Hearing what the other party said, Tails was immediately shocked.
"get ready."
The stranger came to Thales and slowly extended his right hand.
Thales subconsciously took a step back, but finally stopped and stood firm with gritted teeth.
I can't be afraid.
I must……
must……
The dense fog in the critical area became thinner and thinner, sweeping away the previous darkness.
The stranger's hand touched Thales' face, and there was a cold feeling.
"careful."
"Even if you think you have it under control..."
Thales looked at him blankly, feeling weightless for the first time.
It's like the ground suddenly disappeared.
Then, he felt again: he was starting to fall.
coming.
Thales suppressed his nervousness, controlled his slightly trembling limbs, and said silently.
"Even if you think you're doing the right thing..."
"Even if you think that the power of the magician is in your hands, it will be a sword of justice..."
The stranger remained mysteriously still in front of him, stroking his face and motionless.
It seems to have no entity.
The surrounding light began to flow, and the scene changed from a vague blur to a rapidly changing out-of-focus scene.
"We still can't take it lightly."
"Sometimes, the means you resort to for a noble purpose can unknowingly turn against you."
The stranger's words seemed to contain endless meanings, and the mysterious eyes that shimmered like a lone lamp on the road at night were the only thing Thales could see in this world:
"For example, debate is to clarify the truth, but too many people are immersed in the vanity pleasure of winning and losing; for example, violence is to maintain survival, but too many people are lost in pure violent impulses."
The feeling of falling is getting stronger and stronger, and the surrounding images are getting blurry, as if colors and shapes have lost their meaning.
The stranger's words came softly:
"For example, magic, magic is for..."
At this point, he seemed a little unable to continue.
Thales looked at him like this, feeling inexplicably sad in his heart.
"I know." The prince replied comfortingly.
The stranger snorted softly and shook his head as if it didn't matter.
"you know?"
He retracted his palm, raised his fingers, and gently tapped Thales' forehead.
Just listen to the stranger say calmly:
"You 'think' you know."
A silver stream of light flickered from the prince's forehead, seeming to echo the stranger's fingers.
Thales just looked at him blankly.
The stranger spoke the next words softly, and every word seemed to be deeply felt, causing Thales to think endlessly.
"Just like a hero thinks, he has never and will never compromise with evil."
"Just like Mingzhu believes that having wisdom and power can correct mistakes."
"Just like a strong man thinks that he is the master of power and the master of weapons."
"Just like the famous generals believe that as long as they continue to win, they can bring peace."
"Just like the mages believe that as long as knowledge increases and skills advance, all problems in the world can be solved."
"Just like the reformers believe that as long as they have noble intentions, great goals, and selfless actions, they can and will eventually make the world a better place."
Thales was stunned.
A hero...a wise master...a strong man...a famous general...a mage...a reformer...
Thales tried his best to stare at the stranger, trying to see something from the stranger's blurry face, but failed.
They are falling faster and faster.
The stranger stopped speaking, and the mysterious glimmer in his eyes gradually dimmed.
"Remember, kid," he said with a rare emotion:
"Keep yourself safe."
"Don't let them easily infiltrate you, invade you, and capture you," he said slowly, like a wise man who has witnessed thousands of vicissitudes of life and the impermanence of the world, revealing his true feelings:
"No matter how clear and plausible they sound."
The radiance surrounding the two people flickered, stripping away all the light.
It was as if they had entered a tunnel in the heart of the mountain, dark and gloomy.
Finally, Thales, whose thoughts were hard to calm down, could no longer hold back his thoughts and blurted out impulsively:
"who are you?"
This "person" suddenly appears in the critical moment.
This... magician.
He is Aishida's guide. He calls the two emperors "girls" and can hide it from their eyes and ears.
He is so powerful that he can come and go freely at the 'criticality'. He knows the Silver Shadow Man under Longxiao City. He doesn't seem to belong to any faction...
The stranger was silent for a moment.
Then, as he fell more and more rapidly, he sighed and said:
"I am Thoros Myr."
Thales was stunned.
Where had he heard this name before?
That is……
The mysterious man named Toros continued: "The glory and shame of the Magic Tower, the savior and disaster of the empire, the truth and end of the world..."
"I am both lucky and sinful."
There was an unbreakable sadness hidden in his words.
Let Thales also feel the unspeakable heaviness.
Glory and shame, savior and disaster, truth and end, luck and sin...
Just listen to Toros whisper:
"I am your earliest senior."
"Worst role model."
He pressed his index finger on Thales' forehead gently and pushed forward.
"And... the worst possible future."
The next moment, under the renewed light and rising heat, Thales's eyes dimmed and his breathing stagnated.
He knew that he was out of critical condition.
Then he sank into the deep and boundless sea.
Gone never to return.
here we go again.
In the pictures that flashed by quickly, he happily stretched out his hands, not the tentacles of his thoughts, touching everything.
The thin body is no longer enough here.
He felt the sense of omniscience, accomplishment, and satisfaction that came again.
The emptiness and tranquility thousands of miles high in the sky, the vast loneliness of the snow-capped peaks, the boundless mind of the vast grassland, the numbness and silence of the vast desert, the hidden undercurrents of the deep seabed, the epic magnificence of the ancient city, and...
He slowly raised his gaze, feeling the flickering in the distance.
It is the faint mystery of endless stars in the sky.
He took a breath and felt everything.
The whole world.
All before my eyes.
Show it to me.
Well, the world?
【When you think of this world, what is the first thing that comes to mind?】
A nice yet annoying male voice sounded in a trance.
here we go again.
He shook his mind, threw away the boring words, and continued to feel the magical state of this moment.
Of course, this is far from enough...
He needs more, needs to reach the highest place in his dream...
So he started to rise just like before.
And this time.
Nothing can stop him...
Touch that final step.
With a thought in his mind, he raised his head slightly.
ah.
He let out a sigh of contentment.
Yes, it's still that dark and silent void.
It appeared in front of him again.
He could see clearly that what was shown to him in the void was still the mysterious gray mist, flowing in the distance, surging towards him in the endless white light.
It was as if the gray mist was conscious and opened its arms towards him.
Like the most formal invitation.
call.
He continued to rise, feeling more and more wonderful omnipotence and omniscience, while looking at the gray fog that continued to spread toward him, he felt reassured.
That's the call.
In that gray mist, something... was calling him, longing for his arrival.
"Come……"
In a daze, he even felt a faint calling coming from the mist.
"Together……"
yes.
A familiar desire and impulse developed.
He felt that in that gray mist, there was something he wanted most, was most kind, and was closest to him.
come.
He rose faster and faster, getting closer and closer to the strange dark void, and also getting closer to the endless flowing gray mist stained with white light.
come!
He could barely hold back his roar.
Come on, come on, let me enter that void...
Encountered that gray fog...
Only in this way.
Only in this way……
Only then can I be more perfect.
Only then can we truly own this world.
world?
His upward momentum suddenly stopped.
[The world? It’s probably all human beings, Asheida, in your era, when the empire and the magic tower were still there... What was the world like?] The echoes of the past came like a whisper.
Ahhhhh!
It’s that damn drake voice again!
No!
Get away...
Get out of here!
[I guess, there’s not much of a difference, right? After all, for us, the world is just a small part of our cognition... It’s probably where we are, and everyone we know, and what they say,
In our eyes, the world around us... We think we see the world, but in fact, what we see is just our own retinas.]
He is no longer rising.
No no no!
He roared in pain, and his head began to hurt.
This again!
Duck voice!
It's it again! It's preventing him from continuing...
He swore that he would wait until he reached the top, wait until he reached perfection, wait until he was omniscient and omnipotent...
He must tear the owner of the drake voice to pieces! Crush! Explode!
Smash him into the smallest and most insignificant dust...
Let this insignificant existence block your great progress...
Bear the most terrifying, painful, and unimaginable ultimate punishment in the world!
Even if he wants to destroy the world, even if it means his own demise, even if the end of all things is imminent, he still wants that irredeemable drake voice to pay the heaviest and unbearable price!
Ahhhh!
[Are you leaving, Aixida? Is get out of class over? Aixida? Sir? Aixida is little...ahem, little, little puppy? Little Clumsy?]
[Phew, it looks like he’s really gone, what the hell is this...why don’t you change your name to Bruce Wayne...]
[Huh, what is the world? You may not know... But in those strange memories, what I have to do is to look at the world from another angle... to discover problems that we have never discovered, to doubt
Those principles that are correct by default, to break the external shackles that you are in without knowing it...]
[This is not an easy thing, just like Plato said, once you walk out of the cave and see the sun... Huh, huh...]
[We used to laugh at those chuunibyou in anime... But sometimes, when you observe and examine the world from an angle that other people are not aware of again and again, you will find...]
[Maybe, maybe it’s really not me who is wrong...]
【But this world.】
【Right...Humph, Lao Ma, what do you think?】
His head hurt more and more.
Naaaah!
Damn it, don't, don't fucking get in my way!
I need it……
I need that void, that gray mist...
I need to rise!
I need to have it!
I need this world!
The next moment, Thales woke up painfully like a person recovering from drowning!
"boom!"
A strange and huge thunderclap.
Ahhhh!
how……
Thales gasped for air and looked around...
He was confused for a few seconds and felt as if he had forgotten something again.
Suddenly I felt like I was falling!
Then it suddenly brakes and stops without warning!
It almost made him dizzy.
But it's not over yet...
He seemed to be caught by a strong wind, thrown upward, and then rose again!
how……
"Bang! Boom!"
The moment he reached the top, Thales tried his best to open his eyes, and then his whole body was shaken!
He discovered that what appeared in front of him was a storm visible to the naked eye.
storm!
"Wow..."
The next moment, he was blown diagonally downward by a strange gust of wind!
What he felt just now was that he was rising and falling uncontrollably in this fantastic and terrifying endless storm!
What are you doing?
"Boom!"
The wind here is colorful.
They scraped out deep blackness in the air, like smooth blades made of ink. Thousands of ink blades, sometimes scattered and splashed, sometimes gathered into huge waves, sweeping across like a tornado, pulling the panicked Thales back and forth!
Like...flying a kite.
The same dark electric light flashed from time to time in the lightless sky, accompanied by huge thunder that almost shattered the eardrums.
"boom!"
Every thunder makes the black storm even crazier!
Thales was in the mid-air where he didn't know whether it was an illusion or not, enduring the bone-scratching pain of the wind knife, feeling the panic of weightlessness...
Oops, oops...
Thales trembled and tried to grab a piece of ink, but in his panic, he discovered that he had no body!
What exactly is here...
"Boom!"
He waved his imaginary hands, but he couldn't grasp the point of strength at all.
His eyes were tossed and turned as the storm rose and fell, and his whole body, if he were still a human being, was being pulled back and forth by the storm in the air without stopping!
Everything he could see was an ominous pitch black ink.
Everything I heard was terrifying thunder and flashes.
The danger is even greater than that of a lonely boat in the sea.
"Boom, boom!"
Damn it!
He was knocked upside down by another storm.
Thales felt like he was almost out of breath.
But he didn't see the ground or the sky. He could only feel the boundless, ruthless black storm at the upper and lower ends, left and right, front and back!
"Rumble"
He tried shouting loudly, but there was no response, and he couldn't even hear his own echo.
This was a sight he had never encountered since the first time he lost control and even the first time he knocked on the door!
Is this... the truth about out-of-control magic?
The magical...sea?
he thought tremblingly.
[When you are wandering in the sea of magic energy, you feel the rise and fall of the threshold all the time, and it is far more than just your body that is affected...] Toros's words rang in his ears.
Compared with the wonderful feeling at the beginning... he really didn't want to stay here at all.
And as this thought arose, Thales only felt a blur of smoke in front of his eyes.
He seemed to be in a drunken state instantly, and felt that magical state of omniscience and omnipotence again...
ah……
How amazing...
I saw the world again...
And I want more...
Thales thought so and smiled subconsciously.
No!
But the next moment, Thales shook his head desperately and tried his best to wake up!
"Boom!"
A booby trap started!
The vision in front of him dimmed, and he briefly woke up, returning to the dark and terrifying storm again.
Float with the waves.
Damn...die!
The torture of his ears, eyes and senses made him try his best to gather the remaining will.
He knew that Asheida's classroom training allowed him to briefly escape from the psychedelic state and avoid continuing to rise to the threshold, but obviously, his current state is far from the "object" stage mentioned by Toros!
cannot!
Like the mysterious Toros said, he cannot get lost there, lost in desires and impulses!
He must step over!
Ah! Fuck!
Thales roared in his heart, concentrated his energy, and tried not to think about the illusion just now.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
The black storm roared again, pulling him back into the terrifying mid-air.
Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it!
Thales tried his best to get rid of those comfortable and beautiful illusions, that sense of power to feel everything...
But the more he tried to get rid of it, the more he couldn't help but think of that feeling.
The harder I try not to think about it, the harder I can't help but think about it.
Thinking of the pleasure when the threshold is raised, the excitement of being about to knock on the door...
Thinking of the desire to enter the dark void and touch the gray mist...
That kind of omniscience, that kind of omnipotence, that kind of majestic feeling that he is the whole world, everything, all things, and where the majestic truth lies! At that time, he will be able to reach death without restraint, without any restrictions, without any disharmony!
Thales, who was in the midst of the storm, shook his thoughts desperately, scolding and struggling to come up with this tempting idea.
No no no no!
Don't even think about it!
Stay sane...keep...yourself...
At this moment, his brain seemed to be torn in half.
Half of me is in a perfect world like a fairyland, feeling the satisfaction and beauty of being full of abilities, feeling the truth and secrets of the world, and endlessly eager to fuck! Here it comes again!
The other half of the brain, in the terrifying and violent black storm, was suffering as if it was about to be torn apart, flipping back and forth, wandering indefinitely!
etc!
This is not the way to go, we can’t go on like this!
"Wow!"
A gust of wind, accompanied by the roar of the black storm, threw him into the air again!
By the way, a way!
When Thales felt that he could no longer hold on, he finally remembered Toros's words.
Magic power appointment.
Be careful with yourself.
The previous visions and storms completely occupied his body and mind, leaving him no time to recall. When it came time to recall, he discovered that he had lost too many memories in a state of control.
self.
quick……
Thales touched the seemingly faded memory and thought hazily.
Anchor!
Yes, find the anchor...
Anchor point, pointing to self...
Pull me back...
Get out of this damn, terrible storm.
From this false, tempting, comfortable, pleasant, full of expectations, infinitely wonderful dream of rising to the threshold...ah, knock on the door, for it, he can give up everything, just to fall into its arms, and then become the supreme
Damn it! Come again?
roll!
Can’t I even control my own thoughts?
Thales felt like a depressed writer who came home breathless and exhausted after a long day of work and struggled to get up to type...
Keep your spirits up, but if you are not careful, you will fall into a sweet dream, never to return...
Waking up the next day with an empty screen...
"Boom!"
Thales, who was cursing everything in his heart, was once again hit by a rapid cyclone and was knocked over six times in a row.
When he was dizzy, he was scratched by three ink blades and the pain was unbearable.
hateful!
The anchor point!
Thales struggled to hold on, trying to search for damaged memories again, trying to find the answer...
Really, I was fully prepared before, but when things came to pass, I realized that the preparations I had made before were of no use at all!
Worse than thesis defense!
The anchor point I set, the self I understand...what exactly is it!
At this moment.
【Have you ever thought about what you are?】
His eyes were once again hallucinating.
But it's not the same as before.
This time, what appeared in front of Thales was a majestic palace.
In the north, in a room in a snowy palace...
A young man with elegant manners faced another pale boy, pressing closer and closer, his slender fingers slowly raised, as if pointing directly at the boy's true heart:
[When you are stripped of all definitions given by others and removed from all the situations in which you exist, what is left of you? 】
The scene rippled, like water waves dispersing.
Thales was stunned.
Definitions given by others...
The situation in which existence...
anchor point…
Anchor!
"Boom"
In the endless storm and thunder, he slowly recalled the conversation he had just had with Toros.
"So, to anchor yourself, what you really need is to shed all external labels..."
"Get rid of what you call, 'the things that confuse others'."
Thales was in a trance.
What is "something confused by others"?
What is "something that cannot be confused with others"?
What is...the true anchor to the self?
"Crash, bang! Boom!" Thunder and lightning flashed around him, never ending.
He was confused and confused.
It was as if he had forgotten that he was still tossed back and forth in the terrible storm, undergoing torture.
Be realistic when pointing to your own anchor point.
Is it his unique...magic power?
Is it the sin of the prison river?
Is it the jc dagger that saved him from danger many times?
Or is that what he calls it?
Or...his so-called wisdom?
"Boom!"
No, neither.
He felt that the direction of these anchor points was wrong.
That which is not confused by others...
Or, the anchor needs to be more focused, concentrated, and brief?
Such as himself.
Like Thales?
Bright star?
Second prince?
Magician?
Or did he pause for a moment when he thought of the name Wu Qiren?
Just... a time traveler?
"Bang! Hua Hua!" The storm was still the same, and he was blown away again like floating flakes in the rain.
No, no, the anchor point is also not these...things that cannot be confused by others...it needs to be more abstract.
So, the anchor is his will? The spirit of never giving up in this world?
Is it the memory and knowledge he gained from another life?
Is it everything I have perceived and known since I was born?
A bit close, but, really?
anchor point…
Can the anchor really point from these things to the self that he and Toros have talked about so much?
That which is not confused by others...
At this moment.
"Crack bang!"
There was an unprecedented huge thunder, followed by another weird black lightning, falling directly on Thales!
He was so shaken that he was rolling in the air like a broken sack!