Chapter "393"
“The most direct evidence is their independence. So far, no third case has ever been found in the Aether Void.
And, the free-flowing energies within these two planes are vastly different from those of the Fourth Epoch, and completely unlike those of the Third. We have reason to believe they come from an even more ancient era.”
Lola True Spirit unsealed the origin essence, while Wendy explained in her stead.
Adam furrowed his brow. The explanation felt a little forced.
At this moment, Lola True Spirit handed the smaller one over to Adam, and said:
“You may take this thing back to the Mage World. It is harmless. Try not to damage it — though for now it seems to hold little research value, perhaps in the future it will prove useful.
As for your question, aside from what Wendy said, I’ve also arranged some fragments from the illusions recorded by that True Spirit.”
She flicked a small cluster of light toward Adam’s forehead. Instantly, three fragmented and incomplete images appeared in his mind.
The first: a shadowy void filled with ruptured fault lines.
The second: massive creatures, their true forms unclear. They were colossal — not mages’ true bodies — but as if they themselves were planes, using their bodies to fill the void’s fractures. Within their bodies, Adam vaguely glimpsed even more indistinct lifeforms surviving.The third: a scene of utter annihilation. The cause unknown, the result uncertain. From the image, all that could be seen was everything ‘evaporating.’
“They left us with only these three images. Then they died, leaving behind only corpses for us to preserve.” Lola True Spirit’s tone was solemn.
Adam was stunned. If the images were true… then these two clusters of origin essence — the large and the small — were once living beings?
They had once been alive!?
Lola True Spirit continued:
“If we are not mistaken, the system of the Second Epoch was the activation of planes. The beings of that era pursued the path of evolving their own bodies into voids.
Perhaps the sheer number of such beings dispersed the finite energy of the void. Perhaps they encountered some great calamity they could not withstand. Whatever the reason — they failed.”
Adam murmured: “Mage World…?”
Lola True Spirit nodded.
“Though they failed, the True Spirits believe their line of thought was viable. Our idea of evolving the Mage World into a super-lifeform — with its origin as the vessel bearing the consciousness of all mages — was inspired by them.
But unlike them, we did not scatter our strength into multiple vessels. Instead, we focus all power into a single one — for the Mage World’s metamorphosis.”
Adam could not help following that line of thought:
“Even if the Mage World grows to match the Aether Void in size, at best it would only absorb the void’s fixed quantity of energy. The total amount of energy would still be insufficient to shatter the existing framework of reality.”
Lola True Spirit nodded.
“You are correct. Relying solely on the Fourth Epoch’s Aether Void is not enough. If we did so, we would ultimately only overlap and become a mere ‘Mage Void.’
But — within the Fourth Epoch dwell the Transcendent Void Beings. Within them lies the total energy of the Third Epoch. We must eliminate them, sacrifice them. Ꞧ𝖆𝐍ŏ₿Ëṧ
And if that still is not enough — there is us.
The reason we strive to grow stronger and pursue truth is so that one day, our very existence might reach a level equal to or greater than the void itself — to add one final spark toward ultimate transcendence.”
The “we” she spoke of was self-evident. If, in the end, the plan still could not be achieved, then all mages — be they official mages, Super Dimensional mages, or True Spirits — would choose to undergo supreme sublimation, to gamble for even the slightest, most tenuous chance of transcendence.
Adam whispered, almost involuntarily:
“But when that day comes… whether success or failure, the mages themselves will not live to see it.”
Lola True Spirit chuckled softly.
“Perhaps so. As individuals, we may not see it, whether in triumph or in ruin. But mages are civilization. Success or failure, the fire of civilization will not be extinguished, its inheritance will never be severed.
If, by fortune, we succeed — then in a new world free of Epoch Catastrophes, a new mage civilization will rise again, no matter what our descendants choose to call it. And it will blaze brighter than ever before.”
Wendy grinned, patting Adam’s shoulder.
“And besides, there’s us! The Watchers’ duty is to preserve and spread the fire of civilization. Every past epoch had survivors — can mages, who are so much stronger, do any worse?”
Mage. Civilization.
In that instant, Adam suddenly grasped a deeper meaning within those four very ordinary words.
When the conversation ended, Adam and Wendy returned to the Mage World’s research institute with the special origin essence. Just as Lola True Spirit had said, though it came from antiquity, it was entirely harmless because the Mage World’s origin essence sustained it.
In fact, Adam even felt that after entering the Mage World, it seemed… more lively.
Though describing a corpse this way felt strange.
Wendy poked at the glowing cluster and said:
“This thing is really interesting. Do you know why Her Excellency had them sealed away in the origin repository?”
Adam cooperated: “Why?”
“Because they create illusions. Illusions that look exactly like reality. Look — just like this.”
She lightly tapped her foot. Runes surfaced, isolating the room into a separate space. Then she loosened the seal of the light cluster, letting its gentle glow bathe them.
At once, vivid illusions bloomed in the room, projecting Wendy’s innermost thoughts. The leading figures in the scene were Aisha and Wendy herself, back when she was still a familiar.
When the light touched Adam, illusions appeared around him as well, with him as their protagonist.
Scenes shifted rapidly, each one detailed and lifelike.
Adam reached out, attempting to touch an object within the illusion — as expected, his hand passed right through.
In his understanding, illusion magic worked by stimulating the senses to trigger hormonal secretions, causing the body to react and thus leading the soul to feedback. Low-tier illusions deceived the senses; high-tier illusions controlled them. His own illusions were built on stimulating biological magnetic fields.
But the illusions from this light cluster were utterly different. They seemed truly real, without a single trace of energy fluctuation.
And this was merely the residual function of a corpse. If it had still been alive, perhaps it really would have possessed the ability to create within the void itself.
“If not contained within a sealed space, this illusion could cover a radius of a hundred thousand kilometers. Any being within it, so long as they did not deliberately restrain themselves, would have every thought copied into reality.
The large cluster is even more powerful — one hundred times the range of the small one.
And this is in its unconscious state. If origin energy is actively infused into it, the range expands further still.
As a world engine for a virtual world — nothing could be more fitting.”