If Wen Jifei had also been an exceptional pilot—even if he hadn't been quite as good as Yang Qingbai—the person risking his life at Han Qingyu's side would without a doubt have been him.
This was something understood by many, including Han Qingyu and Wen Jifei.
Yet he was not. Compared to ordinary standards, the gap between him and Yang Qingbai was the difference between someone who simply knew how to fly a plane and the greatest pilot in the world.
With so many Great Spike craft hovering in the sky, even in a surprise raid where only a fraction managed to intercept them in time, there were likely few people in the world capable of delivering Han Qingyu right before Daie.
If even Yang Qingbai couldn't do it... then no one could.
"..." Wen Jifei said nothing. It was rare to see him like this, his throat choked up and unable to speak, but that was precisely how he was now.
As for Han Qingyu, he had originally considered a few parting words. For instance: *If I don't come back, please look after my parents.* *Take care of Stream Vanguard and keep leading them forward.* Or perhaps: *Stop telling people I promised to protect you forever...*
Yet when the moment arrived, he found he couldn't say them. Saying them made it feel like a final farewell, entirely too melodramatic—even if this very well might be one.
*None of that really needs to be said anyway,* Han Qingyu thought. Reaching out with an iron-clad arm, he patted Wen Jifei on the shoulder, then turned around... and paused in silence for a few seconds.
Yang Qingbai had set his bulky flight suit on the ground and, clutching a small bucket, was standing on tiptoe to brush black paint over the red fluttering moth on the side of Little Red.
"Just painting over it, though it probably won't hold long... Hopefully it lasts until we enter the field. I'm worried we're too famous and might scare that bastard Daie away."
"It really is time they learned what we're made of."
As he painted, he sounded as though he were speaking to the other three, yet his volume and tone were closer to someone muttering to himself.
Yang Qingbai was nervous, but his hands didn't shake.
"Qingbai," Han Qingyu called out softly.
"Hm?" Yang Qingbai glanced back at him.
"I'm sorry, Qingbai. You have to come with me," Han Qingyu said with genuine guilt. "I'd hoped we could find a chance on the ground. Honestly, I'd hoped even more that Azure could handle it on their own without needing my help... But the way things are now, Daie probably won't come back down."
"What the hell are you apologizing for, Han Qingyu? Doesn't this just prove I'm the most badass guy in Stream Vanguard right now?" Yang Qingbai chuckled with obvious pride.
"Not just in Stream Vanguard. There probably aren't many people in the entire world who could pull this off," Han Qingyu replied with a smile.
"Well, obviously... Sigh." Yang Qingbai let out a sudden breath, his gaze drifting past Han Qingyu toward the distant sky. "Shame those two bastards He Tangtang and the Little Prince aren't here. Captain Milla isn't here either..."
Only four people were present at the scene.
Little Red had entered standby for launch.
Zhe Qiuhong was helping Yang Qingbai don his flight suit.
Wen Jifei was coordinating communications over a specialized frequency.
Clad in full iron armor, Han Qingyu stood adjusting his gear. He strapped the large blue light column sword to his back, followed by the smaller one, and then another standard war saber...
Just like before, he carried four weapons in total, but this time, he would likely only have the chance for a single strike.
***
Kamakura, Kanagawa—an ordinary household.
A father returned home carrying a small Azure flag over his shoulder, his head bowed low, looking utterly exhausted and despondent.
"Daddy!" Inside, his wife and young daughter stood up together.
The wife seemed to have already heard the rumors circulating outside; she rose without a word, giving her husband a subtle, inquiring look.
The young daughter, however, understood nothing. She tilted her head, eyes blinking with bright anticipation. "Did Azure beat the monsters again? Did we win?"
"Ah, they said... we're going to win." The father stepped forward, tousling his daughter's hair, and handed her the Azure flag.
"*Sugoi!*" The daughter cheered joyfully, waving the flag as she bounded around the room.
Taking advantage of the moment, the wife pulled her husband aside and whispered, "How is it? I heard terrible news just now... Is it true?"
"Maybe." When the husband raised his head, a dark bruise showed on his jaw. Just moments ago on the street, he and several friends had gotten into a fistfight with people who insisted the world was finished.
How could the world be finished? So many people hadn't given up yet, and their daughter hadn't even grown up.
"That's what they're saying, but we don't believe it," the husband said. "By the way, why haven't you turned on the television...?"
"I was worried." The wife gestured subtly toward their daughter.
"It's fine. Turn it on. There might be important news." The husband was anxious to hear Azure's official statement regarding Oceania and the future of the world.
At that very moment, countless people in countless places across the world were waiting just the same. Some sat before television sets still holding onto hope, while others trembled in terror, rage, or despair...
Yet when the television was switched on, the channel set up by the Azure Rejectors was still merely replaying earlier footage on a loop.
Footage they had already watched countless times.
Until a dozen minutes later.
*Chzz, chzzz...*
The screen suddenly burst into static.
"Oh, what's wrong with it?" In Fenglongao, Huaxia, the Han family home was packed full of villagers.
Unlike people in cities across the world, those sitting before the television here harbored no extraordinary anticipation or dread; it was simply a matter of habit, routine concern for the outside world.
Because of its remote location, Fenglongao had not yet been reached by those "despairing reports."
*Chzz, chzzz...* The static-filled screen flickered erratically.
Han Youshan stood up, raising a palm to smack the side of the set.
"Wait, there's a picture!" a villager shouted from behind.
An image appeared on the screen, though it was faint and unstable. The blurry scene flickered into view and vanished, then flickered again...
"Looks like it's pointing at the sky. I caught a blurry glimpse just now," one villager said. "Looked like something was standing in the air."
"Yeah, there is! I think I saw it too," the wife of the neighbor Ma family chimed in from the back row, stuffing a handful of fragrant roasted pumpkin seeds into Master Longchi's hands as she spoke.
She was building goodwill; the Ma family's daughter-in-law had always been renowned in the village for knowing how to handle social ties.
"Ah, the sky... That couldn't be the Daie God, could it? Uh, I mean, that stinking bastard dog Great Spike?" Zhang Jiexia grew tense; the only thing she could imagine standing in the sky was the Daie God.
"Hard to say. Let's wait and see." Han Youshan stepped back, shifting his stool as he fixed his eyes on the still-flickering screen.
"Can't see a thing like this, though," Zhang Jiexia muttered.
***
Oceania, outside Azure's Supreme Command Headquarters.
"Why did he send me away? Only me... Am I the only idiot here?"
Rusty Sister quickly pieced it together.
She was inherently clever; it was only that over the years she had become less suspicious, and recently, Han Qingyu had acted out of character, constantly teasing and messing with her... Caught off guard, she hadn't noticed in time.
Qingzi was going to kill Daie. *It was so obvious all along...*
"Second Lieutenant Shen," the Azure officer opposite her said quietly.
At the same moment, with a *crack*, the thin dead iron box shattered inside Rusty Sister's grasp...
A small slip of paper appeared in her palm.
She unfolded it.
[This isn't a final farewell, Rusty Sister:
Still, if—I mean *if*—Brother Qingzi doesn't make it back this time, you have to stay strong and live on together with Plague Chicken, Xu'er, and the others.
Don't despair, and don't give up.
Remember how you used to ask me what you would do if humanity won one day and you had nowhere to go?
Go to my home. Go find my parents.]
Signed: Han Qingyu, Han Qingshe, Han Qingqing...
He had started by saying it wasn't a farewell, yet he had written the very words spoken only when parting for good.
Because he truly could not set his mind at ease.
That was also why Han Qingyu had chosen to send Rusty Sister away.
If he truly didn't return this time, Rusty Sister would be the most devastated among them... All these years, she had relied on Han Qingyu as her pillar of support.
*Whoosh!* With a faint, trembling whimper from within the iron armor, source energy abruptly erupted. She spun on her heel and sprinted outward with everything she had.
The Azure officer, unable to read Huaxian characters, stood stunned for a moment. When he looked up, the iron armor had already vanished from sight.
Sprinting wildly, Rusty Sister cut across the battlefield...
Yet command headquarters and the cave where their craft was hidden lay on virtually opposite ends of the entire coastal battlefield.
Would she be too late? Even if she arrived in time, she probably wouldn't stop him in the end. Still, she just wanted to see him one more time. Along the coastline, where sporadic fighting continued, Rusty Sister tore forward in a straight line like a sweeping gale.
"Second Lieutenant Shen?!"
In the thickets along the coast in the middle of the battlefield, war correspondents Ashleia and Ian suddenly scrambled to their feet. They had come as well, filming footage of the battle. Throughout this time, they had seen no trace of Major Qing, hearing instead rampant rumors of his severe injuries.
"Second Lieutenant Shen!" Ashleia called out in Huaxian.
Rusty Sister caught the faint sound and glanced slightly toward her mid-stride.
"Is Major The Qing all right?!" Ashleia shouted, inadvertently stumbling down the slope.
Ian hurriedly rushed down after her.
Yet Rusty Sister had no time to answer, nor did she know how to answer. Turning forward, she continued her desperate sprint.
In the very next second:
"It's coming on!" In the Kamakura household, the wife pointed at the television screen. The husband was already watching, but her shout caused their daughter to pause and look over as well.
*Smack!* In Fenglongao, Han Youshan couldn't hold back any longer and slapped the television set.
It worked. The picture snapped into focus on the screen.
A distant, wide-angle lens was panning from above toward the flank: the sea, the shore, the sky, and across the vast battlefield, countless figures like tiny black specks fighting and sprinting.
Then came the Great Spike craft hovering in midair.
And standing even higher, the terrifying Daie...
Inside the Azure Forward Command Post, surrounded by top-ranking Azure commanders, Xu Xiaohong slowly straightened his posture. He paused for a moment, his voice calm and unembellished:
"The Azure Zenith War, the Second Daie Decapitation Operational Plan is officially underway."
Rusty Sister's iron armor came to an abrupt halt amid the battlefield, her head snapping toward the sea.
Ashleia and Ian reflexively raised their camera and recorder.
*Boom!* A colossal roar like a tsunami detonated, and then...
Right before their eyes...
And across the television screens in distant lands...
A thousand meters out to sea, an expanse of water a kilometer wide abruptly blew apart. At least thirty towering waves blasted upward, refusing to fall, surging straight toward the zenith.
Chapter 696