The tide-like surge of mist dissipated completely upon contact. The thick ground, fragile as a wafer cookie under this sword strike, was easily thrown up and then annihilated in the endless flames.
No one remembered how much time and effort had gone into creating this pure white land from nothing, but at this moment, every living being present realized one thing.
Destruction is far simpler than protection!
Just as Shu had said, the game of hide-and-seek was over. So he flipped the table, smashing the chessboard preemptively onto the face of the Herrscher who was preparing its next move.
After the dense fog scattered, only a single wisp remained, struggling desperately amidst the pervasive flames, but it only held on for an instant longer before dissipating completely.
Shu sensed the wisp vanish, retracted his probing senses, and his falling figure abruptly halted in mid-air.
This time he remembered: he could fly!
"Wuaah—!"
A scream came from below. Shu looked down. Kiana, tethered by the golden chain around her waist, was currently swinging back and forth, suspended in the air.
"Mei! Mei! I think I'm blind, ahhhhh!!" she wailed with her eyes shut, desperately clinging to one person with each arm.
Mei had already opened her eyes. Seeing Kiana screaming with two streams of tears, she was startled and quickly reached over to carefully examine Kiana.
"Wuwuwu... Mei, my eyes hurt so much!" Kiana howled dramatically, though in reality, her eyes were mostly fine already.
"It's okay, your eyes were just flashed," Mei sighed in relief, comforting Kiana before turning to observe the strange space around them.
Shu's sword strike seemed to have shattered the entire village, along with the surrounding rivers and a large chunk of land. It felt as if these fragments, along with Shu and the others, had fallen into this space together.
Every object here was a memory fragment. Undoubtedly, the [Depascal] village located on the surface was part of it too!
Since it could physically interact with Shu and the others, it could completely withstand the impact of Shu's sword strike!
That's why Shu struck, shattering this large swath of memory, forcing the opponent to switch battlefields!
This single strike drained thirty percent of Shu's [Hope]. From the moment he realized his opponent was a Herrscher, Shu stopped worrying about conserving [Hope]. Facing a Herrscher, he had to go all out!
The flaming greatsword in his hand dispersed, revealing the replica Xuanyuan Sword beneath, now glowing red-hot. The next moment, under Shu's gaze, the body of this crimson sword suddenly shattered, leaving only the hilt.
Shu frowned, discarding the broken sword. The remaining two swords circled around him with increased frequency.
Below, Kiana quickly recovered from her "blindness" panic, rubbing her eyes as Shu lifted her up with a hand.
"Shu, where is this place?" Bronya approached Shu using her armor's propulsion system, asking warily.
"This is a space that stores memories. Every object here represents a memory fragment," Shu quickly shared the information he knew.
"All lost memories are here. As long as we can find them, we can retrieve them."
"Meaning, to retrieve our memories, we must find the objects representing them," Bronya deduced after a brief thought.
"What about the Herrscher? Is this Herrscher's authority related to memory?"
Shu nodded, his gaze fixed on the distance. "But this place is too vast. I can't find where [He] is, nor where your memories are."
This Herrscher's main body was well hidden. The one Shu had just destroyed was likely just a separated avatar.
Compared to the Herrscher of Evolution's heaven-defying constitution, which withstood almost the full force of the Might of An-Utu, this Herrscher's main body seemed far more fragile.
However, [His] hiding skills were vastly superior to the Herrscher of Evolution's. While both could use avatars, Evolution brazenly wandered around with its core in its physical body. Although Shu had let that one escape once due to carelessness (weakness), the situations were fundamentally different.
Now, having eliminated the avatar lacking the Herrscher core, Shu was practically flying blind in this space.
What? Why not capture the avatar and locate the main body?
Shu wouldn't dare. Even with twice the [Hope], he wouldn't risk it. These Herrschers had increasingly absurd abilities. What if the Herrscher of Memory, like Evolution, had a hidden trump card involving close-range indiscriminate mutation?
Miracles were rare enough to cherish when they happened once.
"So what do we do now?" Kiana asked, tear tracks still visible on her face, her eyes red. "This place is huge, and there's no guide. Are we supposed to flip a coin to decide where to go?"
Shu, who had just opened his mouth, abruptly closed it. He gave Kiana an indescribable look, then shook his head.
"No coin flips this time. Absolutely not."
Best not to see any coins at all. And that damned Spirit Awakening Key... Otto never mentioned the side effects of overloading it were this severe! It made him feel a bit... seeing the bloodshot veins in Kiana's eyes...
Shu looked up at the gap above, which stubbornly refused to heal. The Herrscher of Memory seemed to have completely given up on repairing this space, hiding far away.
"Let's head back to the train first," Shu decided. He felt an overwhelming exhaustion threatening to overcome him. Another few days without sleep, thankfully only experiencing death and return once this time...
The others nodded in agreement. Shu led them, using the golden chain to pull them rapidly towards the gap above.
However, seeing the gap was one thing; actually reaching it was another.
A few minutes later, Shu silently stopped flying, glancing around.
Based on the surrounding reference points, he was certain he had moved a significant distance.
But looking at the "nearby" gap, it felt as though he had just been treading air with the others.
"Looks like we won't be getting out anytime soon..." Shu sighed.
As expected... his intel gathering was insufficient. He might have come back too hastily...
"Um... Shu...?" Just then, Kiana reached out and poked Shu.
Shu turned, following Kiana's finger towards the distance.
"Isn't that the Hyperion?"
Shu: ?
Staring at the familiar train floating in this space, Shu slowly formed a question mark above his head.
"I should have avoided the train's direction..."