Second Key (5)

*BANG!*

*Thud!*

Otto's pupils seemed to shrink and tremble, his eyes reflecting 'Paul' who was kneeling to the ground holding his bloody hand.

His gun seemed to have fallen to the floor away from him.

"Argh!"

'Paul' cried out in pain while gritting his teeth and with a gasp of breath he looked back and raised his head to stare at the person who shot him.

"Thankfully, I'm not too late." Kouro said calmly and with his hand still pointing the gun at 'Paul'.

His current appearance looked a little messy with several abrasions on his body, even his eyes looked red and slightly swollen as if he had just cried.

"You!... How is that possible?!" said 'Paul' in a surprised tone.

"Yo. We meet again, ---------------. " said Kouro with a cold expression.

"Kouro? How did you get here? Moreover, aren't you..." asked Otto in a surprised tone and only for a moment did the wound on his stomach not hurt.

Kouro was being held in a very closely monitored holding cell in Moth, nor was he given 'Consciousness Confinement' like the others, Otto even remembered that when he visited him, Kouro was fast asleep at that time.

And those who fall asleep will never wake up. Kouro... In front of him now was the first case!

"You! What have you done to me?! Didn't you see that I was a Herrscher?" said 'Paul' with a voice full of confusion.

"I even gave you a special perfect dream in your honor, but you reward me with this?!" he continued with a look of anger.

Kouro paused for a moment without changing his expression before replying, "... Reality always brings me disappointment and regret, I'm tired of dealing with it all, but that doesn't mean I give up on it."

"The dream you created for me was perfect, even though I myself wanted to live in that illusion forever. But... If I do that, I will be breaking my promise to her."

A memory that he had buried deeply unconsciously flashed through his mind.

__

Kouro POV.

In a place filled with ruins and a blazing fire that burns everything.

I feel my lungs burning, my throat feels dry, my legs have burns.

But that was nothing compared to my broken heart.

My eyes reflected the appearance of the girl who was in my arms with tears in my eyes.

"No... No... No!"

Seeing my expression, the girl smiled with a pale face, her hand that had purple stripes then touched my cheek and wiped my tear-filled eyes.

"... I love you... Kouro... Please... Stay alive... No matter.... How many times you fall... Please keep going... Rise again..." the girl said with a weak breath before closing her eyes.

Seeing this, my eyes widened with my pupils trembling violently, the tears I had been holding back instantly dripped onto the ground and evaporated.

"Ayame...?" I called the girl's name, but there was no answer, her breathing had stopped, her heart had stopped beating.

She died. 

"No... No!... NO!"

I hugged her tightly, I didn't care about those purple lines that appeared on my body. My parents, my friends, and now that girl, the one and only girl I loved... Now all of them are gone...

"ARHHHHHH!!!"

The pressure of emotions instantly filled me making me scream so loudly that I felt my vocal cords were damaged.

That shout also attracted the attention of several Honkai Beasts nearby.

Each of their steps could make the ground tremble slightly.

Under the lighting of the smoldering fire, I stared at them with my eyes emitting flames of anger and revenge, I picked up the only weapon I had.

An iron crowbar.

"... Wait a moment, Ayame... I'll clean up this trash..." I muttered before laying her down on the ground.

I felt my bodily functions slowly weakening, I glanced at those purple lines that had reached my shoulders with a calm expression.

It seems like these purple lines are some kind of highly contagious and dangerous plague disease.

But I didn't care about the disease. Slowly, I then stood up with my head bowed.

"You guys... Have taken my home, my parents, my friends, everyone I care about... Everything..."

I then raised my head and pointed my iron crowbar at them with my eyes shining brightly.

"... I will definitely eliminate you all!" I said in a hoarse voice.

POV End.

__

Less than a second of memories flashed through his mind.

Kouro then blinked, letting his focus return and was silent for a moment before saying.

"... The reason I live, the reason I struggle, and the reason I fight is because I want to continue holding onto that promise. Therefore, that beautiful illusion is not my place, that promise is here, in this cruel and bitter reality."

Hearing his words, 'Paul' stood up and gritted his teeth before shouting at him, "Fool! Rather than drowning in eternal bliss, you would rather drown in pain and regret?!!"

Kouro didn't say anything and immediately shot his thigh.

*BANG!*

"Argh!" 'Paul' immediately fell to his knees, his thigh covered in blood and wetting the floor.

"You... Are you going to kill this body? Are you crazy!? I am Herrscher, why would you a 'Herrscher savior' want to kill me?"

Kouro with his gun still smoking then said in a calm tone.

"You're wrong, I was never a Herrscher savior to begin with. I only protect people who are precious to me, I don't care if they are Herrscher or not, as long as they are people who are precious to me... I will not hesitate to protect them, even if the world is my enemy."

Under the dim lighting, Kouro's brightly shining eyes looked at the kneeling 'Paul' with a cold gaze, he pointed his gun at 'Paul's' head and said.

"And you... Are not one of them."

*BANG!*

Kouro's shot shot out and the bullet went straight through 'Paul's' head making him fall to the ground with his eyes wide open, blood flowing from the center of his forehead and flowing onto the floor.  

Seeing this, Kouro let out a long sigh and muttered.

"Huff... Finally finished..."

He then turned to look at the wounded Otto with the bleeding not stopping, he then approached him and knelt down to touch Otto's wound before something magical happened.

Kouro's hand glowed softly and with unreasonable speed instantly picked up all the shrapnel in Otto's wounded stomach before bandaging it.

Seeing this incredible scene, Otto's eyebrows rose and said in an interested tone.

"This power.... Is this what is referred to as 'Chi'? I heard from Hua that you have learned some sort of Shenzhou martial technique and honed it to the highest level."

"But... That's strange, don't you have a strange disease that makes it always difficult for you to learn things?" Otto continued in a soft tone.

Kouro didn't say anything to answer his curiosity, after confirming that Otto's state was stable, he then turned around and walked over to Paul Long's corpse.

He then knelt before Paul's corpse whose eyes were wide open before moving his hand and closing Paul's eyes.

He then turned to stare at the large capsule tube containing Durandal and 2 other girls who were entering the dream created by ---------------.

Surprisingly, even after he defeated ---------------. They didn't wake up, either because the machines attached to their bodies had to be manually removed, or...

"Kouro! Watch out in front of you!" Otto's shout drew his attention back and unconsciously jumped back.

But unfortunately, he was one step slower.

A reddish-black mist instantly appeared around Kouro before turning into an overwhelming amount of hands and pulling him.

"Kouro!" Otto stood up and wanted to help him but was immediately stopped by his scream.

"Stop!"

Kouro turned to look at him with a calm expression before saying, "Prof. Otto, go to the control room immediately, I'll hold her here alone."

Otto knew the situation would be very grave if the Herrscher got control of the control room and shut down the Observation center, so he immediately nodded his head and ran towards the room.

"[Bastard.... Do you think you can eliminate me just because the body I possessed you killed? I'll make you regret it! Sink into your worst nightmare!"]  ---------------'s voice echoed in his ears hoarsely.

Kouro's expression did not change at all in the face of the threat, he just raised his head with his eyes shining sharply.

"Bring it on."

Provoked by his words, those hands made of reddish-black mist took hold of his entire body before his vision went pitch black.

__

Some time ago.

"What is this place?"

Durandal muttered looking at a large, multi-story apartment building that had many rooms.

She then walked forward and gazed down only to see an infinite darkness like an abyss.

"Did that Herrscher create all this? Time here runs 20 minutes faster compared to the real world." She muttered as she looked at her watch.

"I only have 200 minutes-" he was interrupted by someone's voice.

"Alright, kid! Tell mama that dinner is ready." The voice sounded familiar and came from the room behind her making her immediately turn her head and peek through the door before her expression changed.

"Paul Long? He shouldn't be here!"

She saw Paul Long wearing a blue apron and smiling gently at a little girl who was probably her child.

Durandal then backed away slowly and muttered with a guilty expression, "I remember he had a wife and child... But they are dead. "

But right after that, the sky suddenly turned a dark color and the apartment she was in shook violently causing cracks all over the apartment.

"Wh-what happened?! Why is there an earthquake?"

The apartment then shattered and fell into an infinite dark abyss.

"Kyaa!!!" Durandal shouted as she shielded herself from the gravel and debris.

... 

Durandal felt her consciousness drifting before she opened her eyes.

"Ouch... My head..." clutching her head with an expression of pain, she looked around with furrowed brows only to realize that she was currently in the ruins of buildings filled with smoldering flames.

"Where is this... No... This place... Nagazora City?" Although 5 long years had passed, she still vaguely recognized that this place was the city of Nagazora that was destroyed by the Third Eruption.

As she looked around, suddenly something fell at high speed like a meteor and hit the ground to form a crater nearby.

*BOOM!*

"What the hell was that?! " said Durandal before her expression changed as the mist that filled the crater dispersed and revealed Kouro lying on the ground covered in wounds.

"Kouro!?"

She didn't care why Kouro was here, Durandal immediately ran over to him and asked with a worried expression.

"Kouro! Are you okay?"

Kouro then vomited blood before trying to stand up only to fall down again.

"Urgh!" Kouro grimaced in pain and stared ahead.

"Don't exert yourself, you're currently seriously injured!" Durandal said before sensing a dangerous premonition and looking forward with a wary expression.

In front of them was a reddish-black energy-based humanoid creature, judging from its body shape, it seemed to be female.

"The eighth Herrscher." Durandal muttered with a serious expression.

The Herrscher walked towards them slowly bringing a domineering pressure towards Durandal, but then she gritted her teeth and stood in front of Kouro.

"[Get out of the way.]" said the Herrscher coldly.

"I won't!" Durandal shouted with a serious expression.

'Damn, how to deal with this Herrscher?' As she thought about this.

The Herrscher then clicked her tongue.

"[Tsk... Then live in the dream world.]" As the Herrscher said this, countless numbers of dark reddish hands appeared from behind her and instantly seized Durandal's body.

...

Durandal blinked her eyes in confusion as she had recently changed places again, she was now in a meadow near the hospital where she used to work.

"Hey, Bianca. What are you doing there?"

The completely familiar voice made Durandal's eyes widen, she raised her head and looked at someone approaching her.

"Director Ragna!"

Ragna smiled in response to her shout and said to her with folded hands.

"Anne is going home today, didn't you promise to see her one last time?"

She then patted Durandal's shoulder and said in a proud tone.

"I'm proud of you, Bianca. You were the one who found the cure when others had given up."

Durandal's expression looked complicated seeing Director Ragna before her.

Her words, her touch, and the wind that gently blew past her, this really felt very real.

This made her feel-

Touched.

...

"Thank you very much, Doctor!" Anne waved with her mother to Durandal and Ragna with a happy smile.

"I'm so proud of you Bianca. Look, your medicine has saved Anne's life." Ragna said with a happy smile.

"..." Durandal looked silent without saying anything with her head slightly bowed so that her expression was unknown.

"I... I have to go, Director Ragna." he said before walking away.

"What? Why? Bianca, stop! Where are you going?! There are still many patients who need your help!" Ragna shouted in confusion.

Without looking back, Durandal then said quietly, "Thank you, for letting me see her again and share a few words with her. But I know, this isn't real..."

"Director Ragna... She's already dead."

Ragna then chased after her and held her hand before saying worriedly, "You scared me with your crazy talk, Bianca. Look, I'm standing here, I'm alive and well."

Durandal's expression looked slightly distressed mixed with sadness before suddenly attacking Ragna with her medical knife.

*Swoosh!*

The knife slashed diagonally so fast and deep that it split Ragna's body in two.

"Bianca... Why?"

Durandal paused for a moment before smiling softly, "... They used director Ragna's body to make the serum that was used to save me. It was a harsh reality that I had to accept, because it was the pain that kept me going."

"Goodbye, Director Ragna."

__

The eighth Herrscher stared at Kouro before her, who had been lying face down with a body full of extremely severe injuries.

Bones were cracked, muscle fibers were torn like paper, internal organs were damaged as if they were stirred up, and other severe injuries.

But even after suffering such severe injuries, Kouro was still breathing weakly, and even tried to stand up.

Kouro hobbled to his feet before raising both fists and setting up a fighting stance.

"I... Can do this... All day... "

His face was completely swollen blue and full of blood to the point of unrecognizability, even now Kouro had actually lost almost all of his senses.

Seeing Kouro's struggle, his unyielding determination was truly recognizable but in this world, having that was not enough.

The eighth Herrscher then clicked her tongue and let the dark reddish hands converge to form a larger hand before slamming into Kouro.

*BAM!*

The blow was so hard that it formed a large crater.

"[He must be dead, if this was in the real world that blow could even knock MANTIS back.]"

The pain he suffered was so great that his pain Receptors could no longer function and made him numb to pain.

The blow had crushed his body so much that in a normal case, Kouro should have died.

But since the world they were in now was a mental world and depended on the spirituality of the user's own mind, it didn't matter how horribly Kouro was beaten, tortured, mutilated, and so on.

As long as he has a firm mind, as long as he believes that he is still alive with all his heart.

Then he will continue to live.

Unfortunately, no matter how strong Kouro's mentality was, it also had a limit and right now it just so happened that his mind had already reached its limit.

Inside the boundless darkness.

Kojro felt very tired and very sleepy, whisper after whisper like a demon tempting him to close his eyes to rest for a while.

That whisper that felt like a sleep song and his eyelids that actually felt heavy, even though he did not want to, his eyes slowly began to close.

'I'm... Really tired...'

"Are you going to give up just like that?"

The voice of that girl, Ayame... For some reason it suddenly echoed in his mind.

"The Kouro I know always bounces back no matter how big the obstacles he faces."

Ayame's voice one after another sounded in his mind, no, it was a memory of a long time ago when the Third Eruption had not happened yet...

"I believe in Kouro-kun!" The voice of another but younger girl sounded in his mind.

He still remembered this girl... The sixth Herrscher, Seele.

"Huh, Kouro aren't you the one who said it yourself that not giving up and moving on are your best abilities?" Another girl's voice again appeared in his mind.

This girl's voice made him subconsciously remind him of that girl's blood-red hair color, Himeko...

"We believe in you, Kouro."

Their hands reached out to him and then shone brightly illuminating the boundless darkness.

...

The Eighth Herrscher turned around and walked away before a sudden premonition of danger arose and made her involuntarily create an energy shield.

*BAM!*

She was instantly slammed and shot off like a comet before balancing his body.

"[What the...]"

Behind the thick dust, was Kouro who still maintained a punching pose that emitted smoke before setting up a fighting stance again.

Kouro's appearance had not changed much except that his wounds had all healed and his right hand was emitting smoldering flames while his left hand was emitting black mist.

The eighth Herrscher then squinted her eyes, if she really had eyes, she saw the silhouettes of three girls behind Kouro.

"[... They are... From the dream I created..."]

The three of them came from a dream she had specially created for Kouro.

But... Why are these creatures of hers now siding with Kouro?

"[How can you do that?]"

"Nothing special... Do you know the movie Inception?"

"[Hm?]"  A big question mark appeared above the eighth Herrscher's head.

But then she was suddenly shocked because before she knew it, her chest had been perforated and Kouro had appeared behind her.

"[You... How did you...?]"

The last thing she saw was Kouro's purple eyes shining brightly.

Su suddenly appeared in a transparent state and saw this all and then muttered.

"[The karmic cycle is the ultimate justice system. One must accept this cycle to leave the past behind.]"

__

Inside the Seed of Sumeru.

Su looked at Durandal who was unconscious and leaning against a large tree.

"You did it, Bianca. You passed the test of Sambhogakaya, the body of bliss together... These trials gave me the opportunity to uncover your thoughts. Now I know the justice you believe in and the people you hold close to your heart."

"Now, for the final test, the Test of Nirmanakaya, the incarnate body. I will deliver the essential knowledge to save the world to the deepest part of your mind."