Amidst a roiling plane filled with myriad colors, a white-haired woman sat amidst a floating crystalline structure of impossible alien geometry. A place where even one's sense of self and direction were warped and twisted. Her up became down and her down became her left.
Bubbles that displayed various images floated by her, each one containing a different content than the others. Each one differed in size. Some of the bubbles were as large as her finger while others were infinitely massive in comparison.
In this abyss that lacked a proper flow of time, the woman sat in deep contemplation. She did not know how much time had passed. Be it a year or a millennium. Time in this place was completely subjective to one's own experiences.
The woman looked up, having sensed something different.
"Another one, huh? Another one found this place," she said in a nearly apathetic tone.
She closed her eyes and caught a glimpse of the girl who had entered the range of her senses. Her fierce blue eyes were nostalgic. Yet, gazing into them only invoked feelings of raw pain and overwhelming guilt.
Kevin…
"Big Brother… if you were here... if only I were… would things have gone differently?" she whispered as she gazed upon her Shadow and the strangely familiar girl.
"Will of… the Stigmata?" Kiana asked.
That was how he introduced himself. The man with the ever-familiar visage introduced himself as the Will of the Stigmata. Not that she knew what it meant. All she knew was that this person before her could be the only thing that could get her out of whatever dream she was in right now. Kiana shivered involuntarily as the man took a step toward her.
The cold of this perpetual hellscape of ice and snow was beginning to get to her and she rarely, if ever, got cold. He took another step and Kiana stiffened, holding her hand out.
The Will stopped and his eyes slowly looked down, noticing Kiana's nails beginning to grow longer.
"Garmr. You've already begun to subconsciously tap into its abilities," the Will said.
"What? Garmr? Abilities?" Kiana asked.
"A matter for another time. But just know this, I don't intend to harm you. I'm here to help you in some way. As it stands, through the countless eyes of your family that I have observed, you and your sister are the most similar to those two," the Will said.
"Those two?" she asked.
The Will's form briefly flickered and Kiana saw the image of the woman she had seen in the previous memory. The woman looked strikingly similar to her sister.
"You...," Kiana murmured quietly.
"And you are so very similar to him. Everything about you is similar to him. Maybe your choice will be the one that will change everything," the Will said.
"Change… things?" Kiana asked. She shook her head. "Listen here, I'm not here to accept anything from you. Just tell me how to get out of here."
The Will said nothing. "You want to leave so badly… the only way to do it is to forcefully awaken the entirety of your Stigmata. The dreams you've gone through are the collective memories stored within your family's genetic code. All of it. Even that of yours, your sister's, and your father's."
Kiana clenched her fists. That thing was talking in riddles. Awaken her Stigmata? Her Stigmata was already awakened. She had gone through hell and back and landed herself in this subconscious delusion of defending everyone she loved. And now, this thing, whatever it was, was keeping her from waking up.
"If… you won't tell me how to get out of here…" An icy aura wafted off her body. Her fangs elongated and a white carapace began to cover her fingertips.
"Be patient. The only reason you can't leave is because you have yet to reach the final threshold. Reaching it and tapping into the full power of the Chimera, the deepest recesses of your Stigmata, is the only way to escape this world," the Will said, unaffected by her sudden increase in power.
"..." Kiana took a deep breath and calmed down. The talons retracted and her icy aura vanished.
"Tell me how to get out of here. Tell me how to cross this final threshold thing," she said.
"I will. But first, you must know why I pulled you here instead of letting you remain," he said.
"Why you pulled me here?" Kiana asked.
The Will nodded. "Your family has been willingly throwing yourselves in death's jaws since your ancestors. With your world beginning to repeat the mistakes of the past, perhaps you will be the one to change things. All of it will boil down to a single choice you will make."
"Stop speaking in riddles and tell me what you want to tell me." Kiana glared at the Will.
Unaffected by her icy stare, the Will continued to speak. As it did, their surroundings changed drastically and Kiana found herself within a familiar room. It was a classroom that she had not seen in a long time. The sounds of people talking and the familiar appearance of their uniforms. This was clearly…
"Chiba… Academy?" Kiana whispered. "Why did you take me here? Are you going to show me another memory-"
"Kevin! Give it back!"
Kiana turned around and her eyes widened significantly. "Cecilia…?" she said.
There was a young woman with snow-white hair styled in braided pigtails. There was no mistaking it any longer. Her appearance was strikingly similar, no, completely identical to that of her sister. And her eyes drifted over to the young man, who was smiling smugly as the girl tried to reach for an item he had held above her head. His white hair shone as the sun's rays drifted in through the windows and when she saw his face, it felt as if she were looking into a mirror.
"Those two are the starting point of the family you call Kaslana," the Will said.
"Kevin." His gaze rested upon the smiling boy.
"And… Kiana." His gaze then turned to the girl striking the boy.
"Similar to you and your sister, they were a pair of siblings with no family to back them up. Through fate and circumstance…"
Kiana watched as the image changed to a pair of twins and a girl who looked suspiciously similar to Mei escaping a ruined city as Honkai Beasts devoured everything in sight.
"Faced against the Honkai," the Will said.
"Like in my dreams…," she whispered.
The Will turned to her. "So you were already beginning to subconsciously see through the memories," he said.
"You said they were my ancestors… but the city they lived in, went to school in, that's clearly Nagazora. What the hell aren't you telling me?" Kiana said.
"This has all happened before. The sequence of events that you experienced in that city, though the certain variables may have changed, it all remained the same," the Will said. "And like you and your sister, these two joined in the fight against the Honkai."
Kiana looked around as the image changed. A ruined city. The corpses of many lay around her, covered in vines and their bodies having been drained of all vitality. They were nothing but shriveled husks of flesh. An explosion rang out before her and she instinctively covered her face, despite knowing that it wouldn't harm her. She narrowed her eyes as a girl with black-to-blue gradient hair landed on the ground. Blood poured from various wounds on her body.
"Ahh… no… I…," the girl looked shakily down at her hands before looking up.
It was that man. Kevin. He walked forward with an agonized expression on his face. He shakily raised his gun and leveled it at the girl's head.
"Ahh… such a long nightmare… this is all my fault, isn't it?"
Kiana's heart clenched when she saw the raw pain in Kevin's eyes.
"Don't cry… Kevin…" the girl said.
Kevin dropped his rifle and fell to his knees. The girl before him smiled softly, clutching her side as the blood poured profusely from her wounds.
"To them, this war had taken away everything from them. To him, it took his family, his friends…"
Kiana's eyes lingered on the still image of Kevin and the dying girl. It took a moment for her brain to connect the pieces. This girl had been taken by the Honkai and he was the one sent to execute her.
"But… through everything, all the twins had was each other."
The image changed once more.
Kiana watched as various moments flew before her.
A memory of the other Kiana baking a perfect cake for Kevin with the words "Happy Birthday" written in frosting.
A memory of Kevin consoling the other Kiana as the two stood before a headstone with a name she couldn't make out.
A memory of the two supporting each other amidst a ruined land. Cracked mountains lay in the distance and fissures as deep as the eye could see. Collapsed skyscrapers lay around them and spires of ice as large as mountains surrounded them and before them was the crucified form of a woman.
"You said this all happened before and that my decision will change the course of everything. What… decision is that exactly?" Kiana asked.
The scenery faded and Kiana soon found herself back in the frozen metaphysical snowscape of the Stigmata Space.
The Will pondered her question for a moment, wondering if it should even show her the memory. There was no doubt that even if her presence was not here, she was watching them.
"Do you wish to know? What fate awaits you at the very end?" he asked.
Kiana bit her lip. She looked up. If this was the way to escape, then she needed to know. She nodded her head.
"Then, I will tell you but… know that parts of this memory are sealed beyond even my power to show," the Will said.
Kiana nodded and soon, the world changed once more.
Himeko burst through the double doors of the ICU unit, ignoring the cries of the nurses and doctors as she did. The phone call she received almost made her heart stopped. The ICU had been attacked in some way, it said. And upon entering, Himeko knew in an instant what they meant. A crippling chill met her entry and her breath began to mist as she breathed.
"What the… hell?" she said, seeing frost coating the floor and ceiling.
"Major!"
A haggard, injured doctor made his way over to her.
"What's going on?" Himeko asked.
"It's about Captain Kaslana," he said.
"What? What happened to Kiana?" she demanded.
"I think it's better if you see what's going on for yourself," the doctor said, beckoning for her to follow.
The two walked to Kiana's room and Himeko gasped upon seeing the inside. The medical equipment attached to monitor her were shredded and broken. Fragments of glass and plastic lay on the floor in her room and there were various ice crystals poking out from the wall. But what made Himeko gasp was not the ice, but the white carapace covering Kiana's hands.
"Is… she cascading?" Himeko asked.
"That's what we think… or rather thought. A few hours ago, after her sister left, Captain Kaslana's heart rate spiked into the 160s and we began detecting massive amounts of Honkai energy from her body. We couldn't enter the room since everything near her began to corrode while other things began to freeze over. And that's when we saw it… the silicone carapace. It's characteristic with Honkai beasts but… we don't know how this happened exactly," the doctor said.
"Don't know? You guys are medical staff! How the hell do you not know!?" Himeko
"This is beyond the realm of current medical knowledge. I don't even know what the hell to call this. Cascade? Honkaification? Thankfully, the Honkai radiation began to subside after a couple of minutes but it seeped out of the room, resulting in the frost you see right now," the doctor said.
"Tch… so what do we do now?" Himeko began biting her finger. She looked at her comatose friend with a worried look on her face.
"For now, all we can do is observe her. We began detecting a spike in Honkai energy within her again but it's not as intense as it was last time. Unfortunately, if she does do this again, she might cause a minor outbreak within the medical facility so we evacuated all our other patients," the doctor said.
"I see. That's a good call," Himeko commended.
"Should we inform the Headmistress?" the doctor asked.
"No, stay here. I'll station a few valkyries here to guard you and the nurses. I'll go find Theresa and tell her myself," Himeko said.
"Understood… and Major," the doctor said.
"Yes?" she said.
"I don't know how to say this but… at one point, she spoke," the doctor said.
"What? She did? What did she say?" Himeko asked.
"Cecilia."
Himeko bit her lip. She nodded and walked out of the room, determined to find Cecilia and Theresa. They needed to know what was happening. Ever since that battle in New Zealand, something was very wrong with Kiana and she needed to know what. She would not allow her friend to die to a Honkai cascade or whatever was happening to her.
"Wait here, Kiana. Hopefully, the Headmaster found something to help you," Himeko prayed.
Kiana never once thought in her life she would have ended up here, neither in a memory nor in reality. The infinite yawning void of space lay bare before her and the glowing blue jewel that was the Earth hung over the horizon. She could feel the grainy texture of the lunar sand through her boots and witnessed the blinding, raw, unfiltered light of the Sun.
"So… this is the Moon?" Kiana murmured to herself. "Why are we on the Moon?"
She turned to see the spot next to her was empty. Her eyes widened. Did she just get dumped into a memory and then proceeded to be abandoned in said memory? Her eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"Hey! Will of whatever! Where are you?" Kiana yelled, showing a side that was more characteristic of her younger sister.
When there was no response to her question, Kiana clicked her tongue. She had gone through too much in an unspecified amount of time and she was nearing the end of her rope when it came to patience. Clenching her fist, she took one step forward and stopped almost immediately. Her body didn't want to move. Every cell in her body was paralyzed with an all-too-familiar feeling she was familiar with.
Fear.
Kiana managed to look up when she saw a flash of iridescent violet light slam into the surface of the Moon. A shockwave from a blast greater than anything she had faced in a long time washed over her, throwing her off her feet.
"What… was…?" Kiana placed a hand on her head and felt something warm beneath her hand. She slowly picked it up and the sight of blood caused her to backpedal away from her spot.
Before her, laying against a rock was a young man no older than her. No older than her sister. His dark green hair was matted and the odd curved horns on his head were broken. A trail of dried blood trickled down the sides of his mouth and there was a massive hole in his torso that profusely leaked blood onto the lunar surface.
"What… the…?"
Her train of thought was cut off by another explosion.
The sight before her was incomprehensible. No human could possibly comprehend the sight that lay before her—spires of ice as high as the mountains. Flames whose heat could boil entire oceans bit her skin. And around her, the world began to bend and twist in impossible ways.
Two streaks of light. One blue and black and the other violet and white rushed into the depths of space, clashing with one another.
Each consecutive hit caused light to bend and Kiana instinctively felt the reality being torn to pieces around her.
These two inconceivably powerful entities. What did the Will want to gain by showing her this? Was this what happened in the distant past? If this did happen, and judging by how it spoke, was this their future?
An epic battle of apocalyptic proportions that would rip their planet apart, nay, from the looks of it and the mere sensation of the blows, it would tear apart everything.
"What… are we supposed to be fighting? Is this the true extent of the Honkai?" Kiana said breathlessly.
A tower of flaming light suddenly spiraled into the infinite void of space. And as it swung down, the world froze.
"We never won that fight."
A different voice had spoken to her amidst this frozen world.
Kiana slowly turned around and saw a woman with shoulder-length snow-white hair standing behind her. She had a black skirt that showed off her midriff. She wore blue combat shorts with multiple black straps tied around her right leg. She wore long black socks on both legs and blue combat boots. And she wore a black high-collared trench coat that was identical to that of the Will of Stigmata.
That's her…, Kiana thought.
Her eyes glowed and the world around them changed once more.
Kiana, having noticed the change in her surroundings, turned. The location had shifted. They were in the middle of a massive scorched crater, whose rim was likely over hundreds of kilometers away.
"You're finally awake, idiot…"
Kiana gulped. A new scene began to play out before her. The same woman she had been talking to, no, the woman she had seen in her memories, KIANA. She knelt at the center of the crater, cradling the body of Kevin in her arms. Blood stained her clothing, both her own and her brother's.
"Kevin… Kevin, you gotta stay with me," the past KIANA begged, placing her hand on his wound.
"Hey, Kiana, you gotta promise me something," Kevin said, staring into the starry expanse of space.
"Yeah, anything," KIANA said, desperately trying to staunch her brother's bleeding.
"You gotta keep MEI and the others safe. I… we managed to buy ourselves some time. No doubt, it will notice something is wrong," he said.
"Shut up. Stop making useless demands. Protect her yourself! She's your girlfriend after all! Go and get married!" KIANA said, shaking her head.
"Promise me."
"Kevin-"
"Promise me, Sis."
KIANA closed her eyes and bit her lip with enough force to draw blood. She nodded and Kiana saw the smile on Kevin's face.
"You know… it's been so long since it was just the two of us. Ever since Dad died… it's always been just the two of us. Do you remember that time we camped out in the woods when we were making our way east?" Kevin asked.
KIANA nodded, feeling her brother's breathing grow shallower.
"I… I remember that I got scared because a spider crawled into my tent…" her voice was breaking apart.
"You always were a little crybaby, KIANA," Kevin chuckled. He coughed violently and blood leaked out of his mouth.
"Stop talking. Conserve your energy! Eden is almost here! She can stave off your wounds long enough for us to get you help!" KIANA urged.
"KIANA, I want you to live happily… go get Su. You two need to fess up to each other after all this is over. God knows he can't see a girl's feelings to save his life. Eat lots of food. I won't be able to make cup ramen for you anymore so you gotta learn to cook on your own," Kevin said.
"Shut up…," KIANA said, tears flowing down her face.
"And… don't blame yourself. It's not your fault-"
"I SAID SHUT UP! STOP TALKING LIKE YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE DAMMIT! YOU'RE MY BIG BROTHER! YOU'RE NOT LEAVING YOUR CRYBABY SISTER UNTIL I SAY SO!" KIANA yelled, her tears flowing stronger this time. They froze on her cheeks, causing small flecks of frost to fall on Kevin's face.
Kevin smiled and reached his hand out to cup his sister's face. "Live, KIANA."
Her eyes filled with raw agony when his arm fell away from her face and landed with a silent thud on the lunar surface.
"Kevin? Kevin…? Wake up."
She shook him lightly.
"Kevin…?"
Her shakes became more forceful.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry… I'm sorry… please don't leave…" KIANA hugged his body tightly. "Please wake up. I don't know what to do… please wake up and boss me around like you always did."
"The Honkai once took everything from us. Our friends. Our homes. Our family. However, in this renewed war, things can- no, will be different. On that day, amidst the scorched land of the Moon, I made a promise to him. The same one he made underneath that cherry tree to our dear friend all those years ago," KIANA said as she stared at her past self. Her past self wailed her sorrows into the cold, unforgiving void of space, all the while clutching the corpse of her older brother.
"The Administrator told you that you had a choice to make," KIANA said, turning to face her.
Kiana took a step back as the world around them returned to the frozen central world of the Stigmata Space.
"He showed you the true horrors of the Honkai. What awaits you at the very end? Yet, still, do you want to fight no matter what?" KIANA asked, stepping forward.
"Knowing the impossibility you must face. Knowing how it will all end. Even if it means sacrificing everything."
Each one of her steps was met with a backward step by Kiana.
"My Progeny," she said.
She stopped and shook her head. "No, my brother's progeny."
"Do not forget the oath. No matter the cost."
Kiana saw a series of violet flames burning around her, overtaking the entire space yet incinerating nothing.
She looked into the woman's ice-blue gaze.
"No matter the cost. You must purge the Honkai."
KIANA reached out and grabbed her forehead.
In an instant, Kiana felt a searing pain travel through her body. Her eyes turned yellow and she let out a howl of agony. It felt as if a million burning needles were being embedded into every muscle, every tissue, every organ in her body. Violet lines of energy traced themselves across her skin.
"If you wish to protect all that you hold dear, then fulfill that oath. If you wish to protect that sister that you cherish more than yourself, hold fast to that oath," KIANA said.
"No matter the cost, humanity shall prevail against the Honkai." KIANA's sclera turned black and her blue eyes began to glow.
Kiana, fighting through the pain as best she could, grabbed her wrist and looked KIANA in the eye.
There was nothing to see in that woman's eyes. It was a cold abyss devoid of all feeling except palpable guilt and loss.
After a few minutes of pure torture, the woman dropped Kiana on the ground, leaving her writhing in the vestiges of agony that she had afflicted.
"Becoming a Stigmata Awakened… at this young an age. I merely gave you one final push toward the threshold. After you return to the waking world, everything will be up to you, young progeny," KIANA said, standing above her.
Kiana looked through a hazy, blurred vision at the older woman before her.
"The power of the Chimera. With it, you will become more than human yet with it, you will throw away what fundamentally makes you human," KIANA said.
"This is the choice… that the Administrator referred to. That you have as a progeny of our line," she continued.
She knelt before her and stared into her fierce blue eyes.
"Will you be willing to make such a choice? To leave behind what others see as your humanity in order to become something more? In order to defeat the Honkai?" KIANA asked.
Kiana tried to formulate a response but the pain made it difficult.
KIANA nodded at her silence and turned around.
Kiana began fighting through the pain and struggled to prop herself up with her hands. She opened her mouth.
"I don't… care about some stupid oath made by a family that abandoned us."
KIANA stopped walking and glanced over her shoulder.
"What I do care about… is my friends…"
Images of Bronya, Mei, and Himeko flashed inside her head.
"My family…"
An image of Theresa and surprisingly, Kriemhilde appeared in her mind.
"And my sister," Kiana said.
"If… If it means keeping them safe, keeping her safe, I'll throw everything away for them, even my own life!" Kiana declared.
KIANA stared at the woman, whose temperament and willpower reminded her of her older brother. Her eyes widened marginally when she saw an image of her older brother overlap with that of Kiana's.
"Kevin… of course… he said something similar to when this all started," KIANA whispered too low for Kiana's enhanced senses to pick up on.
She watched the fire in Kiana's eyes burn brightly as a blue light enveloped her.
"You're breaking away from the Stigmata Space of your own free will," KIANA said, watching her Kiana's form beginning to fade.
Kiana looked down at her own increasingly translucent blue hands.
"Do not forget the oath, Progeny. You have seen what awaits you at the end," KIANA said.
Kiana looked into the icy blue eyes of the woman in front of her and saw something that she hadn't seen before.
A speck of warmth.
KIANA stood at the center of the frozen platform, staring at the spot where her descendant…, no, her brother's descendant had once been.
And she stood there for the longest time, not thinking nor speaking.
"Kevin… I felt like I was looking at you again," KIANA whispered as she reached into her pocket.
She clutched something in her hand before opening it.
In her hand, there lay a simple blue and black cufflink. It was a cufflink that would belong to the sleeve of a male student's high school uniform.
"I wish you were here with me… Big Brother," KIANA said. She looked at the cufflink before clenching her hand tightly and pocketing it.
With that, she turned around and began to walk before eventually dispersing into a swarm of violet pixels, leaving the frozen land around her silent and devoid of any life once more.
Yes, so our Kiana finally escaped the Stigmata Space and we got a glimpse into the final battle against the Final Herrscher of the Previous Era. I did not show the full battle but I did show you guys Kosma's corpse (sorry not sorry). And no, Kiana does not have her full Diabolic Kevin form yet. The Will and KIANA said that she has yet to cross the final threshold of achieving it which is basically casting aside her own humanity. That note aside, yes, I am... in the process of making individual honkai abilities for the Power of the Chimera. Basically, all the Honkai Beast abilities Kevin was gonna have but they only showed a few in the game. Kiana can somewhat use Garmr's abilities which I'll elaborate more on but the rest will come much later.
So yeah... there is a PE Kiana, who is basically Cecilia's PE counterpart, if you didn't know why Kiana kept mistaking her for Cecilia. Kevin is dead. She is the Kevin role of this story but there's more to her than meets the eye so stay tuned! To differentiate between them this chapter, I used KIANA for PE Kiana and Kiana for our CE Kiana, whose PE Counterpart is Kevin, if I didn't make that clear.
We're nearing the end of this arc. The next two chapters are mostly Cecilia-centric since Kiana escaped from Stigmata Space and the third and final chapter will kick off the beginning of the end of... a somewhat long final arc. Haha... I can hear Befall and Nightglow playing in the distance.