Aponia / Your Ending

Tears streamed down her face; she no longer knew whether she was afraid of death or something else.

Is all of this fate?

"Tears streaming down your face? Ugh... really, nine out of ten people who undergo Hypervariable Surgery do that..." An impatient female voice came from the surgeon's mouth. She tossed her green hair and looked at someone in the corner.

Aponia's listless gaze followed her and settled on that person.

Then, their eyes met.

"..."

"..."

I was so stupid after all... I was completely fooled...

She calmly closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

"... Ha, you actually dare to show your face in front of me."

"Beast" had a tangled head of white hair covered in filth, and his fierce, irritable eyes opened in the darkness, staring at the helmeted man standing outside the "cage".

"What? You want to die?"

In an instant, a completely different, burning killing intent emanated from the cage and shot straight at Lin's face. Chrono's bloodshot eyes were only centimeters away from him, and his heavy breathing slapped against Lin's helmet.

"...Feel sorry."

"Apologize? You? Hahahaha..." Chrono laughed angrily. "Do you know? If someone truly feels remorse, they wouldn't do anything that would make them apologize in the first place! What are you doing here now? Showing your hypocritical face? Do you expect me to spare your Xiaoming after I leave?"

"Or perhaps..."

His gaze gradually shifted from Lin to what was behind him.

"Just like the accomplice you brought last time, he's going to kill me here?"

The smiling pink-haired girl stood behind Lin with her arms crossed, nodding as if quite satisfied with Chrono's furious expression.

"Hmm... Just like Lin said, he's a really energetic and frank boy, completely different from the lifeless trio."

"...ah?"

Chrono glared at the woman; her smile made him extremely uncomfortable, as if he were being treated like a child.

"Your name is... um... Qian..." The pink-haired girl looked at Lin awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I don't usually forget people's names, Lin?"

Lin slowly said, "His name is..."

Then, Lin also stopped.

Then, he smoothly said, "Thousand Papers."

"Do you really want to die!" Chrono grabbed Lin's collar through the railing.

Chapter Twenty-Nine Aponia

A sudden, eerie blue light shone on Lin in the pitch-black room, surrounding him from all sides, leaving him nowhere to hide, and exposing everything about him to the light.

"CM-000, Lin, regarding your mission log and your experiences before joining the Firemoth, is there anything you need to report to the Firemoth?"

A distorted sound emanated from a bright, eerie blue door.

CM-000 is Lin's new designation. Flame-Chaser are all designated by the CM series, but his designation is not an official Flame-Chaser designation. It is merely his "personal designation," serving as a kind of identifier and mark, because he is not Flame-Chaser.

The true Flame-Chaser' numbers start with Kevin, CM-001, while Lin's number will not be recorded in the numbering list.

"..."

Lin glanced around at the dark blue doors that filled the entire room. They were, or rather, the High Council of the Fire Moth. Ever since that Cleansing Incident that terrified them, they had stopped showing themselves easily and were now holding meetings in this way that was both sacred and eerie.

"Silence is not your shield. Speak out what you know, and then we will discuss and vote on it."

The gaze coming from the doorway directly opposite him made Lin slightly raise his head.

Then, amidst everyone's "expectant" gazes, Lin spoke.

"Now they're as mysterious as gods in myths and legends, never showing themselves."

Elysia had been waiting at the door for a long time. She shrugged at Lin, who hadn't said a word: "Although it's mostly formalism, after that incident, their words and actions have become more and more like those of a pope giving divine instructions to believers."

Upon hearing Elysia's description, Lin recalled what Gray Serpent had said before leaving.

... Is the most essential way for human beings to exist, or rather... religion?

This conversation was not as tense as I had imagined, which I had guessed before I came. Otherwise, Lin would not have come to the conference room, but to the Deepest Place courtroom.

"How is the 'report' progressing?"

"... Most of them have already agreed."

"Oh? There's still a small portion?"

"Regarding Chrono, they disagree with releasing him before they have researched anything about Chrono and have the means to control him."

Elysia hummed in agreement, brushing the hair behind her ear to reveal a pointed, elven-like ear.

Although Mobius made it sound like Elysia didn't experience any side effects from the Hypervariable Surgery, it did affect her to some extent, such as her ears.

However, Elysia herself didn't care. In fact, she quite liked the elf ears, saying they made her even cuter. Similarly, she also liked Sakura's animal ears.

"As for Chrono Jie... well... let's wait a bit longer then." Elysia seemed to have her own ideas, and she smiled as she changed the subject. "What about the others? They contacted you to come; besides 'interrogation,' they must have other purposes, right?"

"Team allocation."

"... That's it?"

"Um."

"They really have too much free time on their hands."

Then, they exchanged a glance and tacitly ended the conversation.

Actually, there was another matter that the High Council of the Firemoth wanted to discuss with Lin. Lin and Elysia both knew they would bring it up, but neither the Firemoth High Council nor they could easily make a definitive statement.

After all, it was a Flame-Chaser that they themselves had created, out of control.

The situation was completely different when I saw her this time.

Last time, Lin stood outside the cage while she stood inside, powerless to resist. This time, Lin stood outside the cage, but she could easily walk out of it.

Therefore, this dialogue was conducted face-to-face and in opposition.

"... You no longer need to stay in the Deepest Place. If you wish, the Fire-Chasing Moth will arrange everything you need." Lin tried to avoid her eyes. Those eyes used to seem clear to him, but now they had a captivating quality.

Another task assigned to him by his High Council was to make contact with Aponia.

Aponia's surgery was successful.

This was not unexpected for the Firemoths. From the beginning, they had two plans: either Aponia would die on the operating table with those secrets, or she would become Flame-Chaser and be used by them. So whether the surgery was successful or not was irrelevant.

But what was beyond imagination was Aponia's power after becoming Flame-Chaser.

If we were to categorize Flame-Chaser, Kevin, Sakura, Mobius, and Elysia would be pure combat-type Flame-Chaser, while Aponia... perhaps it would be better to call her a mental perception-type Flame-Chaser.

Mithra is the Honkai Beast she fused with. It is an extremely special Honkai Beast that was born in the last three months. Unlike the usual Honkai Beast, it does not have terrifying destructive power, but it has the special ability to make people within a certain range fall into hallucinations.

Perhaps it was precisely because of its relatively low destructive power that the Firemoth decided to use it as the fusion gene for Aponia, in order to better control it.

However, Aponia exhibited abilities that Mithra had never possessed after the surgery.

The soldiers responsible for transporting her back to the Deepest Place were mentally invaded; they lost consciousness within two sentences from Aponia.

Lin knew that Aponia had a natural ability to easily persuade others. At first, he thought it was just a convenience brought by her identity, but now it seemed that was not the case.

Even Mobius seems to have suffered a severe blow to the brain and is still recovering.

The Firemoth no longer has the ability to imprison Aponia, and even Kevin would be a "loss" for the Firemoth.

Therefore, the task was once again assigned to Lin.

"...Forest."

After a long silence, Aponia spoke for the first time. Her blue pupils, unknowingly turning into a bewitching crimson in the darkness, gazed at Lin.

"Before I met you this time, I still believed that you had deceived me with lies. Your feigned 'goodness' was the starting point for my belief in you, while my naivety led to an irretrievable loss."

"... I am very sorry."

"No... Lin, you don't need to apologize."

Aponia chuckled and shook her head, a smile that seemed to transport Lin back to the sanatorium.

A gentle, kind, and considerate Nun —that's how Lin perceived Aponia.

Now, this perception doesn't seem to have changed even after she gained that strange and powerful ability.

The bloodshot in her eyes disappeared, and her blue pupils lingered eerily in the darkness.

"You only lied twice, right?"

Chapter Thirty: Your Ending

I don't understand what you're talking about.

Lin replied in a flat tone, like a robot.

"It's okay if you don't admit it..." Aponia's eyes were so warm and clear, "But Lin... I know..."

"...What?"

Know?

"Your... future."

This doesn't sound like a funny joke. Most Western myths involve prophecy. The most famous Ragnarok, is a myth that foretells the fall of the gods, vividly demonstrating the sense of fatalism. Even gods cannot resist fate.

But that should have been just a myth. Seeing other people's fate and future is something that has absolutely no basis, even more fantastical than Arabian Nights.

But when Aponia confidently declared that she could see the fates of others, her irresistible words gradually made people believe her.

"Fate is like a thread coiled around people's heads, lifting their bodies and stretching them toward their predetermined end."

At some point, Aponia's smile disappeared.

"Lin... I saw your 'end'... your... ending."

"..."

Don't you believe me?

"No, I believe you, but that's all." Lin removed his helmet, half his face in shadow, and looked at Aponia. "So, will you accept my offer?"

"What... proposal? Stay with the Firemoth?" Aponia asked curiously.

"No... this is my personal suggestion to leave the Moth of Fire."

An unexpected answer came coldly from Lin's mouth.

Compared to his previous position where he looked down from the center of the railing, this time he shifted his position, as if making way for Aponia to leave.

Without the helmet's cover, Aponia could see his eyes again.

Whether in the sanatorium, on the operating table, or now, Lin's eyes have not wavered or changed, indicating that despite saying different things and doing different things, his state of mind has not actually changed.

"... Lin, are all the people here heinous villains?"

Aponia did not respond to Lin; instead, she looked over his shoulder into the deepest, darkest the Deepest Place.

It is profound and terrifying, because what is imprisoned here is not just "people".

In fact, only a small number of people are actually imprisoned in the Deepest Place because of their actions; most of those imprisoned are actually "heroes."

Apart from the Aponia Hypervariable Surgery, all 140 Hypervariable Surgery were performed on Moths who voluntarily underwent the transformation.

Choosing to undergo surgery with a 97% failure rate for the sake of humanity, some died on the operating table, some could not adapt to death after the surgery, and some... became monsters.

Those who participated in the Cleansing Incident may have loved humanity more than anyone else; they wanted to change the Moths of Fire in a different way and save humanity.

They are the "majority" in the Deepest Place, including many former heroes who made great contributions.