Chapter 1349 - 1348: The Primordial Ripple

Chapter 1349: Chapter 1348: The Primordial Ripple

Everything has ended.

Sir Philip stood in a secret bunker room located underground at the Forward Base, his gaze lingering on the platform in the center of the room — the platform’s center was sunken, its edges inscribed with numerous complex and delicate magic symbols. At this moment, the array was gradually extinguishing, and a large number of vine-like neural cords were slowly retreating from the platform, returning to the openings at the room’s edge. In the sunken area of the platform center, only a mass of completely shapeless biological remnants and some sparse liquid remained.

In the past few hours, those biological remnants had been undergoing aggressive mutation and transformation, displaying various terrifying forms. Even Philip, who had fought his way through battlefields, couldn’t help but shiver when recalling the horrifying scenes — but no matter the form this flesh had previously trapped a soul, all entanglements with this world were now settled.

The rustling sound of plant roots suddenly came from nearby. Sir Philip turned his gaze towards the source of the sound and saw a cluster of vibrant green vines emerging quickly from an opening in the corner of the room, swiftly morphing into a human-like silhouette. It eventually became an avatar of Madam Beltira, who nodded slightly to Philip before turning her attention to the platform’s center.

"It’s all over," a slightly raspy female voice echoed in the underground room, "Bertrum and his followers have all left this world. I have extracted a lot of useful intelligence from their memories."

"That’s good — we have long been at a disadvantage in intelligence, and now finally have made progress," Sir Philip nodded slightly before hesitating for a moment, unable to resist speaking again, "You seem preoccupied, Madam Beltira."

"...Just remembering too many things from the past," Madam Beltira paused in silence for a moment, speaking with a hint of sentiment, "Bertrum was once a respected scholar, along with his followers... those now referred to as ’dark priests,’ half of whom were once Brother Gawain’s close comrades, the priests and spiritual leaders of the northern pioneers. Before charging into the wasteland, all of us took solemn vows... that was a special era, a special period where we all seemed to have aspirations, generously spirited..."

"I’ve heard His Majesty mention such things," Sir Philip nodded lightly, "Not just the Oblivion Association, but the Eternal Sleepers and Sons of the Storm as well — these cults that fell into darkness seven hundred years ago once had glorious histories, but regardless of their historical glory, their eventual descent into darkness is an undeniable fact. Hot-bloodedness does not necessarily lead to glory; venturing too far down the wrong path only results in deviation from righteousness."

"...The route was wrong, I understand," Madam Beltira seemed to have given a bitter smile, though her rigid avatar’s expression hardly changed, "Just like Brother Gawain said, without a proper guiding ideology and a set of scientific and rational methodologies, acting solely on passion and heroism makes it difficult to truly achieve the initial purpose and often leads things astray from their intended path... for a long time, I only partially understood his words, but seeing the state Bertrum is in now, I think I finally grasped his meaning... yet sadly, none of us were given a second chance to choose."

"But at least we can still correct this mistake," Sir Philip said with a serious expression, "There are many dark priests like Bertrum, and we must stop them before they cause great disasters."

"Yes... we must stop them," Madam Beltira softly echoed Sir Philip’s words, "Otherwise, it will truly be a catastrophe... a disaster that spares no one..."

...

In the deep encrypted space of the neural network, a hazy light suddenly appeared in the darkness, followed by an endless sea of white flowers swiftly covering the entire earth in the dim light. As the faint light gradually transformed into a brilliant sky, this once nonexistent space became a white flower sea. In the center of swaying white flowers and fine grasses, a round table with pale purple patterns and high-backed chairs appeared one by one, along with numerous figures gathered around the round table.

Among these figures were Gawain, Veronica Moen, and Aunt Heidi, as well as Beltira who created this space, and those located at the "door" plan site like Kamel, those conducting experiments on the wasteland border like Goddess of Magic, those recently returned from the south like Amon, and even Enya who rarely appeared in the spiritual network recently — humans using their true appearances, while divine beings used "network avatars" similar to humans. These figures gathered around the round table for a crucial meeting.

Gawain raised his head to look around at the figures seated around the round table, finally nodding lightly at Beltira before clearing his throat to break the silence: "Ahem, very well, everyone is here. First, I thank you all for coming.

"As you can see, this is a new secure space within the neural network, constructed by Beltira using nodes from the Sorin Giant Tree. The perimeter is secured by a triple-layered safety protocol woven by Nariteer and Duvalt to isolate the main network, while in reality, we have set Anti-Divine Barriers at all connection endpoints of the Sorin Giant Tree. Its protection level exceeds that of the Origin Laboratory; here we can discuss issues with the highest security permissions and threat levels, and the divine beings present can speak freely."

"Oh! You’ve finally managed to create this," Enya, golden hair cascading like a waterfall and wearing a white long dress, smiled slightly as she glanced at those present, her face showing a thoughtful expression, "It seems that what can be discussed here is not ordinary matters... Gawain, what have you gathered us here to talk about?"

"Beltira and Goddess of Magic teamed up to capture a whole faction of dark priests operating on the Northern Front Battlefield, including a high priest of archbishop rank," Gawain spoke directly, "We now have obtained a batch of crucial intelligence, directly pointing to the final conspiracy of the sentinels and Grand Dark Archbishop Bolken, including parts of the information concerning the chaotic wave and divine disasters — I think you all need to hear it."

As soon as Gawain finished speaking, everyone immediately showed a concerned and serious demeanor, even Enya who experienced 1.8 million years as the Dragonkin Goddess of the Night instantly displayed a solemn expression, her gaze falling on Goddess of Magic and Beltira: "What’s the situation exactly? The sentinels’ plan is actually related to divine disasters and the chaotic wave?"

"Let me explain," Beltira stood up. In truth, she was slightly anxious, as this was her first address, gathered together with these "theocracy Authority Council Special Advisors." Even as a former Dark Hierarch and current "Sorin Dominator," the psychological pressure was unavoidable, but fortunately, the plant-based nervous system was tough, keeping her expression composed. "I’ve extracted intelligence from the memories of Bertrum and his followers, first regarding the function of those Rune Stones..."

Beltira’s voice resonated through the vast "garden," as she eloquently recited the information she knew, leaving no detail unnoticed. Both mortals and gods present listened intently, ensuring they missed not a single word.

Even after her voice faded, silence persisted in the scene. It might be because the information was overwhelmingly large, or perhaps there were too many underlying questions needing contemplation. For a moment, no one spoke, each maintaining a thoughtful expression. Ultimately, it was Gawain, who had previously understood the information, who first raised his head from contemplation. He tapped his finger on the table and broke the silence, "Before discussing those Rune Stones, I want to focus on... the knowledge mentioned in the information about the ’chaotic wave.’"

His gaze turned to the most authoritative in the field of magic and Magic Power present, the Goddess of Magic, "Bertrum mentioned a new piece of knowledge related to the mechanism of chaotic wave. He spoke of a ’Magic Shock’ that repeatedly reverberates through cosmic space, periodically sweeping over all stars. He referred to it as ’the original form of everything’ and Magic Power’s ’baseline wavelength.’ This shock interacts with celestial bodies as it sweeps over them, causing ’Phantom Celestial Bodies’ to undergo optical changes, blurring the boundaries between physical and non-physical realms of ’real celestial bodies,’ thereby affecting the cognition of intelligent beings upon them, and consequently eliciting ’Observer Effect displacement in the macroscopic world.’

"This latter description bears certain corroboration with our current research and understanding of chaotic waves, particularly in the explanation of ’Observer’s perspective shift,’ and..."

"Moreover, it bears an implied connection with the ’Unified Wave Hypothesis,’" the Goddess of Magic spoke up before Gawain could finish, "The ’shock’ he mentioned is something we’ve never noticed before. But the ’blurring between material and non-material boundary’ is an area we have been researching recently. Analyzing from the Unified Wave Model, I believe the reliability of this intelligence is extremely high—at least I don’t believe a dark priest trapped in the wasteland could concoct such a ’perfectly fitting’ theory."

"The authenticity of the information should be unquestionable. The ’means’ through which Beltira obtained the intelligence is trustworthy," Gawain nodded slightly, "The knowledge about the chaotic wave is not the research results of those dark priests themselves but should originate from their special ’advisor,’ that is... the sentinel towers."

"The knowledge of the sentinel towers is precisely the knowledge of the Voyager," Aunt Heidi suddenly spoke, "Considering the vast differences between civilization levels, their understanding of chaotic wave must be closer to ’reality’ than ours."

"A ’shock’ that periodically sweeps over all stars, huh..." The Goddess of Magic displayed a pensive expression, "Actually, speaking of this, I’ve thought of some conjectures... or rather, hypotheses on my side related to the ’Unified Wave Model’..."

"The hypotheses regarding the Unified Wave Model?" Gawain’s heart was stirred. He had some vague ideas floating in his mind but couldn’t form a complete concept. At this moment, realizing that the "Dominator of All Magic" before him might have a similar thought process to his, he immediately perked up his ears, "Let’s hear it."

"Unified Wave Model... We attempt to describe our universe in the form of ’everything is wave.’ Whether it’s tangible celestial objects, or intangible Magic Power, thoughts, Spiritual Bodies, we believe they are ’phenomena’ formed through different frequencies, wavelengths’ waves existing independently or interacting and oscillating mutually. It is precisely because of the wave nature at the base of everything that leads to the blurring and potential mutual transformation of boundaries between the reality in the universe, causing thoughts to produce tangible gods, and Magic Power can interfere with both reality and unreality. This is the basis of our theory, and if extended downwards, an apparent conclusion emerges:

"The universe we live in should, on aggregate, be a more enormous structure, a complex chaotic ’superposition of waves,’ or a tremendously large, constantly oscillating ’field.’

"This field contains all the ’waves’ as ’everything in the universe,’ and its intrinsic chaotic superposition state maintains at a perfectly balanced stage. This equilibrium stage allows intelligent individuals like us to multiply and thrive within it. Of course, due to limitations of observation and cognitive levels, we cannot observe the form of the entire universe ’field’ nor can we calculate whether it will always remain balanced. Like an insect that only survives one day cannot imagine what it would be like when the night falls—this is something that we cannot focus on now. I want to say, the original ’shock’... where is it located."

"The original... shock?" Sitting beside the Goddess of Magic, Amon, who assumes the image of an elven elder at the meeting, furrows his brows, attempting to keep up with the conversation and instinctively opens his mouth, "What do you mean...?"

"The first ripple at the birth of the universe, the very first wave in this ’world of everything as waves,’ considering the special nature and operational mode of Magic Power in our universe, that also very likely denotes the primary ’Magic Glow’ in our world," the Goddess of Magic, with a calm and serious expression, said, "If we regard this universe as a pond, there stands a time node in the pond, before this time node, it merely has a tranquil surface devoid of any wave, devoid of everything in the universe, nor holds the truths and knowledge we recognize today. Regarding this stage before the time node, I term it as the ’Epoch of the Unknowable.’

"And when a certain time node arrives... I don’t know what occurred at this node, but the tranquil surface began to ripple, the original wave emerged, and material along with Magic Power birthed out of the originally chaotic and uniform ’field,’ assuming its respective mode and attributes. Thus, forming the world as we perceive nowadays, this subsequent stage may be referred to as the ’Epoch of the Knowable.’

"What I mentioned as the ’original shock,’ is the first wave created within our universe when that time point arrives... and the subsequent cascade of ripples it instigated."

The Goddess of Magic paused here, allowing everyone present some time to reflect, before she directed her gaze towards Gawain.

"In perfecting the Unified Wave Model these days, I increasingly realized this model necessitates a ’foundation,’ and if this foundation isn’t supplemented, it seemed like a breach, leaving our model unable to explain the ’where did it come from’ problem—thus, I’ve been pondering over this matter.

"If our universe possesses a ’starting point,’ then it must have a ’first ripple,’ that is to say, it involves an original... ’shock.’