Silence fell for a moment.
There were only faint strange noises from afar and the slight beeping of medical equipment.
The dark clouds of Honkai not only shrouded the city but also entwined these warriors who had fought until now.
The glimmer of hope seemed to have just flashed before being covered by a deeper shadow of despair.
In this heavy silence, Otto suddenly chuckled lowly. That laughter seemed exceptionally abrupt in the depressive environment.
"However..." His green eyes turned to Joachim, then looked at the hellish scene outside the window. The corners of his mouth hooked up into a slightly strange arc mixed with madness, rationality, and some kind of determination.
"In desperate situations, the most unreasonable breaking points are often hidden.
"Since Honkai 'defined' this place in its way, then why don't we... use our way to 'redefine' the rules? For example..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but the light in those eyes made Joachim, who knew his personality well, skip a beat in his heart. He vaguely guessed something, but felt that idea was too shocking to the world.
...
The premature outbreak of Honkai swept through the entire city instantly like an out-of-control tsunami.
Fortunately, under the desperate protection of Fu Hua, the Seven Swords of Taixuan, and the quick-reacting Yun Feng and his security team, Yun Mengxi, Yun Feng, and some core staff managed to preserve themselves in the initial chaos.
They rushed into a temporary shelter converted from an underground parking lot, marked in advance by Joachim and simply reinforced.
The process was thrilling. Witnessing familiar streets instantly turning into hunting grounds for twisted monsters caused a huge impact on Yun Mengxi's mind.
But this time, unexpectedly, she didn't collapse. She was just pale, following closely behind Fu Hua and her brother, saying nothing.
The atmosphere in the shelter was solemn, survivors still in shock.
After arranging defense and the wounded, Fu Hua personally patrolled the periphery quickly. Only after confirming no large-scale threat was approaching temporarily did she return to Yun Mengxi, who was protected by everyone in the core area.
Yun Mengxi sat hugging her knees on a supply box, staring somewhat hollowly at the ground.
Yun Feng was whispering comfort to others nearby, but the worry between his brows lingered.
"Safe for now." Fu Hua's voice remained steady, trying to give Yun Mengxi some sense of stability.
She sat down beside the girl, not getting too close.
Yun Mengxi slowly raised her head, looking at Fu Hua. Those eyes once filled with starlight and some confusion now precipitated a complex emotion Fu Hua had never seen before—mixed with sadness, understanding, and a strange calmness.
"Senior Fu Hua... you knew long ago, right?" Yun Mengxi's voice was light, without questioning, only stating. "Knew there would be such a disaster, knew... I might be related to it."
Fu Hua was silent for a moment, then nodded.
At this point, concealment was meaningless.
"I... just now, those outside..." Yun Mengxi's fingertips trembled slightly. "And my own feeling... something burning in my heart, screaming... seeming to reject everything, yet seeming... to yearn to change everything."
She paused, her voice lower. "Herrscher... that's what you call it, right? The one triggering all this... is me, or maybe the future me, right?"
She didn't fully understand the full meaning of "Herrscher," but linking Fu Hua's previous approach, the current disaster, and the strange throbbing in her body was enough for her to piece together a terrifying outline.
She might be the source or key to this destruction. This realization made her feel suffocated.
So many people's futures, the business empire her brother finally stabilized and was about to advance further, this city carrying countless dreams where she lived since childhood... might all turn to nothing because of "her."
"It's not your fault, Mengxi." Fu Hua tried to comfort, her tone the gentlest she could manage. "Honkai is a disaster, its mechanism we haven't fully understood yet... Your feelings, your choices, are the key."
Yun Mengxi shook her head gently, the corner of her mouth even forcing a very faint arc of bitter understanding: "No need to comfort me, Senior Fu Hua.
"I understand... you approached me, helped me, enlightened me, to prevent worse things from happening..." Her gaze passed over Fu Hua, seeming to look at the invisible city outside the shelter that had already turned into hell.
"Just... didn't expect the worst thing seems to have happened anyway."
After a brief silence, Yun Mengxi suddenly brought up the previous topic proactively, about dreams, about choices.
"I thought a lot... about Brother's dream, about my own path." Her voice gradually stabilized, carrying a near-transparent clarity.
"Whether carrying others' or pursuing one's own, when truly stepping on that path, that is one's own choice... Since chosen, one shouldn't always look back, fantasizing 'what if'... that will only make one spin in place."
Fu Hua listened quietly, saying nothing.
"There are too many things in reality that distract energy and slow down steps... life, face, environment, even momentary moods... They are like checkpoints, cutting off and shortening the journey to 'dream,' finally making 'dream' seem like something unreachable and outside reality."
Yun Mengxi's gaze gradually focused, as if penetrating the dimness in front, seeing something more profound. "But... what if there are no such checkpoints on the road?
"What if a person doesn't have to be distracted by these, just purely, keeps walking forward?"
Her voice was very light but carried a strange weight.
She didn't continue, but Fu Hua seemed to see the picture outlined in her mind—a road straight to the future, needing someone to clear all obstacles and pave it.
And the paver needs to sacrifice everything of themselves.
Someone always has to be the paver.
And it's not impossible to be oneself.
"Originally, there is no path in the world," Yun Mengxi concluded softly at last, with a gentle and firm tone almost like chanting, "Only when many people walk, a path appears."
Then, she turned to Fu Hua, a truly calm, even somewhat relieved smile appearing on her face. That smile was clear and bright, as if washing away all confusion and haze.
"Sorry, Senior Fu Hua..."
She said, her tone even carrying a bit of familiar playfulness belonging to that idol girl, but deep in her eyes was unshakable determination.
"This ending...
"I... still won't accept it~"
—
The past determined the present...
But the world rejected the future. Proliferating branches began to wither. The growth trend named "possibility" was denied once again.
We need a new direction! It seemed to roar.
We need a new future! It seemed to beg.
Then, she gave the answer herself.
Then—completely deny this "possibility"!
Let it no longer exist, let it be locked in this abandoned future!
Let the past—no longer determine the future!!
The moment Yun Mengxi's voice fell, Fu Hua felt a familiar yet clearer, more massive space-time fluctuation blast out with Yun Mengxi as the center!
Everything around—dim lights, people's stunned expressions, faint howls in the distance—instantly solidified, then began to reverse, blur, and fade rapidly like a rewinding videotape!
And in the absolute center where time began to collapse and scenes rapidly rewound, Fu Hua clearly saw Yun Mengxi facing herself, mouthing two sentences silently but incredibly clearly:
"Thank you—"
"And, goodbye."