For a moment, no one in the stone chamber spoke, only a dead silence crept in. The results were shocking, but the flickering and continuous jumping images skipped the process, as if it were deliberate.

Ferus Manus frowned deeply.

"What did Father ask for?" He asked in a deep voice. "You've mentioned deals, demands, and you've claimed to be a businessman. So, skipping these important developments one by one is actually his request, right? ”

"That's right." The tape says. "Of course, I also contributed a little bit personally, and besides, have you ever heard the word shock education?"

Before Ferus could reply, the pitch-black curtain of light suddenly lit up with a fierce and brilliant blue light.

What followed was an incomprehensible sense of detachment, painless, but so strange that it seemed like a real death. By the time the sensation and light had completely vanished, the world before Ferus's eyes had changed completely.

He smelled an extremely strong odor, and the olfactory cells immediately captured the various pheromones in the air, and his brain split them one by one. Chemicals with strong pollution, psychedelics, blood, corpse stench, household garbage

Ferus Manus looked up and saw a marvelous sky illuminated by neon lights, and a sour rain that seemed to be falling endlessly.

The speed of the world in front of him was slowed, and the raindrops glistened brilliantly in his eyes, but they were filthy beyond comprehension. He had tried to dodge, but the rain went straight through his body, slamming heavily into the ground and shattering.

"What's going on?" Someone asked in a low voice.

Ferus turned around and saw Robert Killman.

"What do you think?" He asked, clasping his hands together.

"I think it's kind of a . Special, immersive experience. Killiman replied with a frown, his too-young face flushed with genuine confusion.

He walked around Ferus Manus and walked around the filthy alley.

The cold of the night really came down on his skin, and a foul smell he had never smelled before followed, almost making the Maculags sick.

His overly acute senses played a role at this time that he did not want it to play, and yet, after a small gaffe, Killiman quickly came to a second conclusion.

"You see, the smell and temperature are genuine, but there is no sense of touch"

He stomped his foot as he spoke, and there was not a single ripple in the puddle he was stepping on.

To add credibility to this statement, he reached for the wall again, and the rough and corroded stone did not stop him. Robert Killiman's hand smoothly passed through the wall, creating an extremely eerie experience.

Ferus Manus approached him and put his hand on his shoulder.

"But I can touch you."

"Yes." Killiman turned, his expression beginning to grow more serious. "What the hell did that thing do? What about the others? ”

Ferus raised his head and glanced at the sky again, and a dark shadow passed by at this moment, and rushed down with great speed. The black robe agitated, and a face full of malice was pale in the darkness.

"Hello." Conrad Coetzes smiled and bowed in greeting. "Welcome to Nostramo, how, do you still like the environment?"

"I don't like it very much." Ferrus said. "You're alone?"

"Of course." The Nostramo man took a deep breath of foul-smelling air and began to smile wider. "And I've come before you, I've already visited this nest."

"So? Did you find anything? Robert Killiman asked.

Before Coates could reply, the world's voices were silent for a moment, leaving only a seemingly brutal scream coming from above their heads, continuously. The three primordials raised their heads at this moment and looked upwards with great understanding.

Then, a voice rang out in their hearts.

[Well done.] The tape said lazily. [Please wait a moment, I'll change the scene. 】

The dazzling blue light erupted again in front of their eyes without warning, and then the violent tearing sensation came up a second time.

Ferus gritted his teeth and resisted it with all his might. Of course, his resistance was of no avail, and the glow lasted for a few seconds before it naturally dissipated.

At this moment, the scenery in front of them changed again.

They appeared in a lavish hall, and even though he had lived in Terra for a short time, Ferus was briefly bewildered by the gloomy and bewildered magnificence, and then immediately he smelled a terrifyingly strong smell of blood.

"The Emperor is above." Robert Killiman muttered to himself. "What the hell is this place, hell?"

Conrad Coetzes refuted Robert Killiman's words in a roaring voice.

"No!" He burst out laughing cruelly. "This is Nostramo!"

Ferus Manus didn't speak, just began to observe his surroundings. He saw many corpses, all over the hall, each of them dying in a cruel manner, and yet, in the large, fragmentary limbs, Ferrus saw a strange mercy.

"How efficient and benevolent." Coetzes was amazed.

"What are you talking about?" Kiliman frowned unbearably. "What's the difference between a person who can do such a thing and a madman? Is any of these bodies intact? ”

Coates chuckled as he crouched down and stretched out a sharp index finger to pinpoint three parts of a man in the pile of corpses.

"Take a good look, rich boy, do you know how many knives that madman you call used to kill him? The answer is a knife. His left hand, head, and upper body were severed by the same knife. Look at this one again, it is also a knife, piercing the heart. And then that one, decapitated"

Kotz's laughter began to grow more terrifying.

"Do you understand?" He raised his head slightly, staring at his brother with interest. "The murderers didn't have any intention of abusing them, and the reason why their bodies were scattered was only because they didn't wait for death and tried to resist."

"What a mercy, if it were me, these damn silverwing rotting corpses would all be skinned and hanged, and I would let them die alive in pain."

He smirked and stood up, stretching slowly in Robert Kiliman's inexplicably complex gaze.

Another scream came from their right, a deep, dark hallway. Coates narrowed his eyes, turned around without saying a word, and walked straight in that direction.

The pool of blood under his feet did not fluctuate in the slightest, and his robe was not entangled by the corpses even once, like a ghost.

Ferus Manus tilted his head slightly and glanced at Robert Killiman, who was still unwell.

He spoke flatly, emotionlessly.

"You'd better learn to get used to it. I understand that you come from a civilized and progressive world, very different from most of us. But if you don't want to be found by that frivolous idiot to taunt you again, you'd better briefly rip off the cloak of civilization. ”

With that, he immediately followed Conrad Coetzes. Robert Killiman took another deep breath and followed his back.

They stepped into the deep hallway, which was dark and unbright. Conrad Coetzes hummed softly in front of him, seemingly pleasant, with the occasional intermittent jump.

The walk lasted about five minutes, and the screams never stopped. Eventually, when they managed to get out of the corridor, what they saw was a new, more luxurious, bloodier, darker hall.

A man was killing here, no, maybe it couldn't be described that way, because there were no other living people in the hall, only a woman in a velvet cloak.

In addition to this dress, all that remained of her body was a one-piece flesh-colored leather coat. The Makulag man watched for a few seconds, and his face turned ugly again.

"Do you know what you've done?!" The woman roared at the bloodied man, a sharp knife in her hand, lunging at him.

"Of course I do." The man said. "Let your family be history, let you be history, or not?"

When the words fell, the dodge counterattack followed, all in one go. He dodged the woman's blade and snapped her ribs, causing her to fall to the ground. Then he approached the woman, and her eyes lit up with a blue light.

They all knew what was going to happen next, and they had already seen this part of the story, but for Robert Killiman, when he was really there, the story that he had already seen once seemed to be a little different again.

He frowned, searching for Conrad Coetzes. He spotted the man not far away, and Coetzes was crouching among the corpses, staring very intently at the man's face.

What does he want to do? A question arose from the hearts of the people of Macurag.

"Tell me the truth." Karil Lohals said coldly, dragging the woman coldly.

His movements were very rough, and the coldness brought by the psionic energy was spreading rapidly. The woman opened her mouth stiffly and began to answer his questions. Conrad Coetzes shook his head and spoke in a quiet tone.

"You're stupid." He said with a sigh. "What do you think Midnight Wraiths are? A lab hybrid made by the nostramo aristocracy? ”

Karil Lohals ignored him, only to close his eyes in agony after receiving that cruel answer, shook his head, and began to ask another question.

Coetzes sneered.

"Prolonging life? Genetic defects? No, no, the truly flawed and short-lived person is you, Carlil Lohals. ”

"Your body is being oppressed by your psionic energy, and your soul is being devoured by Nostramo. You can't protect yourself, why don't you use this power to sit in a high position and become a member of the aristocracy? ”

"That way, at least you'll have a few more decades to live. Why are you doing these things? Why, do you want to teach him that? ”

He suddenly stood up, walked over to the man who was taking a deep breath, and stared at him condescendingly.

"Stupid." He said coldly. "Nostramo will not show any mercy to anyone, as soon as you die, it will begin to torment him. When he goes mad, your death will be worthless, and everything about you will sink with his madness. ”

He laughed cruelly, ignoring the slightly strange glances of his brothers. Ferus didn't care about it for the time being, but Killiman opened his mouth after repeated hesitation: "Conrad"

"Silence." Nostramo said without looking back.

Killiman took a third deep breath, kept his senses, and politely rejected Conrad Coetze's silent 'offer'.

"No, fuck you, you rude bastard."

Coetzes turned his head slowly, his body still still, and he looked at Killiman out of the corner of his eye, his hands slowly retracted into his sleeves.

Ignoring the most obvious threat, the Makurag stepped closer to the scene of the interrogation. He pointed to the blue light in Karil Lohals' eyes and began his fourth deep breath.

While calming down and sorting out the words, he also tried to learn to get used to the taste of this slaughterhouse. Conrad Coetze looked at him calmly, waiting for what he was about to say next, like a judge about to make a ruling.

However, all of Robert Kiliman's efforts were in vain two seconds later.

A violent blue light rose from where Carlil Lohals's hands had touched the woman, drowning out his roar.

The room suddenly went dark, and one unsettling murmur after another began to appear, followed by a chill that was enough to freeze the Primitives. In the midst of such a terrible experience, they heard a thunderous battle cry

Then the darkness faded, the blue light went out, and it turned into a scarlet flame that began to burn.

Karil Lohals fell to his knees trembling.

Conrad Coetzes jerked his head.

He took a few steps closer, to the point where he was almost ready to make a face-to-face salute with the man, staring at him intently and madly, blood pouring from his cuffs.

"Why do you kneel?" His face contorted, his voice softly asked. "What did you do, idiot? What have you done to yourself? Psionic backlash? Is this the real reason why you died and were resurrected? ”

"I don't think so."

Ferus Manus, who had been silent, spoke slowly, pointing to the burning scarlet flame, and Robert Killiman gazed at it, revealing a large brass shadow in it.

It wasn't supposed to shake his mind, but the little truth of the thing wrapped under brass armor was subtly torn open by another blue glow.

So thousands of monsters roared with axes and blades, covered in broken armor, covered in blood, but they still didn't feel enough.

Robert Killiman took a step back with a pale face.

"What's that?" He asked.

No one answers, and the thing that answers is not people.

Where are you? The thing asked.

Come out – face me and take the credit you deserve. I feel your wrath, I know you want the world to burn so come, power, blessings, blades, armor, all these things, I can give you.

Let them repent in the screams! Let the world burn and bring victory with killing!

"Who is it?!" Someone roared in the darkness. "Who's talking?! Get out! ”

There was no answer, so the man turned to Karil Lohals, who was on his knees, and threw himself at him.

He had apparently forgotten that he couldn't touch anything, and that the attempts to help him didn't do anything. His fingers passed through his body and eventually fell into the air.

So he straightened up, stubbornly repeated, and began to do useless work. The madness on his face was visible to the naked eye, and the indescribable extremes and complexities even made Killiman shudder.

He couldn't help but wonder why Konrad Coetzes was so excited.

"Don't listen to that thing, don't promise anything, keep going." The Nostramo man said in a low voice, still doing the work that could not lead to anything at all.

Of course, he didn't know what the thing that appeared in the flames was, but as long as he was still sensible, he must have instinctively sensed the terrible true nature of the thing.

He tried over and over again, over and over again to get Karil Lohals to his feet, but to no avail. Are you sure?

I don't know if it's an illusion, Carlil raised his hand and grabbed his throat, he didn't speak, but his voice began to ring in the darkness.

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

"Yes!" Conrad Coetzes roared.

At this moment, his voice overlapped with the promise of the thing.

The world suddenly changed, and the bloody slaughterhouse wrapped in darkness quietly disappeared. A gloomy, raining sky replaces extravagant ceilings and candle-burning golden chandeliers, and an empty ruin emerges.

The only thing that hasn't changed is that there are still a lot of corpses around. They stood silently in the rain with a terrifying appearance, occupying every corner of the ruins.

Karil Lohals slid past them.

Conrad Coetzes gasped and immediately followed him, and his two brothers glanced at each other and followed.

They first saw a child who had lost his skin, staring blankly at the killer named Karil, and then asked, "Revenge for us?" ”

"I will." Carlil said.

Then there was a worker crushed under the rubble, his face covered in dust and thin like a monster, coughing up blood.

"Avenge us."

"I will." Carlil crouched down, looked him in the eye, nodded slowly, and left.

A woman who was hanging from a telephone pole said: "You don't have to do this, you don't belong to Nostramo." ”

"But I saw everything, and I couldn't stand it."

"You don't belong here." The woman repeated, her swollen eyeballs looking as if they were about to slip out of their sockets. "You're a ghost, you don't have to suffer for someone you don't know."

"Perhaps." Carlil said.

"You don't have to do that." The woman repeated again, and Carlil stopped. Under the gaze of the primitives, he tilted his head and gave the hanged woman a firm refusal.

"No, there is."

"But what about the kid?" Seeing that the persuasion was fruitless, the woman suddenly changed her words. "What is he going to do?"

He will find his way."

Countless dead, countless ghosts, at this moment, they all stared over. Even knowing that they probably couldn't detect their presence, Robert Killiman broke out in a cold sweat.

He looked at Ferus Manus, whose serious expression suggested that he probably wasn't feeling well, but what about Conrad Coetze?

His wheezing was turning into a strange grunt, and his face was becoming more hideous than the dead.

"You gave him the light, but now you will take it away with your own hands. Even if you light a flame, will it really cleanse the darkness of Nostramo? A head in the middle of the road asked.

Faced with its inquiry, Karil Lohals stopped and whispered: "What I gave him was a false light, which is not noble. ”

Conrad Coetzes clenched his fists slowly, his sleeves already wet with a viscous liquid that wasn't rain.

"False light?"

"Yes. If he doesn't help my plans, I won't bring him back from the mine. If he had no strength, I wouldn't have taught him how to kill and how to look at sin fairly. I'm just taking advantage of him. ”

"Lie!" The head retorted coldly.

"When he's in the mines, he's just a beast that fears the light of day, how can it help your plans? And, even if this were the case, in a world like Nostramo, where there is no light at all, is false light worse than real light? ”

"It's not even close! Shut up, you idiot! ”

Conrad Coetze cried out any longer, and he rushed to the middle of the road and began to hiss at the man who couldn't see him at all.

"Your ridiculous light will be extinguished by this world, and everything you do will be reduced to nothing and ridiculous! You've protected him so well that you think your sudden departure will make him mature quickly? No, he won't! ”

Conrad Coetzes waved his arms, roaring, sneering, and screaming.

"He's just a weak waste, constantly going back and forth between so-called justice and reality from beginning to end, and his head is broken and he wants to catch two things together. He's going to go crazy sooner or later, and you're the only one who can stop it."

"Stop! Stop and don't go any further! He yelled in a commanding tone. I order you to stop as the ruler of Nostramo! ”

The man ignored him and walked forward firmly. He walked through him, ignoring the hand that stood in his way as if it were nothing.

Conrad Coetzes lowered his head slowly.

The world fell silent, and the sound of his skull, previously muffled by his roar, rang out again.

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

The ghost said, "Because they are not human, is this reason enough?" ”

No one understood what he was saying, but the three primordials could hear him.

Because it shouldn't be like this. 】

A reason that couldn't be simpler, a reason that makes little sense to tell.

Robert Kiliman grimaced, sighed, put his right hand on his chest, and hung his head in silence.

Ferus Manus narrowed his eyes and began to rhythmically tap his left arm with his right hand again, and the sound of metal clashing was endless.

Only Konrad Coetze remained silent, not saying a word.

And the reality is that no matter what they really want to do or what they want to do, the world will not change according to their will. They don't have that power, and they don't have that power. This is a story that has already happened, and it has long since ended.

The only thing they can do is watch.

The head began to continue its conversation with Karil Lohals as the icy rain fell from the sky and smashed to the ground. Then, starting from the eye socket of the head, millions of bits of blue light slowly lit up among the gloomy ruins around it

He departed, but the world did not collapse, but the light that lit up turned into endless black flames, and the dark red boiled and burned in the deepest depths.

The three primordials captured this scene clearly, but before they could think about it, the world changed again.

They were back at the slaughterhouse, and the woman's body was twisted, cold, and dead. The voice from the darkness continued, on and on, promising something like power, killing, or justice.

Conrad Coetzes looked up slowly, his gaze indifferent, his gaze glaring into the darkness—or rather, glaring.

He didn't say a word, but his neck twitched nervously.

Killiman looked away, he couldn't bear to look any further, he had seen Karil Lohals's raised right hand, and he knew what was going to happen next. They all understand.

Conrad Coetzes walked up to Caryl little by little, looking down at his face.

"Goodbye." Carlil said.

"Goodbye." Conrad Coetzes replied softly.

A cruel blue light reflected in his pupils, shaped like flames, incinerating a corpse.

A stumbling figure flashed before their eyes, galloping from the door that was littered with corpses. He was so fast that it was almost impossible to tell, and many corpses were crushed by his reckless run, and he didn't care. He just ran to the corpse and carefully helped him up. He was shaking, and his throat was whimpering from the outside. His muscles began to spasm, and his teeth kept colliding and shaking, completely uncontrollable.

He began to cry.

Conrad Coetzes burst out laughing, his tone eerie and broken.

Robert Killiman and Ferus Manus looked at each other again—they hadn't seen it through the light curtain.

"It's no use crying."

Kotz ignored his brothers. He walked over to the trembling pale shadow and sneered to himself. Is he talking to himself? Perhaps, but he was looking straight into those teary eyes.

"Your tears will only disgrace him, can you understand how determined he is? Can you understand what the hell he's going to do? No, you can't."

He slowly crouched down and approached the face that was very similar to his, but completely different, and his dark eyes widened suddenly.

"You're just lucky." He said softly. "You didn't do anything, you didn't put in any effort – you were so weak that you even thought of crying. Ah, that's probably not surprising given your age, you're only eighteen months old."

So, what can a child do? He expects you to accomplish things he can't do? Give up, kid, you can't do it. You can only give up halfway, and then leave his soul at rest. ”

Little by little, he stretched out his blood-stained hands from his sleeves and placed them on the neck of the pale shadow.

Then push hard a little bit.

The knobby hands were stained with blood, the sharp nails were stuck in the palms, and the flesh was falling out of the wounds little by little.

His palms, wrists, and arms began to tremble together, and his muscles flared up, how he wanted to kill this child so that he would not have to suffer later, but he could not touch him

It's just a story.

"That's enough." Ferus Manus said.

He put his right hand on Conrad Coetze's shoulder.

"It's not your story." Gurgon whispered. "Don't sink too in, Conrad."

"What do you have to do ——??"

As if having found a reason for catharsis, or perhaps utterly enraged, Conrad Coetzes stood up gloomily and turned his head and threw himself at Ferus.

The rage in his eyes was genuine, but there was probably something else mixed with it. It was so obvious that even Robert Killriman could see it very clearly.

He stood there hesitantly, extinguishing the thought of stepping forward to help.

Ferus threw a punch that knocked Koz to the ground, a punch as fast as lightning and as heavy as a mountain.

"Don't go overboard." He said calmly.

"What does it have to do with you?" Coates replied with a smile, blood pouring from his teeth.

"Yes, what do these things have to do with you?" A voice that hadn't been heard in a long time suddenly interjected into the conversation and asked.

The blue light flashed brightly, and everything was easily extinguished, like a tumbling dune without warning. They returned to the real world, to the world that belonged to them.

However, there were only three of them here.

"What about the others?" Ferrus asked.

"They're not done with their special experience yet," the voice in the tape smiles. "Actually, you haven't seen a couple of shows. How is it? Do you think this shock education is enough? ”

"I don't see any educational significance for this story other than for Conrad Coetze." Ferrus said.

"No, no, haven't you forgotten that blood-red shadow?" The tape asks flirtatiously. "You'll soon find out what the shock is, and if you don't believe me, ask them."

The blue light flickered again, and for some reason, Perturabo and Roger Dorn, who seemed to be much older, appeared in their respective seats.

(End of chapter)