The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Chirp...Chirp!"

The chirping of the yellow bird came through the window and into the hazy dream.

Mikael turned over and naturally hugged the smaller body lying beside him in his arms and arched his back.

"Alicia..."

"Oh? Then when you see me in the future, just call me Alicia!"

Mikael woke up instantly, looking at the snake pupil with dark circles close to him, he was a little dazed for a moment, but then he was relieved.

But he suddenly pursed his lips, thought for a long time, and couldn't find a good excuse.

"Tsk, I can't stand seeing you in such a dilemma."

Mebius opened the quilt, jumped out of bed, picked up the clothes on the floor one by one and put them on.

Mikael stared at her back. After a night, her body had grown visibly. Fortunately, she was very experienced in this and had enough clothes to wear.

But what Mikael was thinking about was not these, but...

He had one more sin that he couldn't face Ellie.

"Why are you still standing there? Come with me to the lab today. We need to test the synchronization rate between you and the core to see if it will be affected by what happened in the past two days."

"That's it... no need..."

When Mikael heard that he was going out, he instinctively resisted.

"Hmm?"

Mobius, wrapped in a white coat, turned around with a sneer, but his eyes suddenly became sharp:

"Mikael, are you leaving or not?"

"Go... I'll go..."

Mikael jumped off the bed angrily, and just as he was about to pick up his pants on the ground, he froze in the middle of his action.

There was a question echoing in his mind:

Can you make such a frank and natural move in front of Ellie?

The answer was obvious.

So every time he put on a piece of clothing, he would be stunned for a long time.

Mobius gritted his teeth and waited, thinking that he had not recovered from many things.

After opening the door, Mobius walked out first, looked around, and turned back and said disdainfully: "Okay, come out quickly, Alicia is not here."

Mikael poked his head out doubtfully, but was suddenly grabbed by Mobius and ran away.

"At least let me close the door!"

Mikael cursed inwardly and waved his hand. Fortunately, he could use the space power to solve it.

After half an hour, until the bell rang at nine o'clock, the door next to Mikael was gently opened. Ellie had already sorted out her mood. Although she was not as relaxed as before, the depressed look between her eyebrows was gently wiped away by her.

"I don't know how Mikael is... Will Mobius's rough method work?"

She walked out a few steps and was about to knock on Mikael's door, but she was stunned for a while:

The door was open there, and there was nothing inside.

Ellie walked in naturally. The temperature in the room had not completely dissipated, and there was even a smell she had never smelled before.

She probed the messy bed, and sure enough, there was even a trace of dampness on the sheets after she had just left.

"Mobius actually works... Wait, this is..."

She gently picked up a green hair, her expression a little dazed.

She continued to look for it in disbelief, two, three, four...

The traces of green were so conspicuous on the white flyer.

"Heh... So it was solved in this way..."

Ellie bit her lip, trying to smile, but she couldn't smile.

The sheets were soon covered with spots of tears.

…………

"Mikael, what are you doing? Keep increasing the output of Honkai energy!"

Mobius stared at the numbers on the screen and shouted in disbelief.

But the sweat dripping from Mikael's cheeks reminded her that this was his full strength now.

"The experiment is over!"

Mobius left the laboratory without even looking at the comparison data chart printed out by Klein.

Mikael jumped off the instrument and quickly chased after him, leaving Klein alone with the data, wondering whether he should upload it to Dr. Mei as usual.

"What is the specific synchronization rate?"

Mikael grabbed Mobius and asked.

He certainly knew that his performance was not ideal. The overwhelming Honkai energy that he used to dispatch at will, now even a little bit of trickle can only be squeezed out with all his strength.

After being asked this question, Mobius gradually reacted. She first gently patted Mikael's chest and comforted him insincerely: "Very bad, 43%. According to the output of Honkai energy, it is only twice as much as before the third Honkai."

"Really..."

"Don't worry,"

Mebius patted her cheek gently, "Maybe it's because... Anyway, let's try again tomorrow. The core synchronization rate will not drop sharply for no reason. Maybe it will gradually return to normal tomorrow?"

"Well... okay..."

Mikael looked at her deeply and wanted to open the space rift, but after a pause, he finally walked out of the laboratory with his feet.

After confirming that he had left, Klein poked his head out with the data.

"Doctor... Can we deceive him like this?"

Mebius took the folder from Klein's hand and opened it. Where is the core synchronization rate shown on it that is 43%?

It is clearly 4.3%!

The Honkai energy output value can barely reach the lower limit of the emperor-level Honkaimon!

"Doctor, do you want to respond to Dr. Mei about this situation?"

"Not yet, wait until the results of the second test come out tomorrow."

Mebius still had a glimmer of unrealistic hope.

But she thought about it for a moment, waved her hand again, and said sadly:

"It's better to tell her first. She won't be mentally prepared for the worst outcome to happen, and I will be the one who gets criticized."

Mebius pouted in disgust. After Klein walked away and she was alone in the laboratory for a moment, she pulled off her tie, leaned her back against the wall, and let herself The body slowly slid down.

After killing the Herrscher, there is theoretically a long vacation.

Although the so-called holiday is also a "semi-reactive" state, that is, we must always maintain a state of combat readiness and respond to various emergencies, but for the reverse entropy after lowering the subordinate tasks, today is indeed a good day. holiday.

But Mikael neither returned to the dormitory nor went to the Anti-Entropy office area.

He was afraid, he didn't dare to face his teammates.

He didn't dare to face everyone who knew Xi'er.

Even more scared, facing Alicia.

Moreover, for him, the work is not over yet.

Work, the work he himself assigned to himself—revenge.

Yes, he wants to take revenge on everything, on all those who killed Xier directly, indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally.

He retaliates against Mebius with violence and debauchery.

He avenged himself with pain and betrayal.

As for Aponya - Xier's death in line with her original destiny was the most painful revenge for her.

But there is one person, one person alive, who is still at large and will not face any punishment.

Even if Mikael hadn't seen the dusty past through Xi'er's [Story], he would not have connected these two unrelated people.

"Lezren..."

He silently rode on "Vilvi's Chain" and came to the ground.

"Identity verification successful, Captain Mikael, I wish you a pleasant trip."

The machine-synthesized female voice is extremely gentle, falsely gentle.

A figure stood in front of him, which was unexpected but reasonable.

Just the moment he saw her, Mikael already clutched the necklace left by Xi'er, and didn't care even if the blood dripped down his fingers and fell to his feet.

She lowered her head, clasped her hands, and maintained a praying posture. She walked up to Mikael and glanced at Mikael's palm with her dull eyes, thoughtfully.

"Apponia! Are you coming to stop me?"

"Ah - did my behavior cause you to misunderstand..."

Apponia smiled apologetically, then turned around and gave way to Mikael.

Naturally, the latter would not leave so easily. In other words, Aponya itself was deeply involved in that matter. Coupled with her melancholy temperament, Mikael's eyes suddenly turned red.

Why...why can she still laugh at this time?

But this time, he did not put his feelings into impulsiveness, but patiently waited for her statement.

"Mikael, are you going to find Lezren?"

"Asking knowingly."

Seeing Mikael's attitude, she didn't force it. She just waved her finger at the empty road, indicating that Mikael could just do what he wanted to do.

But the more she acted like this, the more Michael became a little confused and unsure of what she meant.

"Haha, Mikael, if you firmly believe that what you are doing is completely right, you don't have to be controlled by me. You can do it yourself. But since you stopped here, you should be willing to listen to me more. Two sentences..."

She suddenly stepped forward again, "Mikael, [please] let me help you tidy up your collar."

"Aponya, you..."

It is undeniable that when she said the word "please", Mikael felt much better.

It was not the same as the venting comfort last night, but a gradually warming feeling in my heart.

"Even if I want to give you more comfort, you don't seem to accept it, so that's all I can do. Mikael, [please] let go."

As she finished speaking, Mikael let go of his right hand that was stained red with blood.

Aponya held it up gently and wiped the blood from Mikael's palm with her white cuffs. Then she tore off the other sleeve and gently and gently circled it around Mikael's hand. The palm of the hand finally tied a small bow on the back of the hand.

Mikael just watched blankly as she finished doing this, and then reached out to the necklace on Mikael's wrist.

"this is not OK……"

Mikael protested, pulling his hand back nervously.

But Aponya just whispered the word "please", and he obediently offered his hand.

It wasn't that he didn't want to resist, but that he couldn't figure out why he wanted to resist. Even...he enjoyed this feeling.

As Aponya himself said: "This is not about paying too much attention to details, but in such an era, such trivial matters have become a luxury."

His eyes were sore, but Mikael raised his head and resisted the tears from falling out of his eyes.

Because of this, he did not see that there was no trace of blood on the necklace that was held in his hand and had not been wiped by Aponya.

Apponia took off the necklace, rubbed it twice gently, and then solemnly brought it to Mikael's neck.

"With this here, it can be regarded as Xi'er being with you all the time, Mikael."

She said as if pointing.

"Apponia, am I quite disappointing? So, can I ask you not to be so gentle to me?"

Aponya took a deep breath after hearing this, and comforted softly: "There is no need for this, Mikael. Looking more closely, what did we do wrong? Even Mebius, she did not cause any harm to Seele. No matter what the harm, we are just using this method to try to reverse an unacceptable result... But in the end, all our efforts were dramatically in vain, and even brought about an even more unacceptable result than the original... But is it possible? If we go back in time, will we make different choices?”

"Aponya, what you said, will you use it to comfort yourself?"

"……Won't."

"Okay, Aponya, I don't need this. I also know that what you said is not all relief. It can even be said that most of it is the truth, but... I am just blaming myself. If I didn't forget to bring the medicine that time , Or, if I had taken more time to accompany her in this year and a half, would it be...at least, even if all this still happened, I would not be so regretful, regretful, or disgusted with myself..."

Aponya still wanted to speak, but Mikael interrupted her directly this time: "But as you said, if the actions of the three of us are unintentional mistakes, there is still room to shirk all blame to [fate] , then the person I want to kill next is pure evil, inexcusable and unforgivable."

This time, Aponya still did not stop him, but signaled that he could leave at any time.

But this time, Mikael was no longer polite to her and took steps in the direction he thought was right.

However, when his figure was about to disappear from the end of Aponya's sight, she suddenly asked lightly: "Mikael, you have lost Xi'er, do you want to lose her again?"

Although the voice was small, it reached Mikael's ears firmly and tenaciously.

"Her? Which her?"

As if he was greatly stimulated, Mikael turned around and walked back quickly.

"Of course, the next one..."

Mikael's fist clenched again, and his pupils vibrated.

He had been so immersed in sadness that he almost forgot...

The next Herrscher, the Seventh Herrscher, the Herrcher of Fire, is...

"Apponia, please tell me clearly, what does this have to do with Lezren?"

But Aponya didn't say any more. She shook her head slightly, turned into scale powder all over the sky, and disappeared in front of Mikael's eyes.

It's not that Mikael didn't try to stop her, it's just...when he tried to use any power, he didn't get the feedback he deserved.

He could only watch as Aponya disappeared in the middle of his words.

He raised his hand, and a dim core emerged in his palm. The original sapphire blue light was silent, and the core was infinitely close to black gray.

"Even myself...rejected myself...ka-ka-"

Mikael almost bit his teeth into pieces, but in the end, it still turned into a familiar and ironic sigh:

"Am I still, or...can't do anything?"

…………

"O-o-"

Two birds, probably gulls and herons, flew up from the reeds. In the glow of the sunset imitated by humans, Mikael walked by the sparkling lake with his hands in his pockets.

Although it is artificial light, whether it is the endless lake, the gently swaying reeds, or the snow-white street light poles, even the obsidian asphalt road reflects the blood-red sunset.

As artificial light, it can certainly render the sky more magnificent.

But Mikael couldn't feel a trace of warmth from that light. This was the difference between it and the real sunset.

Mikael looked at the sunflower bed on the other side of the road. Sure enough, the sunflowers couldn't feel the warmth either, they just stood coldly with their backs to the beautiful sunset.

"Captain, you are really planting sunflowers in the underground world..."

Mikael gently stroked a sunflower bud. It was not as cute as it would grow into in a few months. Instead, it was green, like a big cabbage.

"Well, there's nothing I can do...but I believe that one day, there will be a light that these sunflowers can really chase."

Himihu hummed a little tune and carefully watered the flowerbed with the shower head.

"I heard about Xi'er, Mikael..."

"Okay, Captain."

Mikael forced a smile with his back turned to the cold light.

"You all came to comfort me one by one, comfort me that... I actually don't need these."

Himihu raised his eyes in astonishment, but said nothing more. He just pointed at the largest sunflower and asked:

"Do you want to take a pot back? Take good care of it, Ellie should like it."

"Ah...ah...no need."

"Hey, what do you mean no need!"

Himihu rushed out of the flower garden angrily, but only saw Mikael's retreating back.

In the next week, Mikael would be pulled by Mebius to do core synchronization rate experiments every day.

And the results confirmed her prediction...

From single digits, to two digits, to three digits, to four digits...

Well, after the decimal point.

"If this continues, it will soon approach zero infinitely!"

Mei put down the report in her hand and said... nonsense.

Mebius, who was sitting opposite her, yawned noncommittally and looked a little depressed.

"Dr. Mebius, you haven't had any rest these days, okay?"

"Hehe... Mei, I advise you not to meddle in other people's business. The snake will only hibernate when necessary."

Mei shook her head, wondering what medicine Mebius had taken wrongly.

"So, Mebius, does Mikael have any thoughts about the core synchronization rate? Wait, you haven't told him these data, have you?"

"How is it possible? Mei, did your family's IQ infect you? You really asked a lot of nonsense today... Okay, okay, I did not tell him the value, but as the owner of the core, he I should also know this very well. As for why this is the case..."

Mebius curled the ends of his hair with his fingers, not knowing what to say.

"Forget it, it's time to get off work, let's talk about it tomorrow..."

When it got dark, Mikael returned to the residential area after walking around the lake several times.

As soon as he turned out of the stairs, he paused and then turned around skillfully.

"stop!"

He was grabbed by his sleeves from behind and dragged all the way to the door of the room.

He turned around helplessly, only to see two lines of clear tears sliding down Ellie's cheeks.

He raised his hand out of habit to wipe it for her, but as soon as his fingers touched the cold side of her face, he immediately retracted them like an electric shock.

He still had a lot to say to her, but he no longer deserved it.

Ellie stared at him, and he knew that she must have a lot to say and a lot to ask.

For example - "Why are you avoiding me?"

But because of this, Mikael made a move before she could speak.

He stretched out his hand in front of Ellie, and under the puzzled gaze of the other party, a dazzling blue light suddenly bloomed in his palm.

Then, the much darker core floated in the palm of his hand.

"Mikael! What do you mean!"

Ellie stretched out her hand, but instead of holding it to the core, she held Mikael's wrist tightly.

But the latter's attitude was also very decisive. He used his other hand to open Alicia's fingers one by one, then held her hand and held the gem-like core.

"Alicia, it's not that I want to hand over the core to you, but that the core has rejected me. I can no longer become...the Herrscher of Reason."

"Mikael!"

Alicia clearly noticed the change in the name Mikael addressed her. She hurriedly took a step forward, but Mikael seemed to have expected it and took a step back in advance, which made her "pursuit" fail. .

"The core, in a sense, is also a part of my body. In other words, the consciousness of the core, like my body, retains my subconscious, my memory, and... no, no more. And since Even if it rejects me, that means I reject myself, Alicia, do you understand?”

"I don't understand. Mikael, please explain clearly. What does it mean that you rejected yourself?"

"Maybe it's because you don't approve of your behavior, or maybe it's something else. You don't have to worry about it, Alicia."

Hearing that familiar yet unfamiliar name again, Alicia's face gradually became bitter, and she boldly asked under the moonlight: "So? This is why you still refuse to call me 'Ally' like before." 's reason?"

Mikael half drooped his eyelids, which could well hide the tears in his eyes.

"Listen, Alicia... this core... my core is different. You can use it yourself, or transfer it to Mei... In short, I believe it can be used in your hands. Play a far greater role than in my hands."

"You...what about you?"

When Alicia asked, Mikael had already opened the door.

"Me..."

Mikael didn't finish what he should say.

With a "bang", the whole building shook. This was Mikael's response.

His door is closed again, and this time, I'm afraid no one will be able to open it.

Even if he could no longer use the power of space, Ellie still could not use violence to break open the door, because it was never such a simple door that was closed.

What is really closed is Mikael's heart.

As he said himself - the core rejected him, he himself rejected him, and he himself did not recognize his actions.

So even if we violently open the door and drag Mikael out again, what's the use?

Ai Li took two steps back, followed the cold light, and looked up at the false full moon in the sky. The night that she once liked so much now seemed so annoying.

She held tightly the core that still had a trace of warmth in her hand. After holding it for a moment, she suddenly ran back madly and knocked hard on Mikael's door:

"Mikael! Mikael! I know...I know you and Mebius...but, but...can you come out and talk...Mikael!"

There was only a sigh in response to her, which made her feel a little warmer - it turned out that Mikael had also been leaning behind the door, and the distance between them was not as far as she thought.

But Mikael's next words undoubtedly shattered the connection between the two:

"I'm sorry, Alicia."