Honkai Impact: The Dream Keeper

In a war-torn village, a white-haired girl lay wounded on the stone steps.

[Hate... Hate and seek revenge...]

The white-haired girl weakly opened one eye and looked at the pink-haired girl with a knife in front of her.

[Use your own hands to destroy this ugly world!]

"Cough cough, no...don't..."

[This is your inescapable fate! This is your true destiny! —Yae Sakura!!]

Accompanied by Yae Sakura's indifferent expression, his right hand, holding the sword, slowly descended.

"Wake up! Sakura!!" Kallen shouted.

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"Aaaaaah!!" Theresa, lying in bed, suddenly woke up with a start, beads of cold sweat running down her face.

"Was I... having a nightmare?" Theresa, sitting on the bed, touched her arm again, then got off the bed.

"Hiss... I'm so cold..."

Theresa had only taken a couple of steps when she suddenly felt dizzy, then her vision went black and she collapsed to the ground...

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"What?! You said Theresa fainted?!" Kiana exclaimed in shock, startling Long Qiao, who was sitting nearby playing video games with a lollipop in his mouth.

"Why the hell are you yelling so loudly?! I almost beat the game!" Long Qiao cursed.

"Please keep quiet in the infirmary, you idiot Kiana."

“Although Kiana’s outburst was wrong, I’m concerned about the headmaster’s situation, so let me give a brief explanation, Bronya,” Mei said.

"This morning, Headmistress Theresa was found unconscious in her bedroom and has not shown any signs of waking up," Bronya paused, then continued.

"Bronya's analysis suggests the cause lies in the stigmata on her back."

"Stigmata?" Mei suddenly looked puzzled when she heard the word "Stigmata".

"The stigmata is essentially a database that records a large amount of genetic information."

Then Menmo and Zhang Qing shifted their gaze from Theresa to Long Qiao, and Mei and Bronya also turned their attention to Long Qiao at the same time. Even Long Qiao's expression became serious.

"Damn it! I died again. I'm not playing anymore, this game is trash! Huh? Why are you all looking at me?" Long Qiao was cursing when he realized something and suddenly looked up to see a bunch of eyes focused on him.

"...It's unlikely."

"Qiao, take off your shirt, let me see..."

"I reject"

"Wait, let me see."

"Holy crap! Brother Mo, no!" Long Qiao exclaimed, then instinctively covered her chest.

"Tsk, what are you thinking? I said I wanted to see your Stigmata."

"...Oh, you should have said so earlier. I thought you were just after me."

"...Get out!"

The crowd watching silently from afar unanimously facepalmed, realizing they didn't recognize them and how embarrassing it was...

After his antics, Long Qiao took off his shirt, revealing a muscular physique, and then turned around to show everyone his "tattoos."

"That stigmata is so cool! One's a dragon head, and the other's the symbol after transforming into Faiz," Kiana said enviously.

"Qiao, could you transform your Stigmata form again?" Zhang Qing suddenly asked.

"sure"

Then, Ryuu Takumi began to gather his strength, and the Orphnoch-specific pattern appeared on his face. Blue flames then ignited around him, followed by a flash of white light, and Ryuu Takumi's Orphnoch transformation was complete.

In its dragon-like form, the dragon is covered in dragon scale armor, with massive shields on its shoulders. It has a pair of horns on its head, yellow pupils, and resembles an Eastern dragon. Its tail is a sharp, sword-like blade with a slit in the middle that extends into the muzzle of a cannon when opened.

Then, in the reflection on the ground, the shadow of a naked man appeared—it was none other than Long Qiao.

"Hey, hey, hey, I said that's enough, how much longer are you going to observe me?" Long Qiao said.

"Alright, alright, change back."

Long Qiao then transformed from his Orphnoch form into his human form.

"Bronya, did you find anything else?" Menmo asked.

"However, an abnormal information flow was detected in the stigmata on the headmistress's back. This not only causes dysfunction in the host's body, but also affects her consciousness."

"What?! I've never heard of such a thing before!!"

"The artificial stigmata of Destiny adjusts according to the host's physical attributes, and this rarely happens. However, the natural stigmata on Theresa's back doesn't seem to have originally belonged to her. As things stand, Theresa's consciousness has already been absorbed into the stigmata's data space."

"What? Is Theresa never going to wake up again?" Kiana rolled her eyes in exasperation.

Is there any way to wake up the headmaster?

"Bronya, give it your best."

After a while...

Bronya took out three machines

"Hmm... what is this?" Long Qiao asked.

"This immersive mind-reality connection device can link the wearer's consciousness with the Theresa Stigmata, allowing you to enter the Stigmata's data space to investigate the cause of the anomaly."

"I understand, please let me try first," Mei said, taking the first one.

"Hmm... I'll have one." Menmo took the second one.

"I have a feeling something good is going to happen, so I'll take the third one. Xiao Qing, you stay here and protect us, okay?" Long Qiao said cheekily.

"no problem"

"Waaaaah, I want to go with Mei too!" Kiana cried, hugging Mei tightly.

"Idiot Kiana, do you think this is a spring outing? You should just stay here and take care of Theresa and the others whose consciousness has entered the data space."

"That's right, Kiana should just stay here and help me take care of them," Zhang Qing said, taking a sip of coffee.

"It's a bit bitter..."

"Sister Mei, Qiao, Brother Mo, Bronya will use the central computer to maintain contact with you. The most urgent task is to find Theresa's consciousness, which has been caught up in the Stigmata Space, as soon as possible."

Amidst a flash of purple light, Mei and Menmo arrived at this war-torn village. Houses were engulfed in flames, but it seemed someone was missing…

"Is this... the data space of the Stigmata?"

"It seems so, don't you think? Coincidentally," Menmo then turned and asked, noticing...

"Holy crap, Qiao's gone!" Menmo was stunned. How could such a big person just disappear like that? Not only Menmo, but Mei and Bronya were also stunned.

After all, such a grown person, just gone like that...

Meanwhile, at an altitude of nine thousand meters in the other area...

"...How the hell am I so high in the sky?! Aaaaaah!!! I'm afraid of heights!!!" Long Qiao cried out, cursing as she plummeted through the air.

"Aaaaaah!!! Mom, save me!!! Old Mo, save me!!! Bronya, save me!!! I'm afraid of heights!!!" Long Qiao twisted her body in mid-air.

"Oh, right, I can talk to Bronya now." Long Qiao then started fiddling with the phone and finally managed to connect to Bronya.

"Chiao, where are you now? How did you get separated from Mei and the others?" Bronya asked.

"I don't know either. I suddenly found myself above the clouds, shoulder to shoulder with the sun. Will I die?"

"Will not"

"That's good"

Then, Long Qiao shot down like a meteor at an extremely fast speed, and then plunged into the soil headfirst like an upside-down onion.

Then, Long Qiao struggled to pull her head out of the soil.

"Ugh... I'm so dizzy, it feels like there are so many stars orbiting around me!" She shook her head to recover, then looked around. What she saw startled her!

This place is swarming with Zerg! There are at least 20 of them, and even someone as strong as Long Qiao couldn't help but twitch his lips. The crucial point is that all of these Zerg are looking this way.

"This is getting a bit dangerous," Long Qiao said to Bronya on the phone.

"What happened?" Bronya asked.

"It's alright, just a little trouble. I'll hang up now and go find them after I've dealt with it," Long Qiao said before hanging up the phone.

"Phew... Let's have some fun then!" With that, Long Qiao took out the Faiz Driver and transformed...

The scene changes...

Mei and Menmo walked through the village

"What a tragic sight... Is this the memory etched into this stigmata?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, that's really quite pitiful," Men Mo chimed in.

“Sister Mei, Brother Mo, we haven’t found Theresa’s reaction in this data space. We should move on to the next space. Please follow Bronya’s instructions to the next target location,” Bronya said.

Mei turned around and looked at Bronya, saying...

"Please wait a moment, Bronya!" Mei saw a girl who looked a lot like Kiana lying on the ground, covered in wounds.

"This is... Kiana? No, although she looks a lot like her, it's not her."

“She is Kallen Kaslana, Kiana’s ancestor,” Menmo replied.

"Karen?"

"Um"

The two then walked over, and just then, Karen woke up.

"The samurai lady and this gentleman I don't know at all..." Karen forced herself to hand the cross necklace to the two of them.

"Hey! What's wrong? What happened here?" Mei asked hurriedly.

“If…you encounter a shrine maiden with long, cherry-blossom hair nearby…please…you must give this to her…” Kallen finished speaking and tears streamed down her face. Just then, Bronya’s voice rang out.

"Sister Mei, Brother Mo, this data space is collapsing. Please move to another area immediately..."

Meanwhile, in another area, a white-haired girl slowly awoke.

"Where...where am I? Why am I in the woods?" Theresa then looked at her clothes.

"Huh? What's with my clothes? Am I dreaming?"

Just then, someone suddenly fell down in front of Theresa. Behind them, a giant Honkai Beast bear appeared. Theresa looked tiny standing next to the Honkai Beast.

Then Theresa picked up the weapon from the ground.

"A Honkai Beast? Quite an ancient type, huh? You'll regret underestimating me. Heh heh, let me show you the power of an S-rank Valkyrie... Huh?" Just as Theresa swung her weapon at the Honkai Beast, it suddenly broke.

Then the Honkai Beast controlled its tentacles to bind Theresa, attempting to suffocate her. Just at this critical moment...

A shrine maiden with long cherry blossom hair, wielding a sword, severed all the tentacles and caught Theresa. The newcomer was none other than Yae Sakura!

----split line----

(To find out what happens next, please see details)