In the palace stagnant in the dusk, the corridors are long and deep, the halls are spacious and empty, whispers from unknown sources echo lowly behind every door, as if countless invisible guests are gathering in this ancient and illusory palace, While continuing their never-ending banquet, they scrutinized the visitors who entered the palace with malicious intent.
The footsteps of Rosetta Augustus suddenly sounded in the empty corridor.
The ruler of the Typhon Empire walked along the corridor that he had walked countless times, as if he didn't hear the strange whispers coming from around him, his figure stood in the hallway where the twilight light was shining. Shadows of different lengths were cast under the narrow window. After each shadow emerged, it trembled slightly as if it was about to come alive, but gradually returned to calm under the ignorance of the emperor.
He came to the deepest room of the palace, to the place where portraits of successive members of the Augustus family hung.
A series of expressionless faces were inlaid in the dark picture frames, staring at Rosetta Augustus with indifferent eyes, some of the images in the picture frames came alive, whispering to the next picture frame, A muffled murmur that didn't sound like a human voice.
Those "living" picture frames, without exception, are members of Augustus in the last two hundred years, after the collapse of the old imperial capital, and after the curse fell, the Augustus were born active.
Those who were active between seven hundred years ago and two hundred years ago just stayed quietly in the picture frame, acting as cold portraits.
Rosetta is used to this.
Nightmare is the product of the curse, and it is also a reflection of the spiritual world of the cursed. It is based on the collapse of the old imperial capital two hundred years ago. Before the collapse, the souls of the Augustus were free, and nightmares can only be projected. Out of the illusion of soullessness, the Augustus after the Great Collapse were trapped in this dream world, which became the root of many weirdnesses here, and made this nightmare world even more weird and dangerous.
Rosetta glanced over the portraits that came to life, with a cold expression.
Those were his parents, grandparents, some were the people closest to him in childhood, and some were the prototypes of the heroic stories he had heard since he was a child, but that was what happened before they were alive—now, they are just the members of this weird dream palace. Part of it is a part of this curse. In them, any expectation of family affection and humanity will lead to an early tragic ending. This is the experience and lessons summed up by generations of members of the Augustus family with their lives.
But as long as you keep your sanity and restrain your greed and aggressiveness, the shadows in these nightmares will have other uses.
In the portraits brought to life, Rosetta’s grandfather, the wise George Augustus the Great, seemed to have noticed something, his pale and shriveled face turned, and his eyes fell on Rosetta Augustus , the low and weird grunt turned into a human-recognizable voice: "Ah, look who's here... my dear grandson... are you okay?"
Another portrait next to him also came alive, and he glanced at Rosetta: "It doesn't look very good, look at how tired he is, it's not so easy to rule an empire. Child, you should learn to regulate your state, don't Spend your life early."
Several other portraits nearby immediately joined in.
Rosetta ignored these buzzing conversations, and just said indifferently: "This palace appears more and more frequently, what changes does it indicate?"
"It's so indifferent..." the portraits said one after another.
Rosetta just looked at them blankly.
"What change do you want? Do you want to be closer to us?" Emperor George Augustus laughed hoarsely and lowly. "It's a pity that although we also want the day of family reunion to come soon, you still refuse It's very good, this nightmare is far away from you..."
"But there are other things that are getting closer and closer to the real world you are in..." another portrait added next to it.
"Something else? What?" Rosetta frowned. "Any other 'God's Legacy'?"
"Then we don't know..." Marjorie Augustus, who was next to George Augustus, muttered, "But it seems to be different from ours... It's some kind of similarity in personality, and the same power Similar things, but they are just similar. Perhaps it is because of this 'similarity' that we have a sense of touch, and it also activates the curse on your body."
Listening to these vague words and thinking about the corresponding clues in the real world, Rosetta frowned tightly. At the same time, he also heard the voice of his father, Marjorie Augustus It came again: "All in all, you should be more careful recently. It seems that the real world you live in will undergo some changes. It may not be aimed at you, but its mere existence is enough to threaten you."
George Augustus also said: "We can't help you in the real world here 'inside', but we will try our best to expand the induction and look for its clues, and at the same time, we will also search as deep as possible in the dreams and illusions of history. Clues, maybe...can help you."
Rosetta raised her head, looked at her father and grandfather, looked at those more ancient Augustus, watched them speak one after another, offered advice, watched them fall into lively discussions and make suggestions for themselves, he But he just maintained a cold expression and took two steps back.
At the place where he was originally standing, the patterned stone bricks had already been filled with a layer of ink color at some point, and countless tentacles-like wriggling things with a little bit of starlight squirmed and extended out of the ink color, blending with the surrounding air. More shadows emerged to form a connection, dancing as if to grab hold of something.
"I won't bother you to do more things," Rosetta said in a cold tone, "It's better to return to the dream world."
Those dark tentacles with a little bit of starlight instantly accelerated their dancing speed, as if falling into a frenzy, and those portraits who were talking to Rosetta gently and enthusiastically offering help a moment ago glared at her in unison. , a pair of eyes turned bloody at the same time, each face became hideous at the same time, each voice rebuked loudly with anger:
"Damn you! We want to help you so much!"
"We are full of good intentions, but you are only jealous—you are destined to be an unrighteous tyrant, a fatuous king who has betrayed the teachings of our ancestors!"
"You will be spurned by your subjects. You will bring nothing but corruption to this empire, and its only path forward will be destruction!"
"Come back, go back to your family, go back to your father and grandfather, only we are your real family, see yourself clearly!"
The reprimands became louder and louder, gradually mixed together, and gradually turned into incomprehensible murmurs and ear-piercing screams, but Rosetta Augustus just frowned and stepped back quickly step by step. More and more tentacles emerged in the air, as if frantically wanting to bind him to this place, but those tentacles disintegrated before they touched Rosetta, and turned into a cloud of dust, just like things in a dream that cannot Hurt the living people in the real world and return in vain.
But Rosetta knows that as long as he has the slightest hesitation, the slightest weakness and compromise, these tentacles will not be so "harmless".
He retreated to the door at last, out of the reach of the portraits.
"I'm sure your help is genuine - but it would be better if you didn't want me to be 'family reunited' with you so much."
After leaving a word with a sarcasm on his face, he decisively left the room.
The door in the dream was slammed shut, completely blocking the chaotic and crazy whispers in the room on the other side of the door.
Rosetta walked towards the outer area of the palace along the corridor she had come from.
On the walls on both sides of the corridor, the hanging portraits came alive one after another. The Augustus who lived in the past two hundred years appeared on the portraits one by one, sending all kinds of high praises to Rosetta who passed through the corridor. Cursing, or uttering weird whispers that make people drowsy and irritated, the evening light from outside the window swayed uneasy, as if the whole palace came alive and full of anger.
But in the end, nothing could hurt Rosetta, who resolutely rejected this nightmare. The ruler of Typhon quickly left the most dangerous corridor and left the place where the portraits could gaze.
In the relatively "normal" long hall, those ubiquitous low-pitched, murmuring voices seemed much friendlier at the moment.
In the depths of the palace, a vague sigh came into Rosetta's ears, with helplessness in the sigh.
That was the source of the curse, the sigh of the real master of the palace.
For Rosetta, the best response to the owner of this voice is - don't respond to Him.
The evening light from outside the palace shone into the long hall through the tall glass windows, casting pale golden grilles in the hall. Compared with the previous moment, these lights no longer wavered.
Rosetta exhaled softly, preparing to leave this hall and return to the outer area of the palace.
But suddenly, his footsteps stopped, and his eyes fixed on a certain door on the side of the long hall—the handle of that door was turned, and then it was slowly pushed open a gap.
Rosetta's spirit tensed up instantly.
In this palace, every door means different degrees of danger, and those who open the door actively have the most complete malice.
But this is not necessarily the case. Sometimes the dreams of the members of the Augustus family will be connected. At that time, the person who pushes the door and appears may be...
A figure wearing a black complicated court dress, with black hair draped softly and decorated with thin golden chains, pushed open the door and appeared in front of Rosetta Augustus.
The Typhon ruler breathed a sigh of relief.
"Father?" Matilda was visibly nervous for a moment when she saw the figure in the hall, but she was relieved after confirming that it was Rosetta's face—surviving family members would not be such The evil spirit in the palace said, "Are you also... in a dream?"
"It seems that I fell asleep at the same time as you." Although Rosetta relaxed a little, she still looked dignified when facing her daughter, "It's already midnight here."
"I'm in the Imperial Capital of Cecil, just falling asleep, and it's still some time before midnight," Matilda said, "Did you do something here? I just felt that the palace suddenly became... extremely restless."
"I went to the deepest part and asked some questions," said Rosetta briefly. "They should be very angry by now."
"... Are you in danger?"
"Of course, there's no security here."
As soon as Rosetta finished speaking, a piercing scream suddenly came from the corridor leading to the deep area of the palace. Xu Xu's whispers fell silent for a short while.
But soon, the screeching sound disappeared, and everything returned to normal.
"...is your brother," Rosetta broke the silence after a few seconds of silence, "he is the 'latest one' here, and his voice can occasionally penetrate the barrier of the corridor and affect this side."
Matilda took a breath and couldn't help saying softly: "Brother..."
"He has left to become a part of this palace," Rosetta said solemnly and earnestly, "Matilda, always remember, remember the boundary between you and this palace, even if there is your brother here, there are Your grandfather, and your uncle and aunt, you also have to remember, they are all gone, they have become 'them', the evil spirits here, the dangerous existence that is always trying to drag you into the deepest .
"Only by keeping these in mind at all times can you be safe, and at some point in the future, after I also become a part of this palace, you can still live safely."
Matilda lowered her head: "...I will keep it in mind, Father."
The expression on Rosetta's face eased a little, and he nodded: "Since we met here, let's talk about your experience.
"What kind of place is Cecil in your eyes?"