Chapter 286: A Confession. Your Majesty Can Read My Thoughts
The Empress of Eternal Night’s direct and decisive demeanor surprised not only the God of Knowledge, who refused to be fed dog food, but also Roger.
Had this woman, a blend of awkwardness and tsundere, ever been so proactive?
Fragrant wind enveloped him, a warmth and softness he hadn’t felt in a long time. He instinctively embraced her, his accelerating heartbeat a testament that his so-called release was a lie.
He had always desired her, and what he couldn’t have was a lingering regret. It was only his sense of responsibility and the circumstances that prevented his “little head” from controlling his “big head.”
But that longing couldn’t be masked upon their true reunion.
The Empress of Eternal Night rested on his chest, lost in thought. This was her World, and Roger’s body was one she had helped manifest, precisely as he was in her memory—a clear image of the youth.
Perhaps he didn’t realize he was playing this little trick?
Because she didn’t know how many years had passed in the outside Universe, she temporarily didn’t want to see a world that had changed beyond recognition. Thus, even while deceiving herself, she acted with an air of righteous certainty.
A lone war was endless. She had experienced too much solitude and loneliness to realize how much potential happiness she had missed in the past. Therefore, she would no longer allow any useless, extraneous emotions to interfere with her pursuit of what she desired.
However, the youth before her now was somewhat different from the one who had quelled troubles both within and without the empire, and whose situation was steadily improving.
“I can’t hear your thoughts anymore. You’ve finally learned to control your Mental Power.”
The Empress of Eternal Night gazed at the youth before her. He held her quietly, and all she could hear were heartbeats and breaths, with no distracting, chaotic thoughts.
It was a sense of emptiness, yet also an ineffable clarity.
Roger was taken aback when he heard her words. “Thoughts? Control Mental Power? So, in the past, Your Majesty could truly read my inner thoughts?”
The Empress of Eternal Night nodded generously. “Yes, without that Skill, you would have found ways to slack off and get away with it, and the empire wouldn’t be in its current state.”
If it were the past, he would have been mortally embarrassed upon learning this secret. But she sensed the endless war, and fifty years had passed in the outside Universe.
For the past fifty years, Roger had served as the Regent of the Azurevine Empire and the Speaker of the Natural Selection Front, guiding the direction of this World of Mortals.
He had iron-handedly executed the unjust and was deeply trusted by ordinary people who yearned for the future. He had diligently worked to accelerate development, contemplating and pondering many issues he had never considered before.
He who does not hold a position does not concern himself with its policies. Now, standing in the former position of the Empress of Eternal Night, his perspective on the empire and the Universe was entirely different.
While she had achieved clarity of mind, had he not learned worldly wisdom?
The so-called extreme embarrassment wasn’t public, only seen by her. So, after initial surprise, he quickly came to terms with it. Thinking of his many natural associations at the time, he asked with a smile,
“Seeing my unrestrained thoughts, it’s no wonder you were angry. But it was generous of you not to have me executed.”
“Indeed, I was already giving you plenty of face.”
The Empress of Eternal Night broke free from his embrace, a monumental weight lifted from her heart, a feeling of elation. “Let’s not dwell on the past, shall we?”
“Of course, that would be good.”
He naturally took her hand, and then they turned to face the God of Knowledge, who was nearly choked with indignation.
The God of Knowledge certainly wanted to protest, but this was the Empress of Eternal Night’s World, and she could temporarily alter the rules to refuse his incessant chatter.
So, all his protests had to be suppressed. Simultaneously, he couldn’t withdraw, as that might prevent reentry next time, returning the initiative to the Mortals.
Thus, he was left with no choice but to listlessly listen to their conversation and exchange of lingering emotions.
So, when he sensed a new round of battle had begun, with Roger and the Empress of Eternal Night attacking him from different directions with swarms of insects, while simultaneously modifying rules to target him more effectively, the God of Knowledge felt a sense of relief.
Even if defeated, it was better than watching unrelated scenes!
In his perception, the Empress of Eternal Night was an extraordinary talent, destined to go far even upon ascending to godhood.
Yet, with clarity of mind, she cared for the empire, for Mortals, and for an ordinary man. This struck him as contradictory.
Was she so gifted that such attachments would not hinder her breakthrough, or was she wasting her talent by clinging to mortal concerns?
However, he had no opportunity to ask, and it would be pointless even if he did.
There was no possibility for either side to defeat the other on moral grounds. The war had reached a point where only one could survive, so they continued to fight with their own abilities.
Even if it meant fighting two against one on the opponent’s home turf…
Even if banished, he would have to accept his misfortune.
Of course, given his understanding of the World within the walls, defeat wouldn’t happen overnight.
In fact, during the initial phase, Roger’s involvement had consumed much of the Empress of Eternal Night’s energy in teaching him to adapt to this environment, allowing the God of Knowledge a brief advantage.
But later, as the two individuals’ coordination grew more seamless, he experienced the helplessness of being caught in a pincer attack.
Unfortunately, his teammate had no chance to offer assistance. The rules here were too strange for them, and the faith from the rear, the foundation that sustained them as gods, was their primary concern.
Therefore, after mocking the Empress of Eternal Night’s loneliness, he realized that he was the one who was truly alone.
After tens of thousands of years of interaction, only he had grown to understand the God King’s ambitions and ideals, glimpsing the outside World and earning the right to see it.
Eternal Night World, Azurevine Empire.
Inside the Sky Sea Tower, Roger’s body lay in a semi-transparent incubation chamber, his vital signs remaining stable. All data indicated that he had successfully entered the realm beyond the two worlds’ barrier.
“His Highness succeeded,” Aisari cheered. The most outstanding wizards of the Natural Selection Front were also present, having worked together to help Roger breach the barrier that was supposed to be impassable.
Furthermore, some items of unknown origin that Roger had produced had provided crucial breakthroughs through reverse engineering.
Finally, by concentrating the resources of the entire World, they had accomplished the feat of breaking the barrier between the two worlds.
Continuing down this path, they would gain true strategic initiative and launch a counteroffensive against the gods.
Regardless of their current progress, their preparations for war had reached a critical point.
Fifty years, three generations of proliferation, the initial drawbacks of negative magic elements had been resolved. As mages successively experimented, transforming into wizards and making continuous attempts, they had mastered a new cultivation system and adjusted the direction of civilization’s progress based on the fundamental laws of the current Universe.
Negative magic elements were more active and had a stronger combination with the soul. Thus, they abandoned external magic crystals and machines, attempting to miniaturize engineered constructs to be controlled by intelligent souls.
Simultaneously, negative magic elements had a significant impact on the mind, easily causing mutations and irreversible madness. Therefore, they incorporated more soul-cultivation settings into the cultivation system, strengthening willpower training instead of simply increasing Magic Power or refining Mental Power.
On the surface, the current cultivation system seemed to be heading towards a mystical and profound path, but the influence of New Arcane ideas from the past remained. The core research methods of science, comparison, research, and summarization would always be the ultimate tools for Mortals to overcome obstacles and seek truth, regardless of changes in universal laws.
The resultant wizard system, in its manifestation, bore some resemblances to Eastern cultivators:
A strong inner consciousness, pursuing absolute control over every detail of oneself, comprehending the laws of the Universe, identifying unique reactions between negative magic elements and one’s soul, and summarizing and categorizing them to avoid physical collapse caused by mental breakdown.
In terms of the vessel of power, a multitude of nanoscale robots were implanted within the body. These robots greatly enhanced the energy limit controllable by carbon-based life forms and allowed for the convenient display of various forms.
While individual wizards now couldn’t match Titans’ warships in terms of total energy output, achieving battleship-level output power was entirely feasible.
If they abandoned humanoid forms and opted for more radical modifications and expansions, allowing their thoughts to control larger forms, surpassing Titan-class warships was also possible.
Despite being a World of mages, with altered rules and broken boundaries of thought, their intelligent minds, in their utilization of resources, might be tending towards the ultimate path of all Worlds, converging with common goals.
Cultivating both internally and externally, achieving a dual perfection of spirit and matter, and not solely focusing on the most domineering destructive power, the wizard system indeed exhibited a higher ceiling than past mages.
With mortal bodies, they could rival gods. This path had now reached its conclusion, allowing such an achievement.
Of course, reaching that stage was extremely difficult. In fact, the entry into the entire wizard system was ten times more challenging than that of mages.
In the initial stages, resource consumption increased dramatically. Simultaneously, pursuing mental stillness and concentration, and resisting the chaotic World attributes that increased negative emotions in the soul, required exceptional aptitude to even begin.
The training path after entry could be considered traceable. By following it step by step without haste or impatience, one could ascend to higher realms.
However, the timeframe for improving these realms was extremely long, as power was not simply accumulated. Instead, it required understanding the reactions generated by the combination of negative magic elements and one’s soul, summarizing the patterns, and then finding the most suitable path.
Upon reaching the threshold of near-perfect harmony between body and spirit, immense willpower was needed to overcome solitude and loneliness, to perceive one’s inner self within the soul’s origin, and to solidify one’s pursuit. Only then could the final gate of a wizard be opened, preventing oneself from being consumed by negative magic elements.
This step could actually be called an ‘awareness lock.’ One had to break through that limit, and the soul would be sublimated, becoming a true wizard.
Before that, they were merely apprentices, desperately refining their bodies, acquiring knowledge, and mastering the World’s laws, all in preparation for this breakthrough.
The wizard path required a long time. Fifty years was still too short. They had only charted the course. Those who had truly embarked on this path and achieved something, reaching the status of wizards, numbered only a little over ten.
Will, talent, and luck were all indispensable.
However, this realm was equivalent to an immortal in the cultivation world, representing another path to glimpsing eternity, alongside the path of gods.
Roger was the first to attempt this path. He was not a traditional mage, so his transition was even smoother.
With the empire as his anchor, the trust and expectations of his people would compel him forward, and his own aspirations for a better future would lead him to go further unconsciously.
Thus, they achieved mutual success. Roger, in thirty years, became the first wizard of the Natural Selection Front, proving that this path was viable.
Following this, the entire Natural Selection Front began to fully advance the development of this system, concentrating on technical breakthroughs. Ultimately, this led to Roger standing before the Empress of Eternal Night.
After listening to Roger’s account of the Azurevine Empire’s development over the past fifty years, the Empress of Eternal Night remained silent for a long time. “We sought to overthrow the gods, but what you wizards are doing is so similar to the gods themselves?”
At this moment, she was not acting as the Empress of the Empire but observing the functioning of the Natural Selection Front from an external perspective. She saw the boundaries of worlds, nations, and races dissolving, and a strictly hierarchical social system taking shape.
At the apex were the wizards. Their powerful minds and strength, due to their battles with the gods, warranted the entire society designing combat methods and forging weapons for them.
Many of the ultimate weapons currently conceived could only be wielded by wizards; otherwise, ordinary people, lacking sufficient willpower, would be corrupted by the weapons or assimilated into ammunition.
Simultaneously, the advancement of wizards required the consumption of infinite resources. They were united now to defeat the gods, but if one day they became enemies on their path forward, wouldn’t that lead to another divine war?
Moreover, such a divine war could potentially engulf far more Mortals.
“Indeed, wizards are becoming beings of immense power. Therefore, we have also proposed strict self-restraint, requiring relentless pursuit of research and the feedback of resources the World provides us.”
“But this is entirely based on your self-imposed moral constraints. A malignant tumor can be collectively removed, but if the collective falls, it will be the end of the Universe.”
“If it were so easy to fall, they wouldn’t become wizards. Is the stage of condensing the awareness lock really that simple?”
Roger replied nonchalantly, half-jokingly, “Your Majesty, in days past, besides the gods in the heavens, you were also invincible in the World. Did you fall?”
“That is because I always had a higher pursuit in my heart.”
“How do you know we do not?”
Roger retorted, looking toward the ongoing battle. “Perhaps when these gods were first born, they also carried the wishes of all beings, a hope to break through the darkness.”
“You fool, after all that explanation, I’m worried because I’m not a wizard. So, why don’t you explain this system in detail?”
She finally couldn’t help but order her swarm of insects to defect, joining the God of Knowledge in attacking Roger.
Roger was stunned, then couldn’t help but laugh.
“Alright, I think the day you break through your self-imposed blockade isn’t far off. It’s time to get some practice in.”
