If the night follows her, even the darkness will be under her command. Even those who are in the dark of night can't help but feel a strange aura.

"It doesn't have to be that way. I am not truly a child of fire, nor have I stirred the waters, so I have nothing to do with you. (Note 1)

For people who don't know each other, the woman's tone can be said to be kind. It's just that behind the soft words, there is also a kind of elasticity that rejects people thousands of miles away.

The beauty of the night stands on the dark street, like an apocalypse. Even the absence of a word is enough to make the night daunting.

"Let's go, passing traveler. If you continue to stop here, it will no longer be me who will greet you, but 'we' (Note 2). ”

She announced softly.

Without a word, the shadow retreated. After that, Night Beauty quietly turned around and narrowed her eyes in the opposite direction from when the shadow arrived.

The history of alchemy can be mentioned by many people, some of them important and some of them not. However, from the perspective of those who study history, there is one person who cannot be avoided. Surprisingly, despite his fame, that man was not an alchemist, he was Aristotle. Strictly speaking, the concept of "alchemy" comes from him. Although the idea of turning base metals into gold must have been around for a long time, he was the first to propose the specific steps of alchemy: he believed that in order to turn mercury into gold, it was necessary to remove the "fluid" substances from mercury and replace them with other substances. Although this can be said to be basically nonsense, but throughout the later alchemists, none of them have been able to escape his shadow. This may be a matter of course, since even the Church was not spared – it is said that in the Middle Ages, scholars of the Holy See had won a debate by citing "Aristotle once said ......". This phenomenon even continued until the 14th century, when William of Occam cut it off with the "Occam's razor" – history is sometimes interesting, and the same dilemma coexists in hostile camps.

"Alchemist, have you been captivated after all? Someone like you should have discovered it immediately while learning about the complexity of the Golden Great Technique. The complexity of the Golden Great Evolution Technique is not only its weakness, but also its limit. This is something you can't overcome, no matter how clever you are, because cumbersomeness is the essence of it—alchemy is a ciphertext of oral transmission, it is born in the age of spoken thought, and it necessarily contains no inferences, so it can only describe what is known. What is not within your comprehension cannot become your desire, because it is not the 'law of kings' (Note 3), but only the law of tyrants. ”

I couldn't tell if it was regret or emotion, she sighed softly.

Those who seek the past are bound by the past. This law, which has never changed, is still in its place today.

Leaving such words, the night beauty disappeared into the hazy night.

Even though it is gone, it is not at all. Because, she didn't do anything about herself, and she didn't even move her fingertips. Objectively, it is not herself who has changed, but the environment other than her.

Probably only in the switch to virtual reality can you have a similar experience. The difference is that this is not fiction.

"I'm back!"

Although she was only in a different place, the woman immediately showed her mischievous and childish side. And a moment ago, the image of the mysterious and noble Night Lady was almost like two people. But when she looked at her husband, she frowned slightly.

"Welcome back."

Her husband was still lying on the bed half-naked, with his laptop on his lap, not knowing what he was looking at.

"Okay, today is a day off."

She grumbled.

"Sometimes, it's better to use some time wisely. After all, time is always limited for mortals. ”

"I don't want to say that, but didn't I say I'll handle it this time?"

"Not really. I'm just trying to relive something. ”

The man taps the keyboard with his left hand and slowly raises his right hand. Above his palm, the shadow of a triangular pillar loomed like a holographic projection.

If there's one thing their friend Alice has left behind, it's undoubtedly. Alice is neither a famous scholar in School City, nor has she created anything particularly extraordinary, but she did do something that had an impact beyond imagination.

Even Alice herself could not have imagined that such an attempt would result simply at the request of a beloved. Like Nils Gustav Darren, one of the most underrated scientists in history, who started out as a solution to a specific problem, only to find out that it could change the world. It's just that Darren's invention is now the foundation of modern society, and only a few people understand the meaning of what Alice did.

They were two of the few.

"Judging from the records of history and legend, King Solomon probably once discovered this, right?"

"Yes. The so-called treasure of King Solomon is basically this. In some ways, the legend is true. By other words, do you want to marry seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines like him? ”

"Do you care?"

"No, I'm a big-hearted childhood sweetheart. Even if my husband is still thinking about other women when he is with me, I don't care. ”

The woman shrugged her shoulders and said sarcastically.

"If it was you before, it must be nonsense. But since it's you now, maybe it's true. ”

The man said lightly. His words made the woman speechless for a moment.

"The person you really care about is actually you, right?"

It was a long time before the woman spoke, her expression inevitably tainted with something else.

The man was silent for a long time, and with his left hand took out from under the pillow something that clearly should not have been on the occasion - an old-fashioned revolver.

The man pushes the pistol wheel with the index finger of the gun, causing the wheel to spin so fast that it is impossible to see the nest of bullets at all. Then he pressed his thumb against the wheel to stop it.

Then he did something jaw-dropping.

He held the revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Then he immediately turned the muzzle of the gun and pointed it at his wife's forehead and pulled the trigger again. After repeating this twice, he quickly pointed his gun at the tempered glass wall curtain and pulled the trigger for the fourth time.

Four consecutive rounds of the pistol were fired in this one. The tempered glass wall itself withstood the impact of the pistol bullets, but broke through the thin layer of glass on the inside of the curtain. From the room, the whole world felt like it had been shattered.

What seemed to others to be an extremely crazy move lasted less than ten seconds. In just ten seconds, the world dreamed of her (Alice's) dream.

When and where did the Jonbar_Point (Note 4) appear? Is the world stepping into Jonbar or Gyronchi?

The man who had done all this threw the pistol in his hand.

"I can deny it. But if I say no, I'm lying. You know, I hate consequentialism......"

There was a slight tremor in his voice, but his gaze was so sure. The corners of his mouth were slightly curved, as if he was smiling, but it was not a smile.

The woman stopped talking. She casually held the man's palm with both hands, hiding the void triangular pillar between the palms of the two. Then she leaned down and sealed her husband's words with her soft lips.

"All I need is you."

Probably because he felt that he had spoken a little too much, the man's tone had never been so soft.

"Indeed, just one of me is enough. I am not only 'me', but also 'we' (Note 5). As long as there is one of me, I will not be inferior to 700 wives and 300 concubines. The woman smiled, she reached out and stroked the man's face, and said softly. This is what I mean from the heart. I've always wanted to say thank you and Alice for making me truly human. ”

At this point, the whole room shook violently.

No, it's not this room, this building, that is shaking violently.

The entire land that sustains this building trembles in the night.

It was an earthquake, but it was not detected by any instruments related to seismic research.

The world was asleep for less than ten seconds. Or rather, only awake for less than ten seconds.

_

"Huh?"

From Dome Nai's small mouth, a confused voice flowed.

Essentially, she is the kind of person who likes to be quiet. Although she doesn't hate the hustle and bustle, if she can stay in a quiet place as much as possible, her mood will naturally improve. This may be because she likes to think alone and does not like to be disturbed by others. In addition, it is much easier to perform calculations in a quiet session.

But it's strange that she can't calm down even though she is already in her own home today.

It's not because the home isn't quiet enough. You must know that today not only did the parents run to "spend their second honeymoon" in the name of "reliving old dreams", but even the chaotic students who usually work here are resting today. In other words, there are only two siblings in the whole family. Obviously, her brother, who knows her well and is considerate, will not take the initiative to disturb her without anything.

So, why can't I calm down?

Not only could she not tell why, but she couldn't even tell what that mood was.

Stretching out your finger and flicking it on the delicate glass ornament that is shaking in front of you in the shape of a δ, the power is transmitted to the spring of the thin metal sheet inside the ornament, making a "ding" sound.

There are 24 of them, which are exactly 24 Greek letters, but they don't mean much. These glassworks were only made by her brother as a way to practice his hands during his part-time job, and because they looked beautiful, she put them in her room as ornaments, which were no longer useful.

Today's brother is obviously not the same as usual. I don't know why, but my mother seems to know a little bit.

Of course, she didn't compare with her mother who understood her brother's meaning better, so she was just asking for her own trouble. It's just a little bit, but I still care a little. As for the reason, she can't say. However, it feels quite clear that my brother doesn't want to know more about himself.

Not boasting, she thinks she's still smart. It's just that there are some problems with the direction. So in many ways, she seems a little dull.

Her brother is the other extreme.

More or less, people need appropriate dullness, but this dullness does not exist in the elder brother. In this regard, my brother is even more stupid than himself......

By the way, what is my brother doing now?

While thinking so, she didn't know what kind of power she was driving, and she stood up.

_

My brother wasn't in his room, and he was somewhat mentally prepared for this.

I am already very good at using every minute of my time to exert my abilities on my body for the sake of practice. Compared to himself, my brother is even more adept at using his time, and he doesn't even like to let himself be in a state of idleness.

So, Dome turned to the gym. Sure enough, there she found the figure of Mitsuki Haihara.

Mitsuki Umihara stood in front of the sandbag he used for practice, apparently carrying out his daily training. In his own words, it was a way to keep his body from being too lazy.

He wears a wireless headset on his left ear and appears to be talking to someone on the phone. Apparently he did it this way at the same time as training and talking on the phone.

These are all very normal, and there is only one point of abnormality.

If it's quieter, you can hear the rustling sound. It was the sound of sand running on the gym floor.

There is a hole in the sandbag that Mitsuki Umihara used to practice. The sand inside flows down like sand in an hourglass.

It looks like Mitsuki Umihara's fist broke the sandbag, but in reality it shouldn't be possible. The material of this sandbag should not be able to penetrate it with punches and kicks, at the very least. Of course, this is easy to do if you use the ability. However, Mitsuki Umihara obviously has no reason to use his ability to destroy his belongings.

So what's going on here?

Dome felt a little puzzled.

Mitsuki Umihara also noticed her arrival, and he shrugged casually, apparently asking Dono a question with a joking purpose.

"'Latent_Essential_Garbled_Information_Of_Nod', what is the first thing that comes to mind for you?"

Although I don't know why my brother suddenly asked such a question, since he was asked, it was better to answer.

Dome tilted her head slightly, thought for a moment, and then said a word.

“Theory_of_Groups？”

For some reason, the moment she heard her say this word, Mitsuki Haihara's expression did not change, but her pupils shrank suddenly.

Suddenly, the earth shook violently.

================================================

Note 1: There are many explanations as to why vampires can't cross flowing water, but not many reliable ones. Earlier explanations often like to cite the story of the healing of the disabled in John 5. In this story, there is a disabled man who has been at the pool for thirty-eight years, and Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed, and his answer is very interesting: because no one put him into the water, every time the water flows, someone goes down before him. There is no explanation of this man's words in the older surviving manuscripts of the Gospel of John. Later manuscripts explain this: "An angel went down in time to stir up the waters, and whoever went down first after the waters flowed was healed of his sickness." (John 5:4, here with my own translation)

The explanation for this is that vampires themselves are "diseased" (interestingly, the legend of vampires is indeed likely to stem from a misunderstanding of an extremely rare disease, porphyria), and thus cannot cross the flowing waters.

This explanation is indeed a good commentary, but it should be noted that the original Gospel of John does not contain the verse "flowing waters stirred by angels", which is entirely artificially added by later generations. As for why such an artificial addition was made, it will be mentioned later.

Note 2: "we" here is pronounced "Legion". Literally, "legions" for the Roman army. But in essence, it should mean "group" here. The Bible uses this word to describe two diametrically opposed things, both of which are related to Jesus, the "Son of God." The most famous is the Gospel of Mark, which is the first of the Gospels, and in chapter 5 there is a story of Jesus expelling demons (translated as "ghost" in Chinese, but in fact, the concept of "ghost" and "demon" is different in the West), in which the demon claims to be "my name is the group (legion) because we are numerous" (Mark 5:9). Interestingly, Jesus himself used Legion to describe another diametrically opposed concept, and this passage is famous in the story of the Last Supper. Jesus said to them, "Do you think that I cannot ask my Father to send me more than twelve groups of angels?" (Matthew 26:53) It is more commonly understood that the New Testament was formed during the Roman period, so the units of Roman armies were used. But if one were to know anything about the Gospels that were not included in the New Testament, such as the Gospels of Peter and Philip, it would be easy to interpret this act of Jesus in a different way—something that Christianity, or the Crucifixion, has tried to avoid by falsifying the Bible over the years.

There are a lot of paragraphs of this kind.,Because it's related to the world view setting of the Demon Forbidden.,So I'll say a few more words here.。 If you are not interested, you can skip it directly.

I'll give you just one example, because this one is so famous that one is enough: in the Gospel of Peter, the death of Jesus, there is a passage similar to the Gospel of Mark (the Gospel of Mark is the earliest of the four Gospels.) But the trouble for Christians is that there are many head-scratching passages in it that are not similar to the other three Gospels, but to those that have not been chosen into the New Testament.) But there is a subtle difference in Jesus' final words in the record. Not "Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me" (i.e., "Eli_Eli, lema_Sabachthani"), but "My strength, my strength, you have left me." The Gospel of Philip goes further on this point, and is followed by the phrase "This is exactly what he said on the cross, for at this point God (power) is separated from him". (This verse has been mentioned by countless scholars of Christianity.)

Inevitably, the question arises in this account: Is the God of Jesus the same as the God of the Old Testament? Further, what exactly are God and angels? What is the "Son of God"? For the church, this is a record of old life. It is not for nothing that when the church revised the New Testament, it chose only the Gospel of Mark, which is relatively more descriptive from the early gospels. But even the Gospel of Mark itself is the most modified of the four gospels, the most important of which is its ending. The well-known end ends with the resurrection of Jesus. But there is no such passage in the early manuscripts represented by the Codex Sinaiticus—the Gospel of Mark ends when the women see a young man telling them that Jesus has gone to Galilee, and the women are frightened and flee from the tomb, without telling anyone about it. Think about what that means? In the original of the oldest Gospels included in the New Testament, there is no one who really witnessed the resurrection of Jesus!

It is only by understanding this fact that one can understand why church scholars are keen to argue about the question of "how many angels can stand on the tip of a needle" that seems worthless to us—in fact, this question is only a spin-off of the problems mentioned above. They are all about the very essence of Christianity, that is, how God, the Son, and the angels were defined in the original history of Christianity.

I want to emphasize that I have no hostility or resentment toward Christians per se. On the contrary, everything I mention in these commentaries has been mentioned countless times by Christian scholars themselves, and there is solid evidence of ancient Scriptures. In fact, in the Vatican Codex, one of the three most famous manuscripts of the Bible, the Vatican Library (the other two being the Codex Sinai and Codex Alexander), the scribe in charge of proofreading the text was furious at marking the sections of the manuscript that had been altered in the transcript and angrily denounced those who had made the alterations as "foolish liars."

All I'm showing here is the fact that none of the public versions of the Bible that we see today are actually originals. Historically, the understanding of the Bible has been very different from today's "public opinions." The Bible, at least as we see it now, is by no means the eternal Word of God, it is a man-made creation.

Note 3: The Law of Kings is another name for Ars_Magna. It is generally believed to be a method of sublimating from "man" to "god". Although Kazuma said in the afterword of the second volume that he was the culmination of alchemy, he really did not mean that he was talking nonsense. As far as I know, there are at least 4 different schools of alchemy that have had very similar ideas. Why is this so? See note 3 for the reference to the death of Jesus. In fact, in the Gnostic view of Christians, it is the Christ as God who temporarily dwells in Jesus (specifically, before baptism) and thus gives him the power to perform miracles. And before Jesus died, Christ turned away from Him. It was only after Jesus' death that he truly reached a higher level and became a true "God." This view has also deeply influenced generations of alchemists (who, contrary to what many think, are actually quite a mainstream part of alchemists). According to this point of view, there must be the same method of becoming "God" from "man" as Jesus, which is the highest pursuit of alchemy.

It can be seen that in this view, Ars_Magna can indeed be called the ultimate in alchemy to a large extent, because it is the pursuit of this part of the alchemists. However, I have a relatively reserved opinion on whether Kazuma really knows this historical fact.

Note 4: Jonbar_Point, SF terminology, the point of divergence of the world. From the famous SF novel "Time Legion" (known as "Time Voyage Legion" in Japan). In the novel, the protagonist faces two choices in the future world, one is Jonbar, who represents light, and the other is Gyronchi, who represents darkness. The point of disagreement in the future is whether the protagonist can throw a magnet in front of a child at that point in time. If he is able to do so, the kid will be drawn to the magnetism of the magnet and become a scientist, thus entering the Jonbar route. If he hadn't, the kid would have just picked up a small rock and become a vagabond worker, and the world would have gone down the Gyronchi route.

Note 5: It's still "Legion".

Editor's note: The author seems to have been very irritated lately, and the note in this chapter is probably the longest of all the postscripts in this book. In that case, I might as well say more.

I would like to cite one of the names mentioned in this chapter: Niels, the 1912 Nobel laureate? Gustav? Darren, the scientist who innocently lay down in the online Edison-Tesla controversy, is actually a very important contributor to the process of modern industrialization.

I have no intention of judging the contributions of Edison or Tesla. However, since some people think that Darren is not worthy of the Nobel Prize, and also make up the story of Edison and Tesla's refusal to share the Nobel Prize with each other to make Darren cheap, I want to help Darren say something.

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics can be divided into several categories. One is to engage in theories, whether it is to put forward theories or to confirm theories, we are usually more familiar with this kind of scientists. But in fact, the achievement that is most likely to win the Nobel Prize is not theoretical, but more realistic. Darren, for example, didn't come up with a great theory, and he wasn't a great figure in physics. However, among the Nobel Prizes in physics over the years, if you want to select the one that has the greatest direct impact on modern society, Darren may be able to rank in the top ten.

What exactly did Darren contribute? In fact, it is very simple, he invented a regulator that automatically adjusts the opening through the different abilities of different colors of metal to absorb heat radiation, in fact, he invented an automatic control valve. This valve was used on the lighthouse, so Darren was also called the "lighthouse keeper" and "benefactor of the seafarers".

It's inconspicuous, isn't it? Truly. So some people even indignantly said that neither radar nor jet motor could win the award, so why could Darren win the award?

Is that so? So, let's move our gaze to the modern day and see what the truth really looks like.

Now please look up and look at your computer monitor. Its main material is plastic, which is derived from petrochemical products. Products such as ethylene and propylene are produced by cracking naphtha and other oils, and are called polyethylene and polypropylene through a polymerization reaction. This process is believed to be known to many people.

If you go to the factories that make these, you can see a lot of towers, tanks, furnaces, and it's almost a forest of steel. Countless pipes run through it, which can be described as quite spectacular. So, what is the basis for all this?

It is on the pipelines of these towers, tanks, furnaces and other equipment, that one by one is blue or red, large or small. They control the entire production process. Temperature, pressure, flow, all the process indicators that need to be controlled, must be achieved through these inconspicuous automatic control valves.

Then please continue to look at your computer monitor, the energy required for it to work is electricity. Has anyone wondered, how does the power generation process work? In fact, it is also very simple, whether it is thermal power or nuclear power, the principle is the same, by heating water to produce steam to propel a steam turbine to produce electricity. So, how do you control the temperature and pressure of steam? The same goes through those automatic control valves.

There are many similar examples, from hydraulic power systems to flight control systems, and the list can go on and on to the point of intolerability. I don't mean to belittle the value of radar and jet motors, but when you look at such examples, do you still think that radar and jet motors are "many times more important" than Darren's invention?

Darren himself is naturally not a breakthrough scientist. However, his invention ushered in an era – the era of industrial automation (the concept of automatic control predates Darren). Although the automatic control valves used today are very different from the sun valves invented by Darren, they are present in every aspect of modern industry. From the space station to the mobile phones we touch every day, they are all products of the era of industrial automation. An invention of this underrated inventor whose profoundness even he himself never understood has long since become the cornerstone of the entire human industry, and the whole world is bathed in the light of this "lighthouse keeper".