Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

“…You’re still here.”

"Yes, it is. You are honored that the excellent, great and romantic creator never leaves you."

What a pointless conversation. In fact, Sylvester could always feel the presence of the "Opera House", and Lusa Ephayeret, who gave an answer despite knowing this, made people speechless.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense." Sestin frowned, "Nothing has happened during this period of time?"

"No. It's very safe. I feel even safer than in the main camp."

"The next target of attack will be more difficult to deal with than that Grand Duke Ivanov, and... the feud between you and him will be even deeper."

Without any intention of getting up immediately, he leaned his arm on the armrest of the sofa, gently supporting his cheek, and talked about a topic that was hard to ignore as if he was just chatting.

"That's right. If Grand Duke Ivanov was convicted for providing assistance, then Ulrich was one of the main people responsible for the attack that day."

Lusa smiled softly.

"There are many people who need to pay directly for Lyco's death, and he is one of them."

The tone was calm, but there was no lack of danger in his words.

"So, these are really the only troops I can request? You shouldn't be so careless."

Seth snorted.

"As you expected, the Hunter and the Executioner will also go to the meeting point after the renovation. They will bring along support equipment and more troops that you need. The Avatar hopes to use this battle as a rehearsal for the attack on Zelhar. I'm sure there will be other elite humanoids to help out. Are you satisfied?"

"……very good."

The paladin in front of him was like a quietly burning flame, quiet, yet emitting a heat that could not be ignored. It seemed that anyone who approached would be burned to ashes. Facing the flame, Lusa Ephayet had only a smile on her face.

However, this atmosphere that satisfied everyone did not last long.

With some slight noises, the cabin suddenly began to shake, and the alarm indicator light flashed and emitted a shrill buzzing sound.

"Leah, what happened?"

The Opera House quickly connected to the Arbiter on the bridge.

"——Something is approaching! It's very big, much bigger than this ship——That, it doesn't look like a sky island!——"

At the same time, Setin slowly stood up from the sofa.

However, she did not pay attention to the crisis that the airship was facing. Her gaze went straight to the southeast, as if piercing through the layers of clouds, tearing through the night sky, and staring at the mountaintop city that was also under the night, the city called Muland.

It seemed that something extremely bad had happened there.

Volume 5: The Junction between Mountains and Clouds - Muirand (Part 2)

Chapter 36 Day 1: Reality Inversion

"Next we need to consider how to get into the city."

Familiar words came from her ears, but they could not reach Lunicia's ears. Pedestrians walked on the avenue of the transportation transfer station, tourists talked to each other, vendors and young people and children who disguised themselves as tour guides shouted repeatedly, and the announcements of the arrival of certain transportation vehicles and the departure of certain transportation vehicles came one after another. These many sounds were like gusts of breeze, brushing Lunicia's ears, but they could not reach her ears.

The dizziness, distress, and physical discomfort made her feel like nausea. She could not hear any sound with her ears, and could only hear a huge, clear, and seemingly endless buzzing sound, as if she heard things that she should not have heard, words that she should not have heard, "something" that only existed in the gap between reality and nightmares, as if sealed in an infinite prison.

Her eyes were clearly open, but she could not see anything. There seemed to be only an indescribable turbid color in front of her eyes. Countless twisted blocks of color intertwined, contracted and expanded, as if a variety of pigments were dropped into pure white water. Some were colors that Lunicia could recognize, but there were others that were not colors that the human eye could normally see, let alone know their names. It seemed that just looking at those colors would make the fluid in the eyeballs boil, burning the brain along with it.

Ah, ah——I can’t think anymore.

The five senses were in chaos, and something was madly pouring into the mind, causing thinking to stagnate and making it impossible to think about anything anymore. The information pouring in from an unknown height was like an uncontrollable torrent, rushing and surging in the space of memory and mind, washing away, tearing apart the will and soul, trying to turn everything into a torrent of memory that was equally chaotic and disordered as itself.

I am unable to realize what is around me, unable to recognize where I am, and even my understanding of myself gradually becomes vague and chaotic.

The soul was being torn apart bit by bit, torn apart by the rejection of the world and the rush of memories. If it continued like this, it would only become a corpse with nothing inside.

Click. Click. Click.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the tearing stopped.

The repulsive force of the world is receding, the disorder of time and space is calming down, and the mixed and disordered torrent of memory and consciousness is gradually returning to stability under the guidance of an invisible force, like a long river with a fixed direction, slowly flowing into Lunicia's consciousness. At first glance, it seems impossible to distinguish the new from the old. If you can't directly check the time mark attached to the memory, you will probably only feel that these memories are originally integrated and indistinguishable from each other.

So, thinking back on it——

Something is coming with the arrival of twelve o'clock.

That night covered by gears, that night surrounded by the sound of clicking, that night filled with corpses and blood, that second of pause, the end of all things, that night when everything known collapsed in a roar, what happened before that, and what happened after the moment of the end -

I remember it now, I remember it now, I remember it no matter what it was.

That’s right, it’s not “knowing” but “recalling”.

She was able to assert that it was not an illusion or a dream, but something that really happened, a reality that existed between the contradiction of "it happened a long time ago" and "it has not happened yet".

I couldn't help but put my hands up and cover my head.

——Ah, ah…

Although the storm of memory has subsided, the aftermath has not subsided yet. Lunicia has not yet broken free from the confusion. She is still unable to perceive the things around her. Her five senses have lost their effectiveness due to the confusion of her nerves. She cannot see, hear, or be aware of the existence of those around her. She is like being on a white island with only herself. She cannot touch or communicate. The only thing she can do is to sort out her own existence.

Go back, Lunicia, think back, what happened.

Even everything stopped whispering, the sounds in her ears returned to one, to zero, to nothingness, leaving only her figure and her heartbeat, letting her recall the "real things that happened" in the logical contradiction. The hanging sickle, the black giant sword, in the city surrounded by wind and snow, the noblewoman holding the oars covered her face with black veil, using bones as candles and skulls as seats. She was both a symbol of stagnation and a ferryman of the end. The noblewoman who intertwined ice, snow and death, now had her eyes slightly drooped and remained silent. She was not in a hurry to urge, as if she had already understood that Lunicia would eventually come up with her own answer.

hum-

Severe tinnitus lingered and penetrated the brain.

Unlike those lingering silent sounds, this seemed to be just a simple, pathological tinnitus. It was not until this moment that Lunicia suddenly realized that this was the case. It turned out that she had figured out what happened at some point, and her body gradually returned to normal over time, to the point where she could even hear the tinnitus.

——If that’s the case, then…

I felt fear, and I shrank back from it, not daring to open my eyes which had been tightly closed without knowing when.

The result of three days' worth of memories filling her mind in an instant was that she forgot herself at that moment three days ago in a short while, as if she was not at the transportation hub at the main entrance of Muirand, but still there, in that night that seemed to never end. That's why she was afraid, afraid of the possibility of seeing that familiar scene as soon as she opened her eyes, afraid that as soon as she opened her eyes, she would find herself still standing at the door of the Alexandria Cathedral, like a nightmare that would never end.

"Ms. Luna...? What's wrong with you, Ms. Luna?"

--ah……

"Luna?"

——Ahhh…

The tinnitus subsided, and the familiar noise surged back like a tide, overwhelming the silence that belonged only to nightmares, dispelling the nightmare that seemed to never fade away. The voice that made me miss so much rang in my ears, calling my name. I really hope that all this is not a dream, I really hope that all this is the reality happening at this moment, not an illusion that I had in my dying moments. My body trembled, my eyelids trembled, trembled, eager to open because of hope, and struggled because of despair, until finally, desire overwhelmed fear.

The darkness was torn apart.

The girl became more and more dizzy as the light reflected in her eyes.

The beautiful half-elf with soft light pink hair and blue eyes, who looked similar to me but seemed to have a lake of gold in her eyes, was such a longing face. How long had it been? How long had it been since I last saw them? Three days? No, thirty days, three hundred days, thirty years? In the stagnant time, I couldn't calculate the passage of time. Only the soul that was retained because of the joke trembled with it. I didn't even know how much time had passed since then.

I don't know why such a thing happened, I don't know why I can come back here, I don't know why I still have a chance, there is only one thing that Lunicia knows for sure.

This is not an illusion, nor a dream, nor a review on deathbed. The touch on my hands, the sound in my ears, the breath, the light, everything is so real. This is the unquestionable reality, not an endless white prison.

"Very good……"

"Hmm? Lady Luna?"

"What's wrong, Luna?"

"Oh... That's great..."

Hugging the two people with puzzled faces tightly, Lunicia could no longer suppress the emotions that had been suppressed. Her body was shaking, and her voice was filled with depression and joy, so that she no longer looked like the fearless paladin. She sobbed softly, helplessly and sadly. Why? Because of the pain and torture engraved in her body and mind?

it's not true.

The reason why she was so sad was mainly because she couldn't save anyone.

"what--"

At the moment of being tightly hugged, Ella's body trembled. The weak Lunicia, the warm and helpless embrace, the sobbing sound, the trembling words, she couldn't help but tremble, but immediately calmed herself down, suppressed her doubts and confusion, just stretched out her hands, hugged Lunicia's body, and stroked her back as if to comfort her. This kind of thing was full of unfamiliarity for her, but she said nothing, just quietly hugged the body that seemed to fall down at any time due to weakness and dizziness.

As for Ashlee, she also had doubts in her eyes, and like Ella Hepper, she didn't ask anything. If Ella trusted Lunicia unconditionally, then Ashlee understood Lunicia: there were some secrets that Lunicia couldn't keep, especially if revealing them would benefit justice in her eyes, so as long as it didn't violate her oath, she would reveal everything without hesitation.

Gently supporting Lunicia's body, Ella and Asheselin took Lunicia to a sparsely populated corner nearby, and chose a shady bench so that she could rest in a more comfortable position, half lying on Ella's thighs. The announcement on the platform in the distance was faintly heard, and it seemed that the aerial rail train to the main city of Muland had already sped away. It would probably take some time to wait for the next train. However, this matter was not important to Ella at all. She just used the stock solution on hand to prepare the sedative potion while gently combing Lunicia's hair. Asheselin floated aside, quietly fanning Lunicia with a small fan.

"Feeling better, Lady Luna?"

"Wuwu...um..."

The weak words and little sobs did not make people feel at ease, but Lunicia still struggled to get up. It seemed that she was not willing to the fact that she could only lie down. The anxiety that she could not hide urged her to travel slowly, sightsee and enjoy delicious food.

Otherwise—everyone will die.

"Ella, Ella...Aishelin..."

She struggled, grabbed Ashlee's hand, hooked her arm around Ella Hepper's neck, sat up, pulled them both into her arms, and hugged them tightly, as if letting go for just a moment would make her feel uneasy.

"Luna-sama...So, what happened?"

Lunicia did not answer, but just shook her head heavily.

It seemed that just recalling what happened at that time would make her feel scared and terrified, making her tremble. It was not that she felt that those things were unimportant and therefore unwilling to talk about them, but she simply could not say them.

How can I say something like that?

Clearly, he chose to draw out the "Avenger" because he wanted to protect Ella, and stabbed at the huge clock that fell from the sky. When he came to his senses, the tip of the sword pierced Ella's body for some reason, "the figure that was blocked behind Lunicia the moment before." In the chaotic and arbitrarily controlled space and time, Ella pushed Lunicia away, and as a substitute, she was dragged into the mechanical clock while seriously injured, and was shredded into pieces by countless gears.

How can I say something like that?

The sky was filled with emotionless sneers. The blood-red moon echoed with the gears all over the sky. Ashlee seemed to remember something, but paused because of the unacceptable information contained in it. Even if she gave half of her body to Lunicia, she would still be an indestructible and indestructible mechanical humanoid. However, she was easily pierced, torn apart, and disassembled into useless metal fragments by the monsters that emerged from the darkness. Only the head with empty eyes was left, staring at Lunicia. The sneer that never stopped was like announcing the end of a certain existence.

What happened after that?

I can no longer recall it. In that moment that was extended to infinity, the screams of living creatures rose and fell, and the lights that symbolized civilization went out one by one. However, those could no longer be felt by Lunicia. Her hand seemed to still have the touch of piercing her friend, and she seemed to be able to see the fragments of the mechanical girl's body in front of her. Her time was frozen, and everything about her stopped at the last moment before the collapse, as if she wanted to preserve it forever, to witness her failure forever, and her end of desolation. In the white prison, miracles will not happen, the future will not come, and hope no longer exists. It seems that even the giant sword in her hand has lost its response. Isolating herself from the world, all she can see is the eternal stagnation of nothingness.

——Ah, I remember now…

I remember what happened at that time.

A voice that was too familiar, but I couldn't remember who it belonged to, rang before my eyes.

"Have you given up?"

The voice of a man who was too familiar but whom he could not remember who it belonged to. There was no blame, no questioning, no coercion, and no encouragement. He asked with the same unchanging solemn attitude, just like he had asked everyone before, except that the content of the questions was different.

"Do you want to give up?"

Imprisoned in an infinitely long moment, she had forgotten many things, and no longer had many senses. It seemed that even her brain had lost some functions, and her soul had stagnated. Just before her ability to think completely collapsed, the man asked a question. He did not seem to be in a hurry to get Lunicia's answer. After all, one second here was an infinity that would never pass. For Lunicia, who was in it, there was still a lot of time to think.

However, if it is from this perspective, the source of the sound is ultimately let down - let down by the meaningless questions and meaningless waiting.

The answer has already been decided, and once it is decided, it will not change.

It was like the answer I had given when I swore an oath before the gods in the past so long ago that I didn't know how long ago it was.

——How could I possibly give up?

At that moment, the eternal white prison was cracked.

Chapter 37 Day 1: Everything Continues

Wiping away her tears, the paladin looked a little anxious and a little shy, as if crying in front of others was a rather shameful experience for her. But what was there to worry about? Ella and Ashetherin were still in front of her. This matter could already make Lunicia feel very satisfied.

However, it cannot end here, and I cannot simply be satisfied with such happiness. This is just regaining something that I once lost, and I still have to find a way to keep it - otherwise, it will be taken away once again, trampled on, and destroyed, and that bloody and precious thing will be dug out from my heart.

Seeing Lunicia's expression, Ashlee and Ella also sat up straight.

"So, what happened, Lady Luna?"

Ella's concern was beyond words - she cared about Lunicia more than anyone else present. There was no falsehood in this matter, and the emotions contained in it were genuine and upright, so she cared so much about what had happened, what made Lunicia so vulnerable, and what dared to make Lunicia cry, she would never let it go, and it was impossible for her to let it go.

"..."

Ashlee said nothing. She could sense that something had changed, not only in Lunicia, but also in other places she couldn't see... maybe not here? Impossible, she didn't have such a huge range of perception, the change must be something or something not far away, there was no mistake about it. This was something she had never seen before, so she was curious, and similarly, the subtle connection between her and Lunicia also affected her, causing her mood to fluctuate slightly where it wouldn't have otherwise existed.

These two not-quite-identical concerns made Lunicia feel even more shy, but she still cleared her throat, lowered her head slightly, and spoke softly.

"In fact, I may have experienced—"

"Back in time"—she paused before she could even begin to speak the word.

No, it was not Lunisia that stopped. The time of the whole world seemed to have stopped in an instant. In that brief pause, all words stopped, all actions stopped, the clouds stopped floating, the cars stopped driving, the water stopped dripping, the leaves froze in mid-air, everything seemed to have turned into a bonsai in a crystal ball, frozen like an insect in amber. In that moment when everything stopped, only one thing remained operational.

That is the soul of Lunisia.

Because all this "started with her", she became an exception in this brief solidification, just to allow her to hear the voice that existed in that moment.

puff.