Victory

Fortunately, he succeeded.

Lin wiped the soot off his face and crawled out of the pit he had dug. He lay on the ground panting. Not far away, the silver-haired Herrscher also landed on the ground. She looked very miserable. She was torn apart by the explosion of the rocket launcher, and the bandages on her body were charred and scattered. She was almost naked.

However, Lin knew that such injuries were only minor for Herrscher.

Both sides agreed to a truce. Lin stayed put to recover his strength. Losing an arm had increased his burden considerably, and his injury from yesterday hadn't healed yet. Reaching this point was already his limit.

The silver-haired Herrscher was half-squatting on the ground, emitting a ghostly green light. Lin speculated that it was the Herrscher of Death's Creation Authority. Under the light, all the injuries on her body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This was not good news for Lin, but he calmly stood up. He still had a pistol and a grenade on his person, but he didn't reach for them.

"You are... the real Yan Luo, aren't you?"

"..."

The "Herrscher" swayed, floated up, and stood firm.

Her blank face and pupils made her look like a lifelike doll. Such a beautiful appearance, yet without any emotion, was enough to trigger the uncanny valley effect.

"This is not the World Bubble that you changed after making your wish, but a false world that you created yourself."

Lin didn't know why he had this intuition, but he had a familiar feeling from the beginning. This feeling of irrationality and difference from the real world was strangely familiar.

"Your wish is not to bring back the people you've lost, but to create a world without 'forest'."

"You've split yourself in two. You bear all the pain, while the remaining part consists of 'that person' who was with your former companions day and night. She will live with them as another person."

"Because you hate 'Lin,' which means you hate yourself. You wish from the bottom of your heart that Lin Cong the first place."

"And you, in this virtual world, will look at everything that doesn't belong to you, as your own atonement."

From the very beginning, Lin had mentioned that Yan Luo believed his existence was a mistake, so in Yan Luo's world, Lin should not exist.

This also applies to Yan Luo himself.

Moreover, Lin noticed something.

In this world that should be perfect, one person is missing.

Beside Lin was a girl who accompanied him from the Third Honkai War to the end of the Seventh Honkai Eruption. Although she was boisterous, narcissistic, playful, had a quirky sense of humor, and was unreliable...

But Lin admits that she is one of the most important people in his life.

Therefore, Lin also plays the same role as her in this world, approaching Yan Luo, which causes the Herrscher —that is, the real Yan Luo— to want to remove him from this world.

"... Why are you here? Why do you exist in my world?"

The Herrscher's empty, Prismatic Eyes stared at Lin, her lifeless voice questioning the utterly miserable Lin.

He was hardly a good-looking man; one of his arms was broken, and his entire body was blackened, as if he had just crawled out of a coal mine.

But his eyes, those deep black pupils like a starless night sky, were more resolute and bright than ever before.

The Herrscher... no, Yan Luo's hands were embedded in the ground as she stared at the man who should have been another version of herself, yet was so different from her.

Yan Luo is questioning himself, and Lin is also facing his own inner thoughts.

They are two different sides of the same coin. Their encounter allowed them to see different possibilities and also revealed their truest thoughts.

"... Have you ever heard someone say?" Lin stood opposite her, the wind swirling around him, thick with the smell of gunpowder. Lin raised his head and looked up at the clear sky, which seemed to reflect another person's face. "Once, someone left, and I didn't know how to express my feelings."

Delta's departure marked the first time Lin had faced the death of someone close to him.

His confusion and helplessness came upon him for the first time after the Third Honkai War.

But he remained motionless, like a statue, showing no sign of sadness.

"But that person said I... was crying."

"..."

"I didn't understand what that meant at first, until I met you."

Like two people reflected in a mirror, Lin saw a more authentic version of herself than in the photograph.

Lin supported himself on his knee with one hand, his breathing slightly labored. His internal organs were under too much strain, and he coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

"I don't know how I found out, but I know you're calling for help."

"Don't joke around..."

"You are waiting for someone to come and save you."

"Don't joke around..."

"You're waiting for someone like her to come and save you—"

"Stop joking!"

Yan Luo flashed in front of Lin, lifted him by the neck with one hand, her face was as fierce as a demon, her hateful gaze fell into Lin's eyes, but he stared at her without fear.

"It's because you've become like this... this incompetent, useless, emotional, and indecisive person! That's why that happened! Your so-called wrong judgments in order to save others and those around you led to my 'birth'!"

"You'll always hesitate when faced with a choice between two options! You'll always be thinking about how not to choose! As long as you sacrifice yourself, as long as it's for the people around you, you'll do things that go against your own principles and make wrong judgments!"

"But that's why I hate you! That's why I hate all of the 'Lin', including myself!"

"Let me tell you, during the Ninth Honkai War, we needed to hold off the Ninth Herrscher so that Kevin could kill her, and at that time we had two choices."

"Let Hen stall her, or retreat and watch Mu Continent disappear."

As the pressure from his fingers gradually increased, Lin heard a mournful cry coming from the soft, brittle bones in his throat.

"Did I make a choice? I didn't choose anything. I couldn't choose between the entire continent of humanity and the Scars, which ultimately led to the disappearance of the Scars Mu Continent!"

"Are you still dreaming? Do you think this is a fairy tale? This is reality! There are no perfect solutions, no happy endings! The trolley will inevitably head in one direction!"

"Smack!"

Lin's left hand gripped her arm, and under her fierce gaze, Lin gritted his teeth and forced out a sound—

Why must we always face an imperfect ending?

Yan Luo's expression froze.

"Although this is unrealistic and foolish."

"But I want the best of both worlds! I want a perfect ending! I want the trolley to just stay at that fork in the road where it will never hurt anyone! Is there a problem?"

Chapter 81 Victory

"You're hopeless."

You leave me speechless.

The two spoke at the same time. Their usual peaceful gazes were gone, replaced by a sharp look as if they were enemies. The bandages wrapped around Yan Luo's body writhed and twisted as if they were alive, while Lin's left hand had already reached behind his back and drawn a pistol.

You can't stop the future from coming.

"You can't just look at the past."

Lin raised his leg and kneed Yan Luo in the abdomen, but the bandage, which moved like a snake, precisely blocked his knee and wrapped around his entire thigh along his ankle.

Yan Luo released his grip on Lin, and the bandages, like tentacles, lifted him upside down before violently flinging him away.

"Bang!"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Yan Luo floated in mid-air expressionlessly, watching Lin slowly rise from the dust of the collapsed building. "You and I are the same person. Your foolish idea has already been proven true in my case."

"I'm not like you..." Lin pulled the pin on the grenade, took a deep breath, and felt the familiar scent of the battlefield swirling in his lungs. "I'm not an execution machine, I'm human."

"Is that so?"

A cruel, grotesque smile twisted Yan Luo's lips. She pointed a finger at the man who could barely stand. "So you, this lowly and despicable human, can't even resist me, an incomplete Herrscher. Your boasts are nothing but laughable self-consolation."

"Unable to resist?"

Under Yan Luo's incredulous gaze, Lin actually raised his head and returned her an arrogant look.

"The Herrscher I've defeated could line up in one row, so who are you?"

"Bang!"

Lin was thrown out amidst the towering flames, rolling several times on the ground to extinguish the fire on his body. Before he could pull the trigger, an ordinary-looking bandage pierced through the pistol, and the shattered parts left a bloody mark on his face.

Yan Luo was right. In this World Bubble, she was an incomplete Herrscher, lacking even a tenth of her full power, but that was enough to render the crippled Lin, who was without her weapon, the Flame Chaser, utterly helpless.

Moreover, they share the same mindset, so even if Lin wanted to fight Yan Luo using the same methods he used to use against the Herrscher, it would be easily neutralized.

She is not Herrscher with human memories, but a human with Herrscher abilities; the two are fundamentally different.

Yan Luo's attack methods are very diverse, and she has many characteristics of Herrscher. However, due to her current incomplete Herrscher Authority, her destructive power is far less than that of a normal Herrscher.

Lin's chances of defeating her are extremely slim.

But Lin will definitely win.

The problem of their differing ideologies cannot be solved by one side killing the other. But as Yan Luo said, if Lin can't even get past her, how can he fulfill the "big talk" he talks about?

Yan Luo grasped at the empty void and drew a long, straight sword with a white scabbard covered in patterns and a black blade and hilt. As she drew the sword, an ominous aura of death enveloped her.

Lin's heart skipped a beat; this feeling was...

Yan Luo pointed the blade at Lin. This was the Divine Key she was most skilled at using. Through long-term use, she not only absorbed its characteristics, but the Divine Key also transformed into a shape suitable for her due to the malleability of the Soul Steel.

The Sixth Divine Key, the Black Abyss White Flower, Divine Key that unites decay and creation.

As she activated the Divine Key, which had been recreated with power, the corrosive Black Mist reappeared before Lin, surging towards him madly.

Lin currently has neither Phase Transfer Device nor an anti-gravity flight device. Faced with this large-scale attack where one contact means certain death, he can only turn around and run away.

He rushed back to the tunnel he had just left in two strides, and jumped in without hesitation, with the Black Mist following closely behind.

Yan Luo did not rush to pursue. She remained where she was, coldly watching the pit gradually being filled by the Black Mist. She could imagine Lin being swallowed up by the Black Mist, leaving not even bones behind.

The Herrscher of Reason's powers allow her to recreate the Divine Key she has used before, but the Honkai Energy in the Herrscher of Herrscher of Reason's core is lower than that of other Herrscher, and the total amount of Honkai Energy in this World Bubble is even less. Therefore, she can only recreate the Divine Key she is most familiar with, and cannot unleash their original power. If she weren't one of the most special Herrscher, she might not even be able to recreate the Divine Key.

But that's enough.

"Click".

Just then, Yan Luo heard a soft clicking sound of a mechanism engaging behind her. Without looking back, she turned around and slashed at the cannonball fired at her. This time, she blocked the flames from the explosion outside the Honkai Energy shield.

She glanced down and saw Lin appear from the other side, throwing down the rocket launcher and jumping back into the pit. She frowned slightly and then understood why.

He actually dug a tunnel here overnight?

She used to fight in a similar way, but such a complicated and unnecessary effort is now insignificant in her eyes.

With a snap of his fingers, Yan Luo's gravity descended upon the ground beneath his feet, causing the tunnels Lin had dug with tools in the middle of the night to collapse instantly, along with the abandoned buildings within a radius of a hundred meters, which were completely reduced to ruins.

She coldly swept her gaze across the collapsed ground, searching for Lin's whereabouts.

But she couldn't find him anywhere, which made Yan Luo frown again. She couldn't believe that Lin, who could evade the Black Mist, would be crushed to death by gravity.

"Whoosh."

At that moment, a very slight sound rang out beneath her feet, and the two cannons hovering beside Yan Luo immediately fired beams of light down to her feet.

"Bang!"

But when she looked closer, it seemed to be just the sound of a used rocket launcher being hit by a stone.

"Because you yourself failed to do it, you no longer believe that other 'forests' can cross the steps that are blocking you."

Lin's cold voice appeared in the lower right corner, Yan Luo once again controlled the cannon to fire a deadly beam, piercing through the person who spoke...

People?

The phonograph disintegrating under the beam of light seemed to mock her.

"I have seen countless versions of myself make the same mistakes, and there has never been a second one who has reached the destination I have reached." Yan Luo's long hair danced in the wind, and her Prismatic Eyes stole the sun's brilliance, filled with aggression.

"So you despaired of them, and you despaired of yourself. Even if you couldn't get over it, you just wanted to let those who were important to you live a little longer."

The sound was coming from another phonograph.

"But you're still hoping that one day, a 'Lin' will be able to defeat you."

"Just like the 'Yan Luo' you leave behind in this false world, it's the beautiful self you've created for yourself."

Upon hearing this, Yan Luo's mind paused for a second.

Just then, less than half a meter from the crater left by the shelling beneath her feet, a figure buried in ash suddenly rose and leaped up, the sharp blade in its hand drawing a perfect arc, slicing through the sunlight—

Blood splattered everywhere!