Yinlin endured the sharp pain in her side and forced herself to stand, barely leaning against the edge of a table.
A man staggered out from the shadows, pulling the sharp puppet arms embedded in his body and throwing them aside.
Cold moonlight spilled through the window onto the chaotic floor, illuminating the sticky blood and the broken corpses scattered everywhere.
"Although I don't know why you risked infiltrating our organization just to investigate the files of those two dead patrol officers, it seems I've won now!"
Yinlin barely gathered a lightning whip at her fingertips and lashed it toward the man, but the intense pain threw off her aim, striking the ground several meters away from him.
The man pressed down hard on the wound on his abdomen. Seeing the lightning land far from him, he realized the girl in front of him was already at her limit, and he relaxed a little.
"There aren't any Resonators as strong as you in our organization… and we have informants on the patrol side too. Just how did you…"
As if recalling something, he smiled.
"Heh, I get it… you're an undercover investigator, aren't you? How stupid. There are actually people willing to risk their lives for something like this. Even if you uncover the truth about us, so what? Will the world change because of it?"
Yinlin's breathing grew weaker and weaker. The man knew her heart was already close to stopping.
"It's time to send you on your way. What a pity… you should have known the Fractsidus isn't something you can mess with…"
His Resonance ability could disrupt a person's heartbeat and cause cardiac shock. As long as the opponent was human, there was no way to avoid it.
Yinlin stared at the glowing mark on his arm with a calm expression. Her face was pale from blood loss, yet there wasn't a trace of fear.
She only hated that she hadn't uncovered the truth behind her parents' deaths. She hated that she couldn't stop Dollmaker's plan of desecrating life…
At that thought, Yinlin clenched her teeth. Lightning quietly flowed around her fingertips, strands sliding across her skin, constantly stimulating the muscles in her forearm. Even the dagger in her hand trembled slightly.
She only had one chance, when the man let his guard down…
At that moment, a flash of sword light cut through her thoughts, leaping out from the darkness. The man's scream rang through the night.
"My hand… my hand… my mark!!!"
The intense pain and flowing blood snapped the man, who thought victory was already his, back to reality.
By then, his severed arm bearing the mark had already rolled away like a broken puppet. And a slightly youthful yet firm voice came from the darkness.
"This girl is under my protection. As long as I'm here, don't even think about touching her."
"Who are you!?"
As victory slipped away once more, the man erupted in unmatched fury.
But his anger met a pair of smiling emerald-green eyes.
"Just a passing masked rider. Remember it."
As the words fell, the blade pierced through the man's chest.
Watching the man die, Yinlin could no longer even stand. Her powerless body collapsed.
But instead of the cold, hard ground she expected, she fell into a warm embrace, still somewhat youthful, yet incredibly comforting.
"There's no need to carry everything on your shoulders alone. It's okay to rely on others sometimes."
Yinlin tried to open her eyes to see his face, but no matter how hard she tried, her eyelids felt like they were weighed down with lead, refusing to open.
She wanted to repay him, but in the end, she only managed to leave behind a faint, broken "thank you" before completely losing consciousness.
When she woke up the next day, she found herself already in a hospital.
And the figure who had avenged her parents had once again disappeared from her life.
Over the past few years, Yinlin had been trying to find that benefactor. During the defense of Jinzhou, when she disguised herself and joined the Resonator forces, she only felt that white figure seemed somewhat familiar.
But now, she was finally certain... Zane was the boy who saved her that night.
"What do you know!"
Dollmaker's roar pulled Yinlin back to the present. With complicated emotions, she took a deep look at his back once more, as if trying to carve that figure into her memory.
"Only my master and mistress never treated me like an outcast. Everything I've done… it's all for Yinlin!"
A puppet suddenly burst out from the shadows, swinging its sharp arms toward Zane.
Zane simply turned and kicked it aside with ease, sending it flying.
After that, he calmly glanced at the Exiles behind Dollmaker. The Nexus Armament appeared on his arm.
But he didn't attack immediately. Instead, he calmly spoke two code names, "'Sparrow' and 'Canary.'"
"What!?" Dollmaker's eyes widened in disbelief.
Those two code names should have vanished in that fire meant to erase them.
So why…
"I don't know their real names." Zane raised his head, his thoughts drifting back to that night of purging corruption within the patrol, a trace of sadness appearing in his eyes. "But I know their story."
Sensing Dollmaker's wavering, Zane turned and gave Yinlin a deep look.
"'Sparrow' and 'Canary', those were your father and mother's code names. While infiltrating a criminal organization to investigate the mole planted inside the Public Security Bureau, their identities were exposed."
Hearing this, Yinlin's eyes gradually reddened, yet this stubborn girl still refused to let a single tear fall.
Seeing her like this, Zane shook his head helplessly. "I told you back then, there's no need to carry everything on your own. It's okay to rely on others sometimes."
"So it really was you…" Yinlin's emotions could no longer be contained. In the next moment, a warm embrace with a faint, gentle fragrance wrapped around her trembling body.
"Zane is right. We're all your friends. You can rely on us as much as you want."
Feeling the warmth of that embrace, even someone as strong as Yinlin felt the softest part of her heart stir.
She let herself be held, finally allowing herself to indulge, just for a moment, in the feeling of being cared for.
What Zane didn't know was that the girl who should have thrown herself into his arms had been intercepted by the quick-reacting girl.
The doctor silently gave a like.
Watching the two girls cling to each other, Zane smacked his lips. Yuri really is great.
"Since this place now belongs to two beautiful girls, then you big men can come with me."
As soon as Zane finished speaking, Dollmaker saw a flash of light from the armament on his wrist. In the next second, his vision blurred. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a domain filled with sand.