When Shiller and his group ascended the cliff, the heavy clouds pressed at the horizon. In such weather, the sea was not clear but turned particularly deep, highlighting the waves crashing against the cliffs, pale and stark. A gust of wind blew by, carrying a salty, fishy scent.
They walked all the way to the top of the cliff and looked down; the sea was bottomless. It was hard to imagine that land beneath, as if it were a piece of dark glass separating two worlds. If one were to explore downward, perhaps they might touch another sky.
"Could it be beneath the sea?" Jason frowned, clearly thinking of the worst outco. Humanity’s fear of the ocean far surpasses that of the sky, especially when this sea seems so off.
As they all gazed at the sea, suddenly, a group of black-robed figures ran up from the base of the cliff. None of them saw clearly what was happening as they ford a circle by the sea, chanting sothing. The leader held a book.
"Damn," Constantine said, "The ’Book of Eboon’?! Quick, stop them!"
"Bang!" Victor fired a shot, hitting the leader, but it didn’t disrupt the ritual. Jason followed up with another shot, knocking down another person, but still, it had no effect.
The cliff was too high, the distance too far; firearms were insufficient in force and ineffective for an area attack. Barry grabbed those with guns and used his divine speed to bring them down below. Amanda fired several shots, knocking down several mysterious figures, and others joined the scuffle.
The investigation team had an overwhelming advantage and resolved everything within minutes. Just as Shiller intended to investigate what those alleged cultists were up to, a deep chi echoed from Gotham Cathedral’s direction.
Everyone turned to look as the chis spread further and further. Shiller glanced at his watch; this wasn’t the ti for the chis, and the pattern was not that of Deathstroke.
Constantine was the first to cry out, clutching his head and kneeling, fingers digging into the dirt, with blood quickly seeping out. Jason attempted to help him up but was shoved aside. Constantine rose and turned, zombie-like, towards the Atlantic.
"Barry!" Shiller yelled. Barry hurriedly took Constantine into his divine speed realm, and now he couldn’t get out.
"Dong—dong—dong—"
"We’ve been tricked!" Jason shouted, "The summoning ritual isn’t at the seaside but at the cathedral! There’s sothing wrong with these chis!"
The sky suddenly darkened, and the wind howled on the cliff, making it hard for anyone to stand. The ground trembled as if a severe earthquake occurred, a massive whirlpool stirred in the ocean. A giant silhouette resembling a black hole appeared beneath the cliff.
The last ray of light was swallowed, and everyone witnessed a solar eclipse that was not a solar eclipse—The Day of Engraving had arrived.
"I knew it. The anomalies coming from my eyes were not illusions—I always see these things earlier than others. It’s always been like this, without exception.
The chis crashed against my brain. I could even judge by the severity of the pain what kind of monster they summoned—death, darkness, unseeable. The Indians were right; we should stay far away from the sea.
After the eclipse descended, I felt my soul departing, the itching in my eyes beca irresistible. Just as I reached out to touch my eyelids, I saw my friends collapsing out of the corner of my eye.
I wouldn’t give in. When I chose to abandon past glory to walk a darker and more perilous path, I never intended to bow before any god. It’s always been like this, without exception.
The notes stirred my brain matter, more illusionary images appeared, more like dizziness than pain. I’d rather take tearing pain because that keeps awake. But this dizziness is like a delightful poison, so enjoyable to taste.
As I was about to succumb, a slight ’click’ pulled back to reality. I knew the ritual had succeeded. Those who had cursed would surely help . God of Thousand Faces, let see what’s hidden beneath the sea—may Crawling Chaos protect him.
I donned the mask, the cluster of jet-black feathers constantly swayed before . Suddenly, Indian singing echoed, as if coming from a distant ti and space, carrying indescribable sorrow and desolation. Indian spirits never left. In my blurry vision, I stood on the red soil, with firelight reflections dispersed and scattered, the chis resounding through the sky and earth.
Within the boundless sea, a gigantic black void threatening to hollow out the land was gradually rising. I followed the dance steps and began to dance, hearing the priest chanting His na—’Curse Xie Kun’.
"Finally." Victor slapped his thigh, stood up, and began pacing in the study, "The na finally ca up. It was worth reading this far."
Victor continued flipping pages, but seeing the following content, he widened his eyes and said, "Wait a minute, how is this a bad ending?!"
"Of course, it’s a bad ending," Constantine said, "Our power isn’t sufficient to directly reverse the sun being extinguished, but we can manipulate the causes."
Victor raised his brows and said, "So that’s why you summoned us here; you also want us to write a bad ending?"
"Exactly." Constantine nodded, "I want you to save the people but let the investigation fail completely."
"Explain in detail." Jason said, clearly having thought of sothing.
"I’ll say it again, directly altering the outco of the sun being extinguished requires too much energy, and I’m not completely confident it will succeed. However, changing the cause while keeping the outco the sa is much simpler."
"You an making the sun’s extinction into sothing that Curse Xie Kun did?" Victor frowned, "But what difference does it make? Does it matter who did it?"
"Oh, it makes a difference." Constantine smiled, "Curse Xie Kun only brought about a solar eclipse, and it’s a solar eclipse on a mysticism level, not the kind everyone can see."
Victor was taken aback, as he was completely ignorant of mysticism, sowhat failing to understand, but Jason already got it, and he explained: "Although they are all mysterious entities, the scientific aspects differ too. The behind-the-scenes manipulator who extinguished the sun clearly understood physics; it can directly apply the force of decay to the sun, causing it to quickly evolve into a black dwarf, thereby extinguishing the sun. But Outer Gods can’t do that."
"Why not?"
"The mysteriousness of this system’s gods is very high, it’s a very pure kind of mysticism. They don’t know who they are, where they are, or what they’re supposed to do. All the disasters they bring are due to their inherent mystical nature, which is clearly unscientific."
"So?"
"So the disasters they bring are purely on a mystical level. Outer Gods won’t physically extinguish the sun because they lack that capability. If we change reality so that the arrival of eternal night is due to a disaster brought by an Outer God, the sun, originally extinguished on a physical level, would turn into a mystical solar eclipse."
Jason pointed to his head and continued: "That is to say, now it’s eternally dark not because a force controlling the power of death sped up the sun’s evolution, but because an Outer God descended."
Victor suddenly understood and said: "No wonder you didn’t want us to write about that behind-the-scenes manipulator."
"Because it’s dangerous," Constantine said, "if we confront him directly, we wouldn’t need the Grey Ring to change reality. Our approach is to highlight our strengths and catch him off guard, so naturally, we can’t alert him prematurely."
"But even if we use reality-altering power to summon the Outer God, he will still prepare to extinguish the sun. If we don’t create so resistance plot, what if he succeeds again?"
"That’s the crux of the problem," Jason said. "Will the Outer God’s hold over the mystical level sun affect the real sun?"
Victor looked at Constantine. Constantine said, "That depends on the Outer God’s rank. Actually, the one we’ve summoned here isn’t classified as an Outer God, but as an Old Day Dominator, still just as powerful. More importantly, it’s referred to as ’The God of Death’ and ’Ancient Darkness.’"
"Sounds a bit like the behind-the-scenes manipulator," Victor pondered, "both have attributes of death and darkness."
"That’s right. That’s precisely what we need," Constantine explained, "Even though the behind-the-scenes manipulator can use physical thods, clearly his power of death still pertains to mysticism and rule-based power, and his rank is high. Only the opposing life force can counteract it, but the life force we control is too limited.
"Instead of searching for life force to counter him, why not find another system’s dark and death power to clash with him, and see which of the two is stronger. The behind-the-scenes manipulator’s death power may follow a local path and rank just as high, but it may not necessarily be stronger than the Old Day Dominator from another system."
"Why is that?"
"Because mysticism must be sufficiently mysterious," Constantine lightly tapped the armrest, "Sotis, people greatly fear those mystic entities that can interfere significantly with the real world, like the behind-the-scenes manipulator who can extinguish the sun physically. But these entities also have fatal weaknesses, naly, they’re not mysterious enough.
"Due to their strong ties to the real world, they have transford into ’biological’ beings, more like wise lifeforms wielding powerful magic."
Victor and Jason nodded. The feeling that the behind-the-scenes manipulator gave them was indeed like that, not as a mystic entity, but rather like a powerful magician using the power of death as a tool to fulfill his evil ambitions.
"That’s undoubtedly not mysterious enough," Constantine said. "That makes his power of death rely power, rather than truly mysterious rules. Outer Gods and Old Day Dominators are strong precisely because they’re truly mysterious entities. They have no subjective initiative, no wisdom, and don’t even truly ’exist,’ making their attributes more akin to rules, like the laws of nature, entities that no physical life can directly look upon."
"So their collision doesn’t necessarily an the behind-the-scenes manipulator will win. Even if he gains the upper hand, it doesn’t matter, because as long as he can’t completely comprehend the Outer Gods and Old Day Dominator, he can’t shake the sun already enveloped by the rules of the Old Day Dominator."
Jason thoughtfully said, "It’s like putting a password lock on the sun?"
"Exactly," Constantine said, "Until Curse Xie Kun gives up compiling the sun, the behind-the-scenes manipulator won’t be able to directly affect the sun unless he can thoroughly understand the Old Day Dominator."
"He can’t?" Victor asked.
"I sure hope he tries," Constantine stood up and said, "The depths of the stars have been peaceful for too long—it’s ti to fire another shot."
User Comments
0 comments from readers