Xi Wang narrowed his eyes and waited for the young warrior before him to answer.
"I... I still have things I can do... Things I ought to do."
"I want to go back to the captain and ask her face-to-face... Is the person inside that body really her, or the Herrscher...? I want to know whether I still have a chance to save her."
Hua spoke bit by bit. In the end, she seemed to make up her mind and answered firmly.
"Oh, then you don't need to go."
"...?"
"She's asleep. She's been floating motionlessly above the city district, with barely any reaction to the outside world. The temperature around her is still rising. This condition I'm in happened because I tried to approach her. My weapon completely melted when I got within ten meters of her. Without some special method, you simply can't get close to her, much less talk to her."
"How could this be...?"
Even the last thing she wanted to do was impossible... She could not even speak with her?
Hua was somewhat dazed. The strength she had painstakingly gathered scattered at that moment, and she collapsed weakly, dropping to her knees like a puppet.
"..."
This kid was even more fragile than he had imagined... Still, this was fine. At least she could stay alive.
Xi Wang tilted his head and said nothing more. He merely walked over calmly, grabbed Hua by the back of her collar, and carried her back like a kitten. He set her beside a broken wall so she would have something to lean against, then returned to the gap leading out of the ruins. He kept watch over the surroundings while monitoring the communications, confirming when the support forces would arrive.
"Mr. Wang..."
"You don't need to be so formal, Miss Eden. Just call me by my name. Come to think of it, I'm half a fan of yours."
"Basic etiquette is still necessary... But since you insist, there is no need for you to address me so formally either. After all, I am merely a singer."
Eden shook her head and spoke slowly.
"As for the details of this disaster, since you said someone would explain them later, I will not ask you about them. But the injuries on your body..."
"It's fine. I'll return to normal after a while."
Xi Wang's calm tone caught Eden off guard. She could hear the composure and sincerity in his words... Yet that was precisely why she was confused. Burns of this severity could not possibly "return to normal after a while," could they?
"If you want to ease your emotions through conversation, I'd be happy to keep you company... At least until support arrives."
"...Thank you."
"It's nothing. This is a rare chance to rest, after all... Though if you really want to thank me, give me an autograph later."
"Ha... Of course."
Eden truly needed something to divert her attention, to free herself from her tension and panic. At this moment, Xi Wang's placid tone instead brought her a sense of relief... As though everything before them was no more than this.
"Then... were you trying to stop this warrior just now? Stop her... from going to find her captain?"
"I was only trying to persuade her."
Xi Wang spoke as though it were nothing.
"If she refused to listen, or insisted on going, I wouldn't stop her."
"After all, she isn't anyone to me. There's no reason for me to forcibly keep her here... Besides, my mission was to search for survivors and find her along the way. Just find her."
"Is... that so?"
"Of course. And I don't agree with her idea."
Xi Wang shifted his gaze slightly and glanced at the unusually quiet Hua.
"She wants to approach a Herrscher alone, with no support whatsoever. Setting aside whether she even has the ability to get close, such recklessness would very likely draw Moth to Fire's suspicion. If her actions caused the Herrscher to awaken from her sleep and inflict even greater destruction, she would have to bear responsibility for it."
"If she died directly at the Herrscher's hands, that would be one thing. At most, she would be accused and smeared after death. But if she somehow survived... she might be forced to shoulder all kinds of bizarre accusations. That would be torture for her as well."
"In comparison, I would rather give the Herrscher a swift and clean end. That would benefit both her and us."
Click—
Xi Wang popped another piece of candy into his mouth, then added another sentence as though emphasizing something.
"But like I said, I was only persuading her. If she insists on going, I don't care. My mission was only to find her. As for what happens afterward, it has nothing to do with me."
"...You are unexpectedly gentle."
"...You're the fifth person who has thought I was gentle. I really don't know how you all came to that conclusion."
Xi Wang narrowed his eyes, finding Eden's assessment rather strange.
"The fifth? It seems you have four very close friends..."
Eden sighed, then leaned against the ruins beside her and explained softly.
"It is not an imagined assessment. I can simply sense your concern for this warrior, as well as your regret for your former comrades, from your words... Although you are doing your utmost to distance yourself from them, trying to confine your concern to advice you might give a stranger, that only makes it clearer how much you value the bond between yourself and them."
"As a singer, sensing emotions through the words of others has become a habit. I am rather confident in this regard."
Eden lightly pressed a hand to her chest and revealed a faintly proud smile. Yet she soon lowered her eyes. Her golden irises looked dim, like the gemstone pinned to her chest, buried beneath dust.
"Though I do not know why you restrain your emotions so much, if... you could be more frank with your words, that would be better."
"Ah, sorry, I may have said a little too much... If anything offended you, please tell me directly. I am simply like this, always accidentally saying too much..."
"It's fine. I'm used to it."
Xi Wang answered Eden while surveying the flames around them as they slowly died out, frowning slightly.
"I have a friend who is just like you. She talks a great deal without realizing it, and her opinion of me is about the same as yours."
"Is that so? Then that truly is an honor... May I ask your friend's name? Perhaps... we would get along very well."
"Her name is Elysia. I'll introduce you to her later. Rather, as long as you come into contact with Moth to Fire, you won't be able to avoid meeting her... Besides, if it's a Superstar like you, she'll definitely come running over to make friends with you."
"...Elysia?"
Eden paused, seemingly not expecting to hear that name here.
"Mm, she's a very cute and trustworthy girl... Wait."
Xi Wang raised a hand to signal Eden not to speak, his brows tightly furrowed as he scanned the surroundings.
"...Hua, stop spacing out. Get up and stay alert."
"...?"
Only then did Eden realize that the crackling of the flames, the occasional sounds of those monsters moving about, had all vanished.
Silence enveloped the area, deathly still.
"...Yes."
Hua shook her head, forcing down all her tangled thoughts and gloom. She rose to her feet, rapidly steadied her breathing, and placed herself before Eden as she vigilantly surveyed their surroundings.
She had to pull herself together and fulfill her duty as a warrior, as a soldier... To safely send back the sole survivor she had rescued.
Looking up, through the still-drifting smoke and dust, they could faintly see white frost spreading from afar, blooming into tiny ice flowers across the scorched ground.
"..."
Xi Wang frowned, unsure whether this was another new trick from that Herrscher, or if some special Honkai Beast had appeared again. At the same time, he wondered why Moth to Fire's promised support had still not arrived.
But then the message coming through the communicator made him freeze.
The battle to subjugate the Seventh Herrscher—concluded. Completed by Kevin alone.
Elysia: Want to Touch My Ears?
The battle to subjugate the Seventh Herrscher ended with Kevin completing the subjugation alone. You did not know how Kevin had done it, but it was good news regardless.
When the support forces arrived, Eden and Hua described your condition to the others. As a result, you were half-forcibly dragged away from the battlefield and returned to Moth to Fire to rest and recover.
You could not help resenting Hua and Eden a little, because this would make Elysia and Sakura worry. Rather than that, it would have been better to hide it. You would recover in a few days anyway... In the end, however, you said nothing and silently accepted their kindness.
Yet when the others pulled back your clothing, they discovered that nearly your entire combat uniform had fused with your skin. You had literally shed a layer of skin, leaving even the doctor in charge of you unsure where to begin.
After learning about your condition, Sakura asked Mobius to come examine you. Of course, you felt that even if Sakura had not said anything, Mobius would have come anyway. After all, this was a rare opportunity for her to observe your "traits" openly.
That was indeed the case. You rested in the hospital room for seven days. During those seven days, aside from Sakura coming to look after you, Mobius brought her assistants over to collect data on your body. From time to time, she also prescribed some medicine and conducted a few examinations.
Under this "casual" treatment, however, your condition recovered rapidly. The burns on your body quickly faded, and by the seventh day, only faint marks remained. In another two days, even those would disappear.
Your recovery astonished everyone, and many sighed, "As expected of Dr. Mobius."
Mobius became even more interested in you. Her two new assistants—Cang Xuan and Danzhu—also developed a keen interest in you... Though one of them was a money-grubber who wanted to drag you into some "highly profitable work," while the other was an ACG enthusiast interested in a body that could maintain perfect skin at all times.
Perhaps because both of them had petite builds like little girls, you were more tolerant of them than of others. Even when they liked touching you here and there, you did not mind. But if Mobius tried to use that opportunity to approach you, you immediately refused to let her near.
Over those seven days, you also gradually learned about the situation surrounding the Seventh Great Honkai from Sakura, Mobius, and the others.
For example, Kevin had been able to defeat the Seventh Herrscher alone because Mobius and Mei had urgently activated the Fusion Warrior Project, fusing Honkai Beast genes into Kevin's body to grant him Non-human power.
For example, even after the Herrscher was defeated, the great fire she had spread did not go out. Despite everyone's rescue efforts, and even with Kevin—now Non-human and capable of controlling ice and snow—helping them, the flames that engulfed all of Australia continued to burn for seven days. Australia had been reduced to a complete wreck, a scorched wasteland. Residual Honkai Energy remained across the land, making even the planned restoration efforts difficult to carry out.
Australia had once held tens of millions of people, but now, all the urban areas suitable for reconstruction combined could support only a million.
But the good news was that fewer than a million people in all of Australia had survived. You could say the rebuilt cities would be just enough for them to continue living in their homeland, and other countries would not need to worry about refugees, haha~
Not funny at all.
Once all the fighting had ended, you saw your squad members again... Well, only a quarter of them remained. Their luck had been good, at least. They had not all died.
You also met Kevin during that time. Having become Non-human, he radiated bone-chilling cold that made him difficult to approach... He still could not properly control that power, and he had no mind for it at the moment. He seemed to have developed psychological issues and had become extremely gloomy, often requiring therapy after returning to Moth to Fire.
The fire that had directly swept across the entire continent also drew the world's attention. Moth to Fire had no choice but to step into the public eye and announce both its existence and the disaster known as Honkai.
Perhaps the lesson this time had been too painful. Moth to Fire temporarily set aside its internal conflicts and began acting aggressively. On one hand, it promoted public awareness of Honkai on a massive scale. On the other, it put more projects on the agenda and began advancing them regardless of cost. The Fusion Warrior Project, which had just achieved such brilliant results, naturally became the highest priority.
Although the success rate of Fusion Warrior surgery was appallingly low, they could no longer afford to care about that. Moth to Fire began recruiting volunteers from within its forces for the procedure, hoping to obtain a few lucky survivors.
And naturally, your name was on the list for the surgery.
You were not surprised by this. You had already sensed that those above might "abandon" you, but you also knew they would not directly "dispose of" you. After all, there were very few people who could "dispose of" you, and those capable of doing so could not be directly commanded by them. This plan, with its extremely low survival rate, was naturally an excellent way to "dispose of" you.
If you died during the Fusion Warrior surgery, that would naturally be ideal. You had already become dispensable to them. They had enough "blades" now. Even if none were as sharp as you, they were sharp enough.
If you survived, that would be even better. The "blade" in their hands would become sharper. Though it would also become more dangerous to them, until they completely tore off all pretenses, they could still command you safely. After all—the "scabbard" plan had not been a complete success, but neither had it been a complete failure, had it? Especially since they still retained a certain degree of control over the "scabbard."
Though you vaguely guessed their thoughts, you had no intention of refusing... Though you could not refuse anyway.
To you, none of this mattered. You would survive. You definitely would survive.
But what you did not understand was... Why were Elysia and Sakura's names on the list as well?
Before you continue