ps:

(Written before the story:

This wedge is used to connect with the plot of the first two books. It is suitable for old readers who have been chasing them all the way. New readers may be a little confused, but it doesn't matter. Skip the wedge and read directly from the first chapter. There is no problem with the story of wedge. It will not affect the rhythm of the whole text.

Oh, by the way, I buried a lot of clues in the plot of the first volume. You can try to find out if you can find all of them, then when it is put on the shelves, I will update 5 extra chapters~that is, 105 chapters!

OK, let's start the story!)

The world under the sun is always too straightforward, with less twists and turns, no sensibility or darkness, and lacks a trace of mystery.

Therefore, the starting point of most beautiful stories takes place in a more inclusive dark night.

Wrapped in the darkness, the hands that were writing the story put their pen down for the first time, and the tip of the pen rustled in the darkness, outlining the prototype of the story bit by bit.

Just like the first ray of light that illuminates the night

"boom"

Under the calm night, accompanied by a sharp hiss, a terrifying sound wave exploded, and all the glass in the room was broken at this moment, as if it was hit hard by an invisible fist.

Amid the screams of men and women, a terrifying chaos has come.

The flames followed after the explosion.

The scorching flames rolled wildly in the vibrations of the ground, like a released ghost of hell. It howled and drowned the country villa, and swept those careless people into the sea of ​​fire. The poor people wailed in the flames, praying to all the gods they could find, but they were useless.

Despair spreads in the sea of ​​fire.

"Wilton, get up quickly, get up quickly."

Under the scorching fire, the woman holding the baby in her arms and wearing pajamas and wearing a embarrassed face was kneeling on the ground, trying to help her fallen husband up again.

But the collapsed bricks and stones pressed on the man, and the flames expanded rapidly behind him. His face was covered with sweat and his eyes were filled with fear. He struggled wildly, trying to escape from this desperation of death.

He can't do it.

He is just an ordinary man, just a mortal.

"Go away! Maye, go!"

The man supported the ground with his hands, and the heavy bricks and stones pressed against him, becoming heavier and heavier, like he was coming. In the increasingly scorching room, with the beating of the fire, he had already sensed his destiny.

It is difficult for him to save himself in the face of disaster, but he does not want to implicate his relatives.

The man felt the rapid spreading fire behind him, his sweaty face turned distorted, and a trace of decisiveness flashed in his eyes, and he shouted to his helpless wife who was crying in front of him:

"Take the kids away! Hurry, I'm out of salvation."

"I"

The woman looked at her husband in despair. She wanted to help him, but the baby in her arms kept crying. This newly born life seemed to feel danger, and the child was instinctively asking for help.

The baby's cry woke the woman up. She looked at her husband for the last time, then gritted her teeth, wiped the tears from her face, and staggered around. She protected the baby in her arms with her arms, rushed into the aisle with her head down.

Behind her, her lover, the father of the child, Wilton Riley, watched her wife and son leave the desperate situation. In more than ten seconds, the man who fulfilled her husband and father's duties at the last moment of his life was engulfed by the flames.

"Bang"

Another explosion sounded, and the wooden house was almost powerless under the raging flames. When the woman was about to rush out of the sea of ​​fire, the second floor of the room almost collapsed, pressing the running woman into the burning Mars.

But even at the moment of falling down, the instinct from motherhood still drove the woman to hug the baby in her arms.

Even though the flames had ignited her clothes, even if blood had oozed out of the wound.

"No!"

The woman shook the sparks on her body, and she screamed, her face full of panic, but wherever she saw, everything had turned into a sea of ​​fire.

There is no hope.

She and her children had no way to escape.

"Who will save us! Please, save us."

She cried helplessly, she could not imagine why such nightmare would happen to them, but her arrogant fate never bothered to explain anything to mortals.

But prayer may be useful in despair.

In the sea of ​​fire, Mrs. Riley's helpless prayer finally received a response at the moment when her consciousness was blurred.

Response from some higher will.

Mrs. Riley felt that she had hallucinations, and in front of her, the burning flames were split apart little by little, like a curtain that was pulled open.

An illusory shadow walked towards her step by step, step by step.

The man was wearing a straight black suit, a white shirt lined with a collar, and a gentleman's hat with a blue black edge, and behind him, a wide blue cloak was floating.

The flames were beating around him, but they could not hurt him, and they could not even get close. An invisible force suppressed the flames and made them retreat, forming a blank arc around the two of them, like a shelter in disaster.

This mysterious visitor stood in front of the injured woman. He looked at him condescendingly, and the woman also looked at the mysterious man. Under the wide brim of the hat, she could see a face covered by darkness and the sideburns on both sides of her cheeks.

"Are you here to save us?"

The joy of living in a desperate situation made the woman cry out. But facing her hopeful inquiry, the mysterious man shook his head, and he said in a magnetic voice:

"I can't save you, Mrs. Riley."

The mysterious man paused for a moment, and he squatted down, stretched out his hand with black gloves, and wiped the ashes from his face for the weak and painful woman in front of him. As the baby cried, he explained softly:

"You and your husband died of an accidental fire, which is destined by fate and cannot be changed by me."

The mysterious man's eyes fell on the baby who kept crying in Mrs. Riley's arms. A ray of light flashed in his eyes, and he said:

"Your child, Merlin Riley, he is destined to play an important role in the future, and his life will not end tonight."

The mysterious man's words made Mrs. Riley's eyes flashed with surprise. At this moment, she did not care about her own destiny. She stretched out her hands with difficulty and endured the torture of the flames with her hands seriously burned by the flames. Her cheeks were twitching, but she still handed the child in her arms to the mysterious man in front of her, and she begged:

"It's okay, it's enough. Please, take my child away, take him away and save him."

The mysterious man looked at the hands covered with burn marks. He could imagine what kind of pain the woman in front of him was suffering, but he did not express too much emotion.

He took the swaddle clothes with blood.

It is strange that the baby who had been crying stopped when he was held in his arms by a mysterious man. He seemed to feel that the danger had passed.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Riley."

The mysterious man held the baby with one hand, and he looked down at Mrs. Riley at his feet. He stretched out his fingers and a blue halo sprinkled on Mrs. Riley, isolating all the painful senses.

He could not save her, but he could at least allow her to return to death in peace. The mysterious man shook his arms slightly to make the baby in his arms more comfortable, he whispered:

"I came for him, and I can guarantee that he will live to 18 at least safely."

"Wilton's kid, he, will he become a great man?"

Mrs. Riley couldn't feel the pain anymore. She felt very tired. She wanted to have a sleep. But the moment before the sleepiness came, she struggled to ask the last question. But then, she said to herself as if she was asking and answering herself, her face full of fatigue:

"Yes, he will definitely become a great man. Otherwise, how could the angel come to save him Merlin, my son, mom and dad want to be with you?"

"But it's time to say goodbye."

The mysterious man stood in the flames, watching the mother's eyes closed and entered her last dream. He did not expose the last beautiful dream of this poor woman.

In fact, the moment the child was born, the mission of Riley and his wife was completed. The mysterious man looked down at the baby in his arms, and the child also fell into a sleep.

"I'm not an angel."

The mysterious man looked around, waved his fingers, completely annihilated the flames around him, then squatted down and put the child in his arms back into Mrs. Riley's arms. He stretched out his fingers and touched the child's head, as if he was saying goodbye. He raised his head and looked at the starry sky above his head. Between the stars, countless eyes seemed to be looking here and at the baby in his arms.

A strange smile appeared on his face shrouded in darkness.

"As for you, Merlin, will you be a great person?"

"So many big people watched you be born, so many big people bet on you, what a magnificent life. But, how would you choose? I'm very curious"

Of course the sleeping child could not answer him, but the mysterious man did not need to answer. He stood up and took a step back, and in the ruins of Riley Manor that had been destroyed by fire, he quietly dissipated into the darkness like ink melting into the water.

In the process of returning to the darkness, as his blue cloak fluttered, he whispered:

"Let's wait and see."

The moment before it completely disappeared, he looked at the watch on his wrist and coughed lightly:

"It is midnight on August 17, 1971, as the observer of both sides, I announce it"

"game"

“It’s about to begin!”

—

A few days later, in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, the former residence of the Riley family.

A little girl wearing a floral skirt carefully hugged her cousin. The little girl winked at the baby in her arms, making the baby stretch out her hands and smiled.

On the sofa beside the little girl, a middle-aged woman with a black veil was sitting there, looking at the furniture and the house beside her with sadness and nostalgia.

She is a distant branch of the Riley family and Wilton, who died in the fire a few days ago. Riley's cousin married to New York a few years ago. She is the last relative that the Riley family can find.

After hearing about her cousin's tragedy, she immediately brought her daughter to her hometown from New York.

"Mom, mom."
To be continued...