âWell, Iâll wait for you.â Lydney whispered, âDonât hang up, will you?â
I want to listen to your voice.
âWell, Iâll be with you. Donât be afraid.â Carl quickened his pace. âIâm coming to...â
âDu Du Du -â There was a regular knock on the door panels, and Lydney rose from his chair, somewhat nervously gripping the cup in his hand. There was silence over the brooch, and Lydney heard no more sound from Carl.
Lorenzo lowered his eyes and the knocking at the door continued without stopping. The visitors seemed very patient, and the frequency of knocking did not change. Lydney saw Lorenzo raise his head and swallow. Then he got up immediately, went to the wooden door and opened the door handle.
Outside the house, he didnât know when it began to snow. With the suction of the wooden door being pulled open, lightly drifting snow crept into the house. A man in a dark grey windbreaker stood quietly outside the door, and his fingers could see that he was ready to knock on the wooden door.
âItâs snowing outside. Itâs cold.â His gray pupils were obscured by foggy lenses, partly harsh, and his thin, pale lips smiled softly. The soft, magnetic voice gradually leaked out with the curvature of the corners of his lips. âLorenzo, old friends meet again, why donât you invite me to sit inside?â
âCome in, please.â Lorenzo turned and let Dean into the room, while Lydney stood in the corner and did not speak.
Dean glanced at Lydney, ignored him, and sat down directly in the seat where Lydney had just been sitting. âYou seem to have a guest.â
âNew friends.â Lorenzo closed the door and stood there.
âFriends...â Dean chuckled and poured himself a glass of hot water. âUnfortunately, heâs not a slum man.â
âItâs quiet tonight.â Dean held his hot cup, smiled and closed his eyes, took a deep breath, as if intoxicated by the warm enthusiasm. âI remember that there was always a lot of noise here, and they were always so...â
âWhat have you done to them?â Lorenzo interrupted Dean and his drooping hand clenched tightly into a fist.
âI didnât move them again. Whatâs your hurry?â Dean opened his eyes and the steaming hot air in his water cup grew white mist on his lenses. He took off his glasses and wiped them gently. âWhen I was on the Vagrant, Abel often wrote to me, saying that an aunt on North Street was very kind to him, and that other people, where I canât remember very well, often gave him food. The people here are so kind. Why should I move them? Speaking of this, I think Oliver is really a great man. I admire him very much. Thank him for giving me this opportunity to share everything with you.â Dean put on his glasses again and burst out laughing. âEverybodyâs asleep. Iâve woven a dream for them, in that dream... Thereâs everything about me.â
âBefore the war begins, you can save them. Take them to Palatine at Erenie. I wonât touch anyone here.â Without any warning, Dean suddenly stood up and grabbed Lorenzo by the neck and pressed him against the wall. âGo and save them!â Deanâs eyes were red. He bit his teeth and pinched his fingers around Lorenzoâs neck tightly. âI want to see how many people you can save.â
âCough...!â
Dean took a deep breath and let Lorenzo go.
Lorenzo knelt on the ground with his throat covered and breathed heavily. Dean looked at Lorenzo. Suddenly, he dropped his eyes, grabbed Lorenzoâs chin, frowned tightly, and stared at him. âI didnât kill them. After tonight, you will know that there are few people who really live.â
âOf course, I died long ago.â Dean laughed hoarsely and in a low voice.
Lydney felt that Dean was mad. He was walking further and further along a thorny road and could not find his way back.
âLydney.â Dean suddenly raised his head, and Lydney was shocked by his sudden cry, âCarl is coming, you go with him.â
Lydney took a step, feeling stiff and stepped up to the door.
âLydney!â Carl went up to hold Lydney, following his lowered head, he saw Dean and Lorenzo sitting in the room.
âDean...â Carl whispered Deanâs name.
Dean gave Carl a familiar smile, âGet out.â
Carl: â...â
Dean restrained all his expressions, rose slowly from the ground, bypassed Lydney and Carl and walked out of the hut.
âNightmare, go.â A grey armor came out of the darkness and followed Dean, slowly disappearing into the snow.
Lorenzo stumbled out of the cottage, pounced at the neighborâs door, knocked hard, and said something Carl and Lydney didnât understand. [Leddy, donât sleep!] Wake up, get up! ] The house was silent and there was no sound. Lorenzo ran to the door of another house and beat the window. [Aunt Jenny, can you hear me? Get up, donât sleep, donât sleep... Wake up soon... ]
[Donât sleep... Itâs getting light... ]
The black dead birds whirled down from the dome, and countless black feathers fluttered down. The shrill birdsâ calls rang through the central hall and echoed harshly. Haiâan ran down the revolving stairs to the first floor of the central lobby. Ariella leaned against the second-floor railing and looked down at him. A sneer came from the corner of her lips. Haiâan only looked back at her but he slipped and almost fell.
With the black feathers falling and the stinky bird dung of the dead birds, it fell like raindrops, pouring all over Ariella â thatâs why Haiâan ran to the first floor, there were no birds dung on the top floor.
Ariella unbelievably wiped her carefully coiled hair, touched a wet, slippery, sticky black bird droppings, and emitted a snarl.
âAh!â Ariella let out a loud cry and shook her hands vigorously, her eyes turning into crimson that opened wide. Her chest constantly fluctuated, apparently to the extreme, she grabbed the railings, opened her hands, and made a flying movement.
Haiâan had run to the exit by this time. He pulled the door handle and finally looked back at Ariella, who was screaming and making an eagle-like fall from the air.
Then face to face, the whole person hit the ground.
Haiâan: â...â
Ariella: â...â
Did Ariella slip just like him?
Haiâan held back his laughter and hurried to open the door and rushed out. After he left, the doorframe he supported gave birth to a pile of vines. The door was firmly sealed. The thorny thorns kept spreading behind him and covered the ground densely. If he had guessed correctly, Ariella would not have changed. He hadnât forgotten Ariellaâs long red fishtail dress.
An Ayulonâs body was also very hard after becoming a human. Only their own or similar fingers could harm them. Unless they used bullets with great lethality such as high explosive bombs, ordinary bullets couldnât harm them.
These thorns could at least scratch Ariellaâs clothes, even if they didnât do any harm to her. Unless she wanted to catch up naked, he could still stop Ariellaâs steps.
Haiâan mobilized the elements of wind to his feet, people were flying fast and generally shuttling in the corridor. Several dead birds broke the window of the ship and flew towards Haiâan. Haiâanâs right hand extended forward, his palm opened up, and the ice-blue snow fog fanned out. The dead bird hit the fog, instantly frozen into an ice sculpture, hit the ground, rolled several times, and emitted a âcheepâ. Bam!!!!
With the support of âmagic bootsâ, Haiâan quickly ran to the deck, and there were many dead birds hovering in the sky. From time to time, the long and pointed beak of the bird made a piercing sound. Haiâan stood on the deck, closed his eyes and breathed softly.
Donât look in its eyes, donât move, it wonât attack you.
The dead bird had always been under the control of Alexia. She was killed by Haiâan. The dead bird must attack Haiâan first. The reason why Ariella was not afraid of these birds was because she was not worried about them at all. They couldnât even peck at her skin.
Who would eat who was an entirely different matter.
But Haiâan was still standing on the deck. The dead birds couldnât find anyone to attack and they were running after Ariella without pecking at her. Even though Ariella wasnât afraid of the birds, the flocks that kept pouring out were very annoying, not to mention the excrement.
Ariella opened her mouth and blew out the fiery breath of a dragon. She roasted a pile of dead birds, but they did not become ashes. It was a very disgraceful thing in the memory of Ayulonâs inheritance. Unless it was because of a courtship and that she made a romantic flame feast, who the fuck wanted a courtship with a group of dead birds?
Before Ariella could calm down, she saw the thorns left by Haiâan.
Ariella: â...â
What the fuck!!!
Anyway, nobody noticed that when Ariella was going to solve them with one breath of fire, the Philadelphia suddenly shook violently. Ariella did not stand firm and threw herself into the thorn bushes. She only listened to the sound of âtearingâ. Her customized fishtail dress was torn apart, pulled into ragged strips and hung on her body, only enough to block the key parts.
âJianJian!!!!â Ariella gritted her teeth and cried out Augusteâs name for Haiâan. She ignored the fire and broke the thorns with her bare hands. She stepped through the thorns and walked out of the hall. When she came to the deck, she was stunned. She finally knew why the Philadelphia rocked violently.
Haiâan stood on the deck near the railings and looked at her with certainty. There was a huge eddy in the sea. The Philadelphia was spinning along the eddy and going deep into the sea. The dead birds in the sky almost dispersed. The blue sky, which was supposed to be clear and cloudless, was now dark, like the prelude to the storm.
Ariella stood there, stunned. âWhat on earth are you...â
âBye-bye.â Haiâan waved to Ariella and jumped down from the railing. Ariella rushed after him.
After jumping off the Philadelphia, Haiâan was caught by a sudden rising wave. The places he touched turned into a thin layer of ice. He sat on the wave and slid down to the calm sea like a slide. After he left, the ice fell again and turned into spray and returned to the sea.
Ariella was stunned for a long time, gradually feeling that her sight was getting darker and darker. Then she suddenly remembered that there was a huge sea whirlpool, and she was still on the Philadelphia, and she was covered in bird droppings.
Ariella: â...â
This was a real fucking bad day.