But the moment she steadied herself, the girl pounced again, knocking her to the ground. She straddled Shigure Kira's chest with her knees and opened her mouth to bite at her throat.
Shigure Kira reacted swiftly. She jammed the pistol in her right hand straight into the mouth of the girl, who was like a rabid beast, wedging it in place.
The girl bit down hard on the metal barrel. The sturdy gun body was crushed out of shape.
Shigure Kira glanced at the deformed weapon in her hand, her brows knitting slightly. She lifted her leg and kicked the girl square in the chest, sending her flying dozens of meters away.
But the instant she hit the ground, the girl rebounded like a cannonball and slammed toward Shigure Kira again.
Shigure Kira hurriedly dodged, but the girl had already sprung up from the ground, charging at her. Her claws swept relentlessly toward Shigure Kira, forcing her back step by step.
Faced with this suicidal fighting style, Shigure Kira did nothing but evade, searching for an opportunity to knock her unconscious.
Although the girl possessed tremendous strength, her fighting was nothing but wild flailing, completely devoid of technique.
It was still manageable.
They exchanged hundreds of blows.
The girl was knocked down again and again, sent flying repeatedly, yet each time she managed to stand back up.
Seizing an opening, Shigure Kira flashed behind her and smashed the pistol butt viciously into the back of the girl's head.
She put her full strength into that strike. Her hand went numb from the impact.
After crashing through several buildings, the girl rose once more as if nothing had happened, continuing her relentless assault.
She got stronger again?!
As the one under attack, Shigure Kira could clearly feel it. The girl's strength had increased once more.
She was obviously getting stronger the more they fought!
The rate of growth was far too fast!
Shigure Kira knew the sooner she finished this, the easier it would be.
If this dragged on, she would end up being defeated instead.
If she died, it would not be true death—she would simply return.
As for the girl before her, even if she were killed, she could be revived by the Will of Ruler.
The problem was, during the Will of Ruler's examination, would killing a character like this incur the Will of Ruler's displeasure?
Having learned about the situation on the Will of Ruler's side, Shigure Kira felt some hesitation about delivering a killing blow to this pitiful girl who had seemingly been turned into this state through human experimentation.
Because the last girl with a similar experience was named Sirin.
And she had now become the daughter of the Will of Ruler.
Judging by the timing, Kiana's side should be finished by now, right?!
At that thought, Shigure Kira made her decision.
She spun around abruptly, gripping her pistol tightly, and fired at the girl's eyes.
Bang, bang...
Bullets shot toward the girl's face. Instinctively, she raised both arms to shield her vulnerable eyes.
The bullets struck her forearms and ricocheted off.
However, when she lowered her arms and prepared to continue attacking, there was no one in front of her.
Having lost her target, the girl froze for a moment. The Honkai aura around her body grew even more violent.
She began wildly slashing at the surrounding buildings.
Buildings collapsed one after another with a thunderous boom, turning into rubble as debris scattered and dust billowed.
After dealing with the military personnel, Kiana was on her way toward the direction of Shigure Kira's battle when she saw Shigure Kira running toward her.
"Why did you run over here? Is it handled over there?"
Kiana tilted her head.
"I can't handle her over there," Shigure Kira stopped in front of Kiana. "Let's run first! If she catches up, it'll be troublesome."
With that, Shigure Kira grabbed Kiana's hand and pulled her along as they ran.
"You can't handle her? That kid's that strong?"
Kiana asked curiously.
"Very strong. Her strength is already close to mine," Shigure Kira replied. She had tried breaking the girl's limbs to disable her, but it had been useless.
Almost instantly, they regenerated or recovered.
And after each recovery, breaking them again became even more difficult than before.
Her overall strength kept rising.
"She's that strong? Then hurry up and run!"
Kiana increased her speed, and the two of them returned to the Queen of Blades' underground laboratory.
At this moment, the Queen of Blades sat in an office chair, her violet eyes fixed on the large screen displaying the girl who had fallen into a berserk state. Her body was heavily beastified, resembling a humanoid Honkai Beast.
"This child is quite beautiful."
Hearing those words, Shigure Kira's mouth twitched. Did this woman's aesthetic sense always run this strange?!
"She's the one who absorbed Honkai energy, causing zombies to die in large numbers from Honkai energy overload? Can you find her information online?"
Kiana walked over and handed the documents she had found on the slain researchers to the Queen of Blades.
"I found it. She's just an ability user with environmental adaptation,"
the Queen of Blades said as she opened the file and examined it carefully.
"With an ability like environmental adaptation, why did she turn into this? Her aggression is so strong."
Shigure Kira asked.
"Human interference. Secondary evolution of her ability, combined with Honkai energy," the Queen of Blades replied. "Under normal circumstances, when organisms adapt and evolve to suit their environment, it's for better survival. Humans used some method to force her to abandon evolution toward survival, creating what she is now."
"Some method?"
Shigure Kira frowned.
"Yes. I can roughly infer how those humans did it."
The Queen of Blades narrowed her eyes.
"How?"
Kiana asked.
"Extreme hatred," the Queen of Blades answered. "For now, I can't be certain why she hates the Honkai. Perhaps her relatives were killed by Honkai—or by us."
"Why can't you be certain?"
Shigure Kira asked in confusion.
"Because she had already been captured for experimentation before we arrived. Her relatives were also under the control of the human military."
The Queen of Blades rested her chin on her hand.
"..."
Shigure Kira fell silent. She knew about the treatment of ability users in this world.
They were barely regarded as human.
"I'm going out for a while."
With that, the Queen of Blades stood up.
"Need help?"
Kiana looked at her departing figure.
"No need."
The Queen of Blades waved her hand.
Late at night.
The Queen of Blades directed her swarm to tunnel through the nuclear-resistant military base located beneath the outskirts of the city.
Dense swarms of insects poured into the interior of the fortified base.
The military's alarm system was triggered, and the entire base went on high alert.
"What's going on?"
"The alarm system's activated. Is there an enemy invasion?"
"Prepare for battle."
Soldiers rushed into motion, grabbing their weapons.
They took advantageous positions along the corridors, staring tensely at the white beetles the size of fists crawling inward, each etched with purple patterns.
"Open fire."
At the command, the soldiers began shooting. But when the bullets struck the beetles, sparks flew.
The beetles remained unharmed. Instead, they grew even more ferocious, charging straight into the crowd.
Amid the soldiers' terrified screams, they were bitten.
Soon, some collapsed from poison, convulsing as they died.
Even when ability users among the soldiers briefly suppressed the swarm's advance, under the relentless tide of insects, they too were worn down and devoured alive.
The battle did not last long.
In the end, aside from a very few who escaped using spatial abilities, the rest were either dead or under the swarm's control.
After capturing the nearest military base, the Queen of Blades conducted a large-scale purge of nearby human settlements.
Only after confirming that no one remained capable of causing trouble did she turn her attention to the strongest target.
From the surviving humans in the base, the Queen of Blades learned the reason for the target's hatred of the Honkai.
To stimulate the girl's ability, the military had tortured and killed her parents before her eyes.
After her ability mutated, they altered her memories.
The object of her hatred was changed—from humans to Honkai creatures.
"We still need to wait a while."
If the experimental subject remained out of control for too long, she would eventually collapse after endlessly killing Honkai creatures and absorbing Honkai energy beyond her limits.
The Queen of Blades had already seen this from the earlier experimental data files.
If there were truly no limits, that would be far too monstrous.
After eliminating the nearby humans, the Queen of Blades secretly followed the experimental subject.
...
One week later.
Underground laboratory.
Maria Schariac's gaze fell upon the slightly protruding abdomen of the Queen of Blades. A speechless expression appeared on her face.
"You didn't just overeat, did you?"
"I did overeat."
The Queen of Blades smiled.
"..."
Maria Schariac let out a sigh. She truly could not understand the thought process of this woman whose mind diverged so drastically from that of humans.
To save someone she didn't even know—an enemy, no less—she was using her own body to sustain that person's life.
Well.
It wasn't merely sustaining life.
She wanted to grant her new life.
If the other party had been some great saint willing to sacrifice herself for others, Maria Schariac might have understood.
But the woman before her had previously killed without blinking and conducted experiments on people.
"Compared to mine, the one in your stomach seems to be the bigger problem."
The Queen of Blades pointed toward Maria Schariac's abdomen.
"A power of pure calamity."