Bengtie, I'm really not a villain!

Raiden Mei felt her sanity was crumbling like a rickety building, with bricks collapsing one by one.

The pain, betrayal, and despair buried deep in her heart erupted like a dormant volcano, with scalding lava surging forth and completely destroying her inner world.

Her combat boots rolled unconsciously across the floor, and the dust they kicked up seemed to still carry the acrid smell of the great fire in Izumo, the beginning of her nightmare and the origin of her hatred for Jingye.

"Do you know how I got through this? Every night I woke up from a nightmare, I wanted to kill you with my own hands!"

These words churned wildly in her heart, yet she couldn't express them aloud.

Her eyes were red and swirling with tears, stubbornly refusing to fall, as if letting them fall would signify her weakness and submission.

Tiny arcs of electricity exploded in his palm, the crackling sounds mingling with Jing Ye's increasingly rapid breathing, echoing in the cramped dormitory like an eerie symphony.

The rain started falling outside the window at some point. The sound of raindrops hitting the glass was like the wailing of countless wronged souls, or like the silent weeping in her heart.

Her body trembled slightly, her heart filled with contradictions and struggles. Overwhelming hatred drove her to want to end it all, but certain memories from the past clung to her like venomous snakes, preventing her from bringing herself to kill.

The arcs of electricity in his palm flickered and leaped in the darkness, making a crackling sound, like a small-scale electric fire carnival, while the faint breaths in Jing Ye's throat sounded like the last struggle of a dying person. The two intertwined to create a chilling and eerie rhythm.

In that split second, Raiden Mei's gaze was drawn by an inexplicable force, focusing directly on Jingye's chest.

The once mysterious and tranquil purple patterns now resembled an awakened evil creature, twisting wildly and grotesquely.

They resembled venomous snakes breaking free of their restraints, spreading rapidly at an astonishing speed visible to the naked eye.

First, it meandered up his chest, and then, like a spider web, wrapped around Jing Ye's slender neck. Wherever it passed, his skin quickly turned a strange bluish-purple, as if it had been fiercely scratched by the claws of a demon, leaving indelible marks.

Not only that, the surrounding air seemed to be caught in an invisible storm, and began to twist and tremble violently. Under the influence of this force, the light became bent and blurred, and the entire dormitory seemed to be about to be swallowed by this vortex of Honkai energy.

"Do not……"

Raiden Mei's lips trembled slightly as she managed to squeeze out a weak protest, her voice as soft as a lingering echo in the wind.

Her heart, like a startled fawn, leaped into her throat, pounding so hard it felt like it was about to burst out of her chest.

Her fingernails instinctively loosened their grip on Jing Ye's neck, but just as she was about to completely pull away, her gaze caught a glimpse of Jing Ye's face gradually losing its life.

The horrific scene of her mother's deathbed, deep in her memory, struck her heart like a heavy hammer, perfectly overlapping with the scene before her eyes.

In that instant, she suddenly realized that she was afraid of this enemy who had been entangled with her for many years dying without any warning.

Because once he's gone, those unresolved grievances buried deep in her heart, piercing her soul like thorns, will vanish like stones sinking into the sea.

She will forever sink into an endless abyss of darkness, never to find answers again, and the truth and redemption she has been searching for all these years will vanish into thin air.

The deafening roar of the Honkai energy eruption was like a thunderclap exploding in her ears, each sound causing Raiden Mei's eardrums to ache, as if it were about to completely destroy her hearing.

Under the frenzied impact of this powerful energy, the bed frame could not bear the weight and emitted a heart-wrenching creaking sound. The metal parts twisted and deformed, like a toy being manipulated at will by an invisible giant hand.

"It can only be this way……"

Her thoughts shattered amidst the deafening roar of Honkai energy, like fallen leaves drifting in the wind.

Damp eyelashes gently brushed against Jing Ye's pale, paper-white cheeks, the touch cold and unfamiliar.

When her soft lips slowly touched Jingye's cold lips, Raiden Mei felt as if the blood in her body froze instantly, then began to flow backwards, and her heartbeat became erratic.

Jing Ye's aura crashed into the depths of her consciousness, leaving her mind blank.

The spread of the purple patterns finally slowed down visibly at this moment, but they did not give up and continued to resist stubbornly.

Raiden Mei trembled, using all her strength to deepen the kiss, her hands gripping Jingye's shoulders like pincers, her fingertips almost digging into his flesh.

Her combat boots slid erratically across the floor, leaving messy and hurried tracks, as if telling the story of her inner struggle and tension.

The rain outside the window seemed to sense the oppressive and tense atmosphere inside, and it poured down even more fiercely, with large raindrops pounding heavily against the glass, making a pattering sound.

The chaotic heartbeats of the two intertwined, together composing a chaotic yet intense melody.

In a daze, Raiden Mei could feel Jingye's originally icy hands gradually warming up and gently resting against her back.

But she couldn't tell whether it was resisting her actions or unconsciously giving some kind of response.

The raindrops pounded on the glass with increasing speed, as if striking Raiden Mei's chaotic heartbeat. Her combat boots were pressed firmly against the floor, her nails almost digging into Jingye's shoulder, but she suddenly froze for a moment—what was she doing?

Countless times in the past, Raiden Mei had been utterly overwhelmed by Jingye's attacks.

His iaido technique was as sharp as a ghost, and the blade always grazed her throat and tore her clothes at the last second.

Even in front of her relatives and friends, she was subdued by Jing Ye. Humiliation and resentment almost overwhelmed her, and she was forced to confront this powerlessness and hatred every time.

But at this moment, with her combat boots firmly pressed against the floor and her nails almost digging into Jing Ye's shoulder, she still chose to get closer in this out-of-control situation.

The raindrops seemed to have gone mad, pounding against the glass with increasing speed. The urgent rhythm was like a dense drumbeat, striking heavily against Raiden Mei's chaotic heartbeat.

Her lips were moist, and Jing Ye's breath wafted towards her. The unique, pungent, and sweet scent of his breath assaulted her senses like poison, yet strangely, it also lingered with a familiar warmth.

This temperature was like a double-edged sword, bringing her a sense of familiar comfort while simultaneously tearing a deep wound in her heart, stirring up those complex and chaotic memories.

Memories, like a surging tide, instantly breached the dam of reason, overflowing her consciousness like a burst dam.

Fragments of memory uncontrollably pieced together in her mind. In that room filled with a strange fragrance, she collapsed limply to the ground, her consciousness blurred, only remembering the smile on Jing Ye's lips. Later, she learned that it was because he had drugged her and left her in the room that she escaped the deadly ambush by the traitor on the battlefield.

And then there were those dark and hopeless times when Jing Ye repeatedly humiliated her with words and actions until she was on the verge of collapse.

But it was precisely in that desperate situation that her blade broke through its limits, and with an almost insane speed, she killed the traitor.

Her thoughts drifted back to that desperate battlefield, where she was surrounded by a group of ferocious and terrifying demons from Takamagahara, the shadow of death looming over her like a dark cloud.

She collapsed, critically injured, on the verge of death, when Jing Ye's power suddenly surged into her body.

He manipulated her limbs, unleashing two fierce slashes that severed the enemy's offensive and shattered her perception of her own power, allowing her to witness firsthand the earth-shattering blows that cleaved the battlefield.

During the final battle at Takamagahara, Kageyo personally killed her loved ones, her blood splattering on her sword, causing the spider lilies on the blade to bloom with an unprecedented radiance. That was her strongest power, yet also her most painful awakening, ultimately leading to her successful protection of Izumo Province.

"Liar..." she murmured silently in her heart, her voice as soft as a lingering sound in the wind, yet filled with endless pain and despair.

Hot tears finally broke free of their restraints and spilled out, like beads from a broken string, sliding down her cheeks and finally dripping onto Jing Ye's pale face.

After being tortured by Jingye to the point of near numbness, Raiden Mei finally had the chance to shed tears again in this strange yet entirely new world.

The deep-seated conflict and confusion within her—the person before her was clearly her sworn enemy, someone she wished she could tear to pieces.

But those past acts of saving her life were like poisoned vines, growing wildly and spreading in her heart, binding her tightly and making it impossible for her to break free.

After an unknown amount of time, the strange purple markings on Jing Ye's chest finally stopped, and the crisis seemed to be temporarily averted.

Raiden Mei, however, seemed rooted to the spot and did not immediately retreat. Her body trembled slightly as she slowly opened her eyes, meeting Jing Ye's deep, black pupils, which were as dark as black holes.

In the other person's eyes, she saw emotions surging like a turbulent wave, their complexity like a bottomless whirlpool, seemingly hiding countless unknown secrets.

The lightning outside the window, like a sharp sword, suddenly ripped through the night sky, illuminating the two faces pressed together in an instant.

In that instant, her heart was plunged into unprecedented chaos. What exactly was that raging fire within her, a fire intertwined with hatred and dependence?

The blinding light illuminated their faces, which were pressed tightly together, revealing every detail. Raiden Mei stared blankly into Jingye's eyes, where the turbulent undercurrents surged like a mysterious vortex, as if trying to pull her soul into it.

In that split second of eye contact, she felt a sudden surge of bitterness in her throat, a bitterness like a sharp hook, tugging at the deepest, most hidden corner of her heart.

It turns out that beneath that icy, long-standing hatred, there lay a complex mix of emotions that she herself had been deliberately avoiding and daring not to confront.

Those fragments that she had painstakingly buried deep in her memory, as if locked in a dark treasure chest, now seemed to receive some mysterious summons, surging towards her like a tidal wave.

Her thoughts instantly drifted back to that moment shrouded in the shadow of conspiracy, when the traitor's sinister schemes drove her to the brink of despair, surrounded by dangers like wolves, with the shadow of death looming close, as if it could devour her at any moment.

At that critical moment, Jing Ye, in a seemingly bizarre yet real way, saved her life from the brink of death.

And those countless difficult moments when she was on the verge of collapse, the cruel humiliation inflicted by Jing Ye, felt like a heavy boulder pressing down on her, almost suffocating her.

Looking back now, however, it has unexpectedly become a hard whetstone that has honed her and helped her break through her own limits.

How could she forget the life-or-death moments on the battlefield? Driven to the brink of despair by the enemy's offensive, her life was as fragile as a candle flickering in the wind. It was Jing Ye who controlled her body and swung those two swords. Although she resisted the process, they truly pulled her back from the edge of death.

The brutal, bloody battle at Takamagahara, the land stained with blood, every drop of blood a deep imprint of hatred—it was during that battle that the spider lilies on her sword finally bloomed, giving her the ability to protect her last homeland and prevent everything from being reduced to nothing.

Scalding tears, like pearls from a broken string, fell one after another onto Jing Ye's pale skin, instantly spreading dark marks, as if etching her inner pain and struggle onto his face.

Raiden Mei's body trembled violently and uncontrollably, like a leaf swaying in a storm. At this moment, she could no longer suppress the surging emotions within her, emotions that had been suppressed like a volcano for so long.

Her thoughts drifted back to each of her past experiences. In the deepest recesses of her heart, during those long and dangerous journeys, there was always a faint, hidden expectation that she herself could hardly perceive.

She fantasized that perhaps at some unexpected corner, in some dark and secluded alley, she would unexpectedly encounter that familiar figure who evoked both love and hate within her once again.

This extremely contradictory longing was buried deep in her heart by her own hands during the dark days when her hair was as white as snow, her heart was ashen, and it seemed as if the world had lost its color, like planting a cursed seed.

"I hate you..."

Her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping, broken beyond recognition, but as she spoke those words, she seemed to be driven by an irresistible force, pressing her face even closer to Jing Ye.

"But I also thank you..."

When those words, which had been suppressed for so long, finally came out of her lips, it was as if a magic key had instantly unlocked the floodgates of her emotions.

Years of suppressed emotions, like those sealed beneath the deep sea, surged forth like a flood bursting its banks.

At this moment, she was no longer the cold-blooded warrior who usually armed herself with icy demeanor and suppressed all her inner emotions, but a girl who was being torn apart by the two extreme emotions of love and hate and struggling in the vortex of emotions.

She didn't know when it started, but Jing Ye's hand quietly touched her back.

The temperature emanating from the combat suit, though not scorching, carried a strange power that made her body stiffen slightly.

The man before her, whom she once hated with a vengeance and regarded as an enemy, had long since become, through countless cruel confrontations and life-or-death struggles, a thorn deeply rooted in the soil of her life, an indelible and unignorable part of her existence.

The torrential rain outside the window continued to rage like a ferocious beast, with large raindrops pounding against the windowpane with a deafening roar.

The gale, like an ancient beast unleashed from its restraints, roared wildly, carrying with it a torrential downpour like a waterfall, violently pounding every corner of the world in an almost frenzied manner. The deafening sound was like a thousand horses galloping across a vast grassland, or like countless war drums being frantically beaten by a group of drummers driven to madness. The sound waves, like invisible forces, made one's eardrums ache, as if they would be shattered by this powerful sound wave at any moment.

Kiana clutched the spare blanket tightly to her chest, her body curled up like a wildcat, its fur standing on end in panic at the sudden danger. She sprinted down the slippery corridor, each step urgent and frantic, her combat boots splashing water across the rain-soaked floor, leaving a trail of messy footprints behind her.

Just then, a blinding bolt of lightning, like a peerless blade gleaming with divine punishment, descended from the sky and suddenly slashed across the thick, inky night sky.

In that instant, the dark clouds seemed to be cleaved apart by this force, and the sky was illuminated as bright as day. The intense light made people subconsciously squint, and some even couldn't open their eyes.

In that split second, Kiana seemed to be frozen in place by some mysterious and powerful force, her feet rooted to the ground, unable to move.

Her eyes widened, her gaze fixed straight ahead—through the crack in Mei's room door, two figures were intertwined and swaying in an extremely eerie and ambiguous posture.

The scene, illuminated by the flickering lightning, seemed shrouded in mystery, making it all the more intriguing and thought-provoking, as if it held countless untold and awe-inspiring secrets, instantly stirring up Kiana's strongest curiosity and unease.

"No way..." Kiana murmured to herself, her voice as soft as a wisp of smoke in the wind, almost inaudible. But her eyes were wide open, bigger than the largest light bulb, filled with disbelief and shock, as if she had witnessed something horrifying and mind-blowing. Suddenly, she slipped, lost her balance, and nearly fell heavily to the ground. The spare blanket she had been clutching tightly fell to the ground with a "thud," splashing up a cloud of muddy water.

At this moment, her curiosity and shock completely overwhelmed everything else; all her worries and fears were left behind. She cautiously and tiptoed towards the door, her movements like a guilty thief sneaking into a heavily guarded treasure vault, each step extremely careful, holding her breath, afraid of making the slightest sound and alerting the people inside. Then, she pressed her face tightly against the cold door, her nose distorted by the pressure, her cheeks slightly red from the cold. She strained to squint, peering through the small crack inside.

It would have been better if she hadn't looked. The moment Kiana saw her, her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her throat, and her breath caught in her throat. The usually gentle and virtuous Raiden Mei, always with a soft smile, who would rise early every morning to patiently and meticulously prepare breakfast for everyone—a smile that seemed to dispel all gloom—now had reddened eyes, her gaze revealing a complex emotion she had never seen before: pain, struggle, and a hint of tenderness she herself hadn't even noticed.

To Kiana's utter shock, Raiden Mei's fingertips trembled as she gripped Jingye's neck with near-madness! Before Kiana could recover from this extreme shock, the next second, those lips that had served everyone steaming hot soup countless times, spoken warm and comforting words, and offered solace and care, unexpectedly pressed against Jingye's lips!

The scene was so impactful that Kiana felt like her skull was about to be blown off by this sudden sight! Her mind went completely blank, unable to connect the emotionally charged and bold Mei in front of her with the gentle Mei who would sit by the window in her spare time, carefully mending everyone's combat uniforms stitch by stitch, and softly comforting others when they encountered difficulties, like a caring older sister.

"This is impossible! How could Mei go to such lengths!" Kiana was completely bewildered, as if she were trapped in an absurd dream from which she could not wake up. Her fingernails unconsciously scratched wildly at the door, making sharp, piercing sounds that seemed particularly jarring amidst the clamor of the downpour, as if they were a cry of shock and confusion from her heart.

Her thoughts drifted uncontrollably back to yesterday, when Mei was still humming a cheerful tune in the kitchen, a happy smile on her face, focused on making desserts, and carefully saving the most beautiful and tempting strawberry cake for herself.

But now, she witnessed Mei and Jingye, whom they had always regarded as enemies and wished to get rid of, doing such an incomprehensible and inexplicable thing in the room.

The contrast was so stark that it was even more absurd than a Valkyrie suddenly transforming into a sweet and adorable "Sweet Wedding Dress" skin on a fierce and brutal battlefield! The thunder outside continued to rumble, making the windowpanes vibrate and rattle, as if the entire world was trembling with the thunder.

But to Kiana, no matter how loud the thunder was, it couldn't compare to the deafening roar of collapse churning her mind. She felt as if her entire understanding of Mei had been ruthlessly shattered by an invisible hand, then haphazardly pieced back together, leaving her fragmented and completely disoriented. The familiar image of Mei had become utterly foreign in that moment.

When Jingye's hand slowly touched Mei's back, Kiana could no longer hold back and let out a "whoosh," as if she had been stabbed hard by something sharp, and suddenly slammed into the opposite wall.

The impact was so powerful that it triggered the alarm on the wall, which beeped rapidly, echoing in the narrow corridor as if gasping in surprise at the astonishing scene. She hurriedly covered her eyes with her hands, but couldn't suppress her intense curiosity, secretly peeking through her fingers to continue observing the situation inside the room.

She kept muttering, "Oh no, oh no, my gentle and virtuous Mei has definitely been corrupted! I need three days to process this!"

At this moment, in her mind, the image of Mei wearing an apron, busy stewing soup in the kitchen with a warm smile on her face, kept switching wildly with the extremely impactful scene in front of her, shattering her worldview into pieces and plunging her into a state of extreme chaos, as if she were in a fantastical and absurd dream, unable to distinguish between reality and illusion.

A fierce wind, accompanied by torrential rain, raged like a mad beast, filling the corridor with a chilling clamor. Kiana stood before Raiden Mei's door, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst from her chest.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but her trembling hands betrayed her inner panic.

Finally, she flung open the door, a smile that looked more like a grimace instantly spreading across her face, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Haha, this rain is really heavy! I... I've come to deliver blankets!"

But her eyes kept drifting uncontrollably toward the bedside.

The sight inside the room made her heart race.

Raiden Mei, who was originally very close to Jingye, was suddenly jolted away as if struck by lightning, her back slamming heavily against the wall with a dull thud.

In an instant, the panic and helplessness in her heart quickly flushed her cheeks, the blush like a flame that had been lit, burning rapidly from the tips of her ears all the way to her neck, as dazzling as the clouds dyed red by the magnificent sunset.

Her fingers were still in the same position as when she was pinching someone, but now they curled up in a panic, hiding behind her back like a frightened little animal. Even her fingertips revealed her unease and trembled slightly.

"Kiana, you..."

Raiden Mei's voice trembled as she swallowed hard, trying to calm her heart pounding like a deer's.

She stared intently at her friend's stiff, puppet-like expression and deliberately exaggerated, almost comical movements, as if struck by lightning, and instantly realized something.