Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 64: Green Prison
Floral Kane once had a wish.
She wanted to cross the endless forest of Ravenwood, go to the end of the boundless forest, and see the vast world beyond.
It is said that in the north there are vast plains paved with yellow sand; it is said that in the east there are rolling gray-brown hills; it is said that in the west and south, the endless blue ocean wraps the land they are on in its arms, as gentle as the sacred tree mother in their tribal mythology.
It is said that...
After the conquest of Terra, countless rumors about the outside world spread to Ravenwood. But most of the forest elves...or to be pessimistic, almost all of the forest elves except Fularo herself, had no interest in those new rumors.
They firmly believed that they were already in paradise - under the care of the Holy Tree Mother and the Wilderness Father, the forest elves had no need to yearn for the outside world full of suffering.
Unlike her fellow forest elves who followed traditions and adhered to traditional beliefs, Floral Cain often felt that she did not belong here - perhaps because her adoptive parents were both human, but she always felt that this might be her nature.
Since her last name is the same as that of the great explorer who had extended his footprints to the end of the world more than a thousand years ago, she should not confine herself to this small place for the rest of her life.
Sometimes he felt that the entire Ravenwood was like a nutshell that imprisoned his soul - no matter how he shouted, all he could hear was a hollow echo.
For this reason, she even tried to escape when she was young, trying to walk through this suffocating forest.
Then, at the end of Ravenwood, she saw a view that no one would ever believe...
"Your Excellency the Duke, if you go a little further inside, you will see where the prisoners are held."
The hunchbacked jailer limped and tremblingly inserted the bone key in his hand into the keyhole.
The old man's voice and the friction sound of the door opening rang out together, awakening Flora from her trance.
"Is everyone locked up here?"
Flora asked immediately after coming back to her senses from her messy thoughts.
As she spoke, she couldn't help but secretly blame herself for her immaturity - she should have forgotten those naive wishes and those futile attempts in the past.
But what happened to her today? Everything she said and did was totally unlike her usual self.
Perhaps she should blame the depressing and cramped environment in the green prison, which made her remember that she was also a bird in a cage.
"Yes, all the rebels you captured in the underground root system are in there... Of course, we have to exclude those who are already dead. We have already disposed of their bodies."
The hunchbacked jailer turned around and answered, solemnly handing the key to Flora.
Not only that, seeing that the other party was still somewhat absent-minded when he took the key, the jailer couldn't help but remind him:
"My Lord Duke, please listen to me for a few more words... Please be careful after you enter. The vines in the Green Prison are derived from the instinct of the Holy Tree Mother to return life to the mother body. Therefore, they will indiscriminately imprison people who do not hold the key . Please make sure to keep the key in your hand."
"is that so?"
Hearing this, Flora looked into the depths of the prison, which was a emerald green jungle made up of countless vines. The rebels previously captured in the underground roots were hung in the air by the constantly wriggling vines like cocoons.
Every person who was hung had a faint smile on his face, and looked as peaceful as a baby held in his mother's arms.
Looking at the numb and happy smiles on those people's faces, for some reason Flora felt an unknown anger coming from the depths of her soul.
"I understand. Just wait at the door. I'll call you if I have anything else to do."
The moment she stepped into the depths of the green prison, the coiled vines began to wriggle around Flora like snakes.
For a moment, perhaps only enough time to blink, she saw the green vines as countless dancing fleshy tentacles - the entire green prison seemed to have suddenly turned into the body of some wriggling living creature.
The door of the Green Prison slowly closed behind her, and the previous terrifying visions disappeared. In response, Flora said nothing. She walked directly to the "cocoon" in the middle of the Green Prison and stabbed the bone key in her hand into the vines that bound the man like a dagger.
Faintly, Flora thought she heard a sharp whine - but this was impossible, the vines did not have any vocal organs, no matter how they were hurt, they would not scream.
But her attitude was the same as when she saw the illusion before, she also chose to ignore it.
The vines immediately pulled back as if in pain, and threw the man who was entangled in the middle directly down.
"Hobien Ebony..."
Before the man stood up, Flora spoke calmly:
"I seem to have forgotten something very important, but my intuition tells me that those things may be related to the nonsense you said earlier. So, I want to listen to you carefully again... What does the world look like in your eyes?"
…………
The development team of "End of Watch" once held an online meeting with players. In the final Q&A session, a curious player asked the game's chief screenwriter - among the four endings of full moon, new moon, waning moon and lunar eclipse, which one is the real ending in the developer's mind.
Undoubtedly, this is a very controversial question. After all, because of the huge differences in the atmosphere between the several endings of the game itself, players often argue about which ending is more reasonable. This question is like asking the author of a stock speculation article to clearly state who the heroine in his mind is - even if the author really has a preferred object in his mind, he must never say it clearly.
At least not until the sequel comes out.
Therefore, the screenwriter at the time gave an answer that sounded very much like an attempt to smooth things over.
"What you choose is your ending."
At this moment, facing the three Void Kings in front of him, William felt another possible meaning contained in this answer.
"The right to discipline... Just as Air said before, except for her, almost all the Void Kings regard the present world as the final prize of the grand game in the Moon Realm. And the specific form of this prize, or at least part of it, is the so-called 'right to discipline'?"
William asked.
Of course, he didn't expect them to answer.
Since even Air, who was willing to stand in the same camp with him, insisted on being a riddler on this issue, then the three goddesses who stood on the side of his enemies had no reason to answer his questions.
However……
"Yes, you guessed it right."
The hungry and rotten lady, who was almost rotten, replied.
"The power of admonition, the power to choose the history of this world, is also the true authority of the Eighth Holy Spirit. No one except the Scoffer and the Hollow One believes that you have that authority. If the Hollow One had not been willing to pay such a high price this time, we might not have speculated in this direction. Naturally... there would not have been such an attempt."
"So? Was the test successful?"
William, slightly surprised, asked back.
"It's hard to say at the moment, because of your previous arrangement, you still have the possibility of returning to another timeline. And once you make a choice, you will naturally not be able to converge this fragmented history into a single historical truth."
Said the dark shadow of the spider hiding beneath the lake.
"so what?"
William, feeling a little uneasy, asked.
"So, next we have to cut off the possibility of you returning to another timeline."
Beatrice laughed and continued :
"To put it simply, all of your lovely subordinates who are responsible for pulling you back to that timeline will be killed..."
A series of explosions were heard, and the entire gate of the Imperial Embassy was engulfed in a fireball.
The rock gate was instantly ignited by flames and gradually burned to ashes.
"Don't even think about it."
William said in a cold voice, with the blazing flames reflected in his eyes.
