Chapter 197: The Damned Reign-Bow
Your new quarters on the Stellaron Hunters' starship were stark, cold, and impersonal. The metallic silence was a stark contrast to the chaotic, lively apartment in Fuyuki you had just been pulled from.
The only light in the darkened room came from the faint, distant glow of an unfamiliar nebula through the single viewport, and the flickering, electric-blue cascade of holographic data streams Silver Wolf had conjured in the air.
She was perched on your desk chair, feet propped up on the console, a lollipop stick jutting from the corner of her mouth. The rapid clack-clack-clack of her virtual keyboard was the only sound.
"Seriously, the encryption on the Xianzhou Alliance personnel files is no joke," she muttered, not looking up from her work. Her fingers were a blur, dancing across the glowing keys with an artistry that was almost hypnotic.
"It's almost as tough as the IPC's 'don't-you-dare-look-here' central banking servers. But..."
A sharp beep sounded from her console. A loading bar that had been crawling instantly filled, flashing a bright, satisfying green.
"...no firewall is a match for a level-99 hacker."
A triumphant, cat-like grin spread across her face. "Aaaand... we're in. Data packet secured. Man, their internal network is a mess."
She swiped the compiled file from her holographic interface onto a physical, handheld datapad and slid it across the metal desk to you.
"Your 'friends list' is updated, Orion," she said, leaning back and propping her feet up again. Her tone was casual, but her eyes were sharp, watching you intently. "Don't say I never did anything for you. Now, about that shiny Dratini you definitely owe me..."
You didn't hear her. You just stared at the datapad.
Your hands, which had remained perfectly steady while facing down the King of Heroes, felt cold. Your breath hitched. This was it. The past you had forgotten. The names Firefly had mentioned.
You took the electronic tablet.
Your thumb hovered over the first file, your heart hammering a heavy, dull rhythm against your ribs. You opened it.
The first thing you saw was Feixiao's information.
On the screen, a formal identification photo stared back at him. A familiar yet unfamiliar face came into view.
With silver hair fading to teal, the heroic female general smiled confidently at the camera. You almost didn't recognize her. The wild, untamed silver hair of 'Saran'—the name that echoed from your deepest memories—was still there, but it was now streaked with green, tied back in a severe, military-style ponytail.
Her green eyes, once filled with the wild rage and despair of the Moon Madness, were now sharp, cold, and focused. She wore the immaculate, heavily decorated uniform of a Xianzhou General.
Feixiao, originally Saran, was from the Immersion Zone under the Borisin's Eclipse Moon Hunter Pack. She is currently the Yaoqing Cloud Knights General of Xianzhou, one of the Reign-Bow's Seven Heavenly Generals...
[Inorin's Note: The 'Reign-Bow' is the title for the seven Arbiter-Generals of the Xianzhou Alliance, the most powerful mortals walking the Path of The Hunt.]
Seeing this, you slightly relaxed.
A breath you didn't know you was holding escaped your lips in a slow, quiet hiss.
In fact, you had already looked up Feixiao's information before—as a general of Xianzhou, her information was not hard to find. It just wasn't this detailed.
She was still alive, and doing quite well. She had achieved her aspirations from back then, becoming a general of Xianzhou.
A strange, cold relief washed over you. She was safe. She had climbed out of that hell.
But... a sharp, unexpected pang of distance hit you. This powerful, decorated General on the datapad was a stranger. The 'Saran' he knew, the one who had sat back-to-back with him in a dark cell, was gone, buried under the weight of a title and a uniform.
Still, she was alive. That was all that mattered.
But what came next was what you truly wanted to know...
Your finger, steadier now, continued to slide down.
Neergul, originally from the Immersion Zone under the Borisin's Eclipse Moon Hunter Pack. After being rescued by the Yueyu General of the Yaoqing Xianzhou, she joined the Cloud Knights as a pilot. She was once awarded the title of Special Grade Pilot by the Yaoqing Heavenly Ship Department...
You almost smiled. Of course. She had always loved the sky. She had always stared out the viewport of the slave pen, her one quiet wish to be able to fly among the stars, free from the ground.
Your breathing became rapid.
Continue to look down—
In the year 8072 of the Star Calendar, she died in battle during the Borisin's siege of Fanghu.
The datapad trembled in your hand.
That scene reappeared.
It didn't just return; it detonated. The chaotic battlefield from your nightmares. The smell of ozone and burning blood. The desperate, static-laced cry over the comms... "I won't lose you!"
The image of Neergul's combat vessel being struck by the Borisin's beast-ship artillery, exploding into fragments in the sky. A silent, brilliant, blinding flower of destruction where her skiff had been.
"Neergul—!"
That girl who was always timid, yet sacrificed herself to save you at the critical moment...
Your eyes turned red.
A low growl vibrated in your chest. The room suddenly felt suffocating, the air too thick to breathe.
Damn Borisin!
Even if that unit had been annihilated by the Reign-Bow's light arrows, it wasn't enough!
Far from enough!
Their entire race must... be buried with Neergul!
"Hey, are you... alright?"
Silver Wolf's voice cut through your rage, pulling you back from the brink. Her playful tone was gone, replaced by genuine concern.
You looked up, and she visibly flinched. She was a hacker, a gamer. She wasn't equipped to handle the raw, undisguised killing intent rolling off you in palpable waves.
You shook your head, forcing the white-hot rage down, burying it deep in the cold, empty place inside you.
"I'm fine."
Silver Wolf frowned, looking at you with some concern.
"How about... you don't look at the rest?"
"It's fine."
Your voice was very calm, terrifyingly calm.
You continued to look down.
The last name.
And the most important person.
Jiang Li.
Your younger sister.
Since regaining your memories, you had never been able to find any current information about her. You hadn't even known if she survived that initial attack on your merchant caravan.
But now, Silver Wolf had found it...
Your hand was shaking. You didn't want to look. You realized, with a lurch of panic, that you truly did not want to know. As long as you didn't read it, it wasn't real. You could live in this moment of uncertainty forever.
You remembered her. Your twin. Your other half. Her small, warm hand in yours, her bright, rose-colored eyes, her innocent, bell-like voice.
"Brother, if it hurts, just say so."
He remembered kneeling in his parents' blood, his only thought to protect her.
He forced his eyes to focus.
Jiang Li, from Fanghu, Xianzhou. Originally a child of a merchant family, the merchant caravan was attacked by a Borisin fleet in the year 8057 of the Star Calendar and went missing. She was later imprisoned in the Borisin's Immersion Zone, and four years later was rescued by the Yueyu General of the Yaoqing Xianzhou, becoming a Yaoqing physician...
A physician.
Seeing this, your heart began to pound.
The relief was so sudden, so profound, you almost choked on it. She was safe. Of course. She was a healer. She wasn't a warrior like Feixiao or a pilot like Neergul. She wouldn't have been on the front lines.
She would have been in the rear, in a hospital tent, safe, far from the fighting. She was alive. She had to be.
You were a little afraid to continue reading.
But your eyes were uncontrollably fixed on the screen.
The last line of text, like a death sentence:
In the year 8072 of the Star Calendar, she died in battle during the Borisin's siege of Fanghu.
"..."
You froze.
You stared at those few words, as if you didn't recognize them.
Died in battle?
What did 'died in battle' mean?
Jiang Li... died in battle?
Impossible.
This must be a mistake.
She was a physician. She was in the field hospital.
Your little Li, the girl who always followed behind you calling "Elder Brother"...
The younger sister who said she would become strong to protect you...
How could she...
"Orion? Orion!"
Silver Wolf's voice rang in your ears, but it seemed to come from a very distant place.
Your vision refocused.
You looked at that line of text again.
Died in battle.
Two words, like two knives, piercing deeply into your heart.
The buzzing roar from that day, the nightmare you had in Fuyuki, the memory that Kafka had unlocked, returned with the force of a planet.
The endless, pure white light. The arrow of divine judgment.
General Yueyu's last, whispered question: "Emperor Bow... why...?"
And Jiang Li. In the hospital tent, her hands covered in blood, looking up, her small, terrified face illuminated by that pure, cleansing, murderous light.
All sounds disappeared.
Only a buzzing roar remained in your ears.
Jiang Li... was dead.
The person you most wanted to protect, the younger sister you swore to guard for life...
Was dead.
Died in that damned war.
Died at Fanghu.
Died under the Reign-Bow's light arrows.
It wasn't just the Borisin.
It was The Hunt. It was the Reign-Bow. The very gods his comrade-in-arms, Feixiao, now served.
They had killed her.
And you...
Couldn't do anything.
The datapad slipped from your numb fingers, clattering loudly onto the metal floor.
"Orion!"
Silver Wolf grabbed your shoulders and shook you hard.
"Snap out of it!"
But you couldn't hear her.
Your world had collapsed.
Silver Wolf panicked.
She had never seen you like this.
The usually composed man, the one who had faced down Servants and calmly analyzed missions, now seemed to have had all his vitality drained. He just stared at the bulkhead, his golden eyes completely empty.
"I'm sorry..."
Silver Wolf said softly, her voice small, all her bravado gone.
"I shouldn't have looked these up..."
If she had known this would happen, she would rather have found nothing.
The room fell into a deadly silence.
Only the two GBAs were still emitting their tinny, 8-bit game sounds, exceptionally harsh.
Silver Wolf didn't know how to comfort you. She wasn't a comforter. She was a hacker. She could only quietly stay by your side, watching the man.
But this state only lasted for a moment.
The blankness in your eyes gradually faded. It wasn't replaced by grief. Or rage.
It was replaced by a calm, absolute, terrifying nothing.
You bent down and picked up the fallen electronic tablet, your movements so calm, so steady, as if nothing had happened just now.
"Thank you, Silver Wolf."
"This information is very important to me."
Silver Wolf was stunned.
The person who seemed on the verge of collapsing just now, the man whose soul had seemed to flee his body, had returned to being the calm Orion.
But she could see...
Something deep in your eyes, deep behind that frightening calm, had shattered.
Completely, irreparably shattered.
"Are you... really okay?" she whispered, already knowing the answer.
"I'm fine." You showed a faint smile. It was the most terrifying expression she had ever seen. It didn't touch your eyes. Your eyes were dead.
"Just a little surprised, that's all."
"After all these years, anything could have happened."
Silver Wolf looked at you, a feeling of heartache, and a small sliver of fear, welling up in her.
"Let's stop here for today, I'm a bit tired too," you said, your voice polite.
Silver Wolf paused for a moment, then nodded quickly, needing to escape the suffocating coldness that was now rolling off you. "Huh? Oh, okay, get some rest early."
Silver Wolf stood up, and when she reached the door, she turned back.
"Orion."
"Hm?"
"If... if you want to talk to someone, I'm always here."
She said, uncharacteristically serious.
"Although I'm not very good at comforting people, I can at least be a listener."
You paused, then showed a gentle smile.
"Thank you, I'll remember that."
After Silver Wolf left, the door hissed shut, and the room fell silent again.
You sat in place, the polite, gentle smile on your face slowly, mechanically disappearing.
You picked up the electronic tablet again, staring at the information on it.
Neergul, died in battle.
Jiang Li, died in battle.
Only Feixiao was still alive.
Your finger gently slid across the screen, across the names of the dead. Your eyes, once empty, were now filled only with a deep, endless, cold darkness.
"Borisin..."
Your voice was a whisper, but the air in the room grew frigid.
"And that damned... Reign-Bow..."
Fzzt. Pop.
The lights in the room didn't just flicker. They popped, one by one, the filaments instantly vaporizing, plunging the room into an oppressive, absolute darkness.
All that remained was the cold, holographic glow of the datapad on your face, and the twin, burning golden lights of your eyes.