The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Well... uh..."

When Alicia opened her eyes again, the first thing that caught her eyes was the dark green light.

"This is……"

There was a chill underneath me, it was cold and hard, and if nothing else, it was an iron bench.

When I sat up, the first thing I saw was the sleeping girl curled up in the opposite corner.

She held an ice-blue long knife in her arms. The scabbard was covered with fine cracks, as if it had been pinched out by someone's hands.

Alicia stared at the crack for a long time. Her eyes wandered from the beginning to the end of one crack, and then searched for the beginning and end of another crack. This was repeated until she thought that time had stagnated with her. The consciousness flowed countless times.

"Alicia? Alicia?"

A shout from far and near woke her up, which made Ellie suddenly realize that time had just begun to flow.

And as the flow of time returns to the surroundings, the memories of the not-too-distant past begin to play out in my mind frame by frame.

"Mei...are you Mei?"

Ellie looked at the girl walking towards her wearing a white coat.

"Well...we met in Luluye..."

Mei pursed her lips and bit her words a little harder, as if every time she spoke a word, she had to work hard to brew the next one.

"So this is Mebius's laboratory?"

After Aili finished speaking, before Mei could answer, she closed her eyes and shook her head slightly.

Also, among the Fire Moths, only Mebius is so keen on dark green.

Mei pushed up her glasses on the bridge of her nose, as if she didn't quite understand the meaning behind Ellie's shaking head.

"How long?"

Mei was stunned for a moment before she realized that Ellie was asking her for the time.

"It has been more than ten hours. Zhuhuo No. 1 has just returned to Canghai City to pick up a group of people from the support company and is preparing to return to the headquarters base... Also, the whereabouts of the Third Herrscher have not been found yet."

"..."

Aili didn't answer, and Mei could only keep silent.

She was silent for a moment, and suddenly asked abruptly:

"Are you going to see him?"

"..."

Mei felt a little overwhelmed when she heard Alicia's suddenly heavier breathing.

She couldn't wait for a reply, thinking that Ai Li didn't hear her clearly, and wanted to repeat it, but she was afraid that the other party actually heard her, and repeating it would only cause a second blow.

So she could only stand aside awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, Mei..."

Ellie's voice was calm and hoarse, but Mei didn't know why she wanted to apologize. Was it just because of her silence just now?

She reached out and patted Sakura on the shoulder, waking the girl up. When the girl instinctively wanted to draw the knife, Ellie just squeezed her wrist lightly, and Sakura let go of her hand in pain.

"It's me...Sakura, let's go see him again."

Mikael's body had not yet been dissected. It was placed on a simple iron bed and covered with a white cloth.

Mebius sat next to his body. When he saw Mei leading Ellie and Sakura over, he quickly took out a book and pretended to read it.

Ai Li ignored her and stretched out her hand to lift the white cloth...but her hand finally stayed in mid-air when she was about to touch it.

"You have to think carefully. Once you open it, there will be no more suspense."

Ai Li gently twisted the white cloth with her index finger and thumb, but did not move for a long time.

She could feel that Sakura beside her also held her breath.

This is how people are, they clearly know how the ending will be, but before everything is revealed, they still hold on to unrealistic illusions——

What if he didn't die?

Is it possible that as soon as I lift the white cloth, he will sit up suddenly, look at me with a smile that makes him sad, and say to me:

"Dang-dang-dang-dang! How about it! Have you been cheated? How could I die? Hey! Did Q cry? I*! You ** didn't shed a single tear, did you...ah? Why are you crying! I'm really crying ? Oh, don’t cry! It’s my fault, I won’t scare you! Mebius, get my pants!”

Ai Li sniffed, her vision was a little blurry, her cheeks seemed to be crawling with bugs, and she felt inexplicably itchy.

Suddenly, an insect crawled to the corner of her mouth. She took a sip and found a bitter taste.

She quickly raised her left hand to wipe away all the tears, then took a deep breath and lifted the white cloth.

There is no suspense anymore.

That was indeed Mikael.

There is no difficulty in identifying it.

There was the sound of footsteps getting further away from behind - Sakura left immediately after confirming, which was very Sakura-esque.

On Ellie's familiar cheek, the purple lines that can be eroded by Honkai are intertwined with the tiny cracks of body disintegration.

"It's...so ugly...Mikael..."

Ellie was crying and laughing at the same time. The tears gathered on the tip of her nose and then fell on Mikael's face drop by drop, and were absorbed by those fine cracks.

She imagined that Mikael would frown and pull the muscles on his face because of the tears that kept falling.

And then there are none of these.

Only those who have experienced death personally know what a suffocating despair it is.

You can have countless fantasies, you can have countless expectations, you may even have hallucinations——

But it doesn't matter, none of this will happen, never will, and can't happen.

What does death really mean?

It means the disappearance of all possibilities.

The dead individual no longer has all possibilities and is no longer included in all possibilities.

What it points to is a predetermined result - the bursts of coldness radiating from the corpse.

And, soon, there won't even be complete bodies anymore.

Alicia closed her eyes and quietly felt her breathing that she couldn't calm down. Before this, she had never realized that loss was so close to her. By the time she really recovered, what she should have lost had already been lost...

No, is it really lost...

Have you really owned it...

Alicia herself couldn't explain clearly.

She had never really thought about her relationship with Mikael, because they had been very close from the beginning, so close that she took it for granted, so close that she never considered the possibility that Mikael would not be with her.

Because of this, she sometimes faced Mikael's hints with a hazy attitude.

for example……

"Liar! We agreed to get married together..."

She clearly heard it clearly at that time, but why didn't she respond?

So now, she can't even say it confidently that she owned him.

And this feeling of regret is undoubtedly telling her the fact that of course she deeply loves almost every human being she meets, but for Mikael, she gives more love, and that kind of feeling, It's also slightly different from other people's.

That's the difference between love and love.

But did this love ever exist? She couldn't tell clearly.

This is a love that seems to have existed, may have existed, may have existed, but it has not yet had time to exist.

But no matter what, Mikael definitely doesn't want to see her crying, right? He must hope that she can smile and live strong, and then defeat the Third Herrscher and bring mankind to a brighter future, right?

Alicia stopped sobbing and already had a decision in her heart.

"Where's the core?"

Mebius shook his head.

"What do you mean? Where is his Herrscher core?"

"Alicia...when Sakura found him, the thing called the core was gone..."

Seeing that Mebius had no desire to speak, Mei explained for her.

Ai Li held the white cloth with both hands and rolled it down little by little until it reached her chest. There seemed to be no injuries except for fine cracks and purple lines.

"The wound was on the back. Based on the analysis of the shape of the wound, he should have been hugging the Third Herrscher before he died. If he guessed correctly, he probably wanted to die together in some way, but the Third Herrscher pulled something from behind. Taking away his core... Well, what kind of existence is the core? We didn't find a place reserved for the core in his body. It was like he was in another space, but the Third Herrscher was indeed there. The core was taken away through real space..."

As Mei talked, the topic drifted further.

(The game text seems to have mentioned it in Bug's Memories. The queen's removal of the Conquest Stone was not as harmonious as shown in the short film. Mei's entire chest was broken open, the core was forcibly taken out, and the blood was splashed on Bug's face.)

Ellie's hand that was holding the white cloth instantly clenched into a fist, and then suddenly let go. Her expression became extremely gentle, so much so that she stretched out an index finger and gently poked Mikael's cheek, just like before Just like they had done countless times over the past six and a half years.

By the time Mei reacted, Ai Li had already left quietly.

Mei glanced at Mebius again, "Doctor, do you need glasses? It's been a long time since I've seen you turn the page..."

Mebius closed the book.

"Mei, first of all, you and I will be of the same rank from now on, so there is no need for you to use honorifics to me, although I am very useful...Second, you can leave first. Your little boyfriend can't wait, right? If you still have time to spare, , can you help me take care of Klein."

So Mei also left silently.

Mebius was the only one left sitting next to Mikael's body.

She suddenly narrowed her eyes and stretched out her hand to gently sweep the outline of Mikael's face...

Then, the corners of her mouth raised uncontrollably, revealing a weird smile.

"Death? Maybe..."

But in the next moment, the dark green background light of the laboratory suddenly turned to blood red.

The siren blared three times quickly and loudly—

The Herrscher appears!