Herrscher of Dominance in Honkai, starting with the abduction of Kiana

The biting cold wind swept across the gray sky, bringing with it swirling snowflakes from afar. Two snowflakes, strangers to each other, inadvertently collided in this late winter storm, embracing as they landed on the tip of a young man's nose.

"It's already winter, huh?"

A soft sigh mingled with the silver-clad buildings, carried away by the cold wind. Ren walked along the blue-brick pavement, reaching out to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky.

Enveloped in snow, the world seemed to be draped in a thick layer of down, peacefully awaiting the arrival of spring.

Office workers, with hurried expressions, crunched through the snow, their footsteps making a crunch crunch sound.

Young couples strolled by, hand-in-hand, laughing as they passed Ren.

Children, released for their winter break, gathered in small groups, building a round, plump snowman on the snow-covered lawn.

"Just a little more, and we'll have the super, duper, cute Kiana-chan!" the kids said excitedly, earnestly patting the snow onto the snowman.

Ren stopped, carefully observing the roughly made snowman. He chuckled, "If Kiana knew that she looked this fat in the eyes of kids, she'd probably be sulking for a long time."

Hearing their snowman criticized, the little boy's face flushed red as he loudly retorted, "You, you're lying! Our snowman isn't fat at all!"

Unfortunately, his words lacked conviction. The snowman, normally consisting of a head and body, was currently just a big sphere planted in the snow.

Randomly found branches were haphazardly stuck into the snow ball. If they hadn't mentioned Kiana, even Sherlock Holmes wouldn't have found any connection to her.

Noticing the amused look on Ren's face, the little boy blushed even further, even he couldn't stand looking at it any more.

Luckily, his friends spoke up, yelling at Ren, "Kiana-chan is a hero who saved the world! You don't even understand her! Even if our snowman isn't pretty, she's still the cutest in the world!"

"Yeah, yeah! Calling Kiana fat? You must be a big bad guy like the Herrscher of Dominance!"

Seeing himself being collectively opposed by the children, Ren didn't mind at all. Instead, he said with interest, "How about I help you build one?"

"Hmph, go ahead! Just because you're a bit bigger than us doesn't mean you can make it look better!"

"Well, you never know."

...

A few minutes later, a couple inadvertently passed by. The guy was in the middle of saying something to his girlfriend, but when he turned his head toward the lawn, a delicate and perfect girl immediately caught his attention.

Such a beautiful girl! The guy's eyes lit up, feeling like he was blessed by lady luck for being able to witness such an exquisite scene.

He stared for a good half-minute before remembering his girlfriend was still beside him, and he began to apologize. But when he turned around, he found that his girlfriend was even more surprised as she stared in the same direction.

"What an amazing sculpture."

"Sculpture?" the guy asked, confused. When he looked back at the girl again, he realized she was made of snow.

He couldn't suppress his inner shock. If it wasn't for the snow being entirely white, the detailed expression and flowing hair would've made it look just like a real person.

The couple, astonished by the snow sculpture, looked at each other, and simultaneously pulled out their phones to take pictures and share them on their social media, spreading the word about this unique sight.

In a matter of minutes, this scene repeated itself, with every passerby stopping to admire the delicate piece of art.

"It's Kiana! Is this a miracle of the Magical Girl?"

"It's probably a fan-made thing, someone so obsessed that they think of Kiana's image day and night to carve such details."

More and more people gathered, completely blocking the entire pavement.

Ren adjusted his scarf, and quietly disappeared into the crowd.

As the Herrscher of Dominance, building a snowman was nothing, but showing off in front of kids was quite embarrassing for a Herrscher.

[Official confirmation, the Herrscher of Dominance has been successfully defeated, social order is being restored.]

The voice of a news broadcast came from the large screen on the street. Ren looked up, watching the news program.

"The Herrscher of Dominance..."

As the Honkai incident with the widest impact, the social unrest caused by the Herrscher of Dominance once plunged the entire world into a crisis of trust, with everyone fearing that disaster would strike them.

Fortunately, at the crucial moment, Kiana stepped forward and did her best to eliminate the enemy, saving the world from the brink of collapse.

Especially those living in ARC City, if asked by outsiders, could often talk for hours about it. Even small children, when talking about the story of the magical girl defeating the big bad Herrscher of Dominance, would excitedly show off their treasured comic books.

Even though they didn't even know what a Herrscher was.

Now, a week has passed since the Herrscher of Dominance incident. Both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy have begun to recuperate from this major upheaval.

Because no one dared to be sure if the next Herrscher to descend would be as difficult to deal with as this one, and whether humanity would still have any hope of overcoming the Honkai.

As the instigator of this incident, Ren didn't know the fear that humanity had towards him. He had only constructed a play called "The Thousand" for that girl.

Using the world as a stage, he bid her his final farewell.

As for others, they were just some dispensable audience members.

"Come to think of it, haven't I said something like a final farewell before?"

Ren suddenly fell into silence.

Carefully recalling all that he had experienced, Ren felt like he was an old general on stage, full of flags. Every time he made the decision to sever his past, he would break his promises due to various things.

"In any case, I am the Herrscher of Dominance, the stage of the Thousand has ended, and my story has naturally come to an end. The road ahead is for you to walk on, Kiana."

He walked along the road, quietly transforming into a snowflake, drifting into the distance with the winter wind.

Neither the pedestrians walking beside him nor the sales robot who was just greeting him noticed that a person had just vanished before their very eyes.

The development of the hive mind consciousness was nearly 80% complete. If Ren was willing, anything could become a vessel for his consciousness.

The snowflake that Ren had transformed into swirled in the sky, coincidentally landing on a windowsill.

The window wasn't completely closed, and snowflakes occasionally fell from the window into the room. Inside, a white-haired girl was quietly curled up on the sofa.

(End of Chapter II: Elegy for the Sinners)