old room

"Evan..."

Alister's pale face appeared in his vision.

"Ewen! Wake up..."

The red-haired apprentice mage shook Aiwen's shoulders, and he seemed to be on the verge of a complete collapse.

Even after meeting Ivan's gaze, he still seemed a little dazed.

"You wake up."

He muttered mechanically.

Ivan swung his fist at Alister.

It wasn't his fault - after experiencing such a terrible nightmare, Alister's face brought him only fear and resistance.

But fortunately, at this time, Alister had no way to make any resistance to Ivan's violent behavior.

In fact, he doesn't look any more normal than Ivan.

Ivan knocked him to the ground almost easily, and Alister fell heavily to the ground, letting out a painful moan, his red hair became dry and dull, and spread messily on the emaciated blue face. face.

For a moment, Ivan almost thought he had killed Alister.

But then Alister's body hunched up, he clutched his abdomen, slowly turned his neck, and his eyes stayed on Ivan's face.

"Ivan?"

A hesitant question escaped from Alister's throat.

I have to admit that even after waking up from the nightmare for a long time, Alister's voice still made Ivan tremble.

He thought he would never be able to truly forget everything that happened to him in that dream.

"it's me."

Ivan resisted the sudden disgust and fear, and a cold breath snaked down his back like a snake.

He staggered back a step, and then realized that the place where he and Alister were now was a very small room.

"Oh my God, Ivan, you really woke up...it's not like I'm dreaming..."

Alister didn't seem to notice that Ivan's mood was wrong.

He sat up from the ground, staring at Ivan with piercing eyes, his face was full of ecstasy.

"I thought, I thought... oh my god... I thought you might never wake up..."

Alister looked almost weeping with joy, while Ivan frowned imperceptibly.

"After you saw that monster on the table, you felt as if your soul had been absorbed by a water demon. No matter what I said to you, you couldn't wake up at all..."

In Ivan's dream, the person who was bewitched by the monster was Alister (and he ended up in a very miserable and terrifying end), but in Alister's narration, the person who was really bewitched was It was Alvin himself.

After seeing it, Ivan uncontrollably wanted to fall into the terrifying embrace of the indescribable thing, and he looked crazy and powerful.In desperation, Alister could only forcibly drag Ivan away from Master Milian's laboratory.

"...But, you kept screaming, just like when you were unconscious before, making that horrible sound." Maybe it was because of recalling the previous scene, Alister's face became more serious. Oops, "All those monsters in the cocoon rushed out, the goddess of magic, Ivan, I don't know what happened to you, but I swear, those monsters reacted to you."'

Alister said sadly.

"I just, had a nightmare..."

Ivan responded dryly without explaining more, but his expression became gloomy because of Alister's narration.

Was that really a nightmare?Alvin is actually not sure.

Compared with the dream, everything Ivan experienced was so real, as if he had really experienced the pain-compared with the dream, it was more like... "room".

When this word appeared in his mind, Ai Wen couldn't help but fight a cold war.

The feeling of vomiting welled up.

Yes, he was sure, he had been dragged into the "room" again before.

It's just that on the other side of the starry sky, the "room" made up of thinking as a brick and frame, is not owned by Aiwen, but another more powerful and terrifying existence.

Aiwen's soul was held in His palm, played with at will, and tortured in every possible way.

"Ivan—"

Ivan heard Alister's voice again.

He felt himself jumping a little, as if in shock.

Alister looked at him with a slight uneasiness in his eyes again.

"Are you... okay now?"

The red-haired young man probably didn't realize how frightened his voice sounded.

Ai Wen rubbed his temples and forced himself to calm down (although he knew that the cold sweat on his back was about to soak through his robe, and his heartbeat was frighteningly fast, and his whole body was chilling): "Sorry, I'm a little, Can't concentrate."

After pausing for a while, Ivan continued: "Then what happened?"

Alister looked up and down Ivan suspiciously, and then slowly said: "I can only run away and take you... It's scarier than anything I've ever experienced, and even if I get to a safe place, You still can't wake up from that state."

"A safe place, you mean here?"

Until this time, Ivan finally had enough time to observe where he and Alister were.

This is an ordinary-looking room, dimly lit and covering a wide area, but it appears narrow and gloomy due to the piles of various debris from the floor to the ceiling.

Ai Wen instinctively felt that this was just a common storage room, but soon he realized the peculiarity of this place.

Near the gate and window, several magic lamps emitted a faint blue light.

And beside those lamps, the shimmering light emitted by the magic circle when it was in operation almost made Ivan feel tears in his eyes.

"Magic restored?"

Alvin asked tremblingly.

"...I've tried everything, everything, but nothing works. You just keep going crazy... oh no, of course the magic didn't come back."

It took a while for Alister to stop rambling and answer Ivan's question.

"That's not magic, it's the magic scroll that makes those cuties work."

Ivan's eyes widened in shock, and he stared at Alister suddenly, almost thinking that the latter had fallen into delusion because of his beating.

"Scroll of magic storage? How is this possible, that thing is not qualified for mage apprentices like us..."

Ivan's words stopped abruptly, and he suddenly turned his head to look at the things that he had regarded as sundries before.

He guessed right, even though the color of the ink looked a little dim, but upon closer inspection of the mountains of sundries, they were all newly written magic storage scrolls.

"We're very lucky." Alister murmured, "This is the temporary warehouse where the Mage Tower and the Chamber of Commerce exchange goods - when it happened, no one had time to react. These magic storage scrolls should have been able to supply the entire continent. Half a year's worth."

"but now……"

"Those 'Concentration and Tranquility' and 'Shadowless and Untraceable' and the protective magic circle will probably allow the two of us to stay here for a month or two."

Alister said.

Without the supplement of external magic factors, the magic storage scroll can only rely on its own stored magic to burn and transform.

And Aiwen didn't expect that one day he would use it in such a luxurious way.

"By Goddess of Magic."

Evan murmured.

In any case, the return of magic (for the time being, no matter how it is returned), made Ivan feel at ease after a long absence.

He couldn't help but took another two steps towards the door, wanting to take another look at the magic circle in operation.

But as soon as he moved, there was a loud and wet rubbing sound from the other end of the door.Across the magic circle and the stone gate, the voice was quite vague and small, but it made Ai Wen stand in place like a stone statue, almost unable to stabilize his mind.

"Be careful, they've been looking desperately for you."

Alister rushed over rolling and crawling, and he dragged Ivan away from the door.

"Even the magic circle can only cover you and me to a certain extent, but like I said before, those monsters... those monsters respond to you, and they are almost crazy looking for you."

Alister lowered his voice and said with fear.

"Da da da……"

There was another sound of rubbing.

Alvin and Alister were silent at the same time, their bodies stiffened.

After the sound finally disappeared, the two people in the room relaxed in shock.

"You're shaking."

Alvin said to Alister.

Alister gave Ivan a strange look.

Before he could speak, Ai Wen suddenly discovered that the person who was really trembling was himself.

Ivan found a corner away from the gate and sat down slowly.

He wrapped his arms around his knees, huddling his body tightly like a baby, without saying a word.

Aiwen maintained this posture for a long time before finally accumulating the courage to face the world again.He was very grateful that Alister didn't say any more words or make any unnecessary actions during this period-Ivan didn't doubt that if Alister really did this, he might really collapse on the spot.

When Ivan raised his head again, he saw Alister sitting not far from him.

The red-haired mage apprentice was once a tall and handsome young man, but at this moment he looked like a mummy-shaped corpse soldier that the mentors had failed to develop.

He even looked a little scary, but Ivan still felt the concern from the other party.

"They're sharp."

Ivan stared at Alister, and said slowly.

"I told you before, they're a little... not normal."

Alister muttered unconsciously while chewing on his knuckles.

Probably because the topic returned to those monsters wandering outside the door, Alister looked a little anxious.But his nervous and childish behavior more or less separated him from the monster Ivan saw in the "room".

Alvin felt sorry for Alister for the kind of hostility in his heart (Although he believed it, Alister didn't notice it).

"So, why are you still taking me...I mean, you can actually leave me behind."

Alvin asked suddenly.

He still clearly remembered that before...no...he was in the illusion, and when faced with danger, he left Alister without hesitation and ran for his life alone.

Alister was stunned for a moment, and he looked at Ivan deeply.

His eyes made Ivan's next words stuck in his throat.

"Alister..."

"Because you are important."

Alister said quietly.

"To me, you are more important than this world... this universe."

When the red-haired young man added the last sentence, his eyes were so hot that Ivan felt a little restless.

Alister looked calm, but that was all it seemed.

Ai Wen could see his nervousness from the other party's cheeks that finally turned a little bit bloody and pupils that gradually became moist.

Oh, for magic's sake.

Alvin's heart beat faster.

He didn't know how to deal with the current situation. The emotions flowing in his body were so complicated that even he himself couldn't recognize the true meaning.

"You are a good partner."

Evan responded softly.

Then his eyes dimmed as he watched Alister.

I don't know why, but at this moment, Ivan felt the flame in his soul jump.Something tightly connected to his soul and heart was tightened, and a burning emotion, like melted hot wax, gradually flowed.

This wonderful feeling made Aiwen react as if he was controlled by something, which even he couldn't understand.

He felt himself poke in Alister's direction, and he reached out and pressed lightly on the latter's eyes.

"And you have good eyes."

Is it because it's too hoarse?Ai Wen felt that his voice sounded so strange.

Alister looked as if he was on fire.

He grabbed Ivan's wrist tightly.

That night, when Ivan was about to fall asleep, a pair of hands slowly came from behind him.

And Evan didn't refuse.

He just asked Alister to extinguish the magic lamps.

He didn't want Alister to know...

Even at this time, he still didn't dare to look at his face clearly.

Because it would make him think—

Think of the appearance borrowed by the god in the "room".

【"Da da... Ivan... Da..."】

Ivan and Alister stayed in this warehouse for not a short time.

That's right, "not a short time", Ivan hated this vague narrative. At the very beginning, he had been trying to record the time, but soon his efforts failed.

In such a narrow room that never rises and sets, and is completely illuminated by magic lamps, the passage of time begins to become erratic. How long is a day?How long is a month?How long will a year be?Evan couldn't give an answer.

Sometimes the Aiwen Bureau himself may just be trapped here for a month or two, but sometimes... in the interval between being physically entangled with Alister and exhausted, Aiwen will stare at the ceiling shrouded in darkness , suspecting that he has been trapped in this place for many years.

Of course, even Ivan, who has become increasingly grumpy, has to admit that he and Alister are not having a bad time here.To be more precise, it is very good.

After all, in addition to storing a large number of magic storage scrolls, there are also some spices, experimental materials, cloth and other sundries used by human chambers of commerce as means of payment. There are also those soft, snow-white, printed blankets covered with short fluff, even in the mage tower, I am afraid that only high-level mages can enjoy them.

Ivan and Alister tried to use magic to give birth to some plant fruits—some of them were unavoidably distorted, but the rest barely kept their original appearance, and they used those undeformed fruits as own food.Ivan was in fear for a while, but under the care of the goddess of magic (if she really still exists), he and Alister did not have any strange symptoms.

With basic food, sleep, and safety guaranteed, the life inside the warehouse seemed to be condensed in amber.

But Aiwen got used to this almost imprisoned life at a speed that surprised him.

When he was awake, he would work with Alister to tidy up the warehouse, grow magic food, repair the damaged protective magic circle and the exhausted magic storage scroll. He rarely talked to Alister, but they would use another way to do it. More intimate communication, and the frequency of this behavior has become higher and higher-sometimes, even Ivan himself requested it.

As for Alister, the red-haired mage apprentice obviously sank into Aiwen's body, and his love and desire for Aiwen became more and more intense. To some extent, it may be called It's morbid.

In this regard, Ivan didn't say anything superfluous.

In such an environment, who can really guarantee that he will not go crazy?

You must know that even Ivan himself is the same. His temptation to Alister is actually just because he hopes to fall into that kind of physical exhaustion. Only in this way can he escape...

Run away from that horrible voice.

【"Da... da da... Aiwen... my love..."】

Ivan shuddered, and then suddenly turned his head to look at the door.

The operations of those magic circles are all normal.

Noticing his movement, Alister stood up beside him and gave him a questioning look.

There was no sound, but Ivan knew that Alister was asking questions.

"It's nothing."

Evan muttered softly.

"Or that kind of... hallucination?"

Alister came over and hugged Ivan and asked.

Ivan once mentioned to him the problems that were bothering him...

those hallucinations.

Distant and huge stars, unspeakable ugly evil gods, and that lingering call.

"I always feel that maybe one day, it will still force me back into that 'room'."

Ivan sighed, and then said to the illusory tone that seemed to be talking to himself.

"Who knows..."

Alister seemed to mutter something, and then he bit Ivan's earlobe.A burst of severe pain hit, and Ivan couldn't help trembling.

Immediately afterwards, Ivan noticed that Alister was sucking the blood gushing from the wound.In the past, Alister's behavior was enough to attract a dozen deadly attack magic for himself, but now, what he got was Ivan's low gasp.

"Turn... the magic lamp off..."

Alvin said with difficulty.

Alister smiled hoarsely, and extinguished the lamps.

It was pitch black in the warehouse.

In such an environment, maybe madness is the only way to escape...

While sinking into the warmth of human beings, such a sentence floated in Ivan's mind.

Alister couldn't understand his fear, and Ivan knew it.

It seems that the red-haired young man would not know, until now Ivan still has no way to stare at his face up close.

Alister's face always reminds Ivan of that long corridor, and that horrible and distorted projection artifact.

fear?Of course it is fear... But what really makes Aiwen still have lingering fears about what happened in the "room" until now is not pure fear, but the kind of vague but strong yearning hidden in his heart.

That's right, Aiwen will never forget that moment. At the other end of that unusually strong darkness and distortion, there is a thicker, sweeter and crazier joy and sweetness.

Those monsters have been wandering outside the storage room, and after so long, they are still frantically searching for traces of Ivan.

Those wet and noisy rubbing sounds and rustling whispers all showed the horror of the things outside the door, but sometimes Ivan would stare deeply outside the door unconsciously.

Maybe the changes happen gradually in this day-to-day struggle between reason and desire?

That feeling - that illusory, dreamlike trance - eroded Ivan's soul bit by bit.

【"Da da... Da... Ai Wen... Da... Ai Wen... Da Da..."】

The god's voice became clearer and clearer.

Under such circumstances, finally one day, Ivan woke up from his deep sleep, and he saw Alister beside him in the darkness.

No, that's not Alister.

It was just an illusory and ethereal shadow, and even an invisible ghost was more real than it.

It was just a realization of a nightmare, the messy tentacles were entangled like a group of snakes in the breeding season, countless insect or animal claws and appendages grew out of the pale skin, when it breathed, red and yellow The alternate light spots are shining regularly.

Its size is huge, completely occupying the entire warehouse, and it was only at this time that Aiwen saw that the mountains of magic storage scrolls and various sundries he had seen before were nothing but lumps in its body It's just entangled limbs and internal organs.

"Do not--"

Alvin screamed.

Then, his brain became blank, and his soul became even more chaotic.

"Ivan, Ivan..."

The monster suddenly opened its eyes, its red and yellow pupils fixedly stared at Aiwen, and then spoke Aiwen's name from the bloody mouth full of eyeballs.

As it happened, the disgusting shape dissipated like a cloud of smoke, and then its silhouette reappeared, turning into the long red hair and the face of a handsome young human male.

Ai Wen finally woke up—this time, he really woke up.

Then he saw Alister who was kneeling beside him, his hand was tightly grasping Ivan's wrist, and there was a long bloodstain on his body.

"Alister?"

Evan asked in a daze.

"it's me."

Alister looked relieved, he said.

"I... am dreaming again?"

"Yes, you are dreaming again. It can be seen that it is a nightmare."

Alister said with a smile.

When he let go of Aiwen, Aiwen realized that he was holding a rather exquisite dagger in his hand, with a handle made of agate, and the blade was still stained with blood.There is no doubt that the wound on Alister's body came from Ivan.

"I did... what did I do?"

Aiwen asked in a trance, he seemed to realize that he seemed to have had a dream within a dream, but even if he woke up now, he still felt chaotic and dazed.

And the terrifying monster he saw in his dream still makes Aiwen shudder even now.

"You got a dagger out of nowhere and almost slit my throat."

The sweetness in the smile on Alister's face was undiminished.

"I... I dreamed that you were a monster."

Alvin murmured in a low voice.

"Well, apparently you hated me in the dream."

Alister said softly.

Ivan couldn't help but looked up at Alister again.

A strange chill permeated the air.

not right...

Alvin thought.

Something must have gone wrong.

Yes, something went wrong.