Elena returned to the Demonic Pyramid and walked up some strange stairs to the Temple of Insai.
This staircase gives people the impression of being in reverse, because the pyramid is upside down, so she is walking on the opposite side of the ladder inside the pyramid.
Elena was thinking about many issues, and Lei's story made her feel a little uncomfortable.
It's like there's something stuck in my chest.
"Why can't Ray leave this city?"
"Before he rushed into the storm, the light of consciousness was destroyed by a strange force. I didn't even have time to react."
"This shouldn't be the case."
Elena walked to the door of the temple.
Outside, she had already begun to take off the coarse cloth cloak that was draped over her clothes, and hung it on her arms.
Elena's eyes swept across a pillar in front of the palace door, and she frowned slightly.
A pillar at the entrance of the temple was carved into the image of Elena, wearing armor and holding the sword of Luch.
It was transformed into this on the day Elena arrived.
It was not requested by Elena, but carved by other demon spirits, symbolizing Elena's responsibilities in this temple and her identity.
This seems to be a tradition among demons...
However, Elena doesn't really like things that are too superficial. She likes things that are more practical, even if it's faith. She likes to do it with words and deeds, not with words.
"Um?"
Elena discovered it as soon as she came in.
There is a figure in the temple praying, facing the statue of God Insai.
The several outer halls of the temple allow all demon spirits to come to pray, although there is a time limit, and some demon spirits who have just recovered will also enter the temple to look at the text tablets to learn.
The voice of the other party's prayer was not loud, but because the temple was too quiet, it still reached Elena's ears clearly.
"Because of loneliness, God created the King of Wisdom, Lederiki, and because of Lederiki's loneliness, God created the three-leaf man."
"Thus began the race, and the kingdom was established."
"God said."
"I am the God who created you, and you are their king."
He clasped his hands together and bowed his body humbly.
The clothes he was wearing had many pockets, and there was a box containing a lot of things on the ground beside him. There was a rope on the box, so it could be hung on his body.
They look like they are traders walking around the streets. Their pockets are usually filled with various goods, and their boxes are hung on their chests and unfolded to show off their goods to others.
Elena did not disturb the other party's prayer, but just hung the cloak aside.
Her mind was a little confused, and she was adjusting her cloak while thinking about something.
By the time she came to her senses, the praying believers had already stood up.
The other party did not leave, but walked to Elena.
"Dear Lady Elena!"
"I have a doubt."
"You are the apostle of God, maybe you can give me guidance when I am confused."
Elena guards this temple, but she does not take on the responsibility of solving people's doubts part-time.
And she doesn't think she can solve any doubts and riddles for others.
but.
Since the person in front of her asked her, she was still prepared to listen.
The demon dressed as a merchant has a box hanging on his chest, and he looks a bit funny when paired with brightly colored clothes full of pockets.
He introduced his dream to Elena, the dream that always haunted him.
"I often dream, and every time I dream about a strange person."
"I feel like he is me. He lives on an island. The island is full of ritual workshops, and he has a shop on the island."
"When I usually dream about him, it's usually about trivial matters."
"But recently."
"I always dreamed that he was in this inverted pyramid, and that he was wandering under this temple, so I came here to find the reason for my dream."
The merchant was very strange. He also knew something about the origin of the demon spirits.
It is said that a long time ago, the demon spirits were transformed from another race.
After all, there are traces of that race everywhere in this city, and there are legends and myths left by that race.
besides.
The beliefs left by that race.
"The strangest thing to me is..."
"if!"
"That was the memory of another person a long time ago, so why did the scene in my dream show him wandering under this pyramid?"
"And the pyramid in my dream is almost the same as the current one, but I am sure it is the current pyramid because your stone statue was recently added to the door of the temple."
Elena suddenly remembered the dream she had had before, and she said to the other party: "Maybe, that's just a dream."
"An ordinary dream."
"Because you have been to the temple recently and saw my stone statue, so you had this dream."
But Elena then asked: "Is there anything special about that dream?"
The demon dressed as a merchant immediately said: "In my dream, this place was really strange."
"This pyramid is straight."
"The temple is not at the bottom, but at the top."
Elena heard what he was saying and said to him.
"Looks like."
"It's just a dream."
The merchant demon scratched his head: "That's it! Maybe I'm thinking too much!"
Elena was about to turn around and leave, but she suddenly stopped.
She seemed to have thought of something.
She asked the merchant demon: "How did you get in there in the dream?"
The merchant demon thought for a while: "I just saw the pyramid, then saw the stairs, and saw another me wandering on the stairs."
"He looked a little blurry, as if he was floating on the stairs."
"correct."
"I saw a light on the top of the pyramid, and it seemed like many shadows were wandering around the light."
Elena: "Come with me."
Elena led the merchant demon toward the depths of the temple and came to a square hall.
There is nothing in the hall. The upper dome is flat and smooth, but the lower part is sunken.
central.
Something like a shaft.
There.
It is the real base of the inverted pyramid, or it can also be said to be the spire.
Elena had seen this place several times before, but she had never paid attention to it before; now the problem with Lei told her that there was something wrong with this inverted pyramid.
The dream of the demon in front of her gave her some clues and ideas.
Elena came here, looked down and then jumped down.
The merchant demon spirit hesitated for a moment, but in order to understand his doubts, he jumped down with him.
"ah!"
In a flash of light, they seemed to have passed through a blurred boundary.
The merchant demon spirit was confused and found that it had fallen to the ground.
He looked around and found that he had fallen into another hall.
But after taking a closer look at the surrounding scene, it felt so familiar.
"This is"
"In the hall we were in just now."
Because he raised his head and looked up, he saw the shaft just now.
But now it has become a skylight.
The merchant demon spirit turned around, looking for traces of Lady Elena.
Just in time to see the other party's clothes disappear behind the side door.
Elena was already walking outside, and the merchant demon was following closely behind her.
Elena is tall and has long legs, and she walks vigorously. The vendor can only keep up with her pace by trotting, especially since he has a box hanging on his chest.
"Lady Elena!"
"Wait for me!"
The merchant demon passed through several palaces and corridors, and finally returned to the main hall.
He followed Elena and walked from inside to outside the temple.
My eyes suddenly opened up.
The pyramid has become positive.
This is a strange realm, darkness surrounds this pyramid, and in the distance is darkness like a dream world.
Elena had never thought before that there was such a magical realm hidden inside the inverted pyramid.
"Is there such a place under the pyramid?"
"It's weird here."
"It looks like a place where extraordinary powers gather together. How was this place formed?"
There were many statues placed on the square platform of the temple, and Elena felt that the smell of these statues was very familiar.
Although these statues all look like the people of the Demonic Abyss, their current identities should be priests, nobles and guards of the Kingdom of Demonic Spirits.
They should all be people she has seen before.
Elena walked down, and the merchant demon also followed on the stairs.
Every time Elena walked through this staircase before, she felt very awkward.
Because it is the opposite.
But this time I felt much more comfortable.
As she walked, she looked at the stone walls on both sides.
There are many reliefs on the stone walls on both sides, engraved with the images of many people. It is roughly estimated that from top to bottom of the stairs, there are eight thousand reliefs of the people of the Demonic Abyss.
The merchant demon looked at these reliefs, and the memories from his dream resurfaced again.
The demon puppet stretched out his hand and pointed at the reliefs here, pointing at everything he had ever seen.
"right here."
"The place I saw in my dream before is this place."
"It's exactly the same as here."
The merchant demon spoke excitedly to Elena, and his pace became much faster.
He unconsciously passed in front of Elena and stopped at about one third of the steps from the bottom.
"right here."
"I see another me, right here"
Just as he finished speaking, a voice came from behind him.
"You came?"
"Are you here to let me out?"
The vendor's voice stopped suddenly, and the metal doll turned its head stiffly.
He saw a transparent shadow coming out of a relief on the wall and speaking to him.
That is.
A ghost.
The merchant demon was shocked by the transparent and illusory ghost, as if he saw another version of himself.
When I saw him in a dream, I was just puzzled; when I saw him face to face, I felt extremely frightened.
The merchant demon felt indescribable emotions welling up in his heart.
He finally solved the doubts in his heart, but another doubt surfaced again.
The merchant demon was a little dull and asked, "Who are you?"
The ghost showed no expression: "I am you."
The ghost was clearly talking to the merchant demon, and his body seemed to be walking up high uncontrollably, towards the temple.
"If you were me? Then who am I?"
The ghost stopped talking to him and just floated upward.
But he still said it.
"You came?"
"Are you here to let me out?"
The merchant demon stood stiffly at the foot of the steps, and he felt creepy.
There is nothing more terrifying in this world than seeing another self.
This is like denying the existence of self.
If the other person is real, then who are you?
If the other party is fake, why does he appear?
Then.
Doubt the whole world.
Elena looked at the transparent shadow, and ancient memories came to her mind.
She unconsciously spat out two bytes.
"ghost?"
Memories of ghosts appeared in her mind.
The holy mountain appeared in her mind, and the figure of the high priest under the evil god emerged.
"This is the product of the evil god's power. How come it appears here?"
--------------------------
Under the Demonic Pyramid.
The merchant demon spirit couldn't accept this kind of thing at all, he shook his head and said.
"I am the real one!"
"I'm right here, you can't be me."
"What the hell are you"
He finally raised his head and chased after her.
He wanted to confirm something again.
The merchant demon wanted to stop the ghost and ask him some more questions.
Even if the other party looks confused, it doesn't look like he can answer the question at all.
but.
The moment his hand touched the other person, it was as if he had touched the coldest thing in the world.
Grain stalks
The cold and bitter cold extended from his fingertips and penetrated directly into the depths of his consciousness.
"ah!"
Countless scenes appeared in front of the merchant demon spirit, not the island, nor the daily life of guarding the shop.
Instead, he wanders in this darkness day after day, year after year.
The merchant demon kept shaking.
He didn't dare to touch the ghost in front of him anymore.
It seemed that what was in front of him was not a fragile spirit body, but a bottomless abyss swallowing him.
The other party has turned into a ghost and wandered in this dark land for 250 million years, from the previous era to this era.
The last time he recovered was decades ago.
The story of the birth of a ghost is very tragic.
The first batch of ghosts were born under the Holy Mountain and were the three-leaf people of the City of Servants of God.
They are the remaining products after draining away the power of spirituality and wisdom during life.
They are the embodiment of a person's memories and some of their deepest emotions.
The ghost felt the merchant demon touching him and stopped.
He didn't speak, just looked back at the merchant demon.
He seemed to have remembered something again.
A flash of emotion appeared in Ghost's eyes, and he suddenly asked.
"What time is it now?"
The Trader Demon Spirit was still trembling all over at this moment, but Elena answered the question on his behalf.
"The Second Age."
The ghost asked again: "Has God returned?"
Elena told him: "God has returned. This era is richer than the previous era. Mortals have more in this era."
However, she still had nothing to say.
"But this era does not belong to us."
The ghost turned around and continued to walk higher, chattering: "That's great, we succeeded, we succeeded."
Elena and the merchant demon watched the ghost walk all the way to the temple, thinking about the place where the pyramid radiated light and floated away.
Soon, he came back again.
"can not go out."
"can not go out."
"Yeah, I couldn't get out in the first place."
"It was planned from the beginning that we would always belong here, as the seeds from which consciousness was born."
The ghost walked all the way down and passed by the merchant demon who was standing on the steps blankly.
He suddenly asked: "Is this eternal life?"
"Can you live forever like this?"
"Is this still alive?"
But soon, he immediately denied himself.
"No."
"This is not for eternal life, this is for the future."
Suddenly, Ghost said emotionally: "For the continuation of the race, we must do this."
But as soon as he finished speaking, Ghost's expression became distorted again.
"No, I don't want to be like this."
"It's better to just perish!"
"Why did I choose this? What on earth was I thinking?"
In the midst of this twisted and crazy conflict, the ghost gradually calmed down.
Without any expression or emotion.
He returned to the relief and never appeared again.
Elena fell into thinking.
Thinking about everything I saw here, I also thought about what the ghost said just now.
But the demon doll standing at the bottom of the steps suddenly raised his head. His body seemed to be trembling, but he still couldn't help but make his request to Elena.
He looked at Elena and asked her in pleading words.
"Lady Elena!"
"I can"
"Can I let him go?"
Elena's mind was in chaos at the moment. She hadn't fully understood what the secret and truth of this pyramid was.
"That's you."
"It's all up to you."
Elena also said to him: "But I don't understand, what will happen after you let him go?"
Elena asked the merchant demon spirit if he had just seen something?
From within the spirit body of that ghost.
The merchant demon stretched out his fingers and touched himself on the relief.
"I just felt that he was in pain and he was lonely."
"I want to let him go."
"I want to do this."
"At least, don't let him wander in this darkness forever."
Finished.
He took action.
The merchant demon stretched out his hand, and the light of extraordinary power emitted from his palm.
Even the most ordinary demon spirits are powerful.
He erased his own relief on the wall, and the aura on the relief gradually faded away.
While the relief was being worn away, the ghost was also squeezed out from inside.
can be seen.
The body of the ghost is disintegrating bit by bit and disappearing bit by bit.
When the ghost appeared, he repeated those words.
"You came?"
"Are you here to let me out?"
This time.
The merchant demon said loudly to him, nodding his head.
"That's right."
"I'm here to let you out. You are free."
He seemed happier than the ghost, as if it was not the other person who was let go, but himself.
Ghost's eyes were confused at first, but then.
Light surged out of his dull eyes, and he met the eyes of the merchant demon.
"I am free?"
As soon as the words fell, the ghost body completely dispersed.
A bubble emerged from the ghost, and colored light reflected from it.
White and black alternate, and the colors keep reincarnating.
The merchant demon still doesn't know what it is: "Colored bubbles?"
He saw ancient pictures rotating through the colorful bubbles.
Among them was a scene he had seen in his dream.
Elena stepped forward: "This is the dream of life!"
After hearing what she said, the merchant demon also remembered the legend he had heard: "After death, life will return to the kingdom of the Creator."
"The ferryman will come to take God's believers to the dreamy sea of stars."
"I have heard."
"I've heard this story."
Under the gaze of two people, the dream of life rises to the top of this realm.
The sky opened an invisible door, and the ripples of the dream world swallowed up the dream of life.
Next, nothing can be seen.
But the merchant demon spirit can imagine the scene behind it.
soon.
There will be a huge ship emitting golden light that sails from the depths of the dream world, carrying this dream on board, and heading to the divine kingdom of the Creator.
The merchant demon stood there with his head held high.
"so good!"
"He is free. He no longer has to feel the eternal darkness and loneliness."
"He can go to the dreamy sea of stars."
The merchant demon spirit turned around and said to Elena somewhat relaxedly.
But talk and talk.
His metal body began to be covered with rust, and the rust penetrated directly into the body, disintegrating him into a ball of rust powder.
His whole body collapsed amidst his relaxed words.
It turned into a pile of broken parts.
"Bang bang bang!"
The box hanging on his chest fell over, and all kinds of strange small objects contained in it were scattered all over the stairs.
-----------------------
Elena stayed on the stairs.
After the demon spirits die, the demon spirit pyramid will emit light and rekindle their consciousness.
At that time, they will enter the next reincarnation and everything will start again.
Although the past has been forgotten, maybe it can be called a recovery, right?
But this time.
Elena waited for a long, long time, but he didn't come back to life.
It seemed that with the liberation of the ghost, he also died completely.
Until it is fully confirmed.
Elena turned her head and said to the doll that had turned into a rusty wreckage.
"Maybe I shouldn't agree to your request."
"However, you seemed to have no regrets even in the end."
"What exactly did you feel from that ghost's body? Is it really so painful?"
While waiting.
Elena also counted all the reliefs here, as well as the statues above.
"Eight thousand two hundred and sixteen!"
Elena remembered what the Demon King said to her before: "There are 8,216 people in this country."
Elena walked towards the top of the steps, and she went straight to one of the pillars.
On the pillar, a heroic female knight is carved.
Unlike the people of the Demonic Abyss present, she has a form that resembles a god.
Elena stopped and said in a complicated tone.
"No."
"Eight thousand two hundred and seventeen."
The female knight on the pillar suddenly moved. She turned her head and spoke arrogantly to Elena.
"Someone is coming!"
"stop!"
“Not allowed to approach the house of God without permission?”
This ghost is the most powerful ghost here.
She was born not long ago, so she probably appeared recently.
And that time should be when Elena returns to this city.
Under the priest's robe, Elena unconsciously clenched her hands.
She finally figured it out, knew the function of the Demon Spirit Pyramid, and roughly understood the meaning of the name Demon Spirit.
"turn out to be!"
"This is the devil."
He has the extraordinary body of a monster and the immortal spirit of a ghost.
The two form the so-called demon spirit.
The body is made of extraordinary materials, just like props, it will not be easily destroyed or corroded.
It's just that the consciousness in the body is destined to be lost in time.
But as long as the ghost soul is immortal and the body's consciousness dies, this demon pyramid and the ghost soul inside can be used as seeds to revive again and give birth to a new consciousness.
They are a combination of monsters and ghosts, but they are not completely monsters.
so.
Only then can they live in the city where the people of the Demonic Abyss once lived without being bound by the oaths of demons and monsters.
Elena stood in front of the pillar, looking at her own ghost, unable to calm down for a long time.
"Use metal to cast the body of an extraordinary monster, then use the ghost as a candle to ignite consciousness over and over again, and use this pyramid as a candlestick to maintain the eternal operation of this kingdom of monsters."
"In this way, can the people of the Demonic Abyss continue to exist across time? In this way, can the inheritance of the people of the Demonic Abyss be maintained?"
"Is this what I chose?"
"A way to save the people of the Demonic Abyss?"
Elena looked at the entire Demonic Pyramid, and the sound was transmitted in this empty realm.
"Is this the giant ship I built that spans the long river of time?"
Her voice was cold and confused.
"This is?"
"The future I chose?"
The female knight stood there for a long time, and suddenly she drew the sword from her waist.
She pointed at herself on the pillar, her expression extremely angry.
like.
I wish I could chop down myself on the pillar with a sword.