(Full title, the title is too long to fit: Encounter with the Deceased White Moonlight at the Moskva River; The Filter Is So Powerful It's Like a Monster, and Even Giving It My All, I Cannot Win.)
After Cecilia finished speaking, Shun waited for an appropriate moment and interjected, "Sister Cecilia, where are you going?"
Hearing Shun's question, Cecilia squatted down, rubbed his head, and said softly, "I'm sorry. Sister has a very important mission to carry out now and can't accompany you anymore. A blue-haired sister will take you to a safe place later. Don't be afraid—Sister will come back to find you."
"Is what Sister has to do very dangerous?" Of course it was dangerous. Subjugating a Herrscher—how could it not be? And this Herrscher was his other family member.
"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Cecilia comforted him. It was a good thing she didn't say something like "I will win," otherwise Cecilia would probably have been in grave danger.
However… in the future, it seemed that both Sirin and Cecilia had already…
Just thinking about such a future made Shun extremely irritated. From the current situation, the plot of the Second Eruption had definitely gone off track, and how the future would develop was still very chaotic.
Not long after Cecilia left, a black heavy transport helicopter arrived over Moscow, which had already been reduced to scorched earth.
In this scorched land, the green plants created by Abyss Flower were extremely conspicuous. When the helicopter was still about fifty meters above the ground, a Valkyrie with lake-blue hair jumped down from the aircraft and came before Shun.
Shigure Kira looked over the child whom Cecilia had saved in this saturation bombing. Unlike the children of his age she had rescued in previous operations, he wasn't crying or making a fuss. No wonder he had made Lady Cecilia like him.
"Hello, you're… little Shun, right? I'm Sister Shigure Kira. Lady Cecilia already told you, didn't she?"
"Yes, Kira Sister." It was just acting cute, right? Shun felt that those who achieved great things didn't fuss over trivialities. Gaining some favor from Shigure Kira would definitely be beneficial for his future actions.
Wow! This child is really well-behaved! Shigure Kira contentedly rubbed Shun's head again, tucked him under her arm, and brought him onto the helicopter. In a place she couldn't see, the child she thought was innocent and adorable was showing a deep expression that didn't match his age.
The perspective returned to Sirin's side. She had already returned from the Moon to Earth and arrived at the railway tracks that could be called the tracks of fate.
"Queen…" Beside her was the magic dragon Benares, who had taken human form. Sirin had impulsively stuffed the Authorities of the Thunder, Wind, Death, and Flame Herrschers into her. It was like throwing a tantrum—even though the true cores of these four Herrschers were still in Sirin's hands, she had no intention of taking them back.
"This is the place where little Shun and I parted." Even though a long time had passed, Sirin still remembered that day vividly. It was on that day that she had lost her only two remaining family members.
Even though she had just seen her mother not long ago, she hadn't even had the chance to call her "Mom" before that happened.
Now that she had returned here, she wanted to know Shun's exact whereabouts from back then. Although she felt in her heart that he was already dead, she was ultimately unwilling to accept it completely.
Now that she had become a Herrscher and possessed the Authority of the Imaginary, she wanted to open the door between the Imaginary and real worlds here and use the recording effect of the Imaginary Tree to replay what had happened after she left.
Sirin snapped her fingers. She and Bella had already arrived in an Imaginary Space that was identical to the surrounding environment.
At the same time, a golden phantom appeared before her eyes. It was Shun. Using the uniqueness of the Imaginary, Sirin made the events that had occurred on the Imaginary Tree half a year ago reappear before her.
She saw Shun wave goodbye to her, then attach his prosthetic limbs and slowly walk into the distance, deliberately creating traces as if the two of them were walking together.
Although the afterimages formed from Imaginary matter were very blurry, the liquid mixed with blood and flesh left at the junction of the leg and prosthetic was still clearly visible to Sirin.
Bella silently followed behind Sirin. She didn't understand what her Queen was doing right now, but she knew that her Queen was currently very sad.
Sirin followed behind Shun's Imaginary projection. Several times she wanted to help him when he staggered and fell to the ground, but it was useless.
What was here was nothing more than an old phantom. She could not reach through time to touch Shun from half a year ago.
In the end, Shun's projection stopped in front of a wide river, removed the nearly scrapped prosthetic from his foot, and collapsed onto the grass.
Sirin also sat down beside him, mimicking Shun. Her soft, pinkish-white feet stepped on the slightly prickly grass, but her thoughts were entirely on the person beside her.
"The rolling Yangtze River flows eastward~ The waves wash away all heroes~ Right and wrong, success and failure, all turn empty in an instant…" Sirin didn't quite understand why Shun suddenly started singing at this moment, but she had indeed heard this song before.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. She had read the Russian translation and then compared it with the original, and she had also watched the Chinese TV drama.
Hearing Shun's projection from half a year ago suddenly sing this now, Sirin also began to sing along with him. Although her plastic Chinese sounded quite awkward, her singing voice contained longing for someone.
"The green mountains remain as before~ How many times has the setting sun turned red~ White-haired fishermen and woodcutters on the riverbank~ Accustomed to watching the autumn moon and spring breeze~ A pot of~ turbid wine~ happy reunion, how many things from ancient and modern times~ are all laughed off in conversation…"
After singing along to the end, Sirin pondered what deeper meaning Shun had when he sang this, but she didn't know that he had simply thought of it when he saw the Moskva River before him.
If Shun had known how to sing the full version of The Song of the Hero, the next line he would definitely have sung would have been "The great river flows eastward ah! The stars in the sky follow the Big Dipper ah!"
However, after Shun fell silent for a while, he began singing some other songs, but Sirin had truly never heard these before.
Still, since they were all English songs, Sirin, who had been self-studying English these days, could still understand what he was singing.
"(I thought I were no more than a bystander Till I felt a touch so real) I originally thought I was nothing more than a bystander, until I felt such a real touch."
"(I will no longer be a transient When I see smiles with tears) When I see people's smiles with tears, I am no longer a passing traveler."
"(If I have never known the sore of farewell and pain of sacrifices) If I had never known the pain of parting in life and death."
"(What else should I engrave on my mind) What else should I engrave in my heart."
"Little Shun, what exactly were you thinking at that time?" After translating, Sirin looked at the golden phantom before her with a complicated expression. She reached out, wanting to grasp something, but caught nothing.