With Hoffa's up.

Eventually, the movie theater was paused.

Then, a pitch-black figure stood up from a chair in the front row of the movie theater. When did a person sit there, Hoffa asked himself, he didn't even know that the guy didn't make a sound the whole time.

But when the man turned, Hoffa was shocked and took a step back.

Through the light of the movie theater screen, he could see the appearance of the man, half-bald head, wrinkled skin, golden eyes, and more than sixty years old, it was the old Hoffa who had shot himself in the head before, and he was standing quietly in front of him at this moment.

Miller was more surprised when he saw the guy than he was at seeing Barty Jr. kill his father a dozen times, his thighs moved, and Coke spilled all over the ground.

"It's you!" Hofa exclaimed, "You're not dead?"

The old man shook his head, "You recognized the wrong person." ”

"But you—" Hoffa pointed at him dumbfounded, puzzled.

"Ah,"

The old man smiled slightly and shook his head: "Don't get me wrong, this is the trick of death to play with life. I'm not who you think I am, I'm just a replica of the Grim Reaper, just like the two guys before me, I'm an impostor, nothing, and you're the only one who is the real Hoffa Bach. ”

Miller, who was sitting next to Hoffa, looked relieved.

Huo Fa didn't dare to relax, he tensed his nerves and looked at the old man in front of him, and said vigilantly: "You look much more awake than those two." ”

"Yes, the gods sometimes lose control of their creations, especially to my extent. ”

The old man looked at his palm and said lightly with appreciation: "He gave me too much strength, which caused me to have a certain degree of freedom. ”

As he spoke, the dark movie theater opened up like a cardboard box, the sun fell from the dome, the streets rose from the ground, colorful parasols opened, the bright sand appeared at Hoffa's feet, a breeze blew, and he and Miller stood on the beach full of coconut trees and bikini beauties in Hawaiian tropical shirts.

On the beach, the old man took two smoothies and handed them to Hoffa and Little Barty, which also had lemons and small umbrellas on them.

Hoffa took the old man's gift in a daze, not knowing what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd.

The old man sat lazily near the mobile ice cream stand in sunglasses, looking at the waves in the distance, and asked casually, "You've just watched the movie for so long, so, tell me, Hoffa, why little Barty must have killed his father." ”

Hoffa didn't know why the old man was asking him this question, but he thought for a long time and said:

"It's complicated, Barty Sr. seems to be a workaholic, and besides, he looks down on his son. And little Barty can't make his father face him up to him through legitimate means. So... Tragedy will happen again and again. ”

"Is it that simple?"

"Could there be another reason?"

Hoffa was puzzled.

"Fate. Miller on the side said.

Hoffa: "What?"

"Children will always subconsciously imitate the personality of those closest to them, whether they want to or not. ”

Miller took a bite of the smoothie, "Their father and son are so similar, it's almost the same, the only difference is that Barty Jr. was unlucky and followed Voldemort." If Voldemort hadn't fallen, he would have become just like his father. ”

"That's not right. Hoffa frowned: "I think almost all of Barty's hobbies are the opposite of his father's. ”

"I've heard that only doctors who know the ultimate in a man's body are qualified to perform sex reassignment surgery on a man.

He must have understood that his father understood the extreme, so that he could make the completely opposite choice, but as everyone knows, the opposite of the extreme is still the extreme. The reason for the tragedy of their fate may be precisely because of this extreme character. ”

As he spoke, Miller sighed, "Poor fellow. ”

"Is he right?" asked the old man, puzzled.

The old man just shook his head: "I don't know, I'm just curious to ask." You all have a point, but unfortunately you are all missing something. ”

Hoffa: "Can I ask a question?"

"Just ask. ”

"What kind of game is this? Do you win, or do I win?"

Hoffa asked the question he wanted to know most urgently, and this was his last opponent, holding Arvada's claim that if he won, he would be able to leave Helheim with Aglaia.

But the old man shook his head with a wry smile: "If you think that this is the Grim Reaper playing with you, you will not be able to win, just like a gambler can never win the dealer." ”

Hoffa shivered, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

The old man closed his eyes, took a sip of juice in intoxication, and then muttered innocently, "Can you do me a favor?" ”

"What...... What?"

"Come here. The old man beckoned to him.

Hoffa turned his head sideways.

I heard the old man put his head to his ear and whispered,

"I can help you get out of Helheim, but with the power of death, I can only buy you three minutes, and within these three minutes, everything that is not good for you has been transformed into a dream by me, but within three minutes, you must reach the exit of the Thorny Way of Helheim and get out of here. ”

Hoffa chuckled inwardly and tried to look away.

The god of nightmares grabbed him by the arm and said in an undetectable voice, "Help, don't go the man's way." ”

After speaking, the gray-haired and golden-eyed old man in front of him instantly collapsed, turning into pieces of broken glass, along with the surrounding tropical beach scenes, all shattered.

......

......

When he opened his eyes again, Hoffa returned to the Realm of Death, standing in the crypt of Aglaia.

It doesn't seem to be long, it may be a few minutes, it may be a few seconds.

Aglaia was still looking at the stone cabinet with a blank face.

Little Barty got up from Hoffa's side in a daze, rubbed his eyes, and looked at him with a dazed look: "What's going on, Bach first, I... I felt like I had fallen asleep. ”

Three minutes!

Hoffa thought of what the old man had said to himself in his dream, his heart pounding, and his adrenaline was pumping wildly. He immediately rushed to Aglaea, speaking extremely quickly:

"Is that flying big-eared rabbit still there, lend me it, and I'll take you to the path of thorns. ”

When he said this, he trembled with excitement.

But Aglaia looked at him, and for the first time there was some other emotion in his blue eyes, which had been untraced, and it was the sympathy and sadness of a rain-drenched beast.

"Let's go!"

Hoffa tried to grab her hand, but it passed through her body.

"Where do you want to take me?" she asked faintly, "Is it to resurrect me again?" Don't think about it, there is no vessel to carry the soul, I can't leave the underworld. ”

"Damn, don't you know how to refine your body?"

Hoffa pointed to the cauldron, "How many people have you made bodies, why don't you make one for yourself?"

Time passed minute by minute, and three minutes passed quickly, but Aglaia said unhurriedly:

"The body I refine can only last for one day, and it will decay in one day, and I will come back here when the time comes, meaningless, Hoffa. Go wherever you want, leave me alone, I'm already dead. ”

"That's not your fate!" said Hoffa excitedly, "That's Grindelwald's conspiracy!!"

"Colleague, that's your past, too, accept it. ”

Hoffa: "No. ”

"No?"

Aglaia's tone was rare with a hint of excitement: "Do you remember Sisyphus who pushed stones, Prometheus who was pecked by vultures on his heart, and Pefrier who kept jumping!?"

These are the heroic spirits of the human race, and they want to fight against death as much as you do, think about their fate, don't you understand?"

Time passed quickly in the conversation, and Hoffa was so anxious that at this juncture, this girl didn't want to leave at all. He stomped his foot anxiously,

"I'm sorry, I can give up everything else, but I can't.

They lost the game, I didn't lose, none of the three opponents destroyed me, and I won't be hung on the path of thorns. ”

"Didn't lose?"

Aglaia's indifferent expression finally relaxed, and she sat down on her knees without warning, and said in a desperate trill, "You think you didn't lose every time, but you win again? Hoffa, don't you understand? You, like them, are repeating the fate of an infinite loop!"

"What?" said Hoffa, opening his mouth in astonishment.

"The Grim Reaper deprived me of the ability to lose my memory, and did not let me walk through the underworld of Helheim and enter reincarnation, with the purpose of being here, watching you die again and again.

It's a punishment for saving you, and for saving Hogwarts, and we've all done things that shouldn't have happened. We all did things we shouldn't have done.

If you think about it, don't you have the illusion that all this has happened, and you don't have life, and everything is played out according to the script?"

Hofa's face turned even paler.

Aglaia closed her eyes in despair and leaned against the wall: "Your cycle is worse than Sisyphus, worse than Prometheus, and worse than Peflier.

In your eyes, everything is new to you, everything is the first time, but in my eyes, you have entered Helheim more than 6,000 times, told more than 5,000 bad jokes in front of me, knelt down on one knee more than 500 times, participated in more than 6,000 games of death, killed Davis more than 400 times, was helped by the so-called self more than 3,000 times, and left here more than 6,000 times. ”

Hoffa stood there as if he had been struck by lightning, and at this moment, the sense of immediacy that had continued to this day was extremely strong, as if countless fragments of Aglaia's images had combined in his mind to form an almost physical illusion. Some of them are laughing, some are crying, some are full of anticipation, some are desperate, some are indifferent......

Listening to Aglaia's words, Miller, who was lodged in Hoffa's right arm, opened his mouth, and his tongue hung like a hanged man. Little Barty on the side was completely dumbfounded: "Six thousand times...... Six thousand times what ....."

Aglaia looked at Hoffa and wept tremblingly, "Do you know how happy I was when I first met you? I see you with hope, accompany you to defeat one enemy after another, and send you out of the underworld with great anticipation. But what I waited for was one after another you. ”

"Again and again, again and again, again and again, there is no time in the underworld, I use the human body to time, it takes a day from the birth of a body to the corruption, do you know how many bodies I have refined here? Do you know?"

Hoffa involuntarily continued to retreat until he fell to the ground, and countless fragments of Aglaia's crying images were layered together at this moment, tearing apart his heart.

"I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm fed up, but no matter what I say, whether it's easy to say, whether it's bad to say, whether it's scolding you, whether it's ignoring you, whether it's arguing or begging, you're going to take part in the game of death, and you're going to want to get me out of here!

Do you think you can escape your fate without Helheim, you can't change anything, you can't resurrect anyone? The self you see in the arena is the future you. ”

The more Aglaia spoke, the more excited she became, and finally she pointed to the sky, desperate and powerless to sob: "Death has put the future in front of you, but you can't change it anyway, this is the most terrible thing, Hoffa, behind you is an infinite cycle of fate." It's more terrible than death, it's a cycle of meaninglessness, a cycle that can't change anything. ”

The intense sense of immediacy almost shattered Hoffa's vision, and the somber but empty pain made him bend uncomfortably, clutching his palm, unable to speak.

Six thousand times...

Fifty years at a time...

Even if the speed of time in the underworld is faster, it is still .... How many tens of thousands of years?

If no matter how hard he tries, his fate has been arranged, then what is the point of what he is doing now?

Aglaia slowly floated to Hoffa's side, stroked his face with a transparent hand, and pleaded in a low voice: "Man can't win God, give up, Hoffa, I beg you, don't go, stay here, I really can't stand it, I can't hold on anymore, it's too uncomfortable, even for my sake, please, don't go out, just die." ”

Time passed minute by minute, and after a long while, Hoffa's shattered consciousness slowly put together, and he asked hoarsely, "Stay... The underworld, we... What can be done?"

"Stay in the underworld and don't do anything. When I can make a perfect body, we can live in Helheim just like in the real world, okay?"

Aglaia said desperately but gently.

Hofa looked at her like this, and almost collapsed in discomfort, and he used all his strength to calm himself down, "Before... Six thousand times before, you... How many times have you told me. ”

Aglaia covered her face in despair: "I have told you more than five hundred times in this conversation, but not once, you are willing to listen to me, not once......"

Little Barty on the side was already stupid, the girl's account alone was shocking, and Miller stopped struggling, they stared at Hoffa stupidly, waiting for his decision.

"No, I'm not staying here....."

Hoffa clutched his chest: there was no breath, no sun, no hope, nothing, everything was nothing. I'm going to get you out of here, I'm going to ....."

"You've said it thousands of times, Hoffa! You can't remember, you don't know! You can't save me, you can't save anyone, you can't even save yourself!!"

Aglaia grabbed her hair and retreated in despair, "I can't watch you die, I can't ignore you, it's useless for me to say, it's useless not to say it, everything has an accidental coincidence, but the result is as inevitable as fate." I'm too hard, I'm too hard, I'm too hard!"

"Calm down!" Hoffa quickly hugged her, but his arm passed through her again.

"You go, let's go, I know your character. ”

Aglaia looked at his face and turned her head in despair, "I know you, you don't bow down to anything. ”

She clapped her hands, and the tall stone golem pulled out a box, opened it in front of him, and poured a flying long-eared rabbit in front of him:

"Let's go, hahaha, let's go, it's a big deal, one more time, one more time......"

She staggered weakly, walked around the crucible in the room, and disappeared behind the dense cabinets: "Let's go... Let's go... What should be said has already been said..."

"Aglaia!"

Hofa watched her disappear into the room with her back and shouted her name, and there were ten thousand thoughts in his heart to catch up, but thinking that he had only three minutes left, he stopped abruptly.

A strong desire erupted from the bottom of Hoffa's heart, it was the desire to resurrect her, it was his promise to Fatil, and the inertia of more than six thousand cycles.

He raised his head, took a deep breath, and spit it out again, forcibly suppressing the incomparably depressed and desperate sense of immediacy.

"Wait for me. ”

He stopped looking at where Aglaia had disappeared, and turned his head sharply to Barty Jr.

Little Barty couldn't stand up, he didn't know what was going on, just felt some fragments of information, he was already overwhelmed by the utter despair, he pointed to himself incoherently, "I... I... You... You... She... What the... What is 6,000 times? 6,000 times... Me too?"

"Shut up. ”

Hoffa's expression was as cold as a sculpture.

He couldn't help but pull up little Barty, ride on the long-eared rabbit, and said to the long-eared rabbit: "Go to the path of thorns." ”

The long-eared rabbit opened its ears and flew out of the gap that had been torn open by the son of the night god.

Outside, all beings in the Death Mystic Realm were briefly controlled by the Nightmare God.

Hoffa rode a long-eared rabbit, flew past Arvada, who was smiling and sleeping on a balloon, flew through countless sleepwalking ghosts in the sky, flew all the way through the path of thorns, flew over Sisyphus who pushed stones, flew over Prometheus who was pecked at his heart, flew over Peverell, and passed through the open barrier.

Along the way, he didn't say a word.