The light dissipated, and the surrounding environment rapidly returned to normal. The ground, which had previously lost all structural support, gradually solidified. With a burst of exertion, Kallen pulled herself out of the floor tiles.
Seeing Kallen break free, Yae Sakura, who had been preparing to exert force, relaxed her hands. She raised her head and looked at Kallen.
Kallen patted the dust off her body. Upon looking up, she met Yae Sakura's gaze seeking assistance. Seeing that the other party had not yet emerged from the ground, she walked over without hesitation and pulled Yae Sakura out.
"Are you alright, Sakura?"
"I am fine, Kallen." Yae Sakura shook her head, then looked at Kallen somewhat entranced. "Kallen... I never thought I would be able to see you again."
Hearing Yae Sakura's words, Kallen shook her head. "No, I am sorry, Sakura. I am not your Kallen..."
"What do you mean?" Yae Sakura was stunned for a moment. Although she had heard Kallen say this during the battle, they were in the midst of combat at that time, and her mind was filled with thoughts of how to assist Kallen, so she hadn't thought about it in detail.
"It is like this: I am not the Kallen from this world, but rather..." Kallen organized her words. These settings had been explained to them by Irene.
But now, having to relay this matter to Yae Sakura might not be such an easy task.
"Sea of Quanta? What does that mean?" Yae Sakura looked completely bewildered, as expected. She didn't understand what Kallen was saying at all. It wasn't even a matter of recognizing the words;
It was that she didn't quite understand the meaning of any of it. The only thing she could slightly comprehend was the "sea" that Kallen had mentioned when describing where her home was after Yae Sakura had saved her in the past.
As for the other words and the things they represented, it was simply too difficult for a shrine maiden who had lived her entire life in a mountain village and never ventured out to understand.
As for the Herrscher of Corruption, she wasn't kindhearted enough to give Yae Sakura a lecture on general knowledge.
Just as Kallen was racking her brain, Yae Sakura shook her head. "It doesn't matter. You do not need to explain, Kallen. No matter what, Kallen is Kallen. As long as Kallen can survive, that is enough."
"Sakura... Oh, right, let me introduce you..." Kallen was just about to turn her head to introduce Irene to Yae Sakura when she discovered that Irene and her group were stuck in the ground, squinting at her.
"Ah, there is absolutely no need to mind us." Seeing Kallen turn around, Irene squinted her eyes and shook her head. "You guys continue, continue."
Irene had originally wanted to make some gesture, but there was nothing she could do; her hands were currently stuck in the ground. When the Herrscher of Corruption was preparing to drag them into the dark side of the Stigmata,
She happened to still be fighting the Corrupted Puppets. She didn't react in time; the ground beneath her feet lost its firmness, and the hands she subconsciously used to support herself sank directly in.
Before she could pull her hands out, Kallen's chains swung over and fixed her in place immediately. Then came Rin's ultimate move, and the ground returned to normal, leaving her no time to pull her hands out.
Of course, she wasn't in the most awkward position. That honor belonged to Theresa, whom she was protecting. Because she was short, she sank the fastest, and now only her head and half a shoulder remained above ground.
The Cat was actually in the best situation; only her legs were stuck. She had originally been digging at the dirt, but stopped after seeing the interaction between Kallen and Yae Sakura.
After all, Sister Kallen was ignoring them completely, just caring about chatting with Yae Sakura. This kind of thing was simply too mean. Because it was too mean, the Cat decided to stare at them with intensity.
"Sorry, sorry." Kallen wore an awkward expression as she hurriedly stepped forward to help everyone escape their predicament. She then turned to look at the spot where the Herrscher of Corruption had just been.
And there, only a black box floating in the air remained—identical to the black box she had taken from Schicksal back then.
"But is it okay on Miss Rin's side? Did Miss Rin just reseal herself and the Herrscher of Corruption, or?"
"No, I think she is serious this time. It is definitely not just a seal." Irene shook her head. "I can feel an intense collision happening inside the box."
"Feel?" Theresa patted the dust off her body and looked at Irene with some curiosity. "Irene, can you feel what is happening inside?"
"Mn, I have a special method to feel it." Irene nodded. Perhaps it was because she had previously connected to Rin through the Palace of Consciousness.
She had established a certain link with Rin, and she seemed to be able to sense a certain resolve coming from her.
"What exactly is Rin intending to do?" Pardo looked at the black box with worry. Just as she was about to reach out and touch it, a crack appeared on the surface of the black box, followed by another.
"Did Rin fail?" Seeing the cracks revealed on the black box, Kallen immediately raised Judah. Just as she was about to do something, the black box exploded directly.
Amidst the brilliant white light, Rin's figure emerged from within. With a smile on her face, she looked at everyone: "Hi, hi. Thank you all so much for stalling for so long, giving me the time to complete what I wanted to do."
"If Rin says that, does that mean you won?" Pardo let out a sigh of relief. Just as she wanted to offer congratulations, she realized that Rin's figure seemed to be gradually dimming, even becoming transparent.
"Rin, your body?!"
"It is fine, Sister Pardo." Rin shook her head. "This is merely something I must do."
—————— A Few Minutes Ago ——————
"Fire Moth!" The Herrscher of Corruption stared tightly at that emblem. Throughout the boundless time of the seal, every time she recalled that emblem, her hatred for it deepened by a layer.
Even with her eyes closed, she could draw an identical one, as if it were carved into her bones.
"You coward. What do you intend to do by bringing me here?!" The Herrscher of Corruption turned her head, looking at Rin, who was wearing a simple outfit completely unlike the previous miko robes.
"Mn, I just wanted to chat with the other me, that's all." Rin looked at the Herrscher of Corruption with a smile. "It is very quiet here, isn't it? It was really too noisy just now."
"I don't want to chat with you!" The Herrscher of Corruption didn't buy Rin's act at all. Raising a sharp claw, she moved to tear Rin to shreds. Compared to her, Rin was simply a child facing a wild beast.
There was no way Rin could resist her in such a confined space.
But as the sharp claw swept past, it was like sweeping through a ghost; no wounds appeared on Rin's body. Instead, a wound appeared on the Herrscher of Corruption's own body.
"You..."
"You can't do that. The current me is one with you. Harming me is equivalent to harming yourself." Rin looked at the Herrscher of Corruption and smiled. "So, let us just chat."
"What exactly do you want to do?" The Herrscher of Corruption looked at Rin. "You spent so much effort, and the result is just to merge with me? If you had said so earlier, I would have eaten you before."
"Ah, that would not be good." Rin made an 'X' gesture in front of her chest. "Besides, what I want to do is not to merge with you, so naturally I couldn't agree to that."
"So just put away your claws. No matter what, this is our end."
"It is her end." The Herrscher of Corruption retracted her claws and turned her head away. Following her gaze, a corpse hidden in the darkness, covered in various wounds, appeared in their field of vision.
"The end of a coward."
"Wow, your evaluation of ourselves is really harsh." Rin walked over, bending down to stroke her own corpse. "In what way were we cowards?"
"You know it yourself. We clearly had countless ways to leave. As long as we asked Elder Sister for help, we would never have encountered this situation. It was she herself who held onto that trust which was completely unnecessary, that got herself killed."
"Ah, you really do miss Elder Sister too, don't you?" Rin looked at the Herrscher of Corruption and smiled. "Is that why you lent your power to Yae Sakura?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" The Herrscher of Corruption looked at Rin. "How could I lend power to Yae Sakura for such a boring reason?"
"Then why revenge?" Rin looked at the Herrscher of Corruption with a smile. "Clearly, it would have been fine just to have Elder Sister Yae Sakura break the seal. Why lend her power?"
"You even took Elder Sister Yae Sakura as a host, turning her into a Pseudo-Herrscher. And why did she look so much like Elder Sister? Was it really that coincidental?"
"...Truly a boring discussion." The Herrscher of Corruption turned her head.
At this moment, outside, the soldiers who thought they had killed another great Scourge of humanity were originally preparing to celebrate.
But after bragging to each other for only a few sentences, those few soldiers suddenly clutched their throats. Their bodies began to turn white starting from their fingertips, and the sounds coming from their throats were reduced to meaningless low roars.
Finally, they suddenly collapsed. The clothes originally propped up by robust bodies slumped down in an instant, turning into a pile of flying ash.
"Every time I recall this moment, my mood becomes a little more refreshed." The Herrscher of Corruption stood inside the cage, looking at those soldiers lying on the ground outside.
She did not wonder why she remembered these things. Because Rin had died long ago; she died the moment she was killed by these soldiers. People die when they are killed; this is a very natural thing.
And she was merely born after Rin's death, born from the Authority of the Herrscher of Corruption—a virus that replicated Rin's consciousness.
Because at that time, she had already begun to drift out from Rin's corpse, which had been brutally murdered by these soldiers, taking revenge on everyone in the entire base.
As for Rin, this coward, she was merely a consciousness preserved because of the Herrscher Core. But regarding the grasp of authority, she was far inferior to her. Apart from lingering on inside the core panting for breath, she could do nothing.
The entire Fire Moth base sounded deafening alarms at this moment. Countless Mechs in standby or on patrol activated rapidly, searching for the Honkai disaster that might have appeared.
And their first choice of target was the most likely source of Honkai in this base, which was Rin's cell.
But in the next moment, the originally azure indicator lights suddenly turned red. All the units ceased operation in an instant. After a while, they turned one after another and began to destroy the entire base. The revenge of Corruption had begun.
And at this time, a flurry of urgent footsteps sounded in the base. Listening to those urgent footsteps, both Rin and the Herrscher of Corruption understood very well who was coming.
At this time, there was only one person who would come here.
"Because of your cowardice, you died a wretched death without a burial place." The Herrscher of Corruption listened to the anxious footsteps coming from outside and understood who was coming. "With your abilities, you could have completely resisted Fire Moth's arrest."
"But you didn't. Your sister tried to take you away, but you refused, because you chose to trust Dr. MEI, to trust people. That even in the face of the Honkai, they could possess enough rationality to make the correct judgment."
Rin listened to the narration without choosing to pay attention to the Herrscher of Corruption's words, simply walking to the bars on her own. The Herrscher of Corruption also didn't care about Rin's silence at this moment; she knew who she was waiting for. She was the same.
With the sound of da da da, a young girl wearing ice-blue armor, looking exactly like Yae Sakura and wearing a face full of anxiety, ran over from the distance.
"You believed humans could restrain themselves." The Herrscher of Corruption stood in place looking at her own sister, watching Sakura's expression change from anxiety to fear. "But you were disappointed. So-called humans are not worth trusting at all."
"Not only that, you also made your sister see your corpse with her own eyes."
"Yes, I thought wrong, or perhaps I thought too simply." Rin floated over, wanting to wipe the tears from Sakura's face, watching her sister tear apart the iron bars of the prison with ease.
But she noticed her own corpse in the corner. The originally anxious face became lifeless in an instant.
"But our tragedy was ultimately caused by the Honkai."
"And then?" The Herrscher of Corruption looked at Rin. The bloody color on her body gradually became dim, and even began to display dots of white data, just like the Corruption virus Rin controlled.
Regarding what was happening to her body, the Herrscher of Corruption was not confused, because she had already discovered what Rin had done by gathering so much Honkai energy.
Rin had indeed merged with her, using the method of a virus, using Corruption to corrupt Corruption. And by the time she noticed, it was already too late.
But if it was like this, Rin wouldn't get any good outcome either. When Corruption clashes with Corruption, it only ends in a void. Neither side can persuade the other, leading to a final "one-key reset".
Of course, this had no impact on the Herrscher of Corruption's main body, or rather the Herrscher Core; it was merely performing a formatting.
After another period of time, gathering the fragments of both their consciousnesses, another Rin would be born from within the core. But how much that Rin would remember—only a genius would know.
It was precisely because of this that the Herrscher of Corruption was very confused: "Why do this? You dug up your own death just to stall for time?"
"Mn, I did have that thought." Rin nodded, then floated to Sakura's side, trying to touch her sister who was kneeling before her corpse with lifeless eyes.
"But more than that, I just wanted to see Elder Sister again before dying. And I wanted to tell you that our revenge is already over, and there is no need to continue resenting."
"The other me."
________________________________________
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