Honkai Impact 3rd: Will Of The Universe

(S2) To Zero

​"No, don't!" Shiro warned.

​His voice cracked with a sudden, inexplicable surge of adrenaline. As before, Hua's feathers whistled through the air, piercing his shoulder.

​"Argh!" ​His crimson eyes flickered, but the focus didn't just dim, it shattered. A wave of profound, bone-deep exhaustion hit him like a physical blow.

It wasn't just the injury; it was as if his very soul had been hollowed out, leaving behind a cold, numbing vacuum.

​In that same instant, the dark, oppressive chains lashed out, binding Kiana's wrists and locking her in place.

​"Ugh! Get off me!" Kiana struggled, her Void Drifter powers flickering weakly.
​Shiro dropped to one knee.

He felt sick. His head throbbed with a rhythmic, pulsing migraine like he felt drained for just a second

Hua sneered, her eyes burning with a manic, golden light. She manifested a long, obsidian spear, her muscles coiling with divine force... She didn't hesitate. She heaved the weapon with enough power to shatter a mountain, aiming directly at Shiro's exposed chest.

Shiro saw it. He saw death coming. But his muscles were lead; his reaction time was sluggish. He was too tired to even blink.

Then, his body glitched.

​Without a single command from his brain, Shiro's arm snapped upward. It wasn't a conscious movement, it was as if an invisible puppeteer had yanked his strings.

​CLANG!

​The Handcannon met the shaft of the obsidian spear mid-air. The force of the deflection sent a jarring shockwave up Shiro's arm, but the spear spun harmlessly away, embedding itself into a distant stone mountain wall instead of his heart.

​Silence fell over the crater.

​Kiana opened her eyes, gasping for air, her heart hammering against her ribs. She looked at Shiro, who was still frozen in that awkward, defensive stance, staring at his own hand in pure bewilderment.

​"Hey... did you do that?" Shiro called out internally, his mental voice shaking. "Did you take over for a second?"

​There was a long, unsettling pause before the alter ego, the cold chaos-infused side of his soul replied. For the first time, the other him sounded genuinely rattled.

"No."... the voice echoed, sounding distant and hollow. "I felt... nothing. For a moment, there was just a void. A silence so absolute that even I couldn't reach you. I didn't move this body, Shiro. Something else did."

​Shiro's instinct clicks as he looked beneath his handcannon noticing something change.

​Eight chambers. Just like always.

​The weight felt wrong, and there was a strange, tingling warmth on the metal that shouldn't be there, but as far as he knew, there was nothing else to the gun.

​Shiro muttered aloud, rubbing his temple as the migraine spiked. "Wait. Did I? I felt like... I already knew where that spear was going."

Bronya finally found her footing, rushing toward them as Project Bunny manifested its heavy shield. "Subject Shiro's vitals are plummeting. Analysis: Extreme spiritual exhaustion. His reaction time was... anomalous, but the cost to his nervous system is critical."

After Bronya stated. His legs wobbled as he lost balance and fell right on his stomach, the lower part of the body became numb and frozen unable to move from his command.

"This is bad... What a bad timing." Remarked by his other self.

Hua, standing atop her perch of swords, tilted her head. The murderous smirk on her face faltered for a fraction of a second. She felt a strange, hollow sensation in her chest like she just lost a bet she doesn't remember making.