"What do you want to do?"

The moment the girl stretched out her hand, she ducked backwards, Merlin would not forget that she was on enemy territory, and that she was the one who had brought her here. Although he wasn't afraid of what Adelaide would do to him, the reflex was just that. What's more, he probably didn't have the heart to aim his magic at such a child who didn't look like he was even ten years old.

But he didn't care about the undisguised vigilance in the mage's eyes. The blue-eyed girl still stubbornly stretched out her hand, through the cold iron bar, as if she wanted to grasp something, but only held a hand of nothingness.

After such a stalemate for a while, it was probably found that Merlin did not seem to have any intention of letting down his guard against her. Adelaide tilted her head, thought for a moment, tapped her finger at the corner of her forehead, and then looked at the dark-haired boy she had brought back with wide eyes, her gaze clean and clear.

Just like many, many years ago, she stood in front of the same iron bar, looking at the desperate teenager huddled in the dark.

"You want to spy on my mind?" Naturally, he noticed Adelaide's body movements, and after thinking for a while, Merlin subconsciously frowned, and his face was even more vigilant.

Wrong.

He shook his head, but still didn't speak. The girl pursed the corners of her mouth, and the fingers placed on her forehead lifted slightly, pointing in Merlin's direction.

I want you to read my memories.

It seems that the big boy has never been treated as an enemy, and he has never thought about what this request means. Adelaide just stood still, silently waiting under the mage's complicated gaze for a moment, stubbornly begging for an answer from the man in front of him.

Obviously, I didn't expect the little girl to play her cards so unreasonably. Although he is not a psychic person, Merlin also knows more or less that opening his brain to others is a big risk, and in general, if it is not for the trust of the other party, it is absolutely impossible to take the initiative to ask for this, not to mention that they are now clearly on opposite positions, no matter from which point of view, Adelaide's move seems too abnormal.

"What are you going to show me?"

The brows furrowed even tighter, and he really couldn't hold whether the girl was too young to understand this or was instructed by Yi Laizhe to have other plans. Merlin was silent for a long time, and it was only after Adelaide began to beat impatiently on the iron bar between them that the archmage finally took a deep breath and asked tentatively.

And to his surprise. This time, the girl opened her mouth without hesitation, and her voice was immature and crisp, like a clear spring flowing in the deep forest:

"West." She said so.

Staring at the mage's dilated pupils, Adelaide reached out to him once more. The green eyes were as clean and pure, reflecting his thin and prominent cheekbones, but Merlin vaguely felt that there were more of them, obviously the figure of another person. After twenty years of time that cannot be crossed, even if things are no longer human, she can easily see the past that only belongs to them.

There are some things that can never be forgotten by the hermit alone.

Breathless, as if bewitched by this name. The mage raised his head, looked at the clarity of the girl's eyes without half a haze, and finally nodded slowly.

… …

There must be a place in everyone's life that is worth stopping in order to learn how to move forward without losing their way.

At least until then, Merlin had always thought so. Thousands of years of time, there is no end to reincarnation and pursuit, and even the most ignorant people are inevitably dyed gray by fate. What's more, he has always been sensitive, and many things, even those that were once the most annoying, have to learn to be with them in the long loneliness.

After all, warmth and comfort should not be given to you by others, but by yourself. Because many times in the lives of the Eternals are covered in large areas of gray, so that the color of the faults on those roads is actually more like the mercy of fate on the whim.

He's lost so much. Therefore, no matter how lukewarm as water is on the outside, Merlin still has more attachment to everything in the palm of his hand than anyone can imagine.

In contrast to the Archmage, she has been brilliant in Adelaide's life so far. Even if she died in that accident in the end, some people have always put her in the most important position in their hearts, reversed the years, and forcibly lived the bright future into atonement for the past.

She didn't have a lot either. But even then, even if it was just West, it was enough for Merlin to convince himself with all his strength not to be ugly and jealous.

There is no doubt that they were once the most special in each other's eyes.

Looking at everything about the boy in the blue-eyed girl's memory, the mage thought so faintly. The desperation and persistence of grasping every ray of light in the darkness, even if they are in prison, every day may be the last countdown to life, and the boy and girl are desperate to get closer to each other. Until the final life and death, just a few months, but enough to change all the future in the future.

"Hello, I'm Adelaide."

With a slam in his hand, the blade between his fingers trembled and disappeared into the darkness, leaving only a crisp thud on the ground. When Adelaide chose to stand in front of West that day, and with a little curiosity called out to the hermit who had already existed, whether their encounter was intentional or not, whether it was designed by Elizhe or not, it was no longer possible to stop the flow of fate.

The girl's memory is not long.

Compared to the desperate hatred he had felt in his dreams, which belonged to West Xavier, Adelaide was too calm. After all, she was only a child less than ten years old, and she had never really felt the malice of this world, so she still kept falling on the dark and damp dungeons around her with her innocent gaze, and on the numb expressions of the test subjects who were imprisoned here, becoming the only hope in hell on earth that had never been extinguished.

Therefore, such a dazzling bright light in the darkness can naturally attract West. He wanted to get closer, and Adelaide began to like this extraordinarily gentle and reliable teenager. It couldn't be easier to subdue a little girl's heart, a fairy tale, a smile is enough to be the bright color she longs forward to in this dimly lit dungeon.

However, in this dark despair, their peaceful life was already destined to be impossible to last.

Merlin shuddered as the blue-eyed girl's memories flowed to the last sword-to-sword hatred. Even though he knew that this was all in the past, looking at West's pained expression, he still felt that his whole heart was being burned mercilessly. Until the hermit ran out in a desperate situation and accidentally took Adelaide's life, the girl's memory came to an abrupt end, and for her, these few months were already her own short and regrettable life.

Withdraw from feelings that can almost make him empathize. The mage's eyes widened, and he looked at Adelaide, who still had no expression in front of him, and his expression was a little dazed.

- Why don't you trust him?

As if bewitched by the overwhelming sadness in his memory, the mage's eyes lost focus for a few seconds. Although he didn't say anything, he knew that the sighs and questions that raged in his heart had long been nowhere to hide in the girl's eyes.

He stood still and did not move, nor did he defend himself. Adelaide pursed the corners of his lips, and in the blink of an eye, a completely different view flashed again, pulling Merlin once again into the past he longed to know.

This time, the mage saw clearly, and the background of his memory was no longer the dark and almost suffocating dungeon, but the blue sky that had not been seen for a long time, and the undulating snow-capped ridges on the horizon.

"Did you really decide to do this?" Standing on the shore of Lake Lugano, a deep male voice drifts in every inch of coldness with the wind. Magneto turned his head to look at the emaciated adopted son beside him, and was silent for a long time, and finally couldn't help but sigh.

"I don't have any other way to go."

The voice was hoarse and depressed, with obvious desperation. West looked down at the girl in his arms, who was covered in bright red but was so peaceful that it seemed to be just a deep sleep, and closed his eyes, his brow furrowed.

This was clearly not Adelaide's own experience, Merlin was stunned. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it West's memory.

"You can choose to take her back." Glancing at him, Eric shook his head imperceptibly: "If it would make you better to be buried somewhere you can see, I don't think Charles would refuse." ”

It seems that he wants to smile, but he can't bend the corners of his heavy mouth. The boy looked at the vast and deep water in front of him, reflecting the snow on the top of the Alps that did not spend all year round, and there was a bitterness in his eyes.

"But she'll love it more than me."

A cool, chilly air stream whistling from the Alpine ridge blows over the snow thistles that bloom on the shores of Lake Lugano. The white petals are swept into the lake by the wind, like a white sail sailing to the end of time, which is too suitable for carrying an innocent and immaculate soul into eternal sleep.

Walking forward under Magneto's knowing gaze, West walked to the shore of the lake and slowly leaned over. The girl's light-colored clothes were rippled open, and they exuded a crimson like clusters of flames burning in the snow. He gently hugged the thin body of the sleeping man and dipped it in the cold water.

The clear water of the lake, which melted from the top of the mountain, gradually submerged everything in her. The pressure of the water overflowed the blue eyes that would never be opened again, enveloping the girl in a silence that would never be disturbed again. Only her cold right hand was still clenched tightly in the young man's palm.

"I'll come and see you."

He stared at Adelaide's sleeping face and gently dropped a kiss on her forehead. Then, let go of your hands.

At that moment, watching the girl slowly sink and disappear all traces of her former existence, the boy finally turned his head, and the glittering crystals under his eyes were all exposed to the sun, and there was nowhere to hide.

It was the first time Merlin had seen West cry like a child. Facing the empty lake, at the desolate and silent water's edge, he buried his face deep in the palm of his hand, and his broken choked throat drifted along the wind in the depths of the Alps, which would be more heart-rending despair than a howl.

Just like Freya, who had seen off him many, many years ago on the shores of Lake Avalon.

A vain, a big dream.

The illusion that you can't get, the infatuation that you can't forget, and the memories that you can't let go. Then, it all became a poison that could never be quit again.

"So, what exactly are you trying to tell me?"

The heart seems to be being burned by fire, steaming out all the nutrients that life has accumulated. Merlin turned his head, Adelaide's psychic ability faded in an instant under the impact of magic, and in the blink of an eye, he was back in the dungeon that he had been familiar with for the past few days.

As if she didn't care about the mage's silent resistance, the girl withdrew her hand from Shanruliu and stood quietly outside the iron bar, her green eyes no longer empty, but for the first time she had a clear focus, scattered in the place she was most familiar with.

"No one here can stop you, and neither can I."

The crisp and childish voice was like a natural sound, but it made Merlin shrink his pupils suddenly. Having faced his magical magic, she naturally understood the distance between them, it was not the strength of their abilities, but the gap accumulated by time, even if she and a mutant of West's level would never be able to withstand the earth-shaking power of a mage.

Of the three who went to Oxford to snipe, the ghost and the viper were dead, and now in this dark and damp secret base, she was the only one who knew how terrifying Merlin really was. But it never occurred to Adelaide to warn Elizhe to be careful of his magic, even if she knew that the mage's succumbing to this cage could never be because of the bars, and the purpose was not pure, and she did not feel obligated to warn her companions.

"Why?"

Although it is also very strange that Yi Laizhe would really treat himself as an ordinary person, without the slightest defense. But Merlin would never have imagined that it would be the murderous weapon that this mad doctor relied on the most. So, looking at the girl's gaze was somewhat complicated.

In reason, people are enemies with opposing positions; In this case, West's apology for her alone was enough for Merlin to be like a great enemy. One of them is the past that the hermit can't escape, and the other is the future that he wants to desperately grasp, and they are by no means unrelated to each other, but it doesn't stop there. The mage didn't see any reason for Adelaide to make such a treacherous concealment to her ruler in order to help him.

"Why didn't you expose me?"

Perhaps Merlin had thought of countless answers at that moment, but the girl's answer was undoubtedly the one that made him the most incomprehensible and the most complicated.

"Because West likes you."

His eyes are still clear, as if he has never been impregnated by the sins of the human world. Adelaide tilted her head, not knowing if she could sense Merlin's confusion, she thought about it and added:

"The way he looks at you, it's the same as before, I like it very much."

Maybe the mage didn't know it, and the hermit himself could hardly feel it. But that kind of gentleness that seems to embrace the whole world, the kind of gaze that breaks through loneliness and goes up the abyss, is clearly the brilliance of that powerful soul twenty years ago, it seems that as long as he watches it, even if the wind and rain of the whole world are paved, unprecedented trust and courage will rise from the bottom of his heart. It wasn't the kind of self-exile she woke up twenty years later of, mixed with humility and cowardice, as if she had lost everything.

She likes such a firm and gentle teenager, such a person who wants to protect, and no one can defeat him. Even if the attachment and attachment that goes deep into the bone marrow are no longer given to herself, she still likes it very much.

Those who have long since died are destined to have a place to go back to, and Adelaide has always known. After meeting Merlin, she was even less likely to doubt this established fact.

And her destination will always be under that silent lake that is only a hundred miles away. When summer arrives, the shores of the lake are covered with pure white snow thistles, which combine with the eternal snow of the Alps, like a paradise that pilgrims can never reach.

Maybe they were resentful for a while, or maybe they hurt each other. But no matter what, her world has always been only him.

'I am willing to repay with all my might, and I can accept the death you give without hesitation as long as you wish. ’

But that will be after the curtain is over. ’

The corners of his mouth curled inexorably, as if he heard the vow that the young man had made again. Adelaide's eyes were wide and pure, without the slightest jealousy or confusion, just quietly, as if he could see the destined future in the near future.

"Are you going to let him die?"

His hands gripped the iron railing in front of him, and his eyes did not blink. For Merlin, he is not qualified to meddle in the past of West and Adelaide, but only this, only this one thing, is the bottom line that he must not compromise.

"He'll be free."

No nodding, no denial. The blue-eyed girl only glanced at the mage one last time, then turned and disappeared into the deep darkness at the end of the hallway.

Immediately, they will all come to each other's end, to the moment when it all ends.

In the morning light that is about to rise.