"Abyss Flower..."
The words that followed...
Su gritted his teeth, about to speak, but Mobius cut him off again:
"Yes, Abyss Flower. It's the only tool that can do what you want. In fact, fifty thousand years ago, I personally witnessed your Schariac ancestor achieve this. But precisely because of that, on this point, we are powerless to help."
"What does that mean?"
Mobius closed her eyes and shook her head, as if recalling some unbearable past.
"It means that to achieve this, you must completely unleash the Abyss Flower's rated output. But a Divine Key's rated output isn't achieved just by inputting a certain amount of Honkai Energy. Depending on the user's compatibility with the Divine Key, the effects of the rated output will vary. And the only person I've ever seen who could truly and completely unleash the Abyss Flower's rated output, restoring life to an area hundreds of kilometers in radius, was one person."
"The Schariac... ancestor..." Eleanor murmured.
"Correct! But there's no prize. In fact, even if Su and I used the Abyss Flower's rated output sequentially, it wouldn't have much effect. To save this place, there are only two ways. First, find that guy Michael and have him use the Abyss Flower. Second, both of you carry Schariac blood and thus possess Schariac Stigmata. If one of you can awaken the power of the Stigmata, awaken the will of the Stigmata, it might be possible to momentarily replicate the Abyss Flower's authority."
"And the price?"
Mobius didn't answer, her gaze shifting between Eleanor and Kallen.
Su also remained silent, merely setting Eleanor down and then standing beside Mobius again.
Some things didn't need to be spelled out; silence spoke volumes.
"I'll do it!"
"I'll do it!"
After a brief two or three seconds, Kallen and Eleanor simultaneously grasped the Abyss Flower.
"Tch! You woman, why do you have to fight me for everything!"
"Step aside, Eleanor. I was supposed to die today anyway. As for you, what are you getting involved for?"
"In the name of Schariac, the Abyss Flower belongs to my family!"
"In the name of Kaslana, sacrificing ourselves to save the world is our Kaslana responsibility!"
"Damn it, I went through all that trouble to get someone to save you! There's no way I'm letting you die in front of me!"
As their words fell, the two women, who had been at odds for over a decade, suddenly looked at each other and smiled. All the past unpleasantness seemed insignificant at this moment.
They, of course, understood what using the Abyss Flower entailed. Just as countless generations of Kaslana ancestors had sacrificed themselves by unleashing the Judgment of Shamash, Schariac ancestors were not without precedent of having their life force drained by the Abyss Flower.
But for them, saving this land and the people on it was something they, as Valkyries, had to do. Retreat was not an option. Since they could only move forward, and the two had been competing for over a decade anyway, let this final time determine the outcome—
"Alright then, let's have a competition. Whoever awakens that... whatever it is... Stigmata will, first..."
"Then you're bound to lose."
"Hmph! You only have a quarter Schariac blood in you, what makes you think you can be faster than me!"
Su silently watched everything unfold. Mobius's voice sounded by his ear:
"What, if you can't bear it, just leave first. Leave this to me. I'd be quite happy to send that woman's descendant off."
Su shook his head.
"I also have things I can still do—Hey, you two, listen to me."
Su took a step forward. He tried his best to suppress his voice, as if smoothing out every wrinkle and ripple on his vocal cords, yet when he spoke, his voice still carried an almost imperceptible tremor:
"I can help you connect with the will of the Schariac Stigmata. I will have her work in that direction. This can at least greatly increase your chances of success... Of course, this is all I can do."
"Something like this... I understand. Thank you."
Kallen's eyebrows rose slightly. She looked at Eleanor with some surprise. For the latter to offer thanks so softly was, in any case, a bit abnormal...
And... thinking about it carefully, there was some regret. If the two of them could have opened up to each other like this a few years earlier, perhaps they would be very, very good friends now, it wasn't impossible.
But then she felt like laughing. What was missed was missed, but for the other to seek help from others to save her, who had been sentenced to death... that was actually enough.
"I understand too. What do we do next?"
Su slowly closed his eyes. "Close your eyes, like me, and then concentrate. That's all."
...
"Gurgle... Gurgle gurgle..."
When the young girl first opened her eyes, she was still a little drowsy. Her eyes were painfully sore, and her head felt partially empty. She gently shook her head; her brain sloshed around inside her skull, making her dizzy and pained.
Not a big deal, she had just accidentally slept a little too long.
But then again, the Sea of Quanta didn't belong to the real number world, nor did it have the dimension of time. The actual time she had spent asleep, relative to time passed in the real number world, might have been even longer.
"Again... It's like this again..."
The young girl rubbed her face, finally slumping back onto the ornate red sofa, defeated.
Everything within sight was deathly still. There wasn't a speck of light, nor any sound.
"Sigh..."
The girl's own sigh echoed in her ears. She waved her hand. The scales on the coffee table beside her tilted as if one end had been pressed down, then bobbed up and down under inertia, emitting a harsh metallic scraping sound.
"Let me think, where should I go this time?"
There was still no light in the darkness, only in the girl's eyes did different lives in different Bubble Universes appear.
But after a good while, she finally closed her eyes, her whole body slumping back into the seat, devoid of even the slightest desire to move.
Countless Bubble Universes existed in the Sea of Quanta, yet the girl was not located in any anchored Bubble Universe. Due to her special existence, her true location was the "medium" of the Sea of Quanta, or to put it more vividly—soaking in seawater.
It sounded a bit terrifying, but for her, it was like a fish in water. This also allowed her to capture passing Bubble Universes. Of course, capturing wasn't for destruction; she merely projected her consciousness and body into them, bearing the name "Seele," to experience the life she would have lived in another, long-destroyed parallel world.
Initially, it was very interesting. Although the streets and scenery were largely similar to her original world, and so were the people, there were still considerable differences. Coupled with different lives and different destinies, it was enough for her to obtain the "necessity" of being alive—novelty.
And this was also the reason why, fifty thousand years ago, she had resolutely decided to go to, or rather, return to the Sea of Quanta.
The life of "Seele" in her native world had ended. Born as a Stigmata existence, and unable to die, she could only seek novelty in the Sea of Quanta to please herself.
But... fifty thousand years. Yes, if time was stretched to fifty thousand years, long enough to experience thousands of such journeys, then there was no novelty left to speak of.
And yet... and yet, the most damnable thing was, she couldn't contact... nor could she return to her native world.
Hmm, don't misunderstand. Being unable to return to her native world had nothing to do with losing contact with Michael... Okay, there was some connection. For example, because she didn't know Michael's situation, even if she returned to her native world, without a suitable Stigmata awakener, she would just be moving from one cage to another.
It was just that, the cage of the Sea of Quanta at least had some amusement, while over there... once she returned, before a new Stigmata awakener appeared, it would be a true cage.
"So troublesome... Maybe I should sleep a bit longer. If I sleep longer, forget a bit more about the past, maybe I'll get interested in those Bubble Universes again?"
The girl's head leaned back against the soft sofa. For her, falling asleep should have been an extremely easy thing, even if she had just woken up and was going back to sleep... Or rather, precisely because she hadn't been awake for long, it should be easier to fall asleep quickly, right?
But her head turned to the left, then to the right, back and forth, yet she just couldn't reach the tranquility she desired.
"Tch! Is it like last time again? Damn it... I knew I shouldn't have listened to Su!"
That's right, the insomnia had started before she fell asleep last time. Last time, she had tossed and turned, struggling for a long time, just to obtain this brief moment of peace. And that was right after Su contacted her and briefly told her everything that had happened fifty thousand years ago.
"Aaaaargh! Su is an idiot! Brother is an idiot too! They're all idiots... Liars!"
Seele leaped up from her seat. Two giant red claws, complete with chains, extended from her hands. An inexplicable rage welled up in her heart, making her wish she could fight a Quantum Shadow.
But the reality was so mocking. In the past, when she returned from a Bubble Universe and wanted to rest well, annoying Quantum Shadows would always come to bother her. Now that she wanted to tear a few Quantum Shadows apart to vent her anger, those guys were hiding and wouldn't appear!
"Hm?"
It felt as if her head had been lightly patted, and then it was as if a thread had been connected to the back of her head—this sensation wasn't unfamiliar to her, as she had experienced it not long ago.
Then, unsurprisingly, Su's voice sounded in her mind:
"Seele?"
"It's me, who else could it be? Spit it out, I'm in a hurry to sleep!"
"I'm afraid I can't talk for long either. I'm currently using the Sumeru Mustard Seed constructed by the Thousand Worlds One Thought to shorten the distance to you and maintain mental communication. But the Thousand Worlds One Thought just performed a long-distance teleportation, and the Sumeru Mustard Seed will also enter a period of instability..."
"Then hurry up and get to the point!"
Su's voice on the other end went silent for a while. It was unclear whether it was as Su said, because the Thousand Worlds One Thought had run out of energy and entered an unstable state, or if he was simply organizing his words.
"Heh... Then I'll be brief. There's a problem in the native world. Michael and Kevin had a fight, and the destruction caused was a bit extensive... So..."
"You need my power, right? Abyss Flower, and a Stigmata awakener who inherited his bloodline. Without these two conditions, my power cannot be projected into the native world. Of course, there is another way, but if he were by your side, you wouldn't need me; he could do it himself."
"Yes, that's right. We have Abyss Flower, of course. And we have Stigmata awakeners with Schariac... with his bloodline, two of them, in fact. Of course, they haven't fully awakened their Stigmata yet, so they need your power to help even more. But... if possible, please try to leave them some life force. They are still young girls..."
Seele's lips twitched, swallowing back some harsh words. She asked one last question:
"So, how large is the affected area? The scope of their battle couldn't have been small, right?"
"Ah... About three hundred kilometers in diameter."
"Wait... How much?"
"Three hundred kilometers. Diameter."
"..."
"What's wrong? Seele? Can't you do it?"
"..."
"Seele?"
"I'll give it a try. I don't know if I can do it, but you should prepare a backup plan."
"A backup... plan? Meaning, besides this, there are other ways?"
"Well, after all, to gain something, you must first give something, just like a car needs fuel to start. And for something like Abyss Flower, the best nourishment is—blood inherited from him. Back then, when brother restored life to the underground city in an instant, the help I provided was minimal. What he paid the most was his own blood.
"However, it's fortunate that you prepared two Stigmata awakeners with his bloodline. Although I don't know the general situation, I imagine that after so many years, his bloodline has been greatly diluted. To truly achieve that, one person's blood might not be enough."
"Thump—"
Su's heart almost completely stopped beating at that moment.
He also knew that restoring life to such a large area of land, and healing all the survivors on that land, would inevitably come at a huge cost. But the phrase "draining life force," sounded somewhat... somewhat hopeful that the person wielding Abyss Flower might survive.
But although Seele hadn't said it explicitly, her meaning was perfectly clear—all of that was just Su's wishful thinking. People were really going to die.
Or perhaps, if one looked at it with absolute rationality, the price they had to pay wasn't that high.
After all, what they could save were the lives of hundreds of thousands, or even more, people.
"Hah..."
Su let out a light breath. Just then, an extraordinarily dazzling light flashed in the sky, two consecutive bursts, one purple and one white.
But when the few people present looked up at the moon, which still obscured half the sunlight, they saw nothing.
"What was that just now..." Kallen couldn't help but ask, only to be ruthlessly interrupted by Eleanor:
"It doesn't matter! Our ancestors have things they want to achieve, reasons they must fight for. We don't understand them, nor can we understand them. As their descendants, we either grow to be as great as them and learn the truth of the world, or, like now... atone for the mistakes they made."
After saying this, Eleanor acted as if nothing had happened and was the first to close her eyes. Kallen did the same.
"Atone..."
Su chewed on the word but didn't correct it.
Perhaps, being born a Kaslana and a Schariac was itself a kind of sin. It was just that the sin wasn't their own, but like the Son of God destined to carry the cross, it was the sin of all humanity, clinging to them, unremovable.
Su turned his head. Mobius's figure had disappeared. It seemed she didn't intend to watch the scene before her unfold... Or perhaps, she already knew the outcome.
Thinking this, Su also felt like leaving.
He no longer needed to be here. The two young girls before him were talented enough. If given time, they might truly be able to fully awaken the complete power of the Kaslana and Schariac Stigmata.
What a pity.
But it was precisely this talent that made Su believe they could establish a connection with Seele and draw power from there.
Well then, his mission was also complete. It was time to leave.
No psychologically normal human would enjoy witnessing death firsthand, right? Moreover, the people walking towards death in front of him were not entirely unrelated to him.
But...
Su still didn't leave. Compared to the pain of witnessing death, the fact that these two girls could pay the price for what they truly wanted to do, by their own will—among the countless deaths Su had seen, this could be called a sweet death.
Su stared blankly ahead, watching the outlines of the girls' bodies begin to glow with a red light, similar to Stigmata, and watching their life force being continuously drained by the Abyss Flower, until thorns sprouted from the spear shaft, pierced the girls' palms, and began to frantically draw their blood.
Blood flowed down the spear, staining the ground a patch of red, but that vibrant red soon disappeared—replaced by a sea of pure white flowers.
The wind and snow gradually subsided. In the endless sea of lilies, a single white spear stood forlornly. At first glance, it looked like someone had dropped an umbrella, but upon closer inspection, it resembled a blooming flower.
The corners of Su's mouth twitched twice, and finally, a not-too-ugly smile appeared:
"It truly is a sweet death."