Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1118 Are you all weak?
Shino was wearing holy white armor, holding the holy spear Whitethorn, which was passed down to the pioneer Baron Vince, in his right hand, and holding his beloved horse Brandy in his left hand. The latter was also wearing armor, and a pair of bright and moist eyes showed a human-like firm look. The man and the horse walked past Alice. When the long snow-white horse tail fluttered in the wind and brushed past the eyes of the genius player, she heard a sincere and heartfelt consolation: "Thank you for your hard work, Alice. Leave the rest to us."

Leave it to us...what does that mean?
Alice stared at Shino as he loosened the reins and lowered the visor of his helmet. He looked like the white knight in the famous painting by Paolo Martini, walking down from the scroll. He had completed the transformation from fantasy to reality in front of her. Once, the knights of the Gustave family were overwhelmed by this scene, and were excited and thrilled that the whitethorn flower had finally returned to glory after a thousand seasons. But at this moment, the genius player felt a sense of fear and panic when he saw this scene, as if the thing he had been avoiding was finally going to happen.

"Shino——"

She trembled and called out the name of the young knight: "What are you going to do?"

Shino looked back at her. Under her gorgeous and elegant flower helmet, her eyes were filled with suspicion. She seemed to be wondering why Alice asked such a reasonable question. However, she still answered concisely, "Save the defeat."

Alice had already lost, and only managed to save her life with the help of Themis from the heavens, but the latter didn't seem to be able to hold on for long. She had no fighting skills, no fighting experience, and more importantly, no will to fight. Facing the attack of the dark witch, she just kept running away. If this continued, the situation would sooner or later fall into an unmanageable situation, so Shino decided to stand up, just as she said, and use her own strength to save the defeat.

She is the only one in the entire Yunjingkong Island who possesses such power.

Alice heard the answer she least wanted. Something tense in her heart seemed to be touched all of a sudden, and she subconsciously stopped him, "No, you can't go!"

Shino couldn't believe he was hearing such words.

"Do you know what you are saying, Alice?" She looked at the genius player in disbelief and asked, "You want me not to fight? Can't you see that Themis in the celestial world is fighting hard, forcing herself to fight in order to cover our retreat. In this situation, you want me to stand by and watch my comrades fall into despair, Alice?"

“It’s not necessarily a desperate situation, right?” The genius player stammered, “Themis of the Celestial Realm, she is also very strong! She is the observer and mediator left by the goddess, and the third divine life created by the goddess herself. Although she is not the Girl Kingship, she is not much weaker than the Girl Kingship, right? Carabosse may not be able to defeat her... No, she must not be able to defeat her! Themis of the Celestial Realm will definitely win, we have to believe in our companions, don’t we?”

At the end, she seemed to have really convinced herself, and looked at Shino with an earnest and almost pleading look. The young knight was so angry at her words that she even wanted to laugh out loud: Will Celestial Themis win? Anyone could see that she was in danger under the repeated pursuit of Carabosse, and fell into desperate situations several times. She only survived by relying on the powerful performance of the Armed Goddess. But if no one came to support her, how long could the girl hold on?
Everyone can see it, so how could Alice not see it?
No, she was just fooling herself.

Xino had a cold face and didn't want to talk nonsense with Alice. Instead, she tightly grasped the shaft of the Holy Spear White Thorn and was about to climb onto the horse when she suddenly felt a sinking sensation at the waist and was hugged from behind. The other party held her tightly and was unwilling to let her go.

The young knight froze in place, lowered her head and silently glanced at the hands wrapped around her waist, and fell into silence for a long time. Her partner Brandy, who cooperated well with her, looked at her worriedly, and could feel the anger burning in her partner's heart. In her impression, this gentle and kind friend rarely got angry. Even when someone questioned her reputation in college that she was completely from her mother's fame and she was useless, she never showed an angry expression to those people. She protected the weak, comforted the sad, helped the poor, rebuked bullies, confronted the arrogant, and ignored the despicable. She was completely a noble and righteous knight.

People like this will only get angry in one situation.

Alice has undoubtedly touched that line.

But she seemed not to notice, and continued to speak in a trembling voice. It was more like comforting herself than trying to convince Xino, even if it was just psychological comfort: "It's okay, it will be okay! Themis from the celestial world will win, and Carabosse will lose, because that's what the plot says, the protagonist of justice will defeat the villain of evil, it has been like this since ancient times... since ancient times. So, Xino, don't worry, don't be afraid, even if Themis from the celestial world is at a disadvantage for a while, she will soon turn defeat into victory, we have to believe in her, okay? And... you promised me, Xino, you won't take action this time... Please, don't go..."

Who is worried and who is afraid?
Besides, that agreement was based on the assumption that you could win, and you lost, Alice.

The young knight prepared many rebuttals in her mind, but in the end she suddenly lost interest. She used to be like this, afraid to step onto the battlefield, afraid to sacrifice, and even afraid of her innate mission. So, when Alice made a promise to her not to go to war, the young girl thought she was just in the same state as she used to be, and she would always grow up with battles and experiences. But now she suddenly understood that what Alice feared was not the same thing as what she feared.

"Let go, Alice."

She said, her voice surprisingly calm and with an unquestionable momentum.

Alice's muttering was interrupted. She trembled violently, raised her head, and looked at the back of the young knight hesitantly. In fact, with her thin arms, it was not enough to restrict the actions of a knight. What really extinguished Shino's will to fight and made him feel extremely disappointed was another kind of power.

"Let go, Alice." She said calmly, "I promise you that I won't fight - I will fulfill my promise this time."

Then, there was no next appointment.

Alice didn't understand what Xino meant. She hesitated a little, but slowly loosened her hand, still muttering those ridiculous words. Perhaps she said them too much, and even she believed them a little - she had to believe them: "I'm sorry, Xino, but I assure you, there will be absolutely no problem! Celestial Themis is very strong, and my cassette is also very strong. The Armed Goddess is a super robot driven by idealism. As long as Celestial Themis doesn't want to lose, she will never lose..."

"Alice," Xino interrupted her, looking at the distant battlefield, watching the Armed Goddess controlled by the girl gradually stepping into danger under the constant pressure of the Dark Witch. She said without turning her head, "You are such a weak guy."

She turned and walked towards Tianxin Church. Suddenly, she stopped at the door of the church, as if she remembered something, and added, "And him too." Then she walked into the church and closed the door gently. She did not take off her heavy armor, but came to the statue of the goddess with the glory and burden of holy white on her back. She slowly knelt on one knee, offered her prayers and... confession.

She was regretting that she should not have ignored the ominous premonition in her heart and casually reached such an agreement with Alice.

Confess that you have not fulfilled your responsibilities as a friend and pulled a friend who was gradually falling into the abyss back to the world.

Confess that I am not a qualified knight.

Outside the church, Alice seemed to hear the voices of prayer and confession, but also seemed not to hear them. She sat there slumped, looking up blankly, gazing at the distant battlefield. Her breathing was as light as dust, and she didn't even dare to blink, for fear of affecting the girl's battle. For the genius player, all her hopes, all her trust, and all the strength that supported her from falling down for the time being were placed on that girl.

Beside her, Brandi, who did not leave with her master, watched the scene quietly. There was helplessness, regret and sadness in her eyes.

In Alice, she seemed to see someone from a long time ago, the same person who had caused Xino to fall into a long period of loneliness and pain. Now, time seemed to be repeating itself, and she was powerless.

People who never give up until the last moment may have firm awareness and beliefs.

But it is also possible that he is just hoping for the best?
……

Carabos swung the giant scythe, and the black fire turned into a dark tide, rushing out violently, rushing towards the Armed Goddess, its mighty momentum was as unstoppable as a tide hitting a dam, and Celestial Themis was the one who faced the tide. But from beginning to end, she never thought about confronting the power of the dark witch, but put more energy into escaping - surprisingly, she was very talented in this matter, just like she was always good at escaping from the expectations of others.

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Six blazing blue beams burned behind it, like the flaming wings of a giant star butterfly, pushing the machine to speed up and rush forward, rushing towards the dark tide, leaving a straight, shining tail under the dark curtain of the universe. Just before hitting the wave, the six wing-shaped floating guns adjusted their angles, pointed their muzzles downward, and the engines output full power, spewing out a large radial flame. The suddenly increased resistance caused the high-speed moving machine to slow down suddenly, as if it had ignored the law of inertia and entered a state of stagnation in an instant. But this state did not last too long. Only one tenth of a second later, the machine, driven by the beam jet, quickly climbed up along the nearby huge waves. Soon, the height of the machine had exceeded the flood peak, and it lightly crossed this difficult obstacle.

But after the huge waves hit the empty space, they dispersed behind the Armed Goddess in an instant, transforming into lifelike shadow dragons, which, under the control of the Dark Witch, rolled back upstream and rushed towards the enemy. These dragons either spit out black flames that covered the sky and blocked the Armed Goddess's retreat; or lurked in the relentless dragon tide, and when the distance was shortened, they suddenly rushed out, opened their huge mouths and bit the body fiercely, intending to tear a piece of flesh from it.

However, as I said before, the only thing that Celestial Themis is very talented at is running away.

She controlled the huge Armed Goddess, but seemed to be a light petrel playing between the crests of the waves, using her graceful posture to play with the natural disasters that could destroy any tiny life. Sometimes she accelerated and jumped onto the top of the waves to avoid the black flames coming from both wings; sometimes she dived into the seabed, making the bite of the dragon in the tide miss repeatedly; sometimes she even slowed down on her own initiative, seemingly throwing herself into the huge waves, but in fact she saw the threat lurking in front of her, retreating to advance, confusing the enemy's pursuit.

The agile wing-shaped floating guns played a crucial role in this pursuit. For example, the integrated steel wings of Alice as a pilot, although fast enough, were obviously not agile enough, so they often had to face the dark witch head-on; and the wing-shaped floating guns in a dispersed formation, both in terms of operational accuracy and control of details, perfectly matched the tactics of Celestial Themis. She could control six wing-shaped floating guns to move in the same direction at the same time, completing the difficult turning action just now; or she could control one or several wing-shaped floating guns individually, and by adjusting the angle of the muzzle and the power output of the engine, she could make the huge and heavy mecha perform delicate actions that even the human body could not do again and again.

Such an operation involving only one elevation angle, one change of direction acceleration, and even one percent of power adjustment was undoubtedly amazing even in the eyes of Carabosse. It can even be said that Celestial Themis's familiarity with this machine and her control efficiency have surpassed her original designer Alice. If she can put this part of her talent into combat instead of just running away, then it may indeed cause some trouble for herself.

However, it was impossible for her to do so.

Belief and awareness do not allow it, and neither does the Armed Goddess.

As a super mecha, the Armed Goddess is like a mirror, faithfully reflecting the inner essence of the driver, and from this, different types and uses of models are derived. Genius players are eager to win, hope to confront the enemy head-on, and are more fond of crushing battles, so the Armed Goddess in the purge mode not only masters the stormy sword dance offensive, but also can burst out extremely fierce firepower in a short period of time; and the celestial Themis, she stepped onto this battlefield, not originally for fighting, but just to help Alice and the others delay time. Therefore, although the speed, skills and agility of the Armed Goddess in the Ranger mode have been greatly improved, it only lacks the means to fight the enemy.

She wasn't here to fight at all.

Staring at the figure in front of him who kept running away, as if thinking that as long as he kept running away, the battle would continue and Alice and the others would be able to successfully evacuate the danger zone, Karabosse's eyes gradually became complicated.

That's a shame, she couldn't help but think.

Sadly, the battle will eventually come to an end.

Give me some meow