Su Qing'an Awakens, Ashes Falling. 7,000 Words

Consciousness returned, and light shone brightly.

The instant Raiden Mei heard that murmur, she sensed that she, who had been in a state of chaos, had been extracted into another fragment of memory, and regained her human form, capable of perceiving herself.

In a daze, she looked back at the empty space around her, only to find herself standing in the middle of a tide bathed in sunlight that shone like gold leaf. Her bare feet and calves could feel the fine sand and the cool touch of the Seawater.

A humid wind blew through the stray hairs on her forehead, and her pair of red to almost black demon horns and her Herrscher attire were scattered like fragmented spots of light among the leaping white waves. In their place, she wore a familiar school uniform.

The heterochromatic color in the girl's eyes faded, restoring their purity.

She observed the scenery around her, instinctively feeling joy and nostalgia for it all.

Whether it's the numerous seagulls circling and flapping their wings in the distance, the cruise ship raising its horn and carrying a ship full of flowers, or the European-style buildings rising and falling behind, all of them make one feel an irresistible urge to embrace them.

This is St. Freya Academy.

This is the sea area where countless ashes and souls were once buried.

But why?

She had arrived at the [[Ashes]]'s memory corridor, not her own. No matter how you look at it, St. Freya Academy shouldn't exist here.

Raiden Mei suddenly recalled the information revealed in Kevin's words. He had said that [[Ashes]] was not from this world, but perhaps came from a parallel world, or perhaps was a traveler wandering in the Sea of Quantum.

Even if it comes from the past or the future, it wouldn't be surprising.

If we think and speculate from this perspective, it's not impossible that the other party encountered St. Freya Academy in another world.

But does the fact that St. Freya Academy's members appeared from the Memory Corridor suggest that this place also holds some special significance for [[Ashes]]?

The girl's feelings were complicated. The other person was clearly an ancestor from more than 50,000 years ago, yet at this delicate juncture, she had formed an inexplicable connection with her future self. This strange feeling of brushing past ancient times welled up from her chest, but what confused and bewildered her even more was that inexplicable murmur.

[Long time no see, Mei.]

What does this sentence mean?

If what [[Ashes]] said is true, then the speculation that the other party had once attended St. Freya Academy seems to gain increasing credibility.

If we assume that [[Ashes]] has seen her parallel world self and is familiar with another Raiden Mei, then uttering this sentence in such a natural and nostalgic tone would have a logical chain.

But these were all wishful thinking and empty assumptions, pale answers pieced together from clues, with a mere sliver of credibility that was utterly insufficient to convince her to believe such an outrageous thing.

The girl's mind was in turmoil; she wanted to find the [[Ashes]] who had brought her there and get the answers to everything.

But it was so quiet here that it seemed as if there was no one there. Apart from the sound of the rising and falling waves, only the golden sunlight gave the world a unique vitality.

Raiden Mei stared blankly at the approaching cruise ship and the horizon where it met. She lowered her eyelashes and glanced at the increasingly warm [[Floating Life]] mark on the back of her hand.

Does the reaction of this mark confirm that the other party has arrived?

She said softly:

"Are you still there, [[Ashes]]?"

No one responded.

The girl tried to extend her powers to the edges and corners of this memory fragment, but through the repeated refraction of the magnetic field, she discovered that this place was thousands of times larger than the previous memory fragment, almost completely restoring the entire panorama of the St. Freya Academy and even this coastline.

Raiden Mei glanced at the school island behind her; her senses indicated it was empty.

Although the cruise ship that was gradually approaching with the waves still hadn't been detected by any power, a kind of intuitive feeling stirred his heart.

The girl lifted her skirt and waded through the icy tide and white waves, walking step by step to the cruise ship's automatically lowered steps. She looked up at the gray-blue sky, her steps inexplicably becoming lighter and more natural, as if a subtle instinct was at work that made her feel safe once she arrived.

She pondered this absurd feeling in her chest, and silently walked to the deck filled with pure white roses, where she saw a scene she would never forget.

The boy slept soundly among the soft petals, his long, curled eyelashes drooping down to his fair skin, the radiant light outlining the contours of his face, like an artistic painting. The withered leaves of the rose bushes concealed his pale lips tinged with pink, yet they were blown away by the wind.

Sacred, decadent, and beautiful.

It felt like velvet brushing against my heart, like a snowflake melting quietly in my palm, giving me an indescribable feeling. He seemed to be only fifteen years old. If it weren't for his bobbing Adam's apple, which indicated his gender, his rather slender figure could easily be mistaken for a beautiful girl.

Judging from the fact that the leaves of the rose could touch the boy's skin, he clearly possessed a body of flesh and blood, yet he strangely exuded an extremely ethereal feeling under the radiance.

--There are cracks in everything; that's where light passes through.

She suddenly remembered those words and realized who that person was.

--[[Ashes]].

Raiden Mei could arrive at the answer almost without thinking, based on the photograph and the descriptions given by the Flame-Chasers.

Only when you face someone directly can you feel that wonderful atmosphere where your defenses naturally drop and a faint sense of goodwill instinctively wells up. This beautiful appearance will then bring out its truly captivating charm.

For the girl now, the illusory feeling that [[Ashes]] possesses is not surprising to the memory.

But the problem is...

"This is a younger [[Ashes]]."

She murmured to herself, somewhat puzzled. Compared to the photo of him in that villa, the person in front of her now looked much younger, as if time had turned back a few years.

Could it be that the [[Ashes]] here aren't actually the other side?

It's merely a projection corresponding to the timeline within fragments of memory, which is why the age appears more youthful.

Raiden Mei instinctively took a few steps forward, and just then, a familiar whisper rang in her ears once more:

That's Su Qing'an.

"This is the real me."

Upon hearing this, she suddenly stopped and turned around to look.

The boy leaned against the edge of the deck, gazing indifferently at the pure white rose in his hand. His pupils were dark, yet when he raised the flower high, they met the sun's rays, allowing the brilliant light to fall into his eyes and refract into beautiful arcs of light.

A strong wind blew through the stray hairs on his forehead and carried away the Abyss Flower from between his fingers. It swirled and drifted down with the air currents to her feet.

He looked at Raiden Mei and said softly:

"I am [[Ashes]], and I am only [[Ashes]]."

Raiden Mei first glanced silently at the sleeping figure behind her, then looked back at the boy who called himself [[Ashes]], feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information.

Aside from the difference in their ages, these two are exactly the same person.

Those ambiguous words were even more difficult to interpret clearly, no matter how much one pondered them.

She asked directly:

"Are you a memory from the Sea of Quanta, Sequence Number zero, the Flame-Chasers marked with the name [[Ashes]]?"

[[Ashes]] said calmly:

"Um."

"I am a memory left behind by Su Qing'an, an accident that should not exist, like a [Lostbelt], a remnant that has continued to this day through a cycle of reincarnation."

The boy's expression revealed a hint of complexity. As the most unique existence in this [Lostbelt], he had received many of the original body's memories from the very beginning and understood the ins and outs of the matter.

The true self did not truly perish after that death, but was reborn by the gods and completed a marriage agreement with Hua in ancient Shenzhou.

Decades later, in order to accumulate enough resources to complete the path of dimensional ascension, Su Qing'an chose to fall into a long slumber to delay his death, while the immortal Immortal Chi Yuan took on the responsibility of collecting the resources.

However, at some point during this process, the boy, who was still clearly in a coma, was defined as "dead" by a bizarre restart mechanism, ushering in the strangest and most illogical restart. It directly traced back to the source, intercepted a judgment of the future, and created a [Lostbelt] called Sea of Quanta.

However, apart from [[Ashes]], which serves as Su Qing'an's memory, no one else knows anything about this.

As an outsider undergoing trials, Raiden Mei discovers that she cannot escape the Sea of Quanta and begins to explore the reasons behind it.

The remaining Thirteen Flame-Chasers, and even Klein, who was Armed Puppet, spent this increasingly short period of time as usual, since the internal facilities were normal and they had no ability to contact the outside world.

Under these circumstances, Su Qing'an had been restarted in the memory corridor of [[Ashes]], was still sleeping due to the inertia given by the hibernation pod. Unfortunately, [[Ashes]], as the memory body, had no ability to contact her and could only let her continue to sleep.

But the arrival of Raiden Mei is the opportunity to break this deadlock.

Even if the person who comes here is not an old friend, [[Ashes]] will still come to see them for this reason.

But for Raiden Mei, this scene was extremely bizarre.

She carefully chose her words and asked:

"You mean, your real name is Su Qing'an?"

"And then you are Su Qing'an's memory form—[[Ashes]], and the child behind me is Su Qing'an herself, still alive?"

[[Ashes]] nodded silently.

He felt that Mei must have experienced a lot of torment and worldly wisdom in this Sea of Quanta, otherwise how could she have such excellent comprehension?

This is something that's hard to understand if you put yourself in their shoes, but the other person just grasped it immediately.

Raiden Mei was speechless for a moment.

She simply recounted what the other person meant based on her intuition, but deep down she always felt there was more to the story and there were other reasons, and she never thought that this would be the real answer.

Moreover, this is the [[Ashes]]'s memory corridor, theoretically just a chaotic space of pure consciousness. How could a living person possibly be crammed into such a world to sleep?

Moreover, according to what the Flame-Chasers said before, the real "[Ashes]," who is Su Qing'an as mentioned by the other party, had already annihilated everything more than 50,000 years ago in order to fight against Fuxi. Even his ethereal soul dissipated between heaven and earth, leaving no trace of his body.

From a purely rational perspective, these Flame-Chasers have no reason to deceive themselves.

If we assume that the [[Ashes]] before us are not fake, my statement seems to have more credibility.

But no matter how you look at it, it's strange that Su Qing'an has survived to this day without being known by any of the Flame-Chasers of the Sea of Quanta.

But for some inexplicable reason, Raiden Mei just felt that the other person wasn't lying.

Why, you ask?

At this moment, she could only give the same answer as Yae Sakura had given back then.

[[Ashes]] seems to be an innate ability to make people aware of what kind of existence they are. That wonderful atmosphere is transmitted to the truest self-concept through a kind of soul pheromone similar to that in Doctor Mobius's experimental records, allowing others to unconsciously know the other person's true nature.

However, this aura was particularly strong on Su Qing'an behind him, while it was much weaker and less noticeable on [[Ashes]], who claimed to be a memory entity. This seemed to corroborate the other party's words, instantly increasing their credibility.

Raiden Mei glanced at the somewhat illusory body of the boy, who seemed to be her true form, and suddenly understood.

Assuming that Su Qing'an is currently in the perfect Soul State recorded in the experiment, then entering the memory corridor to sleep is not a surprising thing.

As for resurrection.

The reasons for this are currently unknown, but as "humans" with their own independent spacetime axis, it seems quite reasonable for them to subvert some common sense and logic.

The girl had so many questions in her mind that asking them all would be endless, so she decided to pick out one key question to ask first:

"So... what's your situation now?"

[[Ashes]] responded softly:

"My original body was separated from my soul and body for some unknown reason."

"This means that even though his main consciousness is here, he still instinctively continues to remain unconscious, following the momentum of his previous slumber."

"As for me, the memory of Su Qing'an, I am like a non-existent phantom to the original body; [[Ashes]] cannot awaken the living."

"On the other hand, in the end, the reason Mei was sealed in this Sea of Quanta is because of his arrival."

Raiden Mei was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, unable to grasp the complex logic between Su Qing'an's successful resurrection and her being trapped in the Sea of Quanta. However, she could at least calculate the time she had been there. She asked:

"You mean, Su Qing'an has been asleep for about half a year?"

[[Ashes]] nodded in affirmation and replied:

"Yes, if there is no external interference, he will sleep indefinitely until eternal annihilation."

Raiden Mei gradually came to understand everything.

Su Qing'an was resurrected for unknown reasons, which turned the Sea of Quanta into a strange, isolated place. His consciousness is now in a deep slumber, and neither the Flame-Chasers who are his memories, including [[Ashes]] himself, can awaken him. At the same time, [[Ashes]] himself cannot leave his own memory corridor and finds it difficult to send messages to the other Flame-Chasers.

But she guessed that the other party must have hinted to Elysia that she should come here.

After all, as the only living person here, he was more likely to awaken Su Qing'an than the memory itself.

[[Ashes]] continued:

"Mei, if you want to leave here, there is no other way but to awaken Su Qing'an."

Raiden Mei was somewhat speechless. So, she had actually embarked on her journey to find the other person much earlier, perhaps even months ago, continuing her routine as World Serpent executive?

She said softly:

"So, I'm stuck with the prince's role from Sleeping Beauty? How do you think I should wake him up?"

[[Ashes]] said calmly and matter-of-factly:

"I don't know either."

"But theoretically speaking, the memory core and the sounds created by the memory corridor are all illusory things to Su Qing'an; his world remains quiet and lifeless."

"But you are a living, breathing presence here. Logically speaking, if we just raise our voices a little, we might wake him up."

Raiden Mei hesitated for a moment, then raised her voice and said:

"Then, should I speak louder?"

[[Ashes]] glanced at the mark on the back of the other's hand, remained silent for a moment, and then said softly:

"... Perhaps you could remove Hua's mark and place it near him to see if there's any reaction."

The girl glanced at the [[Floating Life]] imprint. As a personality consciousness within the memory corridor, she was indeed able to peel this imprint out of her body on her own.

As for Mobius's earring, it remained in her possession as a memory item, but out of a desire to repay the favor, she did not directly hand it to [[Ashes]].

After all, it would be more in line with the other party's wishes to receive this answer from Su Qing'an himself, who is the miracle itself.

Raiden Mei followed her instructions and extracted the [[Floating Life]] imprint, letting it float in her palm like an illusion. She walked to the boy sleeping amidst the blooming roses, knelt down, and released her hand as if scooping up some water, letting it fall naturally.

At the same time, she said:

"Su Qing'an, this is Hua's mark. Can you recognize it?"

Raiden Mei was once a young lady from a wealthy family. Her upbringing and limited experience with men made her very uncomfortable with the feeling of having to wake up a stranger.

However, the strange atmosphere created by the other party's rapid increase in reputation with her made the subtle feelings that should have existed linger, so she didn't awkwardly stop herself from speaking.

The girl lowered her eyelashes, watching as the engraved patterns disappeared from Su Qing'an's body as if melting into water. She instinctively sensed that the other person seemed to be gradually coming to life, so even without a response, she remained silent, observing this strange state.

Su Qing'an's dormant consciousness seemed to see a faint yet dazzling light from an extremely deep sea. Due to the strange state of her soul being disordered and fragmented, and her body being inexplicably far away, her self-awareness, which was extremely dim, gradually recovered.

When the boy's manas consciousness ignites its first spark, even the overwhelming weariness and heaviness can no longer hinder the process of regaining consciousness.

Every detail of the outside world is being transmitted to our senses, from near to far.

The touch of the leaves of the rose in full bloom against my skin, the fragrance of flowers and the scent of the sea breeze, the familiar and gentle whisper of a young girl, the rocking of the ship and the sound of the wind whistling through the sails, the distant crashing waves against the rocks...

After a long while, Su Qing'an opened her eyes.

The bright sunlight was somewhat dazzling, blurring the slightly pleased look on the person's face.

The boy met his gaze in silence, and murmured in confusion:

"... Mei?"

The moment the other party fully recovered, Raiden Mei revealed the joy of seeing hope of escaping the cage, yet her gaze froze as if time had stood still. She met his eyes, but was speechless.

A glance that lasts a lifetime.

The moment Su Qing'an gave her his gaze, the corresponding record emerged from the Manas consciousness, resulting in an overlap of the [Lostbelt] phenomenon on the spot.

From the depths of Raiden Mei's soul, memories from another world line overlapped.

--All the memories related to her getting to know and be acquainted with the person in front of her.

Her mind, in the process, combined all the clues with the past, connecting one logical line after another, and finally arrived at the answer.

The reason Su Qing'an was able to complete Mobius's dimensional ascension experiment, which would have resulted in 100% death for anyone, was because he possessed extremely special potential and power.

At the moment he died in the depths of the Nine Nether, for this reason he transcended the limitations of the timeline, flowing backward from the future back to the past, distorting the original world line, adding [[Ashes]] to the Sea of Quanta, but also ushering in death once again.

Upon his return this time, the boy had become powerful enough to grant those who had previously crossed paths with him memories of a different timeline.

Raiden Mei knew Su Qing'an without a doubt.

That friend who, from the Nine Nether, sacrificed his life to allow everyone to escape, enabling Murata Himeko to obtain a natural Stigmata and thus break free from her original fate.

Her feelings were a mix of emotions, but she simply curled the corners of her lips and softly responded to [[Ashes]]'s initial greeting:

"Long time no see, Su Qing'an."

Su Qing'an didn't respond for some reason. He silently got up, walked barefoot to the deck, and went to the side of [[Ashes]], who was a head taller than him and gradually disintegrating. Gazing at the distant island, his mind was blank, and he whispered:

"Where... am I?"

[[Ashes]]'s body continued to disintegrate, and the fragments of his limbs fell like black butterflies into the sea breeze. His mission was complete, and he would soon disappear completely.

Even if it is merely Su Qing'an's memory, once the original consciousness of the Higher-Dimensional Being is restored, the dimensional convergence of its life essence will cause it to perish.

Su Qing'an will inherit the memories of this corridor.

Neither of them felt any sadness about it; Su Qing'an was in an abnormal state, while [[Ashes]] never considered itself a life.

Even so, [[Ashes]] responded calmly:

"This is Sea of Quanta, a large facility containing the memories of Flame-Chasers left behind by Previous Civilization."

"You are currently in the memory corridor of your own memory."

After answering the question, [[Ashes]] ignored Su Qing'an, whose mental state was not right.

He looked at Raiden Mei and said softly:

"Beyond the Sea of Quanta, there probably exists Su Qing'an's true physical body and a part of his Manas consciousness, which is his soul."

"So as you can see, even in Soul State, his age has subtly reversed. As for whether his psychological state, emotional modules, memory reserves, and cognitive abilities have been retained in that part, that's something you'll have to discover for yourself."

"He is much weaker than before, but he still has no rivals before the Finality."

"To restore Su Qing'an to his full potential, we need to help him find his own body. As for what to do then, his own instincts will tell him the answer."

Raiden Mei had mixed feelings; she suddenly had a strange feeling that she was being assigned some kind of babysitting task or becoming a kindergarten teacher.

However, after regaining her memories of that part of the timeline, the girl clearly couldn't bear to let Su Qing'an, in this state, wander around the outside world alone.

This motherly mentality, which she had often had since the St. Freya era, was something she never imagined would be applied to someone as mature, reliable, calm, and gentle as Su Qing'an. In every sense, it was quite subtle.

Raiden Mei glanced at the boy, who was now shorter than her and staring blankly at the sea. She felt that even if [[Ashes]], as Su Qing'an's memory entity, said nothing and didn't recover his memories of the other, she couldn't simply ignore it. She sighed.

"I will take good care of him. I believe little Kiana is much more obedient."

[[Ashes]] looked at the other person and spoke the whole truth:

"Mei, whether it's you, or this entire Sea of Quanta, or everything within it, we are all merely records, radiation, and timeline interceptions of Su Qing'an as Higher-Dimensional Being."

"Therefore, the world beyond this may very well no longer be the world you are familiar with."

"Based on the memories I received, I believe that Fu Hua in the outside world is still collecting the corpses of demons to prolong Su Qing'an's lifespan, but I don't know how much time has passed since he fell asleep, or what changes have occurred in the outside world."

A false self and Sea of Quanta.

A world that most likely doesn't belong to them.

And, the last paragraph that I didn't fully understand.

Raiden Mei struggled to process the information-packed words, but gazing at [[Ashes]]'s mostly vanished body, she suppressed the urge to ask questions and instead echoed the other's words:

"So, you think Su Qing'an's appearance might have special significance to the outside world, and might even inadvertently attract strange trouble."

[[Ashes]] nodded and calmly analyzed:

"Well, my advice is not to go to Shenzhou before you have information about the outside world. That should be the sphere of influence established by Hua. And if too much time passes, she might have unnecessary misunderstandings because of Su Qing'an's abnormal state."

"Su Qing'an possesses the skill and instinct to isolate himself from all detection; perhaps you could try to get him to use it at your behest."

Raiden Mei responded:

"Yes, I will use the electromagnetic barrier when I take Xiao Su out."

After this highly efficient conversation ended, the memory in front of them completely disintegrated, turning into pitch-black [Ashes].