The Hero

On the outskirts of Nagazora, behind the last line of garrison.

"Who are you...? No, never mind. Even if I know who you are, it's no use, thank you for helping us anyway."

"If it weren't for you, this last line of defense would have collapsed earlier and would have resulted in more casualties. I'm very... very grateful."

A woman in her twenties who was in the prime of her life. She was seen sitting and leaning against the wall staring at the pathway littered with large sword marks under the fort.

If the monsters didn't disappear when they were killed, there would definitely be a sea of corpses belonging to hundreds of Honkai Beasts and Zombies.

The woman expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the boy who stood quietly beside her with the greatsword in his hand.

If this boy had not appeared a few hours ago there would have been countless Honkai Beasts and Zombies charging into Nagazora City from the outskirts.

During that time, the evacuation of Nagazora citizens would not have been completed and many people would have died.

Nagazora City's garrison units did not have the ability to handle such a situation, they were merely meat shields meant to buy time for the citizens to evacuate.

Staring at the woman in front of him, Kouro frowned when he saw half of the woman's face turn gray-white due to Honkai's energy infection, he already had an idea how to cure this infection.

"Wait a moment."

Kouro opened his status interface and then added 22 points to Honkai's stats.

__

Status:

Name: Hanagami Kouro

Level: 14 --> 16

Job: None

Title: Wolf slayer

HP: 9.000/10.000

SP: 1.152/1.152

Fatigue: 64

Strength: 72 --> 74

Agility: 48 --> 50

Vitality: 48 --> 50

Senses: 48 --> 50

Intelligence: 48 --> 50

Honkai: 50 --> 72

Points: 87 --> 65

__

After that, Kouro held the woman's shoulders and forcibly absorbed the Honkai Energy that had eroded the woman's body to prevent her from turning into a Zombie.

Kouro who had raised his Honkai status to 72, was able to control Honkai Energy to this level.

He had previously tried to absorb the Honkai Energy from the Honkai Beast, but before he could absorb it, they had already disappeared.

Forcibly absorbing Honkai Energy was like drinking poison to quench thirst.

Unlike the Honkai Energy he used from system that very stable, the energy from outside was too chaotic.

Fortunately, his control over Honkai Energy had improved so much that the amount of pain he felt was greatly reduced.

"Stop it! What are you doing!? Stop it... Just kill me before I turn into a zombie. You must be really tired, right? If you kill me, the area around the fort will be safe for a while and you can rest to survive."

The woman's voice faltered slightly.

She wanted to push Kouro away, but she was too weak to do so as her nerves had been damaged by Honkai's energy corrosion.

In the previous battle, she had also tried her best to survive.

There were dozens of people inside the fortress before.

But now, all of her comrades were dead, some killed by Honkai Beasts and Zombies.

Others had committed suicide first when they felt that their bodies had been corroded by Honkai energy.

She was the only one who survived to the end.

But when the battle ended, the tension in her heart dissipated which made her feel a tremendous pain piercing her soul, the unbearable pain made her want to commit suicide as well.

"You stop moving!"

Kouro endured the increasing pain from the Honkai Energy that he absorbed at a high speed.

"I... I'm just a stranger to you, I don't even know you, but why... why do you insist on saving me?" The woman spoke while crying.

"Do I need a reason to save someone? I helped you because I wanted to! And also... sorry, because of the large number of Honkai Beasts earlier, I couldn't save anyone else." Kouro said firmly, apologizing at the end of his sentence.

"You don't need to apologize because of you, we were able to complete our task to buy time, you are a Hero."

"The hero who fought against Honkai. The one who should apologize is not you." The woman's voice sounded weaker and weaker and her movements began to slow down.

Kouro gritted his teeth and looked at the successive system notifications before his eyes.

[HP: 8,967/10,000]

[HP: 8,743/10,000]

[HP: 8.000/10.000]

He endured the pain and continued to absorb Honkai Energy even as his hands began to turn gray-white.

Suddenly, a system notification appeared before his eyes.

[A Harmful Substance has been detected]

[Skill 'Unknown' has activated]

[Buff: Cure Poison's effect is healing you]

Reading the notification, Kouro grinned slightly, he could feel the pain he was experiencing gradually diminishing, even his hand which had begun to change color slowly returned to its original color.

Kouro opened his status interface and saw a skill that he didn't know how to use.

__

[Passive Skill: Unknown Lvl Max]

All diseases, poisons, and negative status effects are healed, and sleeping will explosively increase regeneration ability.

Permanent Effect: Longevity.

Permanent Effect 'Will to Rehabilitate': Any dismembered body parts are restored.

???

???

__

At that moment, Kouro's cell phone suddenly rang.

Feeling his cell phone ring, Kouro closed his status interface.

Seeing the name of the caller, Kouro took a deep breath and answered the call while continuing to absorb Honkai Energy.

"Hello?"

"[Kouro? Thank goodness you're alive! Where are you now? Mei and I are looking for you.]"

"...No need, just tell me your location, and I'll look for you. I will meet you before the sun completely sets."

Kouro tried to make his voice steady, but the volume and speed of his voice was much slower than when he usually spoke.

Fortunately, Kiana, who was happy to know that Kouro was still alive, did not notice.

Kiana then told him their location and after telling him to be careful, she quickly hung up.

His breath, which had been forcibly held, came back quickly.

He was too tired. Before he came here, he was at Tachikawa Academy studying as usual.

But as daylight was approaching, Kouro suddenly saw Zombies attacking the academy. He knew that the Honkai Eruption had happened again and there was a high possibility that it was large-scale.

He quickly protects the teachers and students while evacuating them to safety.

He did so for three hours before heading to the outskirts of the city after his heightened perception sensed some presence of many Honkai Beasts there.

Although he fought off the Honkai Beasts with the help of the Nagazora City garrison unit.

The conventional weapons they used were not enough to kill the Honkai Beast that was over 10 meters tall. Kouro had always been the one to finish off Honkai Beasts of that size.

Although most of them were ordinary classes and Kouro with the Nitro Crystal Greatsword could easily destroy them.

It's just that there are too many of them, plus the battle against them is always high-intensity, Kouro's mind and body are tested to the limit.

Especially at this time, he had to endure severe pain from absorbing Honkai Energy.

Fortunately, the Skill 'Unknown' was activated and healed him.

Although Kouro could feel that his body was whining more than when he was training hard.

If it wasn't for Kouro's 'Indomitable Will', he definitely wouldn't have been able to survive and would have fainted long ago by now.

"I'm already feeling much better. Since you have friends in Nagazora City, hurry up and leave."

Thanks to the efforts of Kouro and the system, of course, the woman's fate turned around.

This was a miracle that would shock the world.

An achievement that will always be remembered by mankind, just happened in this fortress.

The woman is back to normal now, but her strength is still lacking.

But she had enough strength to push Kouro's hand off her shoulder that was absorbing Honkai Energy.

"Did you think I would leave you here alone!?" Kouro shouted in annoyance.

This woman was the only person he had saved with great difficulty and also the only survivor of the Nagazora city garrison security team.

How could he just ignore her!

"Then just leave her to Bronya."

The small figure of a girl appeared in this fort and right after saying that.

A humanoid robot suddenly appeared behind Bronya and carried the woman in its huge arms.

"Bronya will do her best to bring her to safety. Project Bunny 19C can also absorb Honkai energy in the air to create a relatively safe environment. So don't worry, she won't turn into a zombie."

At this moment, Kouro who was holding the Nitro Crystal Greatsword had many questions on his mind because of Bronya's appearance.

Bronya was also thinking the same thing after seeing Kouro's strength that surpassed many Valkyries.

But in the end, the two of them did not ask each other.

"Alright, go ahead."

Kouro did not leave first, he watched Bronya and the woman until they disappeared from his sight.

*Thud! *

The large sword he was holding suddenly fell to the ground with a bang, making a muffled sound.

He leaned against the greatsword and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Bleurgh!"

After spitting out so much blood, Kouro's skin looked better.

"If artificial Honkai Stigmata Energy is just like this, I can understand why the average lifespan of a Valkyrie is so short."

Kouro thought of Himeko before muttering.

"They endure this pain silently without screaming. I hope the artificial Stigmata Honkai Energy is more stable than the Honkai Energy I just absorbed. If not, it will be excruciating."

After wandering around for a while on the outskirts of the city and confirming that there were no more Honkai Beasts, he quickly left and returned inside Nagazora City leaving behind a mouthful of blood.

This last stronghold had survived the large-scale Honkai Eruption.

It would either be remembered or forgotten.