Adrian Cross has mixed feelings.
There will be countless unimaginable situations on the battlefield, and he has the ability to force his emotions to stabilize. It's a pity that all his share of calm today went to Jesse Dillon.
Jesse Dylan confided the truth, revealing his true emotions for the first time.
However, as a believer, Adrian's heart was filled with relief and relief. For the first time, he was satisfied with the fact that he was "born into the world". The world is not absolutely chaotic and unforgiving. In a sense, the existence of Jesse Dylan makes it a lot more romantic.
Those mischievous jokes, those provocative statements, and those specious and suspected acts of secretly guiding the tumbleweed have all been explained.
As a pure believer, he is already satisfied at this moment. Originally all he had was distant, unrequited feelings, nothing more.
But he looked at the behemoth's beautiful blue eyes that were slightly confused, and he always had the urge to touch it.
Adrian couldn't parse this subtle emotion—not exclusivity, not admiration, not grateful intimacy. He knew that his own ephemeral, the other's ancient, the world they were looking at was fundamentally different.
But he could see his god's furry face stretched out and his chin resting on the table in annoyance. Adrian found that the previous soft emotions were still there, and they did not shatter with the previous heart.
Mixed with humor, helplessness, peace and satisfaction, and the expectation of wanting to keep watching.
Whether warm or absurd, unpleasant or joyful. The memory soaked in emotion turned into a soft net, which firmly netted his whole heart - after all these days of entanglement, is he really still a "simple believer"
The ex-judgment knight's face was calm, and his right hand pressed on his chest relatively naturally. The miraculously revived heart was beating vigorously, a little too fast.
But before he could fully understand the definition of this feeling, another bomb exploded.
"He is the 'Demon King' as the surface calls it... and I still love him to this day." Oliver Ramon gave the answer to his question.
Adrian put his head on the round table, looked away from the beast-shaped god who was as quiet as a specimen, and subconsciously pinched his eyebrows. Unexpected, reasonable. If Mr. Wright is just an ordinary high-level demon, there is no reason for this one to follow them for so long.
If Nemo Wright were the new generation...
But Oliver didn't stop there.
"Nimo is the Demon Lord, the only Demon Lord."
The handsome and depressed young man turned the teacup in his hand uncomfortably, looked apologetically in Ann's direction, and continued to speak crazy words.
"Each generation of demon kings killed by the previous surface expeditions was just... a small piece of Nemo's flesh and blood, not his body. Just like Baglmore here, it is only the flesh and blood that carries the consciousness of the body. As the body The flat snake is now unconscious and is sleeping in the depths of the abyss."
Adrian crossed his fingers and frowned. The last joking look on Ann's face disappeared, and she folded her arms and bit her lower lip.
No more joking rhetoric, no one even said a word. The two senior fighters of the tumbleweed just cast their emotionless gazes over and motioned him to continue.
"That's why he saw through Dylan's identity and told me. In fact, he... After he found out about this, his first reaction was to tell you. I stopped him. The fundamental problem of this matter lies with me."
Oliver squeezed the delicate handle of the teacup.
He didn't hold back, from when Nemo began to suspect that he was the Demon Lord, to when Nemo sacrificed himself and sent the scout team from the explosion of the Destruction Circle. Oliver puts it all together, his voice is smooth, and his narration is skillful and methodical.
It's like remembering it a million times.
"…I can understand."
When Oliver picked up the teacup and moistened his throat with cold tea, Adrian said. He tried to digest the information that had just entered his brain, and they gave him a headache like a knife piercing his head - just accepting the identity of Jesse Dylan, his mind was already struggling on the edge of chaos.
"If you inform me about this in advance, I must report it to the Holy See. Assuming that Mr. Wright is really the devil I know, he cannot be stopped by just one person. Even if the prophecy does appear..."
Having said this, he frowned and looked at Oliver.
Ann did not speak. She was expressionless, and tapped her upper arm with the fingers of her right hand holding her arm.
"He didn't lie about Nemo Wright." Jesse finally said, "The other two of you, have you found out more or less? Guided by the 'King', blessed by the 'God', following the 'Star' Light-the three of us are at this table now. Mr. Ramon is the one the Radicals have been looking for."
Then the beast licked its nose.
"... I should have said this. But I don't want to give you false hope. Remember the blue bird in Vincent Town. The prophecy can be rewritten."
Oliver raised his face suddenly: "False hope?"
"Look, until now, you haven't had the heart to tell them the reality. Let me do it, not to mention our dear regimental commander now, I'm not Mr. Wright's opponent."
"False hope... Because that prophecy may only be aimed at the demon king who is 'flesh and blood', doesn't it include the demon king's body?" An asked with a calm expression, his tone was flawless, as if conducting a real negotiation. "I want to know the details."
The female warrior no longer showed all her emotions carelessly. At present, her sharp temperament has taken a lot inward, and Oliver can't see her feelings at the moment.
"Wait." Oliver reached out a hand, interrupting Ann's questioning.
"I'm going to say something very important. Personally, I don't want you to know about Nemo's identity. I'm just here to tell the truth, and that's enough. We can probably skip this topic. "
The ice-blue beast pupil turned around and looked at him with interest.
"You know that God exists, that you have fought with God, and that is enough," he repeated.
"I want to know, whatever it is," Ann insisted. "Oliver, I can probably guess your concern. Your father lost his morale because of this, right? But I think... no, I need to know. ."
Then she turned to Adrian's direction: "Cross, I don't want to involve you, you can avoid it."
The knight commander didn't move, he sat quietly in his position, not showing any intention of getting up.
So Ann turned in Jesse's direction again, raised her chin, and said in a neither humble nor arrogant tone: "To be honest, personally, I'm not that curious. I don't even want to know what the Demon King really looks like—but now I need to pay for this movie. The people of the land are in charge. Even if we're all just, um, lowly people."
"Please tell me, Jesse Dylan." She insisted not to call him "Dinny," with a bit of hard pride.
This time, Oliver didn't try to stop it.
"Land? Under twenty kilometers of rock formations, his body is there."
Seeing that Oliver didn't respond, Jesse flicked her fluffy tail and continued the interrupted topic without the usual schadenfreude in her voice.
"You and your subjects are stepping on his body, Miss Savage."
God's explanation was quite simple, and Jesse directly showed part of the information in the air.
In the illusion, the white monster curled up tightly, so quiet that it was not like a living thing. Several broad wings cover the back, like the petals covering the buds, with an inorganic beauty. At this size, the soil covering it was barely visible.
Oliver noticed the obvious difference - different from what he saw, in the picture shown to the two, Jesse Dylan concealed his own appearance.
The meeting stalled for the next half hour.
Adrian Cross stared at the void, obviously lost in thought. And Ann still didn't show the slightest emotion, she just turned her head sideways, looked through the large window of the conference room, and looked out at the golden leaves swaying and flickering in the wind.
The two veteran fighters didn't scream, didn't collapse. The two of them just had a bit of ash-like silence mixed in their temperament, and their bodies were as motionless as stone sculptures.
Jesse glanced at the current knight commander, his tail twitching even more anxiously.
Oliver didn't say a word either. He held the teacup he had already emptied and waited quietly for his companion to come back to his senses.
He knew the possible psychology of his companions, and once they all thought that the world they saw was everything.
The sky will not fall and the earth will not split. People have an inexplicable self-confidence that they can get through the next day as they should. The most to worry about is war and disease. As for those earth-shaking, apocalyptic disasters, they exist only in the absurd stories of bards.
They firmly believe that they will die in an ordinary way, with little serious thought about the crimes committed by the species.
But reality doesn't cease to exist just because people choose not to see it. The monster he loves has been curled up under the ground for hundreds of millions of years, and he has only just learned of it for a few days, and he will be in a trance for a few seconds even before stepping on the ground.
Children ran past him laughing and laughing; vendors drove their carriages, worrying about their business; young people kissed behind the bushes and hugged each other carelessly. But looking at the ground under his feet, he wondered if the world would be doomed in the next second.
The ignorant are fearless, but those who do not understand fear may live a more stable and happy life.
How cruel.
Seeing that it would take half an hour, the silence was likely to spread indefinitely, and Jesse was the first to speak.
"Mr. Wright is not the first Pillar of the World I've seen. To be precise, he's the second. Oliver Ramon, I've seen something very similar, except last time, the 'Nature God' was born by accident. No love for the Pillars of the World."
The white beast habitually showed its fangs, but then he seemed to think of something, and immediately retracted his fangs. Looking a little uncomfortable.
"Then what?" Oliver snapped the teacup in his hand, but the fragments failed to scratch him.
"Unlike the prudent Mr. Wright, the Pillar of the World once slept for so long that it failed to find a life that broke the upper limit of power. Now you should know that, as the true kind of all things in the world - if you want, you are not interested in power The utilization rate will be dozens of times higher than me and Wright. The same is true for that 'Nature God'."
Jesse's voice was cold and calm.
"He couldn't wait to get stronger, and just like you, he discovered the truth of the world. He was terrified, and desperately drained the power of life on the surface, trying to kill the still sleeping Pillars of the world as soon as possible, so that the world would last forever. Ah. , the 'surface' over there honors him as a hero, his last hope."
Oliver clenched the shard in his hand unconsciously. Adrian was still thinking, but Ann looked away from the window and turned to this side again.
"He did succeed, spending years on the surface. The new god developed enough destructive spells, something like a potent poison. Under the watchful eyes of all those in power on the surface, he activated the spell— That spell hurts the Pillars of the World."
Jessie narrowed her eyes.
"It woke up, struggling in agony, convulsing for a long time before dying. Long enough to completely shatter the rock formation on it to powder."
"… "
"Yes, that world is destroyed. So as a bystander, I have to find another world suitable for survival. This time I should be bystander to the end."
The long white tail swept in the direction of the knight commander intentionally or unintentionally.
"As someone who has come here, let me give you a piece of advice, Oliver Ramon. You don't want to hurt the Pillars of the World below, but you want to keep the surface peaceful. Right? What a greedy guy."
"If you really want to have both, then don't continue to become stronger, don't continue to fight, and don't develop your own family. If the one in the ground still has a little bit of similar feelings, it may be seen in this memory. For the sake of not seeing you as a threat - your best bet is 'do nothing'."
"I don't think so." Oliver clenched his fists.
"If you are really willing to give up everything for the so-called 'love', you will not have a meeting with the members here now. You should have rushed to the bottom of the abyss and confirmed the situation of Mr. Wright. You know very well, La Monsieur - aware of the fact that 'Nimo Wright is probably no longer'."
"Do not."
Oliver squeezed the tiles out of the wound one by one and responded quickly.
"Because I promised Nemo that if he really wanted to destroy the surface, I would kill him. You're so right, Dylan. I wanted to rush in right away, I wanted to say 'I believe my Nemo will still be there. In'...I still believe so to this day."
"Trust is a good thing." The head of the tumbleweed looked at the old wound on his hand. "But reality won't respond to my wishful thinking, I promised Nemo - it's definitely my duty to consider all possibilities so well."
This is no longer between him and Nemo, whether he wants to or not, the "world" has become a bargaining chip. The chips were so heavy that it made his heart throb.
He couldn't even give up on himself easily.
Just like what I dreamed of when I was a child, I finally became a "hero" who could influence the world. But it made him unable to breathe.
"With all due respect, whether you admit it or not, now you and the 'Demon King' are playing a game. You can't see each other's chess pieces, you can only feel that you have lost something on your side."
Jesse's tail twitched harder.
"If you want to choose to 'become stronger', strong enough to kill the opponent, you must plunder power from the Demon King. The Pillars of the World will perceive this plunder—how do you think he will judge? I'll tell you, once He judges you as a real threat, and he'll rush to the sun right away."
"Take a step back, a miracle really happened, Nemo Wright's feelings are still there, guess how he will judge? I said at the time that he probably needs to choose between 'Oliver Ramon' and 'Other Life on the Surface' One - if he decides that you are going to attack him, and he is not sure if you can kill him with one blow, he also needs to fight you to the death in order to maintain the civilization he has."
"Of course, of course - it's okay for one of you to give up your life first, if you want. But I don't think that's the outcome for either of you. I'll say it again, Mr. Ramon. Your best bet is 'do nothing'. , and then pray for the mercy of the Pillars of the World."
Oliver was silent for a long time.
"…I can't pray," he replied, "and I won't run away with death."
Adrian raised his head and fixed his eyes on Oliver. An Ze sighed deeply: "Do you have any ideas, Oliver?"
"No." Oliver stood up and walked over to Jesse. "But I'll think about it."
"The only thing I know right now is that I'm not strong enough to keep my promise. I'm the only one who could possibly kill him at the moment, right?"
"Yes."
"Very good." Oliver touched the hilt of the Sword of Rest with his right hand. "So far, I have only one choice. I need to get stronger, Jesse Dillon...I need your help."
The white giant finally lifted its chin from the round table. He sniffed and thought for ten minutes.
"Yes," the beast said casually, "but you may be killed by me first, and even so, would you like to?"
"Um."