“…… Twilight as opposed to reality? ”

Russell repeated.

He frowned: "But such a statement is still too abstract...... Is it the kind of existence that cannot be described concretely or recognized? ”

"It's true that there is such a dusk, but 'dreams' are not that type."

Cironn shook his head.

She stared at the beer she had drunk, but there was a slight look of exhaustion on her face.

Russell sensed that feelings of "nostalgia" and "sadness" echoed in her heart, so he didn't interrupt Seron's memories.

After a long while, Sai Lun said quietly: "Once, we had a glorious civilization that we were proud of.

"For in the development of civilization, we have gradually acquired divine reason, which transcends our own animality.

"The maintenance and healing of the soul by psionic energy, and the adjustment of hormones and nerves by technology, so that we will not make mistakes again, nor will we be impulsive or make mistakes. As long as one thing can be done theoretically, it can be guaranteed to be 100% completed with the correction of psionic and mechanical powers.

"But as the 'dream' hatches out of the sea of the group's subconscious, we start 'dreaming'."

“…… Dream? ”

Delphinium frowned: "That should be a rest mechanism for the brain to remember." ”

"But it wasn't that way at the time. After awakening the psionic energy, we could have entered the sea of the subconscious of the group at night...... It is a great world as opposed to reality, made up of the subconscious and the imagination. There, there is a huge gap between the laws of physics and reality...... But it's not an illusion, it's a world of mind that is common to all people. Originally, all of us shared the same dream, and we were united in dreams, cultivating feelings, forming bonds, and relieving stress.

"But since the awakening of the 'phantasmaged dream', there have been fewer and fewer people in the group dream. Everyone was cut off from the sea of the group's subconscious, and instead linked to the dream...... The dream is no longer another world, but an illusion made up of a patchwork of memories.

“…… After that, disaster struck. ”

More than a thousand years have passed.

But the bottom of Chairman Sailun's pupils still reflected fear.

It was the fear of the "twilight" that destroyed the entire Old World.

"Regardless of the distance of space, at the same moment, a 'irrational' emotion appeared in the depths of everyone's heart.

"The first is 'selfishness' that separates the self from others. At that time, our civilization was very advanced, and everyone could already accept the sharing of labor and then share the product. We are productive enough to help everyone in need, and we will automatically give back to the community after receiving help.

"However, at that time, the 'selfish gene' from the ancient genes, which has long been eradicated from our hearts, was awakened.

"There is a division between the 'group' and the 'individual'...... People no longer trust the group wholeheartedly, but try to take advantage of the group's protection for their own benefit. Almost overnight, trust in each other was completely shattered.

"After that, people develop 'arrogance' towards those who are weaker than themselves, and 'jealousy' toward those who are stronger than themselves.

"This sentiment doesn't really mean anything. It is merely a bestial, instinctive, inefficient constraint, the instinct that drove the beasts to form flocks and maintain the survival of the fittest in ancient societies. And we have long had the technology to modulate genes, and the strength of the individual is meaningless.

"And yet it further separates us and keeps people from coming together.

"With the further development of the plague of the mind, emotions such as 'laziness', 'anger', 'depression', 'suspicion', and 'inferiority' began to appear. It was a 'negative emotion' that had been extinct for more than a hundred years in our time. Because only by eradicating all negative emotions and leaving nothing behind, can psionic energy be transformed into pure white psionic energy—the power that can be used in all areas of 'wishes' come true.

"Psionic energy, which was pure and could be used in any situation, began to be tainted by this emotion and became extreme.

"Eventually, the most powerful psionics are the first to get out of control—because they have the deepest connection to the sea of the group's subconscious, and therefore the deepest pollution.

"As more and more extreme emotions infect their minds, the first symptoms are visual and auditory hallucinations. Then memories begin to appear that do not exist, followed by the inability of the brain to control the body, and the body to act aimlessly like an animal. In the middle stage, their rationality is completely lost, they become completely unable to communicate, and the results of brain scans show that their brains have undergone severe pathological distortion, cerebrospinal fluid has become a colored viscous colloid, and the brain has produced colored irregular crystals, completely losing the ability to remember new information and logical thinking.

On the other hand, there is a decline in the spiritual energy of other normal people. And the psionic powers of these madmen are getting stronger and stronger.

"Even among the ships far from the earth, chaos is beginning to appear. As a result, many 'dragons' built from Earth's few resources fell to the starry sky far away from Earth, and only seven dragons barely escaped. One of them is the 'Kubler' where I work, and he is also the energy provider that supports the island of happiness today. is my most important partner...... It's also my only home.

"These lunatics have destroyed almost the entire civilization on the ground, reducing countless settlements to rubble. Their suppression alone would have cost enormous, with more than ninety percent of the population dying in the catastrophe. Luckily, they had already been suppressed when I returned. Otherwise I will be sent directly to the front...... With my fighting power, I'm afraid that means death.

"At that time, we already knew that the problem was psionics, so the government banned psionic energy. But it's still a step too late.

"In the midst of that civil war, as the out-of-control psionics were consumed by more and more extreme emotions, their flesh was finally melted by the increasingly frantic and scorching psionic energy; Others were killed in the early wars. Whatever the reason for their deaths, their souls sink directly into the sea of subconscious.

"These deformed souls can only be completely killed by capturing them alive and cutting off more than sixty percent of their brains, removing the crystals, and waiting for their psionic energy to completely dissipate before executing them. And once they sink into the sea of the group's subconscious, they can no longer be killed by normal means.

"They become information parasites capable of devouring other people's emotions in their dreams, giving back tainted psionic energy. Because the group dream had been cut off at that time, we could no longer support each other...... In personal dreams, these creatures are so powerful that they are completely irresistible and can be polluted and parasitized by them.

"As we called it at the time, it was called a 'dream token'.

"—that is, what is now called 'demons.'"

Russell's pupils constricted slightly, turning into a vertical pupil of the feline family.

Everything is on the right track.

He suddenly understood why all these demons appeared collectively at the same time, and no new demons were born after that...... And why the Nameraider needs to sacrifice itself to seal the most powerful demons.

Because these demons were originally the most powerful psionics in that world.

And after they seal the "Illusion Dream" again, new demons will not be born.

“…… After that, it's the 'spirit family', isn't it? ”

Russell looked at Ciron.

Sailun nodded: "Because anyone who awakens spiritual energy may be parasitized by demons. And we can't prevent it, let alone resist it.

At that time, Pappus proposed a way to inject a special psionic awakening solution into the brains of chordates and force them to awaken their psionic powers. Because they are not human, they do not enter the sea of human group subconscious. By the way, Papps is the chairman of Ampoule Biomedical...... He was burdened with the fate of being the 'healer'.

"When their psionic energy awakens to a certain level, it forms another psionic network independent of the 'sea of the group's subconscious'. That is, a new network formed by psionic beings other than humans that has not yet been polluted by dreams.

"Subsequently, the psionic frequencies of the survivors were toned with them, and they were linked to a new, very weak psionic network."

To put it simply, it's a runaway.

The psionic network in my hometown has been polluted by dreams, and it is the home of demons, and they can come and go at will, and they can't be guarded.

So they simply moved in groups......

“…… Even so, are you still unwilling to give up your psionic abilities? ”

Delphinium subconsciously asked, "I know that the psionic energy has polluted ......"

But as soon as she was halfway through speaking, she suddenly reacted, so the second half of the sentence was directly stuck.

– because they have no means.

Although she couldn't understand any concepts such as planets or universes, she probably did.

These ancient people also faced the dilemma of resource depletion.

The only force that can change the status quo is psionic energy. Or rather, "pure psionic energy".

It is a powerful energy source that only needs to pile up the "population" to make everything you want come true. It is through their psionic powers that they can solve their own dilemmas.

If you lose your psionic powers, you're just a slow death.

"Looks like you're aware of that, Minister Delphinch."

Sairon's voice was low but warm, with the relaxing magnetism of an emotional radio anchor: "Because of the existence of 'Dream Tokens', we have been forced to give up the primordial sea of minds constructed by the will of countless ancestors. But the nascent sea of psionic energy is not unusable...... Although the psionic energy obtained from it is very weak compared to the past, as long as we accumulate enough time and allow more and more psionics to return to the sea of minds after death, we can still obtain the same powerful sea of minds as before.

"But we quickly realized that there was something wrong with the initial makeover surgery.

"Those who have undergone transformation will inevitably cause physical distortion, which is 'spiritual affinity'. But the first surgery was performed only on the brain, because we have long been able to study that the organ that receives our psionic information is actually a special nerve in the frontal lobe of the brain.

"And those who have undergone surgery, their bodies will be released from the lifespan limit for unknown reasons, and they will enter the 'growth period' again, and eventually they will become unusually large, and in contrast, their brains will become more and more animalistic. Or to put it more clearly...... The more they grow, the bigger and more mentally retarded they become.

"Later, they were removed from the human race because their intelligence had degraded to animal level, calling them 'giants'. It was a race that had been destroyed in the past...... It is also a branch of the old humans. ”

Seron was clearly reluctant to mention the giants.

But Russell always felt as if he had heard the word somewhere.

He asked, "What about these ordinary humans who have awakened their spiritual relatives?" ”

Sai Lun looked at Russell, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a subtle, meaningful smile: "It's the same as the synth experiment on Tongshen Island."

"We have rewritten the memories of a large number of newborns. Gene editing that senses the 'new psionic network' is injected into the embryo.

"It is impossible to completely isolate yourself from the call of the 'dream'. Whenever human beings dream, they enter the realm of 'fantasy dreams'. And the psyker and the mage will have a deeper contact with him. However, when a part of the animal element is mixed with the pure human spirit, the signal of the 'dream' becomes blurred. As these new beings develop a sense of self, they will continue to improve and maintain their new psionic networks...... As a result, new humans with beast characteristics have become resistant to 'demons' and 'dreams'.

In this respect, you are no different from synths, they are all artificially cultivated. The real 'humans' are us. ”

Sailun's words should have had some kind of superiority.

But when she said it, it was only bitter.

“…… Is there only eighty-four old humans? ”

Russell muttered softly.

…… No wonder.

The truth of the world shook his heart so much.

Russell remembered that the mentor had mentioned to him that she was only in charge of opening the door, and that it was the world itself that pulled him from the other world.

For Russell himself is the established death of this world.

Together, he and the monkey-faced eagle are a complete twilight embryo. When this world is destroyed, one of them will absorb nutrients and hatch into a new "twilight".

Then they will wander around the river of dreams, and then destroy other people's worlds and strengthen themselves.

…… But that's not right.

The world has fallen from its peak to the bottom in the blink of an eye. What does this have to do with Russell?

The results now look ...... It was they who had been "ransacked" by another twilight.

Although they tried their best to seal the "Illusion Dream" in the "Tower of the End", they still exhausted the last blood of civilization. And the price of being trapped in a twilight is that the world is on the verge of extinction, and it is about to produce a new twilight.

Russell, who realized the truth of this incident and had a deep insight into the universe, couldn't help but feel a chill of despair in the depths of his heart.

This world ...... This universe is so cold and hopeless.

The civilized world is destroyed by the twilight, and the destroyed civilization will give birth to the twilight of the new.

Countless dusks are like swarms, or zombies...... It's just a zombie film with each world as a "human" individual.

Even if you barely defeat and repel one or two, it doesn't make much sense. For they will eventually meet a new twilight, and after the destruction of the world...... The number of dusks will increase again.

It was a bottomless abyss with absolutely no hope.

In this way, he understood...... Why the dragon is so secretive about the world "beyond the sky"?

Because they are all refugees and they are all survivors.

They are so afraid of the twilight...... Already completely frightened, terrified of these civilization killers. I am afraid of the vast universe that I will touch after opening the heavenly dome.

How many dusks are wandering in that universe? Every destroyed civilization means a new twilight. In this parallel universe, there are as many twilight as there are civilizations that have perished...... And that's not even counting the twilight of other worlds wandering in from parallel worlds.

And in that mage's dream, behind the Tower of the End...... It should be the so-called "Dream River", the possibility of leading to countless parallel worlds.

A lock seals the way to the universe, and a lock seals the way to a parallel world.

They would rather die a slow death trapped in this world than come into contact with the infinite terror called the Unknown.

Therefore, the dragon is obviously willing to protect this world, but it will only watch the world slowly perish.

Therefore, the original mission of the elves was to guard the human race to other planets...... But they gave up this mission, blocked the sky, and sealed the technology.

- That's why the sheath will go crazy when it comes into contact with this secret.

He would say that everything that Babel did was meaningless.

This is the truth of the world.