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

The old man repeated what he had said before:

"—Except for the Crucible and the Homecoming, nothing happened in Lentiheim."

"So, what you mean is that neither the visiting group nor the elves have been contaminated by the Slender Man, and you are all safe and sound, right?"

"exactly."

"But in Diesel, those Diesel people who had been completely assimilated into the Slender Man also thought so."

"..."

The tent suddenly became quiet.

Broda did not immediately comment on Charles's remarks. Instead, he looked strange.

It was just like a towering furnace outside the camp, emitting billowing black smoke. Although the old man could not be said to be furious, he was definitely extremely serious, and even gave people a slightly oppressive feeling.

"You mean," he said, looking into Ciel's eyes, his voice hoarse, "you suspect that we have already been assimilated by the Slender Man, but we ourselves have not realized it?"

"Yes."

"But if we are really contaminated by those damned Slender Man, why do you think I will still entertain you like this instead of trying to assimilate you into Slender Man?"

Ciel shook his head upon hearing this and answered honestly:

"No, in fact, since entering the camp, my hand has always been tightly grasping the hilt of the holy sword. I don't know if you can still be considered normal people, so I have already prepared..."

Broda interrupted him and stared at him with his slightly cloudy eyes:

"So, you have already planned to kill us all?"

Charles looked Broda in the face without fear, and answered him in the same serious tone:

"If you are no longer human... yes."

"..."

Broda fell silent again.

But he was not angry. On the contrary, even though Charles made such an offensive statement and showed no trust in him at all, he still appeared so calm and restrained.

After a while, the serious old man finally spoke again:

"Please do not hesitate or show mercy..."

He nodded to Charles, as if in agreement, but also as an order:

"——If you find out that we are really contaminated."

[To be continued]

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31. Play Us

Mr. Broda's response was brief but powerful enough.

In that case, neither Lacie nor Charles had much to say.

They could only choose to trust Mr. Broda for the time being.

Besides, the whole camp looked normal, didn't it? In Diesel, they had learned that contaminated people would ignore discussions about the Slender Man and instantly transform into the Slender Man after being stimulated by something.

Apart from these characteristics, they are just like ordinary people.

Sometimes, Lacie even felt that those tall and thin ghosts were simply "harmless" to the Pangaea.

The premise is not to "wake them up".

But in the descriptions of Mad John and Longin Till, those ghosts were by no means so "docile". If one had to find a word to describe them, it would only be "crazy".

They poured out from the ruins of previous civilizations, spreading outward like a black tide, disorderly and chaotic, assimilating all living things they encountered into their compatriots and overturning and smashing all creations of civilization.

Rachel believes that the reason why Diesel's slender ghosts are so "docile" is that they have undergone some kind of harmlessness.

Longin Till used the limited wishing machine to make them sink into a dream. Although Lacier didn't know whether those slender shadows could dream or not, but... anyway, under the influence of the emperor's wish, the slender shadows had a dream together, and in the dream, they became humans.

But dreams always end.

Once awakened from their dreams, the Slender Men would sweep away the sleepiness and be themselves again.

Lacele didn't know what kind of stimulation could make the slender shadows in their dreams reveal their true forms... She had a vague feeling that perhaps the slender shadows would wake up from their dreams when facing the threat of death.

But what's the use of knowing this? She can't just take out her wand and give Broda next to her an Avada bite, right?

It would be fine if Mr. Broda was really contaminated, but what if he was not contaminated?

The more Lacele thought about it, the more headache she had, so she simply stopped thinking about it and decided to leave this difficult problem to Charles to solve.

So, in front of Broda, she elbowed Charles.

"What do you say?" she asked.

Charles, who was in tune with her, was silent for a moment, then raised his head, looked at Broda, and said:

"I will, Mr. Broda."

So this is a choice to trust Broda temporarily?

That's right. We can't presume guilt no matter what. Anyway, the whole camp is pretty normal right now. As for what if the visiting group becomes abnormal...

As the saying goes, when friends come, we have good wine; if a jackal comes, we have a shotgun to welcome it!

Laceier's wand has been thirsty for a long time!

……

After finishing the discussion on "whether the visiting group and the elves were polluted", it was natural for everyone at the long table to start discussing the next topic -

What is the true nature of the Slender Man?

Rachel raised this issue and took out a research report she got from Lao Deng:

"During the Diesel incident, the legendary investigator Mr. Nicholas and his assistant Miss Verdin used a magical item to capture several slender ghosts, providing us with precious samples. After the Diesel incident, Ms. Verdin personally presided over the research work on those samples. In the end, the core laboratory came to the following conclusions:

The essence of the Slender Man is a mass of chaotic magic that, in a sense, has thoughts.

Because of this, there is no way to directly erase their existence. You can use spells to counteract spells, but magic - as the basic element that constitutes everything, cannot be erased or destroyed. "

Having said this, Lacie couldn't help but roll her eyes and glance at Charles beside her out of the corner of her eye.

"It seems that the White Tower's research report is not completely accurate," she thought, "but I can't blame them. After all, in the entire Pangaea, only the heroes of the past generations have mastered the forbidden magic."

However, the forbidden spell seemed to be able to wipe out the tall and thin ghost.

Of course, it has to be a real, complete forbidden spell, not a degraded version of the forbidden spell that the fake hero Ciel possesses.

But speaking of this... there is a new problem.

- Does the steam armored troop that stole the authority of successive heroes and equipped themselves with the so-called "forbidden force field", or rather Victoria who created the steam armored troop, have the ability to wipe out the slender ghost?

No one knows.

Diesel's pollution was banished into the starry sky before it could fully erupt. Therefore, the steam armored troops did not actually participate in the battle with the Slender Man, and Lacie and Charles had no chance to see them performing their mission.

But the Emperor of Victoria dared to send them to Diesel, so he must have trust in them, right?

Therefore, it can be confirmed that the steam armored troops must have the ability to compete head-on with the Slender Apparitions.

But it doesn't matter, at least, it doesn't seem important now.

What is important is what the nature of those tall and thin shadows is.

Just as Rachel was about to continue reading the research report, Broda at the other end of the long table interrupted her and asked Charles a serious question:

"Mr. Charles, I want to know if your forbidden spell can work on those ghosts?"

Hearing this, Ciel lowered his head and glanced at the holy sword hanging at his waist. After hesitating for a moment, he answered honestly:

"Yes, but my power is limited. I am afraid I can't deal with so many thin and tall ghosts at once. The duration of the forbidden spell is not ideal..."

Although she knew that what Charles said was the truth, Lacie's mood became more and more tense the more she listened.

Carrying the trust of countless people, it has limited power and poor endurance. It charges for two hours and fights for three minutes, but generally speaking it always wins...

The case is solved, it turns out that Ciel is actually the Giant of Light!

Even the details match - isn't your title as a hero "Light"?

So the holy sword is Ciel's transformation device? That's not right. Although Ciel can use the authentic forbidden spell through the holy sword, he has not become a giant of light.

While Lacier was thinking about this and that, Broda gladly accepted Charles' answer and nodded solemnly:

"I understand."

Lacey thought to herself, you old man, you know nothing! Don't say such weird things with that expression, okay? It's easy to be misunderstood! You're not going to laugh a little bit, say "If that's the case, I won't pretend to be hot", and then suddenly transform into a tall and thin ghost? !

But she was probably overthinking it.

Broda was not trying to extract any key information. He just sat there. His slightly aged face showed a little regret, but more of it was focus and seriousness, even his back was straight.

It seems that while he put science in a cage, he probably also put himself in it.

He was serious and extremely rule-abiding. Laceel even suspected that he had memorized all the rules and regulations of the White Tower.

This meticulous old gentleman might really do such a thing.

"But it doesn't matter. He can't control me anyway... probably."

Thinking this way, Rachel continued to read the research report:

"If the essence of the Slender Man is really a group of magic that has produced 'distortion', then why can Longin Tyr hypnotize them? Could it be that after the 'distortion', they have life and thoughts?

However, the few samples we captured did not show any tendency to communicate. They all showed chaotic and disordered characteristics. If it were not for the magical item provided by Mr. Nicholas, they would have been out of our control long ago, turning the entire White Tower into the former Diesel..."

After a brief pause, Lacier placed the report on the table and whispered:

"Later, Ms. Veridon even used the limited wishing machine inside the White Tower. She wanted to try to hypnotize those samples and make them dream, just like the Emperor of Diesel, Longin Tyr, so as to restore them to Diesel people."

"But she failed."

"Those tall and thin ghosts seem to have developed some kind of 'resistance' to the Limited Wishing Machine. They no longer enter dreams. Even the Limited Wishing Machine cannot restore them to their original appearance."

"Just like ordinary people who can't fall asleep again after being awakened, even the limited wishing machine that claims to fulfill the wisher's wish no matter what can't reverse their essential distortion. In fact... Ms. Verliden told me that after she made a wish, the limited wishing machine never charged her anything. In this case, it doesn't violate the principle of equivalent exchange."

After hearing her words, everyone fell silent.

After a long time, Godot's voice suddenly rang out:

"Speaking of which, I have a question..."

Everyone's eyes turned to Godot, but Godot did not show any fear. Instead, he raised a finger calmly.

It's not that I want to beat him up, but I want to say:

"Are the people who were contaminated by those ghost things actually contaminated, or have they been replaced by something?"

"Ah?" Lacey was stunned. "Is there any difference?"

"Of course there is a difference," Godot shook the finger, "Maybe the people infected by those ghost things no longer exist. Their memories, emotions and cognition have all been eaten away."

"After that, the ghosts digested their memories, emotions and cognition."

"And then, they pretended to be them."

At this point, Godot drew out his magic wand and placed it on the table:

"I am a wizard, so I will only seek answers to questions in a wizard's way of thinking.

The spell itself is achieved by arranging and combining magic factors to achieve different effects, but the state of magic itself is constant, so all spells are reversible. In this case, the pollution caused by those ghost things can theoretically be reversed.

However, experimental results contradict this inference.

In this case, there is probably only one possibility..."

Godot looked around at everyone, his voice became softer, as if he was afraid of waking something up, and he concluded:

"It's not that the living things were contaminated by those ghosts, but that those ghosts ate all the living things. They replaced the existence of the living things, they...

—playing us!”

[To be continued]

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