In this suffocating stalemate, she turned her head, looked through the flames of war and gunpowder smoke, and collided with Celia's stern eyes.
The burning flames at that moment, the billowing gunpowder smoke, the blood and bullet casings all over the ground, as well as the hideous expressions on everyone's faces, all whizzed away in the scouring of time and became a distant and ethereal background.
Celia walked into the wide and empty arsenal, stood on the floor that was originally as smooth as a mirror, but now had countless cracks from bullets, and stared at Edna: "You lost."
Edna smiled slightly, and waved to the rebels around her: "Surrender, it's useless."
As soon as the imperial soldiers rushed in, they quickly arrested these few hundred rebels and escorted them down one by one. During the period, there were still people who wanted to resist, but they couldn't even make a splash in front of the eager Bi An, and they were quickly pushed down and gagged by the well-equipped and numerous imperial soldiers, and they were taken down in a hurry.
In the end, only the lingering Earl Herschel and Edna stood still on the side of the rebels. Colonel White did not dare to act rashly, and asked the emperor in a low voice: "Your Majesty, these two rebel leaders..."
The 3S mech shattered into tens of thousands of pieces, and the emperor fell to the ground in a dazzling arc of light. He flipped his wrist and turned Bi An into a single knife. With a bang, he easily inserted the tip of the knife into the floor, "Selia?"
His voice was careless, and Colonel White had to turn his head and look at the Union Marshal with piercing eyes.
Celia didn't have much expression on his face, and even his tone was very flat and unwavering: "Thank you, the soldiers with two companies retreated outside C area and in the tunnel to guard this area. Give it to me and the emperor. In addition, double the number of external security personnel, strengthen monitoring, and kill anyone who trespasses on military important sites. At the same time, no matter what the situation is, they must report to us immediately."
The order was clear and highly executable. Colonel White immediately stood at attention and said solemnly, "Yes!"
With guns in hand, the soldiers retreated vigilantly to the outside of the arsenal step by step. In the dark and empty hall, only Heinrich, Celia, Edna and the dying Earl Herschel were left in the dark and empty hall.
After the fierce firefight stopped, the hall looked extremely quiet and cold, only one or two clusters of flames occasionally jumped out of the rubble all over the floor, and then extinguished immediately after two jumps, leaving only a wisp of green smoke.
The cold wind blows from nowhere in the depths of the ground, blowing the back of people's necks with a whimper-like sound, leaving only the cold feeling of touch seeping out from the bone marrow.
"Gavin..." Edna lowered her head and smiled, and said softly, "This scene is really familiar, but our situation is completely reversed."
Celia said calmly: "Is there? Why don't I remember?"
Earl Herschel curled up in a corner not far away, his face was covered with dried blood, and he kept looking at Heinrich in fear. However, the emperor had no time to pay attention to him, his eyes turned back and forth on Celia and Edna, his sharp eyebrows were slightly frowned.
"In 3100 of the Galactic Era, Speaker Senkel died unexpectedly. My father was successful in the election of the new speaker. You saw me in the same way at the meeting where the voting results were announced. At that time, we separated the crowd as winners and losers Or look at each other, just like just now..."
Edna paused, raised her hand to stroke her hair, and said with a smile, "It's not surprising that you don't remember, we always have different positions, and it's been a long time since we agreed."
Celia didn't speak, and remained silent.
"Actually, I've discovered since then that maybe I'd rather be your opponent than your lover." Edna didn't care about his silence, and her tone suddenly became a little excited: "But You also have to admit, Gavin, I was a very good opponent in the middle and late centuries of the alliance. I led you to fight against the parliament as a politician, and at the same time suppressed you on behalf of the interests of the parliament... Neither you nor I have ever gained a complete advantage."
"Most of the time you win," Celia admitted frankly.
"But you ended up winning outright," Edna said.
She opened her hands like a shy and elegant lady facing a gentleman. Long brown hair hangs down on her chest as softly as algae, and her white neck is slightly curved like a swan. Although she was only wearing a gray prison uniform, she stood there as if she was the innocent and gentle girl in the mint field many years ago.
"It's over, Gavin," she sighed. "Congratulations."
Celia stared at her for a long time without saying a word for a long time. Heinrich turned his head suddenly, and in the dim light, there was a slight red thread at the corner of his eyes.
"I've always had a question..." Celia asked hoarsely, "Why on earth did you do this?"
Heinrich shouted in a low voice: "Gavin!"
The emperor has been with Celia since he was eighteen and a half. After so many years of fighting and wandering, no one knows him better. Celia has never been the kind of person who gets to the bottom of things. Even if he is targeted or betrayed, what he values is the result. He will never look back and ask the loser why after winning.
Of course, there is tolerance for the losers, and there is also the meaning of unwillingness to go back and care about these small details.
However, he now asked Edna why—the two came from different backgrounds and had different standpoints. It is the result of hundreds of years of intensified conflicts that they have fallen to the present situation. What is the reason? !
"Yeah, why would I do that?" Edna smiled sarcastically. She deserved to be judged by Celia as a politician not inferior to Heinrich. She immediately sensed the emperor's subtle thoughts and turned her head to look at Glancing at him, "I was born with a golden spoon in my mouth. I come from a wealthy family, and I don't have to worry about everything. I'm also a precious Omega girl. It stands to reason that I shouldn't have the kind of thoughts of climbing up by hook or by crook... Why should I do this to you?" For many years, right?"
She took a step forward, the dim light from the zenith reflected her side face, and the soft sound of her heels landing was very clear in the empty hall.
"We used to be the people who understood each other best, but we will never be able to understand each other. I don't know why you insist on your own persistence for hundreds of years, and you don't know how regretful I am. As an Omega woman , I am doomed to stay behind the scenes all my life, and will never be able to take the front stage to realize my dreams and ideas.”
Her voice became a little hoarse, but it was still as soft as she remembered: "Do you know how difficult it is for me to stand in the parliament?"
"..." Celia was silent for a long time and shook her head.
In the middle and late stages of the alliance, Edna was much more active in the parliament than Celia. This was due to the fact that she came from the Golden Family, and her own outstanding mental ability also accounted for a considerable factor.
Celia knew that it was not easy, but she couldn't understand half a minute at all.
At that time, he supported the entire military headquarters with his own strength, struggling to deal with various forces and battlefields, and had exhausted all his efforts and lives; In person, apart from business meetings, video calls once a week are considered a luxury.
This was a relatively good time. By the time the Galaxy War broke out at the end of the alliance, the two had become completely different from each other, and it was difficult to maintain the name of a fiancé couple.
"I'm an Omega woman..." Edna said leisurely, "Even if I have thousands of skills, I'm still in a disadvantaged position. I have to pay ten times and a hundred times the calculations for the support and connections that other councilors can easily get. and planning; things that others can do with a single sentence, I have to think long and hard every night to have a 70% or 80% chance of success... This is relatively good. When the military was powerful, a guard by your side They are more important than congressmen, and Mo Wen, Kaleyan, and Heinrich who came forward to say a word are more effective than me saying a car."
Celia suddenly turned her head and glanced at Heinrich, but in a blink of an eye, she shifted her gaze again.
"If the name is not right, the words will not go well, and if the words don't go well, things will fail. I am the one who doesn't have the right name. How can I make others listen to me? Except for the surname Consettrin who can give me a backer, only Xu To move people's hearts with practical benefits, and sometimes those benefits are actually against my political ideas and original intentions...but I have to allow it."
Edna smiled slightly, but there was an unconcealable bitterness in that smile: "It's counterproductive, knowing that those benefits should not be granted to others lightly, but you have to do that in order to gain support, and you have to do it before you make a drastic move. When reforming, grit your teeth and protect those who cling to you for various interests... People like you probably haven't experienced this kind of feeling, right?"
When she asked the last sentence, she looked at Heinrich, the provocation in her eyes was undisguised.
Of course, the emperor did. Those aristocratic families who betrayed the alliance and clinging to them in the middle of the Galactic War have all become veteran nobles in the various galaxies of the empire, and they rely on their privileges to separate themselves within the empire. Earl Herschel is a typical example.
The balance and helplessness of power also lie in this. Throughout the ages, no one in power has been able to completely solve this problem. Even Celia, who worked hard and was a dignified military god, couldn't guarantee that the alliance military headquarters would be 100% pure—but unlike the unscrupulousness of the Consetlin family and the patience and dormancy of the Galaxy Emperor, he at least made heavy reforms several times , I don’t know how many people I offended for this, and finally paid a heavy price for defeating Red Saturn.
"I have experienced it," Heinrich said lightly, his ice-blue eyes were deep and cold: "But I did not collude with foreign enemies and make fun of the gate of my country!"
Edna let out a long laugh: "Is this my country? Heinrich! There is no longer my country in this universe, neither the empire nor the alliance, there is no room for me!"
Celia closed his eyes, and at that moment he heard deep sorrow whistling through a crack in his heart, like crying helplessly in the wind.
He remembered many years ago on Egret, insects chirped in the distant summer night, the sky was full of stars, and the brilliant Milky Way stretched across the sky. Those dreamlike teenage years were shattered in the brutal strangulation of power and belief, and the huge gap between ideal and reality, and buried in the era of alliance that never came back.
"You have no place to stay, but our country is still there." Heinrich paused, and said in a deep voice: "You have indeed lost, Consettrin, your entire family and Douglas-"
"Don't tell me," Edna interrupted abruptly, "You don't need to."
Heinrich originally wanted to tell her that Douglas Consettrin had been used by Yunes and died in the vast space with the Heiman snake, but judging by Edna's appearance, she should have expected everything, even There is no need to ask the last sentence.
"I'm sorry for Caroline. After I die, please don't embarrass her..." Edna closed her eyes with a sigh, opened them again after a while, turned to Celia calmly, and said, "Please kill me."
This sentence was very soft, but the ending sound echoed in the empty hall for a long time.
Heinrich's complexion changed a little. His first reaction was to turn his head to look at Celia's expression, but for some reason, there was some complicated hesitation in his heart. After a while, he turned his head slightly, only to see Celia looking forward, as if looking at a floating point in the air. In the dark and deep hall, his side face had a kind of bloodless ice white.
After a while, he moved his wrist and drew out the long sword transformed into Phoenix.
The sword should be very heavy, and the sound of every inch of unsheathing was as heavy as a thousand weights in the silent air, but his hand that drew the sword was very steady, without the slightest tremor or hesitation.
Heinrich was slightly moved, but there was a hint of intoxicated appreciation in Edna's eyes.
This was the Celia she knew—
Firm and powerful, rational and cruel, neither seduced nor conquered; she has been compared with her since she was a girl, from walking side by side to opposing each other, confronting Gavin Silia for an entire era.
"Goodbye, Edna."
Celia raised her long sword and pointed it straight, but at that moment, there was a commotion from the imperial soldiers in the distance: "Who is it!" "Stop—"
boom!
A series of explosions continued to come from above their heads, shaking the entire underground base like rolling thunder. The sound sounded like the rebels were attacking the city, but no one present had time to react, and then there was another deafening explosion like an earthquake!
The entire hall shook violently. Heinrich and the others staggered to stabilize themselves. When they looked back, they saw that the top of the elevator shaft had collapsed in the dust. Soldiers fell from above one after another. Suddenly a blinding light came on—
The expressions of the three of them changed drastically at the same time, and they saw the bright light enveloping the blade-like airflow coming towards them, and they shouted wildly: "Get out of here—"
Edna lost her voice: "Yunes?!"
The airflow suddenly broke through, and I saw Yunes driving a dragonrider, bathed in flames, smashing away several intercepted imperial soldiers, and smashing the sky and covering the sky with swords, and with a deafening sound of "Dang!", he forcibly smashed the Phoenix Silver Sword Fly out!
Heinrich's pupils tightened and he said angrily, "Younes!!"
In the next second, Bi An suddenly transformed into form, and the mecha giant stood up suddenly in the gunpowder smoke, and grabbed Celia who was flying out; the phoenix silver sword drew a bright arc in the air, and suddenly flew back to Celia and opened it. In the palm of his hand, a volley of swords wrapped in a frenzied airflow slashed towards the dragon rider!
The bright blue arc crackled and filled the entire hall, like thousands of tree branches spreading and sweeping in all directions, the metal floor and walls were cracked inch by inch under the explosion of huge energy, and then turned into hot powder. At the very moment, the dragonrider exploded with an invisible electromagnetic shield, pushing Bi An heavily for several meters with astonishing momentum!
The emperor and commander were forced to back away at the same time, and the dragon knight passed through the air in an instant. Yunes leaned over and grabbed Edna in mid-air, and said sharply: "Go!!"
Edna didn't have time to struggle, or even react, Yunes threw her behind the driver's seat of the dragonrider, turned around and flew towards the collapsed tungsten gate!
"Stop him!" Celia sternly said, "The Patronus plan requires Edna's pupil fingerprints to open it, so we can't let him go!"
Before the words fell, Bi An rushed like an arrow, almost stuck in the shadow of the dragon rider and blocked in front of the gate, and the muzzle spun out, aiming at the oncoming You within a thousandth of a second. Ness: In the next second, the phoenix turned into thousands of fragments and swept away, chasing after the dragon rider in an instant!
Immediately, the huge black dragonrider rushed out of the gunfire, and at the nick of time, it rose suddenly, drawing a sharp ninety-degree right angle in the air!
That moment was extremely thrilling, the dragon rider almost brushed past the phoenix fragments, the speed was so fast that it even caused countless small crackling sounds in the air. Tens of thousands of bright blue electric patterns extended in all directions, and Celia was forced to turn around—
All the changes happened in this second.
The dragonrider's cab was not completely closed, and at the same time it turned around and charged forward, Edna in the back seat lost her grip for a moment, and fell from the air!
That moment seemed to be infinitely elongated. If there was a camera looking down from mid-air, Edna's face would be filled with astonishment, the countless phoenix fragments beside her were shining with cold light, and the flames in the distance were violently shaking in the strong wind. , as if solidified into an absurd and thrilling picture—
Immediately afterwards, Phoenix's self-awareness was activated.
Tens of thousands of fragments condensed into a section of cold silver thorns behind her, piercing through her falling body from the chest!
— Bang!
Edna fell to the ground, the phoenix silver thorn pierced out from her chest, raising a splash of blood!
Blood quickly dripped from his chest all over the floor, and even formed a puddle of blood under his body. Edna panted and looked forward, but her vision soon became blurry. Even the fierce firefight between Bi An and Younes in mid-air was blurred into a blurry background.
She closed her eyes tremblingly, and when she managed to open them again, she saw Celia half-kneeling beside her, the phoenix transformed into a titanium silver long sword and nailed into the floor with a clang.
She whispered, "Gavin..."
Celia opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't utter a single word.
He just knelt beside Edna, the two of them looked at each other silently, and returned to the time when they first met many years ago, through the clear blue culture fluid, the little Gavin in the test tube looked at the test tube The little girl outside, two pairs of small hands pressed against each other through the cold glass.
Hundreds of years passed in the blink of an eye.
"In the end... it's not your death..." Edna coughed intermittently, and blood overflowed from the corner of her mouth every time she said a word: "I'm really... not reconciled..."
She reluctantly raised her hand to touch his cold cheek, and asked with difficulty: "You...you are the person I love the most in my life, Gavin, am I the person you love the most?"
Celia's nails dug deeply into the palm of her hand, so hard that blood oozes, but she didn't realize it. It took him a while to speak hoarsely, "It used to be."
Edna's tears welled up, slid down her temples to the ground, and immediately soaked into the blood all over the ground.
"Gavin..." she choked out, "Take care."
Her blood-stained hand finally hangs down and gently falls to the ground.
The last successor of the golden family, who has been active in the political arena of the galaxy for hundreds of years and witnessed the collapse of the alliance and the rise of the empire, finally closed her eyes forever amidst the cannon fire.