Kevin endured the suffocating pressure crushing his chest, gritting his teeth through the agony as he forced out a question. "Why are you killing people? And what is your purpose?"
This was perhaps the confusion shared by many in the Previous Era. A Herrscher had once been human—so why were they so determined to erase human civilization?
Those who worshiped the Honkai might believe it was divine punishment. But anyone with even a shred of reason would feel bewildered. In this world, there are no enemies without cause.
Why did the Honkai target humanity so relentlessly?
Now that there stood before him a Herrscher capable of conversation, Kevin naturally wanted to learn the truth of the Honkai from her mouth.
Perhaps the higher-ups of MOTH knew more. But Kevin knew nothing about the Honkai, nor did he know what Wendy had experienced in the MOTH laboratory.
In his eyes, Wendy was not a divine envoy.
She was simply a girl even younger than himself.
Kevin only wanted to understand the reason behind this girl's slaughter. He wished to communicate with the Herrscher, not kill her simply for the sake of killing her. To do so would make him no different from a Herrscher.
Facing Kevin's questioning, the Herrscher of Wind did not reveal Wendy's past. She raised her hand gracefully, slightly easing the raging winds that bound him. A strand of wind brushed through her silken hair, revealing the pride in her expression.
"Death is nothing extraordinary. It is simply one of nature's functions. If someone fears a natural function, then he is merely a child."
"Death itself is not terrifying. What is truly terrifying is never having seen the real sky before dying."
"I use death to ignite the flame of freedom. I use fear to awaken the spirit of freedom."
As the Herrscher of Wind spoke, she grew increasingly impassioned. Even the winds around her seemed stirred by her fervor, cheering and leaping in exhilaration, bang bang bang, slamming against the wall beside Kevin's ear.
The scattered embers among the ruins were fanned into towering infernos by the wind, devouring the nearby buildings.
"Wind can fan the flames—and extinguish them as well."
"Children must eventually leave their swaddling cloth. Those who cower in fear will inevitably be snuffed out by the wind."
"If a person cannot choose freely, then their existence holds no value."
"But that is nothing unusual. Such is the law of nature. Like a bird stripped of freedom—it will inevitably fall."
Whoosh!
While the Herrscher of Wind was speaking at length, a bullet halted just before Kevin's brow.
It had not been fired by Kevin.
It was a shot aimed at his forehead from somewhere unseen.
And it was not Vill-V who had stopped the bullet.
It was the Herrscher of Wind.
Her brows drew together slightly, a trace of displeasure flashing across her face. A spirit of wind immediately darted into a nearby building and dragged out the one who had attempted to assassinate Kevin.
It was a soldier clad in MOTH Special Operations Unit gear.
Kevin froze when he saw the man's face.
He recognized him.
Back in boot camp, the man had come together with Ato. He had looked after Kevin on several occasions.
Why would he now attempt to kill him?
The soldier knelt before the Herrscher of Wind in terror and reverence. "Great Lord, I beg for your mercy. Allow me to—"
Whoosh—whoosh!
A violent gale erupted without hesitation, tearing the man to pieces. His shattered body drifted through the air like withered leaves before being blown into the blazing ruins, reduced to ashes.
She had not even listened to what he wanted to say. Someone who willingly debased himself into slavery was unworthy of her mercy—or her attention.
The Herrscher of Wind watched as his flesh burned in the flames. "Ha. Do you know what I hate most? It is those who are not free." (Vill-V: Eren Yeager, is that you?)
From her eyes, Kevin saw only indifference toward life.
It was completely at odds with her rhetoric about free will. Within them existed only a cold and ruthless will to destroy.
She arbitrarily assigned value to life, cloaking herself in the guise of natural law to better carry out annihilation.
She spoke of granting birds freedom—yet in truth, she was the one who had killed every bird in the forest.
Kevin drew in a deep breath. The flames nearby reflected in his icy gaze.
"Freedom is a subjective experience," he said coldly. "To impose your own experience upon others... you are merely enacting destruction."
The Herrscher of Wind's eyes flickered. The frigid wind emanating from her extinguished the surrounding flames. Her tone gradually cooled.
"My longing for this beautiful world was never for the sake of conquest."
"Those prisoners who willingly bear chains deserve destruction."
"Civilization is a prison of freedom. Humanity is bound by gravity, its thoughts unwilling to soar. So I use the wind of death to launch you toward the sky."
"A fledgling must learn to spread its wings on its own. Even the wind will not carry the unambitious."
"If you fail to break your shackles, I will grant you release. Because destruction is a true freedom!"
From Kevin's sharp and unwavering gaze, the Herrscher of Wind understood that she would never gain his recognition.
The pressure of the wind around Kevin tightened further, like a colossal invisible hand clenching him in its grip. He could barely breathe. Words could no longer delay her assault.
His protective suit was being stripped away layer by layer by the razor-sharp wind, torn apart piece by piece. Though the secondary soulium relied on its emergency repair protocols to rapidly mend the damage, it could not withstand the relentless gale. A biting cold was seeping into his body.
Before long, the suit would be ripped apart entirely.
At this critical moment, the erosion abruptly slowed.
Something unknown had changed within the Herrscher of Wind.
"Guh... kill me!"
Those words had not come from Kevin.
They had come from the Herrscher of Wind.
Kevin was momentarily stunned. He almost thought the howling wind had distorted his hearing—that she had said "Kill you" instead.
But her behavior grew increasingly strange, as if she were desperately emphasizing something to him.
"Free will... no longer exists..."
"Kill me..."
Now Kevin was certain his ears had not been ruined by the piercing white noise in his headset.
Through Gulu gulu's feather, Id Vill-V once again disrupted the Herrscher of Wind's thoughts. Hope reignited within her to save Wendy.
"Free will no longer exists... That definitely isn't the logic of the thought bomb. Wendy might still be saved!"
Though Wendy's words carried traces of "Gulu," some people's will could not be faked. This time, the Herrscher of Wind's reaction was so intense, her tone so resolute, that Id Vill-V had reason to believe—it was the original Wendy surfacing.
It was an instinctive resonance between kindred spirits.
Why does it feel like there's a blade hidden in those words, though?