The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

“……” Kevin was silent.

"Huh?" Qiana was stunned and looked at Kevin hesitantly, "Is that so?"

"Do you think Kevin would have kept Siegfried alive if he wanted to hurt him?" Li Shubai said, "Siegfried once succumbed to the killing impulse brought about by the super-mutation factor, so he has long been unable to correctly awaken the Kaslana Stigmata. Although it is a rather arrogant and self-centered point of view, from Kevin's perspective, he would choose to seal Siegfried in the deepest part of Kaslana Stigmata, probably to prevent Siegfried from disappearing from this world immediately after the Stigmata Project is completed."

"...But Kevin should also know that we can't just sit there and watch him complete the Stigmata Plan." Kiana was silent for a moment and said in a deep voice.

"I told you long ago that he's a weird guy. He obviously cares a lot about the Paradise of the Past, but he pretends to be indifferent. He's obviously doing it for the sake of others, but he makes himself the enemy of the world. There's no one in this world who can stop him, and his paranoid personality makes it impossible for him to listen to others." Li Shubai shrugged, not caring about Kevin's increasingly embarrassed expression as he felt like he wanted to burrow underground because his underwear had been stripped off. "So I told you long ago that he would most likely die on the way to carry out the Stigmata Plan." "Of course, that's if I don't come here." Li Shubai said, "After all, I don't want to bring back this guy's urn when I go back 50,000 years in the future. That would be too unlucky."

Chapter 4: Holy Scar Space (k)

The full moon, swallowed by darkness, dropped its spider silk around this frozen hell.

On the endless ice field, three diamond-shaped towers stood upright in the air. Outside the sky covered with spider webs, three white moons of different sizes hung high in the sky.

This huge ice field where everything is frozen in solid ice is the Yellow Spring Cave located in the deepest part of Kaslana's Stigma Space.

It is a chalk meteorite full of ominous signs, the place where the sins Kevin bears alone are condensed. At the same time, it is also the original hell with independent will that appeared in his nightmare in order to bury his past and himself.

[Kill Honkai][Kill Honkai]——In this way, a whisper from the Avici is sent to every visitor who attempts to awaken Kaslana's stigma.

"Hiss... It's so cold." Suddenly, a sound of someone sucking in a breath of cold air broke the boundless silence. Standing in this ice field, if an ordinary person came in, it would not be surprising even if their blood was instantly frozen. Li Shubai covered his shoulders and trembled slightly. "Although I have prepared myself mentally before coming in, it is still difficult for a non-Kaslana clan member to suddenly visit the Kaslana Stigma Space to endure the cold atmosphere here."

He looked around the dead silence and confirmed that there was no living person around except for the visitors. He gently touched the frosty Kevin with his elbow and said, "Hey, where did you lock Siegfried up? It's so cold, he must have been frozen into ice."

In this space where everything is frozen, even Kevin's body temperature seems to be not so cold anymore.

"For the members of the Kaslana clan, this level of cold will not affect the normal functioning of their body functions." He turned his expressionless face and glanced at Li Shubai indifferently, stating the self-evident facts in a calm tone, but a hint of hidden strangeness flashed in his eyes as he looked at Li Shubai.

——Yes, only for Kaslana’s people.

Although Li Shubai said that he also possessed Kaslana's stigmata, before this, Kevin was not optimistic that he could follow him to the lowest point of this stigmata space smoothly.

However, it now seems that this idea is extremely wrong.

Even though he did not have the blood of the Kaslana clan flowing in his body, this captain who traveled through time and space seemed to have engraved the stigma of the Kaslana clan into his body in a unique way, just as he said.

...No, it's not in the body and blood, but in the consciousness, or the soul, that the holy marks of the Kaslana family are engraved?

Even so, it was just as he said. Although there were subtle differences in characteristics and manifestations, the stigmata of Kaslana that he possessed were essentially the same as the stigmata that the Kaslana clan members possessed.

Therefore, he can enter and exit this holy scar space unimpeded.

And, it’s not just that—

Along with the sound of several footsteps of varying weights, the voice of a lively little girl, mixed with a little curiosity, suddenly broke the cold and almost frozen air: "Dad, dad, were you imprisoned in a place like this before?"

"What nonsense are you talking about, little girl?" The voice of an adult man answered the little girl's question, "Are you just going to let your father suffer? I have never been locked up in such a remote place!"

"But didn't the captain tell that uncle that you were locked up here?" the little girl said in surprise.

"The Siegfried they're talking about is not me, your father!" said the adult man.

"Hmm... In other words, it's just someone else with the same name?" The little girl pondered for a moment and came to a strange conclusion on her own.

"Well, that's not the way to put it, is it?" The adult male's tone sounded a little awkward. "Should I say it's the same relationship as you and the grown-up version of you over there?"

The little girl suddenly understood and said, "Oh! So that's how it is! It's really a complicated relationship."

"..."

Kevin's eyelids twitched. He suppressed the astonishment and complicated thoughts that kept rising up in his heart, turned his head and pretended that he didn't see the father and daughter who seemed to be on a picnic in this ice field, and walked towards the three-point high tower with a few people. Behind him and Li Shubai, Yulan Daier and Kiana, who also came to this stigmata space, had already fallen into a petrified state the moment they entered the stigmata space.

"...That...Captain?" After being petrified for a long while, Yulandel raised her arm, which seemed to be frozen and extremely stiff, and pointed at the extremely familiar blonde girl in front of her, who looked just like herself when she was a child. With a stiff smile on her lips, she tried to escape reality: "Why don't you introduce them to us? Who are...?"

"Huh? Can't you recognize her yourself?" Li Shubai turned around and ruthlessly shattered Yulandel's last bit of luck: "She is you when you were a child, Bianca Atajina, and next to her is you and Kiana's father, Siegfried Kaslana."

"Hey! Hello, little Bianca who has grown up!" Siegfried, who looked quite young and energetic, raised his hand, and a bright smile appeared on his tough and young face: "And little Kiana who has grown up! You have all become reliable adults, so please take care of me from now on!"

"Please take good care of me!" Little Bianca imitated Siegfried's behavior and cheered.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, ouch, my mind is a bit confused." After being petrified for a long time, Kiana finally came to her senses and groaned with a headache. She squatted down and scratched her silver hair fiercely, then raised her head and stared at Siegfried with an innocent face: "Are you really the stinky dad?! No! Although you do look almost exactly like the stinky dad, and your personality and way of speaking seem to be similar, you are too young!"

"Of course I'm your dad Siegfried, how could this be false?" Hahaha, Siegfried laughed happily, "Didn't you expect your dad could be so young? But to be honest, before today, I didn't expect that I would have the chance to see my precious daughter grow up. When I go back, I have to talk to your mother who can't come here. Cecilia has always missed you, and I'm sure she will be happy to hear more about you."

"Mother Cecilia?"

"Senior Cecilia?"

Hearing the name coming out of Siegfried's mouth, Kiana and Yulandel couldn't help but let out an exclamation of disbelief.

"Yes, that's right. It's your mother Cecilia." Siegfried touched his chin. "Although strictly speaking, she is not the Cecilia you are familiar with, but she, like me and the little Bianca you saw, is the will contained in the captain's stigmata space."

"The will contained in the stigmata space?" Yulandel and Kiana looked at each other. They swallowed their saliva and thought of a possibility almost at the same time: "Does that mean that we can also see Lady Cecilia?"

"I'm sorry. Although I really want you to meet Cecilia, this is really not possible." Li Shubai ruthlessly shattered the thoughts of Yulandel and Kiana. He glanced at the two girls whose faces were full of doubts, and sighed, "Whether it is Siegfried or Bianca standing in front of you, or Cecilia they are talking about, they are not real living people. Siegfried has made it very clear, they are all wills contained in the stigmata space I opened up."

"Theoretically speaking, if this wasn't the stigmata space of Kaslana, and Siegfried and Bianca, who are the will of the stigmata, were not recognized by this stigmata space, they could appear here safely...even the two of them would never have any intersection with you humans living in reality in their entire lives." Li Shubai said, and looked at Siegfried strangely: "But why did you bring little Bianca here? Although this stigmata space is not a dangerous place for you as Kaslana people, Cecilia was so confident that you could bring her out?"

Siegfried's expression froze. He scratched his hair and looked up at the sky with a guilty look on his face: "Ahaha... the weather here is really nice?"

"The weather is nice?" Li Shubai glanced at the sky covered with zigzag lines and the three full moons outside the sky, and was suddenly speechless: "If you insist, it is indeed nice."

"Right!" Siegfried laughed. "So it's understandable that I take Bianca out for a walk on such a nice day, right?"

Li Shubai glanced at Siegfried: "So Cecilia actually doesn't know about it?"

"Uh..." Siegfried was suddenly stuck.

"Although I think you shouldn't be so irresponsible..." Li Shubai's eyelids jumped, "...Could it be that because Bianca acted playfully and coquettishly to you, you didn't resist her request and just followed her wishes and brought her out?"

"..." Siegfried was silent.

"I can't control you because you love her very much. Kevin and Kaslana's stigmata space should not pose any threat to us." Li Shubai lowered his voice and whispered in Siegfried's ear: "But are you sure that the miserable state of Siegfried in this world is suitable for her to see? Before calling you over, I should have told you about his current predicament, right?"

"Captain brother, and stinky dad, what are you two talking about secretly?" At this moment, a little head with golden hair suddenly popped out from the gap between Siegfried and Li Shubai. A pair of big blue eyes were filled with bright stars, and it was obvious that he had been looking forward to this trip for a long time.

She tilted her head back, her face full of suspicion: "Are they talking about something interesting behind our backs?"

"We are just talking about some adult things." Li Shubai lowered his head, looked back at Bianca's blue eyes full of curiosity, and smiled, "For a girl of your age, this may not be an interesting topic, right?"

"Don't treat me like a child!" Little Bianca wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction. She put her hands on her hips and puffed out her undeveloped chest. "I heard everything. You are discussing the matter of the stinky dad in this world! The stinky dad in this world needs our help. I have known about this matter from the beginning! Don't try to fool me!"

Although her face was still young, when little Bianca interrupted the conversation between Li Shubai and Siegfried with an extremely tough attitude, the lively atmosphere that originally surrounded her disappeared at once. Instead, it was replaced by a solemn and mature atmosphere like a warrior who had experienced many battles.

Because there is no need to fight in the stigmata space and there is no danger from the outside world, Bianca has always played the role of a carefree little girl when she is with Cecilia and Siegfried.

Although, that might just be a sign that Bianca had let down her guard against her biological parents, it was also because Bianca had always shown her carefree side to others that Siegfried and Li Shubai suddenly realized, until this moment, that even though she had not yet reached the maturity of Yulandel, Bianca Atagina, who was still in her childhood, had already been a Valkyrie who had experienced hundreds of battles.

When Li Shubai made a request to Siegfried, she chose to use all her tricks and coax Siegfried to take her along. It was not because she was willful or playful, but because she simply wanted to contribute a little bit of strength, perhaps insignificantly, to another Siegfried, another father.

After understanding Bianca's true intention, Siegfried and Li Shubai looked at each other and saw a hint of helplessness and relief in each other's eyes.

"Well, it seems that the communication between your father and I has been eavesdropped by you, a little scoundrel, since early in the morning." Under the extremely complicated and tangled gaze of Youlandel, Li Shubai stretched out his hand and scratched Bianca's nose. After the latter made a protest like a kitten with its fur standing on end, he cleared his throat with a cough and snorted, "As you know, although Siegfried in this world is not in personal danger, he should be in a state of extreme mental weakness now because of the bad uncle over there who has a sour face and acts as if everyone in the world owes him tens of thousands of dollars."

Chapter 4 Family Reunion (k)

In fact, using the phrase "extreme mental weakness" to describe the state of Siegfried in this world is probably a fairly euphemistic statement.

Although the scene presented to Li Shubai and others was an extremely cold ice field covered with solid ice everywhere, as the deepest part of Kaslana's Holy Scar Space, the essence of this extremely cold ice field was still just a unique dimension of the imaginary space.

If Kevin had not used his extremely firm willpower and spirit to tyrannically cover the entire space with his mental landscape, what would appear before their eyes at this moment would probably not be this extremely cold hell, but a picture or scene that existed deep in everyone's consciousness and that even they themselves might not be able to understand.

And just as Kevin said, as a member of the Kaslana clan who had injected his body with super-mutation factor activator several times, with Siegfried Kaslana's current physical condition, even if he stayed in this extremely cold ice field for a year or two, it would not cause any substantial harm to his body.

But at the same time, it was precisely because Siegfried had injected the super-mutation factor activator into his body several times that the over-activated Honkai beast DNA also caused irreversible effects on his nervous system and blood circulation.

Lowered body temperature, cognitive confusion, loss of five senses - although under the influence of these side effects, Siegfried also gained the power to release the Holy Fire Judgment and was not burned by the flame storm of the Holy Fire Judgment. But there is no doubt that even in terms of combat, [the physical fitness that can withstand the unsheathing of the Heavenly Fire] is a considerable improvement, but from a human perspective, this physical alienation also pushed Siegfried into an inhuman abyss.

——As for Siegfried, who possessed the stigmata of the Kaslana clan but had never undergone the super-mutation surgery and was not a fusion warrior before the super-mutation factor activator was injected into his body, this inhuman mutation similar to that of a fusion warrior caused him to completely lose the opportunity to fully awaken the stigmata of Kaslana because of the forced activation of the Honkai beast factor hidden in his body by external force.

After all, if the Stigma Awakeners can still be barely classified as humans, then the Fusion Warriors have been transformed into a [other species with human will].

Kevin chose to imprison Siegfried in the deepest part of the Stigmata space, which had two purposes.

First of all, for the Stigmata Project that the World Serpent is currently executing, if Siegfried, who is unable to awaken the Stigmata correctly but also possesses extremely strong power, is left alone, he will definitely evolve into an additional variable that is beyond their control.

Secondly, also because he was unable to awaken the stigmata correctly, Siegfried was not like the fully awakened ones who would automatically cross the boundary between imaginary and real numbers the moment the stigmata plan was completed and come to New Atla on the surface of the moon in the flesh; nor would he be like the ordinary holders of the stigmata who would continue to remain on the earth as a human being where the environment and reality were about to be reconstructed.

Therefore, just as Li Shubai said before, although it is an arrogant and selfish idea, the reason why Kevin sealed Siegfried in the deepest part of the stigmata space, from his subjective perspective, is indeed a kind of [care] that cannot be refuted or resisted, similar to the one that parents show to their children.

There is no need to explain Siegfried's response to Kevin's [care] which was completely unexplainable - or even if Kevin explained it to Siegfried, the other party would definitely not obey.

Since you have imprisoned me in this extremely cold hell, then of course I can only try my best to escape from your imprisonment.

And if Siegfried wants to escape from the deepest part of the Stigmata Space and return to the real world, there is only one way left.

——After passing the test of Kaslana's stigma and fully awakening it, he crossed the boundary between imaginary and real numbers.

Only in this way can he escape from the Holy Scar Space, which is essentially still an imaginary space.

This is where the contradiction lies.

If he wants to escape from the stigmata space, he must fully awaken the stigmata; but because he once injected the super-mutation factor activator into his body, the factor of the Honkai beast once prevailed in his body, and ultimately he was defeated regardless of his personal will by the killing impulse that Kaslana's stigmata injected directly into his brain in an extremely rough way... The experience he suffered during the second Honkai made Siegfried completely lose the opportunity to awaken the stigmata correctly.

The final result was that no matter how much effort he put in, how great a price he paid, or how many times he repeated his attempts... all of Siegfried's struggles to escape from the Stigmata space were in vain.

Every time he tried to challenge the administrator of the stigmata, tried to completely control the power of Kaslana's stigmata... and lost easily, Siegfried's memories and self would be gradually separated and integrated into this imaginary space composed of memories as the stigmata's awakening failed again and again.

The first thing to be lost is the sense of time.

After losing his perception of time, he will be unable to correctly judge how long human memory can be preserved. He will then lose his sense of direction and waste more time in vain in the wrong direction.

And after completely losing track of time and direction...what was further lost were the only remaining memories and self-awareness.

Although he tried his best to preserve the most important [Cecilia] and [Kiana], in the end, the names of most things, including his own name, had been shattered and scattered in Siegfried's mind.

If it weren't for the fact that Yulandel in this world reset the nearby memory space after successfully awakening the stigmata, allowing the fragments of Siegfried's personality scattered around to return to his body, perhaps... Siegfried now probably couldn't even remember his own name.

But even with the help of Yulandel, Siegfried could vaguely feel that his family seemed to be watching him as if in a dream. Standing on the top of the prismatic tower, he was still in a state similar to shock.

The world is black and I can't feel anything.

The temperature, the sound, the light... everything seemed to be nothingness.

To use a metaphor, Siegfried's remaining consciousness is probably even weaker and more illusory than a candle in the wind.

Compared to the real flame, it is more like the moon reflected in the lake, which will break into pieces of waves with just a drop of water.

This feeling...he knew it.

After all, he is the strongest knight of the former destiny. Even if his consciousness and self are about to disappear, the instincts engraved in his body still allow Siegfried to have a vague understanding of his own condition.

Seventeen years ago... at the end of the second collapse, he had experienced a similar feeling.

After completely unleashing the power of the Holy Judge of Heavenly Fire and using the sword called [Destruction] to burn the sky, he felt as if his entire nervous system had been burned and his consciousness and perception had sunk into a void of nothingness.

Rather than feeling like I'm about to die, it feels more like the world is disappearing.

Suddenly, the ears that should have been unable to hear any sound seemed to hear a slight commotion.

It was like something was being gently placed on the ground.

With that slight sound as the dividing line, the dissipation of consciousness suddenly stopped.

Although consciousness has not yet reached the vision, the sense of touch has returned to the body little by little as the sound rang out.

So cold.

Although Pavani's super mutation factor was activated and his nervous system was damaged by the components of Honkai Beast, causing him to lose most of his sense of temperature, at this moment, Siegfried suddenly felt so cold that he wanted to shiver all over.

Hiss... It's too cold. Could it be that I'm placed on the ice?

Will my back be stuck to the ground when I wake up? That would be too bad!

Who on earth would do such a cruel thing to a seriously ill patient like me? When I wake up, I will punch that guy!

The brain, which had just recovered some of its thinking ability, could no longer control its thoughts, which were running wild as if the accelerator had been stepped on.

Finally, at the moment when his memory began to return, Siegfried suddenly opened his eyes.

After waking up, the first thing Siegfried did was to straighten his upper body from the extremely cold ground.

--Then.

BANG——!!

——Accompanied by a sound that sounded painful, similar to the sound of iron lumps colliding with each other, it hit someone head-on without any obstruction.

“—hiss! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”

“—hiss! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”