Rebirth / To You in the Past

The black sphere lasted for ten minutes, during which all matter and life dissolved.

The white-haired man placed his companion on the dilapidated Fifth Branch building and gazed at the desolate space.

Once the black sphere disappeared, the fighting Titans and Honkai creature, the buildings erected by humans, and the broken Giant Tree all resembled a world a hundred years in the future, decaying and withered.

In this barren world, a sea of white gardenias blooms in every crevice, quietly swaying in the breeze under the bright sunlight...

Chapter 119 New Life

The body heat that had been draining away was now warming up again as he burned. Su ran with all his might, listening to the vibrations in his ears, the unsteady tremors under his feet, and the wailing of a child in his chest.

Looking out, there was no way out, only endless flames and ruins. Only his dwindling strength was driving him forward relentlessly.

Pain.

My hands, feet, and head were all in excruciating pain; it felt like my whole body was being torn apart.

How far away is the monster from him?

Ten meters?

Five meters?

Or is it...?

"Bang!"

The swollen giant hand slammed onto the ground behind him, and the gale pushed him flying dozens of meters away, breaking his right leg with a crack.

"Puff--"

Saliva and blood, unable to withstand the pressure on his chest, spilled from his lips.

Su held the child, whose cries were growing weaker, tightly. He got up, having just exhaled his last breath. He was too weak to continue running, so he could only place the child under the nearby broken wall to cover him as best he could, and then turn to face the monster.

Biologically speaking, this creature shouldn't exist; its mere presence in front of Sue made him uncomfortable.

However, now seems to be the time not to investigate the structure of the Honkai Beast. He let his numb, injured arm hang down and raised his other hand in a ridiculous fist.

Sue always thought that when he died, he would recall his life, remembering every detail of his life in a brief yet long moment, before facing death.

The patients who died in the hospital all had eyes full of resentment. In their last moments, they were still murmuring the names of people who were important to them, whether surrounded by their families or lying alone, until their lives came to an end.

But Sue found that his heart was calmer than he had imagined.

There was no echo of resentment, nor any replay of memories.

He simply looked up at the deformed arm that was about to send him to another world, waiting without blinking...

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Bullets pierced through the terrifying arm, tearing flesh and blood apart its seemingly indestructible body, and then a barrage of gunfire pierced through the core of the Honkai Beast.

"Boom..."

The giant beast's body collapsed.

As the hopeful sunrise shone, a small figure holding a gun walked up to Su Daining.

"Doctor Mei, this is Prometheus Unit 3. After losing contact with TT-079 Kai and crashing in Changkong City, survivors have been found. Please arrange for recovery."

Want a cigarette?

Far leaned against the door, took off his blood-stained gloves and threw them onto the pile of corpses of the Honkai zombie. He then took out a pack of cigarettes from his white coat and asked Ragna, who was sitting in the doorway covered in blood.

"...I remember you don't smoke." Ragna used her left hand to pry open the broken stick with her right hand, took the cigarette offered to her, but didn't put it in her mouth.

"I really don't smoke. Smoking damages lung function, and long-term heavy smoking can cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, not to mention the harmful substances in secondhand smoke..."

"So, why do you still have cigarettes?"

Far shrugged and smiled indifferently, "That patient was a heavy smoker. His lungs were black, and he looked even more Honkai Sickness than organs eroded and turned purple by Honkai. I found cigarettes in his hospital gown. He even smoked secretly in the hospital."

"... Shall we smoke?"

"Forget it, I've already convinced myself I don't want to smoke anymore." Far put down his cigarette pack and glanced at the cigarette in Ragna's hand. "What about you?"

"I don't smoke either. I used to be a maid, and the family I served was allergic to cigarettes. They strictly forbade the servants in their household from smoking. It left a deep impression on me." Ragna weakly took off his blood-red coat, thought for a moment, and then stuffed the cigarette into his pocket.

"You were a maid?"

"It's just a hobby... There will always be times when I want to experience different lives, so I got a maid's professional certificate and worked as a maid for about a year."

"It was truly a enriching experience."

"Really? I think life is long, these things don't matter."

"Is life still long...?"

Behind the two people talking in hushed tones, in the operating room, on the screen of the electrocardiogram monitor, the lines symbolizing life were pulsating powerfully.

"..."

The vast blue sky stretches out before you, with tiny clouds layered upon each other, casting dappled sunlight onto the girl's cheeks.

Clusters of pale white flowers embraced her, and a gentle breeze ruffled her red and blue hair by her ears.

"Call..."

The wind swirled the petals, sending them soaring into the sky. Wounded people stepped into this pristine white flowerbed, drops of blood sliding into the flower stamens.

The helmeted man, supported by Sakura, came to the girl's side. After nodding in acknowledgment, Sakura let go of his hand, and he crouched down to look at the girl.

"... Your human skies are vast and boundless, truly wonderful." She pursed her lips, her voice soft and ethereal.

"The sky doesn't belong to humankind; it's just there, and anyone can look up at it," the man sighed, replying calmly.

The girl glanced at the cloud again and couldn't help but chuckle, "Really?"

"..."

She spoke in a barely audible voice, her azure and crimson pupils both fixed on the man. "Have you ever lay down and looked at the sky?"

The man pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "We'll see later."

"We must take a look. The view from here is much more beautiful than the view from the sky."

At this moment, she stopped her fake smile and her endless chatter, and simply admired the sky.

The cloud was eventually blown away by the wind. She didn't seem to care much, or perhaps she never intended to fix her gaze on that inconspicuous cloud in the ever-changing sky.

The man pulled a pistol from its holster.

"By the way, could you help me come up with a name?"

His cocked gun paused for a moment. He seemed to have forgotten his earlier mockery of the girl and asked calmly, "What kind of name?"

"Anything is fine... but I don't like names that are too long, and I hate having the same name as someone else, so I'm still a bit picky." The girl glanced at Kevin, who had a cold face, and shook her head. "It's okay if you don't want one."

Lin gazed at her familiar face, the smile he had seen countless times, frozen in that final moment under the gentle spring breeze.

"... Seele." He thought of the embrace that never happened and whispered softly.

"Hahahaha... Do you have trouble coming up with a name? In the end, you still used the name 'Soul'."

The laughter traveled far and wide, and then returned.

Gradually, the red and blue faded from her body, leaving only pure black.

The girl stopped laughing, silently closed her eyes, and nestled in the sea of flowers, her breathing even, as if she were entering a long slumber.

Abyss Flower formed a blanket, covering her completely.

The man stood up and raised the muzzle of his gun.

Goodbye, Lin.

Goodbye, Seele.

"Bang!"

Pure white petals covered the muzzle of the gun amidst the smoke.

Chapter 120 To the Past You

Is it over?

It's over.

The six-year Honkai Sixth Honkai War, which lasted two days and one night, spanned a quarter of the Earth from start to finish, with the battlefield extending to almost half of the Far East, resulting in over five million casualties and the loss of nearly 80% of the Moths' combat power, came to an end.

It began with internal strife among humans and ended with a Honkai attack. While the number of casualties may have been less than in the first and Third Honkai War, the destruction it caused to human society and the Moths of Fire was unprecedented.

In the city where the Sixth Honkai War occurred, fewer than a hundred residents who had taken refuge in the shelters survived. The damage to Changkong City, which suffered the Second Honkai, was no less severe than that of the Third Honkai War, not to mention the depletion of the earth's resources and the aging of buildings caused by the Sixth Herrscher's bizarre abilities.

Subsequent surveys revealed that the lifespan of plants rooted in the city had been drastically reduced; even the most resilient species could not survive for more than ten days. It was as if the Abyss Flower that withered after the death of the Sixth Herrscher had absorbed the life force of this area, turning it into a barren city.

Moreover, it is perpetually gloomy and lifeless; even walking on the sunless avenues, one cannot feel the warmth of the sun.

So even after the city was rebuilt after the Sixth Honkai War, the population dropped to about one-tenth of its original size, making it the least populated of the major cities in the Far East.

The Moth of Fire's headquarters combat force suffered a terrifying 86.5% loss, including various advanced weapons and Autonomous Titan. After the inventory was completed, the Titan unit had thirteen fully functional Titans left, and the headquarters combat teams were reduced to about five.

With the headquarters' command function paralyzed, the operation of Moth Chaser was greatly affected for the next six months, and even loopholes appeared in the management of some areas. The most obvious point was the rapid increase in Honkai Sickness, which could not be accommodated.

However, this Cleansing Incident and the reduction in the number of soldiers led the remaining High Council to change their original elite strategy, accelerate the expansion of the armed forces, and influence certain historical processes afterward...

Of course, that's a story for another time.

"Lin, I burned one of your letters."

On the way back to the Fifth Branch, Elysia suddenly said something out of the blue to Lin, who was resting on her shoulder.

She seemed a little flustered, as if she had found a label left behind while sorting through events in a notebook and remembered an important clue from the past. However, she had played similar roles many times before, so she still looked as natural as ever.

"... What letter?" Lin's tone was almost the same as before he left, as calm and composed as an old monk in meditation.

Elysia's tone held a complexity she rarely revealed to others. She lowered her head, sighed, and pursed her lips, saying, "A... I don't even know what kind of person gave you this letter."

"Yeah..."

Elysia didn't know if Lin meant he knew who it was, or if he didn't care who it was, so she tentatively asked, "Do you want to know what's written inside? I remember the contents."

"No."

Lin simply shook his head. Elysia felt a light sway on her shoulder and nodded without saying anything more.

Words interpreted by others may fail to convey their original meaning.

She might have embellished the negative parts of the letter for Lin's sake, but was that what that person really wanted to say? Was that what Lin wanted to hear?

Since she didn't want Lin to know from the beginning, then let it be.

"Elysia, have you ever thought about the future after the Honkai ends?"

"..."

"I asked Hua this question. I wanted her to live with that future as her goal, but I myself have never thought about it." Lin opened up, which was unusual for him. His helmet was pitch black, and he could not see anything. "A soldier, an ordinary person, has no time or expectation to imagine the future."

"But now, have you changed your mind?"

"Now I realize that it is ordinary people who imagine a bright future. They look forward to a better tomorrow every day. They do not take the shortness of life for granted and want to be able to tell others about their lives in a richer and longer way in the future."

"That's a very good idea." Elysia didn't mention the future she envisioned, but simply asked with a gentle smile, "So, what do you want to do after the Honkai ends?"

What do you want to do?

It's easy to splash colorful paints onto a blank sheet of paper, but Lin isn't the kind of person who wants to travel the world.

Lin suddenly thought of the soldiers who rebelled in this incident, and the souls that became the Sixth Herrscher. Their names would not be recorded in the special cemetery of the Firemoth. No matter what contributions they made or what their identities were, after betraying them, they were no longer members of the Firemoth.

But apart from the moths that chased the flame, no one will erect tombstones for them. Their past, their names, their extremism, their ideals—none of them have left any trace in this world.

Just like them, they never existed.

"I want to build a cemetery," Lin said softly.

"Cemetery?"