The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

The flames spread in all directions, and the ground beneath his feet was burned to a scorched black. The sound his boots made when stepping on it was not the "rustling" sound of ordinary soil, but the crisp sound of carbonization and cracking.

Looking down at the scorched layer on the soil surface, the cracks were filled with traces of lavender Honkai energy.

The flames could not get any closer to him. Instead, they were offset by the cold air surging in his body as early as four or five meters away. Whenever he took a step, the flames jumping around him would freeze at that moment and be replaced by the thick ice. pack.

Did this flame start on its own? The man was suspicious.

The reason why there is such a question is because the man cannot forget the consequences of the first time he completely released the rated power of the weapon in his hand.

It was a whole city. Although most of the people were reduced to dead soldiers or simple corpses at the moment when the Honkai Impact broke out, there was no doubt that it was the city that was written in the mission objective and urgently needed to be saved. .

But the city was destroyed in his hands. In the cry of "Sky Fire - Unsheath", he was unable to control the power and turned the city that needed to be saved and the Honkaiju that needed to be killed into scorched earth. .

What is ridiculous is that the coalition government did not care about this "mistake". Perhaps out of some purpose, they also held a commendation conference for themselves that another man had never enjoyed.

No one cared about the ordinary people who lost their lives in the sky fire, and even the man himself did not feel guilty because he never once dreamed of the victims asking for their lives in his dreams - although not long after, he Just because of the commandments, I lost my ability to dream forever.

But if you insist, there is enough time in between. Why haven't you dreamed about it?

Why have you never dreamed of it?

I didn't even feel regretful, but there was something depressed in my heart, as if the blood in my heart had solidified into ice.

Not sad at all.

Is it because there is no one he knows in that city?

Well, it doesn't matter. The problem is, since dreaming is impossible, then——

So what's going on now? Aren't you still dreaming?

Why would he dream after being given the commandment of [not being able to dream]? And why do you dream about these?

The ice can even freeze everything before the fire goes out, but it still can't stop the smell of roasting and the screams of men and women that can no longer be distinguished.

So, it shouldn’t be there, right?

So where was this dream?

The surroundings seemed familiar. When I raised my head, I could see no sun in the dim smoke.

No, it is actually visible - in the middle of the dark night sky, where the sun should have been hanging high, there is only a faint circle of light.

eclipse--

Was it...Klosten's time?

Whenever I think of this place name, I will feel a sting in my heart unconsciously. Even if I don't need to breathe at all and gasp for air, I always feel dizzy, my chest and lungs are dry, as if I will suffocate to death in the next moment.

We are also watching the city being destroyed, why can we feel obvious sadness this time?

Without asking too many questions, Kevin is actually quite clear in his heart.

What made him feel stinging in his heart and even unable to breathe was not the destruction of a city and the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

After all, Kevin once admired heroes and other things, but in the final analysis, what he admired was just the moment when he became a hero.

It's as if all he enjoys when playing basketball is the moment when the ball is put into the frame.

As for the responsibility that a hero means and the weight that he has to bear, he is aware of it, but for a long time, he does not need to bear these things, and he does not care at all.

What really made him feel uncontrollable sadness was the figure he once chased, the dishonesty and even... betrayal of the best comrade in his heart.

He's always like this, always like this.

He was always carrying a weight he didn't understand in his heart, but he never had the slightest intention to share this weight with himself.

Of course, things that were not understood five hundred years ago seem to be partially understood today.

That's why he was so sad when he was in the world, and he never had any disputes with Mikael... In the memory of those few days, the two seemed to have gone back to five hundred years ago to perform a mission together. The way it was at that time.

Perhaps compared to this moment, the memory in that world is more like a dream.

The flames will never stop.

Kevin looked at everything that was burned coldly.

"Why are you always so childish?"

This is not anyone's accusation or mockery of him, but his own blaming.

He knows what Mikael wants to do, and he also knows what he should do.

But it was precisely because he knew what was going on in that idiot's mind that he... was always unable to treat him as an enemy.

That's why I was hurt again and again, and felt betrayed again and again.

"Really...I am an idiot myself. Ah yes, he and I have always been idiots."

A smile he hadn't seen for a long time suddenly appeared on his face, and the next moment, he heard a call in a distant dream that he had to answer.

"Kevin? Kevin. I know you're fine. Wake up quickly."

It wasn't even a shout, just a dull murmur. Because of this, there is no need to distinguish who is calling him.

"It really doesn't let anyone rest at all, Mei."

In a sense, the pun-like teasing did not get the response it deserved. Kevin opened his eyes and rubbed them with his hands. What he saw was a huge hole connected to the sky.

"That is……"

"It's very familiar. He dug a hole in our underground city in this way. It's not an exaggeration to say that the sky collapsed."

Kevin twisted his neck, and his spine only slightly rotated before he felt a terrible tingling sensation. There was no doubt that he had a stiff neck. He put his frost-covered palms between his neck and the stone, regardless of whether there was cold compress therapy or not. use.

"...How are the casualties? How many people survived?"

His lips opened and closed silently many times in succession, but Kevin finally chose to skip those meaningless emotions and memories and directly asked the core question.

Mei's eyes swept across his face, her brows furrowed slightly, then slowly relaxed, revealing an imperceptible sadness only at the moment of change.

Anyone would probably just think that she simply frowned, and even to people who didn't know her well, they would inevitably have doubts like "Why doesn't this guy care at all when his lover is seriously injured?"

But Kevin understood that part of the subtle sadness was Mei's sentimentality dedicated to him, but it had to be suppressed at this moment.

Anyway, the Garuda factor injected into his body as a result of the Chimera Project gave him almost [immortality] characteristics, and the original trauma had long been healed during his coma, so there was nothing to care about.

And there is another part of that sadness, needless to say, it is...

"The situation is not optimistic. It is conservatively estimated that the number of people who died on the spot and were missing has already exceeded half of the personnel in the Salt Lake City base. The remaining combat-capable personnel should barely be able to maintain the operation of the Hyperion. Calculate. The good news is that there are only two of them. The combat power that can be used to fight the Herrscher will not be lost much. Moreover, the location is relatively remote. Hyperion's hangar and the location where Benares is imprisoned have not been affected. arrive."

Listening to Mei Ping's calm narrative tone, Kevin's mood gradually calmed down.

This is not a matter of indifference or indifference. Fifty thousand years ago, even those warriors who hated Mei's rational performance had to be sure of one thing - as long as they heard Mei's tone of voice, which was always dull and sleepy, they would feel that the difficulties in front of them were nothing. Big deal.

Same goes for Kevin.

"Where's Bronya? My attack at that time didn't have any room to spare, and she should have been affected. But after all, she is the Herrscher of Reason. Although reconstructing the body is a little more troublesome than the Sixth Herrscher, it is still …”

"Don't use that man's standard to measure all Herrschers of Reason."

Mei glanced at him lightly.

"Bronya's problem is either big or small. She suffered severe burns and lost everything below the middle of her thighs. The burnt area has been healed by Xi'er and Anna, but with the abilities of the two of them, it can't be done in a short time. It was impossible to make a prosthetic limb of Siegfried's level for Bronya, but there was still Velvet, who gave Bronya two 'iron feet' that looked like half-covered armor. Ronya is also used to floating and walking with the help of the heavy-armed bunny, but it’s troublesome when she gets close during combat.”

"Well, even if the body cannot be completely reconstructed, it shouldn't be difficult to reconstruct the two legs, right?"

May gave a rare shrug.

"Theoretically, that's the case, but Bronya... can't use her powers now."

"Did the core be taken away by Mikael? It shouldn't be. I should have really stopped Mikael at that time..."

"It's not like that. You did stop him. The core is still in Bronya's body, but the power cannot be used."

"Has a core but can't use the power? I remember that Mikael also seemed to have this situation, but at that time he..."

"Perhaps it is a psychological problem, or it may be that the power was taken away by [Domination]. Although this kind of thing does not exist in our era, even if the Herrscher of Domination removes the God Key and obtains the power within it, the core is still the same It can work on the blank key. But there are differences between the two eras, and [dead core] cannot be generalized with [living core]."

"Um……"

"Kevin."

A hint of coldness suddenly fell on his cheeks, and Kevin's body trembled as if in response, only to realize that it was Mei's fingertips.

The backs of Mei's fingers gently traced across Kevin's cheek, leaving only a silent smile in the end.

"Let's take advantage of this moment to rest a little longer. Once the personnel here are reorganized, we will immediately carry out the plan to rescue Kiana."

Kevin opened his mouth in vain, thinking for a moment that he was still in a dream.

【】

"I thought you would never show this side to others. After all, it would make..."

"it does not matter."

Mei came close to Kevin, took off her glasses, and left a kiss on his forehead.

"plum……"

"It's almost over, Kevin."

"Um."

The muscles in his cheeks twitched slightly, and Kevin responded to Mei with a frown that looked like she was crying.

Mei said nothing more, she pressed Kevin's hand and stood up from the ruins.

"By the way, Mei, I just... seemed to be dreaming."

"dream?"

Mei's brows twitched slightly, and then before Kevin could explain, she narrowed her eyes and nodded thoughtfully.

"I see."

With the corner of her mouth raised, Mei put her hands into the pockets of her white coat and stopped talking.

She started walking towards the noisy and shouting crowd, but she didn't take more than two steps before she turned back, looked at Kevin deeply, and left him with a smile again.

The moment she turned around, she muttered silently in a voice that only she could hear:

"Only one more time."

…………

"Teacher Walter, are you okay?"

Walter was dragged out of the ruins by Ji Zi. He hid in the corner in time when the collapse came. When the collapsed ceiling fell, a stable triangle was formed. Although the dusty face of the Herrscher of Reason could not see It was quite embarrassing to go up there, but at least the whole person was intact from head to toe.

No one can tell what will happen in the future, but at least for now he has handed over the power of the Herrscher of Reason to Bronya. When faced with injuries, his body is as fragile as ordinary people.

Therefore, probably because he had just been dug out of the ground by Jizi, he still seemed dazed. He even scratched his head when he heard Jizi calling him teacher.

Finally sitting down next to a ruined wall, he breathed heavily and kept pushing the glasses frame on the bridge of his nose - even though the lenses were gone.

However, I originally wore flat glasses to make myself look more handsome and mature, so the loss of the lenses did not have much impact.

"Thank you, Himeko. But the Honkai energy reaction here is too high for you. I can't tell you to rest under the circumstances, but how many protective suits should you put on?"

Jizi and Walter leaned against the wall side by side. First he sighed heavily, then shook his head with a wry smile:

"I don't know where the warehouse has been buried for a long time. Most of the current search equipment and protective clothing were taken from the Hyperion. The quantity is already small. I was once a Valkyrie. This is ridiculous. Bad energy reactions can still be tolerated, and protective clothing should be given to ordinary soldiers. "

Walter rubbed his brows, his breath trembling slightly as he gasped.

Jizi saw clearly from the sidelines that sixty-two years have passed since New York was destroyed. The Salt Lake City base that Anti-Entropy spent sixty-two years operating was completely destroyed overnight. How can it remain like this? Even still trying to think about the next question, Walter's psychological quality is already quite strong.

But just because sadness and anger are suppressed, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Looking at this teacher who he remembered taking good care of her at Caltech, and remembering that he looked like this at that time, but he had gone through a lot of changes, Jizi's eyes couldn't help but tremble, and then she stood up holding on to the wall. Come, get ready to leave.

"Mr. Walter, let's rest here for a while, and then I'll go see where else I need help."

"Um."

The moment Jizi turned around, Walter also lowered his head, but raised his head again when he heard a certain name.

But Jizi has already left.

After a while, the sound of rapid and overly vigorous footsteps came from the ruins on the right.

There was no need to work hard to identify, Walter felt that it was impossible for him to misidentify that step, so even though his mood was extremely heavy at this moment, the corners of his lips unconsciously curled to both sides.

Sure enough, the next moment, an overly loud voice floated over from the right:

"Joachim!"

"Tesla..."

Walter covered his waist with one hand and supported the wall with the other, trying to stand up, but Tesla, who hurried over, pressed his shoulders back with both hands.

"Well……"

"What's wrong Joachim?"

There was unbearable pain in his chest, abdomen and waist, and he couldn't tell when he was injured.

However, compared to what I have experienced before...it seems to be nothing.

But when Walter raised his head and saw Tesla's anxious expression and the tears that had not yet been wiped from the corners of his eyes, he suddenly recalled the time when he had just inherited the power of the Herrscher of Reason and the name Walter sixty-two years ago. .

Every night, the power overflowing from the Herrscher's core would tear apart the cells in his body, and then grow completely due to his self-healing ability far beyond ordinary people. If I had to describe the pain, it would probably last for ten years. The pain is magnified hundreds of thousands of times at height.

And at that time, Dr. Lobster Head, who was always irritable during the day, would always comfort him gently.

For some reason, when he thought of these, all the emotions surging in Walter's heart also calmed down.

He raised his dirty hand and pressed it on Tesla's right hand without the robotic arm.

"I'm fine Tesla, please... pull me up."

Tesla pursed his lips and did not agree to Walter's request. Instead, he turned around and sat where Jizi had sat before.

"Get some rest, that bastard...hehe...I also need to calm down."

Walter turned to look at her, and for a moment he thought about holding her hand, but after looking at the dusty palm, he still used this reason to convince himself to do nothing.

"Is Einstein okay?"

"Um."

Tesla's reaction was a little too calm, which made Walter quickly swallow his words about the casualties.

"Haha... right now, the place under our feet looks like hell."

The dark night leaked down the huge hole above the head, and the sluggish moonlight was divided into tiny spots of light by the dust that could not settle down. Looking at the mess that could be seen, Walter couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"After all, things are better than they were sixty-two years ago, aren't they?"

Looking at Tesla, who was not as quiet as Tesla, Walter swallowed and responded softly.

At least, it was only the base of Salt Lake City that was destroyed, unlike what was destroyed sixty-two years ago, which was an entire city, an entire city... which could almost be said to be the most prosperous city in the world at that time.

and……

"By the way, are Bronya and the others okay?"

"Bronya... was a little injured, but she's fine and can still fight. Xi'er and Teresa are also fine. The pre-civilized Velvet made many instruments and machines using local materials, De Lisa is reorganizing the team despite her injuries. After all, she was the frontline commander during the second collapse. She is better at this than us. According to Theresa, conservatively, the remaining staff can be recovered at dawn. Restore basic combat effectiveness before."

"That's good……"

Walter scratched his head and tried his best to think of something, but soon he had to lean his head against the wall again because of exhaustion.

"Don't think about it. You don't need to do anything now. Just rest here with me for a while."

"……good."

It was also strange, Tesla kept his head lowered, but seemed to know Walter's thoughts clearly.

She kicked a pebble away with her heel, then took off her glasses and wiped them gently with the hem of her shirt.

"By the way Tesla...do you know anything about Himeko's past?"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing... Although I have admired her name for a long time, in fact, it was probably the first time I saw her two days ago, but she kept calling me teacher."

"Um?"

Tesla shook his ponytail, was quiet for a while, and replied:

"After the second collapse, in order to recuperate from your injuries, didn't you teach Jiwotou at California Institute of Technology? In 2002, Wuliang Tajizi entered Caltech, and she should be in the same class as Jiwotou."

"But I really have no impression."

Walter frowned and pushed the frame of his glasses that had not slipped down the bridge of his nose at all.

"Logically speaking, such a distinctive red hair should be easy to impress people. But why..."

"Who knows? Maybe it's because she dyed her hair, or maybe it was for some other reason. Are you doubting her?"

"I don't have any doubts... I just feel a little strange..."

"Okay, don't take it too seriously. No matter what kind of story she has behind her, at least from what Jiwotou and I have observed, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her."

"Is it……"

"..."

"..."

"Hello, Joachim?"

"..."

The call received no response, and Tesla nudged him lightly with his elbow, which didn't seem to work at all.

Put your ears close and you can hear deep and even breathing.

"well……"

Walter fell asleep at some point.

The broken moonlight clearly reflected the stubble on the middle-aged man's chin. Tesla rarely watched all of this quietly, and he didn't know how long it took.

Suddenly, there was an unknown impulse in my heart. I wanted to give him a hug like he did when he was a child, but I was conflicted. Maybe at this age, it would be better to hold hands gently like my partner did when dancing.

In the end, neither a hug nor a handshake happened.

While she was hesitating, she saw a flash of blue not far away waving to her. (End of chapter)