Silence.
There was no ear-splitting shriek of snapping rebar from the abandoned building, no acrid stench of gunsmoke, and no high-frequency heartbeat pounding fit to rupture his eardrums.
There was only the steady, rhythmic "drip" of water droplets falling into a deep pool.
Su Yu's eyelids felt as heavy as if they'd been filled with lead.
It took him several seconds before he finally managed to pry open that thin slit.
His vision slowly sharpened from a blur.
What met his eyes was not the gray, overcast sky of Arc City, nor the cold ceiling of the Anti-Entropy base.
It was that boundless, vast expanse reflecting rippling water, and, far off in the distance, several solitary mountains suspended in midair.
The Tai Xu Illusory Realm.
"Cough..."
Su Yu instinctively tried to twitch the corner of his mouth, but all his throat could squeeze out was a dry, rasping gust of air, like two stones weathered for a thousand years in the desert grinding against each other.
He tried to lift a hand to rub his forehead, but his nerves couldn't transmit any command whatsoever to his limbs.
Right now he was like a bystander sealed inside a glass jar, having completely lost dominion over his own flesh.
"Don't waste your effort."
A cool, steady voice—yet one that rang clearly across this empty realm—came from behind him and off to the side.
Fu Hua.
"Your body, in the real world, is undergoing a violent cellular reorganization right now. Those muscle fibers and bones that ruptured because of the second stage of the Genetic Lock need time to knit back together."
Fenghuang sat cross-legged upon the water's surface, and beside her hand there had even appeared, out of thin air, a small red-clay charcoal stove and a purple-clay teapot.
"Overclocking a living human body as though it were a nuclear reactor..."
She pinched the dainty teacup between her fingers, wisps of steam curling from its rim, yet her gaze was fixed straight into Su Yu's eyes.
"You really were far too reckless."
This Tai Xu Sword Immortal, who had fought on the front lines against the Honkai countless times, rarely put such weight into her words.
It was not merely reproach; there was also a heavy, lingering dread within it.
"If your evasive movement just now had been one-tenth of a second too slow, the blade-wind of Skadi Ondurgud would have sliced straight through your heart."
Su Yu looked at that cup of hot tea, then at the tense line of Fenghuang's jaw.
He'd originally wanted to say something trite like "a great disaster survived brings fortune to follow" to lighten this frozen atmosphere.
But he shut his mouth.
With enormous difficulty he controlled his vocal cords, so that every syllable he uttered wouldn't come out too badly off-key.
"I made you worry, Squad Monitor."
The fingers gripping the teacup paused, ever so slightly, in midair.
Then.
She let out a long, heavy breath of turbid air.
Those shoulders, which had been tensed for nearly an entire afternoon, finally sagged slowly downward.
"It's good that you're all right."
She lowered her head and took a sip of that bitter tea which did not truly exist.
"Rita has already been taken into custody by Anti-Entropy."
Fenghuang set down her teacup and began recounting, in a plain and straightforward manner, everything that had happened in the abandoned building after Su Yu fell unconscious.
From Kiana taking over, to Lewis handling the aftermath, and then to Old Yang's arrival.
Rita was now confined by Welt in a specially built isolation pod on the lowest level of the base, and the armor wreckage of the Argent Knight: Moonlit Soul had already been taken by Dr. Mobius for analysis.
"Welt went and tried to negotiate."
Fenghuang raised her eyelids, looking at Su Yu's face.
"But she is a Valkyrie of Schicksal, with an extremely high resistance to interrogation. No matter what bait or threat Welt threw out, she didn't so much as lift an eyelid."
"Afterward, I borrowed Kiana's body for a moment and conducted a preliminary negotiation with her."
"As for the specifics, we'll go into detail once you've woken up. In any case, Rita is no longer our enemy now."
On Su Yu's still somewhat ashen face, he finally managed to force out a bitter smile that looked worse than crying.
Though Fenghuang hadn't spelled it out, Su Yu could still guess that to make that top-tier Schicksal agent soften up, Welt and the others had probably spared no effort.
"When can I wake up?" Su Yu paused, then cut straight to the point.
At this question, Fenghuang's gaze grew complicated.
"That's exactly what I'm about to tell you next."
"Your body is creating a miracle that completely defies the common sense of biology."
Fenghuang's gaze swept over Su Yu's virtual body, which appeared utterly unscathed within the realm.
That gaze was like looking at a monster.
"There was no Honkai-energy modification surgery. No implanted artificial Stigmata—not even any of those Honkai Beast gene extracts that can accelerate rapid cellular division."
"You relied solely on that thing latent within the human body itself, the thing you call the Genetic Lock."
"Not only did you forcibly withstand a head-on impact from an S-rank Valkyrie."
"But right now, the speed at which the granulation of your wounds is closing, the efficiency of the calcium reorganization at your bone fractures—it has already completely exceeded everything that can be explained by any carbon-based evolutionary theory on this planet."
"Even I, who have lived through such long and distant years, have never seen an example like you. I think this is perhaps an evolutionary path distinct from Honkai energy."
Fenghuang drew in a deep breath.
"In other words, you have no need to rely on Honkai energy."
"So long as this body of yours can endure the backlash after every breakthrough past your limits."
"You'll have enough confidence and enough right to not need anyone's protection."
"To stand, openly and with your head held high, at Kiana's side. To go and clash head-on against that cruel, predetermined fate you've been trying to change."
Su Yu listened in silence.
He knew what the price for this was, but he didn't even blink an eye.
Because that battle in the abandoned building had already given him the best answer.
"...Very well."
Fenghuang suddenly turned around.
The water beneath her feet rippled outward in a faint ring.
That little red-clay stove and the teacup dissolved into the air as scattered specks of light.
"I've already taken up too much of your time. The repair fluid in the real world will soon awaken you."
"But before that."
The corner of Fenghuang's mouth curved into an arc that didn't match her usual persona—one carrying a trace of an obscure, subtle smile.
"There is still someone else here."
"She has already been here, waiting for you, for a very long time."
The moment her voice fell.
Fenghuang's figure, like dandelion seeds scattered by the wind, instantly turned into countless golden points of light within the Tai Xu Illusory Realm, vanishing without a trace.
Upon the boundless, endless surface of the water, only Su Yu remained, all alone.
And then. "Tap."
A faint sound—that of a bare foot stepping onto the water's surface.
It came from ahead of Su Yu and off to the side, from that region shrouded in thin mist.
Su Yu summoned all his strength and rolled his eyes toward it.
The thin mist was brusquely parted by a slender, pale arm.
A petite figure came stumbling out from within the fog.
She wasn't wearing that coat caked with dust and bloodstains, nor did she have that iconic long silver-white hair.
She had a head of dazzling purple hair, refracting a hallucinatory halo across the water's surface.
Upon that exquisite face, carved as if from the finest porcelain, were those golden eyes that had always been so lofty and contemptuous of all things.
At this moment.
They were as red as a rabbit that had just been given an enormous fright.
Sirin.
She had cast off every disguise, shed that heavy, spike-covered iron shell of the Herrscher of the Void.
All that remained was the soul of that purple-haired girl from the Babylon Laboratory, who longed to be bathed in sunlight, who longed for a pair of hands to hold her tightly.
She simply stood there barefoot, less than two meters away from Su Yu.
Water droplets slid down the ends of her hair.
Her chest heaved with extreme violence.
"You..."
Sirin opened her mouth, her voice cracking hoarse at once, carrying a heavy, sob-choked tone that made one's very heart clench to hear it.
"You big idiot..."
The next second.
She was like a cannonball.
Carrying a gale of feeling—extreme grievance, dread, and the frenzy of having finally found a place to belong.
She hurled herself violently into Su Yu's arms!
"Thud!"
The force of this collision was tremendous, enough even to shove Su Yu's virtual body half an inch backward.
Sirin wrapped her arms around Su Yu's waist with all the strength in her entire body.
She buried that tear-streaked face deep into Su Yu's chest.
"Waaah——!!!"
This was exactly a little girl terrified of losing her most precious toy, now, having finally recovered that most beloved plaything, bawling her heart out without reservation, hysterically.
Su Yu, too, finally regained control of his own body—after all, this was the space of consciousness, not reality.
Somewhat at a loss, he looked down at the girl weeping in his arms.
Her tears instantly soaked through the fabric over Su Yu's chest.
Frighteningly scalding.
"You bastard! You ant! You detestable human!"
Sirin roared at a volume that sounded as if she'd cry herself breathless.
And at the same time, she clenched both fists.
Like raindrops, they pelted densely against Su Yu's chest.
Without any Honkai energy backing them.
Those two fair, slender fists, striking against Su Yu's body, didn't even produce the faintest sound.
They were utterly strengthless—soft little blows meant only to vent that extreme lingering fear.
Compared to those Subspace Lances, these fists were practically acting spoiled.
"I'd already promised her! I'd already made you lie down obediently!"
"Why wouldn't you just listen?! Why did you have to stand back up?!!"
"You dummy! Dummy! You super big dummy!!!"
Her fists fell again and again.
Yet the strength in them grew smaller and smaller.
In the end, she could only clutch desperately at the clothes over Su Yu's chest, bury her face there, and let out that near-whimpering, choked sobbing.
"If you had died... what would I have done..."
Su Yu looked down at that purple head buried against his chest, trembling ceaselessly.
Listening to that utterly defenseless, sob-choked voice.
Those nerves that hadn't flinched in the slightest even when facing life and death in the abandoned building, in this instant, went completely soft, like a puddle of water.
Recalling how this Queen, in order to protect him back then, had actually been willing to shield him with her own body—how, even with her whole frame trembling from fear, she'd still gone to stand off against Rita.
He felt a warmth in his heart.
Though he still found it a bit absurd, that lofty Herrscher of the Void, that Sirin, would take a blade for his sake.
But perhaps it really was just as Fenghuang had said.
These days of ordinary, everyday warmth in the peaceful world had truly helped this Queen recover her capacity to love and to be loved.
It was at this moment.
The System's light-screen, hovering above his retina.
As if it had gone mad.
Without any warning, popped up a notification window wreathed in golden light.
[Ding—!!!]
[Detected: the core target individual 'Herrscher of the Void·Sirin' has undergone a complete collapse and reconstruction of her psychological defenses!]
[Current side quest: Tame the Queen.]
[Progress settlement: 65%...80%...95%!!!]
[Final determination: Deep trust and emotional belonging achieved!]
[Warning! The Bond module is experiencing a violent energy resonance!]
[Tarot Cards of Destiny: "Death"—Herrscher of the Void·Sirin.]
[Bond level beginning to leap successively!]
[Rank6...Rank7...breaking through to Rank8!!!]
[Ding! Bond description updated: Share Life and Death.]
Aside from Kiana herself, an object forcibly locked by the System.
Sirin.
Had become, in the entire game studio at present—indeed, in the entire parallel world.
Apart from Kiana, whose Bond level was locked, and Kevin, whose was maxed, she was the first person whose Bond level Su Yu had forcibly smashed straight through the barrier, reaching that height representing total reservation-free openness—one that could even share every sense and destiny.
[Final reward settlement!]
[As the target has completely let down her guard, the core authority of the Imaginary Space has been forcibly opened to the Host.]
[Host obtains: partial Space Authority power of the Second Herrscher.]
[Note: So long as you are by her side, you may unilaterally invoke those space-distorting powers without paying the price of being eroded by Honkai energy. Because she has already opened the gate to you.]
Su Yu hadn't even had the chance to carefully read those frantically scrolling words.
When Sirin, buried against his chest, suddenly stopped her sobbing.
She lifted her head.
Those golden eyes, red and swollen from crying, still hung with large teardrops, fixed intently upon Su Yu's still somewhat stunned face.
Amid that extreme despair and the wild highs and lows of losing and regaining just now.
Those elaborate human customs in Sirin's mind, that utterly ridiculous absurd logic about the "submission ritual in the adult expansion pack."
Had all been washed thoroughly clean by this one bout of bitter weeping.
She finally understood what Bronie had meant.
And she finally understood, too, what it was that burned in the depths of Eden's eyes when she looked at this man.
It was the greed to stuff everything of oneself—body and soul together—into another person's hands, holding nothing back.
Without any prelude.
And without any of the reserve or teasing coyness a girl ought to have.
Sirin simply released the hand clutching Su Yu's clothes and cupped both hands around his cheeks.
She rose up onto the tips of her toes.
Carrying a reckless, all-or-nothing resolve.
She pressed her soft lips, still slightly hot from all the crying and shouting.
Firmly against Su Yu's lips.
"Mm!"
Su Yu's eyes snapped wide.
It was a kiss utterly devoid of any technique.
Their teeth even knocked against their lips, bringing a slight, faint sting.
Mixed with the salty tang of tears, and a warm scent unique to the purple-haired girl.
It spread wildly across this empty Tai Xu Illusory Realm.
Looking at that exquisite face, right before his eyes—eyes closed, lashes still faintly trembling, tear-streaks still hanging at the corners.
Feeling that clumsy affection that would burn itself utterly to ash, like a moth throwing itself into flame.
He raised his arm.
He did not push her away, nor did he resist.
Instead, he reached over Sirin's shoulder.
With a force that seemed almost to want to knead her into his own body.
He gathered this purple-haired Queen—one the world had never treated kindly—into his embrace.
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