Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 218 Do you want to continue this game?
In the deep and empty space shrouded in darkness, several figures looked at each other.

After a moment of silence, someone reached out and scratched his cheek, then asked, "What should we do now?"

"I don't know, Sister Alice..." Metien shook her head blankly. In fact, she still didn't understand what was going on until she saw the girl with long black hair flip her palm, and the whole world changed. The enemy that was defeated before appeared again, the corridor that was lit before fell into darkness again, and the battle that was won before was fought again, and this time... it led to a different ending.

I only had time to say those words to Sister Avra, and when I came to my senses, I was already in this dark and silent space.

"Is that the true strength of the final boss? He can actually rewind the game. How can there be such a perverted skill in the world?" Alice was worried. Seeing that everyone else had a confused expression, as if asking "what is rewinding", she explained: "You can understand it as...she reversed the flow of time."

Although it is not completely accurate, this is the most understandable explanation at the moment.

"Reversing time?" The little goblin Shemi, who was squatting on Metien's head with his chin in his hands, was shocked when he heard this: "Doesn't that mean she is a god? No, among the gods I know, it seems that no one has the power to reverse time. Rather, is it really possible to do this!?"

"Bah!"

"How would I know?" Alice spread her hands. "Anyway, she did it. Didn't you all see it with your own eyes? Besides, this is a game, not reality."

Xie Mi was choked by these words and was speechless.

"You are wrong." Ling Ge suddenly spoke in a calm tone: "It is not us who want to defeat her, but Avra ​​must defeat her."

Alice was silent for a moment, because Lingge's words really hit the point. No matter how anxious and anxious they were, the only thing they could do now was to trust Avella.

……

But it’s also very strange.

Linger glanced at her and said, "What I mean is that there is nothing we can do now. We can only trust her."

Alice was quite unhappy when she heard this: "You mean this battle has nothing to do with us? Don't forget that we are her weapons now. How can we fight the BOSS without weapons?"

It just feels like the power that the previous boss used to roll back the game is very familiar.

The entire void became quiet, and everyone focused their attention on the picture in the front, which depicted a dim room with candlelight burning. A girl was kneeling weakly beside the bed with her head lowered, letting her platinum hair fall down, drying up intermittently like a waterfall.

She had personally experienced the magic of the so-called "game magic" and naturally had a deep understanding of it. The guardians of the first four corridors were clearly just phantoms born from memory, but judging from their expressiveness, if they were placed in the outside world, they would probably be demigods above Sequence 4. In this case, the fact that there was a true god who could reverse time at the end didn't seem so difficult to accept... right?

"It's still hard to accept!" She held her head and groaned, "How can we possibly defeat her with such power? No matter how many times we win, as long as she reverses time, won't we still lose?"

After a long while, a deliberately low murmur was heard: "Hold on, Olvera... the game is not over yet..."

The shepherdess, who seemed to be thinking about something with a blank look in her eyes, came back to her senses and shook her head slowly: "Nothing."

Fate played a huge joke on Olivia, giving her hope and then ruthlessly taking it back, as if to say that everything in the world has a price, and that things that you get easily will eventually be lost easily.

Ling Ge retracted his gaze and looked at Saint Xia Liya who had remained silent beside him. He asked in a voice that only he and she could hear: "What are you thinking about?"

She was alone, all alone in the room.

On the left hand side is the black lantern, which is still conveying some trivial whispers. When she bends her ring finger, she touches its cold shell, and thus realizes that she has always lived in a man-made world. On the right hand side is the princess's favorite book. Her palm gently strokes the warm patterns on the cover. The sky, ocean, trees, flowers and sun are so beautiful that it is unimaginable.

Time seemed to have passed for a long time, and that grand adventure still echoed with ups and downs, as if the sea of ​​memory had specially raised this tide for it, making the princess who had been trapped in the cage for a long time recall many beautiful memories. She still remembers that she wielded the holy sword under the twelve magnificent stone pillars, and used the cold and bright sword edge and the wolf's claws to explore the definition of courage; she also remembered that when the stars in the sky fell, the surging wind blew through the hood of her robe, and the white feathers sewn on the top fluttered slightly, as if they were about to fly; she remembered that there were ancient dead trees standing tall in the gray and dead black ocean, and people looked up at the majestic and continuous mountains under the trees, in fact, they were also looking up at their own insignificance; she still remembered that in the arena where the flames burned and rose into the sky, she fought against the martial arts of the brave tyrant, and finally he asked her in a serious tone what the belief in fighting was...

In those battles that confirmed her beliefs and traced back to past memories, it seemed that there was always someone by the princess' side at every moment, fighting side by side with her, and giving her comfort and care, which was unforgettable. She still remembered that she had seen many magical and incredible props, learned many combat skills that could not be viewed with common sense, lit a fire in the vast darkness, and saw a vast ocean descending into her eyes... But when she came to her senses, she found that there was no one around her. Those joys and sorrows seemed to come from fantasy. She had nothing except lanterns, books, countless candles and a bed. Time went around and around, bringing everything back to the starting point. In this long journey, she gained nothing except memories, and lost nothing except freedom. She lived the same life as before, but often recalled the stories of the past.

Under the curtained, gorgeous and classical palace four-poster bed, the candles burned in a manner that was surprisingly consistent with how they had burned for thousands of years, so monotonous that it was a bit boring. In the stagnant years, only they remained unchanged, even the temperature when they burned, the light when they shone, and even the tears when they fell, were exactly the same as when they first entered the castle. Time was tempered in the silent and boring flames, and those scattered sparks still had temperature when they landed, blending into the princess's eyes, but they were colder than the first snowflake in winter, and bit by bit, formed the shadows in her eyes.

At a certain moment, someone's call brought the princess a message from afar. She looked up blankly and saw the closed and locked door, as solid and hard as it had been for thousands of years. The tide of memory surged sadly, and many faces that were once vivid emerged from the sea, looking at the last thoughts they left in the world with different eyes. Father's, mother's, teacher's... those faces that were equivalent to life changed one after another, and the same smile had different meanings at this time.

The earth and rocks surged up to build a fence, the flames burned and turned into petals, the four-poster bed behind him stood tall and straight like an ancient tree, in the flourishing violet garden, the sweet and deadly fragrance flowed, echoing someone's past life and present life. That person stepped on the drunken grasshoppers and ants all over the ground and appeared in front of the princess, with the same face in her memory, and when they looked at each other, they reflected the same face.

She saw the lonely little girl huddled in a corner of the cold and empty room, wandering in the deserted corner of the courtyard, lost in the depths of the lonely and cold sea of ​​flowers... She looked at everything she saw with fear and avoidance, as if she was isolated in another world, far away from the brutality or weakness of the world.

She looked at the little girl and suddenly felt familiar. She saw herself in her past. Maybe it was a long time ago, or maybe it was not that long ago. At that time, she was still the princess of Belman. She was still young, but she already understood that the miracles people longed for did exist, but sometimes they came too early, and sometimes they came too late. Because differences must be reflected, emotions are meaningful. If there is no difference, joy and sadness cannot exist at the same time, courage and cowardice cannot suppress each other, life and death cannot be isolated from each other... Miracles that come too soon are cheap and are not needed by anyone.

Ah, everything in this world is so lonely and sad.

“You too,” she said sadly to the little girl with her own face, to the princess who had not yet been trapped in this castle, to the curse that she could not escape or fight against: “You are also lonely, so you are very sad.”

“No.” The little girl looked up at her and shook her head. Her tone was firm, serious, and solemn: “It’s because you want to give up. That’s why it’s so sad.”

"but I do not have."

“I’ll catch up and surpass it.”

If fate, time and memory are determined to abandon her, she will catch up and surpass them all, proving that there is no eternal loneliness in the world, it's just that you have never thought about persisting. It is wrong to fear curses and it is unnecessary to desire miracles. Just catching up is enough.

……

"Go after him, Olvera." A voice in the dark said, "The game is not over yet."

At the same time, there were more people's voices.

"Don't give up, Sister Olvera." With her clear and simple voice, she once told you that there is no eternal strength or weakness in the world.

"It is destined, but you still need to pay attention." With a calm and gentle voice, she once told you that fate only guides, never forces.

"I just feel the same way." In a calm and indifferent voice, he once told you that learning to smile can heal the aching scars in your heart.

"It's not time to give up yet, Olvera!" A passionate and encouraging voice. She once said that she would take you out of this castle and gain freedom.

Do you still believe in her promise? Do you still believe in the power of your companions? Do you still believe... in yourself?

Time seemed to stop flowing at this moment, forever frozen in this moment. It was meaningless to discuss the passage of a second or the change of an era, because only when the princess gave an answer did time regain its meaning and matter regain its existence. The world exists relatively, nothing more than this.

After countless silent and dry thoughts flashed through her mind, the girl who had been kneeling helplessly in front of the bed finally took action.

She slowly reached out her hand and smoothed the long platinum hair that was casually scattered and covering her cheeks back to the back of her head, gathering them neatly together. She then pulled strips of cloth from the hanging curtain and tied them into a neat and tidy ponytail.

He picked up the lantern with his left hand and the book with his right hand, then climbed up from the cold stone floor. When he raised his head, his eyes were clear and bright, emitting brilliant starlight:
"I figured it out."

"I want to continue this game."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)