Inside the movie theater.
Franca let out a surprised "Oh, because she felt her Despair potion fully digested.
Has Lumian's plan succeeded? This thought suddenly occurred to Franca.
Although she wasn't clear on exactly what Lumian intended to do or how, she remembered Lumian saying that once her Despair potion was digested, it would mean this operation had achieved its expected purpose, Mr. Fool would awaken to some degree, and the dream would completely collapse in a few minutes.
Franca instinctively looked towards Gehrman Sparrow to her side, and saw the roof of the movie theater collapsing inch by inch. But the corresponding heavy objects didn't crash onto the seats and floor, instead falling into the void and disappearing completely.
At the same time, white light emanated from the few audience members present, flying into Gehrman Sparrow's body.
Franca suddenly realized what these white lights were: they were the impressions, cognitions, and understandings of Gehrman Sparrow from different audience members!
As the dream approached collapse, these audience members revealed their illusory nature, and their corresponding memories split off on their own. becoming anchors and information to nourish and enrich Gehrman Sparrow's image.
From different parts of the dream city, more similar white lights rushed over.
It really worked... Franca joyfully raised her head, looking up to the heights no longer obscured by movie theater's roof.
The originally dark sky had collapsed in large patches, revealing terrifying deep blackness and thin grayish- white fog.
It was like a building whose walls had crumbled in an earthquake, but with the beams and pillars still standing, the skeleton still intact.
…
Inside Yangdu High-Speed Rail Station.
After hearing Lumian say his Despair potion had been fully digested, Zhou Mingrui, standing at the edge of the deep darkness, smiled gently, "That's good."
Lumian was stunned for a moment. "Mr. Fool?"
Zhou Mingrui nodded slightly, "It's me now."
He smiled and said, "You all did very well."
Smiling, Lumian replied, "If you hadn't sealed away most of the Celestial Worthy's power, including His thinking ability, we would have had no chance of success."
Lumian was still carefully using "sealed" to describe Zhou Mingrui's original state, but the truth might not be so.
He had been saying this all along, mixing a bit of falsehood into his truth as he told the Celestial Worthy his guesses, judgments, and plans. Besides wanting to delay time, there was also an intention to reinforce the Celestial Worthy's cognition in this regard.
Of course, whether this was true or false, after today. it would become true!
Zhou Mingrui shook his head and smiled. "Relying on myself alone, it was already extremely difficult to restrain the Celestial Worthy. Without your help, the outcome might have been completely different.
"For example, if you hadn't driven out Zaratul in advance, today's operation would definitely have had setbacks, and the awakened World might have pointed towards the Celestial Worthy.
"And if it weren't for the help of those friends in the Western Continent, the Celestial Worthy might have had a chance to turn the tables in the end."
So the Celestial Worthy's backup plan, the preparations made for the arrangements left by the original God Almighty, was intercepted and prevented by certain existences in the Western Continent. My original plan was just to race against time, using the concealment of the Evernight Goddess to complete the fusion of the three Gehrman Sparrow images before the Celestial Worthy's backup plan could truly take effect... The Celestial Master, or the Underworld Daoist? Lumian made a sound of agreement and said with feeling, "Indeed, without the efforts and groundwork laid by the Major Arcana card holders before, even if we had deciphered the true meaning of all the symbols today, we wouldn't have had time to create the character of Gehrman Sparrow. We could only have watched helplessly as the situation tilted towards the Celestial Worthy's side.
"Similarly, without the hints from Peng Deng and Amon, we might still be exploring directions now, with the Celestial Worthy's fatal blow about to arrive..."
Seeing that Lumian was very clearheaded and rational in recognizing this point, Zhou Mingrui nodded with satisfaction.
Lumian didn't go on to talk about the contributions of gods and people like Stiano, Leodero, and Anderson, but asked eagerly, "Mr. Fool, can Aurore, my sister, really be resurrected?"
Zhou Mingrui looked at Lumian and said in a calm voice, "With her soul fragments sealed inside you and not dissipated, if you were a Beyonder of the Seer pathway and had advanced to Miracle Invoker, then with my help, you could Graft one of your resurrections onto your sister's soul fragments. allowing her to truly return.
"But now, you can only rely on the resurrection of the Demoness pathway to separate your sister in the future."
Seeing Lumian fall into thought, Zhou Mingrui added, "You can no longer change pathways, and after your advancement to Demoness of Despair, Aurore's soul fragments have already fused with you to some extent. If you were to regress back to the beginning using the Sun pathway, her soul fragments wouldn't be able to withstand it and would completely dissipate."
Lumian was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Will the resurrection achieved through the Demoness pathway in the future be an essential resurrection, a true resurrection?"
"Yes," Zhou Mingrui sighed and said, "But wishes are often distorted, and the way they are realized may not be what you want. Just like when you saved my believer back then, I noticed you and foresaw that you would play an important role in the matter of dreams in the future, so I gave you the aura of the gray fog and my imprint. But I didn't expect this prophecy would be fulfilled in such a warped manner, and my actions were also part of the prophecy."
"So that old man was your believer." Lumian suddenly realized.
He laughed calmly. "Without the aura of the gray fog. perhaps I would never have met Aurore, never had that life in Cordu, and Aurore would still have been noticed by April's Fool, still been troubled by Roche Louise Sanson, and maybe wouldn't even have had a chance at resurrection."
At this point, Lumian took a breath and said, "I understand.
"As long as it's an essential, true resurrection, I can accept any form of realization."
Zhou Mingrui nodded slightly and extended his right palm. "You can give me that bottle of Samaritan Women's Spring water processed by Mr. Azik now."
As Lumian took out the small golden bottle from his Traveler's Bag, he asked puzzledly, "Mr. Fool, now that Gehrman Sparrow has been 'born', you don't need to drink this spring water anymore, right? The Celestial Worthy is sealed within you, so Him drinking is equivalent to you drinking, and besides, this only has a very weak effect on Sequence 0 True Gods."
The small golden bottle suddenly appeared in Zhou Mingrui's right hand, while Lumian's hand was now empty.
"I still need to sleep for a while longer." Zhou Mingrui said with a smile. "Now is the opportunity to fuse with the Celestial Worthy and better resist Him, and this bottle of spring water is the medium.
"Gehrman Sparrow will become The Fool, embodying a bit of my will, until I fully awaken."
"Still need to fuse with the Celestial Worthy?" Lumian asked in confusion.
Zhou Mingrui nodded. "Yes, both fusing and resisting; this is currently the only path."
"Doesn't that mean..." Lumian suddenly closed his mouth, remembering a certain mystical knowledge he knew.
The spiritual imprint of the original Creator within the Beyonder characteristics was indestructible, including those of the original God Almighty and The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings!
Zhou Mingrui smiled and said, "No matter how I clinch victory, no matter how much you help me, in the long run, the one who will ultimately win this confrontation will inevitably be the Celestial Worthy."
Seeing Lumian fall silent, Zhou Mingrui continued with a gentle expression, "Most humans know they only have a few decades of life and are destined to pass away in the not-too-distant future, but this doesn't prevent them from enjoying their lives, from doing meaningful things, from being happy, suffering, sad, moved, satisfied, and missing others.
"You've also seen from Roselle's experience during this time that there is a lot of truth within dreams, that hope lies hidden at the end of despair, and that a moment's brilliance might point towards eternity."
Lumian was speechless for a moment.
After about ten seconds, he sighed. "Resisting every day, being eroded, trying to fuse, continuing for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, or even longer, wouldn't it be very tiring?
"Wouldn't it be like before, when you still maintained self-awareness, but suddenly found yourself smiling strangely in the mirror?"
"It would." Zhou Mingrui sighed with a smile. "When I fully awaken this time, except for the strongest and most intense parts of Zhou Mingrui and Klein Moretti's emotions and humanity, everything else might no longer be the me of now."
This wasn't said in a speculative tone.
"As for whether it's tiring..." Zhou Mingrui's tone became a little more animated, "Of course it's very tiring, but there's no choice; someone has to do this, right?"
Lumian's thoughts were jumbled and chaotic. He opened his mouth and said, "Is it worth it?"
Zhou Mingrui looked at him, suddenly took a step back, and fell into that deep darkness.
He didn't dissolve quickly like other dream characters falling into this darkness, but sank slowly as if in seawater.
Zhou Mingrui raised his right hand, brought that bottle of Samaritan Women's Spring water to his mouth, and drank it.
Then, as he slowly sank, he looked at Lumian outside the deep darkness, showed a gentle smile similar to before, and answered in a calm voice. "It's worth it."
After saying this, he suddenly winked his left eye at Lumian, not at all steady or serious, and not at all like the lofty Mr. Fool.
Lumian watched Zhou Mingrui sink into the depths of darkness until even his blurry silhouette disappeared.
He muttered to himself, "Worth it..."
In the movie theater, as those streams of white light merged, as Zhou Mingrui disappeared into the deep darkness, Gehrman Sparrow, who had been standing still as if asleep, suddenly raised his head.
He opened his eyes, his sharp gaze seeming to pierce through his gold-rimmed glasses.
With this, the sky of the dream city completely peeled away, all buildings collapsed with a rumble, and the images of characters like Grimm and Zhang Qing blurred until they completely dissipated.
Franca was confused for a moment, then woke up.
She saw a room full of people, saw the bright smile on Madam Justice's face that came from the heart, saw Madam Magician drinking red wine, saw clear and brilliant radiance.
Outside the window, the sunlight was just right.
