Volume 8 - CH 152.1

What Su Enya hated the most was Dai Wu and his ‘Second Life’ bollocks.

What second life, she asks? They are trapped in a prison – Calling it a second life is just pathetically lying to themselves.

They are locked up. They have lost their freedom. They can never go back to normal.

That’s how extreme her attitude has always been; her companions never really dug deep into why she objected to Dai Wu’s teachings so vehemently.

Maybe it was a simple ideological difference, or Su Enya is just like that as a person.

Dai Wu himself never really got into a real argument with Su Enya either, despite the somewhat tensed relations. They are even able to communicate and work together as needed.

But now, it has been revealed to the four Missiontakers present, why Su Enya utterly despises calling this a ‘Second Life.’

Because, when the Raining Hellfire was about to destroy all that remained of society… right before entering the Tower, she was getting married.

She was right on the verge of a new stage of life, of a new beginning.

Which swiftly turned into imprisonment in the Tower.

People despair having descended from the mortal world to hell, but falling all the way from an imagined heaven to hell, was devastating for Su Enya.

She really wanted to become that happy bride once more, even though she’s also forgotten about this whole ordeal.

But the emotional scars were still there.

She didn’t need some second life, because she wanted her own life back – her own life spent with the one she loved. That’s what she wanted.

A second life… A false, treacherous thing. She doesn’t need such a mirage of happiness.

However, ending up right where she was due to have her wedding held, and finally juggling at that part of her emotions when she was a bride, when she was due to marry her beloved, the happiness forever lost to her – Is her husband still alive? Is he even in the Tower? Is he, perhaps, forever asleep on Earth, to which they can never return?

The Apocalypse… The Apocalypse…

The four Missiontakers watch Su Enya’s transformation, watching this woman who can never be happy again.

She slowly walks towards the hotel entrance, but Ye Lan blocks her with her hand.

Su Enya seems confused by this gesture.

Ye Lan asks, “do you remember ‘Second Life’?”

Su Enya asks, “what are you talking about?”

“Is this the fake second life you wanted?” Jiang Shuangmei chimes in, “are you happy with this?”

Su Enya seems all the more confounded.

Fei then steps forward to ask, “are you going to marry a piece of software that is faking, pretending to be your husband?”

Su Enya seems offended by the remark, angrily spouting, “what in the world are you people going on about?! I’m getting married, so please do move aside!”

“She’s gone insane,” Wu Jian mumbles, “she has already forgotten about the Tower, Nightmares, and what we’re all here for.”

“Can she not see that window in front of her?”

Right now, those four sane Missiontakers have already chosen and confirmed to leave the Nightmare, but Su Enya hasn’t made her choice yet, it seems.

“What?” Su Enya then asks, “are you talking about that… floating thing?”

The Missiontakers are carefully considering their words.

Su Enya then mumbles, “what in the… Will picking someone get it to go away…”

“No!” Fei yells, “don’t pick something at random!”

A spooked Su Enya didn’t pick anything.

Jiang Shuangmei rubs her chin, asking, “can we just concoct something to make her choose ‘Yes’ and leave the Nightmare?”

“Leave?” Su Enya, having overheard, suddenly yells, “no! I’m not leaving! I’m marrying my husband! Please… stop pestering me!”

Wu Jian laments, “this is the worst…”

The Missiontakers are all quiet.

Su Enya is clearly all succumbed to the fictitious happiness that the Nightmare has enchanted on her.

No one can wake up a person pretending to be asleep, especially when they’re brainwashed to believe they’re excited and happy to get married right now – to her beloved.

Su Enya seems to have ignored the window altogether now, grabbing the hems of her wedding dress again, and walks inside.

“We need to go inside too,” Fei sighs depressingly, “at least she hasn’t made any choices yet.

The others nod and follow.

Ye Lan notices that, on the placard outside the entrance to the hotel, the newlyweds’ names have changed to read ‘Su Enya’ and a groom they do not know.

She isn’t sure if this means it’s merely someone they’ve never met in the Tower, or if he’s already died, and she sighs.

Inside the hotel, the atmosphere and scene have also changed when they stepped through the door. The decoration is rather new and romantic, and strange murmurs resembling conversation fill their ears, even though they can’t actually see a person in sight.

It’s all quite hazy in the fog, and almost looks dreamy.

At the end of the red carpet is the silhouette of what appears to be a man, in a fitting suit and quite impeccably tidied up, waiting for his bride to come forth.

Su Enya turns rather sly and expectant. Pulling her dress up, still, she walks the aisle.

Wu Jian can’t help but say, “should we be helping out? It’s her wedding…”

Fei “…”

She glares at him, angrily telling him, “keep your mouth shut if you don’t know what to say!”

They’re anxiously waiting to see if Su Enya can wake up, but Wu Jian is more worried about… being the maid of honour?! Who in the world cares about that right now!

Wu Jian’s quite distinct thinking process is on full bloom; so he can only shut up and wait quietly with the others as Su Enya walks over the long, red carpet.

She’ll be marrying her dearest, in her dream.

A fake dream, though, without their relatives, or even a single guest.

The only four witness to this lonely marriage couldn’t care less about her marriage too.

But…

She is, getting married.

She is walking slowly forward, with a happy smile, even in spite of the tears starting to roll out of her eyes.

“Don’t cry.”

Someone seems to say to her.

It’s a most familiar voice. It’s a most unfamiliar voice. Weak. Pain. She thinks she can smell blood. It’s revolting. But, but she will press on.

She thinks her wedding dress is also getting tainted a worrying colour.

She thinks she is crying, yelling.

The voice is still telling her, “don’t cry.”

Tears roll off her cheeks; she is smiling. She is crying. She is walking towards her future husband.

The voice is still speaking.

“Don’t cry, my dear, most beautiful wife. Don’t cry, because your makeup will be ruined. It won’t look pretty anymore.”

No, no, of course not. Is she not pretty if she is crying? What an unreasonable man. So unreasonable…

He left his newlywed spouse, alone, in this damned world.

What in the world is with this kind of husband.

Why would she…

Why would she lose her husband the day of her marriage?

There was Raining Hellfire, the day she married.

Su Enya suddenly stops, as the four Missiontakers look on nervously.

She’s in the middle of the long isle, where the foggy silhouette of the man is still waiting for her quietly at the end.

Su Enya is looking at him through all the tears, quietly, staring, watching.

Then she slowly walks forward. Steadily. Firmly. The day of her marriage, she wonders, was it just like this when she was walking on the red carpet? She cannot remember.

She forgot, but she remembered, but she remembered, the pain and hopelessness.

She lowers her head. Her dress is white. It is still clean and fresh.

No pain. No tear. No blood. It’s clean.

But the man is speaking again.

“I’ll be with you forever.”

Bullshit…

“I love you, always.”

Barely passable, critiques her mind.

“If I died, please, find someone else who can love you as much as I do.”

What the hell, this man is crazy, so crazy.

“I think I’ll get jealous, but, I also… wish you could be happier.”

No. She’s his wife. She…

“So really, stop crying.”

“I said, I’m not crying.”

The people present get spooked that she suddenly said something out of the blue. She can hear them mumbling, talking about that ‘window’ again… Giving it a dispassionate glance, she continues forward.

Tears follow her every step. On the red carpet.

Why is it tradition to use red carpets anyway, she wonders? She can’t remember anything. It’s empty. Getting emptier.

Then she suddenly remembers. The ring. Yes. The ring.

Discreetly, she feels her left ring finger. The ring is still there. It’s a sigh of relief.

“When you bury me, please bury the ring with me,” he says, again.

She grips the finger tightly now. Ha. You jest, surely.

“So a better person can give you a ring anew…”

This is getting ridiculous. What kind of man would actively try to get cheated on?

“Forget about me…”

“But I love you…” She says.

At the end of the carpet, the man’s form is waiting for her.

She knows this face. She does not. She knows his expression. She does not. She remembers his suit. She does not. She looks at him quietly.

He extends his hand, trying to hold hers.

Su Enya says, again, “I love you…”

The man gently smiles, and responds, gently, affectionately, “I love you too…”

Su Enya continues, “I cannot marry you.”

The man freezes.

“I am already married. I won’t cheat on him like he said I would. Who does he think I am?”

She mumbles to herself.