"But everyone knew in their hearts. We had known the outcome long ago."
"What we called victory was just a sugar coating over defeat, so we wouldn't look quite so pathetic."
"Hua, humanity has already lost."
Kevin's voice was as soft as someone talking in his sleep.
"But that must never become the truth."
"Never."
Hua kept her head lowered.
Her unfocused eyes stared fixedly at the dust on the ground.
She murmured to herself, "I never thought you'd say something like that... I always thought that even if the whole world gave up, you never would."
Kevin turned his head, his gaze fathomless.
"Want to hear the truth?"
Kevin drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
It was as though all the air had been sucked from his chest, leaving only an empty shell trembling.
"Never gave up?" His lips twitched, his voice as hoarse as sandpaper scraping sheet metal. "What have I ever held on for?"
His gaze scattered, losing focus completely.
"Honkai? Humanity's fate?"
He scoffed with a vicious streak of self-abandonment. "What the fuck does that have to do with me?"
When he first put on that combat suit, it had never been for some grand narrative about saving the world.
Selfishness. Utter, absolute selfishness.
But once he had set foot on this road, once blood had flowed behind him, there was no going back, even if he wanted to.
Some things had to rot inside him, never to be spoken. Above all, she could never hear them.
The fact that he was irredeemable trash had to remain a secret from her.
His head sank lower, almost burying itself in his chest.
Hua froze where she stood.
In all their years together, she had never seen this man so utterly shattered. As though the slightest