"Ugh… it hurts…" Inside the ice cocoon, there was an intense, contrasting heat. Crimson flames rose from Rosalyne, reflecting her distorted face through the mirror-like ice.
Immense heat surged from Rosalyne's body, scorching the walls of the ice cocoon. Droplets of water from the melting ice Vaporized into steam before they could even hit the ground, only to touch the ice surface again and refreeze, becoming part of the solid ice once more.
Ice and fire thus contended with each other within the small ice cocoon. Rosalyne's skin constantly pulsed, as if not blood, but ceaseless molten lava flowed beneath.
Countless charred patterns began to spread across Rosalyne's body. Her skirt started Burning, and the smoke of coal ash swirled around her. At this moment, Rosalyne was like an unextinguishable furnace, Burning herself to fuel an eternal flame.
Rosalyne clutched her head with both hands. Flames seared within her, and she should have felt endless pain. Her face was indeed contorted.
But it wasn't from pain; it was because the flames brought forth long-sealed memories.
"Mondstadt…" Rosalyne opened her eyes. Before her appeared a city both familiar and strange.
Windmills turning with the breeze, the pervasive scent of wine, people laughing and chatting, and… her own intellectual and elegant self.
"Am I… Rosalyne?" Rosalyne raised her arm. What met her gaze was no longer luxurious fur, but long, dark green sleeves.
She… seemed to have just returned from her studies in Sumeru? But soon, Rosalyne had no leisure to observe herself, because an invisible pressure suddenly enveloped her heart.
The bright Sky began to darken, and an all-encompassing shadow covered the Sky of Mondstadt. Then, endless black rain fell.
The black rain corroded everything on the land; buildings collapsed, lives dissolved. The black rain was so heavy that even the wails and cries of the people were drowned out.
"Stop…" Rosalyne tremblingly reached out, wanting to save the fleeing people before her, but her hand passed directly through the figures as soon as she touched them. They were like reflections in a mirror, visible but untouchable.
"Roar——" A storm raged from the high heavens. Dark green swirling clouds began to contend with the pitch-black. Solid thousand winds dispersed the black clouds, shattering the black rain.
An ethereal Piano Sound also drifted from the horizon. It brought back the sunlight and dispelled all impurities.
"Quick, out of the city! There are monsters attacking!"
"Where are the alchemists! Someone needs treatment here!"
"Hurry, hurry! Combat personnel, follow me!"
…After the black rain disappeared, Mondstadt became noisy again. The surviving Knights of Favonius were preparing their nearly rusted equipment; alchemists and doctors were treating the injured survivors together; and those who were still relatively sound were clearing the ruins.
Countless people found their place after the black rain. The dragon in the high Sky had taken away the greatest danger; the rest was up to them.
"Right… Rostam! Go find Rostam!" A person suddenly appeared in Rosalyne's mind.
Someone who would listen to her sing punctually every evening in the square.
But as Rosalyne ran forward, a huge resistance suddenly came from within her own body.
Her limbs began to disobey her.
"You know better than I do, the outcome is already decided. Don't look, come back, there are still enemies outside!"
A cold female voice echoed in Rosalyne's heart. That voice was steady, sharp, like unmelting solid ice.
Her voice also trembled; her recent words sounded more like an evasion, an unwillingness to face reality.
"No! You are not me! I am Rosalyne! I want to see Rostam!" Many memories flooded Rosalyne's mind, but she quickly suppressed these flickering memories.
Now, she just wanted to see Rostam!
"I am you! You are Rosalyne! You must offer everything to the Empress!"
Rosalyne's voice resounded again from the depths of Rosalyne's heart. Her words were like cold needles, fiercely piercing Rosalyne's heart.
"I am not! I won't be like you! Never…" Rosalyne clutched her head, memories uncontrollably gushing out—five hundred years of memories belonging to "Rosalyne."
"I am Rosalyne, I love to sing, I went to Sumeru to save people, I am not Rosalyne, you are not me!" Rosalyne's eyes were bloodshot. She crouched on the ground, constantly pulling at her hair.
As if that could alleviate the pain in her heart.
"Why! Why are you so cowardly! The deaths of those people! They were for a better tomorrow! A pure white kingdom, you can see it too, can't you?"
Rosalyne's voice was no longer as steady as before. Now she was like a hysterical shrew.
Rosalyne's pain, she was also enduring.
Rosalyne's purest conscience deep within was simultaneously tearing at both Rosalyne and Rosalyne. This pain was deeper and more mentally tormenting than the scorching flames.
"Go see! You go see! Go die! Then I will still be me!" Rosalyne screamed in Rosalyne's heart. Her voice became hoarse, as if her recent words had exhausted all her strength.
Her past self, after all, must be buried in the past. As long as Rosalyne saw the tragically dead Rostam, then she would not be far from death.
By then, Rosalyne would be Rosalyne, no longer Rosalyne. Those unnecessary self-reproaches, that pity for the weak, would also vanish with Rostam's death!
However, why did she feel a faint sadness in her heart?
Rosalyne didn't know what state she was in. Her vision was filled with people's wails and cries, the roars of battle, and a Damselette running forward in the collapsing streets.
Long flaxen hair fluttered. Her past self was running towards a predetermined death. And her present self was the instigator of it all.
Rosalyne kept running forward. She didn't know where Rostam was, but she understood that as long as she kept running, she would see Rostam.
Mondstadt's streets were full of rubble and wreckage. Blood mixed with the black rain, staining the entire city with a black and red aura of death.
Fortunately, everything was illusory. She passed through the rubble and wreckage, and the abyssal poison on the ground could not touch her in the slightest.
"So tired… so far…" Rosalyne's limbs felt as heavy as lead. Although she hadn't run far, in her consciousness, she felt as if she had run for a long time.
Perhaps her subconscious also knew that Rostam's fate was already sealed.
"I want to… see Rostam!" Rosalyne yelled, swinging her limbs with all her might.
The invisible resistance was broken, and Rosalyne's speed suddenly increased. The scene before her became increasingly familiar.
The fountain that no longer flowed, the dark corroded plants, the uneven and pitted floor. Everything was so familiar, yet so strange.
This was where Rosalyne used to sing, but now it was in ruins. Rosalyne's eyes darted around, and her body began to tremble.
Unspoken fear and despair began to envelop Rosalyne, as if what she was about to see would shatter her entirely.
Although her body trembled uncontrollably, Rosalyne still looked around. Then she saw a figure lying quietly behind the fountain pillar.
"Clatter! Clatter!" Rosalyne moved her incredibly heavy body, enduring the sorrow and despair in her heart, and walked towards the figure.
Tears streamed uncontrollably from her eyes, blurring Rosalyne's vision. Rosalyne stiffly raised her hand, wiping away her tears.
She hadn't seen Rostam in so long. She just wanted to see him, just a glimpse.
The short distance of only a few meters, Rosalyne walked surprisingly slowly. The figure lying on the ground became clearer and more complete.
Then Rosalyne froze. That person was not Rostam. It was a suit of armor that had been brought out of a museum.
"Surprise!" Yu Jin jumped up from the ground and said to Rosalyne.
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