I spent a lot of effort to convince Halland that Sylvia — or rather, Belavilla wasn't beaten up by me. Then, I pulled him to a seat near the window and ordered some snacks and freshly squeezed fruit juice that Sylvia had handmade. Halland maintained a dumbfounded expression the entire time as he watched Sylvia busying herself behind the counter. He only came back to his senses when a plate of snacks was placed in front of him. I looked at him curiously. "Are you familiar with Belavilla?"
"Not really. When the old Empire was still around, the distance between us was quite far, so we didn't have much interaction. It was only after I was corrupted — You know, in the Fallen Apostle's camp, we worked together a few times." Halland observed the exquisite pastries in front of him as he said casually. "Although I don't know much about her, I know that Belavilla is a cold person. She is very cunning and sometimes, she would be a little harsh. In short, she isn't easy to get along with. The difference between her and the one in front of me is simply … I still can't believe what I'm seeing. "
"She was already like this when we brought her back." I talked about the process of Belavilla's transformation into Sylvia. It took me a full ten minutes to explain the sequence of events clearly. "Just like that, Belavilla split into two. The original personality spends most of her time in deep sleep while Sylvia controls the activities of this body. However, Belavilla has recently recovered a little. She is trying her best to help us train the Ravens and the mystical Spellcasters. When her spirit is better, she will also go to the cities in Heaven to help. "
"I can't believe that she made this." Halland pointed at the snacks on the table. "Any normal Shiring Apostles wouldn't be able to make such a gorgeous yet meaningless thing. I can feel that this personality called Sylvia is completely different from Belavilla. She doesn't even have the self-awareness of being a Shiring Apostle. Unbelievable. This has never happened before. The powerful Emperor Schilling was actually injured to this extent. "
Halland said that a normal Shiring Apostles wouldn't be able to cook these dishes. I believed her because of Sandora's cooking skills. As for Halland's exclamation, I didn't think much of it. "I think that Sylvia's current state is quite good. Belavilla personally admitted that Sylvia is a personality that she created to 'escape and rest'. Sylvia likes to live an ordinary life. She has a peaceful nature, a little lazy, and a little too kind. I have never seen her get angry at anyone. Belavilla has yearned for this kind of life for a long time. It's actually not bad for her to have this opportunity to rest."
Halland was deep in thought. Perhaps he couldn't understand this mentality. He was different from Belavilla. I could see that this was an old emperor who was still burning with fighting spirit. He also hadn't experienced the kind of betrayal that Belavilla had. The latter was already tired, so she wanted to rest. She wanted to live in a world where she didn't need to use her brain, be on tenterhooks, and live a peaceful life. The former probably wouldn't agree with this kind of "escape" idea. As expected, Halland shook her head after thinking for a while. "I can't understand. But that's Belavilla's idea. Since she has made her decision, no one can say anything."
"Actually, it's not bad. She also helps me with a lot of things — if she happens to wake up." I chuckled. It was good that Halland didn't understand Belavilla. I was afraid that he would want to retire like Belavilla. If that was the case, Sandora and I would have suffered a great loss. We worked so hard to capture this old emperor just to let him retire. If Halland really wanted to retire, I wouldn't even have the heart to cry.
"Ockham's betrayal …" After a few seconds of silence, Halland suddenly sighed softly. "Before he fell, he was a good man who was strict with himself. Although he was a researcher, he had the bones of a soldier. He was loyal to the Empire and his mission. He was a little harsh in his field of research, but at other times, he was kind to everyone. That was why we gave him the nickname 'Honest Man.' Ockham was the most outstanding scientist I had ever met. Even after he was corrupted, he was still the most outstanding. But I never thought that he would end up like this … That damn corruption, what kind of monsters did it turn us into … "
"You have a good relationship with Ockham?" I could tell that Halland knew Ockham very well, so I was a little concerned.
"Sky District 103, Ockham was originally the chief technician under me." Halland raised her head and looked into my eyes. "He was also the most outstanding scientist in the Old Empire. I thought you knew about him."
My mouth dropped open. After a long while, I remembered that I had indeed heard about him. "I did know about him, but I couldn't recall it at the moment. So, if you don't mind, can you tell me about the situation 'over there'? I am quite curious about the Fallen Apostles. You know, Belavilla's memory is already messed up. The other Fallen Apostles that we have captured are not of a high enough rank. "
Halland smiled and nodded nonchalantly. "Of course, no problem. But let me say this first: I might not know much more than Belavilla. What you said a few days ago was right. Our memories have been tampered with. After the influence of the Abyss subsided, a large amount of deep memories were erased. I only preserved the unimportant parts."
"After the disaster, the order of the old empire was completely disrupted. Less than a third of the original emperors and the high level apostles under them survived. Together with the long period of muddle-headedness, we were like a sheet of loose sand. As such, the first thing 'that great one' did after appearing was to reorganize the Fallen Apostles. 'He' never showed his face, but he could control everything through the apostles' mental network. He directly used this irresistible control to once again divide our forces. Some of the emperors' strength was well preserved, and there were also more survivors under them. As a result, they became a few pillars of the military, in charge of the few remaining Heaven Zones of the old territory. I was one of them. My ability to reset protected a large number of military facilities during the disaster. After the chaotic period ended, I became one of the most powerful emperors. Those who were in better condition could only rely on others. These emperors or generals were more or less damaged in terms of personal strength, and their subordinates were almost completely wiped out. They could no longer command an army, so they could only serve as the lackeys of military giants or faction leaders. They still retain the title of emperor or general, but to be honest … these titles are meaningless. 'That Lord' uses its own standards to judge the value of an apostle. It doesn't care if the person it arranged to be a fleet commander under someone else is a former emperor. It doesn't care about anything. It doesn't even show any emotional inclination except for the 'great cause'. I even feel that 'That Lord' doesn't have a real personality at all … at least, not a clear personality like you and me. "" That Lord used its own standards to judge the value of an apostle. It doesn't care if the person it arranged to be a fleet commander under someone else is a former emperor. It doesn't care about anything except for the 'great cause'. It doesn't even show any emotional inclination. I even feel that 'That Lord' doesn't have a real personality … at least not like you and me. "
Of course not, I thought to myself. If I guessed correctly, the 'lord' of the Fallen Apostle was another part of Schilling's collective consciousness, a super life form born from the mental network of the Shiring Apostles. This super life form had a completely different way of thinking from 'outsiders'. She would never care about the things in the real world, just like how Schilling could not tell the difference between dusk and morning. However, Schilling seemed to be more humane than the 'lord' of the Fallen Apostle. At the very least, Schilling had emotions and seemed to like me and Sandora a lot. On the other hand, the Fallen Apostle's abyssal version of Schilling was completely like an emotionless ruling machine.
Halland mentioned the great cause just now. Of course, I was even more interested in this. However, just as I expected, Halland could only wave her hand apologetically. She was unable to answer what the great cause was either. This part of the information was definitely the core secret of the Fallen Apostles. It was the first batch of data that was deleted the moment the reverse transformation was completed.
"Actually, the ones mentioned above are all relatively fortunate." Halland returned to the topic of the relationship between the Fallen Apostles. "Even if we fall from the position of Emperor to Commander, it doesn't affect us much. In any case, the Shiring Apostles do not have much concept of power. It is the same even if we become the Fallen Apostles. We do not need to pursue power. The truly unfortunate ones are the apostles that completely collapsed after the great calamity but did not die, as well as the ones that angered the 'lord' and were expelled from the mental network … "
Halland's gaze changed. "They are called 'Lacerators'. To put it simply, they are the ones that were torn from the apostle group. The Lacerators were either severely injured in the calamity back then, to the point that they were unable to recover their consciousness after the Chaotic Period ended. They were even unable to recover their form, or they were 'traitors' who were kicked out of the mental network and stripped of all authority. The Lacerators were ostracized by everyone. They were unable to connect to the main network, to the point that they were viewed as' freaks' by their former comrades. Most of the Lacerators died very quickly. They were always sent to carry out the most dangerous missions or to serve as the vanguard to explore the unknown regions. They did not even have an army under them. Even if they did, they could not command them. Thus, they could only mix with the abyssal monsters, order ferocious beasts, and turn themselves into ferocious beasts … "
"For example … Caesar?" I suddenly recalled the first Fallen Emperor that I met. From the looks of it, the Fallen Emperor who could not even maintain his apostle form was exactly the same as the Lacerator that Halland spoke of.
"He was indeed one of the Lacerators. I heard that he died in battle during a pioneering operation in an unknown region." Halland nodded. "It seems that he encountered you guys. After Caesar died, no one even investigated the cause of his death. The Fallen Apostle group only mentioned his name when announcing the list of the dead. You can imagine how pitiful the Lacerators were. The corruption caused a huge change in our nature. If it was in the old days, we would definitely not treat a former comrade like this. Even if he unexpectedly lost all his power, we would still treat our comrade as a glorious veteran. However, in the Fallen Apostle group, other than the goal given by 'that lord', we have given up all emotions. Under this premise, individuals who could not provide power for the 'great cause' were easily abandoned. Everyone did not hesitate. "
Halland and I sighed endlessly. However, the past was over, and there was nothing to regret. I still brought up the war at the border a few days ago. "What happened back then? Everyone could tell that something was wrong with you. It was as though you and your army were sleepwalking … "
"That's what I wanted to say." Halla's gaze sharpened. "Sleepwalking — this term is very appropriate. During that time, my mental state was in a mess. I didn't even know what I was doing. I could only be sure of one thing. My army and I seemed to have been taken by 'that lord' to carry out some sort of plan. It wasn't on the level of reality, but on the mental network. The last thing I remember was that he had transferred all of our mental connection points to an independent network segment. Then, he opened this network segment to the public. After that, my memory was a mess."
I couldn't help but lean forward. A vague guess flashed through my mind. "You said that your mental connection came into contact with something else? How did it feel at that time? "
"You might not believe it," Halland grinned. "Do you know why I led all of my subordinates to charge out of 'that' territory?"
I shook my head to show that I didn't know.
"In my muddleheadedness, I developed something like an illusion." Halland shook her head and smiled bitterly. "I seemed to have suddenly realized that I was surrounded by countless enemies. I can't remember if I gave the order at that time, nor can I remember what the subordinates around me did. In short, we seemed to have 'broken out' of the encirclement. At least, we felt that it was' breaking out 'of the encirclement. After leaving the sphere of influence on that side, we temporarily lost our target. That was why we followed our instincts and attacked the New Empire. It was the only thing we could do. "
"You said that you felt surrounded by enemies in the territory of the Fallen Apostles?" I quickly pieced together the fragments of what I had guessed. "Let me summarize it. 'That lord' first isolated your mental connection from the main network. Then, he allowed this part of the network to come into contact with a certain power from the outside world. After that, all of your minds became muddleheaded. Not long after that, you developed an 'illusion' and felt that the surrounding Fallen Apostles were all enemies. Thus, you 'broke out' of the encirclement and left the main camp. After that, did you lose contact with the mental network of the Fallen Apostles?"
Halland nodded. "Actually, at the beginning of that muddleheaded state, I felt that the connection between myself and the main network was weakening. After breaking out of 'that side', this network connection was completely severed. In that case, I was a 'Ripper' for a short period of time. " As Halland spoke, she laughed self-deprecatingly. Then, she seemed to recall some details. "Right, now that I think about it, that feeling of muddleheadedness was a little similar to when you … err, the prodigal son or something …"
I said, "… Such a serious topic. Let's not talk about the name of that move. Just tell me what happened."
"In short, both feelings were similar. Both of them suddenly fell into a state of confusion. I didn't know where I was. My judgment of whether my surroundings were friend or foe became confused. A suppressed deep personality began to fight with me for dominance. Then, my behavior became abnormal. If I had to point out a difference, it would be that when I was affected by your reverse transformation power, the process was even more rapid. "
Hearing this, I finally understood. The reason why Halland invaded the Empire was because he experienced an incomplete "reverse transformation." This reverse transformation only allowed him to break out of the encirclement and betray the Empire of the Abyss. After that, his invasion was completely a subconscious action when Halland's army had no target to target. No wonder that battle was like a battle of sleepwalking.
Then, where did his reverse transformation come from?
Only Void creatures had the ability to reverse transform, and Halland's entire army was affected by this effect that was similar to the reverse transformation. This made me think of the technology that the New Empire used to purify the Fallen Apostles through the spiritual network. Coincidentally, Halland's subordinates also experienced this abnormality after their spiritual links were tampered with by "that lord." So, there was only one explanation: Before Halland and his army fell into "sleepwalking," they formed a spiritual link with a Void creature.
I recalled the time when Halland invaded the Empire and deduced that the abnormality should have happened not too long ago. During that period, there was only one incident that caught my attention: when I was on my way to the Faraway Frontier, I entered a state of spiritual wandering in the Void. At that time, a voice suddenly contacted me. The origin of that voice was unknown, and I once thought that "it" was from the civilization on the other side of the Abyss. But now that I think about it, the civilization on the other side did not seem to have grasped the technology of instant communication. Also, the voice that contacted me spoke very strangely. Even though I only had a few sporadic "exchanges" with the civilization on the other side, I could clearly feel that the mysterious voice was different from the spokesperson of the civilization on the other side of the Abyss.
I recalled the content of the voice's conversation with me, and some things that sounded strange at that time gradually became clear: the voice had actually subtly reminded me that it did not come from the other side of the Abyss. And before it hung up, "it" revealed a very important piece of information:
In order to establish a connection with me, "it" had lost a lot of "things" in the short span of a few minutes.
In the beginning, I naturally imagined it to be: If the civilization on the other side of the Abyss wanted to establish a connection with this side, it would need to expend an astonishing amount of resources. But now that I think about it, this "loss" could be something else, such as a network node.
Because it had established a hyperlink with the Void Creature, the owner of that voice would be attacked by the power of the Void every second. Under this kind of attack, it would lose nothing but its own components: its spiritual nodes.
That voice was most likely the "Lord" that the Fallen Apostle had mentioned!
Halland looked at my fluctuating expression and couldn't help but become curious. "What are you thinking of?"
"If I am not mistaken," I looked into Halland's eyes, "I know the identity of your 'Lord'. And not long ago, she took the initiative to contact me. Even the abnormality that happened to you and your army was related to that contact. She used you as a buffer to conduct a direct spiritual connection with me that lasted for several minutes!"
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