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Chapter 23-1: Gather for the Final Battle!(I)
The battle continued.
No matter how many died.
As long as both sides still had a breath.
The final battle would never end…
As the remaining people of team China were embroiled in battle, Heng was in his own personal fated fight.
Heng was strong… If ignoring conviction, persistence, willpower and courage, he was incredibly strong in terms of pure power, enough to constitute a fatal threat to Zheng and clone Zheng. Even though his power unleashed fluctuated greatly, he was still steadily within the top five of team China. That was how strong he was.
As mentioned, his power fluctuated greatly. He was either so strong he could threaten the strongest, or so weak a woman could kill him… such as the woman in front of him.
Clone Yanwei and Heng’s battle had gone on for a while already. In the beginning, Heng had been running away. He hadn’t given up on the battle. However, clone Yanwei had possessed the overwhelming advantage in this long range battle with her premonition. If she didn’t have some hesitation in her, perhaps Heng would have died to an arrow already. In this standoff where they fired arrows at each other, that was her wanting to die together.
When the two arrows were released, that short distance was eaten up in an instant. However, instinctively, every person would feel as if time slowed down in the moments before death as if time had come to a halt. Although their bodies couldn’t move, their minds could clearly sense the approaching arrows. They powerlessly watched as the arrows entered their bodies, seemingly about to reap their lives...
(Heng! Let’s die together…)
(I can’t die yet. I can’t die yet! I clearly have the courage to live on now, so how can I die here?)
Two completely different mental states, which represented completely different philosophies in life. Heng’s body suddenly released a green light as the arrow was about to touch him, making him look like a small, green, sun. He didn’t resist it, allowing the arrow to pass through his heart. Resistance was futile anyways as clone Yanwei already knew his reaction even before firing the arrow. The arrow would pierce his heart regardless, so he didn’t even intend to dodge, instead taking it head-on.
And Heng’s arrow pierced through clone Yanwei’s… arm. Yes, it pierced through her bow carrying arm, tearing it off. That was all it did as the arrow flew off.
"Why. Why is it like this again? You coward, do you want to run away alone again?" Clone Yanwei only recovered from her shock when the arrow had flown into the distance, ignoring her severed arm, muttering to herself as she looked at Heng, her eyes filled with despair.
A hole was located in Heng’s chest. Let alone his heart, his arteries or anything else couldn’t be seen, and the hole was see through. Such a wound would be fatal for Heng, and even Xuan. However, he surprisingly didn’t fall to the ground, instead tightening his grip on his Sirius bow and his widened into a glare at clone Yanwei. The giant hole in his chest began to visibly knit itself back together, completely recovered in
"My Light of the Soul happens to have the attribute of life force. I’m immortal as long as I still have Light of the Soul. Hey, you want to shoot again!" Heng was bitterly laughing, before suddenly seeing clone Yanwei using her remaining arm to pick up her longbow on the ground.
Frightened, he immediately rushed to her side and picked her up. He ignored her struggling, and used the green Light of the Soul to stanch her bleeding, before kicking her longbow far away. No matter how she bit or scratched in her struggles, he only loudly said, "Don’t worry. I said I’ll take responsibility, so I will. I’ll shoulder all my sins in the past. I can’t die now. It won’t wash away my sins and will betray my comrades’ trust, so…" Heng placed her on his shoulder, before taking out the Sky Stick and jumping on it. He flew off, ignoring what clone Yanwei was saying.
It was only then clone Yanwei finally understood that Heng was truly different now. It was cowardly to just want to die. It was nothing more than running away from the sins and pain of the past. It was the same for her and Heng. Otherwise, she and Heng wouldn’t have wanted to die together in Resident Evil Apocalypse. Neither were able to let go of their past memories or each other. However, at the same time, they weren’t able to face the other.
It was only in this final battle that Heng had changed, now not only able to courageously fight her, but able to courageously bear the past as well… Even if those sins couldn’t be forgotten or repaid in this life, he still faced it courageously. Such a Heng… clone Yanwei truly couldn’t imagine.
(What is this bittersweet feeling in my heart? After being hurt like that, I’m still able to trust him? I…)
Heng felt anxious and helpless. He really didn't know how to deal with this clone Yanwei. If it was the original, after such a long period of time interacting, although there hadn’t been much improvement, at least they weren’t enemies. Probably? But this clone Yanwei stood on an opposing side to him, and they were fundamentally enemies. And in team Devil’s environment, let alone resolving her emotional knots, just not becoming a devil showed she still had some kindness in her heart. How was Heng supposed to persuade her? He hadn’t even resolved the original yet, so dealing with two… He didn’t have that kind of ability.
He wasn’t able to kill clone Yanwei, even if it was just a clone. It was Ming Yanwei after al. If it came down to it, he would rather be killed than kill. So he could only helplessly restrain her first. The combat power was negligible without her bow anyways.
As for the future… how it would be facing two Ming Yanweis who hated him… that he didn’t know.
(Ah… we’ll finish this final battle first. I can feel two powerful auras there fighting. Perhaps Zheng is there. I’ll help Zheng win first. Let the future determine the matters of the future.) Heng resolved himself, before his body trembled faintly. The treatment just now had depleted too much of his Light of the Soul. He was still only in the early fourth stage, a level he only entered with great difficulty during the training in Starship Troopers. He didn’t have the power to wastefully use his Light of the Soul. He wouldn’t be able to recover from another fatal wound…
Speaking of which, why did he feel the two in front seemed familiar?
"Wrong way, wrong way, wrong way! This isn’t Zhengs’ fight, this is XUANS’! Dammit, isn’t this just giving people a hard time?" Heng had easily flown far on his Sky Stick, and had noticed several black specks floating in the sky upon entering the domain of the battle. When he looked carefully, he realised the specks were two Xuans and a woman. The Xuans were recklessly using their Lambda Drivers without a care for anyone else. They were using gun-kata to display this skill to the limit. Spheres of light made of power of faith were continuously fired into their surroundings, the ground destroyed by the shockwaves. Watching it terrified Heng.
"Hmph, running away again as soon as you see something that can threaten your life?" Clone Yanwei was no longer struggling as she looked at the distant Xuans, sneering coldly at Heng.
"Err, battling and sending yourself to die are completely different concepts. I don’t see a need to join their battle. Err, I’ll see how Zheng is doing first. If Zheng wins, then we win this final battle." Heng gave a bitter smile as he replied, before changing course.
Clone Yanwei’s eyes briefly showed some listlessness. She muttered, "So what if this final battle ends? The future won’t change…"
"No, the future won’t be the same any longer!" Heng loudly cut her off. "If I say it won’t be the same, it won’t be! Even if you still continue to hate me, and cannot forget it forever, I’ll still be by your side. Whether in happiness or sadness, despair or bliss, I’m not leaving again!"
(Liar...) Clone Yanwei didn’t say anything else, allowing Heng to carry her towards the battlefield that would decide the final battle… the battlefield of the Zhengs.