The person who wrote this diary must have been mentally unstable.
Shigure Kira scanned the page, her eyes settling on the final entry.
["Though the wutong tree stands, its heart is already empty. Awaiting the bloom of spring, yet buried in the depths of winter."]
After reading the entire diary page by the lake, that was Shigure Kira's conclusion. The author seemed to suffer from severe dissociative identity disorder and persecutory delusions. The writing was completely disjointed.
But...
What were all those strange names and descriptions?
Shigure Kira knew very little about the contents. She guessed Saori Tsuruyo was just as clueless. They would have to wait for the gloomy guy to wake up to understand the truth hidden in the diary. The people of the Current Era knew very little about the events of the Previous Era.
Kira tucked the diary page into her clothes and quickly swam toward the shore, her legs kicking rhythmically.
As she swam, she remembered the notebook's prediction: 'she' will grab my arm.
If I tuck my arms in, can I avoid the attack?
The thought had barely crossed her mind when she pressed her hands tightly against her chest, no longer using them to paddle through the water.
The bright moon in the sky grew clearer. She was just about to break the surface.
In that instant, a hand violently grabbed her calf, pulling her down toward the bottom of the lake with immense force.
She had been too naive.
"Mmph...!"
Kira choked on a mouthful of water and quickly came to her senses. She kicked wildly at the ghost grabbing her calf. Even with her arms tucked in, the ghost in the lake would just grab another part of her. Finding the diary was a guaranteed trigger for the lake's certain-death rule.
But she couldn't die here. She had to get the information back...
Kira instinctively wanted to turn and see what kind of ghost was in the lake, but Li Mo's previous warning jolted her back to her senses. She didn't look back.
Don't make eye contact.
Especially not after 9 PM.
"Mmph... mmph..."
Kira lost her balance. She felt another hand grab her long hair. But this hand only held on for a moment before letting go. Only the hand on her calf remained, gripping her tightly. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't shake it off.
With no time to ponder the difference between the two hands, Kira pulled the cursed handgun from her waist and fired several shots blindly, relying on instinct. Only when she caught a glimpse of a bluish-purple flame igniting in the lake out of the corner of her eye did she put the gun away.
The hand gripping her calf went limp, as if all life had left it, and sank to the bottom of the lake.
"Hah! Hah...!"
"I almost died..."
Back on shore, Kira gasped for fresh air. She was soaked to the bone. The lakewater glistened like tiny diamonds, shimmering in the moonlight that illuminated her interwoven blue and white hair. Her wet hair clung to her forehead and cheeks. Her sapphire eyes, like mirrors, seemed even brighter and clearer now that they were wet, shining with a moist light. The water made her fair skin as soft and smooth as silk. Her drenched clothes clung to her slender frame, accentuating her graceful curves. Water droplets lingered on her cheeks, adding a natural blush.
Crystal-clear beads of water dripped from the tips of her hair.
"Good thing I had dive training back then, otherwise I might have drowned in there..."
Kira turned, looking back at the calm lake with lingering fear.
A figure was faintly visible on the surface. It seemed to be her reflection, but not entirely. She was kneeling on one knee, resting and recovering, while the reflection in the lake was standing. Its eyes were hollow, empty sockets, and it stared at her with a dead, emotionless expression.
Kira knew very well that this reflection was the ghost that had just tried to drag her down. Its clothes, its figure, even the cursed handgun had been replicated in the reflection.
The only difference was that Kira's hair was very long now. If she didn't tie it up, the extra white locks would spill onto the ground. The reflection in the lake, however, had no extra white hair, only long, ice-blue hair that hung down to its waist.
"I need to get out of here. I can't delay any longer."
It was past the xu hour. The ghosts in the town had all awakened. They would be walking along the Heaven-Reaching Road, moving toward the human-skin forest at the top of Mount Taixuan. But it wasn't the fifteenth of July yet, so the flesh-and-blood ghosts couldn't reach the summit, let alone enter the forest. They were just moving mechanically, following their patterns and behavioral logic without any reason. As long as she didn't get close, she wouldn't be targeted.
All I have to do is avoid their path and take a detour back to the inn, and I'll be safe.
That's what Kira thought. But when she tried to stand up, she found that her left leg had gone numb. Losing her balance, she fell to the ground with a splash.
"Ugh... so painful. Why isn't my left leg responding?"
Kira looked back. A deep handprint was on her left calf. The flesh beneath the print was severely indented, as if the ghost from the lake were still gripping her leg.
"Oh no. Am I going to have to crawl and slither on the ground like a creepy, twisted worm?"
Kira bit her lip and struggled to her feet. She balanced on her usable right leg and started hopping toward the inn. Halfway there, she was so exhausted that she collapsed.
She waited a long time, but the powerful regenerative ability she relied on didn't work on the leg the ghost had grabbed.
She looked left and right, confirming no one was watching...
Then she began to crawl, to slither, a dark, twisted shape on the ground.
---||---
At the Australian mine, the Ganesha was knocked back several meters by one of Elysia's arrows. It slammed into the rock wall behind it and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
"My dear Mo, you keep looking at other girls. That's enough to make even me angry, you know... You should look at me more often~"
Elysia reached out and took Li Mo's hand. Still not satisfied, she linked her arm through his, a bright smile on her face.
"I'll leave the Honkai Beasts in the mine to you, Ely."
"And my reward?"
Elysia puffed out her pink lips, hinting furiously.
"We'll do it when we get back. It's an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, after all. Show it some respect, so... leave the body intact."
"Fine. Without a kiss from my dear Mo, Elysia is very angry. I've decided to teach it a lesson!"
The Ganesha adjusted its stance. The patterns on its body began to glow, and its two menacing eyes fixed on Elysia as it charged.
Elysia drew her bow. She was like a nimble deer, teasing the clumsy Ganesha.
Every one of the Ganesha's attacks just barely missed. Elysia dodged at the precise moment of impact and then fired off a casual arrow.
Ten times, fifty times, a hundred times...
The Ganesha grew increasingly frantic. Elysia's attacks didn't hurt much, but to the beast, it was a humiliation. Besides, after a hundred arrows, even if each one did minimal damage, the cumulative effect was a danger not to be underestimated, even for the thick-skinned Ganesha.
"So... so strong..."
Hua's eyes widened, her pupils contracting as she watched Elysia effortlessly toy with the Ganesha, even glancing back from time to time to flash a radiant smile at her and Mo.
She was completely at ease.
"Alright, playtime's over. Now... it's time for you to take a long nap!"
Elysia quickly created distance between them. The Ganesha had lost the strength to pursue. It trembled all over, like a human who had overexerted themselves.
In contrast, Elysia, aside from a few smudges of dust and dirt on her clothes, didn't have a single drop of sweat on her forehead.
She hadn't even been trying.
The pink bow in Elysia's hand suddenly shimmered with the afterimage of pink crystals, enveloped in a hazy glow. In an instant, an arrow, amplified by a highly concentrated burst of Honkai Energy, flew to the Ganesha and pierced straight through it.
CRACK...
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the tunnel. The next second, countless brilliant pink lights burst from within the Ganesha. With a tremendous boom, the beast was torn to pieces, its silicon-based remains scattering across the ground.
The Emperor-class Honkai Beast, Ganesha, had been killed without putting up a fight.
But...
Hua came back to her senses and looked at the Li Mo standing before her.
Why?
Why are there marks on his shoulder as if he'd been torn by the claws of a Honkai Beast...?
Why is half his face covered in crimson blood, his open eye stained red...?
Why is he covered in blood, both crimson and purple...?
Li Mo: "Hua, you're a mess. Why did you give up on trying to live? I'm so disappointed in you."
Hua: "Go home... Where can we go back to?"
Li Mo: "I never believed the rumors about you being a witch in Fire Moth, but now I have no choice but to believe them. Out of a squad of over fifty, you're the only one who survived. The Emperor-class Honkai Beast ignored you, who had lost the will to live, and instead slaughtered those who fought for their lives."
Hua: "Captain Himeko is dead. Dad is dead too. Where can we go back to...? We can't go back. If this continues, you'll die too... You'll die too..."
Li Mo: "The witch... you live up to your name."
Hua: "Liar... You're not strong at all. You almost died, you were so close... Please, leave me. Stay away from me..."
Li Mo: "Elysia and I are leaving. You take care of yourself. If you need anything, you can come find me. But I hope the next time I see you, you won't be this cowardly. If you are, I'll look down on you from the bottom of my heart, even if you are Hua."
Hua: "Why are you still here?! Get out... Get out!"
An absurd conversation. The two of them seemed to be performing a monologue, each speaking their own lines. Or perhaps...
The people who were truly having the conversation had been lost to the river of memory, buried and entombed by the twisted sands. Only when the river reached a turn in fate did a part of the truth reveal itself.
Her empty heart ached with a dull pain. The horrific wounds on his body, the mangled flesh, the torn muscles, the shattered bones—they were like a bloodthirsty beast, gnawing and clawing at Hua's whole heart, crushing it to pieces. The hot, crimson blood that flowed out became a sharp knife, stabbing into her Achilles' heel.
It seemed they had parted ways.
After Li Mo left, fueled by some kind of extreme emotion, the ICHOR Factors in Hua's body unexpectedly awakened. The rejection reaction rapidly subsided. The Garuda DNA activated, and a pair of fiery wings, like those of a reborn phoenix, sprouted from her back.
But what did it matter?
Surviving the disaster brought Hua no joy. The proof of her witch's name, the deaths of her old and new comrades, the betrayal of her dearest loved one—all this suffering was far more painful than death itself.
What did she have left?
What could she have left?
Even if she had activated her ICHOR Factors, so what? She was still alone.
"What... should I do...?"
Her vacant eyes stared at the ground, as lifeless as her gaze. The shattered Key of Domination adapted to her ICHOR Factors, changing its form into a pair of gauntlets: the Grips of Taixuan.
There was no one to acknowledge or praise her. Even Hua herself found the gauntlets deeply ironic.
Forged from the blood of her comrades, they reshaped the name of the witch.
---||---
After Elysia defeated the Ganesha, Hua, the sole survivor, was assigned to the MANTIS unit, with the designation CM-014. There were many others there who had similar experiences. However, most of them kept their distance from the witch.
The MANTIS unit also had its outcasts, those who were discriminated against and ostracized. They were different from Hua; they were born monsters.
Hua knew this.
Compared to them, she was just an ordinary person who had gotten lucky. Before activating her ICHOR Factors, she couldn't even fight a single Chariot-class Honkai Beast. But in the MANTIS unit, there were those who had single-handedly killed the Herrscher of Ice before even becoming a MANTIS. The difference was obvious.
During the 11th Honkai Eruption, Hua and Kevin joined forces to kill the Eleventh Herrscher. Afterward, for strategic reasons, the MANTIS unit was disbanded, and Hua was transferred to the Far East.
From then on, only thirteen MANTISes remained in Fire Moth, collectively known as the Thirteen Flame-Chasers.
At Elysia's strong suggestion, each member was given a rank and a title called a "Signet." With these thirteen "weapons," they shouldered the hope for the survival of their civilization.
Hua was ranked twelfth and held the Signet of Vicissitude.
Though she had no idea what the signet meant, she was more concerned about why Mo had not joined the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, but was instead given an independent title: "Bountiful" (Fengrao). His file had been established before the Thirteen Flame-Chasers were even proposed.
In the days that followed, Hua was on the fringes of the group. The only time she played a significant role was after the 12th Honkai Eruption, when she used Fenghuang Down to seal the minds of everyone in the base, stopping the virus from eroding them until the Herrscher was sealed.
She rarely spoke to anyone. If she did, it was only the necessary words for work.
Griseo was the darling of Fire Moth. Everyone doted on her. Hua, being on the periphery, consciously kept her distance from Griseo to avoid bringing her any undeserved misfortune.
The person she had the most frequent contact with was surprisingly Mobius's assistant, Klein, but that was only for regular check-ups on the progress of the divine voice's modifications to her body.
Hua thought that would be the end of it.
But misfortune struck again.
"Infinity" Mobius intentionally triggered a Honkai cascade, consuming Klein.