𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙭𝙚𝙨

      Let's return for now to our Tails and his naga Shadow! As you remember from previous chapters, King Merlin suspected something about Luz Bucket and called his acquaintances Shadow and Tails to his place to talk with them about Luz, since they had known him for a long time and were in a relationship. The messenger delivered them a message and the fox, together with the striped naga, responded to the king’s invitation to his palace in the middle of the night. They headed there as quickly as possible and were in a terrible hurry. The striped naga quickly crawled on his muscles under his tail with his belly, and Tails flew from above and caught up with his huge friend. — Don't stop, Shadow! — Catch up, Tails! The messenger on horseback also rode back to the palace, escorting those invited to the king. They ran, crawled and flew to the city with the palace. The guards immediately let them through without stopping or questioning, because the king warned them that he had called them to him so late now. The naga and the fox ran to the castle and, once in the throne room, bowed to King Merlin. — Did you call we, Your Majesty? — Tails asks. — Called. — the king answers. — Luz Bucket showed up in our palace. — Did he do something again? — Shadow suspected, asking sternly. — No, thank God, he didn’t hurt anyone. He was just walking around the castle and looking for someone. But I had strange premonitions. I suspect that this is most likely not our Luz Bucket. — Why do you think so? — the fox asked. — He was dressed in some kind of business suit. And its size too. Although our desks have not yet given consent and do not plan to sew such huge clothes in the next hundred years. He also had some kind of magical artifact on which he showed images of two strange creatures that he was looking for. I have a suspicion that this Luz is an impostor, and our real Luz Bucket, who is really on the path to correction, is in great danger. After all, if this other Luz impostor attacks and kills someone, then everyone will think of ours and his reputation will be tarnished. After speaking, Tails and Shadow looked at each other questioningly. Then they looked at the king again and he continued: — I suspect that your former enemy, who became a friend, is in great danger and he really needs your help. And especially perhaps the two he is looking for also need help. — Did you happen to see what those two look like? — asks Shadow. — Yes. One of them is red and wears a green cowboy hat, and the other looks like a blue horse with a pink mane. — IT'S WANDER AND SILVIA!!! — Tails and Shadow shouted at the same time, their eyes wide and looking at each other. — Who? — the king did not understand. — We don’t have time to explain, Your Majesty. You are absolutely right! Those two and our Luz Bucket are in danger. We need to quickly get back and act before it's too late. — the fox answers and was the first to fly off for the day off. — Shadow crawled after him. — Take care of yourself, friends! Good luck to you! — Merlin replies, waving goodbye. Then, remembering something, he hit himself on the forehead with his right palm. — I forgot to ask them again. Did they return that same ring to me or did they find a way to destroy it?

***

      As quickly and as quickly as they could, they ran and flew back to Shadow's cave on that very hill. They rushed inside and looked around. The table was thrown to the floor, the bed was dented and ruined. Here-and-there and Sylvia themselves were lying on the floor. They were dead. The redhead's head was cut off, but the head itself was missing. Apparently she was eaten. His girlfriend was pierced in the chest by something sharp and only a hole remained. — Oh no! We are late! — the fox lowered his hands, realizing that the impostor Luz, whom the king was talking about, had already managed to crawl here and kill them. Tails relaxes his flight and sits down on the teapot. His eyes fill with tears, and he closes his eyes and turns around. Shadow hugs Tails, and he lays his muzzle on his chest and cries. Striped tried to calm his friend, holding him with both palms. Although even he felt sorry for those two. They don't deserve what they ended up getting. — I should have taken them with me. Then they wouldn’t have died... — after a pause, the fox sniffs and clenches his fists. — Whoever this Killer is, he will pay dearly for their lives. With these words, he was about to fly away, but Shadow lightly grabbed his right leg. The fox turned around, and the snake-hedgehog began to try to reason with his friend: — Don't forget, Tails! Remember what happened when you killed that evil Luz in the alternate world, what you told them about! Even though you are a naga hunter, if you allow the lust for blood and revenge to cloud your mind, you will become the same as that Killer. — I know, Shadow. But I already experienced this myself when I killed that Luz and I know what it is like. So I have nothing more to lose! If I am destined to take revenge, so be it! — after the words were spoken by the fox, the naga lets him go. — This is the only way out, Shadow. There is no other way, and mercy and humility will not solve anything. If you leave the killer alive, he will then return early or late and finish you off himself or someone else. If the murderer himself is deprived of his life, then no one else will suffer because of him. One violence, of course, gives rise to another violence, but the murderer who gives rise to them himself over and over again must recognize this in his own death. I myself will never become a maniac and kill other people, Mobians or Nagas. Especially not the guilty ones. This means that sometimes violence will not give rise to other violence if it is used correctly for educational purposes or as punishment. Yes, and they will be honest! Even God sometimes killed, which was a sin. Do you know what I mean? — Yes. Some sins can sometimes be committed even by innocent people and saints, as well as by God himself. For example, there is pride, and there is arrogance. It seems to be the same thing, but on the other hand, being proud of yourself or others is not bad either. And sometimes you also need to be lazy and just relax without doing anything, at least for a day or an hour. There's nothing wrong with that. Here I agree with you. The Bible was still written in haste and there were plot holes. — Exactly. It is especially unclear about Adam and Eve. After all, if all the people on Earth descended from them, then it turns out that this is incest, which is also considered a sin for people, Mobians and Nagas. Therefore, even in violence, I do not see anything wrong if it is used correctly and for good. — Tails answers and flies up to the corpses of Wander and Sylvia. I wish I could go back in time and save them. — Alas, but this is impossible! — says the striped one, raising his shoulders with his palms. And suddenly Tails and Shadow heard someone singing. They turned in the direction of the sound and looked behind the stove. There lay the green hat of Toot-I-Tam himself. Shadow reached there with his tail, grabbed the hat with the tip of his tail and pulled it towards him. — What is this? — asks the striped one. The fox takes the hat in his hands and, having examined it, pointing his finger at the red corpse, replies: — It is his! The hat sang again and spat out some kind of device from its bottom. Tails looked at it and accidentally touched a couple of buttons, turned on a blue beam that scanned the entire cave around, and then created a halogram of Wander and Sylvia, who had previously been sitting on the bed and waiting. They were sitting in an embrace and suddenly the blue hallogram Luz Bucket looked into the cave. Only it wasn't their Luz Bucket. He was all in some kind of business suit and with instruments. He even had a signature and old familiar stinger on his tail, since their Luz had been cut off and lost, and then replaced with a piece of Tails’ broken sword. So Tails and Shadow, looking at the images of the hologram, realized that it was an impostor. Luz saw the hallogram Wander and spoke to him: — O! Hello, are you probably that same friend of Tails and Shad? They were calm for now, although Sylvia looked at him a little suspiciously. The Scorpio snake crawled closer, holding his hands on his chest and smilingly answered: — Yes it's me. — Why are you dressed so strangely? — Sylvia asks suspiciously. — I was on my way to a wedding and forgot to change clothes. — Luz lied and leaned over. — Don't be afraid! I'm not your enemy. I will do everything to protect you. In fact, at that moment he hid his sting behind his back and prepared it for battle. He sharpened it and, sharply crawling to the left side, he plunged his sharp sting through the chest of the zbornak. — NO!!! — the weirdo shouted, his eyes bulging. The scorpion naga then pulled out his tail-tipped blade from Sylvia's chest and she fell to the floor from the bed. Tails and Shadow covered their mouths in horror at what they saw, and the halogram image continued. Here-and-there began to run and jump, but Bucket grabbed him in his right hand. At the same time, he pushed the table onto its side with his other hand. — Well, where did you run? — he asks him slyly, looking with his terrible eyes. — I wanted to help you. — No. You're not helping us. You have come to kill us. You are not kind and you are not even a friend. You are terrible! You are simply an incorrigible monster! — Ho-ho-ho! — he laughed evilly. — Did this just dawn on you, little idiot? — Yes, just now. And it's a pity that it's so late. — says the redhead and tries to escape from his hand, but the naga held him tightly. The weirdo asks through gritted teeth in an attempt to free himself: — Where did you come from? — Good question! But since you asked me yourself, so be it, I’ll answer! — he lies down on the bed and, fussing over how soft it is, begins to talk about himself. — You see, I don’t belong to this universe and its alternative versions. Many years ago, I was created in the same laboratory along with some other specimen in the form of a black hedgehog with red stripes. — Is he talking about me? — Shadow asks himself out loud, and the hallogram Luza continues the conversation: — There was another girl there with yellow hair who sympathized with that snake hedgehog. Nobody pays attention to me. Then he ran away and only I was left. However, then a portal opened and from behind someone in another dimension, soldiers from the nation of eliminating intergalactic and temporal paradx, as they called themselves, appeared. They traveled through the universes and were looking for a certain violator who betrayed them, created anomalies in other universes, without using the blocking of creating copies of universes when changing events and jumping to other worlds, and these soldiers used the blocking as a result of which my universe was left without a copy, even though its events and were changed, erasing me from there. I was a witness and saw them. At first they wanted to shoot me, but I agreed with them and offered them a deal so that they would release me and offer to work with them and teach me everything they know, but I myself don’t know yet. They agreed and took me to their base in some kind of emptiness. There they made me immortal, forever young, and I became one of the nation’s professional agents for eliminating intergalactic and temporal paradx. You and your friend ran away from us and are currently an anomaly that needs to be eliminated. Goodbye red macaque! — You won't kill me that easily. I'm already immortal. — answers the red-haired weirdo. — We'll check that now. — the scorpion answers slyly, takes off his hat, throwing it to the side and then opens his mouth, pushes the red-haired weirdo to the middle and bites off his head, after which he chews it and swallows. Then he releases the headless corpse and it falls next to Sylvia's corpse. Afterwards the killer speaks to himself. — Mission accomplished... Only two more left to kill! — he says, extending his index and middle fingers on his left hand. After that, he crawls away and at this point the machine stops showing the halogram. Thanks to this device, Tails now understood what happened here and how it happened. He puts the device back into the hat, thinking that it is hers, and suddenly the hat gives him in return an electronic compass, which with an arrow pointed at someone moving, judging by the fact that the arrow turned a little and showed how many meters he was moving further and further away from them. — A compass that will lead us to the impostor before he finds us himself. — the fox says to himself. — So what are we waiting for? Let's stop him! — Shadow raises his right fist. Tails confidently puts the Wander hat on his head and flies off on his way. Shadow crawls after him.