Chapter 217: How Could I Possibly Harm You With My Own Hands
Dong——
Dong——
Beneath the pitch-black sky, atop the blazing steel ruins.
The world became silent and still. Rast could even hear the clear and distinct sound of his own heartbeat.
It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time—his mind went completely blank, leaving only the burning heat of emotion in his chest.
Although he had resolved to see Emis with his own eyes no matter what, Rast had long prepared for the worst… He knew that the Emis standing before him now was already under the control of the will of “Judgment” revived from the Death God's Holy Grail. What stood before him was no longer the girl from Canaan, but a Judgment Angel driven solely by the instincts of slaughter and destruction.
However, the gentle motion of Emis caressing his cheek instantly wiped his mind clean… In that moment, countless possibilities flashed through his mind, including the notion that this “Judgment Angel” had accessed the memories of the past Emis and was mimicking such a gesture to deceive him.
But soon, Rast denied each and every one of those thoughts himself—
The moment he saw those slightly fragile, sky-blue eyes, Rast knew the girl standing before him was truly her. He could never mistake her.
Rast’s command to Exit Nightworld stalled, yet beside him, Dean Silver’s action still continued.
The moment the sudden change occurred, her ability had already activated. That fluffy large tail wrapped around Rast’s waist, attempting to take him with her and disappear into the Sub-Dimension.
However, at almost the same time, Emis extended her pale, slender fingers and flicked them lightly.
In the very next moment—
Crack——
The sound of something shattering echoed clearly across the ruins.
A profound rift appeared in the pitch-black sky, like a spiderweb of cracks dispersing across the void.
Immediately after, the already half-activated “Sub-Dimensional Infiltration” by Dean Silver froze in place, breaking apart into fragments.
“A pleasure to meet you. You must be the Dean Silver that Rast often mentions…”
“Thank you truly. Because, according to Rast’s words… at the timeline of the Present World—where I could not reach, where I couldn’t be by his side—it was you who stayed with him all along, helping him, a foreign traveler, to slowly integrate into life in the Present World.”
Emis’s clear voice rippled across the desolate steel ruins like the chime of wind bells at midnight.
“However, this is, after all, our first reunion in a place outside Canaan after so many years…”
“So, please, Dean Silver, do not be anxious—”
Her gentle voice sounded like an explanation, yet also a confession.
“I have many things I wish to say to him…”
…
Beneath the stars, upon the earth.
Rast and Emis sat together atop the collapsed Watchtower, amidst the jungle of steel ruins, quietly speaking to one another.
At the far end of the pitch-black sky, the bright moon shone silently, yet warmly.
As if they had returned to many years ago, to that beautiful yet remote Border Town—Canaan…
A white skirt fluttered in the breeze, a laugh clear as midnight wind bells, strands of pale golden hair swaying lightly.
“So, according to what you just said, Xiao Ai…”
“The ‘Disaster of the Mechanists’ really did exist, and it actually occurred during the Sixth Era?”
Seated atop the steel wreckage, Rast calmly posed the question while listening to the golden-haired girl beside him.
“Yes.”
Emis nodded. “That piece of history truly existed.”
“At that time, it was right before I completed my transformation into an angel of the ‘Judgment’ Sequence—my darkest and most repressive period… The original will of the Judgment Holy Grail had revived deep within my soul, and the sheer impulse for slaughter and destruction nearly drove me mad.”
“Though I gave everything to suppress it, the aftermath of the Holy Grail’s rampage still brought irreversible effects to this world.”
“In the original, unaltered history—this ‘Disaster of the Mechanists’ lasted for ten whole years. The mechanists controlled under the rules and conceptual powers of the Judgment Holy Grail turned into killing machines and ravaged the entire Western Continent for a decade. Only after my soul underwent transformation and I regained control over the disordered will of the Judgment Holy Grail did everything return to normal.”
“Although the majority of humanity had already taken refuge in the Sub-Dimension, this catastrophe remains engraved into the original history, an undeniable scar.”
“Then why is it that, in this same Echo of History, you’re able to act in ways that contradict the original history…? According to the proper historical flow, you should still be in the berserk state of the Judgment Angel, completely unable to recognize this guy’s identity, right?”
In Rast’s hands, Dean Silver wiggled her snow-white tail and interjected.
At this moment, she sat quietly in Rast’s palm, eyes as clear as if she were a real pet ferret.
Suddenly, she widened her eyes as if realizing something. “Ah—I see now. At this point in time, you’ve already ascended to the angel tier…”
“Angels possess an extremely domineering uniqueness, so even in past time nodes, once you have become an angel, there is no longer a weaker version of you. Your current will still persists across all points in time and space, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Emis gave a gentle nod.
“From the moment I became an angel, then across the entire River of Time, every version of me—regardless of strength or time-space coordinates—there exists only one ‘Emis’.”
“The past me is me, and the future me is still me, with a unified will, no longer divided.”
She gazed into Rast’s eyes with her beautiful sky-blue pupils.
“Of course, even angels must maintain the inertia of the historical River of Time. If the course of history is altered, angels too will suffer the backlash of the ‘Corrective Force of History’. The greater the alteration, the stronger the backlash.”
“But…”
“Even knowing it is predetermined history—even knowing you’ve prepared a retreat and won’t be harmed…”
“Still—”
“How could I possibly harm you with my own hands?”
“Even if that’s the most logical progression within the destined historical flow…”
“But I alone—refuse to accept it.”