After that, everyone began discussing the upcoming battle.
Mei said that the weakest moment of a Herrscher is the moment she just descends.
To ensure the success of Prometheus' plan, someone must take on the task of opening the backdoor.
But the problem is, the radiation of Honkai energy produced when opening this door is enough to kill fusion warriors. So, the person opening the door is basically walking into certain death.
At this point, Van directly interrupted, saying, "You don't have to worry about who opens the door, leave it to me…"
However, before he finished speaking, he was unanimously rejected by everyone.
Mobius even emotionally declared, "As the main force against the End, your power should not be used for this kind of thing…"
Van's response was simple and direct, "I don't want to see the sight of comrades dying in vain again."
"Then isn't this action of yours just sending yourself to die for nothing?" Mobius said coldly.
"Then who among you can guarantee that after this door is opened, they'll be able to come back alive?"
Looking at everyone's silence, Van stood up. "But I'm different. You all know my abilities, this amount of lethal Honkai energy, my body can endure it."
Although everyone strongly opposed Van's idea, they had to admit that he was the one with the highest Honkai resistance among them.
Seeing that an argument was about to start again, Sakura suddenly stood up. With firm eyes, she said, "Let me take this mission."
Van shook his head, "No, you still have Rei to take care of. So you must come back alive."
"Exactly because of that, I'm even more suited to go." Sakura's tone left no room for refusal. "You saved my little sister's life. Now it's my turn to repay you."
Just as Van was thinking of a reason to reject Sakura's request, Pardofelis, standing nearby, timidly raised her hand.
"Um… how about I go?"
Her words instantly drew everyone's attention to her.
Van bluntly said, "Pardo, do you know what you're saying? If others have a 10% chance of surviving after opening the door, then your chance is 0.1%…"
Whether it was the threat of death or Van's harsh words, even the fur on Pardofelis' cat ears stood on end in fear.
She shrank her neck at first, but quickly mustered her courage again. "I… I'm not of much use staying in the base. Might as well help on the Moon. Besides… my luck has always been pretty good. Maybe I'll survive."
While Van was still trying to persuade Pardofelis, Aponia suddenly spoke up from the side.
"Van, I understand your desire to protect us. But you can only protect everyone for a moment, not for a lifetime. So... please respect our choices."
Van was silent for a moment, then finally nodded, "Alright."
After the meeting ended, there were less than 5 hours left until the arrival of the End.
With the remaining time, Van decided to let everyone act freely.
As soon as they had free time, Pardofelis quickly packed up all the treasures she'd collected over the years and left the base at lightning speed, her whereabouts unknown.
Hua locked herself in her room, staring at the old photo on her bedside table, deep in thought.
Introverted Kosma granted Griseo's request and took her outside to play the harmonica.
Griseo picked up her paintboard and used colorful paints to capture everyone's final appearance.
Research maniac Mobius, even in such a moment, continued to focus on her experiments and didn't leave herself a single moment of rest.
Perhaps having foreseen her end, Sakura stayed with her sister the whole time, recalling their shared memories.
Su was tuning the base's equipment, preparing for the battle against the End.
In his room, Kalpas was quietly carving wood sculptures, but after all these years, his craftsmanship was still… hard to compliment.
In the base's engineering room, technician Vil-V was tuning the Divine Keys, hoping this would increase their chances in the upcoming battle.
Eden put one of her treasured records into the lounge's phonograph, opened an expensive bottle of red wine, and stared out the window in a trance.
Aponia walked deep into the base. Surrounded by things that were no longer as they once were, she began to pray silently.
Kevin and Mei stood outside the base, looking up at the Moon, fists clenched tightly.
As for Van… He held a purple crystal flower in his hand, sought out each of the still-alive warriors, and engraved their faces into his heart.
———
Afterward, memories flickered rapidly, jumping to after the battle with the End.
At this point, they had already returned from the Moon to the base.
From the heavy expressions on their faces, it was clear, they had lost.
What made them truly despair, though, was that they could no longer see any possibility of defeating the End.
Just a moment ago, they had destroyed the Herrscher of the End at the cost of painful sacrifices from their comrades.
But the very next moment, the destroyed Herrscher of the End appeared again before their eyes in perfect condition.
Everything that happened felt as though someone had hit the replay button on what they had just done.
At the moment the End descended again, Van knew, they had already lost.
So, to preserve a spark of hope for the people of the next civilization, Van forcefully activated all his remaining strength to freeze the End.
And the price was irreversible damage to his body.
While the Herrscher of the End was frozen, Van sent the survivors back to Earth and went to the battlefield alone to collect the relics of the fallen comrades.
Half of a lucky coin, a harmonica burned by fire, a withered forget-me-not, a chain broken in two, a shattered pocket watch…
Looking at the damaged items in his hands, Van closed his eyes and silently vowed…
After returning to the base, he carefully sealed away those items and then locked himself in his room.
Elsewhere, after realizing human extinction was inevitable, Mei, who stayed at the base, decisively transferred all her life's research into the human genetic code, leaving a spark of hope for the next generation.
After that, Mei used her and Kevin's DNA to create a test-tube baby.
Once genetically modified, this baby would grow up with a normal body temperature like an ordinary person, but still carry the Pavanti factor.
However, due to long-term overwork and Honkai energy erosion, after completing all of this, Mei quietly collapsed and passed away on her research bench.
After their defeat, the group activated the backup plan.
Van first ordered all surviving warriors to go to the Elysian Realm for memory backup.
While they were backing up memories, he secretly backed up everyone's deepest memories into the Eternal Elysium.
He then placed everyone's DNA and their deepest memories into a cultivation chamber, thus creating memory bodies with real physical forms.
———
[Back to Reality.]
"So, is that the reason why my memory body appeared in the Sea of Quanta in that video?" Mobius asked.
Van nodded, with an apologetic tone, "Sorry. Because of the plans that follow, I still need your strength. That's why I had no choice but to use this method to keep you alive…"
Mobius casually waved her hand, just about to say something, suddenly, the sound of a door unlocking came from the entrance.
Immediately after, the voices of Fu Hua and Himeko rang from the hallway, "Van, we're back…"
However, at that moment, Van no longer had the mood to answer them.
Because...
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