Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2784: Chapter 2785: A Little Red Flower

Laplace: "The first memory related to the Panic Realm that I saw was a memory reflected by a bloodlight."

Dox was taken aback: "A memory reflected by bloodlight?... Bloodlight?"

Laplace actually didn’t want to respond to Dox, but seeing the doubt in Angel’s eyes, she thought for a moment and decided to explain a little: "This involves the rules of the Sea of Void Mirror..."

The rules within the Sea of Void Mirror can be roughly divided into: Life and Extinction.

Life represents all the memories reflected by any "mirror." In the Pan-Dimensional Plane, in countless worlds, as long as a "mirror" exists, it can transmit the recorded scenes within as "memories" into the Sea of Void Mirror.

This mirror can be a water surface, a glazed surface, or even a distorted surface reflected by firelight, as long as it can reflect an image, it can be contained by the Sea of Void Mirror. Among these, the images reflected by water surfaces are the clearest and longest-lasting; those by light are the shortest-lived.

Bloodlight belongs to the latter; perhaps it’s the reflection of some weapon’s light in battle, just in a fleeting moment, yet it can still be recorded by the Sea of Void Mirror.

The above is Life.

Speaking only of "Life", it seems that as long as you’re near a "mirror", you have no privacy.

But that’s not actually the case, mainly for two reasons.

Firstly, the Sea of Void Mirror is immensely vast; although many parts of it are shattered, it still connects countless worlds with mirrors.

Your actions in front of a mirror might drift into the distant Sea of Void Mirror or directly into the broken part of it, disappearing as foam.

Secondly, besides "Life", don’t forget there’s also "Extinction" in the rules of the Sea of Void Mirror!

The so-called "Extinction" is fundamentally "eliminating" memories that flow into the Sea of Void Mirror from the external world.

It’s akin to the Quest World, where periodically, there’s a Soul Tide that takes lingering souls and undead from the living world into the world of the dead.

This is a rule, a rule under the Great Will.

The Sea of Void Mirror has such a rule too, but it’s more violent. The Soul Tide, at least, allows other souls with Spirit Intelligence aside from the undead some choice: to go to the Quest World or stay in the living world.

But the Sea of Void Mirror doesn’t; its rolling waves and tides will directly annihilate all memories within its range.

And the surges of the Sea of Void Mirror... are always present, omnipresent.

In other words, many memories flowing into the Sea of Void Mirror from the outside might not even last a second before they dissipate.

So, there’s basically no need to worry about "privacy."

Even if you act flagrantly in front of a mirror, to the Sea of Void Mirror, everyone is treated equally.

Moreover, when living beings enter the Sea of Void Mirror, they only turn into memoryless "Empty-hearted People"; even if they inadvertently see some memories, they’ll forget about them after a while.

There are only a few "mirror creatures" within the Sea of Void Mirror and not many are interested in human memories.

Laplace can be considered an exception.

But if you delve deeper, Laplace isn’t interested in human memories per se; she observes any memory she has, neither saddened nor pleased by them. The only thing she gives slight attention to is the shadow memories inside the dual faces of the Shepherd God.

But even if she is slightly concerned, she sends them away regardless. This shows she’s utterly indifferent to gain or loss.

To get back to the point, because the memories reflected by the Sea of Void Mirror aren’t confined only to what’s in front of the mirror, the "bloodlight" she mentioned can still record an image... even if just for a moment.

The image recorded by the bloodlight flowed into the Sea of Void Mirror and was captured by Laplace before it was washed away by the surge.

That is the entirety of the cause and effect.

After explaining it roughly, Laplace continued: "The image reflected within the bloodlight is of a girl kneeling at the top of a Corpse Mountain."

As Laplace spoke, she reached out with her fair fingers and tapped the mirror before her.

In an instant, the mirror seemed to transform into a light screen produced by Sky Mechanical City, displaying a panoramic light-image.

The upper part of the image is a crimson sky, with a massive vortex of blood clouds swirling continuously.

The lower part of the image has a dark forest as the background with distant undulating mountains. Nearby, there are countless corpses; some are humanoid, some are demon-like. They’re all fresh, and a stream of blood flows on the ground.

At the very center of these heaps of bodies, there is a "hill" made entirely of corpses. At the very top of this hill, a girl is kneeling on the corpses, staring blankly around her. Beside her, there’s a bloodstained greatsword thrust into a corpse.

The girl is weeping, her expression a mask of profound sorrow, as if she’s encountered the most painful thing in the world.

And above the girl’s head is that swirling blood cloud.

This is an image with a strong narrative, though it’s unclear what stories lie within, or who the deceased are, but the intense atmosphere of sorrow conveyed through the image can be sensed by all.

"Is she a... Demon Person? An Awakening Demon? Or a Bee-winged Person?" Dox voiced the question.

And this was the question in everyone’s mind.

Among the other deceased in the image, there are visible Butterfly-winged People, Bee-winged People, and Cicada-winged People, alongside Demon People and Awakening Demons. Yet this living girl is different.

She has evident features of a Bee-winged Person: thin, transparent bee wings beneath her arms.

But she also has traits of an Awakening Demon: a small unnoticed red flower amidst her disheveled black hair.

The small flower with five small red rounded petals, a golden-yellow stamen in the center, and a green stem connecting it to her skull.

This small red flower is the most obvious trait of an Awakening Demon.

Yet Awakening Demons almost never maintain human form; they’re savage, evil, bloodthirsty... and wouldn’t show such a sorrowful expression.

Thus, this girl carries a peculiar sense of contrast. Especially when the little red flower sways in the wind as she silently weeps, the contrast intensifies to the extreme.

"A rational Awakening Demon?" Angel pondered for a moment and said.

Dox: "Do Awakening Demons have reason? I’ve never heard of such a thing."

Vay retorted irritably: "We just saw an image of a Butterfly-winged Person coexisting peacefully with an Awakening Demon; now there’s a rational Awakening Demon, isn’t this quite logical?"

Dox: "But the mural didn’t show that Awakening Demons have reason, did it? Maybe it’s just that the Butterfly-winged Person is controlling the Awakening Demon with some method, just like Angel can control Earl Mi."

Vay listened and found this somehow reasonable too, momentarily at a loss for a rebuttal.

At this time, Angel looked at Laplace behind the mirror and softly asked: "Is this the demon that awakened again?"

Laplace didn’t reply; instead, she reached out and tapped the mirror again.

The image changed instantly, with the background unchanged, but the corpses on the ground disappeared, replaced by many more living people around. If one looks closely, they’ll find these living people were actually the previous corpses.

Or say, the current image actually portrays them when they were still alive.

These about-to-die people, seething with anger, filled with fear, unhesitating, in despair... all emotions targeted in one direction.

—A pure white fiend under the swirling blood cloud.

This fiend possesses an impeccably perfect and flawless pure white shell; its streamlined body is both elegant and unavoidably exudes a sense of power. It stands upright, with a pair of equally snow-white wings behind it.

It resembles the legendary Snow Dragon but is more graceful and blemish-free than a Snow Dragon.

Yet despite such a flawless body, its face is filled with ferocity and violence, with even its pale golden eyes full of savageness.

These savage emotions are all directed at the living around and... their kin, the awakened Demon People.

These are only expressions within the frame, but the detail that most impacts everyone’s heart is the small red flower on top of this pure white demon’s head.

The same small red flower as in the previous frame. Due to the difference in size, this small red flower appears even more delicate and inconspicuous.

Yet it is precisely this inconspicuous small red flower that makes everyone’s expression change suddenly.

"Is it the girl from before?" Angel asked.

Laplace nodded: "Yes. The demon form comes first, and the human form follows."

In other words, one second she was an awakened Demon Person, and the next second, she transformed back into a Beewing Person. Saying she’s a pure Beewing Person isn’t entirely correct, as she retains the traits of an awakened Demon Person, but perhaps her memory has recovered, her sanity restored, otherwise she wouldn’t be crying so sorrowfully.

"Will awakened Demon People also have a day to awaken?" Dox hasn’t yet recovered from this news, only muttering quietly.

The nearby Vay: "Perhaps?"

Dox sighed deeply: "That would truly be... a tragedy."

Indeed, a tragedy.

Even though they are not from the Panic Realm, merely observing as spectators, they can feel what a tragic human lore this is.

From ancient times to the present, the humans of the Panic Realm—let’s temporarily call the Indigenous People of the Panic Realm "humans"—have always been shrouded by the gloom of demons.

They are like wild beasts in the forest, trembling before demons, praying that the demons have already eaten their fill, and will spare them.

This life repeats year after year, day after day, until one day, someone appears who can resist the demons.

However, this person who resists demons receives all the cheers and glory but unknowingly opens Pandora’s box.

He teaches humans how to use the flesh and blood of demons, to acquire the powers of demons and transform into Demon People.

To defeat demons, batches of Demon People are born.

At first, there was indeed a success, but when the first Demon Person used energy beyond limits and became an awakened Demon Person, things started to spiral out of control.

Awakened Demon People are even more terrifying than demons; they completely lose human emotions, transform into a new generation of demons, slaughter mercilessly and don’t prefer animals, only consuming humans.

From this day, while Demon People remain guardians of every city, they are also shackled, turning from revered heroes to untouchable monsters.

Yet to prevent more humans from dying under demon attacks, Demon People continue at the frontlines, lonely guardians, solitary warriors, constantly seeking a shred of inner peace in battles with demons... until awakening or death.

Awakening as a Demon Person is the most terrifying end but also the fate of Demon People. The stronger the opposition against powerful demons, the more they invoke powers beyond limits.

Once awakened, these former guardians become nightmares to all humans. They slaughter, consume, and even when encountering former acquaintances, it doesn’t deter the efficiency of the awakened one’s devouring. There is no distinction between acquaintances and strangers; to them, all are just food.

Thus is the story of awakened Demon People as known by the Southern Domain Wizards’ Realm.

The story ends here, which is just fine.

However, the story’s conclusion isn’t just about this.

If an awakened Demon Person has an opportunity to transform back into a human, regaining sanity and emotions, what kind of scenario would that be?

The first image shown by Laplace illustrated this point.

Indescribable grief, the sorrow that can flow from a frame.

Imagine if the girl in the frame regains her Spirit Intelligence, she ought to be joyful, but what would she think when discovering the bodies surrounding her?

Among those corpses, the girl sees past companions, her relatives, her former lover.

What would she think?

When memories as an awakened Demon Person recover, she realizes she killed her companions, her lover, and swallowed her parents bit by bit.

What would she think?

No one knows, it’s hard to empathize fully; all everyone can do is observe and sigh: "This is truly... a tragedy."

...

The somber atmosphere lingered for a long time, finally broken by Laplace behind the prism.

Laplace’s gaze still on Angel: "You’re correct, this is the second awakening of awakened Demon People."

"The second awakening can restore their sanity?" Angel asked.

Though a second awakening seems somewhat good, from another standpoint, it’s not necessarily beneficial. Living a bewildered life might be better than waking up to confront harsh truths.

But, without considering these factors temporarily. Despite Angel’s sympathy for the Demon People of the Panic Realm, worrying from countless vacant distances is unnecessary.

However... Earl Mi is nearby, and as Earl Mi has shown signs of emotions, Angel should closely listen to Laplace’s explanation.

"Perhaps they might, or perhaps not." Laplace: "I’ve seen just a flash of memory; what can be deciphered is only seen from memory."

After a pause, Laplace suddenly said: "But this information, you wizards should know better than I do."

Angel frowned, hasn’t he already stated the known information?

Laplace: "I’ve received memories drifting from the Panic Realm twice, the first memory you’ve already seen. As for the second memory... I saw several wizard cities rising in the Panic Realm."

"Wizard cities?!" Dox exclaimed.

Knowing that there aren’t many wizard cities in the Abyss, mostly just outposts. It’s truly unprecedented news for the Panic Realm to have wizard cities!

"Having wizard cities signifies a permanent wizard presence, indicates research on awakened Demon People..." Angel murmured: "Most importantly, it means the Panic Realm isn’t barren; it has resources needed by wizards!"

Previously, everyone’s perception was that the Panic Realm was very barren. Even the Black Earl thought so, although the Black Earl advised them to consider issues dialectically and not trust the public opinion blindly, he didn’t deny the Panic Realm’s barrenness.

But now it seems, they’ve all been wrong.

The Panic Realm isn’t barren; it’s even rich in resources!

Otherwise, given wizards’ opportunistic nature, it’s impossible to establish wizard cities in the Panic Realm!

It’s important to know that the Panic Realm is an energy level world as powerful as the Wizards’ Realm; it’s fraught with danger and far from the Wizards’ Realm. Under these multiple obstacles, without great benefits, why would wizards expend time and energy to establish wizard cities!

Now they understand why Laplace said that sentence—

"Humans always claim to be smart, but when prejudice is deeply rooted, they often remain unaware."

Because from the moment Angel spoke, she knew that Angel’s information was fundamentally incorrect.

Angel and others’ information all revolved around the idea that the Panic Realm is barren, when in reality, it’s the opposite.

They were blinded, even the Black Earl was blinded.

Is this the work of the Frostmoon Alliance?

Or is there a deeper reason, someone doesn’t want them to know the Panic Realm’s information.