Trek towards the end.
The ranger who was born in the Evergreen Mountains often said this. When he camped before sunset every day, he would always look at the crimson line crossing from the horizon and sigh like this. In his own words, this was a "quite "Romantic expression" - it is the greatest bravery and the most extreme romance in the world when the end is near.
However, neither bravery nor romance can stop the pace of death. The ranger fell in the last kilometer before the crossroads. A vicious arrow penetrated his chest. The most ironic way to die - a master with a bow died among the bows and arrows. Down.
The psychic eliminated the attackers, who were two tattered corpses. They lurked on the road and launched an insidious attack as the team approached. The undead characteristics without breathing and heartbeat evaded the ranger's attack. Reconnaissance, the wind direction covered up the stench emanating from their bodies, causing another unfortunate accident, just like every parting along the way.
The armored warrior came to the edge of the camp, sat down on a dry tree stump, raised his head and looked at the dusk quietly.
That disturbing crimson streak across the sky, falling into the direction of the setting sun like a bloodstain that is about to tear the world apart. There seems to be blood surging in the crimson, and it seems to be hiding and brewing countless transcendental things. The ghostly phantom of the mortal mind stares coldly at a world that is rapidly entering ruin.
The sound of footsteps came from the side, and the psychic sat down on the ground next to him, quietly looking at the blood stain in the dusk with the warrior.
The silence lasted for a while, and a low voice came from the soldier's helmet: "The two attackers during the day..."
"It was the hunter siblings... who died first," the psychic's voice came from his black cloth hood, sounding as gloomy as the dead. "They chased after them. The dead don't need it." Rest, so it’s faster than us.”
"We buried them with our own hands in the forest outside the kingdom's gate, and you also performed a requiem ceremony - why do the dead people you comforted still get up?"
"There are a lot of things climbing up along the way. Have you seen that deep red light on the horizon? The direction where the red light first fell...it has doubled in size from when the prophet made the prediction. That is A wound has opened up our world. The earth under our feet and the sky above our heads are decaying because of this wound, and... the decay is getting faster and faster.
"The transition process between life and death began to be different from what I understood."
The psychic spoke quietly, with the same lack of emotion as usual, with only a cold and sad "statement of facts" in his words.
Not everyone can accept his way of speaking. If the shield knight was still there, he would have started preaching and exhorting at length by now.
However, the warrior looked back and saw that there was only the lonely figure of the Templar sitting by the campfire, and the short and thin figure of the Pyromancer was curled up in the shadow of the fire. There was no one else in the camp. The shield-bearing knight who was always in tit-for-tat with the Psychic and loved to preach to his teammates is no longer there - he collapsed in the wilderness outside the sandstone castle, and the cause of his death is still unknown.
"After that, there may be others who will 'catch up'." The psychic seemed to be unaccustomed to the silence at the moment. After a few seconds of silence, he abruptly changed the topic, "There is a high probability that they will be from the previous team. The people inside.”
"Why? Just because the hunter siblings caught up with them during the day today?"
"Because they still remember their mission to trek towards the doomsday - but they no longer remember us," the psychic whispered. "Before the influence of the red light expanded, we did not properly dispose of their bodies. .”
The soldier was silent for a while: "...How should we deal with it properly?"
"Burn it, completely burn it with ghast fire, and then smash all the larger bones. If possible, soak the skull in acid and bury it deeply."...
"okay, I get it."
The next day, the psychic died.
He was found lying on the edge of the camp. His heart was stolen by some force in the darkness, leaving only a terrifying hole in his chest. However, the strange thing is,
Before he died, he had a strange smile on his face, as if... he felt lucky to be able to get rid of this heavy mission ahead of time.
The warriors, the Templars, and the Pyromancers held a "funeral" for the Necromancer - they burned the Necromancer's body completely with ghast fire, smashed all the bones they could find, and then put his Skull fragments were soaked in clay pots filled with acid and buried at the camp site.
Now, there are three people left.
When the black smoke from the burning bones rose, the warrior once again looked at the crimson streak in the distance that seemed to be cutting the entire world. The pyromancer came next to him. After a long silence, the thin woman finally asked That question that no one has ever dared to ask.
"Are we still going forward?"
The warrior turned back and looked at the red-haired Groska woman.
He still remembered her appearance when she first set out - at that time she was full of confidence, with vitality in her eyes and pride in her words. As the "chosen person of destiny" chosen by the kingdom and designated by the prophet, she was better than anyone else. They all firmly believe in their own strength and their destiny to be great.
But now, she asked this question.
"Of course we have to move forward," the warrior said in a low voice, his expression blocked by his thick faceplate, but his tone was still firm. "We have to save our kingdom and stop the spreading doomsday."
"Can trekking towards the doomsday really stop the doomsday itself? Is there really an enemy at the end of that crimson road waiting to be defeated by us? As long as we defeat it, the problem will be solved? Just like what the prophet said? "
"The prophet made no mistakes." The soldier said stubbornly.
After a moment of confrontation, the pyromancer nodded: "I understand." Three days later, when the team passed through an unknown forest, the Groska woman fell in an open space by the river.
There were no enemies, no traps, she was burned by her own flames - out-of-control magical energy suddenly surged out of her body, tearing her apart and burning her into ashes like countless living evil spirits. Her scream was short. , the painful time may only be a moment.
The good news is that the out-of-control flames burned her body thoroughly, and no additional processing of her body was required - from the ashes, not even a bone fragment larger than a fingernail could be found.
Now, there are only two people left in the team.
The Templar who is even more taciturn than the magician who died before, and becomes more and more silent as the journey continues, and the warrior himself who is always wearing thick armor.
After completely entering the wilderness, they were still moving in a straight direction without worrying about getting lost, because the crimson doomsday light would always guide their direction.
How long will this trek last? Where does it end? What could be out there... waiting for those who trek towards the end to face their own destiny?
In the eyes of the warriors who keep trekking, the world under the red light becomes...a little weirder than before every day.
The time when the sun rises and sets has changed a lot, and it is shifting a little in a certain direction every day. Now the setting sun is no longer due west, but has shifted an angle visible to the naked eye to the north.
The sky is gradually being dyed a strange purple-red color, and strange lights and shadows can occasionally be seen emerging from deep in the clouds. Sometimes, there even seem to be living things walking through those lights and shadows.
The mountains in the distance seem to be distorting. The once straight cliffs now look like damp wooden boards gradually bending and curling down, while the horizon further away is rising upwards, just like the entire land... ..are undergoing slight deformation.
Or perhaps there is something wrong with the observer's own eyes.
Along with these many strange phenomena visible to the naked eye, changes invisible to the naked eye are also taking place--
The magic energy between heaven and earth is changing strangely. The magic power that was once difficult to detect is now as active as the rushing water. Magicians once complained that it is difficult to gather arcane energy in the air outside the civilized world, but now, in the early morning, The wind seems to be carrying a strong magic power - this energy will be reflected in the metal armor
The surface of the shell is excited to produce tiny luminescence and discharge, and when it accumulates to a certain level, it will make a "pop" sound.
The warrior felt that these changes might be a sign that the journey was about to reach the end - they were close enough to the place where the red light fell. Although it still seemed so far away, hope... seemed to be right in front of them.
However, in front of an unknown river, the Templars stopped.
The tall, taciturn woman took off her helmet and said suddenly, "That's it."
The soldier looked at his last traveling companion calmly: "Why?" "You're not surprised?"
"I just want to know why." The warrior said in a stubborn tone as always.
The Templar was silent for a moment, then took out a broken ruby from his arms and placed it on the grass next to him.
"The kingdom was destroyed," she said. "Fire and magma surged up from the depths of the earth, covering the entire kingdom within an hour. The soul of the prophet sustained it until the last moment, confirming the outcome of everything."
Listening to this terrible news, the warrior still stood quietly, looking calmly into the eyes of the Templar.
"This journey is meaningless," the Templar continued, "it was meaningless to begin with."
"The Prophet lied to us," the warrior said slowly.
"No, the prophet deceived the people who stayed in the kingdom," the Templar said softly. "To make the people who stay believe that the kingdom sent one of the most elite teams to solve this change, it's like a hundred years." Before, we sealed Elips who awakened from the underground, just like seven hundred years ago, we ended the rule of the frost giants - the world will be saved by warriors. If one warrior is not enough, then use warriors to form an army. "
"...Prophets make no mistakes."
"Yes, like you said, a prophet makes no mistakes - so he is the first to know how the end will come."
The Templar said, pointing to the ground next to him. "Sit down, we've been walking for a long time."
The warrior made no move.
The Templars didn't take it seriously. Her silence along the way finally ended. In this last peaceful dusk, she smiled softly: "You, and many of us, understood all this halfway through the journey. Already."
"Perhaps only the red-haired Groska woman really believed in that great destiny - she didn't understand it until death caught up with her."
"She might as well not understand," the Templar shook his head slightly, and then was surprised to see the warrior take another step forward, "Where are you going?"
"I want to keep moving forward." "Why?"
"Aren't you curious? After realizing that this expedition is meaningless, why do I keep going? Don't you want to know the reason?"
The Templar just looked at him silently.
"I want to... at least understand what it is," the warrior looked at the crimson ray in the dusk and said softly, "The kingdom has been destroyed, maybe the entire civilized world has been destroyed, but I still want to Walk on...and wonder what is slowly killing the sky and the earth."
The Templar looked at his last traveling companion quietly. She was silent for a long time, and finally let out a long sigh.
"It can't be reached."
The soldier turned around: "What?"
"That red light did not fall on the earth."
Under the warrior's visor, a surprised expression finally appeared on his face.
"When the prophet's soul left the earth, he persisted for a full hour. During this hour, he saw a broader scene from a very high place - our world is a world floating in the endless void. A sphere, and that light... is larger than the earth beneath our feet, and more distant than the distant sky."
The Templar said, raising his hand to pick up the broken ruby on the grass.
"He told me at the end that the astrologers' theory was correct and that the relationship between the stars and the earth was just as the scholars had described.
As described, they are all stars floating in the huge space... My friend, the crimson you are looking for is not the earth but 'everything' that is splitting apart.
"The only thing that cannot be explained is why we on the earth can always see that light appearing in a specific direction - even if the earth under our feet rotates like other stars, the light seems to be directly imprinted on us It's the same as before our eyes, crossing the sky from east to west, so that we always thought it fell on the earth...
"This is the prophet's last confusion, and perhaps it will also be the last confusion left to this world."
The soldier's body became still. For some reason, an inexplicable trembling feeling gradually spread throughout his body.
In this way, a long, long time ago, in a place far, far away, in the last peaceful dusk, a man finally understood the appearance of the world beneath his feet. Before the end.
"Have a rest," the Templar's voice was very soft. Before the ever-expanding crimson-covered sky, this woman who always gave people the impression of being too tough and cold spoke softly to someone for the first time, " It’s all over.”
It's all over.
At the end of it all, what should be done.
The warrior was silent for a moment, and then silently drew the sword from his waist.
He had planned to use this long sword to defeat the powerful enemies where the red light fell, just like the great heroes in the legend.
But now it seems that this sword is too short and cannot reach the stars, let alone destiny.
He and his civilization had not had time to prepare for their fate - the lights suddenly went out, and they did not know where the wind came from.
He raised the blade high, which was made with the best materials and highest skills in the kingdom, and then used all his strength to throw it into the sky——
At the last moment when the sword was released, whether it was an illusion or not, he seemed to hear a voice coming from the wind——
"Who are you? Where are you from?"
The soldier didn't know where the voice came from, or whether it had really appeared before. In this brief and eternal moment, what appeared in his mind was a sentence that a certain traveling companion often muttered in his ears - —
"We are marching towards the end."
