Chapter 18

chapter eighteen "Quint..." I say, trembling. "I see it," he says. "Why is Thrull doing battle with a servant of .e...c. when he himself is a servant of .e...c.?" I ask. "And why is there a monument to Thrull?"

第十八章“昆特……” 我颤抖着说。“我看到了，”他说。 “斯拉尔为什么要和一个……一个…… 既然他自己是……c的仆人……”我问。 “为什么会有一座斯拉尔的纪念碑？”

"Also, why did they make Thrull so tall?!" Quint adds. "The scale is nonsensical." "Dramatic license!" a perky voice says. I spin around, startled. A monster stands outside what must be the visitors' center, looking very eager to chat. Beside her is a booth selling Thrull action figures, little baggies claiming to contain "authentic Thrull chest-hair fibers," and about two thousand magnets. "You folks must be interested in a guided tour!" We have zero time for a tour, guided or otherwise. "No, actually. We're in a rush," I say. "Just wanted to know what happened—" "Please save all questions for the end of the tour," she says curtly. "But—" Quint grins. "Not a problem!" I sigh. There's nothing Quint loves more than a guided tour. His dream is probably a guided tour of a tour-guide school. "Wonderful!" the monster says, scuttling out from behind the booth. She's got, at minimum, eight pairs of legs and three wide, bulging eyes. Her voice is high- pitched and she talks so fast, all the words overlap. "My name is Amarelda, and I'll be your guide!" "Do you get, um... a lot of visitors here?" I ask.

“还有，他们为什么要把Thrull造得这么高？”五胞胎补充道。 “这个规模是荒谬的。” “戏剧性的执照！”一个神气十足的声音说。 我转过身来，吓了一跳。一个怪物站在一定是游客中心的外面，看起来很想聊天。 她的旁边是一个摊位，出售Thrull人偶，小袋子声称含有“真正的Thrull胸毛纤维”，以及大约2000块磁铁。 “你们一定对有导游的旅行感兴趣吧！”我们没有时间参观，无论是导游还是其他方式。 “不,真的。我们赶时间，”我说。 “我只是想知道发生了什么——”“请把所有问题留到参观结束时再提，”她简短地说。 “可是——”昆特咧嘴一笑。“没问题！”我叹了口气。 昆特最喜欢有导游的旅行了。 他的梦想可能是导游学校的导游。 “太好了！”怪物说着，从电话亭后面窜了出来。 她至少有八对腿和三只又大又鼓的眼睛。 她的声音很高，而且她说话很快，所有的词都重叠了。 “我叫阿玛尔达，我将是你们的向导！”“你会不会…… 这里有很多游客吗？”我问。

"SURE DO!" she says, then stops to think. "Correction: sure DID! After .e...c. and the portals and that bad stuff... visitation has dipped." Amarelda suddenly shoves out a small, toad-like monster, holding it by a flabby fold of neck skin. "Donations are encouraged," Amarelda says, and the toad-monster's mouth slowly opens. "OK," I say. "Strongly encouraged," Amarelda adds. We nod and smile. Amarelda turns to Stargrove, and I shoot her a quick mind-doodle: save your money. Finally, Amarelda tucks the frog back into a pouch and launches into her routine. "The skeleton is Horgaz, once believed to be the last of .e...c.'s great servants. In the very spot where you now stand, on the street now known as Warrior's Way, Horgaz was slain by the Great Champions."

“当然可以！”她说，然后停下来思考。 更正：当然有！后即…c。 还有传送门和那些不好的东西… 探视率下降了。”阿玛尔达突然拿出一个癞蛤蟆模样的小怪物，抓住脖子上松弛的皱褶。 “我们鼓励捐款，”阿玛尔达说，蟾蜍怪物的嘴慢慢地张开了。 “好吧，”我说。“强烈鼓励，”Amarelda补充道。 我们点头微笑。阿玛尔达转向斯塔格罗夫，我飞快地给她念了一句：省省你的钱。 最后，阿玛尔达把青蛙塞回育儿袋，开始了她的例行公事。 “这具骨架是霍加兹，曾被认为是最后一个……他是伟大的仆人。 就在你现在站着的地方，在现在被称为勇士之路的街道上，霍加兹被伟大的勇士们杀死了。”

THE FINISHING BLOW WAS DELIVERED BY THRALL, THE MOST LEGENDARY OF GREAT CHAMPIONS, AND NOW HIS TRIUMPHANT MOMENT IS PRESERVED IN TIME FOREVER. "There were Great Champions?" I ask. "And Thrull was... one of them?" "Of course!" Amarelda says. "Oh, help me, is Most Important Events in the History of Forever no longer part of a young monster's curriculum? The Great Champions were an unstoppable team, tracking and battling the servants of .e...c.. They were the most bonded of companions and the most accomplished of warriors. And this was their finest moment! A victory for the ages!" "It was?" I stare. "Absolutely. At the time it was believed that Horgaz was the very last of .e...c.'s great servants. .e...c.

最后一击是由萨尔，最具传奇色彩的伟大冠军，现在他的胜利时刻被永远保存在时间。 “有伟大的勇士？”我问。 “而瑟鲁……其中一个？”“当然!”Amarelda说。 “哦，救救我，难道《永远的历史上最重要的事件》不再是一个小怪物的课程了吗？” 伟大的勇士队是一支势不可挡的队伍，他们跟踪并与…… 他们是最亲密的伙伴，也是最有成就的战士。 这是他们最辉煌的时刻！千古的胜利！”“这是?”我盯着看。 “绝对。当时，人们认为霍加兹是最后一个……他是伟大的仆人。 社会事务部…c。

slept—and so when Thrull slew Horgaz, the entire world believed no creature remained who would awaken .e...c. again. It was the Champions' last hurrah. Which is why this monument is called... Champions' Last Hurrah!" Amarelda keeps talking, but I don't hear what she says. I'm trying to put these pieces together, but nothing fits. When I entered the monster dimension, did I also enter some kind of alternate universe where Thrull is... a good guy?? I feel like I'm hallucinating. My mind's racing, processing this new information. The very first of .e...c.'s servants that I killed was a Blarg-creature—and that triggered so much of what followed. Slaying Blarg is what set me on this path, what led to where I am today. And now Amarelda is saying that the last of .e...c.'s evil servants ever to be killed was also a Blarg-creature. Slain by Thrull. I take a shaky step toward the statue of Thrull, staring up. He's lean and wiry. His beard is well-groomed.

睡了——所以当Thrull杀死了Horgaz，整个世界都相信没有任何生物会醒来。 再一次。这是冠军的最后一次欢呼。 这就是为什么这座纪念碑被称为… 冠军最后的欢呼！”阿玛尔达一直在说，但我听不见她在说什么。 我试着把这些线索拼在一起，但都不合适。 当我进入怪物维度时，我是否也进入了Thrull所在的另一个宇宙…… 一个好人？？我觉得我在产生幻觉。 我的大脑在快速运转，处理这些新信息。 第一个……我杀死的那个仆人是一个blblg的生物，这引发了后来的很多事情。 杀了blblg让我走上了这条路，让我走到了今天。 现在阿玛尔达说最后一个…他的邪恶仆人也曾被杀死过。 被Thrull杀死。我朝瑟瑟的雕像摇摇晃晃地走了一步，抬起头来。 他又瘦又结实。他的胡子梳得很整齐。

That's not what Thl looks like. I mean, it is, but only sort of Amarelda says, "That is precisely how Thrull appeared when he felled Horgaz! And he only grew more handsome, I hear. Wink wink." You mean more monstrous, I think. I don't like this. It's not helping anything. It makes me uneasy to learn that Thrull fought the same type of creature that I did. I don't want to have anything in common with Thrull. "It's very peculiar," Quint agrees. "What's next—are we going to see Thrull's tree house fortress where he

这不是我看起来的样子。 我的意思是，确实如此，但阿玛尔达说，“这正是斯拉尔在砍倒霍加兹时的样子！我听说他越来越帅了。 Wink眨眼。”我想你是说更可怕吧。 我不喜欢这样。这一点用都没有。 得知瑟鲁和我打的是同一种生物，我感到很不安。 我不想和Thrull有任何共同之处。 “这很奇怪，”昆特表示赞同。 “接下来我们要去看斯拉尔的树屋堡垒