K424 of the Collapse World

Sister Bronya... is right next to us?

Indeed, the girl with silver-gray curly hair was still beside Seele, holding her hand. However, what Seele couldn't understand was that Bronya seemed to be frozen in place, holding her hand as stiff as a statue...

The blood slowly flowed down the spikes and floated strangely in the air. Feeling the rapid loss of strength, the panicked girl raised her left hand to cover the spikes on her chest, trying to stop her bleeding wound. But in this space controlled by time stop, her struggle seemed meaningless.

"How cute... a human girl full of desire to survive~"

Suddenly, as a playful voice sounded in Xier's ears, the second spike suddenly pierced her shoulder.

"what......"

The girl couldn't help but let out a cry of grief, her trembling left hand could no longer hold the sharp thorns in her heart.

"However, how long can you hold on? Soon, this Herrscher girl will see a surprise... You can also wait and see how she will react when she sees her companions suddenly become corpses."

"..."

She could no longer hear the grim smile beside her. She stared blankly at the blood on her chest gradually gathering into small blood balls. She didn't understand why the blood was floating in the air, and why the woman wanted to attack her. She could only think of one thing.

——If you continue like this, you will die.

Just like that woman said, die in front of Sister Bronya...

Don't...Xier, don't do this...

The girl's blue eyes quietly turned into a crazy scarlet.

“…Go to hell!!”

In the surprised eyes of the hooded woman, the blue-haired girl who was fixed by the spikes suddenly turned around. The two spikes that pierced her heart and shoulders did not tear the wounds open, but strangely "passed through" the girl's body, as if her body had instantly turned into a holographic projection...

But the woman had no time to be surprised, because the moment she turned around, a pitch-black blue giant sickle appeared in her hand, drawing a cruel arc of light in the air and chopped down at the hooded woman's head!

In response, she immediately crossed the two spikes in her hands to block the path of the sickle. However, the blue giant sickle, like before, passed through the crossed spikes without any hindrance and continued to move downward until the sickle blade chopped into the blue-haired woman's head...

This blow did not just pass through like a shadow, but actually split her head like a watermelon.

——Plop

The golden spikes that fell to the ground turned into light dust and disappeared. The figure with a bloody head fell on the spot, no longer showing any signs of life. Scar's face, which was split in half, was already filled with incredible shock, as if he had not expected that he would end up like this.

Apparently, she had never seen quantized phase travel before...

Xier's pupils had returned to their pure sea blue color. She put away the giant sickle in her hand, and there was no trace of blood on her pale face.

Although the medium that released the time stop has disappeared, Seele, who is in a quantum state after activating her ability, has already left this dimension and is no longer a material being. Therefore, the stopped time can no longer affect her.

But even if she were to transform herself into another form, the wounds left on her body would not be erased...

The blood from the heart wound gushed out like a spring, and the spurting scarlet was no longer fixed in the air, but turned into blue particles and slowly disappeared into the dark golden air.

"Xi'er! Cheer up! Xi'er

..."

"..."

“Hurry up and seal the wound, Seele! Whether it’s temporary treatment or Honkai healing, anything is fine! You big idiot! Why are you just standing there…!”

Another voice of her own echoed in the girl's mind, a low, evil voice that carried with it an anxiety and panic that was not usually there.

But Xier just smiled miserably and didn't move at all.

Both she and "her" knew that it was too late...

The destructive energy of the hooded woman's spikes had completely destroyed her upper body organs and stigmata. Seele was not the pre-civilized Seele who controlled the power of creation, but only existed as a semi-pseudo-hermeneutic. If she encountered such a fatal injury that could not be treated in time, there would be only one outcome.

Looking at the gray-haired girl beside her who still had a calm expression and was unaware of everything, Seele reached out her hand tremblingly, wanting to hold Bronya's hand again...

However, before she touched the soft little hand, blue flames had already ignited on her fingertips, decomposing the slender fingers into illusory light particles.

"Sister Bronya..."

Rather than leaving a cold corpse in front of Bronya, Seele would rather die in a quantum state, letting her body turn into light particles and dissipate into the infinite quantum sea.

The girl's tears slid down her cheeks, splashing a glimmering ripple on the ground.

In the end, I still couldn't touch her hand... It was so close, but it felt so far away.

"I'm sorry, Sister Bronya... Goodbye."

The next moment, as the light curtain that imprisoned the world slowly disappeared, everything resumed its flow...

The girl's final farewell drifted in her ears, and Bronya staggered violently and fell to the ground in embarrassment.

Hearing voices? No...

My right hand is empty...where did Xier go?

"...Xi'er?"

In just a moment, the girl disappeared from his side?

what happened......

Bronya lowered her head blankly, looking at the skull-cut corpse that had appeared beside her at some point, without a trace of emotion in her eyes.

Where did Xier go?

Now she only cares about this matter.

"Xi'er?!"

At this moment, Bronya suddenly discovered that around her, blue particles that had not yet completely dissipated were clustering around her, as if they formed a floating blue butterfly, flapping its wings in vain, as if expressing its attachment.

Bronya suddenly thought of something and immediately activated the power of the Herrscher of the Heart. She raised her hands tremblingly, holding the fragile blue butterfly that was difficult to see with the naked eye, and covered it with her mental power, reading the last remaining pheromones in these energy particles...

725 Heart Dream

The dust of light disappeared.

Bronya sat motionless on the ground, staring blankly at her palm, even though the blue butterfly of light particles had disappeared without a trace...

Because she was concerned about what happened to Xing, she followed Xing to the research department with Xier. Just now, she was holding the girl's hand and walking along the path to the side door of the division.

But why...is this happening?

After using her perception to penetrate the remaining energy particles, she seemed to have a brief nightmare.

In the dream world surrounded by dark gold, the demon who manipulates time has set his sights on two girls on the path. She is afraid of one of the Herrscher girls, so she reaches out to the girl's younger sister...

She mercilessly destroyed Seele's heart with a steel nail and pierced Seele's body with a long nail, intending to torture the girl and let her die tragically in front of her sister. During this process, Bronya herself always stood by Seele...

The gray-haired girl's body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Why...I couldn't do anything just now?

Even though she was stuck in time, Bronya saw that she was so useless. She stood there motionless, unaware of Seele's pain, letting the girl continue to lose blood and weaken until she was on the verge of death!

In the end, even though Seele used her ability to kill the attacker in the time-stopping barrier, she also received a fatal injury that could not be healed by herself. In the world of time-stopping, she could not get any help. The girl could only remain in a quantized state, waiting for her life to dissipate...

"I'm sorry, Sister Bronya... Goodbye."

Seele's final farewell only remained in these dissipated energy fragments, and Bronya didn't even hear the girl's voice with her own ears.

it's over......

Yes, it's over.

From the attacker's attack to Xi'er's death, only two minutes had passed. But he didn't notice anything, and the two minutes between life and death passed in a flash. When he came to his senses, Xi'er had already disappeared.

I once made a solemn promise to Xi'er, saying that I would protect her.

Looking back, her promises were so ironic. Not only did she fail to protect the girl, she even watched Xier die in front of her without doing anything, and she didn't even leave her body.

Bronya wanted to laugh, but she couldn't. The absurd irony filled her mind, and the increasing pain and self-blame negated everything she had done...

Since the moment she plundered the Herrscher core of the heart, the girl has been wandering at the junction of light and darkness. The Herrscher core in her body is like a heavy iron chain tied to her body, and the other end of the chain is connected to the abyss of darkness, making it impossible for her to return to the light. She can only look at those beautiful things from afar.

Half of the body is immersed in darkness, and the heavy chains are constantly dragging it into the abyss. Even the strongest-willed people will gradually feel despair. But Bronya never worried about falling, because there was a light that always wrapped around her hand, preventing her from getting closer to the darkness...

But that was already the past.

Xi'er is dead. Then what's the point of the power of the Herrscher that I tried so hard to control? What's the reason to continue to resist the temptation of the Honkai Will and maintain my original intention in the pain of erosion?

At this moment, a string in the girl's mind broke...

She couldn't accept this fact. If Seele died on the battlefield, defeated by an absolutely invincible enemy, and died in her arms at the last moment. Then, although Bronya would also be unable to extricate herself from the sadness, she might be able to recover from the sadness and continue to fight against the collapse for the world with the girl's last wish...

Yes, she was willing to accept such an ending. Even if she was on the verge of collapse, even if she could take that last step at any time, she could bear it and maintain her self between light and darkness.

But now, such an ending will never belong to her again.

The heart melted by tenderness was frozen again. The girl, bound by light, lost her last light at this moment and returned the world in her heart to darkness.

Is it really over...

The girl opened her eyes, and strange blood-sakura lines quickly gathered in her pupils. Her curly silver-gray ponytails fell down and scattered messily on her shoulders.

No, not yet.

The power of the Herrscher... the power of God, shouldn't be so useless.

"Seele... Bronya, I won't let you die."

——Gamble with the power of the Herrscher of the Heart.

She murmured in a low voice, her empty pupils almost dried up, bloodshot eyes oozing out of her eye sockets, and dark red lines gradually covered her cheeks...

At the same time as the law of time was lifted, in the N0207 section of the second building of the Research Department, a series of violent explosions swept across the entire floor.

The super-electromagnetic gas mass left in the corridor caused a chain reaction in the laboratory area where precision facilities were concentrated. The flames of the explosion broke through the entire row of windows and poured out of the building, causing panic screams in the surrounding area...

However, in the l-n0207 division, no one actually died in the explosion. The only worker in the division had died at the hands of an intruder before the explosion; and Xing, who had fought the intruder and escaped, had long since left the place and hid in a research institute in another division.

Xing was afraid of the Rule Master whose power far exceeded hers, so even after the time stop was lifted, she still did not leave her hiding place. She was afraid that the next moment she crawled out of the closet, she would see that terrifying face covered with scars...

Although she didn't know why the intruder was so determined to kill her, Xing's intuition told her that the other party would never give up easily.

Maybe it's because I'm her only threat with the same abilities?

Listening to the alarm and the faint shouts outside, Xing tried to lower her breathing as much as possible, and even the fluctuations of Honkai energy in her body were suppressed by her. In order to disclose the information of the intruder, she must not be found at this time, and must rush to Shirley alive.

725 Heart Dream>>

......

Just like that, I don't know how much time has passed. The alarm is still going on, but the voices of the researchers can no longer be heard outside. After a brief thought, Xing slowly opened the door of the cabinet where the experimental equipment was stored.

But the next moment, her eyes widened.

The scene before my eyes was no longer the storage room I had come from, but a sea of ​​flowers bathed in sunlight. The walls of the originally enclosed experimental area had completely disappeared, and what came into view was an endless expanse of hills and wilderness...

"this......?!"

Xing had an impression that this was a mountain range in the south of Okhotsk, near the Kokolia Orphanage. Because the mountains were full of wild flowers in spring and summer, the children from the orphanage often went there to play together.

But why did the Okhotsk Mountains, thousands of miles away from the Far East, appear before his eyes at this time? He had never heard of activating the law of time and having the effect of space travel...

At this time, with the

Hearing the sudden sound of footsteps, Xing immediately turned around vigilantly.

However, what she saw was not an enemy chasing her, but a group of children playing and fighting...

"Sally! I got you~"

"Ah...Rosalia is so cunning!"

"Really...slow down..."

"..."

Looking at all this, Xing fell into deeper confusion.

Is it not just the space that is messed up, but also the time?

The children on the hills behind were all faces that Xing was once familiar with, and she could even call out their names.

Sally, Mia, Phil, and Rosalia...

The girls all looked to be around twelve years old, which meant that this should have happened four years ago, shortly before the X-10 experiment began.

By the way, except for Rosalia, the other three died in the initial experiment of the X-10 project. Suddenly coming to this place from the Far East Branch's research department and seeing a childhood friend who had long since died, anyone would feel inexplicably confused...

The only thing Xing was sure of was that this was not her dream.

The wound on my back was still burning, and the burns on my cheeks, chest and abdomen were still aching... From this, at least I could be sure that I was not dreaming because I was hiding in the closet and unconscious due to lack of oxygen, but something really happened.