkyrie in front of it planned to seal it once more, if they thought they could seal her into that box once again then they had another thing coming." I was getting rather bored."
"Your arrogance will be your downfall." Hua said as she closed the gap between herself and the herrscher within seconds. She thrust her right arm forward, as a blue aura surrounded her hand, aiming a palm strike at the herrschers chest.
The herrscher was quick to counter the strike by raising its sword to meet the martial artists' hand. There was a shockwave from the collision that blew Hua back, back but the herrscher managed to hold its ground and barely seemed fazed by the attack. The corrupted miko then took advantage of the opening presented and covered its katana with the same dark aura that covered its body, before swinging the blade releasing a wave of black flames directly towards the class monitor.
Fu Hua saw the incoming attack and was able to avoid it by leaping out of the way just in time. She watched as the flames continued to move past her, taking all forms of life in their path and even that which was beyond the reach of the flames themselves. It was a truly disturbing thing to see. She wondered what would have become of her had she not evaded the attack, but swiftly shook her head to get the idea out of her head. Not only did she not wan to find out, but she couldn't afford to lose focus here, otherwise she would perish within this stigma realm.
The herrscher had been about to pursue to blue haired valkyrie once more only to stop in its tracks when several golden chains erupted from the ground around it. They converged on her, forcing the herrscher to leap out of the way. She what those chains were capable off, she had seen them used all those years ago, and when Kallen had stopped her before, she wouldn't be caught this time.
"Don't forget about me!!" The voice of none other than Kiana shouted from behind the herrscher. It looked back in mild surprise as it watched the Kaslana approach with her sword raised high.
'When did she get behind me?' The herrscher wondered as she hadn't even sensed the Kaslana's approach. The corrupted miko clicked her tongue as she twisted her position, and side stepped the Kaslana's attack as she brought her blade down. The impact causing a dust cloud to form, the herrscher immediately incased its left hand with the same black flames from before and made to grab Kiana's face and turn it to ash. Kiana was quick to lean to the side as the inflamed hand passed right above her face, feeling the heat and the stench of death as it did.
Kiana was quick to get on her feet after the miko priestess went past her. Sakura attempted to attack the Kaslana once more only to be forced to evade to the left when Fu Hua came from behind her, her fist missing the miko's head by mere inches. Sakura retaliated by spinning to the left on her left leg with her blade stretched out to cut into the class monitor, only for the attempt to fail when Kiana suddenly appeared in front of Fu Hua with her blade held horizontally in front of the both of them, effectively blocking the strike, though not without pushing the Kaslana back a bit.
The two valkyrie pressed the advantage and attacked the herrscher together, with Kallen offering assistance in the form of the chains of Judah erupting from the ground whenever the situation seemed to get dire. Though a pseudo-herrscher, Sakura was proving to be a lot stronger than Kiana had assumed she would be. The corrupted miko was easily on par with the artificial herrscher that AE had sent after Mei in the battle of Schicksal, though noticeably stronger too. If this was the strength of a pseudo-herrscher and Empress represented the might of a partially awakened herrscher, Kiana didn't want to find out what a fully awakened herrscher was capable off. It seemed she still had a lot of room for growth if she wanted to defend this world and all that is important to her, and unfortunately she didn't have time on her side.
The exchange between the three valkyrie and the herrscher continued for a while, with them not making any headway. The herrscher was proving too strong to overwhelm, even with their superior numbers, the only good news was that it couldn't overwhelm them either for the same reasons. The three of them had covered each other well in this battle. Kiana found herself pushed back to Kalen's side after blocking a strike from the herrscher.
"This isn't working." Kallen suddenly said to Kiana as Judah vanished from behind her, as a golden spear appeared in the elder Kaslana's left hand. "We need to suppress Sakura if we're going to have any shot of sealing her."
Kiana wanted to argue, she really did, Kallen was key to this whole thing with the stigma realm. If they were going to rescue the real Sakura then even the digital Kallen would be the lynch pin to reaching the miko's heart. But if she was compromised here there was no telling what would happen, still there was one last gamble that Kiana could take.
The flaming scene of the shrine they stood on right now seemed all too familiar to the last Kaslana. It was the same scene they had arrives on in the previous data space. Perhaps if she were to let this data space play out to the end, then maybe they could have Bronya send them to the next one once more like she had done before. His time they would reach Sakura before she was corrupted by the herrscher, and maybe, just maybe save her from herself.
After that they would deal with the herrscher itself.
"Alright then." Kiana said after a few seconds of processing the new plan. The two Kaslana's attention was then brought towards the loud sound of something crashing into one of the nearby pillars, upon closer inspection they saw that it was none other than Fu Hua who had been launched by a devastating kick from the corrupted Sakura. "Fu Hua!!"
"Go!!" Kallen shouted assuringly as she ran to engage Sakura, while Kiana simply nodded and made a beeline for Fu Hua who had fallen to the ground and was slowly sitting up right.
"Hey, are you okay?" Kiana asked as she kneeled down in front of the class monitor who seemed to have a few cuts and bruises from the impact of the attack. She had some blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, and that only served to worry Kiana even more seeing as they were in a digital world.
"Yes, I'm fine. Hard to believe this is a digital space, this pain feels very real to me." Fu Hua said with morbid laughter as Kiana couldn't help but laugh along. The fact that the class monitor herself was cracking jokes, something she rarely if ever did, showed that she wasn't that badly injured. If she had been Kiana would have been forced to have Bronya extract her from the data space. "Have you managed to test out that theory of yours?
The two valkyrie turned to watch the Battle between Kallen and the corrupted Sakura taking place not too far in front of them, and both of them could see now why the elder Kaslana had been declared Schicksals first ever S-rank valkyrie. She was handling the herrscher far better than Kiana and Fu Hua had been before.
"Yeah, there's nothing left for us in this data space." Kiana said as she saw Fu Hua gaze at her from the corner of her eyes, "Our best chance of saving the principal is to defeat the herrscher controlling the entirety of the stigma, our best bet at finding the herrscher is by causing a disturbance in the data space that we occupy"
"And how do we do that?" Fu Hua asked the Kaslana.
"Sakura." Kiana simply said as the class monitor turned to the corrupted miko who was still engaged with Schicksals first S-rank valkyrie. "She's the key to all of this. Both she and the herrscher have been trapped in the stigma for five hundred years, with her being forced to relive these events due to the herrscher controlling the stigma space. If we can keep Sakura from being influenced by the herrscher, we can draw out the herrscher."
"Facing the herrscher will not be easy, we're already struggling with Sakura yet she's a pseudo-herrscher." Fu Hua said with a small frown as the odds didn't look to be in their favor. At this Kiana only grinned which served to confuse the class monitor even more than she already was.
"It's fine, well cross that bridge when we get there." Kiana said reassuringly, she had a plan, a very risky plan, but a plan nonetheless.
"Damn you Sakura!!" The Kaslana and class monitor turned back to the battle scene to see the corrupted Sakura bound by various golden chains, with Kallen standing in front of the defeated possessed Miko.
"I'm sorry…Sakura." Kallen barely whispered as the chains of Judah began to glow much brighter. Blinding the two valkyrie that had been watching. Kiana could only assume this was the sealing process that had happened so many years ago.
However, before the sealing was completed the world around Kiana and Fu Hua suddenly flashed white. They felt rapid winds blowing up against them in this white void, throwing them up and down the place without a means to ground themselves. It lasted only a minute before it all came to a sudden stop.
"Geez, what the hell." Kiana groaned as she tried to gather her bearings. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see that they were at the riverbank they had first arrived in when they first entered the stigma space. "Looks like we got thrown into the next stigma space by force." Not that she was complaining, this actually worked for her.
"That means that the previous data space collapsed." Fu Hua stated to which Kiana nodded her head in agreement. "So you were right, this stigma has been turned into an infinite loop. One that we'll find ourselves trapped in unless we deal with the herrscher."
"We need to draw it out first, and to do that we need to get through to Sakura first." Kiana said as she dusted herself once she had stood up.
"How would we go about doing that, it won't be easy to change a mentality that has been built over the course of five hundred years, possibly longer given the time dilation effect of the stigma space?" Fu Hua asked, honestly if Sakura ever escaped the stigma space she would end up needing a lot of therapy.
"We won't be able to get through to her, but maybe Kallen can." Kiana said with a confident smirk.
"But the Kallen in this realm is just as recreation based of Sakura's memory, and she knows this as well." Fu Hua argued.
"You're right, but if there's one person who can get Sakura to open up its her. The two of them fell in love five hundred years ago." Kiana said firmly, they had few options, and Sakura was more likely to open up to a simulated version of her past lover than two strangers.
"So we get Kallen to get through to Sakura before the herrscher manages to corrupt her again." Fu Hua stated to which Kiana nodded her head.
"That's the plan. Sakura has more or less stopped resisting the influence of the stigma, and by extension the herrscher. She has simply resigned herself to whatever happens." Kiana explained with a frown, she couldn't imagine going through what Sakura had endured over the past five hundred years, and she was sure Aunt.K was blaming herself too. "If we get her to fight back the herrscher will no doubt make an appearance."
It was all they had to go on for the time being. Facing the herrscher was going to be a different challenge altogether, but Kiana knew they'd pull it off. They had to, not only for Aunt Teri's sake but for Sakura's as well.
Kiana intended to right the wrong that had been done five hundred years ago. If it was possible she wanted to reunite her mentor with her lover. She knew Aunt.K would never ask that of her, which was why she had resolved to do it herself. The two of them were so close with one being unaware, and the other being unable to act.
So yes, aside from rescuing the principal, Kiana would find a way to bring the Holy Maid and the Miko Priestess together once more.
Authors Note:
As I've said before my combat literature is not the best, but I've tried with this chapter. That being said it could have been a whole lot better than this.
If anyone can help me improve in that regard I would be very happy to recieve said help.
Feel free to comment and like, constructive criticism is always welcome too!!
