The sound of wind rang behind his head, and even the blizzard seemed to be kicked into pieces.
Su Jue, who had anticipated this, dodged sideways, and the pillar supporting the clock shattered with a loud bang. The shattered stones hit Su Jue's face, leaving several bloody marks.
If this continues, Su Jue has no chance of winning.
During the battle, neither of them had the habit of talking nonsense, only the howling blizzard cheered them on.
The wind and snow were getting stronger and stronger, and Su Jue could hardly open his eyes. But as he fought with Kiana more and more times, the opponent's attack moves gradually took shape in his mind.
Before the sound of a punch came, Su Jue already understood Kiana's movements.
He raised his right hand and blocked Kiana's fist at a precise angle. Under the other party's surprised gaze, he suddenly burst out at speed and crashed directly into Kiana's arms.
The power of his whole body suddenly exploded, and even Kiana, whose body was strengthened, was blown away by the impact and hit the pillar.
Looking at Su Jue who suddenly became stronger, a barely perceptible joy flashed in Kiana's eyes, and she continued to attack with greater force.
But it was obvious that Su Jue was more familiar with Kiana than she was with herself. He could predict most of her moves and resist those that he couldn't dodge. He relied on Kaslana's spear fighting skills and Taixu sword energy to continuously resolve the opponent's moves.
The towering clock tower stood in the storm, and the two people fighting on the top of the tower were like a double waltz performed in the storm, and every move was coordinated with each other tacitly.
As Kiana's remaining Honkai energy was consumed, her physical strength was rapidly decreasing, and before she knew it, she was no match for Su Jue.
Finally, Su Jue seized the opportunity and threw Kiana from behind, knocking her to the snow-covered ground.
Using the inertia of his body, he pressed her under him.
Kiana, whose strength was seriously depleted, wanted to get up, but was pinned down by Su Jue. Her eyes lit up, and a Sub-Sky Spear suddenly appeared behind Su Jue.
After several hours of fighting, Su Jue was unaware of anything.
……
The spear that had just taken shape turned into particles of light and disappeared, and Kiana's eyes dimmed.
It is enough.
The snowstorm seemed to understand the atmosphere and slowly stopped after the ending was revealed.
The only things left on the top of the tower were Su Jue holding down Kiana and the two's heavy breathing. The clock was ticking, and the Christmas lights in the distance had not yet gone out.
"Gu, kill me."
Kiana, who had already planned the ending, closed her eyes. As long as Su Jue killed her, her remaining Honkai energy could be transformed into power to maintain the illusion. In this way, even if Su Jue finally became a Herrscher, the trial would not fail.
Joyce's goal will not succeed, and Su Jue can live safely. This is the perfect ending.
The only thing he paid for was Kiana's early exit.
However, Su Jue did nothing but held down her shoulders with both hands.
"..." Since Su Jue didn't take action, Qiana would naturally resist. She reached out and grabbed the pistol that Su Jue threw on the ground, and pointed it directly at Su Jue's head.
But the moment she pulled the trigger, the muzzle of the gun suddenly deflected to Su Jue's side.
Click.
There was no gunshot, and there were no bullets in Su Jue's pistol.
Two people and three guns, but they couldn't even get a single bullet.
Kiana, who was about to say something, suddenly felt her body sink, and Su Jue fell directly on her and lost consciousness.
"So you've already exhausted your strength?"
……
Kiana looked up at the clock and was silent for a long time.
Slowly, she closed her arms and held Su Jue, who was lying on her.
The clock struck twelve...
Christmas of 1951 ended with the two of them embracing each other.
Chapter 289 The Herrscher Arrives
The bells echoed in the snow, and the gentle sunshine once again shone on the city of Berlin.
Last night's snowstorm didn't seem to affect the city at all, but it took away some things invisibly.
Su Jue walked among the crowd, half of his face hidden by his hat. He lowered his eyes, sighed softly, and then walked quickly into the distance.
Kiana disappeared.
No matter how hard Su Jue searched, he could not sense any trace of her. Kiana was like a shattered bubble, completely disappearing from the city without leaving any trace.
But this is understandable. She is just an illusion created by the combination of illusion and Su Jue's cognition. Since her identity has been exposed by Su Jue, there is no point in staying in the illusion.
Her disappearance also means that there will be no accidents in Su Jue's next trial, which is a good thing no matter how you think about it.
"Yes, it is just an illusory memory after all."
Su Jue muttered to himself.
But for some reason, Su Jue always felt like there was something missing in his heart. There were no enemies, so he should have been more relaxed.
The next day, Su Jue found an abandoned hut. He lit the fireplace and used the money he earned to decorate the empty house to make it look familiar. However, no matter how familiar the house looked, it couldn't suppress the restlessness in his heart.
On the third day, he became increasingly silent and simply locked himself in the house and refused to go out.
On the fourth day, he began to try to repair the broken snow globe, restoring the battery and spring to their original state. He put the two little men in the glass ball back to their original positions, tightly together.
On the fifth day, the city seemed to have collapsed, but it lasted less than ten minutes before disappearing completely. Su Jue thought this was a sign that the First Herrscher had not yet disappeared, but the facts told him that Kiana was indeed dead.
On the sixth day, he became particularly irritable, feeling as if he had forgotten something, so he took a log from the fireplace and threw the burning torch into the room with his own hands.
Soon the whole cabin was ablaze, just like it had been that day.
The bright firelight reflected on his face, burning everything in his eyes, including everything he had experienced with Kiana.
But just as he was about to say goodbye to the past and calmly greet the arrival of the final moment, an unexpected person appeared in front of him.
"Yis?" Looking at the familiar young man, Su Jue unconsciously clenched his fists. It was this guy who caused everything to happen.
However, Yi Si who appeared again was completely different from before. Looking at the angry Su Jue, he just smiled faintly and corrected: "You can call me Joyce."
"Walter Joyce, the First Herrscher." Su Jue narrowed his eyes, his gaze gradually becoming dangerous. Now that Kiana has been confirmed to be a Herrscher, it is hard not to doubt Joyce's identity when he suddenly appears.
As if he had seen through Su Jue's suspicion, Joyce extended his hand and explained, "Don't worry, I'm not the one that's about to explode. I'm just one of the 300,000 thoughts."
The hand he stretched out turned into blue light and gradually became transparent. This phenomenon, which was obviously not an illusion, confirmed his statement.
"So, what is your purpose in coming to me?" As long as the trial is completed, the core of reason and the consciousness in it will lose its meaning to Su Jue. Su Jue has no intention of directly erasing these consciousnesses. If Joyce just wants to survive, he should not come to him at this time.
"I just want to tell you some truth. Before that, I want to ask you, do you really think Kiana is the Herrscher?"
"What do you mean?"
"Or to be more straightforward, do you think she is really just an illusion?"
"After all, lies and truth are only a thought away."
In an instant, countless images suddenly flooded into Su Jue's mind, and he carefully recalled all the memories of his time with Kiana.
Snowflakes, Christmas.
When did I start to think that she was the Herrscher?
It starts with that snow globe, but what if the Houkai energy on the snow globe is not the cause of the Houkai, but is used to protect the glass ball.
If she wasn't playing the role of a Herrscher, then...
The dark clouds covering the sky suddenly dissipated, and all the doubts were suddenly answered. Su Jue put his hands on his eyes, and his originally gray pupils had gradually turned into dark red without him knowing when.
……
"Cough cough."
In an unknown corner of the city, scarlet blood spilled on the ground, which was shocking.
The white-haired girl staggered and almost fell to the ground. She reached out to hold on to the wall beside her and managed to stand up straight.
"Just one more point, just one last point." Kiana murmured in a low voice, her face was as pale as paper, and her eyes became dim. From the palm to the wrist, the skin was covered with frightening cracks.
However, recalling the end of Christmas, she forced herself to cheer up, calling upon the little remaining Honkai energy to continue moving towards the next place.
The closer it gets to the end, the more frequent the collapse becomes, which is a sign that the illusion is about to fail.
In order to prevent Su Jue from discovering anything unusual, Kiana disappeared from his sight after Christmas, and secretly used her abilities to resolve the frequent Honkai incidents.
"As long as the trial is completed, everything will be over."
However, Kiana's existence relies on Honkai energy. Frequent use of Honkai energy will make her adaptability to the illusion weaker and weaker, and eventually she will completely disappear from the illusion.
This disappearance does not just mean exiting the illusion, it also means that everything she experienced in the illusion will be erased, which means that she will lose all her memories of the past twenty days.
She knew this very well, but she still did it.
"Wouldn't it be better to kill me on Christmas Day?" Kiana panted, as if complaining, but there was clearly no dissatisfaction in her eyes. Instead, they were filled with a strange light.
……
Day 1952, January 1, 1.
The first collapse broke out.
An unimaginable storm hit the city, and the horrific Honkai energy poured in like sea water. In less than ten minutes, most of the buildings were destroyed by the Honkai energy. Countless Honkai beasts leaped out of the void, wantonly harvesting any visible life.
The towering clock tower gradually collapsed with a loud bang, mixed with the screams of hundreds of thousands of people, playing a elegy for the end of the world.
However, in this world-destroying disaster, there are still people trying to save the city.
The surging Houkai energy overflowed from Kiana's body, turning into a beacon in the storm, forcibly attracting a large amount of Houkai energy and absorbing it into her body like a whirlpool. Using herself as a container, she carried the Houkai energy when the First Herrscher exploded.
She can't save everyone, but she can try her best to save the people she cares about.
The Honkai energy that was supposed to be infused into Su Jue's body was absorbed by her, which meant that the final trial of the illusion - the coming of the Herrscher - would no longer pose a threat.
Amid countless collapsed buildings, flames filled the entire city.
As the Honkai energy was depleted, Kiana's body became increasingly blurred, gradually showing a tendency to turn transparent.
"Goodbye."
boom.
The girl's body was suddenly hugged tightly by someone.
She looked up in surprise, a relieved smile on her face.
"You're here, Su Jue."
Chapter 290 I Will No Longer Be Swayed by Emotions
The sky shattered like a glass dome, and each withered fragment reflected a one in three hundred thousand story.
The people who were fleeing in panic seemed to realize the truth. They stopped and quietly watched their bodies turn into blue light particles. They were just shadows of the dead.
Some people were cursing hysterically, some were calm, and some were sobbing. But no matter what, the illusion finally ended, and everything came to an end.
In this collapsing world, Su Jue hugged Kiana tightly, silent.
He has always looked at everything with absolute rationality and has enough confidence to complete his plans.
But it is precisely this self-confidence, or arrogance towards himself, that makes him seem at a loss when facing feelings. This is an area he has never touched before, whether it is love or family affection, he has never felt warmth.
In the process of interacting with Kiana, he was gradually attracted to her, and without knowing it, he was getting closer and closer to her. And now, this arrogance has brought him consequences.
Su Jue, who had been using him behind the scenes, felt for the first time the feeling of being deceived. Kiana took advantage of his [rationality] towards feelings and constructed a clumsy lie.
"I'm sorry, Su Jue, this time it's my turn to lie to you." The girl in his arms smiled, her body becoming more and more transparent. On this burning earth, fire flickered in her eyes.
She was like a child whose trick had succeeded, her smile was innocent and cute.
But Su Jue couldn't laugh at all, because Kiana didn't know the specific content of Su Jue's plan.
That was a plan to erase everything related to the girl.
"Stupid..." For the first time, Su Jue's voice was a little choked, but he still showed a forced smile. "Next time, why don't you just tell me the answer directly?"
He did not tell the truth. At this point, the truth was meaningless. From the moment Kiana chose to bear the collapse of the Herrscher alone for Su Jue, things could no longer be undone.
"I don't want it. You lied to me so many times and even died in front of me. Did you ever think about my feelings at that time?"
