The world is so cruel, but I still love you

The ruins of the Demon Palace of Bliss burned behind us, casting an ambiguous and desolate pink glow over the Europa night sky.

Lu Xiao seemed still immersed in the excitement of the "art exhibition's" success, humming an off-key tune and fiddling with the energy core.

Luo Li followed silently behind, the "Seed of the Heart's Desire" in his hand emitting faint fluctuations that seemed to try to stir his heartstrings, but when it touched the frozen wasteland in his heart, it vanished without a trace, like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

Desire? He had long ago buried it, along with despair, in that delivery room where he had lost everything.

"Hey, Ice Face, where to next? Heading straight for Beelzebub's 'buffet restaurant,' or taking a stroll through Lucifer's 'ice cellar'?"

Lu Xiao turned around, his golden eyes gleaming in the firelight, clearly indicating his intention to cause trouble.

Luo Li stopped, her gaze sweeping over the faint lights of ordinary human settlements struggling to survive in the Blood Era, which were still visible in the distance, before returning to the ever-changing crystal in her hand.

"Let's find a place to rest."

He spoke softly, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of weariness.

The continuous high-intensity battles and the suppression of [Bloodlust Backlash] had taken a heavy toll on his mind, even for him.

Moreover, he needs time to perform a preliminary analysis of this "Seed of the Heart's Desire".

Lu Xiao sighed dramatically, "Sigh, I knew you'd say that."

Okay, okay, artists need inspiration and rest too! Come with me, I know a place that's absolutely 'quiet'!

His so-called "quiet" place was a safe house located on the edge of a remnant town in Europa.

Although it's called a safe house, it's actually more like an abandoned old-fashioned house with its own small garden, which Lu Xiao "borrowed" through some unknown means and then reinforced and disguised.

Pushing open the creaking wooden door, the room was surprisingly tidy, even possessing a touch of... homely atmosphere? There was also a wilted potted green ivy on the table.

"How is it? Much better than those smoky, dingy hotels, right?"

Lu Xiao smugly turned on the old energy light, the dim yellow light barely dispelling the darkness in the room.

"There's not much to eat, just some compressed biscuits and expired canned goods... Oh, and my treasured bottled water!"

He magically pulled two cans of carbonated drinks with unfamiliar writing on them from a box in the corner.

Luo Li ignored his noise, walked to the window, and after confirming that the surrounding environment was safe, drew the heavy curtains.

He placed Enma within easy reach, then sat down on a fairly sturdy-looking wooden chair and took out the "Seed of the Heart's Desire."

Under the dim light, the crystal refracted a mesmerizing luster, and the colors inside seemed to flow slowly as if they were alive.

"This is that old woman's treasure?"

Lu Xiao leaned closer, looking at him curiously. "I heard it can see your deepest desires? Hey, Ice Face, want to try it? Maybe you'll see your wife and kids..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Lu Xiao realized he had misspoke and immediately covered his mouth, carefully observing Luo Li's expression.

He vaguely knew some fragments about Luo Li's past from his older brother Lu Jingheng, but it was limited to "he had someone he had to find."

Unexpectedly, Luo Li did not get angry; her eyes, however, seemed to grow even more profound.

A wisp of silvery-white Spacetime energy swirled around his fingertips as he cautiously probed the crystal.

Buzz--

The "Seed of the Heart's Desire" trembled slightly, and the flowing light on its surface spun faster.

Blurry images flashed across the crystal surface:

A dilapidated rented room, a computer screen flickering with game graphics, and an eternally blood-red sky outside the window... that was his neglected past.

The bathroom door opened, and Castorice, wearing his oversized T-shirt and with her wet, silver hair plastered to her cheeks, looked at him with bewildered eyes...

At the wedding, Castorice, dressed in a pure white wedding gown, shyly closed her eyes under his loving gaze, welcoming a kiss that lasted sixty seconds...

In the delivery room, he trembled as he held the two newborn, warm, and soft little lives in his arms, overwhelmed by immense joy...

Then... came that all-consuming, absolute emptiness. The weight in his arms vanished, and the figure on the bed dissolved into cold, blue particles of light...

The final frame freezes on a hazy, blurred scene, as if seen through frosted glass: it appears to be Okhema, bathed in soft, holy light, where a familiar, aloof, and solitary figure leads two smaller, indistinct figures, one large and one small, slowly walking into the distance...

"Puff!"

Luo Li abruptly withdrew her finger, a sweet taste rising in her throat, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.

The backlash from forcibly interrupting the spying caused a dull pain in his chest, but the pain was even greater for his already frozen heart.

Even if it was just a fleeting glimpse, the future of "nothing else" in that image was like a poisoned ice pick, piercing his deepest fears.

"Hey! Are you alright?" Lu Xiao was startled and quickly handed over an opened can of "happy water".

"Want some of this? They say it can improve your mood?"

Luo Li pushed away the bubbling sugar water, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed her surging emotions and the [Bloodlust Backlash] that was stirring again.

"Tsk, looks like it wasn't a pleasant memory."

Lu Xiao awkwardly withdrew his hand, opened a can himself, gulped down a few mouthfuls, and then let out a burp without any regard for his image. "Speaking of which, Ice Face, you always have that stern face, and all you think about is fighting and killing and... well, those heavy things. Aren't you tired?"

Luo Li opened her eyes and looked at the still dark red night sky outside the window, which was separated by the gap in the curtains, without answering.

Tired? How could I not be tired?

But he has no right to stop and rest.

Lu Xiao didn't seem to expect an answer, and continued speaking to himself, "This world is indeed rotten to the core, vampires roam freely, people's hearts are unpredictable, and it might just kick the bucket any day -- but..."

He walked to the window, pulled back the curtains with a whoosh, and pointed to the scattered lights of a human settlement stubbornly flickering amidst the ruins in the distance. "Look, even in this godforsaken place, there are still people with lights on, thinking about how to survive tomorrow and how to make their lives a little better."

"Maybe some families are still arguing over a little bit of black bread, or saving up for a cake for their child's birthday."

He then pointed to the half-dead potted green ivy on the table. "And this thing, it's almost dying of thirst, but it's still clinging to life, waiting for someone to water it and bring it back to life, isn't it?"

He turned around, leaning against the window, his golden hair like a warm flame in the dim light, a rare, calm smile on his face, "So, I think that precisely because the world is so cruel and so awful, we should seize the time to do what we love, to love who we want to love, even if it's just blowing up things we don't like to make ourselves happy."

"The world has kissed me with pain, and I... I'll repay it with an 'explosion'! Hahaha!"

He was serious for only a few seconds before reverting to his art-crazy self.

Luo Li silently watched him, watching this guy who still lived so "recklessly" in the apocalypse.

He couldn't understand this logic, but strangely, the cold despair deep inside him seemed to be slightly dispelled by this noisy flame, losing a tiny bit of its chill.

He looked down again at the "Seed of the Heart's Desire" in his hand, which had temporarily calmed down.

Deep within the crystal, a faint, cool yet gentle silhouette of Castorice seems to linger.

Yes, the world is so cruel, it has taken away all his warmth.

but...

He gently gripped the crystal, as if he could sense through it the three figures he was determined to find, far beyond the reach of Spacetime.

But I still love you.

I love you all.

Therefore, no matter what lies ahead, whether it be hell or an abyss, I will fight my way back to you.

These unspoken words stirred a barely perceptible ripple in the cold lake of his heart.

Outside the window, the Blood-Erosion Clouds still hung low, but under the dim light of this dilapidated little house, two powerful figures with vastly different styles, one boisterous and the other silent, spent a relatively peaceful night together, without killing, only sporadic conversations and long silences...

For Luo Li, this brief rest might be a chance to gather the last bit of strength for the even more brutal battles to come.

Lu Xiao's twisted logic also quietly left a tiny crack in the frozen wall of his heart.