Iberia.

The peninsula that once looked across the sea from Anglo is now roaring with the roar of the reefs washed out over thousands of years in the loud sound of surging waves.

On the pitch-black cliff mixed with a large amount of miscellaneous iron and metal, the earth shook and cracks appeared.

The slender iron stakes floated in the air, revealing a bone-like texture, and under the ramming of invisible forces, they wedged inch by inch into the deepest part of the stone mountain.

Through the waist-thick hole, you can hear the dull echo of the deepest part of the earth.

Breaking through the rocks, mud and gravel, the iron-clad iron piles of lapis gold penetrate almost from top to bottom, reaching a depth of hundreds of meters below sea level.

It was as if a deep crypt had been opened, and a deep and cold wind came from the deepest part of the earth.

"The leyline survey is correct. ”

The musician who was standing at the entrance of the cave put away the construction drawings in his hand and bowed to the engineer behind him: "The third Iberian branch is here, the object site exploration is complete, and the equipment is ready to enter." ”

And so, on the surface of the sea, the heavy steel ship burst into a high-pitched roar.

After smashing the layers of reefs in the shallow sea, they came to the bottom of the cliffs, and soon, the changing musicians on the deck waved their hands, and with great difficulty, dozens of tons of containers flew up and hung high in the air.

As the container opened on all sides, the heavy steel sealed in it was scattered in the air, and soon, it was caught by an invisible palm. With the support of the ether, dozens of mass-produced musicians blushed, manipulating the countless iron and machinery in the sky, and finally, aiming at the crypt above the cliff.

The musician in charge of the project took out the terminal from his bosom, dialed the module formed by the illusion above, and after quickly verifying his heart sound and identity, he connected to Avalon, which was thousands of miles away.

In the midst of the cacophony of noise, a deep voice rang out:

"This is Stein Chamber Zero. ”

"Here is the No.5684 node in the record, the site of the Iberia No. 3 branch connection project, the ground vein survey is correct, the application for the central second-floor interface and the construction authorization. ”

After a short period of silence, the reply arrived: "The second layer of relay authorization has been opened, the Iberian main artery project has been confirmed, gentlemen, you can proceed with the construction."

In the name of the Supreme Web, I hereby authorize you. ”

Accompanied by the complex music theory transmitted from thousands of miles away, a calm and cold voice sounded:

"—to set up the foundations of the earth, to support the vaults of the heavens, and from this the eternal world was made!"

With that calm voice, a low movement played from the terminal, and the music theory from Avalon unfolded from it, awakening the sleeping steel in the sky.

In the midst of the flying sparks and jumping electric light, steel and iron rub against each other, bursting with a sharp sound that interprets the frenzied tide of the movement. When it falls to the ground, it makes the earth tremble and form a low drum beat.

Main piles, foundations, hydraulic dampers, ether diverter valves......

Following the pull of invisible gravity, layers of steel fell from the sky, rooted in the crypt, rivets wedged in, screws fastened, and in an instant, steel rose from the ground.

Like a sharp skeleton, it pierces the sky.

Immediately afterward, layers of heavy ancillary facilities were patched together.

In the long roar, the steel building tens of meters high grew at an incredible speed, until finally, the flesh and bones were plump and the outline was hideous.

"The first bell rings begins!"

The royal musician in charge of the project shouted and ordered: "No. 5684, synchronized sequence!"

As a result, the steel tower shook violently, and the huge shock was transmitted from top to bottom, transmitting to the deepest part of the earth, causing the huge cavity beneath the deep earth to burst into a roar.

Across the heavy earth, a magnificent bell rang once.

The sea is shaking.

Far away in the realm of heaven on earth, the aether web high above the sky still maintained a calm rotation, but one of the small modules fluctuated slightly, thousands of miles away, along the huge network in the aether sea, a line of aftermath was transmitted to the country on the other side of the ocean.

Above the tower, a blazing light lit up.

"Ring the bell for the second time!"

The musician excitedly shouted: "Verify the start!"

The earth shook again, and the bell from the hollow cavity of the leylines grew louder and louder, sending its message to distant lands and accepting new music theories.

"Ring the bell for the third time!"

The musician roared, "Confirm the music theory agreement!"

Enthusiastic engineers tugged at the cables at a rapid pace, waiting for the final echo to arrive.

In the distance, a blazing torrent emerges from beneath the surface of the sea, glowing like a blazing sun. It was the endless aetheric current rushing in the deep sea, and the established leyline tracks, guided by the road signs of the Aetheric Sea, crossed thousands of miles of oceans and rushed in. The fierce light pierced the thick ocean, forming a golden rush.

Eventually, they converged in the deep cavities of the leylines, followed their established orbits, and rose to the sky, gushing out from the top of the coordinator, rushing into the sky, and converging with a thousand streams of light.

The light fluttered like a polar neon, and silver ribbons danced in the night sky, making the sky burned red by the flames appear in a thrilling magnificence.

Such is the bell ringing.

In the sound of everyone's cheers, the musician in charge of the project stared at the sky silently, and for a long time, he turned around:

"How many seats are there?"

"If you count the time, there should be twenty-seven, right?"

The assistant flipped through the project plan and smiled bitterly: "According to the schedule, before the end of tomorrow, our six teams will have to build forty buildings in Iberia."

It's a big project...... Move your mouth on the top and break your leg on the bottom. When it comes to saving the world or something, all we can do is work overtime, right?"

"I'm not asking us. ”

The musician shook his head, but his chin turned to Nuna's fire reflected in the sky: "Oh, that." ”

"Then no one knows. ”

The wry smile on the assistant's face stiffened, and he shook his head slightly: "I'm afraid even those executioners can't figure it out, right? Our effort to erect a tower here is enough for them to light a hundred burns at the stake." ”

"yes. ”

The musician tilted his head, lit a match close to the cigarette, took a deep breath, and then shook the match out: "Bring a new order, and then offer a hundredfold equivalent of destruction......

Sometimes I wonder: what will we be said about in the history books in the future?"

The assistant shrugged.

No one knows about this question.

But if Stone were here, I'm afraid he would answer him 'the one who saved the world', right?

It's a pity that Stone never bothered with these boring questions when he was working.

The Inquisition never cared whether their place in the history books was a legacy for thousands of years, all they cared about was their work.

-

Also in the land of Iberia, also under the cover of the heavenly vault.

When the royal musicians threw the silver ribbon of light representing the new order into the sky, the purification musicians on the ground also threw ten times more fire into the sky.

Stone walked under the stake, his iron boots trampled on the ashes.

Between the countless flaming firewood teams, the sound of crying and wailing was heard, and the burning flames seemed to be wrapped with dying breath.

His steps were steady and determined, not at all like a dying old man, even if he dragged the back collar of a fat man in his hand, and let him struggle hard, he did not shake in the slightest.

"No! No! The Holy City has promised me! I am pure!" His expression twitched, and tears welled up in his eyes: "I am religious! You can't do that!"

Stone smiled.

"Who, then, can prove your piety?"

He looked down at the man, casting a hideous shadow on his distorted face.

Against the light of the raging fire, he couldn't see the old face clearly, but his eyes seemed to be two deep cracks, leading to a world overflowing with lava and fire.

"Is it this benevolent cardinal?"

Stone stretched out his hand and pointed to the charred corpse on the stake beside him.

The charred corpse twitched in the flames, as if there was still a shred of life.

The once luxurious red robe had been turned into charred and twisted charcoal in the incineration, and only the emblem on his neck still glistened in the fiery calcination.

Immediately afterward, Stone's hand pointed to another burning:

"Is this the prince?"

"Is this party leader?"

"Or is it His Majesty?"

He cracked his mouth and smiled as if he were chewing coals.

In the midst of the wailing, the grease-soaked stake shook suddenly, and in the crackling sound of the pine knots, the flames shook suddenly, completely engulfing the figure on the stake.

The foehn swept through the ashes and void spirits, sending their screams into the sky, and finally, in a flurry of black dust, which fell like a drizzle.

Amid the inquisitor's suffocating screams, only Stone sang hoarsely.

The hoarse singing of the steel vocal cords was out of tune, but it was entwined in the flames, with the crackling of the pine knots, endowed with marrow by dust and wailing, and was enriched in the rising flames.

It was as if the world of suffering had been undisguised and a reverent hiss in the midst of pain.

So, ushered in the chorus of thousands of people.

Under the thousands of burnings, countless purification musicians chanted the chant of judgment feverishly, gathering into a mighty wave, as if to shake the heavens, whip the souls of those in the fire, and completely burn all the ugliness in this fire.

Stone was moving forward, stepping on the fire.

The blazing light seemed to rise in his veins, turning his pupils into a feverish crimson.

The great judgment seemed to give him a new life, and he walked in this hell of his own making, bathed in the fire, and threw the sinners into the firewood one by one, causing them to sing the song of God in the fire.

The light of the fire dispelled the darkness of the night.

The great bonfire burned the sky red, spreading the flames of light to the four fields, and causing all darkness to fade away, in the frenzy of vengeance.

It wasn't until dawn that the last of the principals were set up on a grand bonfire.

"I'm not wrong! I'm right! You wild dogs! Don't touch me!"

The man with the crown and the magnificent garment roared at the Hammer of the Witches: "How dare you, Stone! The ancestors of our sixteen families have financed you! It is my grandfather who has shown you great wisdom! It is we who have bestowed upon you great rights and given the Inquisition the highest glory!

We have made an agreement and a covenant in the witness of the gods! How dare you !! that"

Under the stake, the old man, bathed in the foehn wind, raised his head.

Look at him.

Laughed.

"Although it is a pity for everyone to come to this point, I have to say that the sixteen families, including your ancestors, with a total of one hundred and seventy-nine descendants, were already on the first purification list long before the Inquisition was established. ”

Stone smiled, staring at his distorted face, his flushed face radiant: "Although for various reasons, an arrest warrant cannot be issued for you, but today is really ...... The day when dreams come true. ”

He stretched out his arms, like a gift for the New Year, and exclaimed: "Why don't you sing aloud, friend, and even the air will be sweet as honey on the day when this dream is realized!"

On the stake, the distorted face twitched, and at the end, roared madly:

"I curse you! You heretics who have betrayed the way of the gods! Beasts that indulge and kill! You have been led astray by rebels, and you have lost your way! You have broken your covenant! God will spit on you, God will spit on you!!"

"Ah, maybe. ”

Stone smiled and raised his torch, "If he really cares about this paper covenant." ”

Let go.

The light of the fire swirled and fell from his hand and onto the pyre.

In the flames catalyzed by the ether, the grand seats made for the noble lords were lit and burned, throwing smoke into the sky in the morning sun of dawn.

The light danced in the wood, accompanied by Stone's hoarse humming and the beat of applause, flashing a frantic and beautiful posture, with a fleeting beauty.

It was reflected in the bloodshot pupils.

It almost took Stone's breath away.

That's the brightest thing in the world.

Transformed from the midst of mortal things, manifesting its brilliance with pain, and turning all ugliness into ashes...... The intoxicating brilliance seemed to have life.

Even in this cold and cruel world, it can bring warmth.

"It's beautiful. ”

Like a child, he stood among the flames and watched wistfully at the dancing light.

It's like countless times in the past.

Only here, only in this moment, can he feel that he is with those who have been with him for a long time.

Get together.

They have not been separated by the cruelty of time.

It wasn't until the fire was extinguished that he awoke from his long dream, feeling the morning dew condense in the corners of his eyes, slide through the ashes, and fall to the ground.

"Next!"

He shouted.

In the silence, a calm voice came from behind: "There is no next." ”

He turned his head in astonishment, saw the young man in a wheelchair, and countless extinguished burners at the stake, and finally suddenly realized:

"Already...... Is it over?"

"Well, it's over. ”

"So where do we go next?"

"There's nowhere to go, stone. ”

Watson looked at him: "Anglo, Asgard, Burgundy, and from Navia to Iberia, Stone, our road is finished. ”

"Is it over?"

Shi Stone bowed his head in amazement and sat on the steps of the pyre, as if he finally felt tired, and finally looked like an old man: "It's just been a while, it's a pity." ”

Watson shrugged: "Maybe you should complain to our boss when you go back, and ask him to hand over the next list to me to draw up, it will be very long." ”

Stone didn't speak.

He just looked up in silence and looked at the sun that was gradually rising behind the gray clouds in the distance.

"Watson, do you think it's really good that the righteous Inquisition should be guided by private wishes?" he asked softly, suddenly, "until now, I don't know whether my choice is right or wrong. ”

"It's too late to regret it now, isn't it?" Watson couldn't help but chuckle and shook his head, "Times have changed, old man. ”

"Yes, if I live too long, the world changes so fast, I would have been left behind. ”

Stone smiled self-deprecatingly and patted his iron knee: "Looking back now, when the Inquisition was established, it seems like it was yesterday.

At that time, I must have spit on my depraved ugliness now, right? But when I think about it, there seems to be nothing wrong with depravity. ”

He looked at Watson, his cloudy pupils were so clear that they reflected his face, as if looking at his former self:

"Isn't it the shadow who likes to chase the light?"

Watson was stunned.

"Although I am too old to have the strength to put up the burner at the stake, and there are all kinds of unsatisfactory things, those things are no longer important. ”

Stone lowered his head and whispered:

"What a great expedition......"

Under the countless burns at the stake, in the refreshing smell of ashes, he smiled and closed his eyes, as if sleeping among the flowers.

From the flames of the past, a hundred years of magnificent dreams have returned.

"Stone, hey, Stone?"

Watson reached out to shake him awake, but when he touched his cold shoulder, he froze. After a long time, he lowered his eyes and smiled reluctantly:

"Are you asleep here? You're a lot older, so why don't you keep warm?"

He pushed the wheelchair forward, carefully put the thin blanket on his knee over Stone's body, stretched out his hand, hugged him gently, and said goodbye softly:

"Good night, Stone. ”

Good night.

May you be reunited with the departed in the endless long night, before the unquenchable bonfire.