The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Wow - wow -"

The sound of the waves washed over Mikael's nerves one after another. In front of him was a bright red ocean.

The white foam is like an endless big net, gently covering the sea surface, gradually deforming as the waves surge.

"The sea...why is it red?"

He opened his eyes in the darkness, this must not be a dream.

In fact, from the day he lost his sense of taste, he was soon deprived of even the ability to dream.

No, perhaps what was taken away was not the ability to dream, but the ability to sleep like ordinary people. Since I can't sleep, the so-called dreaming is out of the question.

But when he closed his eyes again, the scene with unclear meaning appeared in front of him again.

Everything you see is blood red, the sea and the sky are mixed together, and you don't know whether the sky is dyed red by the sea water, or whether the sea water is dyed red by the sky.

The waves washed over the beach as pale as moonlight over and over again, as if to erase all traces on the beach - but the beach was already empty.

The waves are the only sound in this world. There is no cry of seagulls, no noise of human voices, and even my own breathing cannot be heard. It seems that from beginning to end, there is only the existence of the red ocean.

Wait, yourself?

In this world that seemed like a dream but not a dream, Mikael lowered his head. His body was intact, but with the surging waves, his clothes were wrinkled by the sea breeze, that's all.

Everything stayed in this "just that" moment.

Mikael opened his eyes and stopped trying to pretend to sleep.

He gently lifted a corner of the quilt and got out of bed. In fact, there is no need to be so careful in your movements. There are two quilts on the bed, the blue one for him and the pink one for Aili. They are clearly different.

He walked barefoot silently on the cold floor. As he approached the balcony, the familiar sound of the waves came again. He pushed aside a corner of the curtains, opened the door, and sat on the lounge chair on the balcony.

In front of him, the waves rolled as always, and the perfect moon cast countless white scales on the sea.

Here's Eden's cruise ship, on a trip across the Pacific that had been half-assed.

Of course, this time it is no longer a simple trip and vacation. According to Alicia, she wants to shoot a big movie with all members of the Fire Moth participating, so...

In this way, even if the final confrontation fails, keeping a copy of this film in the moon base and the paradise of the past should be able to leave proof for future generations that the "Fire Chaser" once existed.

It is impossible to get every one of the hundreds of thousands members of Fire Chaser to participate in the show. In the end, only a small group of people called "Ying Jie" are willing to spend their vacations to accompany Ellie to fool around. .

For more people, either their responsibilities cannot leave their posts without permission, or, in this era, there is no habit of saving vacations and taking vacations - use them when you have vacations, don't save a year to prepare for a holiday. It was a long vacation, but he died the day before the vacation. How frustrating was that?

Furthermore, the arrival of the End has been put on the agenda, and more people have actually overspent all their vacations in the previous two months and squandered all their rest time - at the current speed of the Herrscher's arrival, most of them will There is a probability that the final battle will come within this year. If the final battle comes and there are still a lot of vacations that have not been used, what is the difference between death and money that has not been spent?

But what does any of this have to do with Mikael?

As always, he looked up at the moon hanging high in the thick night. The sky was obviously clear, but the Honkai Impact radiation scattered throughout the planet was like a black curtain, obliterating the stars without anyone noticing. The remaining few scattered and extremely bright stars in the night sky stubbornly let their light travel the distance that would take thousands of years to complete.

But what does any of this have to do with the moon?

It was silent as usual, floating there neatly and deserted. It was looking at Mikael from a distance of 380,000 kilometers. It should be able to clearly see Mikael's eyelashes on his face. The shadows cast by the sky were as if Mikael could easily see the shadows cast by those huge craters and the Great Rift Valley.

Mikael looked at the moon lovingly, and the moon looked at Mikael lovingly.

Mikael looked at Mikael with an expression on his face, and the moon looked at the moon with an expression on his face.

Then, although Mikael may no longer be called a human, the throb buried deep in his DNA still woke up.

In the 4.5 billion years since the moon was formed, there has never been a night when it did not cast silvery-white brilliance on the earth, and humankind itself has been around for less than a fraction of the age of the moon.

Its faint brilliance was the only light visible to humans in the long night for a long time. It used its roundness and imperfections to create the concept of time in human minds.

"So the encounter between humans and the moon is romantic."

Mikael suddenly spoke, his voice becoming erratic in the sea breeze, but fortunately Ellie was standing behind him, and the voice had already entered Ellie's ears before it could be torn apart by the sea wind.

Without saying a word, she just hugged Mikael from behind and let the back of his head rest in a warm and soft place.

There was a hint of warmth on Mikael's face, but it quickly dissipated without a trace under the cold sea breeze.

"Alicia, tell me, who was the first human being to raise his head and look at the moon?"

Ellie didn't answer. She knew that what Mikael was looking for was not a standard answer. In fact, it was impossible to get a standard answer to this question.

Even if there really is such a person, he raised his head at night when no one noticed the existence of the moon, and gained the qualification to be the first to look at the moon, but the question of who he is is completely unexplainable. Verified.

"Alicia, have you heard of it? Many astronomers believe that human life comes from the moon - this is not unfounded.

"Perhaps tens of millions of years after the formation of the Earth, a planet rich in various elements that flew from the distant universe hit the Earth. The impact point may be at the South Pole, but it doesn't really matter where.

"In short, this planet that was involved in a traffic accident left the elements necessary for the formation of life on the earth. Some of its corpses were integrated into the earth, and more of them turned into debris and bounced into outer space. Finally, they reunited due to gravity. Together, we become a rock hanging in the sky every night.”

"According to what you say, all life, including human beings, are born from the same origin as the moon! Doesn't it sound a bit incredible?"

"Indeed, one is a small, short-lived, but soft, warm, and strange human being. The other is an eternal, cold and hard round moon. Such a conclusion is incredible, but compared to The unbelievable things in reality are not so shocking.”

"But it's really romantic."

Alicia's breath warmed Mikael's earlobes. She leaned down and hugged Mikael completely, and the two figures overlapped.

"The moon is the starting point of all life, but it cannot come to the earth in person. It can only hang alone in the sky, waiting for the beings with the same origin to reunite with it. It has witnessed the withering and iteration of countless lives, and it was only at the age of forty We will meet again with humans after 500 million years - as long as we wait long enough, we will definitely meet again, right?”

Mikael blew out a little air from his nose noncommittally. He did not and was unwilling to respond to Ellie's last words.

Or maybe she just took away what he wanted to say to her.

"It won't be long before the end comes to the moon. If humans can defeat it, then the moon will be like a new beginning for humans. But if on the contrary, humans fail to cross the end, then the moon, as the symbol of life, will The starting point is the end point, which can also be said to have a beginning and an end.”

"You shouldn't say frustrating words at this time, Mikael."

Every slender hair in the ears stood upright under the warm breath. Mikael's Adam's apple rolled and he laughed half-self-deprecatingly:

"Alicia, the first person to say frustrating words is you, right?"

"Huh? Really?"

Ellie blinked innocently and searched in her memory for a while before locating the sentence that Mikael was referring to——

"As long as you wait long enough, we will definitely meet again, right?"

She felt a thump in her heart, and while secretly blaming herself for not being able to help saying what she said, she was also afraid of whether Mikael really understood the meaning of this sentence.

There is no doubt that Mikael must understand. After all, he is not a naive fool like Kevin. He actually has a delicate mind that most boys don't have, so how could he not understand Ellie's metaphor.

So, in a panic, she began to change the topic abruptly:

"Anyway, don't worry so much. Tomorrow is when Alicia's crew starts shooting! You must be energetic and leave a good state in front of the screen!"

"Pfft!"

Mikael chuckled lightly, but seemed to have no intention of asking further questions after that sentence. This made Ellie feel relaxed for a while, but at the same time, she felt a faint worry——

The reason for not asking further could only be due to two completely opposite situations.

One is that Mikael doesn't care about her and doesn't want to know what she is going to do.

The other is that Mikael knows exactly what she wants to do, so there is no need to continue asking.

Which possibility does Mikael correspond to? Self-explanatory.

Ellie immediately became anxious, narrowed her eyes, and quietly looked at Mikael's expression.

Her suddenly accelerated heartbeat had already given her away, and although Mikael knew all this, he didn't seem to have any intention of stopping her.

So she breathed a sigh of relief again, but what followed was deeper disappointment and anxiety.

In such a moment of negligence, she didn't see that the corners of Mikael's lips first raised up, then calmed down, and then his lower lip moved toward the middle, but in the end he didn't make a sound.

"Alicia."

"What's the matter?"

Ellie is a often noisy person, and Mikael is not very silent, but in the recent exchanges between the two, lengthy silences have taken up too much space.

"You know, I actually don't agree with your plan to make a movie."

"Don't be so serious! Look, everyone is happy except you!"

This is inevitable. For the Yingjie, they have managed to cope with four collapses in just four months, which is somewhat of an end of the line.

Even for Mikael, the faint feeling of tiredness still lingers in his heart, lingering.

Not to mention, the heroes are not all powerful beings, such as Pado... Moreover, being strong does not mean that they will not be afraid. Therefore, even the heroes have solved the problem four times in a row with almost no damage to themselves. After the collapse, it is inevitable that a deeper sense of fatigue will arise after a lucky break.

From this point of view, Ellie did the right thing. Everyone really needs to make a fuss without any scruples in order to be in a better position to welcome the twelfth collapse and its end.

Otherwise, if the string in your heart has been tightened and never relaxed, sooner or later it will be completely broken.

"Bo!"

With such a light sound, the bow string broke completely, and the originally recurved bow arm instantly straightened and bent to the opposite arc.

It wouldn't be a good idea if this happened.

"However, I don't know when the twelfth collapse will occur. If it is delayed because of this matter..."

"Huh? Didn't you and Mei already discuss the countermeasures before?"

Mikael's eyelashes trembled and he didn't answer.

It turns out that just like Mikael knew exactly what Alicia had done and what she would do, Alicia also knew very well what Mikael had done and what she would do.

"Actually... you didn't do anything wrong, Mikael."

"..."

"Whether your final choice is to sacrifice Ling or more ordinary people, I will not blame you. Of course, I am not the one who made the choice, and I am not qualified to blame you, because I know that, in fact, you There is no choice at all.”

"...The one who makes the choice is not me, but Ling."

"I know, but when you choose to confess everything to her, it's destined to end like this, isn't it? She is braver than we think."

"maybe."

Mikael stood up, broke away from Ellie's arms, and leaned alone on the railing of the balcony.

When you lower your head, you can see the dark and cool sea water.

He resisted the urge to jump down and sighed:

"But the situation is different now. The further time goes by, the more I feel something is wrong. Although there are only some abnormal Honkai energy fluctuations happening around the world from time to time, my intuition - yes, that's right, my intuition Tell me, maybe the Twelfth Herrscher has been born, but it’s not Ling who became the Herrscher. All our preparations were in vain.”

"That's okay. If you change the angle, wouldn't Ling be safe for the time being? As for the Herrscher, a guy as difficult to deal with as the Tenth Herrscher has been easily dealt with, what kind of waves can the Twelfth Herrscher make? After all, , with our current combat power, the Herrscher has no chance of winning in a head-on battle, we just need to create an opportunity for a head-on confrontation. "

"That's true in theory."

Mikael laughed dryly and wanted to explain the power of the Twelfth Herrscher to Ellie, but suddenly felt that it was not necessary——

As she said, they were not afraid of any Herrscher in frontal combat. What they lacked was just the opportunity to fight head-on.

And just like the tenth collapse, luring the snake out of its hole is undoubtedly the best way to create such an opportunity.

So Ellie knew everything from the beginning.

And this time the movie plan is undoubtedly to create an illusion of human laxity for the Herrscher.

I see.

Ai Li stood beside him silently and smiled softly, as if she had read through his thoughts.

In fact, things were not exactly as Mikael thought. Ellie deliberately explained that the reason why she wanted to make a movie was not simply to lure the snake out of its hole.

This is a plan to kill two birds with one stone.

After all, she watched Mikael carry a heavy burden all the way to this point with her own eyes. All heroes, the entire Fire Chaser Moth, and even the entire human civilization have reached this point with a heavy mentality.

This was not what she wanted to see.

If there is only loss and pain along the way, then even if you finally defeat the end and win the future, what is the meaning of the future in the face of a devastated land and a numb heart?

What she hopes to see is that no matter how painful the reality is, even if it is a futile effort to push a huge stone to the top of the mountain, knowing that the stone will roll down once it reaches the top of the mountain, it will be like Sisyphus. Si feels the same happiness and joy in this process.

This is what she really wants to see and leave behind.

She might be able to do it herself, but she couldn't make anyone else do it, not even Mikael.

Then, she thought - at least she should leave something behind to prove to those who come after her that even in such a desperate era, even when the end is about to come, we still have happy times. Even though we know that all our efforts may be in vain, our hearts are filled with joy like Sisyphus.

This is more suitable as a motivation for successors to move forward than simple heaviness and pain.

"After all, a beautiful girl, even if she wants to leave some last words, she can't use cold words! Even if it's a farewell, she should laugh and be happy, and don't cry!"

She wanted to say that, but she didn't.

It's not that I'm embarrassed, or that I'm afraid of not being understood.

There is only one reason - how could Mikael not understand this?

"Pfft!"

She suddenly chuckled and blew her nose quickly.

"Ellie."

"What's the matter?"

She deliberately made her words brighter and lighter.

But that annoying cry was always with me and I couldn't get rid of it.

His hands were placed on the iron railings that had been blown by the sea breeze all night, but he could not feel the coldness or pain. After all, he was no longer a human being.

But the next moment, I felt warmth on my hands.

Mikael walked up behind her, covered her hands with his, and let her body shrink into his arms.

"Look, Ellie, it's getting daylight."

The two of them raised their heads together. The originally thick night had turned into a blue-gray color, and the distant sea level was now separated from the sky by a slight arc.

The full moon is still hanging high in the sky, and it seems that it has no intention of leaving for the time being, but the few stars are gradually being forgotten against the blue-gray background.

"Ellie."

"Um."

"Did you know? In fact... the moon is slowly moving away from the earth."

"Huh? Really?"

This is the first time Aili has heard of this matter.

Something crossed her mind, but to her chagrin she couldn't capture it immediately.

Indeed, the moon is slowly but irreversibly moving away from the Earth.

I mean……

No one can be with each other forever.

In another 4.5 billion years, the moon will probably not be able to wait for beings of the same origin to meet it again.

The moon is slowly moving away from the earth

I mean, nothing lasts forever

——Thanks to Tazi