The blazing Knox Bar was frozen in ice and the sky darkened. The sun through the mist has the texture of an oil painting and looks like a man-made thing. The chill carried smoke particles and scraped across the stone pavement beside the steps, waking Uriel out of his daze.
So cold. The soaked shirt brought the coldness that seeped into his bones, giving him a real feeling through the invasion. The apprentice suddenly remembered where he was.
"Uriel?" Cheer up. How are you"
"...It's fire?" He tried to confirm.
"I'm afraid so. The potion was spilled. She hit the corpse in the neck with it and broke the bottle..." The ring could not be written anymore. Uriel knew what happened next. As he fights the corpse-eater, the potion powder enters Cecilia's body, blending into her blood and marrow, eventually burning her soul. "The corpse-eaters are keeping an eye on her because of the scattered potion."
To save me. "Then I shouldn't be alive. Rather, the potion I inhaled is more..." He suddenly remembered. "Your magic...?"
"Or your scarf. But I’m not fucking sure! No one paid attention at the time...hell, the undead almost bit your throat out." Sauron was just looking for an opportunity. After all, no one in the chaos thought to protect the powdered fire potion. "That's true, Uriel, and maybe even you in a while."
"...burned to ashes?" Now that things have happened, death doesn't seem as scary as before. Uriel looked at Cecilia. She had not turned into Giniva's ghost form, but she had grown long nails. Her eyes were lifelike, her expression full of anxiety and fear. Damn, she looked like she could be saved. The apprentice would never admit that she had turned into one of those monsters that nearly killed them, dragging their entrails as they walked, and hungry for human flesh. I don't know anything about potions, maybe there is a way...but he knows that a person with a hole in the heart cannot survive. The cold wind rushed into the hole, as if a whistle was blowing. The apprentice felt that his body had become empty.
"Isn't it just right?" Uriel asked. "She wants me to accompany her."
"She saved you"
"That was before. She begged me not to leave, she wanted me to stay with her. I got it." Cecilia's fear was so vivid that Uriel didn't dare to look. A few minutes ago he had been praying and thanking the gods for their blessings, but now his prayers and thanksgiving had become a joke. Deep down in his heart, Uriel knew that no one would help him do this, let alone the gods. "I see."
"She said this when she was dying, but"
"Shut up." Joey grabbed the ring. The runes flickered a few times before completely dimming. Uriel raised his head and found that he was looking at himself. His blue eyes were like two ice cubes, piercing people's souls. Most people would be afraid of these eyes, and the apprentice was no exception, but now he had no extra emotion to be afraid.
"I know you want to help me," he told the tower emissary who saved his life. "In fact, you have helped me a lot. I can't thank you, but I do want to do it."
"Whatever you think, do it."
If only it were that simple. Uriel shook his head, not wanting to answer. He really didn't answer. Maybe this can be regarded as a kind of implementation of the envoy's suggestion?
"Someone will need you."
"Me? It's better to miss me." Uriel shrugged, and suddenly shrank from the pain. But he soon relaxed. "To tell you the truth, Joey, I don't have any other family, which is pretty lucky for a visitor from another world. Otherwise, I don't know what I would have done if the Cloud Train had brought me to this damn place. Maybe they could support me. Go back. But the truth is, I am alone. I have only one wish."
The messenger did not wait for him to express his wish. That's not hard to guess. "Strangers will need it too."
There are all strangers in this world, and Uriel does not belong to this other world. He comes from the peaceful and peaceful Yotsuba City, not the battlefield of necromancers and tower messengers. "The so-called need is for me. If they show up in my life, I will lend a helping hand." Like Gaia teaches. "But if it weren't for me, they would have asked for help from someone else. Those people have their own gods, and it's not my responsibility that they don't want to help." Gaia won't punish me either.
"After all, I don't think it's my mission to save someone. He can't support me to survive... Look, I couldn't even save Cecila." Uriel thought of the empty wine glass.
The messenger frowned. "No one else. The necromancer Thun Luvi needs you to give him a sword."
It turns out that this is also necessary. Uriel understood the meaning. "Me?" he repeated.
"The fire ritual will give you power. Thun Luvi was originally a mortal."
"The power to resurrect Cecilia?" The young man did not give an answer. If it were Sauron, he might lie at this time. Uriel already knew the result. Hell and Gavash wouldn't be so scary if people could rise from the dead. "No, forget it. I can't figure out what I'm going to do with it."
"But you thought about it?"
"Who wouldn't think about it?" When Sauron showed off his magic and tempted him to light the fire, Uriel was moved almost instantly. Sometimes he would also be grateful to the Cloud Train, because it changed his world and allowed him to see novel things that did not exist in the outside world, making these fantasies that should have been a numb life now within reach.
Until Uriel realized the danger.
"But it's too late," the apprentice told him. "These things are like dreams. I have had too many dreams, about love, about the future, and about miracles that I could never imagine." At that time, he really wanted to promise Sauron and step into the mysterious world. Cecilia should think so too. But I was so frightened... "Now, I finally know the consequences of superstitious fantasies. Cecilia and I, we are just ordinary people, destined to live like this for the rest of our lives. I really regret getting on the train."
Joey became silent. His vision gradually blurred, and it seemed as if a silver-gray train was slowly moving. After the doors closed, it flew past him like a shooting star. Uriel felt a hint of familiarity from him, but he couldn't tell where it was.
But what if you figure it out? After the flames extinguished, the streets gradually became noisy, with countless undead approaching in the shadows, secretly sizing up the embers of the torch. It probably won't be long before they pounce. This is a city of death.
"Leave me here, Joey. You can go directly to the necromancer without wasting time." Uriel said, "According to you, there are other people in the city who need you." There may be few. . Not everyone has a magically reinforced window. As the potion spreads, people are dying in large numbers, and then are driven by evil forces to stand up again and kill their relatives and friends. How will those who have lost them react? The apprentice didn't want to think about it.
The corpse eaters were approaching the bar. Uriel warned. These things are very fast, and when there are too many of them, it may be difficult for the messenger to handle them. He didn't know what the gap between the two sides was. "Be careful, they..."
...At this moment, the undead suddenly stopped. Uriel felt the strong wind spread across his face. After the cold wind passes, it begins to snow in the flaming moon. When the apprentice opened his eyes, he only saw a circle of frozen fragments. He subconsciously crossed his arms, feeling top-heavy due to the loss of heat. Dozens of corpse-eaters were frozen in an instant! Uriel could not think, his consciousness was shaken.
"Dead." The messenger replied, "It's so easy. It's so easy for everyone. The value of life is not static, it has always been like this." A strange look passed over his young face. "But there is a difference in choice. Uriel. Choice is what matters. Not the result after the choice, but the choice itself. What is life and death? What matters is what you want to do and how you want to choose."
Uriel didn't understand: "Think?"
"That's it." It seems that I accidentally grasped the point. "You have this opportunity. You have this power." The messenger's voice became very soft, "You can choose how to live, choose to have hope or abandon hope to accept reality."
“Without hope there is no disappointment.”
"You get nothing without hope," the young man said. "Sometimes you have to take risks."
"sometimes?"
"most of the time."
"I think the facts we're facing are largely different."
"You have never seen the reality of this world, Uriel. Of course you can die happily...but you can also choose another path. At the end of your life, you can find your Cecilia without any regrets or remorse. It depends. It’s up to you. After choosing, the two roads will eventually reach the same end point, sooner or later. Uriel, you can’t waste the opportunity.”
"Chance?"
"You are still alive. Maybe fate is asking you to make a choice."
choose. His lips were dry. "What is my destiny?"
The young man's blue eyes stared at him. "You have to find out for yourself."
"Then what if I make the wrong choice...?"
"Honestly, I don't care."
Ashamedly, Uriel was impressed. Maybe I wasn't that determined to begin with. Who knows what to do at this time? He doesn't know anyway. The messenger talked about choice and destiny. The apprentice did not think that the two were unrelated, but his fantasy could not influence anything. Facts are always born before his thinking, leaving only pain. And pain is anything but an illusion. He turned his head unconsciously, trying to escape this feeling.
But Cecilia looked at him.
She looked at me...
Through the frost, her eyes reflected the blue color of the sky. Whose gaze is this? Uriel could no longer tell the difference.
Warmth bursts from the heart, penetrates the limbs and bones, and penetrates into the bones and blood vessels. Uriel slowly covered his face, as if he had only regained consciousness at this moment. His fingers touched tears, but no one cared whether he shed tears or not. Why don't you ask me? But Cecilia said nothing. He could see nothing and hear nothing. The pain was so intense that he allowed himself to be captured by his emotions.
Catalyzed by the wave of consciousness, the soul begins to undergo metamorphosis. The apprentice's world is spinning. He did not see the bending of tree trunks on both sides of the road, nor did he see the strong wind carrying fallen leaves and ashes, forming a confusing and illusory tornado of variegated colors. He could only see Cecilia. Her frozen eyes reflected small, linear, and constantly twisting light. It rises with breath and blooms in the mirror. It carries the tide of power that affects the elements and consciousness, burning under the net intertwined by the threads of order, emitting a seemingly invisible heat of life.
Uriel suddenly heard the sound of a bell. Maybe it's the same as that time in the bar, but it's just an illusion again. He couldn't tell the difference anymore. But the sun brightened, casting down arrow-like clear rays of light, and the melting frost and snow also dispersed illusory mist and mist. He saw fire again. It is more brilliant than a candle flame, softer than a bonfire, like a star that has not been extinguished but is about to fall, and can only illuminate him. His consciousness and memory formed a firewood, supporting it as it burned.
The next moment, order came. It’s hard to describe in words, it’s like the world is expressing acceptance. A force that was different from any material he had ever seen, and that was entirely dedicated to bridging appearance and reality—appeared in his feelings, dancing around the flames. As long as the flames are slightly disturbed, the magic power will condense.
This is the ring step.
"...What are those?" he muttered. The fatigue suddenly became insignificant, and the apprentice felt as if he had just climbed out of bed to face a new morning, with only the fear of nightmares still remaining in his mind.
The messenger looked at him. "The fire ignites spontaneously." There seemed to be an unusual emotion in the voice. "You've made your decision."
"Tinder? Are you talking about me?"
"From today on, this is your secret." The messenger said with unclear meaning. Uriel frowned and looked at him. Maybe he meant to say mysterious? But the Emissary has reactivated the rune life.
"Uriel" Sauron regretfully missed the previous scene. "Are you feeling better?" Uh, why did I see a mysterious creature?』
"The ceremony is over," Joey told him.
"So, Uriel, you are quite lucky."
I do not think so. Uriel thought to himself. He soon realized that most of his injuries were healed, but at the end of the day, he had no idea what his injuries were. The only evidence is the scar on the shoulder. The painful and bloody memories are gone, but some things cannot be forgotten.
"I want to kill the mage." He said to Sauron, "What do you suggest?"
"First, you must have a weapon"
It is more convenient to use blunt weapons to deal with corpses, but there are other considerations for dealing with living apprentices. There were knives in the kitchen and an ax left in the stable in the backyard. When Uriel used tools before, he never thought of hurting anyone with them. He didn't think he would go soft on the Necromancer or his lackeys, but the choice was hard. Can I really do it? To avenge Cecilia and kill someone? Only judges and nobles can punish criminals, not me. Geneva was killed by Sauron, and the corpse eater was completely inhumane, so he dared to take action. Hopefully the Necromancer looks similar to the Corpse Eater.
After all, Uriel had never done this kind of work. He is accustomed to knowing law-abiding citizens, and is accustomed to communicating peacefully, being considerate of each other, and being convenient to others. Now he knew he had to develop new habits. Might as well choose an ax.
Soon, the apprentice won't have to think about it. The young man handed him a sword, and Uriel had no idea where he got it! I'm afraid it's a magical creation. Its material clearly reflects this.
Needless to say, this is a sword of frost.
It is about an arm and a half long, with a blunt and rounded handle, a wide and thin blade, and a section of edgeless blade on the handle. There is no scabbard to hang it on the waist. It seems to exist just for chopping, its lines are smooth and simple, and its color is almost transparent, as if it is just waiting to be dyed red by blood.
Uriel took the sword, magic power shuttled through the bones and muscles, and power that he had never dared to imagine surged through his body - he easily grabbed the weapon. Oddly enough, it's not as cold as expected and doesn't seem to melt from the heat. "Thank you, my lord."
Ring was surprised: "This thing?" Is it too heavy?" But the messenger ignored it. "Can you use a sword?"
The apprentice never thought about it. The most complicated tool he ever worked with was an iron. "Is there a switch on this?"
"Beginner" Sauron concluded, "You just need to use it as a stick." Waving arms. right"
"Yes." Joey said, "Use magic." He pointed to a roof. Uriel turned his head and discovered a corpse-eater squatting in the shadow of the chimney. "Try it here."
unimaginable. No matter how long the sword is, it can't reach the roof! Weird thoughts were running through his mind. But it was rare for the messenger to speak clearly, and Uriel didn't know where to ask the question. He tried to use his magic power and waved it above his head.
The snow-white sword light flew out. With a click, the chimney broke in two and crashed into the street. Powder was flying everywhere. The apprentice was startled. Such power is shocking. He stared blankly at the rubble, considering some possibility that was only in his imagination. Naturally, Cecilia would not survive this, but maybe the person who hurt her would regret it in the future.
After all, did I hit it? He turned to look at Joey.
"The magic sword." If a necromancer is hit, he will probably die." Ring's tone was quite surprising, "But what's going on?"
What's the meaning? Its question made the apprentice a little uneasy.
"That's a pretty accurate shot," the messenger commented.
