"We're here to help too!"
Just as Gabriel made her decision, Mu Fan heard three sweet female voices in the distance. He turned around and saw Vinai, Rafael, and Satania running over from a distance. .
Mu Fan's face was filled with shock when he felt that the three women's magic power was no weaker than Gabriel's.
Mu Fan suddenly felt dumbfounded. Mu Fan had been paying attention to Gabriel as his neighbor, but he had not noticed Gabriel's three friends. Now it seems that since Gabriel has magic power in her body, her three How can a friend be a weakling
However, Satania's IQ is indeed not good, he can still cheat dozens of times a night.
As if aware of the strange expression on Mu Fan's face, Gabriel immediately explained: "They are all my friends. In fact, human vitality hides endless potential. Because Shiye Zuoyi has absorbed too many people's vitality, he is currently We haven't fully integrated this power yet. Once he stabilizes this power, we won't be able to defeat him. With the current magic power of the four of us, plus yours, we can probably seal him for three seconds."
"No wonder Shino Saichi is so strong!"
Mu Fan suddenly realized, and then he understood why Shiye Zuoyi was so strong after absorbing the power of tens of thousands of ability users.
It turns out that the liquid injected into tens of thousands of capable users contains the energy of the former corpse, but it needs life force to neutralize it. In other words, the more people who absorb the energy from the corpse, they will become "sub-bodies" "
As the "main body", Saichi Shino can absorb the energy and vitality in the "sub-body".
The energy of the fused corpse was recovered and the vitality of tens of thousands of people was absorbed, causing Shino Saichi's strength to become closer and closer to the strength of the corpse.
Seeing this, Mu Fan no longer hesitated and looked at the four girls Gabriel. He was surprised to find that Gabriel was standing in front, Satania was standing in the back, and Wei Nai and Lafite were standing on the left and right respectively. Then, the four people stood together in four directions to form a formation.
When Lily and Shino Saichi were fighting, four rays of light spread out from under the four women's feet and connected with each other, forming a prismatic magic circle.
"Mu Fan, stand in the middle!"
Mu Fan also probably knew that the magic circle was about to be completed. Hearing Wei Nai's voice, he hurriedly landed in the center of the magic circle. The light spread under the four women's feet and connected to Mu Fan's body in the center.
Under this strange light, Mu Fan could only feel the magic power flowing out of his body rapidly. Even the three girls of Wei Nai standing behind were the same. All the magic power poured into the girl standing at the front of the prismatic shape from the light. On Gabriel.
With the magic power supplied by the four people, the holy light around Gabriel's body became stronger and stronger, and his long golden hair flew under the surging magic power on his body. He felt that the magic power in Gabriel's body had reached a critical point. , when the magic circle was not in operation, Mu Fan hurriedly sent a message to Lily: "Lily, retreat now and release the true name of the Holy Sword!"
"Okay, this guy is really difficult to deal with."
Lily's hair was covered with sweat. She slashed away Misano Saichi with a sword, and her body quickly retreated to a distance away from the recovering Misano Saichi.
The constant fighting made Lily feel the horror of missing Zuo Yi. In fact, Zuo Yi's overall combat effectiveness was not as good as Lily at first, but his recovery ability was too strong, so Lily was unable to cause fatal damage to him.
Moreover, Lily discovered that Shino Saichi's strength was increasing little by little. If the true name of the Holy Sword was not released early, they might all fall into the hands of Shino Saichi.
Just when Lily retreated, Gabriel opened his eyes. His eyes, which were originally full of decadence and dullness, now turned golden and full of energy.
Under the golden holy light surrounding his body, white wings spread out from Gabriel's back, and his body flew into the sky. Looking at Shi Ye Zuo Yi in the distance, he opened his arms slightly, and powerful magic energy came from Gabriel. Baili's body welled up and spread towards Shiye Zuoyi.
At the same time, a rotating six-pointed star magic circle was formed in the sky above Shino Saichi's head and at his feet. Then the two magic circles seemed to have magnetic force and quickly closed towards Shino Saichi in the center.
"What is this?"
Under Gabriel's control, Shi Ye Zuoyi, who was in the center of the magic circle, felt as if his body was being pressed by several mountains at the same time, and what was under his feet seemed to have a gravity of hundreds of thousands of kilograms. Two kinds of The power restrained him, preventing him from taking a step at all.
The weight above was constantly increasing, and Shino Saichi's body was gradually bent up under the pressure. Veins appeared on his forehead. His disheveled hair let out a painful roar. Gradually, the black color on his body gradually The scales almost spread all over his body, and a golden energy storm began to surge out of Shiye Zuoyi's body, spinning around his body and constantly impacting the magic circle.
"That's that? The golden storm that just absorbed people's life force?"
Feeling the vast energy in the golden storm, Mu Fan was a little shocked. At the same time, the storm hit the magic circle again and again, causing Mu Fan, who was about to run out of magic power, to feel dizzy. He was about to faint when he was in a hurry. Two fantasy points once again supplemented the level 4 magic talent to the limit.
At the same time, Gabrielle stood in the sky with a trace of cold sweat on her forehead. She gritted her silver teeth and shouted to Mu Fan and the other three women: "Everyone, be careful, the restraint technique is almost unbearable." !”
"boom!"
As soon as Gabriel finished speaking, the energy storm in Shiye Zuoyi's body suddenly spread and hit the surroundings of the magic circle heavily.
With a sound of "Bang!", the magic circle began to tremble violently. Mu Fan and the girls felt their heads were dizzy. Mu Fan's eyes were fixed on Shi Ye Zuo Yi in the magic circle, and his body that was originally pressed was almost all The bent body of Shino Saichi actually stood up straight again little by little in the magic circle.
"Anyone who blocks my way will die here!"
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Mu Fan and sneered ferociously.
"hiss-"
Those bloodshot eyes made Mu Fan's heart tremble. At this moment, these eyes gave Mu Fan the feeling that Shi Ye Zuo Yi was no longer the same Shi Ye Zuo Yi, but someone else. one person.
At this moment, Shi Ye Zuoyi roared, and the golden storm hit the surroundings of the magic circle again. The shaky magic circle instantly shattered. Mu Fan and the four girls Gabriel were all consumed by this wave of energy. The shock wave flew away.
"About four seconds."
Because Mu Fan has cultivated his magic talent, he is very sensitive to the concept of time.
Lily said to hold on for three seconds. In this case, Lily should be able to release the true name of the Holy Sword.
"Brother, it's okay, it's done!"
Just as Mu Fan thought of this, a reassuring voice came to his ears. Mu Fan raised his head and saw Lily in the distance holding up the holy sword in her hand. Countless golden light spots containing powerful energy emerged from the earth. It surged up into the sky, and then gathered on the sword body.
Powerful energy gathered together, and the aura spread out from the holy sword in the distance made Mu Fan feel a little suffocated.
"Is this Lily's final blow, Excarliber, which runs through the past, present, and future, and combines the unwilling will of the soldiers who died on the battlefield?"
Mu Fan stood there in shock, thinking to himself.
Lily's holy sword was as dazzling as the sun at this moment, lighting up the night sky. The aura contained in the holy sword was stronger than the energy absorbed by Shino Saichi before.
"what is that?"
At the same time, people standing in the distance watching the strange scene in the ruins took out their cameras and mobile phones to take pictures of this strange phenomenon.
"Look, there's someone nearby."
At this time, an unknown person screamed, and many people discovered Mu Fan and Gabriel in the ruins. They all stood there in shock, "He... are they all gods?" "
This surprising and legendary scene happened right in front of them, which made the onlookers stunned. They took out their mobile phones and started forwarding them. The information soon spread throughout the Internet, and many people flocked to the area. Come.
Mu Fan and Lily were all looking at Shiye Zuoyi with all their concentration, and did not notice the strange movements of people in the distance.
At this time, Lily, who had gathered her strength, took a step forward with the holy sword in hand. The infinite golden magic power under her feet began to surround her body and spread in all directions like ripples.
Standing in the distance, Shino Zuoyi just broke through the magic circle and felt that his body seemed to be imprisoned by an invisible field under this golden light, unable to move.
"excarliber!"
Lily's long hair flew away, and with an angry roar, the dazzling huge sword slashed down in the air like a sharp blade that could tear the sky apart, and the mighty slash fell on the body of Shino Saichi.
The fierce air flow generated when it fell caused a deep ravine to be cut into the ground.
In the center of the golden sword light, traces of black smoke began to emit from Shiye Zuoyi's body, and it broke apart little by little. Feeling that the power in his body was flowing crazily, Shiye Zuoyi let out a miserable howl. .
He began to roar unwillingly: "No... I am not willing to give in. I haven't fulfilled my wish yet. How could I die by your hands so easily..."
But facing Lily's final attack, Shichino Sachi had no strength to resist, and his voice was gradually drowned out by the dazzling golden light.
"boom!"
There was a roar, and the world seemed to tremble. A huge golden star exploded in the sky. A dazzling golden light pillar shot up from the ruins, and countless golden stardust fell from the sky.
The starlight was like a gorgeous firework, and the golden light scattered down almost illuminated the entire city. The audience who witnessed this scene were deeply attracted by this gorgeous sword light, and looked at it with dumbfounded eyes. A dazzling spectacle.
The three girls Mu Fan, Gabriel, and Li Shunsheng crawled out from the ruins. They felt the golden light falling on their bodies. Mu Fan's body couldn't help but feel warm. He stood in the distance and looked at the golden light that was still hovering in the sky. With the golden brilliance, his originally dignified and serious expression finally relaxed, and he showed a bright smile: "It seems that everything is over. This golden light is definitely the most brilliant fireworks I have ever seen in my life."
... ..
The smoke and dust gradually dispersed, and the streets in the entire city were struck by Lily's sword, forming a huge ravine tens of meters deep. Countless buildings collapsed and turned into ruins.
Many people died in this battle.
At least tens of thousands of people with abilities absorbed by Misano Saichi died. Coupled with the spread of Misano Saichi's energy, the devastating damage caused by the earthquake was similar to that of an earthquake. I am afraid that in densely populated Japan, tens of thousands of people would die.
Is this the result of fighting
"Brother, are you okay?"
At this time, Lily ran over from a distance and saw Mu Fan and Gabriel asking with concern.
"I'm fine, Lily, thank you for coming here and helping me defeat Misano Saichi."
Mu Fan smiled at Lily, and then looked at Gabriel and the others: "And Gabriel, Wei Na... Brother Li, without you, losing Ye Zuoyi may make the world chaotic. Get up.”
In fact, Gabriel's power had protected him and Li Shunsheng just now, which enabled them to withstand the powerful impact of Lily's final sword.
Walking over, Mu Fan sighed when he saw the remaining black scales in the ruins.
Shino Saichi, there are actually many ways to prove yourself. Your hard work from the beginning to become a member of the research team is enough to impress people. Why do you have to do so many wrong things for all this
Mu Fan sighed, and the golden light in the sky gradually dissipated in the silent night. Just as Mu Fan was about to turn around and go back, he suddenly felt a familiar aura rising from behind him. He turned around hurriedly and found a black streak. Flames burst out of the ruins.
"Is this the aura of Misano Saichi?"
Mu Fan felt the familiar aura contained in the black flames. Mu Fan's expression changed. Moreover, the black flames seemed to contain the life energy of everyone who had merged with Shino Saichi, but it was not destroyed by Lily's sword.
How can it be? Didn't Lily's final sword attack just now wipe out Misano Saichi
"Lily, stop him quickly!"
Mu Fan couldn't fly, so he immediately pointed at the black flame flying into the sky and shouted to Lily.
Lily also felt the breath of Shitino Sachi in the black flames at the first moment. She stepped on the ground with her jade feet, flew into the sky, and slashed at the flames with the holy sword. However, when Lily's sword fell, the flames actually split into two, dodged Lily's sword, and flew to a height of several thousand meters.
Suddenly, the dark clouds in the sky gathered together, and then turned into a strange and huge face. When the flames flew in, the strange giant face suddenly opened its mouth and absorbed the flames in one mouthful. .
After the giant face swallowed the power of the flame, a powerful aura began to fill the sky, and then gradually grew stronger.
"This face belongs to Shino Saichi?"
Mu Fan's eyes widened, and his expression turned ugly when he looked at this familiar face.
How could Shino Saichi become like this
At this time, Li Shunsheng looked at the giant face. In his sight, the giant face turned into a petite girl in a beautiful black dress with silver hair and a single ponytail.
He couldn't help opening his mouth and making a sound, "Silver?"
"Sister?" Gabriel also called out in surprise.
"Grandpa Merlin?"
Seeing Gabriel and Lily yell out the names of the people they saw in shock, Mu Fan was slightly startled, seemed to have thought of something, and hurriedly shouted to them
"Everyone, please see clearly that the giant face in the sky is not the person you think of at all. Keep your heart stable!"
Hearing Mu Fan's shouts, the few people calmed down. They looked up and saw the strange giant face in the sky, and their hearts were filled with shock.
Mu Fan frowned and looked at the giant face of Shi Ye Zuo Yi who was still in his sight.
Just now he heard the voices of the three girls Gabriel, Lily, and Li Shunsheng, and a terrifying suspicion suddenly arose in his heart.
That is, seeing the giant face condensed in the sky, everyone sees it differently? It is an illusion created by the mind. It seems that this giant face can affect people's minds, which leads to different scenes that everyone sees.
But at this moment, this giant face actually had more power than Shiye Zuoyi, and seemed to be swimming in the sky, moving closer to where Mu Fan and the others were.
The strange scene on the horizon made the people watching in the distance exclaim in shock.
But the next second, when the giant face came to the top of everyone's head, and then opened its huge mouth, everyone present only felt a pain in their bodies, and then fell to the ground, and all the energy transformed from the life force in their bodies floated into the air. , was sucked into the body by the giant face.
Wherever the giant face passed, all the people below were swallowed to death silently. In less than ten seconds, tens of thousands of people died.
When they noticed the people dying in the path of the giant face, the onlookers realized their fear, and they all fled away in fear. However, the giant face moved much faster than they could, and they caught up with them. People opened their huge mouths and kept swallowing people's lives.
Under the observation of satellites, people who realized the seriousness of the matter attacked the giant face in the sky with weapons. However, this giant face seemed to be immune to physical attacks. The City Protection Bureau could only use satellites to attack it. This incident spread to people in Japan.
But this sudden situation could not prevent people from dying at all. The whole world seemed to have turned into a scene like the end of the world. The giant face that appeared in the sky made people all over Japan fear in their hearts. ,
"This thing is constantly devouring the vitality of human beings. It is not even limited to ability users, but the vitality of any human or animal can be used as food to strengthen his own abilities..."
Standing in the distance, Mu Fan felt a little scared when he saw the dead humans and creatures in the path of the giant face approaching him. The energy contained in the giant face became more and more powerful.
The real Saichi Shino seems to have been eliminated, and these seem to be hidden in his body, coming from the power of the corpse...
"elder brother... .."
At this time, Lily's voice came. Mu Fan raised his head and saw that giant face had come to the top of his head at some point. The four girls Li Shunsheng, Lily, and Gabriel, who had already consumed a lot, felt that there was only a lot of energy left in their bodies. A lot of energy began to drain away quickly, his face turned pale instantly, and then he fell to the ground.
"Magic restored."
Mu Fan also fell to the ground under the pressure of this field, and hurriedly relied on two fantasy points to restore the power in his body and maintain his vitality from being drained away.
What on earth is this
Mu Fan's eyes widened unwillingly. If this continued, Lily and the others would be sucked to death here.
But even if he redeemed his magic power twice, he still felt that the magic power in his body was constantly passing away, and the eyes of Lily and Gabriel became blurred, and they fell to the ground semi-consciously.
This is also thanks to the powerful energy contained in Lily and the others. If they were ordinary people, they would have been sucked to death long ago.
At the critical moment, a long-lost system notification suddenly sounded in Mu Fan's mind.
[Ding—Number of fans—30 million, get 500 fantasy points]
[Ding—Number of fans—50 million, get 1,000 fantasy points]
... ..
"What's this?"
Mu Fan was surprised at first, and then realized that relying on the fantasy points gained from the number of fans, he upgraded the magic talent in his body to level six, and spent six fantasy points each time to maintain the magic power and continuously transmit it to the four girls of Gabriel. And Lily and Li Shunsheng's bodies to maintain their lives.
"Why? Will my fan base increase so quickly?"
Mu Fan felt the sound of the system's fan base rising continuously in his mind and the surging magic power in his body. Mu Fan was a little surprised, and at the same time he realized... With the omnipotent fantasy value, maybe he can change all of these.
This kind of fan value is still growing.
[Ding—Number of fans—100 million, get 2,000 fantasy points]
[Ding—Number of fans—200 million, get 5,000 fantasy points]
... ...
Redeem space teleportation, vector transformation, redeem King's Treasure House, redeem EA, redeem powerful Rasengan, redeem seventh-level magic talent, redeem eighth-level magic talent...
The growth of fan base kept coming to his mind, giving Mu Fan almost endless fantasy points. His mind was running rapidly, exchanging various skills in the system.
The magic power in his body made Mu Fan fly directly into the sky, relying on the powerful magic power in his body to resist this giant face that was constantly absorbing people's life force.
But facing the increasingly huge energy absorbed by this giant face, Mu Fan could only barely resist.
But fortunately, the number of fans is still growing, and Mu Fan can resist its attack.
At this time, Miku's excited voice came:
"Brother, I understand. I checked just now. In fact, this giant face does not only appear in Japan. Even though it has begun to attract people's vitality, it has appeared all over the world. But the only one standing in front of the giant face, You are not dead, and when people see you, others regard you as the god who can save everything, and everyone has faith in you. Now, the whole world has your name.”
When Hatsune said these words, people all over the world saw the giant face in the sky, as if the scene of the end of the world had nowhere to escape. They received all the information from the top of the country and could only hope. On the body of Mu Fan, the only one standing in the sky in front of the giant face who had never died.
“God—please cast out the demons and save us!!!”
Miku's voice became more and more excited, and finally she stood on Mu Fan's shoulders, her body trembling with excitement.
"Brother, I remembered that the star crystal is the system. When your father gave it to you, it had already been integrated into your body. The corpse that Shiye Zuoyi got was the corpse of a demon from the aura plane, but the demon It is not dead, the soul has always been hidden in this corpse, so when Shino Zuoyi absorbs this energy, it infinitely amplifies Shino Zuoyi's negative emotions, and then Shino Zuoyi swallows human life. When he died, he took the opportunity to resurrect and began to devour the life of this world. As long as he devoured one billion of the lives of the world's creatures, he could be resurrected, possess energy that transcends all, and then obtain the plane of our world. Power."
"The power of the plane?"
Mu Fan frowned: "What is that?"
"Brother, this power is yours!"
Hatsune laughed in surprise and said: "In order to maintain this balance in our space, the crystals born are not called star crystals at all, but the essence of the power to control the plane. As long as you have this "essence", you have the power to control the plane." , Brother, you are currently the manager of the plane!"
"As for the fan value, it is because the world needs a rule maker, but the psychology of the managers who want to verify the plane. But once you gain the admiration and hope of the entire world, you can open the final "Essence of the Plane" seal!!!"
"What?"
After learning this information, Mu Fan was shocked as if a storm had set off in his heart.
It turns out that the former Mu Fan did not survive until the moment when his essence was revived, but he traveled to this world and just gained this kind of power. And no wonder the eyes of Misano Saichi were so scary when he was killed by Lily. It turned out that He has long been controlled by the devil...
"Fan value - 500 million! Get fantasy value of 10,000 points"
"Fan value - one billion! Obtained fantasy value of 50,000 points"
"Fan value - tens of billions! Obtained fantasy value of 100,000 points"
... ..
The voice of the skyrocketing number of fans kept coming to my mind.
Mu Fan stood in the air and felt that his body was undergoing earth-shaking changes. His body became lighter and lighter, and even every cell and muscle of his body was constantly being forged and changed.
Suddenly, a vast voice that seemed to contain endless majesty sounded in Mu Fan's heart.
“Ding—the fan value has exceeded the limit and the plane management rights have been obtained!!!”
"Bang!"
After the voice fell, Mu Fan came back to his senses. He clearly felt that something in his body seemed to be broken...
He stood in the sky, and his body seemed to be integrated with the heaven and earth. He could feel the faith of the whole world's humans in him. When he closed his eyes, he seemed to see countless figures, both beasts and humans, all murmuring prayers to him.
This is a prayer from the entire world.
He can listen to all the information in the world and feel the fear and pleading of the creatures in the world facing this giant face that cannot be matched.
... ...
"God - please help us drive out the demons and save us!!!"
"Okay, then let me defeat the last enemy!"
Countless beliefs gathered in Mu Fan's body, and Mu Fan's body changed like a glacier melting out of a cocoon and turning into a butterfly.
At the same time, all the giant faces around the world disappeared, and countless energies merged into the giant face in the sky in front of Mu Fan. Gradually, the giant faces transformed into human beings with red hair and blood-red eyes. .
"Is it Misano Saichi again?"
The devil has no physical entity, but as a manager, Mu Fan can feel an aura that is inconsistent with it.
"It turns out that everything from the beginning to the end, from my father's death to my time traveling through time, was all your fault... Since the whole thing started with you. Moreover, you actually used human lives as your props. , It’s really unforgivable.”
Mu Fan's eyes suddenly became sharp. He took a step in the air, and a wave of air spread around Mu Fan's feet. The power of the Plane Order Manager caused the heaven and earth to tremble.
But Mu Fan could also feel that the demon that had resurrected after sucking the lives of a billion people was no less powerful than him.
"Mu Fan..."
"elder brother... ."
... ..
At the same time, whether it was Asuna, Sagiri, Rika, Gabriel, Lily, or even the whole world, they were watching Mu Fan step by step towards the devil in the sky.
"Mu Fan, kill me..."
At this time, Mu Fan saw the painful eyes of Zuo Yi, begging Mu Fan to kill him.
"It seems that you are also very upset that things have come to this point, so let everything end today."
Mu Fan took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and punched Shi Ye Zuo Yi, who was transformed into a demon.
Light brighter than the sun burst out from the sky.
"I hope that from beginning to end, everyone who died involved in this fearless battle will be resurrected."
"I also hope that in the future Asuna can realize her dream of becoming a star, Sagiri can bravely walk out of the house, Eiri can become a world-famous painter, senior sister Kasumigaoka Shiu can become a world-class novel writer, and Nakiri E Rina will become the future principal of Totsuki Academy. As for Li Shunsheng, your silver should be in a different world where the devil lives..."
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Mu Fan's mind, and his fist landed firmly on the demon's body.
As soon as the punch landed, the entire sky seemed to shake, and all the humans in the world felt like the world was spinning.
The powerful destructive power produced by Mu Fan's punch formed a huge black hole tens of millions of miles away in the sky of the world. Then the black hole shrank little by little in the eyes of everyone, and finally turned into a small dot, disappearing in the sky. In everyone's sight.
The black hole disappeared, and time seemed to go back. The high-rise buildings that had been reduced to ruins by the lost Saichi were all restored to their original appearance, and the people who had been swallowed by the giant face all reappeared on the streets and in their homes. , everyone even forgot what happened before, they were still sleeping quietly in bed, playing with their mobile phones, watching the new show... .
Standing on the hospital building, a young boy looked at the girl in front of him.
The boy remembered that he bravely saved one girl after another at school, but he was also injured as a result. The girl stayed with him in the hospital to take care of him, which made him fall in love with the girl.
Under the night, he couldn't help but hold the girl's hand and put it on his chest: "Yuna, I like you!"
Yuna was moved to tears: "Well, I promise you, Yoshida, we will always be together."
... ..
At this moment, Asuna, Sagiri, Eiri, and Rika were sitting in front of the computer. Looking at the computer screen, a feeling of emptiness and loss arose in their hearts.
"Sagiri, it's already 2 o'clock in the morning. It's so late and you're still not sleeping. What are you doing?"
The door was pushed open, and a silver-haired and slim woman walked into the room, turned on the light, and said to Sagiri.
"Mother?"
Sagiri stared blankly at the silver-haired woman who opened the door and walked into the room. In fact, she didn't understand why she appeared in front of the computer. She was obviously sleeping well, so why did she suddenly want to play on the computer.
Sagiri immediately threw herself on her mother's body, rubbed her and said coquettishly: "Mom, I get it, then you have to sleep with me!"
"Okay, okay..."
... ..
At this moment, not only Sagiri and the other girls, but also Lily and Gabriel, who were all standing on the street, looked up and looked at the silver moon on the silver screen.
They didn't understand why they were here, but the next moment, a teardrop fell to the ground along the faces of the girls.
They all knelt down on the ground weakly, frowning, and even felt as if they were mentally ill, and they didn't understand why they were crying.
But they always felt that they seemed to have forgotten something just now, but they couldn't remember it anyway.
But they know that they have forgotten that this person must be the most important person to them...