Chapter 8: Rock Hell
"We seem to have finally come out. The group walked for a long time through the boulder forest and came to the outside of the stone forest, and Anne couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"This place is the edge of a rock hell no matter how you look at it!" Mr. Hat's voice sounded, and Anne carefully reviewed the Boulder Grove.
"Mr. Hat, I didn't feel it in the stone forest just now, but now when I come out and look back, I feel that the stones have been deliberately placed like this. "Anne had this strange feeling for no apparent reason.
"This stone forest was originally a magic array, so there's nothing to make a fuss about. Mr. Hat's tone revealed a hint of disgust. "If you go any further, you will probably come across a bunch of walking corpses! Elf, don't be scared!"
"I'm very bold!" the elf said in a torn throat, at first with a fierce momentum, but after a few words, it slowly lost its voice.
"Hahahaha!" Mr. Hat couldn't hold back and laughed. Anne was also amused by the cute appearance of the elf. The atmosphere was a little lively at the moment.
"Babble!" After a few minutes of laughter, Dumb's voice rang out, and he was seen pointing to the mountains in the distance.
Anne followed the direction of Dumb's finger and watched carefully.
"There seems to be someone on the top of these mountains!" Anne recalls Mr. Hat's earlier lecture on Iwa Hell. "They're the ones who push the stones!" Anne looked at the scene in front of her.
"These people are so hard!" the men struggled to push the boulders much higher than herself, and Anne felt like she was looking stupid.
"Aren't humans such stupid creatures?" said Mr. Hat unhurriedly.
"Actually, I don't quite understand the kind of divinity that you are talking about, which is beyond human nature. There are no feelings, no joy and no pain, and it feels horrible to think about. Anne's eyes widened, remembering what Mr. Hat had said.
"You've been through too little. People who have experienced strong winds and waves are really unfazed in the end, as if they don't care about anything. It seems ruthless, but in fact, they understand that superfluous feelings do not help things in any way, but only add useless troubles to themselves. Mr. Hat stopped as he spoke. After a while, he burst out laughing. "I'm dizzy too. So much to tell you. That kind of realm where you are not shocked, you little girl should not reach it. The frustration and pain experienced by those who have reached that state are not something that ordinary people can bear. Most of them have experienced the test of life and death, the betrayal of their companions, and the hidden arrows behind them. When you're with Dumb, it's hard to feel this. It's hard to say, though. It's up to you to see what you encounter in the future. ”
"Babble!" Dumb said at this time, probably expressing his opinion. It's a pity that everyone doesn't understand.
"Alright, let's move on. Where the archangel is is really a question. Let's walk around and see if we can run into him. But Iwakehell is really a place of evil. The place is messy and there is no one set order. There is a high chance that we will encounter unexpected dangers. Any creature we encounter here, we should be a little wary. Mr. Hat kindly reminded.
The next few seemed to be silent, and continued to walk forward with their heads bowed. It was only then that Anne sensed the strangeness of Iwa Hell.
"The scenery around is like a phantom!" Anne kept thinking back to the road she had traveled before, feeling that no matter how she thought about it, looking back, it seemed that there was no trace of the road before. "It's not been long since I walked out of the boulder forest, and now I can't even see the shadow of the stone forest. There's nothing around to obscure your view!Why is this happening?"
Looking at Dumb walking in front, "Jax seems to know the way here, how did he find the way in this phantom environment?"
"It's like walking into a forest now. Anne looked back in a daze. As a result, Anne found that there were only two forks in the road left, and the trees and other scenes she had just seen on the side of the road had now disappeared.
"Mr. Hat!" Anne couldn't bear it anymore, and her tone was a little alarmed,
"What the hell is all this fuss about!" said Mr. Hat, with a slightly impatient tone.
"There's no way back!" Anne thought about it, and finally felt that expressing it like this might best explain her mood at the moment.
"If you don't have it, there's no more, so what?" said Mr. Hat, in a completely uncaring tone, "we're just going forward, and we don't need to go back and find a new way." And in the rock hell, you can never get back where you used to be. I think you're tired of walking, so sit on top of Little Doudou. And the elves, you both sit on them, so that you don't run into any danger on the way. ”
Listening to Mr. Hat's words, Anne thought for a moment and pulled the elf to sit on the three-headed dog together.
Dumb is still leading the way in front of him as before.
The phantom-like scenery around kept changing as several people moved forward, and Anne looked at the constantly changing scenery, slowly getting used to it, and did not have the panic at the beginning.
As she walked, a mushroom the size of a stool in front of the road caught Anne's attention.
"Wow, whoa, whoa," like the sound of a child crying, came from the mushroom.
"Jakes!" Anne tried to warn Dumb about the mushroom. But Dumb didn't seem to care, and continued to walk forward with his head down. When Dumb walked up to the mushroom, the mushroom jumped up as if it had grown legs, stretched out its limbs, and clung to Dumb's body. Then Anne noticed that the head of the mushroom had taken on the form of a sinister old witch.
"You scoundrel dare to hurt me, I will eat your heart and liver as compensation!" the old witch screamed insidiously, and Anne felt a pang of disgust as she looked at her wrinkled, wicked face.
"Jakes!" Anne exclaimed, watching Dumb try to push the old witch away, but the old witch seemed to be glued to Dumb's body, and Dumb didn't push it off for a long time. I saw the old witch open her mouth wide, revealing the sharp teeth inside, and the mouth grew bigger and bigger, until finally the old witch's face turned into a big toad. The teeth are getting closer and closer to Dumb's body. Dumb couldn't push it away, so he had to break the old witch's teeth with his hand to keep them from coming together.
"Jakes!" Annie struggled to get off the three-headed dog and help the dumb. But Mr. Hat said, "Annie, don't move, don't make trouble for Dumb." "It's stopped.
Dumb and the strange old witch seemed to be in a stalemate at this time. Dumb pushed hard, but he couldn't push the old witch away, and the old witch couldn't bite Dumb with her big mouth open.
"Mr. Hat, is it really good not to help Jakes like this? I feel like he's having a hard time dealing with this monster. Anne was afraid of causing trouble to Dumb, so she didn't step forward. But when I saw the scene in front of me, I couldn't help but worry.
"You think too much, it's not Dumb who is really dangerous, but this monster who doesn't know what kind of creature it is. Mr. Hat's tone was steady, and he was not worried at all. "Okay, dumb, you two have been in a stalemate here for a long time. I know that you are merciful and do not want to harm life, so you can't bear to kill you. But if such a harmful thing is on the side of the road, it is very likely that other people will be harmed by it. Pick up a creature that is harmful, but can help others. Although it is cruel, it cannot be said to be a sin. ”
After listening to Mr. Hat's words, Dumb and the old witch paused for a moment in the stalemate.
"Babble!" Dumb let out a sympathetic voice after a long wait, and then tore the old witch from the mouth as if he had casually broken the trap. The old witch's body flowed out of the green disgusting juice and splashed on Dumb's body.
"Babble!" Dumb said something, and he couldn't help but want to shed tears.
"Although I can't bear it, but dumb, in this situation just now, you can't push away that disgusting monster. If you don't kill it, it eats you. It's a brutal reality. Mr. Hat comforted Dumb.
"Little brother, don't be sad. The youkai was a mushroom that preyed on other creatures. They will dress up as the pups of other animals, or pretend to be pitiful, just to make the prey feel sympathetic and unable to resist them. It's just a mushroom, you don't have to be sad anymore. The elf's voice startled Mr. Hat.
"I didn't expect you little elf to know a lot. Mr. Hat said in a mocking tone, **Elf.
"Hmph, old monster!" the elf rolled his eyes, meaning to let Mr. Hat himself understand what it meant.
"Okay, okay, let's find something to wipe it, this thing was disgusting just now. Squirting out a bunch of green stuff and splashing it all on me, "Mr. Hat became more and more disgusted, and finally made a vomiting sound.
"Well deserved!" the elf said in a gloating tone. In the time she screamed happily, Anne had already gotten off the three-headed dog and tore some leaves from the surrounding trees to help Dumb wipe away the disgusting green juice.
"Babble!" Dumb presumably thanked Anne gratefully, but Anne didn't understand and smiled faintly.
"It looks like this thing will evaporate on its own, and I feel like this weird green juice on my body has disappeared a lot on its own. Mr. Hat's voice rang out.
"Let's get out of this place quickly. The sap that mushrooms emit when they die might attract strange things, so we'd better get out of here. The elf said a very troublesome possibility, reminding everyone.