Blade and Poetry

Before the arrival of April 31st, I had already left the royal capital early, returned to the land of eternal night with a long road, and saw No. 28, [-]th Street, Ninth City.

I couldn't get the invitations before the end of the month.I was among the endless stream of horses and carriages, and I saw them take off their gray robes and put on bright formal attires one by one.Before I put on the ring, those gentlemen and ladies seemed to just flash in the open field, and then quietly disappeared; after I put on the ring, all the truth hidden behind the magic was incomparable Show it plainly.I followed at the end of the line and stepped into the small hall with a gray appearance.

As soon as I stepped there, I lost the shadow of my predecessors in the darkness.Du Ling. Jin has no information about the interior of No. [-], so I never expected the darkness in this hall—only there is a string of light spots winding forward under my feet.They are warm yellow in color and strangely do not illuminate the space above them at all, providing only a direction for visitors to walk.

In this absolute darkness, my steps seemed to be pulled back and forth by a shapeless black mist; I had no choice but to bow my head and follow the guidance of the light spots, remembering my own way forward.After about a while, I dimly felt the light in front of me change, so I raised my head accordingly.

Just ten steps ahead, the banquet and dance party here merged into a scene full of impact, unfolding in front of me in an extremely luxurious and vertical manner.In the center of the banquet, those fluffy and gorgeous skirts were raised high with the dance steps; on the seats on both sides, the exquisitely carved gold cups also touched one place alternately.I think there's music too, but I don't hear anything from here.There is an indescribable magical power in that picture, as if gathering excess joy, wishing to spend a moment of joy in life, making people feel as if they are in the midst of the fragrance floating a few steps away, forgetting how the outside world is like A scene of war and flames.

The darkness on three sides pushes people forward invisible.I walked a few steps there unconsciously, only to wake up when my forehead felt a icy cold—there was a huge transparent barrier between the party and me, probably a curtain wall of unknown material.It isolates laughter and music, and also isolates light strangely; the darkness stops on this side, and the light stays on the other half, refusing to extend and blend, presenting a mysterious beauty that is counterintuitive.

The subtle unease preceded my judgment, and with the layering of cold sweat, it seemed to catalyze a cluster of whistles to break the dull darkness here.My toes touched a clear dividing line, and all the belated sense of crisis rushed up my spine along there.

It just occurred to me that this should not be the correct entrance for guests; from the beginning to the present, the people at the party have not even glanced at this place, nor at me—as if the area I am in is not Presented in their eyes, they seem to be unaware of the existence behind this curtain wall.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time," a voice suddenly came from a distance, "Sorcerer Vicente Xiao."

I quickly turned around following the source of the sound, only to see a white light exploding at the end of the darkness.At the same time, all the warm yellow light spots on the ground went out - I didn't see the face behind the white light clearly for an instant.

The ground under my feet sank, and I fell down unexpectedly.

I can't tell what kind of state I'm in, whether I'm falling asleep or awake after falling; my body can't feel the impact it should have after falling, but only my forearm can swing flexibly, He maintained a posture of neither standing nor sitting.In front of my eyes is a chaotic, twisting and rotating space, like a three-dimensional painting made of mixed glass pieces.Those colors are moving freely between my limbs, giving me an indescribable feeling.I seem to be fixed in place, and seem to be floating everywhere; it seems that it is not the space that wraps me, but that I am wrapping the space.

The magic power in my whole body is not driven, just like what I experienced in the magic chamber.Only the little dormant magic power in my heart was left a gap, rushing to my arm just around the corner.The scene in front of me was not scary at all, but it controlled my mind like a bewilderment, and I put away my other thoughts, leaving only one:

Break free from the shackles in this space and escape from here.

I can no longer tell whether it is I who is driving my magic, or everything outside of me is driving it.It gathered at the fingertips of my left hand, burning hot.At first, it moved very slowly, and every time it pushed forward, it injected an inch of pain, but later it seemed to be ignited by clusters, as if it was about to explode with great momentum.

I still can't use any magic, but I can't help but recall the scene engraved in my mind repeatedly-the scene of Karajan casting that knife, which belongs to only one "Blade".The sheer power behind it is so dizzying that not even days apart can diminish its impact on me.Every detail of that movement was magnified in my mind, as if it was accompanied by the wind of the ice city tour that night.Then, Charon materialized in my hand, pointing straight ahead.The last "knot" in my heart is clamoring, following my heartbeat, it seems to be eager to vent in an instant.

——My autonomous will was awakened by the existence of this "section".

Before I left, I didn't take the risk of trying to break through the "Blade", except for the inappropriate location, it was more because of my premonition: When I pushed the magic power to the extreme for the advancement, the "throat" in my body "It will also be detonated at the same time, bringing a considerable magical impact to my heart, becoming the most serious of the three outbreaks.At this time, I must not let this "festival" break out just for the thought of breaking the shackles, and then enter a period of weakness, and pay the painful price of not being able to compete with the bishop afterwards.

This time, the suppression of "festivals" is more difficult than ever.I can't even tell if I'd be able to suppress it equally effectively if it popped up again; for just a moment, I felt as if I swallowed a mouthful of blood.But my left hand can still feel the magic power smoothly——I gathered strength, and with the fighting spirit and killing intent that invaded my brain from this place before, I tried to figure out Karajan's knife again.This mechanism that only leaves holes for my sword skills may be some kind of temptation for my identity, but I don't mind making a real swing that scares that person; after all, I have to go out from here and face that person head-on. superior.

In this place full of lights and shadows, it is difficult for me to estimate how long the time has passed. I only know that I have simulated the movement of the knife countless times in my heart.Until the last time, my hand holding the knife was unknowingly drawn to the center by this thought, the cold light on the back of the knife flashed in my eyes, and then I cut forward decisively.

The boundary between nothingness and reality becomes blurred in this cut.Those floating fragments of color swept away to the sides, spinning to a place behind me that I couldn't see.The tip of my knife spat out golden-red light, rushing into the large black void ahead.My magic power is limited and my body is bound, but in such a strange situation, I am somewhat fascinated by that knife.

Whether it was the shattering of the scene around me, or the knife I released just now, I felt a kind of dizziness that I couldn't return to for a long time.I even felt that my whole body was leaping forward with the blade, and when I recovered from my senses and got rid of the hallucination, I realized that I seemed to be still in place.It's not that the soles of the feet are sinking, but it's sitting on a raised high-back chair, with some glowing magic curves tied around its body.Only the arm seems to be carefully designed to be released.

In front of me, the ceiling was falling down with stone flakes and bricks, and a little light leaked from the cracks.There was a deep pit in the far wall, its interior was scorched black, and there were a few sparkling sparks left.A person in a gray burqa had fallen under it, and the hem of the robe was scalded by the flames. At this time, he slowly sat up on the ground, and the shadow under the hood was facing me.

"You are indeed another successful product." The man's guttural voice sounded weak, but there was a kind of ecstasy that could not be ignored, as if he was eager to drag his legs to crawl here, "I just didn't Thinking of such a knife..."

He stopped suddenly, watching my hand flick the originally tightly bound magic threads, and he stood up from the high back chair.The threads of magic are bouncing behind me—I feel magic flowing through my veins again without hindrance.I threw a binding spell I had prepared in his direction, and before I could continue with a series of backhands, I saw that he seemed vulnerable, his chest trembled, and he fell back easily like a dead leaf in the wind. down.

I was wary of his cheating, and made up a few more spells, and then I got close to him to check.

A large part of the roof of this square has collapsed, and the skylight falls into the ground like a waterfall, so there is no need to embellish it with small lamp runes.I hesitated for a moment with my hand hanging over the man's head, then lifted his hood.The man's long brown hair got out of restraint following my movement, and spread softly on both sides, revealing an extremely peaceful face due to unconsciousness.

I stared at him for a long time before I slowly withdrew my hand from his hood.

I couldn't believe it for a moment, I actually saw Aixental Galenno from decades ago.

Nearly sixty years have passed since the Wise Men's Eastern Expedition, and the man in front of me has not aged at all.

I cast another spell to bind Aixental to that chair, and swung my knife to destroy all the mechanisms here.The special transparent curtain wall was left behind the back of the chair, and it was not affected by my knife before, and I can't destroy it with force for the time being—maybe the mechanism that controls it is hidden in another place.The banquet on the other side is not over yet, and the people who indulge in pleasure are still intoxicated by singing and dancing; no one will meet the eyes of the observers here.The guards I expected didn't show up.

I drew a rune of the rain spell to wake up the bishop sitting on the seat.Cold water poured into his mouth and nose, choking him to let out a violent cough.

"Do you remember Redmonton Sean?" I said.

"Who is that?" He opened his eyes, seemingly momentarily confused about his situation.Those eyes were red and bloodshot, like the result of not being able to sleep for many nights.

"A man you ordered to be executed," I said. "Back to 842."

"I ordered too many people to be executed." The bishop seemed to be out of interest, but he only replied so concisely.I couldn't help tightening the magic that bound him; the pain seemed to wake him up, making his voice tremble uncontrollably.

"Have you already learned the secret of the cipher string? Vicente Shaw. I began to suspect very early on that Alvin Karajan has been taking great pains to hide a truth. I thought he just loved you, but I didn't expect that there was something involved behind the scenes. Come to this." The bishop said, "Alvin Karajan was born cunning, he once behaved ignorantly in exchange for freedom at the age of 11, and denied that he occupied the real 'password string', but he would try to expose it when he was an adult The risk of a lie will be fulfilled for you."

"I don't know the truth about the 'cipher string'." I wiped Charon's blade and watched its reflection.

"That's very interesting." The bishop sneered, "Haven't you ever thought about what your professor is hiding from you? The moment the first 'planting' experiment was successful in 840, the top floor of the laboratory was filled with experimental products. There was a massive explosion at the center, spreading mana and his katana burning everything but him, causing a catastrophic collapse. All the researchers who knew about the 'planting' died in the accident , only he is alive—he sits on top of a corner post, like sitting on an island. I have no way of knowing which code string I tried that day, and I finally got some clues recently."

"If there is any document, it should have been destroyed at that time." I lowered the blade and tried to fasten every finger on the handle tightly, "Even if Karajan was smart at that time, I didn't believe him Can achieve the point of memorizing the whole 'password string' quietly."

"'Jiquan'," the bishop seemed to sneer slightly, "before you came to steal the bait I put down, didn't your assignees tell you that the existence of the 'password string' may not be limited by words? ?”

I opened my mouth, subconsciously wanting to deny him, but I couldn't help but be blocked by the flashing memories.

"...it could be anything. A piece of paper, a word, a voice, a magweave..." I thought.

Galenno's eyes revealed a kind of fanatical imminence.He raised his chin and threw out a series of questions, like raising the horn of a winner:

"Think again—Vincent Shaw. Do you already know where Karajan hid it? Besides the golden 'Molten Rose' he usually uses, does he carry another unknown A masterpiece that has been used to transform you? What does it look like, and what is its name?"

His neck was fixed, but his gaze was forceful, as if he was approaching me with substance.My heart was shaking, and I couldn't help but think of the moonlit night when the Charon flowers burned a long time ago-the flames of that night seemed to still pile up in my chest, baking it so that it could not be calmed down.

"No..." I shook my head.

Galenno didn't understand what I meant, he just thought it meant my wavering.

"I don't need to kill you, Vicente," he lowered his voice, as if he was not imprisoned by me, but proudly issued orders from his throne, "Once my guards notice the change here, they will soon It will come soon - when the time comes, you will never get out of the siege alive. If you will tell me where the 'code string' is hidden, I will spare your life. Think carefully, your precious love It’s far less valuable than you think—even knowing that you’ve been searching so hard, isn’t Alvin Karajan unwilling to let you know the truth about that treasure?”

I half-wandered from his first word to his last sentence, and finally couldn't help laughing.

"No..." I said, "I think your judgment is completely wrong."

Karajan did never say anything about that treasure, no matter how many people worked hard for it—but he had already given it to me, one night many years ago.It was placed in an ordinary wooden box, lying quietly under the moonlight behind the door of my house.

When he talked about the dagger in detail for the first time, he used such a slightly weird description: "The day it came into my hands, it actually had a very long name, roughly meaning 'roses melted into flames'... "

Perhaps because of its transformation, I was able to take the "Rose Melting Flame" into my body like Charon; Karajan was naturally able to do the same, but kept his silver long knife hidden all the time—whether he Was found at the scene of the accident along with the short knife, and then claimed it was just his natural weapon?This blindfold has blinded the bishop and his party for so many years, until now when I stand in front of him and Galenno claims that he is close to the truth, the effect is still not clouded.

"I'm afraid you will be disappointed, my bishop," I cast my eyes on the transparent curtain wall behind him, "First, I will not take you to find the 'password string', and I have never had any intentions for Karajan. and secondly, you will not wait for the rescue of your guards. I think my king has conspired with someone here to conjure up some means to save you when you are at your worst. Attack you. I just broke the defensive circle here, and now the guests behind you have suffered—I can faithfully repeat to you the scene I saw: a group of people who do not belong to your jurisdiction broke through the entrance Come in, fight with your guards, the banquet is overturned, the wine and the blood of your cronies are pooled together. Thanks to your arrangement, they don't know that there are pairs of eyes watching all this, and neither will my formation. Let any who slip through the net slip to this side.

Galenno struggled vigorously for a moment, but the restraint of magic strangled him firmly on the backrest.

"Damn you people," he said, "Columdunans . . . "

I compared the blade to his neck and pressed it lightly against his throat.

"I have one more question, Bishop," I said, "you said you waited a long time for me before I fell into your arrangement. I wonder, who told me you would come at this hour? Rely on the information you stole, the deduction in your heart, or——the foreknowledge that belongs to the wise?"

Galenno's shoulders trembled slightly.

"...He said that I was born with a natural talent, and I might not be able to inherit his foresight ability. The only time I had a definite foresight in my life was about your arrival today—I knew you were here to kill me." The bishop whispered, and then Looking up at me with some chaotic unwillingness, "I am only a little confused: why can you open the cabinet of my house in the Ninth City, enter this small hall freely, and easily unlock the mechanism here?"

Before I could figure out how to speak, his eyes followed mine and landed on my left hand holding the knife—or rather, the ring on my left hand.

I think there are hundreds of silver rings of varying authority, and they all look the same to me.He stared at it for a moment, but two lines of tears suddenly flowed from his eyes.

"Floyd..." he said.

Even when he heard me declaring his defeat to him, his complexion was never as gloomy as it is at the moment.He seemed to have lost his mind in an instant, and he couldn't even focus his eyes on one place normally.

"Did he give you his ring with his own hands?" he asked me eagerly, yet seemed afraid of hearing the answer.

"It was entrusted to me somehow," I said, "not him—Floyd died before I was born."

Galennuo's eyes were already dead and gray, but now they burst out with intense anger, as if they hadn't just been struggling from the gloom.His mouth was half-open, and no words could escape from it, save for the most ridiculous sneer.

"No way," he said, "Floyd is still alive."

"A natural death," I said, "three years after he arrived in Columbus."

"This is Columdunan's deceit," he said in a hoarse voice in a moment of maddened denial, "a deception. I know he will never die. The life of a wise man is so long, even if I die one day, Even if he dies under the knife of someone who hates me, he will not die easily. He is a wise man! The only wise man in Pu country—he can live for hundreds of years, thousands of years, with the unique gift of time, he can live as long as he wants How long." He looked at me suddenly with red eyes, and said through gritted teeth, "—or, you planned to kill him, didn't you? You understand, but you just dare not answer me. Despicable Cologne People from Dunan are using him in their hearts, and want to kill him..."

I just watched him go crazy in amazement.Time had made him look like nothing; neither the Freud he had tried to imitate, nor the faithful Eichenthal he had been.Until now, he has completely lost even the shadow of the rational Bishop Galenno who controlled the overall situation, and the rest are only bound mortals, hysterically going to the end of themselves.

"Homicide or natural death, judging from your intelligence network, you may have already made up your mind," I said, "What's the point of self-deception? Even an outsider like me can figure it out."

He gasped, looking at me dying.

"Long ago by the lake, Freud passed on his identity to his apprentice. 'Don't call me a wise man,' I think he said." see everything. "Freud has lived for a long time, lost his status as a 'wise man', and will inevitably age irresistibly. Don't you ever have doubts about your appearance that has not changed? It is true that Columbus put him Take him away, but his lifespan is given to you by him..."

He seemed to be swallowing something substantial, as if there was pain writhing in it.At such a time, those red eyes no longer shed tears.

"Floyd..." His voice fell, and he repeated in a low and bewildered voice.He repeated that name over and over again, as if entrusted with some kind of thought that had nowhere to speak, "Freud..."

"Floyd didn't mean for you to start a war," I said to him, "and he didn't expect this kind of revenge involving indiscriminate killing. It is indeed admirable that you have come to this point on your own-but now How does Pu Guo resemble what he expected? How do you resemble him?"

Galenno's expression seemed extremely gloomy, and at the same time seemed extremely hateful.I was still holding my knife across his neck, but he laughed miserably, letting its sharp edge scrape blood on his neck.

"This man is right. I'm sorry for you, Freud..." He murmured, looking into the corner of the sky behind the top rubble, and murmured, "I'm sorry for you——I failed to put those Columbine All the people in Dunan were killed..."

In this instant, he didn't know where the strength came from, and he forcibly pulled away a few inches from the restraint of magic, and his body pushed forward heavily; before my blade had time to dodge back, it splashed all over his neck. blood flower.

Aixental Galenno's head was hanging on one side, his eyes were still hysterically wide open, and he refused to close them until the end.

This person has been strenuously walking side by side in the fork between desire and reality for too long, and his thoughts have accumulated too much, are too heavy, and are too far away, twisted to the point where he cannot return to the original path; He can use his reverie to take him to that corner of the sky.

I put away the knife and crushed a red stone that Du Ling gave me—it is said to be a new product from the scientific research department, and it will record real-time surrounding images after it is broken.I looked at the two nearby pools of blood: one behind the transparent curtain wall, the other at my feet; Different routes lead to the same goal.I suddenly felt that this comparison was full of irony, and after taking a last look, I evacuated the magic circle without hesitation and walked towards the exit.

A group of people had already been waiting there, each carrying a weapon.Seeing me coming, although there was suspicion in their eyes, none of them showed hostility.The one at the head took a cautious step and said to me in a low voice:

"Mr. Xiao?"

"It's me," I said.

"Our king sent someone to escort Mr. out of the city." He said, and then added, "Bishop Galenno was assassinated by rebels in Pu country today, and we were powerless to recover when we rescued him."

"I understand," I said, "I'm ready to give me a ride now."