The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Keep Honkai energy output and continue to improve."

As the blue light in the laboratory became more dazzling and the numbers on the screen climbed rapidly, Mei turned her head and looked at Mebius. She tapped her fingers twice on the metal table, and then all the light Dissipated, the experiment was terminated... No, in other words, the experiment was completed.

"How's it going? How's the data?"

With questions on his lips, Mikael moved his hands quickly and took the automatically printed paper data before Mebius.

"How can I put it...better than the best-case scenario we expected."

Before Mei finished speaking, she saw Kevin and Mikael's heads coming together. Their eyes scanned the data on the paper simultaneously, and then they both took a breath.

"Mikael, can your core actually develop and grow on its own?"

Although Kevin's words were playful, Mikael did not answer. He covered his head, feeling a strong sense of unreality.

"It's not that fantasy."

Mei spread her hands. She looked at the 93.33% synchronization rate and the five-digit Honkai energy output on the screen. She breathed a sigh of relief and then explained:

"The adjective "development and growth" is not very appropriate at the core of Mikael - although human development also advances by leaps and bounds in several obvious time periods, this does not mean that the time periods that connect these time periods are not very appropriate. , the human body is completely undeveloped.”

"Uh, May, are you saying that Mikael's core remains unchanged most of the time and only relied on a few mutations to reach this level?"

May smiled slightly at Kevin.

Mikael held his chin and asked in a positive tone: "The specific time period refers to the third collapse and this time?"

"It seems you know it yourself."

Mebius hid aside and chewed his nails, "We did not have the corresponding equipment to obtain data before, but referring to the data of the second Honkai Impact and subtracting the Honkai energy output of the Second Herrscher, at that time, your core The total Honkai energy you can output is only about 2000HW. To a certain extent, this is why you ultimately lost to the Third Herrscher in Changkong City.

"After the third Honkai Impact, you pretended to be a corpse. According to the records from the fourth and fifth Honkai Impact, your core output energy at this time was above 4000HW, which was the same as the Third Herrscher, or even higher.

"Now, your core output energy has skyrocketed again. I thought it would be a geometric sequence multiplied by two each time or an arithmetic sequence adding 2000 each time. But now it seems that your core output power is increasing every time. The increase is not fixed, but is at the same level as the corresponding Herrscher when your core changes, or in other words, slightly better, right? "

"Perfect judgment, Mebius."

To be honest, Mikael couldn't figure out the reason for this change, or in other words, the so-called life is actually a game of fighting monsters and upgrading. Since failure to fight monsters will inevitably lead to destruction, then success in fighting monsters, Even if you don’t give any rewards, you should at least level up, right?

How could such a good thing happen!

The strange thing about human civilization is that the scientific principles they discover always correspond to philosophical principles in a perfect way.

For example, this one: There must be losses in heat conduction. Corresponding to the real life of human beings-most of the time, your contributions are far greater than your benefits.

This is why the game is simpler than real life. After all, you can get rewards by clearing the level. However, except for the third and seventh collapses, which inexplicably increased the output limit of the core, Mikael did not feel any ability. Something worthy of a reward.

But whether the core limit increase can be regarded as a reward is also a question - Mikael still can't figure out his relationship with Honkai and the Tree of Imaginary Numbers. Well, to be precise, it is related to the consciousness in the imaginary number space that has tested him many times.

If it is the chaotic consciousness that Alicia mentioned, is the power it gives Mikael step by step based on laws that it cannot violate, or is it part of the destiny it weaves? Woolen cloth?

It's not like he has never tried fishing with his own body and actively entering the imaginary number space, but as soon as he took the initiative, the other party stopped showing up.

Mikael shook his head. Thinking is a good habit, but if you think too much about a problem that you cannot solve or give the correct answer, you will get nothing but a waste of time.

Just at this moment, he heard Mei's words——

"Speaking of which, Mikael, you are quite lucky."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Huh? Haven't you noticed? The third Honkai Impact and the Seventh Honkai Impact are watersheds in terms of reaction magnitude and Herrscher's destructive power."

Mikael took two deep breaths, it was true.

In terms of reaction magnitude, before the third Honkai Impact, his and the Second Herrscher's Honkai energy reactions were around 2000HW. After the third Honkai Impact, the third, fourth, and fifth... The response magnitudes of the first and sixth collapse were both around 4000HW. The reaction peak of the Seventh Honkai Impact exceeded 10,000 HW. It is conceivable that the following Herrschers may be at the same level as the Seventh Herrscher, or it is not impossible to go further.

And in terms of destructive power, the first collapse because of Mikael... only caused a little damage to Vostok. The second collapse destroyed the city of Irkune. However, after that, the third collapse destroyed the entire eastern coastal area and the far east of China. The direct losses caused by the fourth collapse seemed small, but it changed the global climate and turned the originally warm Attica into It got cold, and the Inner Asian Plateau where Fire Chaser's headquarters is located became hot and humid.

Let’s not talk about the fifth and sixth times. Seventh time……

Is this all just a coincidence?

"There's another very strange thing."

Under Mei's look, Kevin reluctantly took out the fiery red gem and handed it to Mikael.

"This core does not have a ring structure. I personally think it is better to use it as a key to God."

Mei suggested expressionlessly, ignoring Kevin who kept winking.

The clinker Mikael also responded readily: "Well, this is the best. There is no need to imitate Shirter in terms of style. Kevin, how about the sword I helped you construct before?"

"good, very good!"

Before Kevin spoke, he put the core into his pocket. Shirter was really damaged beyond repair this time, so he cherished this Herrscher core very much. It is also strange to say that his fusion gene is obviously Parfanti's ice and snow, but he has always used weapons that control fire.

However, he is indeed very satisfied with the core of Herrscher, especially the big sword that Mikael constructed based on it yesterday. Now that his dream has come true, he has absentmindedly started thinking about improvement plans based on that big sword. ——For example, make the main body of the sword into a posture that can be transformed into a firearm?

Mei was clearly right in front of him, but Kevin's heart was already in Velvet's workshop. He actually got distracted in front of Mei. This was the first time he ever got distracted.

But what May actually wants to say is something else:

"One more question, Mikael, if you include the difference in synchronization rate, your current core output rate is exactly the same as the full rated power of the Seventh Herrscher core, exactly the same."

"Um?"

Mikael didn't understand what she meant.

Even Mebius frowned. This phenomenon was certainly suspicious, but it didn't seem unexplainable, right? For example, after Mikael's reconstruction... Oops, it's so annoying, but it can be argued into a reasonable state.

Mei will naturally not give up questioning because of the reasonableness of this possibility, but Mebius believes that she will not deliberately ask questions because she cannot get an answer - even if she asks Mikael about this kind of thing, he will Can you know the answer?

He definitely doesn’t know! How could this idiot know?

Various words flashed through Mebius's mind.

Predictably, she is currently complaining a lot about Mikael.

"Uh...Mikael, how did you get the core in Kevin's hand? Did you use power to reproduce it, or..."

"this one?"

Mikael scratched his head, with a look of helplessness on his face: "To be honest, I don't know what happened. At that time, I only thought about regaining the power of the First Herrscher to reshape my body, and I didn't care about this at all. It is even more impossible to reproduce it, but it just appears in my reshaped body, still in the same posture as before being crushed..."

"But it still doesn't have a ring structure, right..."

"Um."

Seeing that the hint had no effect, Mei pondered for a moment, and then directly requested: "Mikael, I can ask you to try it... Since the Seventh Herrscher can directly generate your core in the body to replace the original core, then Can you, instead of using the power structure, directly try to generate another one..."

"Huh? I see, but I'm not sure."

He closed his eyes, opened them a moment later in disappointment, and shrugged.

Seeing this, Mei thought he had failed.

But Kevin's expression suddenly changed at this moment. He took out his hand from his pocket and looked at Mikael in shock.

Sure enough, the latter opened his hand and there was a red gem in his hand.

"No need to look, there is still no ring structure."

But this also proved that he could use the core like the Seventh Herrscher, but he still put the core into Kevin's hands.

If from the perspective of power, he is not lacking, this core can bring him more changes in the output of Honkai energy. Maybe he would be tempted before, but with the stigmata and...his The Honkai energy output is actually overflowing, and there is no shortage of this core part.

Of course, if it's really an emergency, regenerating one like just now can solve the problem, but it's easy to trick Kevin...

But he still didn't understand what Mei was groping for. She should have expected this phenomenon before.

Mei seemed to realize that all the insinuations were not enough. Even Kevin could not understand the meaning of every word she said.

So in the end, you still need to face everything with the most honest attitude.

So she looked at Mikael solemnly and asked softly: "Mikael, is what you constructed through power really the core of the Herrscher?"

"Is not it?"

Mikael spread out his palms and constructed six Herrscher cores half in confusion and half in a show-off manner. Adding his own, there were seven in total, lined up...

But the next moment, he was stunned.

After walking out of Laboratory No. 1, he looked at the time. Logically speaking, he could go back to the dormitory, and that was exactly what he meant.

However, when walking through a lounge, he inevitably caught a glimpse of pink from the corner of his eyes.

Turning around, I saw Alicia, Eden, and Aponya sitting around a round table. On the table were Eden's collection of red wine and wine sets.

Ellie seemed to have had a lot to drink, and her cheeks were even darker than her hair.

Eden was holding a gorgeous wine glass in his hand, half-leaning on the sofa, squinting his eyes, as if murmuring.

Only Aponya was awake as usual, but there was also a smile on her face that she would never have normally seen.

No matter what happened in the past or what the future holds, at least they are happy enough at this moment.

Suddenly, Aponya turned his head and looked outside the transparent glass wall of the lounge.

Mikael looked at her for a moment, then turned 180 degrees and walked towards the Anti-Entropy office area.

And when Alicia followed Aponya's gaze and looked outside, the glass window was already empty.

…………

"Honkai energy can flow back and forth between the six mimic cores and the original core, but the total amount is exactly the same as the previous output of the First Herrscher core. In other words, what I constructed is not a true [law] It is more like projecting my core in different dimensions... In terms of results, this means that what I construct is power, not... the more I think about it, the more confused I become."

As Mikael walked back to his dormitory, he completely ignored the lake in front of him under the gorgeous sunset. He lowered his head and thought as he walked.

"The core of the Herrscher is not as simple as a container of power. In essence, it should be a node in the tree of imaginary numbers that connects the world of real numbers. As a result, this node contains a trace of power... But since I If this node cannot be constructed, how can it obtain this power?

"Actually, I should have thought of it. For example, Bronya and Otto, when they used the core of the First Herrscher and the Void Manzo, they only constructed the God Key, not the [living] core. I originally I thought it was not worth the gain, but obviously not. I also thought it was because I was a native Law Herrser, so I had such a talent, but obviously I was not the first Law Master. With what!"

Mikael quickly realized this unreasonableness after being reminded by May. He should have known more than Mei now, but even those memories from God's perspective couldn't give him the slightest help on this issue.

The wisest thing to do is to put it aside like May's choice, but Mikael is a little worried.

He reviewed all the questions he had put aside in his mind. There seemed to be traces between them, but there seemed to be none.

When scientific logic cannot explain it, you might as well turn your attention to metaphysics. And as far as Mikael's own sixth sense is concerned...

He only felt that a net was hanging over his head. It could not completely trap him, nor restrict his movements, nor make him feel suffocated. Normally, he could not even feel his existence.

But as soon as you lower your head, you can see the shadows cast by the fine grid.

What does it, He, want to do?

"Hi! Mikael!"

When the familiar greeting came, Mikael couldn't help but smile, slightly bent his legs, and jumped into the field on the side of the road.

"Captain, are you planting flowers again, or sunflowers?"

Mikael looked at the tangled vines at his feet and realized that he had asked a nonsense question.

"Definitely not. After all, I just want to see the sunflowers turning in the underground city. Now that my wish has been fulfilled, I have to change to something more normal."

In fact, what she would not tell Mikael was that during that period she always had an inexplicable restlessness, and every night it seemed as if there were beating tongues of fire licking her heart...

But now that feeling has completely disappeared, it is natural to cool down.

"This is a watermelon. I see it's about the same season. This summer, Sakura doesn't need to buy watermelons. She can just come to my place to pick them."

Mikael smiled and shook his head, "Captain, your melons are not enough for her to chop...Besides, she doesn't spend a lot of time at the base now."

"Okay, okay, you young people always have endless work to do."

Himihu muttered something, and Mikael stood up after her. Just as she was about to say goodbye, she suddenly looked directly at the "sunset" and spoke:

"Mikael, you look much more energetic than before."

"Really? I didn't even notice it myself."

"...But sometimes it's more silent and cold."

"…That's because I'm determined not to run away from things anymore."

"Mikael, actually I still like the original you better... Forget it, let's not talk about this. Since you said you won't run away anymore... then, Mikael, you actually have one more thing to face. ,right?"

"snort……"

Mikael snorted softly from his nose, "Yes."

…………

When I walked to the door of the dormitory, it was already dark outside.

Mikael's steps were very heavy, as if he was carrying the weight of a mountain, but his feet were very light, for fear of making the slightest sound.

He walked to his door, but did not turn around. Instead, he continued walking forward and stopped in front of the next door.

He raised his finger, preparing to knock on the door.

But whether it was an illusion or not, he heard a sudden and heavy breathing through the thin door panel.

So his hand stopped in mid-air.

His shadow also hung there.

Time was mixed into the water condensed by the moonlight, and the two passed together in complete silence.

When Mikael finally made some determination, his shadow had moved from the right side to the left side.

"..."

He took a step forward, but not to the front, but to the right.

Finally, he turned around with difficulty, getting further and further away from the door.

"Can't escape...can't escape...can't escape..."

His right hand kept clenching, loosening, and clenching again.

But what he was heading towards was exactly the opposite of what he said.

Even if it's as slow as one second and one centimeter, it's still moving away from her, isn't it?

For Mikael, everything else can be overcome and faced.

But how should we face Alicia?

He didn't know, he couldn't figure it out at all.

He really had a lot to say to Alicia, and he thought the same was true of Alicia.

However, what he was more afraid of was another negative ending.

No, no, no, it’s not a negative ending.

In fact, even he himself couldn't tell clearly, what kind of attitude he longed for Alicia to face him.

Does he want Ellie to scold him, beat him up, and say something like, "Mikael, it's over between us! It's over forever! It's all over! The past, present, and future are all over!"

Of course I don't want it, of course I can't accept it, and it's impossible for Ellie to do it.

But the next moment he felt that it was best for Ellie to do this. After all, this was the excommunication he deserved most as a betrayer of a relationship.

Or maybe she hopes that Ellie will open the door in surprise, and then smile and say that she doesn't care about the past?

That is of course the best result in a sense, at least for Mikael personally.

But is it really the best?

No, all of this is based on Ellie's own tolerance and sacrifice.

The betrayer did not receive the punishment he deserved, but the betrayed bore everything.

There is another possibility. Alicia opened the door, still as gentle and considerate as ever, and intimate, but that kind of intimacy no longer had any charming meaning.

"..."

This last option really gets the best of both worlds.

Mikael smiled self-deprecatingly, and his lowered hands were clasped together.

He stopped and suddenly put his hands on his hips and began to gasp for air - the situation in front of him inexplicably reminded him of his elementary school days, when he got unsatisfactory scores and was asked by the teacher to go home and sign autographs for his parents...

No matter what happens, once something happens, it is only a matter of time before the result is revealed.

The methods of delaying time and using cleverness to evade are so useless in front of the two words of life...

childish!

"Mikael, when will you grow up?"

He sighed softly.

He was still a little at a loss.

But another echo sounded in his ears again——

"But okay, decisively... oh... ahem! Just let the fragile part of you die with me... Dear myself, I don't know if I will be the last one, but if there is another one in the future, In such a situation... please be the same as you are today and don't hesitate. Only by constantly killing your past can you truly move towards... ahem."

This is his own voice. It is the warning and...pleasure that the past person left to the future person.

There is no use in escaping or procrastinating.

Could it be that just because you are afraid of losing something, you have even lost the courage to move towards the future?

If you don't even have the courage to face everything, how can you believe that you can conquer everything?

Mikael turned around angrily, walked to Alicia's door, and raised his hand again.

But... this time, as soon as he raised his hand, the door opened by itself.

"Hi - let's say hello the old way. Long time no see, Mikael."

"Long time no see, Alicia..."

"Hmm? So, dear Mr. Mikael, what do you want to do by hanging around my door in the middle of the night?"

She stared at Mikael teasingly for two seconds.

Mikael looked at him as if he were dead.

This appearance immediately made her laugh, but due to the atmosphere and the difficulty of holding her stomach while laughing, she felt uncomfortable for a while.

Seeing that her expression was not good, Mikael felt somewhat uneasy.

He thought she was cold, so he turned his head from time to time, hesitating whether to close the door - but if he closed the door, would he stand outside or inside the door?

"Huh? What are you doing standing around? Come in quickly?"

"Ellie, I..."

His vision suddenly blurred, but Mikael still choked with sobs and tried to speak clearly.

"Ellie, there are some things that I want to explain to you, about me - about my complete origin. I am not asking you to forgive me for this, but..."

"Okay, stop talking about this and wash your face!"

She took out a wind-colored towel soaked in hot water from somewhere, slapped it and gently threw it on Mikael's face, interrupting his words.

"Aponia's calculations are really accurate, but she asked me to tell you that these words are not yet time to say them."

"That……"

Mikael's fingers were a little stiff. He didn't know how much Aponya had said to Ellie, but it seemed that he was a step too late.

"I think...Mikael, actually you don't have to...ha..."

Alicia kept changing her words, and she looked very worried, which actually made Mikael feel a lot more at ease.

But her slightly overwhelmed look made Mikael even more embarrassed to face it.

"Hey, hey, in the end, I have to be more honest... That's good! Mikael, you... promise me two things - they are both fair things, even if you have to do this Seen as some kind of exchange, it is completely equivalent. You don’t need to feel guilty... No, in other words, the weight you need to bear is more..."

"Which two things! Of course I am willing!"

Mikael automatically ignored the second half of her words.

"The first thing..."

Ellie sucked her fingers and said vaguely: "I hope you can make a vow."

"oath?"

"No matter how much it costs, humanity will definitely defeat Honkai, and you will definitely defeat Honkai."

"No matter how much it costs, mankind will definitely defeat Honkai, and I will definitely defeat Honkai."

Mikael repeated it firmly and mindlessly.

"Then the second thing..."

Ellie blinked against the moonlight.

"I haven't thought about it yet, so I'll leave it to the suspense of being a girl!"

But at that time, I couldn't even fully understand the weight of the first vow, let alone what kind of mournful future this second suspense meant?

I really can't find a good way to deal with the relationship between the last two people.

I wrote countless versions, but in the end I could only choose this one. Because Aponya was involved, it seemed a bit unfinished.

Although it sucks, it is the relatively smoothest version I can think of.

No one was sad or excited, everything went on calmly.

Correspondingly, it is also the smallest version of the sacrifice I can think of that Ellie made - what she sacrificed was the past and what she saved was the present, while what Mikael had to bear was the future, nothing more.

Okay, I admit that the emotional part of this volume has collapsed into a mess due to being too eager for quick success and instant gain. It is basically impossible to make up for it. I can only say...

Spray lightly...

By the way, pre-civilization is already coming to an end.