Stray

Nemo sat sturdy on the ground, letting his robes get covered with ashes and dust. The thick stench of blood and burnt flesh was still wafting nearby, but the shadow slowly shrank and melted slowly in the sunlight. The edges of the space crack slowly squeezed each other, and gradually recovered under the restrictions of the law, making an unpleasant clicking sound.

Oliver lowered his right hand, this time with no horrific wounds on his arm. The silver sword flickered more dazzlingly in the sunlight, then turned into dust little by little, and drifted in the wind. He looked at the metal dust in his palm silently, sighed slightly, and turned his eyes to Lavinia on the other side of the crack.

The singing continued. The gods of Vincent Town gradually dissipated in reality, and at the same time they also faded from the unbelievable eyes of the townspeople. People's whole-hearted faith has lost its direction, and the gods they believe in are stripped of layers of rigid dogma and fictional hatred, and are now weak, ordinary and free.

People who have always claimed to be loved by "God" are stunned by that true love. They looked at the familiar scenery around them in confusion, subconsciously wanting to follow their leader - and Teague Lorenzo stood silently, a beautiful cyan feather showing from one sleeve.

In the endless emptiness and fear, the townspeople were unable to raise their weapons again. The warm melody is like a strange visitor, with a happy smile on his face that has been reunited for a long time, open his arms to them calmly - without alertness and defense. They didn't recognize the man, but they couldn't insert a sharp blade into the other's beating heart.

Icicles and walls of ice that run through countless buildings begin to crumble.

Pasototu crossed the ice wall with a loud chirping—people turned their faces, not used to it, and listened dully to a sound that had never occurred in memory.

The Blue Birds did not defy their young leader this time, they spread their wings in silence and flew away from the crowd. Even if the young Grace Bluebirds had long since lost their respect for the gods and their envoys, they couldn't launch an attack in this soft melody when the enemy lost their will to fight.

The center of the battlefield was empty all of a sudden, and only a few figures remained there.

Merotti Delaney, one of the surviving figures - their original mission target, healed by Nemo's abyss magic, now staggers to her feet amid the singing. She didn't go to see her father, who was sitting dozens of steps away, or Fritz, who was quietly guarding beside her, or her lover. She stood up straight, as if struggling with some unseen soul—and then everything in the phantom reappeared.

Her neck, her shoulders, her curly black hair and beautiful teeth - blue eyes reappeared, Merlotti Delaney was still mostly bird-like, head and neck The shoulders have been restored to human appearance, and they look like the beautiful banshees in the mythological picture book.

There was no anger, no sadness on her face, and her expression was even close to a tight blank. Those cyan eyes were burning with terrifying brilliance - Merotti turned to the townspeople with difficulty and spread her wings.

"Look at me," she said.

"Do you understand that right? It's alright, don't be afraid." She repeated hoarsely, one of the pair of wings was de-feathered and turned into white arms. "...don't be afraid, okay?"

The Blue Bird army has completely withdrawn from the battlefield, and Pasototu gently landed beside the lover. The tense atmosphere in the crowd gradually eased, and some people looked away and fell to the ground in despair. Some began to hug their relatives who had been handicapped for the rest of their lives, sobbing softly. Indeed, some of them were still staring at the familiar and unfamiliar girl in front of them, the most beautiful girl in the town once—this time, no sword was pointed at the daughter of the Draenei family.

She slowly retracted her arms, bit her lip, then slowly turned her face away and buried herself in the thick blue feathers on her lover's chest.

Since they met the girl in the wild, she would only cry or sob quietly like her mother. At this moment, in the eyes of countless eyes, she burst into tears without any scruples - the cry was not from sadness, it replaced the gradually weakening song, and the grievance was full of relief.

It's over, Nemo thought. This time it might really be over.

The crack in space is close to closing, and the singing is weakening. Lavinia lowered her head and said goodbye to the town she saw for the first and last time.

Nimo stood up with difficulty and slapped the dust on him. Just as he was about to open his mouth to greet Oliver, the confession hit his brain just right, and his throat was stuck. And just as he was thinking about how to avoid this problem in the near future, a blue light ribbon wrapped around his waist.

"Wait—"

The unnatural crack finally closed, and he and Oliver were pulled into the last crack by the light belt, and were sealed on the side that belonged to the Blue Bird Holy Land. The light-belt movement wasn't rough, it gently placed them on the ground.

In order to avoid awkward staring, Nemo quickly turned his attention to Lavinia: "You..."

Before he finished speaking, he knew why—

The luster on Lavinia's feathers was fading, and she breathed hard. The song seemed to have completely consumed the little time she had left. She propped her eyelids diligently, staring at the two humans in front of her with drowsiness.

"Thank you," she said slowly, in a relaxed and even tone. "Mr. Dylan's remuneration has been negotiated at the beginning, and you haven't asked for it yet... I'm running out of time, make a wish. As long as I can give it, I can do anything."

Nemo quickly translated the words to Oliver, staring solemnly at the dirty boot toes the whole time.

"Is there anything you want?" Oliver asked softly.

"No." Nemo replied almost immediately, "Selling the bones of someone's relatives is retribution."

"Neither do I." Oliver shook his head, "Half of Dylan's favor, and half of it if you want to help—tell her she doesn't owe us anything."

"I can give you my strength." Lavinia didn't seem surprised to hear the two's answers. "Even though there's not much left, it might help."

"This is really unnecessary." Nemo waved his hand quickly, "We... don't seem to be in short supply, you don't need to suffer that kind of pain." He didn't particularly want to know his future.

The dying blue bird let out a low chuckle, "I see." She closed her eyes, "If you don't need a wish, I can only prepare a gift without authorization."

The fake **** solemnly raised the wings on his arms, and the wings behind his waist drooped down, wrapping the skeleton of a "human" under the tree. As if to embrace it into an imminent dream.

"May you... keep going and never get lost."

She didn't say goodbye.

The blue flame started to ignite from the trunk, and the huge blue bird in the flame remained motionless, without the slightest struggle. The flame heart was too bright, and the silhouette of the tree bird was quickly overwhelmed by the brilliance. Although inside the mountain, there were faintly flickering tiny flakes of snow floating in the air—not ashes, but fading shavings of light.

The flames are getting higher and higher without the searing aggression. In just a few tens of seconds, it reflected the dim space as if it were daylight. Cyan feathers swirled above the corpse, as if it had regained life. After it was extinguished, the tree bird and human skeleton disappeared completely, leaving only a white dust like pearl powder in the original place.

The "God" and her only followers left peacefully.

What lies quietly on top of the thick dust. Nemo approached first. He stretched out his hand, then pulled back uncertainly. Obviously, it was Lavinia's gift to Oliver.

A bone sword with a simple shape and clean lines is half buried in the fine dust - its blade is white and dense, and it looks very sharp. The hilt is slightly rough, without any decoration, and has nothing to do with the word "ornate".

Lavinia left behind a piece of her skeleton.

The two were silent for a moment, and no one was in the mood to mind the subtle and awkward atmosphere between them. Oliver took a few steps forward cautiously. Instead of grabbing the sword, he bent down and gave a serious salute. Immediately, Oliver reached out his hand cautiously, and the bone sword floated up from the dust and was gently rolled into his palm by the mana.

It was slightly shorter than the church silver sword, Oliver gently waved it twice, and then slowly put it into the scabbard left by the silver sword.

"Thank you very much." He thanked the dim silence clearly.

"...Now what do we do?" Lavinia died in front of them, but Nemo unexpectedly didn't feel much depression. At this time, the air in the Holy Land was clean and pure. It's more like the last note of a good song than parting. She wasn't sad, and he couldn't feel sorry for her without permission.

"Anyway, go out first and see what's going on with the blue bird - fortunately it's with you, at least we can explain it. Then we have to find Mr. Ann and Mr. Cross." Oliver tried Lighten the tone, but he failed miserably.

"Oh." Nemo responded a little embarrassedly, "Yes... yes, it's good."

Oliver looked at him a little helplessly, and the latter's eyes drifted struggling for a while, landing on the rough hilt of the bone sword: "Oli, I think it needs a name. It is worth a name."

Although he sensed that the other party was changing the subject, Oliver did not intend to break this point: "Yes, I think so too."

"That mission...I mean, the tomb mission that Horizon participated in, what is the name of the holy sword..." Nemo tried to stir up the topic, and then stuck awkwardly .

"I don't know either." Oliver responded kindly. As Lavinia left, the spell flying insects in the hallway of the Holy Land disappeared, and they skillfully followed the path they had traveled. "But what to call it, I have an idea."

"What?"

"…RIP," Oliver said. "I want to call it 'RIP.'"

Meanwhile, Vincent Town.

Ann Savage saw her companion being pulled into the crack, and let go of the parrot in dissatisfaction. The change happened so fast that she had nothing to do. And the gray parrot let out a scream, swooped down at the female warrior angrily, and then slammed into the spear body that the other party raised at will.

So it had to fly up cursingly, and tore the sheepskin bag behind the Fuller goat with its claws to vent its anger - the latter had already gnawed the grass beside the crooked fence. part.

It's not Baggmoru's mental health that is worrying at the moment, and Lavinia shouldn't be bad for Oliver and Nemo. Now something more dangerous was approaching—Jesse Dylan, carrying the unconscious knight commander, covered in blood, was marching toward this side with a sigh. The blond-haired young man's strides were weak and feeble, and his pretty face was extremely pale.

"What did you do to him?" Ann made no attempt to hide her vigilance.

"Look at what you said, did we destroy the Nightmare Praise, or the Nightmare Praise with the Companion Stone - you know, the living Nightmare itself! It's not spitting, boots Just rubbing the bottom will fix it." Jesse Dylan cried aggrievedly. "Anyway, when dear Ed wakes up, he can tell you himself. Then you will have to make up for the damage to my heart—"

Besides them, the people of Vincent Town are slowly dispersing. Most of the buildings were damaged by icicles, and the originally warm town was now a bit more desolate. Fortunately, Nemo's abyssal magic healed well—at least there were only ruins as far as the eye could see, no corpses or wounded.

The female warrior looked around, trying to ignore the beautiful man who was still chattering in front of her.

"...Anyway," Dylan finally began to make his closing remarks. "We'd better find Mr. Ramon sooner, you see, in terms of results—"

"Vincent Town is 'destroyed'." He shrugged, "Believe me, it won't go back to what it was before."

(m..=)