The indestructible Ruoshui Sword had at this moment been reduced to countless tiny fragments, scattered across the top of Babylon Tower. They shimmered with faint light, as if recounting its past glory and honor. Its owner — Cheng Lixue — lay quietly to the side. Her once agile body was now covered in wounds and bloodstains.
Her clothes had long been torn to shreds, revealing terrifying gashes. Blood continuously flowed from these wounds, dyeing the stone ground beneath her red. Her face was as pale as paper, her eyes tightly shut, and her breathing had become extremely weak, as if she might draw her last breath at any moment.
Sirin slowly crouched down and spoke to Cheng Lixue, who might not have much consciousness left: "You really are the same kind of idiot as him."
"Herrscher… don't go!" Cheng Lixue's blood-stained hand grabbed Sirin's ankle, leaving a clear bloody handprint on the delicate, fair skin.
"Don't worry. Since you're somewhat like him, I won't kill you." Sirin pried Cheng Lixue's hand away and placed her own hand on the girl's back.
The Authority of the Herrscher of Death activated. In no time at all, Cheng Lixue's body, which had been riddled with holes, was restored to full health. However, Cheng Lixue had now fallen into a coma. When Sirin treated her, she deliberately did not block the sensation of pain.
Even the most tenacious warrior would fall unconscious from pain-induced shock at this moment.
"However, I won't let you appear in this world anymore… After all, dead people should stay dead."
A golden hand appeared in the void, grabbing Cheng Lixue by the collar and lifting her into the air. A spatial rift opened, and Sirin tossed Cheng Lixue inside.
Sirin didn't know where she had thrown her. She had simply opened a random coordinate in the Sea of Quanta. Although she didn't plan to kill her, there was a saying that was quite right: if you've been caught in the rain, you should make sure others can't open their umbrellas either.
"Good luck."
After doing all this, Sirin could no longer sense Otto's presence. As a five-hundred-year-old schemer, his skill at escaping was truly no joke.
"However, this is now in my hands…" Sirin spread open her palm, and a cluster of pink feathers appeared in her hand.
"Hmm, how should I use this?" It was Sirin's first time using a high-end Divine Key like this, and she still didn't know how to operate it for the moment.
"Hmm, let's try it this way?" As Sirin poured a massive amount of Honkai energy into it, invisible spiritual fluctuations enveloped the entire area around Babylon Tower.
Everyone on the battlefield below was covered by this invisible fluctuation. The sounds of weapons hitting the ground rose and fell one after another. The battlefield that had been filled with roaring gunfire fell into an eerie, ghostly silence.
The sky-obscuring Demon Dragon transformed back into human form. Bella looked at the scene in confusion, but she did not take the opportunity to deliver fatal blows to the Valkyries who now had no ability to resist.
Blue light wings extended from her back. Bella flew up to Babylon Tower and saw only Sirin holding a cluster of pink feathers, eyes closed and fallen into deep slumber.
"My Queen?" Bella called out, but Sirin, who had once again been pulled into the illusion, did not respond.
"..." Bella sighed helplessly. She could only walk to Sirin's side, kneel down with her slender figure beside her Queen, and guard her.
"Why did I get pulled in again?" Sirin felt a headache coming on. She had clearly only wanted to test how this thing worked, yet she had ended up dragging herself inside once more.
Whatever. Since she was already here, she might as well take a look… Besides, Sirin was quite curious about what kind of sweet dreams these Valkyries were having.
Cecilia, Siegfried… She remembered those two were the strongest among these Valkyries.
Sirin pulled the illusion's view closer. She could see that a lively birthday party was currently being held.
"Kiana, are you still not out yet?" Cecilia's voice came from outside the changing room.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! Mom, you're too impatient. This dress is so hard to put on." Kiana, wearing the outfit known as "Princess of Winter," came out of the changing room. Cecilia's gaze was instantly captured by her daughter in the formal dress.
"Because I've really been looking forward to it for a very long time, Kiana. Do you know? Ever since the day you were born, Mom has been looking forward to what you would look like when you grew up. So I couldn't help but have your future birthday dress custom-made…"
Cecilia happily hugged her daughter.
"Ich liebe dich, Kiana."
A birthday, huh… Sirin hugged her own legs and watched the happy birthday scene of the family before her.
She remembered the last time she had a birthday… No, at that time there was already no one left by her side. What about the time before that?
Sirin realized that, from the time she could remember, she seemed to have never had a proper birthday.
The hand holding the Fenghuang Down feather unconsciously tightened. The next moment, a black school uniform appeared on her body, and Sirin found herself standing in front of the gate of Cecilia's house.
"Why did I come here?" Sirin muttered, intending to leave. She had no intention of destroying someone else's sweet dream like this. Having had her own sweet dreams destroyed before, she knew just how detestable such people were.
At this moment, an unexpected voice called out to her.
"Sirin, why are you still standing at the door? Come in!" Sirin turned her head and saw a short-haired Cecilia showing a gentle, kind smile.
She's treating me as her daughter in this environment, huh? Interesting…
"Sirin, is club training over so late? You haven't eaten yet, right? Come in quickly. We saved a lot of Kiana's birthday cake for you."
"Okay…" Sirin paused for a moment, then walked into the house that radiated warm light.
At this time, on the snowy plains of Siberia, Shun — who had been offline for quite a while — finally arrived near the Babylon Tower he was loyal to.
"Shun, we're almost there. Cheer up."
On Shigure Kira's back, Shun could already faintly see the top of Babylon Tower.
"Wait, Kira-nee, don't you think it's too quiet now?" Shun suddenly felt something was wrong. Earlier, when they were farther away, they could clearly hear the roar of artillery shells and all kinds of battle sounds.
Now that they were closer, why was there no sound at all?
"Huh? What do you—" Shigure Kira's words were cut off halfway. She suddenly seemed to suffer a heavy blow and fell straight onto the snowy ground, rolling several times along with Shun on her back.
"Kira-nee, wake up." Shun shook Shigure Kira but couldn't wake her no matter how hard he tried. Could she have been pulled into Fenghuang Down?
Thinking of the original plot where Sirin used Fu Hua's Fenghuang Down to pull people into illusions, Shun guessed.
Young people really do sleep well — they fall asleep the moment they lie down.
Shun stood in place for a while and looked at his own hand. He hadn't expected that being in an illusory state would prevent him from being pulled in. So that's why he wasn't dragged inside — the auto-counter had triggered.
Shun retreated to a safe location, dragged Shigure Kira by the leg, and pulled her outside the vaguely sensed range. He waited a while longer, but she still showed no signs of waking up.
"Tch… what now?"