Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because it feels very subtle - if the situation is not urgent, Lady Luna will not rush to drive those crew members away, but if the situation is urgent, Lady Luna's current reaction seems too much..."

“No hurry, no slowness, that’s how it feels.”

"Too subtle to be understood - perhaps that's what Ella thinks."

Ashlee's feet were no longer floating in the air like before, but were on the ground like her two companions. She was stroking the first layer of isolation wall that had fallen with her right hand, and looking at the second layer of isolation wall that had just fallen. Her black fingertips touched the metal surface, making a slight scraping sound. The corridor, which should have been filled with various mechanical sounds and could never be considered quiet, now only had the breathing and heartbeats of the two people, so that the subtle and hard-to-hear scraping sound became particularly noticeable.

At the moment the wall fell, the world seemed to become different - like stepping from the beach into the deep sea, like falling from a high mountain into a cliff, like stepping from one side of the atmosphere to the other. It became difficult to breathe, one had to lower one's voice, one became suspicious, as if besides oneself, there was "something else" here, whispering in one's ears, reminding oneself all the time, "Here, at this time, at this moment, one is not alone."

"I can't really tell myself."

Lunicia pulled out the "Avenger" from behind, and then gently inserted the tip of the sword into the ground under her feet. The steel-cast ground was no more solid than sand in front of the pure white sword blade. Without any effort, part of the tip of the sword sank into the ground. Lunicia's behavior did not seem to be deliberate destruction, but more like some kind of measurement, measuring the thickness of the hull structure, measuring the solidity of the material, and measuring the extent of damage she could cause to this passage and this ship.

"If I must say it, it's like... there's someone approaching me, hostile and with a weapon in hand. He looks dangerous enough, but he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to attack. I don't know the reason, nor do I know how things might turn out next.

Everything here feels strange, as if it is not in the same world as before. I had this feeling the moment I stepped into the sky sea, as if the sky and the ground are not in the same place, they are not up and down in terms of height, but there is something more fundamentally different. Everything here is still speaking, but it is a language that I don’t understand at all. It is exactly like this feeling. ”

There were no enemies here, so Lunicia naturally did not enter a combat state. However, her body was tense, as if she could swing the sword in her hand at any time, swinging it with all her strength.

It was as if there was something extremely dangerous on the other side of the wall that was supposed to be empty.

The ship will not crash, at least not for the time being, so Lunicia can be as relaxed as she is now, because she knows very well that a sentence or two will not change the result, but on the contrary, if it is really left alone, the ending will be doomed to remain unchanged: the invisible "hand" has destroyed the lifeboat, and no one knows what it will do next, but its intention is very obvious, spreading despair and fear, bringing blood and death, and playing a game that is not sure whether it is for hunting or entertainment.

"It's not accurate to say it's hostility. It feels more like..."

“Malice.”

Ella took over the conversation.

She still didn't draw her sword, the black and purple double blades were still quietly placed in the scabbard. This didn't mean that she was ignorant and unvigilant, but simply because this allowed her to make choices more freely when something happened: to draw the magic sword or to open the pages of the magic book.

The pervasive, misty atmosphere was more striking in her eyes than in Lunicia's.

"Is that the undead, Luna?"

Ashetherin asked, tapping the isolation wall with her fingertips.

"Individual Ashetherin has no idea about the 'soul'. Is the one who said this, a being as sweet and corrupt as a sinner, what you call the 'dead', like Coletus Shuheberil? Or like Alexis Pentelier?"

"It's different. That thing..."

Looking at the wall that seemed to be isolating something, Lunicia seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"It feels like it's a little different, but I can't tell from here."

"Want to go in?"

Unlike Lunicia who was a little nervous and Ella who was as if facing a great enemy, Ashithelin's calm expression showed neither anxiety nor panic, as if she was not an experiencer of this incident, but just a bystander who would not show any emotion. She was just waiting for everything to happen, and even when something really happened, she would raise her weapon as usual.

"If not, there's no point in staying here."

"Please be careful, Lady Luna, and if necessary, please stay behind me."

"A paladin should stand up for himself. It's not good to hide behind others all day. Ashe, prepare to open the isolation wall."

"Okay. Identification code confirmed, the wall will be open in three minutes."

"I'm sorry, Ella, Ash."

"Why should I apologize? It's cloudy today, but Luna can't control the trajectory of the sun and the tides."

"Ms. Luna...?"

"Because you guys are involved."

Lunicia gave a somewhat embarrassed smile.

"If it weren't for me - maybe it would be the best situation if I stayed alone and everyone else could return safely. I'm such a loser for not being able to go on a dangerous journey alone."

"Please don't say that, Lady Luna."

"Even if this might be an extremely dangerous journey?"

"Even so - I chose to move forward with Lady Luna because of my own will. Lady Luna is not a coward who is afraid to take risks alone."

"Um...thank you, Ella."

"By the way, even if you all die, the individual Ashlee will still exist, so there's no need to worry about Ashlee's safety."

"Please don't make unnecessary remarks."

……

Do you remember your dreams at night?

In winter, the sun gradually sets in the west, and night replaces day. A person walks on a wide or narrow road, and can't see any living creatures, no cats on the wall, no crows or migratory birds. The shops have rolled down their shutters, and yellowed and wrinkled newspapers are pasted on the windows, stacked up in layers. The only thing you can see is your own shadow, a black shadow stretched by the early setting sun, from under your feet to the opposite wall - look, it's like someone has stuck his head over the two-meter-high wall, waving at you with that face without facial features.

There was nothing there - but I still wanted to escape.

Remember that feeling?

Your footsteps and heartbeat speed up together. You clearly don't see anything, and there is nothing there, but you just want to speed up, to run away, to escape, to get as far away from there as possible. There is nothing there, you know, or rather, you are not sure, but you keep telling yourself that it is deserted, quiet, and safe. You speed up your pace only because you can't wait to get home quickly, not because you "see" anything, not because you "hear" anything in this street that should be silent, and not because you "feel" something that shouldn't exist, can't exist, and is not allowed to exist. Yes, that's it, there is nothing here - just like you told yourself.

So you ran back home, back to the house that you are very familiar with called "home".

Your will is enough to make your heart beat faster, but it is not strong enough to turn back time and make the planets rotate. The sun is still setting in the west. Because it is winter, the speed is much faster than in summer, and the speed of darkness is also the same. You turned on the lights in the living room, the bathroom, the kitchen, and of course, the bedroom. Every place is full of light, and every place is familiar, shrouded in cold light. Looking at the furniture, the dining table in the middle of the living room, the freezer, the cutting board, knives, and stove in the kitchen, the washing machine and sink in the bathroom, the desk and the bed, the light is everywhere, but the more places are illuminated, the more shadows there are, isn't it?

You know, this doesn't change anything.

It's completely dark outside the window. Sitting on the bed, you can only hear those small sounds that you are used to. The sounds full of life make you feel familiar. They won't scare you. On the contrary, they are the things that make you feel at ease. What if it's not? Otherwise, when you really listen carefully, there is not even a single footstep in the apartment building from beginning to end. It's obviously dinner time, no one is cooking, no children are playing, no conversation, no singing, no quarrels, no one passes by downstairs, no sound of vehicles, no roar of motorcycles or sirens, everything you are familiar with seems to be missing. Is this place different enough from everything you remember? You dare not imagine, nor do you dare to confirm. Even if you know, what can you do?

All you can see is darkness.

Do you remember your dreams at night?

I dreamed of a familiar yet unfamiliar world. What was familiar was the skin that you were familiar with, the dusty walls, the faded floors, and the noise of the pipes. What was unfamiliar was what was underneath that skin. You could see what was lurking, hiding, sneering, and squirming. You "saw" it, you "heard" it, you "felt it" - you "realized it", but you could only force yourself to think that it was something you "did not realize".

Yes, yes, just like now.

The night is its own shadow.

Only the moon showed some mercy.

May the moon god, may Levina of the night grant you peace.

And when you looked out the window, seeking the only constant glow of the moon in the deep winter night, you realized one thing. It doesn't matter whether you live on the second floor, the third floor, the fourth floor, or the fifth floor. The only thing that matters is why your shadow is standing outside the window, pressing its face against the glass and reaching out to knock on the window panel?

dong dong dong, dong dong dong.

……

"It's so miserable..."

Lunicia couldn't help but mutter to herself.

Why? Even she couldn't explain why she had to lower her voice, so low that it seemed only she could hear it. But she did so, as if she didn't want to wake anything up, even though there didn't seem to be anything like that here.

There was nothing wrong with her sigh itself - obviously, the old navy officer, for various reasons, had somewhat modified the situation in his description to make it less serious. Perhaps it was because he didn't want to cause too much panic, perhaps it was to comfort himself, or perhaps it was simply because he didn't understand what happened and subconsciously ignored many details in his haste and panic. Only when he actually saw the scene behind the wall could he truly realize what had happened here.

As a former high-standard warship, the airship "Duke of Candiano" had a very spacious battle bridge. However, such a spacious space is now only a pile of ruins: the traces of the impact are very obvious. Something has crashed into the bridge from the upper side without being observed by anyone. Perhaps, as the captain himself said, "it may have just grazed it", and part of that thing was stuck with the bridge, but no matter what, the damage caused to the interior of the bridge can be said to be devastating.

There was hardly a single intact wall anywhere. Broken iron blocks were scattered everywhere. The huge wound from the top made the ruins look even more terrifying. The condensed liquid and crystallized magic flowing from the broken pipes permeated the surroundings. Combined with the emergency lights that were about to go out, it gave the area a weird atmosphere. It was still not dark here. The powerful lighting system could barely hold on. Because of this, some details that could not be noticed in the dark became particularly eye-catching, such as the scattered objects - and the corpses.

How many people died? Lunisia didn't have the energy or the willpower to count them carefully. Most of the bodies of the uniformed bridge staff were incomplete, and there were few that were complete and difficult to determine the cause of death. The huge wounds that made people sick, even the smaller ones, seemed to be able to tear the body apart, and broken limbs were even more common. It seemed that against the backdrop of the blood and internal organs flowing everywhere, no matter what kind of body, it seemed nothing special.

"Something strange."

"What's wrong, Ella?"

“The appearance of these bodies.”

Ella did not show any disgust at the corpses on the ground, as if she was used to it. She just pointed at one of them and said calmly, "Including this...female corpse, almost every relatively intact corpse I can see has no signs of being moved."

"And the radio certainly won't work."

Ashlee simply pointed in a certain direction - that thing that looked like it might have once been a broadcasting device, but now all that was left were wreckage smashed by large pieces of metal fragments, with only some broken microphones left to prove its identity.

This is when things start to get weird and scary.

"Ah, so to speak..."

Who and what made the broadcast?

Chapter 7 The Crawling Terror

pat.

It was like the sound of something soft falling to the ground.

When liquid overflows from the inside due to impact and splashes all over the surroundings, it makes that sound.

Throw the meat on the ground, listen to the sound of fat hitting bricks and stones, watch the blood foam overflowing from it, this is the sound that will be made at that time. It is the sound of blood and flesh, bones and skin separating. Listen, when the person who pursues the opposite of life falls into the sky, when the unprotected body falls to the ground, when the blood splashes into flower buds, the breathing, heartbeat, and the heat of the soul will turn into such a short and dull sound.

pat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard."

It was a commonplace broadcast script, but it sounded unclear, with a lot of noise like electrical currents, and there was always a slight rustling sound entangled in it. It was intermittent and full of distortion, like an old tape that was clearly on the verge of its limit but was still running for some reason, or an ancient radio that had just been unearthed from the ruins.

"Welcome aboard the flight of corpses."

Listen carefully.

Are those meaningless noises caused by malfunctions?

Listen carefully, and then distinguish carefully, those don't seem to be disordered electric current sounds. Those are screams, ten people, hundreds of people, thousands of people, tens of thousands of people, countless people screaming at the same time and place, shrill and hoarse, without emotion, aimless, they just screamed when the radio sounded, and even they themselves forgot the reason for screaming. Pain? Fear? Reluctance? Angry? Or even these emotions have been forgotten, erased, lost in the sticky and cold body, leaving only the meaningless screams that sounded like they came from your own mouth no matter how you listen to it.

correct.

It wasn't the visible or invisible things that were screaming.

It is you who are listening to this broadcast, your own voice.

"Do you--ladies--need--help?"

no answer.

Who will answer her question?

Her head tilted unnaturally to the other side, the angle between her head and neck was much less than 90 degrees, the skin on the other side was torn open, revealing the bloody tissue inside, and faintly visible white bone stubble, no matter how you look at it, the cervical vertebrae are completely broken. Her right hand and her entire arm were crushed into pieces, only one side of her abdomen was intact, the other side was unnaturally sunken, bleeding through the work clothes, her legs looked a little unnatural, either fractured or dislocated, no matter which one, it was impossible for her to walk like this.

The most important thing was - she was clearly there just now, under the wreckage that collapsed due to the collision, but now she was standing in front of him. She was clearly a communicator, but she acted like a flight attendant.

"Today is the fourth Wednesday of the fate month, and the weather is ..."

--What is she saying?

Lunicia couldn't help but frown.

——It is clearly deep winter now, but she said it is June, the beginning of summer... Why?

Perhaps it was just nonsense, or perhaps there was some deeper reason. Facing "that thing" that showed no hostility, no desire to attack, and even almost no existence, neither Lunicia, Ella, nor Ashetherin acted rashly. Before the other party did anything, they just raised their weapons and waited quietly for the situation to change.

Lunisia clenched the hilt of the greatsword while concentrating her consciousness.

Powerful evil beings are like poisonous fragrance to her, while those supreme good things are like melodious heavenly music to her. When she focuses her attention in the way taught by the gods, her consciousness will expand in all directions, covering the surrounding things like a layer of water waves - as long as the other party does not deliberately cover up, she can use this to feel those around her who have special "auras", whether they are pure or corrupted beings, celestial creatures, demons, or undead, and can even roughly judge their types.

If you only look at the appearance, it is undoubtedly a ghost, an undead, but Lunisia always feels that there is something different - she has seen the existence of ghosts before, in the shadow of the Rafka Forest, those ghosts who howled and refused to disperse, and the mummy lords who were bound in withered flesh and blood, filled with bloodthirsty desires and strong hatred. Those are well-known undead, terrifying, evil, greedy for flesh and blood, and hate life. But for the existence in front of her that looks like a broken corpse, this woman who was once called "Martina", Lunisia did not feel those strong and intense emotions from her.

Empty, void.

The person standing there didn't look like a dead spirit, nor like a human being. It just looked like a human silhouette.

Consciousness was spreading, along with the waves of invisible souls, spreading to Ella Heper - she was an ordinary half-elf, at least not too far beyond this category, the sword on her waist was mocking, overflowing with joy and evil pleasure; spreading to Ashetherin - the strange girl, today was just like when they first met, with a mechanical appearance and an essence close to those dark things, such as the ghouls wandering in the waterwheel canal, but she was purer than those things, perhaps what was close to her was not those followers, but the gods who once hung high on the skyline; consciousness was spreading, spreading to the broken and twisted corpse -

She is nothing.

"Today is just another ordinary day."

"!"

Instinct reactions are faster than thinking.

The mind is withdrawn from the process of "judgment" and then turned back to "defense". This process does not take too long, but there is a slight delay due to inertia. However, if Lunicia really completely transferred the control of her body from "reflex" to "thinking", then she does not know what the end will be now - there is no need to think about it. She only needs to know that she has instinctively raised the sword and used the pure white sword to resist the opponent's "touch", and then placed the sword horizontally at the first time, and swung it heavily at that place, that's all.

She is nothing, not a human, not a dead spirit, not a dragon, not a demon, not a mechanism, not a plant, not a stone, not a metal, not a corpse, not a messenger of God, not a flame, not a wind, not an apple, not ice, not a water wave, not a sword, not consciousness, not a sound, not a wave, not a particle, not light, not a bullet, not time, not gravity, not a stone statue, not a fish, not a bird, not the natural world, not the atmosphere, she is nothing, she does not exist there, what is that, who is that?

that's not important.

She's coming, behind you.

"Mrs. Luna!"

"do not come!"