Shu's left hand held the invisible, intangible, yet undeniably real singularity. His right arm and waist were still occupied by Kiana and Bianka, who refused to let go even in unconsciousness.
The solid ice that had frozen his lower body had melted. Shu turned, shielding the unconscious Theresa behind him, and faced the "Ana" in Ana's armor.
"I must say, you truly live up to your reputation, the undisputed 'Highest' of the Fire Moths." "Ana" looked at Shu with an unusual expression, sighed, and slowly raised a hand to remove a medal from her chest.
The moment the medal was removed, "Ana's" appearance seemed to "reload." Shu felt as if he had been in a daze, yet he was certain he hadn't diverted his attention in any way.
The answer was obvious.
"Mosquito's Breath," Shu said softly, identifying the same type of device he had used to disguise himself as "Kevin," now held between the fingers of "Ana"—no, he had now reverted to Chen Tianwu's appearance.
"Just as the Overseer predicted, a thing like 'Mosquito's Breath' can only deceive you when you're not serious. The moment you go all out, my identity is immediately exposed," Chen Tianwu said with a sigh, casually tossing the now-useless device to the ground.
That was why, that night in Sapphire City, despite the intense battle between Bianka and Shu at sea, he had only dared to try and collect some data from the very edge.
And now it seemed that the data he had collected was completely useless.
Shu looked at Chen Tianwu's unusual demeanor, shifting his body slightly to the right, placing the singularity between them as he spoke.
"If you're the final move to decide the outcome of this selection trial, then you win. I concede."
This was the final olive branch he offered. Chen Tianwu gave him a very strange feeling, not in terms of energy or anything like that, but in his mental state.
He seemed even more neurotic than Shu himself, with a bizarre, inexplicable excitement, and a sense of relief that everything had finally come to pass.
"No, Lord Shu, I will not attack you again. Although I always thought there might be an unavoidable conflict between us, I never believed I had any chance of winning." Chen Tianwu laughed at Shu's offer and shook his head.
"So now, I feel that I am fortunate, because I can so easily overcome this impossible hurdle. And more importantly, if I must achieve my goal, I don't need to harm anyone!"
Chen Tianwu's calm face broke when he said, "don't need to harm anyone." The long-suppressed smile blossomed, and his gaze fell on Shu's empty, upraised hand.
"A singularity, a miracle... a brand new universe, an infinite source of energy with infinite mass and energy! And in contrast, all the authorities present here are so weak at this moment!"
He's after the singularity?
Shu frowned, his hand holding the singularity tensing slightly.
The singularity was created by him, and of course, it could be destroyed by him. He would prefer to use a more advanced form of annihilation to erase it, but if forced, he wouldn't hesitate to trigger an artificial "Big Bang" right here.
Seemingly noticing the change in Shu's expression, Chen Tianwu finally reined himself in a little. He took a deep breath and smiled at Shu.
"Lord Shu, I know you have many dissatisfactions with this battle... you weren't at your peak, you weren't serious from the beginning, and you never had any killing intent towards anyone from start to finish.
"You believe that defeating you merely through their understanding of you is not enough for them to take over your responsibilities. You believe that everyone should still hide under your protection, correct?"
Shu responded with silence, because in his heart, he did hold such thoughts about this outcome.
It was just that when he returned, he would probably be constantly nagged by Kiana and the others about the outcome of this battle, saying things like, "You can't even beat me? What a pushover..."
In short, everyone would definitely use this victory to do many dangerous things, facing those dangerous enemies, which gave Shu a headache.
He had even seriously considered whether he should be the bad guy who made both sides unhappy, for example, by forcefully locking everyone in the base and becoming a complete dictator...
Could he really do that?
"Lord Shu, we know what you're worried about," Chen Tianwu said again after a two-second pause. "You're worried that Kiana and the others are not truly qualified to face a Herrscher. As someone who has experienced many Herrschers, you know how strong they are.
"You're worried they'll get hurt, worried something will happen to them, worried they'll suffer, or even die without your protection...
"So you want to give them what you think is the best, the safest. You will, and are, giving your all for this, even your life...
"I know what you want to say... 'You know nothing about the Honkai, hide behind me, this is for your own good'... right?"
Shu's breath hitched violently. His eyes widened involuntarily, staring straight at Chen Tianwu.
But Chen Tianwu ignored his gaze, simply sighing to himself. "For your own good... who doesn't know that you are indeed doing it for their own good?
"Everyone can see how hard you're trying, so no one has ever said you're wrong, because no one wants to deal such a blow to someone who is working so hard... except...
"You."
Chen Tianwu turned his head and pointed at Shu.
Me?
Why me?
"Because you have experienced Herrschers, you know what it takes to overcome them, and you also know that everyone will eventually encounter them...
"Of course you hope that everyone can overcome them just like you did, so you are willing to break down everything you have experienced and feed it to them. But they have presented you with such an answer... this is probably not what you had in mind, is it?"
The answer... in my mind?
"Let me think... in this battle, probably only Senior Kiana and Senior Bianka have truly reached the passing line, right? But this is just the passing line. Due to the side effects they carry, you still wouldn't let them face a Herrscher directly..."
"What are you trying to say?" Shu interrupted Chen Tianwu's respectful yet exceptionally arrogant rambling.
He didn't even realize that his short sentence carried an indescribable sense of anxiety. Only Chen Tianwu could see that at this moment, he was like a beast about to devour someone.
Chen Tianwu took a deep breath and bowed slightly to Shu.
"I mean to say... Overseer Otto has prepared a gift for you... a gift you absolutely will not refuse.
"Before that, Overseer Otto asked me to convey a message to you.
"Shu, life has a large margin for error, large enough to accommodate 'death'."