novelnext Chapter 230 - 229: Inhuman
Chapter 230 - 229: Inhuman
The once-shut eternal dream-realm has been activated once again. This vast psychic network gradually stabilized after a wave, reconstructing the magnificent halls, temples, towers, and floating islands rooted in mental illusions. Meanwhile, countless Eternal Sleepers connected their minds to this network—they are both users and builders and maintainers of this network. They opened up their brain computing power to the entire network, allowing this network to dictate and requisition according to its needs. Unlike the "Brain Servants," who lie like the living dead in various hidden royal temples as "providers of computing power," they do not have to suffer damage to their lives and souls in this process.
After all, the Eternal Sleepers are the masters of the eternal dream-realm. They would not sacrifice themselves before their servants all perished.
And in the deep part of the eternal dream-realm, in the "Hall of Dreams" located in the underground city, the bishop team and their Pope were ready.
Twenty-two seats were arranged symmetrically in a circular manner at the center of the room. Eleven white-robed bishops and eleven black-robed bishops occupied half of the seats, like the division between day and night. At the center of the circular seats floated a mass of dim black shadow. The shadow would occasionally condense into a human form, but more often appeared as various indescribable, faintly purple star-lit clumps—in both the real world and this virtual world, the Eternal Sleepers Pope never showed his true face. In fact, the followers even believed their Pope had long completed a transcendence in life form, becoming an existence equal to the dream power, and this vague, fluctuating light was merely a projection of the Pope in the world. It is only a "interface" set up for communication with followers who are still mortals.
Today, the Pope will lead his bishop team in the eighteenth attempt to crack the memory fragments of Gawain Cecil.
"The eternal dream-realm is stable, the psychic network connects well."
"Lower-level computing nodes ready, ’brain servant’ array ready."
"The guardian team has reached their positions, ready to handle emergencies in the real world."
"We are ready, Your Holiness."
The bishop team reported each of their responsibilities one by one. Once everyone was prepared, the indescribable hazy light mass slightly fluctuated as if expressing approval, while its voice echoed in every bishop’s mind: "Let us begin—let’s see what’s in the memory of that ancient hero."
The information link to memory fragments was connected, and propelled by the enormous computing power offered by the eternal dream-realm, the dreadful memory that had caused hundreds of casualties finally began to loosen—though the truth was that Gawain deliberately left a weak point in the memory fragments, yet it was evident that the Eternal Sleepers themselves did not notice these.
They were simply rejoicing to see their long-term efforts finally yield results. A glimmer of hope emerged in the depths of the vast information fog, and gradually, the memory fragments started to be dismantled. The parts that humans could understand and recognize entered the minds of every bishop in the bishop team.
Initially, they saw a scene of starlight.
A deep, solitary universe, vast and empty space, countless tiny stars dotted across the dark abyssal canvas. This scene puzzled the bishop team for a moment, but they soon believed it was Gawain Cecil’s post-death perspective: Do humans really return to the heavens after death?
Before the bishop team could imagine the meaning of the starlight, the scene before their eyes began to change frantically.
They saw starlight retreat, and distorted light and shadow appeared in their vision. They saw the perspective’s owner traversing the starfield, rapidly flying over planet after planet with unimaginable speed...
They saw the perspective’s owner appear on a burning battlefield, gigantic demons running amok on the battlefield, meteorites burning fiercely falling from the sky, and soldiers wearing various unfamiliar equipment, whose even races were unheard of, continuing to charge and fight on the battlefield...
They saw the perspective’s owner lead an army to assault a fortress with incomprehensible architectural style. The fortress seemed to be built using some creature’s flesh, with terrifyingly huge swarms bursting out from the fortress, fiercely battling with the legion led by the perspective’s owner...
They then saw the perspective’s owner suddenly arrive at an icy, snowy world. A steel structure billowing thick smoke exploded in the wind and snow...
They saw the perspective’s owner shuttle through worlds, sometimes leading an army to sweep across battlefields, sometimes destroying entire nations alone, sometimes trying his best to save something, yet at other times, placing entire planets under annihilative flames. He fought, protected, destroyed, created, and while doing all these things, he kept a calmness akin to a bystander, as if all these were merely objectives to complete or simply entertainment for himself.
This "feeling" was integrated into the depth of the memory, transmitted directly from the perspective’s owner to the brain of every Eternal Sleepers bishop present.
And every time this perspective switched worlds, it was accompanied by the same scene: an endless starfield, followed by the illusion of traversing the starfield...
The Eternal Sleepers bishops trembled, allowing the scenes of memory to flood their minds. They dared not think further, yet the memory kept playing—until the very end, they saw the starry sky appear one more time. As the starlight shifted, a planet flickering with faint light appeared in the cosmic background, the perspective’s owner plunged towards that planet—its terrain rapidly enlarged in the field of vision, and certain details on the land were so familiar, familiar enough to render one hesitant to associate.
And this time, while plunging towards the ground, the perspective’s owner seemed to shift direction again—the Eternal Sleepers bishops again saw the starry sky, in that familiar sky one could see from Loren Continent when looking up, they saw one light point after another shuttle among the stars, while some enormous structure cast in metal hung high above, gradually being covered by an incredible invisibility effect that made it vanish from the sight of mankind.
The memory fragments ended here.
The visions faded like a tide, everyone’s sight refocused, the consciousness of the bishop team returned to this hall, and they looked at each other in panic, discovering all their colleagues were soaked in sweat.
No one took the initiative to speak because no one knew what to say at this moment. It wasn’t until half a minute later that the illusory light in the center of the hall broke the silence: "Let the Nightmare Instructors waiting outside temporarily take over the eternal dream-realm. The bishops will convene an emergency meeting. What happened today must not be disclosed."
The eternal dream-realm quickly completed the shielding and cutting of information. After the entire hall became a secure, enclosed space, a bishop in a white robe couldn’t help but say, "The authenticity of that memory fragment..."
"There’s no need to doubt its authenticity. I’ve personally verified it," the voice of the Eternal Sleepers Pope rang out. "It is indeed a true memory, not a fabricated illusion—everything in the fragment is a genuine experience."
"Gawain Cecil’s resurrection is indeed a sham..." Another white-robed bishop’s voice trembled slightly, "What awakened was not an ancient hero at all! In that body resides an external, non-human, indescribable... entity!"
"What is his purpose? What will he do?"
"We can’t summarize any pattern... Those chaotic and fragmented memories, those scenes... there is virtually no logic to be found! That ’non-human entity’ seems to be traversing world after world, constantly changing the shells he uses. Sometimes it seems like he’s saving a world; other times, he’s destroying it. Sometimes, he appears to be merely wandering without purpose—how can we possibly understand the thought process of such a being?"
"Do those worlds truly exist? Those worlds so drastically different from ours, do they truly exist or have they existed?"
"That’s not our concern. Our greatest issue now is to understand what the ’non-human entity’ residing in Gawain Cecil’s body intends to do in our world—’This time,’ does he aim to destroy, protect, or is he merely passing through? Or perhaps... he’ll do something even more frightening or bizarre than those memories portray?"
"He can’t possibly be just passing through!" A black-robed bishop focused on Anzu’s situation suddenly spoke, "He chose the body of a founding duke as ’this time’s’ vessel and even established a territory near the Dark Mountain Range, engaging in pioneering construction like a mortal. There must be a purpose behind this. Moreover, he even killed an Eternal Sleepers’ bishop..."
"That bishop acted recklessly and brought disaster upon himself," someone next to the black-robed bishop interrupted, "Of course, if it weren’t for his recklessness, we wouldn’t have gathered this intelligence."
"In any case," the pope suddenly spoke, and the scene immediately quieted down. Everyone listened intently as the pope’s voice echoed in their minds, "Perhaps we should refer to that non-human entity as ’He’..."
"Your Grace, what actions should we take?" A white-robed bishop cautiously asked, "Regardless of what that non-human entity intends to do, he is a tremendous destabilizing factor. Should we consider..."
"Do not act!" The pope forcefully admonished this thought with unprecedented severity, "The situation could easily spiral out of control!"
"But his current shell is merely mortal. Perhaps if we destroy his ’vessel,’ we could banish him to wherever he came from... maybe even utterly destroy him!"
A black-robed man standing across from the bishop shook his head, "Too risky. In those memories, we saw him traverse numerous dangerous worlds, those battlefields and desperate situations far worse than anything we’ve faced. In some images, we even saw him fall—yet he never died, repeatedly returning to the battlefield, indicating that destroying his vessel won’t effectively harm him. And even if we banish him, he could easily return. As for sealing him—who can ensure known sealing methods would be effective on such an extra-dimensional non-human entity? If we fail, the consequences are unimaginable. Also, always keep in mind: his shell is merely a ’vessel,’ and he could likely switch it at any time, so any action against that vessel would be meaningless and only cause us to lose the sole clue."
"And there’s something even more crucial," the person beside the black-robed bishop added, "Let’s not forget what we saw at the end of those memory fragments—there is more than one traverser in the starry sky, and a hidden steel palace is still suspended among the stars, meaning that non-human entity might not be alone. He has companions and a nest. Should we rashly act and attract more of them..."
The bishop didn’t continue, but his meaning was clear enough, and everyone in the hall realized this potential hazard, making the room pin-drop silent.
The bishops suddenly found the situation bizarre, even absurdly so.
A group of evil cult followers, opposed to civilized society... caught up in such a dilemma, in how to deal with a "non-human entity"—if this non-human entity were truly here to destroy the world, they might not be troubled, but the key issue is that they have no idea what this non-human entity is here for!
This has plunged the cultists into a state of tremendous helplessness.
The pope sighed—a sigh perhaps for the first time since transforming his own life form.
There was hope that the deciphering efforts had made great progress, a chance to seize the moment to uncover Gawain Cecil’s secret and unveil some truths about this world. But who could have anticipated that the memory fragment would reveal a lead completely unforeseen by everyone...
Or perhaps... this is part of the world’s truth?
The pope’s ethereal figure stirred, he vibrated his magical power, and sent his words into everyone’s mind:
"Remember the lesson of the last ’contact,’ do not act rashly, do not test impulsively. First, observe cautiously until we gather more intelligence, then cautiously engage."