“ZHANG HENG! Stay there! Die with me!” Clone Yanwei’s voice incessantly sounded from behind. She was giving chase on the street while carrying a giant shining bow. The shine wasn’t limited to the bow, but her body as well. It multiplied her speed by over tenfold, making her look like a human shaped race car racing down the road.
Far in front of her, Heng was giving his all to run. His body was covered in a green light unlike clone Yanwei. He had long since learnt the method to spread the elven energy in A Nightmare on Elm Street. He could freely use it after undergoing countless training since then. However, the first time he used it, it ended up being for running instead of the passionate battle he had been expecting.
“Not running!” Heng shouted. “It’s to avoid the Xuans’ battle. You saw it right? Those buildings just collapsed for no reason! Do you think you can survive there?”
The distant clone Yanwei was silent, before shouting, “Then we’ll die together! I won’t let you die alone this time!”
“But we can live on together? Why must we die?” Heng replied as he ran.
“You, you coward!” Clone Yanwei was already so enraged that she no longer knew what to say.
She raised her bow and shot an arrow. Two streets separated Heng and her, with innumerable buildings on them, but she didn't have any psyche force scanning or any other observation skills. This arrow seemed to just be her venting, but the radiant arrow pierced through multiple buildings, landing on the ground right in front of Heng. If he had been just slightly faster and ran another few meters, it would have struck him. She seemed to have precognition. She followed the flow of fate to fire arrows that hit the enemy.
“Precognition?” Heng sighed as he halted his steps. However, he continued to run forward at a much greater speed than before seconds later. This action immediately led clone Yanwei to start scolding loudly again.
Heng couldn’t help but maintain a bitter smile. He was indeed running, but his core reason was to safeguard clone Yanwei. First, it was because of the Xuans’ battle. Secondly, their battle… would definitely lead to one of them dead, or even both, especially with her current mental state!
(I’ll run faster. When we’re at a safe place, I’ll wait for her to calm down a bit before I talk to her…)
Unfortunately, this was all Heng’s personal guess. Clone Yanwei instead got more enraged the more she ran. She couldn’t resist sending out several arrows, the last of which just grazed the tip of Heng’s nose and forced him to stop. The distance from the Xuans was enough already.
Most importantly, clone Yanwei had reached her maximum level of anger. “Finally stopped, you coward? Die with me!” Clone Yanwei reached him within ten seconds. Without saying another word, she raised her bow and pointed at Heng, seeming about to immediately fire an arrow.
Heng smiled bitterly. He knew that she didn’t actually need to get so close to kill anyone with her special precognition. It was an arrow of fate, that completely predicted your next move and capable of shooting the location you moved into. It was practically the highest realm possible for snipers and archers.
“I can’t die with you. I want to live on now. Yanwei, let’s live on together!” Heng helplessly shrugged his shoulders, before saying seriously to clone Yanwei.
“You. Are you humiliating me?” clone Yanwei’s face flushed with anger. She didn’t wait for Heng’s reply as she shot an arrow at his face. However, its speed and power wasn’t great, and he easily dodged to the side. It seemed clone Yanwei hadn’t been intending to land a killing blow right at the start.
“Listen to me…” Heng hurriedly gestured with his hands. “I’m no longer the past me. Death is just running away! No mistake is unredeemable, so why not live on to atone, until the day I die of old age? Isn’t that... fine? Live on! Together with me!”
Clone Yanwei was stunned. Her bow fell slightly, before she abruptly raised it again and pointed it at him, slowly saying, “You think we can return to our relationship in the past? No, we no longer can… From the moment you ran, or the moment you and I died later on, as well as everything we’ve experienced in the realm… Zhang Heng, we can’t return to the past. That’s why, let’s die together. We’ll finally be… peaceful then. Nothing will ever break us apart then. Everything that’s passed will be reset to zero!”
“You’re not even listening to me.” Heng felt very gloomy. He kept gesturing in an attempt to express something, but in his anxiousness he wasn’t able to explain anything without Xuan or Honglu’s intelligence. At the same time, he felt a chill run through his body. That was because a true killing intent finally leaked from clone Yanwei. He hadn’t sensed such a thing when he met her in Resident Evil Apocalypse. It seemed that she had experienced many life and death trials since then. It also showed that she had made the decision to die together with him since seeing his suicide that time.
“For what purpose is this torment necessary?” Heng shook his head. After calming down his mind, he said, “I already revived the you from team China. She didn’t let me die together with her, so you too…”
“She’s her. I’m me. Do you really think I’m still the Ming Yanwei in your heart. No, we can’t return, so… let’s die!”
Clone Yanwei seemed to have made her decision, or breathed a sigh of relief. She gradually closed her eyes as she spoke, before her hand relaxed, and an arrow of light was loosed. The direction of the arrow was strange. It didn’t seem to target Heng, instead being slightly higher than Heng’s head, looking very strange. However, alarm bells rang in Heng’s mind, honed by a long period of life and death trials. He didn’t hesitate to roll to the side. Unsurprisingly, not a second after that, a large billboard above came crashing down, shattering noisily. However, pain flared in his leg as he rolled away when an arrow of light pierced his right leg. Clone Yanwei had fired an arrow at where he was rolling to, which happened to enter his right calf.
“Your precognition?” Heng grimaced in pain, exhaling several times as he slowly stood up to ask clone Yanwei. She didn’t say anything, an arrow of light nocking on the bowstring when she drew back the bow of light with trembling hands. Heng would definitely die when she loosed it. At this critical juncture, the trembling in her hands was a window to the agitation in her heart.
“Yanwei… I understand. It’s naive to expect to bring you of team Devil away without doing anything. Law of the jungle, was it? Team Devil embracing it can’t be said to not be correct, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. Yanwei. I’ll bring you away after beating you. Don’t worry, I’ll only knock you out. I’m… sorry. I promised the other you to live on courageously. My comrades are still fighting too. I must help them.”
Heng exhaled when he finished. He picked up his newly exchanged Sirius Bow, instead of that silver metal bow. Although this bow was completely not comparable compared to the silver bow in terms of power, it still held a special significance to him. Their first battle and first death… This bow would end the final battle. He had to stake his life to face her.
Clone Yanwei looked at Heng with surprise. When Heng held the Sirius Bow in his hands, an astonishing aura emanated from him that even few from team Devil had. It was the sort of aura only formed from the tempering from endless blood and fire. Not just that, but the determination to give up your life was needed to. In clone Yanwei’s memories, his childhood experiences had bred a sort of cowardice in him. However, someone cowardly would never have this sort of aura. Unknowingly, this person had already grown up into a ‘man’.
(My lover, it’s too late already. If you had had this determination and aura then, you wouldn’t have run at that time… There are no ifs. Let’s go to hell together, my lover…)
(My lover, I can’t die yet with you. I’ve experienced too much. I understand now that death is just an escape. Real courage is facing it. That’s why, let’s live on to face it together, my lover!)
Heng nocked several arrows at the same time, before drawing the Sirius Bow fully, aiming it straight at clone Yanwei. He only this woman in his eyes. It was the eyes of one who had never been able moved forward and would no longer retreat… The eyes of a true man!
“Yanwei, I don’t have your precognition, Xuan’s intelligence, or Zheng’s power! I only have my bow and arrows, as well as the archery techniques I’ve constantly comprehended! Come, my lover!”
“...It’s getting late. So, let’s die together!”
The two released their bowstrings. There was only each other in their eyes, as well as those arrows that never stopped eating up the distance...
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