He returned to the place he had come from, to his true hometown. Even when they met again, he had already forgotten her, yet she still remembered the promise she had made with him beneath the stars.
The Herrscher of Finality's enormous form dispersed into the cosmos, declaring the destruction of Honkai, the disaster born alongside civilization.
The Moon.
"Did we... win?" Pardo stared blankly at the battlefield where the Herrscher of Finality no longer existed, then looked at Sakura. "Sakura, did we win?"
Sakura pressed a hand to her arm and revealed a relieved smile. "Yes, we won!"
"Hmph. Finality was nothing special!" Qianjie lay in a massive lunar crater, surrounded by Dominion Keys standing like gravestones.
After a moment of silence, Qianjie let out a long breath. "That bastard Feng... Hmph, I'll admit you were impressive this time. That's what the strongest Fusion Warrior should be like..."
"Qianjie, need a hand?" Kosma appeared at the edge of the crater and held out his hand to Qianjie.
"Hmph! Unnecessary!" Qianjie snorted, trying to sit up, only to discover that his body had yet to finish repairing itself. For the time being, he could not stand on his own.
After another brief silence, Qianjie reached out and took Kosma's hand. Enduring the agonizing pain in his body, Kosma pulled Qianjie out of the crater.
"I almost thought I was going to die..." Vill-V rubbed her forehead. "The pressure of Finality was even more terrifying than expected. Still, we won in the end."
"Heh... You should thank Yu Feng for pulling you back before you became space junk." Mobius sneered. "Though I think you'd be better off as space junk."
"Even in this state, your tongue is still as sharp as ever, Mobius." Vill-V smiled and crouched down, pinching Mobius's cheeks.
"Vill-V, let go of me!"
"Oh, come on. We finally won. What's wrong with letting me pinch you once? Elysia has pinched you countless times."
"When did I ever agree to that?!"
"We won. It seems I must compose the grandest movement for this battle." Eden looked at Aponia. "Aponia, it seems your so-called fate was not unbeatable after all."
Aponia said nothing. She merely turned her gaze toward the place where that person stood in the distance.
Hua watched everyone's joy, then shifted her gaze toward the young man who had delivered the final blow to Finality.
She saw Kevin and Elysia already walking toward him.
At the same time, everyone else began making their way toward him as well.
They were going to toss him high into the air and catch him, right...? Hua thought, forcing her legs to move as she walked toward the young man.
At the place where Finality had vanished, the black-haired young man stood silently, holding Black Abyss White Flower, which was practically ruined beyond use.
Leaning on her bow, Elysia was the first to reach his side. Smiling, she said, "You looked really cool at the end, Feng~"
"Really..." The young man looked at the blue crystal sphere in the distant cosmos. "I... did it, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did." Elysia reached out and supported him. "Next, we're holding a super, super gorgeous banquet. This time, you're not allowed to skip it! I'll get angry!"
There was no response.
"Feng?"
The young man slowly turned his head toward Elysia. To her shock, his eyes had already lost focus.
"It seems... my time is up..." The young man raised his hand as if he wanted to touch Elysia's face, but because he could not see, it stopped in midair.
"Elysia..." he called.
"I'm here... I'm right here." Elysia took his hand and pressed it against her cheek. "Don't say foolish things. We'll all go back. We'll go back together..."
"Thank you, Elysia..." The young man's voice began to grow faint and distant.
Kevin stood behind them. The step he had been about to take was ultimately withdrawn, and he looked toward the companions approaching from behind.
"Brother Yu Feng! We won—"
Pardo called out excitedly, but Kevin raised a hand to signal for silence.
Everyone looked toward the pair, who seemed frozen in place.
"Feng... Look, everyone is alive. They all came. We're all here." Elysia reached out and turned the young man's head toward the direction everyone was coming from.
The young man narrowed his eyes, then looked at Elysia again and said, "Elysia, you're crying."
"These are tears of joy! Do you understand? Don't let them... become any other kind of tears... okay?"
"I'm sorry..."
"I don't want your apology! I want you to go back with us!"
"..."
The young man opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he gave up.
"Most of Earth's cities have been destroyed now. We still need to rebuild our home and civilization. When the time comes, you will be with me, with everyone... to witness civilization's future..."
"..."
"I still have so much I want to tell you... Didn't you say so too? Didn't you also have something you wanted to tell me? Come back with us, okay?"
"..."
"Feng?"
The hand against her cheek went limp. The head that had never bowed, even before Finality, slowly lowered. His body gradually turned into starlight. He closed his eyes and vanished before everyone.
Elysia reached out, but she could no longer touch him.
Kevin turned around and reported to Mei in a low voice, "We have won. Finality... has been confirmed completely silent. We have won..."
This news was immediately broadcast by the announcer at headquarters.
"We have won! The Fire Moths have won! They defeated the Herrscher of Finality! Humanity has defeated Honkai!"
The news echoed through every shelter. The announcer repeated it again and again until her voice grew hoarse, yet she persisted in delivering the exhilarating news to every shelter.
"This is wonderful!"
"We won!"
"Long live the Flame-Chasers! Long live the Heroes!"
The people in the shelters embraced one another, their eyes full of tears stirred by survival after catastrophe. Within their eyes lay confidence and hope for the future.
Earth's headquarters.
"Dr. Mei, we won!" Su came to Dr. Mei's side. Even the normally composed enlightened one could not hide his excitement this time. "Feng and Kevin really did it!"
But Mei showed no joy at all. She asked Kevin, "Kevin, your voice..."
Kevin's low voice echoed through the noisy command center. It was not loud compared to the commotion, but everyone heard it.
"The War of Finality is over. Survivors... eleven."
"Weren't there twelve Flame-Chasers who went to the Moon?" someone muttered instinctively.
"Feng... is gone."
The command center fell completely silent.
After a long while, everyone straightened up, clenched a fist over their hearts, and lowered their heads.
"Soon... the final Herrscher, the Herrscher of Finality, will descend."
"Yes. But with you here, our odds of winning have increased considerably."
"Really... Elysia, I..."
"After this battle is over, let's... come here again."
"Why?"
"Of course, because..."
The girl gave the young man a playful smile.
"It's a secret~"
"...That really is an answer fitting your style."
The young man smiled helplessly.
"Feng, how long have we... known each other?"
"About ten years. From before the Third Herrscher descended until now."
"It has been so long... Before I knew it, I had grown used to having you by my side..."
"Me too. Time really has passed quickly."
"Feng..."
"Hmm?"
"I..." The girl swallowed the words she had wanted to say and changed them. "I still remember when, during the Seventh Herrscher Incident, you and Kevin secretly signed up to become Fusion Warriors behind my back."
"I remember apologizing."
"I also remember that if I hadn't kept pressing you, someone would never have told me about his side effects. You planned to keep it a little secret between yourself and Mobius!"
"I... I told you already, I didn't want you to worry. Besides, Kevin's condition was much worse than mine."
"...You're always like this. Can't you just honestly say what's in your heart?"
"I'm not you. I... can't do that."
"..."
"Elysia?"
"Actually... I'm a coward too. I have secrets I'm afraid to say."
"..."
"Maybe you already know, but I still want to tell you in person. So... let's promise that after this war ends, we'll come here again, okay?"
"Okay. I... also have something I've always wanted to tell you."
"Then... it's a promise?"
"Mm."
When had she... fallen in love with Feng?
She had pulled Feng from the ruins, and when they met again a year later, he joined her team and remained by her side.
Sometimes, he would inexplicably sulk because of her. It was especially obvious whenever Kevin appeared. He would grow even quieter, then stare at Kevin without saying a word.
After the Sixth Herrscher Incident, she found him standing on the ruins in a daze. He told her, "I will become a hero too."
Whenever she occasionally thought back on it, she wondered if he had been jealous.
He must have been, because... she had been jealous of him too. Back then, she seemed to have been just like him.
During the Seventh Herrscher Incident, Fusion Warriors were born, and he had secretly taken part in that experiment, one that could practically be considered a death sentence.
After the surgery succeeded, before he even had time to exchange a few words with her, he and Kevin headed to Australia.
It seemed their friendship began there. After that, they became inseparable friends who could talk about anything. They were so close that she grew jealous.
The first time she felt jealousy was probably when he hid his side effects from her. To suppress them, he went to see Mobius every day. Then Kevin fell into depression, and he had to keep Kevin company too. During that period, she spent very little time with him. Whenever she tried asking what he went to Mobius for, he would always say, "It's my private matter."
Private matter... It really did seem like a private matter, but she was still unhappy. Several times, while he was talking with her, Mobius would come over and simply say, "Come here," then call him away!
Was Mobius more important than me?
That was the first time she had such a thought, but she could not ask him directly. After all... he had said it was his private matter, and she had no standing to question him.
Only then did she seem to suddenly understand the expression he used to wear whenever he saw Kevin talking to her.
In the end, she was simply too bothered by it. She secretly found a way to eavesdrop on his conversation with Mobius and only then learned the truth.
As for the relationship between him and her, she felt that they should both have known how the other felt, but... she was not entirely certain.
She was afraid she had guessed wrong.
After the Sixth Herrscher Incident, she hardly saw him get jealous over her anymore... Instead, she became jealous quite often.
For example, when Vill-V lured him to Mu Continent for a "magic tour," when he took naps with Phyllis, and especially when he went out fooling around with Kevin...
During the Ninth Herrscher Incident, he went into battle with Kevin again. He was clearly her deputy! Then he almost died in the Ninth Herrscher's self-destruction...
That was when she finally realized what she felt for him. Had he... once felt the same way?
She had thought about confessing, but books said that if the other person did not feel the same way, a confession would instead make the relationship between them grow distant.
She did not want him to leave, so... she chose silence. She chose to come up with all sorts of reasons to stop him from running around.
He had always indulged her. No matter what excuse she gave, he chose to believe it. Later, she could not even be bothered to think of excuses anymore. A single sentence was enough to call him back.
It was because of that that she felt he should have understood what she meant. She had always thought that as long as he confessed, she would definitely agree.
And then that idiot never said it, right until the very end!
No, at the very end, he seemed to have wanted to say something. With his personality, he was probably afraid of burdening her, so he chose not to say it.
But, Feng, precisely because of that, I cannot accept your departure even more. Our story should not end like this...
She stood alone beneath the stars, thinking that.
Suddenly, the light and shadows around her shifted, and a towering tree appeared before her.
"Son, time to get up!" his mother's voice rang out. The boy lying in bed slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing in them was vigilance.
His consciousness cleared in an instant. He sat up, looked at his hands, then glanced around at the familiar yet unfamiliar surroundings.
He remembered that this seemed to be his room?
"I'm back...?" He lay down again. "I should have died back then. Did I return because the original wish I made when I traveled there had been fulfilled?"
"Still not up?" his mother's voice sounded again.
"I'm up, I'm up!" he answered helplessly.
It had been so long since he had heard his hometown dialect. Who knew what he had gone through during those earliest days after traveling there? The whole world spoke a language he could not understand. Later, after getting translation earbuds, he learned it was the Mu Continent language used across the world...
He had been forced to learn a foreign language that was useless in his own world.
He finally remembered that he was now just an ordinary high school senior, studying at a key high school with grades that were neither good nor bad.
The habits he had developed while training in Fire Moth had carried over. He finished breakfast with astonishing efficiency, slung on his backpack, and headed downstairs.
He stood at the intersection, blanking out for a long time.
Which way was his school again?
He could only try following his already hazy memories toward the high school he attended nearby.
The sky was only just beginning to brighten.
"Hey, Yu Feng, what a coincidence!" a girl's voice called out.
Elysia?
Zhu Yufeng startled and turned around. It was Bai Siyu, who could be considered his childhood friend.
He had to admit... her voice really sounded like Elysia's. Looking closely, even her appearance was rather similar. He wondered what she would look like if her hair and eye colors were changed.
All right, now he did not need to figure out where his classroom was on his own. He could just follow Bai Siyu.
Come to think of it...
"Why did you come so early today?" he asked curiously. He vaguely remembered that Bai Siyu basically never entered the classroom before the bell rang.
Her attitude toward studying was so casual, yet her grades were still suffocatingly excellent.
"Just trying to get up early for once, and I happened to run into you, didn't I?" Bai Siyu blinked playfully.
"On a whim?" Zhu Yufeng understood. If he had still been his former self, he might have assumed Bai Siyu wanted to see him. But looking at it from an adult's perspective now, she had probably really just acted on a whim.
And besides... no matter how similar her voice was, he had long since...
Elysia, I...
He inexplicably thought of another lively girl like Bai Siyu. He had finally pulled her free from a fate with no chance of survival, yet he had no idea what had happened to her in the end.
Fourteen Schicksal...
When he arrived at the classroom, Zhu Yufeng fell silent again. Where had he sat?
He truly could not remember where he used to sit.
He could only ask Bai Siyu, "Siyu, I didn't sleep very well yesterday, and my brain suddenly short-circuited... Where did I sit again?"
Bai Siyu looked at him as though he were an idiot. "You... forgot even that? Did you even sleep at all yesterday?"
He chose to silently admit it, then sat where Bai Siyu told him to.
Opening the textbook on his desk, Zhu Yufeng was dumbfounded once more. Damn, he could no longer read Chinese!
Well, he still remembered a little... It was just somewhat difficult to read...
It was fine. High school knowledge was child's play to him now, provided the laws of physics in both worlds were the same.
Back in Fire Moth, he had needed to know all this anyway. He had been Mobius's lab assistant, Vill-V's magic assistant, and more...
Or when sniping Herrschers, he had even needed to calculate things like bullet trajectories...
Then... he would start by studying English for a while this morning.
His long-honed concentration soon immersed him in English. The rapid memorization methods he often used helped him quickly memorize English vocabulary he had forgotten who knew how long ago.
He had checked the class schedule when he entered the classroom, so he did not pay attention to when the morning self-study bell rang. After all, morning self-study was still for English.
Their homeroom teacher, Old Pei, came by for his usual inspection. Seeing Zhu Yufeng intently memorizing English, he nodded in satisfaction. This brat had finally come to his senses.
Zhu Yufeng spent the next few days living a relatively peaceful life, at least by his standards... No early-morning training, no terrifying experiments or combat, no worrying over humanity's future tomorrow... Hmm, it was too peaceful. He wanted to live like this for a few more days.
And... at the end, were the words Elysia had wanted to say what he thought they were? It seemed their relationship had only been missing a name.
All of a sudden, he felt a little hesitant, as though he had lost his direction in life.
But that was not how those around him saw it. The teachers were astonished to discover that this student, who was clever but had never bothered to work hard, had begun putting in effort. Moreover, he solved problems faster than every other student in class and could even correct the teachers' mistakes.
To his classmates, it just seemed that he had become less willing to communicate with others. During breaks, he often stood alone by the window and looked into the distance.
Seeing both reactions, Old Pei clapped his hands together and decided his student might have psychological problems. He hurriedly contacted Zhu Yufeng's mother and held a small parent-teacher conference in the office.
Zhu Yufeng did not know whether to laugh or cry. He could hardly say that he had already become strangers with his current classmates, could he? He could only say that he had figured things out and felt he could no longer slack off as he had before. As for staring into the distance in a daze, that was simply his own way of resting.
Old Pei still told him to interact more with his classmates.
Then he moved Bai Siyu's seat beside his. They had originally sat next to each other, but the two loved chatting too much. They had even openly talked while the teacher was lecturing, making Old Pei suspect they were dating early, so he had immediately separated them.
But what difference did that make? It was far too easy for Bai Siyu to find him. Their families had visited each other so often when they were children that they were already familiar with each other's homes...
During a monthly exam not long afterward, Zhu Yufeng, whose grades had never been particularly outstanding, shocked every classmate who came to compare answers with him after the test.
Math, all correct. Physics, all correct. Biology, all correct. Chemistry, all correct...
Aside from Chinese, whose answers were not always certain, and English, where the essays still needed to be graded, those results alone were enough to put him in the top five or even the top three in the class.
The teachers were stunned as well. They even suspected Zhu Yufeng of cheating, but once his Chinese and English grades came out, his Chinese score was normal while his English score was nearly perfect. The English teacher even guaranteed that cheating was impossible. After all, Zhu Yufeng had often come to ask him grammar questions lately, and there was even less chance that his essay had been copied from someone else.
Bai Siyu sat beside him, watching him compare answers with the others, deep in thought.
Once the results were announced, Zhu Yufeng ranked first by a wide margin, then Old Pei dragged him out for a talk.
Zhu Yufeng could only say that he had been too lazy to work hard before, and Old Pei promptly smacked him on the head. "You brat!"
By then, Zhu Yufeng had already taught himself all of high school English. He asked the English teacher if he could read English novels during evening self-study, but the teacher told him to finish the worksheets first.
At that point, Zhu Yufeng had practically become a study maniac in his classmates' eyes, grinding himself to death and dragging the whole class down with him.
Zhu Yufeng only felt that... he was merely running away. He had lost his goal, and he no longer had any desires.
He was running away from life, running away from this overly ordinary life that left him almost at a loss.
During breaks in evening self-study, he often walked alone around the track, recalling memories that seemed never to have existed.
He liked Elysia. There was no doubt about it.
When he had still been immature, he had even gotten jealous over it.
Later, he had merely come to terms with it. There was no need for him to bind Elysia or himself because of it. Elysia was that kind of girl—free and unrestrained.
What he had never expected was that Elysia would later become jealous because of him.
At the end, he had originally wanted to tell Elysia, "I love you." But after thinking it over, he gave up. He knew he was about to die, so... rather than add to the sadness, it was better not to say it.
"Yufeng, I don't really understand this problem. Can you teach me?" Bai Siyu's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Ah, sure." Zhu Yufeng took the notebook from Bai Siyu's hand, only to see the words, "I like you, Feng~"
He froze for a moment, then realized it was Mu Continent script. He looked at Bai Siyu. With her hands folded, the backs of them resting beneath her chin, she softly spoke in the Mu Continent language he had not heard in so long, "Have you finally remembered, Feng?"
Zhu Yufeng: "???"
He cautiously asked in the Mu Continent language, "Elysia?"
Her eyes curved into smiling crescents. "I finally waited for the day you remembered everything. Long time no see, Feng. How does it feel?"
After a moment of silence, Zhu Yufeng smiled and said, "Just like when we first met, Elysia. I like you too. I always have."
The classmate sitting behind them: "???"
Wibby babble? What were those two talking about? What language was that? Had they already become so competitive that they had started learning multiple foreign languages?
"Our story has never ended, and it never will, right?"
"Yes. It has merely turned a page."
Before you continue