Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty

I grabbed his arm. My hand sank.The other party resisted instinctively, trying to break free from my grasp. I didn't dare to speak, and tried to calm the other party down with my thoughts.But even so, I knew those shadows would find me sooner or later.I don't have much time left. So I held his arm tightly, skipped the greeting, and said straight to the point in my heart: "Mr. Mario, I need your help." The other party was even more surprised.His body was shaking, and it took a long time before his mind could barely respond. "Who are you?" his mind asked. "My name is Odell. I once bought your mask from Mr. Stefano."

I tried to keep my introduction as short as possible, but when I mentioned Stefano's name, the other person trembled violently again, and then his mind suddenly went blank.I can't hear anything anymore.Am I late?Has his consciousness been swallowed by the shadow?But just when I was almost desperate, he came back again. "My brother... Stefano, is he... all right?" the other side's mind stumbled and asked. "He misses you. He divides himself into two people, being Stefano during the day and Mario at night." I couldn't go on because I felt the other person was crying.

"If you go back, Mr. Stefano will be very happy to see you." I comforted him softly. The opponent's brain became blank again. I nervously swallowed my saliva, for fear that all my previous achievements would be wiped out.If the word "go back" is too sensitive, I try to ask the question in a different way. "How did you get here?" I asked him gently with my thoughts again. "Floods flood the earth, and everything on the earth will be destroyed!" Mario's whole body trembled violently, his thoughts couldn't answer the questions, and he suddenly started talking nonsense.

Startled, I grabbed his arm tightly and forced him to be quiet with my thoughts. "Flood, flood..." His mind was still running. I know he's referring to the biblical Flood, but I don't know what that has to do with what's going on here.So I had to change the question again. "How long have you been here?" I continued to ask with my thoughts. "How do I remember?" After a long time, after another extremely long "blank period", when I was almost unable to hold my breath again, the other party's thoughts finally began to answer me vaguely, "Maybe Ten years, maybe a hundred years, maybe just yesterday."

It immediately reminded me of the different timelines in the Demon Space.No matter how complicated things happen in the dream, it is only a moment of thought.Perhaps the same applies to "The Void."I suddenly felt a move in my heart. "Maybe when you go out from here, you will go back to the day you left, maybe it never happened at all." I boldly said to him. The other party's thoughts fell into silence again. "Don't you want to go out?" I was a little anxious. "Of course I wanted to go out when I got here on the first day. I wanted to go out like crazy." The man answered me slowly, his thoughts now flowing a bit more, "But I missed the opportunity. The next day I Still wanting to get out. Then the third day, the fourth day... I wanted to get out, but I didn't have the strength. I'm slowly sinking and rotting here, and if you didn't show up, I wouldn't remember anything."

"But you still remember your name! You also remember your brother Stefano!" I shouted at him with my mind, "You are completely different from those shadows!" "Really?" Mario seemed to smile.He directed my hands to touch other parts of his body. I covered my mouth tightly with my other hand, blocking a nearly exclaimed exclamation.For I have touched nothing but a void. The "Mr. Mario" in front of me only had a head wearing a mask, half a shoulder, and an arm.He wasn't "imitating" the movement of those black shadows, his virtual "body" had already merged into the surrounding buzzing resonance, only because of the remaining physical part, his vibration slowed down, thus Captured by my keen hearing.

I let go of my palm and gasped. "Don't you understand? I'll never get out of here. My willpower is too weak, and that's all those shadows need. They'll find a hole to invade your body, slow as maggots Slowly eating away at your consciousness, turning you into a shell to join them. That's what happens to everyone. And that's where I end up." "But..." I wanted to say something, but he cut me off right away. "I can't take it anymore. But I'm glad to meet you at the last minute." Mr. Mario held my hand tightly. "I haven't met anyone here in all these years. Any... …someone who still has consciousness.” He paused for a second in thought, then continued to say to me, “You must be strong, stronger than I am.”

I couldn't speak, I felt like my throat was blocked. "I need you to do something for me," his mind said suddenly. "What's the matter?" I asked quickly. But Mr. Mario didn't answer me right away.He struggled a bit and let go of my hand.At that moment I felt the wind, and something like a disk was sent into my arms. "Please say 'I'm sorry' to Stefano for me." He struggled to utter vague sentences in his hoarse voice, and this was the first time he spoke.But also for the last time. Immediately afterwards, in my shock, the other party pushed me hard.

I staggered backwards, trying to keep my balance in the pitch blackness.I heard the trembling and icy air around me suddenly set off a huge wave, engulfing him in an instant. There were some uncoordinated ripples at first, but they disappeared quickly. The buzzing resonance sounds from all around became one after another, as if playing a tragic and continuous requiem. "No—!" I screamed uncontrollably, tears streaming down my face. The buzzing sound rushed towards me quickly. My whole body was surrounded by black shadows, they pulled my hair and clothes, grabbed my hands, pulled my feet, hugged my waist, hugged my legs, pressed my shoulders, pinched me My neck, like the dark tide in a storm, surged over my body and submerged the top of my head.

"Odell, put on your mask!" A familiar voice came from afar. I tried to free my hand and pressed the mask that Mario had slipped to me before he died, tightly against my face.The uneven edges scratched my skin, but I couldn't care less. Because the bubble burst at this moment. Suddenly, I saw a man rushing towards me, almost fell down on the way, and he desperately stretched out his hand to me. I rushed forward with all my strength and threw myself into his arms.