Honkai Impact 3: Deadwood

——October 2016, 10——

——05:55 in the morning——

"Are you ready, Chiyuan?"

"As you wish."

"So…"

The arms holding the swords felt heavy. This was no longer a matter of physical strength; it was a battle that relied purely on the will of the two men.

Waving the two swords in his hands, the captain took a step forward, but seeing the other party taking a step forward, Xilin couldn't help but take a step back.

Then, as if realizing that he was afraid of something as he retreated, his golden eyes stared at the human in front of him with even more angry flames.

Countless cold lights shot out from the holes around Xilin, and at the same time, humans in the distance jogged towards the sharp spears that were stabbing at them.

When the captain was about to be pierced by those sharp spears, he suddenly changed his pace and rushed to the right at a speed that could not be captured by the naked eye. Countless sharp spears followed the rain of flowers left by humans running on the path, piercing every inch of land that the captain stepped on.

The golden eyes of the Herrscher nervously captured the human's extremely swift figure, and she continuously shot sharp arrows of death from the holes. However, in just a blink of an eye, the opponent had already flashed into a distance that was fatal enough for her.

The captain rushed in front of Xilin and swung his arms. The two swords cut through the rain curtain and struck countless times on the space barrier they created at a speed that dazzled Xilin. Every strike made Xilin tremble.

Time and again, the purple barrier that symbolized the absolute defense of the "Herrser of the Sky" was cut into numerous cracks by the "Traces of Nothingness" in the captain's right hand, which also possessed spatial power, at high speed. Then, it was completely torn apart by the even more fierce attack from another sword in his left hand, named "Zhanlu", which was inserted into the sword dance.

The dancing of the two swords created sharp cyclones around the two people who were fighting fiercely in the rainstorm. The sword light in front of them, which was more fierce than the thunder, made Xilin retreat step by step in the close-range and high-speed fight.

Every time she tried to create distance, the opponent would take the lead and use his light body movements and precise sword moves to drag her into the abyss of close combat again.

"Damn it, he's just a dying human being!"

Xilin roared and shot out long and thin prisms from her fingertips. The captain applied a little force to his legs and rolled his body sideways to avoid this move that he was already familiar with.

As he landed, the captain took another big step forward, using the power of "space" to step on the void, and ran to the upper side of Xilin on the wall formed by imaginary numbers. Then, he swung the Zhanlu sword and shot out seven sword shadows, then fell at full speed on Xilin's head.

"What!?"

Xilin moved her steps randomly, twisted her body to avoid the sword shadows that pierced past her at high speed, and immediately opened a space barrier to block the sword that followed.

The pitch-black sword scraped purple sparks on the barrier. The captain, who failed to hurt Xilin, slashed with his sword several times again before his body hit the ground, cutting into the barrier that Xilin had urgently generated.

Then, the captain touched the ground with his toes and landed steadily. Then he lowered his body and slashed at Xilin's lower body. Xilin showed a very strenuous expression on her face. At the last moment when her legs were about to be cut off by the knife, she hid in the hole behind her and moved herself to a range of dozens of meters away.

"Humph, I won't let you escape!"

Seeing that the other party wanted to distance himself, Fu Hua, who was controlling a body together with his old friend, snorted coldly, stood up, turned around, exerted force, and swung the sword in one go. After turning his body around, he threw the ink-black sword in his left hand with all his strength towards Xilin's direction.

"?!"

Seeing that the sword blade flying in the rainstorm was about to pierce through her body, Xilin used the same trick again and opened a space barrier in front of her to forcibly block the sharp sword.

The captain in the distance leaped out again the moment he succeeded in slowing Xilin's steps with this sword, and rushed forward like a lightning bolt flying left and right in the rain, and with one sword he shattered the solid barrier that had been formed in front of Xilin for less than a second.

The sharp edge of the blade scratched Xilin's pretty face, leaving an inconspicuous scar on her face.

"you!!!"

Without waiting for Xilin to utter a curse, the captain grabbed the "Zhanlu Sword" hanging in the center of the shattered barrier and swung forward several times. By the time Xilin finally escaped by teleportation, she had several painful sword wounds on her body.

The power of the "Herrser of Death" took effect immediately, and all the wounds on Sirin's body were healed in the blink of an eye, but at the same time, the power in the two "Herrser Cores" in Sirin's body was also being continuously consumed.

"How is it possible... There is no time interval for switching between consciousness control. Two consciousnesses can actually control one body at the same time, and it is such a weak body..."

Xilin had no idea how this could happen. If the consciousness of two people were taking turns controlling the body, there should have been inevitable intervals of stagnation in the movement when switching. But in the series of battles just now, Xilin didn't see the man in front of her have any hesitation or flaws for a moment.

But if there was only one person's consciousness controlling that body throughout the whole process, then this completely flawless fighting technique would still make sense, but she couldn't have been suppressed so badly.

The kind of person who would always show different ways of coping to defuse her attacks, and at the same time use different sword skills to launch a targeted counterattack against her...

It was as if... as if those two were relying on their tacit understanding to control the same body and fight at the same time...

how can that be!

"That kind of thing... after seeing my memories, wouldn't you know what's going on?"

The young man swallowed the blood foam in his mouth, and after the blood on the corner of his mouth was washed away by the rain, he asked back to the "Hersher" who was in shock in the distance.

"…What?"

"Didn't you see it before? My memories of the past hundred years, even if it's only a hundred years, you should know how important this person who is fighting side by side with me in my body now is to me in my life!"

"What a joke!"

Her golden eyes trembled with anger. After listening to the boy's explanation, Xilin loudly refuted: "Does this mean she can just leisurely hide in your body? If your body dies, she will die with you!"

"So what?" The single red pupil emitted a little light.

"If this is his request, then I am willing to sacrifice my life for him. If it is to be with him, even if it makes me go to hell, I will never complain."

Thousands of years of companionship and longing have turned into the bond of cooperation at this moment, entangled by the fine thread made of time, allowing the two to cross countless days and nights and reach this day.

For Zhi and Fu Hua now, coordinating with the other person's consciousness to control the body is as natural and simple as breathing.

"…It may be only a hundred years for you, but for her and me, the time we have spent together is much longer than that. We have had conflicts and quarrels, and even hurt each other because of misunderstanding."

"But, despite this, I am still standing with him now. Even though I have deceived him, he still believes in me and cherishes me. In this body... I can feel this very clearly. Therefore, for him, I must bet everything I have."

"Whether now or in the future, we will move forward together..."

"For that..." / "For that..."

“The future we all look forward to!!”

The voices of the boy and the girl came out from the captain's throat at the same time. In a trance, Xilin seemed to see in the boy two human beings who had been baptized by countless years standing side by side.

All this only made her angry.