Who left their last words here?

Chapter 105: The Story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; The Successor (Two-in-One)

A red killing machine descended from the sky, crashing into a horde of zombies.

The king roared, the king slaughtered, the last Scarlet Queen crushed all the walking corpses in sight, until even the last roar fell silent.

As the madness receded slightly from my mind, the world collapsed, and everything in sight was shattered.

The red hat is gone, the red clothes have turned into scarlet flesh and blood, and the monster, whose lower body is fused with a metal wheelchair, stands on the ruins of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, with a look of confusion in its eyes.

Only then did she finally understand that when the world is extremely quiet, there is an echo.

A lonely echo came from all directions.

"clatter……"

Only the wolf riders, their armor shattered and lances broken, remained silently guarding the queen's side.

The crimson cloak was torn to shreds and was now tied around the knight's body like a scarf.

The setting sun was like blood, and everywhere were broken walls and ruins.

A vast divine voice seemed to come from beyond the heavens:
"Come with me."

At first, the sound seemed to be far away, but later it seemed to be everywhere.

A golden throne appeared on the horizon, bathed in golden light, and seated upon it was the projection of the god of war.

The gilded armor shimmered and gleamed amidst the boundless crimson of the earth.

"Come with me,"

The voice of the deity was powerful and resonant, like the clang of metal on metal:
"Wisdom has held you back; you were born to be a believer in war."

"Your defeat is not due to a lack of war. Come under my command, enter my divine kingdom, and you will regain the authority of war."

"Given time, you will still have the chance to crush your enemies and exact your revenge on Rome!"

The enormous sound echoed in all directions.

The gods have extended an olive branch; an opportunity that so many have longed for is now within reach.

but……

"revenge?"

Seated in a wheelchair, the withered and deformed figure remained motionless.

When the wind blows, the crimson light above casts a red glow, like a shy young girl lowering her head and covering her face with her little red hat.

"I'm tired."

That was all she answered.

The queen was really tired; after all, she never wanted to be queen.

If it weren't for the overwhelming public opinion, she would have been a saint living in the temple and detached from worldly affairs. From a young age, she was incompetent at everything and was just a little girl who liked to rely on her brother.
Even though he shouldered the responsibility of inheriting the throne and carried the world on his back, he still ultimately messed everything up...

Indeed, she was not a qualified queen.

"But you are already dead!"

The deity said again:

"The power of war has destroyed your life."

"The civilization of this world is about to perish, and all things will perish together. Your attempt to forcibly maintain the core of the world is futile."

"If we stay here any longer, we'll only perish along with the world..."

"I know."

Slowly raising her head, the wheelchair turned, and the Queen left the god with a straight back view, carrying a hint of stubbornness and obstinacy.

"But... I don't want to go anywhere anymore."

As soon as he finished speaking, the wheelchair slowly drove towards the Temple of the Sun, rather than the royal palace, the prison that was always a source of nightmares.

"how about you……"

The god then looked at the wolf rider beside him and fell silent.

The answer is obvious without even asking; in the eyes of this wolf rider, it's as if there has never been a god.

Even if the world is destroyed, civilization collapses, and gods descend... this eternally silent wolf knight will only have eyes for the one and only lord he has sworn to protect.

"..."

The gods departed thereafter.

The vast ruins of the civilization were silent, with only two dead but not yet gone remaining.

"Squeak!"

A piercing metallic scraping sound rang out, and the scarlet monster stopped its grotesque metal wheelchair-like lower limbs, halting before the Temple of the Sun.

This is where she came from, and it is also her only "home" in this world.

Behind the temple, there was a desolate courtyard.

In my memory, there used to be a clear spring here, and a little girl in a red dress and red hat would always be washing the pure white robes of the apprentice saints.

There should also be a flower field over there. Little Red Riding Hood picked the most beautiful flowers, tucked them behind her ear, and awkwardly imitated the aristocratic posture of the former saintess known as Grandma.

Here, there, over here, and...

There was also the small potted plant she secretly planted next to the grand sacrificial square; once it grew, the tree would be a vibrant, fiery color.

People say it's a seed that's very difficult to grow, but Little Red Riding Hood thinks it's just like herself.

So on the eve of her coming-of-age ceremony, the girl, full of hope for the future, planted the seed in a pot.

At this moment, everything is buried under the ruins.

However, as the wolf rider silently cleared the ruins, the crimson monster suddenly froze.

Because in the ruins and overgrown weeds, a seed in a broken flowerpot sprouted and tenaciously grew into a sapling.

The bright red saplings resembled menacing flames.

The monster stretched out its withered hand, brushing it through the air as if afraid of puncturing it, and carefully touched the tender bud of the sapling.

In that instant, she felt as if she had returned to the eve of her coming-of-age ceremony, grasping the carefree springtime of that little girl who could rely on everyone.

Back then, I wasn't disfigured or disabled, and I still had an older brother and an old lady...

However, memories cannot last long.

The Trojan Horse, terminally ill and on the verge of collapse, is entering its final chapter; the true collapse of the world has finally arrived.

As the core of the world, the sky city beneath our feet begins to rotate.

The rules seemed to collapse; the sky was below, and the earth was above.

Countless corpses fell with a whoosh, and countless buildings plunged into the abyss.

This sky city, suspended in the clouds and carrying the last embers of civilization, is now crashing down with irresistible gravity towards the hellish earth below!

When the city completely collapses into the wasteland, the Trojan Horse will disintegrate completely, leaving no trace of the world, and no one will remember this civilization that was once called "Troy".

"I... won't allow it!"

Even the dead should be remembered.

Even a dead world should retain its former appearance.

Even a dead king can still bear the weight of this world on his shoulders!

So the Iron Throne transformed into a new wheelchair, merging with the monster's flesh and blood.

The crimson monster roared to the sky, straightening its hunched back, and flew fiercely out of the temple, arriving outside the city.

Facing the crumbling city and the upside-down temple, she defiantly opened her withered arms, as if to embrace—

"boom----!!!"

The weight of an entire civilization instantly pressed down on her arms and spine, on every inch of her aching body already eroded by the virus.

Her back was completely bent, the veins on her arms that supported the world bulged out in a ferocious manner, and even the blood-red halo above her head erupted with a wailing sound of shattering.

The Iron Throne beneath her emitted a blinding silver light, transmitting and dispersing unimaginable pressure in all directions.

Beneath the skin eroded by the virus, viral crystals proliferate, rupture, and then regenerate at an unprecedented rate.

The raging flames burned in the girl's eyes, carrying with them a final madness and desperation.

But her hands remained steadfast in their upward movement.

The world, hanging upside down, was lifted up by a giant monster, and the civilization, which had collapsed like a wild horse, was pulled back to its original state!
This scene seemed like a myth come to life, but the being who performed the miracle was neither a god nor even a great hero.

And she was just a girl who had turned into a monster!
As the weight became an inertia, the girl's last vestiges of consciousness finally faded away.

Even the dead bodies still bear the weight of everything, maintaining the last vestige of dignity that prevents this dying civilization from crumbling.

"I'm so incompetent..."

"There's at least one thing I can do, right?"

In the last moments before consciousness fades.

Virus, despair, immense pressure... This girl, burdened with countless pains, had only this one simple thought.

Amidst countless regrets, she finally found some solace.

Holding this thought in her final moments, she forever lost the sparkle in her eyes—fallen into eternal darkness!
"..."

Later, as if following some kind of instinct, the girl's dazed corpse began to sing a nursery rhyme.

The ethereal voice, like that of a nightingale, seemed out of place with the monster's body, yet it was the true voice of the little girl in the red hat:
She sang:

"Little basket, rocking back and forth."

We went up the hillside to pick berries.

Don't pick the roses by the roadside.

After harvesting, you have to lie on the board.

Strawberries stained my fingernails red.
Dew dampened the little leather shoes.

"..."

"Coming home at sunset."

Smoke curled around the rooftop.

Moss grew on the stone steps.
Grandma calls to me slowly.

...Slowly, slowly...

The singing voice was ethereal and clear. Although the lyrics and music were cheerful and warm, the song carried a heavy and lingering sadness.

Despite being a miraculous queen who desperately struggled against the world, this nursery rhyme contains no heroes, no royal power, and no sacrifices.

There were only strawberries on the hillside, dew on the flowers and grass, smoke from the rooftops, and her brother and grandmother waiting for her to come home on the stone steps.

...This is a nursery rhyme that a little girl wearing a red hat sang long, long ago on the hillside in her hometown.

Little Red Riding Hood wasn't alone back then; her brother was still by her side.

The queen who sang nursery rhymes after her death was not actually reminiscing about anything.

Perhaps she was merely summoning spirits—summoning those ordinary afternoons she had forever lost, summoning spirits to this world of death, summoning spirits to all the subjects of the Trojan civilization who, until their dying breath, still trusted her as their "queen."

From then on, the melody of summoning the soul echoed forever in the empty world of death.

—A futile call for a spring when civilization will never return.

"..."

Standing in the Temple of the Sun in the heart of the city, in the sacrificial square, you can see the Queen holding up the world through the circular skylight overhead.

It even happened to have one hand, which was tightly gripping the ceiling of the temple.

Looking up, through the murky light of the sky, and across the courtyard, I saw a monster that was sometimes confused and sometimes in pain.

The wolf rider, looking up, suddenly had two streams of bloody tears flow from his eyes.

"You're not someone who can't do anything."

"You've done a great job."

"It's really nice... little sister."

"—You are the true king!"

The wolf rider called out softly and futilely to the monster that had completely lost all thought.

Yes.

The true protagonist hidden in this story is the storyteller, the mysterious wolf knight who forever protects the "King".

He's Little Red Riding Hood's brother.

It was he who abandoned his throne, leaving all responsibility on his young sister's shoulders, and resolutely pursued heretical power only to suffer a crushing defeat.

In the end, he can only disguise himself as a wolf knight in this distorted form, helplessly, humbly, silently and futilely accompanying his sister who was pushed to destruction by his own hands!
He is the world's number one coward! The brother who deserves to be torn to pieces! A worthless prince! A cowardly deserter! A disgrace to civilization! The world's most incompetent and useless knight!
at the same time……

She was also the first casualty of Sky City to die in battle, long before the girl died!
Protecting everyone, the king's figure stands at the forefront of all his subjects, and he is the first sword standing before the king.

The walking dead who died early on have been fighting until now only because of the power of the "heretics" and the unyielding, flame-like obsession in their chests.

Perhaps such a sacrifice is a small act of atonement for him, something that can make him feel a little better.

If there's one regret, it's probably that...

Until the girl sacrifices herself, or even loses all consciousness and completely sinks into despair.

She had no idea that the brother she had been searching for had always been standing right beside her...

So it's no wonder... even though it's the Wolf Knight's memories, the protagonist in the story has nothing to do with him.

—This is the whole story of "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf".

In the end, that world's number one coward and deserter stopped running away and stopped giving up—

He accepted the temple's transformation, fusing his flesh and machine, forever losing all sanity, and becoming part of the temple's intelligence.

Alternatively, they could perish along with this dying civilization.

Or, we can cling to the vague hope that one day we might find a successor for our civilization!
Inherit everything about civilization, inherit everything about it, and also inherit...

Everything about the Scarlet Queen!
The wolf knight, transformed into an intelligent statue, stands silently in the center of the square, forever looking up at the "King" above, protecting his bewildered sister.

Just like his absurd life.

"Little basket, rocking back and forth."

"Let's go up the hillside to pick berries."

Don't pick the roses by the roadside.

It turns out that destruction, in the end, really does turn into tranquility, and everything returns to the silence of nothingness.

Only a mournful ballad remains, supporting the upside-down city, encircling the endless ruins, futilely summoning souls and calling out to the past.

"Moss has grown on the stone steps."

"Grandma calls me, but I'm afraid my voice will be too slow."

"Slowly, slowly..."

……

Bai Zhou snapped back to reality.

"little Red Riding Hood……"

The massive flow of information and the flood of memories left him, who had been immersing himself in the perspective of the wolf rider, unable to calm his emotions for a long time.

Bai Zhou had heard some stories about "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf," but none of them resembled the one he was seeing now.

If fairy tales can be found in the lost history of the past, how many secrets of the extraordinary world are contained in those myths and fairy tales that have been passed down to later generations and are no longer the same?
"Huh? This is..."

In the sacrificial plaza, Bai Zhou inadvertently caught sight of something that was both strange and familiar.

"This is?"

Bai Zhou's gaze was drawn to it.

A strange, scarlet tree, as if it had drunk its fill of human blood, exuded a putrid stench.

Yet it is exceptionally tall, reaching for the sky and extending straight out of the courtyard.

Beside this dark red tree is the "Great Sacrifice" monster, clinging to the courtyard and peering inside!

But now Bai Zhou knows that the "Great Sacrifice" is not clinging to the top of the temple, nor is it some kind of monster...

Withered body, bent spine, and raging virus inside... it is none other than the dead Scarlet Queen, still bearing the burden of the world even now!

"..."

So, what about this peculiar "decaying tree"?

At the top of the dense canopy of the trees, there are many signs of collapse, as if the monster that once reigned over the land would occasionally rest there.

After observing for a long time, Bai Zhou finally found some familiar traces on the big tree, and was finally able to confirm it—

It is the seed that "Little Red Riding Hood" planted back then.

Back then, amidst the ruins, it was just a sapling, a potted plant that Little Red Riding Hood secretly cultivated next to the sacrificial square.

Unexpected...

It is now tall and graceful, like a canopy.

……

"Buzz!"

Suddenly.

The crimson last words shattered behind the wolf rider statue.

"clatter……"

A blurry black figure slowly emerged from the statue, its surging power filling the sky and earth. A white wolf, dragging a blood-red shadow, flickered faintly behind it.

The masked knight's shadow gazed at Bai Zhou with a complex expression, a mixture of consideration and relief, as he slowly uttered the words he had left unsaid earlier:
"If only I had inherited that power back then."

"If it's you..."

(End of this chapter)