People are on the Ark, assisting Oma Zi-O

"No, that's not right. That's not the case. If the shield guards were willing to share their food with them, perhaps..."

“Tallulah!!”

"...If I had been...a little tougher...ah——"

“Tallulah!!!”

Alina looked at Tallulah, who was in a strange state and holding her head with a headache, and immediately helped her up from the bed, firmly grasped the red dragon's shoulders and shook her hard.

"Ah... Alina..."

Startled by the girl's scream, Tallulah had some cold sweat on her forehead. At this moment, a cold wind blew through the small hole created by the Oma Space-Time Driver during the day, and fell on Tallulah, making her proud. As if waking up from a dream, she raised her head and looked at Alina who was holding her.

"Tallulah, now! Immediately! Right now! Stop any thoughts. Do you remember what I told you?"

Alina's voice was so loud for the first time. With the blessing of Originium skills, her voice seemed to be able to penetrate into Tallulah's heart.

She had used this kind of Originium technique in the past.

"You can't destroy Kosice, you can't destroy an idea, it's a spell..."

She repeated what she had said to Tallulah in the past, and her calls reminded the confused red dragon of their past conversations by the fire.

"Tallulah, you are just blindly denying Kosice's ideas, but that alone is not enough."

Perhaps it was Tallulah's distressed look that softened Alina's heart. Her voice became softer, from a scolding to an admonition.

"But denial, isn't it right?"

Tallulah's voice sounded a little confused. She didn't understand what Alina said. Couldn't she just deny the old snake's idea?

"No, that's not enough. If you can't understand his thoughts, then you won't be able to discern the true nature of his spell. Talulah, I've told you before that what Kosciuszko implanted in your mind isn't just a thought; it's a fuse-like spell. If you can't recognize its true nature, then there's no way you can destroy it."

Alina held Tallulah's hand and spoke earnestly, "Since he's so sure you can't resist him, it means that if you don't try to change yourself, you'll definitely follow the path he's set for you."

"Well, can you, wise teacher Alina, tell me what I should do?"

Tallulah, who had regained consciousness, seemed to sense the dull atmosphere and spoke with a hint of sarcasm, which made Alina roll her eyes at her.

Then the little deer thought for a moment, carefully considered his words, and spoke slowly.

"Tallulah, what you need to do is not just deny it, but oppose it. You need to understand where Kosciuszko's thinking is wrong, and you need to have your own thoughts. Only then can you dispel that vicious curse."

After this setback, Alina finally understood the horror of the spell Kosciuszko cast on Tallulah.

When an ordinary person realizes the limitations and mistakes of his own thinking, even if he witnesses things that cause his ideals to collapse and his worldview to collapse, he has the opportunity to reshape his will, stand up again and continue to struggle.

But Tallulah didn't have this opportunity, and she had no more choices for her future.

Even if she stumbled only slightly, she would have no chance of getting back up. Kosciuszko's vicious spell would destroy all her foundations, turning Tallulah into his puppet. Now, the one controlling Tallulah's body was no longer the innocent yet righteous soul of a red dragon, but a rotten, fetid black snake.

Even if she strayed, there was still a chance of turning back. As a fighter, what didn't break her only made her stronger. But the Black Serpent's curse was like a stone; normally, she could carry it without any problem. But once Tallulah fell into a deep pit, and anyone offered a helping hand, she would be instantly crushed into the abyss by the boulder.

This is what the Kosice spell does.

"But how can I do that?"

Tallulah looked at her chest, shuddering at Alina's analysis.

There is no chance of failure...

And she had just seen something today that almost made her collapse.

"So, we have to take it slow and turn it around little by little."

Alina adjusted her posture and sat next to Tallulah, gently putting her arm around the red dragon's shoulders.

"You are still too young and have seen too little, Tallulah. You are the daughter of a noble family, but your understanding of this land is still too one-sided."

"So we have to slowly build new things on your cognition, so that your mind is stable enough, strong enough, and grows to the point where you can crush Kosice."

"It's too difficult. If we take a wrong step, we might fall into the quagmire, and then... I will become the person I killed."

Tallulah murmured, and in the dreamlike illusion, she seemed to see the disgusting Fidiya walking towards her step by step with a disgusting smile as always, with open arms, wanting to give her a hug.

"Are you afraid?"

————————————————————————————

Chapter 19: Rhodes in Syracuse

"Are you afraid?"

Suddenly, the curtain of the tent was lifted, and a figure walked into the room, and a voice sounded in the ears of Tallulah and Alina.

The black coat and the full-face helmet, with the iconic golden Originium symbol shining on the front of the helmet, this symbol can better symbolize the Ark than the outfit. After all, no one in this camp would walk around with the Originium symbol now.

"Mr. Ark."

Alina was startled at first, but then she breathed a sigh of relief after seeing who it was.

"Did you hear everything?"

Tallulah turned to look at her friend's savior, the one who was looking for the "Demon King".

Fang Ark shrugged.

"I was just planning to go back to Galatron to sleep, but I just happened to be passing by... well, I overheard something."

“Where did you start listening to it?”

Tallulah seemed to have remembered something, and her tone of questioning inevitably became urgent.

"Uh… 'I'm glad, Alina, this isn't a dream. You're still here. You're not dead. I'm glad.' 'Alina, don't go.' That's where it all started."

Unbelievable, Alina looked at Fang Zhou in surprise.

The sound just now was indeed coming from Fang Zhou. If Alina hadn't seen Fang Zhou standing there without making any other movements, she would even suspect that Fang Zhou had recorded the sound and was now playing it here.

Not only his voice, he even imitated Tallulah's tone perfectly.

Alina was surprised. Our Miss Red Dragon blushed when she heard the imitation of not only the tone of voice but also the drunkenness.

His face, which had turned pale because of Kosice's incident, was now as red as the traffic light.

“Don’t, don’t learn it!!”

The pillow wrapped in linen and pine cone bark was thrown directly by the red dragon and hit Fang Zhou in the face with a bang.

Fortunately, the mask is strong enough.

Tallulah blushed and looked at Fang Zhou in embarrassment. "If you heard everything, can't you just say you heard everything? You have to imitate others, don't you?"

"Alright, alright. Just ignore me for now. Tallulah, were you scared just now?"

Fang Zhou weighed the pillow in his hand. The pine cone bark was crushed into pieces and stuffed into the pillow. It felt similar to a bran pillow, but compared to the wheat aroma of the bran pillow, the pine cone pillow smelled more like pine oil, which was more refreshing... Wait, why can the fragrance of a pillow be refreshing?

He glanced at the pillow in his hand strangely and threw it back into Tallulah's hands.

Taking the pillow, Tallulah took a deep breath, suppressed the anger and shame in her heart, and threw the pillow aside.

"Afraid, yes, I am afraid. If I fail, the entire Reunion movement might be destroyed in my hands."

In response to Fang Ark's questioning, Tallulah bravely admitted her cowardice, and Fang Ark smiled and shook his head.

"Perhaps you are truly weak alone, but Tallulah, please don't forget that we are by your side. Alina, Froststar, and Bodracasti. Which of these people would watch you fall into the abyss?"

"The power of one person is small, but you are never fighting alone."

Tallulah looked at Fang Zhou's mask and nodded subconsciously.

However, after a while, she suddenly frowned and said, "Wait, when did you become one of 'us'?"

Although Tallulah was not opposed to it, Fang Zhou's attitude just now, as if he was one of them, made Tallulah unable to react.

Aren't you looking for the future minister of the "Demon King"?

"Haha, don't worry about so many small details. Having one more friend in this world is always a good thing. Although it's a pity that you are not the "Demon King" I'm looking for, this doesn't prevent us from being friends. Moreover..."

Fang Zhou seemed to have thought of something and suddenly looked eager to try it out.

"Actually, I'm hoping you'll do something evil. That way, I can punch you and wake you up when you act arrogant."

Speaking of this, the joy in Fang Zhou's tone was beyond words.

"Think about it, that's a chance to personally defeat a red dragon, one of the only three red dragons on Terra right now."

"...You bastard! I will never give you this chance!!"

Seeing Tallulah's spirited rebuttal and scolding, Fang Zhou missed her gaze and looked at Alina.

Xiaolu's eyes were as gentle as ever. To her, the existence of the Ark could obviously pull Tallulah back from the quagmire of the darkness of human nature preset by Kosciuszko. The power of the soul displayed by the other party might even be able to solve Kosciuszko's problem fundamentally.

What's more, Fang Zhou was the savior who gave him a new life.

Therefore, at this moment, she might be the person with the best relationship with Ark in the Integration Movement.

Looking at Tallulah, whose mental state had obviously improved a lot under his provocative therapy and Alina's talk therapy, Fang Zhou turned around and was about to leave the ward.

"ark."

"Ok?"

Ark looked back at Tallulah.

"…Remember to come to the meeting tomorrow."

"it is good."

"And thank you."

"You're welcome."

Fang Zhou opened the tent curtain and took a deep breath of the cold air of the tundra.

Looking back at the tent where Alina's sincere teaching voice and Tallulah's somewhat perfunctory responses could still be heard, Fang Zhou smiled.

"If Tallulah could have gotten over it on her own with their help, what a beautiful story it would have been."

Unfortunately, there is no if. With the conceptual-level artificial intelligence's computing speed of 104 qubits per second, Ark can perform a terrifying calculation of 1 qubit per second, and this level itself is still rising with the growth of Ark itself. However, the last time it increased from 103 qubits to 104 qubits was five years ago.

According to the huge results calculated by the Ark's terrifying computing power, the possibility of relying on the ties between people around and constantly strengthening and improving one's own thoughts to fight against the Black Snake and succeed is that among the tens of billions of results calculated, only 7 were successful by this means.

This probability is lower than the probability of the Avengers defeating Thanos.

You can imagine how vicious the curse of the black worm is.

In this case, I guess I will have to work overtime. When the time is right, I will use the sheep talisman and the tiger talisman to pull out the black snake and deal with it.

But that’s all in the past. Now it’s time for me to do my final serious work.

Returning to the Galatron Demon Machine and lying in the driver's seat, Fang Zhou adjusted the seat to a comfortable angle and slowly closed his eyes. His illusory soul flew out of his body, holding the Demonic Space-Time Driver in his hand.

According to the intelligence he obtained by connecting to the Longmen intercity network and the Longmen office of Rhodes Island when he went to Longmen to test whether Chen Huijie could obtain the approval of the Demonic Space-Time Driver, Rhodes Island should currently be anchored near a city called Palermo in Syracuse. An Originium mine there exploded, causing a severe Originium pollution incident. Rhodes Island is currently working with Palermo's family to deal with this infection accident.

family.

Syracuse is a unique political entity with its own government, but the government is controlled by the family.

It is very similar to the heyday of the Italian mafia that Ark knows. In Syracuse, if you expect the government to provide you with shelter, you might as well expect the Terrans today to stop discriminating against the infected immediately.

In Syracuse, the one who can truly provide you with asylum is not the government, but the family, which foreigners call the mafia.

He looked at the map and headed towards Syracuse. The magic of the chicken and rabbit mixed into a deeper purple, and then like lightning, the soul of the Ark disappeared from the spot.

Syracuse.

This country, where the twelve Grey Hall mafia families control the government at the top and countless small families act as minions of the big families to control the cities, is famous for its unique mafia culture and car culture. However, before 1092, Syracuse was a backward country without even a mobile city. It was not until 1092 that the Rossetti family returned to Syracuse from Colombia with mobile city technology. This year, 1095, Syracuse's first mobile city, Lakmavati, was officially completed.

However, the Ark's target was not the newly built mobile city, but Palermo, which was located further east of that city and where Rhodes was now anchored.

This city is still a standard fixed city located on the earth. On the continent of Terra, a city fixed in one place means that once a natural disaster occurs, the city will find it difficult to escape the disaster range and can only rely on its own strength to resist the wrath of nature. So when the Ark arrived in Palermo, the first thing that caught the eye was the tall city wall.

This type of city wall can effectively prevent sandstorm-type natural disasters from invading the city. Inside the city, a large number of underground projects are also built as preparations for dealing with natural disasters that fall from the sky.

It is precisely because of this factor that cities that are deeply rooted in the earth are often unable to build buildings that are too tall. This often means that once a natural disaster strikes, these buildings are bound to be destroyed, and the losses and surrounding disasters will be more serious.

However, even with the experience of dealing with external natural disasters, the measures for internal Originium explosion pollution were still insufficient. The Ark could see the huge disaster-affected area clearly from the sky. Almost half of the city was affected by the explosion of the Originium mine, and black Originium clusters had begun to grow on the ground.

Compared to the Ursus tundra, Syracuse was already approaching dawn, and there was a three-hour time difference between the two places.

Looking up at the sky, the sun has already risen in the distance, and the time left for the Ark is running out.

Ark quickly captured information from the ground in the sky, and soon found the land ship he remembered on the city wall in the northeast corner of Palermo.

Rhode Island.

——————————————————————————————