"Boss... should we still chase? That's the legendary..."
The biker stared in terror at the pristine white wall ahead. A dark blue sports car was embedded in it, its front end crumpled like playdough, unrecognizable. Behind the rising wisps of smoke, the glint of machine gun barrels was just visible.
The thug called "Boss" gulped. "Damn it! Finally found a big fish, and this happens! You idiots couldn't even flank her properly, and chased her straight here!"
Though he grumbled, he couldn't entirely blame his underlings. After all, who would have thought that the timid-looking young woman in the car would, in a moment of desperation, swerve off Good Luck Bridge and straight into... that?
"Wait! Something's off! Why aren't the Golden Courtyard's guns moving? Are they broken? You, go check it out!"
The designated underling paled—those guns were real, and they'd been fired before!
But before he could move, a figure appeared atop the white wall.
A dark cloak billowed in the wind.
A single syllable, followed by an invisible shockwave that sent the thugs and their bikes tumbling.
They scrambled to right their bikes, only to find the engines dead. A few frantic kicks yielded nothing. The cloaked figure had somehow descended and was walking towards them...
With no other choice, the thugs, led by their "Boss," slung their bikes over their shoulders and ran.
As they crossed under Good Luck Bridge, the "Boss" glanced back—
"That guy's still chasing us!"
This time, even the bikes had to be abandoned.
Mikael took a few more steps, then, seeing them disappear around the corner, vanished, reappearing by the wall.
The sports car's front end was gone. Fortunately, the sole occupant had worn her seatbelt, and the airbags had deployed. She seemed to be merely unconscious.
Mikael grunted, his gaze fixed on the young woman in the car. She had familiar short, blue-black hair. There was no mistaking it.
"What a coincidence..." he murmured. His expression remained neutral, but a chilling aura emanated from him as he reached towards the girl.
"My! What happened here?"
An invisible force sliced through the seatbelt. Mikael grabbed the girl by the back of her shirt and pulled her from the wreckage.
Elysia hurried over, taking the girl from him. "Such a cute child. Couldn't you be a little gentler?"
Mikael glanced at the girl's unconscious face, ignoring Elysia.
"Take her to Mobius for treatment."
Beep... beep... beep...
The girl slowly regained consciousness, her eyes opening to an unfamiliar ceiling bathed in a dim green light.
Besides the rhythmic beeping of machinery, she heard a faint, distant calling.
"Ah!" She sat up abruptly.
"Hmm... seems you've recovered well."
A silver-haired young man, not much older than herself, sat by her bedside, a book in his hands.
"Uh... where... where am I?"
"Dusk... Street..." she repeated slowly, her eyes gradually regaining focus.
"Your memory's back? If you don't mind, tell me. What kind of rich kid actually dares to wander into Dusk Street alone?"
"I... I'm sorry! Seele caused trouble for everyone!"
"Sigh..." Mikael tossed the unopened book into a spatial rift, letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.
Unseen by Seele, his hand, held behind his back, clenched into a fist, knuckles white.
There's no mistaking it. This is the Sixth Herrscher's Stigmata host...
"Achoo!" A sudden chill made the girl sneeze.
She mistook Mikael's sigh for disapproval at her non-answer, and quickly explained, "Seele used to live in Dusk Street..."
As she spoke, Mikael pieced together the story of this girl, whose name, appearance, and even personality were identical to the Seele of the post-Honkai era—
She hadn't always been a rich kid. She had been born in Dusk Street... no, she couldn't actually recall where she was born. Her earliest memories were of the orphanage, until she was adopted by a family whose motives remained unknown.
Her adoptive parents were wealthy, and she had an older sister, not much older than herself.
Her parents hadn't paid much attention to her at first, but her sister was kind, and gradually, Seele felt like she had become part of the family.
Until... six months ago.
That strange pandemic had started spreading across the world. First, her adoptive father, then her adoptive mother, and finally, two days ago, her sister.
"W... I'm sorry..." Glancing at Mikael's silver hair and eyes, she broke down, burying her face in her hands, sobbing silently.
Mikael instinctively reached out, as if to comfort her, but his hand froze mid-air—what good would comforting her do?
Elysia appeared, as if she had been there all along. She placed a hand on Mikael's shoulder, the warmth of her touch grounding him.
Seele continued to apologize between sobs, tears streaming down her face, staining the white sheets.
"My sister... she loved driving... but we were too young to get a license... so she always said she'd take me driving in Dusk Street... she said that just two days ago... Seele, just sit tight in the passenger seat... I'll take you..."
She quickly wiped her tears, apologizing profusely, then unbuttoned her shirt, revealing three purple marks on her abdomen.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... you should... stay away from me..."
Mikael couldn't bear it anymore. He stood abruptly, kicking his chair across the room. It slammed into the alloy wall, leaving a large dent before shattering.
Mikael was already gone.
Seele, thinking he was angry, sobbed uncontrollably, leaving Elysia to comfort her.
Mobius watched Mikael silently. He wasn't particularly imposing, still carrying a youthful slenderness.
But to her, he was a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Five hundred sarcastic remarks flashed through her mind, but Mikael suddenly looked up, meeting her gaze. The rage and violence in his silver-gray eyes, though intense, were contained, churning within him like lava, contorting his face into an expression of grief, suppression, despair, doubt, even... disgust.
"What happened?" she asked softly.
Even she hadn't realized how gentle her voice had become.
It wasn't out of fear of Mikael's state, but...
She simply felt a pang of sympathy for him.
Pain seized him. Mikael collapsed from his chair, clutching his chest, his body trembling uncontrollably, tears, snot, and saliva streaming down his face.
This pain, uniquely his, arrived late, but hit him with full force.
Mobius said nothing. She quickly grabbed a syringe filled with tranquilizer and plunged it into Mikael's thigh...
Then a second, a third...
Thanks to his enhanced physiology as a Herrscher, she used an entire month's worth of tranquilizer before Mikael's body finally calmed.
"So... the pain of the heart can actually manifest physically, with such severe consequences?"
"So, what happened? I've never seen you , not even when facing the Third Herrscher..."
She shook her head, turning to walk deeper into the lab. As she walked away, a flicker of awareness returned to Mikael's eyes.
In a raspy voice, he uttered a single word that Mobius couldn't hear: