What is it like to merge with time and space? Alexei felt it.

When he touched the wet cover of the book, the time of the whole world stopped at this moment, and all of it, everything, was frozen in the time of the previous second, like a beehive wrapped in amber, transparent and shining.

"What a wonderful scene......"

Alexey reached out and tried to pick up the blood on the ground: "This book is even more terrible than I imagined. ”

The sensation of flesh touching the liquid did not seem to be fake, and he picked up his finger and carefully discerned the bright red on it: "This is indeed true, time has stopped, but I am not affected. ”

"What does this mean?"

Alexei muttered to himself, asking himself: "It means that in this static time and space, I can do whatever I want." ”

"But I don't need that. ”

Alexei waved his hand and swept the glass shelf on the table, watched it stagnate in mid-air as if it had fallen, and sighed, "It's so boring, it's like a dead thing." ”

"Can they bring me happiness?" Alexei asked himself, "they can't." ”

"So what can I do with it?"

"I can do a lot. Alexei picked up the book in one hand, opened it, and stared at its wordless title page, "I can kill my enemies silently, and I can complete any stealth in the world perfectly, even the Emperor's Praetorian Guard will not be able to resist me in the slightest." Mortals are like dust under this might, and the fragile ones are wiped away like dust, but I am the best person in the world, do I need the power it gives me?"

"Maybe the thugs in the market will be ecstatic when they get it, but what about me, do I really need it?"

Thinking about it, for no reason, Alexei suddenly felt the urge to destroy the book, but just as he was about to put it into action, an echo of indistinguishable men and women rose in his mind as if out of nowhere—someone was talking in his head.

Alexa...... Why are you so stupid?"

The sound of no source sounding very faint and harsh, harsh to the point of being like the sound of picking up a stone and scraping it hard.

"Who are you?"

Alexei looked around vigilantly, trying to find the source and direction of the voice: "I can forgive you for your rudeness, as long as you are willing to come out and meet me." ”

"No, fool, I'm in your hands. ”

"Oh, that's interesting. ”

Hearing this, he put his gaze back to the wordless book, and wisps of black smoke rose from the head of Alexey's staff: "The soul in the book, I haven't seen such a wonderful magical creation for a long time, I just don't know, after burning the book that bears you, will you be willing to come out and meet me, and after kissing the tip of my boot, sincerely say sorry to me." ”

"You can't do this!" the shrill voice was amplified by two points, the roughness of the eardrums was unbearable, and Alexey's brain ached every time the spirit spoke, "Fool, don't you understand what you're holding, when you need it, I'm the crown, the scepter, the money, everything you want!"

"And you....... You want to abandon me like a madman and destroy me?"

In a fit of rage, the spirit in the book expresses its incomprehensibility and extreme displeasure with Alexei with a deafening rebuke: "I am the envy of all, the work of the greatest caretaker of time in the Outlands, so stop your strange ideas that are completely illogical and full of grotesque thoughts." Even a troll with a head full of muscles and stones can happily eat a mountain after getting me, but what about you? stupid, stupid trolls with almost non-existent brain capacity are much smarter than you, at least trolls instinctively know how to take advantage and avoid harm. ”

"And you!"

The soul's subdued tone unexpectedly made Alexey hear a little bit of hatred for iron, and he couldn't help but smile on his face, nodding his head and smiling, "Go on." ”

"It seems that you have realized a little bit of my importance to you, fool, and let me, the great spirit of time, tell you, that if your barren brain cannot conceive of how fortunate you are to have me, then plead with me, bow down to me, and ask me what a great, supreme honor it is to receive the authority of time. Think about it, with me, you can have everything in the mortal world, with me, you are the lucky one who has access to the beacon of the long river of time, you are the future lord of the mortal world, the new apostle of the long river of time, maybe you will not know the throne of the caretaker. ”

As the spirit spoke, its voice high-pitched, "How about it, do you want to make a pact with me?" ”

"Uh-huh, it does sound tempting, as long as your voice isn't so loud. ”

"Ha, that's all trivial, listen to me, as long as you make the same sound in my voice, you can sign a contract with the great river of time, and get this supreme, the authority of time!"

"Then you can say it. Alexey seemed to readily agree.

Then the spirit uttered a chant in an inaudible language, and indeed, although the soul's voice was as unpleasant as if it had been stuffed with a burning stick, the syllables of the chant still sounded a little sacred and indesecrated, and if it were used to create a sense of ritual, it would indeed be a sharp weapon to bluff people. Alexei memorized every syllable, and then, after the spirit's chanting, was silent for a long time, until the other person asked him anxiously.

"I didn't promise you to sign a contract with you. The cunning mage replied, "Instead, I will throw you into the flames as punishment for your torment of my hearing." ”

"No!"

Alexei swung his staff, and a ball of fire rose at his feet, and the smirking mage threw the blood-stained Book of Time into it without hesitation.

"No! No! No, I curse you, I curse you!"

The soul let out a miserable howl in Alexey's head, which made the mage's smile in the light of the flames deeper: "It seems that the blazing burn has not made your arrogance any less, but at least, the flames have added to your pain and fueled my Yaxing, and I am very happy." ”

Alexei watched the frozen space around him return to normal as he threw away the Book of Time, and he shouted to the spirits in the fire, "Tell me, what are you, where are you from, and what is that chant for?"

"Stupid pig, don't you want to know, you don't want to think about it. ”

While the soul was wailing, its arrogance was not broken by the flames: "You will regret it one day! I curse you, and curse your soul to be hungry and thirsty for all eternity, but not to eat or drink, to be tormented by loneliness and darkness all the day long!" I curse you, I want you to suffer from thousands of arrows piercing your heart, trapped in your shell, watching your flesh rot, seeing your flesh turn into white bones, you will cry bitterly, you will see your children trample on your bones, your restless desires will never be satisfied, every moment it will be as if thousands of ants are gnawing at your heart, I curse you!"

"Sounds like a terrible curse, but did you do it?"

Alexei leaned over and looked down at the Book of Time, which was intact under the licking of tongues of fire, while the screams of the spirits in his head did not stop for a moment: "Let me think...... That's probably what you've experienced in the past, poor fellow. ”

"You are not the spirit of this book at all, its material is much nobler than your soul. ”

"You may be telling some truth, but most of the time, you're just bluffing and lying. ”

Alexei paced slowly around the fire, each step as if stepping on the neck, causing its wailing to cease abruptly: "Come out, liar." Hiding in a book will only make you burn in flames, and offering me what few remnants of your value will give you a chance to continue to live. ”

"Okay, tell me your choice, I don't have the word patience in my dictionary, so ...... You have to do it as soon as possible. ”