Chapter 1395: The Old Days Return (11)

"Carcosa... Lake Hali in the Aldebaran system... the dark sun is already hanging high in the sky..."

A low female voice echoed in the dark space. She looked up at the stars and then felt a vague response.

She thought, perhaps this Ancient One is truly different. That kind of call didn't know where it came from; perhaps it was ringing in her own heart, just like before.

The Ancient One, dressed in robes, settled her thoughts, pursuing that dark cosmic sound until she reached the bottom of her heart. Before the mist dissipated, she took a step into the deepest part of the spiritual world, and then she arrived above the massive city.

Is this Carcosa?

The Ancient One stood on the edge of the floating island and looked down. The phantom of the massive city below was both grand and carried a kind of abyssal terror. The countless spires piercing out from the city were like the wreckage the Ancient One had seen on a certain planet in the Aldebaran system long ago.

Certain strange patterns revealed themselves in the surging mist, carrying a kind of Gothic aesthetic, but they were not exactly the same. The Ancient One did not feel darkness, sadness, or contradiction from them; there was no such mystical Gothic core, only a kind of peace and serenity.

When the mist gradually grew thicker, the Ancient One, moved by a feeling, turned back and saw the black sun guarded by countless mists. He hung quietly in the sky, saying nothing, and those profound patterns and surging particles had already told the Ancient One all the answers.

The Ancient One pressed her hands together in a salute and said, "I know you will not respond, but as the Sorcerer Supreme, I still want to thank you for your warning to Earth. Thank you, Ancient One. Humanity has taken action; the old days will not return."

The black sun would never respond; the Ancient One knew this. Perhaps he was not a life form at all, but more like a machine in human understanding, acting only according to certain logic. But the Ancient One firmly believed he had abundant emotions, could understand order, and had love.

In the Ancient One's long life, she had seen many such gods. Not all demon gods were chaotic and crazy; there were many rule-like existences who truly loved their creations, caring for them like fathers and mothers, feeling happy for their progress.

From the Ancient One's years of experience, the more one could understand order and create order, the more ancient and powerful one was, because protecting the order they created required a price. If they couldn't beat up all invaders and make self-preservation a non-issue, they wouldn't have the spare energy to love their creations.

"We should talk about you." The Ancient One still maintained the posture of pressed hands, only lifting her head, and said, "Your call to me shouldn't be a coincidence. Do you wish to make a deal with me?"

The black sun did not respond, still hanging quietly in the sky, like the only darkness condensed from the infinite gray. When he was dark enough, it made other lighter places appear even brighter. It sounded contradictory, but it was exceptionally beautiful when observed.

"What do you want?" the Ancient One asked again. She listed what she could provide with great patience: "Energy, souls, portals to the real world, pain and blood, willpower, beautiful character..."

The Ancient One was already very familiar with this process. When she placed her chips on the table, she could judge what kind of existence they were based on their choices.

Neutral-leaning gods preferred things related to souls—not soul energy, but the meaning of soul existence and the true essence of cosmic life. They would hope their contractors would offer their souls after completing the contract, but they wouldn't absorb the souls; they just hoped they would accompany them, which allowed them to listen to the pulse of the universe.

Kind-leaning gods liked the peace and tranquility born from long trials, so they often provided trials for their contractors—perhaps searching for certain fragments, perhaps exploring certain knowledge. They liked the peaceful power generated by the contractor in focus; that was their sedative.

And chaotic and evil-leaning gods often demanded blood, pain, and screams. They would drive their believers to destroy, or simply demand powerful lives to open portals for them to invade the real world, so they could slaughter to their hearts' content.

As long as the gods proposed conditions, the Ancient One could see through them and then decide her own method of handling them. Of course, she wouldn't refrain from destroying them just because the gods were kind enough; everything depended on her own needs.

The black sun still did not respond, seemingly completely rejecting the Ancient One's request for a deal. But the Ancient One did not lose patience; she just stood there quietly like a statue, as if she could spend a thousand or ten thousand years like this.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and the mist became even thicker. The Ancient One looked up, squinted slightly, and focused on the massive black sun. There was no light, no sound, only the flow of sun particles changed slightly.

The black sun presented a different pattern to the Ancient One, and other knowledge flooded into the Ancient One's mind. After gradually understanding this obscure and difficult knowledge, the Ancient One revealed a slightly puzzled expression.

Emotion?

The Ancient One lowered her head and took a gentle breath, then looked up at the black sun with a calm and powerful gaze, and said, "You want emotion? What kind of emotion? Joyful, painful, peaceful, confused... you want them all? You are too greedy."

The Ancient One didn't seem to have heard of such a request either, but she still exhaled and looked at the black sun, saying, "The passionate emotions of youth have long since left me. After I achieved fulfillment in my state of mind, I rarely have emotional fluctuations."

"But you came at the right time, or rather, I came at the right time. Just a short while ago, I did indeed feel remorse for certain behaviors that had become habitual. Can this satisfy your request?"

The black sun did not respond, and the sun particles still surged silently according to the previous pattern, but the Ancient One knew this was a gesture of accepting everything, and she had one more question that must be explored.

"Then, what can you give me?"

The answer appeared in the Ancient One's heart. Still no sound, no images, just a concept, like a flash of inspiration for the Ancient One, but she knew that was the response.

Knowledge and truth.

"What kind of knowledge? And what kind of truth?"

Then the Ancient One received the answer again, frowning and gently reciting that answer: "... All of it?"

The Ancient One revealed a trace of hesitation. The other party didn't look like the kind of arrogant, brain-damaged demon god, but the Ancient One really didn't know how he was going to give all the knowledge and truth.

The Ancient One decided to take a risk, just because this black sun was unlike any life form she had ever seen, just hanging quietly in the sky, grand, terrifying, and magnificent, like nature on another level.

"I will tell my story first, and then you tell yours. I will open my heart completely and tell you my happiness, pain, and confusion. I don't want much; you should answer my questions, tell me what you are, and what is really in the depths of the stars..."

After the Ancient One finished speaking, without any hesitation, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she fell into memory, beginning to tell the story of her and Jennifer.

"After I arrived in that universe, I began to patrol until I saw a little girl in the backyard of a house who was completely different from other monsters..."

"... Then, Jennifer began to tremble constantly, and I realized what a huge mistake I had made. My empiricism was about to kill her..."

"This was an accident, but I would rather believe it was a man-made error, a mistake I created. I took that little girl away in the posture of a savior, but failed to truly fulfill the duties of a savior..."

"Every Sorcerer Supreme must firmly believe that they are flawless. Once they doubt or waver, they may drag Earth into disaster together..."

"Yes, you are right. This kind of extremely arrogant thought is constantly domesticating our spirit and personality, but I don't feel painful. Responsibility is the greatest meaning of existence that humans can find..."

"No, I don't think this has to do with whether it can be compensated. I have also made many irreparable mistakes, but none have made me as frustrated as this time..."

The Ancient One gazed at the changing patterns of the black sun, feeling the thoughts constantly emerging in her heart. What surprised her was that this ancient god was telling her his understanding of her in this way. He was dissecting her emotions and explaining their origins.

He was providing another kind of knowledge—a kind of knowledge that the Ancient One rarely paid attention to, acting on the abstract aspects of intelligent beings.

The Ancient One began to speak the knowledge provided by the black sun aloud, so as to better understand them from the perspective of order.

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"I have always been balancing my humanity and divinity. When I am the Sorcerer Supreme, divinity takes the upper hand. Responsibility for all humanity forces me to become a god and make one choice after another that is beneficial to most people."

"Perhaps the change appeared when I had a qualified successor. The responsibility on my shoulders was no longer so heavy, so humanity gradually returned. I began to no longer be trapped in gains and losses, no longer struggling with which side to protect, so I began to become greedy, hoping that even the smallest rescue would not go wrong."

"Once, my tolerance for sacrifice was always high. Besides being willing to sacrifice myself, I also feared no sacrifice of a certain part of my group. I wouldn't feel guilty or frustrated about this, just because divinity suppressed everything. I tried my best to protect what could be protected, and I could have a clear conscience."

"But when humanity takes the upper hand, I hope there will be no more sacrifices—not sacrificing Jennifer, nor sacrificing all of humanity. And if I fail to do so, I will feel a sadness I rarely felt when sacrificing my own kind in the past... The pursuit of perfection comes from compassion in humanity, and also from greed in humanity."

The Ancient One's voice fell, and she was silent for a long time. Then she pressed her hands together again, her robes floating slightly, and she said, "I have always regarded human emotions as mysterious things. Sometimes I even feel that demon gods are easier to understand than humans."

"But I will say, yes, Your Excellency, this is indeed a wonderful knowledge, another way of observing the world. If this is the reward you give me, I can accept it without needing any extra knowledge. I think it is enough."

But soon, the Ancient One felt other knowledge turn into page after page of book pages floating into her heart. The Ancient One focused her observation and found that what was recorded on them were the secrets of the stars.

"Azathoth, The Nameless Mist, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu..."

The Ancient One recited the names on each page and felt shocked by the vastness and terror of this mysterious pantheon hidden in the depths of the stars.

She lowered her head to look at the gradually forming notebook cover, which had a black sun on it, as well as Arabic written in flowery script—"Necronomicon."

And she finally saw extremely clear information, or rather a warning, on that massive black sun—"Not for circulation." ===== CHAPTER 1396 =====