It took a lot of effort for me to convince Harlan that Sylvia - or that Bella Vera was not the way she is now because of me. Then I pulled him to sit down near the window and asked for some snacks and hope.
Sylvia's handmade freshly squeezed juice. ※※ Harlan kept a dumbfounded expression throughout the whole process and watched Sylvia busy behind the counter. He didn't come back to his senses until a plate of snacks was placed in front of him. I was curious.
She glanced at him and said, "You and Bella Vera are quite familiar?"
"Not too familiar. When the old empire was still there, we were far away from each other, so we didn't have many interactions. It was just after she was contaminated - you know, in the fallen apostle camp, we had several encounters
Let's act together," Harlan said casually while observing the exquisite pastries in front of him. "Although I don't know much about it, I know that Bella Vera is an indifferent person, very cunning, and occasionally behaves a little mean. In short, he is not
How easy it is to get along with her. The gap between her and me is simply...I still can’t believe the scene before me."
"That's how it was when we brought her back," I talked about the process of Bellavela's transformation into Sylvia. It took me ten minutes to explain the whole story clearly, "That's it, Bellavela."
La split into two people. The original personality was asleep most of the time, and Sylvia controlled the body's activities. However, Bellavilla has regained some strength recently, and she is trying her best to help us train Raven and Mystery.
When the caster troops on the side are in good spirits, she will also go to Celestial City to help."
"I can't believe she made this," Harlan pointed to the snacks on the table, "No normal Xiling apostle can make such a gorgeous and meaningless thing. I can feel that this thing is called Xiling."
Sylvia's personality is completely different from that of Belavera, and she doesn't even have the consciousness of being a Xiling apostle. It's incredible that this has never happened before, and a powerful Xiling Emperor has been injured to this extent."
Harlan said that normal Xiling apostles would never be able to make the things in front of us. I believe this, Sandora’s cooking skills are there. As for Harlan’s sigh, I don’t agree: “I think Sylvia
The current condition is quite good. Bella Vera has personally admitted that Sylvia is a bit like a personality she created for "escape and rest". Sylvia likes ordinary days, has a peaceful nature, and is a bit lazy.
, and a little too kind. I have never seen her angry with anyone: Bella Vera has been yearning for this kind of life for a long time, and it is actually good for her to have this opportunity to rest."
Harlan was thoughtful, maybe he didn't understand this mentality. He is different from Bella Vera. I can see that this is an old emperor who is still burning with fighting spirit. And he has never encountered Bella Vera.
The latter is already tired of the kind of betrayal he encountered, so he hopes to rest and live in a world where he doesn't need to use his brains to worry and intrigue, and live his own life peacefully, while the former most likely cannot agree with this kind of "escape"
Sure enough, after some thought, Harlan shook his head slightly: "I don't understand. But that's Bellavilla's idea. She made such a decision, and others can't say anything."
"Actually, it's not bad. She also helps me take care of a lot of things now - if I happen to wake up." I chuckled. I thought that Haran didn't understand Bella Vera. That's just right: I was still afraid that he would do the same with the latter.
I also plan to retire. If that happens, Sandora and I will be in big trouble. We worked so hard to capture such an old emperor just to provide for her in old age. If Haran really said that he would retire, I would even cry.
Gone.
"Occam's betrayal..." After a few seconds of silence, Harlan suddenly let out a slight sigh. "Before he fell, he was a good and strict self-discipline. Although he was a scientific researcher, he had the foundation of a soldier. He
Loyal to the Empire and his mission, he can be a bit harsh in his field of study, but at other times he is kind to everyone - so we gave him the nickname 'The Honest Man'. Occam is one of the best people I've ever met
He is the best scientist in the world, even after being corrupted, he is still the best, but I didn’t expect that he would eventually reach this point... Damn corruption, what kind of monsters have we turned into..."
"You and Occam have a good relationship?" I heard that Harlan knew Occam very well, and I was immediately concerned.
"In District 103, Occam was originally my chief technician." Harlan raised his head and looked into my eyes. "He was also the best scientist in the old empire. I thought you knew this."
My mouth suddenly opened wide, and it took me a long time to remember that I had indeed heard about this: "I do know, but I didn't think of it for a moment - what, if you don't mind, tell the situation 'over there' with
Let me tell you something? I'm quite curious about the fallen apostles - you know, Bellavela's memory has been confused, and the other fallen apostles we captured are not high enough."
Harlan smiled and nodded carelessly: "Of course it's no problem, but let me explain in advance: I may not know much more than Bella Vera. What you said a few days ago is right. Our memories have been manipulated, and in the abyss
After the impact subsided, a large number of deep memories were wiped away, and only the insignificant parts were preserved."
"After the disaster, the order of the old empire was completely disrupted. Only less than one-third of the original emperors and their high-ranking apostles survived. Coupled with a long period of confusion, we were all scattered. So,
The first thing 'that lord' did after appearing was to reorganize the fallen apostles. 'It' never showed up, but could control everything through the apostles' spiritual network. It directly used this irresistible control to divide us again.
The power of some emperors has been well preserved, and there are more survivors under them, so they have become several pillar military giants, taking charge of several remaining areas of the old territory - I am one of them, my reset
My ability protected a large number of military facilities in disasters. After the end of the Chaos Period, I became one of the strongest emperors. The remaining emperors whose personal strength was well preserved but whose subordinates were incomplete were divided into two categories:
Those in a better situation can become the leader of an independent legion, forming their own faction, owning a legion and territory, but without a regional-level force, and Bellavilla is one of them; those in a worse situation can only rely on others.
, these emperors or generals basically suffered some damage to their personal strength, and their subordinates were almost completely wiped out. They could no longer raise the legions. They could only serve as hawks under military giants or faction leaders. They still
It retains the title of emperor or general, but to be honest... these titles have no meaning anymore. 'That Lord' uses its own standards to judge the value of an apostle. It does not care about being assigned to serve as a fleet commander under others.
It doesn't care about whether he is a former emperor or not. Apart from the 'great cause', it has not even shown any emotional tendencies. I even feel that 'that lord' is not a real personality at all...at least not like you and me.
A clear personality.”
Of course not - I thought to myself. If the guess is correct, "that adult" of the fallen apostle is another part of the cluster consciousness that Xiling split off back then, a super life form born from the spiritual network of the Xiling apostle. This super life
She has a completely different way of thinking from "outsiders". She will never care about things in the real world, just like Xi Ling can't tell the difference between dusk and morning. However, Xi Ling looks better than "that adult" of the fallen apostle.
"It's still more humane. At least Xiling has emotions, anger, sorrow, and joy, and seems to like me and Sandora very much. The abyss version of Xiling on the fallen apostle's side is completely like an emotionless ruling machine.
Harlan just mentioned the Great Cause again, and of course I am more interested in it. However, as expected, Harlan could only wave his hands apologetically: He could not answer what the Great Cause is, and this part of the information must be
It is the core secret of the fallen apostles. It is the first batch of data to be deleted the moment the reverse transformation is completed.
"Actually, the above ones are relatively lucky." Harlan returned to the topic of the relationship between the fallen apostles. "Even if we fall from the emperor to the commander, it will have no impact on us. Anyway, the Xiling apostles don't have much concept of power.
Even if we become fallen apostles, it's the same: we don't need to pursue power. The real misfortunes are those apostles who completely collapsed after the catastrophe but did not die. And they were ostracized by the spiritual network because they offended 'that adult'
Going out..."
Harlan's eyes changed: "They are called 'Tearers'. To put it simply, they are the part that was torn apart from the apostles. The Tearers were either seriously injured in the disaster that year, so that during the Chaos Period
Severely mutated individuals who are unable to regain their consciousness or even restore their form after the end, or are 'betrayers' who were kicked out of the mental network at a later stage and deprived of all authority. The Rippers were rejected by everyone, and they were unable to connect to the general network.
They were regarded as 'freaks' by their former compatriots, and most of the Rippers died quickly: they were always sent to perform the most dangerous missions, or to serve as pioneers in unknown areas, and they did not even have an army at their disposal.
, even if there is one, I can’t command it, so I can only hang out with the monsters in the abyss, drive the beasts and let myself become a beast..."
"For example...Caesars?" I suddenly remembered the first fallen emperor I met. Now it seems that the fallen emperor who couldn't even maintain the apostle form is exactly the same as the Ripper mentioned by Harlan.
"He is indeed one of the Tearers. I heard that he died in the pioneering operation in the unknown area," Harlan nodded. "It seems that he encountered you. No one even investigated him after Caesars died.
The cause of death was that his name was only mentioned in the group of fallen apostles when announcing the death list. You can imagine what a pathetic group the Rippers are. Corruption has greatly changed our nature. If it were the old days, we would never treat it this way.
Even if a former compatriot accidentally loses all his power, we will treat the compatriot as a glorious veteran. However, in the group of fallen apostles, except for the goals given by 'that lord', we have given up all emotions.
Under this premise, individuals who cannot provide strength for the 'great cause' can be easily abandoned, and no one will hesitate."
Harlan and I lamented this, but the past has passed and there is nothing to regret. I still brought up the border war a few days ago: "What on earth happened at that time? Everyone can see that something is wrong with you.
, you and your army are just like sleepwalking..."
"That's what I want to say," Hala's eyes sharpened, "Sleepwalking - this word is very appropriate. My mental state was so chaotic in those days that I didn't even know what I was doing. I can only be sure of one thing. I
My army seems to have been used by 'that lord' to implement some plan, not at the physical level, but at the spiritual network level: the last thing I remember is that it connects all of our spiritual connection access points.
Move it to a separate network segment and then open this network segment to the outside world. After that, the memory is a mess."
I couldn't help but lean my upper body forward. A vague guess flashed through my mind like lightning: "You said your spiritual link was in contact with something else? How did it feel at that time?"
"You may not believe it," Harlan grinned. "Do you know why I led all my men to rush out of the territory 'over there'?"
I shook my head to show that I didn't know.
"In my confusion, I had something like a hallucination," Harlan shook his head and smiled bitterly. "I seemed to suddenly find myself surrounded by countless enemies. I can't remember whether I gave the order at that time, nor do I remember
What were the actions of the subordinates around us at that time? In short, we seemed to have made a 'breakout'. At least we ourselves felt that it was a 'breakout'. After leaving the sphere of influence there, we temporarily lost our target, so we followed our instincts and attacked the new empire:
This is the only thing we can find to do."
"You said you were on the territory of the fallen apostles and felt surrounded by enemies?" I quickly put together the fragments I had guessed. "Let me sum it up: 'That Lord' first connected your spiritual link with
Isolate the main network, and then let your part of the network come into contact with a certain force from the outside world. After that, all of you became mentally confused. Soon after, you had a 'hallucination' and felt that all the fallen apostles around you were enemies.
, so you 'break out' and leave the base camp. After that - have you lost contact with the spiritual network of the fallen apostles?"
Harlan nodded: "Actually, at the beginning of that confused state, I felt that the connection between myself and the main network was weakening, and after breaking out and leaving 'over there', this network connection was completely interrupted.
So, I have been a 'tearer' for a short period of time." Harlan said. He smiled self-deprecatingly, and then seemed to remember some details: "By the way, now that I think about it, I feel that kind of confusion.
It feels a bit like when you... uh, the prodigal son turned back or something..."
Me: "...for such a serious topic, let's not mention the name of the move. Just tell us what happened."
"In short, the two feelings are similar. They both suddenly fall into mental confusion. They don't know where they are, and they are confused about their enemies and friends around them. A suppressed deep personality begins to compete with themselves for dominance, and then there are behavioral changes.
Abnormal. If I have to say the difference, it is that when it is affected by your reverse transformation power, the process is even faster."
After hearing this, I finally fully understood: the reason for Harlan's massive invasion of the empire was that he experienced an incomplete "reversal transformation". This reversal transformation initially only allowed him to break out and rebel against the Abyss Empire, and his subsequent invasion behavior
It was completely a subconscious move when Harlan's army had no target to pursue - no wonder that battle was fought like a sleepwalking battle.
So where does his reverse transformation come from?
Only void creatures have the ability to reverse transformation, and Harlan's entire legion is affected by this effect similar to reverse transformation. This is reminiscent of the current technology of the New Empire using spiritual networks to perform group purification of fallen apostles - just right.
Lan's subordinates also became abnormal after their spiritual links were tampered with by "that adult", so there is only one explanation: before Harlan and his army fell into "sleepwalking", they had an encounter with a void creature
A spiritual connection was created.
I recalled the time when Harlan invaded the empire, and calculated that the moment when his abnormality occurred should be shortly before that time. During that time, only one incident fell into my sight: when I set off to the far frontier, I inexplicably entered the
When I was in a fugue state in the void, a voice suddenly contacted me. The origin of that voice was unknown. I once thought "it" was from the civilization on the other side of the abyss, but now that I think about it, it seems that the civilization on the other side has not yet mastered the technology of instant communication with this side.
, and the voice that contacted me at that time spoke very strangely - even though I had only had a few sporadic "communications" with the other side that couldn't be called conversations, I could still clearly feel that the mysterious voice a few days ago had something to do with the spokesperson of the civilization on the other side.
no the same.
I recalled what the voice said to me at that time, and some things that seemed inexplicable at the time gradually came to be explained: the voice had actually vaguely reminded me that it did not come from the other side, and before hanging up the communication, "it" revealed
A very important message:
In order to establish a connection with me, "it" lost a lot of "stuff" in just a few minutes.
At first, I naturally thought of it as: for the civilization on the other side to contact this side, it would require a staggering amount of resource consumption, but now that I think about it, this "loss" could be something else, such as a network node.
Because it has established a hyperlink with void creatures, the owner of that voice will be impacted by the power of the void every second. What it loses under this impact is none other than its own component: the spiritual node.
That voice is most likely "that adult" mentioned by the fallen apostle!
Harlan saw the uncertain expression on my face and couldn't help but become curious: "What are you thinking of?"
"If I guess correctly," I looked into Harlan's eyes, "I know the identity of your 'lord', and not long ago, she took the initiative to contact me. Even if something unusual happened to you and your army,
It has something to do with that connection: She used you as a buffer to have a direct spiritual connection with me that lasted for several minutes!"