The Vixen's Gambit: Tonight We Hunt

Everyone in the Elysian Realm already knew that Elysia was a Herrscher. After all, Elysia used her Herrscher powers without any concealment during the decisive battle with Kevin thousands of years ago.

But Elysia was different from those Herrschers who destroyed humanity, and she had known them for a long time… Now that the original civilization had already been destroyed, no one cared about Elysia's Herrscher identity anymore.

The fact that Lee knew Elysia was a Herrscher earlier than them didn't surprise them too much. After all, since Lee chose to hand over her core to Elysia, she must have had enough trust and understanding of her.

What they didn't expect was that the reason why Lee hesitated to kill the Herrscher back then was because of Elysia.

Because Elysia told Lee that she could trust herself, and told Lee that there would be miracles in this world, it made Lee, who originally had the attitude of exterminating the Herrschers, change her approach—and then watched with her own eyes how her hesitation led to the death of hundreds of millions of people at the hands of the Twelfth Herrscher.

It wasn't until they saw Lee kneeling in the ruins, crying in despair, that everyone truly realized one thing: no matter how gentle and optimistic Lee seemed on weekdays, her heart wasn't made of stone.

She was also an ordinary human, she would also be sad, she would also…

Cry.

But at the moment she cried, no one stood by her side to comfort her.

The person who would thoughtfully perceive the sadness of anyone around her and give comfort in time could only bear all the pain alone.

Whose fault was all this?

Blame Elysia? But what she said at that time wasn't wrong, she was indeed a Herrscher with human consciousness like a miracle. Blame Rin? But she didn't harm anyone before she died, and it wasn't until she was killed by those people that the Herrscher of Corruption appeared.

Blame those people? But they were only influenced by the Mental Stamp…

Sometimes, the Honkai was such a vicious existence that it forced everything to inevitably head towards the abyss.

In the dead silence, everyone silently watched Lee make her final decision.

Lee hated the Herrschers, or to be more precise, she hated the existence whose mission was to destroy humanity. She loved humanity, and this will could even allow her to break free from the erosion of the Honkai consciousness.

During the Seventh Herrscher incident, the Honkai had tried to make Lee a Herrscher, but she successfully resisted that indescribable summon that no one else had survived—even though she had lost all her proud power at that time, her belief was not shaken in the slightest.

And before the Eighth Herrscher incident, when Lee suffered successive heavy blows, when others might have given up or lost faith in the world, she once again firmly said no to the Honkai.

No matter what happened to her, no matter how great the temptation given by the Honkai, she would not break her belief.

When they saw Lee's choice at that time, everyone was silent, because they knew that in Lee's life, except for the last time, she had never killed or actively attacked anyone, even those high-level officials who wanted to kill her and the mob who regarded her as a murderer.

However, such a person, in order to save everyone in the end, had to make the choice to completely trample on her belief.

Elysia watched Lee's killing spree on the screen, and felt only sadness for her—all these people who were killed were not dead, but instead walked into the new world stepping on the corpses of the murderers.

Only one person died in the Thirteenth Honkai Eruption. The moment that [Herrscher] took action, she had already decided to embark on the path of death to atone.

And almost none of these people recognized whether she was a Herrscher or not… not even herself.

Thinking of this, Elysia's gaze couldn't help but fall in disappointment.

Was it that she didn't understand Lee, or was Lee's disguise too good…?

This doubt didn't last long, because soon someone gave Elysia the answer.

'Sister Lee, always lying.' Griseo hugged the black but crying painting, her eyes bright, staring at Lee: 'Never telling everyone what you're thinking… Not telling everyone when you're sad, just like now.'

…?

Elysia looked at Griseo, who seemed calm and as if nothing worth noting had happened, with disbelief in her eyes. "Griseo, you… you knew?"

"What?" Griseo tilted her head blankly, not understanding what Elysia was asking.

"Did you know Lee was not a Herrscher from the beginning?!" Su eagerly added to Elysia's question. "And did you always know—know what she was really like?!"

Not only Su and Elysia, almost everyone present, except for Lihua, was exploring this question.

Griseo knew what the real Lee was like… If this was true, then it meant that it wasn't because Lee's acting skills were too good, but simply—!

"Sister Lee has always been Sister Lee, but she had a Herrscher core at the end… I don't know, does she count as a Herrscher?" Griseo was a little distressed. The academic distinction of a Herrscher was still a bit too difficult for this several-thousand-year-old child who had only been in school for a few years.

"But Sister Lee likes to lie a lot. In order not to make people worry, she never speaks her mind."

…Sluggish, the atmosphere in the Elysian Realm at this moment was so sluggish that even Lihua could feel it.

Thinking that they loved and understood her, they suddenly found that they had never truly perceived the other party's true self… For everyone who thought they were close to Lee, this was the strongest insult.

And people always had difficulty accepting reality, and sometimes this sense of shame would force them to find reasons for themselves… or an outlet.

"Since you know, then why didn't you just say it?!" Su bit her lip, trying her best to make her voice not tremble. "If you had said it earlier…!"

If she had known all this earlier, she might have been able to detect Lee's true thoughts in advance, and could have prevented her from going to this lonely death—

"You all bullied Sister Lee." Griseo silently shook her head. "Sister Lee didn't let me tell."

"Bullied Lee?! You're talking—"

"What does Sister Lee like to eat?"

"…"

Su's anger seemed to be suddenly extinguished.

This question was very simple. If you really liked and understood someone, you couldn't possibly not know the answer to this question.

But, he just didn't know.

And thinking about it carefully, he found that he really… knew nothing about Lee.

What she liked, what she hated, what she would do in her spare time…

He knew nothing.

Not only Su, but the expressions of others also stiffened.

Among them, except for Mobius, who knew a little bit more than others, only Pardofelis could answer that Sister Lee liked cats.

Even what Mobius knew was what Lee mentioned when she introduced herself when they first met… She shouldn't have interrupted her at that time, Mobius only felt regret at this moment.

And Griseo looked at the silent crowd, apparently also getting the answer: "Sister Lee knows what you like to eat, but you don't know what she likes to eat… You don't care about Sister Lee at all, you just enjoy being cared for by her."

"Sister Lee is not your mother, she has no reason to only be good to you every day… And you often hurt her heart." Griseo's voice was clear and gentle, without any blaming tone, but it was enough to make everyone present unable to refute a single word.

Just as Griseo said, they were only unilaterally asking for what they wanted from Lee, and assumed that they were giving the same to Lee… The fact was, they didn't do anything for Lee at all.

Even Kalpas, who had been accusing others before, could only remain silent at this moment.

What did he do?

…Nothing.

He was even the first to attack Lee after she disguised herself as a Herrscher.

…

Kalpas silently raised his head and looked at the screen. This game was even vicious enough to add a special "long press to kill" operation for the scene where Lee killed Griseo.

Players needed to watch Lee's hand reach for Griseo with great hesitation, and if they released the button, Lee's hand would immediately retract… Undoubtedly, it went without saying how much Lee struggled in her heart.

But there were no miracles, everything still proceeded as they knew. The moment Lee's hand touched Griseo's neck, the scene became Hua's unbelievable face as she broke in, and a crisp sound.

After that was the battle with Hua and Kevin. The difficulty of the two battles was worlds apart. After easily defeating Hua, even though the operator's skills were impeccable, Lee still fell to Kevin in the end.

Watching Kevin's Judgment of Shamash pressed against Lee's neck, everyone knew that the story had come to an end, and many people couldn't bear to watch the last scene, closing their eyes silently—

'You are not a Herrscher at all.'

?!!

These unexpected words instantly refocused everyone's attention back on the screen.

Kevin recognized Lee… and even learned the truth in the end, and didn't kill Lee?!

This… How was this possible?! If Kevin didn't strike in the end, how did Lee die?!

"Elysia, what's going on?!"

And Elysia's eyes were also full of confusion, she couldn't answer this question. If the previous ones were just supplements to the story within her knowledge, the current development completely exceeded her understanding.

Lee wasn't killed by Kevin?

Indeed, it was only her guess that Lee was killed by Kevin, but besides Kevin, was there anyone else in this world who could kill Lee? All the others had been killed, it couldn't be Hua, could it?!

And looking at Kevin's crazy appearance, besides personally killing his loved one, what else could make the strong him become like that…

"—Ah!"

It wasn't anyone else but Vill-V who suddenly screamed and startled Lihua. Her face was pale, as if she had thought of something terrifying.

At this moment, her expression was a thousand times more flustered than ever before!

"Impossible… It can't be like that… It can't be like that!!!"

Vill-V muttered to herself incoherently, her trembling hands constantly tearing at her hair, looking like she was going crazy.

"Vill-V, what's wrong with you?" Eden, the only one with a bit of conscience, asked doubtfully.

"…Not all dead."

After the constant tearing, as if realizing some irreversible fact, Vill-V's hands dropped powerlessly, muttering in a trance, "Hua took a group of people to search and rescue… Lee didn't kill them all."

Not all killed? So what if not all were killed? Not to mention Kevin's presence, with Lee's Artificial Herrscher body, ordinary people couldn't possibly hurt her—

"Kevin could only subdue Lee by destroying the connection between the core and her body… If Lee's body doesn't have Honkai energy to drive it, she's just like a normal person."

Dead silence.

In an instant, everyone understood what Vill-V wanted to express.

If there was still a group of ordinary people affected by Lee's Mental Stamp, once they saw Lee as a Herrscher who had lost all resistance… In their eyes, Lee was the most vicious existence that had just exterminated humanity not long ago!

"Vill-V…! What kind of sh*t did you invent?! You should die! You f*cking deserve to die!!!"

"Wait, Kalpas, maybe there are other possibilities!" Elysia wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, forcing a smile, and said in a trembling voice, "Kevin is still there, he, he can't let other people hurt Lee… It must be, there must be other…"

Elysia was desperately trying to convince not only Kalpas and the others, but also herself.

After all, if she didn't die at Kevin's hands in the end, but was killed by the humans she wholeheartedly protected… Then everything about Lee would be too tragic, she shouldn't suffer such an ending.

Elysia could only pin all her last hopes on Kevin—but this Kevin just disappointed her!

"What's the point of challenging Finality now?!"

Out of anger, Elysia showed such strong aggressiveness for the first time. If Kevin was in front of her now, she would not hesitate to fight this idiot with all her strength.

At this time, ignoring Lee who was seriously injured by him, and instead going to the moon to attack the Herrscher of Finality?

Are you sick in the head!

And what happened next made Elysia almost lose her mind—not only did he not listen to Lee and challenge Finality, but he also made Lee have to support him, even losing the chance to escape from the control room?!

Watching Lee on the screen cowering and trembling in fear when she saw the figures in the surveillance, yet still staying there to buy Kevin time to escape, Elysia felt as if her heart was pierced by thousands of needles.

Elysia didn't like abandoning her companions, and she hated leaving them to die even more… But at this moment, she sincerely hoped that Lee would leave that idiot who was seeking his own death on the moon, and find a way out for herself.

She clearly said she wouldn't help him before Kevin set off, why?

Why don't you take yourself more seriously…

Her nails had dug into her palms, and Elysia could only force back her tears at this moment.

The Herrscher of Origin, a power that could do anything? If only she could really do anything… She didn't ask for anything else, just hoped to go back to the past a little bit and change the life of a girl who didn't value herself.

The game's design was full of malice. After saving Kevin, the players could finally control Lee again, but this time, there was only one operable option—

Drag the joystick to crawl.

The streamer, who had been chattering all along, fell silent at this moment, and could only silently control Lee, who had fallen to the ground, crawling hard on the map, looking for hiding places to interact with.

The seriously injured Lee crawled very slowly, and the time given to hide was only one minute… In the end, the only place Lee could reach to hide was—a [trash can].

That girl, who used to be like the sun, could only crawl into this trash can in the end.

Elysia didn't think there was anything dirty or unbearable about Lee's behavior, she was just praying—Lee had already done so much… If there really were gods in this world, please at least let her live.

Even if she became a real Herrscher, even if she fell into the Sea of Quanta or became a pure consciousness—please let her live…

Lee now, just wanted to live…

The screen was pitch black, and Elysia could only hear a nervous heartbeat—it belonged to Elysia, because Lee's heart had long ceased to beat.

The black screen lasted a long time, so long that Elysia couldn't help but have hope… Perhaps, Lee really—

'She's here!'

Hope was ultimately lost, Elysia could only watch helplessly as Lee was dragged out of the trash can in extreme embarrassment.

She was afraid, trembling… She even wanted to explain something to these people, perhaps to tell them that she was not a Herrscher, perhaps to explain that what she did was not murder, or perhaps simply to beg for mercy… Elysia didn't know what Lee wanted to say in the end, because before that, they knocked out Lee's teeth and ripped out her tongue.

Angry and frightened people swarmed up, raised their weapons, and then…

Only Lee's increasingly weak screams, only the increasingly splattered blood around, only her increasingly tired eyes.

In the end, there was only darkness.

Elysia was speechless.

Her emotions and reason seemed to be split into two parts, one telling her that this was all helpless, and no one was wrong, while the other rebuked her for the baseness and despicability of humanity, telling her that these humans deserved to die…

She shouldn't have such thoughts, Lee trusted her, entrusted the future of humanity to her… No matter what, she shouldn't fail her expectations.

I have to calm down, calm down…

The fire lit up on the screen, illuminating the picture again.

The leaping flames were reflected in Lee's dim eyes… but as the picture slowly zoomed out, what was below was not Lee's body, but a long pole.

Lee's head was chopped off and strung up.

Her body was dismembered, lifted high and shaken by the frenzied humans like a trophy.

"…Huh?"

Blankly, Elysia made a meaningless sound.