Act. Ashes
Foreword:
[I'll fly here when you die.]
[ --George Herbert Walker Bush]
[Part 1: The Mark of Shame]
On the northwest side of the RSH outpost, there is a Goubuli steamed bun shop. Its history is long, almost dating back to the time of Emperor Aizomuddin, and it is a precious gift from the motherland to the Soviet Union's underground development.
Yes, you heard right, this steamed bun shop is a very valuable gift.
Because in the underground world, the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter, and transportation—are all crucial industries for underground cities.
In the frigid Northern Territory, Chinese chefs know how to process the essence of the monsters and preserve kitchen heat, enabling them to make delicious food with a very long shelf life.
However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia also abandoned this outpost on the verge of death, and today it has become a military post on the Heaven's Ladder.
The Lord of Cinder's advisor is named Cliff Guderian.
He was Germanic, with beautiful black hair and reddish skin that made him look like a handsome devil crawled out of hell.
The people of the Heaven's Ladder all respected him because he had added fuel to the fire for the Lord of Cinder, and his crimson skin was the mark of his soul left during that process.
Just like the literal meaning of the word "adding fuel to the fire".
When the Lord of Cinder becomes the sun, but lacks sufficient fuel to sustain its light and heat, it needs firewood to contribute its essence, becoming part of the sun's energy source.
This is also another form of "the unity of all things" within the Madness Butterfly Sect.
Cliff can no longer be called firewood; the people of the Heaven's Ladder see him as ashes, as the guide of the Lord of Cinder.
Bad news reached the command post of the Heaven's Ladder: the headless corpse in the central square of RSH had been transported back to the outpost.
Cliff looked extremely pale. He ordered his men to reduce their patrol area to avoid needlessly shedding blood and losing precious elemental energy.
He rubbed his full head of black hair, tidying it up, and brushed the dust and grime off his face. He ordered the soldiers to hide the carts carrying the corpses and send them to the kitchen as alternative meat for military rations. Even expired or spoiled meat is still meat; he couldn't let his comrades die in such an unclear way.
He shook the dirt off his uniform, tidied himself up, afraid that the Lord of Cinder would see the corpses, afraid that his nervous and ugly state would be exposed to the Lord of Cinder.
Immediately afterwards, he went into the communal dining hall of the steamed bun shop. He walked to the second-to-last row of the main dining hall to report the bad news to the King of Cin.
"Your Majesty, Lord of Cinder"
Before Cliff could finish speaking--
The King of Cinder interrupted his flattery and honorifics.
"Did I live five hundred years ago? Why are you calling me Your Majesty?"
He was a thin, malnourished man.
His body was wrapped in black strips of cloth, with only his mouth, nose and eyes showing; the rest of his body was covered by black graphite fibers.
No hat, ring, or other jewelry was worn.
There were no sticks, logs, or backpacks.
He had almost nothing except a silver flute.
The Lord of Cinder said, "Sit down."
Cliff swallowed hard, sitting nervously opposite the Lord of Cinder.
King Cinder continued, "If you have bad news, just say it. I won't blame you. I have no demands on you, and you don't need to follow me."
Cliff said softly, "I'm sorry, Lord Cinder—we've run into a little trouble."
"Let's get straight to the point." The King of Cinder was a straightforward person and didn't want to waste words with these fanatical fans.
Cliff: "Six soldiers died, all of them frogman sentries."
Lord of Cinder: "Who did this? How did they die?"
Cliff: "They were shot, no shrapnel or shell casings were found, the type of ammunition was unknown, and their logbooks, combat records, personnel identification cards, and even their military flags were missing."
Scorer: "Was it done by a local from RSH?"
Cliff: "I don't know. We had a verbal agreement with these Soviets; they gave us half the city's public facilities. We're helping them kill giants—that doesn't make sense."
Lord of Cinder: "That was done by the passengers of the Abyssal Railway."
At this point, Cliff suddenly clenched his fist, and his voice became louder.
"Why?! These ungrateful bastards! Why are they killing our people?"
"Is that so strange?" Lord Cinder remained composed. "We are [Carnivores] —Cliff. When you go to a strange place to gather intelligence, do you calmly have a heart-to-heart talk with the local natives? Don't you just directly devour their spiritual essence and turn those memories into your own?"
Cliff: "Just because we eat people?"
Lord of Cinder: "Of course. If you consider it from the perspective of Homo sapiens, we have an irreconcilable hatred for the people of the Abyssal Railway; we are Homo sapiens' natural enemy."
"I don't understand, Lord Cinder—I've performed the pyre for other Lords of Cinder, but I still don't understand." Cliff pursed his lips, his eyes filled with resentment. "We gather primordial matter, we ignite the sun, we create a vibrant land in the underworld, and they should be helping us! Not killing us!"
King of Cinder: "That makes sense."
Cliff: "These stupid, incompetent, cowardly bastards should be kneeling obediently before the strong. The Lord of Cinder will ascend to godhood and unleash divine power. Don't these bastards feel ashamed living under this sunlight?"
Lord of Cinder: "Hmm."
Cliff got more and more excited as he spoke, "Their feeding efficiency is so low, and their way of collecting elemental matter is so primitive and barbaric. They come up with all sorts of bizarre reasons and excuses, but they always end up talking about money. If you ask me, it would be better to just swallow it whole. Lord Cinder, you must agree with me, right?"
Lord of Cinder: "Hmm."
Cliff received the Lord of Cinder's approval and was as happy as a schoolboy who had been praised.
"I knew it! I knew it! The only value of these mentally challenged people is to become food in your belly and fuel for the sun."
"Cliff," the Lord of Cinder interrupted Cliff's self-absorbed thoughts, "Back to reality."
Cliff apologized repeatedly, "I'm sorry, Your Excellency, Lord Cinder."
The Lord of Cinder shook his head. "As I said at the beginning, I won't blame you, I won't have any expectations of you, and I won't make any demands on the people of the Heaven's Ladder."
Cliff panicked, as if their connection with the Lord of Cinder was about to be severed.
"No, no, no—Lord of Cinder, we came here for you. This is my assault team, my giant hybrid warriors. It was Peter Sergei who provided the intelligence, and that's why we agreed to come here to seize the Titans' essence! Why are you so cold? Are you truly ready to become the sun? We've known each other for so long, and I still don't know your name."
"The sun has no name," Lord Cinder said calmly. "The sun never shines on anyone. It cares for the backs of the poor and the palaces of the rich. It doesn't blame anyone for anything they've done wrong, nor does it demand anything of anyone. Whether someone resents it or loves it, praises it or insults it, it doesn't care."
Cliff hesitated, and upon hearing the Lord of Cinder's words, he suddenly didn't know what to say.
The King of Cinder remained calm and indifferent.
"You worship the sun, perform rituals and magic to gain fame or wealth, or think you are superior to others. In reality, you are just like everyone else. They also generate solar power. In my opinion, you are all getting what you need."
These words nearly shattered Cliff's faith.
King Cinder continued.
"I've made myself perfectly clear, from the very beginning, Cliff —I will not grieve or be angry for your fallen warriors. Bring them up their bodies; I'm going to eat them."
Cliff felt only fear. Even though he had added fuel to the fire for the Lord of Cinder, and another Lord of Cinder had gotten along well with him and was a like-minded friend, the thoughts of this Lord of Cinder before him were so strange that even he, an ogre, could not fathom them.
Cliff was about to call the cooks to prepare a human flesh feast for the King of Cinder.
Just then, the Lord of Cinder began talking to his advisor about other things.
"Cliff."
"Is there anything else you wish to instruct me on?"
"Could you take a look at my back?"
Next, the King of Cinder peeled off the graphite fiber strip, revealing part of the skin of his scapula and trapezius muscles.
Cliff stepped forward to examine it closely, his expression grave.
--Same physical characteristics as other Lords of Cinder.
The King of Cinder's skin was dry and withered. His long-term cannibalistic habits had turned these primordial elements into miniature faces on his skin, like vengeful spirits, as if possessed by demonic fetuses.
There was a gold and red oil-painted scar near the neck on the shoulder blade, like a brand of a demon enslaved.
The Lord of Cinder asked, "Is it still there? Does this shameful scar still hold any effect?"
Cliff nodded. "This vile sorcery still haunts you, Lord Lord Cinder. What kind of evil magic is it that forces you to experience this living hell? When? Where? Which bastard planted this curse on you?"
Within the oil paint scars, there is a string of characters.
The English writing was left by a hard-nib fountain pen.
The translated meaning is "Do not kill."
"It was David Victor who planted this curse on me." The Lord of Cinder rebound the cloth, covering his hideous body. "His soul power is peculiar, like a life contract from a demon from hell. Whatever is written in the contract, I must do—I'm afraid only by igniting my elemental essence and letting the flames burn away that character can I regain my freedom."
"What a terrifying ability," Cliff said worriedly. "He only left behind this one sentence?"
Lord Cinder recounted his past. "I stole runes from my Ancestral Palace and was trapped in that bizarre time and space, unable to escape. He opened my cell, awakened me, and wrote these words before I fully recovered, then vanished like the wind."
"Despicable and shameless!" Cliff cursed. "You can't kill! It's torture for you!"
After a simple slicing and grilling process, the dishes made from the soldiers' corpses were served.
While eating, the King of Cinder talked to Cliff about the Magic Power of the brand.
"On the contrary, I should thank Victor —this inexplicable confinement ritual has brought me closer to the sun. For the first time in the past six months, I've tried to command humans to do things for me, to search for primal matter for me, instead of personally killing and preying on them."
With that, the King of Cinder picked up his fork and handed a piece of pig brain to Cliff.
Cliff carefully swallowed the meat his idol had given him, then pulled out a camera from his bundle, his eyes darting nervously.
The Lord of Cinder nodded, Cliff filmed the scene, intending to include it in the cult Bible of the Heaven's Ladder.
The spiritual essence churned in the stomach, passed through the blood-supplied [carnivorous] body, transformed the structure of the cerebral cortex, and ultimately transformed into pure memory.
Cliff felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had personally experienced being hit by an AK-12 bullet.
His eyes seemed to hold the image of Jiang Xueming and Su Ling killing the frogman unit.
"That's right, passengers from the Abyssal Railway! These beasts!"
[Part 2: Fans and Idols]
The Lord of Cinder tore off a strip of meat, chewed the food, and a new baby face was about to take shape in his skin.
"Leaving aside these people and events, Cliff - Victor's abilities are really interesting. I can't personally kill the target, like this..."
Having said that, the Lord of Cinder suddenly picked up his fork and plunged it into Cliff's skull.
The knife stopped abruptly halfway through its flight. The golden-red brand on his back glowed, like a worm parasitizing the Lord of Cinder's central nervous system. Whenever he made a killing move or considered harming others, this mysterious and unpredictable soul power would immediately rush towards the Lord of Cinder's spinal cord and then towards his cranial nerve center.
"As soon as my killing intent arises, I can immediately feel peace and tranquility. It's truly amazing."
The Lord of Cinder sheathed his knife, and Cliff was still in shock.
"All the murderous intent vanished; all the anger and cold-bloodedness disappeared without a trace."
He continued eating, a happy look on his face.
"I'm like a hyena or a vulture, only able to eat the carrion you bring me."
Cliff, curious and deeply interested in the Lord of Cinder's past, asked, "Your Excellency, you seem to have a fondness for the passengers of the Abyssal Railway? Are you a passenger too?"
Lord of Cinder: "Yes."
Cliff: "What kind of bizarre and wonderful story could have given birth to such a powerful individual as you? Can you tell me? I will write all of this into the Bible of the Heaven's Ladder."
Xin Wang gently tapped his plate, indicating that he had finished eating and wanted more food.
While Cliff was cutting meat onto the grill, the Lord of Cinder told a long story.
"I come from 1937. During World War II, I was a pilot in the Italian Armed Forces."
"We lost the war, the plane crashed, I glided all the way down into the crater of an Icelandic volcano, and landed in the Huge Mountain Station."
"My waiter saved my life, can you imagine? Falling from a height of over 5,000 meters into the underground world at a depth of over 15,000 meters, crashing onto the council chamber terrace of Huge Mountain Station, smashing through the hot spring pool, turning me and the plane into a bloody mess, into steel biscuits."
"I did not die on the spot; my consciousness remained beside my body. My servant found me immediately and sprinkled her most precious Universal Elixir on my corpse."
"That's how she pulled me back to the human world."
"I thought I was supposed to die. This freefall of more than 20 kilometers almost destroyed half of the council hall at Huge Mountain Station. Ming De demanded that I pay compensation, but I couldn't afford it. So I had no choice but to sell myself into servitude to buy my freedom."
"My meeting with my waiter here was a good start, but it didn't end well."
"I can't get along with her at all. I don't understand why Ming De arranged such a noisy and old-fashioned silly girl for me—except for saving my life, she opposes me in almost everything."
"I only dream of one day regaining my freedom, returning to the surface, squandering my money and elixirs, and restarting my brilliant life."
"But she wanted to keep me at Huge Mountain Station forever. I hated her to the core and couldn't understand her actions. She wouldn't let me take on any difficult tasks. These shortcuts that seemed so tempting and high-value were all met with ridicule and insults from her. She looked down on me as a newcomer, even though I did very well at the station. Ming De praised me and hoped that I could redeem myself and go home as soon as possible."
"But this stupid woman, she's like a wolf fighting me for territory and the right to speak. We're destined to be a fight to the death, a pair that will argue until the end of time. If I go east, she'll use her savage muscles to drag me west."
"Until one day, I could no longer see her. She really stopped caring about me. She really stopped arguing with me, stopped going against me, and stopped telling me, 'You should do this, you shouldn't do that.'"
At this point, the King of Cinder paused for a moment.
The meat in his mouth no longer tasted good, and he suddenly started to cry.
"I hate the boss--"
The person who was originally cold and distant, known as Ming De, has now become the BOSS.
"--I thought I was free, but I was locked in another cell."
The King of Cinder covered his head, his hand gripping the knife trembling.
As Cliff took notes, he asked, "Why did this servant—oh no, this queen—leave you?"
Lord of Cinder: "She didn't leave, she just died."
Cliff wanted to ask for more details, "How did you die?"
Lord Cinder's eyes widened, almost unable to believe what he was hearing.
As an advisor to the Heaven's Ladder, a witness to the ceremony of lighting the sun, and a priest, Cliff naturally had to record the deeds of the King of Cinder in detail in the Bible.
He was completely unaware of how ruthless this ritual of reopening wounds was, as cruel as wielding a knife and fork to slice open the flesh of the King of Cinder and feast on it.
Lord Cinder said calmly, "Killed by Armadillo Hunters."
Cliff: "How could someone like that be killed?"
Lord of Cinder: "Wasn't her death good enough? Didn't it meet your expectations?"
Cliff frankly stated, "This part needs to be changed. Armadillo Hunters have no ambition; they only bully ordinary scum—if the newcomers to the Heaven's Ladder heard such a story, they wouldn't respect you. So, you, Queen, are really weak, unable to even handle these hunters, and there's no need to tell me her real name. The weak have no right to remain in our Bible."
"David Victor is also an Armadillo Hunters." The Lord of Cinder frowned and glared. "How dare you be so arrogant?"
Cliff finally sensed the Lord of Cinder's anger and dared not speak again.
"Never mind, the sun won't be angry." It took the Lord of Cinder a long time to regain his composure. "I want to resurrect her—I want to pull her back from the underworld, just as she did to me."
Cliff kindly reminded him, "Your Excellency, the dead cannot be brought back to life. No matter how wondrous the magic, it is impossible to do so."
The Lord of Cinder remained preoccupied. "But I've spent two-thirds of my life pursuing this. For this goal, I've resorted to any means necessary. I've made deals with the Madness Butterfly Sect, given blood to the Beast of Calamity, stolen runes, and killed more than half the people in the Ancestral Palace, all to find a way to resurrect her—even if I can't, I want to live long enough."
The meat on the plate was all gone.
Lord Cinder dropped his knife and fork, then closed his eyes and began absorbing primordial energy, searching for a suitable home for the new spirit within his physical body.
"I will live to the end of human history. If this physical body will decay, and the Death Rune within me cannot hold it back, then I will use it as fuel. I will absorb a massive amount of primordial matter, embark on this path of the Lord of Cinder, gather countless human and material resources, and complete the miracle of [the collective karma of all beings]. In the distant future, with such powerful energy, creating her human form should not be too difficult, right?"
Cliff was astonished and disgusted by this mysterious and foolish ritual.
"So, Lord Cinder traveled thousands of miles, committed countless atrocities, killing and eating flesh, all for a woman?"
"The King of Cinders cursed."
"I'll fly here when you're dead."
After Cliff finished taking notes, he gave the Lord of Cinder a perfunctory bow.
The King of Cinders' thanks were also insincere.
Perhaps this kind of relationship between idols and believers is the normal one.
--Just like idols and their die-hard fans, they usually don't have much in common.
Lord Cinder was indifferent to the defense and hunting efforts of RSH; he was only responsible for dealing with the Death Giant and [eating] -- it was probably no easy task for the Heaven's Ladder to get this deity to oppose the passengers of the Abyssal Railway.
This really worried Cliff.
--Based on the combat records obtained from the brain cells of the frogman sentries, at least one of the passengers was a VIP with exceptional combat capabilities. They were fully armed, mingled with the Soviets, and knew the true identities of the Heaven's Ladder warriors, leaving them no room for maneuver.
This red-skinned devil scratched his head for ages outside the freezing cold steamed bun shop. He almost scratched his full head of black hair bald.
He put his mind to work and came up with various tactical plans.
Option 1: Use the pretense of resurrection as leverage to deceive the Lord of Cinder, asking him to personally torture the enemy without killing them, and then have the soldiers of the Heaven's Ladder take the lives of these passengers.
Conclusion: No chance. Given this scoundrel's temper, even if things were accomplished, if his queen doesn't come back to life, this contract between idol and fan leader would probably be torn to shreds on the spot, with no possibility of further cooperation.
Option 2: Based on the combat records, these two passengers and the old engineer were heading to the power workshop. Take advantage of them being alone and kill them.
Conclusion: After further consideration, the soldiers of Heaven's Ladder are also suffering from the effects of spiritual pressure. Directly confronting VIPs would probably be the worst possible strategy.
Option 3: Try to capture the Soviets who are fighting the Death Giant, and eat one or two of them. Through their spiritual essence, obtain more intelligence and then proceed with further deployment and planning.
Conclusion: It is risky, but feasible.
"William!" Cliff Guderian called to the strongest hybrid giant in the group, a reliable man who never ate human flesh. "Take all your equipment to the beachhead and look for the Soviets."
A burly man, over three meters tall, rushed out of the military post's shack.
"Boss! Live or dead?"
Cliff looked up at the descendant of the [Fireman].
"Just leave the head, a complete head is fine."
William had a full head of red hair, which he tied back with his thick knuckles.
He had a scar on the bridge of his nose, and his face had a strangely childlike quality. He had big eyes and started bargaining.
"How many soldiers? How many guns? How much money? Are there women and food?"
Cliff shouted the order.
"You're all alone! Get lost! Do you think this is a difficult task? You're a giant!"
William shrugged indifferently, put on his heavy gear, and tiptoed out, afraid that Staff Officer Cliff would scold him for being impolite. If he disturbed the Lord of Cinder's meal, he would probably be in big trouble.
When they reached the street corner, the giant boy rolled his eyes, his face full of disdain.
"Whispering sound"
He clutched the cuneiform stone to his chest, as if it were an artifact, a relic.
"Father, your son is unfilial—not only do I have to work for these Homo sapiens, but I also have to dig up your grave, and in the end, I even lose my dignity! Alas!"
William stretched, yawned in the cold wind, and inhaled the poisonous gas deeply, but saw nothing unusual.
"It's so hard to earn money and fill our stomachs!"