Su Yuan stared at his blood-soaked body and at Mondstadt, rivers of blood flowing through the city, astonished beyond belief — could all of this really have been done by him?
Not long ago he had slipped into some indescribable state, influence unknown, and had gone on a slaughtering spree through Mondstadt…
Although it seemed no innocent civilians were hurt, the entire Lawrence family had been wiped out…
Su Yuan knew full well the Lawrence family weren't a good lot, but that didn't mean every single one of them was an unforgivable monster.
Had he gone too far?
Most importantly: why had he entered that strange state and become so violent and murderous?
While Su Yuan was bewildered, someone in the crowd cried out in terror:
"Everyone, run! Get to safety now!!!"
"The dragon Ursa attacks Mondstadt again!!!"
Hearing this and feeling Ursa's roars from the city gate, Su Yuan thought the time had come — he should fight the dragon now and die in battle to trigger his death rewind…
As for whether the information that the time-space portal can't be used could be carried back, he would have to leave that to fate…
…
Now the perspective shifts to Aether.
When the time-space portal malfunctioned, Aether felt as if he'd been thrown into a meat grinder — his whole body twisted and sliced apart…
When Aether woke again, one of his hands and one of his feet were gone, and blood still flowed…
His body had several large holes; many organs were exposed…
Aether tried to crawl and see what had happened, but no matter how he struggled, pain and weakness kept him immobile…
Aether thought: fine — let me just die quickly…
If Su Yuan triggered the death rewind, Aether could retain his memories and return to the past to warn everyone not to use the Oath Cape portal to Musk Reef…
Just as Aether closed his eyes and felt his blood ebb away, ready to accept death, a frantic, worried voice came from beside him:
"Traveler!!! Don't sleep!!! Don't close your eyes!!!"
"I'll find a way to save you — please don't die!!!"
Hearing that voice, Aether recognized Paimon's voice and thought how glad he was she was here…
"Paimon… kill me…" Aether said with difficulty.
"I'm in so much pain… just end it quickly for me…"
Aether knew he had to die soon in order to better prevent whatever accident was happening with Su Yuan — dying would let him keep his memories and return to the past.
"But… Traveler, I can't bring myself to kill you… I just can't…" Paimon said, hesitant and unwilling.
"Paimon, hurry, or things will change…" At this point Aether stopped hiding the truth and decided to tell Paimon everything he knew.
"Actually, Su Yuan might have the ability to rewind back time when he dies…"
"And if I die in front of Su Yuan, I'll be able to retain my memory and return to the past…"
"What? There's actually something like that in this world???" Paimon exclaimed, astonished and incredulous.
"Traveler, you're not making this up just to comfort me so I won't feel guilty about killing you, are you?"
"No—there's no way I could force myself to do it…" Paimon continued, distraught.
At the same time, Aether noticed something very strange…
When he'd tried to talk about the Eerie and death rewinds with others before, his words would always turn meaningless or make things awkward.
So why, right now, could he speak freely to Paimon about all of this???
Was it because he was about to die and that removed the restriction?
Or was Paimon somehow… special?
Aether couldn't puzzle that out further — his body was growing weaker and his consciousness more blurred…
Why could he say those unsayable things to Paimon?
Maybe in the future Paimon could act as a bridge to communicate between him and Su Yuan.
With that thought, Aether finished the last stretch of his life — he died from blood loss.
..........
Su Yuan suddenly opened his eyes wide — that same familiar and unsettling feeling washed over him again…
There was still no stinging sensation in the palm of his left hand.
That meant the intelligence-gathering ability of his left hand still hadn't returned…
He looked around at the people nearby.
Everyone was preparing to head to Cape Oath and pass through the space-time passage there to reach Musk Reef in search of Dottore's whereabouts…
Su Yuan's gaze fell on Aether.
Since in the previous death rewinds Aether had always shown the ability to foresee everything, Su Yuan figured this time should be no exception, right?
But when faced with Su Yuan's sudden stare, Aether froze on the spot…
What was going on?
Why was Su Yuan suddenly staring straight at him?
Did he have dirt on his face?
Or maybe some food residue still stuck at the corner of his mouth?
But Aether quickly realized the gravity of the situation.
Could it be that Su Yuan had gone through another death rewind and was now looking to him for intel?
The problem was — he had absolutely no memory of anything like that!
In other words, did it mean that in the last loop, because of some special circumstances, he hadn't managed to die before Su Yuan, and therefore didn't retain any memories?
That couldn't be right.
Since he already knew about Su Yuan's plight, how could he not have rushed ahead and died first?
Su Yuan, seeing Aether's bewildered and contemplative expression, was also a little taken aback…
What was going on?
From the way Aether looked, he seemed genuinely surprised by Su Yuan's gaze.
Could it be that this time Aether hadn't obtained any intel, and didn't have the ability to foresee everything?
If that was the case, then hadn't his last death rewind been completely wasted?
He'd gained nothing, learned nothing, only returned to the past?
Meanwhile, Aether, lost in thought, came to another possibility…
If he and Su Yuan were together, he would have done everything he could to die before Su Yuan.
So the fact that things had turned out like this now suggested there must have been some kind of accident that had separated them!
And that accident was very likely connected to what they were about to do!
So Aether suddenly spoke up:
"Everyone, wait a moment! There's something I need to discuss with you!"
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