billions of light years

Chapter 8 End

☆、Chapter 9

On France's famous Côte d'Azur, the sea water is still pure, but the traces of people have disappeared. "As long as you don't use your abilities on a large scale, Apocalypse won't be able to find us." Erik casually turned the portable communicator in his hand, using the opening and closing of the radio waves as a code to send a message to a distant place, "We have a long vacation now .where do you want to go?"

"Is it alright for you to go against Apocalypse so directly?" Little Charles obviously hasn't forgotten the quarrel just now, "Your Excellency the Gestapo of the Mutant Empire?"

"What are you talking about, Your Excellency Wanted Criminal?" Erik took advantage of his height and tapped his forehead amidst Charles' protest, "I'm clearly on a field trip."

"Well, it looks like you're pretty good at that bureaucratic scum, Erik. Let's go see the world." Little Charles' blue eyes were twinkling, tiny lights. "I think we all need to take a closer look at what it actually looks like."

"Okay," Erik readily agreed, "shall we travel the world?"

"No, it was you who were chasing me and observing the people's sentiments for your great Apocalypse boss."

"If you report like this, I will definitely be fired."

"Seriously, Erik," little Charles seemed a little worried, but he didn't know whether to speak, "...how will you face accountability after I leave this world? What about Charles, who is exposed in this world?"

"That's not what children need to think about, Charles, I think at the age of 33, we already have the consciousness and ability to take responsibility. Maybe I won't help you do things, maybe I will stand on the opposite side of you..." Erik may not be very good at saying this The kind of frank and honest words, the ears are almost red. "But I will never push you into a pit of fire."

Little Charles listened quietly. "Thank you, Erik, but pardon me for being rude," he grinned like a contented young fox, "what you said just now looked like it was taken from a romance novel."

The last intimacy was too short, and it meant venting anger more than torture.This time Erik finally got a real taste of Charles' lips.It would be distorted to describe it with flowers.Little Charles hadn't experienced that apocalyptic catastrophe yet, and the corners of his lips and brows were full of youthful spirit. Erik is like a high school student who has just fallen into alcohol until they arrive at the local hotel and are still figuring out what words to use to describe it.He only regrets that he didn't read more obscure books like Charles did.

Ah yes.Sitting at the bar, sipping rosé wine in the warmth of pine honey, he hit upon a brilliant idea: sunshine.That's right.Anyway, the 33-year-old Charles also likes to preach to others (usually Erik himself was preached at that time), striving to become the world's number one soul teacher——

Little Charles is talking and laughing with several local girls in the Provence dialect he just learned.The girls were wearing dirty cotton dresses, and their golden brown hair was messy (these may be the standard for ordinary people in remote areas or weak mutants in metropolises), and they were being giggled by Charles. Erik felt a little sour, but still drank alone without changing his face.After all, he's a fun-loving 15-year-old.He tried to comfort himself with that—yes, a fifteen-year-old who had just kissed him.He poured himself another half glass, and the crimson liquid stirred in the glass, like a bloody vortex that could suck a person's soul into it. Erik held up his glass and looked at the kid's profile through the empty glass above the liquid level.Forgive me Charles, this shouldn't count as cheating.At most it's just pedophilia - how many years will he be sentenced?The more he thought about it, the more desperate he became.

He simply closed his eyes and drank the sunshine with the red wine.

"Erik!" The little Charles with the hyacinths pinned in the buttonhole of his jacket bounced and sat on the chair opposite him, "I heard that there is a lavender field in the southeast!" The glass with half of the red wine left was picked up.

"I knew you didn't have to use your powers to get the words out. Little Charles, you're as happy as a kangaroo." It's a genius inspiration, what Erik thought of just now is the kind of stupid and silly jumping around gadgets. "You're 15, you can't—well,"

Erik watched helplessly as little Charles threw his neck back and gulped down half a glass of wine - he would have known he wouldn't have chosen such a large glass. "I forgot that you are in a rebellious period."

"It tastes good." Little Charles put down his glass, and his cheeks turned a faint pink almost immediately.

"You're a natural little alcoholic." Erik said helplessly, "Are you dizzy? For a novice, you drink too much at once."

Little Charles licked his still glistening upper lip with his tongue, "Or the last kiss made me dizzy more. Erik, if you don't mind—?"

Erik poured himself a glass of plain water to quench the thirst in his throat. "You're drunk, no doubt. You're not usually this...enthusiastic." Well, he didn't mean to say "dissatisfaction", and he really didn't.

The half-drunk little Charles was talking more and more out of the ordinary than usual.That metaphor of being like a kangaroo is almost a curse. Erik was given a free class in pre-college biology on the way to see the lavender fields with him. "So, genes..."

"If you talk any more, I'll gag you—" Erik found that little Charles had a greater ability than he did when he grew up: he could turn any situation that could be matched with the melodious melody of the violin into a Chaplin comedy anytime and anywhere, and then Twist it back.

"Using your kiss, Erik? My future friend?" Little Charles rolled his blue eyes, pretending to be disappointed, "How long do I have to wait?"

"You got what you wanted, my old friend." They kissed in a sea of ​​lavender flowers, and Erik didn't think it was a good start, and he was a little afraid that if this went on, they would become two kissing fish that would only stick together.He wanted to think about the great cause of the mutant empire—and as a result, the big blue face of Apocalypse came to his mind irresistibly.

Erik chose to keep kissing Charles.

"Why don't you kiss me?" Erik hugged his little Charles, "Oh I see," he casually folded a sprig of lavender and poked little Charles' cheek like a cat, "because you don't want to tiptoe. "

The alcohol in little Charles' body gradually took effect as the blood circulated.He ignored this childish provocation, just shook his head, "Erik," his voice was soft, and if his voice had a touch, it must be the softest cotton candy, "Are we in the sky?"

Erik held him in his arms, looked at the sea of ​​purple lavender in different shades, and hummed softly without protesting for a moment. As far as Charles looked, it was all soft lavender.It is like a child's wild dream, the waves with soft white foam and the leisurely sound of the tide.Perhaps as a certain philosopher said, the two poles can be transformed into each other, just like when people are full and hungry, they start to eat grass, trees, insects and fish, and the north and south poles are ice and snow.This sea of ​​flowers is actually more like the sky than the ocean that can make people drown in it.They floated up and down in the kingdom of clouds, notes flowed from their fingertips, the void was used as the keys, and the ether was used as the steel strings.

A discordant gunshot broke the silence.

Erik frowned disapprovingly, pinning young Charles' shoulders to keep him from getting up. "Hush."

Under the cover of lavender and small shrubs, they approached the place where the gunshots came from.That is the gate of the town not far away.Judging by the number of people, it seems that more than half of the people in the town have come.

["Do you really want to punish him on the spot?"

"He attacked mutants! Do you want to kill us all?!"]

No one paid attention to the noisy arguments, the blood spilling from this beautiful land, or the painful gasps of the wounded.Perhaps this is the cheapest thing right now, after all, the supply exceeds demand.

"Leave it alone, Charles," Erik warned. "Did you hear that? He attacked mutants. The police will come and clean them up. If you rescue this man, according to the regulations, if he doesn't purify himself, the whole town will be buried with him."

"Controlling violence with violence won't achieve the goal, Erik." Little Charles stared at the man writhing in pain on the ground tens of meters away, "I thought the Middle Ages were over, Erik. Isn't there any law?"

"Because he's attacking mutants." Erik replied succinctly. "Ordinary people have ordinary people's laws, and mutants have mutants' laws."

"Don't stare at me with that nervous look, Erik, I'm old enough to know there are some things I can't do." Charles whispered, "You think I'm going to rush out to save people no matter what?"

Erik responded with silence.

"Let's not say that I'm still wanted... I saved them now, but they will still die in the future. As long as you still have this thought..."

"At this point, I think you are more sensible than 33-year-old Charles." Erik commented.

"No, we are essentially the same." Little Charles blinked, and put the index and middle fingers of his right hand together and lightly pressed against his temple, "We all chose to bear the burden."

The telepathy is on the verge of triggering.Little Charles personally experienced the love, hate, joys and sorrows in the ordinary life of this executed person, until there was a pain in his chest, and non-existent blood gurgled out, and the burning pain made his throat feel like a piece of waste paper was blocked , couldn't even choke.

Erik didn't stop him, just looked at little Charles in silence, and held his hand tightly, feeling the cold sticky thin sweat emerging from the place where the palms met.He couldn't break the boy's persistence any more than he could shake Charles' mind eighteen years later.

Almost half a minute later, panting loudly, the little Charles, whose head was dripping with cold sweat, woke up from a deep spiritual connection, as if resurrected from drowning in the deep sea.

"I just want to remember him." Little Charles calmed down for a few seconds and explained in a hoarse voice, "...if his parents, wife and children die in the future, who will remember such a life? Who would have known that he too had experienced joy and sorrow?  …”

"You can't carry everyone." Erik clenched his hand, experiencing emotion, accepting death?How can he bear it? "You're going to break, Charles."

"I won't." Little Charles showed a pale smile, "I was born good at enduring pain." He pretended to be relaxed and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, shrugged his shoulders, and his vain footsteps betrayed his absence Status, "Does it look like you swam in the lavender sea?"

"It's time to go ashore, Charles. The mediocre will stay on the ground, and the strong will only yearn for the sky."

Little Charles dared to bet that Erik's routine would be something like "and mutants are the kind that stand in the sky", "stand with me" and other nonsense words.But he was too tired and really didn't want to fight anymore.

"What do you think is above the sky? Apollo? Or La? Do you think they will fight in the sky?" Little Charles and his eyes met and their noses touched, "Mr. Erik, who is knowledgeable?"

"Cunning boy." Erik hated the unexpected question.Yes, the interruption made him forget his words. "I wanted to teach you the first lesson, what is 'reality', but unexpectedly you told me about mythology."

Little Charles smiled, "I'm just reminding you what reality is, Erik. The reality is that no one is qualified to stand in the sky and admire it from a height." He added, "I'm starting to look forward to the last few lessons you teach me Yes, if it still has hours."

"You've been sharp-tongued since you were a kid, Charles. If I were the headmaster, I'd have kicked you out."

"So you'll never be headmaster, Erik," said little Charles with a mischievous grimace, "that's fair."