The Queen Victoria arrived at its intended location much later than expected, and after some effort to calibrate its firepower, it poured down into the warehouse.

The many demonic stone statues on Barracuda Street were blown to pieces, and the night of the royal city was illuminated by firelight, as if returning to Wales during the Eight Years' War, and the ground could be felt to tremble.

Even in No. 1 Lieyang Street, you can clearly experience the feeling of a man-made earthquake.

But at this time, Richard didn't have time to sigh at this scene, but looked at the chairs next to the furnace with a surprised face in the moon house.

He had been busy repairing the steam machine that had recently malfunctioned, and at the same time he was tired of chasing away the baboon that Lady Alice had brought with him, this animal was extremely rude and aggressive.

While he was busy, he bit his arm hard, and finally he could only feed some fruit to stop, but he still howled from time to time, which made people uneasy.

He said to himself: "This movement is really not small, but after all, it is a flagship. Then he picked up the fruit again and asked the baboon next to him, "Or?" ”

The baboon stood on the steam machine and nodded as if it understood a human being, not forgetting to scream and smash the machine under his feet twice, for fear that the thing had really been repaired by Richard.

Richard complained helplessly: "Damn baboon, I really don't know what crime I have committed, I have to stay with you." ”

This guy may have been frightened by the big movement made by the flagship, Richard thought to himself, after all, humans can become irritable under the disturbance of this kind of cannon sound and the shaking of the earth.

However, according to Vincent, this extraordinary creature may have been born like this, and Ms. Alice probably went wrong when she cultivated it.

Seeing that the thing seemed to understand human language, Richard leaned over the steam machine and began to tease the baboon, "I heard that you bite customers in Alice's shop, huh?" You're a big little thing, and you're not afraid of her picking your skin. ”

Sure enough, the baboon was enraged, chirping strangely, making a gesture of teeth and claws, and scratching his face when he went up.

Fortunately, Richard reacted quickly, blocked it with his hand, and then said in shock: "I can understand why even Vincent's good temper is unwilling to ask you." ”

He shook his head and put the baboon in a cage beside him, letting it continue to call, thinking that it would be fun to have no baboon around.

It wasn't until he was busy again for a while that he suddenly noticed that the baboon was not moving, and when he turned around, he noticed that something unusual had happened.

On the fourth upper chair, there should have been a sleeping mechanical figure with its head bowed, which was created at the cost of countless efforts and time, just to carry a destined soul.

But it's gone now, and now it's empty.

He woke up, and Richard was surrounded by mixed emotions for a while, and wanted to run to tell Ms. Alice as soon as possible, and thought it would be better to find the guy named Ludendall first.

Eight years have passed in the blink of an eye, and it is worth waiting for them to meet 'Francis' now.

As he stood in place, his shoulder was gently patted by a cold iron hand, and the voice that he hadn't heard in his ears for a long time finally sounded:

"Long time no see, Richard."

Richard stood there for a while, not knowing how to respond, and he didn't know how long it had passed, before he said slowly: "Mr. Francis? ”

'Francis' finally walked to his side in a completely mechanical puppet form, and he looked around him, feeling the changes he had made since he left.

"It's me, tell me, Richard, how long I've been gone."

Richard slowly gestured to the meaning of eight, and 'Francis' tilted his head to look at it, but when he made this movement, he made the characteristic sound of mechanical gears: "Eight months? Then it seems that I haven't been gone for long, where are May and Abel? ”

His plan for the Garden of Eden did not deviate much, except for the misjudgment of timing.

Richard shook his head slowly: "Eight years, it's eight years, Mr. Francis, it's 1900 now." ”

'Francis' thought he had misheard at first, but after repeated questioning, he finally confirmed the fact.

It seems that Ludendale was too late to build his mechanical double, and should not have been late to this point.

Somewhat distracted, he sat back down on the fourth chair on the side and muttered, "Eight years..."

The robot puppet sat back in the chair, the difference was that it had been watered with a copy of the soul copied by the memory, and the fruit had already begun to bear fruit.

Francis looked around and said that as long as the world still exists, it means that it is still too late.

"Where's May?"

Richard coughed: "I saw the Grand Nun and the Grand Priest of the Church earlier, and they are directing the Queen Victoria to dig into the ground - that is, they keep bombarding with huge cannons, as if Hughes wants to find something underground." ”

He thought Francis would be furious when he learned that May had led the business to begin working with the church, but for some reason, Francis seemed calm when he heard Hughes's name.

Richard shrugged his shoulders and wondered, "I thought you'd be furious." ”

Francis wanted to make an indifferent smile, but the face of the mechanical puppet could not express this feeling, and the micro-expression was a luxury, which only belonged to the living human individual.

He sat down in a chair and said slowly: "I am indeed not very happy, but there is always a reason why things have happened to this point, and after eight years of being an outsider, there are some things that I cannot blame." ”

Knock knock, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps in the residence outside the Infinity Gate, as if they had come to look for Francis after he had woken up.

Sure enough, it was Ludendall who pushed open the infinite door and strode in, waving his hat as if he had made an appointment with a friend at the door of the movie theater: "How's it been so long, mechanic?" ”

With that, he took off his coat and sat down in another chair beside Francis, the same one he had spoken to Alice and Solomon before.

Francis raised his eyes, with a hint of reproach, as if relieved: "Why is it so late than scheduled." ”

"There are always surprises, and it's inevitable, but the good news is that the Eden Project is still under control."

Francis snorted, wondering if the run-in between the copy of the mechanical heart and the mechanical puppet had just begun, and he now felt that something was wrong with his limbs, so he kept moving his muscles. The constant sound of gear chimering reminded him that he was no longer a true human being.

Then, Ludendale informed him of May's resistance: "It's a tricky matter, your wife doesn't agree that you are Francis now, and under her pressure, everyone can only call you by code name, Alpha - after all, all the power of the business has been transferred to May." ”

Hearing this, Francis, who had been adjusting to his new body, froze as if electrocuted, and it took a long time to accept this fact with his eyes wide open.

But on second thought, it wasn't a big deal, and Francis advised himself, and he finally let Ludendall continue to say that there was anything he needed to know.

"Let me think, uh, I don't know much about the specific experiences of the people around you in the past eight years. Roughly speaking, Abel and Aisha became hunters, Solomon had just recovered from his drunkenness, and the guy named David was caught in his own circle of revenge. ”

Ludendale didn't forget to add that Abel didn't have any worrying changes, he was still the Abel that everyone knew, but Aisha wasn't sure, she was out of control.

Francis smiled bitterly, he missed Elsa's growth, Abel's transformation, and then joked: "What about Alice, I guess she is rising step by step in the golden dawn." ”

Ludendale shook his head: "Alice has never joined the Shadow Meeting since you were trapped on the Gustav, and she has been running around for you to find the memory container to no avail, which is surprisingly reliable." Now she's hunting Celtic, because the High Believer is here. ”

Hearing this, Francis stood up and retrieved his own sword of Solomon from the wall. The sword was supposed to be on display elsewhere, except that May had recently ordered the apostles to hang it back in the Moon House, as if knowing that the first thing Francis would do when he woke up was to retrieve his weapon.

He gently stroked the blade of the sword, and after years of continuous alchemy transformation, what was originally just a silver sword had now been transformed into a two-meter-long chainsaw gear knife, a circle of transmittable saws rotated around the blade, and the steam jet in it was like spitting flames.

The large cross hilt makes people look like a demon hunter when they carry the weapon 'Solomon'.

Under the dark edge, this weapon tells its own ferocity,

Such a supreme thing, if it makes the steam roar, can cut off gods and demons, and many deformed evil things, all of which will be dispersed.

But Solomon's gift remained in its original position, as if nothing had changed, as if things were wrong.

While stroking the blade of the sword, Francis said softly: "Abel doesn't know what he has grown up like now, Elsa must be slim. I always thought I was a good father, but I was still at fault. ”

Ludendale on the side was still sitting comfortably in his chair, he guessed Francis's thoughts, and said mercilessly: "I'm sorry, but May didn't agree to Alpha seeing the heirs." ”

Francis just wanted to ask who Alpha was, but turned his head and realized that this was his code name, and it seemed that the name Francis could only be sealed in the dust in the ghost train.

He sighed, just sighed, without excessive emotion.

All that happened in eight years, Ludendale's simple blank space was not enough, and those eight years would be lost forever in Francis's lifeline.

So far, he has accepted all the arrangements made.

After a long time, he put 'Solomon' into the long scabbard behind his back and asked peacefully, "You said that the Eden Project is still under control?" ”