CHAPTER 472: LONG TIME NO SEE, SIRIN

"The Third Floating Airport is under fire! First Squad, move to support immediately!"

"Benares has broken its restraints! Captain’s orders: Immortal Blades Third and Fourth Squads, man the rail cannons on both flanks and engage!"

A figure in an ink-wash dress moved through the clamor of shouting Valkyries and scurrying mechs, seemingly unnoticed by anyone.

She walked forward, step by step, her pace unhurried. As she passed, an invisible, illusory feather drifted from above each Valkyrie’s head and slowly merged into their bodies.

When she reached the end of the path, having scanned the memories of every Valkyrie, Fu Hua gently shook her head.

"None of them know where Michael and Kiana are? That makes sense. How would low-ranking Valkyries be privy to such information? This is a bit troublesome. I made a rather bold promise to Theresa."

But she wasn’t without options. If she spread the power of Fenghuang Down across the entire floating Airport, Michael’s mental fluctuations were distinct enough to be found.

However, Michael, possessing the Authority of Sentience, could just as easily trace her location in return. But since he had already come this far, Fu Hua felt that he must have foreseen this moment. What was there to hide?

Fu Hua’s brow furrowed slightly, a fleeting emotion passing over her—not quite sadness, but certainly not a positive or pleasant feeling.

Some stories have their endings written at the very beginning. Since "impossibility" was preordained, what was the point of grief?

Besides, she was no longer the person she once was. Every time she used the first rated power of Fenghuang Down, it severed her past from her future. The more times she did it, the further she deviated from her original self.

She wondered what the young girl who once wandered lost in Canghai City would think if she saw her now.

Fu Hua no longer understood that original self, let alone how she would judge her present. And by that same token, if she had lost her "self," were the emotions born from that past self—emotions that still entangled her from time to time—real or false to the her of today?

She suddenly felt the urge to laugh. To date, she had used Fenghuang Down’s first rated power four times. Thinking back, half of those times had been on him. And if you counted the Edge of Taixuan, that was another one.

No matter. It was already done. What more was there to say? Emotions were not eternal. The her of today could no longer accept Michael’s path. Perhaps this was a genuine disagreement, or perhaps she had forgotten or misunderstood something during the process of burning away her memories, but Fu Hua felt it no longer mattered. At least for now, in this very moment, she had decided to stand against Michael once more.

After all, compared to a past she no longer recognized and a future that might not exist after one more use of Fenghuang Down, the present was all she had.

"Sigh..."

She let out a soft sigh. As she held out her hand, a lotus blossom bloomed in her palm.

This was Fenghuang Down, yet it wasn’t. The illusory lotus before her was merely how she perceived it. A thousand different people would see a thousand different versions.

True enough. Even setting aside the illusory nature of the Authority of Sentience, the same object or person in this world would never appear the same in different people’s eyes.

But gazing at this illusory lotus that had accompanied her for fifty thousand years, Fu Hua felt a deeper sense of melancholy.

No matter how many memories she had forgotten, she remembered the past of Fenghuang Down itself with perfect clarity. She would never forget that it was once a gift from Michael. From that day on, she gained the chance to no longer be powerless.

Her fist slowly clenched, but she did not hesitate. The power of Fenghuang Down began to spread out in silence.

But in the next moment, as a golden feather drifted down, the power of sentience was contained around her. While it didn’t negate her power completely, its advance slowed to a crawl.

"Otto?"

"It has been a long time, Azure Empyrea."

Otto appeared abruptly before her, bowing with an air of elegance and respect.

"It seems I’ll have to get through you first to find him..."

Fu Hua’s eyelids drooped slightly, and a flicker of flame already danced at her fingertips.

"No! No, no, no. Azure Empyrea, please don’t misunderstand. I have no intention of stopping you. I simply don’t wish to see you waste your effort."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I am standing here for the sole purpose of telling you the location of the person you’re looking for."

His words stunned Fu Hua. For a moment, she couldn’t comprehend what had happened between the two conspirators who had orchestrated this entire affair. Or was this all part of their grand scheme, and she was simply a chess piece they needed to place next to Michael?

Fu Hua quickly dismissed the absurd thought. The trials of over five thousand years had washed away her naivete. After a brief moment of confusion, she quickly understood Otto’s motive.

"So eager to sell out your collaborator? I have to say, Otto, you truly are a venomous snake."

Fu Hua sighed in frustration, but the flames in her hand did not dissipate. Otto, however, seemed unconcerned. He held up his open palms, not a hint of tension in his voice.

"I am quite the villain, am I not? Isn’t that a well-known fact? Besides, my doing this saves you a great deal of effort, doesn’t it, Azure Empyrea?"

When a person is so utterly shameless, even criticism becomes a form of praise, or worse, only serves to embarrass the one delivering it.

"I admit, I probably don’t know you as well as that child Sushang does. But Otto, I refuse to believe you would do anything that doesn’t benefit you."

"What? Do you suspect I would deliberately give you the wrong location, or that I have some trick up my sleeve?"

"No. I’m just wondering what benefit you gain from me fighting Michael."

"Hehehe... Hehehehe... Hahahahaha!"

Otto burst into wild laughter. He spun around in place, looked up at the sky just within reach, and wiped a tear of mirth from the corner of his eye with his forefinger.

"Is that really important? Or rather, Azure Empyrea, do you have so much time to spare that you would stand here and quibble with me over such a question? Are you going to change your mind just because you think this is what I want to see?"

Fu Hua was speechless. It was just as Otto said. Her decision to oppose Michael had nothing to do with him, and she certainly wouldn’t back down just because it was what he wanted. Besides, she truly didn’t have much time to waste.

But... for some reason, looking at the man before her, a long-dormant anger began to stir within her heart.

"Alright, Azure Empyrea, enough idle chatter. Michael... he is in the laboratory at the top of the tallest tower on the Helheim floating island. The others you’re looking for, Raiden Mei and Kiana, are there as well. Of course, you could always choose not to go. With my own feeble power, I certainly can’t force you."

"With Mei and Kiana..."

Fu Hua sighed softly. Wasn’t that Himeko and Dr. Tesla’s objective?

But if Otto was here intercepting her and sending her ahead, it seemed Himeko and the others... No, if they were the ones to actually run into Michael, the outcome would be far more disastrous.

At this thought, Fu Hua had no more time to delay. She took a step, ready to depart.

But just at that moment, Otto, who had been both overtly and covertly urging her to find Michael, spoke up again with that infuriatingly smug tone.

"Azure Empyrea, do you know why you’re angry with me?"

Fu Hua had no desire to waste another second, but her body made the decision for her mind. She stopped and turned slightly, her sidelong glance falling on Otto as she spat out a single, cold word:

"Speak."

"I would guess... and this is just a guess... you’re not angry for your own sake, Azure Empyrea. You’re angry for him. Angry that a scoundrel like me has betrayed him. Ah... you don’t care about the little schemes he ran while working with me. You’re simply being partial, judging the person and not the deed!"

Fu Hua’s eyes slowly closed. In the next instant, she was in front of Otto. Her slender fist connected with his cheek and smashed him straight into the armored floor below. The durable Soul Steel body groaned and trembled under the blow until it disintegrated.

Whether Otto’s analysis was correct or not, at least watching his obnoxious body crumble into pieces made Fu Hua feel much better. Perhaps her usually calm heart had been suppressing such violent emotions all along, or perhaps what Otto said was, in a sense, the truth.

Yes, she had noticed it herself.

Memories could never be truly, completely erased.

Her consciousness was like a blank sheet of paper, and every second of the past was a pencil leaving its mark. Erasing a memory was just like using an eraser to rub away the lines. Faint gray marks, a roughened paper surface, and a pile of dirty-looking shavings would always remain.

And as for burning memories? So what if you threw the paper into a brazier? In the end, it would still leave behind a large pile of ash. Though no words could be deciphered, the burning sensation of the smoldering embers in your palm was a real, tangible pain.

Yes, Michael was a complete stranger to her now. She shouldn’t have any subjective feelings for him. But... whenever she was near him, every cell in her body rejoiced. When she saw Otto "betray" Michael, her body involuntarily felt discomfort, felt anger. Though these were just her body’s natural inclinations, her own "consciousness" never felt such things, and it was precisely because of this...

Precisely because of this, she hated this feeling. It prevented her from truly returning to the past, from finding her true self and all she had lost. But it also prevented her from truly breaking free from the past and stepping into the future.

Thankfully, all of it was about to end.

"Azure Empyrea..."

The half of Otto’s mouth left on the ground was still chattering away.

"Why am I doing this? Heh... I just discovered something interesting, and I wanted to make it even more interesti—"

CRUNCH!

Fu Hua stomped on the remaining half of Otto’s mouth, crushing it. This time, he was finally silent.

...

"Ugh... heh..."

How long had she been unconscious? She didn’t know, and she had no way of knowing.

In the heavy darkness, Mei seemed to find a single sliver of light.

It was just like that time, over two years ago.

But this time, in her daze, she found herself trying to grasp that ray of purple light.

The moment her fingertips touched the ring of lightning, a jolt like an electric shock shot through her heart. Only then did she remember: this was her territory.

But this time, the "her" who had always been so forceful and violent gave no response.

A pair of ethereal purple eyes lit up in the darkness. "She" made no sound. It wasn’t until a streak of white light flashed before Mei’s eyes that she realized "she" had swung a sword.

But... there was no sensation. No pain, no feeling of her consciousness fading. It was only when the white light began to spread up and down that Mei realized that was no sword flash, but "her" prying open Mei’s eyelids.

"Ngh..."

Her palm touched a cold floor. Perhaps thanks to the Herrscher’s inexplicable help, Mei quickly pieced her fragmented memories back together.

But she didn’t really need to remember anything. The moment her vision cleared, the first thing she saw was a massive stasis pod, and... the white-haired girl thrashing and struggling within an orange liquid.

"Kiana!"

A surge of emotion made her ignore all danger and logic. Questions like "Where am I?", "Where’s Bronya?", and "Where’s Michael?" popped into her head only to be unhesitatingly cast aside.

"Kiana, are you okay?!"

Kiana opened her mouth as if to speak. Her lips moved, but the stream of bubbles obscured her words, and the thick liquid muffled her voice into a faint whimper.

She seemed to be pointing behind Mei, but Mei didn’t notice.

"Hold on, I’ll get you out of there right now!"

She quickly found the conspicuous red button on the side of the pod, but pressing it did nothing.

She didn’t dwell on it. She immediately began searching for something hard to swing, like the chair that seemed deliberately placed right by her hand.

BANG!

The thick wall of the stasis pod didn’t budge. It didn’t even have a scratch. Unwilling to give up, Mei swung the iron chair and smashed it against the pod twice more. The armrest of the chair broke, but the pod remained undamaged.

"Damn it... Break for me!"

She raised the chair once more. But as she swung, the prosthetic on her right arm suddenly glowed with a blinding pink light. Accompanied by a piercing shriek, like the cry of a thousand birds, the stasis pod wall shattered. Kiana was swept out in a rush of orange liquid. Without a second thought, Mei rushed forward and caught her.

"Kiana..."

Kiana collapsed limply in Mei’s arms, her hands pushing weakly against Mei’s chest as she spoke.

"Mei... forget about me, run... run!"

"I..."

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

"Such a touching scene. Watching someone desperately try to save another... it’s simply the most beautiful thing in this world. A pity..."

"Aaaah!"

Kiana shoved Mei aside and charged furiously at Michael, who stood behind her.

WHOOSH!

Golden chains materialized from the void, binding Kiana’s limbs and suspending her in mid-air.

"Michael! You..."

Mei was stunned for a moment, but she quickly came to her senses and lunged at Michael.

THWACK!

Her punch was blocked, her knee strike deflected. In a single exchange, Mei was bewildered to find herself caught by the throat.

"What do you think I raised you for all this time, Raiden Mei?"

"Bastard! Let go of Mei!" Kiana roared with all her might, struggling against her bonds, but she couldn’t break free from the chains.

Just as Michael’s hand reached for Mei’s chest, the sound of something tearing through the air reached his ears.

CLANG!

Two Lances of the Void collided in mid-air and annihilated each other. Michael turned his head in surprise. Kiana’s right eye was no longer blue; it had turned a bright gold.

The features on the right side of her face twisted into a manic expression. She suddenly threw her head back and shouted.

"Hahaha! Finally... I finally have this body... Ugh... Are you nuts? Who the hell are you... Hahaha, you even forgot me? Don’t you remember the dreams? Hahahaha!"

The two personalities, each controlling half of her face, began to argue, oblivious to everything else around them. Until Michael spoke.

"It seems you’ve recovered faster than I expected, Sirin."

Sirin’s laughter died in her throat. Her golden eye went wide. She looked at Michael, her voice wavering, uncertain...

"That voice... so familiar... you... you... you are..."

"Long time no see, my child."

"My Lord!"

"Well then, as a reunion gift, I shall bestow upon you... no, to be precise, I shall return to you the power I once gave you."

"Don’t!"

This time, it was Kiana who shrieked, but it was too late.

Michael’s hand tore through Mei’s chest, pulled out a purple gemstone, and shoved it into Kiana’s body.