Honkai Impact 3: Deadwood

Finally, after several minutes of extreme torment and fear, the fire suppression from distant humans stopped.

The captain put away the alarms in his tactical eyepiece that kept reporting low energy and overheated equipment. After almost using up all the ammunition and energy storage in the backpack behind him, he loosened the joystick in his hand and manually disconnected the armor from the "Great Wall" backpack.

Without even glancing at the backpack behind him that was still emitting heat waves to dissipate heat, the captain walked slowly and with extremely heavy steps towards the "Hersher of the Sky" who was kneeling on the ground in the distance and gasping for breath.

He raised his left hand, and the "Key of Domination" named "Zhanlu" immediately flew out from the rainstorm again.

By swinging his right hand, the "Trace of Nothingness" that had been basically charged by absorbing the energy of the "Moon Center" armor itself appeared silently in the hand of its owner.

Even though the armor on his body never stopped healing this body, at this moment, the boy's heterochromatic eyes could hardly see anything.

The body's functions had already exceeded the limit, and the existence of the limbs had long been almost unfeeling. No strength could be squeezed out of the broken body. Only the pain brought by "collapse" was still tormenting the captain's body.

But all of this will not have any impact on what he is going to do now.

“Ha, hahaha…what a joke…” Xilin, leaning on the ground with her hands in the heavy rain, looked at the reflection of her pale face in the rain and let out a dazed laugh.

"I am God's messenger... God gave me the power to take revenge on the filthy human beings. God can't be wrong, and I, who was chosen by God, can't be wrong either!"

"Celine..."

At this moment when all the smoke and flames of war are about to subside, and all the hatred and tears are about to dissipate, the boy's voice once again returns to its usual sincerity and tenderness:

"This world never needs any gods."

"..."

After hearing this, Xilin did not respond for a long time. After a while, she raised her head and looked at the young man holding the sword in front of her with a little helplessness.

"Dream...it's time to wake up, Xilin."

The boy's tone sounded so gentle, but what he said were extremely cold words to Xilin.

"I don't want to... I don't want to... If I lose my power... I will have to go back to that cold place... I don't want to go back!"

The white-haired "God" cried and roared, struggling with his hands and arms on the ground, crawling backwards, completely unaware of how funny, how embarrassed... and how pitiful he looked at the moment.

"I don't want to... be tortured by those hypocritical humans anymore. I don't want to be deceived by them anymore. I don't want to stay alone in this rotten world!!"

"Yes, you are right... In this world, there is always jealousy, hypocrisy, deception, and betrayal. No matter what era it is, these bad qualities never seem to completely disappear from human beings."

"Then why are you still protecting them? Why are you protecting those humans who are not worthy of your protection?!" Crawling on the ground trying to escape, Xilin turned around and roared at the only human she ever wanted to rely on and trust.

"That's because these things are not all that humans have. Kindness, gentleness, compassion, sympathy, courage... Humans also have many beautiful qualities that are worth protecting."

"You're lying. I've never seen anything like what you said!!"

“…Even if I saw him, what would happen?”

The captain's tone suddenly turned cold.

"...?"

"You only see revenge and destruction. Even if you really saw the beauty of the so-called non-existent human beings, would you really take another look at that thing?"

"Of course I know that kind of thing...!"

"Of course you will look at it with disdain and destroy it, right? Because it's all fake and hypocritical."

"Right! What's wrong with that!? That's how humans have always treated me!"

"No..." The captain shook his head, denying it with some disappointment.

"You're just afraid. Afraid that such a thing really exists, and afraid that you'll find out that you're the one who made the mistake in the end."

"What did you say?"

"Xilin... those who have hurt you and deceived you no longer exist. How far can your fire of revenge burn? Using the power given to you by the gods you talk about to ravage and trample on countless lives that have nothing to do with this and are just working hard for the little beauty they want to protect, is this really... what you want?"

"I……!"

The girl was choked by the captain's words and lowered her head, but she immediately raised her head and glared at the human in front of her: "What do you know! You act like you understand me very well, don't disgust me! It's because you have always lived in an environment where you are cared for and surrounded by others that you can say those words without changing your expression, right!?"

"..."

"You haven't suffered the deception and pain that I have. You just happened to meet me in that tower, and then you felt pity for me and saved me hypocritically to satisfy your sympathy that has been living in the love of everyone and has nowhere to release! Do you think you are being merciful? How ridiculous, what do you have...!?"

No one knew why Xilin suddenly stopped cursing at this moment.

Maybe she realized how harsh her words were to the human being in front of her who had always treated her sincerely...

Maybe she saw the sad, regretful, yet gentle expression on the human face in front of her...

Maybe...both...

No... that's not what she wanted to say...

Xilin realized this deeply in her heart.

"Even if I am such a hypocritical person in your eyes, I still want to protect them, protect the lives that I think are worth protecting. Even if I will be betrayed by them in the end, I still want to try to trust them."

"That's...stupid, why...?"

The captain originally thought that what he would get was only the girl's ridicule, but he didn't expect that after that casual ridicule, Xilin couldn't help but ask another question.

The captain, who noticed this subtle change, smiled and answered the girl's confusion with words full of sincerity.

"Because... I am also a human being, Xilin. Showing kindness to people you don't know, are not familiar with, and don't know whether they are good or bad, don't you think this is also one of the good qualities that humans possess?"

"..."

The noisy sound of rain and occasional thunder replaced the conversation between the two people who had been in silence for a long time, and they freely expressed their voices on this land.

After getting the answer from the human, the girl first lowered her head in silence, then raised her head and laughed wildly, as if only this could provide some comfort to her violently shaken heart.

“Hahahaha…hahaha…hahahahahaha! How… stupid! Why would I have any hope for such a stupid human like you…I’m really crazy…”

The girl laughed loudly, climbed out of the rainstorm, and staggered towards the golden hole that formed behind her.

"I don't want to... listen to you... I don't want to... be deceived again... Just wait, next time, I will definitely destroy you... and this world that only deceives me. By then... there will be nothing to protect you... Where else can you go except to my side... Hehehe..."

Xilin squeezed out a few stiff laughs from her choked throat, as if to make a final cover for her heart.

But that last fig leaf was ruthlessly torn away by the words slowly spoken by the young man behind her.