Swift and Black Dog

Holy Spirit Cliff is a huge city-state, sitting on a large grassland and terraces, rising on both sides of the steep and continuous canyon.Eight hundred years of continuous magical maintenance and massive engineering reversed gravity, preventing the city from sinking and the rushing waters of the river from eroding the ground.But the law of nature remains unchanged: people go to high places, and water flows to low places.

Jack sat on the plane and looked down, and the city below was unobstructed.

Small workshops, residential areas, and factories are covered with low terraces, and under each terrace, there is a large amount of sewage discharged from the city's giant pipes. The excrement and waste tires all fall into the river below along the mountain wall.Above the fetid streams, scavengers with hooked poles roamed the spur rocks jutting out to the west, trying to recycle the city's discarded waste, bodies, and trash before it washed away.Scavengers set off billowing fireworks along the rock wall, and burned the collected bones into ashes to make exquisite porcelain, which will eventually be transported to the cabinet sanctuary [-] feet above, where it will be used to decorate the luxurious dining table in the temple.

The stench and smog on the lower terraces stretched endlessly, making the iron bridge across the Chigou River stretch like a spider web, and the silver planes rose and fell on the many high-terrace airstrips, as if they would fall into the dense net underneath at any time.

Looking down from the sky, all the garbage, plastic and waste appear far away, only shimmering in the distance.The plane was really comfortable. The stewardesses in short skirts offered gold-labeled brandy, and the perfume used by the guards standing guard between the cabins also carried the fragrance of hundred-dollar bills.

The air travel that Jack remembered was not like this.This plane is also completely different from the smoking scrap metal plane he flew to a high altitude and shot down last time.

He raised his glass and looked at it, not very relieved.David sat across from Jack, sleeping soundly on satin pillows in a flat leather chair.The stewardess looked quite happy, after all, Jack told himself and David not to need her services.

The plane rose through the heavy clouds and fog, and the engine roared outside the cabin. Jack felt the blood in his body follow the body and climb up.They were almost above ten thousand feet, but still going up.He raised his fingers to play with the cloud of smoke, as if caressing the fluffy clouds passing by the sharp wings.Through a window of pinkish-glazed glass, a vast plateau stretched out before Jack's eyes, and the little gardener looked up at them from the well-manicured lawn.In the past, this lawn was just a smoky arbor forest full of leopards, but now it is a lush green labyrinth, where antelopes and deer brought from foreign lands are gnawing grass leisurely, waiting for the next hunting season At the mercy of others.

The plane landed on a private runway at the Puerto Rehabilitation Center above the Minister of the Interior's hunting park, and the stewardess silently took away the wine that Jack hadn't drunk.

The walls of the sanatorium are the color of onion skin, and the guards are a group of handsome young men in uniform.They both carry a black machine gun, like a lady carrying a handbag when she goes out.Jack reckoned they had held guns against cardboard many times in the neat bays of the range, but he could tell by looking into their eyes as he passed that they had never seen a bullet rip a man apart.

Jack thought they were all greenheads.

The front desk nurses and the nurses who walked the lobbies of the nursing home looked like little white rabbits pulled out of hats by stage magicians.The more he was led into the sanatorium, the more nurses he saw.They all looked at Jack, identical dark eyes peeking through the uniform bangs of blond hair, as if they all knew he could throw them back into his silky black top hat with a backhand.

The golden corridor is filled with the scent of gardenias and sweet wine, but the dry and choking smell of grass and manure is faintly wafting from below.David greeted and drank another glass of wine.He smiled frivolously at the nurse, and tremblingly stretched out his hand to touch the woman's chest. The four escorting guards immediately looked away.

"You annoying little goblin." David laughed when he saw the nurse quickly retreat behind the reception desk. "Men should pursue this kind of thing, Swift! Do you understand? Honey!" When he said the last word, he dragged his voice slowly, as if he was reluctant to let the word leave his mouth.

One of the armed guards? A look of displeasure.David, though drunk, saw it, but apparently didn't understand why.He turned to the guard, waving his white hand softly at Jack.

"Do you know who this guest is?" David asked, "Do you know?"

"This is Jack Swift. That's right, the famous Jack Swift! You can't neglect Jack Swift, even if he's dressed in rags and smells bad! He's a citizen Heroes! No matter what the national heroes do, you fucking can't make a sound!"

Jack really wanted David to get in touch with the concrete floor now, and the guard seemed to understand Jack's expression, and their eyes met briefly over David's head.

The young man's expression was special, which made Jack suddenly think of Bidol's face—not his lifeless face lying in the coffin, but his lively and mischievous face and elusiveness when he challenged him to do bad things. An impenetrable smile.

For the first time in so many years, Jack felt his heart skip a beat like a sudden smile.He was as foolish as when he saw Bidor for the first time, summoning the spell he had used before, concentrating the mana on his fingertips.

He patted David on the back, and the electricity crackled in, and David fell down.Because no one was going to help, his body just fell forward unconsciously on the marble floor. The glass in his hand fell out, and it wasn't broken, but ice cubes and wine spilled all over the floor.

David must have woken up with a terrible headache.

Several nurses stood behind the reception desk, staring.In the distance, brown emergency lights flashed silently.

"This guy can't drink enough." Jack glanced shallowly at David's fallen body. He felt a little nervous when he made such a sudden move just now, but he was also quite happy.He didn't want to look at the guard just now, but he still looked at him, and he also took in the smile that flashed across the man's lips.

"I don't think he hurt any important parts." Jack said to the nurses who came out from various doors and corridors, "help me take care of him?"

The nurses looked at him for a while, then nodded in unison.

Jack suddenly realized that they were really rabbits, and this was the rabbit farm.Compared with David's body that fell to the ground, this incident made his heart tremble even more.Casting spells with animals is a tyrant's psionic power.War dogs turned into yawning, uniformed guards, and childish thieves roamed the streets with the spirits of rats living inside.They are his assassins, spies and soldiers, but they hide their sharp fangs and calculating eyes with human flesh.

Now, the cautious eyes of the little animals began to secretly look at Jack again.

"I'm here for Rachel Keys."

A nurse leads the way, followed by guards.Jack felt them all staring at his scarred hand, keeping their distance as he walked.At least the guards were real humans, and Jack could sense, as he could sense, that the blond woman walking ahead was a half-wild rabbit.Who the hell stuffed her and her little sisters into these demure and beautiful new bodies?What did they do to his Rachel?

Before the door opened, Jack knew which room Rachel was in. This room was brightly lit, with surgical instruments everywhere, and the bedding was all white.Rachel is the only dark color in this bright to reflective color, her presence absorbs all light, temperature and sound.

During the Revolution, people called her the Shadow Killer? Even Jack dared not mess with her.But now she was like a faded velvet cloth, flattened and bleached to a cool gray.

"Jack." She could only call out his name with her mouth, and he hurried over.

Seeing her like this, he was so frightened that he just wanted to go over and touch her, then hug her.Rachel opened her eyes, and Jack saw the warning in her eyes.He stopped beside her bed, putting his hands in the pockets of his tattered coat.

"You're really out of shape," Jack said.

"You're not much better," Rachel said softly.Then she took a deep breath, and Jack felt her sucking the life out of him.He didn't resist, but felt a little weak in his legs.The armed guards behind him suddenly swayed, one fell to the ground first, and the other two legs bent and then fell down, and the last one - the one who had just smiled at him, staggered to the door.Watching the fallen colleagues take their last breath, he went out and closed the door forcefully.

Rachel looked just a little bit better, her dull eyes were no longer gray, revealing a shining black.

"Any more?" Jack asked, successfully provoking her.She didn't ask him to help herself, and he shouldn't have to.

"Can you shut up quickly? I don't have time to listen to your nonsense." She turned her head with difficulty. "That bastard David actually found you?"

"I was the one who came. I haven't seen you in the newsletter for two months and I'm a little concerned," Jack told her. "David also said things like 'you want me to be yours' to disgust people."

Rachel chuckled, then shuddered as though laughing hurt.

"Better than calling for help," Rachel replied. "I knew he would send you a message... That fool actually thought that I would straighten, as if the mage really could straighten. I knew you wouldn't believe it, and you would know something happened."

Jack nodded.

She looked different, thinner and sickly.Even if she was dressed like a doll and stood next to Pete under the banner of the Ministry of Defense in the news bulletin, she was not as listless as she is now.

"Do you want me to get you out?" Jack asked.

Seeing a glimmer of hope in her eyes, he tried to lift her up from the white blanket she was wrapped in, but Rachel held his hand.Her fingers were as cold as snakeskin.

"It's impossible for you to just carry me out like this, Jack."

"What? Are you so fat that I can't lift it?"

"Pick off this broken quilt."

He suddenly didn't dare to do what she said, and instantly smelled the smell of blood and decay on the bed.He grabbed the fluffy blanket and soft comforter and lifted them up.

He saw a golden pole penetrate Rachel's stomach, pinning her naked body to the bed like a stuffed butterfly on display.Not even a tyrant would abuse a mage so cruelly.

"Who did it?" Jack couldn't even pronounce the words clearly, and his hands kept shaking, as if the quilt he was holding was electrified.

"Don't be stupid," Rachel warned him.

"Pete?" He knew it as soon as he saw the golden rod, but he still couldn't believe it because Pete was their partner.He was a demented psycho, yes, but he shared an identity with them.

"He's from Defense and will know you're coming soon," Rachel said. "You promised me one thing, you must keep your promise."

"No." Jack put down the quilt and stepped back.

Sixteen years later, he still knows what she meant by that statement.Both of them had just been put on a bounty, and the bounty number was printed in red under a blurry photo of Jack grinning arrogantly.

"I didn't say yes," Jack said, "never."

"No matter how drunk you were at the time, a promise between mages is a contract. Stop wasting my life crying, get up and make that brute pay for what he did - revenge for me and others." She didn't say anything, just looked Jack straight in the eyes.

"Is he doing the same for Bidor?"

Jack could hear the siren opening the door in the corridor outside, followed by the heavy thud of military boots on the marble floor in the distance.

A group of men with machine guns was lining up to kill him.This voice has long been imprinted in his mind, and it is extremely familiar. He has experienced such scenes hundreds of times before.

But Bidol's death was a fresh and deep wound, open bloody and excruciatingly painful.

He had known for a long time that Bidol had been killed.He blamed other ministers, other evil people.But it never occurred to him that Pete led all of this.He was the one who gave Bidol to Pete, back to his old life in Bone Spur, because he didn't want to see the sight of them loving each other in front of him.

Rachel reached out and wrapped her bony fingers around Jack's wrist.

"He wants to devour my psychic power, Emilia's psychic power, and all of us's psychic power. But I will not give up what belongs to me. No one can lose to that beast." Rachel said quietly For a moment, he shuddered at the pain that suddenly penetrated his body.Her dark eyes became moist, but her stare was unwavering.The pain and anger in her gripped Jack tightly. "The next thing he wants to kill is you. You have to promise me to dig out the ivory gun..."

"It's been buried in the ground for ten years, and it may have rotted away..."

"Promise me, Jack," Rachel said through gritted teeth.

He felt her hands trying to grab his arm.In the past, she could wipe him out with one move, but now she dragged him pitifully like a child.

"I promise you." Jack relented.Even if he can only dig out a pile of broken rocks, he has to go for her, because he failed to prevent this series of tragedies in the first place.

"You must make him pay the price." A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and fell to the side of her face.

"Yes, he will." He couldn't help wiping the tears off her face with his hand.

"Don't look like you have pity on me, Jack." Rachel said to him disgustedly. "At least not now."

"I'll never pity you." Jack withdrew his hand.

"Then stop dawdling, as you said, if one day I 'take' a penny from that tyrant, you will be responsible for killing me, now is the time for you to do it. I have kept a few ancient thrones Coins, just waiting to be used today." She opened her right hand, and Jack saw three copper coins with the crown of a tyrant. "Go ahead, Swift!"

"No."

But it was useless for him to refuse.She made his mere drunk jokes into a contract.

The scorching light and fire burst out from the turbulent sky according to the call, and poured into Jack's body impatiently, as if he missed the mage whom he hadn't seen in ten years.Light and fire penetrated his bones and muscles, awakening every meridian in his body.Ah, this moment was as gorgeous as a climax, all the light poured out from his body, electricity and fire flooded the entire room, and the lights lit up the walls everywhere.

And then it was all over, with only Rachel in ash and three molten copper coins around.

A new red burn bloomed on the back of Jack's hand, spreading to his elbow.Sirens screamed in panic and rang throughout the sanatorium.By the time the armed guards opened fire, Jack had jumped out of the shattered window.

Before they could get to the ledge to stop him, he jumped down.

***

In the latest colorful film, the facially paralyzed young actor who plays Jack flies freely against a backdrop of colorful clouds.The movie also makes him and Rachel best friends, running away from juvenile detention together.Of course, most of the plots are far from the truth.

Jack himself can't fly.

Flying exposes routes and destinations.Because flying is an action with a purpose and direction, just like a bird in the sky also has a flight trajectory, and the direction is predictable.As long as there is a gun, the flying man can be shot down.

Jack chose to fall freely, using the turbulent wind to shuttle through the bitter clouds. The trajectory of the leap was fast and slow, and diverged in different directions like the lightning that came out of him.The chaotic sky, roaring thunder and thick dark clouds are all powerful weapons for his unpredictability.Once he flies with the wind, even a trained sniper cannot catch him.He rolled wantonly in the sky, jumped up and down, like a sugar wrapper caught in a storm, coming and going without a trace.

In the end, he smashed through a broken roof and fell into an abandoned swimming pool, which was filled with rainwater, floating lotus flowers and swimming rings.

He was lying on his back on the water, dizzy and aching all over, as if he had just fought ten boxing matches with Cyclone.He hadn't danced so hard in ten years.He had a nosebleed, but his nose wasn't broken, and he couldn't hear anything but a buzzing in his ears.

The light reflected by the pool bounced across the high roof. The ceiling was originally painted as a cloudless sky, but now the dome was opened, revealing the black storm cloud that Jack had summoned just behind.Warm water lapped and lapped around him.He leaned on the floating swimming ring, feeling that the pillow was as soft as velvet, but it smelled like moss.The soft raindrops fell with a trickle, Jack closed his eyes and let the rain fall.He let the rain moisten his chapped lips and slide down his face.He felt like he should cry, but he knew now was not the time.Now, just let the rain cry.

-TBC-