O Lord, are not your eyes upon the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return. — Bible, Old Testament
Humans are always obsessed with the truth. Even if it leads to self-destruction, they cannot stop their quest for knowledge.
To the rhythmic beat of footsteps that shook his heart, Lin arrived outside Einstein's room.
Today, the headquarters was strangely quiet—so quiet it felt like the place had become an empty shell and he had become the last person in the headquarters.
...No, it felt like he was the last person in the world.
Chiaki was responsible for collecting data on the manipulated system, while Lin investigated Einstein's room. This "Villain Alliance," which was actually a "Pretense Alliance," set out again after a few days to privately investigate the incident—to be precise, to find evidence.
Lin stopped in front of the door. he had timed his arrival perfectly. From his observations over the past few days, Kevin wouldn't come to Einstein's room during this period. He had plenty of time and Kevin's "tacit approval" to turn this room inside out.
But...
Why...
When Lin hand gripped the doorknob, a strange palpitation enveloped him. Time nearly stopped, as if in the next second...
What would happen in the next second?
This sudden, unexplainable throb was full of a sense of déjà vu.
At that time...
At the end of the "last time," when he woke up from that hell, he had felt the same inexplicable sense of abnormality.
Something viscous had wrapped around him, crushing him, suffocating him.
This was just an ordinary door. From the outside, it looked exactly like his own. No one was allowed to decorate their door except during permitted times and celebrations, so it looked plain. The doorknob, left unlocked for the convenience of the investigation, only needed a gentle twist to open. It was just a simple action of pushing the door and entering.
Yet, Lin felt as though he were opening Pandora's Box. As long as he opened this door, certain things he held onto would collapse.
Listen, "He" is laughing again.
Drip.
The sound of liquid falling onto the floor.
"Guh..."
The highly strained nerves caused some physiological changes in Lin. A distorted, discordant sound came from his throat.
Drip.
The sound of liquid falling onto the floor.
He seemed to see a crimson, viscous liquid constantly dripping down.
Drip, drop, splashing onto the floor.
Strange—how did he know it was crimson liquid?
After losing his sense of color, how could he immediately think of crimson liquid dripping?
In the first place, why did he have such an "imagination"?
His hand applied slight pressure and pushed the door open.
Why...
After that "sight" appeared, Lin would understand why.
He "should" understand why.
Drip.
Blue hair as dry as a haystack. From a throat brutally torn open, blood flowed along the blade of a bizarrely shaped long sword, then gathered at the hilt, slowly forming a globule...
Drip.
It struck the floor with a deafening sound, creating a splash of blood.
The dilated pupils could not focus, but in the final moment, she was still staring forward, as if to etch the person who killed her into her heart and take them to the boundless hell.
Dr. Einstein, who had disappeared several days ago, was now pierced through the neck by a weapon made by Vil-V, pinned to the wall. Her lifelessly hanging limbs looked like a prisoner on a stake, unable to struggle, unable to make any more movements.
The fading of life is irreversible.
Once consciousness completely leaves a frame, what remains is just a useless lump of meat made of aggregated cells.
Einstein had been killed.
Killed in her own room by that familiar sword.
Something called "liveliness" leapt into Lin mind, making a series of thoughts flash through his brain at this moment.
The investigation team found no abnormalities in Einstein's room. Einstein was stabbed to death in her room. Kevin hadn't discovered this glaringly obvious corpse. The blood of the corpse was still dripping...
Malice wrapped around Lin neck.
Shing—!!
A collision so sharp it felt like it would burst his eardrums made him want to scream. Shards of his broken helmet flew past his eyes. An "ERROR" sign appeared on the damaged visor.
Lin eyes widened, his pupils shrinking in this single second. His subconscious action of turning and drawing his dagger to block had saved his life.
A slender ice sword had collided with his dagger. As the scattering ice crystals hit his helmet, he saw the attacker standing at the end behind him.
"Whew..."
The exhaled breath sparkled with bits of frost in the air as it fell.
A head of short white hair—a marker that could not be replaced, and a feature Lin once used to identify a friend. Even now, having lost his sense of color, he could see that unchanging "pure white."
Yes. A pure white, like a blizzard.
Kevin now lowered his arm, which had projected the ice sword, and stared at the Lin whose helmet was half-destroyed with the gaze of a total stranger.
Were those still the eyes of a human?
No emotion could be seen, as if they were frozen by the severe cold in his body. No impurities, no hesitation—carrying everything of the Savior of Mankind and the strongest warrior.
Now, standing here with the same cold gaze he usually reserved only for Honkai beasts.
The traitor, Kevin.
Should Lin be relieved? His deduction wasn't wrong. Kevin was the traitor—an Consciousness Eroder who took pleasure in killing humans at the headquarters. Then Mei might also be another traitor.
But his body, which wasn't supposed to feel anything, sensed the "cold."
The last time, he destroyed the headquarters and would continue to destroy humanity. He was an enemy more terrifying than a Herrscher. His abilities surpassed the former Herrscher of Ice, his calm was beyond the Herrscher of Death, and his malice was the sum of all Herrschers combined.
So, facing such a former friend who had fallen into the demonic path, after his schemes and evil deeds were exposed, what should Lin do?
No words were needed. The friendship between these two, once talking about anything and everything, which had been teetering through countless events, finally met its end.
Lin turned and pulled the long sword out of Einstein's neck. The air pressure behind him suddenly closed in, and the surroundings instantly turned into an ice cellar!
Then, he bent his waist and ducked to the side. With astonishing control and flexibility, he barely dodged the attack that tore through the steel walls. A whip-kick carrying terrifying power struck Kevin's cheek—
BOOM!
The Fire Moth headquarters had fallen.