doll city

"Have you ever heard...the third movement?"

"The second musician came from the North,

Searching for water in the sea of ​​sand and picking up waste in dreams.

The mistress' bowels shatter the doors and windows,

No one recalls the madman's jokes.

The scorching bones are unwilling to roar,

They say they've sat around too long.

The executioner composes and sings,

Lost in love, it wanders in the tomb..."

The pointer of the bell tower in front of the museum pointed to the time when the devil was about to part, and the people who were still alive around the whole museum froze for a moment.

The sound of the wind passing through the steel forest disappeared, the sound of tall buildings collapsing disappeared, and the screams of people disappeared.

As if the mute button was pressed by an invisible hand, the world was completely silent.

Then, after a hoarse howl, the ear-piercing humming centered on the museum and swept away in all directions.

As far as the eye can see, all the windows of vehicles and buildings burst open in an instant. People panicked and wanted to ask each other what happened, but no one could make any sound.

The city sank in silence.

The smoke and dust in the sky can be seen in every corner of Ciling, so in a park on a certain street corner, under a street lamp that is flickering and full of crows, another puppet lifts his eyes from his knee Moved away from the book and looked into the distance.

"Alice..."

……

Old China Street.

"My God, why is there such a big commotion?"

Dai Chengze stood at the door, staring blankly at the smoke and dust rising from the sky in the center of the city, with a look of horror on his face.

"It's the museum... have they failed?"

"We can't make a final judgment yet. The amplitude of all the parameters of this space unit is decreasing..." Yan Xuechao suddenly paused, and unconsciously put his hand on his heart, as if he had a bad premonition somewhere.

Gu Lili hugged her Great Sage doll, her hands were shaking. When she looked up, she suddenly found Yan Xuechao's figure blurred, and said in surprise:

"Uncle? You..."

"It's become transparent, right?" Yan Xuechao breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm different from you. I used some tricks to get in. If my form is unstable, it means it's a good sign, and it means' The concept of 'space'...that is, the existence of the 'Red King of Death' began to collapse."

"That is to say..."

"They should have succeeded, although they don't know what the price will be." Yan Xuechao let out a long breath, pulled out a card-style USB flash drive from under the laptop, and handed it to Gu Lili.

"I can't stay for long. What I can do for you is to maximize the evacuation of personnel. Fighting can defeat the enemy, but it may not necessarily defeat the hearts of the people. If you finally find a way out, insert this USB drive Any working computer, it will help you."

Gu Lili stood up immediately after receiving it, and watched Yan Xuechao start from his hands, which became a little bit blurred: "Uncle, are you going back? So soon?! What about Brother Ge?"

"I believe in Yan Ge, he can bring you back." Yan Xuechao's voice gradually became intermittent, "Also, energy will only be conserved and will not disappear. Be careful of the final 'aftershock'..."

……

"This lunatic..."

Diana stood up from the ruins, shook off the glass shards on her body, wiped her ears, and touched the blood on her hands.

She thought she was at least going to have a concussion or something, but soon found that something was wrong in her body. When she moved, she no longer had the fullness of human bones and flesh and blood, but made a sound like mechanical parts .

Moreover, there is always a song in her mind... a song with the third movement.

"The first audience, the second musician... so it turns out that our 'advancement' is closely related to this song, and we won't reach the so-called finale until the end of the advancement, and we can see the 'actress'."

Diana already understood it completely, she felt that at that moment just now, the invisible chain that bound her rank was completely broken, as long as she wanted, she could come to the real third rank at any time.

It's just... the real form of the third level is no longer human.

Li Crow's back was reflected in Diana's pupils, her red hair was messy in front of her eyes, and the piano bow pierced into Alice's heart like a sharp sword—it didn't belong to her heart.

"Li Ya!!!" Yi Ziang's voice came from a distance, "Get away from the Red King of Death! I'm about to load the file! The space around her will tear everyone apart!"

But Li Ya didn't seem to hear it, his pale glass-colored eyes gradually lost focus and turned bright red, talking only to Alice like a puppet.

"You, give him back to me."

The breath of death spread.

"It turns out... this is called heartache."

Alice raised her head, and the corners of her eyes gradually cracked like tears.

"I can feel your heart whimpering."

"You know that your death may not have an intersection with him, but you still have to die with him."

"I see, Mom..."

The human heart was crying in the chest, Alice's red pupils dimmed, and she finally fell heavily on the ground, reaching out her hand and trying to touch the unreachable past.

"Mom, you have been away from me for many years."

"My... wedding... the wedding you want to see will never be seen again."

This is the first time Alice feels heartache, and at the same time welcomes her death.

The space cracked like a mirror, and the museum gradually returned to its original appearance amid another roar and shock.Yi Ziang desperately mobilized all his strength, and after a whirlwind, Yi Ziang fell heavily from mid-air to the ground.

The eyes turned black and then bright again. Yi Ziang got up and looked at the center of the museum immediately.

"Don't worry, this princess can't recover. Your strength is not as strong as hers, and you can't cover existences above the third level. Our deduction is correct."

Diana rolled down gently from the second floor next to her. She was not affected at all, and glanced at the team members getting off one by one from the car at the entrance of the museum.

"Eh? Didn't I die..." Xiao Yi and the other team members got out of the car in a daze, touched themselves in fear, and then glanced in the direction of the museum hall.

"Could it be that……"

Diana shook her head, as if she was not used to her current state of mind: "It's over."

Before the smile on Xiao Yi's face froze, she paused again: "Where's Yan Ge? Where did Yan Ge go!"

Everyone was there, only Yan Ge didn't show up.

"He..." Yi Ziang looked at Li Ya standing in the distance, speechless for a moment.

"Unfortunately, it was an imperfect victory. He is a respectable person." Diana didn't say much, but suddenly, she raised her head.

On the broken stained glass round window of the museum, like the same, the shadows of many crows fell, and behind my crows, the dusk sky darkened at an extraordinary speed.

She glanced down at her watch, whose hands were ticking forward erratically.

Just within 1 minute of the somatosensory time, the nine o'clock bell of the clock tower outside rang ahead of time.

"Let's go!" Diana sternly said, "Everyone evacuate immediately! King Ling is coming!"

Before he had time to wander around, the entire museum was already filled with dense crows, their blood-colored eyes were staring at Alice at the bottom of the hall, and Li Crow, who was like a puppet.

Diana didn't need to remind them, they also felt a spiritual radiation as heavy as a dark cloud, approaching the museum from a distance.

In the entire city, there is only one such existence left - Luka, the actor king.

"Li Ya! Are you crazy, let's go!!" Yi Ziang yelled anxiously, but was stuffed into the car with Xiao Yi.

"It's useless. If he doesn't want to leave, no one can take him away."

After Diana finished speaking, she rolled onto the roof of the car, flipped her hand, and threw a timed smoke bomb over.

"Li, I know you can hear me, if you still have a chance to leave within 3 minutes, just treat it as... for everyone."

The leader is obliged to protect the safety of the team, and Diana didn't hesitate too much, and led them out of here after the space stabilized a bit.

The museum fell silent again.

The crows seemed to mourn in silence, but Li Ya still stood there, watching the heart pierced by the bow stop beating little by little.

Like his own cooling chest.

"...This is your performance?"

It is a supreme honor for a slave to die on the stage, while a wandering musician needs to cherish his memory for a lifetime.

In a trance, Alice, who had stopped showing signs of life, opened her eyes again.

"Listen," she said.

listen?What are you listening to?

His strings were broken, but there was indeed... the sound of a piano coming from behind the half-hidden door where Yange had disappeared.

"Take me there, will you?" Alice said.

Li Ya seemed to have sensed something, leaned over and picked up Alice, and also hugged the heart in her chest, and walked slowly into the door.

Different from the darkness before, light came into the eyes. In the gentle "Fur Elise", there was a figure playing in front of the piano with his back turned to him.

The figure was different in Alice's eyes. What she saw was a figure from the back in a long court dress, with charming long hair and wine-red lips. The only thing she saw was a genuine smile embracing her.

She landed on the ground, step by step, dropped the red crystal slipper, dragged the broken porcelain pieces, and sat beside the piano bench.

"Mom, welcome back."

The servant who played the role of Countess Mary nodded with a smile. He stood up and saluted, took off his role, and left the long white dress embroidered with pearls beside her.

"I always feel that a snow-white wedding dress is more suitable for you than a bright red wedding dress."

This time, the false performance did not offend Alice, she smiled at Yan Ge, and her body turned into light dust and disappeared into the piano music.

"Thank you for the gift, thank you... for being willing to like me."

At the last moment, he gave Alice a true love.

This is, the real curtain call.

"It's a pity that I'm not your unique love, otherwise..."

The doll's lover is irreplaceable, otherwise, Alice would still be alive.

Yan Ge whispered, and suddenly, he was hugged tightly from behind, as if confirming that his heart was still beating in his chest.

"Li Ya?" Before Yan Ge could turn around, he was bitten hard on the shoulder.

"Bad script."

"This is a necessary risk. On the balance of sacrifice, everyone is equal." Yan Ge paused, then whispered, "...I'm sorry."

Li Ya's eyes gradually returned to the normal glass color, he looked at Yan Ge's eyes and said——

"If there is such a day, you must allow me to sacrifice my life for you first."

"why?"

"Because 'unique' isn't just a living puppet."

This may be one of the few serious words he has said in his life.

Yan Ge opened his mouth, but he couldn't say anything suitable for the situation, so he had to turn his head away.

"go home."

No more words, the two were about to leave, and when they walked to the carved gate, they sensed something at the same time.

The door slowly opened to both sides, and the moonlight that fell hastily at an unknown time shone into the museum through the floor-to-ceiling windows. A long, delicate figure wearing a top hat and holding a cane sat in front of the window.

It, or "he", raised its delicately masked face, looked at them with blood-red eyes, and its clockwork voice whispered in everyone's ears.

"It was you who took Alice away?"