Volume 8: The Fourth Impact Chapter 81 Those who always miss the past cannot create the future
"Brother, are we really going to do this?"
Alphonse looked at Edward who was silent beside him. He said uneasily:
"We have no idea about the principles of the cosmic tuning fork, and we are not sure whether the truth replacement of the alchemy array can also be effective on that kind of cosmic-level mechanical objects. It seems a bit irresponsible to make such a boast, right?"
"It doesn't matter."
Blond Edward put his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker and said with a pout:
"We don't understand, but Mason must know very well. The first thing he does when he gets a new thing is to find out its structure. If I guess correctly, what he lacks now is not the skills to repair it, but the raw materials for repair.
So theoretically speaking, we don't have to help him repair the thing, we just have to provide him with enough materials.
He can also refine the formation.
Moreover, that guy's clone manufacturing team uses the alchemy array to make thousands of items every day. His mastery of the alchemy array is much more profound than ours, no, than any alchemist we know."
"That being said..."
Alphonse lowered his head, stole a glance at Edward's face, and said:
"I mean, if we give all these things to Mason, doesn't that mean we have to give up our plan to return to our home world?"
"You think I want to!"
Edward gnashed his teeth and said:
"Of course we could choose to stand by and watch without helping him, and then be beaten to death by the angry Master who rushed in while spitting blood. We specifically called the Master and the Colonel here, and now there is only so little time left to send them away.
If this world disappears, Master and the others will all be doomed, as will the rest of us.
Tsk, I seriously doubt that all of this was expected by Mason, that guy is the most cunning one!"
"Well, I'm sure Mason is a resourceful man, but isn't this a little too much?"
Alphonse scratched his head and was about to say a few more words to his brother, but he saw the door in front of him being pushed open. The old Green Goblin stood at the door and looked at the two of them, then stepped aside to make way.
Silver hair fluttered in the air, and the hunter walked into the room with the hilt of the sword in his hand.
Ciri, who rushed over from the SHIELD world, glanced at the alchemist brothers and said:
"Mason said you have something important to give him. I'm here to escort you to Attilan City. The situation there is a little tricky right now, and you can't get there by any normal means."
"good."
Edward stood up and picked up the plain alchemy box at his feet. Alphonse beside him also picked up two other identical alchemy boxes.
Ciri created a rift on the spot leading to the isolated city of Attilan on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. When the two brothers approached, the space rift shrank rapidly as if disturbed, and then was quickly closed under the wide-eyed gaze of the hunter.
"Wait! What are you holding in your hands?"
She asked:
"Why does it cause such a big disturbance in space? Do you have the space gem with you?"
"How could we possibly have something of that level?"
Edward curled his lips and said:
"They are just Philosopher's Stones. There are just too many of them. So please don't worry, Master Hunter."
"You weren't like this before. It seems that after too much contact with Mason, you two innocent young people have your own secrets."
Ciri complained, stretched out her fingers and increased her strength to reopen the space rift. The pressure brought by the two brothers walking into it forced the hunter to grit his teeth.
“Something’s wrong!”
She whispered:
"There must be something else on these two brothers. The level of interference is too exaggerated. I must go over and take a look."
"If you want to go, go ahead. Don't make excuses for yourself."
The old green devil who was watching this scene said casually:
"If the cosmic tuning fork cannot be activated before time runs out, the worlds that are currently beginning to merge will be crushed simultaneously at the moment of the plane collision.
That is a force that we cannot resist even with all our wisdom and perseverance. Like other people who are still sticking to their posts, I have not given up, but this does not prevent us from using the last bit of time to accompany the most important people in our lives.
This may be the last time we see them.
Given Mason's personality, I don't think he would choose to live in disgrace after the fusion fails. Perhaps he would choose to turn into stardust in the universe along with our world."
"I'm really worried about his safety, but... never mind, you can interpret it however you want."
Ciri gave up explaining and planned to open the door and go to Attilan City, but suddenly a burning blue motorcycle roared, smashed the glass, and stopped in the middle of the old Green Goblin's office with a tailspin, making this exquisitely decorated office a mess.
Harley wearing goggles and Quinn wearing a helmet jumped out of the car breathlessly. They both rushed back from the Isu world. At a time when the gate to this world had become ineffective, they specifically asked for Black's help to travel through the dimensions.
"We're going to meet sweetheart!"
Two crazy girls were holding a dog each, with a strange bottle tied around their waists, and they shouted:
"Even if I die, I want to die with him."
"Then come over, we'll go together."
Ciri said.
Harley and Quinn looked at each other, their eyes revealing a complex meaning that probably only the two of them could understand instantly. It was unknown what kind of mental state they communicated in, but in any case, the two of them stood on Ciri's left and right.
The Hunter sighed, reached out and held Harley and Quinn's wrists. As he took a step forward to open the rift leading to Attilan City, Harley suddenly asked in a low voice:
"Did you sleep with him?"
"Ahem...what the hell kind of question are you asking?"
Ciri almost couldn't breathe, her face flushed as she glared at Harley, this expression made Harley curl her lips, she was too innocent, it was obvious that she was still a virgin.
But then she became happy again, thinking that Mr. K really loved her and remained chaste for her.
"Ignore her. She's not very smart."
Quinn said quietly beside him:
"I've told her to trust sweetheart, but she's always suspicious. Don't pay attention to her. Just get along with sweetheart as you should. It's actually quite interesting to watch you normal people fall in love."
"Hmm? You don't mind?"
Ciri asked in surprise. Quinn looked her up and down and said with a pout:
"You've already made up your mind to die with my sweetheart, so what's the point of me caring? Love is indeed a difficult thing to understand, but if you choose to interpret it with death, then I have nothing to say.
But you have to bring your own urn. You can’t use mine and Harry’s.”
"Uh, so what you're holding are urns? I thought they were drinking cups... Well, I really shouldn't have tried to understand you."
Ciri complained, and the next moment the three of them disappeared in the silver light curtain.
When they arrived at Attilan, Mason was already talking to the Elric brothers at the door of the room where the cosmic tuning fork was located. They were both alchemists, so there were some things that did not need to be hidden.
As soon as they met, Edward handed the alchemy box in his hand to Mason.
The captain took it, opened it and took a look inside. This box with a Traceless Extension Spell inside was densely packed with blood-red Philosopher's Stones. There were more than two hundred stones on the upper layer alone. If the space inside for Traceless Extension was also filled up, this box alone would contain nearly three thousand weak Philosopher's Stones.
Including the two boxes in Alphonse's hands, the number of Philosopher's Stones brought by the two brothers this time is truly an astronomical figure.
"Don't look at us with that weird look. I know what you're thinking."
Edward spread his hands and explained:
"We made these things with materials we bought upon receiving orders. We didn't deduct the alchemical materials you gave us, so don't treat us like rats.
Since we came to Osborne Tower, all living expenses have been borne by Mr. Norman, and we don’t have much to spend money on, so these three boxes are all the property of the two brothers. "
"No, that's not what I care about."
Mason shook his head and said:
"You two are keeping these Philosopher's Stones for replacing the world, right? You are still short of a quarter of the quantity to achieve that goal. I know that is the ideal, or obsession, that has supported you two to this point.
You told me this when we first met, but now you have given me all the Philosopher's Stones that you have saved up over the years. Does this mean that you have given up the idea of returning to your hometown?
You are not the one who was inspired by our cause and willingly gave away these precious things, right? "
"It's because we called the colonel and the master here to help resist the enemy. They can't leave now."
Alphonse explained:
"If the world is gone, they will also be gone... they are our last relatives and compatriots. Anyway, my brother and I exchanged worlds to create a hometown for them.
But home is where there are people.
Without people, the best world is just a house."
"Just because of this?"
Mason handed the three alchemy boxes to Brother A beside him, motioning him to take them in and pile the philosopher's stones around the cosmic tuning fork. He glanced at his watch and saw that there were still two minutes before the speed force matrix was activated and four minutes before the world fusion entered the second stage.
There is barely enough time.
So he asked:
"Look, if I fail, this will be the last time we talk, so why not be honest, Edward, and tell me what you really think about doing this."
"Is it important?"
The blonde said arrogantly:
"Isn't it all right for me to give them to you? Do you have plenty of time? Do you want us to spend some time discussing the seven methods of refining the elixir of immortality?"
"I just want to listen. After all, we have been working together for so long, so we must be considered good friends, right?"
Mason rubbed his chest, which was feeling a little uncomfortable, and said with a grin:
"If these are the last ten minutes of my life, I don't want to spend them lying."
Edward had a wooden face, and finally, when Alphonse poked his back with his finger from behind, the short Fullmetal Alchemist sighed.
He looked up at the dark rock walls above Attilan City and the surging water and deep-sea creatures around it, and he said:
“Master just told us that people who are immersed in the past cannot create the future. This is not the first time she has said this. I still remember that she said something similar to us when we just escaped from our hometown and set up a stall in Star Castle.
Whether it was the colonel, Miss Lisa, Hao Wan, or Yao Lin, they all seemed to have said something like this.
It's not that I don't know what they mean, I just don't want to accept the fact that I can never return to my hometown like them. That damn place is not that good actually, with androids, monsters in bottles, original sin and all that. It's not much better than the other worlds Al and I have traveled to, but it is my hometown after all.
It’s where we were born.
But now, when I knew the cosmic tuning fork was broken and we only had ten minutes left, it was like an epiphany.
They did not abandon their hometown, they did not betray the past, they were just trying to continue their lives so that the stories of their hometown could be known and remembered by people in other worlds.
They have their own ideals and goals, but Al and I...
It’s just the two of us who have been escaping from reality, trying hard to go back to the past, and trying hard to bring back something meaningless in order to avoid a perhaps more cruel future.”
Edward flexed his fingers.
He looked at Mason seriously and said:
“We have been avoiding our own future, but we have overlooked a very important fact: we can actually shape a better future than the past according to our own ideas.
Use your own hands, without relying on alchemy or the philosopher's stone, to create a home of your own, to continue your own story and life, and in the twilight of your life, to tell the legend of another world to your children.
That's what I think.
The future you promised us, Mason, the time you described to us, a time without darkness and tragedy... we want to see it with our own eyes, it's that simple."
"You shattered your own ideals to help me realize mine. Oh my god, I am about to cry."
Mason took a step back in an exaggerated tone and said:
"Then come along and see with your own eyes how splendid your new ideal will be when it is realized... Don't say you have no home. Osborne Tower is your home, even though it is just a wasteland now."
"Woo woo woo"
Harley, who was watching this scene, covered her eyes. She hugged Quinn, who looked disgusted, and cried:
"Wow, they gave their ideals to little sweetheart, this is so touching, looking at the three of them walking into the room together, it reminds me of those BL comics I've read... Damn! Mr. K is not going to get together with that little kid, is he?
This is too sweet.
You are full of manly passion and enthusiasm. Why don't you two cry? Are you so cold-blooded? Cry! Cry now!"
"Just be normal!"
Quinn, who couldn't bear it any longer, hit Harley on the head with a knife, then dragged her by her hair and walked into the room angrily.
Damn it!
This idiot has disgraced them both.
And in front of Ciri, the love rival!
As for the Grand Master Hunter, she actually didn't notice Harry's loss of composure at all. She tightly gripped the hilt of the sword in her hand, thinking about what Edward had just said.
Isn't it the same for the hunting dogs of the Star Society?
Mason had found the lost ideals and future from the mud, washed them clean and returned them to them, allowing these interstellar scums who had been immersed in plunder and greed to begin looking forward to the next era that they would shape with their own hands...
How did I fall into the shadow of this little man Mason?
The question that has troubled Ciri for a long time finally has an answer.
She followed Harley and strode towards the room, but in the end Ciri did not step in. She looked at the devil tattoo on her left hand, and the scene of being controlled by Mephisto at the end of the World War was still vivid in her mind.
She couldn't cause trouble for Mason at this time.
Just as she hesitated, Brother A, who was in charge of security, also came out of the house. The silent man glanced at Ciri, nodded to her, and stepped aside.
It seems that he also knows the risks involved.
"Damn Mephisto..."
The hunter held the sword of the Lady of the Lake and stood guard at the door, cursing in a low voice as he stood there like a door god:
"Can the ashes float together from such a distance? Ugh, damn! I'm infected by Harley and Quinn's weird brain circuits."
“It’s about to begin!”
Under the cosmic tuning fork, Mason put his hands together and placed them on the golden leaning tower. The giant alchemy array around him was filled with blood-red philosopher's stones, which were the objects of truth that could replace a world.
Although the effectiveness of the laws of truth in this world is mediocre, the reality distortion that can be produced by using all of them is enough to repair the damaged modules of the cosmic tuning fork.
"In the name of ideals, the future, and hope, burn."
The captain shouted something very childish in his heart, and the moment he closed his eyes, a blood-red light bloomed, like a rising sun illuminating everyone's eyes.
The second stage of world integration has officially begun!
