Alyssa's words sent a shudder to Alan, who wondered what other cruel methods she wanted to use to torture them. He can bear it, but Cynthia seems to be in this state anymore......

"You can do it, Allen......" At this moment, Cynthia's weak voice sounded in his ears, "You can do it......"

"What?" Alan was stunned.

"Hurry up and remember...... That magic ......," Cynthia said and fainted.

Cynthia...... Cynthia!" Alan shouted twice, but Cynthia was unresponsive.

"Why, is it just that you lose your ability to resist?" Alyssa picked Cynthia's chin with her wand and sneered, "That's really a disappointment...... It's better to end her now......"

"Just come at me as you want, don't hurt her!" Alan shouted.

"Oh, it's heroic!" Alyssa glanced at him, and out of nowhere, she found a slender ice spike and slammed it into the back of Alan's hand, "I won't stop until I hear you say I'm doing the right thing." ”

But Alan didn't have this intention, but gritted his teeth, closed his lips, and let Alyssa stick the needle-like ice spikes into the back of his hand and arm one by one.

"But it's no wonder ......" It didn't take long for Alyssa to suddenly put away her smile, and her expression turned a little sad, "The fragility of life does seem a little incomprehensible to you born in this era. If you've seen for yourself what kind of world I'm living in, you'll know what I'm doing......"

Before Alan could react, Alyssa raised her wand, pressed it against Allen's head, and whispered a quick and soft incantation.

Alan only felt that it was dark in front of him, and he felt like he was about to pass out, but the next second he felt like he was asleep, and he was still dreaming.

It's like dusk. He was in a small village, but it seemed like a battlefield. All the houses were on fire, and fireballs and boulders were falling from the sky like raindrops. People were crying and hiding, racing for their lives.

Alan was taken aback and ran with the others.

It's like a war between magicians. The intruders were uniformly dressed from head to toe in pitch black, each wearing a calf-length black cape. They seem to have a clear division of labor, working in groups of threes and twos, freely shuttling around the battlefield, wreaking havoc and plundering everything they can take with them. The small number of resisters, and the apparent lack of organization and discipline, slaughtered almost without any defence, and almost no one escaped.

Alan just lowered his head and ran forward, and suddenly, a middle-aged woman dragged him to the corner of a house, and then hurriedly applied an unknown magic to him.

Before Alan could understand what was happening, he saw one of the intruders appear in front of him and the middle-aged woman in an instant, and with a wave of his wand, the middle-aged woman's body burst into flames.

"Run...... You're going to live!" the middle-aged woman let out a heart-rending scream as she shoved Alan before falling to the ground and struggling.

Alan only felt that his body did not obey him, and ran all the way to the edge of the village, hiding behind a raised rock.

It seems that no one has discovered him.

After a while, Alan quietly turned his head and saw a burly middle-aged man walking in this direction, followed by a large group of similarly dressed people.

"Did anyone run away?" he asked.

The man seemed to be the leader of the invaders, and he was standing not far from him.

"No, those who resisted have already been killed. Alan heard a reluctant voice, "Everyone else is also confined to a house in the middle of the village. ”

"Let's do it. The leader said coldly, "Too much time has been wasted here, and there is a bigger piece of meat waiting for us...... Don't leave your mouth alive. ”

Seeing a few of them begin chanting the same incantation together, the sky gradually darkened, and after only a few moments, the whole village was covered with dark clouds.

"Boom!" lightning slashed down from the sky, shining with dazzling white light, densely packed, and instantly turned the entire village into a sea of fire.

There was a short scream, and everything was on fire. Houses, furniture, and the corpses of people and animals were all on fire.

Alan was stunned, his mind went blank, he hid behind the rocks and shivered, holding his head tightly with both hands, not daring to look back again.

After a long time, he was choked by the heat and smoke, and finally he couldn't help coughing. But because he was worried that his position would be exposed, he only coughed briefly twice and then forcibly held back again. It wasn't until a long time had passed, when he noticed that no one was coming, that he cautiously looked behind him again.

Those people are gone.

Alan stood up, stunned as he watched everything in front of him, watching the entire village burn and the occasional cry of a survivor. Thinking of the middle-aged woman who helped him escape, Alan wanted to rush in several times to save these people, but those voices were quickly engulfed in flames, making it impossible for him to get close at all.

After a while, it was completely dark, and the flames were finally extinguished.

Alan walked into the village, and a sense of déjà vu came over him, but when he looked around, there was nothing left but ashes.

Tears began to flow involuntarily from his eyes, as if he had lost something important, but he couldn't think of anything.

He cried and walked aimlessly, and so it went through the night. It wasn't until dawn that he finally couldn't help but fall.

I don't know how long I slept, maybe it was just a blink, or maybe it was days. When he opened his eyes again, he was greeted by three unfamiliar faces.

They were about the same age, covered in dirt, and like him, it was as if they had just escaped from the fighting.

The leader was a teenage boy, taciturn and sad. There was also a girl with blond hair and another young man.

"Have you just lost your family?" asked the boy at the head, with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Alan didn't know how to answer, but his body nodded uncontrollably.

"Then come with us. The boy said.

"Where?" said a voice that didn't belong to him came out of his throat.

"A safe place...... "a place where no one will ever hurt us again." ”

A tingling pain came from the back of his hand, and the image suddenly disappeared.

Alan let out a loud cry and opened his eyes.

In front of her, Alyssa was pulling an ice spike out of the back of Alan's hand, with blood still on the tip.

"It's your ......" Alan shook his hair and came to his senses. The hallucinations that appeared in front of his eyes just now seemed as if he had experienced them himself.

"Fragments of memory. Alyssa said lightly.

Alan was stunned. It turned out that these were the memories of her childhood.

"That'...... The woman who helped you escape......" Alan asked tentatively again.

But Alyssa did not answer him, but was silent for a long time, and then said with a wry smile: "How small are human beings in the face of nature and war...... A flame or a bolt of lightning can easily take a person's life, and only by becoming strong can you be qualified to talk about your life and death. ”

A faint sadness permeated Allen's heart, and he suddenly understood why Frost always kept the word "strong" on his lips.

"Both my parents died in the fighting. Alyssa continued: "My father went on a quest with the local lords and never returned...... My mother, on the other hand, died in a foreign invasion...... As you just saw. ”

When Alan heard this, a sense of compassion suddenly rose in his heart, and he even felt a little pity for her.

"I have sworn in my heart countless times that I will avenge them......," Alyssa said lightly, "but there seems to be a strange power in the Valley of Origin, and after living there for so long, I have gradually let go of my hatred...... Slowly, I was left with only one thought in my mind, which was to live here forever and enjoy the pleasure of constantly discovering new magic......"

"Then why are you ......," Alan asked, somewhat incomprehensibly.

"Why do you want to do this kind of experiment?" Alyssa smiled, guessing Allen's idea, "because as the days go by, and I get older, I realize that aging is the worst enemy of man......"

Hearing this, Alan couldn't help but sigh a little.

"Everybody dies...... No matter how powerful a magician is, he is powerless to stop aging and death. Alyssa looked up at the sky, "And death means the end...... No matter how much joy and sorrow you have experienced in your life, they all disappear with death...... It doesn't exist, and once you die, nothing exists, and everything loses its meaning......"

Alan was dumbfounded, because he also felt that what she said seemed to be right.

"Life is decades long, and just because death makes everything that happened before meaningless, don't you think it's really sad......" Alyssa stared at him with a wry smile.

This smile of hers gave Alan the illusion that it was Alyssa who was talking to him now, not the Frost who was living inside her.

At this point, both men were silent.

Allen's heart couldn't calm down for a long time, and Alyssa's every word kept echoing in his ears.

"But ......" After a long time, Alan finally spoke: "This is not a reason for you to take someone else's life. ”

Alyssa was stunned for a moment, and then the expression on her face began to become more subtle.

"Even the weak have the right to pursue their own happiness and not fall victim to the strong. Alan said again.

"Jill had said the same thing......" she looked pale, gritting her teeth and trembling, "and he had said the same thing......"

"It is true that this is a world dominated by the strong, and there are strong and weak in every corner, high and low......," Alan said thoughtfully, "but must the weak be a stepping stone in the way of the strong just because they are weak?

"Shut up! Shut up!" Alyssa suddenly roared uncontrollably when she heard this, and even stabbed Eren with several ice spikes at the same time.

But Alan didn't seem to feel the pain at all now, only frowned slightly, and continued: "The path you have chosen that seems to lead to strength does not really make you strong, it is just satisfying your own selfish desires...... The road was accompanied by countless battles and sacrifices, and there was no end to it...... If you stop and take a closer look, you'll see that it's just a path to loneliness......"

"You're not qualified to deny me!" Alyssa's eyes were red, and she raised her wand and aimed it at Alan, as if motivated by murderous intent.

The tip of the wand was close at hand, but now Allen's heart was as calm as water, and he had no fear.

"Alan Paterna......" Alyssa gritted her teeth and stared at him.

Just as she was about to recite the incantation, she suddenly covered her head and fell to her knees on the ice and struggled, looking quite painful.

Alan didn't know what was going on and looked at her a little confused.

At this moment, a familiar voice sounded softly in his ears again: "It's now, Allen......"