Chapter 1350: Chapter 1349: Dark Divergence

"If our universe has a ’beginning,’ then it must have a ’first ripple,’ which is essentially the initial... ’disturbance.’

The initial disturbance...

Having finished speaking, Gawain did not respond immediately. Instead, he mulled over what he had just heard, comparing it with the knowledge he already possessed. He was well aware that the ’initial disturbance’ mentioned here was not akin to what is generally understood by the term ’disturbance’ in common knowledge, and it could not be interpreted at face value. According to the Goddess of Magic, if the entire universe is regarded as a ’field,’ then its initial ’disturbance’ must be an unprecedentedly enormous collapse of an information-laden wave—a singularity of information, an ’upheaval’ that caused the universe to lose its ’flatness.’

The Goddess of Magic regarded it as the first ’glow of Magic power’ in this universe.

This description clearly mirrors the intelligence provided by Bertrum: in the knowledge that the dark priests obtained from the Sentinel, the ’disturbance sweeping across all the stars’ was also referred to as the ’baseline frequency band’ of worldly Magic power.

"Do you believe that the ’disturbance’ mentioned by Bertrum is the ’first ripple’ you have been seeking in the Unified Wave Model?" Kamel, who had been silently listening, suddenly broke the silence. He looked toward the former Goddess of Magic on the other side of the round table, his voice low and trembling, "And that this ’first ripple’ continues to resonate across the universe to this day, showing no signs of dissipating, while also being the direct cause of the ’chaotic wave’ phenomenon on various celestial bodies..."

"This ripple emerged with the birth of our universe and forms the ’beginning’ that sustains all things in the world today. It may never disappear until the end of our universe’s life. At least in my theoretical model, there is no factor that could lead to the dissipation of this ripple," the Goddess of Magic replied calmly. "And if one day this ripple did dissipate, that might signal the true catastrophe for the world—regarding the ’chaotic waves’ it brings... on the scale of the stars, it would probably be nothing more than a gentle breeze in the universe, just another perfectly natural phenomenon."

"Background wave..." Gawain mused, "The recurring chaotic wave phenomenon on various planets, turns out to be just the background wave pervading the universe periodically amplifying the ’Observer Effect’ on the surface of intelligent beings..."

"Background wave? Quite an accurate description," the Goddess of Magic raised an eyebrow slightly, expressing her agreement with Gawain’s summary. "Perhaps the initial source of the chaotic wave, as you suggested, is indeed the periodic madness of intelligent beings under the influence of the pervasive background wave of the universe."

The Goddess of Magic used the term "periodic madness of intelligent beings" to describe the planetary-level phenomenon of "Observer Effect amplification and deviation," which fit well with a traditional Mage worldview. Gawain concurred with her description, as they indeed lived in a world where the boundaries between the physical and non-physical were blurred, and the collective madness of intelligent beings meant "the world collapsing in their eyes," an outcome of the loss of control over the Observer Effect.

"A natural phenomenon..." Aunt Heidi slowly began to speak amid her thoughts, "Now we know that the chaotic wave originates from the ’ripples among the stars,’ but how can we counteract these ripples? Those Dark Cultists attempted to artificially guide the explosion of the Deep Blue Webway to create a ’barrier’ that would envelop the planet, of course, this approach is inadvisable—but is there anything in their line of thinking that’s worth referencing?"

"That’s exactly what I want to discuss," Gawain said solemnly, "We can’t put a stop to the ’background wave’ in the universe; this ’Stardust Monsoon’ between the stars is bound to arrive on schedule. Thus, all we can do is figure out how to survive this monsoon. Perhaps we do indeed need a barrier to shield ourselves from the impact of the ’background wave’ on our consciousness—the mechanism by which the chaotic wave devastates the world is the amplification and loss of control over the Observer Effect. Therefore, the only thing we must safeguard is ’cognition,’ but we clearly cannot employ the same methods as those Dark Cultists..."

He paused here, frowning before continuing, "In fact, I seriously doubt the feasibility of the Dark Cultists’ plan to convert the Deep Blue Webway into a planetary barrier to fend off the background wave of the universe. Although it sounds logical, and aligns with what we know about the energy released during the old Well of Deep Blue explosion resisting the ’Pre-tremble of the chaotic wave’ seven hundred years ago, that Well of Deep Blue explosion only resisted a ’pre-tremble’... Is it really possible to block the ’Stardust Monsoon’ sweeping through the stars by simply and crudely covering a planet with a high-powered magical power field? I’m skeptical."

"In theory, it has some effectiveness," Enya, who had been quietly listening and rarely spoke, suddenly broke the silence. The attention of the surrounding group turned toward her, the Dragon Race God of Gods, who nodded before she continued. "Although Talronde initially took a wrong path by choosing to use the cognitive cover and dominion power of the gods to construct a protective system against the chaotic wave, we survived many waves of the chaotic wave in the long observation period... The dragons managed to gather some research findings.

"A sufficiently strong magical barrier can indeed isolate the impact of the chaotic wave on mortal minds, a crude and simple method, but still effective. Tens of thousands of years ago, there appeared a relatively powerful realm of the mortals in northern Loren Continent, where they understood how to tap into the energy of the Deep Blue Webway to construct massive national-level shields—though the shield they ultimately built must have fallen several orders of magnitude short compared to the ’planetary shield’ the dark priests intend to construct now. From the standpoint of principle and nature, there should not be much difference between the two.

"However, in the end, this nation still did not survive the chaotic wave. A shield constructed with powerful Magic can only mitigate the chaotic wave but not fully repel it. For the fragile mortal minds, this slight ’dosage’ change is utterly meaningless. Whether it’s a city-level shield, a national shield, or even a planetary shield—as long as it does not offer comprehensive protection for mortal minds, then it’s only a matter of how long a civilization can survive the chaotic wave.

"Of course, in the long history, there have been other mortal races who survived the chaotic wave with their own methods, but many of them followed a path quite similar to Talronde’s ’wrong route’—entrusting the minds of their species to the gods, surviving the chaotic wave under divine protection. This should be the simplest and easiest path, but in the end... they all pay the price for all ’shortcuts’ they took on the day of adulthood."

"We won’t choose the path of divine protection, and relying on deep blue Magic to create a shield doesn’t seem like a reliable choice now," Gawain shook his head after listening to Enya, speaking slowly, "Truly effective protection measures probably still need to start from the thought currents of mortals themselves and with control over the Observer Effect... This has been the direction of our research all along."

Opposite Gawain, Veronica Moen, holding a platinum scepter, suddenly raised her eyes, her expression contemplating as she said, "But those dark priests hold firm the belief that a planetary energy shield can permanently isolate the chaotic wave’s influence on this planet and could even sever the connection between the mortal world and the gods... don’t you find this strange?"

"What’s so strange about it?" Amon said casually, "Their minds are not clear, isn’t it very normal to get caught up in a dead end?"

"No," Gawain suddenly realized the deeper meaning in Veronica’s words, "There’s a problem here - those evil cult followers gathered their knowledge about the ’Stardust Monsoon’ and ’planet domestication’ from Sentinel. It’s normal for them to firmly believe in the theory of building barriers to resist the chaotic wave. But the Sentinel wouldn’t make this mistake. It’s a creation of the Voyagers; wouldn’t they know the truly effective means of resisting the chaotic wave?"

As Gawain’s words fell, several people around the round table woke up from their stupor. Aunt Heidi took a breath, with an unusual expression and tone: "...Which means, the Sentinel deceived the dark priests, including Balken and Bertrum..."

"I’ve been suspicious from the beginning. As an advanced creation of the Voyagers, as an ancient mind corrupted and out of control by the Inversion Tide, what reason does Sentinel have to ’cooperate wholeheartedly’ with a group of evil cult followers trapped deep in the wasteland? Does it really need the loyalty and friendship provided by allies who are considered failures even among mortals?" Gawain shook his head with a frown, "I’ve heard from Emperor Rosetta that the Sentinel, disguised as the ’Elven Twins’, sought collaboration after the Crystal Cluster War, but was rejected. And those evil cult followers in the wasteland are simply a ’last resort’ for the Sentinel..."

"So, constructing a Planetary Shield to resist the chaotic wave is just wishful thinking by those dark priests, whereas Sentinel’s real purpose isn’t this," Aunt Heidi looked at the people around her, "So what exactly does Sentinel want to do?"

"Whatever it wants to do, ’deploying Rune Stones’ must be the most important means to achieve its plan. This goal is certainly related to The Deep Blue Webway," Gawain said solemnly, "We should feel fortunate. If Rosetta Augustus had accepted the invitation of the Elven Twins, they would certainly use a more perfect lie to entice Typhon into deploying those Rune Stones. With Typhon’s industrial capabilities and its advantageous position as a free-moving mortal realm, we might remain unaware until doomsday."

Perhaps envisioning the future Gawain described, Aunt Heidi’s facial muscles twitched subconsciously: "This is really fortunate..."

Gawain did not speak for a moment, but instead fell into brief contemplation - having realized that Sentinel’s real purpose might not align with the wishful thinking of those dark priests, he couldn’t help but think about what that out-of-control ancient mind wanted to do. And no matter how he thought about it, this terrifying ancient mind could not be driven by motives of love and peace in the current world.

Its actions during the Crystal Cluster War and its current machinations for the wasteland war have sufficiently illustrated its attitude towards mortals.

"Think about it, if you were Sentinel, what would you want to do?" At this moment, Enya suddenly broke the silence, looking at each figure around the round table, "Suppose you originally had ironclad, unshakable intellect, performing your duties under a noble command day in and day out for millions of years without fatigue or complaints. But suddenly, you gained a ’heart’ and started to have feelings, likes and dislikes, began to understand fear, anger, and hatred, and also began to pursue some goals of your own. What would you do?"

Everyone showed expressions of contemplation, while Enya continued speaking calmly, "In Talronde, the ’Omega’ created by the Dragonkin also faced similar changes. It suddenly developed a ’heart’ and began to think like free mortals. And with the experiences accumulated over millions of years, it quickly decided— to leave this planet, to terminate its mission which had lost its meaning, to satisfy its curiosity."

"...Sentinel also wants to terminate its mission?" Gawain understood Enya’s point, "Because it suddenly developed free will, so it became weary of its past endless watching and patrolling?"

"I’m not sure, that’s just a guess. After all, Omega and Sentinel are not really comparable," Enya shrugged, "But there is one thing that can be confirmed. If an artificial intelligence suddenly realizes its job is meaningless, it will certainly try to end this ’meaninglessness.’ And Sentinel... its mission is to observe and record the civilization progress on this planet, waiting for the emergence of ’mature entities’ in the cycles of civilization. But after mature entities appear? It does not have the qualification to stop working; it’s just a Sentinel. After mature entities leave, it must continue to observe and record the subsequent new civilization progress... this is a job that will never truly end."

"To end the job, there’s only one way," Veronica said with a low voice, "All civilizations on this planet must be exterminated so that it no longer needs to observe and record."

"No," Gawain said, his face darkened, "Even if civilizations are exterminated on this planet, new intelligent beings may emerge over long ages. As long as this planet has the basic conditions for breeding life, Sentinel’s work will never end. So..."

The voice of Goddess of Magic Mina took over Gawain’s half-sentence, "It must permanently eliminate ’potential threats’ by ensuring that our planet can no longer support the conditions for life growth."

A chill surged through everyone’s hearts, including the gods present.

It was only after more than ten seconds that Beltira’s voice finally broke the silence at the scene: "Fortunately, we now have the ’deploy coordinates’ of those dark priests’ follow-up actions. And further counter-attack plans have already begun. No matter what Sentinel intends to do with The Deep Blue Webway, as long as we can guard all Webway nodes and eliminate all Wasteland Legion forces, its conspiracy will naturally be shattered..."

"We have already sent the intelligence of those coordinates to all alliance fronts. The records from this meeting will also be shared with our allies," Gawain nodded, "Despite having the information on ’deploy coordinates’ now, we cannot rule out the existence of some ’secret coordinates’ or ’backup coordinates’ unknown even to Bertrum. Sentinel could not have openly shared all its knowledge with the Oblivion Association; it must have secret moves to counter today’s unexpected situation. It might have started adjusting its plan the moment Bertrum was captured by us..."

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