The expression on his face suddenly turned calm. He paid no attention as blood continued to trickle down.
This had never been a fair deal.
It couldn't even be called just.
No matter what happened along the way, in the end, he was bound to win. A decisive victory, whether by a wide margin, a modest one, or barely.
It was simple.
But he didn't want to do it anymore.
Even Jiang Cheng couldn't say why. He just didn't want to.
Perhaps he was born unable to stand by helplessly while others sacrificed themselves for him.
"...I don't need another choice anymore."
"Be moved by this," Cocolia said again, her voice arrogant and haughty beside his ear.
"You're different from those men who turn to ash in an instant. You're inferior, but you have value. You won't die here. You'll become an important stepping stone on my path to surpassing Honkai."
There were so many things he wanted to say, so many points he could refute, so many curses he wanted to scream at her.
There's no point.
"I have Honkai Energy resistance, don't I?"
His voice was as still as a placid lake.
"Hmph. You really are a filthy bug from the gutter. You don't even know something this basic? Without Honkai Energy resistance, how could you have stayed beside the Third Herrscher for so long?"
"Because you think you know everything? Because you're stupid?"
Cocolia furrowed her brows, her disdain and disgust written plainly across her face.
"Yeah..."
"Something so obvious was right in front of me the whole time, and I never noticed...
"I really am an idiot."
He closed his eyes, seeming to have given up.
Hundreds, even thousands of Titan Mechs spread across the wasteland. There were enough of them to easily kill an A-rank Valkyrie, someone capable of fighting off every lower-level Honkai Beast, including the Honkai Emperor, which could destroy a city.
Now they were deployed just to capture one person—
A girl who seemed gentle and carefree—
Whether she conjured illusions or obscured their vision, her ethereal fantasies and mist would be shattered by a single volley of cannon fire.
Titan fists and roaring artillery gradually drove the girl into a corner—
Her mind had already reached its limit. Her strength had been wrung dry in this game of cat and mouse. Dust stained her fair skin, and her battered body was covered in wounds. Cyrene closed her eyes.
Back when she first met A-Cheng...
...What had it been for?
It was such a distant memory, yet even the smallest thought of it brought everything vividly back.
It was a bright, sunny day.
She seemed to have been sitting in the courtyard, troubled.
She was lonely and couldn't find anyone to play with.
But it couldn't be helped. She never grew up, no matter how much time passed.
Her height, her mind... everything stayed the same.
Like a bud that had already bloomed once, she looked as if she could still blossom into a beautiful flower with careful tending. But in truth, that beautiful moment had long since passed.
The adults didn't want to play with children, and the other children were too young. Little Phainon had only just learned to crawl.
In the end, other than rereading the same storybooks countless times, all she could do was make paper airplanes.
Now that she thought about it, she really had been lonely.
But that was exactly why, with nothing else to do, she'd sent a paper airplane flying beyond the courtyard.
Then she heard A-Cheng cry out.
"Huh?"
"Who folded this paper airplane so sharply?"
"I'd already been sent to some weird place by an Isekai Truck, and now even a piece of paper is bullying me. Do they think I'm made of straw?"
Back then, she had immediately climbed over the courtyard wall. And so, on that romantic spring day, she met A-Cheng, who looked like he was on his last legs.
"I'm sorry, it was my fault!"
"Please don't just die like that, mister stranger."
She had been a little scared back then.
She was genuinely worried she'd hurt someone.
She'd been so flustered that she hadn't stopped to think.
A paper airplane was a perfectly safe toy, even if its nose was folded as sharply as could be, wasn't it~?
A-Cheng had only looked like he was dying because he'd been out in the sun. How could anyone walk through a wheat field alone at noon without ending up exhausted?
But she hadn't thought that way at the time. To make it up to him, she'd dragged A-Cheng into the courtyard and cared for him.
It seemed that from that day on, A-Cheng had lived with her, becoming a good-for-nothing who had everything handed to him.
Well, that wasn't quite fair.
A-Cheng did trade stories in return.
So many~ many stories~!
A-Cheng had asked her which story she liked best: The Little Mermaid who ascended to heaven, or Snow White, who lived happily ever after with the prince?
Actually, that very first meeting had already been written down in her storybook as her most precious tale.
A truly wonderful story could be read over and over again.
She'd thought she was the one who saved A-Cheng back then. Now she saw that A-Cheng had saved her instead.
Just thinking of it almost made her eyes curve into crescents.
Ah.
As expected, A-Cheng was the very best~
So she had to try her best, too.
A-Cheng must be hurting so much. Great Fantasy Ritual! (Revised)
She mustered all her strength to pull herself out of unconsciousness.
She escaped the repeated flashes of glaring white and darkness before her eyes.
Even though it felt as if she'd used up every last bit of strength, she searched deep within herself for more. Wiping the golden blood running from her forehead, Cyrene faced the Titan Legion once more—
The worry in her heart grew ever stronger. No matter what, she couldn't let herself be captured.
"Wouldn't it be better to just calm down and surrender? Again and again... Am I giving myself too much extra drama?"
"Besides, you don't even need to go to such lengths for that idiot, do you? He dragged you along to save people without asking, never once considering how you felt or whether you'd be safe!"
"What's there to care about in someone like that?!"
The shark-toothed girl before her glared furiously and shouted in frustration.
Was she using anger to express her confusion?
A question like that only needed a simple answer.
"Because... it's not just about watching A-Cheng save me. I have to learn to save myself, too~"
Her voice was gentle, almost like a confession.
Strange.
Anyone who had seen the whole thing would find it strange.
Wasn't this the story of a sweet, strawberry-cake-like girl named Cyrene, caring for an impulsive and foolish guy like a mother?
No.
If someone asked her that, they would only see the adorable girl gently shake her head.
From the very beginning, this story had never been a solo act, nor a one-sided rescue—
Back when Jiang Cheng said he believed in Raiden Mei and claimed to be a prophet, this girl had looked so strange because she'd already realized—
[She was also Raiden Mei.]
On the surface, they had nothing in common. Their experiences, personalities, lives, and even the worlds they lived in were different.
But some things were the same at their core. All it took was a wider god's-eye view, analyzing the story's threads and main characters as if reading a book, to see the similarities.
The village was in danger.
Jiang Cheng could leave whenever he wanted. Especially since he had spatial abilities. Even if he couldn't stay in this world for long, he could hide out for a while without dying.
So why had Jiang Cheng gone out of his way to approach Raiden Mei? Why had he endured temporary pain just to come here?
He was lazy and liked living off other people.
The only possible reason was...
Me.
It must hurt so much, A-Cheng.
Fire, Erosion—every one of those things hurt so, so much. Because of me, A-Cheng had worked so hard to do all those things, and now... now...
He was in danger of losing his life.
I was supposed to be A-Cheng's guardian. But I could never do anything. I could only watch helplessly.
I can't bear it.
It was like bugs crawling all over her body.
I can't bear it.
The rush of blood through every vein, every beat of her heart, even the touch of cloth against her skin and every breath she took—
I can't bear it!!!
How could she stay here any longer?
How could she let A-Cheng remain in danger?!
How could she stand by and watch her only friend—the always-lazy, utterly useless A-Cheng—push himself this far, while she was powerless to help?
No matter what she had to pay, that was fine.
Before you continue