Arknights: The Cycle of Light and Darkness

Here's the text rewritten in a webnovel style, maintaining the exact words and focusing on pacing and clear dialogue lines:

When Platinum woke up, all the surrounding clamor had disappeared.

(Wait... when did I...) The Kuranta girl rubbed her forehead, trying hard to recall what had happened before, but her memory abruptly stopped the moment she heard Revy's voice.

(Damn... did I... faint?)

Platinum struggled to support herself and stand. Feeling the searing pain as she put her weight on her right arm and leg, she finally staggered and stood up.

"Ugh... I'm..."

"That's about right. You fought to exhaustion, and then your body triggered a stress response and you fainted." Revy's voice sounded in her ear at the opportune moment, making the Kuranta girl breathe a sigh of relief. "You did well. If you hadn't fought so desperately, you probably wouldn't have lasted until I arrived."

Platinum looked at Revy.

"...You repelled them?"

"Them?"

"...Those Yan pursuers, they seemed to be 'His Highness's' subordinates."

Revy nodded knowingly, then gestured to the side with his lips. Only then did Platinum notice that, not far from her, various corpses lay sprawled. There were no traces of battle or struggle; almost every person seemed to have had their consciousness directly severed by an invisible attack, immediately falling into the darkness of death.

And the Ursus man with the large spear was among them. The difference was, this person's fatal wound was not like the others; he had been pierced through the chest with his own weapon, directly pinned to the ground. His terrified and despairing expression was forever frozen on his face.

Completely annihilated!

(Is this... that man's strength?) Thinking this, Platinum seemed to suddenly remember something, and asked anxiously: "Qingjin? Where did Qingjin go?"

Platinum looked at Revy, wanting to get the information she needed from this man. But Revy did not speak.

"She... she needed help more than I did!... She must have been very badly injured... right..." The Kuranta girl's words slowly trailed off.

In her terrified and disbelieving eyes, Revy lowered his head and subtly shook it.

"Wh... what do you mean?..." The girl's voice carried a clear tremor, yet she seemed to want to comfort herself with words: "Is... is she too badly injured... left with some lasting illness..."

"No." Revy looked up, gravely at the girl who was almost in tears, and finally sighed with a hint of regret in his tone: "When I arrived, Qingjin had already stopped breathing... I'm sorry... I came too late."

"—Slap!"

A crisp slap sounded. Platinum immediately delivered a harsh one to the Sarkaz man before her. Revy neither dodged nor parried, but took the blow head-on.

"You killed her... You killed her!!" Platinum shrieked hysterically, raising her right hand high.

However, facing such a Platinum, Revy only hesitated for less than a second before lowering his gaze: "You're right... I killed her."

Platinum's hand clenched. In a flash of lightning, the top assassin from Kazimierz's Untilted Union drew one of her few remaining arrows from her quiver, drew her bowstring taut like a full moon, and the arrowhead pointed directly at Revy's forehead. With just a release of her finger, the arrow in her hand would take Revy's life. At this distance, she didn't even need to activate Pegasus Vision; the force of the compound bowstring was enough to make the arrow's force pierce the man's skull.

"...Do you have nothing to say?"

"No." Revy shook his head. "You have reason to be angry. If attacking me brings you satisfaction, then please do."

Platinum gritted her teeth, staring intently at the Sarkaz man before her, wanting to see a trace of hesitation, a trace of fear in his eyes. But Macho just looked at her, calmly, without any movement. This situation lasted for twenty seconds.

Finally, Platinum chose to lower her weapon.

"Qingjin's... remains?"

"I had people take her to Rhodes Island. She was Infected, and Yan does not allow Infected individuals to be cremated or buried. Taking her to Rhodes Island will at least allow her a more dignified departure."

Platinum nodded; she knew this very well. The remains of Infected individuals were not welcomed in any city. The best place was perhaps where that man worked.

"...Understood."

Platinum, returning to her expressionless state, almost forcibly cut off her sorrowful emotions. The assassin training she had received for so long actually proved useful here, which made her feel a touch of irony.

"Where are you going?" Looking at the direction Platinum was preparing to leave, Revy couldn't help but remind her: "The direction out of the city is this way... and going further in is meaningless now."

"Meaningless?"

Platinum sneered: "No, this is not meaningless. I have something that I must accomplish... and the sooner the better."

"To find 'His Highness's' whereabouts? And avenge Qingjin?"

Platinum glanced at Revy, saying nothing.

"Give up—I'm not telling you to give up revenge, but your revenge is destined to yield no results."

"You mean? I'll lose?" Platinum, enraged by Revy's words, glared at the Sarkaz man before her: "Don't be so conceited—frontal combat and attrition battles might not be my strong suits, but assassination is different—I will find out 'His Highness's' identity, and then, do everything in my power to destroy him, to kill him... at any cost, by any means necessary."

Revy sighed.

"You misunderstood my meaning... I mean, 'His Highness' you speak of is already dead—otherwise, how do you think I found you?"

— — — — Divider — — — —

Ao Xing looked at the child before him, a familiar yet unfamiliar child.

"Jue'er, why?" He couldn't help but ask.

"You have always been the child I trusted most, and gave the most freedom to... You liked power, so I decreed that you would inherit the throne; you feared fraternal strife, so I implicitly allowed what you did to your second and seventh brothers... Even with the seventh brother now, I only intended to send 'him' away, so he wouldn't become a threat to your ascension."

"But why? Why go to such lengths?! Are you truly—that impatient, Ao Jue!!!"

The Dragon King's question turned into a roar. Heaven and earth seemed to grieve for this King of Great Yan. A torrential downpour descended instantly, drenching both of them from head to toe. Amidst lightning and thunder, the old and young dragons' gazes clashed!