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Chapter 169 — Saving Nia Honjou
🕑 Added 2025-07-12 15:09:44 +0000 UTCNia Honjou was an incredibly unique Spirit.
She possessed the angel Rasiel, one of the most powerful and mysterious in this world—an angel that embodied near-omniscience.
Rasiel had two components: the Information Retrieval Pages and the Blank Page.
The Retrieval Pages granted an all-knowing ability—capable of acquiring any information, as long as it didn’t pertain to the future.
Whatever she wanted to know—who, what, where, when—could be found with a single thought.
Basically, a god-tier Google search engine.
The Blank Page, on the other hand, allowed anything written on it to become “reality.”
With the pen embedded in her Astral Dress, anything Nia wrote on Rasiel’s blank pages would become a pre-written part of the future. A reality-altering script.
However, it couldn’t affect fully equipped Spirits.
The power sounded insanely strong, but Nia herself had very poor combat ability.
She rarely, if ever, used her angel’s power in battle—which, let’s be honest, was the author’s fault.
In the end… Nia, your Stand is the most useless of all for fighting!
Even Nia herself admitted she had zero combat capabilities.
To be fair, someone embodying the “Wisdom Sephira” wasn’t meant for direct combat anyway.
She was built for backstage manipulation, information warfare—playing the mastermind role, not the warrior.
That’s why, when she was captured by the strongest human sorcerer alive, she didn’t stand a chance.
DEM Corporation had imprisoned her to conduct Inversion experiments—torturing her in an attempt to force her into an Inverse form.
They drilled holes in her skull.
Sliced her abdomen open while she was still conscious.
Bit by bit, they cut off her arms and legs...
Spirits weren’t purely carbon-based beings, but semi-energy lifeforms fused with their Spirit Crystals.
As long as they retained enough Spirit energy, they wouldn’t die.
And that very trait was what doomed Nia to an endless nightmare.
When she finally went numb from the pain and lost consciousness, DEM researchers implanted a manifestation device directly into her brain, erased her memories of the torture—then began the torment all over again.
Because of her angel’s power, Nia could also see into the minds of humans.
And after constantly viewing the twisted depths of their souls, she had long since lost all hope in humanity.
The ugliness and cruelty she saw far exceeded anything the average mind could imagine.
It was pure hell.
Even after everything, she hadn’t inverted.
"Tch. Just as humanity can be the most beautiful thing in the world, it can also be the ugliest," Nagami muttered.
One of Kurumi’s clones had transported him into the blood-soaked laboratory via shadow space.
There, on a cold, metallic table, lay the Spirit.
Blood soaked the floor.
Bones were exposed.
The air reeked of iron and rot—it was sickening.
Nagami had never really held any personal grudge against DEM Corporation… until now.
In that moment, he wanted to see it destroyed.
"I’ve killed nearly ten thousand humans," Kurumi said quietly, standing nearby.
The violent surge of her Spirit energy sent gusts of wind swirling around her.
Her black bangs whipped around her face, revealing the golden clock-eye hidden beneath them.
Her crimson pupils gleamed with murderous intent.
"Nagami-kun, what should we do with these two?"
There was no trace of the playful, maid-like tone anymore.
Nightmare-sama’s voice was laced with unrestrained madness.
Spirit or human—it didn’t matter anymore.
No one who took part in this torment deserved to die peacefully.
Nagami glanced at the two researchers cowering on the floor, shaking like leaves—but said nothing.
Instead, he walked slowly toward Nia.
Her face, once full of charm and intellect, was twisted in unbearable pain.
Her once bright teal eyes were vacant, lifeless.
She stared into nothing, blood-tears trailing down from her swollen eyelids.
Gently, Nagami reached out and placed a hand over her chest.
There was no hint of lust or indecent thought in that moment—only compassion, only resolve.
The Honkai energy inside him began to stir.
Passing through the core of the Herrscher of Void, it transformed into warm, pure Spirit energy, channeling into the flickering Spirit Crystal within her body.
With the power of the Herrscher of Reason regulating the output, Nia’s body began to rapidly regenerate.
In less than a minute, she was physically whole again.
She couldn’t move.
She couldn’t think.
All she could feel was endless pain.
Like floating endlessly in a dark hell, Nia lay motionless, her senses numb, yet faintly aware of the sound of water—no, blood—dripping onto the ground.
Then, something stirred in the darkness.
An unfamiliar warmth.
A distant glow.
Her icy, despairing expression flickered with confusion.
A sliver of light appeared in the void, radiating gentle warmth.
Like sinking into a hot spring after a lifetime in the cold...
She felt arms around her—someone was holding her.
Real warmth spread across her skin.
It reached her nerves.
Her ears.
And then a voice, soft and gentle, whispered beside her:
"Sorry I’m late."
Her blurry, dreamlike vision slowly began to clear.
It was like surfacing from the depths of a dark ocean—finally seeing a glimpse of light.
A boy with black hair stood before her, the sun shining softly behind him.
His warmth reached her through the shadows.
For the first time in what felt like eternity, the blankness in her eyes gave way to a faint spark of life.
But then her gaze drifted downward—to the researchers on the floor.
In that instant, fragmented memories surged back through her mind like lightning.
Screams.
Blades.
Needles.
Pain.
It all came rushing back.
The moment her eyes shut tight, a violent wave of rejection surged through her chest.
Nia Honjou clutched her throbbing head.
No…
No.
She couldn’t remember—mustn’t remember!
"It’s okay now. You’re safe."
Nagami’s voice was soft, almost like a parent soothing a frightened child.
The blood-soaked visions faded a little, and Nia’s furrowed brows relaxed slightly, though she still didn’t dare open her eyes.
Gripping Nagami’s collar tightly, she buried herself into his chest, desperate for protection.
Nagami didn’t resist.
Completely exhausted, her spirit worn to the edge, Nia fell unconscious the moment she was safely in his arms.
Nagami let out a long, heavy breath, as if trying to release all the rage and frustration boiling inside him.
He had mentally prepared himself, but witnessing the horror firsthand… it still filled him with a fury he couldn’t suppress.
It was hard to believe this Spirit had endured five full years of such inhuman torture.
What would’ve caused any other Spirit to invert after just one session had been inflicted on her repeatedly.
Gently holding the unconscious girl in his arms, Nagami smiled faintly as he turned to the two researchers.
In the depths of his pitch-black irises, a strange crimson sigil—resembling a bird in flight—glowed with eerie light.
"Fall in love with me."
Kurumi’s eyes widened in astonishment as Nagami spoke.
Aside from using the power of the Honkai Will, this was the first time he had activated Geass.
He had always believed that forcibly twisting someone’s will was even more cruel than killing them.
But for these… things? These monsters that barely qualified as human?
It was perfect.
To Kurumi’s shock, the two researchers, previously restrained by her clones, stopped struggling entirely.
Instead, they looked at Nagami with gazes filled with adoration—hopeless, obsessive affection.
At his mental command, the clones released them.
They didn’t flee.
Instead, they drew closer to Nagami like lovesick followers.
"Now, do to each other what you did to this Spirit girl. Can you do that for me?"
His voice was gentle. Sweet, even—like a lover’s whisper.
"Yes, my lord!"
Their voices dripped with devotion as they picked up scattered instruments from the floor and drove them into each other’s bodies without hesitation.
"Wh-What…?"
Kurumi’s shock shifted into uneasy realization.
A mental-type ability?
Even as blood sprayed from their wounds, even as their bodies shook from pain, the two researchers twisted their lips into strained smiles, eager to display their loyalty to Nagami.
A chill crept down Kurumi’s spine.
This ability… was terrifying.
"Let’s go," Nagami said calmly.
"...Mm."
Kurumi gave a casual reply.
It wasn’t until Nagami entered her shadow space that she blinked in realization—
Wait—she hadn’t activated her ability just now!
Outside the DEM Corporation facility, Kurumi flew up beside Nagami, watching him silently gaze down at the base below.
A slow, mad smile spread across her lips.
"Shall I destroy it for you? If I activate City of Devouring Time—"
"No need," Nagami cut her off. "Recycling trash is nice and all… but this garbage doesn’t even qualify as usable waste."
He infused Nia’s mind with gentle Void energy, allowing her to float peacefully beside him, her body protected in a shimmering veil.
"And besides... a quick death would be far too kind."
Raising his hand forward, the mark of the King’s Power from the Herrscher of the Void gleamed with pure, radiant light.
Stardust-like strands of violet-silver poured from the air, condensing into a beautiful crystalline form.
"A gift. One they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives."
Kurumi opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but before she could, she heard a sharp snap of his fingers.
The violet crystal shattered, scattering into countless invisible particles that drifted through the air like pollen.
"This is a virus from another world. It has self-awareness. Anyone on this island who knows about Nia Honjou’s existence will be infected."
He smiled softly, almost warmly.
"The virus will fuse with their souls. The crystals it generates will rupture their cells, scramble their organs, and inflict a pain that pierces the soul itself… a pain that will stay with them forever."
Kurumi stared at him, her smile faltering.
She was truly grateful now that she hadn’t chosen to fight him back when they first met.
Because if she had…
She wouldn’t have survived the second round.
"...Let’s go."
With a strange look in her eyes, Kurumi nodded as Nagami took her hand and led her into his own shadow space.
