Alice in the Land of Steam

Favrona saw herself in her dreams countless times, but the scenes she saw were not real, and the cruel and cold face enshrined on the altar also made people feel unfamiliar. In addition, she also saw swords and flames, heard wailing and screaming, and felt pain and despair. The raging fire burned everything, and the swords raised to the sky were like a cold forest. People hid in this forest like hunters and prey, hunting each other, fighting each other, or piercing his throat with his sword, or biting his heart with his teeth, so barbaric, so cruel.

This was a cruel sacrifice. The people who fought to the death to please the gods stepped on the bones and blood that had not yet dried, knelt on one knee, and offered the most pious prayers to the altar. They all wore black iron masks on their faces. When they knelt on the ground, the tight chains on the steel armor rubbed against the floor, making a sharp creaking sound, which symbolized that they all had an unshakable heart of stone, and would punish this world that had been corrupted by peace for their gods, bringing endless disputes and catastrophes.

"Great Lord of Disputes!" The leader of the knights spoke, with a self-satisfied fanaticism in his ups and downs. "The era of turbulence has come again. The saints tell us that the kingdom of man will rise on the earth and destroy all enemies that stand in its way. The Lord of Disaster has declared war on the Dragon Clan, and the King of Blood will dye the ocean of the mirror elves red; the sky city of the feathered clan trembles under the wings of the Griffin King, and the army of the dust elves will also be defeated before the banner of the Holy King of Law. Under your great power, victory is just around the corner. We will follow the orders of the four monarchs, let the torrent of war sweep every corner of the earth, and offer you the most glorious and supreme holy war!"

"Please listen to the horn of war in your kingdom of God. That is the prelude we have composed for the holy war. Please look down at the red earth in your kingdom of God. That is the blood that is corroding the cowardice in people's hearts! Abandon reason and devote yourself to instinct. The weak will be eliminated in evolution, and the strong will rise in turmoil. All of this is your will and our faith—"

He raised his hand and pounded his chest three times. The steel armor made a dull thumping sound, accompanied by the passionate and bewitching slogan: "The fire of strife will sweep away peace, and the great holy war will never stop!"

The knights who were kneeling on the ground behind him also beat their chests with their hands. The solemn and fanatical slogans echoed in the empty temple. The smell of bones and blood had not yet disappeared, but it was already stained with the smoke of war: "The fire of strife will sweep away peace, and the great holy war will never stop!!!"

Do not!
That is not my wish at all! I have never asked you to do that! The so-called holy war is just your wishful thinking!
Favrona's hands and feet turned cold as she watched this scene. She wanted to shout anxiously, to tell those who worshipped her as a god that they had distorted the nature of the conflict and had never realized that struggle was not blind killing and destruction, but a phenomenon that naturally emerged with life activities. Cruel fighting and death were only appearances, and what we really pursued should be the strong will and firm belief honed through struggle. Pure killing, pure destruction, pure destruction of everything, what can we get?

But she was separated from that world by an invisible barrier. She could not even speak, let alone convey her anxious words. She could only watch those people, who thought they had completed their prayers to the gods, satisfied the wishes of the great Lord of Disputes, and would surely receive his blessing in this war, so they left contentedly and confidently. Their armor exuded a cruel smell of blood, and their sheathed swords trembled with excitement at the sound of the war horn, as if they were looking forward to the arrival of the next sacrifice.

They offer prayers on their own, make promises on their own, understand the doctrines on their own, and pray for God's protection on their own... The essence of all faith is distortion, especially when the god and her believers lack an effective way to communicate.

Favrona realized that some amazing changes were happening. The world seemed to have been dyed red by flames and blood. The disgusting smell was even stronger than the sacrificial blood that filled the temple at the moment, but she could do nothing about it. In the years that followed, people continued to enter this temple, pray to the gods, and seek the blessings of the gods. Naturally, people also continued to sacrifice themselves here. Every prayer or sacrament was accompanied by a cruel sacrifice. The believers of the Lord of Disputes believed that only by showing their fearless courage and the heroic spirit of slaughtering all things in front of the gods could they win his favor, and then seize more powerful power, and then create more disputes and killings... and so on.

"Great Lord of Strife, our army has conquered another city. We wish to sacrifice all the people in this city, all those with blood, so that the red of strife will be dyed into dust, and all the people in the world will worship our God! Great Lord of Strife, please accept our sincere prayers and let the holy war never stop until the moment of civilization's destruction!"

——No! I don't need such a sacrifice! War is a terrible thing, and all lives should not be borne at the cost! You have clearly won, why do you want to stain your hands with the blood of more innocent people? Let them go, let them go, if you are really my believers, you should be able to hear my request, right?
"Great Lord of Disputes, one hundred brave warriors selected from the wilderness, hunting grounds and battlefields will offer the most fanatical death battle in your temple. Only one of them will survive to the end and step on the bones and blood of other innocent dead to meet your throne. He has proved his bravery, strength and loyalty to blood. Please grant him the gospel and protect your warriors on earth so that they will never taste the bitterness of failure!"

——No! I will not bless him! Such a fight to the death is meaningless. You neither please anyone nor prove your courage. You are just taking innocent lives and feeling complacent! He should not be called a warrior, but the most cruel executioner! When you listen to the wailing of the dead, don't you feel a little trembling in your heart?

"Great Lord of Disputes, the fire of Venus has fallen to the earth, the flame of the red star has streaked across the sky, the prophecy in the Book of Revelation is being confirmed, and the glory of warriors is destined to be reborn in blood and fire. However, the shameful people succumbed to their inner cowardice, causing your glorious flame to be covered with dust. At this moment, we will cut off the head of the coward and offer it before your throne. May you forgive this despicable soul and grant him the glory of fighting in the next life!"

——No! He is right. What's wrong with cherishing life and fearing war? Life is only once. If you can't live it to the fullest, at least you shouldn't survive by hurting others. Is it the belief you pursue to cut off the heads of your companions and force every pair of peace-loving hands to be stained with blood?

It shouldn't be like this.

The girl's royal power created by the mother should never be distorted like this!

Favrona resisted all this, trying to break this barrier and pass her words to those people, but every time they were indifferent, or even worse. As the intensity of the war escalated, the frequency of sacrifices became higher and higher. The sacrifices carried to the temple included not only captives, cowardly deserters, but also some fanatical believers who voluntarily participated in the death fight, pleasing their gods with blood and madness, and asking the great Lord of Disputes to bless them to win the next war.

During the sacrifices again and again, the long-polished obsidian floor of the temple was covered with a layer of filthy and ominous blood. The statue of the Lord of Disputes on the throne became increasingly cold and indifferent, which not only made Favrona feel unfamiliar, but also faintly afraid. She was afraid that one day the girl on the throne would come back to life, sneer and say that you are not worthy of the throne of dispute, and then devour her in turn, occupy this position, and continue to issue orders to those believers openly, asking them to create more disputes and killings.

This is not an illusion, but a premonition.

It will happen, no, it is already happening.

Favrona opened her eyes wide, and looked at the cold and indifferent statue of the girl on the throne in disbelief. The statue suddenly moved. She drew a sarcastic arc from the corner of her mouth, and then slowly walked down from the place where she was worshipped. She walked through the twelve steps stained with blood, walked through the hall where the bones of the dead were piled up like nests, walked through one sacrificial ceremony after another with blood and fire, and came to Favrona, sneering and questioning: "Why do you resist?" "As the dark side of the universe, the kingship of chaos, the master and ruler of disputes, it is natural for you to appreciate the swords and weapons of this world, manipulate the war on this earth, and then bless those believers who regard you as the symbol of war and the god of blood, so that they can create more killing and death. Why do you resist?"

"Don't you feel the beating in your chest right now? It's so surging and so passionate. It's the instinct of blood urging you to fight and burn everything in the universe. All matter and all living things will perish in the blood and disappear in the fire. Only in this way can all things be reborn from the ruins. This is the essence of chaos and order, and it is also your mission as the King of Conflict."

"So, there's no need to resist."

"Come, become one with me."

She slowly raised her hand and pressed it on Favrona's chest, as if she could hear the tense, rapid and uneasy heartbeat through a fragile chest cavity, so the arc of her mouth deepened. Her cheek got closer and closer until it brushed against Favrona's stunned cheek. The two seemed to be hugging each other intimately. At this distance where even breathing could be clearly heard, her voice was accompanied by the flickering of candlelight, floating and uncertain, like the temptation from the evil witch in the storybook: "Thousands of creatures worship you as a god, thousands of believers respect you as a saint, thousands of swords are waiting for you to raise, and thousands of wars are waiting for you to define. Going against them is going against your heart; going against your heart is going against the kingship."

"Are you going to disappoint Mother?"

The hand was gradually merging into her heart, and the girl who had walked down from the throne seemed to be merging into her as well. This process was irresistible and full of evil and blasphemy. Favrona felt a great fear rising from the depths of her heart, and then she felt cold all over and began to tremble uncontrollably. She once lost the courage to resist and believed the bewitching words, but at a certain moment she suddenly remembered that before her mother fell asleep, she had talked to each of the young queens separately, and what she said to herself was: "Hold your courage, Favrona."

“The essence of conflict is not to bring destruction and catastrophe to the world, but the courage that life shows in the face of destruction and catastrophe. You are the flame that gives living beings the heart to resist, and the flag that inspires their courage. So at any time, don’t forget where your courage comes from.”

Those gentle words and eager eyes are still vivid in my mind.

That's right.

If I accept her assimilation here and let the courage to fight against disputes degenerate into the blindness of creating disputes, that would be a choice that would disappoint my mother, right?
Favrona came to her senses and found that she had grasped the hand that was penetrating into her heart without her knowing. The girl with the same face as her was looking at her in surprise. She didn't expect that she could regain her sanity at the last moment.

At this moment, Favrona was more sober than ever before. She said to the girl word by word: "Leave my body."

"Then, go back to your throne and fall into depravity with your followers!"

……

Favrona suddenly opened her eyes, sat up in bed, and gasped for breath. A large amount of sweat seeped out of her forehead, slid down her neck and into her back, giving her a bone-chilling feeling.

After a few minutes, she gradually came to her senses, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand, and looked out the window. The night was dark and shrouded in a quiet atmosphere. The entire Cathedral of Heaven seemed to be asleep. Only the wind occasionally blew through the ancient forest, and the rustling of branches and leaves could be heard, like the sad surge of the tide in the distant ocean. Unfortunately, Favrona had never seen the ocean, so naturally she didn't know what the tide sounded like. She learned this metaphor from a book.

Dreaming again.

The girl sat on her bed and couldn't help thinking. It was hard to say whether she was sad or distressed. She had been dreaming recently, and the content of the dream was exactly the same, but it was getting more and more serious. Today's dream was particularly clear and real. For a moment, Favrona even felt that if she was assimilated by the girl who walked down from the throne in the dream, she would become another person in reality, and no longer the Favrona that her sisters were familiar with.

But, after all, it's just a dream, right?
Maybe I was overthinking it.

Having said that, she still felt a little uncomfortable if she was asked to go back to sleep at this moment; Favrona didn't want to disturb the other sisters who had already fallen asleep. She sat on the bed and thought for a while, and suddenly an idea came to her mind: since she couldn't fall asleep anyway, why not go out for a walk? (End of this chapter)