act49side

Urkh—

Pathetic... Just as I expected. The exact same ending, once again.

You were not bad entertainment, by my standards.

But let us end it here... I must also thank you for this grand... gift you have given me.

With your strength, I shall be able to fully awaken, and devour the power of you twelve whole.

The strength you have gathered over the past thousand years shall be my nutrients, and I shall become strong, far, far stronger than I was a thousand years ago.

I shall become a true god! I shall rule over this land, and lead all those weak insects in breaking through the curtain separating us from the stars, stepping over the ultimate darkness!

With your combined strength... I shall see and obtain that future.

And you, as a part of me, may use my eyes to see it.

Foolish... dreamer...

...Why resist? You will be like that consciousness you call a 'younger sister', returning to where you should be, returning to the primal chaos you came from.

The dream you twelve have been stubbornly chasing after shall be realized within that chaos.

No need for hellish preparations. No need for wasteful schemes. No need for fragile freedom.

You will be me. You will be us.

A great, illogical terror intrudes upon the proxy's mind. His heartbeat quickens, as cold sweat drips down his brow. His body dearly wishes to leap away, but he cannot even swivel his eyeballs.

A blessing.

Split consciousnesses returning to the whole would be the cruelest of blessings.

Abandon your desire for hardship, abandon your worthless obsessions, abandon those duties you bear, abandon those clumsy emotions you learned from wretched humanity.

Abandon that which consumes you. Embrace that which nourishes you.

Suffering must be eliminated. You shall become a keepsake within my great consciousness, a futile... yet respectable memento of the past.

Suffering... eliminated?

Pain seeps down from his skin into his marrow. Terror spreads across his body from his backbone. What the proxy can see slowly begins to blur.

Close your eyes.

Yes, close them. You do not need your own, for my eyes are your eyes.

No need to hesitate... Have you not thought this from the very beginning?

The mortal realm does not seem as interesting as your siblings said it was—

...Hmph. Why is this rebellious heart of yours so hard to tame?

No matter. Simply yet another tangled consciousness to slowly digest.

From this thousand-year-long dream...

...I shall finally awaken.

No...

...NO!

It thought It had crushed that shard of consciousness...

But It does not sense Its scattered strength from a hundred-and-twenty years ago flow back into Its body.

What does this mean...

Why... am I still in the dream?!

The poet lifts the wine cup in her hand, but not to offer it to the heavens, but rather, to pour it upon the ground.

The wine falls, splashing across the yellow soil, becoming a drifting cloud of dust.

Near a winter and a summer since we parted in Shangshu.

Ever since, I had no time to dream of you, for in the lands of man are many things worth dreaming of more.

As for you...

...Hah.

Using dream, using imagination, using things yet to pass to prevail? Verily, you and he are evenly matched, on par with one another...

But I seem to see, amidst your bout, many of my tales emplaced?

...Who could see a gulper of cups, become now a sorrowful drunk?

The poems of others are fine, but at such a juncture, their styles shall not do.

I shall help you change a line. How about...

After rain's end, petals fall beyond count... In wine's embrace, thy freedom is found'?

What say you, sister dearest?

The words of others are fine indeed, and its flow is pleasing, but when you are the one chanting it, it flows far too free, as if you are uninvolved.

Haha, you, me, Jie, Dusk, consensus has always been out of our reach.

Then why not have it be your turn to sing a song, for the me that we share? How about it?

No.

Still unwilling to break your vow?

Jie still has not returned.

However, I shall play for you.

The bloody battlefield is flooded by a peaceful stream. The ripples upon the water quiver, becoming a pair of giant eyes.

Even from within the water, those eyes stare at everything around it. Fierce, pained, near-crazed eyes.

Yet even so, the musician lightly plucks her strings.

Ah, this tune.

It seems that, rather than being unfond of wine, dear Jun, you are simply...

In the middle of the river, the poet toasts alongside the tune, her cheeks flushed red.

She does not chant to match the tune, but with a bright, clear voice. Yet even so, it is in perfect harmony with the tranquil music.

The stars in the sky spin along to the poet and the musician, blending together into a pool of sweet water. From that water appear wines, some bitter, some fragrant.

Even those great eyes begin to show signs of intoxication.

I invite you to share one last cup of wine...

At some point, the tones that started off high and steep gradually deepened, going from near-inaudible to an inescapable bass, lingering within the water.

As for the simple sounds of the instrument, no longer are they quiet and mellow. It is as if only a tenth of the strings were silk, the rest three parts longing, three parts grief, and three parts determination.

But in contrast, the poet's recitation grows lighter, higher, as if a whisper, as if a consolation, as if a torrent of rain. Flicking it away will only serve to wet your clothes.

One low, one high. One disciplined, one unrestrained.

The woman's voice merges with the voice of the instrument, weaving a dream fit to entomb a Feranmut.

I invite you to share one last cup of wine...

...For beyond the western pass there are no more of mine...

You... You...!

You dare... You dare use such tricks against me?!

The furious Feranmut lifts Its head, attempting to discern the source of the sound, but to no avail.

Its giant, bloodshot eyes first flick towards the proxy, still shackled to the ground. After a moment of quiet, It finally realizes that this dream will not be so easy to break free from.

It does not care if this is the last of the power of the proxy that is here, or interference from proxies far away.

Those great eyes staring at the outside world watch the dream that Ling and Jun weave...

As they watch back.

Within that confrontation that never happened, Its actions, Its moves, Its weak points, even Its psyche. They have seen it all. He has seen it all.

Such base deception, such pointless struggles!

Before I have my vengeance on Yan, I should kill you all first, one by one!

...You will not have the chance.

From now on, there is only my... our vengeance against you.

Absurd... Ridiculous!

Your so-called 'sisters' may have deceived me with dreams, and cracked open your shackles, but do you not feel how weak your body is, unfettered though it may be?

This time, I shall crush you, and your miserable schemes!

In that instant of fear and anger, Its enormous body, as great as a mountain, shifts a fraction of an inch.

The entire room begins to shatter into rubble. The great structure that suppressed Sui gradually crumbles, and collapses...

Save me... Save me!

They're back! Those monsters from a hundred years ago are back!

Don't panic, don't panic... Form an orderly line, and walk cautiously...

Why aren't you listening to me?! Oh, what to do, what to do...

Mr. Pu!

Why are there still so many townsfolk who have not evacuated yet?

There are still many geists here—

Stay your hand, Tianshi!

They are not geists born from the turmoil in the Tomb, but rather, the original 'townsfolk'...

They are... the students of the School?