My name is Fujimaru Rika, and I am the forty-eighth number of the Chaldean Master. There's still work that I have to do that hasn't been done, and I can't stop here.

In the dark cave, someone desperately drove his heavy and scattered thoughts like rubble, and told himself.

I'm tired, I want to sleep, I don't want to care about anything - but that's not how I feel. It's someone else's dream, it's a spiritual world, and I'm affected by other thoughts. You have to think, you have to find a way out, you have to think of a way-

Another grabbed her arm.

"Let's go back." The Count of Monte Cristo pulled her back without saying anything, "This was not a plan in the first place, nor was it an emergency, it could only be said that it was a whim of Merlin, and there was no need for it. ”

But Rika Fujimaru just stood still.

"And ...... And what has to be done. "Her voice was muffled, sounding close to a dream, and it made one wonder if she was still thinking normally," ...... Not finished...... I can't leave yet. ”

"You're not in a state where you can do things right now." The Count of Monte Cristo calmly commented, and increased his strength slightly, "Even if you think you have unfinished business here, you should regroup and think about countermeasures—"

He didn't finish this sentence, but instinctively looked away and narrowed his eyes: in this moment, Fujimaru Rika's whole person suddenly burst into golden light, and the burning sensation caused by the emperor's spiritual energy burned in the palm of his hand that was in contact with the opponent's forearm, he ignored this and didn't let go.

Although he may be a subspace creature in terms of structure, he is not a Chaos Demon, and will not be easily melted by this spiritual energy, and even to a certain extent, he will be recognized as a "friend". This may be true for all the "Avenger" Heroic Spirits under the Fujimaru Rikka Contract.

The prayers directed to the emperor contained not only faithful faith, hope, and supplication, but also anger, hatred, and a strong desire for revenge. Just as a coin has two sides, while more people will only see the Emperor suspended in subspace as a golden sun, and the Torch burning above the Holy Terra, it does not mean that the other side does not exist.

After adjusting to the sudden intensification of light, the Count of Monte Cristo reopened his eyes completely. A slender golden band of light was connecting from Fujimaru Ritsuka's chest into the darkness deep inside the mine, apparently meaning "go this way and leave" - but it was clear that the golden light was more than a simple indication.

"Something is wrong." Rika Fujimara, who had barely regained some of her ability to think with the support of psionic energy, said, "If you judge it purely by 'dreams', the structure here is too simple. ”

"That's not something you should be thinking about right now." The Count of Monte Cristo objected, "You should not stay here any longer, and when we are out, you will still have plenty of time to think about what to do." The environment here is not good, but it is stable. ”

However, as if he was deliberately trying to confront him, the moment he said this, the mine itself shook violently. As if they had been hit by an earthquake, the originally solid and stable structure was twisted by the huge force of the earth itself, dust and stones fell from the top of their heads, and the ground cracked in the rumbling loud noise—in desperation, the Count of Monte Cristo simply lifted Fujimaru Rika from the ground.

"Go up!" While avoiding the rubble and barely finding a place to jump on the broken ground, Fujimaru Rika did not know what kind of reasoning she had experienced in her regained ability to think, and shouted at the Count of Monte Cristo with a cracked rumble of the ground.

The latter didn't think much of it. Half out of trust in Ritsuka Fujimaru's judgment (of course, in the current environment, the weight of this reason is inevitably discounted), and half out of trust in his own ability to carry her out with her whole body, the Count of Monte Cristo did climb upwards intentionally or unconsciously while jumping through the shattered caverns, using the floating stones as a foothold. Soon after, he realized that it did seem like the right decision:

Looking up through the cracks in the layers of stones, it is easy to see that there is light on them.

It was a dim, blood-red, obviously ominous light, but it was a light after all.

"The Emperor's psionic energy has stimulated him! The dream has changed because of this! Rika Fujimaru shouted desperately in the midst of the loud noise, "He must be trying to express something!" ”

"Understood." Without further explanation, the Count of Monte Cristo spontaneously leaped towards the light above, "but if I judge that there is danger next, then we will leave at once, without discussion." ”

"Okay-uh--" Rika Fujimaru shuddered uneasily, obviously startled, "Wait a minute, what the hell is this so-called 'mine cave'!" ”

This "normal reaction" was comforting, but the Count of Monte Cristo did little to react to the Lord's return to normal: what fell from above gradually became not a stone, but the ruins of a war.

Shattered steel, toothless blades, weapons melted by overheating, halted engines of war, and corpses. Massive, broken corpses:

Among them are the chaotic, renegade Astarte, the mortals with eight-pointed stars carved into their bodies, strange aliens, twisted flesh and blood, and all kinds of demons, and so on. The only thing they have in common is that they are both enemies in the eyes of the Empire, and enemies in the eyes of Corvacs Corax.

And this has nothing to do with honors, nothing to do with achievements, nothing to do with tasks, nothing to do with goals. So many enemies have fallen, are backlogged here, and there is no point in it, just for empty revenge, with an impossible salvation to be accomplished.

Even with the barrier of the emperor's spiritual energy, on the way up, similar thoughts still flowed into Fujimaru Ritsuka's perception. In reality, her strong ability to empathize with people is an obvious advantage, but in such a mental world where the boundaries between people become ambiguous, and even "polluted", it becomes a great disadvantage that makes her too easily influenced.

It's not my emotions, my thoughts, my memories. I have my goal, my mission, what I have to do.

With the support of the Emperor's psionic power, she still had the strength to tell herself.

"You shouldn't go any further." Perhaps because he is also an "avenger", the Count of Monte Cristo has not been affected much in such an environment, and can still make a calm and rational judgment, "There is too much vicious information, and it will not do you any good to read more." ”

"But I'm about to catch something—"

The Count of Monte Cristo ignored her. As he said before, if he judged that there was danger next, then he would immediately leave with Fujimaru Rika, without negotiation.

Dark, flickering flames rushed to clear his way. Then, he and the Master moved as fast as lightning - not towards the light source that Fujimaru Ritsuka had hoped for, but towards the light belt where the Emperor's Psionic Energy had shown her the "direction of exit". And Fujimaru Rika pressed the shoulders of the Count of Monte Cristo, so that she could get past his shield, and shouted to the red light above where she wanted to go:

"Ecovacs Korax—"

Because there are so many falling objects, the red light is often blocked by the falling debris, so it looks like a candle flame that has been extinguished. And for a moment or two, it seemed that the shadows cast under the dim light were the wings of birds.

Rika Fujimaru may or may not recognize this, but that doesn't stop her from continuing to shout out what she wants to say:

“——”

She didn't know if it had been properly conveyed or if anyone was actually listening. In her senses, she probably hadn't even finished it before the nightmarish sight shattered and vanished, returning to a deep, lightless darkness.

——

Corvus Corax opened his eyes suddenly, and then looked around in panic.

He had already discovered that the original did not need to sleep, and the subspace creatures did not need to sleep. Sleeping with them doesn't really mean anything, it just makes them feel like they're still human. So, in all the 10,000 years of being in the subspace, Corax couldn't remember how long it had been since he had closed his eyes—he shouldn't have fallen asleep.

But He fell asleep, and awoke in a neatly furnished, warm, and appropriately ornate room, with a soft mattress underneath, a little soothing incense burning around him, and a little ornamental greenery that could be called a "living thing," and seemed very safe and free from enemies.

That didn't discourage Him. He sat up silently, while hiding his form as naturally as he breathed. During this time, he found that he had apparently been cleansed by some means, whether it was the skin of a human or the feathers of a bird, which had been cleaned, and the broken pieces of armor on his body had been removed and replaced with some soft fabric.

He didn't know what had happened while he was asleep, and he was completely confused by the status quo. He wasn't even sure how long he had been asleep—but there was another, something He should have found when he woke up, and He didn't realize until now:

He wept in his dreams.

Miwoo (Leopard Kill)

I often feel out of place with the Raven King because I'm so mentally healthy......

(End of chapter)