The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Da da da--"

The girl tightly grasped the big hand in front of her with one hand and the dirty, almost gray hem of her white clothes with the other hand, and followed her mother step by step.

She turned her head from time to time, and her bright yellow eyes glanced around timidly. At any time, her head was lowered, and her thick purple hair fell from her temples, completely covering her neck and both sides of her face. of.

There are high-rise buildings of 20 or 30 stories everywhere, and the bright windows reflect the warm sunshine. It is probably like the "sparkling" often said on the radio.

The surrounding air is not spotless, and the girl will occasionally choke on the exhaust of the car. The sky that can be seen through the gap in the building is also gray, not at all the blue sky that the radio said, but in any case, this is better than the sky in the sky. It was much better to struggle to capture the sky through a window the size of an arm in a cramped basement where every breath smelled of mold.

How warm. Just taking a few steps on the street, I felt that the musty smell acquired from being in the basement for a long time was gone.

It's just that the sun is always a bit dazzling, and so are the curious eyes of the people around her, so the girl can only lower her head shyly.

As I continued to walk forward, the building seemed to become smaller again, and there was an indescribable smell floating in the air. It was not smelly, but it was indescribable. In short, it was an unpleasant smell that made people feel unhappy.

Telegraph poles reappeared on both sides of the road, which Xilin didn't find annoying. Looking at the gray-brown rough surface, she really wanted to go up and touch it, or even kick it, to see if the long wires would dance under her own power.

"call--"

"Dance-dance-dance-"

Just as she was thinking about this, a cold wind that was about to overturn people rolled along the street, and the dark wires danced in the wind one by one, but Xilin did not feel the cold because the person in front of her was already there. He turned around and knelt down, holding her in his arms, blocking everything for her.

After a while, the wind disappeared. Her mother stood up again and gently rubbed her head. Before Xilin could see her face clearly, she turned around and pulled her to continue walking.

The high-rise buildings gradually returned to the two of them, without the electric wires that would keep shaking, but Xilin only felt that the surroundings had become strange again.

However, the experience of waiting for traffic lights, following the crowd, and being carried to the other side of the road by the crowd was still new.

Suddenly, as she passed a corner, she saw a white-haired girl standing alone in the shadow of the building at the intersection.

"..."

"..."

The gaze lasted for a second. The girl looked at the other person's facial features that were exactly the same as her own, and couldn't help but stop in shock.

"No, that's not right..."

The facial features...are obviously different...

Not to mention anything else, those sky-blue eyes couldn't match her bright yellow eyes and the unusual X-shaped pupils.

But in my heart... there was a feeling of "she is me, another me".

"Huh? What's wrong, Siren? Did you see anything interesting?"

Xilin let go of the hem of her white clothes and raised her fingers to point to where the white-haired girl was standing, but there was nothing there.

The next moment, the top of his head was gently touched twice.

"Are you uncomfortable being exposed to the sun? It's okay, we will be there soon. Just hold on, Siren."

"Okay, Mom."

Xilin withdrew her gaze, keeping her doubts in her heart, and just nodded obediently.

She was still following her mother, but the force from her mother's hand was slightly stronger, pulling her closer. The sunlight hit her mother's tall body directly, and the hanging shadow almost completely encompassed Xilin.

Holding her mother's hand tightly, Xilin wanted to say something, but her mother stopped and turned back to give her a smile.

Probably because her back was facing the sun, her mother's face was obscured by the shadow cast by her thick bangs, and her eyes could not be seen clearly. Only the faint smile at the corner of her mouth silently soothed the girl's mood.

“Dangdang—we’re here!”

Following her mother's words, Siren looked around blankly, but all she saw were strange people and strange buildings.

Where have you been?

No, what is this going to do?

Xilin only felt a little confused in her head. But in another sense, it seems quite sober.

Time seemed to slow down very slowly at this moment, but the flow of people around her did not slow down even half a minute. They passed by her one by one in a hurry, and the surrounding light and shadow also became hazy and changeable at this moment. Xilin felt that she Like a small island in the middle of a river, it was hurriedly wrapped up in confusion by the menacing river water.

Nothing around her belonged to her, only the warmth in her palms was the only reality.

"Hurry! Hurry! It's the store in front!"

In an instant, Xilin's time began to flow again, and her mother took her hand and took her to the entrance of a dessert shop.

"Hello! Huanyin Guang——"

The last word stuck in his throat. The waiter standing at the door carefully looked at the dirty white dresses of the two women in front of him, one large and one small. His eyes gradually became suspicious and wary.

"Madam... could you please pull up your sleeves?"

"Gulu——"

Xilin heard her mother's Adam's apple rolling. She lowered her head and explained to the waiter in a low voice:

"Um... sir, are you new here? I'm a regular customer of this store, so we don't have to do this..."

"No, I'm not new here. I've been working here for three months, but I'm sure I've never seen you once, ma'am. Please cooperate, as long as you let me see your forearm. Okay, as you know, there are more infectious people with purple lines all over the world, and we have to be careful.”

"Then why do you doubt me? Look at my hands. Where are the lines you mentioned? Oh, maybe you think our clothes don't look like rich people, so you are deliberately making things difficult? Do you believe it or not? I will file a complaint against you! "

Xilin stared at her mother's tall back in stunned silence. She could not imagine that her mother, who was so gentle to her just a moment ago, would fight with others without giving in.

She turned her eyes anxiously and blankly, but suddenly she saw the white-haired girl again on a street corner not far away.

"Well……"

The other party had the same expression as hers, a bit confused, a bit hesitant to speak, but just blinked and the other party disappeared again.

"Madam, this is your fault. My job is to serve the guests, which of course also includes protecting the lives of the guests. I must not let in guests with infectious diseases. What I just did was just a routine process. Anyway, it was just a glimpse. Amputating an arm is not an excessive request. Madam, you are trying to make excuses, could it be..."

"Okay, okay! I'll just show it to you!"

Xilin turned her big head back, only to see her mother roll up the sleeve of her left arm to her shoulder, revealing her dazzling white arm.

The waiter blinked and then moved his gaze to the right.

The scene froze for a moment.

Xilin saw her mother slowly raise her hand, pinch the sleeve at her right wrist, and then slowly pull it upward little by little.

She couldn't help but hold her breath. She heard the conversation just now and knew very well what existed five centimeters in front of her mother's right elbow.

Fortunately, the store door behind the waiter was opened, and a strange uncle stepped forward to stop everything.

"Hey! ▆▆▆▆, today is a little later than usual. Is that Xilin behind you? I didn't expect that she has grown so big. It has been ten years..."

For some reason, Siren couldn't recall her mother's name.

The uncle sighed and patted the waiter on the shoulder.

"Okay, okay, let them come in. They are all my acquaintances. This lady comes to my store to buy cakes on this day every year."

"Ah... uh, okay, I understand boss."

The waiter lowered his head and obediently moved away from the door.

Siren saw her mother nodding awkwardly to the uncle and the waiter respectively, while she herself pouted and walked past the waiter arrogantly.

The uncle took the mother and daughter to a seat for two by the window, then looked at Xilin with a smile and asked:

"It's still the same as in previous years, one portion..."

"One chocolate Sachertorte and one butter pie!"

Mother replied quickly.

The uncle's smile suddenly solidified on his face. After a while, Xilin saw him looking at her mother and saying:

"Two pieces of Sachertorte. It's rare for you to come to my shop. I'm treating you today. And today is also Siren's tenth birthday, isn't it? In the past, you always had a butter pie here and brought a Sachertorte. I want to go back and try some Sacher cake this year. I haven’t had it for a long time.”

"Okay... okay..."

The man quickly returned to the counter, and after a while, he served two plates of chocolate cake cut into fan shapes. But he did not stop, but returned to the counter and brought back a cup of coffee and a cup of juice.

Xilin looked at the juice handed to her and glanced at her mother in confusion. It wasn't until the latter nodded to her that she took the cold juice with both hands.

It's refreshing, a little sour, and obviously not sweet, but it tastes much better than the usual juice mixed with water and sugar.

The net content of the cup was too small, so she drank more than half of it in the first sip. Looking at the little juice left, Xilin turned her head to the window with some gloominess.

"Huh!"

Outside the window, the white-haired girl pressed her hands against the glass and looked straight at her.

Xilin suppressed the urge to scream and rubbed her eyes hard. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing in front of the glass, no one.

"What happened today...I didn't sleep well, I kept having hallucinations..."

Siren lowered her head and yawned slightly. She pulled the plate with the Sachertorte closer to her chest, then grasped the fork with the palm of her hand, imitating other customers in the store, and took small bites.

"It's really unnecessary. It's still delicious if you take a big bite."

Xilin thought angrily, but when she saw her mother acting like that, she could only choose to remain silent.

The uncle moved a stool and sat next to the mother. He probably felt that there were some words that children of her age could not understand, so the two of them had no scruples in chatting.

"When did he leave? We were all classmates, and you didn't even inform us. The teacher told me."

"I just don't want to cause you any trouble..."

"In all these years, you two have never asked us for anything. On the contrary, he, even if he got sick, had no money for treatment. When I opened the store, he even gave me a copy. You guys, how can I do well... "

"..."

"But, have you been infected too?"

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. You're not afraid of us, are you?"

"No, it's clearly written in scientific journals that this so-called infectious disease does not rely on body fluids and breathing for transmission. Whether you get it or not, sometimes it depends on luck."

"..."

"Hey! Could it be that Xilin is also..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"How long do you have?"

"Who knows? It's already in the trunk, or ten days and half a month, or half a year if you're lucky. Anyway, there's not much time left."

"Then Xilin..."

"Although I'm sorry to say this, I can't help it. ▆▆▆, Xilin, can I trouble you in the future..."

"Wait▆▆▆▆, don't give up so easily! That... wait for me, I'll find that thing for you."

Xilin watched the uncle run away in a hurry, and soon he ran back with a few pieces of paper.

"▆▆▆▆, look at this!"

"Is this... Tianming Medical?"

"Yes, the world's largest and most authoritative medical institution, which has been committed to studying these strange diseases in recent years. At the beginning, he and I both dreamed of entering that place... Forget it, let's not talk about the past. Take a look. Tianming Medical has established a large sanatorium called [Babel Tower] in Siberia. Every year, it recruits patients with these strange diseases. As long as you sign this voluntary form, you will be treated by Tianming Medical for free. If you are lucky, you will be sent to the Tower of Babylon to enjoy the top treatment. Of course, In this process, you need to cooperate with the doctor to try some new drugs, but there is always hope of survival, right? "

"This..."

"▆▆▆▆, you have to think about it, this is not just your business! Look at Xilin, she is only ten years old! Even if I adopt her for you, people with this disease can live... Uh, sorry▆▆▆▆, I don't mean that. "

"I understand, but... let me think about it again, I will try to give you an answer in the next few days. "

"Well, I sincerely hope that you and your daughter can live well. "

"Birth, aging, illness and death, all have their destiny. Asche zu Asche, Staub zu Staub."

The mother suddenly sighed in depression, and then at the same time as the uncle's face changed, she stuck out her tongue mischievously:

"But it's better to live than to die!"

"You..."

The man soon smiled bitterly. "You always liked to play tricks on people. Now I'm just a baker, so I can only help you here. Anyway, I wish you and your daughter good luck. Well, I won't bother you anymore, just let Xilin have a happy tenth birthday."

"Thank you."

After the uncle left, Xilin saw her mother's face gradually become gloomy.

She didn't know what happened, because her mother was still joking mischievously just a moment ago...

"Babel Tower..."

She heard her mother muttering this term in a low voice, so she started muttering it too.

"Babel Tower...Mom, it sounds so familiar, have we been to this place before?"

"No."

The mother smiled.

"It's from the story I told you."

"Eh...oh..."

"The Tower of Babylon fell into disrepair, so Marduk ordered Nabopolassar to rebuild it. He asked Nabopolassar to build the base of the tower firmly on the chest of the earth, and the spire should reach the sky. Nabopolassar's son Nebuchadnezzar continued to raise the tower to the height of the sky...but, this is not a good name..."

"Eh?"

The mother stroked Silin's head lovingly, and then quickly lowered her head in sadness.

"Sirin, after a while... after a while, you can go to school like a normal child."

"I can learn from mom!"

"But you always just pester me to tell you stories, right?"

"You can learn things from stories!"

"Then tell me, what did you learn from the story of the Tower of Babylon?"

"Eh..."

"Sirin!"

The head was gently patted, and the mother explained softly:

"At that time, the accents and languages ​​of people all over the world were the same. When they migrated eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and lived there. They discussed with each other and said, 'Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.' They used bricks instead of stones and tar instead of lime. They said, 'Come, let us build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered all over the earth.'

"The gods came down to see the city and tower built by the people of the world. God said, 'Look! They became one people, with one language. Now that they have begun to do this, nothing will be impossible for them. Let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other’s speech. ’

“So God scattered them from there over all the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babylon, which means confusion, because God confused the language of the people of the world and scattered them over all the face of the earth.”

“Ah? But it was clearly the gods who prevented humans from building the tower… Ouch!”

Xilin covered her forehead with both hands, one eye was wide open, the other eye was squinted, and her cheeks were puffed up like a small pufferfish.

Mother retracted her hand with a smile, and her expression suddenly became serious:

"No matter how you understand it, Siren. In the general public's perception, in the singing of history, in metaphors and symbolism, [The Tower of Babel] is the embodiment of arrogance. Humanity's attempt to build a giant tower to the sky, this The arrogant act finally brought division and turmoil to mankind, losing the same language, fighting each other endlessly, and finally the Tower of Babel collapsed in the flames of war. This is a classic in the doctrine of destiny. I don't understand why they gave it. It would be too arrogant to name a sanatorium like this...so arrogant as the ancient people who built the Tower of Babel...Is destiny so unafraid of destiny..."

"So...Mom, are you going to send me there..."

Siren saw her mother's lips move upward, and then she closed her eyes with a smile.

"There is no other way. Your uncle is right. People have to find ways to survive, especially you are only ten years old. If we want to survive, we can only sign a voluntary letter to get a chance of survival... But don’t worry, mom will go with you. I hope mom can survive until that day... and I hope mom can be chosen to go to the Tower of Babel with you.

"But Siren, even if your mother separates from you one day, you must always, always, always, always remember this sentence——"

Mother suddenly stood up and leaned her upper body forward, crossing the entire table, so that their foreheads were touching.

Feeling the cold warmth of each other, Xilin saw her mother's lips moving slightly, saying the words that would wrap around her life like a spell:

"Ich liebe dich."

Xilin's pupils suddenly shrank, and she realized that the [Mother] in front of her was just a gray-white doll with no facial features or hair color, and even the smile was fake.

The surrounding area is not a city at all, not a dessert shop, just empty white.

There was a stabbing pain in my heart, and my vision was blurred for some reason.

But with blurred vision, the doll named [Mother] suddenly gained color again.

Her short hair became snow white, her eyes were blue, and her smile was so gentle.

Siren's lips parted slightly, but no sound came out.

Seeing her like this, [Mother] squinted her eyes and her smile became warmer.

But her words are still chasing Sirin like a curse——

"Ich liebe dich."

"Ahhhh! Stop talking!"

Xilin covered her ears - she really wanted to tear the dream in front of her into pieces, but why couldn't she move her hands...

Mother's brows furrowed upward, and her smile became forced and sad, as if there was not enough time to talk anymore.

She looked at Siren, then cast her gaze behind her, trying to make her smile warm again.

Then, the blessing she said was no longer a curse:

"Ich liebe euch alle. I love you."

Siren... No, the Second Herrscher turned around, and she saw the white-haired girl again, but it was different from the dream, she had already remembered her name.

"Kiana..."

Her eyes became complicated in an instant, and even the original sharpness was lost.

But in the next moment, she suddenly started to tremble violently, her long hair flying, and an eardrum-piercing scream sounded in the empty space:

"Human, get out of here!!!"

"Ci Lin, you..."

"roll!"

The pity in Kiana's eyes inadvertently hurt the Second Herrscher——

She hated people looking at her like that.

She hated people looking at her like this.

She hated people looking at her like this.

"Ci Lin, I..."

"Get out of here!"

Staring at Kiana with bloodshot eyes, the Second Herrscher pushed her hands, and Kiana, who was about to say something, disappeared into this space.

Very good……

Finally alone again...

The Second Herrscher, or Siren, covered her face weakly and collapsed on the ground.

"Ich liebe dich."

She muttered this sentence subconsciously.

"Ich liebe dich.Ich liebe dich.Ich liebe dich..."

The unconscious repetition quickly turned into a whisper like a mantra, and the whole body was shaking with these words. The heart was constantly broken and reorganized, and distant and vague memories washed over and over again in the brain that was almost collapsing.

Suddenly, Siren felt a little more relaxed. It was as if some of the restraints on her body were loosening.

"Kiana..."

She whispered the name she envied so much, and tears fell from her fingers.

"Cecilia..."

That warm embrace vaguely remained all over her body, and it was not a false embrace in the fantasy world - since she was ten years old, it was the first time someone was willing to put trust, kindness and love in front of her, bringing her a warmth that she could never find. The forgotten smile, even if the next moment is the end of life, that kind of warmth has traveled through countless time and is deeply imprinted in the body's perception.

"If it had been earlier...if I hadn't done that kind of thing, Cecilia might have discovered the Tower of Babel, and then..."

The tears flowed out of control.

Do you regret it? She has always regretted, but she has never had anyone to talk to about her regrets.

Bella, Aurora, Agata, Galina... they were all dead, before they could feel that embrace.

Kiana said that she was the evil in Sirin's heart, but she was not born with darkness, nor was she born with anger, nor did she want to destroy the world as soon as she revived...

But apart from destruction, apart from destroying this completely dirty world, what else can she do...

She didn't even dare to imagine the happy life in Yu Duchen's environment anymore. Whenever she thought of that, her heart would feel a tearing pain. It should be regarded as a beautiful memory, but what was left was only deep pain.

"God..."

Since being betrayed, she has never prayed to the gods again, but this time, she couldn't help but ask in her heart:

"God...how on earth, how can we...be saved..." (End of Chapter)