Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

"This is really weird..." Charles couldn't help thinking, "Logically speaking, shouldn't Rachel hate the pastor who pretends to be her the most? But why..."

Why did she "acquiesce" to the existence of the priest?

Even more than that, she even "condoned" the pastor's presumptuous act of hugging his arm, even though she was usually the most jealous one.

The more Charles thought about it, the more confused he became.

He couldn't help but want to ask the pastor directly. After all, he still remembered that the pastor had said something very strange to him:

"If you have to choose, would you choose the witch or the priest?"

This was indeed a rather unlucky remark, with a hint of something sinister about it, which made Charles feel inexplicably nervous.

And now might be a good opportunity. Although there is Crazy John... compared with Rachel's safety, his personal shame is simply not worth mentioning.

So, Charles leaned close to the witch's ear and whispered:

"You... the priest suddenly asked me before, if one day I have to make a choice, which one would I choose, witch or priest... do you know what she meant by that?"

Perhaps because he was too close to her, the witch was obviously not used to it, so she turned her face away and only showed him her crystal clear and delicate earlobes.

"Too... too close..." She protested softly at first, then shook her head like a rattle and answered in a dull voice, "I... she... how could I know what she was thinking..."

"Really?"

"……certainly."

"You didn't lie to me?"

"I..." The witch's voice subconsciously rose, but then dropped in an instant, and she muttered, "I...of course I didn't lie to you, why would I lie to you..."

Charles could sense the insincerity in her words.

Very awkward.

It was as if she was desperately refusing, waving her hands at him, saying, "Don't bother me, don't bother me, why do you bother me!"

But when he really turned around and abandoned her, she would drop her little pearls again, curl up helplessly into a small ball, secretly watch him leave from the crook of her arms, and call him in a voice he could hardly hear:

"Please...save me...okay..."

There was no doubt that the witch was hiding something from him.

Charles remained silent.

Should he point that out?

Or should he pretend he knew nothing?

As he was hesitating like this, he suddenly heard the priest hanging on his right arm say to him:

"Oh yeah, it seems we are here."

The voice was full of gloating, but at the same time, perhaps it was Charles's illusion, he clearly heard a little bit of subtle...

sad?

Like a gust of cold wind, it blew past in an instant, making it difficult to notice.

Charles almost thought it was his illusion, because soon he heard the priest's exclamation again:

"No! This wall is different from the one that covers all of Diesel - it's not blocking us - we're going through this wall!"

Charles was stunned for a moment, and instinctively clenched the holy sword, lowered his head and looked downward.

As the pastor said, they were walking through that "wall".

Just like diving into water, suddenly, from the toes to the top of the head, an indescribable chill obscured the senses of the three people. Then, gravity was reversed, up became down, and diving became floating up.

They no longer dived to the end of the wishing well. On the contrary, after passing through the "wall", they began to float up. They began to go through the deep shaft to another Diesel.

The real Diesel mentioned in Ivan Thorne's letter.

After realizing this fact, Charles began to slowly adjust his breathing rhythm, hoping to be in the best condition to meet the upcoming challenges.

At the same time, he turned his head and looked at the witch.

"I'm afraid the information in Ivan Thorne's letter is true," he said in a low voice, "It seems that the real Diesel is buried under the wishing well."

"Hmm!" The witch nodded, cheered herself up, and tried to expel the sleepiness accumulated in her limbs. At the same time, she clenched her wand, "I also feel that the magic fluctuations outside the well are completely different from the Diesel we know."

"In this case, we should be more careful."

Ciel said this seriously, and then asked Crazy John, who followed them through the "wall" and arrived at the real Diesel one step later:

"Mr. John, are you okay?"

Without any hesitation, Crazy John answered him:

"I'm fine, it's just..."

The old man was silent for a moment, then continued:

"I suddenly have a very strange feeling now, Mr. Charles. I wonder if you can understand me. I feel very safe, as if I have finally returned to my long-lost home after wandering outside for many years. I... Although I haven't reached the ground yet, I feel that everything is very familiar..."

"——Because, this may be your true home."

The brave man silently added these words to Crazy John in his heart.

But on the surface, he just said:

"But you have to be more careful at times like this, Mr. John. There may not be anything outside the well."

Crazy John hummed and his tone became calm again:

"I understand, but please believe me, I'm fine. Also, please be careful."

"I will."

After Ciel's brief response, he held his breath and waited silently for them to leave the wishing well and reach the real Diesel.

It turned out that their guess was correct.

After floating up a distance, with the help of the light spell, the three leading people saw the end of the shaft -

There was a slab of stone blocking their way.

So the three of them stopped.

Crazy John, who was following behind them, also stopped floating.

The four people looked at the stone slab at the same time and had the same doubts -

"The wishing well... is sealed?"

Ciel asked subconsciously.

But no one could answer him.

After a while, the witch gave advice:

"How about... try to blast it open?"

Charles, who was analyzing why the wishing well was sealed, nodded when he heard this, thinking that this was a barely reasonable opinion - anyway, they had to go up and take a look today.

So, after consulting the priest and Mad John, and receiving a positive answer as expected, Charles whispered:

"Watch out for the rubble. I'm going to blast this slab open."

After saying that, he bent over, stepped on the wall of the well, broke a few bricks, and used the force to punch the stone slab.

After a loud bang, the stone slab shattered.

The wishing well was opened up, and the long-lost sunshine came in again.

Charles, along with the witch and the priest, left the wishing well first, stepped onto the ground again, and arrived at the real Diesel mentioned in Ivan Thorne's letter.

Then, they saw a completely different world——

There were no celebrations, no cheers, and no dazzling colors to overwhelm people.

There is only desolation, only dead silence, and only broken walls that stretch as far as the eye can see.

As if it had just suffered some horrific disaster, the once peaceful and tranquil country was reduced to ruins overnight. Whether it was the palace, the library, or the theater that could accommodate thousands of people, they were all burned down.

The culprit behind this tragedy is...

Charles couldn't help but tighten his grip on the holy sword, his eyes sweeping across every endless stretch of ruins he could see.

It is Sombra.

They are thin and tall ghosts formed by the pollution of countless humans who once lived on this land in a country called Diesel.

They are wandering aimlessly in the ruins of their former homes; they are living as they did thirty years ago before the disaster. They...

They are dreaming.

——In the dream, they are still human beings.

[To be continued]

-

68. The Great Emperor

Under the wishing well, the real Diesel is indeed buried——

Diesel was destroyed by a disaster thirty years ago, and has become a pile of ruins.

There is no life here anymore.

Only dead silence remains.

Even with Charles' powerful perception, it was difficult to detect any trace of living creatures.

For a moment, he even thought they had arrived in the afterlife.

The ground was in a trance, with ruins, collapsed buildings, and embers after a fire...

But there was no body to be found, not even a single one.

In fact, no matter what kind of disaster it is, human life is always the most fragile and the easiest to die. So in the face of natural disasters, there will always be lamentations, crying or cursing, and there will always be people who die, some great and some small.

But in Diesel, this rule is broken.

In the disaster thirty years ago, the entire country suffered a devastating disaster and no one was spared. However, miraculously, no Diesel died in the disaster.

But they can no longer be called "human".

They were all turned into ghosts - tall, thin figures wandering the ruins of their former homes.

"call……"

Ciel let out a slow breath.

In this way, he might be able to guess what happened thirty years ago, and what kind of wish Longjin I, the great, generous and loving emperor, made to the wishing machine.

So he turned his head and looked behind him, at Crazy John who had finally returned to his hometown.

"You..." The brave man paused, his voice low, "What can you see?"

But Crazy John didn't seem to hear the hero's voice.

The old man, who had been pursuing the truth for nearly thirty years and was regarded as a madman and a fanatic for this, just stood there blankly, staring at this familiar wasteland, with a flash of realization in his eyes as if he had just woken up from a dream.

It was indeed a big dream.

It lasted for nearly thirty years, interfering with his consciousness and confusing his cognition, making him live in a dream as usual. He never got the truth and could only drink all day to relieve himself...

He had also vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

He also struggled and tried to rely on the help of outsiders to find out the truth of the past...

And now, the cruel truth he had been waiting for was finally before him.

His country is in ruins, and the peaceful, tranquil Diesel is only a shadow of its former self.

Then, under the impact of this truth, the last part of the old man's consciousness that was trapped in the dream also broke free. He trembled, turned his head to look at the brave man, and said with a gasp:

"I remember now... I remember everything..."

"After the limited wishing machine was discovered... shadows... shadows ran out from the ruins of the previous civilization... many people were contaminated... they also turned into shadows... multiplying... the shadows are constantly multiplying... and we are losing ground..."