Returning to the initial starting point to kill herself shouldn't have been difficult. Twilight just needed to rewind continuously along the timeline from the moment she was shot dead—but now, this matter wasn't easily achievable.
First, she had to find a way back to her original worldline.
Simply put, if the original Twilight's timeline was 1.00, then after she started rewinding and took some actions in the past, the worldline's designation would slightly change, becoming 1.01.
The more actions Twilight took in the past, the more traces she left, the greater the worldline's deviation. Although the ending always converged to death, the countless paths extending in between were different.
Twilight needed to kill the current self who had become half an Aeon, not other possibilities. Therefore, she had to return the worldline as close as possible to the initial moment—since she was on that worldline initially when she just went with the flow and did nothing, then simply remaining quiescent in the world, leaving no extra traces, should allow her to return to that timeline.
Even knowing killing that self would be difficult, Twilight still wanted to try—what if she succeeded in killing her past self, not only lifting Lan's lock using the causality bug but also successfully surviving her own disappearance thanks to her half-Aeon status? If so, wouldn't she be able to embark on a new journey with the Express crew...?
After all, although Twilight generally didn't care about her own death, from a normal character perspective, no one wants to die, and Twilight was no exception. She always looked forward to setting off towards the future with Caelus and everyone on the Express, even though that was now an impossible delusion.
Then let's try. First, see if, after making up her mind, she could reach that place...
Twilight closed her eyes, stepping back in time from the point of her death—the next moment, she heard the surrounding dead silence revert to the bustling sounds of a street.
The noise of Xianzhou shops, the clamor of travelers' footsteps, the orders of Cloud Knights maintaining security... and the faint sound of crying hidden in an alley.
Twilight opened her eyes helplessly. She didn't even need to scan with her consciousness to know the one sobbing in the deserted alley was none other than March 7th, wiping away tears.
Having rewound time too many times, Twilight knew almost every event of this year's journey by heart. The reason for March 7th's little pearl tears now was naturally clear.
According to rational procedure, she should immediately continue rewinding, constantly heading towards the initial starting point—Twilight originally intended to do so, but seeing March 7th wailing, face full of sorrow, she stopped her steps.
After all, this was the last journey. Although she could meet March 7th a few more times afterward, the other party likely wouldn't see the Twilight she liked ever again... Since that was the case, she still had to find some way to help her, just to feel at ease.
Although she needed to minimize her influence on this world to prevent the worldline from changing, if she helped her without being observed, perhaps the worldline would still proceed as originally intended.
Thinking this, Twilight hesitated no longer, stepping out behind March 7th.
...
Given Twilight's current power and essence, strengthening March 7th was an easy task. What was relatively more troublesome was erasing March 7th's memory of her.
Although Twilight had enveloped herself in power beforehand to ensure even familiar acquaintances wouldn't recognize her identity upon seeing her, Twilight had specifically put on the clothes March gave her before starting her death runs. March 7th might not recognize her face, but she could recognize the clothes.
But this was already within Twilight's expectations. She just wanted to see if, after she died and causality should have been erased, March 7th could still remember her. If she could, then March 7th, knowing what she missed, would surely burst forth with quite a lot of gold coins for her.
Unfortunately, the only ones likely to contribute this energy were March 7th and Caelus. One had connections to the Path of Remembrance, the other was a Stellaron entity—as for the other three members of the Express crew, there seemed little possibility of them retaining memories under causal influence.
But the answer would only be known after she died.
Not lingering at this moment, Twilight opened her eyes again. The familiar scenery of the Luofu greeted her—she didn't plan to stay long on the Luofu. Rewinding to this time was partly to confirm if the timeline jump was successful, and partly because... whether her tiny wish could be fulfilled could actually be confirmed right here.
And most importantly, to harvest more of Caelus's gold coins...
As expected, an exclamation sounded from behind her.
"Twilight, why are you out here?!" The next moment, Twilight felt someone grab her hand somewhat nervously. "Weren't you at the inn? Why did you suddenly come here? Is your body okay?"
Ho ho, my high-quality sheep. At this time, he should be wandering the Xianzhou streets, trying to find a way to the Ambrosial Arbor... Twilight silently turned her head and saw, as expected, Caelus, his face filled with worry. But after seeing Twilight's face, Caelus's expression froze for a second, then turned somewhat dazed and disappointed. "Dabai? It's you..."
"Caelus..."
Twilight looked at Caelus before her, sighing softly. He clearly still knew nothing, and his mind was entirely filled with his Twilight... Although she could guess the answer from March 7th's reaction earlier, Twilight still held onto a tiny sliver of hope. But judging from Caelus's current state, the possibility of her returning to the past, killing herself, and still existing was completely gone.
The Twilight of this world didn't die, so the one who died could only be her. The scenery at the end of this journey seemed to finally appear before her eyes, together with the end of her life.
In this worldline, this should be the first time she met Caelus. He seemed to have already met her many times... But this would also be the last time. Unfortunately, Caelus didn't know this.
If he knew, would he grieve for her...? Would he stop her from walking this path to certain death?
Perhaps. So it was good he didn't know—and being unable to do anything, he could only regret it endlessly later, becoming a fully automatic energy coin dispenser!
Twilight silently cupped Caelus's cheeks. The warmth from his fingertips made her acutely aware that the current Caelus was still alive—unfortunately, if she wanted to live, others couldn't.
"Dabai, what's wrong...?" Caelus was clearly puzzled by Twilight's sudden, silent action, asking carefully with concern, "Did you encounter some problem? Is there anything I can help with?"
"...No, it's nothing. You standing here now is already the greatest affirmation for me," Twilight smiled with acceptance. "Caelus, do you remember how many times we've met?"
"Who keeps track of that..." Caelus scratched his head, puzzled. "Feels like we meet quite often?"
Caelus tried hard to recall how many times he had met Twilight, but Twilight knew none of the meetings he spoke of. Those past events Caelus mentioned were already her future.
But despite influencing Caelus, the worldline hadn't changed much—No, perhaps the initial worldline itself was already influenced by her?
"I see... Perhaps it can be faster?" Twilight murmured.
Anyway, in the end, she herself would die. Whether rewinding all the way to the end and being killed by Caelus, or being killed by Caelus now, didn't seem to make much difference... It would even allow him and the Express crew to be safe sooner.
How to make the current Caelus, already familiar with her, willing to kill her...? After brief consideration, turning friend into foe was undoubtedly the simplest method.
"Caelus, I am going to destroy this Xianzhou."
If you don't want the Luofu destroyed, kill me beforehand—But this likely wouldn't affect him either.
After all, so-called protagonists, most of them wouldn't make the Kiritsugu-type choice.