He continued weaving his web of despair in that cloying, delighted tone, as though he had long since seen through the ultimate malice of the universe.
"The end of humanity's endless desires—the story of fools pursuing mad dreams in the name of progress..."
As he spoke, he tipped his head back slightly. The exposed corner of his mouth beneath the mask curved into an utterly mocking, utterly icy smile. That smile was not meant for the two people before him, but for this entire absurd world.
"Because you, too, are that fool's daughter."
Daughter...?
The two words were like a drop of ink falling into clear water, spreading rapidly and murkily through Jiliang's mind. She did not immediately understand what the word meant—or rather, her subconscious was desperately refusing to understand. In that instant, time seemed to stretch infinitely, and every piece of sensory information became both sharp and blurred.
Jiliang's entire body stiffened, her muscles heavy as though filled with lead. Over and over, mechanically, she chewed on the word Rau Le Creuset had just thrown at her, along with that string of curse-like monologue from before.
"This is the Forbidden Sanctuary—the Dream Ruins of fools who thought themselves gods..."
Rau Le Creuset's voice echoed through the abandoned laboratory, vast and filled with metallic reverberations, carrying the texture of an aria rising from the depths of hell. What had this man been talking about all this time? Those sentences, filled with religious metaphors yet dripping with venomous mockery, sounded completely divorced from common sense—even from reality itself. Like the mad laughter of a lunatic facing the end of the world.
This had to be an attempt to shake their morale. Just lies he had made up on the spot, meant to undermine Mr. Mu and her—Jiliang's reason tried to