Cold Embrace (7)

There was no one behind her, yet Xu Xiaoyou knew that a girl stood right before her at this moment, gazing at her deeply. That intense emotion traversed time and space, broke through the virtual barrier, and spanned across all loneliness and coldness.

"A-Xin?" She blurted out the girl's name. "Where... are you?"

"Are you by my side?"

The lonely journey across the wasteland had no end; the mournful traveling ballad waited for a poet to finish singing it. The distance between the two was like the stars in the universe; the light of longing crossed the stellar corona and the spiral arms of the galaxy, flying through atmospheres and star systems, from the singularity to the heat death. No one knew if they could meet; no one knew if they could reflect in each other's eyes.

People who longed for each other were separated by a thin veil, yet also by the sky-curtain.

A bird in flight had lost its way during the journey. The wind brushed over the waves of the sea of flowers; the plants and grass swaying with the wind's trajectory pointed to the distant road. She recorded the scenery along the way with her eyes, pursuing her direction by the beacon in her heart.

The wandering deer let out a cry; the lonely whale's song was distant and low. The wheat fields were a vivid yellow and the forests a lush green; all sadness and unhappiness became tranquil under the blue sky.

Sevia did not respond. She stepped forward gently and embraced the blonde girl, as careful as if she were holding wind-blown sand that was about to scatter.

Xu Xiaoyou seemed to sense this embrace across displaced space-time. A cold temperature pressed lightly against her chest and trickled toward her limbs; the girl's figure slowly became clear before her eyes. Thus, she also raised her hands clumsily and unpracticed, responding to the girl's softness.

In different times, separated by the distance of ten million worlds, they held each other.

The ballad of the journey rang out loudly at this moment!

The bridge of her nose stung, and tears flowed from Sevia's eyes. It was unclear if the expression on her face was sadness or a sense of grievance.

She so wanted this moment to last for eternity. She so hoped that she could be held in those arms, to truly receive a warm embrace.

She so hoped the other person could gently hold her, listen to her talk about the twists and turns of the journey, comfort her, and personally say the words that she didn't need to continue the journey anymore.

What she wanted was a temperature that could actually be held in her palm, not a wind that could be blown away by longing at any time.

"I..." Xu Xiaoyou likewise had many things she wanted to say to the girl.

But this time, she, who was usually so eloquent, could not say a word. The sentences she had reconstructed in her heart many times reached her lips, but not a single syllable could jump out.

"I know you're right here." Sevia sensed Xu Xiaoyou's predicament and shook her head, her arms moving up to embrace her, her forehead resting lightly on the blonde girl's shoulder.

"This is enough."

"Let's mention more words when we truly reunite," Sevia said softly. "My heart also holds many words I want to pour out, as well as many doubts. Why can we see each other under these circumstances?"

"Tonight is not long, and we cannot waste time on confusion. So don't raise the doubts in your heart anymore, and don't break the peace of this moment. Let this silence last a little longer."

"I like you, and that's enough."

Sevia summoned her courage to speak the feelings she had hidden between the lines of those countless songs, poems, and letters—the emotions she had silently pledged to the girl.

Xu Xiaoyou felt somewhat at a loss. Facing the emotions of others, she was always like this; any emotion someone placed upon her, whether it was familial love or deep friendship, would become a heavy burden that affected her rational judgment.

She did not want anyone to be irrational for her sake when she put herself at risk, nor was she willing to let others influence her judgment.

This kind of emotion was clearly a bottle of invisible poison that one sank deeper and deeper into for a believer in probability.

Perhaps she had already sensed the girl's intense feelings for her. She was not a block of wood and knew well that the girl was very possessive.

Before today, Tang Xin had never openly revealed any feelings in her heart, yet she had made hidden confessions in the countless songs and poems she wrote for her, as well as in the creation of her opera. She often grew angry because Xu Xiaoyou ignored her own feelings or became unhappy when she interacted with others.

"If one day, I completely lose my wings on the journey to find myself," Sevia asked, "would you let go of everything from the past and choose me?"

Xu Xiaoyou fell silent.

She could not answer that question.

Finally, she said, "If one day, you are forced to make a choice because of something—no matter how heavy the weight on the other side of the scale is—could you firmly stake one chance of choice on me?"

"Can I interpret that as..." Sevia released the embrace and looked at her with a smile, "you aren't refusing?"

For some reason, that direct gaze from the girl made a sudden chill rise within Xu Xiaoyou, as if 'The Artist' were crawling all over her.

What was with this sense of deja vu that she would die if she said 'no'?

"Don't answer a question with a question..." Xu Xiaoyou said.

"You were the one who answered a question with a question first." Sevia blinked.

Seeing the girl not answering, Sevia shook her head and took a few steps back, her smile bright.

"Don't let me wander alone toward the end of the journey for too long."

"I hope that before the end of the journey, you will also come running toward me."

The brief meeting ended in a hurry before the promises could even be exchanged.

Just as creators always like to leave suspense at the most beautiful part of a story, only for things to take a sharp turn for the worse; by the time the reader picks up the anticipated sequel, everything has already become unrecognizable.

Sevia walked gently into that fine night like a withered blue iris, her figure slowly becoming transparent in the air until she vanished...

Finally, the blonde girl's response came from behind.

"No matter what happens, stake the chance of choice on me. Promise me." Xu Xiaoyou said seriously.

"Mm, I promise." With a smile on her lips, Sevia was scattered into the air by the wind.

The exchange of promises caused a stone to drop in Xu Xiaoyou's heart. She didn't know if her heart felt lighter or if it had become even heavier.

"Also, Yuzu, your acting last time was really bad. Everything was clearly written on your face."

She stood by the window of the command room, the girl's parting words echoing in her ears. She didn't understand the meaning of those words until her gaze fell upon the windowsill, where a blue iris lay quietly, still retaining a trace of warmth.

It turned out the other person had recognized her as far back as the Iris Orphanage.

Even so, did Tang Xin still head for the final stage without looking back?

Perhaps for that girl, the ideal in her heart outweighed everything else.

That was why she harbored the selfish hope that the other person would firmly choose her over that ideal, even if only once.

In the corner, the girl with dark red hair witnessed all of this. She turned around, her eyes flickering, her lips pressed tight, and she left quickly with an uneasy expression.

Xu Xiaoyou looked into the distance, and one doubt in her heart was finally answered tonight.

Without a doubt, the girl she had just seen was the real Tang Xin.

Meanwhile, the 'Unknown Visitor Sevia?' who had sent her letters in Oasis was an NPC derived by Oasis from the real-life Tang Xin; the two individuals acted separately, and their motivations were different.

This ruled out the possibility that Oasis was simulating real-life scenes in real-time.

The real Tang had not left Pangard City; she was in the same prison within the Bastion as her and had left a scratch not long ago. The corresponding wall in the virtual world also showed the scratch left by the other person.

Everything indicated this.

The miracle of Pangard City in reality might not have truly erupted yet, but was on the verge of doing so. That was why Tang Xin was moving about here, hoping to save this kingdom.

And 'Sevia?' was an electronic ghost who, after the disaster erupted, guided her to stop something that was about to happen. Furthermore, this event was highly likely to be related to Tang Xin.

Recalling the contents of the letters and everything that had happened before, the other party had guided her to meet Tang Xin in this prison, hoping she could give her a cold embrace.

It was not yet clear what 'Sevia?' hoped to prevent from happening.

But Xu Xiaoyou could reach a conclusion on one thing.

That was, everyone had guessed wrong.

Oasis was not recreating large-scale world events based on disasters that had already occurred in reality.

Instead, it was a simulation of future disasters that might descend, based on everything currently happening in reality!

The Pangard destroyed by the 'Gnawing Parasite Miracle' in Oasis was a projection of the future of the real Pangard.

EVA's computing power was extremely formidable; nothing happening could escape her eyes. Through the countless threads in reality, she linked them together to collectively simulate and construct the scenario with the highest probability for the future world.

All of this was aimed at finding possible solutions for the disaster, attempting to save a civilization that could be destroyed in an instant.

This world was too vast. Everything that happened tonight had a probability infinitely close to zero for any ordinary person. If she and Tang Xin had not met here, guided by fate across multiple spatial and temporal barriers, no one would have likely unraveled the truth of the matter.

Perhaps one day, when a disaster capable of destroying all civilizations in the current world was about to arrive, powerful AIs like EVA and the Miserere would also use this method to calculate the only possible way out for civilization.