Everything was over.
Philip stood in a secret bunker under the forward operating base. His eyes were fixed on the platform in the middle of the room. The center of the platform was sunken, and many complex runes were engraved on its edge. At this moment, the runic array was gradually extinguishing. A large number of nerves like roots and vines were slowly retreating from the platform and returning to the holes at the edge of the room. In the sunken area at the center of the platform, there was only a cluster of biomass remains that had completely lost its form and some thin liquid.
In the past few hours, the biomass remains had been undergoing intense mutation and metamorphosis, showing all kinds of horrifying forms. Even Philip, who had fought on the battlefield, could not help but feel his scalp tingle when he recalled the scene. But in any case, the terrible process had finally come to an end. No matter what kind of soul was trapped in the flesh and blood, his connection with this world had been wiped clean.
The rustling of plant roots suddenly came from not far away. Philip looked in the direction of the sound and saw a cluster of bright green vines crawling in from a hole in the corner of the room. In the process of wriggling, it quickly changed into a human-like silhouette and finally became the avatar of Bertilla. The avatar nodded slightly at Philip, and then looked at the center of the platform.
"It's all over." A slightly hoarse female voice rang in the underground room. "Betheim and his followers have left this world. I have dug out a lot of useful information from their memories."
"That's good. In terms of intelligence, we have been at a disadvantage for a long time. Now we have finally made some progress." Philip nodded slightly, and then hesitated for a moment. He could not help but say, "You seem to have something on your mind, Madam Bertilla."
"… Just too much of the past." Bertilla was silent for a moment, and then said with a hint of emotion. "Betheim was once a respected scholar, and his followers … Half of those who are now called 'dark priests' were once close comrades of Brother Gwen. They were the priests and spiritual leaders of the northern expedition army. Before we rushed into the wasteland, all of us had made a solemn oath … It was a very special time, a very special time, and we all seemed to be ambitious and generous …"
"I've heard His Majesty mention this before." Philip nodded slightly. "Not only the Perish Society, but also the Eternal Sleep Congregation and the Children of the Storm. These cults that fell into darkness seven hundred years ago had a glorious history. But no matter how glorious their history was, it was an indisputable fact that they eventually fell into darkness. Hot-Bloodedness may not necessarily be exchanged for glory, and the further you go on the wrong path, the more you will only deviate from justice."
"… The path is wrong, I understand." Bertilla seemed to smile bitterly, but her stiff face made the change of expression almost imperceptible. "Like Brother Gwen said, without a correct philosophy and a set of scientific and reasonable tools, hot-bloodedness and heroism will not really achieve the goal, and will often lead things to go in the opposite direction from the original goal … For a long time, I actually did not understand what he said, but looking at Betheim now, I think I understand what he meant … Unfortunately, none of us have a second chance to choose."
"But at least we can still correct this mistake," Philip said with a serious expression. "There are many dark priests like Betheim. We have to stop them before they cause a disaster."
"Yes … We have to stop them." Bertilla softly repeated Philip's words. "Otherwise, it will really be a disaster … a disaster that no one can escape …"
…
In the deep encrypted space of the neural network, a dim light suddenly lit up in the darkness, and then endless white flowers quickly covered the entire land in the dim light. As the dim light gradually turned into a bright sky, a sea of white flowers appeared in the empty space a few seconds ago. In the center of the white flowers and fine grass swaying in the wind, a round table and high-back chairs with lavender patterns appeared one by one, and figures appeared around the round table one after another.
Among them were Gwen, Veronica, and Heti, as well as Bertilla, who created this space, Kamel, who was far away at the site of the Gateway Project, Mirmina, who was conducting experiments at the border of the wasteland, Amoun, who had just returned from the south, and even Enya, who had not appeared in the spiritual network recently. The mortals used their real faces, and the gods used a "network image" similar to humans. These figures gathered around the round table, and a crucial meeting was about to begin.
Gwen looked up and looked at the figures sitting around the round table. His eyes finally fell on Bertilla, and he nodded gently. Then he coughed twice to break the silence. "Ahem, very good, everyone is here. First of all, thank you for coming.
"As you can see, this is a new safe space in the neural network. It was built by Bertilla using the nodes of the Solin Tree, and the periphery is isolated by the three-layer security protocol woven by Naretil and Duarte. At the same time, in the real world, we have also set up anti-divinity barriers for all the connection endpoints of the Solin Tree. Its level of protection is higher than the previous Origins laboratory. We can discuss issues with the highest security clearance and hazard level here, and the gods present can also speak freely."
"Oh! You've finally gotten this thing out. "En Ya, who had long blonde hair cascading down like a waterfall and was wearing a long white dress, smiled. She looked at the people present with a thoughtful look on her face." It seems that the things that can be discussed here are not ordinary things … Gawain, what do you want to talk about by gathering all of us here? "
"Bertilla and Mirmina have joined forces to capture an entire group of dark priests operating on the northern battlefield, including a high-ranking priest of the hierarch level." Gwen went straight to the point. "Now we have a batch of critical information that points directly to the final conspiracy of the sentinels and the hierarch Borken. Some of the information also points to the demonic wave and the divine catastrophe. I think you should all listen to it."
As soon as he said that, everyone showed a concerned and solemn look. Even En Ya, who had lived for 1.8 million years and was once the god of the Dragons and gods, had a serious look on her face. Her eyes fell on Mirmina and Bertilla. "What is the specific situation? The sentinels' plan has something to do with the divine catastrophe and the demonic wave? "
"Let me tell you." Bertilla stood up. She was a little nervous at the moment. After all, this was the first time she had a talk with these "special advisers of the Theocratic Council." Even as the hierarch of the Dark Church and the current "Master Sorin," it was inevitable for her to feel the psychological pressure. But fortunately, the nerves of a vegetative person were strong, and her face was still very calm. "I have dug out information from the memories of Betheim and his followers. First of all, it is about the function of those runestones …"
Bertilla's voice rang in the vast "garden." She told everything she knew without leaving out a single detail. The mortals and gods present listened attentively and did not miss a word.
Even as her voice trailed off, the room remained silent. Perhaps there was too much information in the report, or perhaps there were too many questions that needed to be pondered, but no one spoke for a moment. Everyone had a thoughtful look on their faces. In the end, Gawain, who had read the report in advance, was the first to look up from his thoughts. He tapped the table with his fingertips and broke the silence. "Before we talk about those runic stones, I would like to pay attention to … the information about the 'Mana Tide' mentioned in the report."
He turned his eyes to Mirmina, the most authoritative person in the field of magic and magic. "Betheim mentioned a brand-new knowledge about the mechanism of the demonic wave. He mentioned a 'magic oscillation' that constantly reverberates in space and sweeps across all the stars at irregular intervals. He also called it the 'original form of all things in the world' and the 'reference wave band' of magic. When this oscillation sweeps across the celestial bodies, it will interact with the celestial bodies, causing optical changes in the 'virtual celestial bodies', blurring the boundary between matter and non-matter in the 'real celestial bodies', and affecting the cognition of intelligent creatures on the celestial bodies, causing the 'observer effect' to be misplaced in the macroscopic world.
"The latter half of the description corroborates with our current research and understanding of the demonic wave, especially the explanation of the deviation of the observer's perspective. And …"
"And it is vaguely related to the unified wave conjecture," Mirmina said before Gwen could finish. "The 'oscillation' he mentioned is something we have never paid attention to, but the blurring of the boundary between matter and non-matter that he mentioned is a field that we have been studying recently. Based on the unified wave model, I think the reliability of this information is extremely high. At least, I don't think a dark priest trapped in the wasteland can make up a theory so 'just right.'"
"There should be no doubt about the authenticity of the information. Bertilla's way of obtaining the information is trustworthy." Gwen nodded slightly. "This knowledge about the demonic wave is not the result of the dark priests' own research, but should come from their special 'consultants', that is … the sentinels."
"The knowledge of the sentinels is the knowledge of the navigators," Heti suddenly said. "Considering the huge difference between the levels of civilization, their understanding of the demonic wave must be closer to the 'truth' than ours."
"A 'shock' that would sweep across all the stars irregularly …" Milmina had a thoughtful look on her face. "Speaking of which, I do recall some of my recent conjectures about the 'unified wave model' … or should I say, hypotheses."
"Hypotheses about the unified wave model?" Gwen's heart skipped a beat. In fact, he had some vague ideas floating in his mind, but he could not form a complete concept for the time being. At this time, he realized that the 'dominator of all laws' in front of him might have similar ideas to his own. He immediately pricked up his ears. "Tell me about it."
"The unified wave model … we try to describe the universe we live in in the form of 'all things are waves.' Whether it is the physical celestial bodies, or the non-physical magic, thought, and spirit, we think that they are 'phenomena' formed by the independent existence and mutual oscillation of waves of different frequencies and wavelengths. It is because all things have the nature of 'waves' at the bottom that leads to the blurring of the boundary between the virtual and the real in the universe and the possibility of mutual transformation, leading to the thought that can produce the physical gods, and magic can interfere with the virtual and the real. This is the basis of our theory. So, by extension, there is an obvious conclusion:
"The universe we live in as a whole should be a 'superimposed body of waves' that is larger in scale, more complex in structure, and more chaotic in its transformation. Or rather, it is a 'field' of astonishing scale that is constantly oscillating.
"This field accommodates all the 'waves' of 'all things in the world'. The superimposed state of chaos that it presents is maintained in a state of perfect balance. This state of balance allows intelligent individuals like us to reproduce and live in it. Of course, due to the limitation of observation and cognition, we cannot observe the appearance of the 'field' in the entire universe, nor can we calculate whether it will remain in balance forever. It is like a bug that can only live for one day cannot imagine what it will be like when night falls. This is not something we should pay attention to now. What I want to say is, where is the first 'oscillation' in this field? "
"The first … oscillation?" Sitting next to Mirmina, Amoun, who participated in the meeting in the image of an old elf, frowned. While trying to keep up with the topic, he subconsciously asked, "What do you mean …?"
"The first ripple at the birth of the universe, the first wave born in this field world where 'all things are waves.' Considering the special nature and way magic works in our universe, it is also very likely that it is the first 'magic glow' of our world," Mirmina said with a calm and serious expression. "If we regard this universe as a pond, then this pond has a time node. Before the time node, it is only a calm water surface, without any waves, and without all the things in the world. Naturally, it does not have all the truth and knowledge that we know today. Regarding this period before the time node, I call it the 'Unknown Era.'
"And when a certain time node arrived … I don't know what happened at that node, but ripples appeared on the calm surface of the water. The first ripples appeared, and matter and magic were born from the chaotic and uniform 'field', possessing their own forms and attributes. That was how the world that we know now came to be. The phase after that could be called the 'Era of Cognition'.
"The 'Initial Oscillation' I mentioned is when that time node comes, the first wave in our universe … and the layers of ripples it brings."
Mirmina paused here, giving everyone present some time to think before her eyes fell on Gwen.
"During the days when I was perfecting the unified wave model, I realized more and more that the model needed a 'foundation'. If the foundation was not filled in, it would be like a loophole, and our model would not be able to explain the question of 'where did it come from'. So, I've been thinking about it recently.
"If our universe has a 'starting point', then it must have a 'first ripple', which means that there is a first … 'oscillation'."
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