The dream receded like the tide, revealing the hideous and desperate memories hidden beneath.
Crazy John remembered that they had tried to fight Sombra as well.
But they discovered it too late. The shadow had already quietly contaminated most of the Diesel people. Only a very small number of people were not contaminated. In the end, these people were surrounded by the shadow in the palace.
He and Longin I were also among them.
They fought desperately, but those damned shadows could even contaminate the dead. No one could accept that the comrade who had just fought alongside you turned into a monster and pounced on you in the blink of an eye.
As more and more people were transformed into shadows, they were surrounded by enemies on all sides. If no miracle happened, this last stronghold would probably fall soon.
But how can a miracle happen so easily?
Then despair enveloped the entire palace.
Then Longin Till stepped forward.
Before this, Crazy John had never felt that his friend's back was so tall and big. He was obviously just a tall and thin scholar who was powerless. After the previous upheaval, he had become exhausted, pale, shaky, and so weak that he seemed like he might fall down at any time and never get up again.
But he still stood up calmly and resolutely.
Crazy John saw him close his eyes and open his arms.
——A brilliant light burst out from the learner’s chest.
The blazing light illuminated everything. Mad John saw that the dark shadows illuminated by the light became restless, as if they had sensed the threat from Longin Tyr. They rushed towards the thin scholar from all directions like crazy, like a surging tide.
Then the reappearing light was almost completely swallowed up by the violent darkness.
At this time, Mad John, who had been contaminated by the shadow and almost lost his mind, vaguely heard Longin Till say:
"I wish...My wish is..."
"——I want my kingdom to be eternal."
Mad John's memory ends here.
The pollution had spread to his entire body and soul, and darkness flooded his vision. But before he fell completely crazy, he clearly saw...
He saw the blazing light tearing everything apart.
……
The old man's body stopped shaking.
He shuddered, as if a bucket of cold water was poured over his head, and his expression became sad.
"Please... please save His Majesty... he has already..." The old man stammered, looking at Charles almost pleadingly, "he has already... he can no longer hold on..."
Charles was silent for a moment, then asked:
"How can I help you?"
The old man quickly replied:
"You are a brave man, you must have a way... The palace! His Majesty is in the palace! Please follow me!"
After he finished speaking, he gripped the cane sword tightly, staggered through the ruins, and ran towards the palace.
However, Charles did not follow immediately, but turned his head and looked at the witch.
"are you OK?"
he asked suddenly.
The yawning witch immediately pretended to be full of energy upon hearing this, and replied calmly:
"I...will definitely be fine. Why are you concerned about me? You should be more concerned about yourself..."
As soon as she said this, she noticed that Charles suddenly approached her and was almost pressed against her.
"!"
The witch was no longer sleepy now, and she stood at attention subconsciously.
"What...what?" the witch asked, but she quickly realized that her words were ambiguous, so she changed her words, "Why are you suddenly getting so close to me?!"
The hero said nothing, but held out his hand.
——He touched the witch's cheek with his thinly calloused hands, and helped her tuck a strand of loose hair behind her ear. Then he lowered his eyes and admonished in a deep, masculine voice:
"If there is anything, if you feel something is wrong, you must tell me immediately."
The witch immediately wanted to reply, "Who are you sending it to?", but when the words came to her lips they inexplicably turned into a consent.
"……Um."
She answered in a muffled, nasal voice.
A kind of surprising sweetness spread from her chest, but for some reason it was quickly transformed into a sour taste with bitter bubbles.
The witch suddenly glanced at the priest from the corner of her eye.
The pastor looked at her with a smile.
Silver and gold reflected in the green and blue eyes, and two very different faces, both of which concealed sadness.
They knew what each other was thinking.
But that’s why they feel… sad.
So the witch lowered her head, avoided the hero's hand, sniffed, and her voice turned cold:
"I think Long Jin I's situation needs more attention than mine. Let's go. We'd better keep up with Crazy John."
After saying that, she took the lead and surpassed the brave man, catching up with Crazy John.
After her, the priest also set off, and the brave man was the only one left at the wishing well.
He stood there, watching the witch and the priest go away, watching their figures gradually shrink, then get closer, and finally reunite into one person in a moment of trance.
——Neither a witch nor a priest, but possessing the characteristics of both.
"Rachel..."
The brave man silently recited the name and thought to himself, so that's how it is. The limited wish-granting machine is not omnipotent after all.
He turned his head and looked at the wishing well that connected the real and fake Diesel.
He remembered what Ivan Thorne had written in that letter:
"Oh my god... that's the wishing machine... I'm dreaming..."
No, the Wishing Machine is not alive and it does not dream, but there are things that do - the Emperor does, and the Emperor's subjects do.
The brave man looked at the thin and tall ghosts wandering in the ruins, and looked at their feet.
Do shadows have shadows? They shouldn't have, but they clearly do.
He saw that slender shadows extended from under the feet of each tall and thin ghost, as if they were generated from a certain point, and the shadows under the feet of all the tall and thin ghosts pointed to the depths of the ruins.
What could be hidden there?
A vague answer emerged in the brave man's mind, and then he gripped the holy sword tightly and followed the witch and the priest.
……
The hero's speed is far superior to that of the old Crazy John and the witch and priest who are out of physical condition.
So he quickly caught up with them, and together with them, he passed through the ruins, collapsed buildings and streets left with only ashes, and finally arrived at the dilapidated palace in the center of Diesel.
Unlike the simple and even crude palace of Diesel in the dream, the palace in front of him was almost burned down due to the disaster, but the remaining part still revealed the former glory and luxury.
Ciel knew why.
Because the palace in front of him did not belong to Longin Tir, it belonged to the previous emperor of Diesel, the greedy, cruel and sadistic tyrant - it was for this reason that the situation in Diesel was turbulent thirty years ago, and Longin Tir left Diesel to study in the White Tower.
He wanted to save his backward and corrupt homeland.
Did he succeed? Did he fail?
Charles was not sure, and he did not want to jump to conclusions so easily. He wanted to confirm the final result with his own eyes.
But before that...
The brave man stopped in front of the ruins of the imperial palace, and suddenly a strange thought emerged in his mind -
Perhaps Longin Tyr never became emperor.
In the real Diesel, he is always the thin scholar, and only in his dreams is he honored as the emperor.
In reality, the scholar protected his compatriots with dreams; and in dreams, his compatriots, his people...
Even though they have turned into tall and thin ghosts and lost their minds, they still vaguely remember who saved them and the country, so they are so stubborn in believing that -
They had a great, loving and generous emperor.
[To be continued]
-
69. The Last Time
Deep in the ruined palace, the four finally met Diesel's uncrowned emperor.
The shadows coming from all directions gathered at his feet, taking root in every inch of his flesh and blood, and stitching together with his soul. He was almost swallowed up by the shadows, and his originally thin, human body was twisted into a deformed shape, with only his head remaining in its original shape.
But even so, there were already traces of dark shadows crawling up his cheeks, squirming constantly, trying to completely transform him into their own kind.
And in his chest, where his heart should have been, there was a shining rectangular trioctahedron silently floating there, protecting him from the erosion and pollution of the black shadow and maintaining his only bit of life.
He sat there, on the throne of the former tyrant, with his head lowered, as if he had fallen into a temporary sleep due to exhaustion.
But Charles knew that he might be dreaming.
In the dream, the emperor’s kingdom was peaceful and harmonious, the emperor’s people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and everything was so happy and beautiful.
But outside of the dream, in the reality before his eyes, the scholar's country had been destroyed and devastated, with only wandering thin ghosts and broken walls everywhere.
His former bodyguard, classmate and friend, the old man named "Mad John" knelt in front of him, calling his name urgently, trying to wake him up from his sleep.
But the brave man stopped the old man.
"Don't wake him," the hero whispered, "if you don't want to disappoint him."
The old man was stunned.
He stared at the hero blankly, not understanding why he said that.
The hero stared at the emperor on the throne, and suddenly whispered to the witch standing beside him... and the priest:
"Do you still remember our reasoning at the Wheatear Tavern?"
The priest did not answer, and the witch was stunned and asked back:
"Remember... what's wrong?"
"Since you remember," the hero said calmly, "let's continue our reasoning - starting from the fact that the shadow has contaminated most of the Diesel people."
"By the time Tyr Longkin realized this, the situation had probably already deteriorated to an irreversible level, and he hadn't figured out how to use the limited wish-granting machine he had discovered from the ruins of a previous civilization."
"So, he could only watch helplessly as the shadow destroyed his country bit by bit."
"And he couldn't do anything."
"Finally, even his good friend John was contaminated by the shadow, and it was at this time that he was finally able to activate the limited wish machine."
"However, the pollution brought by the shadow cannot be reversed. Even if the Limited Wishing Machine can rebuild the ruined buildings, what good is that? A country that loses its people is obviously doomed."
"Longin Tyr knows this better than anyone else. What he wants to save is never the collapsed buildings... What he wants to save are his compatriots who have turned into monsters."
The hero paused, looked at the shining trapezoid on Longin Tyr's chest, and continued:
"But the limited wishing machine could not fulfill his wish. He found out in despair that even the limited wishing machine could not restore his compatriots who had been twisted into monsters back to their original state..."
"But," the brave man turned his gaze from the trapezoidal octahedron to the kneeling Crazy John, "soon, Longin Till thought that maybe he could use another way to realize his wish and save his compatriots -"
"He put those shadows who were once his compatriots into a deep sleep; he hypnotized the shadows' minds, making them 'think' they were still normal humans; he made the shadows dream, connecting their dreams with his own."
"Thus, a new Diesel appeared in this world, no different from the old Diesel."
Charles suddenly remembered the celebration that was still taking place in his dream, so he lowered his eyes:
"Because we are in a dream, no Diesel people will notice those abnormalities. Only outsiders like us who are not completely in the dream will notice something is wrong."
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