In the center of the silent, vast plain, Michael had been waiting motionless for a long time.
Even he himself couldn't quite explain the meaning behind this wait.
"Aponia, Eden, Mobius, Dystopia, Ato, Kosma, Kalpas… that should be about enough."
If he wished, he could unleash the Authority of Finality right now, cycling the entire Earth back. He was perfectly attuned to this authority because he was Finality itself. Therefore, shielding certain people, or a specific area, from the effects of the cycle wasn't difficult for him.
But… he wasn't willing! He didn't want everything to end so hastily.
"The Flame-Chasers' curtain call must be grand and magnificent."
That was her wish, and also his wish.
Now, a grand and magnificent curtain call had become impossible due to his betrayal. But he hoped this curtain call… could at least, at the very least, be complete.
The threads of fate had already been severed. At this moment, for all the Flame-Chasers, their choices stemmed entirely from their own will, not imposed by destiny.
He didn't want to shatter this hard-won choice.
And he needed this.
He needed to shoulder this weight because he needed this weight to bend his body, shift his center of gravity forward, forcing him to take a step onward.
Besides… besides…
Although he knew it was impossible, he truly wished he could be defeated right now, ending this nightmarish cycle once and for all…
But he waited for a long time, yet received no counterattack from the Flame-Chasers.
"Is this the end?"
No. In such a crucial battle, having such leisurely free time was far too abnormal.
There were only two possibilities: either they had given up, or…
Yes, how could they possibly give up?
"Coming? Why are you alone? Even if you all attacked together, you're no match for me. You coming alone… hehe."
The corners of Michael's lips lifted. Three steps behind him, Sakura gently pushed the purple longsword out of its scabbard with her left thumb, her right hand slowly closing around the hilt.
"Even if I am alone, even if only I remain, I will never allow you to destroy this world. Of course, if you absolutely must do so, why not…"
"There are things in this world that cannot be spoken, Sakura." Michael decisively interrupted her, as if anticipating this conversation. "Compared to words, actions actually prove everything more effectively, don't they?"
Sakura's breath hitched noticeably for an instant. Michael lightly bit his lip. The next moment, starting with a deafening roar, a sky-wide thunderstorm descended out of thin air, each bolt locking onto Michael's form.
The blade slashed extremely fast. Dust kicked up by the thunderstorm rolled back to both sides. Sakura closed the distance to Michael in two or three steps. Just as she expected, Michael stood there unharmed.
Then, the same old story repeated itself. Sakura swung her blade again and again. Unfortunately, Michael always managed to avoid all attacks by the narrowest margin, using the slowest speed and smallest movements possible.
"Hah!"
Sakura once again forced Michael back with a horizontal slash, then retreated into the dust cloud stirred up by the previous thunderstorm.
"Michael, stop! Turn back now, there's still time for everything."
The clear voice came from all directions. Michael's gaze followed, occasionally catching glimpses of pink flashing within the surrounding dust, yet unable to capture or predict her trajectory.
"Stop? Turn back?" Michael's lip twitched slightly. He inhaled sharply, then exhaled with extreme force. "Sakura, nothing in this world can ever be turned back. Even if someone could control time, they cannot erase causality…"
Before he finished speaking, hundreds, thousands of Sakura figures burst out from the dust cloud. Space froze at that moment, and then…
One, two, three… the purple flashes of the blade grew faster and faster, gradually overwhelming the regeneration speed of the Imaginary Barrier, squeezing out all other colors in the world, until the thousandth blade flash passed. With the final piece of the puzzle put in place, the entire world bathed in purple lightning.
However, on the lunar farside, where the atmosphere was thin to the point of near non-existence, even the most brilliant lightning was destined to have few echoes respond.
The lightning and dust silently dissipated. Sakura held the hilt with one hand, pressing the blade body towards Michael with the other. But Michael also blocked the longsword with both hands. For a moment, they were locked in a stalemate.
Or rather, only one of them wasn't exerting force.
"Sakura, how many times have you frozen space? If I remember correctly, the next time will be your limit, right?"
"Yes, but…" Suddenly, the corner of Sakura's lip curled upwards. "It's enough!"
She took half a step back, released her hand. Seven Thunders of Retribution fell downwards. She flipped her body, striking the blade body with a roundhouse kick, then continued rotating, her right hand closing over the hilt of her ice sword.
"Now!" she shouted, but she wasn't reminding Michael, nor herself.
The next moment, space froze again. Only the purple longsword spun, slashing towards Michael's waist, and the blade edge,凝聚ing frost-blue ice crystals, slashed straight down in a crescent arc.
Simultaneously, another small figure flashed out from the darkness, holding a blue sphere, rapidly charging towards Michael's back.
"Sigh… Is this your tactic? Hua, Sakura… Such a cliché sacrifice."
The spatial freeze seemed to have no effect on Michael whatsoever. His left hand reached directly into the rotating blade storm of Seven Thunders, accurately grasping the hilt, then flicking it upwards, easily parrying Sakura's final blow.
Sakura's pupils contracted violently, but she relaxed again in an instant.
Yes, it was expected. This was the last thing she could do. So what if she died in battle? Hua had already charged behind Michael. Although blocked by the Imaginary Barrier, Sakura had bought her precious time to activate the pseudo-black hole.
Besides… Michael, you really put on a good act…
Thinking this, Sakura faced Michael directly, revealing a strange smile.
The next instant, her pupils turned into blood-red cross-shaped stars, her expression becoming vacant. Then Michael casually threw the Seven Thunders in his hand. The blade easily pierced through her body. She, along with the purple line traced by Seven Thunders, flew beyond the horizon.
Only then did the overwhelming gravitational pull, making movement sluggish like being underwater, belatedly arrive.
"Hua, well done." Michael turned around and praised softly.
However, what he faced was a face streaked with painful tears, and a question identical to Sakura's earlier one:
"Why?"
Blurry vision is extremely fatal in combat; Hua certainly knew this. But no matter how she wiped, tears just flowed more and more, as if trying to squeeze out all the water in her body.
It was strange. Those memories related to Michael… they should have been burned away long ago along with Fenghuang Down's first rated power.
True, in the following months, some stories unfolded between her and Michael, some connections were formed. But compared to the previous six years, it was utterly insignificant. Thus, she had always maintained a detached distance from Michael.
Besides, she didn't think her current self would necessarily inherit the previous dependency on Michael.
However, actually standing before him again, Hua's emotions uncontrollably slid towards collapse.
An unconscious sorrow welled up in her heart, and then tears burst forth uncontrollably.
She had so many things she wanted to say, so many questions she wanted to ask:
"Where have you been these three months?"
"Where's Elysia? Where is she?"
…
All of it boiled down to just one word:
"Why?"
Why do this? Why turn lethal hands on your own comrades and family?
But just like before, Michael gave no response.
Or perhaps, his expression and actions had already provided the response, only in Hua's tear-streaked eyes, Michael's silhouette was blurry; how could she discern any expression?
She only saw him take a step towards her.
"Hua, your task is complete. Next, just rest well."
Michael walked before her, reaching out to pat her head.
Hua felt she should fight, should struggle. Hadn't she attacked Michael earlier?
But at this moment, whether due to her inherent fear of death, or her body's intrinsic resistance to fighting Michael, she couldn't muster a shred of strength. Forget blocking Michael, she couldn't even take a step back.
Finally, Michael's palm gently rested on her head, ruffling her hair, exactly as she had seen in the memories recorded by Fenghuang Down.
Except, the palm that was once dry and warm had become cold and hard, like a stone soaked in the river of time for who knows how long.
Then, she seemed to hear someone sniffle, taking a shaky, deep breath, but that person wasn't her.
......
"Kevin! Kevin!"
"Ugh…"
"Kevin! Wake up! Wake up quickly!"
"Su…"
Before even opening his eyes, Kevin recognized the person shouting his name loudly; the voice was too familiar.
"Wait… What time is it!"
Just as a sliver of light entered his eyes, Kevin remembered something and instantly jumped up.
However, the moment his feet touched the ground, he felt dizzy, staggering and nearly falling.
Fortunately, he had never released his grip on the Cleaver of Shamash, using it as support to avoid collapsing immediately.
Seeing this, Su quickly supported him: "Kevin, don't rush…"
When facing Michael's attack earlier, although Kevin was the first to react and try to create distance, unfortunately, as the strongest among the Flame-Chasers, Michael's attention was naturally focused on him, and the pressure exerted in his direction was also the greatest.
If Hua was buried only an arm's depth deep, Su had dug over fifty meters to pull Kevin out.
But his condition seemed far from optimistic. He clutched his head, words slurring due to urgency: "Su… Su… How's Mei… The others? How are the others…"
For a long time, Kevin received no response, so much so that he almost thought Su's voice was just an illusion. But when his legs weakened slightly and his body sagged, a familiar and strong pair of hands supported him.
Then he knew Su had been beside him all along; he was just silent, nothing more.
Logically, silence implies uncertainty. As long as Su delayed giving the result, good or bad, Kevin could pretend nothing had happened.
But he wasn't the type for self-deception. Forcing himself to open his eyes despite the dizziness, he felt his eyeballs rolling wildly in their sockets, as if about to pop out any second.
He turned his head sideways. Su's figure spun continuously, but thankfully, his arm could feel Su's tangible presence.
"Su, tell me quickly, what exactly is the situation now?"
The more Su remained silent, the more anxious Kevin became. Not everything in this world needs to be explicitly stated to be known; sometimes silence is enough to convey everything.
But silence also couldn't convey everything.
Kevin shook Su's body, demanding an answer.
He had a bad feeling from the moment he was dug out, but he needed to know just how bad this ill omen was.
How was Mei?
Honestly, putting himself in Michael's shoes, if Kevin knew his opponent had such a crucial mind like Mei, he would absolutely try to eliminate her first.
Never mind whether the Flame-Chasers could hold him back; even if they could, it wouldn't matter to Michael.
Kevin had never forgotten that Michael possessed the ability to create clones.
Fortunately, after a long wait, Su seemed to have finally gathered his words. His first sentence finally dispelled Kevin's fear of the worst-case scenario—
"Kevin, calm down first. Mei is fine, completely fine."
Kevin took a deep breath, the hand resting on Su's shoulder slowly relaxing.
But… at times like these, the "but" never fails to appear.
"But… Sakura also went offline just now. Among the Flame-Chasers still alive, I'm afraid it's only… you, me, Vill-V, and Hua left."
The hand that had just relaxed clenched abruptly, gripping Su's shoulder with such force that cracking sounds emanated, seemingly about to crush the bone.
Su's brow twitched, but he said nothing. He knew this was just Kevin's subconscious reaction to the shock; he didn't want to disturb Kevin right now.
"He… killed people?" Kevin clutched his head painfully with his other hand.
"Mhm."
"He really killed people?"
"Mhm."
"He killed them all?"
"Mhm."
No matter what Kevin asked, Su only replied with a seemingly detached "Mhm."
If possible, he too would have liked to say more. But for the questions Kevin asked, perhaps a simple "Mhm" was sufficient. Perhaps more words would only cause more pain.
With the three questions exhausted, Kevin's chest heaved rapidly.
But unexpectedly to Su, Kevin shed not a single tear. Furthermore, in less than ten minutes, Kevin's breathing calmed down. Only the chilling aura lingering around him and the frost crystals scattered everywhere silently bespoke his inner turmoil.
"Kevin, you…"
"I'm alright, Su."
"You… you…"
Kevin glanced at him, snorting heavily through his nose: "Since Mei is fine, after all this time, she must have a battle plan, right?"
"…"
As if in response, the person who had been suppressing their voice since he was dug out, waiting until now, finally couldn't help but murmur:
"Kevin…"
"I'm here, Mei. I've always been here."
Mei's battle plan wasn't complicated. Repeating it to Kevin was just a matter of a few sentences. Moreover, in the psychic communication network, direct consciousness exchange took only a second or two.
"Is that so…" Kevin nodded. Under the severe concussion, his vision remained unstable, so much so that this nod nearly sent him tumbling to the ground.
But he understood. He understood everything—at least, he understood what he needed to do.
Just, before that…
"Mei, in this battle plan, it seems Su's role ends here, right?"
"Yes. Both Aponia and Hua used psychic attacks on Michael, to no effect. Su's Karma Wheel also yielded no feedback…"
"Good." Kevin rarely interrupted Mei, but this time, at least, he couldn't delay any longer: "Su, this might be the last thing I ask of you as a friend."
"Kevin…"
"Leave the rest of the battle to me. You gather the Divine Keys on the battlefield, then return to the command center immediately to protect Mei. Have Blanka prepare too, ready to open a spatial rift back to Earth for you all at any moment."
"Kevin, what are you…"
"No need to say more, Su, Mei. I'm ready."
I'm ready to die in battle. But I hope you… at least the two of you, can survive.
......
In the center of the giant basin, the pseudo-black hole visibly shrank, weakened, and finally merged into the dark night sky, disappearing without a trace.
After the pseudo-black hole vanished, Michael and Hua's figures were revealed.
"Mi… Michael… I…" Hua's neck was tightly gripped. Although it wouldn't cause suffocation for a MANTIS, it wasn't comfortable.
Of course, Michael wasn't comfortable either. His face remained cold, the whites of his eyes bloodshot, though almost imperceptible against the backdrop of his blood-red pupils without close observation.
His fingers tightened bit by bit. Hua's expression grew increasingly pained, until finally, even the hands clutching Michael's wrist fell limp.
How many? Starting from Aponia, how many?
Michael didn't want to count. He was afraid he would remember their faces.
But… for that future, he must…
"Huh?"
A brilliant white light suddenly flared at the edge of his vision. Michael's instincts screamed danger. No time to think, his body reacted with utmost truthfulness—
He flung Hua away. The next moment, the brilliant white light struck him precisely.