Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

Elus quietly looked at the lake in front of her. Suddenly, as her eyes fell on me, all the scenery on the lake disappeared, leaving only the reflection of the moonlight and the night sky dotted with stars.

"Look at what I'm doing~ The story is over~"

"Is it over?" I looked into Elus's clear eyes and asked back, only to see her nodding her head seriously.

"Well, the story will end when it should." Speaking of this, a trace of depression flashed in her eyes, "Whether this is an interesting story or not, there is always an ending."

"Maybe it's over. If you are willing to end in this beautiful place for you, I really have no way to tamper with your ending."

My words made Elus turn her eyes back to me again, and a panic flashed in her eyes.

After almost listening to it, I can guess where her dream palace is. Maybe Elus already knew this. And now there is still one step to go—to get Elus up the courage to get there.

"You know, I'm a newcomer to lucid dreaming, and I don't know much about this dream world..." I turned my gaze to the surface of the lake where there is no picture anymore, "So, you must know something that even I know. I know." I didn't finish the sentence. I don't believe Eluse didn't realize that the ending she said happened in a dream.

Where did she hide the real ending, or she didn't think about finding it at all, I don't know the answer. But at least I know that in reality, her story is far from over.

"Hey, if you really can't remember anything about the invasion of the Black Magic cultists, how can you tell me about it... Maybe you did forget everything at the beginning, but after a long time, there will be a day When you woke up, you remembered all of this..."

"Shut up..." The staff in Elus' hands hit the ground forcefully, she closed her eyes tightly, just like her current heart, closing off all connections with the real world.

Silence fell between us quietly, invisible, and the silence seemed to pull the distance between us farther and farther.

I moved my mouth, but I should be the first to break the silence.

"As a listener of the story, I can take what you said as the ending..."

Else glanced at me slightly.

"However, after a story ends, a new one always begins. So, at least tell me how you joined the domination war?"

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Even though I feel time passing, I don't know how much time has passed. So, I don't know how long I stayed after returning to the town. Every morning when I wake up, I will repeat the same day, and it will be like this day after day. There was always a crucial piece of information broken about the Demon King. In retrospect, it seems that we have been missing this step since a long time ago.

However, almost every night I have the same strange dream. In the dream, the town is full of fiery red, and people passing by are all tragic deaths.

Over time, decades passed by. Not only me, but all the magicians in the town are still the same as they used to be, and no one grows old with age.

One day, I mentioned this matter to the store manager in a tavern, and the store manager told me mysteriously while busy with his work, that he called the phenomenon of magicians’ immortality as frozen age. . And I had to accept that statement. Although I know that the days will repeat, I am still satisfied with slipping through my fingers day by day.

However, one day, I didn't have that terrible nightmare... However, that dream brought a subtle turning point to my boring and repetitive daily life.

In my dream, I was walking on a long corridor that seemed to extend forward infinitely. At every interval, there would be a door that was completely different from the previous door. A voice kept echoing in my ear, I don't know what it said, I only know that I was drawn by that voice, walked forward step by step, and stopped in front of a door covered with vines under its guidance .

"Enter this door. Then you will enter a new world," the voice seemed to say.

I gently pushed the door open, and the dazzling white light came in from the other side of the door. I covered my eyes and walked into the other side of the door. The girl in a pure white dress turned her back to me, wanting to rub her long brown hair inexplicably. When I stopped behind her, she also turned her head, and the first thing that left an impression in her memory was the tear mole at the corner of her eye.

"Hey, come from the world of magic?" The girl tilted her head, looked at me curiously, and finally her eyes fell on the staff in my hand, "You spent nearly one hundred and fifty years in your dream. year~"

The girl didn't know why she said this, showing a look of not knowing what to do. She looked at me, as if she was thinking about something seriously.

"One hundred and fifty years?" I was stunned for a moment and repeated her words. I saw the girl staring at me with itchy eyes.

Behind her, suddenly a door gradually appeared from the bottom up. Instead of asking about my past, she gently invited me to the other side of the next door.

I froze for a few seconds, took the hand she was extending towards me, and followed her into the other side of the door.

Afterwards, I never did that nightmare of a town in flames. For about a year or so, I would see that mysterious girl every night. The things in my dreams were very monotonous, and I always shuttled back and forth between the doors with her. Gradually, I soberly realized that the time I was with her was a dream.

So, that was the last time I saw her in my dream. She led me through the vine-covered door I walked in the first time. This time, what greeted me at the other end of this door was an unbelievable sight. Under the space patched together by clocks, the girl has long since disappeared. Only a middle-aged man looked at me and spit out the smoke faintly.

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The dream will always try to make the dreamer think that this is reality, and the dreamer is always willing to be deceived by the dream. Elus, standing in front of me now, is obviously the victim of being deceived by the dream. She took the dream in the dream as a dream, but persistently regarded this place as reality.

However, when William was in the tavern before, it didn't look like William had come here for the first time—since she had invited William into her world, it meant that she had gradually realized that she was dreaming from various aspects. But she is still willing to be deceived by the dream, and once she is asked to find her dream palace here, it is tantamount to letting her admit that this place is not reality.

"...Don't worry, I won't let you do such a difficult thing, but it is indeed related to you." Inexplicably, I remembered what William said at the time. Now that I think about it, this matter is more important than repairing the ruler's clock. It's more difficult for her.

Why did Eluth's eyes dim suddenly when William proposed to open her dream palace? Why did her tone have a hint of sadness mixed with it when William mentioned that she had a good relationship with the residents of her dream world? Desperate... All of this has an answer.

Should I not get any further into her affairs?

She doesn't want to get out of the dream to face the reality. If I get involved, won't I be too nosy and cause her to hate me instead?

But why did she hint at me that she wanted me to stay with her? Looking at Elus' slightly red eyes, I stood up.

"If I haven't pulled you out of your confusion, I won't be taking you back, and my mission has not been completed."

"Hey! Are you an idiot! You don't need to remind me of such things..."

What Elus said at the time meant that she knew what was hidden in the contract between me and her, right?

The memories in my mind rode the train of time, approaching the past little by little, and suddenly, a voice floated out from the depths of the memory——

"Then please promise me! You must help me find number 10, and then... please take me back, okay?"

I suddenly widened my eyes, and instantly found the crucial thin thread among the tangled ropes. At that time, the feeling that I could save her by doing this was not an illusion, but her mood.

Think about it carefully, "then and then", doesn't it refer to the present? How about going back there? Isn't it just going back to her real world?

Suddenly, a boy's voice came from next to his ear, his voice made everything around him seem to lose its sense of reality——

"Please, only you can take her back." That was Charlotte's voice. I felt his breath behind me, but Elus couldn't see him.

"Are you her dream maker?" I was stunned for a while, and asked the boy behind me lightly. Behind him he giggled and his breath disappeared.

The dreamer is one of the incarnations of the subconscious mind. Rather, Elus's heart is longing to return to reality. As much as I thought, I also wanted to know what Charlotte was asking Ningko for. Her story did not come to an end, and Elus should know that too. And the real ending is hidden on the other side of the dream, hidden in the real reality.

"Elus... Please, wake up from this dream."

"No...I've been awake all this time." Elus shook her head stubbornly. It seems that no matter what I say, as long as I can't hear my voice. I gritted my teeth and grabbed her by the shoulder. The panic in his eyes was as helpless as a frightened wild cat.

"I'm not sure where the real Charlotte is now, let alone what happened to Ningzi. I can't guarantee that you will know where they are when you return to reality. But...you can at least know what Ningzi is doing What... You can at least know what Charlotte is trying to do for you."

My words brought tears to her eyes. I gently let go of the hand that pinched her shoulder, and took a few steps back.

"Please take me back." The petition in memory rang again in my ears.

"Well... I will definitely take you back." I meditate on what I think in my heart, respond to the voice in my head, respond to Charlotte's expectations, and respond to Elus' request.

"What on earth are you going to do?" Elus took several steps back. The moment she stared at me, suddenly there was a rope under my feet tightly wrapped around my feet. Dao the light of the magic circle, "Su Ruoyang!! I didn't let you take me back!"

I gritted my teeth. The alarm hadn't sounded yet, and I didn't know how to get back to reality from the dream. At this time, I realized that it was not a rope under my feet, but a vine of a tree. It was climbing up my upper body from my legs little by little, binding my hands as well. I thought quickly, but I couldn't raise my hand and punch myself to force myself to wake up. Only my head was left to move.

The moment I realized that my head could still move, I suddenly thought of something. "I will definitely save you." After clarifying my determination, I bit off the warm coating of my tongue. The moment I closed my teeth, the pain made me shudder. Squeezing out of sight, I sat up from the bed in the next second, and I had returned to reality from my dream.

Once you return to reality, the time in the dream will stop passing. So, it's also one of the best ways to buy time. Next, I have to find the tea cat and let her take me to the world of Elus. Looking out of the window, the bright moon in the sky was still in a daze, not thinking about retreating from the stronger light, but the sun circled the sky first.

I put on my slippers, ran out of the house in a hurry, turned from Zhixing Street to the other side, ran to the door of Xia Yinci's apartment building, and at the same time took out my mobile phone and called her.

"Hey...it's not dawn yet~ What are you doing~" Xia Yinci's voice came from the other end of the phone, and for some reason it sounded rustling and nasal.

"I'm downstairs at your house." Hearing my reply, there were footsteps on the other side of the phone. After a while, I saw the elevator door open through the glass door. Xia Yinci, who was wearing pajamas, walked towards me and opened the door of the unit building, her cheeks were a little flushed, she looked at me in astonishment, with obvious sleepiness in her eyes.

"Xia Yinci, please tell me the contact information of the tea cat!"

...

The pointer just pointed to 7:30 in the morning, and Xia Yinci and I met the tea cat at the coffee shop where we met last time. I sat at the opposite table to the sleepy tea cat, her eyes were full of cold colors. I always feel that there is a sense of crisis that I will be killed, but I still muster up the courage to explain to them in detail what I have to do. Of course, in order not to worry Xia Yinci, I didn't say how I came back to reality.

"All in all, are you thinking of another world?" The tea cat let go of the small mouth that was biting the straw, and stirred the coffee in her hand with the straw. She narrowed her eyes lazily, and said without much energy, " In reality, the time of the dream is still, and now is the beginning of the day, so you don’t need to be so anxious.”

"Um..." I scratched my head and said, "My sister is still awake, so the time in her dream is still passing. If there is a subtle time difference in the future, it will always feel difficult to communicate."

"So that's why you woke me up in the morning~" Tea Mao's tone was a little displeased, but at least it was no longer the cold look in his eyes when we first met. I scratched my head in embarrassment, "Speaking of it, There is also a certain gap between my time and yours~ Is it okay if the time difference between us is getting farther and farther?”

I didn't know how to answer for a while, but I saw a smile on the tea cat's face. "Just kidding." After saying that, a door slowly appeared from our table. It was the same ordinary-looking wooden door as last time. The tea cat stood up gently, pushed open the wooden door, and walked into the other side of the door.

I was stunned for a while, then Xia Yinci gently pushed me beside me. My posture at this time was a little unstable, and I was almost pushed to the ground by her. I quickly turned my head with some displeasure, but found that Xia Yinci's face was very close to mine. She smiled provocatively, and the color in her eyes was so gentle that it made me go soft.

"Huh~? I didn't expect you to be good~ You guessed quite accurately. There are many things you said, and I haven't realized it yet."

"Hey! I'm not guessing, it's well-founded!"

I was dissatisfied with her always teasing me like this, so I quickly stood up and walked to the wooden door, angrily preparing to leave on my own, but there was no sound of footsteps, and I couldn't help but answer in confusion Glancing at her, Xia Yinci didn't intend to follow. She stayed where she was, biting the straw, and looked back at me indifferently, as if asking me what's the matter.

I quickly averted my gaze. I always feel that the girl sitting there looks very different from the atmosphere revealed by other people. She always seems to give me this inexplicable feeling.

"Goodbye." I really wanted to be angry with her, but I didn't know what reason to find, so I waved goodbye to her, and stepped into the darkness opposite the wooden door.

The cold wind blew from the front and blew hard on his face. After the darkness, there is an alternation of light. The tea cat standing in front of me looked back at me, and my attention was briefly attracted by her tear mole, and then I began to look at the scenery that greeted me on the other side——

There is a big difference between the town in front of my eyes and the dream. It is not the scene of a prosperous town at all, but full of desolation and a touch of loneliness. But for some reason, I decided that this was the town of the dream.

"Although it's not the time to ask this... But, you entered Elus' dreamland, right? Besides, you knew from the beginning that she was always dreaming, right?"

"Hey, yes." The tea cat easily admitted this, and then her words blocked my mouth, "I don't think I should tell her the truth, don't I~"

I didn't respond to her words, but looked in front of me again. Many of the surrounding houses were scorched black, and occasionally someone passed by trembling in front. It was difficult to capture people's smiles, and a burst of depressed emotions broke into my heart. Thinking of the tavern where Eluse said that I saw Charlotte in the fiery red town, I couldn't help but step forward. .

Relying on the route in my memory that I walked only once, I came to the dilapidated building that looked like ruins, but there were more residents than before.

"Can you help me find where Elus is? Use that ability to control reality..."

I turned my head and asked tentatively to the tea cat following me. She glanced at me, nodded her head lightly, and then a thin line of blue light suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, guiding me to go forward. In a blink of an eye, I found that the tea cat signaled me to follow the thin line, and arrows flashed on the blue line every time I took a step.

Along the way, I passed a few shops with open doors but no customers, and went around to the lake that Eluse mentioned, but there was no boatman at all... just followed the blue line into a forest, and the blue line was at the edge of the forest. The end is broken, and the arrow seems to be pointing downwards. The tea cat walked up to me, squatted next to the arrow, picked up a branch and drew a circle that could allow a person to pass through, and then the ground gradually became transparent, revealing the darkness underneath.

Just as I was about to ask something, the tea cat handed me the torch I found somewhere. I passed the torch in a daze, and stretched it out before the darkness, only to find the crudely made stone steps extending downward. I jumped down the round hole carefully, and my feet touched the stone steps. I went down a little bit along the steps, and there were gravels everywhere, and there were even some bones in black robes. Finally came to a solid wall.

"It's a dead end again..." I muttered softly, the tea cat shook the branch, and carved a faint rectangle on the wall. In a blink of an eye, as if by magic, the inside of the rectangle became transparent and became content. The entrance and exit for people. I walked into it, and immediately saw the girl lying in the center of the room, she was frozen by purple ice, her eyes were quietly closed, and she seemed to be just asleep.

In the ice cube is not only a girl, but also a book that has not been closed in time. And under the girl's body, there are many magic circles that have lost their light and are scattered on the ground. I approached the girl to confirm something, and there was a thin white mist beside the ice cube.

"Don't touch it... just touching it at this temperature may ruin your hand." The tea cat's reminder came, and I quickly put away the idea of ​​reaching out. And when I recognized that the girl was Elus, I was immediately burned by her naked body, and quickly turned my head to one side. It was this glimpse, however, that brought my attention to an unusual shard of ice that had quietly sprinkled in the corner of the room.

The pile of ice flakes dragged my footsteps towards that side, as if there was something hidden underneath——

In the crystal flooded with purple light, the sleeping girl raised her head proudly. The unclosed book quietly floated in front of the girl, and the towering staff was carried behind the girl...

In the world of crystals, time seems to have stopped flowing. I turned my gaze away and walked to the ice shards that were strangely placed in the corner. There is nothing else in the room, and it feels like dust has not been able to break into this space for so many years, and it is only today that the connection with the outside world has been re-established.

"You can rely on me with peace of mind. From now on, it will be the same every time. Rely on your companion with peace of mind." The voice suddenly echoed in my mind. Thinking about it now, Charlotte seems to have been protecting Elus as a companion. It's the same this time, Charlotte hid in Elus' world, spent so many years with her, and now, has become a key to take her out of her own world.

I gently approached the blue ice shards, blowing them away with an unintentional exhale. It floated in mid-air, dotted with speckled light. His eyes shifted down, and what was hidden under the ice chips was a pure white feather. Like a piece of wing that an angel forgot to take away before leaving, it lay there quietly, waiting for someone to pick it up and return it to the angel who went away.

I was stunned for a moment, then carefully picked up the pure white feather. Suddenly, as if the feather was pinned on someone's soul, it gently broke away from my hand and floated freely into the air. Accompanied by the crystal-like ice-blue glow, I just wanted to reach out and grab the feather, but my eyes were suddenly attracted by the magic circle drawn on the ground just now—one of the magic circles suddenly glowed .

"This is……?"

I let go of the hand that was about to grab the feather, and the white light gently hit me and the tea cat. We looked at each other, and suddenly something lay between us——

The three lines of text appeared in the void of nothingness, as if someone was raising a pen to write the thoughts they wanted to convey. I immediately set my sights on the three lines of text.

"To Elise.

Of course, it is also possible that the first person to see this letter is you who accidentally saw it...

Please, be sure to convey it to the girl in the crystal. "

In this way, the words that appeared in the air appeared line by line. The author continued to write, and I followed the invisible pen, followed the author's words, and focused my eyes on Elus several times. When the signature appeared at the end, the hanging heart seemed to have found its place and settled down to its original position.

yes. Even if it is not as beautiful as the dream, but this...is the real ending of this story.