Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

The boundaries of sound are also being blurred.

Speaking of which, did the first one say anything? I forgot, no, or maybe I didn't clearly understand it, but it did say something.

"Where's Nel? Nel's nowhere. No one's watching me here. No one's watching me here. Where am I? Who am I? On the third Friday of the Snow Moon, this Lady Ivita is stranded. Where's the Captain? We need to send a broadcast, tell them—who?—to come here, to come here. Watching you. I see you."

It speaks - says - words like this that may or may not make sense.

It's really noisy. When did it start to get so noisy? When they appeared?

"------"

What are you talking about?

I couldn't hear anything. My ears, my head, my soul were filled with those voices. What on earth was the person in front of me saying? Even if I put down the sword I was using to protect myself, I would still grab my shoulders and shake them hard. It seemed that he was saying something very loudly, but I couldn't hear it at all. Or maybe I did hear it, but I just couldn't distinguish it from the countless noises.

Those were words that I should not miss no matter what.

To discern, try your best, as much as possible, with all your efforts——

Even so, it is impossible.

I couldn't even make out the lip shapes made by those familiar lips.

It was as if all the sounds of the entire world were stuffed into my brain. It seemed impossible to separate even the slightest sound from the whistling wind.

"------"

"—!"

"—"

They are having a conversation.

I still couldn't hear what was being said, I could only vaguely see their lips opening and closing. They seemed to be talking about something, the girl in the machine finally shook her head, and the slender pink-haired girl turned her face again - it was all blurry, and I could only extract her face from the memory that seemed to be blown away, and even that little memory seemed to be shattered at any time, turning into one of the countless gravels swept away by the gust of wind.

Not until she picked up the body that was unable to move for some reason did she have the strength to turn her head and look towards the source of the storm.

Who are they?

People were crowded together, sitting or standing, one next to the other, looking extremely crowded - a dark mass. There was no one there, only the afterimages created by light and darkness, which were either deep or shallow, and were called shadows.

I don’t know, I don’t understand, it’s someone who has nothing to do with me, someone I don’t know.

There should be no reason for them to do so.

In a world where people cannot see each other, there is no one to talk to. In a world where concepts like you and I do not exist, there is no need for dialogue. There are no organs for dialogue, no thoughts to express, and no one to talk to. In this case, in this world, dialogue is simply not possible, right?

So, they aren't talking at all - are they?

They are just whispering unconsciously, just talking in their sleep.

I should have understood this kind of thing a long time ago.

……

"Ashe! Can I leave Lady Luna to you?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't have the advantage in terms of physical strength. You are responsible for carrying Lady Luna, and I will hold them off."

"Don't do anything stupid."

"So what do you think we should do?!"

"You can't stop them, you're just asking for death."

But there must be a way - Ella Hepper couldn't even utter this rebuttal. She knew very well that what she had just said was just a fantasy operation with no success rate at all. It had no effect in this situation. She couldn't even buy a little time with her life. Not to mention being reckless, it even seemed stupid.

"Calm down?"

"Things have come to this——"

"Any ideas, Ella?"

"...Do you want to gamble with me?"

"Do you like gambling, pink dancer?"

The shadows are creeping.

Perhaps they were just moving normally - walking, strolling, or even crawling. Those without the lower body seemed to be using their hands instead of their feet, making non-existent "click" sounds. From the dark outlines, their mouths could be seen opening and closing, but no words could be heard. To both Ella Hepper and Ashlee, those were just puzzling and meaningless behaviors that did not need to be included in the analysis, nor did they need to understand the meaning.

But the crowds of people looked too much like a surging black tide.

"I don't like it. I dislike your cloyingly sweet words even more than gambling."

"This is a variation of Dragon's Heavenly Sound."

"They are shadows, how about using strong light?"

"seriously?"

"I don't think I'm kidding."

Although slowly, although dull - but they are coming.

Those things don't look like experienced warriors. Rather, they are far from it. They were probably just non-combatants with some self-defense capabilities and were competent for their positions, but that was all. Even though they are like this now, they can only move like puppets or staggering corpses. Only when they are piled up one after another and surge like a tide, can people feel the trembling from the bottom of their hearts.

Especially based on the fact that Mingwu can kill with just a touch.

"Want to try?"

"of course."

"You can't do that, Miss Dancer."

"what?"

"Dancing lights? The lovely and pitiful starlight will stretch its shadow and drag out an elegant arc on the wall. Listen to the advice of the music box. You can't do it. Please pick up Lunicia, soothe her trembling back, and hold her with your bent arms. Then let the music box do what a music box should do, sing jingling, and the dancer will leave the stage."

"…Are you serious too?"

"There's no such thing as a serious or not serious music box. Especially a flying music box."

“…Then it’s decided.”

"With great pleasure."

"You are not seeking death."

"If you want to jump into the abyss, please allow me to hold your hands."

The black iron puppet turned around and tilted its head, but there was still no smile on its lips.

Chapter 19: Waltz between Girls

call out----

As long as you look up, you can see butterflies flying in the night.

It was a butterfly woven from black iron, with metal as wings and blue flames as wind. It could soar in the sky without flapping its wings. Because it had no real wings, it could not fly above the night sky - was it because of the existence of the sky, or because it had no real wings?

Or is it because the butterfly is still entangled in the silk threads of its cocoon and can only look up at the night sky?

"How is it, is it effective?!"

"No, at least simple attacks seem to be ineffective."

Click, click——

With the sound of the mechanism operating, the girl's dark and shiny arm quickly changed its form. Under the change of the mechanism structure and the action of some incomprehensible force, the original arm was transformed into a mechanical crossbow, shooting crossbow arrows made of compressed air. It cut through the air, cut through the distance, and then nailed to the corridor, guardrails and handrails according to the calculated track, leaving slight dents on the door and wall.

Only the shadows seemed unaffected.

Crawling, staggering, creeping, no matter what method they used, "those things" were moving according to their original methods, as if the continuous shooting of gas bullets had no effect on them.

"Well, how about this?"

Click, click——

The sound of the mechanism ringing came from the arm again, but this time the noise was much bigger, louder, deeper, and more complicated than the last time. Even a bystander who knew nothing about the structure of the mechanism could easily come to a conclusion: it was something much larger, heavier, and more dangerous than the crossbow.

The caliber is 200 mm, the fully extended length of the barrel is about 200 cm, and the weight is close to three tons.

It was a monster made of black iron named "Marduk the Conqueror".

In this sense, being called a "monster" is a symbol of its failure.

Firearms are great inventions, colossi of guns, artillery, and mechanical structures, which can allow people without talent to stand on the same level as people with little talent, and allow people with little talent to show their fangs to people with ordinary talent. This is also the reason why machines, steam, coal, and gunpowder are respected along with magic. People with little talent, who make up the vast majority of the world, can use these creations to achieve effects far beyond their own abilities, at least in conclusion.

That is why it is meaningless if the "threshold of use" exceeds the limit of "low-talented people".

The weight is measured in tons, and the length exceeds the scope of a giant sword. It is clearly a single-soldier equipment, but the actual manufacturing has the specifications of a land-based artillery. This is a truly useless thing. Those who cannot use it can only smile bitterly, and those who cross the threshold will naturally look down on it. There are two conclusions that can be drawn from this: one is "this thing is waste", and the other is "those who use waste must be abnormal."

For example, there are "mechanical puppets" who have no talent at all and are just treated as objects.

Buzz——————!

The dazzling white light was like a storm, from top to bottom, from left to right, accompanied by the heat and strong wind of the flowing particles, sweeping across - houses, trees, human bodies. The weapon was created based on the principle of destructive power and was an expert in destroying these things. If there was any shortcoming, it was that it was not a true magical weapon, but only used dragon crystal when activated, so it was just an energy beam mixed with a slight magic component. Unless dragon crystals that provided attributes were inlaid in the grooves of the gun body or magic ammunition was loaded, otherwise when encountering a target with means such as magic barriers, the lethality would quickly decay.

Just like it is now.

No matter how terrifying the howling storm was, it could only leave a burnt black mark on the rusty and fragile wall. The structure did not seem to be damaged at all. The physical structure with abnormal properties, whether it was magic or sword blades, or even the white giant sword that was comparable to a divine weapon, seemed difficult to change its own structure. It was precisely because of this that the many traces that appeared in the dim corridor before were puzzling.

It was different from other places—no matter how old or dirty the other parts were, they did not show any signs of destruction beyond the normal range. Only that one place had shocking traces of battle.

Of course—none of this is relevant to the situation at hand.

For a butterfly flying in the air, all it needs to do is to confirm what is happening nearby. That is enough.

"..."

Inadvertently, the mechanical puppet named Ashiserin frowned slightly.

Just now, in the monitor called Double Eyes, a flash of certain changes made her mind, which was attached to the gears, run at high speed.

"So what happened?!"

"Don't be so impatient—"

“Is it possible not to be impatient?!”

This slight difference made Ashlee squint her eyes slightly.

This was quite useful to her - it seemed that this girl, who was like an ice flower, would only show a different profile in front of these two people of the same sex with very similar faces. When facing Lunicia, she was mixed with many emotions, as wonderful as the bright stars, and when facing Asheselin, she was burning with passion that had nowhere to go, such as shame and impatience. This was really good - Asheselin's free mind occupied so much that she couldn't help but think so - she always accumulated too many emotions in the depths of her heart, with nowhere to vent, and she came like this. So, if she could release those accumulated things here, even if it was only part of it, it would be more or less a good thing.

This feeling of happiness seemed to help the mechanism operate. It was unknown whether it was an illusion or the truth. Regardless of whether the happy emotion was real or a cold imitation of intelligent life, Ashlee's mind was operating at a brisk pace. While flying, she analyzed the images captured by the monitor frame by frame.

Of course, Ella's impatience was indeed necessary.

The shadows that surged like a tide were just staggering no matter how you looked at them, but the speed of their surge was too fast. At the beginning, they were still quite far away, so that Ella thought there was still room for them, but now it seemed that it was completely different. It seemed that no matter how Ella moved while holding Lunicia, those shadows seemed to be following closely behind her, as if they were not moving slowly, but like Ella, combining running, jumping, and spell sword skills to move between the complicated corridors.

——It’s impossible, this kind of thing.

Ella couldn't help but show an expression of resentment on her face, which she was very unaccustomed to.

She nimbly flipped down from the guardrail, grabbed the bulge on the other side of the corridor with her claws, and swung to that side while holding Lunicia's body. No matter how close to a harmless and slender girl she looked, she was essentially a half-elf blessed by a cursed object and eroded by forbidden knowledge. At least this level of agility and strength was natural for her. But even so, even while performing this almost acrobatic aerial relay, the distance between her and those shadows did not increase. Rather, it was even gradually shrinking.

This made Ella Hepper feel annoyed.

Danger is almost commonplace for her. Even if she can't say that she has changed from hating it to liking it, she is close to being indifferent to it. However, she always finds it difficult to accept the unknown.

For example, she would feel uncomfortable when sugar was mixed into her coffee because she found it difficult to understand the concept of "sweetness". Instead, bitter and spicy tastes were more familiar to her.

The same is true now.

She couldn't understand the current situation, and all she could do was to move around with Lunicia in her arms, looking for an escape route that seemed to be between existence and non-existence, while "expecting" Ashlee to quickly come up with her unknown result. Of course, she had no hope at all, so she put more energy into finding an exit, but the progress in this regard was also quite unsatisfactory: shadows were overflowing in almost every passage and corridor, and for a moment, it was even impossible to see where there was a place to stay.

Ahhh, it happens again.

It seemed that as long as one stayed by the side of the Messiah, one would never have to worry about the possibility of escaping from a desperate situation.

I originally thought that since they were shadows attached to the wall, as long as I left the plane that also belonged to the wall, I would be able to get rid of their threat - now it seems that this idea is too naive.

No, it's not that this idea is not feasible. It's just as Ella thought. The torrent of shadows can't escape from the attribute of being shadows. They just exist and move under the drag of light and shadow, trying to approach and destroy the three incompatible existences "in front of them", and can't break free from the wall like paper cutting. But this doesn't mean that Ella, Lunicia and Asheselin's protective measures have become stronger. As mentioned before, shadows come from the interaction between light and objects. In other words, as long as the light still shines on the group of people, they will still leave their own shadows on the wall, and then there is once again the possibility of "existing on the same plane as those shadows".

This is why Ella and Ashlee are so cautious despite their almost arbitrary mobility. They not only need to observe the space around them, but also pay attention to the "tail" behind them, confirm the light source and their own position, and then judge whether their next move will lead them to a safe place or a trap.

So, where should we escape to?

Her sight quickly swept over several points: the passages, the corridors, the doors, her own body, Lunicia's body, the end of the hook, and all the shadows. The spell swordsman, the spellcaster, was someone who accompanied the shadows. Perhaps because of this, she was able to remain calm in this environment that should have made people feel helpless, but even she gradually became unable to do so.

Physical strength has its own limit after all. Carrying Lunicia, plus her equipment and the terrifying white giant sword, the limited physical strength is constantly being worn out - this is not a problem. Even if the body has its limits, the willpower is unlimited. Relying on my own encouragement and the non-existent encouragement of Lady Lunicia, I can at least hold on. But this is also the same for the enemy. They have no physical limit, are not tired or hungry, will not be injured, and are even less likely to die. What is even more troublesome is that their number is still increasing, and the distance between the two sides is gradually shortened as the number piles up, and the safe spots left for this body are also decreasing.

This will only lead to a dead end.