同章对照

By the time Ryan reached Ischia Island, the area had already turned into a warzone.

The Mechron submarine had made landfall before Ryan arrived, unleashing a motley crew of cured Meta-Gang members, Geniuses outfitted with advanced power armors, and berserk Pandas on Ischia Island’s shores. They were welcomed by inactive turrets, Augusti gunners on the walls, and a horde of zombies buried beneath the beach.

Ryan had never seen Mercury in the flesh, only through skulls he used as intermediaries. According to Livia, the old Olympian could infuse corpses with necromantic energy and pilot undead from afar. With Geist out of the picture, the Augusti had decided to raise all his victims: bloated corpses left to drown beneath the waves, skeletons cleaned of all traces of flesh, and the diseased remains of the island’s test subjects. A yellow glow illuminated their eyes.

And who better to lead the legion of the dead than the god of war Mars himself?

Still, this army faced powerful opposition. Vladimir had transformed into a metallic version of himself, and landed first on the shore alongside the Panda. The steel man absorbed Mars’ swords and spears into his body while stomping on any corpse foolish enough to get in his way, quickly growing from three meters tall to four. Suicidal undead tried to climb on his legs with explosive belts, but the Panda quickly swept them off. The valiant bear tossed the kamikaze bombers into the sea where they exploded in fiery blasts.

Mars, after quickly realizing that most of his weapons wouldn’t affect Vladimir, switched from spears and swords to Genius-made weapons. A rain of Vulcan-made bombs fell on the iron giant, each with enough power to damage even Wyvern.

All of them turned to sand in a violet flash, while explosions rocked the Bliss fortress’ foundations.

Mars flinched in surprise, while a blonde woman stepped over the submarine and joined the fray. Acid Rain followed Vladimir and the Panda on foot, and immediately worked to counter Mars’ power. Since she could switch items with those of equivalent mass with a wider radius than the Olympian, she completely neutralized his arsenal.

To his credit Mars tried. Bombs fell by the dozens, only to explode amidst his undead troops; he launched a gas trunk at Vladimir’s face, but it turned to sand midair; he even prepared to fight the giant in close combat with a thermal lance, but it transformed into a severed zombie’s arm within his hands.

In the end, the dreaded warrior that put Ryan and Felix on the run one loop ago could only retreat as a steel giant ran after him. “This is the Bay of Pigs all over again!” Vladimir snarled, as he fruitlessly attempted to catch the wily Olympian. The giant proved no better at the task than abolishing private property, his hands grabbing only sand.

Ryan couldn’t help but smile beneath his helmet, as the scene reminded him of an old Looney Tunes cartoon; though he doubted Mars would have Bugs Bunny’s luck. And indeed, when the Olympian attempted to fly away by unleashing pressurized air, Acid Rain switched it with seawater. The helpless Mars stumbled on the ground and was immediately mauled by the Panda.

Livia had been correct. Genome powers were a rock-paper-scissors game.

It didn’t matter how powerful you were, someone out there had the exact ability to counter yours. Through intelligence gathered over multiple loops, Ryan had arrayed the perfect match-ups against the so-called Olympians.

Not that the normies in their employ fared better. Shortie had bubbled a dozen gunners, while a trail of explosions on the beach followed Felix as he blew up undead left and right. The Doll provided suppression fire with a Red Flux minigun, her own Mechron-made power armor shrugging off bullets.

Worse, Vulcan’s security system had failed to activate and intercept the invaders. At first Ryan thought his own Geniuses had done it… before noticing multiple Augusti trapped inside their own power armors, unable to move.

“Livia, you cheeky little spider, that’s who you called!” Ryan couldn’t help but laugh. Still, he wondered how Vulcan had the time to sabotage the defenses. Since the power armor she had created suffered from the same problems as the turrets, the courier assumed his ex-girlfriend had put a killswitch inside her creations since their inception. Insurance in case the Augusti leadership turned against her.

And she had cashed in.

Still, though the attackers were clearing out the beach, the defenders on the fortress’ walls held their ground. Having expected an assault by Dynamis, they had reinforced the ancient castle with anti-air defenses and heavy artillery. Once their allies on the ground were defeated and the risk of friendly fire reduced, they started dropping shells on the beach. Though their projectiles couldn’t hold off Vladimir’s advance—and in fact only fueled his growth—the others had to take cover or run behind the giant.

Some of the Killer Seven were among the defenders, with Vamp and Night Terror using rocket launchers, Sparrow unleashing deadly volleys of lasers from her hands, and Mortimer disdaining the heavy artillery for a subtle but deadly sniper rifle.

Ryan circled the fortress from above, trying to locate the more dangerous Cancel and Pluto. Some Augusti gunners noticed him and tried to shoot him down with anti-air cannons, but the courier froze time and retaliated with shockwaves. Cannons exploded one after another, sending defenders tumbling down the walls.

While he cleared out the anti-air defense perimeter, Ryan noticed a familiar red blur moving around the beach, pushing his allies out of harm’s way whenever projectiles threatened to hit them.

“Mr. Wave?” Ryan shouted from above, his voice echoing over the battlefield. “You were supposed to destroy the Mechron bases!”

“God asked things of Mr. Wave too once,” the Genome replied, as he quickly pushed Felix to the side before one of Mortimer’s bullets could blow his head off. “And Mr. Wave replied ‘say please!’”

The man said it with so much style that Ryan couldn’t hold his blasphemy against him.

Once word of the Carnival’s presence reached Lightning Butt, however…

The appearance of two new figures on the main wall, right above Narcinia’s flower garden, caught Ryan’s attention. They emerged from a reinforced door, the first with the same cheery smile always plastered on her face, the second with a furious scowl.

“Matty, Cruella and her Dalmatian at twelve o’clock high,” Ryan said through the communicator, as the two killers joined Mortimer, Vamp, and Night Terror. No one answered, so the courier guessed the silent assassin was already in position.

“Sweet, I don’t know where to start,” Cancel shouted over the song of bullets, raising a bazooka towards the beach alongside her comrades while wearing riot gear.

Unlike her subordinate, Pluto didn’t bother with body armor. She didn’t need it, or so she thought. “Traitors first,” the Augusti underboss hissed while glaring at Felix. Already, Ryan noticed the sand below the kitten’s feet shifting in strange and dangerous ways. “I should have killed him long—”

She didn’t finish her sentence, as a tranquilizer dart hit her in the neck, and another hit Cancel right below the helmet. The latter instantly turned her bazooka at the attack’s source while Mortimer did the same with his sniper’s rifle, but saw nothing.

Pluto hastily tried to remove the dart, but her hands fumbled before they even reached her neck. The Augusti Underboss who had nearly killed Ryan in the past, and successfully murdered countless others, stumbled and collapsed. Night Terror dropped his cannon to catch his superior in his arms, but Pluto had already fallen into a catatonic state.

Though Ryan knew tranquilizers usually took minutes to affect their target, the Alchemo-made anesthetic spread through the Genomes’ bloodstream and nerves in seconds. The courier had seen Pluto’s power in action enough times not to take any risk with her. She had to be dealt with swiftly with no chance to activate her death curse. Cancel, who was just as dangerous, fell unconscious on the wall’s bricks.

An invisible assassin had taken out Pluto and Cancel before they could even enter the game, and brought a partner.

When Shroud became visible on the walls right behind the Killer Seven with a glass-coated tranquilizer gun in his hands, so did his lucky charm. Ryan had to admit that her glass armor fit her like a glove, especially when she removed her helmet and let her golden hair flow.

“Fortuna?” Vamp choked while drawing a handgun and pointing it at the couple. Mortimer and Night Terror exchanged a glance. “You’re working with them?”

“I am,” Lady Luck replied with a determined frown. After receiving Alchemo’s memory treatment, she had remembered how the Killer Seven had tried to murder her brother in the previous loop… and she didn’t forgive. “Morty, Richie, don’t make this hard.”

Mortimer immediately dropped his sniper rifle, to Vamp’s dismay. “Mortimer, you coward!”

“They’ve got a living luck charm and K.O.’ed our power-canceller,” he said with utter defeatism, before falling to his knees with his hands behind his head. “Poor ol’ Mortimer ain’t rolling the dice.”

Vamp snarled and tried to open fire at the duo, only to slip on a brick. She barely had the time to scream before she stumbled over the wall and fell on the sand below, head-first.

“See?” Mortimer asked with a shrug. “It’s quicker this way.”

Night Terror glanced at the unconscious Pluto, then at Shroud’s tranquilizer gun. “I surrender,” he said meekly. The sun was still up, and so he couldn’t use his power.

“Good,” Shroud replied before knocking him out with a dart too, just in case. Only Sparrow remained, and she was too busy trying to keep the giant Vladimir away from the walls with suppression lasers to interfere. “This leaves only Mercury and Bacchus inside.”

“I’ll deal with them,” Ryan said while landing on the walls and blasting the nearest reinforced doors with shockwaves. A faint mist slipped inside the fortress, almost invisible. “It’s been a while since I’ve attended Mass.”

“No way, my sister is inside and they confiscated her phone!” Fortuna complained. “I’m coming!”

“Sorry, he has range and your lucky charms won’t work on Bacchus. He did take an oath of celibacy.” That, and Fortuna’s power wouldn’t protect her from a telepathic assault.

“You’re sure?” Shroud asked while keeping Mortimer at gunpoint. “Your power won’t protect you.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong, my friend,” Ryan replied, before stepping through the blasted doors and into the fortress. “I have a guardian angel too.”

Though Bacchus would probably consider it a demon.

The courier walked into a steel hallway, the shadows of Shroud and Fortuna vanishing behind him. All guards had moved outside to defend the perimeter, so nobody dared to stop the courier’s advance.

None but the voices.

“Coming inside alone was a mistake.” Though Bacchus’ voice echoed in the corridor, Ryan didn’t see him anywhere. Nor did the armor’s sensors pick up a sound. The words existed only in the courier’s head. “Despoiling this holy ground was a sin.”

“Can I confess my sins while hauling you out of here?” Ryan remembered the fortress’ plans from his previous visit, and suspected that the priest awaited him in the Bliss production center. “This place is lost, Father.”

“All you sinners did was invoke the Wrath of God. I already sent word to Augustus.”

Which meant Ryan had no time to waste. “I should have called myself Joan of Arc,” the courier said before smashing through a blast door blocking his path with shockwaves. The steel doors fell on the ground with a loud noise, though only darkness awaited beyond the threshold.

The courier suddenly realized something was wrong with the architecture, though he couldn’t put his finger on what. The corridor’s angles looked perfect, too perfect, the ceiling too smooth...

“All spirits are linked, by the grace of God, yet you have turned away from It.” Bacchus’ voice sounded almost warm and soothing. “This place is a temple to Its glory, which your mere presence desecrates.”

“Good, just let me grab Narcinia and bring down the roof, and you won’t have to suffer my wits anymore.” Ryan briefly froze time, the world turning purple. The darkness in front of him vanished, a wall of dented steel standing up where the blast door should have been. The real blast door had been to his left, and intact.

“I won’t let you,” Bacchus said as Ryan let time resume and unleashed a shockwave to his left, dispelling the illusion. “She is a bridge between us mortals and my God, too precious to be sacrificed to the likes of you.”

“She is what, thirteen? Fourteen?” Ryan snickered before continuing his progress. Lamps in the ceiling flickered, and shadows shifted all around him. “That’s like five years too old for you.”

“I see that even my salvation cannot reach you now.” Bacchus’ voice let out a sigh, and the blast door magically reformed behind Ryan. “But all sins are forgiven in death. Once I have peeled away your mind to nothingness, your corpse will bolster the cohorts of the risen.”

And Bacchus attacked.

The ground collapsed beneath Ryan’s feet, making him stumble into a black abyss with fangs and teeth. The courier activated his jetpack, but a serpentine tongue caught his ankle and dragged him into the darkness.

This is all in my head, Ryan thought, but his own brain wouldn’t believe him.

When the fangs closed around his stomach and tore him in half, the pain felt very real.

Ryan immediately activated his time-stop, and when the world turned purple, the courier stood inside a security checkpoint room with only computers for company.

He hadn’t even activated his jetpack.

When he had fought Night Terror in the past, Ryan had noticed that his time-stop briefly dispelled illusions. The courier suspected that telepaths worked by ‘broadcasting’ thoughts through Blue Flux, and they couldn’t do so in a frozen world.

Unfortunately, the illusions reasserted themselves the moment time resumed. The next telepathic attack took the shape of a tide of blood swallowing Ryan and seeping into his armor. The courier instinctively held his breath, but the red liquid bypassed his lips and started filling his lungs. His vision blurred as he drowned into the red ocean, the laughter of Bloodstream resonating with the waves.

Ryan knew this was all an illusion, and unlike Night Terror, it didn’t look like Bacchus could inflict real damage through hallucinations. However, the priest didn’t have to harm the time-traveler, only to delay him. If Augustus fell on him while blinded by illusions, the courier might as well be a sitting duck.

Another time-stop dispelled the red flood, and Ryan used shockwaves on the floor below his feet. The ground collapsed when time resumed, but when the time-traveler fell the hole went on and on forever. A hideous alien cacophony erupted around him, as strident as the scream of children. The twisted illusion made the courier’s ears bleed and his vision blur.

No, Ryan realized as the cacophony became deafening, not illusions.

Insanity.

Bacchus could degrade an individual’s sense of reality like advanced schizophrenia or other mental illnesses, destroying the victim’s very identity. He peeled someone’s mind away like an onion, until nothing remained.

“You did this to Giulia Costa,” Ryan realized in horror, his voice somehow cutting through the alien cacophony. The courier had grown used to pain through centuries of time-looping, but a normal mind would have shattered under these psychic assaults. “You tortured her, until she forgot who she was.”

Human mouths opened on his armor, to taunt him with ten thousand voices in one. “Some in the Holy Church believed that only through pain and flagellation could one become closer to God.”

Ryan choked, as tendril-whips sprung from the darkness and hit him in the chest and back. Though his armor should have stopped them, they flayed the skin beneath the steel. Their kiss felt like sharp blades cutting him up.

“Is that the best you can do?” the courier said with a grunt. “My girlfriend scratches me harder!”

“Giulia Costa died on the altar, only to rise again, a holy maiden and a tool of the one true God,” Bacchus replied softly. “It took days for her to accept this divine grace, but in the end, she opened her heart to me.”

“Yeah, I’m going to martyr you too as soon I reach your hiding room!” Ryan activated his power again, finding himself facing a steel floor with four animated, putrid corpses striking his back with pickaxes.

Mercury.

Bacchus cloaked his undead thralls with illusions, allowing them to strike him by surprise. They’re trying to find a joint or weak point in the armor, Ryan thought, as he blasted the undead to pieces in the frozen time. They wouldn’t find one, but might damage the circuitry or the helmet’s lenses.

He managed to rise back to his feet before the time-stop’s duration ended, but the courier already felt mentally exhausted as if he had overslept. The repeated mental assaults couldn’t harm him physically, but they taxed his brain.

If this lasts too long, I might pass out from the sheer headache, Ryan realized, as he tried to remember his current location inside the maze-like facility. Thankfully, his enhanced timing let his body continue walking towards its destination.

Time ran out, and the psychic assault renewed.

Nails impaled Ryan through the hands and the feet, impaling him on a Christian cross overseeing Ischia Island. The Plushie was crucified to his left, a half-rotten Len to the right. Bacchus stood in front of the naked courier with a sharp spear, while New Rome burnt beyond a bloody horizon.

“I now realize that the Gnosticism heresy had the truth of it,” the priest said, as he stabbed Ryan in the chest. The courier clenched his jaw not to scream as the spear’s tip twisted between his ribs. The illusion was so vivid that it fooled his nerves. “This world, this crooked reality, is a prison for souls. A cosmic trap of monstrous proportions, keeping us from divine unity with the Ultimate Ones.”

“I know what Eva Fabre did to you, Andreas,” Ryan said in between grunts of pain. He hoped using Bacchus’ real name would unsettle him and dispel the hallucination, but it only made the priest stab him harder. “She wrecked your mind when you gained your powers. If there was ever a good man inside you, he’s probably weeping.”

“The Alchemist awakened me,” Bacchus replied, his face twisting into a skull with a blue, alien light peering out of the eyes. “She was a prophet, and I followed the wrong path.”

“She was mad, and now she’s dead.” Or she wished she was.

When Bacchus opened his ghoulish mouth, Eva Fabre’s voice came out. “Does it matter if the carpenter dies, so long as the house stands?” The spear in his hands turned into an Elixir needle, oozing a blue oil from its tip. “The Lord of the Scriptures to whom I dedicated half my life was a lie, an illusion. There are no other gods than the Ultimate Ones.”

“Geist saw heaven,” Ryan reminded him. “A bright Yellow realm of light and angels.”

“Yes, he did.” The universe turned a blinding Yellow, the courier’s eyes burning from the light. “What of it?”

“You don’t get it. If he saw a heaven with angels, maybe your old God exists in the Yellow World. You got the color wrong!”

Ryan froze time again and collapsed into a bed of flowers. Their petals were blue, their cores yellow. The courier noticed a hole in a glass ceiling above his head, and two undead with welding sticks surrounding him.

The courier quickly rose up and rushed out of the glass garden, punching the corpses out of his way. He had somehow made his way into the Bliss labs in the facility’s heart, and quickly guessed why.

His enhanced timing sense. His body had kept moving towards its destination like a sleepwalker, even if Bacchus assaulted his mind.

Unfortunately, sleepwalking wouldn’t save Ryan from physical attacks.

An old hunchback stood near the drug assembly lines, surrounded by a group of ten undead bodyguards all equipped with submachine guns. The fossil dressed astonishingly well, wearing a cashmere black suit and a bowler hat, though he needed an ugly wooden cane to stand. His white beard couldn’t cover all his face’s warts and wrinkles, and his tiny eyes squinted at the glass garden with fear.

Mercury.

Unfortunately, time ran out before Ryan could unleash a shockwave at this geriatric disaster. The entire facility turned bright blue. A psychedelic lightshow blinded the time traveler to reality, the assembly lines turning into streams of shining data, the ceiling into the water, and the floor into an empty sky. Rain fell down on the courier, but the raindrops turned into blades when they hit his flesh.

Bullets, Ryan thought fearfully, before suddenly remembering he had his armor on. Or at least, he knew he still had it, even if his senses told him otherwise.

The longer Bacchus’ hallucinations affected him, the harder it became to remember what was real or not.

“Your faith wasn’t all that unshakable, wasn’t it?” The time-traveler taunted his tormentor. “Or maybe it was just a disguise, easy to trade away when it didn’t fit you anymore?”

“You don’t know what you speak of.” The pale blue world shifted into a spiral, a whirlpool sucking Ryan’s very soul. “Don’t you see that my work is for the good of all?”

“It’s never going to work by torturing people,” Ryan replied, an idea crossing his mind. Bacchus believed himself the tool of a higher power, chosen to fulfill a purpose. There was an opening. “You need wisdom and compassion to ascend. I know because they told me.”

Bacchus’ resolve wavered. For a brief instant, no longer than a second, the blue spiral turned into the face of Andreas Torque, his eyes ablaze with madness and fury.

And so Ryan delivered the coup-de-grace. “I guess you were too much of a protestant to enlighten!”

Strong blue hands grabbed the courier’s throat and started choking the life out of him. The hands grew a body, and then a head.

“I need to get out!” The illusory Bacchus screamed, and as he spoke his visage twisted into an abomination with four eyes and two mouths. “I need to escape! I need to be free!”

Ryan attempted to activate his time-stop, but his brain hurt when he tried to. His vision blurred, as fingers tore into his skull to rip open his brain matter. And Bacchus kept ranting, his eyes dividing into a nightmarish kaleidoscope. “I can’t stand this reality!” he shrieked. “It’s all wrong! It’s all twisted and broken! Somewhere in that brain is the key, the door, the way out—”

The illusion flickered into nothingness, and Ryan didn’t even need to stop time.

The courier awoke to reality slammed against the Bliss assembly line by a group of undead, two of them trying to remove his helmet with welding tools. Mercury observed the process from a safe distance, still believing Ryan to be under his colleague’s influence.

The courier stopped time, forced the undead off him, and charged at their necromancer.

“Boo,” Ryan said as time resumed, Mercury’s eyes widening in terror.

He punched the old man in the face with enough strength to break his jaw. The ancient Genome dropped his cane and fell on his back, completely still. His undead collapsed at the same time as him, the yellow light in their eyes vanishing.

“One less pension to pay, I guess,” the courier japed, before almost stumbling from the mental pain. A Green Flux flash blinded him for a second, as the armor tried to heal him. It helped a lot with the exhaustion, but little with the headaches.

Ignoring the pain wracking his skull, the courier checked the unconscious Mercury’s pulse, confirmed his survival, and continued his journey deeper into the production center. He eventually made his way to the room where Bacchus kept the captives of his experiments.

Ryan found the priest wriggling on the floor, scratching his neck as a sentient mist filled out his lungs. The time traveler’s eyes wandered at the cages around him, where drugged-out test subjects with hollow gazes waited in their own feces. One pair of eyes looked towards the courier with intelligence, and a great deal of fear.

Bacchus’ eyes looked up and vanished behind his eyelids, but when the mist exited his throat, the courier could still hear him breathe. “Took you long enough,” Ryan complained, as Bianca reformed next to her unconscious victim.

“Give me a break, it was hard to find him.” His former vice-president squinted at him. “You’re alright?”

“My head hurts like hell, but I’ve felt worse.” The plan had been for Ryan to act as bait for Bacchus’ attention while Bianca crept up on him. The courier had suspected, correctly, that the telepath would have a hard time noticing a creature without a brain.

But still, he hadn’t expected the experience to be so harrowing.

“You’re not alright,” Bianca said with concern, before glaring at Bacchus. “Why did you want him alive? I could have burst out of his lungs easily enough, Alien-style.”

“I promised I would bury him along with this place.” A part of Ryan still wanted to pull his gauntlet’s trigger. “But unlike some ivory madman I know, he didn’t choose to become a monster. If Alchemo can cure his broken psyche like he did with Helen…”

That, and since Ryan might not have a do-over this time, he didn’t want to regret anything down the line. A part of him would have always wondered if he had condemned a sick man to death when other alternatives existed.

“That’s awfully optimistic.” Bianca shrugged. “But I would have said the same of me.”

Ryan looked in front of the cages, stopping in front of one with a terrified teenager inside. “It’s alright,” the courier tried to comfort her, as he tore off the metal bars with his bare hands. “We’re here to help.”

Narcinia didn’t make a move to escape her cage, keeping her arms around her knees in a fetal position. She looked at her rescuers with terror, a red mark on her cheek. Someone clearly slapped her not too long ago.

It almost made Ryan regret sparing that sorry excuse of a priest.

“Bacchus and Mercury are neutralized,” Ryan told Shroud through his armor’s intercom, the Green Flux finally removing his headaches. “We’ve got Narcinia and the test subjects, but she’s… not well.”

The answer came swiftly. “Put on the loudspeakers.”

When Ryan obeyed, it was Fortuna’s voice that came out, brimming with concern. “Narci, are you alright?”

“Sis?” Narcinia’s eyes lit up with hope. “Sis, is… is that you?”

“Of course it’s me, silly!” Fortuna marked a short pause. “What happened to you? You sound so…”

“It’s… Father Torque, he…” Narcinia suppressed a sob. “When Mr. Geist vanished, he wouldn’t let me leave and took my phone. He didn’t even let me see Dad. When I tried to go back home, he… he...”

Her sister’s voice turned reassuring and affectionate. “It’s alright, Narci. I’m here, we’re all here. We’re getting you out of this cursed place.”

“But Dad—”

“Dad is an asshole,” Fortuna cut her off. “Felix and I will show you.”

“F-Felix came back?” The poor girl couldn’t believe it.

“For you, Narci,” Atom Kitten’s voice came out of the loudspeaker. “I came for you.”

“They’re all waiting for you outside,” Ryan said with kindness, extending a hand to the child. In that moment, he was brought to the day when Len found him under his house’s wreckage, like a light in the darkness. “I’ll show you.”

Narcinia hesitated, but eventually took his hand.

It took Mr. Wave’s help and a few minutes to evacuate the factory. Bacchus and Mercury were sedated, joining Sparrow, Pluto, and the rest of the Killer Seven. Vamp had broken her neck, and Mars had been bubbled. Narcinia gave her adoptive father a worried glance as Ryan surrendered her to Fortuna, who hugged her sister tightly. Felix watched on for a while until Narcinia started crying, and then awkwardly joined the group hug.

Ryan glanced at the Bliss Factory, at this industrial facility of death and destruction, and gave the fateful order.

“Tear this place apart!”

The giant Vladimir immediately punched the fortress’ stone walls with his bare hands, while Bianca assisted him with shockwaves. The building collapsed on itself, its evils buried for good.

“Riri,” Len said, her voice heavy with worry. “He’s coming.”

He was. The Saturn Armor’s sensors had noticed a spike in electromagnetic activity near the island. The air itself was choked with electricity, and red lightning coursed through the clouds above the island.

Shroud put a hand on the courier’s shoulder. “Ryan—”

“You killed me more than he ever did,” the courier quipped, before activating his jetpack. “I’ll be alright.”

The vigilante watched Ryan go without a word, but even though the courier couldn’t see through his friend’s glass helmet, he sensed the worry behind it. He wasn’t the only one. Shortie, Bianca, the Doll, Felix, Mr. Wave, Fortuna, Timmy, Helen, and all the friends he made across almost two dozen loops… they looked at him and prayed without a word.

They thought he wouldn’t come back.

And they might be right.

Ryan gathered his breath, swallowed his fear, and ascended higher and higher, until the Bliss factory’s rubble looked no bigger than his hand. Smoke rose up below him, while crimson lightning tainted the blue skies red. Thunder echoed all around the courier, booming and dreadful.

A thunderbolt coursed through the heavens right above his head.

“I love the dramatic tension,” Ryan said, looking up. “You sure know how to make an entrance.”

An ivory statue slowly descended from a cumulonimbus, shrouded in a crimson, electric aura. It would have hurt to even look at his face, but Ryan’s lenses allowed him to see the furious, murderous scowl behind the crackling lightning. Streams of ionized, whitened winds swirled below the discount deity’s feet, allowing him to fly.

Instead of stopping at the courier’s level, Augustus floated a few meters higher to better look down on him. “Who are you?” There was no fear at all in his voice, but his clenched fists betrayed his anger. “The architect of all of this, I presume.”

“My name is Ryan. Ryan Romano.” The courier heard a scratching sound from within his backpack. “I’ve been called Quicksave, but for you?”

Ryan raised his fists and adopted a fighting pose.

“I guess King Saturn will do it.”

“Is this my Titanomachy?” His eyes squinted at Ryan with contempt and arrogance. “This did not end well for your namesake the first time. Today will be no different.”

“Well, the good thing about do-overs,” Ryan replied. “They can turn failure into success.”

“We will see how brave you are when nailed to a cross, bearing witness to the death of these fools who followed you here.” Augustus’ voice deepened like thunder, his gaze brightening. “Let’s go.”

瑞恩抵达伊斯基亚岛时，这里已经成了战场。

梅克隆的潜艇先他一步靠岸，将一支五花八门的队伍送上了伊斯基亚岛的海滩：治愈后的超能帮成员、身穿先进动力装甲的天才，还有狂暴的熊猫。迎接他们的，是毫无反应的炮塔、城墙上的奥古斯蒂枪手，以及埋在沙滩下的一大群僵尸。

瑞恩从没见过墨丘利本人，只见过他用作传话媒介的骷髅头。据莉维娅说，这位年迈的奥林匹斯众神成员能将死灵能量注入尸体，远程操纵亡灵。幽魂出局之后，奥古斯蒂便决定让他的所有受害者重新站起来：溺死在海里的浮肿尸体、血肉剥落殆尽的骨架，还有岛上实验对象病变的遗骸。它们的眼中亮起了黄色的光芒。

而要统领这支亡者军团，还有谁比战神玛尔斯本人更合适？

不过，这支大军遇上了强敌。弗拉基米尔已经化身为金属之躯，与熊猫一道率先登上海岸。这个钢铁人将玛尔斯的刀剑长矛吸入体内，踩扁了所有蠢到敢挡他路的尸体，身高很快就从三米长到了四米。绑着炸药带的自杀式亡灵想沿着他的腿往上爬，却立刻被熊猫扫了下去。这头英勇的大熊将那些神风敢死队员扔进海里，任它们在水中炸出团团火光。

玛尔斯很快发现，自己的大部分武器对弗拉基米尔都不起作用，于是收起刀剑长矛，改用了天才制造的武器。伏尔甘制造的炸弹如雨点般落向钢铁巨人，每一枚都足以炸伤双足飞龙。

紫光一闪，炸弹全都变成了沙子；与此同时，阵阵爆炸撼动了极乐堡垒的地基。

玛尔斯惊得一缩，一名金发女人则跨过潜艇，加入战局。酸雨步行跟在弗拉基米尔和熊猫身后，立刻开始针对玛尔斯的能力。她能将物体与等质量的东西交换，作用范围又比这位奥林匹斯众神成员更大，彻底废掉了他的武器库。

平心而论，玛尔斯确实尽力了。炸弹几十枚几十枚地往下掉，结果全在他自己的亡灵部队中炸开；他朝弗拉基米尔脸上扔了一只燃气罐，却在半空变成了沙子；他甚至准备抄起热熔长矛，跟巨人贴身肉搏，可长矛到了他手里，竟变成了一条僵尸的断臂。

到头来，这个上一轮还曾把瑞恩和菲利克斯打得抱头鼠窜的可怕战士，只能被钢铁巨人追着逃跑。“简直又是一次猪湾事件！”弗拉基米尔怒吼着，却怎么也抓不住这个滑溜的奥林匹斯众神成员。抓人这件事，巨人做得并不比废除私有制更成功，两只手捞到的只有沙子。

瑞恩忍不住在头盔下笑了起来，眼前这一幕让他想起了以前的《乐一通》动画片；不过，他很怀疑玛尔斯能有兔八哥的好运。果不其然，玛尔斯试图喷射高压空气逃上天空，酸雨却将空气换成了海水。无计可施的玛尔斯踉跄倒地，立刻遭到了熊猫的痛殴。

莉维娅说得没错。基因者的能力就是一场石头剪刀布。

无论你有多强，总有人拥有恰好克制你的能力。凭借多个循环里收集的情报，瑞恩为这些所谓的奥林匹斯众神安排了最合适的对手。

至于他们雇用的普通人，日子也没好过到哪里去。小矮个已经用水泡困住了十几个枪手，菲利克斯则一路沿着沙滩前进，将左右两侧的亡灵纷纷炸飞，身后爆炸连绵不绝。人偶端着红色通量转管机枪提供火力压制，子弹打在她那套梅克隆制造的动力装甲上，毫无作用。

更糟的是，伏尔甘的安保系统根本没能启动，无法拦截入侵者。起初，瑞恩以为是自己这边的天才干的……直到他注意到，好几个奥古斯蒂成员被困在了自己的动力装甲里，动弹不得。

“莉维娅，你这只狡黠的小蜘蛛，原来你打电话找的是她！”瑞恩忍不住笑出了声。不过，他还是有些好奇，伏尔甘哪来的时间破坏防御系统。既然她制造的动力装甲和炮塔出了同样的问题，快递员猜测，前女友从一开始就在自己的造物里装了停机开关，防着奥古斯蒂高层有朝一日翻脸。

而现在，这份保险派上用场了。

然而，虽然进攻方正在肃清海滩，堡垒城墙上的守军却依然坚守阵地。他们早就料到迪纳米斯会发动进攻，为这座古堡加装了防空设施和重炮。等地面上的友军败下阵来，误伤风险降低，他们便开始往海滩上倾泻炮弹。炮火虽然挡不住弗拉基米尔前进——事实上，还助长了他的体型——其他人却不得不寻找掩体，或是跑到巨人身后躲避。

杀手七人组中的几位也在守军当中：妖姬和夜魇使用火箭发射器，麻雀从双手射出一波波致命的激光，莫蒂默则不屑于使用重炮，而是选了一支不显眼却同样致命的狙击步枪。

瑞恩在堡垒上空盘旋，试图找到更加危险的消除者和普鲁托。有几个奥古斯蒂炮手发现了他，想用高射炮将他打下来，快递员却暂停时间，以冲击波还击。高射炮接二连三炸开，守军被震得翻下了城墙。

清除外围防空阵地时，瑞恩注意到一道熟悉的红色残影正在海滩上穿梭。每当有子弹或炮弹快要击中他的盟友，那道残影就会将人推到安全的地方。

“波动先生？”瑞恩从空中喊道，声音响彻战场，“你不是应该去摧毁梅克隆的基地吗！”

“上帝也曾经要求波动先生办事。”这位基因者答道，同时迅速将菲利克斯推到一旁，免得莫蒂默的子弹轰掉他的脑袋。“而波动先生的回答是：‘说请！’”

他说这话的样子实在太有派头，瑞恩都不忍心计较他亵渎神明了。

不过，等嘉年华现身的消息传到闪电屁股耳朵里……

主城墙上新出现的两道身影吸引了瑞恩的注意，她们正位于纳尔西妮娅的花园上方。两人从一道加固门后走出来，一个脸上还是惯常那副愉快的笑容，另一个则怒容满面。

“马蒂，库伊拉和她的斑点狗，十二点钟方向高处。”瑞恩通过通讯器说道，眼看那两个杀手走到了莫蒂默、妖姬和夜魇身旁。没人回答，快递员便猜测，那位沉默的刺客已经就位。

“真棒，都不知道该从哪儿下手了。”消除者的喊声盖过了子弹的呼啸。她穿着防暴装备，站在同伴身旁，将一具火箭筒举向海滩。

和手下不同，普鲁托连防弹衣都懒得穿。她用不着，至少她自己是这么认为的。“先杀叛徒。”这位奥古斯蒂二把手瞪着菲利克斯，恶狠狠地说道。瑞恩已经注意到，小猫脚下的沙子正在以诡异而危险的方式移动。“我早就该杀了他——”

她没能把话说完，一枚麻醉镖射中了她的脖子，另一枚则命中了消除者头盔下方的位置。消除者立刻将火箭筒转向攻击袭来的方向，莫蒂默也把狙击步枪瞄了过去，却什么都没看见。

普鲁托急忙想拔掉麻醉镖，可双手还没摸到脖子，就已经不听使唤。这位曾险些杀死瑞恩、也确实杀过无数人的奥古斯蒂二把手脚下一晃，倒了下去。夜魇扔下火箭发射器，伸出双臂接住上司，但普鲁托已经毫无反应了。

瑞恩知道，普通镇静剂通常需要几分钟才能对目标起效，但阿尔凯莫制造的麻醉剂，几秒钟就能扩散到基因者的血液和神经里。快递员见识过太多次普鲁托的能力，绝不会在她身上冒险。必须迅速解决她，不能给她任何发动死亡诅咒的机会。同样危险的消除者也失去意识，倒在了城墙的砖石上。

一名隐形刺客在普鲁托和消除者入局之前就将她们淘汰了，而且还带了一位搭档。

裹尸布手持一把包裹着玻璃的麻醉枪，在杀手七人组身后的城墙上现出身形。他的幸运符也跟着一起现身。瑞恩不得不承认，那套玻璃装甲穿在她身上再合适不过，尤其是当她摘下头盔，任金发披散下来时。

“福尔图娜？”妖姬惊得声音一滞，拔出手枪指着这对情侣。莫蒂默和夜魇交换了一下眼神。“你跟他们是一伙的？”

“没错。”幸运女神皱着眉，神情坚决。接受阿尔凯莫的记忆治疗之后，她已经记起了上一轮杀手七人组试图谋杀她弟弟的事……而她并不打算原谅他们。“莫蒂，里奇，别逼我。”

莫蒂默立刻扔下了狙击步枪，妖姬又惊又怒。“莫蒂默，你这个懦夫！”

“他们带着一个活生生的幸运符，还放倒了我们能消除异能的那个。”他说这话时，已经完全放弃抵抗，随后双膝跪地，双手抱头。“可怜的老莫蒂默才不赌这个运气。”

妖姬低吼一声，想朝两人开枪，却在一块砖上滑了一跤。她只来得及尖叫一声，便翻过城墙，一头栽到了下方的沙地上。

“看见了吧？”莫蒂默耸耸肩，“这样省事多了。”

夜魇看了看昏迷的普鲁托，又看了看裹尸布的麻醉枪。“我投降。”他老老实实地说。太阳还没下山，他用不了自己的能力。

“很好。”裹尸布答道，随后为保险起见，也赏了他一枚麻醉镖，将他放倒。如今只剩下麻雀，而她正忙着用激光压制巨人弗拉基米尔，不让他靠近城墙，根本无暇插手。“里面就剩墨丘利和巴克斯了。”

“我来对付他们。”瑞恩说着落上城墙，用冲击波轰开了最近的加固门。一缕几乎看不见的淡薄雾气溜进了堡垒。“我有阵子没参加弥撒了。”

“不行，我妹妹还在里面，他们把她的手机都没收了！”福尔图娜抗议道，“我也要去！”

“抱歉，他的攻击范围很大，你那点幸运魅力对巴克斯也没用。他可是发过独身誓的。”此外，福尔图娜的能力也保护不了她免受心灵攻击。

“你确定？”裹尸布问道，枪口依然指着莫蒂默，“你的能力保护不了你。”

“这你可就错了，朋友。”瑞恩说着跨过被轰开的门，走进堡垒。“我也有守护天使。”

不过，巴克斯多半会把这位守护天使当成恶魔。

快递员走进了一条钢铁走廊，裹尸布和福尔图娜的身影消失在身后。守卫全都出去保卫外围了，没人敢来阻挡快递员前进。

只有声音。

“独自进来，是个错误。”巴克斯的声音回荡在走廊里，瑞恩却哪儿也没看见他。装甲的传感器同样没有捕捉到任何声音。那些话只存在于快递员的脑海之中。“玷污这片圣地，更是罪孽。”

“我能一边把你拖出去，一边告解我的罪吗？”瑞恩还记得上次来访时所见的堡垒布局，猜测神父正等在极乐生产中心。“这里已经保不住了，神父。”

“你们这些罪人所做的一切，只会招来神的怒火。我已经给奥古斯都送去了消息。”

也就是说，瑞恩没时间浪费了。“我真该给自己取名叫贞德。”快递员说罢，便用冲击波轰开了挡路的防爆门。钢门轰然落地，门槛之后却只有一片黑暗。

快递员忽然意识到，这里的建筑有些不对劲，却又说不出究竟哪里有问题。走廊的棱角太规整了，规整得过了头，天花板也太光滑……

“蒙神恩赐，所有心灵都彼此相连，而你却背离了祂。”巴克斯的声音听上去几乎称得上温暖而舒缓。“这里是彰显祂荣耀的圣殿，你仅仅是存在于此，就已构成亵渎。”

“行，那就让我带走纳尔西妮娅，再把这地方拆了，你就不用继续忍受我的妙语连珠了。”瑞恩短暂地暂停了时间，世界变成一片紫色。面前的黑暗消失了，本该是防爆门的位置，立着一堵被打得凹陷的钢墙。真正的防爆门在他左侧，完好无损。

“我不会让你得逞的。”瑞恩让时间恢复流动，朝左侧轰出一道冲击波，打散了幻象，巴克斯同时说道，“她是连接我们凡人与吾神的桥梁，太过珍贵，不能落到你这种人手里。”

“她多大，十三？十四？”瑞恩嗤笑一声，继续前进。天花板上的灯闪烁起来，四周的阴影不断变幻。“比你喜欢的年纪大了差不多五岁呢。”

“看来，如今就连我也无法救赎你了。”巴克斯叹了口气，瑞恩身后的防爆门如施了魔法般重新成形。“但死亡会赦免一切罪。等我将你的心智剥成虚无，你的尸体便会壮大复生者的军团。”

巴克斯发起了攻击。

瑞恩脚下的地面塌陷，他失足坠入了一个布满獠牙利齿的黑色深渊。快递员启动喷气背包，一条蛇似的舌头却缠住了他的脚踝，将他拖入黑暗。

这全是我脑子里的幻觉，瑞恩心想，可他自己的大脑却不肯相信。

獠牙咬住他的腹部，将他撕成两截时，那疼痛却无比 真切。

瑞恩立刻暂停时间。世界变成紫色的那一刻，快递员发现自己站在一间安检室里，身边只有电脑。

他甚至根本没启动喷气背包。

过去和夜魇交手时，瑞恩就注意到，时间暂停能暂时驱散幻象。快递员猜测，心灵感应者是通过蓝色通量来“广播”思想的，而在静止的世界里，他们做不到这一点。

可惜，时间一恢复，幻象就卷土重来。下一轮心灵攻击化作了一股血潮，吞没瑞恩，渗进他的装甲。快递员本能地屏住呼吸，红色的液体却穿过双唇，开始灌满他的肺。他淹没在血海中，视野渐渐模糊，血流的笑声随着波涛回荡。

瑞恩知道这一切都是幻觉，而且与夜魇不同，巴克斯似乎无法通过幻觉造成实际伤害。然而，神父根本不用伤到这位时间旅行者，只要拖住他就够了。要是奥古斯都在幻象蒙蔽他的时候从天而降，快递员就跟活靶子没什么两样。

又一次时间暂停驱散了血色洪流，瑞恩朝脚下地板轰出冲击波。时间恢复流动，地面随之塌陷，可时间旅行者落入洞中后，却仿佛永远也坠不到底。可怖而异样的嘈杂声在四周爆发，尖利得如同孩童的惨叫。扭曲的幻象让快递员双耳流血，视野模糊。

不对，当那阵噪声变得震耳欲聋时，瑞恩意识到，不是幻象。

是疯狂。

巴克斯能瓦解一个人对现实的认知，如同严重的精神分裂症或其他精神疾病，摧毁受害者的自我。他像剥洋葱一样，一层层剥去一个人的心智，直到什么都不剩。

“你对朱莉娅·科斯塔做的就是这个。”瑞恩惊骇地明白了过来。他的声音竟穿透了那片异样的喧嚣。几个世纪的时间循环早让快递员习惯了疼痛，可正常人的心智，在这种精神攻击下早就崩溃了。“你折磨她，直到她忘了自己是谁。”

装甲上张开了一张张人嘴，上万道声音合为一体，嘲弄着他。“圣教会中曾有人相信，唯有通过痛苦与鞭笞，人才能更接近神。”

瑞恩痛得呼吸一滞，触须般的长鞭从黑暗中窜出，抽打他的胸膛和后背。装甲本该挡住它们，它们却剥开了钢铁下的皮肤。每一下碰触，都像是利刃切开身体。

“你就这点本事？”快递员闷哼着说道，“我女朋友挠得都比你狠！”

“朱莉娅·科斯塔死在了祭坛上，随后重生，成为圣洁的少女，成为唯一真神的工具。”巴克斯轻声答道，“她花了好几天才接受这份神恩，但最终，她向我敞开了心扉。”

“行，等我找到你藏身的房间，我也送你去殉教！”瑞恩再次发动能力，发现自己正面朝钢铁地板，四具活动的腐尸拿着镐头，正在砸他的后背。

墨丘利。

巴克斯用幻象掩护墨丘利的亡灵仆从，让它们得以偷袭。它们在找装甲的接缝或者薄弱部位，瑞恩一边想，一边在暂停的时间里将亡灵轰成碎片。它们找不到，但可能会损坏线路，或是头盔的镜片。

他赶在时间暂停结束前重新站了起来，却已经感到精神疲惫，像是睡过了头。接连不断的精神攻击虽然伤不了他的身体，却在消耗他的大脑。

再拖下去，光是头痛就可能让我昏过去。瑞恩一边意识到这一点，一边试着回想自己目前在这座迷宫般的设施中所处的位置。幸好，他强化过的时间感让身体仍能继续朝目的地走去。

暂停的时间耗尽，精神攻击再次袭来。

钉子贯穿了瑞恩的双手双脚，将他钉在一座俯瞰伊斯基亚岛的基督教十字架上。毛绒玩偶被钉在他左侧的十字架上，右侧则是腐烂了一半的蕾恩。巴克斯手持锋利长矛，站在赤身裸体的快递员面前；血色的地平线之外，新罗马正在燃烧。

“我如今才明白，诺斯替派那套异端才是对的。”神父说着，一矛刺进了瑞恩胸膛。矛尖在肋骨间搅动，快递员咬紧牙关，才没让自己惨叫出声。幻象如此逼真，连他的神经都被骗了过去。“这个世界，这扭曲的现实，是灵魂的牢笼。一个规模骇人的宇宙陷阱，阻止我们与终极者达成神圣的合一。”

“我知道伊娃·法布尔对你做了什么，安德烈亚斯。”瑞恩在痛哼的间隙说道。他希望说出巴克斯的真名能动摇对方，驱散幻觉，结果却只让神父刺得更狠。“你获得能力时，她毁掉了你的心智。如果你心里曾经住着一个好人，他现在大概正在哭泣。”

“炼金术师让我觉醒了。”巴克斯答道，脸庞扭曲成了骷髅，眼窝里透出诡异的蓝光。“她是先知，而我走错了路。”

“她疯了，而且现在已经死了。”或者，她巴不得自己已经死了。

巴克斯张开鬼怪般的嘴，发出的却是伊娃·法布尔的声音。“只要房子还在，木匠死不死又有什么关系？”他手中的长矛变成了一支灵药注射器，针尖渗着蓝色的油状液体。“我用半生去侍奉的、经书中的那位主，不过是谎言，是幻象。除了终极者，根本没有别的神。”

“幽魂见过天堂。”瑞恩提醒他，“一个由光芒和天使组成的明亮黄色世界。”

“是，他见过。”整个宇宙变成了刺眼的黄色，光芒灼烧着快递员的双眼。“那又怎样？”

“你还不明白。如果他见过有天使的天堂，也许你原来信的那个神就存在于黄色世界里。你把颜色搞错了！”

瑞恩再次暂停时间，倒进了一片花圃。花瓣是蓝的，花心是黄的。快递员发现，头顶的玻璃天花板破了一个洞，两具拿着焊条的亡灵正围在他身旁。

快递员迅速爬起来，挥拳打飞挡路的尸体，冲出了玻璃花园。不知不觉间，他已经走到了设施中心的极乐实验室，而他很快就猜到了原因。

是他强化过的时间感。即使巴克斯一直在攻击他的精神，他的身体也如同梦游一般，不断向目的地前进。

可惜，梦游并不能让瑞恩免受物理攻击。

一个驼背老人站在毒品生产线旁，周围簇拥着十名亡灵保镖，全都配备了冲锋枪。这老古董穿得出奇讲究，一身黑色羊绒西装，头戴圆顶礼帽，只是必须拄着一根难看的木拐杖才能站稳。白胡子遮不住满脸的疣和皱纹，他眯起小眼睛，恐惧地盯着玻璃花园。

墨丘利。

可惜，瑞恩还没来得及朝这个老年公害轰出冲击波，时间暂停就结束了。整座设施变成明亮的蓝色。迷幻的光影遮住了时间旅行者眼前的现实，生产线化作闪亮的数据流，天花板变成水面，地板则变成空荡荡的天空。雨点落在快递员身上，却在碰到他皮肉时变成了刀刃。

子弹，瑞恩心惊地想到，随即猛然记起自己还穿着装甲。或者说，至少他知道自己还穿着，尽管感官告诉他的完全不是这么回事。

巴克斯的幻觉影响他越久，他就越难记住什么是真的，什么是假的。

“你的信仰其实也没那么不可动摇，对吧？”时间旅行者嘲讽着折磨自己的人，“又或者，那只是身伪装，不合身了就能轻易换掉？”

“你根本不知道自己在说什么。”淡蓝色的世界扭曲成螺旋，化作一个要吸走瑞恩灵魂的漩涡。“你难道看不出来，我所做的一切都是为了众生的福祉？”

“靠折磨别人，你永远做不到。”瑞恩答道，脑中闪过一个念头。巴克斯相信自己是某种更高力量的工具，被选中去完成某个使命。这就是突破口。“要飞升，你需要智慧和慈悲。我知道，因为祂们告诉过我。”

巴克斯的信念动摇了。有那么短短一瞬，不到一秒钟，蓝色的螺旋变成了安德烈亚斯·托尔克的脸，眼中燃烧着疯狂与怒火。

于是，瑞恩补上了致命一击。“看来你这新教徒，根本就点不化！”

一双强壮的蓝色大手扼住了快递员的喉咙，要将他活活掐死。双手长出了身体，随后又长出了头。

“我要出去！”幻象中的巴克斯尖叫道，一边说，面孔一边扭曲成了长着四只眼睛、两张嘴的怪物。“我要逃出去！我要自由！”

瑞恩试图暂停时间，可刚一尝试，大脑便痛了起来。手指撕进他的头骨，要将脑髓扯开，他的视线随之模糊。而巴克斯仍在咆哮，双眼不断分裂，变成噩梦般的万花筒。“我受不了这个现实！”他尖叫着，“全都错了！一切都扭曲了，破碎了！那颗脑子里的某个地方就藏着钥匙，藏着门，藏着出去的路——”

幻象闪烁了一下，消失得无影无踪，瑞恩甚至没有暂停时间。

快递员从幻觉中醒来，发现一群亡灵正将自己死死按在极乐生产线上，其中两具拿着焊接工具，试图拆下他的头盔。墨丘利躲在安全距离外看着，仍以为瑞恩处于同僚的控制之中。

快递员暂停时间，强行推开压在身上的亡灵，朝它们的死灵法师冲了过去。

“吓一跳吧。”时间恢复，瑞恩开口说道，墨丘利惊恐地瞪大了眼睛。

他一拳砸在老人脸上，力道足以打断下颌。这个老迈的基因者丢下拐杖，仰面倒地，一动不动。他的亡灵也在同一刻纷纷倒下，眼中的黄光随之熄灭。

“看来又能少付一份养老金了。”快递员刚开完玩笑，就险些被脑中的剧痛弄得站立不稳。绿色通量闪过，装甲开始为他治疗，耀得他一瞬间什么也看不见。疲惫缓解了不少，头痛却没怎么减轻。

快递员强忍着头颅里肆虐的疼痛，检查了昏迷的墨丘利的脉搏，确认他还活着，随后继续向生产中心深处走去。最终，他来到了巴克斯关押实验对象的房间。

瑞恩发现神父正在地板上扭动，双手抓挠脖子，一团有意识的雾气填满了他的肺。时间旅行者扫视四周的笼子，被药物弄得神志不清的实验对象目光空洞，待在自己的粪便里。其中一双眼睛望向快递员，目光清醒，也带着深深的恐惧。

巴克斯双眼上翻，眼珠隐入眼皮之下，可当雾气从他喉咙里钻出来时，快递员仍能听见他的呼吸。“你可真够慢的。”比安卡在昏迷的受害者身旁重新凝聚成人形，瑞恩抱怨道。

“饶了我吧，他可不好找。”他从前的副手眯着眼打量他。“你还好吗？”

“头疼得要命，不过我受过更难受的。”原计划是让瑞恩充当诱饵，吸引巴克斯的注意，比安卡趁机悄悄接近他。快递员推测，这个心灵感应者很难注意到一个没有大脑的生物。事实证明，他猜对了。

可即便如此，他也没料到这段经历会如此煎熬。

“你可不像没事的样子。”比安卡担忧地说，随即狠狠瞪向巴克斯。“你为什么非要留活口？我完全可以像《异形》那样，直接从他肺里破体而出。”

“我以前发过誓，要让他跟这个地方一起埋葬。”瑞恩心里仍有一部分想扣下护手武器的扳机。“但他跟我认识的某个象牙白疯子不一样，他不是自己选择变成怪物的。如果阿尔凯莫能像治好海伦那样，修复他破碎的心智……”

此外，瑞恩这一次也许没有重来的机会，他不想往后留下任何遗憾。如果杀了巴克斯，他心底总会有个疑问挥之不去：会不会明明还有别的选择，自己却判了一个病人死刑？

“你可真够乐观的。”比安卡耸耸肩，“不过，换成以前的我，我也会这么评价救我的打算。”

瑞恩沿着笼子查看，在一个笼子前停下，里面关着一名吓坏了的少女。“没事了。”快递员徒手扯掉金属栏杆，试着安抚她。“我们是来帮忙的。”

纳尔西妮娅没有起身逃出笼子，只是双臂抱膝，像胎儿一样蜷缩着。她恐惧地看着前来营救自己的人，脸颊上有一道红印。显然，不久之前有人打了她一巴掌。

瑞恩几乎开始后悔饶了那个不配当神父的东西。

“巴克斯和墨丘利都解决了。”瑞恩通过装甲内置通讯器告诉裹尸布，绿色通量终于消除了他的头痛。“我们找到纳尔西妮娅和实验对象了，但她……状态不太好。”

回答立刻传来。“打开扬声器。”

瑞恩照做后，传出来的是福尔图娜的声音，满是担忧。“纳尔茜，你没事吧？”

“姐姐？”纳尔西妮娅眼中亮起了希望。“姐姐，是……是你吗？”

“当然是我，傻丫头！”福尔图娜停顿了一下。“你出什么事了？你听起来怎么这么……”

“是……托尔克神父，他……”纳尔西妮娅强忍着哽咽。“幽魂先生失踪之后，他就不让我走了，还拿走了我的手机。他连爸爸都不让我见。我想回家的时候，他……他……”

姐姐的声音变得温柔亲昵，安慰着她。“没事了，纳尔茜。我在，我们都在。我们会带你离开这个该死的地方。”

“可是爸爸——”

“爸爸就是个混蛋。”福尔图娜打断她。“我和菲利克斯会让你看清的。”

“菲、菲利克斯回来了？”可怜的女孩不敢相信。

“为了你，纳尔茜。”扬声器里传出了原子小猫的声音。“我是为你来的。”

“他们都在外面等你。”瑞恩温和地说，朝孩子伸出了手。那一刻，他仿佛又回到了蕾恩在他家废墟下找到他的那一天，她就像黑暗里的一束光。“我带你去。”

纳尔西妮娅犹豫了一下，最终还是握住了他的手。

在波动先生的帮助下，众人花了几分钟撤空工厂。巴克斯和墨丘利被注射了镇静剂，送去与麻雀、普鲁托和杀手七人组的其他人作伴。妖姬摔断了脖子，玛尔斯则被困在了水泡里。瑞恩将纳尔西妮娅交给福尔图娜时，她担忧地看了养父一眼。福尔图娜紧紧抱住妹妹。菲利克斯在一旁看了一会儿，直到纳尔西妮娅哭出声，才有些笨拙地加入了这个拥抱。

瑞恩望向极乐工厂，望向这座制造死亡与毁灭的工业设施，下达了决定它命运的指令。

“把这里拆了！”

巨人弗拉基米尔立刻徒手砸向堡垒的石墙，比安卡则用冲击波协助他。整座建筑轰然坍塌，其中的罪恶被永远掩埋。

“瑞瑞。”蕾恩的声音满是忧虑，“他来了。”

他确实来了。萨图恩装甲的传感器已经探测到，岛屿附近的电磁活动骤然增强。连空气都充斥着电流，红色闪电在岛屿上空的云层中穿行。

裹尸布将手放在快递员肩上。“瑞恩——”

“你杀我的次数可比他多。”快递员打趣道，随后启动了喷气背包。“我会没事的。”

义警一言不发地目送瑞恩离去。虽然快递员看不透朋友的玻璃头盔，却能感觉到那后面的担忧。不只是他。小矮个、比安卡、人偶、菲利克斯、波动先生、福尔图娜、蒂米、海伦，还有他在将近二十四次循环中结识的所有朋友……他们望着他，无声地祈祷。

他们觉得他回不来了。

而他们也许是对的。

瑞恩稳住呼吸，咽下恐惧，不断向上攀升，直到极乐工厂的废墟看起来还没有他的手掌大。烟尘在脚下升起，猩红的闪电将蓝天染成血色。雷声在快递员四周轰鸣回荡，震耳欲聋，令人胆寒。

一道霹雳从他头顶划过天际。

“这戏剧张力，我喜欢。”瑞恩抬头说道，“你还真会挑出场方式。”

一尊象牙白雕像从积雨云中缓缓降下，周身笼罩着猩红的电光。原本，光是直视他的脸就足以刺痛双眼，但透过镜片，瑞恩得以看清那噼啪闪烁的电光后面，怒不可遏、杀气腾腾的面孔。一股股电离后泛白的气流在这个廉价神明脚下盘旋，托着他飞行。

奥古斯都没有停在与快递员平齐的位置，而是悬浮在高出几米的地方，好居高临下地俯视他。“你是谁？”他的声音里没有一丝恐惧，攥紧的双拳却暴露了怒火。“想必，你就是这一切的幕后主使。”

“我叫瑞恩。瑞恩·罗马诺。”快递员听见背包里传来了抓挠声。“有人叫我快存，不过，对你来说嘛？”

瑞恩举起双拳，摆出了战斗架势。

“我想，叫萨图恩王就行。”

“这是属于我的泰坦之战吗？”他眯眼看着瑞恩，目光里尽是轻蔑与傲慢。“上一次，与你同名的那位可没落得好下场。今天也不会例外。”

“这个嘛，能重来的好处就在于，”瑞恩答道，“失败也能变成成功。”

“等你被钉上十字架，亲眼看着这些跟随你来到此地的蠢货死去，我们就会知道你究竟有多勇敢。”奥古斯都的声音低沉下来，宛如雷鸣，双眼愈发明亮。“来吧。”