Chapter 88: Love that Never Existed

"Um... uh..."

When Alicia opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was a dark green light.

"This is..."

A chill came from under her body, cold and hard, if nothing unexpected happened, it was an iron bench.

Sitting up, the first thing she saw was the sleepy girl curled up in the corner opposite.

She was holding an ice-blue long knife in her arms, and the scabbard was covered with fine cracks, as if it was pinched by someone's hands.

Alicia stared at the cracks for a long time, her eyes wandered from the beginning of a crack to the end, and then looked for the beginning and end of another crack again, and so on, until she thought that time had flowed countless times with her dull consciousness.

"Alicea? Alicia?"

A shout from far to near woke her up, which made Ali suddenly realize that time had just begun to flow.

And as the flow of time returned to her body again, the memory of the not-so-distant past began to be projected in her mind frame by frame.

"Mei... Are you Mei?"

Aili looked at the girl in a white coat walking towards her.

"Well... We met in Luluye..."

Mei pursed her lips and pronounced the words with some force, as if she had to work hard to brew the next word every time she said it.

"Then is this Mobius's laboratory?"

After Ai Li finished speaking, before Mei could answer, she closed her eyes and shook her head slightly.

Yes, among the fire-chasing moths, only Mobius was so keen on dark green.

Mei pushed the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and seemed not to understand the meaning behind Ai Li's shaking head.

"How long has it been?"

Mei was stunned for a moment before she realized that Ai Li was asking her the time.

"More than ten hours, the Fire Chaser No. 1 just returned to Canghai City to pick up a group of people from the support company and was preparing to return to the headquarters base... and the whereabouts of the third Herrscher have not been found yet."

"..."

Aili did not answer, and Mei could only follow suit and remain silent.

She was silent for a moment, and suddenly asked abruptly:

"Are you going to see him?"

"..."

Mei was a little at a loss when she heard the sudden increase in Alicia's breathing.

She waited for a long time but couldn't get a reply. She thought that Ali didn't hear her clearly. She wanted to repeat it, but she was afraid that the other party actually heard it. Repeating it would only form a second blow.

So she could only stand aside awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, Mei..."

Aili's voice was calm and hoarse, but Mei didn't know why she apologized. Was it just because of her silence just now?

She reached out and patted Ying's shoulder, waking the girl up. When the other party instinctively wanted to draw the knife, Ai Li just pinched her wrist lightly, and Ying let go of her hand in pain.

"It's me... Ying, let's go see him again."

Mikael's body had not been dissected yet. It was placed on a simple iron bed and covered with a white cloth.

Mebius sat beside his body. Seeing Mei leading Ai Li and Ying over, he quickly took out a book and pretended to read it.

Ai Li ignored her and reached out to lift the white cloth... but her hand finally stopped in mid-air just before it touched it.

"You have to think about it. After opening it, there will be no suspense."

Ai Li's index finger and thumb gently lifted the white cloth, but she didn't move for a long time.

She could feel that Ying beside her also held her breath.

People are like this. They know the ending clearly, but they always hold unrealistic fantasies before everything is revealed -

What if he is not dead?

Will he sit up suddenly as soon as I lift the white cloth, then look at me with a provocative smile and say to me:

"Dangdangdang! What's up! Were you fooled? How could I die? Hey! Did you cry? I'm a fool! You didn't shed a single tear... Ah? Why did you cry? Really? Don't cry, don't cry! I was wrong, I won't scare you anymore! Mobius, bring me my pants! I want to get out of bed!"

Ellie sniffed, her vision was a little blurry, and it felt like a bug was crawling on her cheek, which was inexplicably itchy.

Suddenly, the bug crawled to the corner of her mouth, and she took a sip, and it tasted bitter.

She quickly raised her left hand to wipe away all the tears, then took a deep breath and lifted the white cloth.

There was no suspense.

That was indeed Mikael.

There was no difficulty in identifying.

There was a sound of footsteps gradually fading away behind her - Ying left directly after confirming, which was very Ying.

On the cheek that Ai Li was so familiar with, the purple lines eroded by the energy of the collapse were intertwined with the tiny cracks of the body's disintegration.

"It's so... so ugly... Mikael..."

Aili cried and laughed, and the tears gathered at the tip of her nose and fell down, and then sprinkled drop by drop on Mikael's face, and were absorbed by those fine cracks.

She fantasized, fantasized that Mikael would frown and pull the muscles on his face because of the tears that kept dripping.

And then there was none of that.

Only those who have experienced death personally know what a suffocating despair it is.

You can have countless fantasies, countless expectations, and you may even have hallucinations -

But it doesn't matter, these will not happen, never, and can't happen.

What does death mean?

It means the disappearance of all possibilities.

The dead individual no longer has all possibilities, nor will he be included in all possibilities.

What it points to is a predetermined result - the bursts of coldness radiating from the corpse.

And, soon, there won't even be complete bodies anymore.

Alicia closed her eyes and quietly felt her breathing that she couldn't calm down. Before this, she had never realized that loss was so close to her. By the time she really recovered, what she should have lost had already been lost...

No, is it really lost...

Have you really owned it?

Alicia herself couldn't explain clearly.

She had never really thought about her relationship with Mikael, because they had been very close from the beginning, so close that she took it for granted, so close that she never considered the possibility of Mikael not being by her side.

Because of this, she sometimes faced Mikael's hints with a hazy attitude.

for example……

"Liar! We agreed to get married together..."

She clearly heard it clearly at that time, but why didn't she respond?

So now, she can't even say it confidently that she owned him.

And this feeling of regret is undoubtedly telling her the fact that of course she deeply loves almost every human being she meets, but for Mikael, she gives more love, and that kind of feeling, It's also slightly different from other people's.

That's the difference between love and love.

But did this love ever exist? She couldn't tell clearly.

This is a love that seems to have existed, may have existed, may have existed, but it has not yet had time to exist.

But no matter what, Mikael definitely doesn't want to see her crying, right? He must hope that she can smile and live strong, and then defeat the Third Herrscher and bring mankind to a brighter future, right?

Alicia stopped sobbing and already had a decision in her heart.

"Where's the core?"

Mebius shook his head.

"What do you mean? Where is his Herrscher core?"

"Alicia...when Sakura found him, the thing called the core was gone..."

Seeing that Mebius had no desire to speak, Mei explained for her.

Ai Li held the white cloth with both hands and rolled it down little by little until it reached her chest. There seemed to be no injuries except for fine cracks and purple lines.

"The wound was on the back. Based on the analysis of the shape of the wound, he should have been hugging the Third Herrscher before he died. If he guessed correctly, he probably wanted to die together in some way, but the Third Herrscher pulled something out from behind. Without his core...well, what kind of existence is the core? We didn't find a place reserved for the core in his body. It was like he was in another space, but the Third Herrscher was indeed there. The core was taken away through real space..."

As Mei talked, the topic drifted further.

(The game text seems to have been mentioned in Bug's Memories. The queen's removal of the Conquest Stone was not as harmonious as shown in the short film. Mei's entire chest was broken open, the core was forcibly taken out, and the blood was splashed on Bug's face.)

Ellie's hand that was holding the white cloth instantly clenched into a fist, and then suddenly let go. Her expression became extremely gentle, so much so that she stretched out an index finger and gently poked Mikael's cheek, just like before Just like they had done countless times over the past six and a half years.

By the time Mei reacted, Ai Li had already left quietly.

Mei glanced at Mebius again, "Doctor, do you need glasses? It's been a long time since I've seen you turn the page..."

Mebius closed the book.

"Mei, first of all, you and I will be of the same rank from now on, so there is no need for you to use honorifics to me, although I am very useful...Second, you can leave first. Your little boyfriend can't wait, right? If you still have time to spare, , can you help me take care of Klein."

So Mei also left silently.

Mebius was the only one left sitting next to Mikael's body.

She suddenly narrowed her eyes and stretched out her hand to gently sweep the outline of Mikael's face...

Then, the corners of her mouth raised uncontrollably, revealing a weird smile.

"Death? Maybe..."

But in the next moment, the dark green background light of the laboratory suddenly turned to blood red.

The siren blared three times quickly and loudly—

The Herrscher appears!