Honkai Impact 3: Deadwood

"Hmph, this troublesome guy is finally going to disappear..."

Xilin glanced at the human in the pool of blood with disdain and uttered an angry snort. Then she snapped her fingers, and a golden hole appeared beside the now unconscious captain. A soft ribbon slowly stretched out from it and gradually wrapped around the human's body.

"Little... branch..."

Through her own darkened eyes, Fu Hua, whose body was almost unable to move, watched as her old friend was about to be taken away by the Herrscher. She squirmed her body, stretched out her only remaining movable left hand, and touched the captain's damaged fingertips:

"At least... we must protect... him... Yu Duchen... Yu Duchen... Could it be that..."

Recalling the old friend's request just now, Fu Hua seemed to suddenly remember something, and the will to protect the old friend's life immediately occupied all her thoughts.

Before the captain's body was dragged away by the ribbons, the dying Fu Hua grabbed his hand first, but after her lips moved a few times inconspicuously, the girl closed her eyes and died without a sound. Her left hand, which was tightly grasping her friend's five fingers, also loosened its grip.

"Should have died long ago..."

Seeing that the girl lying on the ground was completely motionless, Xilin, who thought she was dead, said this with disgust, and then manipulated the ribbons to quickly bring the dying boy to her.

"Hehe, I don't know how you ended up like this, but it would be more fun to let you watch these stupid humans being wiped out by me rather than letting you die~☆"

Reaching out and caressing the boy's face covered in blood and scars, Xilin smiled somewhat morbidly, and the authority of the "Rosterer of Death" began to flow between her fingers.

However, as the power of the "Serenity Gem" that was enough to repair all physical injuries was slowly injected into the body of the human in front of her, the wounds on his body did not heal as quickly as Xilin had imagined.

Or rather, no change...

No matter how Xilin used the power of the "Silence Gem", the power injected into the opponent's body seemed to be swallowed up by something and disappeared without a trace...

"…Hmm? Weird…"

This scene reminded Xilin of the time when she first wanted to repair the bruises on this human's face. Although she didn't pay much attention to it at the time, now that she thought about it, the authority of the "Herrser of Death" did not work on him at that time.

Why...?

Just when Xilin was about to try to activate her power again, she suddenly felt a chill in her heart. The moment she raised her head, her eyes met with the young man who had awakened at some point.

"What!?"

The sudden eye contact made Xilin take a step back subconsciously, allowing her to luckily dodge several sharp sword strikes that followed.

Before Xilin could see clearly, the young man whose body was suspended in the air swung the black sword in his hand, cutting all the ribbons wrapped around his body into pieces, and then he did a nimble backward flip and distanced himself from her the moment he landed.

"Hmph..." As if to counterattack something, the "Captain" who had distanced himself from the "Hersher" once again snorted deliberately.

"Human, you!!"

She tried to save his life in a panic, but got such a response in return. Feeling like she was being fooled, Xilin became angry again, but within a few seconds, she noticed something strange.

"No, that's not right...you..."

Those dark eyes that should have reflected the starry sky and were too clear for her, now... only showed a red color.

“Could it be that you are…!”

The aura emanating from that person, which was completely different from "him", made Xilin come to the answer in her heart, and the other party's next words immediately made Xilin more certain of her judgment.

"Don't even think about touching him, Herrisher."

Hearing this, Xilin glanced at the girl who was still lying in a pool of blood in the distance. Although her body was still alive, it was like an "empty shell".

"I see... No wonder you didn't use your full strength. You used the "Key of God" that you had been hiding... to steal the body of that stupid human."

"..."

Recalling the scene where he had just activated the "zero rated power" of "Yu Du Chen" in a desperate situation to transfer his consciousness to the body of an old friend, "Zhi" did not speak, but gritted his teeth and adapted to the great pain that this body was enduring.

The eighth divine key, "Yu Duchen", which is the "key of consciousness", has the effect of activating its "zeroth rated power", which is to forcibly bind the user's mind to the mind of a living being with thinking ability designated by the user.

Of course, now that Zhi's consciousness had fallen silent, she naturally and temporarily gained control of this body.

To be honest, she never imagined that Zhi, an ordinary person, would endure this desperate and horrific torture alone.

She had thought that her experiences over the past thousands of years had enabled her to endure all the pain that could be inflicted on the body, but... to be honest, if it weren't for the "Yu Du Chen" that blocked most of the pain in this body from her consciousness, she would probably have fallen to the ground, unable to move, because of the "physical pain" that she was least afraid of.

Now controlling this body, Fu Hua can clearly feel that something in the old man's body is awakening and eroding everything this body has.

But the strange thing is that, although her consciousness is now in this body, she can only feel the pain manifested in this physical body, and the erosion from something does not threaten her existence.

"So what? Herrscher, taking away bodies that don't belong to you, isn't that what you love doing the most?"

"…you!!!"

With the man's face and voice, Fu Hua's sarcastic words suddenly made Xilin's anger rush to her throat, making her speechless.

"I only want to protect this body and its master, Herrscher. I will not let you have your way."

As Fu Hua spoke, she quickly glanced at the "Trace of Nothingness" in her hand. The purple crystal above the hilt was flashing a faint light back and forth, as if revealing some emotions that only humans could possess.

"...Xiao Ye, I'm sorry for borrowing this body without your permission, but in order to protect your brother, can you please lend me your power temporarily?"

Fu Hua carefully considered her words, and the light emitted from the "Key of God" sword seemed to sense the sincerity in her tone and quickly stabilized.

"Oh, how ridiculous! Do I have to depend on the mood of that toy to escape?" Xilin sneered, then snapped her fingers to summon a hollow around her, ready to attack:

"Unfortunately, you can't escape. No matter where you move to, I can see the traces of your movement in the "Imaginary Space". Don't forget, I am the real "Hersher of the Void."

"…Even so, I won't give up. As long as I'm alive, I will never let you hurt him."

Unlike Zhi who almost never put on a posture, Fu Hua raised the sharp blade in her hand and made a fierce sword move towards the "Hersher" in the distance.

"How shameless! I will torture you until you get out of that body! Anyway, I can heal him by then, hehe~☆"

“Healed…?”

Fu Hua couldn't help but wonder what Xilin meant by that, but before she could think about it, dozens of Sub-Sky Spears were already rushing towards her at high speed under Xilin's control. At the same time, several giant dark purple prisms also appeared above her head.

"!!"

Fu Hua dodged the stone pillar that fell from above her head, stepped forward quickly, and used sword moves that were completely different from the skills usually used by the owner of this body to knock away the sharp spears in front of her. In the blink of an eye, she rushed into Xilin's arms.

Seeing this, Xilin winked calmly, and several Sub-Sky Spears flew out from the holes beside her and densely stuck on the empty ground in front of her.