There was a sound echoing deep in the corridor, but it was mixed and misty, making it difficult to distinguish.
There seemed to be the sound of cold wind, vague murmurs, heavy footsteps, and gunshots.
Everything is mixed together, everything has lost its obvious boundaries, and the whole world seems to be gradually being rolled into a ball. There is no longer left, right, left, and yesterday - just like this dim road filled with fog in front of us.
The corridor seemed so groggy that it could swallow everything.
The old man with a stooped back walked slowly forward in the corridor with staggering steps. The big wrench in his hand occasionally hit the pipes on the nearby wall, making a low and weird impact sound.
Who are you? Where are you? Where are you going? Why do you want to go there?
The attack begins... At midnight, it is time for the Queen's Guards to launch an attack, but what exactly are they going to attack? And in which direction are they going to attack?
From time to time, some messy and broken thoughts and some long-faded memories popped up in the old ghost's groggy mind, but soon, these things were all dissolved into his hazy brain - he occasionally felt as if he was walking on the street.
On the two separate roads, chaotic perceptions and experience memories were entangled in this body, but sometimes, he felt that he had actually stayed where he was, waiting for the order for fifty years.
The big wrench hit something and made a clanging sound. The old ghost lowered his head slowly and saw that it was a helmet - black, narrow rim, with the mark of the Queen's Guards. It was something from fifty years ago, but it has now been seen.
Not here anymore.
He stared blankly at the helmet, watching it fall to the ground and roll into the drainage channel aside. It seemed that something was struggling to get up from the drainage channel, but it quickly merged with the surrounding darkness.
,Disappear.
He muttered indistinctly and continued to walk towards the darkness, as if he was gradually walking into the depths of a condensed black mud. After an unknown amount of time, he finally stopped at the end of the corridor.
Intersecting pipes, collapsed rubble, as well as smoke and black matter surging between the rubble - these things blocked the old man's path. He stopped here and looked around with some confusion.
He didn't recognize this place, and he didn't even remember that there was such a place in the Second Waterway, but he stopped here because... there was something waiting for him to complete here.
The old ghost lowered his head and looked at the pool of water next to the gravel. His confused eyes were reflected in the water.
What are you doing here?
At this moment, a strange scene suddenly reflected in the stagnant water - one by one
The soldiers of the Queen's Guard stepped through the endless monsters swarming in the corridor. The guns and bayonets in their hands turned the waves of fake monsters into cold, dry mud. Wherever they passed, there was no longer mud on the walls.
Penetrating, even the darkness in the corridor seemed to have faded a lot.
Everything is just as Lawrence guessed: the very existence of the Queen's Guard is to suppress "pollution" in this mirror city-state.
If what happened in this city-state is regarded as a confrontation between two forces, then the mud monsters and the Queen's Guards are obviously the embodiment of these two opposing forces - and this confrontation and entanglement may have lasted for half a century.
as long as.
The Marine team led by Lawrence ran quickly in the corridor, following the path opened by the Queen's Guards. In ten minutes, they covered a distance that had been difficult to break in the previous few hours. And along the way, Lawrence had been
Keep observing and thinking.
He was trying to understand the nature of this Queen's Guard, and even trying to establish communication with these phantoms, but all his attempts failed.
The Queen's Guards couldn't see him, and they didn't even notice the presence of these uninvited guests. These soldiers were like a memory projected from distant history, just mechanically repeating a battle that happened decades ago.
Advancing, shooting, fighting, falling... and all of this has probably happened every day in the past few decades.
Martha's information about the Queen's Guards was correct, but obviously not entirely correct.
He has no way to establish cooperation with these "helpers"
.
"Captain! They can't see us, what should we do?" A sailor ran over and asked Lawrence
The person next to me said loudly, "It seems like just a dozen of us running around can't help much?"
Lawrence looked a little complicated, and subconsciously looked at the small mirror on his chest, but Martha's voice came out first: "Don't ask me, I don't know what to do with this situation - I just know their existence, and
I have never dealt with them..."
While talking, there was another faint sound of gunfire coming from the mirror: Martha was obviously very busy over there, and the situation was not much simpler than here in the sewer.
"The Queen's Guard has just been repeating this battle all these years?" Lawrence said loudly, "Then the result of every battle is the same?!"
"Yes, the result is the same every time. They appear at midnight and then disappear at the next hour. They are unable to break through the obstacle at the end every time!"
Can't break through the ultimate obstacle?
After hearing this, Lawrence subconsciously raised his head and looked towards the direction where the group of phantom soldiers were charging.
They were rushing towards the deepest part of the corridor, and in that dark and chaotic space, rich malice surged through his perception like substantial sludge.
"I understand!" Lawrence suddenly shouted.
Martha's voice came from the mirror: "What do you understand?!"
However, Lawrence no longer cared about answering the man in the mirror's question. After vaguely realizing what he should do, he immediately took his men with him and ran forward at a faster speed.
At the same time, the battle in the corridor is also becoming more intense. The Queen's Guard is launching the final charge. Countless phantom warriors are roaring and using their weapons to destroy the monsters in front of them. Soldiers continue to fall.
It turned into bubbles dissipating in the air, and monsters continued to fall down, turning into mud flowing into the drainage ditches on both sides. As the fierce battle continued, the entire stormtrooper team finally gradually reached the end of this corridor.
Lawrence finally saw the end point of this fierce battle, and saw the obstacle that had blocked the Queen's Guards for half a century——
It was a door, a door covered with countless thorns and dirty black mud, and its appearance was frightening.
On the surface of the gate, the crisscrossing thorns are like a crown of dry tree branches, and dim light spots wander irregularly deep in the thorn bushes, and it seems that there are countless eyes hidden deep in the thorn bushes. Ordinary people
Just one glance in that direction will grip your soul with fear and madness.
Even Lawrence, who had turned into a carrier of spiritual fire at this moment, couldn't help but feel a shock in his heart and a roar in his head when he saw the door blocked by thorns.
And that was the target of the Queen's Guards attack.
In front of the gate, countless black mud is gathering, and countless monsters appear in the mud - they mimic the appearance of humans, including soldiers wearing city-state guard uniforms and navy uniforms, as well as pirates and armed forces with various equipment.
Citizens, and even... there are ancient-looking cannons and demon-like monsters made of piles of skeletons.
These monsters relied on the simple fortifications in the hall to guard the thorn door, just like fanatics guarding their master.
The final battle begins.
The Queen's Guard poured all their firepower on the monster across the corridor, and the latter's counterattack shook the entire second waterway. Both sides in the fierce battle lost more than half of their combat power in almost the blink of an eye, while Lawrence and the mere monsters he brought with him
A dozen sailors could only try to find a hiding place on the edge of this devastating and tragic battlefield.
Under such intense firepower, even Lawrence, who was protected by spiritual fire, did not dare to bet on whether he would really die.
But he's not just hiding - he's watching.
He was observing how far the Queen's Guards had accomplished in this battle.
As the battle continued, and as both warring parties continued to reduce their numbers, the defense force in front of the gate finally weakened - the deadly artillery and demonic creatures were torn into pieces, and gaps began to appear in the defense line in front of the thorns.
"Demolition Team! Enter!"
Lawrence, who was hiding next to the Queen's Guards position, suddenly heard a voice, which was the voice of a commander of the Guards.
The next second, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted several crawling figures on the edge of the battlefield.
A small team broke away from the main position, entered the drainage channel at the edge of the hall in the blind spot of the monsters' vision, and moved little by little along the ditch towards the hidden place on the side of the thorn door.
At the same time, the firepower from the frontal position suddenly intensified, and dense bullets poured in, trying to suppress it and attract the attention of the monsters in front of the gate.
Lawrence suddenly held his breath unconsciously - even though he knew that this might be just a phantom that would not be affected by the outside world, he still did so subconsciously.
But what he worried about happened as expected.
The demolition team was discovered along the edge of the battlefield near the Thorn Gate.
A series of bullets hit the drainage channel, and several soldiers carrying explosive devices fell into the ditch in an instant.
But almost at the same time, another demolition team entered the trench on the other side of the hall and continued to crawl towards the door covered with thorns.
They were also discovered - the second demolition team fell only ten meters away from the Thorn Gate.
At this moment, a sailor's low cry suddenly reached Lawrence's ears: "They are almost disappearing!"
Lawrence immediately raised his head, and the scene in the corridor came into view——
The Queen's Guard is disappearing.
After the failure of the second demolition team, all the Guard soldiers suddenly stopped for a moment, and then each of their figures began to fade and disappear. One-third of them blinked.
The eyes are already like translucent phantoms!
Something Martha had said suddenly came to Lawrence's mind:
"...They are unable to break through the obstacle at the end every time..."
Lawrence suddenly understood the meaning of this sentence and the outcome of each battle - the Queen's Guards failed. Although they kept fighting and repeated it persistently, the unchangeable fact was that at midnight, at this time,
In the "last counterattack", they failed.
This operation failed fifty years ago.
Every repetition after this is a repetition of this failure.
Lawrence was in a daze for a moment, but at this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw another figure appearing on the battlefield.
It was a figure rushing out from the corner of the hall, an illusion that had not yet begun to dissipate.
The eyes of Lawrence and all the sailors were instantly attracted to that figure.
He is not a soldier, but a young man who looks like an engineer with the army. He is wearing dark blue coarse cloth overalls and a sloping soft hat that was popular half a century ago. On his belt, in addition to
In addition to the pistol and bullet bag, there is also a large wrench hanging.
He rushed towards the ditch and toward the explosive device left by the second demolition team. Then he hugged the wooden box full of explosives and climbed quickly towards the thorn gate.
At this moment, Lawrence almost thought he was going to succeed.
However, a bullet flew towards the young man, and it was as if he had been hit on the shoulder by a hammer. Half of his body was violently shaken, and he fell down a few meters away from the Gate of Thorns.
The whole hall seemed to become quiet instantly.
The final counterattack is over.
All the soldiers of the Queen's Guard began to dissipate at an accelerated rate, and this illusion that had been repeated for fifty years returned to its original point.
Perhaps, this is also the last time to repeat it.
Lawrence stared blankly at the young man who fell at the end.
"The Last Queen's Guard", the last fallen person, his fall seems to be some kind of "focus" in this repeated battle.
But suddenly, Lawrence woke up from his daze.
He jumped out from his hiding place, and as the sailors watched and exclaimed, the old captain ran like a gust of wind towards the place where the last man fell.
The already silent hall was "disturbed" by his sudden "intervention"
”, those monsters that had not yet dissipated reacted almost instantly, with chaotic and noisy roars and the roar of weapons firing suddenly exploding!
The sailor's cry came from behind: "Cover Captain!"
However, Lawrence seemed to be unable to hear these sounds. He just lowered his head and rushed forward. He seemed to have been shot several times, but this was nothing to him. He rushed through half the hall,
Jump into that ditch, lunge at the last explosive device, reach out for it—
Then, he ran his fingers through the box of explosives.
Lawrence fell into the ditch in a somewhat embarrassed state and stared blankly at the scene in front of him.
Like the surrounding Queen's Guards, that box of explosives was also a phantom to him.
Explosive devices that were not detonated fifty years ago cannot be detonated by a "latecomer" like him today.
The bullets roared and hit the ground nearby. The roars came from far and near. Some mud monsters had already rushed into the ditch to tear themselves into pieces.
Lawrence, however, still stared at the box of explosives blankly, feeling nothing but great absurdity and ridicule.
However, at this moment, something suddenly moved in the corner of his eye.
The old captain looked up in surprise and saw that the young man who suddenly moved was the young man who had just fallen.
The young man with the big wrench hanging on his waist trembled, slowly raised his head, and his eyes fell firmly on the man in front of him, who was dressed as a captain and was covered in strange green flames.
Lawrence was stunned for a moment before he suddenly realized: "Can you see me?!"
The young man didn't seem to hear the question. He just moved his lips and seemed to be repeating something quickly. He repeated it several times, and Lawrence could barely hear what he said——
"...I've seen it before, that's right, I've seen this flame before... I've seen it before..."
"Have you seen it? Flame? What are you talking about?
Lawrence's eyes widened in astonishment and he couldn't help but ask.
The young man didn't answer, he just kept repeating, and kept repeating, and during this repetition, he got up little by little, covered in blood, but he slowly got up!
Under Lawrence's unbelievable gaze, the young man covered in blood picked up the last explosive device and climbed up the wall next to the ramp with a groan. He kept mumbling something while staggering towards the thorn gate.
go.
Lawrence heard what the other person was saying, but it was all content that he couldn't understand. It sounded like a series of names -
"Nemo...General Tirian...Raven...
The bloody figure just staggered and muttered.
But he didn't even take a few steps.
Just as they climbed onto the ground, several gunshots were heard from the opposite side, and the bloody figure fell down.
But almost at the moment he fell, an old and hunched figure suddenly stood up from where he fell.
Lawrence looked at this scene in disbelief. He saw the old man's position when he appeared - he stood up from a pool of blood.
He was the reflection reflected in the blood of the young man when he died in battle.
"Ah, I'm finally here..."
The rickety old man bent down and picked up the last box of explosives, and then an incomprehensible and extremely bright smile suddenly broke out on his face.
"I have arrived!"
He said loudly, he laughed loudly, he picked up the box of dynamite, happily lit its fuse, and then almost happily held it and rushed towards the thorn gate.
"I have arrived!
"Engineer Wilson comes to report!
"Engineer Wilson requests to return to the team!
"I have arrived!"
"boom!!!"
The earth-shattering explosion shook the entire hall and every corridor connected to the hall.