Chapter 4: The Moon-Possessed Messenger (Part 2)
Just as a bunch of men in the hotel were complaining to each other, Atlas was slowly landing on a peak in the mountains north of the capital, holding Beichen.
Their landing place was a rocky mountain area. There were not many trees around, and under their feet were large, slightly tilted rocks. The night mountain breeze blew in their faces. Although it was a bit cold, it brought with it a refreshing smell that made people feel comfortable.
"Okay, Atlas, can you tell me now?"
"Well," Atlas did not let go of Beichen after landing. Instead, he continued to hold her and sat down. "Beichen, please mate with me."
“…”
Beichen was so frightened that her breath was stuck in her throat and she couldn't say anything. Atlas saw that she was stunned and thought she agreed, so he happily wrapped his tail around one of her thighs and reached out his hand to unbutton her clothes.
"Wait a minute!"
Beichen finally came back to his senses and grabbed Atlas' hand.
"You, do you know what mating means?!"
"Of course, mating refers to the reproductive activity between humans of the opposite sex. Specifically, it means inserting the male's [beep] into..."
“Wa ...
Beichen screamed incoherently and struggled - but Atlas's arms were so strong that she was pinned in his arms and couldn't move at all. The burning body temperature and slightly rapid breathing made Beichen's ears blush with shame, and she didn't dare to look him in the eye.
"Beichen, you promised me."
Atlas said this in a voice that was suppressed, a little forbearing and aggrieved.
"I, I did promise to accompany you, but you didn't say I was going to accompany you...that?!"
"Beichen doesn't like me?"
Atlas still had no expression on his face, but the strength in his tail and hands had increased a lot. His upper body with beautiful curves was covered with a thin layer of sweat, which made him look even more sexy in this situation.
Beichen was distracted for a few seconds by the beautiful scenery so close to him, then he immediately shook his head hard and pressed his hands against the chest of Atlas who was pressing on him.
"I like it! But mating is not allowed!"
"Why? ...Beichen promised, I feel very uncomfortable."
The repression in his voice became more and more obvious, and his tone became more and more like that of a willful kid. Atlas held Beichen in his arms relentlessly, and it seemed that he might lose his sanity at any time.
Beichen was really a little panicked. A picture flashed through her mind, making her face turn pale.
That was the gentle kiss Xiang Ying gave her before he left, pulling her face close to him.
The numbing feeling still lingers on my lips and has not faded away. Whenever I think of that scene, the extreme sorrow and the sweetness hidden in it will clearly return to the surface of my memory.
“Atlas!!”
She screamed with a trembling and panicked look.
"Calm down! Don't do anything to upset me, please!"
Atlas's hand, which had been wandering on her body uncontrollably, immediately stopped, and a trace of sadness and grievance flashed in his red eyes.
"Beichen... really doesn't like me?"
"No," Beichen reluctantly stretched out a hand from his arm, moved it to his head and touched it. "You know, Xiang Ying just left, and I don't want to... Atlas, what's wrong with you? Why did you suddenly..."
Atlas closed his eyes tightly, and his whole body twitched in less than a second, as if he was enduring great pain.
"On the day of the full moon, if I do nothing..."
Beichen frowned.
"Do you feel anxious and have nowhere to vent?"
"Um."
Atlas nodded laboriously.
"But I won't force Beichen. I'll wait until Beichen... likes me, then..." He panted as he spoke, as if even speaking normally took a lot of effort, "...I am... a gentleman."
"fool……"
Although she was a gentleman who would touch her breasts as soon as they met, Beichen still stroked her long, bright blue hair gently with a mixture of amusement and heartache.
"Is there any other way to relieve your condition?"
"Otherwise... Beichen help me with his hands?"
"Huh?"
Atlas' eyes lit up instantly:
"The database contains many methods that can relieve stress without actually engaging in intercourse. Beichen, you can try [beep──────────], [beep────────], and [beep beep beep beep────]... Okay?"
"That's not the question!"
Beichen didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but pulled her hand away before Atlas was about to pull her hand to press it against his crotch.
"Regardless of whether there's any actual action involved, once I do this with you, it means I acknowledge you as my partner. But we're not actually in that relationship, are we? And if I go along with you out of sympathy, wouldn't that be even more disrespectful to you?!"
Atlas frowned and was silent for a few seconds, as if he understood the meaning of Beichen's words.
"Not a couple. ...A couple. ...Search complete."
"Uh...get it?"
"It's my fault." Atlas nodded and reluctantly let go of Beichen. "I didn't confess my feelings, and I didn't do anything a couple should do, so I'm not Beichen's lover. I will try to make it up to you in the future."
“…Ah, that’s not the problem…”
Beichen twitched the corner of her mouth a little exhaustedly - but she was still very grateful that Atlas could brake in this situation. Generally speaking, males do not have this level of endurance to talk rationally with people in this situation.
"Then all that's left is to temporarily shut down the main logic processor program. I need to sleep for four hours to suppress the pulsation disorder of the star power."
As if he could no longer suppress his desire, Atlas spoke quickly, let go of Beichen, took a step back, then closed his eyes - and just stood there motionless.
"Atlas? Atlas??"
Beichen called out cautiously a few times, but there was no response at all—perhaps it had fallen into a dormant state.
She circled around him, pondering for a moment before deciding to summon Black Disaster and Su Jie. After all, Atlas had said he would sleep for four hours, so their safety needed to be guaranteed.
But just a second before she could launch a long-distance summon, Atlas began to move again.
"Huh, I can finally get out."
The same voice, in a completely different tone, came out of Atlas' mouth lightly.
Beichen was startled and took a step back, lowering his upper body and staring at the other person like a frightened ocelot. What happened to Atlas? What did "coming out" mean?
Seeing Beichen on guard, Atlas opposite him actually changed his usual expressionless face, pursed his lips and smiled slightly evilly, and his red eyes also emitted a terrifying light. Under the dark blue moonlight, the familiar face actually brought people an unfamiliar sense of fear and oppression.
——The one with this kind of expression is more like a "Moon-possessed Envoy".
"Don't be afraid," he said, stretching out his arms and legs as if to stretch himself. "I am the previous generation's 'Atlas', and the former user of this body, the discarded personality."
Beichen was stunned.
"...A discarded personality? Is there more than one personality within Atlas?"
The other party nodded.
"Don't look like that. I won't occupy your Atlas' body. I'll only come out to replace him when he shuts down his personality and goes dormant. And only on the night of the star disaster will my old version of the program have enough energy to be compatible. So even if you want to see me, it's only on the night of the star disaster."
Unlike Atlas, this previous generation of Atlas spoke without any mechanical stiffness, but was fluent and clear, and even seemed to be very good at observing people's expressions.
He said as he sat down and patted the rocky ground beside him.
"Sit down, this is a rare opportunity, I have something I want to tell you."
Beichen hesitated for a moment, but seeing that Atlas really had no intention of harming her, she carefully moved over and sat down next to him.
"So...what do you want to tell me?"
"Well, then." Old Atlas - let's call him that for now - patted Beichen's shoulder with the look of an elder, stretched out his star wings to wrap around the two of them, blocking the night mountain wind.
"Beichen, do you know the origin of the name Possessed Moon Envoy?"
"Hmm...? Possessed Moon Messenger? I understand the Moon Messenger thing a little, since they fell to Senagard from the moon, right?"
"That's right." Old Style nodded. "As for 'possession'... that's because of the forms of those biological weapons. You've noticed, too, that most of the creatures possessing the Moon Envoys have prototypes, like wolves, tigers, fish—and some, like us, human-like. Do you think our race is similar to the creatures of Senagard, the product of some demonic possession, distortion, and mutation?"
"Is that so?" Beichen tilted his head in confusion. "But they're not possessed by some spirit, they've been like this since birth, right?"
"This involves the great disaster that happened ten thousand years ago."
Jiushi took a deep breath, looked up at the poisonous moon above his head, and smiled bitterly.
"That's not the point. It would take forever to explain. I'll just focus on the key points. Since we're called Moon Messengers, we must have a purpose for descending into this world. But because that purpose hasn't been achieved, the moon has been sending more Moon Messengers here non-stop."
As he spoke, he turned his head and stared at Beichen with his red eyes with a serious look.
"So, if one day, all of a sudden, the Moon Envoys achieve their goal, what do you think will happen?"
"...The moon stopped sending possessed moon messengers to this world?...Ah!!"
Beichen covered his mouth in shock: If the Moon Envoy hadn't possessed him, wouldn't the war weapons have immediately starved to death in large numbers?!
"Do you understand how serious this is? Therefore, Moon's goal will never be achieved."
"So, what is the purpose of the moon?"
"It's you. ...I'm going to kill you, Beichen."
“──”
Beichen was completely bewildered. Kill her? For the past ten thousand years, the Moon had been sending such a huge number of possessed Moon Messengers to Senagard non-stop, just to kill her? -- Was it because she was the Crimson Moon Priestess?
Wait, isn't this old-style Atlas also on Poison Moon's side?!
Beichen's face turned pale and he wanted to stand up, but was held down by Jiushi with a funny expression.
"Listen to me, kid."
"If the Moon's sniping had continued, do you think you would still be alive now? The possessed Moon Emissaries weren't obviously targeting you, were they?"
"So, what's going on?"
Because the matter was too serious, Beichen felt exhausted and irritated and muttered to himself.
"I destroyed the location function that Du Yue used to locate the Red Moon Priestess. You have a sophisticated nano-machine chip in your body, and it's that thing that identifies you as the Red Moon Priestess—that thing is called 'Pandora's Box'. As for its meaning, the name alone should give you an idea, right?"
"Wait, wait." Beichen stopped talking. "Of course I know the meaning, but I... I feel like my head is spinning! Pandora is a name from Feinheim mythology, right? How do you know? You know the Red Moon Priestess very well? And why did you betray the Poison Moon Selenkrade?"
Old-fashioned amused wink.
"Beichen, the name 'Atlas' is from the myth of Feinheim, right? Didn't you notice?"
"ah……"
Yes! No wonder she always felt that there was something strange and out of place about this name.
"That is to say! You..."
"The New Atlas and I share a common database. He probably uses some Feinheim terms quite often, right?"
“…Yeah, that’s right! He always makes weird complaints, and I ask him how he knows all that…”
"Well, for the past ten thousand years, I've been monitoring and protecting the 'Pandora's Box' that was dropped into Feinheim, so of course I possess a wealth of knowledge from that place. The 'pseudo-shells' of the 'Pandora's Box' used to protect and pass on the knowledge have been passed down from generation to generation by the organization I established. ――Including your grandmother, Xiang Zhiyan."
"That……!"
"The 'Red Moon Knight' who can observe the Miko candidates through the eyes of a false shell... was also created by me. ...Get it? I am a betrayer of the Poison Moon and a half-supporter of the Red Moon."
"What do you mean? You want me to create a disaster to catalyze a change of eras?"
"Be patient. Children are children after all."
Jiushi shook his head helplessly and tapped Beichen's eyebrows with his finger. There was calmness and tolerance of an old man between his brows, but there was still a faint evil smile on the corner of his mouth.
"Do you really think the new Atlas appearing next to you was a coincidence? A mistake? He wouldn't be so friendly to someone he didn't know. Why do you think you were able to get away with so many tricks? He knew you were related the moment he touched you. You're his legitimate guide. If you were a fake, he would have cut you in two the moment you entered the code."
"Well……"
Beichen scratched his hair in confusion.
"So, what exactly is your and Shinshiki's purpose?"
"To protect you from death. If you die, Poison Moon will be completely unable to sense Pandora's Box and will judge you dead. The possessed Moon Envoy will become extinct, and you will be the culprit for the death of all the weapons in the world. You'd better understand that your life now does not belong to you."
“…”
Beichen took a deep breath and nodded heavily. In reality, her life no longer belonged to her.
"But, in that case, wouldn't it be better for me to go back to Feinheim? That way, the weapons won't..."
"If you go back, won't you also die of old age? That means that in a hundred years at most, all of Senagard's weapons will be gone. If you stay in Senagard, Pandora's Box will absorb the energy of the celestial spirit and help you maintain your vitality."
“……!!”
Beichen finally came back to his senses with his whole body cold.
So what Atlas meant was not that she couldn't die for the time being, but... she had lost the qualification to die forever?
"You mean... I... can't... die?"
"Of course. Unless you wish for the extinction of the war machines," Jiushi said, looking at Beichen's unpredictable expression in surprise. "Strange, as far as I know, haven't humans always been pursuing immortality? Why do you look like you've seen the end of the world?"
Beichen looked at the old Atlas with a complicated expression.
"So, old Atlas, how many years have you lived?"
"If you include the new age, it's over ten thousand."
"...Are you tired of it? Do you still want to go on living?"
Atlas raised an eyebrow and fell silent.
"If you're not tired of it, why would you let a new personality replace you?"
Beichen's words made Jiushi smile bitterly.
yes.
Immortality is different from life that never ends.
The former can satisfy human greed for various material desires, while the latter is just a blankness with no end in sight. In just ten thousand years, he saw all kinds of human conditions, tasted all kinds of hardships, absorbed endless knowledge, saw all kinds of scenery, and faced countless people and things.
It took ten thousand years from the initial freshness and dissatisfaction to the final boredom and exhaustion.
In the end, he could no longer endure the boundless emptiness, and selfishly created a new personality. After sharing the database and central purpose with him, he fell into a deep sleep that made him extremely comfortable and peaceful.
He still has a deadline of ten thousand years, but what Beichen has to face is an endless and endless end without a destination.
"Thanatos."
Beichen gently uttered a noun.
"A 'death wish'?" Old Man patted Beichen's head. "Indeed, sleep is a form infinitely close to death. A living being's desire for sleep does reflect a certain longing for a peaceful end to life. After all, only a few ignorant rulers in ancient times pursued immortality, right?"
“Life is precious because it is limited.”
Beichen frowned and obediently accepted Atlas's comfort.
"Besides, the lifespans of the people around me all have an end, right? If I could live for hundreds of years like Xifeng, I'd be greedy, but if you tell me that I don't even have a death date, then—"
It was horrible. … She could hardly imagine it.
Hei Huo, Su Jie, Gu Yinyue, Lu Yi, Ya Ye, Xi Feng... all of them grew old, died, and left in front of her one by one.
...It's so scary.
"Are you scared?"
Observing her expression, the old man still had a smile on his face and asked softly without changing his expression.
"I have a question. Atlas, what exactly are you? If you are the Possessed Moon Envoy, why are you standing against the Poison Moon? What is your relationship with the Red Moon?"
Atlas was a little surprised by her change of subject, but he answered immediately.
"After all I've just said, you've probably noticed something, right? The two moons above your head each have their own 'consciousness'."
"Something like artificial intelligence?"
"Well... I guess so." He gave an ambiguous answer.
"There are three 'Ancient Wills' in this world: Poison Moon Selenkrad, Crimson Moon Seilland, and Cemetery of the Gods Selengard. Okay, guess which one I am?"
"...Ancient Will...? Is it the consciousness of the planet? ...You..."
Beichen was once again shocked and confused by the old words.
"You...don't tell me you are the 'Ancient Will' of Senagard?!"
"Bingo."
Laoshi shook his finger with a somewhat malicious smile.
"You guessed it right. I am the greatest will of this planet... Senagard."
“…”
Beichen opened his mouth wide and couldn't form any words for a long time.
"…Does a planet have a will?"
"Well, to be exact, it's not the planet itself. The three of us are the product of a central processing unit that became overly intelligent. This is really too complicated to explain. On the next night of the star disaster, if you're not interested in interspecies mating with the new type, I can find time to explain it to you."
Beichen was stunned by the words "interspecies mating". "Is it really okay to talk about these things? Isn't this some dark side of the world?"
"It's the dark side of the world. But aren't you also a dark side of the world?"
“…”
Beichen twitched his lips sadly.
"Anyway, you should focus on the things at hand. Don't let your impulsiveness get you killed. You know what I mean."
Beichen was stunned for a moment, and then his expression immediately became bitter.
Did he show up because he was afraid something might happen to him after Xiang Ying left?
"I know. I don't deserve to die now."
She gritted her teeth, picked up a stone at her feet, held it in her palm, and unconsciously scratched the ground with it.
"But I think there must be a way to die. Anyway, if Pandora's Box isn't with me, I'll be free! So let's find a way to move Pandora's Box!"
She said as she stood up with all her strength.
"I like this world, I like Senagard—ah, I'm not talking about you—so I want to live a wonderful life as an ordinary person. I've even decided to build a country where we can all feel at ease. So, this little obstacle can't defeat me! When Xiang Ying comes back, I'm going to show him my achievements! Make him feel ashamed!"
Under the amusing and indulgent look of the old Atlas, Beichen put his hands on his hips and nodded proudly at the dawn slowly rising at the end of the horizon.
"I'm not afraid of living, so why should I be afraid of dying? I'm not afraid of dying────how can I be afraid of living?!"
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