It was not a human gesture, but it was not an angel at all.
The pure black angel halo has the luster and texture of a black diamond... but it is completely broken.
It's like bulletproof glass that has been hit by a sledgehammer, shot by bullets and covered with spider webs of cracks, and then barely glued together. Therefore, there are still very obvious gaps in the middle.
It's not like wearing an eye patch, nor is it like a gold hoop fitting into your scalp.
Instead, it is completely integrated into the skull and under the scalp in a more compact manner.
——It’s like a “chip”.
"Sheath" no longer has eyes. He doesn't even have eye sockets.
The eye sockets that should have been extremely deep turned into robot-like light bands. The gaps in the halo were all filled with scarlet flesh. Those tiny blood vessels were glued into different fragments, as weak as tiny tentacles.
It was pulsating, and from a distance it looked like countless tiny insects crawling on the broken halo.
It was a human body modification similar to "disfigurement".
After the sheath took off the headband, the broken black diamond halo began to emit a scarlet brilliance.
Scarlet-black light flows out from the gaps in the black diamond. The position where the sheath stands happens to be backlit... From Russell's perspective, if you don't look carefully, you would think that his eyes are there.
There was only darkness in the area, and a scarlet light like lightning lit up.
It is a gesture that reminds people of the blood vessels bursting out when the Byakugan is turned on - scarlet lines like circuit boards, starting from this broken halo, spreading in all directions. The closer the place, the more...
It is dense and becomes sparse the farther away you go.
It even spread upwards to the roots of the hair, and downwards to the cheekbones. The two longest bloody lines spread to close to the chin, looking like two blood-red tear stains.
The long hair of Sheath blocked more ambient light, which made his cheeks almost dark, making it difficult to see his expression and facial features.
Only these bloody lines are etched on his face... combined with the black feathers behind him, it is an image closer to a "fallen angel" than an "angel".
Without even thinking about it, Russell knew that the angel's iconic light path, which was as curved as a circuit board, must be crawling like this on the "inside".
The outside is etched on the skin, but where is the etching on the inside?
The inside of the skull—even the surface of the brain.
After standing up, his height of nearly 1.9 meters made the sheath look so oppressive.
He just stood there motionless, with his black wings raised... Russell couldn't help but hold his breath.
"...You will regret it too."
After a brief period of suffocation and silence, Russell came back to his senses and responded coldly: "You can endure such a painful transformation surgery, but I don't want to come back to see you. I thought you had become a bloodless and tearless machine.
.
"In other words, how can you prove that you are a human being? I don't think you can prove it, because I don't think you are a human being."
"Of course I will regret it."
Sheath made a low and hoarse voice: "Everyone will regret it, only a born hero will not regret it... This is what Alice likes to say."
It is a sound that gives people the sense of fine sandpaper, and reminds people of a dark night with a cold wind, strong tea with fine salt and absinthe.
"Then what are you regretting?"
Russell narrowed his eyes and asked this man who was so strange to him unceremoniously: "Regret joining the Tower of Babel? Regret bringing mom to the Tower of Babel? Regret carrying out that mission?
"I advise you to swallow your words before you say these words, bite them into pieces, chew them thoroughly, and think about it carefully... Don't let me look down on you."
Sheath looked at Russell silently, "looking" at him blankly. Or maybe she just pointed her gaze at him and turned her face towards him.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
"...Both, maybe none of them."
The man said in a low voice: "Because all this is meaningless.
"Do you know where I've been all these years?"
"Say what you want directly, don't put aside this extraneous interaction. Just say what you want to say, and finish it in one breath...I'll give you a chance to explain. But listen, this is not because I still have illusions about you.
Compassion and recognition, but because I am polite and more rational.
"Although you are a bastard, I will not become the same person as you."
Russell responded coldly without hesitation: "But... I'm just here to listen carefully. Don't think that I will praise you, I don't have that kind of interest or mood."
Sheath "looked" at Russell somewhat complicatedly - that might be looking at.
But Russell couldn't feel Sheath's gaze. He wasn't even sure if Sheath still had vision.
"The story...where should I begin...
"'I'm just a nobody.' That's what I thought from a long time ago."
Sheath was silent for a while, and then she spoke in a low voice: "My life and death don't matter, and no one cares about my survival. When I die, the world will forget me, as if I never came.
"I am so insignificant. Even if I die, I will be just a grain of sand in the era. Therefore...if I can use my power to set off a small wave in this era and carve my name in history...I think,
That should be my honor.
"So, I joined the Tower of Babel.
"It's not for the great wish of saving the world, nor the hope that I can gain some benefits; it's not for the purpose of walking with like-minded people, nor is it for the purpose of cuddling with people in the same situation to keep warm.
"In the beginning, it was just the ambition that every man has.
"Because I want to be a great person. And I think that based on my own ability and background, I have no hope of standing high and becoming a big shot in my life. I can only rely on organizations and others. As for which organization to join
, that doesn't matter; I don't care what the purpose of the organization is. If the first one to recruit me is not the Tower of Babel, but other organizations, maybe I will join.
"——In other words."
The man reached out and touched his heart.
He said calmly: "In the beginning, I had nothing in my heart. All I needed was an 'organization' that could accept me; I wasn't looking for like-minded 'comrades', I was just looking for someone who had no interest in me."
A malicious collective.
"I greedily absorbed nutrients from the organization, gaining psychic powers, sword skills and social connections. It can be said that the organization cultivated me... I am very grateful to the organization. This place is more important and warmer than home to me. Of course.
, I hope to bring people I know, I like, and I trust into this organization that I like the most.
"So, I brought Alice in.
"But it's different from me.
"She fits here better than me.
"Alice's heart is like a pure, invisible flame. It brings us warmth, and those who walk against the light will covet the sunshine even more.
"Although she joined the organization after me, Alice has become a much more important person than me. Everyone will pay attention to her and protect her. But this is also good, because I really don't want to lose anything.