tokyo creator

Chapter 393 The Night Before ([-])

——Demon King Castle——

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……

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Smooth two-color marble is made up of checkerboard floor tiles, and the stairs and corridors are connected section by section against the background of the nameless purple space. From bottom to top, it looks like a spiraling tower.

——After passing through the gate, the interior of the Demon King's Castle that was displayed in front of the brave team was this wonderful landscape.

And when the Four Heavenly Kings of Darkness led the four brave men up the stairs and started to advance along the ascending stairs and corridors towards the Demon King's audience room on the top floor, they saw even more - the Nakai surrounded by stairs and corridors. At the bottom, there is also a stage suspended.

The scene on the stage is - there is an exquisite female doll in gorgeous clothes, singing and dancing.

"Gentlemen, I will tell you the story of Peteus Bonus.

"A long time ago, there was a king who was called the arbitrary gold. The ministers and the prince of Mercury asked him to share power but were refused. So the prince assassinated the king, collected the king's blood, and dug a grave for him.

"Prince Mercury put the body of the Golden King into the tomb, but he accidentally fell in. Before he could crawl out, the ministers swarmed up and sealed Prince Mercury and the Golden King into the tomb together.

"The dead and the living continued to fight in the tomb, forming a pot of boiling soup that was indistinguishable from each other. When the soup in the tomb cooled down and was opened again, only two white bones were seen.

"The bones were taken out of the tomb and reassembled on the ground. In the prayers of the ministers, God sent angels to come and resurrect the king.

"The king rises from the grave, but the prince disappears. For he has become one with him, no longer the gold of tyranny, nor the quicksilver of treachery...

“In the end, the only thing that will last forever in the world is the wise red stone.

The singing voice of the puppets can be heard from afar.

Listening to the song that seemed to be telling a certain story and hinting at some kind of philosophy, the priestess finally couldn't help but raise her finger to point to the dancing puppet below after several floors, turned around and asked, "No, I can't. I’m really concerned about that, what on earth is——”

The chief of the Dark Court made a muffled voice from under his hat and answered her: "Dark Fool."

The knight touched his chin and said in surprise: "...It turns out there are really four of the Four Heavenly Kings!"

"——What qualifications does that brat have to be tied with us?!" The Dark General immediately became unhappy and snorted reluctantly, "——It's just that His Majesty the Demon King has obsessive-compulsive disorder and feels that there must be four of the Four Heavenly Kings, so he temporarily found one Just here to make up the numbers."

"It's just a doll. When things here are over, get rid of it immediately..." She finally muttered in a low voice with her shark teeth showing murderously.

The dark saint, who had been hugging the hero's arm so tightly that the two of them could barely walk normally, blinked when she heard this.

Then she raised her arms, and with the movement, the countless gold pendants hanging on her body made a pleasant ringing sound.

She stretched out her hand, patted the dark general's back gently, and comforted: "Don't be like this! How can a jealous sister be jealous of a mere plastic villain? Although... that is the plastic villain that dad loves so much! Give it to her every day Change into different clothes hehehehe..."

"That's enough, shut up, you chaotic slut! When you get close to your father, he smells like crazy!" The Dark General did not shake off the Dark Saint's hand, but it did not prevent her from turning her head and cursing at the Dark Saint at the same time. , "And are you trying to persuade me, or are you fanning the flames?"

"Hee hee." The dark saint was not angry at all, and even buried her face in the brave man's chest again, and began to sniff intoxicated.

……

Finally, the group of people arrived at the door of the top-floor audience room.

The exquisite brass door was tightly closed, carved with indescribable reliefs, with seven keyholes surrounded by countless tentacle-like protrusions.

"Then, by bringing you here, our mission will be completed." The Dark General dropped these words, and then he and the Dark Palace Chief stood up to the left and right of the Dark Saint, who was holding on to the hem of the hero's clothes with a mournful face, and left. .

As their footsteps moved away, silence fell in front of the brass door.

The brave man walked towards the door, took out the keys one by one from his arms, and inserted them into the seven keyholes one by one.

With each key inserted, he read a name.

"Squad leader."

"Saya."

"Ayano."

"Then...fire thallium."

This time, the priestess saw clearly: what the brave man used was the key that was left after the scorched hand burned.

She shuddered.

There are three keyholes left.

Then the brave man stopped, took a few steps back, turned to look at the other three people: "Would you like to rest for a while?"

"No need." The knight shook his head and said, "Let's do it in one go."

The brave man sighed.

He snapped his fingers, and a bonfire and wooden stakes appeared on the floor in front of the door... everything was just like when they talked around the bonfire in the camp in the forest.

"Come, sit down and talk." He greeted.

The knight, priest and monk looked at each other and sat down.

The brave man touched his chin and pondered for a moment, his eyes swept over the three of them, and finally sighed and shook his head.

"As expected, it still doesn't work. Let's talk about this separately."

The knight and monk remained calm, but the priestess looked panicked as if she wanted to say something.

But before she could raise her hand to stop him, the brave man had already snapped his fingers again and recited a spell at the same time: "-Three Destinies."
-
--"Snapped".

The knight and priestess disappeared.

The only person sitting face to face with the brave man was the monk.

The brave man raised his head, somewhat surprised: "...Why is you the first one, Jack."

The monk said nothing, just handed over a key.

The brave man did not take the key, but asked first: "...I thought that as a loyal believer of the Lord of Flesh and Blood, you would not be happy to see me break free from him."

The monk said solemnly: "My lord will not let you down."

The brave man then took the key, weighed it in his hand, and said, "I always feel... you already understand everything."

The monk responded with four verses: "All conditioned dharmas are like bubbles in a dream, like dew or lightning, and should be viewed as such."

"You really understand... Then why are you still so calm?"

"This is just a bubble, so where is the 'real' outside? Since everything outside the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss is just a bubble, what do I have to worry about? Since there is no difference between being here and the outside, can't we all regard it as 'real'?" '?The distinction between fiction and reality is itself false."

The brave man opened his mouth, but finally held back what he originally wanted to say.

The monk stared at him and spoke slowly, as if speaking for him what he dared not say: "Life or death is the same thing."

The brave man fell silent.

"The same is true for my appearance, human appearance, sentient beings, longevity, Dharma appearance, illegal appearance, real appearance, virtual appearance..." The monk clasped his hands together and began to chant, and his figure gradually faded in the golden light that spread all over his body. go.

But in the end, he raised his head and nodded towards the brave man, saying: "Finally, thank you. Thank you for letting me stay with Hui Ren for an extra hundred days... Oh, and the previous two years."

The monk disappears.

The brave man played with the key left by the monk in silence for a moment, then walked to the third keyhole and inserted it.

Then he sat back in front of the campfire and snapped his fingers again: "Three destinies."

This time, it was the priestess who appeared.

She continued her previous panic state and threw herself from the stool to the ground. At the same time, she screamed to stop: "Don't say——"

But then, the priestess realized that she was alone.

Slowly she stood up and looked around breathlessly.

The brave man sat opposite her, watching all her movements quietly, and then said: "It's okay, it's over. Jack...he already knew everything and left peacefully."

The priest immediately fell to the ground, holding his head, weak and dull, and said nothing.

The brave man is not impatient, he just waits quietly.

Finally, the priestess slowly came to her senses and spoke.

"After all...at that moment, I really had the idea of ​​abandoning him and running away."

"I was thankful countless times that I controlled that thought. But...

"That's probably it. The real me was actually at that point of divergence, where I made that choice...losing Jack."

The brave man did not make any judgment on this, but continued to remain silent.

After a long time, the priestess seemed to regain her mood and got up from the ground wiping her tears. "A man once said something to me."

"If you like someone, torture them."

"If he is part of your body determined by the paradigm...then no matter what, he won't leave you."

She said.

At the same time, a key appeared in her hand.

The brave man reached out his hand to take it silently.

The priestess handed over the key, but after the brave man grabbed the other end of the key, she still did not let go.

"This is what you want, right? Then, can you fulfill my wish?" She choked and raised her head and looked at the brave man with tearful eyes: "Jack...Jack will be resurrected, right? You can do it--"

The brave man promised: "He will."

The priestess exhaled, completely let go and gave the key.

She closed her eyes slightly, and finally showed a satisfied smile among her tears: "The other me will be happier..."

Then it turned into golden light and dissipated.

The brave man inserted the priestess' key into the second last keyhole.

Then he sat back down in front of the fire and snapped his fingers a third time.

The last man, the knight, appears.

The two looked at each other quietly without saying anything.

Finally, it was the brave man who suddenly asked: "So, to you, what does 'defeat' mean when you defeat the devil?"

This question also made the knight think deeply.

"Tear off her fig leaf and admit the truth," he said at last.

"What are the so-called facts?"

"She needs you." The knight said seriously. "She needs you, but in fact she pretends that you can't do it without her. Such confusion of right and wrong makes me very uncomfortable. I just want to charge on the battlefield. , tear this injustice into pieces."

The brave man stared at the knight: "...That's it? I thought you really wanted to kill her."

"If it's on my battlefield, yes." The knight said calmly, "But this is your home court, and I'm here to help you, so of course I'll do it your way?"

"So this is what makes me strange." The brave man hesitated, "Arthur...Actually, don't you think you are a little strange like this?"

The knight looked at him like this, laughed, shook his head and said: "My friend, I know what you are hinting at me. But..."

"First of all, the person in front of you is undoubtedly me. Because do you still remember? I said this to you when we first met..." The knight crossed his legs and spread his hands and said, "——The friend of the enemy is not necessarily We are enemies, and friends of friends do not necessarily have to be friends. We can handle issues of stance differently on different occasions. If that doesn't work, let's have a duel and let fate decide which of us is more correct."

The brave man crossed his shoulders and made a recalling expression, then nodded: "Indeed. I remembered it."

"That's what it means. I've always been that way."

"Zhe Lukui is my enemy. It doesn't mean that I am against your relationship, nor does it mean that I want to confuse black and white and say 'good match' as ​​'not a good match'..." However, he still showed a sad expression for a moment. "But your way of getting along... is still difficult for me as a normal person to accept."

The brave man scratched his head and giggled.

The knight added: "Secondly... I know what our situation is."

The hero's smile instantly froze on his face.

He stared at the knight blankly: "You know? You...really know?"

"Really, because I have experience."

"..."

"—He has a clear heart. In Jack's words, it means that he has a clear heart." The knight continued to reveal the answer with a relaxed expression, "All of us are not really 'us', but just 'us' in your field The 'projection' I saw...a spiritual replica."

The brave man continued to stare blankly at the knight. After a long time, he sighed deeply and covered his face: "You really know..."

"Because I 'should know' that the arrest of Jack and Keito happened six months ago instead of two years ago. I also 'should know' that the result of that arrest was that Jack died and Keito was on the run." Knight To paraphrase, "So when I realized that I 'didn't realize' the fatal conflict between what I knew and the status quo... I kind of realized what was going on."

"From the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the Cleveland volcano, from the asylum to the high school of flesh and blood, and then to the continent of the brave and the dragon... We have never really reached these places. All the experiences have actually only happened in your spiritual world. inside."

"Those of us, including myself... are just branches that you intercepted from a certain moment, and each of us was given a period of deduction."

The knight finished.

The brave man sighed deeply and buried his face deeper in his arms.

After a while, he finally made a voice from under his arm: "One reason why I have been reluctant to see the Demon King is because I am not ready yet, and the other reason is... I don't want you to leave yet."

"I only fully woke up after Yumiko Saya and Ayano disappeared. At that time, I realized what I had done and realized my situation..."

"They left after giving me the answer. If you give me the answer, your meaning and mission will be completed, and there will be no reason to continue to stay here. You... will also 'exit'."

"Then I understood... When I finally wake up, the world will end and you will all disappear."

"I feel sad when I think about this." The brave man buried his face, his voice choked with sobs. "A brave man won't care about such trivial things, but I..."

After another moment, he continued: "So I think, there is still time anyway, don't end the show, don't quit. I want to travel slowly with my friends."

"But, it turns out...it turns out that each of you...'I knew it earlier'." After a long time, the brave man said the next sentence from his face buried under his elbow, "Why are you all so different?" They all look like 'I knew it'! This... doesn't it make it look like you are playing house with me!!!"

The knight finally agreed: "This is indeed the case."

"..."

So the knight patted the brave man's shoulder and comforted him: "It's okay. Who doesn't dream? If you can help your friend realize a good dream, why not do it? As long as you wake up when it's time to wake up in the end, that's all. ."

The brave man suddenly became angry.

"That's enough, Arthur!" He raised his face suddenly, punched the brass door beside him, turned and shouted at the knight, "I just don't understand! Neither Jack nor you, Why are you all so calm and all the same theories?"

"Aoi is prone to self-destruction, Jack is because his brain has been burnt out by Togakus, and Hui Ren only has Jack in mind and has no time to think about herself... What about you? Which part of your brain is wrong? ??”

"——Why on earth can each of you so calmly accept that 'you are not yourself and will disappear soon'!!"

The knight looked at him and scratched his head one last time.

"Well, anyway, I will disappear later, and I don't need to be responsible at all... Then I will tell you a secret." The knight hugged his shoulders and said very seriously, "Huihara, you know why I like you ?"

"Hey——??" The brave man became awkward for some reason, "W-do you want to say this now? I'm so embarrassed..."

The knight continued frankly: "Because seeing you is like seeing me, so I can't help but help you."

"I mean... that's right, Arthur Le Fay is also a stranger." He said very calmly.

The brave man fell into shock for a moment.

"Arthur Le Fay is very accustomed to the experience of being involuntarily projected into a strange world, and this time is no different from you. And the anchor point he sets for himself is his mission. and a sense of honor. Whenever he opens his eyes, as long as he is still Arthur Le Fay, he will save others and be an upright knight... He has sworn an oath."

The brave man opened his mouth, but finally said nothing.

"—That's it!" The knight became happy, stretched out his hand and punched the brave man: "So... well, it's time, let me express my thoughts quickly. I can speak freely without any scruples It's been a long time."

Then he looked at the brave man seriously and said sentence by sentence: "Haiyuan, I believe in you, so you must also believe in yourself - this is my answer.

"You are who you are. It's you who likes Oro Aoi. It's not a big deal, and there's no shame in admitting it.

"The hero lives in your body, and the bride affects Oro Aoi... But the hero loves the bride, and you like Oro Aoi, what's the conflict between these two things? Can't they happen at the same time?

"At least, I, Arthur, believed in you from the beginning, Huiyuan. Not some brave man."

With that said, he quickly pushed a key into the brave man's hand: "Go. Haiyuan, I know who I am, and I also know why I am here - because you asked me for help. Just like fire Like thallium, you need help to 'pull us in', so... I'm glad I could help you."

"Don't be too sad. Since it's 'his mind', maybe we will always have a chance to 'synchronize' and remember what happened here...right?" The knight began to turn into a dissipating light point. , finally, he gave a thumbs up and showed his shining front teeth: "In comparison, my friend, please be careful about another thing: the group's projects are far more than just you and me."

……

The brave man is once again alone.

In front of the brass gate, it was quiet again.

This time, he rubbed the last key on his hand, shrugged, stood up without much hesitation, and walked towards the brass door.

The brave man walked to the door, inserted the last key in, then looked up at the infinitely extending sky above the brass door, and said to himself: "It's time."

The door opened slowly.

Darkness flowed out from the crack of the door, engulfing the brave man and everything around him.

(End of this chapter)