I'm Not a Flame-Chaser

Lin carried Kiana on his back and spent about half an hour getting to the outside of the crevice.

What should he do now? Shout "Hey! Come out!" into the crack?

Rushing headlong into something without doing any research is not in Lin's nature, especially in a situation and environment that looks highly suspicious.

Lin had been to the Imaginary Space of the Herrscher of the Void before, and the scenery there was different from here, so Lin first ruled out the possibility of the Imaginary Space.

There was no one nearby, not even any landmarks, so Lin couldn't explore further even if he wanted to. The only difference on the grass was the desert in the crack in front of him.

"————"

While Lin was still hesitating, he suddenly raised his head and stared blankly ahead.

Immediately afterwards, his eyelids narrowed slightly, and a faint light flickered in his black pupils.

After a moment's thought, he carried Kiana on his back and stepped into the rift.

"Damn it, where am I...?"

The man with short, gray hair had lost his usual composure hidden in the darkness. He crouched low in the swirling yellow sand, trying to regulate his disordered breathing, and watched as some strange "creatures" wriggled away in the distance.

When he woke up, he found himself in a strange place, surrounded by "creatures" that seemed to be carbon-based. He was chased for several kilometers before barely escaping and hiding here to find out where he was.

He tried to contact the Raven, but there was no signal at all, and he couldn't even determine the direction. He felt as if he were in a dream without beginning or end.

He felt disoriented and unreal, as if the world were upside down and he was hanging upside down in the sky.

"Huff... huff..."

Night Owl took deep breaths, but his pupils trembled uncontrollably. The current situation was the most bizarre he had ever encountered in his life. Even when Raven defeated the Thousand Fists Society and recruited him, he had not felt such panic.

And he knew where this panic came from.

He didn't want to die.

His biological will to survive, along with his inner tenacity, compelled him to live, no matter the means.

"Gah."

My heart stopped beating.

The owl's pupils widened continuously during the forbidden time, and a golden shadow loomed over his head, but the brilliant color was not the most elegant; instead, it was filled with an aura of deathly silence.

A black and gold monster that looked completely out of place in biological structures hovered silently above his head. It had no eyes, yet it gave him an eerie feeling of being watched.

"Bass!"

Without hesitation, Night Owl stabbed at the monster's body, but the response chilled him to the bone.

He had tried to fight these monsters, but they were simply unkillable.

They are more like "creations" than living things.

"Boom!"

As the night owl fled through the swirling yellow sand, two three-legged, black-gold monsters, like crabs, chased after him, their cone-shaped structures spinning as they spewed gold-leaf-colored acid at him.

"Puff!"

Night Owl dodged to the side, but liquid is not something that can be easily avoided. Two drops of acid got on his mechanical arm, and almost in the blink of an eye, a hole was corroded in it.

If you were hit head-on by this acid, you probably wouldn't even have any bones left.

He gritted his teeth and sped up. He didn't know which direction to run in, so he could only keep going forward. But soon his heart turned completely cold, and he gasped for breath.

Directly in front of him, three black-gold monsters, with a different structure from the pursuers behind him, spotted him and attacked him at a terrifying speed. He didn't even have time to turn around before he was surrounded.

"Bass!"

Night Owl gripped the dagger with both hands to deflect the incoming spikes, leaving a bloody gash on his cheek. He barely managed to grab the spikes, flipped himself up, and landed behind the monster, stabbing it at what appeared to be the monster's weakest point—its spherical structure.

But it was all in vain. His dagger didn't even leave a scratch. He was stared at by the monster's "face," which was neither front nor back, and then kicked in the stomach by its hind legs, sending him flying.

"Bang!"

"Cough cough..."

After swallowing a mouthful of yellow sand and coughing incessantly, Night Owl stubbornly gripped his dagger again, but when he looked up, he saw two monsters simultaneously spraying acid, blocking all his possible escape routes.

Die...

Night Owl blankly released his grip, and the dagger slipped from his hand.

He will die...

Just like his sister...

To die in a place no one knows, to become someone who doesn't even exist on the list of victims.

The owl closed its eyes.

Anna...

"Bass----"

Slight.

When a regular weapon cuts through a hard substance, it leaves behind a piercing howl to prove its power.

But this time, the cutting sound was fleeting; it disappeared before it could even be heard clearly.

"..."

The imagined death did not come.

Night Owl opened his eyes, looking bewildered at the silver-haired girl standing atop the slowly disappearing black and gold wreckage, holding a long, jet-black blade.

She turned around, her face cold and suffocating, her bright Prismatic Eyes burning quietly.

The "Rebirth" of the Sky: Chapter Fifteen - A Young Girl and Passion

"Um..."

The soft murmur in his ear made Lin, who was mechanically pacing back and forth, slowly turn his gaze to the face of the girl whose eyelids trembled as she slowly opened her sleepy eyes.

Her skin was fair and translucent, and her eyelashes seemed to be brushed onto her face. A ray of sunlight shone down, illuminating her beauty.

"Lin..." Kiana opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Lin's profile. Her head was spinning as she asked softly, "Where are we?"

"... I don't know. Maybe there was a problem during the teleportation process, and you ended up in a completely unfamiliar place."

"Yeah..."

When she saw the endless yellow sand, she thought she had returned to the Vimur Laboratory in North Africa, but the moment she saw Lin, she felt at ease and rested her heavy head on his shoulder.

"Did I mess up again...?"

"No, you did very well," Lin said calmly. "Go back to sleep for a while."

The girl flashed a smile as warm as sunshine in a wheat field, "Hehe... Why are you suddenly so gentle? You were hitting and scolding me before..."

"... Don't think too much, go to sleep."

"I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"..."

This girl often seems silly, but at other times she is overly shrewd.

She was like a ray of winter sunlight, drawing near to Lin's face.

"I feel completely weak, and... I can't feel anything in my body," Kiana said with difficulty, but a smile remained on her face, as if encouraging herself, or perhaps encouraging Lin. "Are you supporting my butt? I can't feel anything right now... you pervert..."

"..."

Lin hates this.

The people he values always leave him before he can prepare; they are like bubbles that are blown up, flying high into the sky and bursting under the bright sunlight.

Kiana, on the other hand, is the complete opposite; she is like a block of ice, slowly melting before his eyes.

Lin sometimes struggled to understand the complex emotions in the eyes of his Previous Civilization's companions when they looked at him, but now he understood.

"Save your energy. I'll find a way to help you control the Herrscher Core inside your body once we're out of here."

Lin said this in a sullen tone.

"Not going... anymore?" The energetic girl was now as soft as a marshmallow, but that was not a good sign; it was the beginning of her descent into the abyss.

"I'm not leaving."

"Then... there's something I want to do," the girl said, tilting her head. Her long, shimmering silver hair cascaded down Lin's shoulder, and her eyes reflected Lin's face. "I want to do it now."

"... What is it?" Lin Ye turned his head and met the girl's ever-bright eyes.

"Come a little closer," Kiana said with a weak smile.

Lin leaned his ear closer.

But to his surprise, as soon as he got close, the girl leaned over and left a soft mark on the corner of his mouth.

"..."

She pulled her head back, a blush rising on her pale cheeks.

Lin showed no surprise or doubt, simply watching her quietly.

"That way, you'll definitely remember me forever. Even if I die from Honkai Energy, you won't forget me."

Kiana tried her best to appear poised and graceful, but her body wouldn't allow it, she whispered in Lin's ear.

Like a flower growing towards the sun, it blooms with all its might, releasing its warmth before sunset.

As Lin gazed at the girl's smiling face, several faded photographs flashed through his mind.

No one wants to be forgotten. They are willing to give everything for their ideals and for humanity. Lin is the one who remembers them, carries their burdens, and moves forward with their last wishes.

The man took a deep breath, glanced at Kiana's jelly-like thin lips, and said calmly, "If you want me to remember you, this isn't enough."

"Hmm? Then how... ugh!"

The silver-haired girl was interrupted by a burst of heat before she could finish her sentence. Her eyes widened as she watched Lin embrace her stiff body, brush aside her hair, and smell a fragrance wafting towards her nose.

Lin's movements were very skillful; he tried his best to make Kiana feel no embarrassment or discomfort, and Kiana indeed felt nothing but comfort.

Even though I had no feeling in my body, the sensations were so clear right now.

My breathing was heavy and rapid, my head was dizzy and throbbing, as if I were in a fairyland, floating on air.

Ten minutes later, Kiana, her face flushed like a melting snowman, lay in Slin's arms. Only then did he move away a little, exhale a breath of air from her, and look at the somewhat exhausted girl.

Kiana's rosy cheeks suddenly became adorable. "You took advantage of me... you pervert..."

"This time, I'll remember it."

Lin didn't pay any attention to Kiana's "scolding" that had no sense of blame. He continued to carry Kiana forward, completely ignoring the fact that Kiana's body temperature had risen and she seemed to be able to move again but was deliberately pretending not to.

Whether Lin accepts it or not, it's no longer important to her now.

But if this is Kiana's wish, then he will help her fulfill it: a memory, feelings, and a kiss.

"Don't tell Mei what happened just now." Kiana grabbed Rin's collar, rested her head against his chest, and listened to his heartbeat. "And don't tell anyone either."

"..."

Lin shook his head helplessly. She was still just a little girl. It was just a kiss. He had been kissed countless times before and was numb to it.

"And... could we do it one more time?"

"..."

Lin's expression turned serious as he glanced at the shy yet curious girl rubbing her lips.

"We'll talk about it when we get back."

"But when we went back, Mei..."

"Then you want to do it again?"

The faint melancholy atmosphere dissipated considerably. Lin carried Kiana for over an hour and still couldn't see the end. They were completely lost and it was impossible for them to even try to return to the rift.

"If we keep going like this, when will we reach the exit?"

"Have no idea."

"Are we just going to keep walking like this? I feel like we're going in circles."