Several hours earlier.
In the deepest part of the consciousness space, inside the domain that belonged to Sirin.
At the far edge of this emptiness hung a "backdoor" that was Sirin's alone.
It was a hidden passage the System had left behind.
Through that narrow crack, the outside world played out like a stage.
The range hood in the kitchen hummed low, and the knife on the cutting board moved cleanly and crisply.
The man's back was busy at the stove, while a white-haired idiot tiptoed up beside him and reached to steal a piece of fried chicken from the plate. He turned and rapped her lightly on the head with the handle of his chopsticks.
Sirin stood in the shadows behind the door.
Her hand rose without her noticing, fingertips resting on her own lips and pressing there lightly.
It felt as though the warmth that human had left behind, the last time in this very space, still lingered on them.
A faint blush rose uncontrollably to her cheeks.
That union, one that made even her soul tremble, had left her so enthralled she was nearly mad with it.
That man was the single, absolute variable in a life full of slaughter and despair.
She stared at Kiana in the gap of the door, grinning stupidly and clutching her head.
The turbulent, sea-churning jealousy that had once burned in those brilliant golden eyes was long gone.
In its place was an overflowing, heartbreaking envy, and a deep, bone-aching sense of inferiority.
That girl could laugh without restraint in the sunlight, could throw herself into that man's arms without a second thought, because she was the Ranger who had saved the city.
Sirin slowly lowered her head.
Her gaze fell on her own insubstantial hands.
On her retinas, the endless wind and snow seemed to rise again, and in a trick of the mind, those pale hands were drenched in the glaring blood of humans from the snowfields of Siberia.
And she was only a monster, cursed by everyone's hatred, never to see the light.
The image in the doorway suddenly flickered a few times and switched to a recording. "The Dome of the Void, the Lonely Moon."
On the screen, Kiana had clung on at the very edge of endless pain and collapse. She accepted the darkness, and with a Ranger's bearing she stood up to meet a future that was anything but beautiful.
Sirin bit down hard on her lip, teeth sinking into the soft flesh.
Even K423, who once could only hide behind others and cry, had found the courage to face such a heavy burden of sin.
Sirin, are you going to cower behind this door for the rest of your life, a coward who doesn't even dare show her face?
The truth was, she didn't care at all about those so-called human sins.
But after everything she had witnessed, she suddenly, desperately wanted to stand in the sunlight. She wanted to stand openly at that man's side.
Not like a sewer rat, only able to steal other people's lives in the dark.
Sirin turned around.
Behind her lay the darkest corner of the consciousness space.
A massive iron door stood there.
Black chains as thick as a wrist coiled around it, and its surface was crusted with thick ice.
Behind that door was locked the root of all her hatred for this world, the fountainhead of every evil that had given birth to the monster called the "Herrscher of the Void"—
Babylon Laboratory.
If she could burn everything in there to ash, if she could tear out all those rotting malicious thoughts by the root…
She raised her arm, and a ruthless gleam flashed in her golden eyes.
Her violent spatial Authority turned into invisible blades and slammed down on the frost-laden chains.
The sound of shattering metal echoed through the space.
The girl pushed open the heavy door. Alone, without a moment's hesitation, she stepped into the blizzard that swallowed everything.
But she had badly underestimated how terrifying an "inner demon" could be.
It was no tangible enemy that could be torn apart by Authority.
It was the overwhelming resentment of thousands of children tortured to death as lab rats in the Tower of Babylon, enough to drag even a god into the Abyss.
It was also the despair at the very bottom of her own heart, the one she least wanted to touch.
The instant she stepped into the snow,
the Authority that could once rip space apart was frozen solid by a cold that could freeze even souls.
Within the howling gale were mingled the pained groans of countless friends in their final moments.
Memories of digging graves in the snow with her own hands, burying the cold bodies of her companions.
And the rustle of clothing as researchers in white lab coats walked about, the cold, sharp clink of scalpels against metal trays.
Malice swept over her like a tsunami and drowned her completely.
Sirin looked down in terror.
The Herrscher's gown on her body, symbol of supreme Strength, was falling apart.
The splendid fabric peeled away piece by piece, until it became a tattered patient gown soaked in old bloodstains.
Her body shrank rapidly, beyond her control, and her line of sight sank lower and lower.
"No… let me out!"
The only answer was the thunderous boom of the great iron door locking shut behind her.
To keep this utterly rampant, despairing malice from seeping out through the cracks in her soul and harming the man outside,
in the final second before her consciousness was swallowed by darkness, Sirin poured out the last scrap of Strength she had left and sealed the connection between herself and her surface consciousness from the inside.
The little girl in the patient gown curled up in the deepest corner of the cold, pitch-black cell.
She hugged her thin knees tightly, trembling all over, and in endless terror squeezed her eyes shut.
————————————
Kiana sat in the rubble.
Her vision began to double.
Cold sweat slid down Kiana's temple.
Amid the swelling dizziness, it was as if she had looked through that fraying crack in the soul and seen some fathomless illusory realm.
Snowflakes swept across the world like knives. Behind a freezing iron grate that held no trace of warmth, a purple-haired girl in a bloodstained patient gown lay curled up.
She had buried her face in her knees. She could do nothing but wait alone behind that cold iron mesh, quietly, to die in the deepest solitude and boundless fear.
The scene was too familiar, and too heavy.
Not long ago, she had watched it on a phone screen, in the car.
It was unmistakably the lowest level of Babylon Laboratory, the hell on earth recorded in the Second Eruption chronicles.
Ten minutes later.
After the core was destroyed, Su Yu brought Kiana back to Anti-Entropy headquarters.
Rita stood outside the isolation glass of the medical room.
Her gaze swept over each of the data readouts jumping on the screens, then over Kiana lying on the bed inside, before she turned to Su Yu.
"Su Yu, going by your account, may I understand that the Herrscher of the Void is currently in the process of erasing herself?"
Rita bowed slightly.
"If Miss Kiana simply gets through these twelve hours, she can inherit the complete Authority with no side effects."
"From the strategic standpoint of the coming war of the end times, this is unquestionably the best outcome. In other words, there's nothing we need to do."
"Nothing we need to do…"
Kiana, sitting at the edge of the bed, murmured the words back.
Her hands rested on her knees, and slowly they tightened.
If she really did nothing, she could be rid of that presence that had dogged her like a nightmare, once and for all.
She stood there quietly, looking down at her hands, filthy with dust from the battle.
The image of Teacher Himeko falling into the Abyss flashed through her mind.
And the little girl she had just glimpsed through the crack in the soul, shivering in the snow.
"The optimal solution, huh…"
She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.
When she opened them again, the lingering confusion in them was gone.
Kiana looked out through the glass at Rita.
"Rita, maybe you're right."
"All I have to do is stand here obediently for twelve hours, and I can take her Strength with a clear conscience and go be my Savior."
"But I can't do it."
Her gaze shifted and settled on Su Yu's face.
"Su Yu, I still hate her."
"Whenever I close my eyes, Teacher Himeko's figure appears in front of me… And I know full well that this is the best chance I'll ever get to free myself of the inner demon, to never be held in her grip again."
"But…"
Kiana's throat bobbed.
"Teacher Himeko gave me her life as my Final Lesson."
"She taught me to save this imperfect world, to turn it into the shape we hope for."
"She never taught me how to climb over a little girl's corpse and play the Savior."
She clenched the fists hanging at her sides.
"If I stand by today and watch her get trapped in that iron cage, waiting to die, if I shut my eyes and cover my ears and do nothing and think nothing…"
"Even if I got that Strength, what right would I have to use it to protect anyone?"
"She really does owe Teacher Himeko a life, and she owes this world a debt she can never repay."
"But she has to settle those accounts herself. She thinks she can just shrink back into her memories and die, and that'll be that?"
Kiana snorted.
"You won't find a bargain like that anywhere in the Kaslana dictionary."
She looked straight into Su Yu's eyes.
"Besides, you said it yourself, didn't you? To save Teacher Himeko, that girl's Strength is indispensable."
"So…"
Kiana took a deep breath, and the proud air of a Kaslana returned to her face.
"Drag that coward out for me, the one who runs the moment things get hard, Su Yu!"
"I'll settle this with her, fair and square, and tell her who's the one who truly deserves this body!"
Su Yu looked at the girl before him, her body still trembling slightly, her expression utterly resolute.
He nodded, a relieved smile spreading across his face.
This time, Kiana had made her choice on her own, without even needing his opinion.
She was going to [save] the nightmare that had tormented her for so many years, drag it out of the dream and back into reality, and fight it out openly.
To anyone else, it was undoubtedly a thankless task, even the height of foolishness.
But so many things in this world can't be summed up by a simple word like "correct."
Just then, the door of the medical room was pushed open.
Su, in a white lab coat, strode in.
"The situation is worse than expected."
Su set the data pad down on the table.
"According to Ai's calculations, that friend of yours, the one called [Sirin], is carrying out a kind of suicidal stripping."
"If she is completely annihilated in there and you slip inside and fail to withdraw in time, there's a high chance of permanent brain death."
"In the worst case, you might end up staying there too."
The moment the words fell,
Fenghuang's consciousness surfaced at the same time in both Su Yu's and Kiana's minds.
"Su speaks the truth."
"For Sirin, that memory is the most painful, most hopeless thing in existence. It is also the birthplace of the Herrscher of the Void. Going in alone, what you'd be fighting is likely all the malice that built that world."
"That is tantamount to making you stand against the entire world. Even with a mental fortitude beyond the ordinary, there's no guarantee you will return safely."
"This case is more troublesome than Griseo's. Griseo's dreams were merely polluted by Honkai, and she herself had no connection to it."
"But the Herrscher of the Void was born from Honkai. You could even say she is the very incarnation of [Honkai]."
In his consciousness space, Su Yu replied, "Whatever other risks there are, lay them all out, Squad Monitor. I can take it."
Fenghuang sighed.
"Under such extreme mental contamination, your willpower may preserve your sanity, but it cannot spare you the torment."
"It would likely be a soul-flaying a hundred times more agonizing than being cut to pieces in the flesh."
"Su Yu, I know it is somewhat redundant to ask, but I will ask all the same…"
"For an enemy who once tried to seize Kiana's body, you would risk annihilation of body and spirit alike. Are you truly prepared to be swallowed alive by despair?"
Faced with the real-world Su's warning and the soul-searching question from Fenghuang, the Immortal, in his mind, the medical room fell into a brief silence.
Kiana said nothing. She only reached out quietly and took hold of Su Yu's wrist.
It was a wordless answer.
It stood for Kiana's absolute support: whatever choice Su Yu finally made, she would accept it without question.
In Su Yu's mind, the System panel turned a blinding red.
[Ding! Deep resonance of Host's will detected.]
[High-tier Bond quest triggered: Tarot: Death]
[Quest name: "Next Life"]
[Quest description:]
[Next life? Ha, what a deceptive word. What even is a next life? You know perfectly well it's nothing but a comforting lie weaker people tell themselves.]
[You've never believed in any next life. You only believe in right now. Even if the very next second is the world's Finality, you'd still hold it in your own hands, wouldn't you?]
[Listen, Savior. A clash between the female lead and the final villain should be a blazing, fight-to-the-death affair. This drama is only halfway through. If someone casually walks off in the middle, how is the show supposed to go on?]
[Quest objective: Stop Sirin's self-annihilation. In this dead end, forcibly extend a scene for her called "Now."]
[Quest reward: Tiered settlement based on the Host's overall performance.]
That damn System.
Su Yu rolled his eyes skyward in private. No matter the occasion, it could never stay serious for more than a few seconds.
"One thing you got right, though. I don't believe in any next life."
He curled his lip.
"Who remembers that I only wanted to buy an [Unmodeled Kitty Set] and become a plagiarist, reaching the peak of life? Savior isn't my profession. Of all the titles, I like it better when you call me Producer."
[System Note: Excuse me, Producer, but doesn't this feel like bringing your current girlfriend along to rescue the other woman? It's certainly thrilling, but may I ask whether the title of the film you're producing is "The Incompetent Paramecium"?]
"Single punctuation marks are not allowed as input."
Ignoring the System's usual taunting, Su Yu turned to Kiana at the bedside.
"Kiana."
"Mm?"
"You said it once, didn't you? When a hero passes by, there need to be bystanders to applaud."
"Mm."
"By the same token, how could a spectacular drama about a clash of ideals and souls between the protagonist and the villain go without an important [villain]?"
"Mm."
"Sure, she's neither cute nor charming as villains go, but if she makes too lame an exit, it'll drag down your cool factor as the protagonist. Am I right?"
"Mm-hm!"
Kiana nodded hard. Her face was still pale, but the expression on it was gradually brightening.
"Lend me a hand, female lead. Let's drag that disobedient Queen back, and then be the first ones on the scene to laugh at her."
Su Yu held out his fist.
"Can you keep up with me, Kiana?"
Kiana stretched out her fist and bumped it against his.
"You're the one who'd better keep up!"
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