Chapter 63: You Are Ultimately Not Her
Looking at the pitch-black g*n barrel that was pointing straight at her.
In Emis’s sky-blue eyes, however, there was no fear or dread.
There was only worry and a hint of confusion.
She tilted her head and gently reached out her pale hand to check Rast’s forehead temperature with the back of her hand.
“Rast, what’s wrong? Do you have a fever? Or is your mental trauma not fully healed?”
Emis opened her arms as if she wanted to embrace Rast into her bosom: “It’s okay, whether it’s Deep Blue Harbor or Frozen Water Town that Miss Hiltina mentioned, it’s all in the past.”
“You are in Canaan now; there is no Iron Cross or any mist or pollution here…”
“Even if the Iron Cross Plague truly breaks out in the present, it doesn’t matter.”
“Because I’m here.”
“This time, Rast, I will protect you.”
Hearing that sweet and crisp voice familiar to him, Rast slowly raised the g*n.
The revolver that had accompanied him for over two hundred years, which had long become an extension of his arm, felt as heavy as a thousand pounds at this moment, making it extremely difficult to even move it slightly.
“This is indeed something the real Xiao Ai would say in my memory.”
“But you are ultimately not her.”
In the next instant, he pulled the trigger of the revolver.
Boom!
The barrel of the Moon of Iron Patterns erupted with flames.
The b*llet swiftly spun in the firelight, piercing through the golden-haired girl’s chest.
A bloody hole suddenly exploded in her chest.
But surprisingly, there was no scene of bl**d splattering.
Instead, it was dispersing white mist.
Strands of smoke swirled around Emis’s slender body, making her figure flicker like a phantom.
Emis gazed blankly at the hole in her chest and her fading silhouette.
After a long time, she finally raised her head again, looking at the boy in front of her.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t know I was fake. Even Canaan is fake.”
Her voice trembled, and tears fell down her delicate white face.
In that fragmented light and shadow, Emis gazed at Rast for a long time.
Her sky-blue eyes were filled with affection and reluctance.
“I’m sorry for being a burden to you, and almost causing you to suffer mental pollution… But I really want to stay by your side forever.”
“To go to Starry University with you, to see the golden plains with you, to adventure in the Night World together.”
“To grow up with you, mature, grow old, until one day we can no longer walk… then return to Canaan, lying side by side on a lounge chair, watching the undulating snow-capped mountains in Canaan and feeling time fly.”
“Ordinary, yet everlasting.”
“But fortunately…”
It seemed she thought of something, and her voice steadied, letting out a small sigh of relief.
“Although I am fake, the Xiao Ai in your memory and Canaan are real.”
“As long as she is here, Rast, you won’t be so lonely… even if the person by your side is not me.”
“Stop talking.”
Rast closed his eyes again.
Bang bang bang—
The remaining five bullets in the chamber were fired in single action, the dazzling flames clearly perceptible even with his eyes closed.
When Rast opened his eyes again, the golden-haired girl had disappeared.
What replaced her was a world cracking and beginning to fragment.
The dining car, the wooden cabin, the town of Canaan, the lake outside the window, the windmill, and the snow-capped mountains… as if the canvas of an oil painting had been torn apart by external forces, covered with discordant cracks.
Rast’s breathing became heavier.
He breathed heavily.
Then, with a somewhat unsteady motion, he raised the dark barrel of the Moon of Iron Patterns to his temple again.
Boom—
The snow-capped mountains, the lake, the woods, the border town… the entire world disintegrated in the suddenly bright firelight, returning to pure void.
…
When Rast opened his eyes again.
What greeted his sight was the darkened scene.
This was the oppressive and gloomy world—Frozen Water Town, the guest room of the Mr. Mayor’s residence.
He abruptly sat up from the bed and looked out the window, only to see that the originally supposed position of the moon was now replaced by a distorted, red sphere.
That red sphere was entirely composed of hideous flesh, constantly surging and writhing.
And under the night, Frozen Water Town was completely shrouded in thick fog.
This fog had once merely lingered outside Frozen Water Town, but at this moment, it had completely invaded the town’s boundary, enveloping the entire Frozen Water Town.
The originally pale mist, under the illumination of the bl**d moon in the night sky, had also been stained with crimson.
Rast rushed out of the room, opening doors one by one to check the situation inside.
Sure enough, that bl**d-colored mist had silently infiltrated the houses, pooling and aggregating… ultimately converging into silk threads.
All around him were these threads, a mixture of snow white and crimson, making Rast feel as if he were in a giant spider’s nest, even himself wrapped in this chaotic web.
He fired continuously to cut through the blocking threads, and only then could he see the full picture.
They were enormous cocoons woven from silk threads.
These pure white silk threads stained with bl**d wrapped all living creatures in Frozen Water Town, whether human townsfolk or pets like cats, dogs, and sheep, in one cocoon after another.
Then, based on the victims’ memories, they wove one dream after another, causing those wrapped in the cocoons to sink into the dreams… until their spirits and souls were silently eroded and polluted, ultimately completely lost in the dreams, while their bodies in reality were controlled by the bl**d mist.
Reduced to marionettes devoid of selves and souls, their very existence erased, manipulated by the silk threads.
Even Rast himself had just been in that cocoon woven from silk threads, but he had successfully struggled out of the woven dream and also escaped the manipulation of the threads.
“From the fluctuations of the spirit world imprint, Hiltina should also be trapped inside.”
Rast quickly found Hiltina’s room.
In Hiltina’s room, the density of the silk threads was several times greater than in other rooms, nearly blocking out the sun, turning the entire room into a spider den.
Rast took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to fire and shatter this enormous cocoon.
He knew that Hiltina was currently similar to his former self, trapped in the dream woven from the bl**d mist. Even if he broke the cocoon, what he would see was likely only Hiltina’s body after she fell asleep, which might further harm her spirit.
So, he opened the chamber and removed the b*llet from the revolver.
Then, aimed at his temple again.
Boom—
As the trigger was pulled, the mental suggestion to “k*ll myself” was delivered.
At the same time, through the previously connected spiritual pathway that remained.
Rast’s spirit and consciousness, using the imprint left in the other’s soul as a guide, entered Hiltina’s spiritual world together.
(End of Chapter)
