Fire.

Raging fire.

From the other side of the veil, engulfed in boundless rage. Illuminates the darkness, but brings deeper terror.

Carlil fell to his knees and choked his own throat, trying to refuse to breathe. The growing smell of blood was frantically provoking his sanity. There were green tendons on his neck, and boundless resentment began to roll in his heart.

No, that's not my anger. He thought.

I can still hold on, I have to hold on.

That's what he thought, and the voice continued.

......

Wear armor with blades and tear apart the ugly faces of these self-righteous people.

Hang them, cut off their heads, turn their pathetic flesh in light tulle into dry bones......

Let them pay.

You want that, don't you? You want the world to burn, you want everything to be burned by the fire. I can hear you, come out and don't hide anymore......

I'll give you everything.

And I don't want anything.

......

Carlil shuddered and closed his eyes.

He didn't know who the voice was, or rather, what it was. But he didn't care—the voice lingered in the darkness, trying to get him to 'come out'.

Between these three words, there is enough information revealed.

The situation is the same as before.

As long as he doesn't make a sound, they can't see him. This is how he peeked behind the curtain during those years of wandering.

Now, he just needs a little bit of time.

Yes, a little bit of time......

When he is alone, he always has time.

Carlil closed his eyes and let his mind sink into a gloomy rainy night.

-----------------

Gloomy rainy nights, empty ruins.

There was silence all around, and countless shadows stood silently in the darkness, dense and terrifying.

"Revenge for us?" A child who had lost his skin asked, standing on the edge of the rubble.

"I will." The ghost replied with a pursed mouth.

"Avenge us." A skeletal worker crushed under the rubble coughed up blood.

"I will." The ghost crouched down and nodded to him, before straightening up and striding across.

"You don't have to do that."

Said a woman in shabby clothes who was dangled from a roadside pole and fluttered in the wind. "You don't belong to Nostramo."

"But I saw everything."

The ghost stopped and told her. "I can't stand it."

"You don't belong here."

The woman repeated, her pale face bruised, her eyes swollen, and her face horrible. She was hanged for resisting a robbery by a gang member.

"You're a ghost, you don't have to suffer for someone you don't know."

"Perhaps." The ghost nodded and moved on.

"You don't have to do that." The woman's voice rang out behind the ghost, and she repeated it again.

In the rainy night, countless dead people like her were staring at this scene, without exception.

"No, there is." The ghost said firmly.

"But what about the kid?" The woman asked. "What is he going to do?"

“...... He will find his way. ”

"You gave him the light."

A man's head whispered in the middle of the ruins. "And now you have to take the light away with your own hands...... Even if you light a flame, will it really cleanse the darkness of Nostramo? ”

"I gave him a false light...... "The ghost echoed in a low voice. It's not noble. ”

He looked at the head, whose eyes were empty.

The head belonged to the leader of a workers' uprising, who failed and was subsequently executed by the nobles.

"False light?" The head asked.

"Yes."

The ghost said. "If he doesn't help my plans, I won't bring him back from the mine. If he didn't have the power, I wouldn't have taught him how to kill and how to look at sin fairly. I'm just taking advantage of him. ”

"Lying. In the mines, he was nothing more than a beast that terrified the light of his life. How can he help you with your plans? ”

The head retorted coldly, and the empty eye sockets were pitch black. "And, even if what you say is true, in a world like Nostramo, where there is no light at all, is false light worse than real light?"

The ghost didn't answer again, he just fell silent. After a few moments, he said, "I'm not here to debate with you. ”

"I know you've always been purposeful. You don't do anything superfluous – you want to set yourself on fire, don't you? The head asked calmly.

"Yes."

"Then, you will die."

"Yes."

"We're just memories, ghosts. We have no name, no past, no life, we have nothing...... Except for suffering, we are just nothing. ”

The head stared at him and whispered, "But you're different, you still have hope, you've got a chance, you should take advantage of it." ”

"Nope." The ghost shook his head. "I made a mistake, and my prudence left me. This allowed one of them to find me. ”

“......”

The head fell silent, then sighed.

"You're such a stupid person, ghost. I don't understand why you have stepped into this cruel world yourself, you have been wandering for a long time, you have seen the horror of human beings, why do you insist on changing all this with your own hands? ”

"They're not people." The ghost replied. "Is that enough?"

"Not enough."

"How can I convince you?"

"You can't convince me." The skull said. "You don't need to convince me that you use power, you don't need our permission."

"I'm long gone, I'm just a painful memory. I can talk to you because of you. If you leave, we all stop thinking. You're talking to an echo, ghost. You can't convince a dead person. ”

"But I need your help." The ghost whispered. "I need ...... A flint and steel. ”

"You don't need to." The head said calmly. "The dead can't help you in any way, see the truth, ghost."

“...... What truth? ”

"The truth of your power." The skull said.

"We have never given you any power, it belongs to you, it is not the so-called 'souls of the suffering' as you imagined, or the crystallization of our suffering. No, it's not. It's something else. ”

The empty eyes of the skull slowly lit up with a cold blue light, and the rain was still falling, and there were millions of blue lights in the gloomy ruins around them.

The ghost bowed its head.

"I see." After a long time, he said. "I see."

-----------------

Carlil opened his eyes.

The smell of blood was still strong, escaping through the hall. The body of the baroness was cold, and her form was now a mess, so terrible that it was almost impossible to look at her. There was still a cold blue glow in his dark eyes.

The voice continued.

Carlil could faintly see a little of its form, huge and deep, with a deep rage. There is no doubt that this is not what should be in a normal world.

Silent, Carlil raised his right hand slowly.

- Countdown.

For no apparent reason, he remembered the description he had told the ghost himself.

He once said that he was a time bomb with an invisible countdown. In retrospect, this statement is half true and half false. The countdown is actually always visible, and the detonation button is even in his own hand.

It's ridiculous. Carlil thought. Because of your stupidity, an innocent child will bear your mistakes in his short life, and may even carry some unnecessary guilt.

...... And, after that, how will he live? Does he perceive a problem with his body?

Also, what will happen to Nostramo in the future?

Can the sun come out of the clouds? Will the contamination be removed? Will the beasts outside the city be driven away? Corruption, gangs...... Will the workers' lives be better?

He didn't have an answer. His thoughts were now horribly complicated. A term that had not been mentioned for a long time rose from his heart at this moment.

Two words, two syllables, azure. It's not perfect, but it's much better than Nostramo.

It's a thousand times better.

Carlil closed his eyes, then opened them again.

In the next moment, his eyes suddenly lit up with a cold light. They had never been so violent, shining like a blue sun in the room.

Terrible pain ensued, and Carlil could feel the organs in his body shattering—a force that was reluctantly crushing everything in the body at the will of his master.

Liver, lungs, heart...... And then all the way up, the blue light rippled through the body like a flame, destroying everything and burning everything. Eventually, they reach the brain in a thousandth of a second.

"Goodbye." Carlil said to the darkness.

At this moment, he didn't feel pain, just worried.

No!

The voice in the darkness let out a furious cry, and the scarlet flames erupted at this moment, trying to wrap him directly, but they were limited by the curtain.

It could only watch as its chosen sacrifice became a lifeless corpse.

No! No! No!

Anger swept through the room, and a terrible howl came from across the veil. A massive weight that had nothing to do with the real world descended abruptly, shaking the sturdy room, only to dissipate in the next instant without warning.

The darkness receded.

The candles flickered, and the room was calm.

Outside the door, footsteps sounded. A shadow stumbled in, sprinting at the first sight of the corpse.

He carefully lifted the corpse up, blinking rapidly, the ends of his fingers trembling, and after a moment, the ghost opened its mouth and let out an inaudible small whimper from deep in his throat.

“......”

He wanted to speak, but he couldn't.

Bodies trembled, teeth chattered, muscles spasmed—and then, an emotion that almost completely destroyed sanity came rushing in, shattering the unworldly heart.

"Ahh......h

He was obviously expressionless, but his movements were so gentle. On the dirty face, there was rain sliding downward.

Tonight, there was no rain in Nostramo.

After a moment, the ghost let go of the corpse. He put him on the ground and turned away, his shoulders and neck shaking. He didn't speak, just kept emitting an eerie and broken tone.

Be calm, ghost—he said it.

The ghost said to himself, mimicking Carlil's voice.

However, that didn't work. There was a great deal of grief rolling in.

He stood ragged in the golden room, shattered and lonely—and the next moment, a voice came from the other side of the curtain. Through the ghost's sad emotions, it touched his heart.

+ Hold his hand. +

The voice said.

What? Who?

+ You'll soon know who I am, but, for now, Conrad Coetze...... Hold his hand. +

Who are you? And who is Conrad Coetzes?

+ Do you want to save him? +

The voice didn't answer directly, but moved on to something else. He called the ghost by an unfamiliar name, but, for some reason, his voice, which had no intonation, made it feel familiar.

An eerie familiarity.

I think.

+ Then take his hand. +

After a moment of silence, the ghost gritted its teeth and did as it was told. Trembling, he stepped forward and took the corpse's right hand.

+ Very good...... Right now...... Don't move. +

The voice rushed from across the curtain with a pity that bordered on sighing, and in a trance, the ghost seemed to see a golden light.

In the next moment, he leaned back as if struck by lightning, and his dark eyes lit up with a blinding light.