Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 1245: Chapter 951: Going Home

Huai Shi was dumbfounded.

Feeling Marcus’s enthusiastic embrace, he was at a loss for words and looked at Luo Su with bewilderment.

What the heck is this, what’s going on!

”Well, this is a long story...”

Luo Su pressed his forehead and sighed helplessly.

After a while, Marcus finally let go of his embrace, but before Huai Shi could react, he grabbed Huai Shi’s hand again, as if afraid he was a phantom that might disappear at any moment.

Unbelievable.

”Luo Su, you’ve become so much younger!” he exclaimed in shock, ”Even your race has changed!”

”... ”

Huai Shi no longer knew how to answer.

But Marcus seemed to finally understand something, stepped back a pace, looked at Huai Shi, then at Luo Su beside Huai Shi.

”I see!”

He exclaimed in astonishment: ”You sneaky guy, had a makeover, huh? And brought the doctor over to introduce to me?

Quick, doctor, make me look just like him...”

”Uh, Mr. Marcus, he’s ... not a doctor...”

”Then is he your father?”

”Father, my foot!” Huai Shi snapped angrily, ”My dad died many years ago!”

Marcus nodded knowingly: ”Right, you mentioned your mother passed away early too...”

”Ahem.” After coughing twice, Luo Su stepped forward and said seriously, ”Marcus, we’re here for an urgent...”

”There’s no need to say more, I already understand!”

Marcus interrupted him, murmuring to himself: ”I can already feel it!”

Huai Shi wanted to take the opportunity while he was talking to himself to pull his hand back, but that hand suddenly extended, grasping his wrist tightly, like a vise.

”It’s war.”

Marcus murmured, his dark pupils seemingly ablaze, ”The taste of war! Yes, you are planning a war, Luo Su, I know... a life-or-death war, I just knew, I just knew, that this time it’s really coming!”

He shouted excitedly: ”The Doomsday for the Paradise of Bliss has arrived!!!”

???

Huai Shi was baffled.

He didn’t know what he was talking about.

”Ahem, Marcus... um... the war plan against the Ranch Owner has been canceled.” Luo Su quietly reminded, ”That plan was rejected years ago due to insufficient budget, excessive demands, and impracticality.”

”Who dares?!”

Marcus suddenly turned back, glaring at him: ”Is it the Jurisdiction Bureau, right? I knew it was those dogs! And the useless bunch from the Existence Institute dragging us down!”

In the lengthy silence, Huai Shi turned to look at Luo Su.

Small eyes, big confusion.

You call this ’graceful’? Are you misunderstanding the Dongxia language?

”Marcus, calm down, calm down...”

”Isn’t it the Paradise of Bliss invasion plan, but the Green Day sequence?” Marcus pursued: ”Is the Hell border development really going to happen?”

”Uh... though Green Day came to pass, the Hell border development is still nowhere in sight...”

Marcus pondered for a moment, suddenly realized: ”Could it be the Golden Dawn plan to explore the Abyss source finally going to launch?”

”Ah, in some sense... but not that either?”

”It won’t be the descent of the Heavenly Kingdom, would it?”

”The Heavenly Kingdom has been gone for so many years, there’s nothing to descend, my friend.” Luo Su sighed: ”The data center Nowhere has already sunk into Hell...”

”Outrageous!!”

Marcus roared, veins popping on his face with anger: ”An absolute disgrace! Luo Su, call Vitali and Auden, let’s burn those rebels to ashes!”

With that, he started dragging Huai Shi outward, but Huai Shi didn’t move. Quickly, the old man turned to look at them angrily: ”What are you standing there for, let’s go.”

”Vitali and Auden are both already dead, Marcus, wasn’t it you who issued the obituary?”

Luo Su looked at him with pity: ”The Heavenly Kingdom no longer exists, all of our once-great plans and hopes have vanished, fallen with ideals.

It’s been seventy years, how much longer will you linger in this dream?”

”I... I...”

Marcus froze on the spot, for a long time, unable to comprehend his words.

Like a lost child.

Unable to find direction, yet unable to escape reality anymore.

”They’re all gone, then...”

He blankly asked: ”So, where am I supposed to go?”

Luo Su remained silent, without an answer.

”Where are you? Luo Su? Are you really Luo Su? Are you imagined by me too? Like before.” Marcus asked despondently, ”Did I... relapse again?”

”I’m sorry, I miss you all... I really miss you...”

He bowed his head, tears streaming down his weathered face, ”But I’m already... I already... have nowhere to go... Please tell me, where is my home?”

”This time, it’s not an illusion.”

Luo Su held his shoulder, seriously telling him: ”I’m right in front of you, Marcus, I came to bring you back.”

The man covered his face, crying silently.

Huai Shi turned away, unwilling to watch any longer.

.

.

After a long time, when Marcus finally calmed down, he seemed to become a wooden figure.

Sitting dazedly in the chair, silent, not saying a word.

Seems to have lost his soul.

”What’s wrong with him?”

Huai Shi stood in the distance, looking at that solitary figure, and softly asked, ”...Gone mad?”

Unable to imagine the impact that the fall of Utopia brought him.

It actually drove a Sublimator insane, turning the once wise and elegant Diplomat into his current state.

”Yes, he’s mad.”

Luo Su bowed his head, smoking, ”After all, he is a Roman, prone to erratic behavior, no surprise... haven’t you seen enough of the Roman royal family’s madness?”

Huai Shi was speechless.

This was also the strange rumor spreading throughout the Current Circumstances.

Among the emperors of Rome throughout history, there are no shortage of evident rulers, nor of steadfast and wise individuals, but without many exceptions—the more evident, the wiser, the more insightful, then in their later years, they became increasingly dull and tyrannical.

No, it’s almost madness.

Excessive indulgence is still bearable, but several emperors directly sparked internal chaos and wars, pushing Rome to the brink of collapse multiple times.

It is hard to imagine how such coincidences gathered together, almost forming an unwritten tradition.

If it were the flaw of lineage, it still cannot explain, for Rome prioritized the throne, not necessarily lineage inheritance, with several emperors even born from slaves or serving as electors.

But once seated on that chair, their end was inevitable.

Throughout history, emperors have been poisoned, assassinated, and died of sudden illnesses countless times...

As for the emperor’s offspring and relatives, they are far too numerous to count.

”Shouldn’t we say that power drives people mad?” he curiously asked.

”No, this is a curse, Huai Shi.”

Luo Su said, ”The Curse of the throne, the weight of the crown, the price of being supreme and sovereign...”

In Rome, before each emperor’s ascension, they are endowed with the Stigma of the Heavenly Father Jupiter and the Miracle, becoming the Owner of the Rome Genealogy.

And at the moment of ascension, he will naturally become ’The Crowned One,’ inheriting all the Correction Values accumulated by Roman emperors throughout history.

One, regardless of whether they were previously a Sublimator, after undergoing such a ceremony, would instantly become one of the formidable in the entire realm.

Memories of emperors throughout history, countless essences and experiences of struggles would be extracted and comprehended by him.

And after millennia, Rome’s Correction Value has exceeded three hundred percent; this power, combined with Miracle Imprint and Authority Relic, can be referred to as a demigod.

This is no secret among the high echelons of the Great Genealogy, but Huai Shi learned of it for the first time, feeling shocked and puzzled.

More importantly, given his strength... what curse could threaten the emperor?

”Can only Rome destroy Rome itself?”

Luo Su answered: ”There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world, Huai Shi—besides inheriting all the Correction Value, one also bears the ’distortion’ generated by the entire Genealogy and Rome, it’s the emperor’s duty.”

One hand holds the strongest power in this world, and the other hand, grasps the terrifying curse enough to poison the entire world.

For ordinary people, facing one of them is unbearable, let alone both?

At the moment of crowning, the emperor’s life enters a countdown.

In the long passage of time, until life, soul, and will are completely worn down and beyond bearing.

”The pressure from the power and curse is so immense, it will even spread over to the relatives... The so-called madness is but the best outcome.

Even if not born of bloodline, as long as there is any familial connection, it’s utterly inescapable.

What do you think the Imperial Guard accompanying the emperor is for? To protect the strongest emperor in the world? No, it’s to protect Rome.

If the Senate confirms the emperor has gone mad, the Imperial Guard must be responsible for eliminating the emperor, stopping the spread of solidification and disaster...

If the emperor concludes his relative is beyond cure, he must personally kill him—Mr. Marcus is allowed to live until now, not just because so many owe him gratitude, but it’s also Titus’s limit.”

”Did the fall of Heavenly Kingdom trigger the loss of control?”

”Perhaps, or maybe it’s the disappointment in people like us, leaving him nowhere to go...”

Luo Su sighed wistfully: ”Previously, we all believed he was different. Because he seemed so composed, so gentle, making him likable and trustworthy, also successfully creating a false impression.

A false impression that he’s very strong...”

”Uncle is indeed very strong.”

The speaker was the returning emperor.

Unbeknownst to when, he was already standing outside the courtyard, silently gazing at the man’s figure, yet he did not approach.

”At a very young age, I knew he was different from others.”

Titus turned back: ”In the Roman palace, Uncle has always been an outlier—not obsessed with pleasure, not chasing luxury, never indulging in desire. Without his guidance, I wouldn’t be who I am today.”

He paused for a moment, coldly said: ”Luo Su, it’s your fault he became like this.”

”Yes.”

Luo Su nodded, without a shred of evasion.

”You have already met him, so you should understand, he is no longer of any use, holds no value.” Titus asks again, ”Do you still persist in your original thought?”

”Correct.”

Luo Su solemnly responded: ”Without him, the reconstruction of the Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy is meaningless, that’s his home, Your Majesty, the home he chose for himself.”

”...Then, take him home.”

Titus remained silent for a long time, softly said, ”He is my teacher, and my most cherished elder. He wants to go home, I cannot stop him.

He is already very old, Luo Su, dementia, madness, amnesia, fading consciousness, his own nephew forgotten, but he still remembers you.

I will not demand how you make his sacrifice meaningful, nor intend to have you give him a perfect retirement, I just hope all his sacrifices will be meaningful.

His... death, will have value.”

”Certainly.”

Luo Su nodded solemnly.

Thus, in the quiet of farewell, the emperor walked up to the old man, bent over, tightly held his hand, kissed his cheek for the last time, and gave him a brief hug.

”Uncle, you can go home.”

He softly bid farewell: ”I will miss you.”

Marcus stayed dazed for a long time, as if he understood something, showing a joyful smile.

Titus paused in silence, turned and left.

Never looked back again.