[Shu reached out, but the two lovers had already vanished from the cliff's edge.
"Bronya-oneechan!" a piercing cry erupted. Shu turned and saw Seele collapsed over a small figure, sobbing uncontrollably.
A feeling of suffocation washed over him, stretching and sharpening the sorrowful cry, turning it into a series of busy signals that filled his mind.
Only then did he realize that the orphanage's alarm sirens had been blaring all along, the grating sound having become the most fitting background music for this tragedy.
The Herrscher's game was complete. It was a small-scale drama, but "spectacular" enough.
If there were an audience, they would be pleased by such a plot, or perhaps swayed by its emotions... They would begin to look forward to what came next...
Countless gazes were fixed here, watching the puppets on stage perform the drama they wanted to see.
The puppets, naturally, would do their best, moving along with the pulling strings.
Shu surveyed his surroundings. It was a scene of utter devastation.
A hand suddenly appeared before him, grabbing his collar and yanking him forward.
"What the hell are you doing?! Grieving?! Mourning?! At a time like this?!" Sin Mal's furious shout rang out. "Aren't you the Fire Moth's strongest warrior?! Brought down by the loss of a few teammates?!"
Shu turned numbly. A flicker of emotion had just stirred in his heart, but then he saw Sin Mal's face, streaked with tears, a complete mess from crying.
She choked back sobs repeatedly, her voice extremely hoarse, her lips bearing wounds that matched her own teeth marks.
"Get up, you bastard!" She raised her hand as if to punch Shu in the face. Shu's eyelids fluttered, but it was Sin Mal who collapsed first.
The little girl's legs gave out, and she knelt before Shu, covered in black soot, with multiple burns and cuts on her body, every part of her showing signs of strain.
Her legs were twitching; she could no longer support herself.
She weakly rested her head against Shu's neck, yet she stubbornly opened her mouth and bit down on his shoulder.
The bite had almost no force. Sin Mal could only taste the saltiness of tears mixed with soot flowing into her mouth.
"Bastard... You have the power, don't you... If you have the power, don't fall... Don't put on an act like this..." Biting Shu's shoulder, Sin Mal mumbled incoherently.
"Didn't you say you were going to eliminate the Honkai... Didn't you say you would lead everyone back to civilization... Didn't you already make a promise to everyone..."
"Everyone has been believing in you... Us, those mercenary uncles, those annoying warlords and nobles... Everyone is waiting for you to fulfill your promise... you bastard..."
Sin Mal used the last of her strength. Her sharp teeth finally broke through Shu's unguarded skin.
"If you go back on your word for a reason like this, this great me... will definitely... bite you to death..."
There was no further sound, but Shu's heart suddenly trembled. He turned his head and gently placed a hand on Sin Mal, only to feel a patch of warmth.
His gaze lifted from the crimson on his palm to the direction Sin Mal had come from. In a corner, he saw Frélle, impaled by the hands of a giant clock. And in Frélle's hand, he saw a sharp blade covered in blood.
A trail of blood stretched from there to here, littered with signs of a struggle...
Another one... another one...
Shu gently laid Sin Mal flat on the ground. He looked at the weeping Seele, at the children cowering in the corners, at the cliff, at the raging sea.
He lifted his foot and slowly walked to the railing, looking down.
The white-glowing notebook floated out of Seele's arms, its pages flipping in the air. It finally came to rest beside Shu, faithfully recording everything about him in this moment.
Shu lowered his eyes, looking at the large ship below. He then raised his hand and waved it back.
A fierce wind extinguished all the flames. Shu closed his eyes.
There were two murderers... and that Herrscher has already received his judgment, received his "punishment."
Now, it's my turn...
A sharp light emerged from Shu's hand. The next moment, without any warning, he plunged his hand into his own heart.
It's not over... at least not yet...
I do have another chance! Blood gushed out. Shu's fingertips broke through his own heart. Behind the twitching, pulsating muscle wall, Shu touched a hard core.
---||---
[Key of Remembrance Storage Catalog, Volume Zero — Shu's Sixth Rewind
Observer — Seele Vollerei]
---||---
"Shu!" Cocolia's exclamation rang out. Shu abruptly raised his hand. Although it was trembling violently, it still conveyed the message for Cocolia to stop.
He coughed several times, like a critically ill patient in the throes of a life-ending fit.
Finally, after spitting out a mouthful of blood, Shu gasped for breath, weakly supporting his body.
"What happened?" Cocolia, who had stood at a distance because of Shu's gesture, immediately asked when she saw him calm down.
Shu's hand was still clenched tightly over his chest, the other wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"It's the Herrscher..." Shu said, panting. At the same time, he shot Noah a look so cold it was brimming with murderous intent.
He should have been able to sense the Herrscher the moment it appeared, but Noah, by demonstrating his abilities in front of him, had masked the fainter power fluctuations from afar.
Except within a domain, all his detection methods had a process of "sending out" and "receiving feedback," like a bat needing to receive the reflected sound waves, or a signal needing to return to its receiving node.
Noah, at close range, had blocked the sound waves he sent out and the alarm feedback from the domain. Shu didn't know if this "blind spot under the lamp" was deliberately planned, but at the very least, the Herrscher knew about it!
And considering Noah's abnormal power output, and the Herrscher's timely reaction...
"You're a twin Herrscher..." Shu's gritted words made Noah's body tremble.
A Herrscher with two cores wasn't strange... a Herrscher with a thousand cores even existed.
"Wait, what exactly happened!" Cocolia stood in front of Noah, but the overwhelming murderous intent pouring from Shu was still beyond her expectations.
It was the kind of killing intent born from a blood feud.
This murderous intent lasted only a second before it vanished. Shu closed his bloodshot eyes, trying to calm his heart.
Calm... I must calm down... I must calm down—!!
Shu, trembling all over, roared at himself in his mind.
I can't make the same mistake twice out of impulse!
I—still have a chance!