Her gaze seemed to pierce his green optical sensors, his thick metal skull, and the core program composed of countless logic circuits...
Reaching straight...
Straight into that burning soul hidden behind all the machinery, the soul that should never have existed here.
Liu Zhipeng's human soul instinctively... trembled.
She saw it! With those red eyes, she saw his soul!
For the first time, an almost imperceptible tremor passed through Xunbekel's perfect body.
"...You..."
Her voice was no longer a magnificent aria.
Instead, it carried... hoarse, incredulous... shock.
She reached out a hand.
She... wanted to touch him.
No, not his face.
She wanted to... gouge out his eyes.
Liu Zhipeng's combat instincts screamed wildly. [Glory of Bloodshed] was already warming up.
But he couldn't move.
All he could do was gamble. Gamble that she...
That cold, blade-like fingertip stopped just one millimeter from his optical sensor.
"Beneath your shell..."
Her voice trembled. Her breathing quickened.
"Why... is there... a flame... in there?"
Boom-!
Liu Zhipeng's soul froze completely.
She knew!
She hadn't just seen it. She had described it!
"A..." Xunbekel's voice was as soft as a murmur in a dream. "A thing... you..."
Her blood-red eyes suddenly... erupted with unimaginable light!
"You're still... alive!!"
It wasn't a question.
It was... a verdict.
"Alive."
For a Necron, that word was the highest form of blasphemy. The greatest... anomaly.
Xunbekel abruptly withdrew her hand and stepped back.
She looked at Liu Zhipeng as though she were looking at a miracle.
"A soul," she whispered. "A... real soul..."
Deathly silence.
Then.
Under Liu Zhipeng's horrified gaze.
This queen of the Maynarkh Dynasty, this Phaeron renowned for her coldness and nihilism.
Laughed.
It wasn't a smile.
It was wild, hysterical rapture, rising from the deepest recesses of her core!
"Hahahahahahahahaha-!!"
That shrill, metallic