Although Jiang Nannan appeared slightly calmer than Xiao Xiao, her delicate brows were similarly furrowed, and her fingers unconsciously twisted the hem of her clothes, revealing her inner struggle.
Their power, though considered outstanding among the younger generation, was utterly minuscule—like dust in the face of this world-shattering war. Even self-preservation was a problem.
Zhang Lexuan turned around, her pitch-black hair gently swaying in the light breeze.
Her gaze fell sequentially on Xiao Xiao and Jiang Nannan. Her tone was gentle as she said, "Let's leave together. Staying here, you won't be able to do anything, and you'll only distract them."
Her eyes shifted slightly to the Servants who had been languidly standing behind the two girls—Qingque and Song Que, who could be dubbed the masters of loafing in this Holy Grail War.
"Or perhaps..."
Zhang Lexuan's voice took on a trace of imperceptible teasing, and a subtle curve formed at the corner of her lips.
"Do the two of you plan to bring your Servants to participate in that battle?"
At this moment, Qingque had somehow produced a set of smooth, translucent jade tiles and was idly flipping them with her fingers. The sound of the tiles clicking together was crisp, like a spring.
She hummed a tuneless little song, her toe gently tapping out the rhythm, as if the surrounding destruction, the collapsing heavens, and the blazing fires were merely background scenery on a screen, completely irrelevant to her.
Meanwhile, Song Que leaned against a relatively intact piece of broken wall, arms crossed, eyes closed in rest.
Her breathing was long and even, her expression tranquil, as if she were not on a battlefield but taking a nap on a spring afternoon. Her entire being radiated an aura of peaceful stillness—a clear message of do not disturb my sweet dreams.
Since the start of the battle, these two, apart from casually swatting away a few clueless, low-level Xu soldiers during the initial chaos, had perfectly executed their strategy of watching from the sidelines. They firmly guarded their Masters' sides, showing no intention of intervening in the earth-shaking battles.
Hearing Zhang Lexuan's words, Qingque immediately shook her head like a rattle-drum, her face clearly stating, "No, thank you."
"Fighting? I'm no good at that. You might as well just tell me to kill myself than ask me to fight those monsters."
As she spoke, she turned to Xiao Xiao and put on a tearful, pitiful expression, as if she had suffered a monumental injustice.
"Yeah, yeah."
Song Que quickly opened her eyes and nodded emphatically, resolutely standing on the same side as Qingque.
"I'm just a cannon fodder, too. If I get involved in a fight of that magnitude, I doubt even my bone fragments would be left."
She spread her hands, adopting a frank attitude that said, "Fighting is out of the question; it will never happen in this lifetime."
Xiao Xiao was speechless, staring at these two Servants who loafed around with such justified, shameless confidence. The trace of hesitation and heroism that had momentarily surged in her heart was instantly and thoroughly extinguished.
Relying on them to participate in the battle? She might as well wait for the sun to rise from the west tomorrow.
Jiang Nannan sighed helplessly and gently tugged on Xiao Xiao's sleeve.
"Xiao Xiao, Sister Le Xuan is right. There's no point in us staying here. We'll only make Elder Xuan and the senior sisters worry. Let's retreat first. We must believe that Elder Xuan and the others will return safely."
Xiao Xiao looked once more at the distant, hellish battlefield where energy currents tore at the sky, then glanced at the two Servants beside her who practically had "Loafer" tattooed on their foreheads.
She finally slumped her shoulders like a deflated balloon and muttered softly:
"...Alright, then... I'll go with you."
As Zhang Lexuan and the others departed, taking Meng Hong Chen and her companions with them, Lu Jing Ming was left with only Remian, Gu Yue, and Istalut, who remained in place to observe the changing battlefield.
The fierce engagement between the Holy Spirit Sect and Shrek Academy finally drew to a temporary close with the Holy Spirit Sect's sudden withdrawal.
Over the ruins, the ear-splitting war cries and violent energy waves gradually receded, leaving behind only a scene of utter devastation.
The billowing dust slowly settled, like a lowered grey curtain, revealing broken streets, twisted and charred metal debris, and sporadic flames that had yet to completely extinguish.
The core area, once filled with energy collisions and ceaseless roars, was now enveloped by a suffocating silence.
Yae Sakura leaned against a tottering, shattered wall covered in spider-web cracks and slowly slid to the ground.
Her red-and-white Miko attire was now stained with congealed blood and filthy dust, unrecognizable from its original sacred color. The cloth was ripped and torn in many places, revealing skin covered in gruesome, terrible wounds, some of which were deep enough to show bone.
She gasped faintly, each breath pulling at the intense pain in her chest. Her pink hair fell limply, the strands matted with ashes and bloodstains.
Her purple eyes, once clear and bright, were now dull and vacant, losing their focus. Her long eyelashes trembled, as if they might close at any moment, never to open again.
"Big Sis..."
An extremely faint voice, like a flickering candle in the wind, sounded in her ear.
Higokumaru, whose form was so translucent that she was virtually a blur, and whose silhouette was barely visible, struggled to cling to Yae Sakura's shoulder.
That tiny, warm, flame-like body trembled slightly, her voice filled with unconcealed dejection and sorrow.
She knew what Yae Sakura's deepest wish was. She had hoped that on this bizarre Holy Grail journey in an alternate world, she could help her Big Sis find that eternal peace and salvation for her soul.
But reality was cruelly despairing.
Their power seemed so insignificant and inconspicuous on this grand stage crowded with experts.
Worse still, Yae Sakura's luck seemed to be terribly bad.
Summoned to this world, her Master was a puppet manipulated by others and stripped of self-awareness. Her faction was the sinister and twisted Holy Spirit Sect, which walked a path contrary to the light.
Yae Sakura's pure nature as a Miko and her unwavering conviction were completely incompatible with the darkness and malice that permeated her surroundings, causing her to be isolated and excluded from the start, like an anomaly that had stumbled into the abyss, finding every step difficult.
Just like now: the Holy Spirit Sect had hastily retreated, abandoning their arms and armor, yet no one had looked back at her, let alone taken her, a Servant, with them.
Of course, even if they had wanted to, it would likely have been futile.
Yae Sakura's memory-body was already on the verge of collapse. The only reason she could maintain her existence was due to a powerful, unyielding obsession that refused to simply vanish.
"Oh? What have I discovered... A poor, abandoned little fox... Hm, this aura reminds me of an 'old acquaintance'."
Suddenly, a female voice—carrying a touch of languid charm, a hint of playful mockery, yet subtly laced with cold danger—sounded behind Yae Sakura without warning.
The voice seemed to hold a strange magic, capable of easily plucking at one's heartstrings, while simultaneously causing a primal, chilling sense of alarm deep within the soul.
"Woah!"
Higokumaru was startled by the sudden voice and violently trembled, nearly falling off Yae Sakura's shoulder.
She instinctively felt a bone-chilling cold creep up her spine, but strangely, this lazy yet dangerous tone... seemed somehow familiar?
Yae Sakura showed no reaction. She had exhausted even the strength to lift her eyelids, her consciousness wavering and sinking at the edge of absolute darkness.
Accompanied by a subtle spatial ripple, a graceful, bewitching figure quietly materialized as if condensing from shadow.
The newcomer wore a bold, dark green outfit that perfectly outlined her seductive curves. Her skin was nearly translucent white, forming a stark contrast with the clothing.
A head of dark green hair flowed behind her, seeming to possess a life of its own, gently swaying.
Most striking were her emerald-green, non-human snake-like vertical pupils, which were currently observing the dying Yae Sakura and the tiny, weakly flickering flame on her shoulder with intense interest.
When Higokumaru clearly saw the newcomer's face, her pupils instantly contracted. She was so shocked that she gasped, the words practically leaping out: "Mobius S... S... Sister!"
Just as the forbidden title of "Auntie" was about to slip out, Mobius's exotic, seductive snake eyes slightly narrowed. The corner of her lips curved into a half-smile, a deeply meaningful arc, and her entire being exuded a subtle yet soul-freezing aura of danger.
In that instant, Higokumaru's powerful survival instinct, honed by countless trials, was activated to the extreme.
She forcefully swallowed the "Auntie" that was already on her tongue, tying her tongue in a knot, and with lightning speed, replaced it with an incomparably sweet, sickeningly obedient address: Sister.
"Heh~"
Mobius seemed quite satisfied with the timely correction, letting out a soft, magnetic chuckle from her throat. The dangerous aura that permeated the surroundings silently receded like a tide.
She walked slowly with the elegant gait of a cat, her gaze moving between the barely-breathing Yae Sakura and the tense Higokumaru, who was close to being extinguished.
"You little one are... just as clever as ever, aren't you?"
Her perceptiveness was terrifyingly sharp. With just a glance, she had a rough idea of Higokumaru's current strange state.
Not an entirely independent entity, but forming a peculiar symbiotic relationship with this dying, fox-eared Miko—her existence completely depended on the other party.
However, when her gaze returned to Yae Sakura's exquisite face, which was almost identical to the person in her memory, a trace of extreme faintness—a difficult-to-catch disappointment and realization—flashed through Mobius's profound, inscrutable snake eyes.
"Pity, though..."
She extended a slender, almost fragile finger, nearly touching Yae Sakura's cold, blood-stained cheek, but abruptly stopped just millimetres away.
Her voice carried a hint of a sigh, as if regretting the irreparable flaw in a peerless work of art.
"Though the appearance is exactly the same, and the soul's aura is so similar... you are, after all, not the 'Sakura' I knew."
That was right. Although both were Sakura, the face and the aura were startlingly similar to the old acquaintance in her memory. However, this one was ultimately not the 'Sakura' who was the eighth of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, the 'Setsuna' Engulfing-Flame—Sakura.
Just like the Yae Miko she had seen before, both were merely similar, yet completely different, blossoms.
Moreover, compared to the scarred Miko, Yae Sakura, who carried the hue of tragic yearning, the elegant and calculating Yae Miko was poles apart from the temperament and personality of Sakura.
Upon hearing this, Higokumaru's small, already translucent body slightly stiffened, the flame-like light dimming somewhat. Her eyes revealed a complex mix of longing and sadness.
Despite Yae Sakura's objections, her insistence on calling the Miko "Big Sis" was partly because she saw the shadow of her dearly loved sister in her, wasn't it?
But she had never regarded Yae Sakura as a replacement; otherwise, she would have directly called her "Sister" instead of "Big Sis."
Mobius watched the barely-alive Yae Sakura, who was like a flickering candle in the wind, with rapt interest. Her emerald snake eyes shimmered with unconcealed calculation and scrutiny, as if she were evaluating an unexpectedly acquired, damaged, yet extremely valuable specimen for research.
"So..."
She intentionally drew out her tone, her voice languid and sweet, yet like carefully concocted, sweet poison, carrying fatal temptation and danger.
"Let me see... what should I do with this 'Cherry-Blossom Flower' (Sakura) that is about to wither completely?"
Higokumaru's faint light flickered violently. She used all her strength, emitting a sobbing, broken wail from her nearly transparent outline.
"Mobius... Sister, please... please save Big Sis. She... she's really going to disappear."
The small flame desperately rubbed against Mobius's finger, which seemed to emit a cold luster, her posture both humble and desperate.
"I know you must have a way. You're so amazing... omnipotent. If you're willing to save her, I'll do anything. Even... even if you take me for one of your experiments."
Mobius's golden snake eyes subtly shifted, moving her gaze from Yae Sakura's pale face to the small flame on her shoulder, which was desperately burning itself out for another.
Her lips, which usually held a playful and mocking curve, seemed to subtly compress.
"Oh? You're willing to sacrifice yourself for a phantom who is not 'her'?"
Her voice was still languid, but it lacked some of its usual sting and held a trace of inexpressible complexity.
"How... foolish, yet how nostalgic that persistence is."
Her gaze returned to Yae Sakura's face.
That face, so similar to the one in her memory, yet currently etched with breakage and suffering, seemed to touch Mobius.
Perhaps it was the overly similar shell, perhaps Higokumaru's desperate plea stirred a moment of compassion, or perhaps, it was simply a scientist's instinctive pity for a rare specimen about to be completely ruined.
She was silent for a moment, the surrounding space seemingly solidifying with her.
A faint, almost non-existent emotion deep within those snake eyes, which had witnessed countless births and deaths, finally overcame pure rationality and calculation.
Her relationship with Higokumaru couldn't be described as good; after all, given her reputation, Higokumaru had always hidden from her.
But ultimately, she was the sister of an old acquaintance, and Mobius was not truly cold and ruthless.