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For some reason, Lin Qi felt that as long as the Earl helped him, he could leave here.
The Earl interrupted Lin Qi.
"Yes! ... This is also the most difficult point for me to accept - as long as I say I will help you, and then as you thought at the beginning, you can get rid of the curse of the beast and return to reality after passing the seven trials."
As he said this, the Count couldn't help but cover his face and sigh.
He had already come to the conclusion: Lin Qi himself was unwilling to move forward, but if a trusted companion pushed him, he would try again -
"But there's no point in doing that!"
"After all, if I do that, wouldn't it be the same as pushing you towards a reality that you yourself despair of?"
After saying this, the Earl glanced at Lin Qi, and his eyes became complicated.
Lin Qi is a weird person.
This was the Count's thought from beginning to end.
After all, what normal person would trust a vengeful ghost like me from the moment they meet?
The Earl, who could feel Lin Qi's trust, asked himself.
Moreover, this kind of trust is enough to entrust your back to someone, and even if you stand aside and watch, laugh at someone, comment on them at will, or even disappear, this trust will not diminish.
"——So I won't help you. That would just be sending you to your death."
Recalling everything that had happened in this short period of time, the earl's tone was filled with unquestionable firmness.
There is no spark of hope ahead in such a future, and only darkness that is destined to lead to death awaits those who move forward.
"…Then how am I supposed to get out?"
After hearing the Earl's words, Lin Qi's eyes were full of confusion.
"I said it long ago, ask yourself, not me."
"Let me ask you this first. Do you think this is a prison tower?"
The Earl opened his arms and showed this space to Lin Qi.
"I remember you said this was the prison tower..."
Lin Qi wasn't sure, but his memory was pretty good.
"Hahahaha, think about it carefully. Did I say this is a prison tower?"
The Earl smiled. He stared into Lin Qi's eyes and asked back with a faint smile.
"How could it not be..."
Lin Qi was about to refute, but the memory fragments from the past flashed through his mind at this moment.
He was stunned for a moment, as if he had seen something incredible, and the second half of his sentence got stuck in his throat.
"Remember?"
After finding out the truth, Lin Qi suddenly felt his throat dry, and his Adam's apple moved twice: "...I...'forced' you to say it..."
He finished speaking with difficulty.
"That's right! I never really said from the beginning to the end - this is the prison tower!"
The count snapped his fingers and looked at Lin Qi with a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.
“Although all the facilities here are the same as those in a prison tower, it is not a prison tower.”
"So where exactly is this place? And who trapped you here?"
"Is it the Magic King? Is it that beast? Or is it me?"
The Earl patiently and patiently cast an expectant gaze on Lin Qi.
"——I have said this before."
Lin Qi kept thinking back to what the Earl had said, moving forward from the present, and finally... locked onto a sentence he said when they first met.
"…What trapped me was actually——"
"I?"
Lin Qi's eyes were full of disbelief.
“Pah, pah, pah…”
The Count could not help but applaud.
Hey, Lin Qi is not stupid!
——Uh, or is there really something wrong with the way he speaks?
"How is this possible?! If I trapped myself, why would I climb up the tower so desperately?"
Thinking back to what he had done, Lin Qi couldn't help but retort.
"Or is there another 'me' that has trapped me?"
This is too old-fashioned!
(In fact, a few years ago, this setting was quite novel)
"…It's good to have imagination, but your imagination seems to have gone a little too far."
The Count held his forehead.
"And how did you make sure you didn't trap yourself?"
"You just keep doing useless work upwards, and you think you haven't trapped yourself?"
Yes, the Earl also admitted that Lin Qi’s strangeness was not just reflected in that inexplicable trust.
It also lies in the willpower to move forward even though you have already determined that you cannot succeed.
After passing the seventh floor, the Earl deliberately hid and observed Lin Qi from where he could not see.
He didn't expect Lin Qi to have such a big reaction after he left.
But no one expected that even so, Lin Qi did not stay there for too long, but ran straight to the next level.
Even when he was worried about Lin Qi, Lin Qi rushed into the room without hesitation and exchanged his injury for his life with the black shadow.
The ferocity and brutality of his fighting was so great that even the Earl could not help but secretly smack his lips in amazement.
Then he watched in a daze as Lin Qi killed six black shadows along the way, until the seventh one was finally defeated.
"Think about it carefully."
"I can also tell you right now that this place, which was originally called the 'Prison Tower' and now even I don't know what it should be called, has become like this because of you."
"It is now like an inherent barrier, covering and assimilating the original 'Prison Tower'. All the changes in it are because of you."
"Do you remember why there is darkness in front and behind you?"
"That's because this place exists because of you. As long as you don't go there, there will be no real objects in the place covered by darkness. It is just a piece of darkness that even I don't want to set foot in."
"Oh, your acquaintances and friends are probably just so funny because of your subconscious, right? Haha..."
Thinking back to the previous "performance", the Count couldn't help but sneer.
Is it all because of me?
Lin Qi recalled the strange behavior of Joan of Arc, Nero and others, and suddenly it didn't seem strange anymore.
Indeed, only Lin Qi, who had experienced so much abstract baptism, could construct such a scene.
But why? Where on earth did I get stuck?
Am I not working hard enough?
"I don't understand……"
Lin Qi sat on the ground with his head down in frustration.
"Then let me reveal your hidden thoughts—"
"Because you never thought you could defeat that beast!"
"Why was the cell door open when I was there? Because I opened it."
"Why can't you escape from here? The floors above seem endless? Because it's not me who led you through the seven levels of judgment."
"Why was the cell door closed again after I left?"
The Earl continued to question in a harsh voice.
Facing the Earl's questioning, Lin Qi's heart seemed to be hit by a huge hammer, and the rusty shell on it was all smashed off.
Yes, Lin Qi has always believed in his heart that he has no ability to defeat Goetia, so instead of believing in himself, he would believe more in the servants who have helped him so much.
So if the Servants help, then...
The Earl looked at Lin Qi meaningfully and said:
"Yes, here, you always give me your utmost trust, but to be honest, you don't trust us servants subconsciously, right?"
"Otherwise, why wouldn't all the friendly servants lend a helping hand to you? Those who scream scream, those who sing sing, those who watch the show watch the show..."
Listening to the Earl's words, Lin Qi finally couldn't help but refute:
"No, no...I have always believed in them, that's why I didn't believe in them!"
Lin Qi looked into the earl's eyes stubbornly.
Only this trust is definitely not a lie!
The Earl looked away. He knew that Lin Qi's trust was genuine, but he had to break this trust with his own hands.
"...Yes, if you believe in us servants, I'm afraid that the journey will not fade for a long time to come."
"But what about the beast?"
"Do you really think that the Servants are still worthy of your trust in facing that beast?"
The Earl grinned and stared into Lin Qi's eyes again.
Under the Earl's gaze, Lin Qi's pupils shrank, and the waist that had just straightened up seemed to slowly lose the support of muscles and slowly bent down.
[Anti-summon]
Under this power, servants are meaningless.
"…But if the Servants can't help me, how can I defeat that beast?"
After the Earl had ripped off his protective cover, Lin Qi, who finally faced the reality, seemed to have lost all his strength and said in disappointment.
"Servants, we are not trustworthy!"
“So what you have to do is simple since you are all alone - believe in yourself!”
The Earl took a step closer to Lin Qi.
"What's more...the power you haven't realized has actually been helping you all along. You can sense it, right?"
The Earl poked Lin Qi's chest, then stood up and looked at him quietly.
……
Lin Qi lowered his head, put his hand on the place where the Earl had just poked, his eyes a little dazed.
Here is the heart.
Why could I hear Black Jeanne's "cry" from 800 meters away? At that distance, and on that noisy battlefield, it should be impossible to hear it...
Nero once said that I had hidden power, but at that time I just thought that power was my Noble Phantasm.
But Lin Qi could still vaguely remember the miracle of the last sword in the battle against Romulus, the excitement that seemed to be able to defeat everything - it was like they were "one heart and one body".
And she once said that this was borrowing my power...
And Asterios—
At the end of the battle, he was seriously injured and dying and didn't say a word. How did I hear what he said?
Why do all my friendly servants have such a high level of favorability towards me?
And why can I use those treasures right away? Even use them in a way that is much stranger than their original treasures?
The [Fantasy Great Sword] that charges up while swinging the sword, the towering Roman tree, the mobile forbidden [Labyrinth]...