When he first entered the garden area, what caught Joshua's eyes was the bright light and the green grass.
Artificial lights fell from the translucent glass dome, and he sensed the fresh air and ethereal music. The joyful singing of children was coming from the front.
Taking a step forward, he smelled the aroma of milk and honey, and the sweetness of fruits wafted in the breeze. Looking up, he saw flowers blooming on the grass, the colors blooming, and fruit trees scattered here and there, with a ripe fragrance. Coming from various fruits.
Everything is so beautiful, like heaven.
But these are not what Joshua is concerned about... The soldier's eyes were focused. He saw a lot, but also very little. He saw a group of children singing softly under the leadership of several soul puppets in the center of the garden. He saw something that made him speechless.
What Joshua saw was bone and skin.
It's bones. Joshua controlled the puppet body and took a step forward. He stepped from the white tiled avenue onto the green grass, causing the soil to dent. He looked around at the entire surrounding half of the garden area: the snow-white building surfaces, paved with The ceramic tiles made from bone powder and the artificial lamps hanging from the dome are completely modified from human skulls. The benches placed in the corners of the garden area are made of tibia and thigh bones bonded together. A fountain not far away The man-made hill in it is made of countless bones.
At this time, the children singing in the center of this beautiful garden were holding simple musical instruments. They were singing under the guidance of three soul puppets, reciting simple and beautiful songs, but strangely Yes, these children and puppets were not affected by Joshua's previous battle. The huge explosion could not even make them exert any energy. The soldiers could tell with just a glance what the musical instruments in the children's hands were. production.
It was bone and skin.
A girl about seven or eight years old smiled. She held a small double-sided drum in her hand. She beat it under the guidance of the soul puppet, making a rhythmic sound. The girl sang innocent songs, and the little girl sang innocent songs. The body of the small double-sided drum was cut and molded from the skulls of two children of about the same age as her, and then covered with a layer of human skin. A boy of about twelve years old sat next to the girl, playing a simple six-hole bone piccolo. No one knew which victim the material came from, but the melodious sound of the flute obscured everything.
"La la la la la... Let us continue this dream. Tomorrow will eventually come and continue to sing the melody..."
Sweet children's voices and crisp music lingered next to the sound wave receptor. Joshua did not look or listen any longer, because he discovered something even more incredible: on the side of the garden, to the left of the maintenance area and the medical area. On the side, a building made of alternating human bones and rocks is under construction. Its structure has been roughly erected, half of the outer layer has been coated with cement, and a small part of the bone meal tiles have been laid. When the soldier really looked at it carefully, he It was discovered that the material of the huge dome that looms over the entire garden area is also very familiar.
Joshua lowered his head in silence, and looked back at the group of Siberian children who were singing and playing. They were still playing cheerful games under the guidance of the soul puppet, holding bone and leather instruments and toys in their hands. And there is no doubt that these things are all derived from their kind.
Children won't care, they won't know if these things are made from the flesh of their parents, siblings... because they understand nothing, know nothing.
Until now, neither the three soul puppets nor the Siberia child paid any attention to the explosion next to them or Joshua's intentions, even if the warrior was striding towards them - until Joshua was standing in front of them, that The three puppets, who were constantly guiding the children through sound and hand and foot movements, turned their heads and made some unusually gentle sounds.
"No. Snova-21 Harvest Type, this is not a duty area."
"No. Snova-21 Harvest Type, go to the sixth maintenance area for repair."
"No. Snova-21 Harvest Type, go to the defense line of the breeding area to fight."
Emotional, extremely beautiful and magnetic voices came from these three obviously specially-made soul puppet speakers. They spoke to Joshua almost at the same time, repeating his mission. The warrior remained silent. He first glanced at the Siberian child who was still playing and singing a few meters away and had no reaction to the arrival of this giant, and then he stretched out his hand directly.
Click, click, click.
There were three crisp sounds in succession. Joshua, who was at least ten times more powerful than these puppets, crushed the heads of these three soul puppets without combat power and pulled them out. Following the lines, he directly destroyed their soul cores and returned these enslaved people to the unknown. How long does it take for the soul to be free.
And at the same time, the music stopped.
After destroying the three puppets, Joshua looked at the group of children... let's call them children. The warrior stared at these larvae of intelligent life of the Sibiya people. His mechanized gaze was just a pure red light flashing, but unique. The frequency represents Joshua’s complicated thoughts at this time.
After losing the guidance of the soul puppets, the light in all the children's eyes dimmed. Originally, although their movements were stiff and they looked like puppets even when they were playing, the light in their eyes at least made them look like a living being. But now, all the children have stopped playing their instruments, clapping their hands, and playing. The singing suddenly stopped, and the jumping people suddenly fell to the ground. Everyone lay down neatly, or lay on the grass, as if there was a power outage. They just stopped in place numbly, without any vitality.
Some of the children who were singing before were still spitting out lyrics intermittently, but everything was no longer coherent, as if a programming error had occurred.
"La la la... the future repeats... time pushes... tomorrow... yesterday... la, la, la..."
Like a machine that reported errors, these children gradually stopped making sounds. Only sporadic single sounds of 'bah', 'ah' and 'la' came out from their open mouths, just like simple vibrations of their vocal cords, without any meaning.
This kind of life... is not living at all.
Just the first moment he observed this scene, Joshua roughly understood the current situation. The mechanical body couldn't sigh, but Joshua's spirit still took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled. He originally thought that this might just be a mechanized soul factory, but he didn't expect that these puppets, or in other words, behind the puppets The existence is so thorough.
"Absurd world..."
The low voice slowly echoed in the garden area. The soldier shook his head. He could see that most of the decorations in the entire garden area and other sections were made of human skin and bones. They were white in texture and perfect in shape without deformity, as if they were made of human skin and bones. It was as if they had been carefully selected... It was only now that Joshua slowly realized why the outside of the garden was called a 'breeding area' and what the so-called 'consecration' was all about.
Besides plants, what else is good to cultivate? Of course they are humans... In this world that seems to have experienced the end of the world and the entire world has become desolate, apart from raising humans, what else can humans do to raise livestock? The number of these bones and human skins is astonishing, just like the ears of grain accumulated during the autumn harvest. Perhaps, in the eyes of those behind the scenes, the nature of humans in the breeding area is the same as that of vegetation, and has nothing to do with barley, wheat, or rice. The difference is that they are all sustainable resources that will grow again after being harvested.
Walking forward, Joshua came to a child with dull eyes. This was a boy of about thirteen years old. He was wearing a gray and white simple children's clothes, his eyes were dull, and he had no consciousness. He was simply breathing to stay alive, and his body showed no intention of moving, even when Joshua raised his index finger and tapped his forehead.
Silver mixed with purple and green flames flashed past.
Joshua used the power of the shards of steel to explore the child's soul, but he only saw an empty space - nothing, everything was blank. There seemed to be something wrong with the child's brain structure and soul structure, and the memory was lost to him. It seems that he only has seven seconds to speak. As long as it exceeds seven seconds, everything will be forgotten by him and he will return to a blank slate.
A blank slate of nothing.
Not knowing good or evil, good or bad, no wisdom, no will, naturally, no courage, no faith. There is no despair in nothingness, and naturally there is no hope. In this soul that has been deprived of imagination, association, and even all enlightenment knowledge, Joshua can find nothing. He stood up wordlessly and looked down. With a group of lying children under him, he wanted to feel a little sympathy and anger, but the warrior's reason did not feel that these 'things' were life.
What is the difference between a Siberian child who has no self-will and is like a broken doll except for having a soul and a body, and a real doll or puppet? They are just fleshy crops, seedlings waiting to be harvested.
In myths and legends, Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden. They knew no good, evil or shame, and lived happily under the guidance of God. They knew nothing and understood nothing, so they enjoyed the happiness called ignorance. But the snake tempted them to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which shattered their happiness and caused them to wander from Eden to the world.
Now, everything in the garden area merged together, reminding Joshua of the allusions in the myths of his previous life. He stared at the remains of the puppet that were still trembling, leaking engine oil and parts fragments, and the batches of swarms. The Siberian child fell on the ground, and the iron heart of the warrior who had experienced thousands of battlefields was trembling slightly.
If we say, the bliss of ignorance is Eden.
So, this is the worst kind of Eden.
a bit difficult to write
(End of chapter)