The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

The high platform floated quietly, no different from every day for the past fifty thousand years.

The sky is blue and the clouds are white, but the clouds are always fixed in that position, real but illusory, like an extremely realistic oil painting.

On the high platform, under the sky, a nun wearing a headscarf was crossing her fingers, clasping her hands on her chest, her head lowered, and muttering something, but no one could hear clearly what she was praying.

The prayer stopped abruptly a second before the sound of footsteps behind her. Aponya turned around as if she had expected it. Her plain eyes full of compassion quickly swept over the pink color, and finally stopped at Meiyi's tired but still delicate eyes. on the face.

"Is this day finally coming?"

Mei blinked in confusion, but as far as this sentence is concerned, shouldn't it be said to Alicia? Mei didn't understand why Aponya was staring at her.

It wasn't until Ellie opened her mouth to answer that Aponya turned her eyes back little by little.

"Yes, why, are you impatient to wait, dear Aponya?"

"Ah - sad -"

Aponya lowered his head deeply.

"But there is no way. Some things and some people, even if the thread of fate has been cut long ago, will still follow the footsteps of fate step by step."

"Having said that, the courage to face fate is still worthy of praise, isn't it? And...since the thread of fate no longer exists, it means that there are countless possibilities. Even the ninety-nine steps ahead are related to fate. The footprints are perfectly matched, which doesn’t mean there won’t be a miracle in the last step, right?”

During the two consecutive rhetorical questions, Aponya fell silent.

Meiyi, on the other hand, looked confused from beginning to end, not knowing what riddle the two of them were playing.

In doubt, Aponya took two steps to the side and turned sideways.

"All right."

His eyes full of pity were tightly closed, as if he didn't want to look any longer.

"The matter has come to this, and there is no turning back."

The snow-white stairs appeared out of thin air beside her, extending all the way to the false high sky...until...the door appeared.

"Let's go!"

Before Mei could react, Alicia held her hand.

She pulled her up the steps and ran towards the door.

"Alicia..."

Mei Yi wanted to say something, but when the voice blurted out, her spirit was in a trance for a moment, and then she crossed the door with Ai Li in silence.

A severe sense of weightlessness came over him, an even stronger sense of weightlessness than what he had experienced when using the Star Gate.

But his feet soon touched the ground, and the light and shadow in front of him were distorted and reversed. First, a gorgeous dusk appeared, and then countless buildings of different styles seemed to have been put down one by one by a pair of huge hands, and in the blink of an eye, they pieced together a huge building. Small towns.

"This...here is..."

Unlike the ruins that Mei Yi had seen when she was exploring the paradise, spiraling up around the few intact towers, with their foundations still leaving a birdcage-like grid in mid-air, what she saw before her was a complete and real town. , standing on the outer hillside and looking down, you can even see figures walking between the streets and markets.

However, the layout of the town seemed a bit strange, or the location where Mei appeared was a bit strange - the town was organized along a hillside, with scattered buildings extending to the other side of the hillside. But at the foot of the mountain near Mei, most of the area is not a residential area, but a garden-like maze, an empty square, and erected along the cliff, with hieroglyphic patterns of unknown meaning carved on them. huge stone monument.

Surrounding the stone monument, you can see suspended gravel and steps, and even a corridor sliding through a perfect arc in mid-air like a winding river, extending to the other end of the mountain. But that's all.

On the side of the mountain to the left of Mei Yi, you can also see the roller coaster track and various amusement facilities. From a visual inspection, its scale seems a bit too huge compared to the area of ​​the entire town.

"Dangdang! This is the eternal paradise - how about it, it's a very beautiful place, isn't it?"

Meiyi's lips trembled:

"Well... with all due respect, I think... it's a bit ordinary."

"ah?"

Ellie's eyes widened in displeasure.

The corners of Mei Yi's mouth twitched twice - based on common sense, even if Mei Yi noticed some inconsistencies at a glance, the overall appearance was just an ordinary town.

She was a little strange. According to Alicia's style, she thought she would see the endless sea of ​​pink flowers, or the heaven hanging high among the clouds, or the gorgeous stars under her feet.

Compared with these self-righteous imaginations of hers, the real eternal paradise is actually a bit ordinary...

No, not ordinary, but too real. It's as if such a town can also exist in the real world. It’s so real that Mei, who has been with Ai Li for a long time, feels that the designer probably lacks some imagination, or deliberately suppressed imagination when constructing all this, in order to pursue a more realistic side.

Wait... If nothing else happens, the person who created this place should be...

"Ahh! It's all Mikael's fault! I told you to do something different!!"

Okay, Mikael, it's okay.

Mei Yi looked at the sky. Logically speaking, two hours after she fell asleep, it should have been late at night in the outside world. Is the time here different from the outside world? Mei Yi couldn't understand, but that didn't stop her from asking with some urgency:

"So, how should we explore here?"

"Don't worry, Yayi. Look, the weather is so beautiful. Do you want to take a walk with me?"

Ai Li smiled and pointed at the bright fire clouds in the sky.

"I……"

Of course, Mei is more inclined to choose the more efficient option, but both Mikael and Alicia seem to have warned her in a short period of time not to be too anxious or too purposeful.

in addition……

Before Mei Yi could figure it out, Alicia had already held her hand again and pulled her towards the garden maze down the hillside.

The fragrance of flowers and plants hit my face, and the land under my feet was visibly moist and fertile, but it was not as muddy as in reality.

Ellie's free hand opened open, and her fingertips kept passing over the pink petals.

Meiyi watched and watched, and the girl's heart was inexplicably touched, so she followed Alicia's example, opened her palms, and touched the delicate-looking petals with her fingertips.

A slight chill passed through my fingertips in an instant.

Also disappearing was the feeling of being held by Alicia's hand.

I don't know why, but I always feel a little lost.

Is it the clouds that create such an atmosphere?

Alicia turned around in the grass, then stood in front of Mei Yi with her hands behind her back, looking at her with a smile.

"I'm very happy, Mei. Today, you are not as persistent in what you want as you were in the past. Although, the reason for your persistence is completely different now."

"..."

"Speaking of which, this incident also makes me very happy."

"Which thing?"

"Mei Yi, you said that you want to know the ending of our story. Even if you know it is a tragedy, you still want to witness the story to its completion. If you can't do that, you said you will feel sorry. You said, Our stories have a different kind of power. Even if the ending is unsatisfactory, it will make you feel full of power... What else can make a deceased feel happier than [their own stories can give strength to those who come after you] What about?”

"Alicia..."

Mei opened her mouth, but her throat was so tight that she was choking unknowingly.

Why are you crying? Are you crying because you still have a little doubt about the girl in front of you? After all, until this moment, Mei still doesn't know what happened to her and Mikael. But Alicia's words, every word she said, seemed like a eulogy at a funeral, and the protagonist of the funeral was not just the girl who was as gorgeous as flying flowers, but the Meiyi who had not experienced it personally, but had been immersed in it. Among them, the era of empathy.

It was a wonderful era.

For today's civilization, it can be said that it is almost an imaginable level of technology, a prosperous and stable life, and singers who were born for all of this, integrating glory and splendor.

But it wasn't a good era.

Honkai ruthlessly destroyed everything that mankind valued, but mankind failed to unite until the end.

Why does Honkai destroy human civilization?

Maybe there is a reason, maybe there is no reason.

In this world, it is natural for the tall to bully the small and the powerful to prey on the weak.

This may be the only reason.

But some people don't agree with this.

Because of this, it was a beautiful era after all.

Because there is such a group of heroes who have the same bad tempers and bad habits as ordinary people. Their bodies may be strong, but their hearts are still as fragile as ordinary people. None of them even "want" to be a hero...

But in that era, they stood up and fought again and again. Until the end of time, they never gave up, but stubbornly left their hope to the next era.

What kind of belief makes them so convinced that mankind will defeat Honkai?

Even if it is Mikael, his every move is actually a belief from the bottom of his heart that mankind will definitely win.

why?

Is it an unreasonable hope derived from extreme despair?

Mei Yi couldn't explain clearly, because she thought she couldn't be that noble. She didn't care that much about what happened to humans or what the world was like - she was like this before entering the Paradise.

But now, there seems to be an extra weight on my shoulders.

The weight was not heavy, but it made every step she took on the road to [salvation] more powerful.

"Don't cry, Mei."

Ai Li quietly leaned forward and wiped away the tears from the corners of Mei Yi's eyes with her thumbs.

"If I ruined my makeup... Oops, I accidentally forgot, your power-generated eye shadow is really convenient. It would be great if I had this too."

Ai Li's smile was rather heartless, but at this moment, it just relieved the sadness welling up in Mei's heart.

"Speaking of which... I seem to have never seen you wearing makeup... but you seem to know a lot about makeup?"

"Yeah, what girl can resist the temptation of makeup?"

Ai Li smiled, spread her hands, lowered her voice, and spoke faster:

"But who told Mikael to prefer bare makeup?"

"ah?"

"It's a joke!"

Ellie stuck out her tongue playfully.

"Actually, it's because I really want to try makeup, but after learning a lot of techniques from Eden, I think it's too much trouble. Anyway, Alicia looks good without makeup, so I won't wear it!"

"..."

Meiyi pursed her lips and quickly laughed, but there was a bit of helplessness in her smile.

Alicia, as always, gave two completely different answers, making it impossible to guess the real reason. No, there is actually a third answer - she finds it troublesome, and Mikael doesn't like it either, so she doesn't accept it.

There is no unilateral compromise, but there was no disagreement on this point from the beginning.

"However, if I think about it carefully, I seem to have seen you wearing makeup..."

"Eh - that's impossible! I only wore makeup once on my wedding day!"

"It was that time..."

Mei Yi blinked innocently:

"Although you no longer have synchronized memories after that, the memories of the Yingjie still contain the wedding."

"Uh...it seems like this."

Ai Li suddenly looked silly in Mei Yi's eyes. She was still not sure whether this was real or because [it would be cuter].

but……

"But Alicia, you were really beautiful that day."

"Hey!"

Alicia raised her finger and gestured "yeah".

"You're so cunning, Mei. You like to praise me very much today. I'm embarrassed to say it..."

When he mentioned this, the corners of Mei Yi's mouth twitched crazily again——

"You actually... are still embarrassed?"

"Ah, your look makes me even more embarrassed!"

"..."

"Hehe! To be honest, Mei, this may be my entry into the paradise... No, I shouldn't say that... Well... Let me think about it... Let's do this - as Alicia's memory, this is me One of the happiest days since my birth..."

"Thank you. If there wasn't the last [one], I think I would be a little touched."

"Hey - are you just a little touched?"

Ai Li pouted dissatisfiedly, but quickly explained to Mei Yi in a low voice:

"Happiness like today... for my memory, there are only three times in total - the first time was when I met his daughter, Eve Shaniat, and me. The third time is now. That …Mei Yi, guess when the second time will be?”

"How could I possibly guess this kind of question——"

"It was the day you came here!"

Before Mei could finish her complaint, Ai Li interrupted her by putting her index finger on her lips, and then gave her answer with a smile.

"Ah."

Mei sneered, not believing Alicia's nonsense at all.

"Na na! Anyway, in order to thank Mei Yi for making me so happy, we won't go around in circles today!"

Ellie grabbed Mei's hand.

How many times has this happened today? Third or fourth time?

Mei Yi didn't think about the result, so she was pulled by Ai Li and ran away again.

It took the two of them a while to run out of the maze-like garden - mainly because Ellie, who kept saying that she would never get lost, actually got lost in the end. Fortunately, the walls of the maze were not high, and the two of them did not climb through it like girls. The wall came to the square, then walked up the stairs in front of the stone monument from the side of the square, and finally entered the residential area with white bricks and red tiles.

Along the way, the streets were wide and narrow, but Ai Li always held Mei Yi's hand tightly. This time, she never let go.

She smiled and greeted everyone passing by enthusiastically, and everyone who saw her, even if they were frowning for some unknowable reason one moment, would smile sincerely the next moment.

Mei Yi saw many familiar faces that she could not name. They were all Fire Chasing Moth warriors whom she had seen in her memory from the perspective of the heroes. They still exist, vividly present here, as if their time did not end fifty thousand years ago.

"Hey! Don't be in a daze, Mei, we're already here!"

Ai Li stopped at the door of a seemingly ordinary house with Mei Yi. She took out the key, opened the door, and then eagerly pushed Mei Yi in.

"Uh... this is a study room?"

The space inside the house is not large. Apart from a few sofas, chairs and tables, the most eye-catching thing in the house is the huge bookcase next to the window.

But Mei Yi's eyes did not stay on the bookcase for too long. She quickly looked at an old typewriter on the table and the sleepy figure sitting in front of the typewriter...

A mini version of Alicia?

She seems quite cute, at least in this field Mei thinks she is better than the mature version of Alicia next to her.

"Get up! It's time to receive guests!"

As if sensing the meaning in Mei Yi's gaze, Ai Li picked up the little guy roughly.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, isn't this the mature me... Oh! Isn't this the famous Raiden Mei! You actually brought her here!"

Even the tone of voice is so similar...

Meiyi covered her forehead, feeling a little dizzy.

Ellie alone was noisy enough, and she was already considering whether to temporarily plug her ears to protect her hearing...

"So...why is there still an Alicia?"

"No, no, no! I'm not Alicia, I'm the fairy Ellie!"

"She's not Alicia, she's Fairy Ellie!"

Alicia and Elf Ellie pouted at almost the same time and turned their heads in opposite directions.

"So, you brought me to her because..."

"Well... how should I put it? Before [that day], the real me had already had a premonition of something. In order to prevent everyone from being too lonely, she asked Velvet to customize an armed doll that simulated her personality, that is, Fairy Ellie.”

Alicia took the opportunity to squeeze Fairy Ellie's small, soft feet like ham sausages.

"But Mikael was a little unhappy when he heard that he had to prepare one for everyone, so in the end he just made one and left it for him. But he did not take the doll away afterward... Maybe for him "Having Fairy Ellie by his side won't eliminate loneliness, it will only make him more miserable."

Speaking of this, Alicia and Elf Ellie closed their eyes at the same time in perfect synchronicity.

"Later, somehow, Fairy Ellie became the administrator here. And the typewriter you see is essentially a manifestation of the administrator's power - in short, everything that happens in the Paradise of the Past Everything that has happened will be recorded by the typewriter. Mikael has also visited the Paradise of the Past more than once. If you can get all the information about him through the typewriter, it may solve some of your doubts. "

Meiyi's lips moved twice, and finally she smiled and said, "Thank you."

The scene was quite warm and harmonious for a while - if you ignore the fairy Ellie who was holding her love wand at some point and flapping her little wings as if she was trying to escape.

"Ahhhh! Let me go!"

Alicia quickly brought Ellie back.

"Why are you running?"

"Ah... that... uh... this... please listen to my explanation... I'm a little sleepy today..."

"So you just took a nap?"

"Ah, cough, cough! I slept for a while...but I woke up soon!"

"Then weren't you sleeping just now?"

"I woke up and suddenly found that the typewriter was broken, so I went back to sleep."

"Oh...what did you say?"

"broken……"

The puppet made no sound at all, but its lips moved imperceptibly.

"What?"

"It's broken! I said the typewriter is broken, it's broken! I don't know who secretly used the typewriter while I was sleeping, and there was some leftover paper on the table... But anyway, the typewriter is broken. Wuwuwu …”

Ellie put the doll back on the sofa with an expressionless expression, twisted the white paper on the table with two fingers, smelled it, and then smiled softly.

"Oh Mei, it seems we are not very lucky."

Meiyi was brought here by Ai Li in a daze, and was brought out by her in a daze.

The sky outside is still the color of sunset, as if time has been frozen and will not change again.

Ai Li took her to a stone railing. Beyond the railing was a cliff. Under the not steep cliff, there were silent waves.

"It's going to be night soon."

Ellie suddenly asserted in a low voice.

"I'm sorry Mei, I didn't expect that the typewriter would suddenly break down. However, I'll leave this with you for now. You still have plenty of time. When the typewriter is repaired, you can come over and take a look."

Mei confusedly took the key with the cat's paw pendant on it from Allie's hand, but she couldn't help but start to wonder, was it all the script that Allie had arranged from beginning to end?

After getting along for a long time, even if she still has doubts, Mei is still reluctant to imagine Ai Li in a worse direction. What's more, she couldn't think of the meaning of Ellie's doing this, so such doubts just quickly passed through her mind.

However, it was in the process of sorting out her thoughts that Mei Yi discovered something was wrong.

She turned her head slowly and looked at Ellie who seemed to have expected it.

The sound of waves below kept coming and going, and it seemed that it didn't take long, but when I realized it, there was already a bright starry sky above my head.

"Alicia...you...actually don't know anything about your ending, right? Although you do have no subsequent memory, you should actually be very clear about what you are going to do, right? When I saw In our memories, both you and Mikael experienced painful choices in the last moments, and it was by no means a temporary decision made overnight. "

"I still can't hide anything from you, Mei. You are very smart, Mei, but I..."

Ai Li looked at the slowly moving stars beneath her feet and sighed.

"I am a Herrscher, Mei. You know this, right?"

"Yeah. But I have never seen you use the power of the Herrscher, and... you don't seem to correspond to any of the thirteen Herrschers."

"That's because I..."

Ellie stopped abruptly mid-sentence.

She closed her mouth calmly and showed a shameful smile to Mei Yi.

She suddenly raised her hand and pointed to the boundary between the sky and the sea. She tried to distinguish it, and Meiyi saw a mist and the outline of an island there.

"Mei Yi, you are right, I do know what will happen in the end. So I buried the truth on the other side of the sea. But... opening that truth is also a matter of courage for me... For a moment, I really don’t know where to start... Well, Mei, we will meet here again early tomorrow morning, and then we will go to the island together, and I will reveal everything to you there - that is, , what is the final outcome of the person named Alicia?”