The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"The Herrscher crossed C31 Street."

"The Herrscher arrived at the Wadif intersection."

"The Herrscher's route analysis is complete. The target should be the European branch base located in the west of Brindi City! The necessary route is being calculated."

"The calculation is complete. The necessary route is the three-kilometer D81 Commercial Street from Sarakin Bridge to Milo Shopping Mall. The Herrscher's ability is uploaded to the personal terminal. The Anti-Entropy Brigade has 83 seconds to prepare the battle plan... The Herrscher speeds up, please prepare to intercept."

"..."

Prometheus did not get a response, and could only urge over and over again:

"Please prepare to intercept."

Seeing that everyone either bowed their heads or sighed, Mikael stood facing the wall without saying a word, Kevin gritted his teeth and stood in front of the Second God Key.

"Leave it to me... I have the least relationship with her."

"No..."

"57 seconds left."

Prometheus was loyal to his duty and urged tirelessly.

"Why! Mikael, what are you thinking? Do you want to delay until more people die because of the Herrscher, or do you really plan to go by yourself..."

"No, what I mean is that, except for me, none of you have a chance of winning."

Mikael finally turned around.

Now it was Kevin's turn to be silent.

What he said was indeed the truth. Who else has the ability of the Sixth Herrscher except Mikael who has the power of space... Not to mention defeating her, even approaching her and fighting her can't be done?

"I'm leaving."

His soft announcement still echoed in the room, but his figure was no longer visible.

Everyone sat there, speechless for a while.

Prometheus stopped counting, and in the silence, the flow of time became slow.

Until Mobius interrupted it all:

"You just watch like this?"

According to inertial thinking, this sentence should be mocking Alicia's indifference, but after everyone present chewed it roughly twice, they found that it seemed to be talking about themselves, of course, including Mobius himself.

The three alarms that pierced the air came too suddenly, and everyone gathered at the fastest speed, so when they saw the Sixth Herrscher, everyone had no room for buffering in their hearts.

"If you think about it this way, I should be the one who can accept this result the most among all people, right?"

Looking at the plain white dress that appeared at the end of the road, except for the large amount of blood, it still looked familiar.

She seemed to see Mikael, of course she saw Mikael, so she stopped and looked at Mikael at a distance that was neither far nor near. .

The corners of the skirt were gently lifted by the night breeze, and the girl's hair was also like this.

But Mikael knew that she was no longer herself.

"Brother Mikael!"

Xier's call came from afar, but he was indifferent.

He had been mentally prepared for a long time, he had been mentally prepared for a long time.

It's just so, it's just so, he silently said in his heart.

The black mist spread to his feet, but he did not panic. Instead, he took the initiative to move towards it.

"I never thought that I would be able to use it now after complaining about it being useless a few hours ago."

Mikael mocked himself.

His skin began to turn blue. Before the black mist touched his cells, it was guided by another energy and finally turned into the dinner of Vishnu Factor.

Starting from the stone bridge that Mikael had walked with Ellie and Xier, he took a total of 237 steps. When he took the last step, Xier, who had been focusing on him, felt the changes around him.

The city of Brindi where they were was more dilapidated and desolate than before.

Every breath he took could inhale dust.

The dust is not ash in the general sense. To be precise, even the Sixth Herrscher can only accelerate the division of cells, causing them to age and die at a very fast speed, but the dead cells still have corpses. After losing all their tissue structures, they can no longer show themselves in human form, so there is this kind of dust similar to the keratin peeling off the human body.

"Brother Mikael, why did you bring Xi'er back to the world again?"

She squinted and chuckled.

"Do you think you can fool me like this? Sixth Herrscher."

"What are you talking about? Brother Mikael..."

"Enough!"

Mikael looked coldly at the Herrscher who had stolen Xi'er's body.

"Open your eyes."

The Herrscher obediently opened his eyes. They were a pair of blood-red eyes that were completely opposite to Xi'er.

Perhaps she realized that there was no need to pretend anymore, and she suddenly laughed wantonly.

"Hahahaha... Hehehe... Hahahahaha! Mikael~Brother~What do you mean by asking me to open my eyes? To show the difference between me and her? You want to tell yourself and remind yourself that the girl in front of you is no longer Xier who pesters you to call her brother, but your enemy - the Herrscher! In this way, you can kill me with peace of mind, and you can end it all with peace of mind, right?"

"It is undeniable that you are right about everything."

Mikael looked at her with cold and compassionate eyes.

"But you can't deny that you have no chance of winning against me. Especially after I dragged you into this bubble, you have no way to leave it."

As soon as the words fell, Mikael already had five fingers in his palm, piercing deeply into the chest of the Sixth Herrscher.

"Tsk tsk!"

Blood flowed from the corners of his mouth, but the Herrscher still smacked his lips in disdain, took two steps back slightly, and then pulled his body out of Mikael's hand knife.

"Is this what you call [the odds]? Come on! Didn't you kill the Sixth Herrscher once in this world bubble? What? You still can't find a way to kill me? What are you still hesitating about? Or are you? Say, you can’t do it at all?”

Mikael sighed softly and closed his eyes.

Naturally, the Herrscher would not miss such a good opportunity. The horny cells in her palms began to grow into sharp claws, and she swung towards Mikael's heart quickly and accurately.

However, the tips of her claws stayed at the moment when they were about to break through Mikael's skin, and could no longer penetrate deeper.

The invisible force restrained her, and then, the imaginary number crystal further appeared, firmly fixing her limbs.

At this time, the Sixth Herrscher, no matter from any angle, was already a piece of fish on the chopping board, ready to be slaughtered by Mikael.

But she was not afraid, she just changed back to her timid expression.

And Mikael also closed his eyes for a long time and made no movement.

He knew, indeed, as the Sixth Herrscher said.

The key point of this war has never been whether he can kill the Sixth Herrscher.

The Sixth Herrscher was certainly difficult to kill, but for Mikael, who had one killing experience, he had already obtained the correct answer before entering the examination room. Under the premise of knowing the method, he could kill the Sixth Herrscher. The six laws are easy.

The only obstacle is himself.

Just like he couldn't swing a sword at Alicia in the world bubble at that time.

He can't swing his sword at Xi'er now.

Even at that time, he knew in his heart that Alicia in the world bubble was not equal to Alicia.

Even at this moment, he knew in his heart that the Sixth Herrscher was not Xi'er, and the real Xi'er had already died before the Herrscher came.

But the reasons are different.

If we say that sacrificing himself in order to kill Honkai was something that Mikael could not accept at that time, it was Ellie's fate.

So, what does becoming a lawyer mean to Xi'er——

This is her original destiny.

This is the fate Mikael wants to change.

This is the fate that Mikael wanted to change but failed to change in the end.

But precisely because this was her possible fate, Mikael had faced this moment in nightmares more than once, so when this moment actually happened in front of him, it was not as heartbreaking as he imagined. Lungs hurt.

No, not so much as "not that".

It's better to say that there are no special emotions at all.

It seemed that from the moment he learned that Xi'er had left the world bubble, his whole brain was in a state of emptiness.

I can’t feel fear, I can’t feel anger, I can’t feel helplessness, I can’t feel sadness…

He should no longer be who he used to be, and he would not question [him] who may not exist, or even if he does exist, would not care about it because of this tease of fate.

You won’t be filled with worries and hesitation in your mind, unable to make a final decision.

So what was the reason why he didn't kill the Sixth Herrscher?

Is it because of the tightness gradually accumulating in the chest? Or because he really hasn't heard enough of that "Brother Mikael"...

But there is a difference between not taking action and being unable to take action.

For an equally old machine, failure to start means that it is impossible to start.

And Mikael's body, after an inexplicable period of silence, finally slowly but firmly stretched towards the Sixth Herrscher.

His hands were already covered with frost, and the air around him was filled with a harsh frost color. He wanted to freeze and crystallize Xi'er's body, and then use the remaining power to give her a fatal blow.

By then, nothing will be left.

The girl's body will not stay, the girl's timid voice will not stay, and the girl's only concern in this world will not stay.

After that, there is neither the Sixth Herrscher nor Xi'er in this world...

Staring at those blood-red eyes, Mikael thought in his heart.

That's right, the reason why he asked the Sixth Herrscher to open its eyes was not to use this visible difference to remind himself of the difference between it and Xi'er, so that when he strikes, he can be more decisive and neat. Killing without leaving more pain and repercussions?

"Click! Click!"

The sound of hard objects breaking made Mikael's mind clear up a little, and he realized that his hand was still on Xi'er's chest, unable to move even an inch.

But unlike the Sixth Herrscher, she couldn't make any progress because she couldn't do it due to objective conditions, while Mikael did it because...

The blood-like dark red was suddenly replaced by the clear blue of the water.

"Brother Mikael!"

"Uh! Xi'er!"

illusion! It must be an illusion!

no! He has also experienced the process of his original consciousness being erased by the consciousness lowered by Honkai, so there is no chance of him surviving!

What's more, he took the opportunity to sense it when he penetrated the Sixth Herrscher's chest before. There is no ring-shaped singularity structure in the Herrscher's core. In other words, she is no different from other Herrschers of this era, and it is impossible. There are different.

So he resolutely released all his power.

Since the anger in my heart can't be sorted out no matter what, then use all your strength to give "Xie'er" the most respectful death.

Mikael thought so.

As a result, his core also trembled slightly... No, in fact, the so-called core is equated with [his] existence.

Then, an unprecedented amount of Honkai energy surged out of the core, and too much of it was thrown out of the body before it could be used.

The hair stretched so long that it could be dragged on the ground, but it was held up by the air flow stirred up by the Honkai energy, and it was stretched and flew backwards.

And more Honkai energy solidified into large armor plates, fitting him casually and compactly.

"The core synchronization rate is 100%. I'm sorry for you, Xi'er!"

Mikael thought silently in his mind.

But in the next moment, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly, and in the end only endless white remained.

Mikael's raised hand, together with his whole body, froze in place.

"This is...the depth of the Herrscher's core..."

It is also the place where the Herrscher’s consciousness meets.

"Brother Mikael..."

"Brother Mikael..."

"Brother Mikael..."

"Brother Mikael...why did you abandon me..."

Xi'er's voices flew from all directions. They didn't attack him, nor did they try to get into his ears annoyingly. They just passed him by like a gust of wind.

She would caress his earlobes inadvertently, lift his bangs, linger on his fingertips...

Seemingly far, yet yet close, yet yet so far apart, so inseparable from each other...

"enough!"

But those sounds are like the beating of the heart, the contraction of blood vessels, and the flow of blood. They exist here and there is no way to get rid of them.

Mikael doesn't want to waste time here anymore, he wants to leave and let his consciousness return to normal...

But...at this moment, a greeting suddenly popped into his mind——

"Only Herrschers who have a ring structure...or have self-awareness can put their consciousness into the core of the Herrscher and then communicate at the so-called 'intersection of Herrscher consciousness'. But the Sixth Herrscher, why does she... "

Before he had time to think too much, the "ground" under his feet suddenly collapsed, and a familiar falling feeling came. The pure white world around him began to peel off like a wall, and turned into a silent night.

"Well!"

The downward falling feeling suddenly stopped, and instead seemed to be thrown out. Under the action of lateral inertia and gravity, "his" body drew a parabola and landed roughly on the cold and hard frozen soil. .

The pain and vibrations in his back seemed to knock out all his internal organs.

"Impossible! How could I be in this level of pain..."

"Cough cough cough!"

Until the sound of a cough as thin as a mosquito's fly sounded, causing the icy cold wind to pour into my young lungs, almost suffocating.

Only then did he belatedly think of a possibility - could it be...

He struggled to move his body, but just as he thought, he had all the senses of this body, but he could not control it to make any move.

"This is... Xi'er's memory..."

He felt his cheeks turning to one side uncontrollably. In the child's blurred vision, a thin woman whose outline seemed so unreal was gradually moving away.

Her cheeks became even colder, and snowflakes as big as bird eggs fell on her face and stuck to her eyes. So in her memory of the first days of her life, only the wind, snow, and the long night were left.

And when all of this passed, her body was half buried in the snow, and there was no one left again.

[This is the first time that Xier has been abandoned. 】

Somehow such words appeared in Mikael's mind.

Could it be... could Xi'er really be saved?

Although she did not appear here in a normal posture like Ellie, her memory can be seen and her voice can be heard here.

That means that her consciousness has not been completely lost, and there is still a part of herself that has not been erased by the Herrscher!

Save her!

Save her!

Save her! Save her!

…

Just as Mikael's heart continued to agitate, the scene in front of him changed again.

Her body was nearly half buried by the heavy snow, and her face was covered with thick frost. Darkness hit her in waves, but she always lived with some clarity in the last moments.

until……

Until the alley she had been looking at cast a shadow.

Until a tall figure heard her small and imperceptible moans and turned towards her.

And her eyes began to slowly lift...

"Maxim! Come and look here!"

Mikael's consciousness beat together with Xi'er's body and Xi'er's heart.

"What's wrong! Did you find him?"

A gentle man wearing gold-rimmed glasses rushed over and almost fell in front of the woman.

He shook off his glasses, glanced into the alley, and then put them on with a splash of disappointment.

"This is not ours..."

"But she is also a child! Maxim...just think of me as begging you, okay...No matter what, we won't be able to afford this child...just take her with you, okay? If you really look for If we don’t reply to Mikael, this can be regarded as God’s compensation to us..."

[This is the first time she has been picked up. 】

The scene in front of me suddenly begins to speed up, like a slideshow of connected dots one after another. Often the tenth and twentieth scenes have followed before the first scene is clearly seen.

But the complex and green memories were poured into Mikael's mind without any shortage.

For Mikael, who has long been accustomed to the power of the First Herrscher, the memory of more than ten years will not cause much burden on him, and for him who has experienced two lives, this memory will not cause him to have "I Who is it?" Such memory confusion.

He just watched all this quietly, watching Xier unfold her life in front of him without any reservation.

"Xie'er, just wait here and don't move around! Dad went to chat with a friend for a few words and then he will come back to you."

[This is the second time she has been abandoned. 】

After a short wait, what she was waiting for was not her adoptive father, but a man wrapped in a white coat.

Experiments, experiments...experiments.

Even Mikael couldn't tell the time from a third-person perspective.

That's because the subconscious mind, which records memories, has been severely damaged in the experiment.

Each time it was like a straw was inserted into the mind, sucking everything out of the skull and into another existence.

"This is Lezren's..."

Mikael watched his former body gradually raise his hand under Xi'er's control, but such a short movement caused a violent instability.

The brain seemed to have been forcefully pulled out and stuffed back into the original body.

So the schizophrenia broke out.

Fortunately, when she opened her eyes, her adoptive mother, covered in blood, stood in front of her.

"Xie'er... let's... go home..."

[This is the second time she has been picked up. 】

Then came the Honkai Disease, which caused her to lose everything again.

"This time, it was Xier who abandoned everyone..."

That real and familiar voice sounded.

At this time, Mikael's perspective was finally separated from Seele.

Then he saw himself.

I saw Alicia, I saw Mebius...

I saw her in the shadow of the night and took Xier into her secret laboratory...

The story ends abruptly.

But it's not the end, it's just that it's no longer shown, but only exists in Mikael's heart...it will always exist, in the form of [story],

"Mebius...what on earth...did you..."

"Brother Mikael, don't blame Aunt Mebius."

Xi'er raised her head from his arms.

Yes, in arms.

The surrounding background returns to the dead streets again.

This also means that he successfully escaped from those memories and returned to the world bubble.

"Are you...really Xi'er?"

Mikael looked at the remaining imaginary number crystals on her hand and asked dully.

But Xier was trembling, and it took a long time before she slowly responded to him:

"Mikael...you...brother...traitor...Xie'er..."

Xi'er's eyes were sometimes blue and sometimes red, showing the two consciousnesses that were constantly switching. The broken and polarized words were like messy and broken blades, piercing Mikael's skin bit by bit.

I suddenly felt pain in my heart.

It was the Herrscher's claws that penetrated his body and penetrated into his heart.

But the next moment her consciousness switched, she was crying and trying to pull out her claws.

pain……

Mikael finally felt the pain, and the breath that had been suffocating in his heart flowed through his wound like salt water or alcohol, and flowed out with blood.

So what is called sadness does not necessarily burst out in immediate pain.

Rather, it is an unstable state buried deep in the heart, just waiting for a spark to detonate it.

And when it breaks out, it may not appear in the form of sadness.

Just as Mikael was confused now, he had no idea what he should do or what he could do.

If he had previously determined that he should kill the Sixth Herrscher...

Now this confusion quickly turned into anger and hope——

Yes, there is hope!

Isn’t this the key to your willingness to devote your time to this?

Doesn’t Xier still have consciousness here?

There's still a chance she could come back, isn't there?

Success - if successful, Seele can also become a Herrscher who fights for mankind, just like him, right?

Xi'er's original consciousness seemed to sense Mikael's hope. She temporarily overpowered the Herrscher's consciousness. Not only did she pull out her sharp claws, but she also used her power to repair Mikael's wounds.

"Xie'er, is that you?

"Xie'er, what exactly did Mebius do to you?

"Xie'er! I want...how can I...help you!"

Facing Mikael's series of questions, Xie'er frowned, seeming to be suppressing great pain.

Her words were calm, but she did not answer the question:

"Brother Mikael... thank you... when you saw Xi'er passing by, Xi'er was also looking into your heart...

"When you... left Xi'er... Xi'er really thought she was abandoned again...

"But Xi'er now knows what brother Mikael is thinking... knows everything...

"I'm sorry, Brother Mikael, Xier still doesn't have..."

"Don't say that!"

Mikael held her face excitedly, "Don't say this! Tell me what to do!"

How...how can we kill the Herrscher's consciousness?

Mikael was also panicked. He didn't even know it himself. How could Xi'er know?

"Mebius...yes, Mebius! And Aponya, she is a spiritually aware warrior, she must have a way!"

In extreme and absolute helplessness, Mikael made a decision that he was destined to regret for a long time:

The surrounding scenery changed again, and the gray morning sky shone on the two of them.

"Brother Mikael!"

Xi'er's eyes narrowed in pain.

"It's too late. Don't blame Aunt Mebius and Mother Aponnia. What they did was just for this moment..."

"Xier, what are you talking about!"

"Brother Mikael...bastard...thank you...stop! What are you going to do...believe me for the last time..."

Siel smiled at Mikael with her open blue eye.

Then, she cut her wrists and weakly pressed her chin on Mikael's shoulder.

Mikael held her body and knelt down on the ground in a daze. The excitement brought by the glimmer of false hope had not faded from his face, as if he could not accept such a change.

"Xie'er...just killed a lot of people...but...with Xie'er's ability...with Xie'er's blood...those who haven't died...still have a chance to survive..."

Her red hand touched Mikael's cheek.

"Brother Mikael, forget Xi'er..."

Although she said this, the only glimmer of clarity in her blue pupils still prompted her face to keep moving closer to Mikael.

Until that touch of blue was completely replaced by blood red.

But Mikael still looked at everything in front of him in a daze.

"mix……"

The Sixth Herrscher finally completely took over this body, but it was too late.

With a "wow" sound, her entire body quickly shriveled up, became rigid, and finally turned into ashes and flew away.

Xier had overdrawn all the power of this body before her - the part about "birth".

On a tall building not far away, Eden and others stopped their heart-rending coughs, and their fossilized and rotten limbs began to regain their vitality.

And for more survivors affected by the black mist, these turning points appeared almost at the same time.

And what's the cost?

Mikael sat on his knees in a pool of blood, which dyed the moonlight tonight and the entire street red.

In one hand, he held the plain white dress that he personally gave to Xi'er, and in the other hand, he held the strange-shaped necklace that Aponia asked him to use his power to make before sending Xi'er into the world.

Apart from that, there is nothing else.

Without the blessing of the Herrscher's power, the black mist naturally no longer has the power to take away lives.

First there were incandescent searchlights, and then more and more people appeared around Mikael.

"Mikael, you..."

"I killed her."

He shed no tears.

He repeated firmly:

"I killed her."