Work Text:
-This post was created 3 times based on pyrite's ( @secondterra ) Apocalypse AU, thanks again for the permission.
-This post contains some personal explanations
**Translator's Notes**
Since the original text is in Mandarin, some of the translations have changed the original sentences in order to be more in line with English reading habits.
This article contains some episodes of 'Times' from 十三幺
@Zr1EBogrcXOGyLq .
https://archiveofourown.org/works/32146489
Original Worldview： 𝑃𝑌𝑅𝐼𝑇𝐸 @secondterra
Mandarin text：十三幺
English Translation：EUthanaP @EUthana_Lau
The flow of life is as fragile as dust.
Ain opened his eyes after a short nap, and in his dream world, Elsword said to him in excitement:
"Let's get out of here."
He hadn't seen Elsword smile purely in a long time, though he did frown and laugh when he fought, and that implied more acceptance of the challenge than relief. But either smile was better than the bitter look they had when they were stuck in the stronghold, and the two men's escapades had made IM more inclined to live by their nature than to follow their responsibilities and socialize with people who were painful and dreary to work with.
Seeing Ain's silence, Elsword stepped backward on the steel bars protruding outwards in a dream that was about to shatter, and AIN grabbed his hand before he falling from the unfinished building.
“ You long for freedom, too, don't you?”
“ Not in this way.”
“then, for what?”
Ain spent a really long time thinking about this, so long that he ignored time, well the length of the dream doesn't vary by the real world, Elsword re-stepped back to the steel, sat down, and quietly waited for an answer.
From a distance, the scene began to blur and collapse, as if the two of them were witnessing the destruction of an entire world.
Ain remembered the words he had heard Elsword say in reality:
"Let's get out of here."
Again, no answer, but it was a very refreshing day, Aesop lifted the gray cloth on the back after waiting impatiently, inside was a brand new motorcycle, he got on it, and patted the back seat for AIN to sit on, God knows how much efforts he had to make to get it, and now he wanted to show it off.
It was a great, whimsical, reckless decision. They really rode out on a motorcycle at a time when they should have continued patrolling, the roar of the chassis attracted monsters to block, not fast enough were left behind, while those who pounced were left to Ain and his scythe to solve.
Ain not only did not feel unhappy because of Elsword's decision,on the contrary, they laughed during the rare rest time after clearing the enemy.
This was Elsword's first racing. The speed was too fast, after the end he even a bit want to vomit, brave too much, usually will say 'this degree is nothing' actually will also dizzy and hurt.
The touch on the palm of the hand remains, obviously just a dream, the heart of this thing is tugged, and everything that is ordinary and unexceptional will end.
Ain woke up to the sound of people shouting and bullets erupting, and he frowned. In order to blend into the interstellar voyage of the ship, he put himself and his luggage together into the container where the cargo was, and then stopped all his own vital functions, which made him fall into a deep sleep well through the check, and he who never dreamed always had a rare dream this time, neither long nor short.
The sounds of trouble continued to come from other parts of the ship, and Aine leaned against the side of the container, he looked to the large suitcase he was carrying, and blood was seeping from the bottom. He took another look and the blood was gone.
To counted in his mind, about counted to more than three hundred, his body gradually recovered, he stood up, raised his scythe, cut to the wall, the whole ship is full of sweet aroma, the corridor is much thicker than the closed space, not long ago read the corresponding description in the book, a neurotoxin that can produce hallucinations, and the monster that creates hallucinations ...... He suddenly laughed to himself, thinking that he was not the only uninvited guest on this airship.
He was a little pissed off.
Sometimes dreams are another form of desecration of a painful past.
"Why do you think that?"
Ain closed his eyes:
"You're dead, Elsword."
Memories are like a circle of ripples connected to each other, as long as you remember a part of it, it will surfaced one piece after another.
Short, long, but mixed up because of subjective consciousness.
No one knows Elsword better than Ain, and perhaps that's why the illusions he experiences are so real, even diving into his dreams and talking to him at ease.
Elsword had never been so quiet and patient, and even Ain's claim that he was dead didn't make him angry, which was at odds with reality.
But for Ain, awake now, sensible and discerning, what is the point of criticizing all this?
The beginning of everything...
In the deserted concrete city after the invasion of monsters and the evacuation of humans, weeds grew up through the cracks in the concrete without regard for anyone.
Ain fights for the first time, with that huge scythe.
The boy is Ain's guardian and tester, that is the reason why Elsword will give him information and explain the types of monsters, their habits and weaknesses,as well as go out with him with weapons like this.
Other than that, they had very few conversations, not that Elsword was bad with words, but with Ain it was more exclamations and curses; Even as an experimental subject, he didn't know anything outside the lab, he just, faithfully carried out every request Elsword made:cleared the surrounding monsters alone.
Well, Ain didn't realize it was proving his worth, but Elsword knew well that the boy was not faithful, and even some of the mellow character that came from crawling around in the post-apocalyptic world, not in line with his nature of bitterness, everything was not entertaining.
Hell, Elsword always thought to himself, how could he expect an experimental subject to understand and appreciate himself, that was too ambiguous.
Even so, Ain always looked at Elsword with those clear eyes, no emotions flowing in the beautiful orbs, like frozen green glass - he saw people and monsters no different from roadside weeds, concrete and steel, even humans were more fragile, complex, uncertain.
It was as if he had mistaken the position of the observer and the observed.
Ain passed by the hall of the airship, and he obviously underestimated the chaos and madness that could be caused by a crowd caught in a collective hallucination.
People who were killing each other, eating each other, and doing their own things were only paying attention to what was in front of them. The entire hall fell into a myriad of clumps in Ain's sight, but to be honest, it was exactly the kind of scencet befitting a forsaken world.
If he didn't solve the root of the problem quickly, these people might never wake up from their hallucinations.
"When did you become so kind?"
It's like Elsword is still by his side, and if it were him he would try to save everyone - it's really a bit lonely to think like that.
In the short time that he stayed by his side from the beginning of gaining consciousness, trying to teach him everything, something took root in his heart, and trying to touch brought but pain.
"You're always doing work you don't like."
"But so what, how many people can live according to their own desires?"
Such a rhetorical question could only have been said by Ain when he first met him, just a few months later, the same sentence was answered in silence.
"I will leave."
Ain said so.
Like being strangled, Ain did know his guardian very well, he could not let Ain seek death and leave alone, then he would definitely go after him, it would be better to plan the departure of the two together from the beginning, even if this is the use of Elsword, all human beings live in the use and being used, the difference is only for Queen or say for something else.
"Well, I'll go with you then."
"Well, then I'll be with you."
"If you're lying, I won't forgive you."
The gunfire died down and followed the blood trail to find the creature that had blended in as it fed on the humans, the stumps of its legs falling to the outside of the giant flower with trailing blood as it continued to emit its aroma, dragging along ready to enter the hall where the food source was more plentiful.
Ain no longer had the control to transform Henir again, and the good news is that this monster was so weak in its own right that even Ain sliced through it using his scythe in melee, and the monster slowly regrouped, slicing into more pieces before it was complete, until they no longer possessed activity.
Farce,and all.
He was on top of a ship bound for Elsword's homeworld, the second planet.
Yes, until now, the visions and dreams persist.
He could see the boy's face and hear his somewhat angry complaints after being ignored again and again.
"Finally look over here? ...... Hey, you?"
Ain took Elsword by the wrist as if he really existed here, ready to walk through the hall together and stop again in the hall.
"I haven't answered your question."
Even if it's forcing something that doesn't exist.
The desire to be contradictory to the eternal nothingness makes Ain's existence real.
"The day we left the stronghold was a sunny day, you said I hadn't enjoyed the outside world properly, this kind of thing you too, after gaining freedom your expression looked much better. It made me feel good to just let things go, that was different from Queen having a connection, the connection you made with me, and I'm stuck with it until now, until ......"
Ain turned to grab Elsword's palm and drove, the other hand circling his waist, he was ready to dance, with Elsword.
In a beat that exists only in his head, holding IM's body, taking spinning steps, as close to IM as if he were embracing.
"Stop! Stop imagining things, Ain, it's all a damn illusion!!!"
There is no end ......
Even though the flow of life is as fragile as dust.
There is no end.
On the morning when all Elsword's vital signs were gone, the man left alone carried his body to find a container, and finally he found, as he had hoped, a large suitcase, which he padded with a soft cloth and placed Elsword in.
His body and figure had never been so cold and unreal.
The dance did not stop.
"And what are you, sorry because of death?"
"No, I just ...... don't want to see you in tears like this."
Do Androids Dream of Remorse?
After those days,
Always.
Fin.