Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 210 Is Alice a Materialist?

In the sealed castle, she fought her way through the giant wolf that symbolized cowardice, the magician that symbolized pain, and the withered giant tree that symbolized loneliness. She also passed the test of the war god Karna. She thought nothing could surprise or frighten her anymore. However, in the end, the powerful and terrifying existence known as the "ruling monster" that stood in the way of Princess Olvera of Belman and her companions turned out to be... a beautiful girl with an elegant temperament! ?

"What a cliché setting." Alice couldn't help but complain, "The Sun Devouring Monster Noctus I imagined shouldn't be like this. You can't force the boss to be feminine just to satisfy the desire of the stinky otakus to call you wife in the game, right? At this time, you should send a dragon or just send a real god. Slaying dragons and killing gods is in line with the style of the final boss battle... Although it is also cliché."

However, this was only her personal opinion and did not represent the opinions of other companions. At least when Ovilla saw the beautiful girl floating on the silver crescent moon, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Compared to the terrifying and ferocious beast-type BOSS that Alice imagined, she still prefers the human-type BOSS in front of her. At least there would not be such a shocking sense of oppression, and she would not have to force herself to trim the other's nails and experience the thrill of being shaky and on the verge of death when facing a huge monster.

Moreover, this final BOSS... seems very weak?

"She only has a little blood."

Olvera subconsciously lowered her voice and silently switched the holy sword in her hand, Broken Steel, to the holy book, Elemental Ruler, as if she wanted to take the initiative and perform a righteous backstab on the opponent: "If my magic hits, will it kill her directly?"

"I think it's not that simple, Miss Ovilla." Lingge was not optimistic about this.

But Olvera still wanted to give it a try, so she started chanting after she estimated that she was within the range of the magic. Because she was afraid of being noticed by the other party, she deliberately lowered her voice so that only she could hear it.

Two bosses at the same time?

Yes, it's a new line.

A look of surprise appeared in Olvera's eyes. She didn't expect that she could defeat the final BOSS so easily. Could it be that because the guardians of the previous four corridors were defeated, her strength was weakened, making her so vulnerable?
Before she could figure it out, Saint Xia Liya's reminder came to her mind: "Watch your back, Olvera."

Behind you?

Behind her, the raging sea of ​​fire raised a tide, swallowing up the silent moon shadow, still burning. Through the flickering and dancing fire snakes, it seemed as if she could still see the girl in the sea of ​​fire, silently watching the flames licking her own hands and feet; but in front of her, there was another crescent moon and a familiar back. The girl existed there alone, as if it was natural that she had always existed for thousands of years.

Alice's voice sounded in her mind: "Is it a clone?"

Including Ovira, everyone stared at the trajectory of the meteor. Although they didn't have much hope in their hearts, they still hoped that this attack would work. The red meteor was like a flaming arrow that guided everyone's sight. It rumbled across the night sky, and before the lonely figure on the crescent moon could react, it set off a roaring and surging tide of fire, violently engulfing it.

The princess of Beman reacted quickly and turned around without hesitation. The scene she saw shocked her: in the quiet and deep night, on a floating crescent moon, a tall and elegant girl sat with her back to the crowd, slightly raising her head as if gazing at the distant starry sky. The cold and bright moonlight sprinkled all over the sky, making her back look lonely, cold, and dignified.

No one could give an accurate answer, so the surroundings fell silent, with only the sound of flames burning fiercely and scorching the void. Faced with this strange situation, Olvera bit her lower lip and decided to try again. This time she changed her weapon and switched back to the Holy Sword Broken Steel. She rushed towards the floating crescent moon in the sky, leaped up and accumulated power in the air. The sword swung out several pale blue blades of light, which swept through the void like a sharp sickle, cutting through the thick night.

The world that other companions can see is limited to Ovilla's sight. Only the shepherdess who weaves the web of fate can catch the sound of a new thread trembling behind her.

"Success!?"

Her lips opened and closed silently, and a blazing fireball expanded and took shape, emitting a terrifying high temperature that was enough to melt the gloomy darkness into ashes. Then, under Ovilla's control, it flew towards the crescent moon in the night sky. The blazing flames drew a bright red track, like a disastrous meteor, with an intimidating sound.

Then there was explosion, burning and roar.

The blade of light hit the crescent moon in the sky, and instantly ripples spread out like hitting the water, and then it froze strangely, stuck in the cold light of the crescent moon and unable to move forward. The closest blade of light seemed to have touched the back of the girl on the moon, cutting through the gorgeous silver light covering her body, trying to lift this hazy veil and explore her true face.

However, time stopped flowing, and everything turned into a frozen image, sealed in a silent frame. This tiny gap could not be crossed, and at the same time, in another direction, the same crescent moon, the same girl, and the same feeling of loneliness looking up at the starry sky appeared.

The princess was unwilling to admit defeat, so she turned around and attacked the newly appeared moon shadow. However, it was always like this, her attacks hit the opponent every time, but they also failed to work every time, just solidified there, turning into a silent picture. Every time the old moon was attacked, a new moon would appear, and on each moon, the girls who looked up at the starry sky all had their backs to it, without looking back, as if what was happening behind them was the whispers of a distant land, unable to interfere with the movement of the stars outside the universe, and not even worthy of attention. A few minutes later, Olvera stopped attacking breathlessly. When she looked up, she saw countless floating crescent moons, densely hanging in the night sky. The backs of every girl floating on the moon were equally lonely and elegant. Traces of their last moments were still left on their bodies. Some were engulfed in the sea of ​​fire, staring silently in the fire; some were brushed by light blades, and the pale blue light was only a millimeter away from them; some faced the roar of thunder, but the golden thunder solidified into swords and stagnated outside their hair; some were swept by the storm, but tangible wind blades surrounded her side, turning into docile butterflies dancing...

These scenes, like hanging portraits, tell stories that happened in the past, but those stories are in the past and have nothing to do with the new her. Therefore, the girl can still float in the crescent moon, stepping on the colorful moonlight, looking at the night sky with indifference, ignoring the countless shadows behind her as if they were nothing.

The enemies who rashly broke in and tried to destroy her were nothing more than insignificant scraps of sand. No matter how hard they tried, they could not even get close to the corner of her clothes.

Her clear eyes were like a mirror, reflecting the moonlight in the sky, presenting the futile attack she had launched. Olvera opened her eyes wide, star clusters in her eyes swirled like light, and fragments of confusion flowed out: "What... is going on?"

Is it a clone? Or an illusion? Or an illusion?

She couldn't figure it out, especially since the enemy never even looked at her from beginning to end. This made the princess feel extremely frustrated, as if all her efforts were in the wrong direction and were useless.

"It's a distortion." Saint Shallia said, "The power of darkness has twisted the thread of fate, reversing the order of cause and effect, causing her to create new threads before causing damage every time she is attacked. However, the damage caused stagnates on the old threads and cannot affect the new threads. What you see is frozen time, the fate before it was twisted."

Launching an attack, causing damage, and then affecting the opponent's fate, a new line is born from it. This is how it should be, but after the cause and effect are reversed, the fixed order loses its meaning. Even the hero's weapon cannot trace back time and race against the invisible cause and effect.

Olvera understood Saint Xia Liya's explanation, but the confusion in her eyes did not disappear. Instead, it turned into another kind of doubt: "But why did this happen? Could it be that this is her power?"

"Do not."

This time, it was not Saint Shallia who explained, but Lingge. He looked through the princess' eyes, at the back of the girl floating on the crescent moon, and had figured out the key to the problem.

"It is indeed her power, but it is essentially about you."

Ling said, including the previous "Initial Fantasy: Four Warriors" cartridge, he has experienced two different games and has more or less figured out some underlying rules. In these special game worlds, everything will be reinterpreted in the form of text and data. This interpretation seems to be based on a more unique perspective, so it is somewhat absurd in the eyes of normal people.

But if you observe carefully, you will find that everything in the game world, including the plot, gameplay, characters, etc. mentioned by Alice, has a self-contained logic to support its operation. That is the essence of the existence of various game elements reflected in the description of text and data: in terms of plot, it is not a record, but a narrative; in terms of gameplay, it is not violence, but excitement; in terms of characters, it is not observation, but substitution.

If the game world and the real world correspond to each other, then.

"To you, she is the incarnation of the curse, and the culprit that has trapped you in the cage of darkness and made you unable to escape. You have had an instinctive fear of her since a long time ago." Linger said calmly, "And your fear of this curse is rooted in your heart. You have never thought that you can defeat it. Even though you have come this far, you still have that mentality in your heart. I think that maybe the other party has amplified this emotion of yours, which distorted your offensive and prevented you from exerting your original strength."

If you don't even believe that you can defeat the enemy, the attack launched by your own hands will naturally have no effect.

"That is to say——"

As a talented player, Alice's mind raced, and she soon came up with the correct strategy based on Ling's analysis: "We have to make Ovira believe from the bottom of her heart that she can defeat the curse, and then her attack will be effective?"

"I think so." Lingge replied.

“Isn’t this too idealistic?”

Alice suddenly felt worried.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)