"I do not accept..."
Yun Mengxi's voice was soft, but it sounded like a cold decree, piercing through all the clamor and chaos, echoing clearly in every corner.
The next moment, as if she didn't see Yun Feng rushing toward her, she slowly raised her hands and hugged herself tightly on the stage, curling up like a freezing small animal, as if to completely isolate herself from this cruel world.
It was not a physical defense, but a deeper rejection originating from the soul.
She refused to acknowledge this bloody hell, refused to accept the reality where her dreams were trampled so, refused... this very world that made her lose everything.
Her heart—completely closed at this moment.
Hum—
An indescribable humming sound, seemingly originating from some primordial source, swept through the entire Sapphire City in an instant, centered on her.
Time seemed to fall into absolute stillness at this moment.
Kallen's Arahato armor was frozen in mid-air in a diving posture, her fingertips only inches away from the child about to be caught by a zombie.
Joachim had just stepped over the threshold of the temporary shelter, one foot suspended in the air, his tactical goggles reflecting the firelight of distant explosions.
Himeko was issuing new combat orders into her communicator, her lips slightly parted, but her voice stopped abruptly.
The Titan Mech controlled by Natasha had its giant steel fist only a hair's breadth away from the head of a Chariot-class Honkai Beast, and the Honkai Beast's thick forelimb was also just a tiny space away from the Titan's shoulder.
Fu Hua's sword edge, wrapped in the Taixu Sword Qi, had already touched the Emperor-class Honkai Beast's indestructible carapace. The surging energy ripples were frozen, like ice-sealed flames.
Everything, except for the souls from the "future" like Fu Hua, Himeko, Kallen, and Natasha, the entire world was pressed on pause.
The zombies maintained their ferocious biting posture, the survivors' faces were frozen with their last fear and hope, the Honkai Beasts maintained their destructive stance, flying blood, collapsing dust, shockwaves from explosions... all solidified into absurd and terrifying still frames.
"This is...?!" Kallen's mind was trembling, but she couldn't move her body at all, only watching helplessly as the imminent crisis was frozen.
Then, a change that shook their minds even more occurred.
The world seemed like a truncated videotape, unfolding in reverse when unable to move forward.
They "saw" the sharp fingers of the zombie in front of the child, who was about to be scratched, slowly retract, retreating to the posture before pouncing.
They "saw" the splashing blood defy gravity, returning to their owners' bodies like a reversed video, the wounds closing as if they had never appeared.
They "saw" the bricks and stones of collapsed walls flying up one by one, seamlessly restacking, cracks disappearing, and buildings restoring to their perfect state.
They "saw" the people who were torn apart and gnawed on, their severed limbs gathering from all directions, reassembling into complete bodies.
Then, those bodies stood up shakily, the ferocious expressions on their faces fading, the turbidity in their eyes dissipating, restoring the fear or confusion they had before death, and then, like puppets, retreating to the positions before they were attacked.
The dead, revived here.
This scene transcended the boundary between life and death, carrying a creepy sanctity and weirdness.
However, the world's "rewind" was still accelerating.
The Honkai Beasts roared silently, their massive bodies retreating uncontrollably, decomposing, and then turning into the purest Honkai energy under their gaze, shrinking back to the source of their descent like a receding tide, or dissipating directly into the air.
The strange purple dyed in the sky quickly faded, the broken clouds gathered again, the burning flames shrank back into sparks and finally extinguished, even the sunlight... or rather the night, began to flow in reverse at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Sun and moon reversed!
Day and night flashed alternately within a few minutes, finally freezing back to a... familiar moment.
The city was restored to perfection, the streets clean and brightly lit, with no monsters, no smoke, no bloodstains.
People walked on the road, with daily expressions of busyness or leisure on their faces, completely unaware of the spacetime anomaly that had just happened and was happening.
Everything returned to before the Honkai occurred, even... earlier.
Fu Hua, Himeko, Kallen, Natasha...
Their consciousness seemed to be thrown into a rushing river of time flowing backward, witnessing the scars of civilization being smoothed, the loss of life being reversed, and the trajectory of the world being forcibly pulled back.
This power beyond understanding made even them, who had witnessed the authority of Herrschers, feel a shock from their souls and... a trace of chill.
Finally, all lights and shadows, all scenes receded like a tide, condensing into a blinding white light.
...
Himeko sat up abruptly from the bed, gasping violently.
She looked around—it was the temporary safe house in Sapphire City where she had woken up.
Familiar bed, familiar curtains, outside the window was... calm, the night before the Honkai occurred, or early morning?
No smoke, no roars, no civilians needing rescue, no Honkai Beasts to fight.
Everything disappeared.
As if that tragic battle, those sacrifices and struggles, that Herrscher who ascended in despair, and that terrifying power sweeping the globe and reversing spacetime... were all just an overly realistic, overly long nightmare.
But she knew, it wasn't.
The shocking scene of time flowing backward and the dead reviving was still clearly stinging her nerves in her mind.
That wasn't a dream... that feeling was too real, too... grand and terrifying.
The shock of witnessing the reversal of spacetime, the palpitation brought by that power, was still clearly branded deep in her memory.
She raised her hand, looking at her slightly trembling fingertips, her eyes filled with incredible horror and endless doubts.
"What exactly... happened..."
Himeko sat on the bed, her breathing not yet completely calmed.
Just then—
Tap, tap, tap.
Familiar footsteps came from far to near, stopping outside the door.
Then, the doorknob turned, and that familiar face poked in, showing a slightly surprised expression when seeing her wake up.
Ryusuke Murata, her father, carrying a glass of water, walked into the room with that smile she remembered... or rather, the same smile that appeared in the "last" loop, slightly teasing but unable to hide concern.
Himeko stared at this person she was "most" familiar with, watching him place the water glass in the familiar place, watching him open his mouth and say the sentence she had heard once before.
A chill completely enveloped her at this moment.
"Yo, Himeko, long time no see."