With the full support of Dark Seele, Lunelle quickly shattered the limits placed on her internal Honkai Energy concentration by the suppressor.
Her body, starved of energy for so long, began to spontaneously drink in the high-density Honkai particles drifting in the air.
With every passing second, Lunelle's presence grew more formidable, her power swelling visibly.
As the Authority of Destruction stirred within her, her once pure, sea-blue eyes were stained with a streak of crimson—a shade as deep and vivid as fresh blood.
Now that her internal power was unleashed, Lunelle surged against the frantic tide of the crowd, successfully reaching the marked area where the wealthy superstar, Eden, was located.
However, as she took in the scene at the stage, her determined gaze faltered.
Her pupils constricted in a flicker of pure terror at the sight of the carnage.
The gargantuan, classical-style stage she remembered had vanished. In its place was a nightmare; everything within sight had been swallowed by a sea of roaring, incinerating white heat.
Flames tore through the crumbling ruins of the architecture, and the black smoke hanging in the air carried the sickening, pungent stench of blood and charred flesh.
In the seats where the audience should have been, there were only heaps of blackened charcoal—twisted shapes that barely retained a human silhouette under the relentless heat.
"Is this... the power of the Herrscher of Fire? It's horrifying..."
Fortunately, during her previous simulations, Lunelle had been forced by her "dear wife" Dark Seele to inhabit her body during a bloody massacre of an entire town.
Had she not been hardened by those experiences, her naturally soft heart might have given out; she likely would have been too paralyzed by fear to even take a step.
Shaking her head violently to suppress the urge to vomit, Lunelle averted her eyes from the grisly scene and rushed toward the stage. As her Honkai reserves filled, she found herself adapting to the acrid smoke that would have suffocated any normal person.
Still, she was frantic.
If she didn't hurry, that terrifying Herrscher of Fire might arrive before she could pull Eden out of the wreckage.
"Damn it! Is she really in the middle of the worst part of the ruins? I have no choice but to dive in."
Following the coordinates, Lunelle realized with a sinking heart that Eden's position was dead center in the disaster zone—an area surrounded by a ring of fire and choked by pillars of thick, blinding smoke.
To pull someone out of that black abyss—someone who might already be dead—was a task far beyond the reach of any ordinary human.
Luckily, Lunelle had the foresight to unseal her Honkai Energy earlier.
Closing her eyes, she used the Honkai Energy permeating the air as a substitute for sight, attempting to trace and "feel" for Eden's presence amidst the smoke.
"Found her!"
Luck was on their side. In less than three seconds, Lunelle pinpointed the exact spot where Eden had likely collapsed. Without a second thought, she plunged into the rolling clouds of soot and debris.
Finally, near the edge of a collapsed support beam, she found her.
Eden lay there in her performance gown, her breathing so faint it was almost non-existent.
The beam had narrowly missed crushing her into "Eden-paste," and because she had fallen right against it, the structure had shielded her from the direct path of the flames.
It was a true stroke of luck amidst the misfortune.
Sensing that spark of life, Lunelle didn't hesitate. She scooped Eden up in a gentle bridal carry and used every ounce of her speed to dash away from that hellscape.
Once they reached a relatively safe area on the outskirts of the stage, Lunelle finally had a moment to breathe. Her own cute face was smeared with black soot as she checked Eden's condition.
Confirming a weak heartbeat, Lunelle began to actively draw the surrounding Honkai Energy into her own body.
They had been at the heart of the fire. The concentration of Honkai Energy and the density of the toxic smoke were enough to kill a normal person instantly.
While Lunelle's awakened Herrscher constitution could ignore these threats, Eden—who was not yet a MANTIS—was in grave danger. If she inhaled any more of that filth, she would be gone for good.
Once she had cleared a "vacuum" zone free of energy and smoke, Lunelle softly called out.
"Eden? Eden, can you hear me? It's Seele..."
Lunelle's ethereal voice seemed to carry a healing magic all its own.
Hearing the call of her beloved little Seele, Eden's fading consciousness miraculously flickered back to life.
Her heart, which had been on the verge of stopping, began to find its rhythm again.
However, Lunelle soon noticed that even though her condition was stabilizing, Eden was struggling to breathe. She was clearly suffocating from the soot lodged in her lungs.
Looking at the weakened, pained expression on Eden's face, Lunelle felt a moment of hesitation. But with Eden's life on the line, she steeled herself.
Drawing on her vast store of knowledge, she leaned in to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
'Wait, wait... I'm just doing this to save her life. This shouldn't count as me making an inappropriate move on my wife, right?'
Hiding behind the "perfectly valid reason" of medical necessity, Lunelle experienced her first kiss and intimate contact with the woman she had worked so hard to woo in the simulation.
Eden's airways were clearly obstructed; without this intervention and some careful chest compressions, the world-class superstar—the symbol of the Previous Era—might have actually died from something as tragic as a few lungfuls of smoke.
Just as Himeko's fate was sealed by a moment's distraction, Eden's survival seemed written in the stars
Perhaps it was because she was destined to survive this catastrophe in the original timeline that she had managed to hold on with a mere human body until Lunelle arrived.
"Cough... Cough!!"
After several professional compressions and assisted breaths, Eden suddenly convulsed with a series of violent coughs. She had finally regained the right to breathe.
Eden, who had truly believed her life was over, slowly opened her golden eyes.
"Is this... heaven?"
Seeing the soot-stained but still incredibly adorable face of her "wife" Lunelle, Eden instinctively let out a faint, relieved smile.
She felt that if she could see her favorite person after death, she could die without regrets.
"But if my cute Seele is an angel now, why is her little face all black and messy?"
Despite her weakness, Eden reached up, her fingers brushing against Lunelle's cheek to wipe away the ash.
A soot-covered Lunelle was cute, of course, but the fair, tender-skinned version was the one that truly made her heart skip a beat.
"Eden, this isn't heaven! Things are still very bad, we need to move to a safer place immediately."
Seeing that Eden was already trying to tease her despite being so weak, Lunelle could only sigh and let her face be pinched. She tried to sound stern, but her voice was naturally so soft and airy that it lacked any real edge.
Eden, completely missing the gravity of the situation, found the "stern" Lunelle so charming that she became addicted to pinching those cheeks.
"Uuu... Eden! Don't just wake up and start pinching me!" Lunelle puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
"Alright, alright, I'll stop. But Eden has no strength left at all... could my cute Seele carry me?"
Seeing her "wife" actually getting a bit cross, Eden immediately played the "pampered" card. Even though she felt better mentally, her body was still leaden.
She settled into Lunelle's arms, acting the part of the frail, languid beauty to a tee—a direct hit to Lunelle's weaknesses.
"O-okay..."
Facing such a captivating woman, the "inner fanboy" in Lunelle was screaming. If she weren't currently a girl, things might have become very "eventful" very quickly.
But since she had a mission and a strict rule against being the aggressor, she could only awkwardly look away, trying to ignore the proximity of the woman in her arms.
Looking was one thing, but since she couldn't "act," looking too much just made her mouth water.
With the physical stats of a Herrscher, carrying a girl didn't slow Lunelle down much. Within a couple of minutes, they had cleared the worst of the inner fire zone.
Yet, even though Eden was safe, the chilling sense of danger in Lunelle's gut wouldn't fade.
Just as they reached the mid-field of the concert grounds, a massive BOOM shook the earth. A figure crashed into the ground directly in front of them, leaving a massive crater.
As the dust settled, Lunelle saw a pink-haired girl struggling to stand, her breathing ragged and her energy erratic.
Finally, Lunelle understood why she hadn't been attacked by the Herrscher while rescuing Eden.
"Elysia!"
Seeing her beloved Elysia in a tattered, "battle-damaged" combat uniform, Lunelle called out in worry.
Elysia looked up, hearing the voice. She spotted Lunelle holding Eden, but the usual playful spark in her eyes was gone. Instead, the solemn look on her face shifted into one of pure, frantic alarm.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon!
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