After Raytin left, Evenheiler clenched his fist, looking at his intact "body" and the steel flower pinned to his chest.
The arrival of this flower was marked by arrogance and indifference. A cold, emotionless "I love you" would have seemed worthless to anyone else.
But... a strange tide surged within Evenheiler’s heart.
—*People who decide to sacrifice themselves without saying a word are truly the most annoying!*
He clicked his tongue and sighed, suddenly drawing his blade to strike his own arm. As expected, the flower on his chest vibrated, and a golden radiance instantly erupted around him. The blade shattered and dissipated the moment it collided with the light.
...As he thought.
This gift... was a protection.
He removed the flower from his chest to examine it, then recalled the scenes reflected in Raytin’s eyes moments ago, his brow furrowing slightly.
*There’s a war going on outside,* he thought. *And my disturbance just now made that guy cool down from his rage... but that wouldn't be the reason he gave me the flower.*
*Because we are in love, even if one of us has lost his memory and the other has lost his emotions.*
He thought this with a mind so calm it seemed unrelated to something as irrational as "love," yet his grip on the flower grew heavier. After a long while, he pulled himself back from the depths of his thoughts and pinned the steel flower back onto his lapel.
Now having recovered the memories of the first half of his life, "Starflow" walked out the door, lost in thought.
—What happened to the "Ringworld"?
It seemed to be caught in a conflict...
Soon, he realized he couldn't find an answer here, so he set the question aside and walked down the long street.
The city had returned to its quiet essence, but phantoms occasionally flickered in the shadows. Evenheiler knew what they were—they were the "Psychons" gathered around Raytin.
They had come to this world through that rift. Usually, they remained calm for certain reasons, but as soon as the master of this place became agitated, they would follow suit. Then, driven by that monster, they would treat everything with the most malicious words and deeds.
Evenheiler’s pace slowed as he thought.
"...What exactly do you want?" he suddenly asked aloud.
In the shadows not far from his side, a figure quietly emerged.
The monster still maintained the appearance of Raytin at seventeen or eighteen... To be honest, he was quite handsome, Evenheiler thought.
Aside from the fact that his entire eyeballs were black, a tall, sturdy, heroic youth with a bright smile could win the favor of almost anyone.
The Xenodemon knew where its problem lay. It narrowed its eyes slightly, watching Evenheiler with a sincere, gentle smile.
"Do you want to know what was recorded in the memories you lost?" it asked. "'Starflow'... that’s a beautiful name. You didn't just carve it into that support pillar; you carved it into his very bones..."
Shadows fell from high-rises, billboards, and bus stop shelters. It walked along them to Evenheiler’s side, its eyes filled with appreciation, expectation, and sincere enthusiasm.
Evenheiler narrowed his eyes. He adjusted his stance, and a vibe entirely different from his previous strolling posture naturally emerged.
Such a change was subtly indescribable, but as soon as you saw him standing like that, you would clearly understand: a warrior was prepared to kill.
The Xenodemon followed suit and stopped at a safe distance.
"You are full of wariness toward me," it said. "But... what is the necessity? I am also him. Though I am the dark side of his heart, what human is without darkness?
"Even a 'saint' is the same."
Amidst Evenheiler’s silence, the monster suddenly flickered to appear right before him.
"Though the saying might be a bit misplaced here," it whispered in his ear, "but 'men are not saints; who can be without fault?', right?"
Amidst the ring of a sharp blade, the Xenodemon laughed softly as it dodged a slash, even briefly merging into the shadows.
After that strike, which was so fast it seemed to skip frames, Evenheiler silently maintained his final, tense, and powerful posture. Only after two or three breaths did he stand up again, letting the blade dissolve into starlight.
"I have nothing to say to you," he said coldly. "Fake."
'Fake'—a good title.
The monster showed no negative emotion toward this, even though it was composed of negative emotions itself.
It merely watched Evenheiler with a subtle smile. After a moment, it opened its hand, and a speck of crimson light floated in its palm.
"I picked this up in the 'Rift'," it laughed with interest. "Someone threw it in, and then it started flying toward you... and surprisingly, he didn't notice it."
Evenheiler’s brow furrowed tightly. He pursed his lips.
From that speck of light, he sensed an aura highly similar to one of his friends...
...This was information from the outside world. But it had fallen into the hands of a monster.
The Xenodemon looked at him. Beneath the gentleness, distorted impulses occasionally surfaced in its gaze.
Possessiveness, killing intent, love.
The desire to touch, to embrace, to make him never able to leave.
...The negative emotions belonging to the "Original" truly hid many good things.
The Xenodemon’s expression turned strange for an instant, then it raised its hand and tossed the speck of crimson toward Evenheiler.
Evenheiler did not reach out to catch it. He didn't even use energy or his blade; instead, he instantly flashed a dozen meters away. In a spot where the sunlight hit directly, he glanced at the thing, then turned his gaze back to the Xenodemon.
"..." The Xenodemon’s lip twitched as it silently stared back. Both sides stared at each other for over five minutes until the former finally couldn't take it anymore.
"Fine! Fine!!" It snorted coldly, letting the shadows throw the crimson speck into the sunlight, watching as a hissing black mist was evaporated from it by the golden radiance. "Just consider it an act of charity!"
Evenheiler raised an eyebrow, still not taking the thing until the Xenodemon had completely departed into the darkness.
He glanced at the red in the sunlight and turned to leave.
A long while later, after strolling through this district once more, he returned to the spot. Watching the last wisp of black mist dissipate from it, he flicked a spark of starlight to hit it.
It didn't react further, which led him to choose to take it.
Subsequently, a stream of information flooded into his mind. He thought for a moment, returned to the cafe with it, and placed it into his own eyes.
***
Tita arrived at the "Bottom of Spirit" carrying a mission.
She was wrapped in the red light of "The Lover," quietly searching for an opportunity far from that superpowered sun.
She carried a piece of information from the Resistance leader, Morgan, wrapped in the power of "The Lover." Thus, as long as its sender intended, it could be sensed only by a specific person.
Don't think this is unreasonable; "The Lover" represents the irrational side of humanity. If He were reasonable, that would be the true unreasonableness.
Tita did not breathe. She didn't need to.
The location of her mission was shrouded in the radiance of that sun, making it impossible for Xenodemons to exist nearby, which provided a kind of safety.
After waiting for a long time, she found an opportunity and threw the speck of crimson light in her hand toward the surface of that sun from a distance.
Just as it was about to reach the corona, a narrow, pitch-black rift suddenly opened for a brief moment, swallowing the red light.
Tita nodded with satisfaction, very human-like.
—Or rather, a bionic robot shaped like "Tita" nodded.
In truth, few in the Resistance knew that the technician "Tita" had died thirty or forty years ago.
The one "living" now was merely a simulated Tita robot, created by her own hands. It inherited her name and abilities, but it would always just be "like" her, just a "similarity."
The real Tita actually liked being called "Tick-Tock." But for the current "replica," that name only made her intelligence feel uncomfortable.
Possessing something like "mental fluctuations" as well, even if those fluctuations were artificial, she would still display preferences that belonged only to her...
It was just that if "Tita" didn't say it, no one would know whether those preferences came from a "true heart" or were the result of another personification program.
Evenheiler’s eyes were tightly shut, his expression complex.
He could feel things emerging in his mind—some power, some past, some memories...
***
...A long while later, Evenheiler slammed the table and stood up. His eyes were wide with fury, and he hissed through gritted teeth: "Ray—"
...No, he couldn't. Calling the full name would make that guy notice this place.
Evenheiler forcefully swallowed the rest of the name. He took a deep breath for a moment, then exhaled with a sharp, clear: "...Fuck!!"
He remembered—he remembered everything.
He, fucking, remembered it all!!
Evenheiler’s lips trembled, rage surging within him. Starlight radiated from his eyes, and the hand that had taken the crimson light from the glow was shaking slightly.
For a moment, even his physical form became unstable. His appearance as a crowned human fluctuated, and the cluster of starlight serving as his core essence flickered in and out of view.
"No, I can't. Now is not the time..." He clenched his fists, veins bulging on his neck. He gritted his teeth and took deep breaths, over and over. "I can't..."
He admonished himself; now was not the time.
But even so, a long while later, as he lowered his head and sat back down steadily, he still squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.
—"You little bastard... what exactly do you take me for?!"
***
Raytin felt a sudden jolt in his heart.
...He didn't know why he was startled.
He could perceive the flames of war spreading across the entire galaxy. The turbulent starry sky was marked everywhere by the trails of thermal weapons. Almost all civilizations were erupting from within, with a large number of hostile targets appearing in their heartlands...
As for those planetary civilizations that had not reached interstellar standards, many didn't even know what was happening before they were submerged by long-range weapons that had drifted for years or decades, or by swarms of space behemoths and abominations flying nearby.
Worse still, the very existence of entire planets in the material realm began to waver. All living beings were gradually distorted and turned into Xenodemons. Cognitive hazards wiped them out in a short time, and even the planets entered the "Bottom of Spirit"—entering that desperate, lightless place, the window of the universe.
In the distant Orion Arm, the Human Union did not suffer internal riots due to his purging. However, enemies and hostile creatures from the outside came like a landslide or a tsunami. They followed the footsteps of the previous thirteen Xenodemonized "S-ranks" and their subordinate legions, striking the Human Union's defensive lines wave after wave, pushing them inward bit by bit.
But at this very moment, the "Resistance," which had previously faded away, set out from an unknown location—well, likely from the direction of the Solar System ruins—and began to assist the Human Union in its defense...
...This part didn't happen "last time," Raytin thought.
"Last time," the Resistance and the Federation were absolute mortal enemies, a life-and-death struggle.
Because he himself had no desire for power "last time," he hadn't taken control early or started internal purges based on certain lists. This resulted in his control over the Federation being imperfect at this point "last time," with a large amount of disgusting oppression continuing unabated.
Therefore, the Resistance and the Human Union had been in constant bloody conflict. They claimed to fight for a better future and for all those who were oppressed and unable to save themselves; naturally, they couldn't allow the greatest oppressor, the Federal Council, to live comfortably.
But this time... he seemed to have changed many things.
Amidst the increasingly surging crimson waves, Raytin crushed the final core of "Silver Star" with one hand.
That core quietly shattered, dispersing into flowing light between his fingers.
It precipitated from the superpowered entity that had become too thin to maintain its original form. It carried the hopes of all its members as it fled into the distance, even going so far as to tear through space at the cost of the entity's complete disappearance...
But it was no use. "Stillness" could lock down everything, including the emotions in one's heart and the barriers of space.
As for Raytin's operating space...
—However many members "Silver Star" had, he had killed them that many times.
Now, the entire Galactic Core was his operating space.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 星流 | Starflow | Evenheiler's codename/title. |
| 灵之底 | Bottom of Spirit | A desperate, lightless dimension/void in the universe. |
| 爱人 | The Lover | A powerful entity or personified force representing irrationality. |
| 银星 | Silver Star | An enemy entity or collective in the Galactic Core. |
| 放生机器人 | Bionic robot | A robot designed to mimic a living person (lit. "release robot"). |
| 赝品 | Fake / Replica | Used by Evenheiler to describe the Xenodemon version of Raytin. |
| 不动 | Stillness / Immovable | Raytin's ability to lock down space and matter. |
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