Honkai Impact: Become Their Hero

"As expected~ The evening glow at dusk really is the most beautiful moment in this world."

Elias gazed out across the entire amusement park as he spoke.

At this moment, he and Luna were sitting inside a two-person cabin on the HOMU Ferris wheel. This enormous structure, standing a full two hundred meters tall, was slowly making what must have been its thousandth or ten-thousandth rotation.

As one of the tallest structures in all of Sapphire City, the Ferris wheel allowed the two of them to take in not only the entirety of the amusement park, but even a third of the city itself.

Crimson-gold evening light spilled across the earth while Elias and Luna's cabin slowly rose higher, making it feel as though they were riding an elevator bound for Valhalla or heaven.

"Yeah... it's really beautiful..."

Luna gazed at the scenery in a daze. It was the second most beautiful and magnificent sight she had ever seen in her life. As for the first, that was naturally Elias' Elysian Realm.

At this moment, the vampire girl was holding a bouquet made up of roses, lilies, and baby's breath. It was an unexpected blessing and surprise Luna had received today.

Even Elias hadn't expected anyone to choose Children's Day to hold a wedding inside an amusement park. Apparently, the bride and groom's families had both opposed their marriage, so this pair of Romeo and Juliet had eloped to Sapphire City to hold their wedding.

Although they couldn't invite their own families, the bride and groom still wanted to receive the blessings of many people.

So the two had simply chosen to hold their wedding at the amusement park on Children's Day, and in the end, they received countless blessings from the visitors there.

Elias and Luna had joined in on the festivities as well.

And they just happened to arrive in time for the bouquet toss.

Elias suspected the bride must have been excellent at throwing medicine balls back when she was in school. She had thrown the bouquet absurdly far, enough that even Elias and Luna, who were standing at the very edge of the crowd, had managed to catch it.

At the time, Luna had stared blankly at the bouquet that had suddenly fallen into her hands. Lacking any knowledge of such customs, the vampire girl had panicked and actually tried to return it to the bride.

Fortunately, Elias stopped her in time. "Just keep it. When a bride throws her bouquet at a wedding, it means she's passing her happiness on to someone else. And according to legend, the person who catches the bouquet will soon become the next bride."

"Me... becoming a bride..."

At the time, Luna had stared blankly at the bouquet in her hands.

Thinking back, the storybooks she had read before did indeed contain scenes of marriage. In her understanding, marriage was when two people who loved each other made a vow never to part for the rest of their lives.

That was actually quite accurate.

But she had never once imagined that such a day might come for her.

A white wedding dress, a beautiful ring, and a romantic, eternal vow. Luna merely imagined it for a moment, and the vampire girl's head practically began steaming as her brain shut down on the spot.

"..."

Luna looked at the bouquet in her hands, then at the white-haired young man before her. The scenery outside the cabin was certainly beautiful, but she still thought the person in front of her was even more beautiful.

The evening glow spilled over Elias' body, outlining him in a rim of gold. His long, pure-white hair shimmered beneath the beautiful light as well.

He even seemed to possess a kind of sacred beauty.

Luna couldn't help forming a wish in her heart.

(If only time could remain frozen at this moment forever.)

But what the vampire girl meant wasn't the world's time.

She meant her own.

"Human, thank you for bringing me outside today. This has been the happiest day of my entire life."

"Luna?"

"I want to thank you properly, but I'm sorry. It seems I don't have much time left. I might... not be able to keep my promise. I'm such a terrible vampire."

Luna gave a tragically beautiful smile before suddenly collapsing sideways as though all strength had left her body. Elias hurriedly caught her, preventing the girl's head from striking the glass wall of the cabin.

And the instant he held her, Elias clearly felt just how weak the vampire girl had become. Her condition was even more precarious than when they had first met yesterday!

The sudden turn of events left Elias stunned.

Curled up in his arms, Luna gave a bitter smile.

She had already been enduring it for a very long time. In truth, Luna had spent the entire day fighting against her instincts.

"I'm sorry, Human. I'm actually not some powerful vampire. I'm neither a true ancestor nor a grand duke."

"Luna, have you been enduring this all day?"

"It's fine, Human. Like I said earlier, today has been the happiest day of my entire life. So even though it hurts terribly... I don't regret it at all."

Luna's voice was weak, yet unwavering.

She hadn't told the truth before.

As a vampire, she was indeed afraid of sunlight, and being around large crowds made it difficult for her to suppress her urge to drink blood. The more people there were, the stronger her craving for blood became.

To be honest, even Luna herself was extremely surprised.

This was the first time she had ever entered a place with so many people. Her desire to drink blood had nearly driven her mad, and her vampire instincts had constantly demanded that she attack the humans around her and drain their blood.

And yet she had endured it. Every time Elias smiled at her, every time he held her hand, she somehow managed to suppress the bloodlust she normally couldn't resist.

(I actually... didn't notice...)

Elias looked at the incomparably weak Luna with self-reproach. He had spent the entire day with her, yet hadn't noticed the agony she was forcing herself to endure. His hands clenched involuntarily, and he wanted nothing more than to punch himself.

Seeing his expression, Luna immediately understood what Elias was thinking. She gently shook her head and said,

"Human, don't blame yourself. It's actually normal that you didn't notice, because... I wasn't pretending."

"What?"

"Because you were beside me, I really was happy today. So happy that I even forgot about the pain. This was the freest time of my entire life. I've never experienced anything like it before, and I'm sure I never will again."

As Luna savored the happiness she had experienced today, the corners of the girl's lips rose uncontrollably.

She was no talented actress. If she had truly been forcing herself to smile, there was no way Elias wouldn't have noticed.

So those weren't forced smiles. Every smile Luna had shown today had come from the bottom of her heart, because the happiness Elias brought her was enough to make her forget even her pain.

"Luna, you knew this would happen all along."

"Mhm. Because... I'm a vampire who can only live in darkness. A monster born in the dark naturally has to pay a price if she wants to walk beneath the sun."

Luna forced a smile as she spoke.

Even so, she didn't regret it.

The world was vast, and she wanted to go outside and see it. She didn't want to spend her entire existence trapped inside that room at Schicksal with nothing but books and coffins, because that wasn't truly "living."

To "live" meant giving everything you had.

Running with all your strength, going as far as you possibly could, doing the things you wanted to do, and leaving proof in this world that you had existed. Even if doing so left you utterly exhausted, it would still be worth it.

Even if the price was unimaginably great, witnessing the beauty of the world with your own eyes was what it truly meant to live.

"..."

Elias found himself unable to speak. He tightened his embrace around Luna slightly, his heart aching for her.

So for this girl, merely standing beneath the sunlight and looking at the world required paying an enormous price and enduring pain and torment beyond anything he could imagine.

But above that heartache was emotion and admiration, because even so, Luna was still smiling. This beautiful vampire girl was like a moth flying toward the flame.

Even knowing perfectly well that the flames would ignite her body, she still smiled and chose to throw herself into them, as though declaring that precisely because she came from darkness, she would set herself ablaze and shine.

"Human, this world really is beautiful. It's countless times more beautiful than anything I ever saw in books or imagined."

Luna gazed at the scenery beyond the cabin. The setting sunlight spilled equally across the mortal world, while half the sky glowed crimson-gold like a painting created by the gods, and the golden sun slowly sank toward the horizon.

Stars were already visible in the other half of the sky, while a bright moon slowly rose from the opposite horizon. The transition between sun and moon resembled the endlessly turning Ferris wheel itself.

"I love a world like this."

Luna spoke with undisguised longing. She had already escaped some time ago, but only today had she truly been able to appreciate scenery like this.

"But... this world doesn't love me."

The vampire girl lowered her head as she spoke, looking as aggrieved as a kitten abandoned by its owner.

This world truly was wonderful. It had beautiful scenery, delicious food, fun amusement parks, and kind, gentle humans like Elias.

But the world did not welcome her.

Simply standing beneath the sunlight caused Luna pain as though she were burning alive. Simply standing in a crowd made her feel as though she might lose her reason at any moment and completely degenerate into a blood-drinking monster.

Even so, Luna still wanted to see the world.

And so she chose to pay the price in pain and in life.

Luna: "Human, thank you for fulfilling my wish. I know I wasn't qualified to have a day like this, but... I really did want to live properly for just one day, like an ordinary person."

Elias: "..."

Blood was already dripping from the white-haired young man's tightly clenched fist.

He felt an indescribable sorrow. What was merely an ordinary day to normal people was Luna's greatest dream, an ultimate ideal that she had to pay an enormous price just to experience.

In truth, from the very moment Luna stepped into the outside world, she had already made her decision.

She would never go back again. No matter how great a price this freedom demanded, she would remain beneath this vast sky and let her life burn until its final moment.

And at this very moment...

Her wish to see the world had already been fulfilled.

Completely satisfied, Luna nestled against Elias' chest and felt her life slowly slipping away without the slightest regret.

Now, she only wanted to look at the world a few more times, look at Elias a few more times, and say thank you to him a few more times.

However...

Luna and Elias had known each other for only a single day and night.

That was why she didn't understand the white-haired young man before her. She didn't know what Elias was capable of, didn't know how stubborn he was, and didn't know just how utterly incapable he was of tolerating tragedy unfolding before his eyes.

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