Slowly exhaling a breath, Russell took off his prayer device. His long, soft, light-blond hair was flying when he took off his blindfold, as if he was standing in the wind, looking in the direction the wind was blowing.
Prayer devices are supposed to be a refuge that gives people short-term peace... Everyone longs for peace. Even if it is false happiness, people are willing to let themselves be deceived and heal their souls in a moment of tranquility. Often it is just a short period.
The "spiritual recharging" of time may allow people who are so tired that they are numb to choose to survive and persevere a little longer.
But now, Russell, who took off his prayer device, could only sigh.
"What's wrong?"
Delphinium's light voice came from behind, full of care.
She was standing behind Russell with her hands behind her back like a girl, with a relaxed and happy smile on her face. After a short rest, even her pupils seemed to become cleaner, as if she was purifying herself in prayer.
Soul. She suddenly came over and stretched out her left hand to hold Russell's cheek.
Feeling Russell's heart rate, she leaned closer to smell his scent and watched Russell's reaction. Her warm breath gently patted Russell's face, but Russell did not look shy.
In just a moment of interaction, Delphinium sensed that Russell was not in a good mood at the moment.
"Are you thinking of someone from the past?"
Delphinium tilted her head and asked softly: "Or...are you thinking of something too serious?"
"They are all there."
Russell sighed.
He looked at the delphinium and suddenly laughed.
It was a smile that was not bright, and even a little faded. Love that tasted like milk chocolate, mixed with worry like espresso.
Russell stretched out his hand and gently pinched Delphinium's ears, and leaned forward for a shallow kiss. Seeing Delphinium's eyes suddenly widen in surprise, the smile on his lips became obvious, and the worries in his heart became lighter.
A lot.
But he didn't expect that just when their lips parted, Delphinium immediately hugged Russell, chased him directly and kissed Russell hard again.
Delphinium's kiss was much heavier than Russell's. She sucked hard and bit her, as if she wanted to wear Russell's lips apart before she stopped.
When she finally let go of Russell, she gasped slightly because of her concentration. But there was a proud smile on her face, which reminded people of the little white fox who stole the chicken.
"It looks a lot like a fox, right?"
As if she guessed what Russell was thinking, Delphinium asked with a smile.
"It's a Samoyed."
"It's a fox." Delphinium blinked innocently.
"It's obviously a Samoyed."
Russell rubbed Delphinium's ears angrily: "If you are a fox, then I will be a tiger."
The so-called fox fakes the tiger's power.
"...It feels like you are secretly telling me jokes that I don't understand again."
"No." Russell argued.
"Yes, I feel it!"
Delphinium chased after Russell, unwilling to let go: "Tell me what the plot is."
"Let's talk about it when we get home..."
Russell reached out and held Delphinium's hand. After regaining his composure, he just wanted to evacuate from here first.
"Wait a minute, Russell."
The old general's calm voice sounded from behind.
Russell paused in his steps and turned around with a polite smile: "Mr. Bishop, what can I do for you?"
"I would like to convey to you the message sent by Pope [Promoted to the Twelfth]:"
This old man, who has almost watched Russell grow up, has a straight back and a solemn expression: "There is no need to worry too much, child. I must also take action against your old enemy; you will eventually become your enemy against what I am wary of.
Not to mention our common enemy. Sheath will take action now, and you will see my sincerity first... above."
Hearing this, Russell narrowed his eyes slightly.
Although the Bishop and Delphinium may not understand these words, in a literal sense, they would still think that His Holiness the Pope is really friendly.
…
But Russell understood clearly the attitude conveyed to him by Andrew the God-Deceiver in these words.
Russell's old enemy is the monkey-faced eagle;
And what the Pope is wary of is the dragon;
Their common enemies refer to the named elves and the Seven Giants.
The meaning of the Pope's words is very simple - that is, he intends to help Russell deal with the monkey-faced eagle first, and let Russell see his sincerity in cooperation. Then the two of them will deal with the elves together, and provide him with the necessary services when the Pope needs to take action against the dragon.
Limited to support in terms of public opinion, manpower, etc.
How to say it.
He is truly worthy of being the Pope who has ruled the church for more than a hundred years and has a mechanized mind.
He had no ties to "face" or "competitiveness" at all. As soon as Russell finished scorning him and left, he immediately sent a message to the bishop and supplemented Russell's cooperation matters.
Among the four salvation plans, the plan of the dragon and the elves is the most pessimistic and conservative, but their power is the greatest.
Although the church is spread across the seven islands and has its own independent sky island, the two most critical seals in this world have nothing to do with His Excellency the Pope. Although the elves and dragons have many calculations against each other, in general they can
They are considered to belong to the same lineup, and they depend on each other in each party's plan...the only difference is their priority.
Compared with them, Russell and the Pope were undoubtedly on the disadvantaged side.
The first and second are all united, the third and fourth should not pinch the pope
The meaning is very clear. The phrase "next time we meet, we will be enemies" can also be understood.
The explanation is "If we never meet again, we will always be allies."
——Although he is an ally who can betray him at any time.
Both sides know very well that this is a relationship of mutual use. But this alliance is even stronger - because neither of them can bear the danger of facing resistance from three parties at the same time. And although they dislike each other and regard each other as
Although he is his own biggest enemy, he also admits that the other party's plan is relatively feasible...
Russell once said that if his plan fails, then "Great Fusion" will be a backup plan.
Although His Holiness the Pope did not say so directly, Russell also believed that people like him would inevitably leave a way out.
His aversion to the core of Russell's plan was simply because he could not safely hand over the world's supreme power to Russell permanently. But in the end, that was much better than destruction or hiding his face and running away.
In order to achieve the common goal of both parties, they must first join forces to block the plans of the other two parties.
——And before that, His Holiness the Pope has not forgotten the "monkey-faced eagle".
If the elves, the dragons, the church, Russell... they only have differences in their ideas of "salvation", then the "monkey-faced eagle" is completely different from them.
That is the undoubted destroyer and the intolerable world-destroying demon king.
Moreover, the monkey-faced eagle's mere existence will affect the church's plans. For "Great Fusion", the most feared thing is the intellectual virus that can infect uploaded thoughts. From this point of view, the monkey-faced eagle is the "enemy of the church".
On a level, it is even more deadly than being Russell's old enemy.
So the church took action first.
This is actually very cunning - because they have to deal with monkey-faced eagles in the first place.
But according to His Holiness the Pope, now it has become a case of them "showing
"Sincerity" and asked Russell to reciprocate.
But Russell didn't care about such things.
Because this is indeed the case. If he wants to seal the fantasy dream into his body, he must first lift the seal of the dream world and release the fantasy dream. This means that he must deal with the giant dragon... and there is a high probability that he will
Be the enemy.
As the Pope said, the Seven Giants are also their common enemies.
The only difference between them was that Russell was dissatisfied with the church's use of innocent people to initiate unrest; he planned to use softer methods, using the Freelancers to subtly control the company.
But their plan
Planning can also be carried out completely simultaneously, and they can even improve each other's efficiency... This can be regarded as complementing each other.
It is indeed a completely rational cyber life. Did you come up with the best decision in such a short time?
Russell admired in his heart, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
It is a good thing for him that he will not break up with the church immediately. Russell himself is not afraid of the church at all... But compared with the Cyber Church, which has become a folk custom, Fuji Society is still a kind of newly developed society.
An emerging force in the spotlight. Russell hopes that it can become an organization on the surface and live openly in the sun.
But if there is a head-on conflict with the church, as far as the current Fuji Society is concerned...except for Happy Island, other empty islands will be very sad.
"Please reply to His Holiness the Pope: I fully understand."
Russell respectfully said to the bishop: "If necessary, I can participate in hunting monkey-faced eagles at any time."
The old bishop nodded, "His Holiness the Pope guessed what you would say.
"The old man said that if you reply like this, I will tell you that Sheath has already gone to Yongquan Island before. That is the base camp of the monkey-faced eagle.
"Tomorrow is the anniversary of Alice's death. If nothing else goes wrong, Sheath should do it tonight or early tomorrow morning.
If he can catch the monkey-faced eagle, he has the ability to kill it directly.
What we have to do is to trick it out. Because the monkey-faced eagle does not know the existence of the sheath now, we can kill it with one blow at this stage, but the longer we delay, the more dangerous it will be.
"If you want to help, you can go to the Three Sages or the Zanbao Society now to explain, and then sneak into the matrix and wait. The Sogo Group also plans to eliminate the monkey-faced eagle, and its existence has already posed a threat to the Three Sages.
"Dr. Zanbai came to you to investigate the werewolf plan because they suspected that the monkey-faced eagle was behind the werewolf plan. Normally, if you go to see Director Sally Ruth later, she will explain it to you in the same way."
What the Pope and the bishops said is obviously not comprehensive.
But Russell had already understood what he said.
In other words, this old general who was active on the front line of the religious war in the past...maybe because he was too upright, or maybe he was "too short-sighted" according to the Pope, but he was not told that the "werewolf" was planned by the church.
of this matter.
The church hopes to blame the monkey-faced eagle for this matter, but the three sages know it well. However, before the monkey-faced eagle is eliminated, the Cyber Church and Sogo Island have also reached a temporary cooperation.
Just like this cooperation between the Pope and Russell.
They also only had conflicts in key details and therefore became enemies. But in the face of such a powerful enemy as the monkey-faced eagle, the two sides, who also had mechanized minds, formed a united front without any hesitation.
This old pope is really good at pulling his potential enemies to attack their common enemy.
He dragged the head office to fight the monkey-faced eagle - but before the monkey-faced eagle was finished, he started to pull himself to deal with the head office and the dragon. According to his habit of "secret alliance", he might not be with some elf company.
We have made an agreement with the dragon to deal with it; we have made an agreement with the dragon to deal with the elves.
He should also have prepared a backup plan...when Russell's cooperation with him is about to end, he will also recruit someone to deal with Russell.
But for now, Russell really plans to eat this sugar-coated bullet given by the church.
At least eat the sugar coating. You can hit the cannonball back again.
Because even if the church really has the ability to get rid of the monkey-faced eagle on its own, Russell must intervene and steal his head.
——The monkey-faced eagle is a very important supplement for Russell. His remains are the necessary materials for Russell's spiritual power to reach level ten...or in other words, it is the condition for him to become a complete dusk species.
In fact, if the church secretly eliminates the monkey-faced eagle, Russell will have some troubles. Because he will have to wait for the birth of a "new monkey-faced eagle"... If nothing else, it should be the "Ascension Aggregate".
In that case, Russell must give priority to killing the Pope before he can execute his plan.
the rest of my plans.
I don’t know if the Pope made the right bet or if he guessed it. In short, his “sincerity” was just right to avoid the possibility of conflict with Russell. It’s really interesting.
As the egg of dusk, the monkey-faced eagle can theoretically swallow the entire planet and become a god. The named elf possesses the "destiny" that brings miracles and the "mother tree system" of infinite rebirth.
Compared with the space immigration ship "Dragon" in the parallel world that has infinite access to energy, the mature Twilight Species "Phantom" is sealed and asleep...
But on the contrary, he does not have any special bloodline, not even an immortal species... he has no psychic powers and no spells. He is just an engineer. As a pure-blooded human "promoted", he may become his ultimate enemy.
in this way……
--pleasure.
The corners of Russell's mouth raised slightly, showing a happy smile.
His eyes became bright again and he nodded seriously: "Please tell His Holiness the Pope...
"I will definitely do what I say and live up to my trust."
Delphinium on the side also felt inexplicably relieved.
As soon as she really felt that the haze that had been lingering in Russell's heart and the pressure that had accumulated between Russell's brows had completely dissipated. Russell became energetic, full of confidence and determination again.
Just because Russell smiled, Delphinium became much happier.
She boldly rushed over from behind, hugged Russell, and asked Russell to carry her. But Russell stood up straight without stumbling.
He just looked back and smiled helplessly, reached out to hold Delphinium's hand, put her slightly cold hand into his arms to warm her, and then supported her.
The silver hair hanging down around Russell's neck gently tickled his earlobes and collarbones. He once again firmly believed in his determination.
——Saving the world and redeeming mankind is absolutely lofty and is only the destiny of gods and saints.
Compared with the "heroes" who exist in his body, Russell is just an ordinary person without any great wishes or ideals that can be admired by others.
But thinking about it now... maybe, probably, to some extent, he did love this world.
It's not that I love this magnificent world itself... I love every plant and tree, the mountains and rivers, the sun, the moon and the stars.
It's because this is the world she lives in.
If you love her, you will love the people she loves and the things she cares about.
She loves the city she lives in, the memories she left behind, and her ideals, so she wants to protect what she loves.
Russell's love for the world is as loving as the house and the bird.
It's Alice and Flotte, it's also Shirley, Fila, Hua Mingshu, Hua Yu...
They love the world, and Russell loves them.
Personal love is like a candle. After it is lit, the weak light will expand outward. Although it cannot reach infinite distance, it is not as bright as the day.
But if you stand next to the candlelight, it seems that the whole world is bright.