Chapter 215 I Killed Her

"The Herrscher crosses C31."

"The Herrscher arrives at Vadif Crossing."

"The analysis of the Herrscher's advance route has been completed. The target should be the European branch base located in the west of Brindi City! The necessary route is being calculated."

"The calculation is completed. The only route it must take is the three-kilometer-long D81 commercial street from Sarakin Bridge to Milo Mall. The Herrscher has the ability to upload it to the personal terminal. The Anti-Entropy Brigade still has 83 seconds to prepare a battle plan... The Herrscher has 83 seconds left to prepare a battle plan... The speed is increasing, please prepare to intercept.”

"..."

Prometheus received no response and could only urge over and over again:

"Please prepare to intercept."

Seeing everyone bowing their heads or sighing, Mikael even stood facing the wall without saying a word. Kevin gritted his teeth and stood in front of the second divine key.

"Leave it to me... I have the least relationship with her."

"No……"

"57 seconds left."

Prometheus did his duty faithfully and urged him tirelessly.

"Why! Mikael, what are you thinking about? Do you want to drag more people to die because of the Herrscher, or do you really plan to go on your own..."

"No, I mean, except for me, none of you have a chance of winning."

Mikael finally turned around.

Now it was Kevin's turn to be silent.

What he said is indeed true. Apart from Mikael, who has the power of space, who else has the ability of the Sixth Herrscher... let alone defeating her, he can't even get close to her and fight her?

"I'm leaving."

His soft announcement still echoed in the room, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone sat there, speechless for a while.

Prometheus stopped counting, and in the silence, the flow of time became slow.

Until Mebius interrupted everything:

"You're just looking at it like this?"

According to conventional thinking, this sentence should be mocking Alicia's indifference, but after everyone present chewed it twice, they realized that it seemed to be talking about themselves, including Mebius himself.

The three alarms that pierced the air came too suddenly, and everyone gathered as quickly as possible, so the moment they saw the Sixth Herrscher, there was no buffer in everyone's heart.

"If you think about it this way, I should actually be the one who can accept this result the most among everyone, right?"

Looking at the plain white dress that appeared at the end of the road, apart from being stained with large amounts of blood, it still looked familiar.

She seemed to have seen Mikael, of course she had seen Mikael, so she stopped and looked at Mikael across a distance that was either far or near. .

The corners of her skirt were gently lifted by the night wind, and so was the girl's hair.

But Mikael knew she was no longer her.

"Brother Mikael!"

Xi'er's call came from afar, but he remained indifferent.

He has been mentally prepared for a long time. He has been mentally prepared for a long time.

Just that, just that, he thought silently in his heart.

The black mist spread to his feet, but he did not panic, but took the initiative to take steps towards it.

"I didn't expect that a few hours ago I thought it was useless, but now it can be used."

Mikael laughed at himself.

His skin began to turn blue, and before the black mist came into contact with his cells, it was guided by another energy, and eventually turned into the Vishnu factor's dinner.

Starting from the stone bridge that Mikael once walked with Ellie and Xi'er, he took a total of 237 steps. When he took the last step, Xi'er kept focusing on him. Only then did he feel the changes all over his body.

The city of Brindi where they were located was more dilapidated and deserted than before.

Every time you take a breath, you can absorb the dust.

The dust is not actually ashes in the general sense. To be precise, even the Sixth Herrscher can only accelerate the division of cells, causing them to age and die at an extremely fast rate, but the dead cells still have corpses. After they lost all their organizational structures and could no longer show themselves in human form, they had this kind of dust that was similar to the peeled off keratin from the human body.

"Brother Mikael, why did you bring Xi'er back to the world again?"

She narrowed her eyes and chuckled.

"Do you think you can fool me like this? The Sixth Herrscher."

"What are you talking about? Brother Mikael..."

"Enough!"

Mikael looked coldly at the Herrscher who had stolen Xi'er's body.

"Open your eyes."

The Herrscher opened his eyes obediently. They were a pair of blood-red eyes that were completely opposite to Xi'er's.

Perhaps realizing that there was no need to pretend anymore, she suddenly laughed wildly.

"Hahahaha...hehehehe...hahahahahaha! Mikael~brother~what do you mean by asking me to open my eyes? To show the difference between me and her? You have to use this to tell yourself and remind yourself, The girl in front of you is no longer the Xi'er who pestered you to call her brother, but your enemy - the Herrscher! In this way, you can kill me with peace of mind, and you can end all this with peace of mind, right? ?”

"It is undeniable that you are right about everything."

Mikael stared at her, his eyes cold and pitiful.

"But one thing you can't deny is that you have no chance of winning against me. Especially after I dragged you into this world, you had no way of leaving it."

As soon as the words fell, Mikael already had five fingers in his palm, piercing deeply into the chest of the Sixth Herrscher.

"Tsk tsk!"

Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, but the Herrscher still smacked his lips in disdain, took two steps back slightly, and then pulled his body out of Mikael's hand knife.

"Is this what you call [the odds of winning]? Come on! Didn't you kill the Sixth Herrscher once in this world bubble? What? You still can't find a way to kill me? What are you still hesitating about? Or are you? Say, you can’t do it at all?”

Mikael sighed softly and closed his eyes.

Naturally, the Herrscher would not miss such a good opportunity. The horny cells in her palms began to grow into sharp claws, and she swung towards Mikael's heart quickly and accurately.

However, the tips of her claws stayed at the moment when they were about to break through Mikael's skin, and could no longer penetrate deeper.

The invisible force restrained her, and then, the imaginary number crystal further appeared, firmly fixing her limbs.

At this time, the Sixth Herrscher, no matter from any angle, was already a piece of fish on the chopping board, ready to be slaughtered by Mikael.

But she was not afraid, she just changed back to her timid expression.

And Mikael also closed his eyes for a long time and made no movement.

He knew, indeed, as the Sixth Herrscher said.

The key point of this war has never been whether he can kill the Sixth Herrscher.

The Sixth Herrscher was certainly difficult to kill, but for Mikael, who had one killing experience, he had already obtained the correct answer before entering the examination room. Under the premise of knowing the method, he could kill the Sixth Herrscher. The six laws are easy.

The only obstacle is himself.

Just like he couldn't swing a sword at Alicia in the world bubble at that time.

He can't swing his sword at Xi'er now.

Even at that time, he knew in his heart that Alicia in the world bubble was not equal to Alicia.

Even at this moment, he knew in his heart that the Sixth Herrscher was not Xi'er, and the real Xi'er had already died before the Herrscher came.

But the reasons are different.

If we say that sacrificing himself in order to kill Honkai was something that Mikael could not accept at that time, it was Ellie's fate.

So, what does becoming a lawyer mean to Xi'er——

This is her original destiny.

This is the fate Mikael wants to change.

This is the fate that Mikael wanted to change but failed to change in the end.

But precisely because this was her possible fate, Mikael had faced this moment in nightmares more than once, so when this moment actually happened in front of him, it was not as heartbreaking as he imagined. Lungs hurt.

No, not so much as "not that".

It's better to say that there are no special emotions at all.

It seemed that from the moment he learned that Xi'er had left the world bubble, his whole brain was in a state of emptiness.

I can't feel fear, I can't feel anger, I can't feel helplessness, I can't feel sadness...

He should no longer be who he used to be, and he would not question [him] who may not exist, or even if he does exist, would not care about it because of this tease of fate.

You won’t be filled with worries and hesitation in your mind, unable to make a final decision.

So what was the reason why he didn't kill the Sixth Herrscher?

Is it because of the tightness gradually accumulating in the chest? Or because he really hasn't heard enough of that "Brother Mikael"...

But there is a difference between not taking action and being unable to take action.

For an equally old machine, failure to start means that it is impossible to start.

And Mikael's body, after an inexplicable period of silence, finally slowly but firmly stretched towards the Sixth Herrscher.

His hands were already covered with frost, and the air around him was filled with a harsh frost color. He wanted to freeze and crystallize Xi'er's body, and then use the remaining power to give her a fatal blow.

By then, nothing will be left.

The girl's body will not be left behind, the girl's timid voice will not be left behind, and the girl's only concern in this world will not be left behind either.

After that, there was neither the Sixth Herrscher nor Xi'er in this world...

Staring at those blood-red eyes, Mikael thought in his heart.

That's right, the reason why he asked the Sixth Herrscher to open its eyes was not to use this visible difference to remind himself of the difference between it and Xi'er, so that when he strikes, he can be more decisive and neat. Killing without leaving more pain and repercussions?

"Click! Click!"

The sound of hard objects breaking made Mikael's mind clear up a little, and he realized that his hand was still on Xi'er's chest, unable to move even an inch.

But unlike the Sixth Herrscher, she couldn't make any progress because she couldn't do it due to objective conditions, while Mikael did it because...

The blood-like dark red was suddenly replaced by the clear blue of the water.

"Brother Mikael!"

"Uh! Xi'er!"

illusion! It must be an illusion!

No! He has also experienced the process of his original consciousness being erased by the consciousness lowered by Honkai, so there is no chance of him surviving!

What's more, he took the opportunity to sense it when he penetrated the Sixth Herrscher's chest before. There is no ring-shaped singularity structure in the Herrscher's core. In other words, she is no different from other Herrschers of this era, and it is impossible. There are differences.

So he resolutely released all his power.

Since the anger in my heart can't be sorted out no matter what, then use all your strength to give "Xie'er" the most respectful death.

Mikael thought so.

So his core also trembled slightly... No, in fact, the so-called core is equal to his existence.

Then, an unprecedented amount of Honkai energy surged out of the core, and too much of it was thrown out of the body before it could be used.

His hair stretched so long that it could drag on the ground, but it was supported by the airflow brought by the Honkai energy, stretched and flew backwards.

And more Honkai energy was condensed into large pieces of armor plates, casually and tightly attached to his body.

"The core synchronization rate is 100%, I am worthy of you, Xier!"

Mikael muttered in his heart.

But the next moment, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly, and in the end, only endless white was left.

Mikael raised his hand, and he and his whole body were stunned again.

"This is... the depths of the Herrscher's core..."

It is also the place where the Herrscher's consciousness intersects.

"Brother Mikael..."

"Brother Mikael..."

"Brother Mikael..."

"Brother Mikael... Why did you abandon me..."

Xier's voices passed from all directions. They did not attack him, nor did they try to get into his ears annoyingly. They just passed by him like a gust of wind.

They would caress his earlobes inadvertently, lift his bangs, and linger on his fingertips...

Seemingly far and near, close and distant, inseparable...

"Enough!"

But those voices were like the beating of the heart, the contraction of blood vessels, and the flow of blood. They existed here and could not be escaped at all.

Mikael didn't want to waste any more time here. He wanted to leave and let his consciousness return to normal...

But...at this moment, a question suddenly popped up in his mind--

"Only Herrschers with a ring structure...or self-awareness can put their consciousness into the Herrscher core, and then communicate at the so-called 'intersection of Herrscher consciousness', but the Sixth Herrscher, why does she..."

Before he had time to think more, the "ground" under his feet suddenly collapsed, and the familiar feeling of falling came, and the pure white world around him began to peel off like a wall, and turned into a silent night.

"Ugh!"

The feeling of falling suddenly stopped, and it was like being thrown out. Under the action of lateral inertia and gravity, "his" body drew a parabola and fell roughly on the cold and hard frozen soil.

The pain and vibration in his back seemed to shake his internal organs out.

"Impossible! How could I be in such pain..."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Until the cough as thin as a mosquito sounded, the cold wind poured into the young lungs, almost suffocating him.

He then belatedly thought of a possibility - could it be...

He struggled to move his body, but as he thought, he had all the senses of this body, but he could not control it to make any move.

"This is...Xi'er's memory..."

He felt his cheek tilted to one side uncontrollably, and in the child's blurred vision, a thin woman whose outline seemed so unreal was gradually moving away.

Her cheeks became even colder, and snowflakes as big as bird eggs fell on her face and stuck to her eyes, so her memory of the first birth of life was only left with wind and snow, and a long dark night.

And when all this was over, she was half buried in the snow, and she could no longer see a single figure.

【This was the first time Xi'er was abandoned. 】

Somehow, these words appeared in Mikael's mind.

Could it be... Could it be that Xier could still be saved?

Although she could not appear here in a normal posture like Ellie, since her memories and voice could be seen here.

That means her consciousness was not completely lost, and she still had a part of herself that was not erased by the Herrscher!

Save her!

Save her!

Save her! Save her!

…

Just as Mikael's heart continued to be agitated, the scene in front of him changed again.

Her body was nearly half buried in the snow, and her face was covered with thick frost. The darkness came to her in waves, but she always lived a little clear-headed at the last moment.

Until...

Until a shadow was cast at the alley she had been looking at.

Until a tall figure heard her subtle moan and turned towards her.

And her sight slowly began to rise...

"Maxim! Come and look here!"

Mikael's consciousness jumped along with Xier's body and heart.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? Have you found him?"

A gentle man wearing gold-rimmed glasses rushed over and almost fell in front of the woman.

He threw away his glasses, glanced at the alley, and then put them on in disappointment.

"This is not ours..."

"But she is also a child! Maxim... Just take it as a plea from you... Anyway, we can afford this child... Just take her with us, okay? If we really can't find Mikael, this can be regarded as God's compensation to us..."

[This is the first time she was picked up. 】

The scene in front of her suddenly began to accelerate, like a slide show with dots on page after page. Often before the first scene is clearly seen, the tenth and twentieth scenes have come one after another.

But the complex and green memories were poured into Mikael's mind without any shortage.

For Mikael, who has long been accustomed to the power of the First Herrscher, the memory of more than ten years will not cause much burden on him, and for him who has experienced two lives, this memory will not cause him to have "I Who is it?" Such memory confusion.

He just watched all of this quietly, watching Xier unfold her life in front of him without any reservation.

"Xie'er, just wait here and don't move around! Dad will go and talk to his friends for a few words and then come back to you."

[This is the second time she has been abandoned. 】

After a short wait, what she was waiting for was not her adoptive father, but a man wrapped in a white coat.

Experiments, experiments...experiments.

Even Mikael couldn't tell the time from a third-person perspective.

That's because the subconscious mind, which records memories, has been severely damaged in the experiment.

Each time it was like a straw was inserted into the mind, sucking everything out of the skull and into another existence.

"This is Lezren's..."

Mikael watched his former body gradually raise his hand under Xi'er's control, but such a short movement caused a violent instability.

The brain seemed to have been forcefully pulled out and stuffed back into the original body.

So the schizophrenia broke out.

Fortunately, when she opened her eyes, her adoptive mother, covered in blood, stood in front of her.

"Xie'er... let's... go home..."

[This is the second time she has been picked up. 】

Then came the Honkai Disease, which made her lose everything again.

"This time, it was Xier who abandoned everyone..."

That real and familiar voice sounded.

At this time, Mikael's perspective was finally separated from Seele.

Then he saw himself.

I saw Alicia, I saw Mebius...

I saw her in the shadow of the night and took Xier into her secret laboratory...

The story ends abruptly.

But it's not the end, it's just that it's no longer shown, but only exists in Mikael's heart...it will always exist, in the form of [story],

"Mebius...what on earth...did you..."

"Brother Mikael, don't blame Aunt Mebius."

Xi'er raised her head from his arms.

Yes, in arms.

The surrounding background returns to the dead streets again.

This also means that he successfully escaped from those memories and returned to the world bubble.

"Are you...really Xi'er?"

Mikael looked at the remaining imaginary number crystals on her hand and asked dully.

But Xier was trembling, and it took a long time before she slowly responded to him:

"Mikael...you...brother...traitor...Xie'er..."

Xi'er's eyes were sometimes blue and sometimes red, showing the two consciousnesses that were constantly switching. The broken and polarized words were like messy and broken blades, piercing Mikael's skin bit by bit.

I suddenly felt pain in my heart.

It was the Herrscher's claws that penetrated his body and penetrated into his heart.

But the next moment her consciousness switched, she was crying and trying to pull out her claws.

pain……

Mikael finally felt the pain, and the breath that had been suffocating in his heart flowed through his wound like salt water or alcohol, and flowed out with blood.

So what is called sadness does not necessarily burst out in immediate pain.

Rather, it is an unstable state buried deep in the heart, just waiting for a spark to detonate it.

And when it breaks out, it may not appear in the form of sadness.

Just as Mikael was confused now, he had no idea what he should do or what he could do.

If he had previously determined that he should kill the Sixth Herrscher...

Now this confusion quickly turned into anger and hope——

Yes, there is hope!

Isn’t this the key to your willingness to devote your time to this?

Doesn’t Xier still have consciousness here?

There's still a chance she could come back, isn't there?

Success - if successful, Seele can also become a Herrscher who fights for mankind, just like him, right?

Xi'er's original consciousness seemed to sense Mikael's hope. She temporarily overpowered the Herrscher's consciousness. Not only did she pull out her sharp claws, but she also used her power to repair Mikael's wounds.

"Xie'er, is that you?

"Xie'er, what exactly did Mebius do to you?

"Xie'er! I want...how can I...help you!"

Facing Mikael's series of questions, Xie'er frowned, seeming to be suppressing great pain.

Her words were calm, but she did not answer the question:

"Brother Mikael... thank you... when you saw Xi'er passing by, Xi'er was also looking into your heart...

"When you... left Xi'er... Xi'er really thought she was abandoned again...

"But Xi'er now knows what brother Mikael is thinking... knows everything...

"I'm sorry, Brother Mikael, Xier still doesn't have..."

"Don't say that!"

Mikael held her face excitedly, "Don't say this! Tell me what to do!"

How...how can we kill the Herrscher's consciousness?

Mikael was also panicked. He didn't even know it himself. How could Xi'er know?

"Mebius...yes, Mebius! And Aponya, she is a spiritually aware warrior, she must have a way!"

In extreme and absolute helplessness, Mikael made a decision that he was destined to regret for a long time:

The surrounding scenery changed again, and the gray early morning sky shone on the two of them.

"Brother Mikael!"

Xier's eyes narrowed painfully.

"It's too late. Don't blame Aunt Mobius and Mother Aponia. What they did was for this moment..."

"Xier, what are you talking about!"

"Brother Mikael... bastard... thank you... stop! What are you going to do... believe me for the last time..."

Xier smiled at Mikael with her open blue eyes.

Then, she cut her wrists and knocked her chin on Mikael's shoulder weakly.

Mikael held her body and knelt on the ground in a daze. The excitement brought by the false hope had not faded from his face, as if he could not accept such a change.

"Xi'er... just killed a lot of people... but... use Xi'er's ability... use Xi'er's blood... those who haven't died yet... still have a chance to survive..."

Her red hand touched Mikael's cheek.

"Brother Mikael, forget Xi'er..."

Although she said so, the only trace of clarity in her azure eyes still urged her face to keep getting closer to Mikael.

Until that azure was completely replaced by blood red.

But Mikael still looked at everything in front of him stupidly.

"Damn..."

The Sixth Herrscher finally completely occupied this body, but it was too late.

With a "whoosh", her whole body quickly shrank and stiffened, and finally turned into flying ash and drifted away.

Xi'er had overdrawn all the power of this body before her - the part about "life".

On the high-rise building not far away, Eden and others stopped their heart-wrenching coughs, and their stiff and rotten limbs began to regain vitality.

And for more survivors affected by the black fog, these turning points appeared almost at the same time.

And what was the price?

Mikael knelt in a pool of blood, and the blood dyed the moonlight and the whole street red.

In one hand, he held the plain white dress that he personally gave to Seele, and in the other hand, he held the strange-shaped necklace that Aponia asked him to make with his power before sending Seele into the world bubble.

Apart from this, there was nothing else.

Without the blessing of the Herrscher's power, the black fog naturally no longer had the power to take lives.

First, there were incandescent searchlights, and then more and more people appeared around Mikael.

"Mikael, you..."

"I killed her."

He did not shed tears.

He repeated categorically:

"I killed her."