Chapter 110: Reunion

Chapter 110: Reunion

"Bro... Brother?!"

Sifrey was unsure how much Ludwig had heard and seen, his expression somewhat flustered. He had used most of his skill cards in the battle with Amber, leaving him with little chance against Ludwig.

Ludwig yanked Sifrey up from the ground, the gun barrel almost smashing into his forehead, his eyes icy cold as if they contained shards of ice: "Where's Amber?!"

Earlier, he had been lying in ambush in the trench to buy Joyce some time, but unexpectedly, the nearby Gourmands started surging towards them like mad, even the Queen in the underground palace vanished without a trace.

Ludwig temporarily handed over the team to Joyce and tracked Sifrey here, only to see him running back in panic. His intuition told him that this couldn't be a coincidence.

Sifrey's face was pressed against the rough mountain wall, scraping painfully. His eyes darted around as he hastily spoke: "Brother, I don't know what happened either. A group of beasts suddenly surrounded Lord Amber. I was just about to come back and inform you. You must find a way to save him!"

He had hoped to deceive Ludwig into joining him in death, but unexpectedly, his knee suddenly ached as he was shot without warning, causing him to kneel down in pain, his face pale.

Ludwig closed his eyes, slowly exhaling. His amber eyes had turned blood red, indicating he was on the brink of fury. Though his voice betrayed no emotion, the danger lurking within made one's hair stand on end: "I'll ask you one last time, where is Amber?"

Amber's skills far surpassed Sifrey's. With beasts swarming everywhere and Amber nowhere to be seen while Sifrey remained unscathed, even a fool could tell something was amiss.

Ludwig raised the energy gun, pressing it against Sifrey's temple. He leaned close to Sifrey's ear, his tone icy: "I don't care how you do it, immediately summon those beasts back, or I'll kill you right now. I'll search for Amber among the beasts myself, dead or alive, you'll pay for this!"

Facing Ludwig's resolute eyes, Sifrey didn't doubt for a second that he would pull the trigger. After enduring so much to reach the final mission, he wasn't willing to die at Ludwig's hands. He immediately clung to his leg, begging: "Brother! Don't kill me, don't kill me! I'll lead the beasts away right now!"

After saying this, he shakily took out a whistle and blew it again. The control effect had three minutes left. Hearing the whistle, the Gourmands finally dispersed from their surroundings, leaving behind a devastated landscape strewn with scattered beast limbs. There was no sign of Amber.

Or perhaps he was already dead...

At this thought, Ludwig's hand holding the gun trembled uncontrollably for a moment, allowing Sifrey to sneak away unnoticed. By the time Ludwig realized, Sifrey had already escaped down the valley, leaving only a blurry, small silhouette.

Ludwig narrowed his eyes dangerously, firing a shot that hit Sifrey squarely in the back. Beside him was a precipitous canyon. Sifrey stumbled, screaming as he fell like a broken kite.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

In Sifrey's cries of pain, there seemed to be a sharp whistle sound. The beasts that had receded like a tide suddenly surged towards Ludwig once more.

Seeing this, Ludwig's gaze hardened, but instead of retreating, he charged straight into the encircling beasts. Urgent to confirm if Amber was still alive, he overlooked the dark bloodstain on his right leg—

That was from when Sifrey, after being hit in the knee, secretly smeared Ludwig's leg with his own blood.

Human blood had an irresistible allure to the beasts, driving them to the peak of excitement. They pounced on Ludwig like mad, but he mercilessly slashed them with his claws. However, in a rare slip-up, a small Gourmand squeezed through a gap and viciously bit into Ludwig's right leg—

"CRACK—!"

The bite nearly shattered his leg. Ludwig's forehead bulged with veins as he let out a furious growl. His claw-like fingers pierced through the Gourmand's head, throwing its lifeless body off the cliff.

When pain reached its peak, the brain entered a state of numbness, feeling nothing.

Ludwig limped to the center of the encirclement, dragging his injured right leg. He frantically searched for Amber amidst the cracked ground, pushing aside bloody beast limbs, calling out the druid's name anxiously, but receiving no response.

"Amber! Where are you!"

"AMBER!!"

Ludwig looked defeated, despair filling his heart. He shouldn't have let Amber leave alone. With so many beasts, there was no way for him to survive.

The sun had risen long ago, yet a chill pervaded his entire body.

Ludwig had fought until his eyes were red with rage. The beasts, sensing that this prey was not easy to handle, formed a vacuum circle around him, neither advancing nor retreating.

Ludwig shakily took out a signaler, sending a distress call to Joyce and the others. Then, he continued searching for Amber amidst the pile of flesh and blood. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly touched a cold, hard metal object. His dull eyes finally lit up with a glimmer of hope—

It was a sword! Amber's sword!

This discovery infused Ludwig, who was exhausted, with a burst of strength. He crawled forward, eventually finding a familiar piece of clothing deep in a nearly three-meter-long ground fissure.

Amber had been hit in the arm by Sifrey's bullet. To avoid attracting beasts with the scent of blood, he wrapped his wound tightly with a thick, temperature-regulating coat and rolled into the crevice below the crack. But due to exhaustion and rapid blood loss, he had fallen into a semi-conscious state.

"Amber... Amber... Wake up..."

Who was calling him?

"Amber... Can you hear me..."

Amber struggled to open his eyelids, but his lashes, stuck together with dried blood, wouldn't budge. In a daze, he felt someone forcefully pulling him out. Then, he experienced a sudden weightlessness, the fierce wind whistling past his ears as he plummeted into the abyss.

The moment Amber was pulled out of the crevice, the surrounding beasts lunged forward. Ludwig, seeing this, clenched his teeth silently and suddenly jumped down with the unconscious Amber in his arms. His clothes ripped, revealing a pair of pale golden wings that sprouted from his back. As he flapped them, a strong gust of wind rushed downward, cushioning their fall.

The valley was deep, its mottled stone walls etched with the marks of time.

Tens of thousands of years ago, when this planet was nameless, the ancestors of the insectoids crawled across the soil, their wings bathed in sunlight.

As time passed, the world changed, and they traded their wings with the gods for a higher form and intelligence, transforming from "they" to "they"...

On Aliga, it had been a long time since any female was born with wings. If they did grow, it would inevitably be accompanied by the agony of bone and blood breaking. Ludwig held Amber tightly, his wings flapping. At a height of three meters above the ground, he could no longer support himself, collapsing to the ground, his vision going black as he lost consciousness.

"Bang—!"

Their bodies slammed onto the ground. Amber, tightly protected in Ludwig's embrace, flew several meters away, falling into a deeper state of unconsciousness.

"Host..."

"Host..."

Amber was awakened by the system. He opened his eyes in confusion. Above him was an endless expanse of black peaks. The blue sky had turned dim and yellow due to the setting sun, making him feel as if he was trapped in a massive cage, unable to escape.

A black heart floated quietly above his head, surrounded by faint blue electric currents, becoming the only source of light in his sight.

Amber struggled to get up from the ground. Due to excessive blood loss, his mind was in chaos. He only remembered that to evade the beast attack, he had fallen into the depths of the ground fissure, then... then someone pulled him out...

Amber frantically searched like a headless fly and finally spotted Ludwig not far away, unconscious and drenched in blood from wounds inflicted by the beasts. His right knee was nearly severed, revealing ghastly white bones, and beneath him lay a large pool of darkened blood, a sight that was truly shocking.

Upon seeing this, Amber's breath caught in his throat, and suddenly all he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat. With a trembling finger, he reached out to check Ludwig's breathing, which was so faint it was almost nonexistent. Pale, chapped lips whispered, "Ludwig...?"

His voice was hoarse, as if afraid to disturb something, even the howling wind in the valley couldn't drown it out.

The black heart slowly descended, hovering before Amber's eyes, its cold, mechanical voice devoid of emotion: "He's about to die."

Amber's eyes snapped up at the words, his gaze icy and sharp in the flickering darkness: "Why?!"

The situation had spiraled beyond what Amber could predict. He hadn't anticipated Siegfried having so many tools, nor Ludwig suddenly rushing over. This feeling of losing control fueled a murderous rage within him, a desire to kill.

The System's form undulated in the night, ghost-like:

"In the predetermined course of fate, Ludwig was destined to die. I've said it before, you and Ludwig will ultimately meet your end..."

It pondered inwardly that this game was indeed too difficult. The first two levels were manageable, but no host had ever passed the third level.

Siegfried had undergone a hundred assassination missions, accumulating points enough to exchange for countless life-saving tools. Many hosts had fallen prey to these, even Amber—the former emperor—hadn't been spared.

"I don't believe in fate!"

Amber gritted his teeth, uttering these words with a cold voice. He surveyed his surroundings and suddenly noticed a naturally formed cave nearby. Gathering an unknown strength, he lifted Ludwig off the ground and carried him inside.

As night deepened, gales raged through the canyon, temperatures plummeting to freezing. If they didn't find shelter soon, they would freeze to death.

In his extreme anger, Amber's mind suddenly became clear. He opened his combat backpack, lit several burning rods, and rummaged for any medicine to treat Ludwig's wounds. However, the female insect's injuries were too severe, her breaths barely there, akin to being already dead.

Her shattered right leg exposed to the air, the knee torn apart, through the crimson flesh, one could vaguely see broken bones. Due to the corrosive saliva of the beasts, her blood wouldn't clot or heal, leaving her to bleed out...

Of course, there wasn't much blood left to lose, as it was nearly depleted.

Amber tightly gripped Ludwig's icy right hand, closing his eyes briefly before asking in a low voice, "Is Siegfried still alive?"

The System paused for a moment before revealing the truth: "...Yes, and Siegfried still has a trump card, a very important one. You can't beat him."

Amber silently committed these words to memory, lowering his gaze to Ludwig's pale face, asking without revealing his emotions, "Tell me, how can I save him."

The System circled Amber: "You have ten thousand points left, which you can use to exchange for healing medicine. However, restarting the game also requires ten thousand points. I suggest you use them wisely, after all..."

Lowering its voice, it continued, "Even if you save Ludwig now, you might not be able to restore her to her original state."

"Restore to her original state..."

Amber murmured these words softly, his gaze falling on Ludwig's mangled right leg. He slowly extended his hand, seemingly wanting to touch it, but the wound was too gruesome, and he eventually withdrew it.

Siegfried was still alive, holding a card whose effects Amber didn't know. If he restarted the game now, whether Ludwig could be restored to her original state was uncertain, and he still wouldn't have Siegfried's lifeline in his grasp.

The opportunity to restart the game came only once,

only once...

Lost in thought, Amber carefully cradled Ludwig in his arms, tearing off a piece of cloth from his clothes to gently wipe the blood off her face until she was clean. What would this proud female insect feel if she knew her right leg couldn't be saved?

Amber didn't know, nor could he imagine.

For the remainder of the time, he did nothing but hold Ludwig tightly, a complex emotion welling up within him, surging with the night but sealed within his chest. Only two cold bodies clung together, trying to warm each other.

Amber was waiting for death.

Either Ludwig would succumb to her injuries, or Siegfried would return to kill him, or both could happen simultaneously.

Amber didn't know if he had ever encountered such a helpless situation in his past life as an emperor. He felt as if he held a handful of sand, the tighter he clenched, the faster it slipped away, just like the female insect in his arms gasping for breath.

If this night had 43,200 seconds, for 43,199 of those seconds, Amber couldn't resist the urge to exchange points for medicine to heal Ludwig. Yet, his terrifyingly rational brain stubbornly held onto that last second of hesitation.

Not just to live, but to live without regret.

Time passed, and the sun slowly rose, illuminating the canyon above.

Miraculously, Ludwig, who had been in a coma, opened her eyes. Her vision blurred, her fingertips frantically searching the air as if desperately seeking something. It wasn't until Amber grasped her hand that Ludwig suddenly stilled.

"My lord..."

She seemed unable to see, golden hair disheveled across her face, amber irises looking unusually hollow, she asked softly,

"Is it you?"

Amber pressed his forehead against hers, his voice hoarse: "It's me."

Despite her muddled thoughts, Ludwig's mind maintained a clear analytical ability: "We... did we... fall into the canyon..."

Amber didn't know what to say, as if he had become a robot: "Yes."

Ludwig, pale from blood loss, tightened her grip on his hand and struggled to speak: "Hold on... just one more day... Before I fell, I sent a distress call to Joyce... He'll find us soon and rescue you..."

What about you?

Amber exhaled slowly, holding the female insect tighter: "Ludwig, we're going out together, we haven't had our wedding yet."

Ludwig muttered, "Yes... we haven't gotten married yet..."

She had lost all sensation, unable to discern whether she was cold or in pain. Her left hand clutched Amber tightly, while her right hand uncontrollably reached toward her knee. The sensation of shattered bones and flesh filled Ludwig with despair. Even if rescued, she would likely be crippled.

"In my life... I've won countless battles... I thought I could be remembered by history like Marshal Qierli... Now, however, I must stop here..."

Ludwig's pale cheeks were divided by shadows in the stone walls, like flawless jade marred by a crack, evoking inexplicable sorrow. Her voice was raspy, as if using every ounce of strength: "My lord... After surviving this... Find yourself a new empress... I thought I had won... But I never realized I couldn't win against fate..."

"You must be cautious of Cyphrae... Though I sent him tumbling down the cliff, his schemes are myriad... There will surely be unforeseen developments..."

Amber's obsidian eyes, bloodshot and red, betrayed no tears that royalty should shed, yet his chest ached with sorrow. In a deep, solemn voice, he said, "Ludwig, my empress is only you, and always will be you."

Ludwig, your life was never meant to be this way...

You would have been invincible in battle as you envisioned, and you would have become the Grand Marshal of the Empire as you dreamed. You were not destined to fall here, nor to bow before fate.

A faint smile graced Ludwig's lips at Amber's words, a smile of relief, as if he were a child filled with joy: "Your Excellency... do you know... I am truly happy... for once a beast leaves its place, the treasure it guards falls into others' hands..."

With great effort, he removed the iris ring from his finger. The splendid gemstone, now stained with blood, evoked an inexplicable sense of a withering flower's melancholy. This was the ring Duke Bach had crafted for Ludwig on his coming-of-age day, using a long-extinct Parnimodo gemstone. Unique and irreplaceable, it had never left his side in the years since.

Ludwig slowly slipped the iris ring onto Amber's ring finger, whispering earnestly, "Your Excellency, this is my most precious possession..."

Its floral language speaks of... freedom and redemption.

They say military empresses are immensely powerful, but like fierce beasts that are inevitably shackled, they can only struggle under the oppression of males, yearning for freedom and redemption—their greatest desire in life.

Amber instinctively gripped the icy ring, his eyes rimmed with red, his breath trembling. He slowly lowered his head, only to see Ludwig's closed eyes, peaceful as if asleep. His peridot hair, darkened by bloodstains and oxidized, retained none of its luster, yet did not diminish his spirit.

In a daze, it seemed as though hurried footsteps and shouts echoed from outside. Joyce had finally led his team to their location.

"Ludwig,"

The man spoke softly in the dim light, making a promise,

"We will meet again..."