The colorful dreamscape passage opened up a road, the misty dream vapor billowing....
Roy stepped in with one foot, followed by the other, and it was like the world changed instantly, arriving in a gray and hazy world....
According to Nightmare's understanding of "dreamscape," a normal person's unconscious domain cannot manifest anything substantial. Only those with a strong sense of self-awareness might be able to add some things to their "dreamscape," like... Kyojuro Rengoku's core flame symbolizing "Flame Breathing"... Father Silva's study room... Haseki Dorou, due to a strong desire, manifested Wutong, pressing him down....
Compared to them,
Roy looked up at the hazy gray sky, unable to see the boundary. Clearly...
Compared to Great-grandfather Maha, who directly manifested a small world through "self-awareness," both Kyojuro Rengoku, Haseki Dorou, and even Father... are far behind!
Not all with strong Nenryoku are people with steadfast will; on the contrary, those with steadfast will, whether or not they have Nenryoku, are strong individuals!
Roy walked on the swirling wind, the ground paved with dry leaves, rustling...
Maha's thin and small figure stood under a dead willow tree not far away. The tree seemed to have gone through a lightning tribulation years ago, with parts of the trunk carbonized into lightning wood.
Roy's nostrils twitched, even detecting a "burnt" smell. He approached, noticing a small flame still quietly burning, reflecting the vast cemetery below, sorrowful... deathly silent...
One piece... two pieces... ten pieces... a hundred pieces... a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand... a million... ten million!
Countless tombstones stretched to the horizon, unable to be contained within the view, while Maha... stood in front of the foremost tombstone, back facing Roy, saying: "This is the price of walking the path of 'Faith'."
A light sentence fell from Maha's mouth, yet heavy as a thousand pounds, weighing silently on Roy's heart, unable to say a word. The young boy said nothing, paced to Maha's side, watching him stretch a dry, slender hand to rub the tall tombstone, engraved...
[Brook Sayle, my closest brother, comrade. Born in Continental Year 1874, Syblus. Died in 1957, Frost Valley.]
[Great warrior... pioneer of resistance... loyalty was his synonym... fearless was his life's portrayal...]
[——1957, Maha Zoldyck]
Roy gradually realized something, his gaze fell and rose with Maha, hearing him narrate the life of this "Brook Sayle".
The old man said: "You guessed right, he was once my top general."
"And him... her... it..." Maha's dry, thin hand caressed one tombstone after another, slowly traversing through the forest of graves, as if shuttling through the past, narrating one by one to Roy... Randall, Mike Yang, Lyon, Bellucci... once formed a group with him, then an organization, then a political party, choosing Frost Valley as a settlement, gathering the abandoned, resisting Magical Beasts, seeking a way out under the dual stress of [God] and [calamity]... this is a story Roy had never heard....
It also belongs to all Zoldycks, including Roy, tracing back to their past roots!
"The world only knows that when one becomes a god, even a chicken, even a dog, would escape the identity of the abandoned, formally establishing on the Dark Continent... but, most do not know...."
Maha stopped before the last tombstone on the right of the first row, lightly caressing it. Different from other tombstones, there was a faded photo on the surface... the photo was old, even crinkled slightly, but still couldn't hide the woman's gentle and beautiful smiling beauty...
Maha paused, softly said: "Failure is the silent majority, and... will always run through one's life."
Then, glanced at Roy: "Come over, meet your great-grandmother."
Roy silently followed behind Maha, clearly seeing under the faded photo... [Beloved wife Betty Zoldyck, Born in Continental Year 1895, Syblus. Died in 1957, Frost Valley.]
With a solemn expression, he stepped forward slowly... bowed respectfully, straightened his back, recalling the dream near the willow tree in the courtyard, Grandpa Jager insisted on going to the Dark Continent, only to be dragged under the willow tree by Maha and beaten almost to death, took a breath and said: "Great-grandfather, Grandpa Jager came here too."
"Did he... see great-grandmother?"
Maha did not answer, he hunched his body, squatted down, pulling out a few weeds in front of the tombstone, "I didn't invite him, it was his insistence to break in."
"The [Game of the Dead] can increase combat power by collecting 'items',"
"Back then, he snuck in with just a 'slumber' card..."
Like his style... Roy squatted down, accompanied Maha in pulling out the weeds beside the tombstone, "Grandpa, Father, do they know?"
"No."
Roy, silent.
Maha supported his waist to stand up, looking into the gray fog filled with loneliness and sorrow, after a while, said: "I think you should come and see."
"Because I'm following the same path as Great-grandfather, right?" Roy stood up accordingly.
Maha did not answer.
The boy gazed at the forest of gravestones, pinching a fallen leaf in the wind, lost in thought: "So, all these people were killed because they followed Great-grandfather?"
"No,"
"They were martyrdom."
"?!"
Millions died as martyrs?!
Roy sharply turned his head to look... Maha spoke with a haunting gaze, "To the victor belongs the spoils, the successful will take everything from the failed..."