"Mmm... uh..."
When Elysia opened her eyes again, she was greeted by a dark green light.
"This is...?"
A cold, hard sensation beneath her suggested she was lying on a tal bench.
She sat up, seeing a girl dozing in the corner, clutching an ice-blue katana. The scabbard was covered in fine cracks, as if soone had squeezed it with their bare hands.
Elysia stared at the cracks, her gaze tracing their paths, one after another, until it felt like ti itself had flowed through her numb consciousness countless tis.
"Elysia? Elysia?"
A distant voice startled her, and she realized—ti had just begun to flow again.
And with the return of ti, mories of the recent past flickered through her mind, fra by fra.
"i... is that you, i?"
Elysia looked at the girl approaching her, wearing a lab coat.
"Yes... we t in Ruruye..."
i bit her lip, each word seeming to require imnse effort.
"So, this is Mobius's lab?"
Elysia closed her eyes before i could answer, shaking her head slightly.
Only Mobius would be so fond of this dark green.
i adjusted her glasses, unsure what Elysia's head shake ant.
"How long has it been?"
i paused, realizing Elysia was asking about the ti.
"Over ten hours. The Fire Moth One returned to Shanghai to pick up so support team mbers and is preparing to return to base... And there's still no sign of the 3rd Herrscher."
"..."
Elysia didn't reply, and i remained silent.
After a mont, she asked hesitantly, "Do you want to see him?"
"..."
i listened to Elysia's suddenly heavy breathing, unsure what to do.
Receiving no response, she thought Elysia hadn't heard her, but she hesitated to repeat the question, fearing it would only cause more pain.
"I'm sorry, i..."
Elysia's voice was quiet and hoarse. i didn't understand why she was apologizing. Was it just because of the silence?
Elysia gently shook Sakura awake. As Sakura instinctively reached for her katana, Elysia squeezed her wrist, and she released her grip, wincing.
"It's ... Sakura, let's... go see him."
Mikael's body, still covered by a white sheet, lay on a simple tal table, untouched.
Mobius sat beside him, pretending to read a book when she saw them approach.
Ignoring Mobius, Elysia reached for the sheet... but her hand stopped just short of touching it.
"Are you sure? Once you see him, there's no going back."
Elysia's fingers gently gripped the sheet, but she didn't move.
She could feel Sakura holding her breath beside her.
It was always like this. Even when you knew the outco, you still clung to a sliver of hope—
What if he's not dead?
What if, when I lift the sheet, he suddenly sits up, grins at , and says:
"Ta-da! Gotcha! How could I possibly die? Hey! Did you cry? You didn't actually cry, did you...? Huh? You're crying? Don't cry, don't cry! I'm sorry, I won't tease you anymore! Mobius, get my pants! I'm getting out of bed!"
Elysia sniffled, her vision blurring, a strange itching sensation on her cheeks.
The itching reached her lips, and she tasted salt.
She wiped away her tears, took a deep breath, and lifted the sheet.
There was no doubt.
It was Mikael.
The purple markings of Honkai corruption and the fine cracks of his disintegrating body intertwined on his face.
"So... so ugly... Mikael..."
Elysia laughed and cried at the sa ti, tears dripping onto Mikael's face, absorbed by the cracks.
She imagined him frowning, his facial muscles twitching from the falling tears.
But nothing happened.
Only those who had experienced death firsthand understood this suffocating despair.
You could have countless fantasies, countless hopes, even hallucinations—
But none of it would happen. Ever.
What did death an?
The end of all possibilities.
The deceased no longer possessed any possibilities, nor were they encompassed by any.
Death was a fixed point—the cold, unyielding reality of the corpse before her.
And soon, even the intact body wouldn't remain.
Elysia closed her eyes, trying to control her breathing. She hadn't realized how close loss had been until it was too late...
No, was it truly lost...?
Had she ever truly possessed it...?
Elysia wasn't sure.
She had never truly defined her relationship with Mikael. They had always been close, so close that it felt natural, so close that she had never considered the possibility of him not being there.
And that was why she had sotis been oblivious to his subtle hints.
Like...
"Liar! You promised... we would get married..."
She had heard him clearly, but why hadn't she responded?
Now, she couldn't even confidently say she had had him.
And this regret confird one thing—she loved everyone she encountered, but her love for Mikael was different, deeper.
The difference between love and being in love.
But had this love truly existed? She didn't know.
It was a love that seed to have existed, might have existed, perhaps had existed, but hadn't yet had the chance to truly be.
But regardless, Mikael wouldn't want to see her cry. He would want her to live on, smiling, strong, to defeat the 3rd Herrscher, to lead humanity towards a brighter future, right?
Elysia stopped crying, her resolve hardening.
"Where's the core?"
Mobius shook her head.
"What do you an? His Herrscher core?"
"Elysia... when Sakura found him, the core... it was gone..."
Seeing Mobius's reluctance to speak, i explained.
Elysia gently pulled down the sheet, revealing Mikael's chest, which, aside from the cracks and purple markings, seed unhard.
"The wound is on his back. Judging by its shape, he was probably holding the 3rd Herrscher when he died. He must have tried to take her down with him, but she took his core... Well, what is a core, exactly? We didn't find a designated space for it within his body. It's as if it existed in another dinsion, yet the 3rd Herrscher extracted it through physical space..."
i, as usual, went off on a tangent.
Elysia's grip on the sheet tightened, then loosened. Her expression softened, and she gently poked Mikael's cheek, a familiar gesture from their six and a half years together.
When i looked back, Elysia was gone.
i glanced at Mobius. "Doctor, do you need glasses? I haven't seen you turn a page in a while..."
Mobius slamd the book shut.
"i, first, we're equals now, you don't need to use honorifics, though I do appreciate it... second, you can leave now. Your boyfriend must be waiting. And if you have ti, could you check on Klein for ?"
i left quietly.
Mobius sat alone beside Mikael's body.
She narrowed her eyes, her hand gently tracing the contours of his face...
A strange smile spread across her lips.
"Death? Perhaps..."
The dark green lights in the lab suddenly turned blood red.
An alarm blared three tis—
A Herrscher had erged!
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