"Mmm…" Kiana tossed and turned in her bed.

"Kiana… Kiana! NOOOOO!"

She furrowed her brow, feeling a petrifying sense of dread overcoming her sleeping form. An image.

A shadowy figure with piercing yellow eyes hovering over the ruined forest. Honkai beasts en masse began to pour out of various tears in reality and a blinding tower of violet light pierced the sky.

Multiple women dressed in Valkyrie uniforms rushed out of the woods, wielding weapons and cut the beasts down. However, as soon as they neared the shadow, they were instantly cut down by white lances that fired from the portals.

In the distance, the beasts encroached upon the village and the screams of the citizens and wails of people as they witnessed their families being ripped apart by the eldritch monsters.

And she stood in the middle of it all. She was surrounded by the bloodied corpses of Valkyries and Honkai Beasts alike. Lances littered the field around her as the figure hovered in mid-air, summoning more and more as if she had an endless supply of minions.

"Ceci…" she mumbled.

"Kiana! Run! Now! Run and don't look back!"

"Dad…" she whispered.

And then the image finally shifted. A blinding explosion of orange light overwhelmed her mind. She let out a loud gasp and shot up. Her eyes were wide in terror and sweat poured down her forehead in droves. She panted heavily, trying to drown out the feeling.

"W- Wha…" she tried to remember the scene. However, each time she tried, a piercing pain shot through her head that almost made her want to pass out.

"Mmm… Sis?"

Cecilia peeked her head out from the top bunk, blinking sleepily. "Did… Did you have another bad dream?"

Kiana mechanically turned her head. She let out a silent gasp and backpedaled into the wall.

Cecilia's eyes widened slightly in surprise and concern. She quickly hopped off the top bunk and crawled into bed with Kiana.

"Sis…?" Cecilia reached out to touch her older sister's shoulder.

Kiana's breath hitched and she reflexively slapped Cecilia's hand away, breathing heavily.

Cecilia flinched and withdrew her hand, staring at her older sister with sheer worry in her eyes. "Kiana? Kiana, you're starting to scare me. Kiana? Kiana!"

After seemingly hearing her name being called, Kiana blinked and snapped out of her terror induced reverie. She blinked several more times and rubbed her eyes. Ceci's eyes… They were just…

Cecilia's right eye was still blue and her left eye was still hidden behind a bandage.

Their bedroom door swung open and a warm orange glow bathed the entire room in its light. The two turned to see their father, Siegfried, wielding Shamash, ready to slice whoever made his daughters cry in half and charbroil them with the all-killing flames of the legendary sword.

"W- What's wrong? I heard Ceci yelling," Siegfried asked, scanning his surroundings frantically. Was it…

"Daddy, Kiana had another nightmare. It was a bad one this time," Cecilia said.

Siegfried reluctantly lowered Shamash, depowering the sword and dispelling its flames. He slowly walked over to Kiana.

"D- Dad?" Kiana asked.

"Kiana, it's okay. Daddy's here now." Siegfried gingerly reached out to hold her shaking frame with one arm.

Kiana nodded and began to accept her father's embrace when her vision warped and changed. Her hazy reality began to swirl and melt, changing slowly into a twisted version of the forest around their house. The sudden chill and the sudden heat. Rather than the warm, calloused hand of her father, she felt nothing but the cold, icy touch of carapace.

Her eyes widened in shock and horror as she gazed at the lone hand caressing her face. It was covered in a shell made of dark foreign matter.

Kiana's breathing began to increase as she began to hyperventilate. Her vision began to fade but before she could pass out, she heard her father's loud voice bellowing into her ears.

"Kiana!"

Kiana's warped reality shattered and she found herself in the cabin once more.

"D- Dad…? I… I don't know what's going on…" she said as she fell down on her mattress.

Her body began to convulse and her eyes glowed slightly.

It was an eerie blue that Siegfried had grown familiar with.

No way… is she having…? But that's impossible, even with Stigmata Resonance, it should have never happened this fast, Siegfried thought.

"Kiana!"

"Sis!"

Her slowly darkening vision caught a glimpse of her worried father and younger sister as they frantically scrambled to help her. She felt herself being lifted into her father's arms and felt the cold air brushing against her face as her father ran out with her into the snow.

"You are allowing your delusions to consume you, Progeny. Your body is rejecting the Dream. There are only so many things I can do… from here. It is all up to you. Do not allow the false dreams of the Chimera consume you…"

"False… dream?"

Kiana's head lolled to the side as she felt darkness take her but not before seeing a shadowy figure with icy blue eyes standing at the edge of the woods.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling. It was not the usual decorated ceiling of her room. Rather, it was a foreign wooden ceiling. The sterile smell of medical equipment filled her nostrils. She slowly sat up and felt a weight on her hand.

Kiana slowly turned to the side to see Cecilia holding her arm and sleeping with her head resting on her bed.

Bed…? Wait, Bed? This isn't my bed, Kiana thought. Where…?

"Kiana?"

Kiana turned to see her father sitting on a chair. Siegfried rubbed his eyes as he yawned. As soon as his increasingly lucid mind registered his daughter's awake form, Siegfried immediately shot out of his chair and ran over.

"Baby doll! Are you okay?" Siegfried asked, placing his hands on her shoulder.

"Dad? Where…?"

"You're at the clinic. You had a panic attack and then you started having a seizure," Siegfried said.

"A… seizure? I don't… I don't… remember…"

"Do not allow the dreams of the Chimera to trap you in this false delusion, Progeny."

"Kiana?"

Kiana blinked and looked up to see her father looking at her with worry. "I'm fine, Dad."

Siegfried gave her a look of disbelief.

"I'm fine, Dad. Really. I… I think it was just another bad dream," she said.

Siegfried pursed his lips before letting out a sigh. "Let's let the doctor clear you first before we go back," he said.

And so, the doctor had come in shortly after. Cecilia had woken up when the doctor came in and nearly choked Kiana to death with a tight hug. The doctor spent several minutes inspecting her, making her answer questions, asking her to lift and move her arms and legs, and shining a light in her eyes. The doctor raised an eyebrow as he removed his penlight from her face.

He wrote a few things down on his clipboard.

"Well, Mister Kaslana, your daughter appears to be alright. There's nothing wrong with her from a neurological standpoint. At least from what I can see. I recommend going to a hospital though after the winter passes through. There's only a limited amount of diagnostic tests we can run out here in the village after all. In a hospital, we can run proper diagnostic tests on Kiana like an EEG. That's not really something we can do here," the doctor said, clicking his pen.

"Is there any medication that Kiana can take that can keep her from getting any seizures?" Siegfried asked.

"Not that we have. Like I said, the things we have access to out here are very limited and dependent on the weather. And with winter coming in full force, we're going to have to ration our medicine until it's safe enough to go out to a big city and get our supply," the doctor said.

"Right. Sorry, Doc," Siegfried said.

"No worries. It's not your fault. It's just a matter of wrong timing with Kiana's new onset seizure and this weather. Still, I don't recommend lifting a patient during an active seizure. The next time she has one, keep her airway clear and let the seizure pass before bringing her here. If you pick her up while she's having one, she might injure herself," the doctor said.

Siegfried nodded.

"Other than that, I don't see a reason to keep her here, especially in this weather," the doctor said. "Well, Miss Kaslana, looks like you can go home."

Cecilia's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Did you hear that, Sis? We can go home!" Cecilia said, gripping her hand tightly.

"Ahaha! Yeah, can you not grip my hand so tightly?" Kiana asked, wincing from the pain of her younger sister's powerful grip.

Cecilia let go of Kiana's hand, smiling sheepishly at her. Kiana smiled back and removed the covers, slowly swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She sat there for a few seconds, waiting to see if she would get dizzy before standing.

"Mmm? Are you feeling dizzy at all?" the doctor asked.

"No," Kiana replied, twirling on her feet. She clenched her fist and held it up. "I feel absolutely fine."

"Good. Just be careful on your way home. Remember to remind your father to go to a hospital after the winter storm passes to get a proper diagnosis," the doctor said.

"I will. Don't worry! I'll tell the old man," she said.

Siegfried felt as if one of Shamash's flaming bullets pierced his heart. "O- Old man?"

"Ahahaha! Now, off you three go," the doctor said.

"Come on, Sis! Dad!" Cecilia grabbed their hands and dragged them out of the door. "I want to see this Parvati thing Dad told us about yesterday!"

Siegfried and Kiana allowed themselves to be dragged out of the room and into the patient waiting room.

"O- Oi! Ceci, slow down! We might slip on the snow outside! Then we'll really need to stay here!" Siegfried said.

"I'll be careful!" she said.

"Have a nice day, you three!" the desk secretary called out.

Kiana turned around to bid them goodbye in place of her father and sister but stopped when she saw the secretary's eyes. She quickly turned around and followed her sister and father out the door, refusing to stay any longer inside the clinic.

The secretary's eyes were an eerie shade of blue.

Kiana sat on the porch, watching Cecilia push a massive ball made of snow down the porchway. The winter storm had yet to up in intensity and all they had so far was a small shower of snow. Perhaps it was connected to the Parvati their father had slain the other day. Or so he claimed. From what she knew of the bare basic Honkai knowledge her father had taught her, Parvati was an Emperor Class Honkai Beast capable of manipulating Ice and Snow and generating blizzards that can obliterate and bury entire cities.

"Urrrrggghh! Are you just going to sit there and watch me?" Cecilia panted, letting go of the snowball.

"Well, it is kind of entertaining to watch," Kiana said, smiling. "By the way, if you're building a snowman, what are you going to put on it?"

Cecilia opened her mouth to answer but paused. "I guess we can go into the woods to get some materials. I know there's a lot of sticks we can use for arms and a big stick we can use for the Judgement of Shamash!"

"Judgement of Shamash? What the heck kind of snowman are we making anyway?" Kiana asked, raising an eyebrow in mild interest.

"Dad! We're making Dad!" Cecilia said.

"Dad, huh? We're going to need a really big stick then," Kiana said, hopping off the porch. She walked over to the snowball and helped Cecilia push it into place.

The two began to form two smaller snowballs and stacked them atop the bigger snowball.

"So… we need a stick, some rocks, maybe a carrot?" Kiana said.

"Do we even have any carrots?" Cecilia asked, glancing at her older sister.

"We do but… we need it for food. Maybe we can just use a smaller stick," she replied.

"So… just sticks and rocks? Ooh! Maybe we can steal one of Dad's scarves! That way, it can really look like Dad!" Cecilia said.

"Mmm, Dad does have a lot of scarves. Ok, how about we head into the woods first to get some sticks and rocks? Then, we go raid Dad's closet," Kiana said.

Cecilia nodded. "Let's go!" Cecilia grabbed her sister's hand and dragged her into the waiting forest.

Kiana laughed as the two ran through the tree line. Around this time, in the Urals, during the Winter Storm, trees had often been stripped of their leaves, even if the trees were pines. The harsh, cold climate nearly made it impossible to maintain any form of foliage. And so, the forest floor was always bathed in sunlight as it penetrated through its leafless canopy.

The two sisters ran into the woods without a care in the world. Cecilia ran up to a tree and scaled to the first branch before using it as leverage to jump to the next one.

"H- Hey! Ceci! Be careful! Don't slip!" Kiana called out.

"I won't!" Cecilia said as she landed on a thick tree branch.

"This girl…" she let out a sigh of icy mist.

"Hey, Kiana! Do you think you can find some pinecones or rocks or something we can use for Dad's eyes and his hair? I don't think snow is going to make that look Dad always has," Cecilia said from above.

"We can just shape it," Kiana replied, looking up at her briefly.

"Yeah but, have you seen Dad's hair? It's like he doesn't even brush or comb it. It's like a bird's nest. Like the one at the old Gnarled Tree. You know, the one Mr. Bauer told us about?" Cecilia said, sitting on the branch.

"Dad's hair isn't that… bad," Kiana said, grabbing a random twig before tossing it aside.

"At least try to look," Cecilia said.

"Fine, fine. At the very least, we can use them to imitate Dad's hair spikes," she said.

"Thanks, Kiana! I'm going to look around this tree and see if I can find a few things we can use!" Cecilia said. She hopped to another branch.

Kiana sighed and ran after her. Just this tree, my butt.

"Ceci! Don't run too far! I'm going to look for stuff here!" she yelled.

"I won't!" Cecilia called back.

Kiana slowed her run down to a jog and began looking around for things to bring back to their Snowfried as she began to call it. "Hmmm… a big stick."

Kiana grabbed a few scattered branches off the ground for the Snowfried. She carried them in her arms while walking around looking for more.

"Mmm, hey, Ceci! Since you're up in the tree, can you break off a branch for us to skin and use as Shamash?" Kiana called out, kneeling in the snow. She used her hand to brush the snow aside as she looked for pebbles to use for its face.

No response.

"Mmm? Ceci?" Kiana called out.

There was still no response.

"Cecilia? Cecilia!" Kiana looked up and called her younger sister's name loudly this time.

Cecilia was gone. She was not in any of the branches nor was she around her. Kiana looked down and saw a trail of small bootprints heading deeper into the woods. She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head with a sigh.

Kiana looked down at the large stick she was holding. She tightened her grip around it before she gave a few experimental swings, using memories she never knew she had to guide her through the motions until she reached the final arc of her swing.

A motion that was powerful enough to create a strong gust of wind that displaced the snow around her.

"Was I always this strong?" Kiana asked. "Whatever… Ceci! Ceci, come on! Let's go back!" she cupped her hands and kept calling out to Cecilia.

"This isn't funny, Ceci. Come on," she whispered, following Cecilia's footprints.

She tracked her sister deeper and deeper into the woods. An odd chill ran down her spine. The chill. They always happened before she had panic attacks. Her breathing hitched. Feelings of paranoia began to creep into her as she walked faster.

"Ceci! Ceci! Come on! Let's go home! I got the sticks and rocks!" Kiana kept calling.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and she felt a million eyes on her. Or rather, a single presence with the force of a million honing on to her.

Unbeknownst to her, ice began to creep along the stick she held. A snowy breeze began to pick up the more she walked and the sky slowly grew darker.

"Ceci!"

Her calls were answered by the shrill cry of a beast.

"S- Sis!"

"C- Cecilia!" Kiana rushed toward the source of the sound, sprinting through the snow. She cursed as she felt the snow dragging her down, making her feel heavier than normal. As she struggled to pick up the pace, she noticed signs of a struggle on her path there.

There were broken sticks everywhere and Cecilia's footprints began to zigzag and go in circles as she tried to avoid whatever was chasing her.

A howl ripped through the air as Kiana's heart began to drop.

Wolves? Here? With Dad living here!? She thought frantically as she sprinted even faster toward her younger sister.

"Ceci, are you-" Her heart almost stopped.

Cecilia stood with her back against a tree. She panted and there was blood trickling down her arm into the snow. Her jacket and sweater were partially torn, revealing a bite mark from the beasts that had attacked her. Her flesh and muscle were partially exposed but thankfully, the wound did not go down to the bone.

The beasts that had attacked her were wolves. Or at least, a heretical mockery of one. They were snow-white beasts with pink markings running along their bodies. In the place of fur was a white, sleek carapace with a row of rattling spikes running along the spine, reaching all the way down to its furious segmented tail. Their eyeless heads opened a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth and a puff of steam was expelled from the mouth and snout.

Garmr, she thought.

"Ceci!" Kiana called out.

A mistake on her part. Both Cecilia and the wolves turned to face her. Her eyes widened considerably when she saw Cecilia's eye bandage had been removed. Her golden left eye stared into her blue ones, causing her to pause temporarily until…

"SIS! Watch out!" she yelled.

Kiana heard the snarl of the Garmr growing closer. Instinctively, Kiana stepped to the side, avoiding its jaws from capturing her throat.

With a fluid motion, she followed up with a swift upward slice, knocking the Garmr into a nearby tree.

Kiana's eyes focused back on her surroundings as she deftly evaded the second Garmr by leaping into the air.

She held the frozen stick in reverse grip and landed in front of it.

"Ceci! Run!" Kiana called out.

The Garmr pounced on her and she dodged the attack.

"B- But!"

"Go!" Kiana kicked the Garmr in the snout, knocking it into the air.

Cecilia closed her eyes and turned to run when she heard her sister cry out in pain.

She turned around and saw the Garmr with its fangs sunk into Kiana's arm, biting down hard.

Kiana bit down another scream before bringing up her free arm. Her eyes glowed blue and her sclera turned black as she drove her elbow into its head.

A sickening crunch echoed through the forest as her elbow went clean through its skull, shattering it and its brain.

The Garmr's jaw slackened and it fell to the ground dead.

Kiana stumbled back, falling on her butt. She let out a heavy sigh as she leaned her back against the tree.

It hurts… Dad… Mom… help me, she thought as blood ran freely down her arm. Her wound was far worse than her sister's. The muscles and nerves had been completely torn by the Garmr's jaw and she could feel fragments of its fangs and her own bones scattered inside her muscle tissue.

Yet, at the same time, the same newfound strength Kiana had just experienced was now beginning to heal her slowly. The bone fragments of the Garmr and her own were being rapidly dissolved and the cells and platelets began to aggregate and knit the wound back together.

However, her healing would be for naught.

The Garmr she had knocked away earlier with the stick slowly approached her, stepping on its fallen comrade without a semblance of remorse or care.

That's right… it's not a living animal. It's a Honkai beast. All it cares about is destruction, Kiana thought as she watched it tower over her.

The Honkai were merciless and unfeeling and the Herrschers it subsequently gave birth to cared nothing more than to snuff Humanity out like a candle flame. The only difference between a Herrscher and a Honkai beast was that Kiana knew she would die a quick death with this beast unlike a Herrscher.

I have a bum arm right now and the blood loss is making me feel a bit woozy… I'm sorry, Ceci, Kiana thought.

As the Garmr opened its mouth to crush her skull, it was suddenly thrown by a heavy force. The body flew through a few trees, toppling them in a single go before it landed like a ragdoll in the snow several meters from where Kiana sat.

Kiana observed the entire event, wide-eyed. She quickly got over her shock and turned to the Garmr.

Her breath hitched when she saw what had taken it out.

A pure white lance had impaled it in the side. Pink liquid stained the lance's blade and dripped into the snow. Where the lance's grip was located was an orange core surrounded by a spiral cage and at the end of the lance was a pointed pommel that would have skewered the beast just as easily as its main body.

Kiana's breathing increased as images of the haunting lance flashed through her mind. Images that she simultaneously knew she experienced and not experienced at once.

And the final image that flashed through her head.

"Zeroth Power: Might of An-Utu!"

She watched herself swing the sword, cleaving the massive mech and the world before her in half.

"SIS! SIS!"

She heard the desperate voice of her younger sister inside her head.

"Ceci… I won… I'm still here… I won't… leave you…"

Kiana's eyes widened as a sense of clarity, unlike anything she had ever felt before washed over her.

"Do not allow the false dream of the Chimera to consume you…"

She had a vague idea of what was happening now. However, dream or not, first things first.

She slowly turned her head to face Cecilia.

Ceci panted heavily. Square particles wafted off her left eye as it glowed slightly in the dim Siberian sun. Her hand was outstretched and her eyes were dulled. A slight pink aura of black and violet honkai energy radiated from her hand and the rest of her body.

"C- Ceci…?" Kiana asked.

Upon hearing her voice, the color in Cecilia's eyes slowly returned. The aura faded and the faint light in her left eye disappeared. Without warning, Cecilia fell face-first into the snow.

Instantly forgetting about her injury, Kiana quickly jolted to her feet and sprinted toward her.

"CECI! CECI!" Kiana screamed as she gently lifted her sister off the snow.

Cecilia's breathing was stable yet shallow. A pink flush spread over her cheeks and her temperature was slowly beginning to rise. Her eyes were half-lidded and she caught a glimpse of Cecilia's golden eye.

Just a mere glimpse caused her head to nearly split open as another memory seared itself into her vision.

"She's no longer here. Your sister never existed to begin with… it has always been just me…"

Kiana nearly dropped Cecilia into the snow, having seen her mouth moving. However, she caught herself, having only seen the unconscious form of her younger sister in her arms.

Fighting through the pain in her forearm, Kiana lifted Cecilia's unconscious body off the ground. She stood on shaky legs and took a deep breath.

"Mmmm…"

Cecilia unconsciously nuzzled her head into her chest.

A feeling of warmth and guilt spread through Kiana as she glanced down at her younger sister.

"I'm sorry, Ceci. Let's go home," she whispered as she limped through the snow toward the treeline.

Unbeknownst to Kiana, the world continued to move on as if she had never been there. Time flowed and the usual course of events would continue. For despite even the harshness of the Siberian Winter, forces were at play. A force that had its grip upon this entire world.

A man stood atop an area overlooking the small cabin and the woods that surrounded it. The harsh Siberian wind blew roughly, causing his black coat to billow in the wind and his white hair to be tousled in the gale. His blue eyes narrowed when he spotted his ward carrying another girl on her shoulder.

However, something about her had changed. Something fundamental. There was an aura of clarity about her. Perhaps, his efforts had finally paid off.

As he continued to observe the girl make her way back to the cabin, a thought crossed his mind. Those two reminded him of them. Of the boy that once was and the girl who had lost everything in the end.

"Press through, Progeny. Press through to the depths if you wish to return to the waking world," he said.

A pulse traveled through his entire being. He closed his fist and looked past the sky. A small crack briefly appeared in the blue sky.

"Have you finally taken notice of the girl?" he wondered to himself as he felt an all-too-familiar presence briefly engulf the entire world around them. However, the presence did not encroach any further and instantly vanished.

It was always like that.

With the girl from centuries past.

And those two siblings who had forced their power to awaken in a moment of desperation to face down the greatest manifestation of Honkai, a Herrscher.

And now, they had taken an interest in this girl.

Perhaps it was because this girl was so similar to the person they had cherished so long ago. However, he had no reservations to believe that he knew what they thought.

After feeling the presence vanish, the man turned his attention back to the cabin, observing the young girl who had found herself beginning to rouse from the delusions of her past. Having been satisfied by her progress, the man's body vanished in a swirl of blue square pixels.

So I've been playing Star Rail and I realized something... where is the Honkai? Anyway, enough about HSR, time to go back to HI3.

Prepare yourselves! We're delving deeper into Kiana's memories. And I hope I can try to at least, stomp on all your emotions and deal maximum emotional damage with them with both Cecilia and Kiana's journeys into their respective pasts. Of course, we all know what will happen at the end of Cecilia's journey because I assume we all played through Honkai's story mode and we know what happens in that data space. Originally, in this chapter, I was also going to include Ragna, Himeko, Durandal, and Rita's teacher, but then I realized that would never make sense because... this is Kiana's memories and she never met Ragna before.

Soooo... instead, we get Mister Shadow (not Cid) at the end instead. Well, well, enough about this author's note for now. See you all in the next chapter!