Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

Originally, on the false sky, there were reflected things that seemed real but were not, which made him quite uneasy: a bloody moon and a dark sun. Those things had outlines similar to the moon and sun in his perception, but gave him a completely different feeling. It was precisely because of this that he felt even more terrified and a feeling of uneasiness emerged in his heart.

But now, the sky is broken, and what is left is not the sky he wanted.

There is no sun, no moon, no veil of stars.

There were only gray-black poisonous clouds that stretched as far as the eye could see and occupied the entire sky.

Without the sun and moon, there is no way to talk about the morning glow and evening glow. How long have those things disappeared from this world? For Lunisia, who has lived in the greenhouse of the God's Court since she could remember, there is no answer to this question. It seems that sunlight has become a thing in this world that is no different from a myth. Perhaps these things outside are the reality for a long time, and what she sees in the greenhouse, the things that rise and fall on the glass ceiling, are just a beautiful illusion.

"I don't know. If a lich dies, won't it return to the phylactery? In other words, it's possible for it to come back again."

Roy von Ivanov didn't care about such things at all.

The sky should also be something he is more accustomed to - the alternating eclipses and red moons should be his daily routine. Even so, he clearly knows that there is no blood moon or black sun in this world, only the poisonous clouds that cannot be seen on the other side. He knows that the sky is false, and the dark clouds are real. As for whether the dark clouds are false, and whether there are other more real things behind the dark clouds, he is not sure, and does not want to understand, because there is no need.

There is no need - whether there is a blood moon or poisonous clouds in the sky, the world will continue to turn, right?

In this case, there is no need to worry about what is happening in heaven. Many people think the same way.

"It doesn't quite look like it."

Lunicia frowned.

Although she had never seen a lich before, and naturally had no idea what the scene was like when a lich died and its soul returned to the life box, but as long as she recalled that final scene, how the soul of the great lich was entangled in the incomplete bones and how it finally floated away, Lunicia would never associate it with the concept of "abandoning the body and returning to the life box".

"Coletus Shuheberil did escape. In the middle of the battle, the mummy lord collapsed into a pile of sand. No spoils were found... Um... Phylactery... Wait?"

Roy was stunned as if he suddenly thought of something.

He turned and walked back into the big tent. When he came out again, he had something extra in his hand.

It looked like a half-burned human hand bone. On top of the hand bone were some broken rusty iron chains and spikes. In addition, in the place where the gemstone or crystal sphere should be, there was a dried and half-rotten human brain that was now split in two. These chains, spikes, and brain were not much different from the hand bones below. They were also in a severely burnt state, and the inside of the brain looked completely hollowed out. In the cavity, some charred powdery things could be vaguely seen.

"This was found at the location where a fierce battle took place in the city."

"This is……"

Ella pondered, staring at the half-thing, and it seemed like she had some clue.

"It's already so broken, but it can still emit this level of magical power and undead aura?"

Lunicia was quite surprised and did not look closely at that half of the thing for a moment.

"Among the surviving soldiers, someone saw something very similar to this from afar, saying it was the staff held by the lich Alexis. If I'm not mistaken, this should be the remaining part of the staff. I wonder if there are any clues here?"

"The Sage's Staff." Ella whispered its identity. "It is a broken and destroyed Sage's Staff that can no longer be used. However, the Sage's Staff should not have such a huge amount of undead energy, which even overwhelms the original magic power of the staff..."

This is not what a normal sage's staff should show.

In theory, a legendary wizard can modify his usual staff according to his needs. As long as he has the technology, he can make the staff present the effect he needs. It is no problem to transform it into a staff that is particularly suitable for using necromancy spells. However, this is not unlimited. No matter how it is modified, it should not exceed a certain limit in theory.

"It has the properties it has now," Ashetherin's golden eyes swept over the half of the Sage's Staff, "which means that the staff has been combined with another legendary magic item. The unknown legendary magic item is more of a necromancy item, and its rank is even higher than the Sage's Staff. This is what caused this situation to happen."

“…That’s right.”

Lunicia stared at the cracked brain and the black powder inside.

"Those are the ashes of the great lich Alexis... This piece of brain is probably the life box it made with its own brain."

“…I think that’s it.”

Ella could only give an affirmative answer.

Lunisia's judgment was not random - strictly speaking, among all the people present, she was closest to the Great Lich Alexis and had the longest contact time. It was for this reason that she could more easily distinguish the black and gray powder than Asheselyn, who was proficient in analysis, and Ella, who was knowledgeable and good at magic. Even if she couldn't see it from the side, as long as she felt the dead spirit on the powder and compared it with the soul of the Great Lich in her memory, she could easily distinguish it.

As for dehydrating the brain and making it into a container for the phylactery, this behavior not only strengthens the magic and soul stored in the phylactery through rituals, and strengthens the lich's own necromancy, but also reflects Alexis's cruelty - cruel to others, and even more cruel to himself. From this perspective, he no longer has any distinction between himself and others, the living and the dead, and they are all just tools that can be used at will for a purpose.

"But why would you turn something like a phylactery into a staff and carry it with you...?"

This is something that Lunisia cannot understand.

The phylactery is the only weakness of the lich. Even though it is generally very difficult to destroy and requires the assistance of various rituals or legendary items, the lich will still store it in the deepest part of their lair, hidden in the darkest corner where no one knows. The reason is simple. As long as the phylactery is still there, the lich can be reborn at any time. Once the phylactery is gone, the lich will eventually escape the fate of falling.

Tying it to one's own staff would be too ostentatious.

"If I were to judge."

Ella groaned.

"The first is from a technical perspective. By embedding the phylactery and the sage's staff together, I'm afraid that this great lich will be able to use the souls devoured by the phylactery at any time and exert a stronger combat power than usual..."

As we all know, liches are much harder to deal with in their own nests than in the outside world, so liches will hide in tombs or wizard towers as much as possible and wait for challengers to come, while adventurers and assassins are committed to killing liches when they are in the outside world, and then rush into the nest to destroy the phylactery. This strength does not come from boring reasons such as "it's safer at home", but because in this case, the lich can consume the souls that are sacrificed to the phylactery and wandering in the nest, and use some abilities that the lich does not originally have.

Carrying the life box with you is essentially equivalent to being in the lair at all times. If Lunisia and her companions were not facing the great lich with only the Scroll of Silence left, but the great lich with the Sage's Staff, the battle would have become more difficult even if the degree of disability did not change.

"The second one...I'm afraid it's because he doesn't trust other people at all."

"Is that so... Then his job as a leader is really hard."

It was hard to tell whether it was emotion or sarcasm, but Roy couldn't help but sigh.

The mad great lich was always looking for betrayal from the people around him, which meant that he did not trust the living people around him at all. No matter how long they had served the "Legacy of Natya" or how loyal they were to the Kingdom of Nasaran, they were all unstable factors that could betray him at any time. Even if he turned them into undead, into monsters with broken souls and no self, he would not feel at ease. It seemed that he could not even trust the skeletons that were completely under his control.

It was as if even he himself would betray himself.

Until he is freed, he lives in a world surrounded by his own imagined betrayal.

"...That's why I don't trust anyone to protect my phylactery. I must place it within sight."

Although no one came to explain it, almost everyone believed that this was the real answer.

There was no other reason, just because that scene was imprinted in their minds - the unfalling white wall, the roaring bones, the swaying souls. Just relying on these, they could understand the state of mind of the great lich and know the choice it would inevitably make.

As for what it was fighting with so fiercely that it did not hesitate to detonate the life box that carried everything it had, some people knew the answer to this question, while others did not. Those who knew would not speak frankly, while those who did not know would not ask. It was not only the intuition that whispered, warning them not to do such an unwise thing, but also because there were more important things to be done. If they were tripped up by such a question, it would be too bad.

There is no morning glow here, only a little light shining through the thick poisonous clouds, indicating that it is not night now, and a new day has arrived.

It also means that it's time to set off.

After all, isn’t it all about packing your luggage, tidying up your mood, and saying goodbye to the scorched earth behind you?

"It seems that you have already considered where to go next."

Standing outside the tent, Roy von Ivanov did not have too many emotions - he had neither the mood nor the energy to feel emotional, nor the need to feel emotional. He still had a lot of things to do, just like Lunicia and the others. Now was just a short and rare leisure time before he really started to get busy.

"Yes, after all, we have to go back to Zerhal."

Lunisia put the giant sword on her back and looked towards the northwest corner where Zelhar should be.

After some discussion, the conclusion was that they had to go back to Zelhar. The protection of Ashcelin and the safety of Lunisia all depended on the High Priest Sieli, and before that, they had to avoid those areas of influence that belonged to the Glorious Court as much as possible. Although remote communication was not necessarily common in this world, looking at Sestin's silence, who knew if the other party had some special means? In order to avoid alerting the enemy and exposing their whereabouts, it was better to keep a low profile.

As for Ella - of course she would go wherever Lunicia went, no matter where the destination was.

"After all, he is a holy warrior. Do you want to go back and report on your duties?"

"almost."

"Then, if I may ask, how do you plan to get to Zerhal?"

This question made Lunicia stunned, but the itinerary plan had been discussed before, so there was no difficulty.

"The plan is to go south from here to Puchilia, then take a boat from Puchilia, go around half of Mu Continent, and go all the way to Westwindial. After that, we will walk or take a car to Amblissburg, and then we will complete the entire trip."

"Oh - ladies, unfortunately, I can only tell you that it is best to forget this plan as soon as possible!"

Roy slapped his forehead.

"what?"

"Not only is the battle fierce in Puchilla, but the port has been destroyed. I heard that fishmen and monsters with octopus heads rushed ashore and destroyed the entire port. Now the three parties are fighting each other, and it is basically impossible to leave by boat."

"Uh, this..."

Lunicia was stunned for a moment.

"As for the east, you all know the situation in the Principality of Lanmen. Other port principalities are also not doing well. Moreover, due to the influence of the cold current and sea monsters, it is basically impossible to take the long sea route to Ambrisburg."

“Hmmmm…”

What she heard was so unacceptable that Lunicia mumbled for a long time and couldn't even utter a decent word - the carefully prepared itinerary was disrupted in this way, it was really difficult for her to come up with an alternative plan at once, not to mention that she didn't know much about the situation in the east of the continent!

“It’s not like there aren’t alternatives.”

"Ok?"

Hearing this, Lunicia suddenly perked up again, and Ella couldn't help but chuckle at her fluctuating attitude.

"Let's go to Muirand. The solution that will allow you to continue your journey is undoubtedly in Muirand."

North, north, and north again—

Across the plains, across the hills, across the sea of ​​trees, the land of Myronmia is there.

Volume 4: The Junction between Mountains and Clouds - Muirand (Part 1)

Chapter 1: Over the Mountains and Sea of ​​Trees (Part 1)

"..."

"..."

"..."

The three faces have different expressions.

One had a frown on his face and remained silent, one had an embarrassed look on his face and his eyes were wandering, and the third looked back and forth between the two and seemed to be completely out of his mind.

"……so,"

Finally, it was Systine Perancine who spoke first.

"You don't go back to report, upload your memory backup, and continue to follow me...what do you want to do?"

“Ahahaha, this…”

As for the person opposite her, I think readers have already guessed it. Yes, it was the "Opera" Lusa Efayeret herself. The identity of the remaining person was also obvious, "Arbitrator" Leah Efayeret. Whether it was Sestine, Lusa or Leah, they all looked the same as they did on the last tour, which was six days ago.

If I had to say anything, it was that the "Arbiter" finally made up for the parts it lost with the help of the maintenance team. As for Sestine, she was still wearing the black armor that she had never changed, and as for the "Opera House"... she was still wearing the straight tuxedo, and occasionally she would proudly show off her spirit, although she was wrapped so tightly and tightly that no one would even look at her twice.

Besides, are there really other spectators in this place?

"...Having Ms. Lusa as your travel companion is a priceless benefit, right? Think about it, think about it, you should be able to understand, the continent's leading composer, playwright, actor, and dean is right next to you, ready to perform a piece that no one has ever heard before..."

"Tell the important point!"

Boom!

Systin's fist slammed hard on the sand table in front of her, not only shaking the "Opera House" and the "Arbitrator" off their feet, but also denting the well-made alloy sand table - she must not care at all, after all, this is not her personal property, but just one of the countless "assistances" she received for free from the Iron Leviathan.

"Sister Lusa——"

The "Arbitrator" couldn't help but glance at the "Opera House".

As for the latter, he immediately coughed dryly and said, "Well, although it's not a formal order, the 'Master Brain' has approved my staying with you for a while longer."

"..."

Sethine raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

"Until other orders come, I will continue to work here until the next handover."

"That's not a reason."

"Oh, you are right. Do you want to hear the actual reason?"

"Do not talk nonsense."

"Okay, okay, whatever you say is what I mean. Before Ouroboros takes over my job, I think it's necessary for me to spend more time with you and make sure that you have a good enough impression of the category of 'rule-type elite puppet'."

"…You call this a 'good impression'?"

The corners of Sestine's eyebrows could not help but twitch. It seemed that she had great doubts about this conclusion, but she just held back and didn't say it directly. As for the object of her doubt, "Opera House" Lusa Efayeret herself, she spread her hands with a nonchalant look on her face. It seemed that she was quite aware of how to anger Sestine.

"Anyway... I just hope you don't have a bad impression of the 'Command Elite Puppet' because of Ouroboros."

“I think the impression now couldn’t be worse.”

"Oh! If you say so, I must make a conclusion. You will regret it and want to take it back."

"Yeah."

"It's true."

“…But that’s not actually the reason.”