"We call this the 'waste hole.'" Merlin introduced Conrad Coetzes to this.

Judging from the latter's expression, he obviously had a lot to ask: Why did you drag me to the bottom of Fujimaru Rika's dream world without saying a word? Why is there such a construct in her spirit? What exactly is the "waste hole" to be "discarded"? What exactly does "you guys" mean? Do you know that there are a lot of people here?

But in fact, the first thing that came to Koet's lips was the most obvious and intuitive question:

"You define this as a 'hole'?"

He pointed to the scene in front of him, and explicitly questioned the level of naming of "you" that he had not yet clarified the subject.

During his short trip to Visionland, he didn't learn anything about magic. At least he knew that most of the scenes in the mental world of others were somewhere between the physical universe and the subspace: there might not be much logic, operating according to inexplicable laws contrary to reality, and it would not be completely beyond the cognition that humans could have. But in this area, he felt that the rules he had summed up were not sufficient.

In front of him was a pure, devouring darkness. This darkness made the dark-born Koz instinctively want to peek behind it, but then the primordial senses, which were many times stronger than mortals, issued a warning to him: don't do it.

It is true that this darkness exists to conceal some of the beings within, but it is to protect—the things that lie beneath the darkness that even the embodiment of his fear are creepy, should not be revealed.

Why is the bottom layer of Rika Fujimaru's dream connected to this structure?

"Oh, in fact, some of the other work along with this matter, I originally planned to do it secretly while you were asleep, but you haven't been sleeping, and I can't help it." Merlin still had that annoying flirtatious smile, and said something in a cheerful tone that didn't sound right, "In that case, I'll have to let you know 'what this is going to do' first, and then ask for your permission." ”

These words clearly provoked Coetze's rebellion: "What if I don't agree? ”

This sentence was exchanged for Merlin's seemingly hearty laughter: "Your Excellency the Primordial Body, you are joking, considering that we are currently in the same camp, we don't need to let things progress to this point, right?" ”

"Can I understand this to mean that you have to accomplish your purpose even when you see blood?"

Coates even seemed a little excited when he confirmed this, but unfortunately Merlin didn't answer his words, but just turned his head to look at the indifferent direction, so it was difficult to judge the actual scale of the darkness:

"This is the 'waste hole'." He put away his smile and explained, "It would be nice to simply understand it as a 'landfill plant' for the 'vicious information' that Rikka consciously or unconsciously came into contact with during her journey." ”

Coetzes weighed a little on whether to stick to the previous topic. But considering that this is Fujimaru Ritsuka's dream world, and he has to rely on the power of the half-dream demon in front of him who deliberately applied a fluorescent effect to himself so that he himself is also very conspicuous in the pure darkness, he thinks that it is still a little necessary to let the other party go for the time being.

"What did you bring me here for?"

"I want to tell you: why is there that there are several primordial bodies that 'do not exist in the real universe' due to death or disappearance, but the emperor chose you."

Coetzes stared at Merlin in displeasure, "Well, I hope you can make it clear." ”

"The succinct version is that the Emperor has observed the existence of this 'abandoned hole' and hopes that in the unlikely event that it gets out of control, at least someone will be able to barely suppress the damage caused by the flood of 'vicious intelligence'." Merlin described it bluntly, "And in the original body, your essence is the most suitable." ”

“…… My essence. ”

"After what happened just now, you should also have a basic understanding of your own nature, right? When you get rid of the shackles of the flesh, it should be your instinct. ”

Coates slowly lowered his head and looked at his hand. In this near-complete darkness, the primordial's vision was limited in what it could capture, but he knew that his hand that was hideous and hard because of the armor was attached to it—after touching his own child's soul in some form, the subtle cutting sensation that was different from touching flesh and bones remained on his fingertips.

"Sort of." He pondered, "At least it works." ”

Darkness is the appearance, fear is the means, and foreknowledge is a pair of eyes given to him by the Creator to guard against being blinded. The authority that he really holds tightly in the palm of his hand is judgment and punishment, the judgment of crimes, and the punishment of evil thoughts.

Perhaps this was the original intention of the emperor when he created him. But the one thing he did most wrongly was to fit a judgment machine with a human heart.

His father did give him an almost paranoid sense of justice, but that wasn't enough. Justice, which is forever out of reach, has only driven him insane.

"What are you doing here?" Coetzes swept away the jumble of thoughts that had swung through his mind and forced himself to focus on the topic at hand, "You're implying that my essence can ......"

He paused for a moment and chose a wording that better reflected his displeasure: "Is it 'sweeping the garbage' here?" ”

Merlin laughed. I don't know if this half-dream demon can't read the atmosphere, or if he understands it but is also deliberately looking for unhappiness, all in all, Koz is indeed offended again.

"Gee, it's a great help that you can understand so quickly. You don't really need to do anything, just leave a little bit of your essence here. ”

The magician of the flowers raised his hand and made a "little bit" gesture, and Coates was very skeptical of this so-called "little bit".

"What exactly is this so-called 'malignant intelligence'? You haven't explained that yet. ”

"Generally speaking, it is 'the evil thoughts that everyone will have' in human life. For the average person, it's the idea of thinking in your heart, but not really doing it. For example, "The lunch meal is so unpalatable, I should really beat the cook", "A friend who was in a similar situation suddenly soared, expecting him to lose all his money soon", "Why don't you die if your boss is too annoying". ”

Merlin lightly describes the malice of the human heart in a hearty tone:

"But you think, most people don't put that into practice, do they? This shows that these 'malignant information' are normally disposed of in the 'waste hole'. But if that person's 'waste hole' is filled with a large amount of 'vicious information', causing bad thoughts to go nowhere...... You can imagine what will happen, right? ”

Conrad Coetzes looked at the darkness in front of him, which was too large no matter how he was measured, and was silent with doubts.

"Of course, all of the above are the cases of 'ordinary people' whose lives will not have too many waves." Merlin restrained her smile here, "In Fujimaru Ritsuka's 'Abandoned Hole', it is not just her own 'malignant information' that is contained. She was originally a 'easy to get in touch with others', and because of all kinds of things that had happened before...... This 'waste hole' gradually became like this. ”

"What's in there?"

"The 'malignant intelligence' that is related to her but not belongs to her—the resentment of the dead, the curse of the defeated, the reality that does not exist or is erased, the impulse to burst open the womb of what is to be born but not born. If you want a more concise definition, the phrase 'all the evils of mankind' is a perfect fit. ”

Coetzes looked suspiciously at Merlin's composed, calm face. The glimmer of light emanating from his body makes his demeanor visible to the viewer even in the darkness.

“…… If Rika Fujimaru was just a mortal, why hadn't she been crushed by so many evil thoughts? ”

"Well, firstly, because there is a wonderful guardian knight here, and secondly, because she has signed a contract with something like this, and it is not impossible to use this contract. There are all sorts of other reasons, of course, but those don't matter. Merlin smiled, "Rikka is a good master, so even after the agreed journey, everyone is willing to continue to help." ”

Conrad Coetzes was tired of the prickly attitude in Merlin's words. He pretended not to understand that the other party was in a yin and yang weird situation, and was about to continue to ask the next question, but the whole space had a slight fluctuation.

"It seems that the outside has succeeded, the anomalies have been eliminated, and the intel of 'Jestal' has poured in." Merlin said.

Koz still couldn't see anything, but he was too familiar with anything like it—he didn't really need sight to see what was flowing into the thick darkness. He perceives greed and arrogance, he perceives plunder and stealing, he perceives killing and sacrifice in the name of righteousness, and perceives more complicated sins and evil thoughts. The appearance of Jaystar's development and prosperity for more than 100 years has been lifted and fixed in reality, and the rancid blood hidden under it has flowed here with impunity. Just a glimpse is shocking enough.

Coates suddenly remembered one of the inexplicable titles his father had given Fujimaru Rika before they left the Torch: "Sin Drinker".

She was indeed sipping sin.

"In our world, this is the world of imaginary numbers that should not be 'proven to exist.'" Merlin's warm, practical voice didn't take into account Coetze's shock, "Simply put, it's similar to the 'observer effect', as long as something in the imaginary world cannot be recognized, it itself cannot affect the real world because it 'does not exist'. But that's not how rules work in this world. The creation of subspace entities has always been in defiance of the will of humans, so as Rika Fujimaru, a foreigner, gradually embeds her existence in this universe, this 'abandoned hole' will one day be 'proven' by something outside of humans - a matter of time or time. ”

“…… In other words, sooner or later, this place will be transformed into a subspace entity by the concept of 'all the evils of mankind'? ”

"It's not that far, and I can't say, because it's something that has never been done before. Of course I hope it becomes a subspace entity - and then Rikka can shake this off completely. However, according to the joint deduction of the learned people and the emperor in the Chaldees, it is more likely that this 'abandoned hole' will be turned into a subspace projection that does not exist at the moment of Tachika in the future. ”

There were sounds of battle in the distance, and it seemed that their location was not at the forefront of the "abandoned hole".

"So, you said you needed my essence." Kotz reasoned, "You need my judgment to judge the guilty and punish the guilty to remove the evil." The size of this 'abandoned hole' is gradually expanding, and you need new gatekeepers. ”

"Not exactly, but it's good to be like this." Merlin said with a pleasant smile, "It's great that you understand, then you're welcome—"

Suddenly, Coetze's left little finger suddenly felt a sharp pain that seemed to have been cut off: Merlin had already cut a small piece of essence from his body before he could finish speaking.

This can almost be judged to be hostile.

"-I haven't said yes yet!" Coates reached out in a fit of rage to grab Merlin, but—unsurprisingly, the Flower Magician had placed another shadow here.

"This is a dream, you can't hide it from me as a dream creature?" The half-dream demon had the same smile on his face, and the old god said, "And you don't have to be so angry, right?" Although it is true that the essential wound is not easy to heal, this amount is only to the extent that you can grow back in a month or two. All in all thank you so much for your help, and you can go back next-"

Merlin's voice faded away, and the darkness in front of him thinned out at the same rate. The act of running away immediately after his success made Koz's heart even more angry, but before he could think of a way to retaliate, he found that the memories of the incident were passing by at an abnormal rate.

"Merlin! What have you done to my brain again! He yelled angrily at the intersection of dream and reality, in exchange for the hearty laughter of the magician of flowers:

"I didn't do anything, did I?" Although the 'Abandoned Hole' is an imaginary world similar to subspace, it is also a dream:

"- Isn't it normal to wake up and remember all the things that happened in your dreams?"

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

Coates opened his eyes in the hallway of the Storm Boundary.

He didn't quite remember what he was doing standing here, only the anger burning in his chest was very clear to Merlin.

Of course, the half-dream demon who only threw the illusion here could not be caught for the time being, and the reason for his anger was unknown. Conrad Coetzes hesitated for a moment to put the matter down, but as he thought about it, he noticed that he had just returned to the ship, and Fujimaru Rika, who had not even replaced the combat Ortenaus Lingji exoskeleton, had passed by him, holding a paperback copy of the Sacred Word.

"What are you going to do?" Puzzled, he asked, "Don't you also clearly believe that 'the emperor is not a god'?" ”

Rika Fujimaru turned her head with a gloomy face, "But I think I saw Tzeentch in the dream-like cracks of the rearranged human structure." It's too unlucky, I must hurry up and do a prayer to 'get rid of the poison'." ”

This was enough to make anyone tense their nerves for a moment, so it was normal for Kotz to have a hint of nervousness in his tone that he hadn't even noticed:

"You see the Chaos God himself? What happened? ”

"I don't remember. That's the big question. Fujimaru Rika still had a gloomy face, "Although it is said that the things in the dream will naturally be forgotten when you wake up, but why is the 'intervening room' also a dream!" ”

She muttered it to her room angrily. Coates silently watched her back, somehow the anger in his heart toward Merlin grew even bigger.