Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 379: Unsheathed
"I came to find you and take you back." Asano Akira answered directly.
"Why are you looking for me? Why are you taking me back? Taking me back to continue being that group of people's guinea pig?" Marshall's voice suddenly turned cold.
"No...I'm not going to take you back to that place..."
"Do you think I will believe what you said?" Marshall interrupted him, "The person who broke into the Holy Land was your companion, right?"
"Holy Land?"
"...I didn't expect that the taciturn dwarf would also learn to play dumb." Marshall said, and suddenly took a step back. "I'll ask you one last time, what is your purpose in coming here?"
"I'm coming to find you, to take you——"
Asano Akira didn't finish his words - this time, it was not Marshall who interrupted him, but he stopped on his own.
Because he suddenly discovered that his eyes, which had been blind for many years, could see again!
He saw the dim electric lights hanging overhead, the rusty scaffolding on both sides of the passage, and Marshall standing in front of him, ten steps away.
Marshall raised his head, and Asano Akira noticed that he didn't seem as old as he had imagined... he even looked younger than when he was in the experimental unit.
But in the next second, thousands of poisonous snakes suddenly rushed out from behind Marshall!
These snakes opened their mouths angrily, with crystal venom hanging from the tips of their sharp fangs and bright red tongues curled up in their cavities, looking as if they were ready to pounce at any time.
"You are here for something in the 'holy land', right?" Marshall and Asano Akira, who had regained his sight, looked at each other. For a moment, Asano Akira seemed to see a slender snake tongue spit out from his mouth, and then it retracted very quickly, so fast that it made people wonder if he was hallucinating.
"no."
Just as Asano Akira said these two words, those poisonous snakes pounced towards him together. No one knew where these creatures on the earth came from. A thousand... no, ten thousand, or even more poisonous snakes completely filled the space between the scaffoldings, and like a wriggling huge wave, they hit Asano Akira on the head!
"Then go to hell." Marshall's voice came from behind the huge waves.
These poisonous snakes attacked from every corner within Asano Akira's field of vision... They didn't seem like living creatures, but more like an all-pervasive tide that seeped into every blind spot in this space.
Asano Akira had no way to avoid or retreat.
"bass--"
The broken bandages flew up, and the sword was instantly unsheathed. He held the blade in one hand and slashed out a hemispherical blade light in front of him, heading towards the huge wave composed of countless poisonous snakes.
The imagined sound of a sharp blade cutting through scales and flesh did not come, and the blade light passed through the huge waves unhindered... Similarly, Asano Akira did not feel the pain of the fangs piercing his body, and those poisonous snakes pierced through his body like phantoms.
“What… happened?”
When Asano Akira came to his senses, he was shocked to find that all the poisonous snakes had disappeared, as if they had never existed, and he was still standing there, holding the sword in his hand, which was disguised as a guide stick with bandages.
Asano Akira's thumb gently stroked the slipknot tied at the end of the bandage - his knife had never been unsheathed.
The vision fell into darkness again. Everything that just happened only happened in Asano Akira's consciousness. In the real world, he and Marshall both stood there without moving a step.
"Okay, I'll believe you this time." Marshall suddenly flashed to Asano Akira's side and patted his shoulder. "You're still the same as before... No, you're even more stupid than before."
“…”
"But I won't go back with you." Marshall sighed faintly, "I have chosen a path that I can't turn back from."
"Mann is dead."
"Oh...really? That's good news." Marshall said, "But Mann's death doesn't mean the project is over... Don't think the world is too beautiful."
"but……"
"No buts. I said, I made my own choice. I gained something, but I also paid a price for it... The Ark will not accept me as I am now... and neither will humans."
"What?"
"Kid, don't ask so many questions. Go back to where you came from and don't come to me again. Just think of me as dead." Marshall said lightly.
"Have you joined them?" Asano Akira asked, frowning .
"Yeah, I joined them. Even though this place is terrible and the people living here are terrible... but at least they treat me as one of their own kind, not a monster or a guinea pig... To be honest, I quite like it here," Marshall said with a smile.
"..." Asano Akira was silent. The hand holding the scabbard involuntarily increased his strength. The bandage and the reinforced plastic scabbard rubbed against each other, making a slight "rustling" sound.
"Okay, I understand." After several seconds, Asano Akira nodded, "I will leave after I find Ke Lan."
He wanted to move forward, but Marshall stopped him with his hand.
"Ke Lan? Are you talking about your companion?" Marshall paused, "Don't go any further. He has entered the Holy Land and can't get out... Even if he can come out, he is no longer the person you knew before."
"Why?"
"I can't explain this to you, but if you keep going forward, you will become the enemy of everyone here," Marshall said.
"Including you?"
"That includes me."
Asano Akira took a deep breath.
He untied the knot on the scabbard and took a step forward.
"Why bother! He might be dead!" Marshall's tone suddenly became a little exasperated. He grabbed Asano Akira's shoulder, but the latter suddenly crouched and dodged.
Asano Akira started to run forward, but at this moment, he felt that the air around him seemed to have solidified, and every step forward was accompanied by unimaginable resistance.
"bass--"
This time, the sword was really unsheathed - Asano Akira swung the sword, intending to chop it in front of him.
"Swish--" a teeth-grinding friction sound hit his eardrum. He could clearly feel the blade cutting through something, and the feeling of blockage was instantly reduced by more than half.
This is not an illusion, this resistance is real.
