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

The attack on the Japanese branch had sent ripples throughout Anti-Entropy, but at their New Mexico base, daily operations continued as usual.

On the expansive training grounds, a one-armed man fired a pistol, each shot piercing a target hundreds of meters away. Each bullet hole was in the exact same spot.

After his practice, Siegfried holstered his pistol and pushed back his white hair. He pulled out a photo: a happy family portrait.

The man in the photo was trying to play with his one-year-old daughter, but she'd kicked him in the face. He looked at his wife, Cecilia, with a playful exasperation.

Time had frozen in that photo, preserving the image, but not the people.

"Kiana… Cecilia…" Siegfried sighed, tucking the photo away. His phone buzzed.

He frowned. After defecting from Schicksal, only Anti-Entropy had his contact information. But they had dedicated communication devices; personal calls were rare.

He checked the phone. The sender was unknown. The message contained several photos.

A white-haired girl, wandering alone, covered in Honkai cracks, looking as if she would collapse at any moment.

"Kiana!" Siegfried had long since accepted Kiana as his daughter, fleeing to Anti-Entropy to protect her.

Seeing her injured like this sent a jolt of panic through him. He didn't even check who sent the photos. He rushed to his colleague's office to investigate.

As he burst through the door, a blue-haired man looked up, his face etched with worry.

They exchanged looks, both holding their phones.

They'd both received the photos of their injured daughter.

"Siegfried-san, did you also receive photos of your child?" Raiden Ryoma was calmer than Siegfried, but equally disturbed.

Due to a classified mission, he hadn't contacted Mei in a while. Now, he'd received these photos of his daughter, injured and alone.

Siegfried nodded, ready to contact the base personnel. He had to find Kiana.

But Ryoma stopped him. They compared their phones. The sender was the same.

"Anti-Entropy's technology should be able to trace the sender. We need to verify this. It could be a trap."

As he spoke, a new message arrived on both their phones.

World Serpent will attack your base in ten minutes.

Still no name. After this message, the sender's information vanished completely. This was advanced hacking.

"World Serpent…" Before Ryoma could finish, a sharp pain pierced Siegfried's head.

A faint, familiar sensation made him tremble. This feeling… Kevin Kaslana and World Serpent.

"It's real. Prepare for attack!"

Alarms blared throughout the base. Outside, Raven and Jackal smirked.

After their failure in ARC City, they'd been punished, though leniently, given the circumstances. Now, they were tasked with attacking this Anti-Entropy base and retrieving the Judgment of Shamash from Siegfried.

"Don't tell me you'll fail again. He's the hero of the Second Eruption, after all," Raven said, glancing at Jackal.

Jackal glared at her. "Worry about yourself. I'm a scientist. Providing support is my job. *You're* the combat specialist. Failure is not an option."

They snorted at each other, then simultaneously gave the attack order.

Their squad surged forward. Equipped with Previous Era technology, they easily overwhelmed Anti-Entropy's mech defenses.

In ten minutes, they breached the base. But when they reached the central area, Siegfried was gone.

Raven frowned, her gaze falling on a pistol on the desk.

She touched the barrel. Still warm.

"He knew. Seems your intel isn't as reliable as you think," she said, smirking at Jackal.

"Shut up! With the sovereign's intel, he can't escape."

Siegfried's repeated use of Honkai powers had destabilized his Honkai beast genes. That's why he'd come to Anti-Entropy for treatment. But for World Serpent, it was a tracking beacon.

As they fled, constantly pursued, Siegfried and Ryoma realized this.

"Ryoma, you go. I'll hold them off. Take care of my daughter." To avoid capture, Siegfried chose to stay behind.

Ryoma wanted to argue, but there were no dramatic farewells between these two. They both knew this was the best option. They split up.

Siegfried took a deep breath, black armor spreading across his right arm, purple veins pulsing beneath.

Pain gnawed at him, threatening to overwhelm him. But he gritted his teeth, watching Raven and Jackal approach, a flicker of his youthful recklessness in his eyes. He drew the dual pistols: the Judgment of Shamash.

…

Ryoma escaped, leaving behind an inferno that quickly subsided.

Siegfried, unable to use the Divine Key's full power, and facing Jackal's HSN serum, was doomed.

But as Ryoma, having narrowly escaped, sought reinforcements, a gray-haired man in a mask sat on a wall, blocking his path.

A katana was embedded in the road.

"Raiden Ryoma-san, Obsidian Concord has been expecting you."