Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

But it was such a steam armor that easily took the life of a mage.

At this time, the other mages finally recovered from their shock. They quickly fired the offensive spells they had accumulated long ago at the steam armor. They were so panicked that they even forgot that doing so would most likely hurt their own people.

The brilliant magic light illuminates the midnight as bright as day.

However, for some reason, like bubbles, all those brilliant spells disappeared in front of the armor, even though the armor did not make any defensive moves.

Dots of magic fragments fell on the armor, making it look like some kind of monster—

Some kind of monster that is beyond the mages' understanding.

"Why, why doesn't the spell work?" someone asked in a trembling voice.

But no one answered.

When the spells the mages relied on failed, their frail bodies were no match for the creations of steam and steel.

At this time, perhaps the familiar scene awakened long-dormant memories, and an elderly wizard shouted:

"It's a forbidden spell... It's a forbidden spell of the hero! No! How... Why can you use a forbidden spell!?"

The steam armor just silently pulled the power sword off the dead mage.

It is answering the mage—

This action was telling him that the massacre had just begun.

[To be continued]

-

54. Wish Fulfillment

No matter what happens in the outside world, Diesel remains as peaceful and calm as ever.

Even if there is a flood.

Be it the legendary investigators sent by the White Tower or the Iron Throne from Victoria, their arrival had no impact on this tiny country.

Like a mud cow entering the sea.

This shouldn't be the case. At least in terms of size, compared to the White Tower and Victoria, Diesel can only be regarded as a stream at best. However, the fact is quite the opposite. The two great rivers of the White Tower and Victoria did not wash away Diesel.

They were all blocked from Diesel.

The Wall of Sighs that enclosed the entire Diesel had undergone a change. Perhaps its creator had sensed several powerful sources of magic that were rapidly approaching Diesel. As a result, a certain self-protection mechanism was triggered, and the Wall of Sighs no longer allowed those who could freely enter and exit Diesel's life through certain conditions. It chose to close the entire country.

From then on, no one could enter Diesel, and no one could leave Diesel.

It will become a real paradise that no one will ever visit again.

It will exist in this world almost eternally, peacefully and quietly until the end of everything.

However, the witch and hero who are now trapped in Diesel are unaware of this.

They had not yet noticed the changes in the Wall of Sighs and were still carrying out their respective tasks.

The witch doesn't think that she and the brave man can solve Diesel's abnormality alone. She thinks they should wait and see until the legendary investigator arrives before conducting further investigation.

She would rather do nothing than make a mistake.

But since Charles insisted on continuing the investigation, she could only go along with him and try to help him gain some power.

For example, the priest, and the second hero that the priest wanted to create with the power of the wishing well.

On the other hand, after learning about the witch's plan, the hero did not act rashly, but decided to go to the Wheat Ear Tavern to look for Crazy John again.

They haven't solved all of Diesel's puzzles yet, but he's a hero, and a hero's job isn't to solve puzzles, it's to save others.

Charles felt that Diesel's situation was extremely critical and no time could be lost.

He would rather be wrong than do nothing.

The Wheatear Tavern sells drinks at night and operates as a restaurant during the day. However, according to passers-by, Mad John never appeared during the day. No one knew where he went or what he was doing. He was like a ghost that could only appear at night.

Therefore, Charles was mentally prepared for the possibility of failure.

But to his surprise, he did not come back empty-handed, but easily found the elusive Crazy John.

The old man sat on a high stool at the bar, with two glasses of wine in front of him.

There was only some foam left in one of the glasses, while the other was filled with slightly turbid and yellowish inferior beer.

Crazy John sat there, leaning forward slightly, listening intently to the lies and bragging of the fellow he was familiar with at the bar. The coat he was wearing was still so shabby and old, and his gray hair and wrinkled face made him look like a down-and-out, homeless vagrant.

Charles' attention was not focused on the old man, but briefly stayed on the two glasses of beer in front of the old man.

At that moment, he realized that Crazy John might be waiting for him.

So he walked up calmly, came to Crazy John's side, and sat down on the empty high stool.

At this moment, as if he had noticed his arrival, Crazy John, who was originally talking to his old friend, suddenly turned to Charles and greeted him in his usual friendly tone without any surprise:

"You're here?"

Charles was a little surprised by Crazy John's calmness, but he nodded and replied:

"I am coming."

The sense of déjà vu of this conversation was too strong, and he couldn't help but think of the joke that Lacier had played on him -

"You're here?" "I am here." "You shouldn't have come." "But I am here anyway."

But Crazy John was not Rachel after all, so he did not follow the established process like Rachel did. Instead, he pushed the glass of beer that had been prepared long ago along the table to Charles, and then smiled:

"I knew you would come to me."

Charles took the glass of beer, was silent for a moment, tilted his head back and took a big sip, and squinted his eyes at the bitter taste.

At this time, he heard Crazy John ask:

"...I just wonder how far you two have progressed in digging out the truth about Diesel?"

Charles was stunned.

Although he came to find Mad John for the truth about Diesel, he couldn't help but feel a little slow in thinking when he heard Mad John tell him the reason for his visit in such a natural tone.

Besides, there are more important things to worry about.

"Is this matter really suitable to be discussed publicly in a place like a tavern?"

He decided to persuade Crazy John and him to leave the tavern and find a suitable place to continue discussing the truth about Diesel.

However, before he could speak, Crazy John slowly poured himself a beer and said disapprovingly:

"Are you worried that other people might hear what we're talking about and cause unnecessary trouble?"

Charles was silent for a moment after hearing this, and finally nodded.

"But you don't have to worry too much." Crazy John raised the glass to his lips, exhaled slowly with a distant look in his eyes, "They... can't hear it."

"..."

Charles couldn't help but look up at the guy standing at the bar.

He thought of a possibility, an unexpected but reasonable possibility -

So he asked tentatively:

"Hello?"

Upon hearing this, the guy at the bar immediately walked towards him with a rather attentive and flattering smile on his face:

"Here I come," he inquired, "Excuse me sir, what can I do for you?"

Many thoughts suddenly emerged in Charles' mind, and in the end, he chose the most critical word.

"Slender Man," he asked, staring into the man's eyes, "Do you know that Slender Man exists in Diesel?"

The guy didn't show any doubt, bewilderment or fear. He didn't ask Charles what the tall and thin shadow was, nor did he eagerly grab Charles' hand and say, "So you also remember what happened that year."

He just nodded.

"Understood, two glasses of cheap beer, eh?"

He even smiled at Charles again in a very polite manner.

However, this smile did not make Charles, the guest, feel warm at all. On the contrary, he felt creepy.

Obviously he was talking about Slender Man, not two glasses of cheap beer, but in the guy's cognition, the two were silently replaced.

At this moment, Charles understood what Crazy John meant and why the old man said "what they can't hear".

Is it some kind of cognitive interference? Or brainwashing or hypnosis?

While guessing, Charles turned his head back and asked Crazy John:

"When did you realize this?"

"Very early," Crazy John replied in a low voice, "early...I can't tell exactly when."

"Even - like a dream."

At this point, the old man put down the wine glass in his hand, his eyes were unfocused, and he continued with gestures:

"You must have had a dream. Oh, sorry, I shouldn't ask this kind of question. This question is really stupid, haha."

Perhaps because he had drunk a lot of wine before Charles came, Crazy John's tone had a strange trance-like feeling.

It was as if the world had become a river, and he was flowing in the water.

“Dreams are a very strange thing,” he whispered, “because no matter how absurd or bizarre the dream we experience, as long as we are in it, we cannot perceive the truth.”

“Even if you see a rabbit hat, a baby growing on a tree, or ice burning like fire… you won’t be surprised. You will accept everything in your dream calmly. You will never doubt their authenticity until…”

The old man lowered his head suddenly, his gray eyes refocused, and a knife-like sharp light flashed in his eye sockets.

But then, he returned to his usual miserable state and told Charles in a slightly hoarse voice:

"——Until I wake up from the dream."

"Dreams always end, right? Whether it's a good dream or a nightmare, there's always an end."

"So, one day, I suddenly woke up from the 'dream'."

"Then I began to gradually notice something irrational, I began to gradually approach the truth, and I began to hear a voice..."

Crazy John's expression gradually became serious:

"That voice told me that something is wrong with Diesel right now. Nothing is right with His Majesty or his people."

"So I have to do something. I have to...I have to go to see His Majesty and explain these circumstances to him."

The old man's hands on his knees tightened unconsciously, veins popped out, and his knuckles made a slight "cracking" sound due to excessive force.

Many years later, he recalled the scene again.

When he was eager to prove Diesel's abnormality to the emperor, when he was making an impassioned speech to persuade His Majesty to investigate the truth as soon as possible, the emperor sitting on the throne just glanced at him and said to him lightly:

"I understand, please step back."

Then there was no news.

The emperor did nothing.

The once wise and far-sighted emperor seemed like a different person. Although it was a matter of life and death for Diesel, he was indifferent and even didn't care.

Mad John felt a stranger to the Emperor.

However, he did not give up. He thought that the emperor might have been deceived, so he tried every means to get close to the emperor, even resorting to extreme methods such as assassination to attract the emperor's attention and try to wake the emperor from his sleep.

However, what awaited him was only failure, one failure after another.

Up to now, he has assassinated the emperor ten times.

After the first nine failures, the emperor did not order his execution. On the contrary, like the guy who heard the keyword "slender shadow", the emperor ignored his existence and allowed him to leave the palace without hindrance.

But on the tenth attempt, after Crazy John's assassination attempt failed again, he knelt before the throne and heard the emperor's sigh and murmur like a dream:

"Diesel... my people... eternity..."

"Oh, almighty wishing machine... please grant... my wish..."

[To be continued]