Chapter 70: Identity

She already knew she had been parasitized.

"I only wanted to spend a little more time with you before the end... and then leave on my own."

But Cyrus had exposed the truth ahead of time.

The woman cried as though her heart was being torn apart. Countless tears of grievance fell—each drop a farewell to the people she loved and the teammates who had stood beside her.

Before this day, they had already accompanied her for a full eight years.

Eight years since leaving Central for this. In that time, she had witnessed the deaths of countless teammates.

Only Hilan and Val had survived from those early days until now.

"I always knew that one day death would come for me as well... yet I still can’t bear to leave you."

"You protected me so many times, and I couldn’t protect any of you even once..."

Lily’s body began to convulse violently. She stopped crying and gave Hilan one final smile:

"I love you."

In the next moment, she ended her own life without hesitation.

The wind on the wasteland grew even fiercer. The sound of the gunshot dissolved into the dead silence that held the group.

Hilan froze for a second, then charged toward Lily’s body like a madman. He gathered her into his arms; crystalline tears still clung to her beautiful face.

A desperate, piercing cry of grief tore across the barren plain.

An unhatched alien still resided inside Lily’s body. Her remains had to be cremated.

Sensing the death of its host, the creature in her abdomen began thrashing wildly.

Hilan’s teammates came to pull him away. He insisted on handling Lily’s body himself.

After the others turned their backs and left, another gunshot split the heavy air.

Bunny turned around in disbelief. Flames were already roaring high into the sky. Hilan had cremated Lily... and then chosen to follow her in death.

A sentinel who lost his guide was like a fish that lost the sea, a star that lost the moon, a sailor who lost the lighthouse.

The two bodies remained locked in an embrace upon that decaying, barren earth, burning through their final meeting.

Bunny’s eyes reddened without her noticing. People always said dying for love was an ancient legend, yet the bond the gods had given guides and sentinels destined them for eternal entanglement.

Lily had been the only spiritual pillar that still kept Hilan living in this world.

When the string snaps, the kite flies away.

Until now, Bunny had always treated being a guide as simply a job. At this moment, however, she felt a little lost.

The end of life was merely death. The meaning of death was not the loss of life, but the stepping out of time.

Yet in an environment this cruel, dying was actually the easiest and simplest thing. Living was the true hell—because those who lived continued to suffer.

She needed to re-examine her own identity.

That was the last thing Lily had taught her before the end.

Her heart clenched painfully. When a person’s empathy was too strong, it became a form of suffering in itself.

In the end times, only the cold-hearted lived happily.

Suddenly she fell into a warm embrace. Xander gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with the pad of his thumb. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"Don’t be sad anymore, Bunny. Let’s go home."

The two groups parted ways. The West One would soon receive new members, a new captain, and even a new guide.

The traces they had left in this world would quickly fade and be forgotten.

The supersonic shuttle flew steadily through the clouds. Mentally exhausted, Bunny slept deeply.

Liam and Brandon crouched on either side of her; Orion and Illai crouched opposite them.

The four youngest sentinels in the base guarded her like four stone statues waiting for a wife’s return.

Brandon suddenly spoke out of nowhere: "Will Bunny leave us someday?"

Liam immediately punched him. "Are you already thinking of her dying, you fucker?"

Orion folded his hands, rested his chin on his elbows, and stared at Bunny without moving—just like a snake coiled up and zoning out.

Silly.

***

After the oil-refinery nest was wiped out, Bunny finally received two rare days of leave with no training courses.

Rin seemed to have found a method that could allow Rain to see color: by entering his spiritual landscape and using a guide’s mental threads as a medium to establish a temporary deep neural link.

In this way, Rain would be able to see the colors of the world through Bunny’s eyes.

The drawback, however, was extreme risk. Failure was very likely, and the moment the link was broken, everything would return to its original state—equivalent to only a brief experience.

At present, Bunny and Rain had not yet established a sufficiently deep relationship of trust. Immediate attempts were not recommended.

New Calendar Year 908 – April 27

I have completely adapted to life in the sentinel tower. The ferocity of the aliens is even more terrifying than I imagined, yet I have successfully killed twenty-nine of them.

Liam is way too restless. He’s already making a fuss about climbing into bed. If only he were even half as obedient as Orion.

— From Bunny’s Diary

Bunny closed the diary and decided to go look for Orion. She had asked him earlier to modify a laser crossbow for her and wanted to check on the progress.

Almost every weapon in this world had been designed according to a sentinel’s physique. They were extremely inconvenient for her to use.

The door to Orion’s bedroom was not closed. A thin strip of warm yellow light leaked through the crack.

She knocked. No one answered. Electronic music of this era was playing loudly inside the room.

Sentinels generally preferred rock-type music.

Eh? Where had that blockhead gone?

She pushed the door open—and ran straight into Orion stepping out of the bathroom. He seemed to have just finished showering.

Hot steam drifted and dispersed. The man wore only a pair of light-gray lounge pants, a towel draped over his right shoulder, leaving his entire well-built upper body exposed.

The muscles, still flushed from the bath, looked faintly pink. White hair roots clung to beads of water that had not yet dried, dripping playfully from his jaw into the groove between his pectorals.