Honkai Impact 3rd - The Interference

Chapter 86 - Nightmarish Landscape

The desolate landscape stretched endlessly, a barren expanse devoid of life and color. The only sound was the crunching of footsteps, each echoing through the vast emptiness like a ghostly whisper. A solitary figure moved slowly through the haze, his silhouette outlined against the dim twilight. He cradled a lifeless creature in his arms, its body limp and cold.

He had walked for what felt like ages, the world around him a twisted reflection of his own despair. The land was filled with shadows, eerie and distorted, as if the very ground rebelled against the concept of light.

When he finally stopped to survey his surroundings, his eyes narrowed with grim resolve. The place was all too familiar—he'd visited many times before, but it was never quite the same. The air was acrid, laced with a bitterness that seeped into his bones. This wasn't a place for the living; it was a graveyard for the forgotten, a realm where lost souls wandered in search of absolution.

"Is this it?" he muttered to himself, his voice swallowed by the silence.

The figure hoisted the creature higher, feeling its lifeless weight shift in his arms. He was far from any source of food or water, and the creature's flesh was his only sustenance. He knew it wouldn't last long, but in this forsaken place, he had no other choice.

As he brought the creature to his lips, ready to take his first bite, a faint sound caught his attention. It was subtle at first, like the scurrying of insects, but it grew louder—tiny footsteps creeping toward him from the shadows.

"Hm?" he muttered, tensing.

Out of nowhere, a grotesque creature lunged at him, its form twisted and monstrous, a corrupted beast born from the chaos of this realm. The attack was swift and vicious, but he was quicker. With a blur of movement, he spun on his heels, his blade flashing in a deadly arc. The beast collapsed, a lifeless heap on the ground, its attack silenced in an instant.

He exhaled slowly, his breath visible in the chill of the air. The sudden action had stirred a gust of wind that rustled his hair, but he didn't flinch. Calmly, he swept his hair back into place and resumed eating, as if the attack had never happened.

The rhythmic crunch of gravel under his feet was the only sound as he continued walking. He tore into the creature's flesh with a grim determination, the taste as bitter as the landscape around him. It was a grim existence, but he'd survived. For now.

As he walked, his gaze fell to the void beneath the rocky terrain—a bottomless chasm where the darkness seemed to stretch infinitely. A shiver ran down his spine as he imagined the torments that awaited those who fell into the abyss. It was a place of eternal punishment, where screams of the condemned echoed on the wind.

"Not today," he thought to himself, his grip tightening on his meal. "I won't fall into that void."

His steps grew heavier as he walked, the weight of his sins pressing down on him. This was limbo—a place where the living and the dead coexisted, where souls drifted in search of redemption. It was neither Heaven nor Hell, but something in between—a shadowy realm where the rules were written in blood and tears.

He stopped eating abruptly, sensing a presence behind him. The air grew colder, a subtle shift in the atmosphere that made his skin crawl. He turned slowly, his eyes scanning the desolation, and saw a tall woman standing there, her blindfolded eyes staring in his direction. Her posture was rigid, her expression as empty as her blindfolded gaze.

"It's been a while," he said, his voice tinged with a hint of nostalgia. "Malika."

"I'm surprised you remember," she replied coolly, her tone flat and emotionless. "Noah."