noffsinger Chapter 217 Unknown Totem (3)
Chapter 217 Unknown Totem (3)
"You're alive..."
Du Ming's eyes flashed with sharpness.
"Yes, I'm alive." Nagisa's eyes widened.
The old man could clearly sense that something was wrong. He was clearly rescued from mid-air and brought to the ground by Du Ming.
But his memory, no, another memory told him that he fell from the light gate and was saved by a gust of wind while praying.
"I, I..." Zhu Xing stretched out his hands as if asking for help, took a step closer to Du Ming, with a helpless look on his face.
"Brother, you, you are a person with super powers, right? I... I don't know how I have other memories. Help me... Use your super powers, help me..."
"Stand still for now! Explain the rest clearly!"
Du Ming stopped Jirachi behind him and faced Nagisa. He paused for a moment before sighing and saying:
"Let's first see what happened to you, and then see if we can help you."
"……it is good."
Nagisa took a deep breath and calmed down a little.
He closed his eyes, and a familiar yet unfamiliar memory flowed into his mind.
“After arriving on the ground, there was nothing around me. I walked along the road we just came from. The murals on both sides made me linger, and the mural of Arceus above my head also made me breathe fast. Whether it was every brick on the ground or the soft light that came out of nothing, I was fascinated by it.
"After three or four hours, I walked here and saw these 28 unknown totem symbols at the base of the wall."
As the old man spoke, he controlled his excited thoughts and his expression became slightly better.
But after a while, his expression became even uglier.
"I stayed here for a whole day, observing every corner and every place, until I used up all the emergency food in my pocket and finally decided to get out of here first.
"But there is no exit here at all. Every exit is dozens of meters high, in the air where you can't climb up. There is no entrance or exit and no mechanism on the ground.
"Finally I remembered that no one followed me here. I tried to contact the ground with the terminal, but it was completely unavailable. I prayed to the Arceus mural on the ceiling, hoping to escape from here, but I received no response.
"Two days later, the only bottle of water left was…finished."
Nagisa's left hand tightly grasped the remaining half bottle of mineral water, and said with an unpleasant expression:
"I was desperate, so I returned here, to the only different place in this building - in front of the unknown totem, hoping to find a clue to leave."
At this point, the old man's face became uncertain, and it seemed that he recalled some unhappy things.
Du Ming kept his eyes on the old man and said calmly, "It seems that the situation is not as you wish."
Nagisa gripped the water bottle tightly, closed her eyes and sighed, “I danced the ancient dances I had seen in other murals in the random ruins, prayed to Arceus using the prayer methods I learned from the murals, and spoke the ancient language I learned from the murals in those ruins.
"But it was all in vain, no response, no response, until my mouth was dry, there was no response at all.
“I fell here.
“Lying on the ground motionless.
“I’m dying.
"With my dry lips open, the desire to survive finally made me open my eyes a little bit, and I saw an illusion... No, I thought I saw an illusion, the unknown totem patterns carved on the wall all flew up and flew around me.
"'Is this a vision before death?' I remembered a sentence written in ancient characters on the murals in the underground of the Random Ruins, 'memento_mori'. Just after uttering these syllables, the unknown totem in front of me split into thousands, and then several of them formed the words I said.
“Death, but not just death… this thought flashed through my mind.
"Then, I completely lost consciousness..."
As if he was retelling memories that did not belong to him, Nagisa slowly spoke out the contents of his memories.
His eyes were complicated, his will to live was shattered at that moment, and his vigorous spirit quickly withered in just one minute.
With a wry smile and a shake of the head, Nagisa immediately pretended not to care and laughed:
"It seems that your help is not needed. He is already dead. I can't help him even if I want to."
Du Ming didn't say anything for the time being, staring intently at Zhu Xing.
Nagisa's aura had been normal before this, but as he recounted his memories, Nagisa's aura became more and more ethereal and chaotic, completely unlike that of a human.
——Does Qi change with self-perception, or are there other reasons?
Du Ming shook his head. Now was not the time to think about this.
Death, words, unknown totems, a large field, white mist that appeared out of nowhere...
A series of key words flashed through his mind, making Du Ming think of a possibility, a possibility that was extremely cruel to Zhu Xing.
He continued to ask:
"What happened after that? From the time you lost consciousness until you reappeared in front of the light gate and were rescued by me, do you have any recollection of this?"
"...No." Nagisa smiled bitterly and shook her head.
"If you hadn't suddenly mentioned death, I wouldn't have realized that I had been here before. I only remember that I was exploring unknown totems on the fourth floor underground of this ruin..."
"The fourth floor underground?" Du Ming exclaimed in surprise.
"Weren't you just on the underground floor, looking at something with a magnifying glass... No, I remember that the only accessible areas in the ruins are the underground floor and the second floor. The areas after the third floor are not allowed to enter because of strange phenomena. How could you sneak into the fourth floor?"
"No entry?"
When Nagisa heard this, she was also confused.
He waved his hands repeatedly and said, "I am an expert who was formally invited by the Pokémon Archaeology Association to come and inspect the ruins. I have the right to enter and exit all areas of the ruins at will.
"As for what you said about me just inspecting the underground floor, that's even more impossible. The last time I inspected the underground floor in detail was a month ago..."
"The time... doesn't match..."
Du Ming murmured.
He still doubted the truth of Nagisa's words. It sounded a bit outrageous, but it was normal for messed up things to happen in the elf world.
He looked thoughtfully into Nagisa's eyes and asked:
"Do you remember the date 'today'?"
"Today?" Nagisa shook her head and said, "I don't remember the exact date, but it should be early October."
Du Ming let out a long sigh.
“It’s mid-April.”
"April, April..." Nagisa's eyes suddenly widened and her lips trembled.
After a long silence, he smiled bitterly: "Not surprising. My current state should be what is called a ghost. I just didn't expect that after becoming a ghost, I could actually regain my consciousness again. If I could write a paper about this, I wonder how many scholars would be surprised..."
"Although it's a bit disappointing... your situation may be worse than this."
Du Ming closed his eyes, hid the pity in them, and then opened them again.
Nagisa was startled again, her voice trembling: "What do you mean?"
"Chi——!" His voice was a little loud, which scared Jirachi a little and made him rush into Du Ming's arms.
Du Ming rubbed Jirachi's little head, soothed Jirachi, and calmed it down.
"Maybe you are nothing..."
Du Ming stared at Zhu Xing's panicked eyes.