The Iron Curtain was completely lowered, and the firelight shone into the space behind the fence, revealing a figure half-kneeling on the ground.
Ricky and Samir stood in front of the cell, staring at him intently.
Thales squinted his eyes and saw the man in the cell clearly in the flickering light.
It was a middle-aged man of considerable age. He knelt on the ground behind the fence, put his hands on his chest, and kept shaking his head, mumbling to himself.
"Of course, I will shoulder my obligations and face my guilt..."
It was as if I didn't hear the Iron Curtain fall, nor did I catch a glimpse of the firelight.
No wonder, Ricky said it sounded like praying.
But……
Thales looked at this man blankly: What is he doing?
Ricky and Samuel looked at each other again, showing doubts about each other.
"Sak...Sak'el?" Samir took a step forward and asked tentatively with a faint emotion.
With previous experience, he was particularly cautious this time and did not even expect a response.
But the man responded.
The man who was kneeling on the ground and muttering slowly stopped what he was saying.
He slowly raised his head and moved his shoulders slightly, like a porter carrying a heavy load.
As he raised his head, Thales saw his appearance clearly.
Brown hair, long face, sharp features.
He looks even younger than Putilai, who looks like a little old man.
Obviously, compared with the seven embarrassed and filthy former members of the royal guard imprisoned above, this man took good care of himself "well". At least his messy hair did not grow to his chest, and the ends of his hair were neatly cut.
There are no traces, and the beard on the chin will not turn into a bird's nest, but only a few inches will be left. Even at a glance, it does not look sallow and thin.
In the center of his forehead, an "s" mark with an everted flesh was clearly visible.
If it weren't for the dirty clothes, stained face, and the odor that couldn't be underestimated, it would be difficult for Thales to even suspect that the person in front of him was a prisoner.
The man stared at the fire in front of him, squinting his eyes with confusion on his face.
After a few seconds, he raised his palm to block the dazzling fire, as if he had just reacted.
"Light...and sound?"
The middle-aged man had a confused expression and seemed a little slow.
"And... people?"
But soon, the man hid his face behind his hands again, pressed his head to the ground, curled up on the ground, and let out a painful whine.
"No no no..."
Samuel and Ricky looked at each other in surprise, not knowing why.
The middle-aged man buried his face in his hands and asked vaguely: "Is this another test for you?"
"Sa...you..." Samir took a step forward and looked at the reaction of the person in front of him in disbelief. He hesitated to speak, but finally accepted his words:
"What test?"
In just a few seconds, the middle-aged man suddenly raised his head again.
"The test before us."
This time, the long-faced man looked nervous. He finally turned his attention to the three visitors: "Three,
They look like living people, two are wearing weapons, and the other is young and immature."
"What is this, an opponent that must be defeated, or a hostage that must be saved?"
"Or is it an illusion made of hope, leading me into a trap of despair?"
The three people mentioned all shuddered.
Suddenly, the long-faced man's expression changed again. He turned to Ricky outside the cell, frowned and said in a serious tone:
"Hey, are you a devil?"
The torch in Ricky's hand trembled slightly.
The Sword of Disaster gritted its teeth and looked at its companions inexplicably: "He is..."
Samir shook his head, but his expression was heavy and his eyes were painful.
The long-faced man didn't seem to want them to answer. He took a deep breath, got up from the ground, and smiled.
"I have to admit, I see them all the time: the legendary demons who deceive people, the monsters in hell that never see the light of day."
"Their fingers and claws have been clawing at my heart, their tongues have never stopped whispering in my ears, their eyes have been lurking in the darkness for a long time, changing their own scenes every minute, every second, trying to seduce me into falling into the abyss.
, fell into hell.”
The man leaned against the wall and stared into the distance with deep eyes, as if he was talking to them or talking to himself: "They will tell us: give up, accept, compromise..."
"There is no hope for your world anyway..."
Samir couldn't stand it anymore. He took a step forward, lit up the face of the man in front of him with a torch, and shouted his name loudly: "Sak'el!"
The sound was so loud that it shook the hall.
The long-faced man in the cell was shocked!
He paused for a moment, his confused eyes slowly focusing.
"Sa, ke, eh, er?" the middle-aged man repeated slowly, almost syllable by syllable.
Samir gritted his teeth, feeling inexplicable resentment in his heart, and waved the torch on his hand fiercely, making it burn even more vigorously.
"right!"
Samir hit the fence with a torch, throwing out a spark and said: "It's me! Samir!"
"Wake up!"
"'Punishment Knight' Sak'el!"
The man named Sak'el paused.
He breathed slowly and asked in confusion: "Punishment Knight?"
But then, Sak'el shook his head and laughed loudly: "In the past, yes, in the endless years, the demons in my heart always like to use this to confuse me...the glory of the past, the regrets of the past, the past
Regret, but those are all false, they are what they deceived me and wanted me to believe."
As he spoke, Sak'el seemed to be murmuring to himself:
"Maybe I'm not perfect enough, maybe I'm not determined enough, maybe I'm not strong enough, so they will once again take advantage of it, follow their footsteps, try to defeat me, defeat me... But at least I am happy: I realize
Be aware of their existence, and know that we must fight against each other."
Communication failed. Samuel looked at the person in front of him blankly, and Ricky beside him let out a faint sigh.
Ricky suddenly noticed that Thales on the side was staring blankly at this man who seemed to be abnormal.
It seems like I remembered something.
But as Sak'el spoke, his expression slowly changed.
"But yes, I will take heart. I will remember that I have fought life and death with the most powerful opponent, and sacrificed my life for the noblest ideal. But everything in front of me is just a fork in the road when I am lost."
The middle-aged man's smile slowly disappeared and his breathing quickened.
He seemed to remember something, grabbed his hair with both hands, and knelt on the ground again.
The man trembled his lips and trembled all over:
"Wait, Sak'el, Sak'el, Sak'el?"
The people outside the cell looked at him like this, but they didn't know what to do.
Suddenly, Sak'el's eyes lit up!
"Yes, Sak'el!"
Flames burst out of the man's eyes, and his face instantly became extremely ferocious!
"Ahhhhh!"
Sak'el roared angrily, grabbed his hair and raised his head and shouted:
"Get out of my head!"
His roar was so loud and his movements were so loud that the three people in front of the cell had to subconsciously take a few steps back.
But Sak'el's madness was not over.
"A filthy monster! A despicable bitch! A sneaky devil! A crooked trick!"
I saw the man in the cell scratching his head desperately, kneeling on the ground with his head raised and screaming:
"I am Immanu Sak'el, the glorious Ludorian! A noble descendant of the great empire who walks in the homeland of Chauvin! I come from a noble family of ancient knights who serve as the vanguard of Emperor Comorra!"
Thales stared intently at the opponent's madness and didn't even pay attention to what he shouted.
Immediately, Sak'el clenched his fists, a majestic force erupted from his muscles, and he hit the ground hard!
Boom!
Sak'el's appearance became more and more crazy, and his roars echoed in the hall, making both Samuel and Ricky change their expressions.
"I am the royal knight and honorary lord of the Kingdom of Stars! The executioner and watchman of the royal guard, the guardian of the throne, and the custodian of the royal treasury..."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
He punched his fists time and time again, his eyes seemed to contain anger that ordinary people could not bear.
"The world gives me the name of 'Punishment Knight' - I will punish sins severely and punish all misdeeds!"
Sak'el screamed in pain, and seemed a little tired after a while, but he only stopped beating the ground, then stood up and threw himself on the fence!
"Who are you! How dare you, how dare you meddle with my spirit and will!"
He gritted his teeth and stared at the empty dark void. His hands holding the railing couldn't help but tremble: "Ahhhhh - get out!"
"You think you can destroy me!"
The three people outside the cell looked at the prisoner's crazy scene in horror, looking at each other in bewilderment.
"I will definitely defeat you, defeat you, and destroy you - I will die with the enemy, no matter what!"
Sak'el's madness seemed to have reached its peak. He held the fence and roared hysterically.
Finally, the light smoke between the railing and the palm turned into a bright light.
"boom!"
After a loud noise, Sak'el, who looked like a madman, fell to the ground and remained motionless.
The hall returned to silence.
The three people outside the prison held their breath and did not come back to their senses for a long time.
"I thought, I thought little Barney and the others were serious enough," Samir turned around with difficulty: "But I didn't expect that even a strong warrior like Sak'el would turn into...become
…”
He couldn't speak any more.
Ricky snorted softly, looked at the cell with disdain, looked at the motionless figure on the ground, and completed what Samuel said:
"Become a madman."
silence.
Until a slightly childish voice broke the silence.
"Not crazy."
Ricky and Samir turned around in surprise and looked at Thales who spoke.
I saw the prince staring at the people in the cell intently at this moment, but there was a deep pain that came from nowhere in his eyes:
"He just... just lives in another world... a world different from ours."
Thales said hard.
Complicated feelings.
Ricky looked at the prince strangely.
"He was held in solitary confinement for eighteen years," Samir sighed:
"It's not his fault."
However, a few seconds later, a dull voice that none of them expected sounded again from the cell.
"If you lock up a coward for eighteen years, he will not become a brave man."
Compared with before, this male voice was more firm and thick.
"But you lock up a strong man for eighteen years and let him face his own heart," Sak'el got up from the ground again and held on to the wall with some difficulty:
"He will only get stronger."
The current prisoner, the former royal guard watchman, Sak'el turned a calm and indifferent face, but his eyes were extremely clear, and looked at them through the fence.
The three of them looked at Sak'el in surprise as he spoke again. Remembering the latter's performance just now, they stared at his figure with suspicion.
"He's...talking to us?" Ricky looked at the prisoner, then turned back and asked Samuel in disbelief.
But Samir just stared blankly at Sak'el in the cell and did not reply.
Sak'el snorted coldly and glanced at the three people outside the prison.
There is no hint of the madness just now.
Thales, who was caught by his gaze, felt nervous all over.
But the prince was not sure whether the prisoner at this moment was rational.
"Is it possible there are others?"
Sak'el's boring voice was a little deep, full of a nervous rhythm: "So...do I have a visitor today? It's really rare."
The three of them looked at each other and finally determined that the long-faced man was talking to them.
Samir looked at the prisoner's eyes and slowly showed shock:
"Sacher? Are you okay..."
"Don't worry about me, I'm awake now, but I haven't seen the light for too long," Sak'el frowned and patted the railing, then waved his palms, obviously feeling uncomfortable:
"This thing is quite useful."
"As for just now, it's just a process that must be gone through every day... Maybe it looks a little strange, but it's okay."
Indeed, Sak'el looked extremely normal at this moment.
It's a little too normal, a little... not like a person who has been imprisoned for eighteen years.
Ricky stared at him distrustfully and said sarcastically:
"Something weird? Are you sure?"
"It's just another journey," Sak'el responded to him coldly, and then looked at Thales in particular:
"As you said, child, another world, a different world."
His eyes were very dull, but they always made Thales subconsciously clench his fists and tighten his muscles.
This man...he in this state is the legendary...
Punishment Knight?
But Samir and Ricky still looked at each other worriedly.
"Still asking?"
Samir lowered his head and whispered: "He may not even recognize me. I'm not sure whether what he said in this state is..."
But Sak'el obviously heard their whispers.
The punishment knight laughed softly in the cell, and his shoulders against the wall shook slightly.
"Didn't I tell you a long time ago?" Sak'el leaned against the wall and exhaled, squinting his eyes and observing his fingernails by the firelight, looking quite casual:
"Many times, you have to fight against yourself, and this enemy called 'self'... is very powerful."
He clenched his fists and turned to Samir with a thoughtful expression.
"But you just can't give up, Colin Samir."
"you can not."
Samir's expression changed slightly, as if he remembered something.
He took a breath and took a step forward, slightly excited.
"Sacher, you, you still recognize me?"
Sak'el twitched the corners of his mouth, unclenched his fist, and began to look at the nails on the other hand.
"I recognize everyone in the guard, and I also recognize the mark on your face." He picked up a tool that looked like a stone knife, and as if there was no one else around, he gently ground his index finger:
"As I said, I'm quite sober now - after all, the sounds of fighting coming from the upper floors are not common."
Ricky looked at his calm actions, his expression became more and more solemn.
Sak'el blew on his nail polished with a stone knife and looked at Samir from a distance.
"You just said, eighteen years, right?"
Samir's cheeks trembled.
Eighteen years.
Ricky and Thales moved together: This is what they said just now when Sak'el went "crazy", and the latter actually remembered everything?
"So, fugitive Colin Semel."
"Eighteen years later, they finally caught you and sent you down here to rot..."
Sak'el narrowed his eyes and looked at his old colleague:
"Or have you broken the rules and laws again and appeared here less 'legally'?"
Thales looked at this unusual-looking royal guard legend again and thought about what kind of person he was.
Samir pursed his lips. After experiencing a previous "reunion" with the guards, he no longer knew how to speak.
However, Ricky, who had always been suspicious, spoke up: "Very good, he can still talk."
"Although it still doesn't look normal."
He nodded to Samir: "Try it."
Hearing the leader of the Sword of Disaster speak, Sak'el's eyes passed over Ricky and Thales, his eyes flashing as if he had something in mind.
Samuel took a deep breath and spoke tactfully and seriously: "Sak'el, listen, it's been eighteen years, you shouldn't be trapped here, we are here..."
But Sak'el quickly interrupted him.
"Prison robbery, rescuing people, treasure hunting, revenge, suicide, atonement, solving puzzles," the former royal guard prisoner sneered: "The purpose of your appearance here is nothing more than these."
He propped himself up from the wall and turned his head.
"I'm not interested in any of them," Sak'el said coldly without looking back:
"You can go."
At that moment, Ricky and Samir were stunned.
Both of them were choked by his uncooperative attitude.
However, Sak'el didn't even look at them, leaving only a thick and dull silhouette to the people behind him.
The three people outside the cell looked at each other.
I saw Sak'el in prison touching his rough chin, and said softly with a little regret: "Yeah, maybe..."