The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

When Mebius came to the door of Mikael's dormitory empty-handed, he saw a pile of medicines thrown randomly in front of the cold iron door. The pills were scattered one by one on the withered petals that were equally messy on the ground.

Alicia leaned against the wall, hugging her knees with her hands, staring blankly at the retro mosaic floor tiles in front of her, without reaching out to sort out the pills scattered on the floor.

The circles around her eyes were blue and black, showing the pain that the owner had not blinked away for a long time, but even so, she still stared blankly at the floor in front of her, as if she could get the answer from the pile of mosaics that were randomly pasted on it.

But Mebius just glanced at it and felt his eyes sore.

"He still won't come out?"

Ellie's eyelashes trembled slightly.

After half a minute, Mebius's question seemed to be belatedly floated into her ears.

She raised her head aimlessly, so Mebius could completely see her haggard face. Her cheeks had previously looked a little baby fat due to her fondness for sweets, but now they were as if they had been gouged out with a knife, making them look deeply sunken. The cheekbones that are not prominent are all high.

Of course, the chin has also become a bit sharper, and there are still three or two hairs pursed at the corners of the lips.

Mebius had to admit that Alicia in this state was completely pitiful. If Ali asked her for anything at this time, no matter how much she hated this woman, she would still be in a state of pity. It’s hard to say no in response.

But unfortunately, the person who was least likely to reject her rejected her.

"No...he won't let me in."

"whispering sound!"

Mebius snorted coldly.

"Then you're just waiting here? Just break the door open!"

"It's useless... He used the power of space, and there is already a complete barrier inside. No one can open it, even if Velvet used the key of the second god... Unless he himself..."

Before Ellie could finish her hesitant words, Mebius waved his hand, and a short spear made of black mud and dancing with green lightning arcs hit the alloy door with a bang, and then exploded with a bang. Stirring up a golden ripple.

Looking at the black mud slowly sliding down the imaginary barrier, Mebius let out a long breath.

"What did he say? Why didn't he let you in?"

Alicia shook her head, the answer was obvious.

Mebius bit her lip until she felt a hint of irony taste on the tip of her tongue. She knew that the man inside the door had fallen into a so-called death loop.

It's not that he doesn't want to see Alicia. Based on her understanding of him, he should be eager to bury himself in Alicia's arms and cry.

But he didn't dare to face Alicia, and he had no face to face Alicia.

He was afraid that Alicia would question him: "What did you do when you hid Xi'er? Did you turn her into a Herrscher?"

He was afraid that Alicia would question him: "Why did you kill Xier directly? Isn't it possible for her to fight for humanity like you?"

Etc., etc……

Perhaps he also understood that the above questions were unlikely for Ai Li.

But he could no longer bear even that slight possibility, and he no longer dared to bear it.

Not to mention the rest of the people?

So he escaped and locked himself in that small room. Anyway, he didn't need to eat, drink or even sleep.

He had plenty of time to waste in this senseless regret.

Looking at it this way, he is really selfish.

But is it really so?

Mebius crossed his arms over his chest.

She could imagine that his behavior would make others more worried about him.

Especially Ellie.

A person who makes a selfish act does not necessarily do it out of pure selfishness. On the contrary, this kind of behavior will intensify his guilt and make him even more confused about how to face Alicia outside the door.

This creates an endless cycle - the more guilty you are, the more you have to escape, and the more you escape, the heavier the guilt.

We can only hope that a third party will violently break all this.

So, Mei and Kevin came to deliver flowers, Su Lai delivered medicine, and Velvet also came holding the Second God Key. But they all came back in vain.

The reason is also very simple. Their intimacy as a third party has not yet reached the point where Mikael thinks he can discuss the matter.

So Ying, Hua and Pado also came, but still nothing worked.

Because they have nothing to do with it yet.

There are only two left...only two characters left who have to do some explaining on this matter.

"Really...Aponia..."

Mebius gritted her teeth. When things developed like this, she felt a fire in her heart.

That fire wasn't just irritability - it was guilt and fear.

She and Aponia cheated on Mikael.

Does he know about this?

Mebius couldn't tell.

She gently held the door handle, but she couldn't turn it.

She began to feel afraid - she was not afraid of death, or to put it another way, who else in the world was less afraid of death than her who was fused with the Shesha factor and had an "immortal body"?

So it's not death that she's afraid of.

Mebius suddenly retracted his hand, took a half step back, looked down at Ellie slightly, and said in an unprecedented "gentle" tone:

"Okay, leave the rest here to me. It's time for you to go back to your room and rest..."

Alicia raised her head again after a long time and looked at her without saying a word.

"Tch...everyone is like this!"

Mebius stamped his foot bitterly.

"Don't worry! Go back to your bed! Have a good sleep! When you wake up, I will have solved the problem and I will ensure that your man is delivered to you unharmed. Let's go to the head office!"

Mebius clenched her hands tightly. Seeing that Ellie's eyes had regained some of their energy, she boldly grabbed her sleeves under her shoulders and pulled her up directly.

Mebius grew back very quickly. In just a few days, he grew from a small bean of 1.3 meters to a large bean of 1.5 meters. However, he was still so small in front of Ellie. It seemed that only the latter It seemed like he could break away from her with a little resistance.

But Alicia was also very obedient...

No, this attitude cannot simply be described as submission.

She did not take the initiative or resist Mebius's actions.

Just like a puppet on strings, she was dragged to the door of her room, and then dragged all the way to the bed.

"That's enough! Just wait here!"

Mebius rolled up a pile of quilt, staggered back half a step, and then threw it into the air.

The quilt stretched in mid-air, and finally covered Ellie lightly.

Alicia stared at the gray ceiling silently. Mebius looked at her appearance, clenched his fists, and said nothing more.

Soon, she returned to Mikael's door.

This time, she did not choose to force her way in. Instead, she stretched out her fingers and pressed them gently against the door for a while.

It wasn't until her cold-blooded palms became even colder that she withdrew her hand, shook it stiffly, and then banged the door hard.

Meanwhile, she listened.

There were no footsteps behind the door, not a sound at all.

Didn't Mikael hear that? Or do you hear it but don’t respond?

If you didn't hear it, was it the imaginary number barrier that blocked the sound? Or was he asleep or something else... Mebius couldn't tell.

To be on the safe side, she banged the door again, more roughly and louder.

But apart from echoing in the long and narrow corridor for a long time, the sound didn't seem to reach the door at all.

"snort!"

Mebius got angry for a moment and raised his fist to smash it down.

But the anger came and went even faster. When the fist was about to intersect with the door panel, the clenched hand suddenly loosened, and finally pressed lightly on the door.

"Open the door."

Mebius said calmly.

"If you want to know what I did before you sent Xi'er away...open the door."

Her voice fell into a pool of stagnant water without making any waves.

The world returned to silence, with only the pine trees outside the corridor behind him shaking gently. "Sasha" became the only echo between heaven and earth for a while.

When Mebius came back to her senses, she realized that an invisible weight was pressing on her shoulders, preventing her from moving at all.

At the same time, an invisible force like a ribbon climbed up her slender neck, and then gradually tightened.

"Ho... ho ho..."

Her vocal cords also tightened, struggling to make a desperate sound.

His eyes blurred for a moment, but when his eyes refocused, the pressure around him instantly dissipated.

No, it's not dissipated, it's like, it didn't exist at all.

Mebius took a deep breath, and the air filled his lungs with ice-cold temperature, deeply stinging every alveoli.

When she thought back to just now, she felt like she was drowning... Ah, that's right, now her whole body was soaked in cold sweat, it really looked like she had been fished out of the water.

She was hesitating whether to knock on Mikael's door again...

With a "squeak" sound, the door opened.

There was no one behind the door. Mebius's eyes lit up at first, and then she cautiously reached out her hand, as if she wanted to catch the light that slipped into the room. She moved her steps little by little and moved in. in the room.

The door closed as expected.

Mikael is also in surprisingly good condition.

He had stored the desk somewhere, and instead of it in front of the window was a lounge chair that smelled obviously of decay.

He was lying on the couch, rocking gently, holding a yellowed parchment in his hand.

The blood-stained plain white dress was neatly folded and placed across his knees, while the necklace was wrapped around his wrist.

Mebius still moved cautiously, but Mikael never seemed to pay attention to her from beginning to end. He just focused his eyes on the parchment with unknown words written on it, wondering what he was thinking.

There was no self-mutilation, no self-abuse, no crying to death, and even no frowning.

Everything was as usual inside the house, with no signs of venting or destruction.

Judging from common sense, it does not look particularly sad.

But the more he did this, the more frightened Mebius became.

It doesn't mean that you have to cry and make a fuss when you are sad, for fear that others will not know that you are sad.

Human character can be divided into superficial character and inner character.

On the surface, Mikael is obviously the kind of boy who is relatively stable.

But on the inside, he is actually a very fragile person. For him, Mebius cannot imagine the kind of relatively "peaceful" sadness.

She just felt that more and more sadness was accumulating as time went by. It would have been better if it had been triggered earlier, but the further it was delayed, the more painful the wound would be the moment it broke out.

"rice……"

"Mebius, I won't force you. You can state it yourself. What did you, Aponya, do to Seele?"

【He really knows! 】

Mebius's snake eyes narrowed slightly. Although she had been prepared for it, she still naturally took a defensive posture at this moment.

But she didn't feel any pressure. Hostility and murderous intent were completely non-existent.

There was only the squeaking sound of the recliner.

After Mikael finished speaking, he stopped asking questions. He put down the parchment and leaned all his weight on the recliner, looking extremely lazy.

Mebius also took this opportunity to glance at the parchment—it was actually empty, with nothing written on it.

She took two deep breaths quickly, leaned gently against the wall on her right, and said:

"Do you want to listen to what I do first, or what Aponia does first?"

Mikael shook his head in disbelief.

"Aponya has copied Xi'er's consciousness, that's all. This is why she can still retain a sense of self after the Herrscher arrives."

"Ah--"

Mikael snorted coldly. Could it be that Aponya's repeated operations were to imitate his method of escaping from Honkai control, hoping that Xi'er could also use this to become a Herrscher like him...

Mikael folded his hands on his knees and closed his eyes silently.

It's always like this...always like this!

Everyone seems to be starting from the right point.

But it led to the most dramatic and worst result.

He suddenly interrupted the previous topic and started talking about something else.

"Mebius...I'm thinking about something."

"What?"

Seeing his soft tone, Mebius became bolder.

"I was thinking, if I had told Xi'er all the details with the utmost honesty, would she have been able to stay in the world bubble safely and wait until another person in the original world became the sixth person? After the Herrscher, I will take her back and everything will go according to plan. She can still play with Ling and Pado, right?"

Mebius pursed his lips and was about to say a few words of relief, but Mikael continued speaking on his own:

"But...I'm afraid. I was afraid at the time. I was afraid that Xi'er would have a psychological burden in that world after knowing the [future]. I was also afraid that she would know that I had killed 'her'. I was even more afraid that I would be afraid of myself. She made a promise that she would be fine, and then a strange combination of circumstances led to such a result. Rather than this, I would rather that once something happened to her, her consciousness would be erased by the Herrscher as soon as possible, so that she would not know how to kill her. I was the one who killed her... In fact, the cause of all tragedies is my own selfishness, right?"

Mebius tilted her head slightly. She knew that what Mikael said did make sense, but it didn't seem to make sense.

From a normal human perspective, he does have to bear half of the responsibility for this matter, but not to mention that it is only half of the responsibility——

"According to Aponya's prediction, it is a predetermined fate. If you can easily change the fate of such an important individual as [The Herrscher], it will be a miracle."

"Oh, so this means that on the one hand, she showed her trust in me, but on the other hand, she came to you and made plans for the worst?"

Mikael opened his eyes blankly, blinked slightly, and stared at Mebius. Of course he knew that the original intention of Apponia and Mebius was just to prevent the worst case scenario from happening, but such "good intentions" caused Seele to die in the most unacceptable manner for Mikael.

She fell conscious into Mikael's arms, used her power to save more than three thousand people, and then killed herself.

Mebius swallowed and said:

"Yes, considering that Xi'er originally had symptoms of schizophrenia, Aponya believes that copying Xi'er's consciousness and temporarily sleeping it in the depths of the mind can temporarily blind Honkai's perception and replicate your success at that time - —Hmm... Although I don't know how she knew your method of evading Honkai control... It's a pity that she couldn't become the second you."

Mikael tapped the back of his left hand with his right index finger. He suddenly thought that he was able to take back his body before the Herrscher's core was formed because Ellie arrived in time and awakened his consciousness that was temporarily asleep due to the impact. of control. As for Xi'er, when her consciousness copied by Aponia awakened, the core of the Herrscher without a ring structure had already been formed. She could no longer regain control of her body, so she took advantage of that brief opportunity... Exerting the power of [life]...

But if I could show up earlier...if I could stay with her all the time, would I be able to wake up Xie'er from the beginning just like Ellie woke up myself?

Mikael sighed.

This may be time and destiny.

Looking from the back to the front, it seems that there are always countless ways and countless paths, but the one chosen at that time is always the worst and most incompetent one.

After a long silence, he suddenly smiled:

"Mebius, I'm still a bit confused. At that time, at the place where the Herrscher's consciousness met, all of Xi'er's memories so far were poured into my mind... No, it should be said that [the story] is more Accurate. I don’t think the power of the Sixth Herrscher can reach this point. Besides, you have already said too much about what Aponia has done. Isn’t it time to talk about yourself? You are in me and Xier. What have you done?"

When he heard "all the memories of Xi'er so far", Mebius was agitated - no wonder, no wonder he knew the little moves between himself and Aponya An.

But she was not panicked, and even felt a sense of pride, because all this was what she had expected, which was also a sign of the initial success of her plan.

"Stigmata, right?"

"...Yes, that's right, it's the stigmata. How about it? If you look at it this way, Xi'er is not actually dead. She just continues to survive in a different way. At least according to my definition, she can still be regarded as a human being... "

"That's enough, Mebius!"

Time passes minute by minute. Silence can make time very long and slow, or it can condense the long lines into a point.

By the time Mikael stood up, the light outside the window had dimmed.

Mikael walked up to Mebius step by step, and every step was loud, ringing in Mebius's heart.

"sorry."

He said.

"sorry……"

Tears finally burst out silently, and when they fell on Mebius's feet, they still had a hint of warmth.

Mebius finally understood what she had been afraid of before.

Yes, their bodies are so close now...but their hearts are as far apart as ever.

"If you want to vent...ho...hoho..."

Before she could finish her words, Mikael's hands tightened around her neck and pressed her against the wall.

She began to struggle involuntarily, punching and kicking her, which was the body's natural response to stress.

Mikael did not use any power, or even any power beyond the physical capabilities of normal people.

Then, somehow, the fight between the two changed from the wall to the colder ground.

In the end, it was the taller Mikael who took the upper hand. He straddled Mebius again, and his hands on her neck became tighter and tighter.

Strength and life were constantly passing away. Mebius stared and punched him softly twice. He could only muster the last strength, stretched out his right hand, and slapped his cheek one after another.

The black shadow in her sight grew bigger and bigger. Suddenly, a series of raindrops fell, and one drop happened to fall on the corner of Mebius's lips. She sipped it gently, it was warm and salty.

Then, his breathing suddenly became clear for a moment, and Mebius took a few deep breaths before becoming nervous again.

But it wasn't Mikael who grabbed her throat again, it was him who weakly pressed all his weight on her.

Their cheeks met, and he held the green hair beside her ear, choking and saying: "Mebius... I have already lost Seele, I can't lose any of you anymore... I can't lose you again. Already..."

Mebius' pupils trembled slightly - everything unfolded in the most dramatic form. She originally thought that their hearts would become farther and farther apart, and the relationship between the two would never be able to return to the past, but after a moment when it was so far away that it was almost irreversible, he came back again.

He forgave her, no, accepted her.

Not just accepting her bright side, but accepting her dark side as well.

Because the so-called [Mebius] is not a single aspect, but a more complex and indistinguishable collection of good and evil.

As a result, the distance between the two became closer again, so close that they could feel each other's heartbeat.

Mikael was still sobbing, soaking Mebius's hair spread on the ground, and after a brief hesitation, Mebius slowly raised his hand and patted his back gently.

It was like a mother comforting her child - even though she had never taken care of a child, and she had never been so comforted by her mother.

But she did her set of actions smoothly, just as she once gently guided Mikael's head to rest on her lap.

What a coincidence, both times it was because of Xi'er.

Only this time, she looked somewhat funny as she comforted Mikael, who was much stronger than him, in a grown-up posture.

The scene became silent again.

But Mebius felt a hot feeling gushing out from deep inside his body.

She naturally understood what that meant, and what was even more frightening was that through the touching skin, she could feel that the same was true for Mikael.

She was completely unprepared for this, so she cursed in a slightly panic:

"Okay, have you cried enough? That's enough..."

The words stopped abruptly because her earlobe was suddenly taken into his mouth.

This may not be accurate, because Mikael's movements are sometimes as rough as a beast biting its prey, and sometimes as gentle as the caressing of a willow branch.

Mebius' hand stroking Mikael's back tightened suddenly. A numb feeling spread rapidly from her mind, chest, or lower abdomen to her whole body, and her limbs suddenly softened. .

The side of her face was scratched by a small stubble, and he began to massage the side of her face tremblingly and implicitly, but his movements were quite slow, so slow that even Mebius felt a little anxious when he came back to his senses.

She suddenly grabbed the hair on the back of Mikael's head with her hands and turned his face right in front of her.

The latter's eyes suppressed madness and sadness, but also contained sadness, longing and irresolvable confusion.

"Mebius, I'm sorry..." he said.

"***Mikael, you asked for this!"

She pressed his head down hard and bit his lip.

Immediately afterwards, the petite Mebius rolled and turned to ride on Mikael.

They looked at each other one last time:

"Don't you regret it?"

"No regrets."

In the reflection of the snake pupil, the template of the god she once regarded as a god sent down from the gods now seems to be just a person like her, ordinary, weak, cowardly, mean, greedy, and lustful.

But this is the right match, right?

The Creator must have thought so too.

After a moment, two muffled groans mixed with pain and excitement sounded at the same time.