Arknights: It Can't Possibly Be My Fault... Right? — Chapter 65

Chapter 65: The Constructed Faust

“…This makes things really difficult for me.” Kai scratched the back of his head, staring down at the pathetic display on the ground.

Mephisto was a born monster, rotten to the core, but Faust was a different story. He was just a broken kid dragging himself through hell to enable his friend’s madness. He still possessed a shred of basic humanity buried beneath the sniper’s scope. What a tragic pair of twisted lovebirds.

Just as Kai weighed his options, Frostleaf—who had been watching the spectacle from behind a shattered concrete barrier—felt a sudden, biting chill bite through her clothes. The ambient temperature was plummeting rapidly.

“Something’s wrong, Amiya! Tell Kai to pull back now!” she shouted, her breath misting in the sudden cold.

“What? What’s the matter?” Amiya didn’t hesitate to move, breaking from cover. The moment she stepped out, she understood exactly what Frostleaf meant.

Black snowflakes were drifting down from the sky, swirling lazily across the ruined square.

“Mr. Kai!” Amiya’s voice rang out over the desolate battlefield. “Beware of the Yeti Squadron!”

Ignoring the hysterical Mephisto, who was currently alternating between manic laughter and pathetic sobbing at his feet, Kai glanced up. He had noticed the strange snowfall, though the flakes hissed and melted into steam before they could even touch his clothes.

Curious, he dialed back his passive heat radiation, reached out, and caught a few black flakes on his tongue. Was this stuff edible?

“I’d advise against trying that. It’s condensed through Originium Arts.”

A voice as bone-chillingly cold as the sudden winter wind drifted from behind him.

The warning came a second too late. Kai smacked his lips, swishing the melted snow around his mouth. “Kind of bitter, to be honest. Zero out of ten. Would not recommend.”

“…You…” The owner of the voice trailed off, clearly not expecting a culinary review of her lethal Arts.

Realizing these little black flakes couldn’t be used to recharge his energy, Kai lost interest. He turned around to face the figure he had been waiting for—the white rabbit of Reunion.

“Yo, Frostnova!” Kai offered a cheerful wave.

Hearing that name, the broken boy at his feet suddenly snapped out of his delirium. “Frostnova! Kill him! Kill him!” Mephisto shrieked, his voice cracking.

“Tch, behave.” Kai casually buried his boot into Mephisto’s stomach. The kick wasn’t lethal, but it knocked the wind out of the white-haired boy, reducing him to a gasping, silent heap.

Frostnova watched the casual violence in absolute silence. If he had kicked Faust, she might have felt a surge of anger. But this was Mephisto—a sadistic, murderous liability she personally despised. She pretended she hadn’t heard a word the boy said.

As the cold wave continued to spread from her boots, freezing the cracked pavement, she locked eyes with Kai. “You know me?”

The temperature dropped even faster as her Originium Arts flared. Frost crept across the battlefield, turning the square into a domain of ice and snow. Yet, the moment the encroaching frost crossed an invisible five-meter threshold around Kai, it instantly vaporized into harmless white mist.

“Kai!” M3, Amiya, and Meteorite rushed up behind him. They had stayed out of the initial clash with the two Reunion leaders, keeping their stamina fully preserved for whatever came next.

“Hold on, don’t intervene yet. Just help me keep an eye on this brat.” Kai waved them off without looking back. Faust had vanished the exact second Frostnova made her entrance, exploiting the momentary distraction. There was no telling what angle that sniper was holding now.

“But Mr. Kai, the opponent is an entire Yeti Squadron. If you’re alone…” Amiya warned, her rings glowing faintly.

“It’s fine. More than enough. Trust me.” Kai reached back and ruffled Amiya’s hair to calm her down. He couldn’t risk the Rhodes Island operators ganging up on Frostnova. If she felt cornered, she would push her failing body to the absolute limit prematurely, and that would ruin everything he was trying to prevent.

A short distance away, Frostnova analyzed the group. From the moment she and her Yeti Squadron arrived, her cold wave hadn’t stopped expanding for a single second. Yet… she felt a wall of intense resistance.

She held her ground, choosing not to attack while they conversed. Part of it was her martial pride; she refused to launch a sneak attack against an opponent who wasn’t actively hostile. But the main reason was the man standing at the center of the heat.

Kai.

She sensed a suffocating, familiar danger radiating from him—a pressure she had only ever felt when standing before Talulah. The absolute resistance melting her cold wave was entirely his doing.

“Miss Frostnova over there, how about I make a suggestion?” Seeing that she wasn’t rushing in for the kill, Kai decided to test the waters. Talking his way out of this was the optimal route.

Frostnova frowned slightly, her long white ears twitching. What was this man plotting?

“If you don’t speak, I’ll take that as an agreement.” Kai took a slow, deliberate step forward.

The moment his boot hit the ground, the Yeti Squadron reacted. Blades were drawn, crossbows were raised, and one particularly zealous member actually pulled a live, explosive Originium Ice Slug out of his coat pocket.

Why do you even carry that around in your pocket?! Kai thought, sweating slightly. He immediately stopped and raised both hands in a universal gesture of surrender.

Frostnova watched him warily. Seeing no killing intent in his posture, she raised a single, gloved hand. The Yeti Squadron instantly lowered their weapons, though their eyes remained locked on the target.

She stared intently at the smiling man. “First, tell me what your suggestion is.”

Negotiation is on the table! Kai’s smile widened.

To Frostnova, however, the grin was entirely inexplicable. What was wrong with this guy? They were standing on a battlefield.

“It’s like this. You just asked if I knew you. Actually, it’s not just you. I also know the old man, Patriot. So, I really don’t want to fight you. I was just wondering if we could sit down and talk.”

“…I’ve never heard Old Patriot mention you.” Frostnova’s tone remained flat, laced with heavy skepticism. Even if he did know their names, it proved nothing. Many people knew the leaders of Reunion, and most of those people were currently buried under the snow.

She shifted her gaze to Mephisto, who was still curled up on the ground like a dying shrimp. “What’s more… we are enemies. Though I am reluctant to admit it, the person lying over there is my comrade. I don’t think we have much to talk about under these circumstances.”

“Ahaha, well, about that…” Kai subtly sidestepped, physically blocking her line of sight to Mephisto. “He’s the one who committed all those heinous acts in the city. I’m not claiming to be some avatar of justice punishing the wicked, but given the current situation, he pretty much brought this on himself, right?”

“…” Frostnova didn’t confirm or deny the statement, her eyes narrowing in thought.

Seeing her still stonewalling him, Kai sighed and played his trump card. “I’m telling you, little Yelena, you’re not as cute as you used to be when you act this stubborn.”

Frostnova froze. Her eyes widened in sheer shock.

Behind Kai, Meteorite leaned down and whispered to M3. “Did they know each other before?”

“I… don’t know. Maybe?” M3 whispered back, equally lost.

Frostnova gripped her staff tighter, her voice trembling with a rare trace of hesitation. “You are…?” She stared hard at the man, searching his face. He looked to be around her age, but no matter how hard she searched her memories, she couldn’t place him.

Kai waved a hand dismissively. “Ah, who I am isn’t important! What’s important is that we’re on the same—”

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Three high-velocity arrows tore through the air, aimed directly at Kai’s blind spots.

Kai clicked his tongue, his eyes darting toward the incoming projectiles. He raised a hand, intending to incinerate the bolts mid-flight with a burst of concentrated heat.

But before the flames could even touch the metal, the mechanisms on the arrowheads triggered.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The arrows detonated mid-air, releasing massive, concussive clouds of thick, blinding dust that instantly swallowed the entire square, completely obscuring everyone’s vision.

“Lungmen profanity, Faust!” Kai cursed, instantly flaring his Originium Arts. A massive shockwave of blistering heat erupted from his body, tearing through the smokescreen and instantly vaporizing a large swathe of the surrounding frost like spring snow under a scorching sun.

The dust cleared in seconds. Kai whipped his head around to where Mephisto had been lying.

Empty pavement. The brat was gone.

“Cough… cough, cough!” M3 hacked violently, waving the residual smoke away from her face. In her left hand, she gripped a torn, dusty cloak—the exact one Faust had been wearing.

As her vision cleared, she looked down at the empty ground, then threw the cloak aside in frustration. “I… I couldn’t hold onto him,” she said, her voice laced with heavy disappointment.

“…Tch, crafty guy. I subconsciously assumed he only had that one heavy crossbow.” Kai sighed, letting his flames die down. He didn’t blame M3. He hadn’t expected Faust to pull a stunt like this either.

The sniper had actually managed to snatch Mephisto out from under their noses, abandoning the entire Yeti Squadron to face the Rhodes Island elites alone just to save his broken friend.