How long had he been falling?
Lin felt as though half an hour had passed as he plummeted through this void, unable to tell if he was falling downward or floating upward.
In the Sea of Quanta, the concept of time is blurred. Perhaps only thirty seconds had passed, or perhaps three days. He did not know if he would fall forever.
The light of the spear thrust into his chest had faded at some point. Within that sea of blood, the struggling and roaring Rainbow Eyes—the "He" who could have completely seized this body while Lin was extremely weak—had been bound once more by golden chains, sinking toward the deepest abyss of the crimson ocean.
Suddenly, a fragment drifted before him, revealing a scene within.
A pure white wedding dress fluttered gently in the wind that stirred ripples across the lake.
He reached out his hand, wanting to touch something.
But the moment his fingers made contact, the fragment vanished.
...
"You were living here so well, why the sudden checkout? You've been here for over two years—is there a problem with the apartment?"
"How could there be? It's just that I've stayed here long enough; it's time to move on. I only intended to stay in the Far East temporarily, I never expected to stay so long." The girl placed the keys in the landlord's hand. She smiled, like the wind disturbing falling blossoms. "Thank you for taking such good care of me all this time. I've left most of the things in the room; please use them as you wish."
"I didn't do much for you. Usually, it was you and Lin looking after me... speaking of which, where is that boy? Why did he let you move everything by yourself?"
"He..."
"Did you have a fight?"
The girl paused, then shook her head with a smile. "No."
"That's good. I've watched you two live here for over two years. That boy is decent, just a bit of a strange personality. If you two get married in the future, remember to invite me."
"Haha, I definitely will~"
The girl bid farewell to the landlord, shouldered her small bag, and set out on her journey once again.
Accompanied by flying flowers and birdsong, she stepped into the refreshing breeze, walking along the paths of the past.
"Taxi! Taxi!"
Settling into the car, she let out a long sigh of relief. The driver turned his head and looked at her in shock. "It's you?"
"Hello there~ Mr. Driver~"
The girl waved with a smile. The driver sized up her outfit and the bag on her back. "You... you're leaving?"
"Yes, I'm planning to head to Shenzhou." The girl took out her plane ticket and plotted a route in her little notebook. "And then to Australia..."
"Just by yourself?"
"That's right."
"What about that young man?"
"..."
The girl did not answer. She took out the photo album she was meant to give to someone, flipping through it page by page until she reached the very last one.
There was no photo on this page, only a letter with two words.
She looked out the window, lost in thought.
"He..."
She looked back, her smile radiant.
"He must be by the side of people who love him just as much."
...
Splash...
The salty sting of seawater filled her nose and airway, making her choke and cough.
...Choke and cough?
She snapped her eyes open and bolted upright. Sitting on the sand in disbelief, she watched the surging tide. She touched her chest; the skin was flawless and smooth as jade, with no trace of injury.
What was happening? Wasn't she already dead?
"My, my. Although your march toward death was quite moving—so much so that I didn't know if I should save you or not." An irreverent voice rang out nearby. "But you are, after all, someone I spent so much time looking for. It seemed a bit of a waste to just throw you away. If you had actually left with him, I wouldn't have known what to do."
He playfully wagged his index fingers, pointing them at Yama, who had narrowed her eyes. "In the end, you really did feel something, didn't you? You planned to leave with him? One second you're fighting to the death, wishing to grind each other into meat, and the next he asks if you'll go with him... what is that? Is that romance between the same person from different worlds?"
"Come to think of it, if you two had a child, what would it even be..."
"What exactly did you do?"
Yama voice, cold enough to drop the surrounding temperature, interrupted his self-amusement. He stopped his dancing and met her gaze, rubbing his chin. "Can't you tell? I saved you."
However, that answer was not what Yama wanted.
"You said you wouldn't interfere in this matter."
"Eh? Did I say that? Aiyaya, have some sympathy for an old man tens of thousands of years old; sometimes I just forget." He curled his lips into a smirk, speaking nonchalantly. "But then again, I did promise not to interfere during the event. I never said I wouldn't do something after it ended. The matter between you two is finished, so naturally, I can save you."
His flippancy made the look in Yama eyes even more hostile, but he acted as if he didn't see it, waving his hand with his back turned to her.
"Since you're alive, it's time to start our work."
"Wait. Did you do something to that guy too?"
"..."
His head slowly turned back. The movement was excruciatingly slow, as if filmed at a fraction of normal speed.
It was a simple movement, yet it was filled with a non-human wrongness—like a puppet twisting its head 180 degrees, an anomaly so disturbing it made one want to scream.
"Don't worry, I won't do anything to him. After all, he is your backup. Have you ever seen me do anything to you?" His gentle smile was like a programmed routine; though it looked normal, it only projected a sense of coldness. "It's just... didn't you enjoy having him live with a beautiful girl? Perfect. I'll send him to live with another beautiful girl for a while. What do you think?"
The tense atmosphere vanished instantly. For a moment, Yama was simply trying to process the meaning of his words.
Then, she understood.
"..."
"Hahaha, don't look at me like that. Admit it, admit it. Even the iron-hearted Lin... or rather, Yama-Chan, can get jealous. As long as it's not something you arranged, you..."
"Shut up."
...
His body felt so heavy.
The wounds weren't healing. Was it because the Pseudo-Herrscher Core had been sealed even deeper? But he had already lost too much blood. If this continued...
He forced his eyes open, but what he saw disappointed him.
He seemed to be in the middle of a grassland. No buildings, no people. As far as the eye could see, there was only waist-high grass.
"Cough, cough..."
Lin tried to prop himself up, but even without the sensation of pain, his body had reached its limit. He fell back to the ground, his consciousness gradually stripping away from his physical form.
"That person lying over there... couldn't be a human, could it?"
At the very end, he heard those words.