(End of month request for votes—definitely can’t forget this ti!)
"Here," Bellavilla pointed to her head, "that voice can sever the spiritual connection of a Xyrin Apostle, and that’s enough."
My expression instantly froze, and after a long while, I said uncertainly, "What does this spiritual connection refer to? Communication with other Apostles? The command link? The database?"
Bellavilla fell silent for a mont, seemingly unwilling to admit her sense of powerlessness when facing just a voice, but eventually she sighed, "If it were just that, the Fallen Apostles wouldn’t so easily obey soone else’s commands, as we are all quite a prideful bunch... But the owner of that voice possesses abilities far more terrifying. He can sever any form of spiritual connection of a Xyrin Apostle, including any information link, the simplest spirit communication between comrades, the mind control of subordinate soldiers, or even... the ability to summon super space-ti armors. As you know, one of the strongest technologies of the Xyrin Apostles is the super space-ti armor and the single soldier heavy equipnt system; it is through them that we have acquired the power to unleash the combat power of an entire army as individuals. Yet, the owner of that voice can easily sever these connections. The strongest individual, once isolated, will be overwheld in the storm of legions, and among the scheming factions of the Fallen Apostles, once soone falls into this situation, the consequences are predictable."
"A guy who fundantally controls the lifeline of every Xyrin Apostle," I turned the water cup in my hands unconsciously, "he maintains his rule with violence and threats, but never shows himself, which isn’t a stable way to rule."
"If it were just violence and threats, such rule would certainly not be stable, so he has other ans," Bellavilla rubbing her forehead, "Another reason the Fallen Apostles find it difficult to defy his will is that the voice compels obedience. Don’t you wonder why such important information I’m only disclosing now?"
"Nonsense, of course I’m curious." I replied imdiately.
Who the supre leader of the Fallen Apostles is should have been the most crucial piece of information. Even now, like Bellavilla revealing only a "voice" and not even knowing the na of the other party, this was better than knowing nothing as before. But in the few monts Bellavilla was lucid, she never ntioned what was going on with the leader of the Fallen Apostles; I even thought at one point that the Fallen Apostles, like the Old Empire, were ruled by a coalition of Fallen Emperors!
The fact that we didn’t know there was a Supre Commander was an unforgivable mistake.
But there must have been a reason why Bellavilla didn’t tell us this crucial information; her mind had normalized, and she had beco a Xyrin Apostle again, it was unlikely she was still serving the Fallen.
"Because I only recently got rid of those things." Bellavilla sighed, but her words made my face change dramatically, "What?! So, that guy’s spiritual power has always been..."
"Don’t worry," Bellavilla waved her hand, "His spiritual power doesn’t extend this far, and his power seems to only work on Fallen Apostles completely controlled by the Abyss Power. When I awakened in the spirit world of Silvia, I could no longer hear that voice. What I ant by ’those things’ is a form of spiritual suggestion... or sothing else more irresistible. Fallen Apostles are still Apostles, we at least retain a pride not afraid of death, and wouldn’t obey soone’s commands just for a bit of violence and threat. But that guy, his spirit has always been guiding everyone, continuously weakening our resistance to that voice in our minds, even after a while, you would involuntarily treat obeying ’that gentleman’ as naturally as breathing, which is indeed a terrifying psychological suggestion. And for a long ti after regaining my self-control, I also struggled with this suggestion; I couldn’t hear that voice, but so kind of seal-like thing was also preventing from recalling things related to that voice, as if sothing was deleted from the mory core, clearly sothing that guy set up in every Fallen Apostle’s mories to prevent secrets from being leaked. Once soone lost control, they would imdiately forget all secrets. I suspect even now my mories are not complete...
and I can’t even rember where my base used to be, which is very abnormal."
"That Supre Commander, do you have any clue what kind of person he might be?"
"Unfortunately, though I wish I could help you," Bellavilla shook her head, "the only thing we can be certain of is that he is a mber of the Xyrin Empire, his soul perfectly matches the spiritual network of the Xyrin Race, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to sway the minds of the Xyrin Apostles. Our proud spiritual network, although defeated by the Abyss, has never been flawed before, even the Star Domain Gods can hardly penetrate it. All I can suggest is to look among the emperors of the Old Empire, find those adept at mind control, preferably a Soul Taker like Sandora. His power is peculiar, but fundantally still a form of spiritual energy, perhaps..."
"Unfortunately, I’m afraid I can’t think of who the mastermind behind the scenes might be," Sandora’s voice suddenly appeared in the spiritual connection, she had been listening from the side since earlier and only now made a sound, "Among the imperial emperors of the Old Empire, there were only three Soul Takers with powers similar to mine; one of them is nad on the Literature Hall’s monunt, he and twenty-nine of his siblings turned to dust together, another is proficient in spiritual attack, not control, and as a Soul Taker, the spiritual power is very strong; I’ve had a deep experience, and as a Soul Taker, even if fallen into the Abyss Gate, one could at least retain the sanity to self-destruct before going mad, which is not difficult for , or for that guy either."
"Indeed, I rember now, Yue Ge’er was the one who self-destructed in front of after the disaster at the Literature Hall," Bellavilla sighed, "It seems that in the short term, we can’t guess which old friend turned into the boss."
"But at least we now know we have only one enemy to deal with, and not a group," Sandora’s voice was still light and calm. "Bellavilla, every ti you awaken, you bring us surprises."
"But I just wanted to eat so cake," Bellavilla struggled to stuff sweets into her mouth, her eyelids already fighting each other. "Damn it, enjoying life with your will is not the sa as sharing feelings from soone else’s mories, and today again I got carried away talking to you!"
"Actually, if you’d like, I could have Taville make a new body to separate your will..." I looked at Bellavilla with a annoyed face and suddenly felt a bit of sympathy: such a leader, now reduced to a al every other week.
"No... need," Bellavilla managed to swallow the food in her mouth, looking regretfully at the handheld console she had taken out but hadn’t had ti to play with, her head already shaking. "Waste of effort... Silvia and I cannot be separated. Yawn—And one last thing... usually stick around Silvia, your power... keeps awake... faster... Zzzzz..."
Bellavilla’s hand was holding half a pudding as she lowered her head. I stepped forward and gently patted her shoulder, the silver-haired girl slowly raised her head, dragging her words out lodically, "So—full, Bellavilla ate a lot again—"
2p break, now back to 1p.
"Um—" Silvia spoke slowly, carefully watching my eyes, "Was what Bellavilla told you helpful? Did I actually help?"
"Of course, you helped," I smiled and nodded to her.
I had just visited this place a few days ago, hoping to see if Bellavilla had awakened and if I could get so information from her. Silvia really took it to heart. She could communicate with Bellavilla in a mysterious way, but waking her up was more troubleso. Bellavilla’s awakenings were a spiritual burden to them both, so these past few days, Silvia had been sleeping a lot just to be helpful.
"Waking Bellavilla up is the biggest thing I can do—" Silvia spoke slowly, then looked around the shop and called out, "998—could you pour Chen a glass of orange juice?"
Raven 998 ca to the table with a glum face: "Mother, maybe I should keep you company for a chat. I really have no complaints about this world."
Silvia took half a minute to respond: "Huh?"
"Cough cough, I’m heading out, you guys chat slowly."
After Bellavilla left, I felt the average intelligence of this small cafe had plumted, staying any longer might be detrintal to my ntal and physical health. So, I quickly excused myself. As I reached the door, Silvia’s voice just began to rise: "Oh—"
As I left Silvia’s little shop, Sandora and I continued talking through our spiritual connection. Bellavilla’s awakening always brought us more important information; however, the limited ti she was awake ant the information she could sort out was also limited. Furthermore, the presence of a "spiritual suggestion" which made her forget a lot of things was an even more critical reason.
But how this spiritual suggestion was gradually weakening was a puzzling issue. There was a leader behind the Fallen Apostle, that was indisputable, and whoever the true body was, they would not be a brute. From their careful action of imposing spiritual suggestions on each Fallen Apostle, we could deduce that they were very cautious. So under such circumstances, how could Bellavilla’s spiritual lock gradually unlock itself?
I suspected that when Ocam plotted against Bellavilla, a fluke had broken this shackle, but this was unfounded. Sandora, who always considered the worst of the enemy, could not accept that "an accidental amnesia would invalidate the carefully designed restraint of the Supre Commander of the Fallen Apostles." Then, the possible reason would have to be the second option.
"Looks like it’s Ah Jun’s halo effect again," the Queen sighed softly in the spiritual connection.
"Purification?"
"According to Father God, you are an information disturbance source," Sandora explained, "Anyone who cos in contact with you, in any way, can recover from the Abyss Power; Bellavilla’s resurrection and the unlocking of her spirit might also be related to this. If Taville could find a technology to amplify this disturbance, it would be great."
Then before a battle, I just sit in the broadcasting studio and read a prose poem to the enemy’s air, land, and sea forces: "The Little Horn Starts Broadcasting!" And then our military forces would beco invincible, right?
Sandora said it was a promising outlook.
Starting from Silvia’s small shop and crossing through the military blockade on the outskirts, it wasn’t far to the academy area. I walked along the road and soon found myself on a comrcial street commonly known as Academy Road, where a sudden blue figure caught my eye and interrupted my thoughts about the Fallen Apostle Supre Commander.
Anyway, knowing that the enemy has a Supre Commander isn’t practically useful to us; our intelligence can’t possibly infiltrate the Fallen Apostle’s rank so deep to spy, let’s leave this headache to the deputy officers at the command center.
"Yo! Chiruno, still counting?"
I ca up smiling to the little girl in a blue dress, squatting and calculating on the ground, and suddenly shouted loudly.
"Wow!" Chiruno jumped up, looked at her fingers, and then suddenly turned to , infuriated and flailing, "Damn it! I was just about to figure it out!"
"What were you calculating? Yesterday’s earnings?" I chuckled as I observed the battleless ice fairy puffing up in anger; she was absolutely non-threatening, then glanced at the shop behind the little girl: Chiruno’s Cold Drink Shop.
"I was calculating... calculating..." Chiruno stamred, her Ice Wings drooping behind her. A few seconds later, the temperature around started to drop rapidly, this silly fairy imdiately pounced on , "It’s all your fault! You bad person! Quickly tell what I was calculating! If I can’t figure it out, I can’t open for business today!"
Um, can’t open for business if she can’t calculate? What kind of crucial data is that?
"Wuuu, I can’t even rember why I can’t open if I can’t calculate," Chiruno’s spirit dropped even more at my question; she crouched on the ground and started drawing circles with an ice stick.
It took quite an effort to cheer up the downtrodden ice fairy. Out of curiosity, I asked to visit her small shop, and, unexpectedly, Chiruno was very welcoming, nearly dragging inside. As I entered, I was stunned.
The floor was covered with ice, windows frosted with ice flowers, chandeliers bore a foot-long icicle, chairs were underlain with ice chunks, broken ice pieces lay everywhere, the counter resembling a bar was entirely covered in thick snow almost masking its original form, the small shop space was bone-chilling, gusts of cold wind blew, and two refrigerating fans on the opposite wall were continuously spouting snow-bearing cold winds; the cold drink shop looked like sothing out of the ice age, definitely sub-zero degrees!
"No custors, huh!" Chiruno entered the environnt, oddly joyful as she hopped behind the counter, "Seriously, so many people said they’d co support us before we opened, but why do they only co once and never return? Ah, do you want so ice cream? I froze it myself! It’s a special treat!"
I quickly waved my hands, "No trouble needed, I’ll just bite a piece off the table myself."
So, you’re treating the ice cream shop like a buffet!
I must say, Chiruno redefined my worldview, making realize how dumb soone can be. According to her, they haven’t had custors since a few days ago, so what exactly was she calculating squatting by the door earlier?
Hearing my question, Chiruno looked dumbfounded for a mont, then suddenly clapped her hands, "Ha! So that’s it, no custors, huh? No wonder I couldn’t figure things out, I haven’t sold anything!"
...She must be really easy to manipulate, right?
Chiruno’s ice cream shop was destined to have no patrons. I couldn’t imagine how hot a person must be to co here to cool off, as it would be hard to determine who would end up more frozen, yourself or the ice pop. And perhaps this place might beco the first self-service and even DIY food ice cream shop ever: you could stand with a bottle of water at the door for a while, and when you returned, you’d have chilled mineral water to drink.
Chiruno is childish, and quickly forgot that soone had just tried to scare her. She began to enthusiastically introduce her little shop while I kept a close eye on the table: there was an unfortunate fly inside the shattered ice, still in a soaring pose, clearly frozen the mont it flew in.
"This is milk ice pop!"
The Ice Fairy placed a big box on the counter, into which she poured a liquid mixture, stirred beyond recognition, then rubbed her hands on the box and pulled out a bunch of milky white ice chunks.
"Ah, I forgot to insert the sticks!" exclaid Chiruno.
I casually picked up a so-called milk ice pop from the counter and threw it on the ground, creating a huge crater.
If it didn’t lt so easily, it actually would have made a decent building material.
The Ice Fairy clearly ssed up the normal ice cream recipe, and didn’t anticipate how scary freezing popsicles could be at this temperature. She still rrily played with the ice chunks, while I suddenly felt sothing move in my pocket. Dingdang shivered as she crawled out, "Hiss, it’s so cold, Ah Jun, have we reached the Frozen Continent again?"
While speaking, the little creature took out a small bundle and slung it on her back, burrowing deeper into my warr collar: looks like she was moving house.
With so malice, I thought, if I threw her into a cup of water right now, would she turn into a piece of amber like that unlucky fly?
For my own health, as Dingdang was halfway through climbing, I stood up intending to take my leave. This movent made Chiruno look up from her ice pop box, noticing Dingdang burrowing into my collar, and greeted her cheerfully. As ntioned before, Dingdang and Chiruno had beco good friends, so the reunion of these two fools was especially warm. Battling the chill of minus fifteen or sixteen degrees, I pondered if it would be more appropriate to open a pharmacy next to Chiruno’s ice cream shop, a left turn out of the door to treat colds, highlighting the human care in urban planning. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to recomnd and vote monthly at qidian, your support is my greatest motivation.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)