Chapter Eighty-Two: Eye of Wisdom (Seven)
[But come on, using children’s bl**d to cultivate a medium for communicating with divine power? Seriously, what kind of nonsense is that? It’s utterly baffling!]
[I’d bet my last donut that whatever she’s connecting with is definitely not the will of the ancient Gidales. That’s long gone! The Gate of Truth has been manipulated by the Seed of Sin; they can’t manage it properly and have almost caused disasters more times than I can count. And that crazy woman, Teresa? She knows nothing, yet somehow she accidentally opened the entrance to the Land of Dragons…]
[So I have to remind those increasingly self-righteous fools in the Church: never underestimate the energy of Gidales! You have no idea what it really is, and neither do I! We aren’t the crazies at the Gate of Truth, willing to gamble with everyone’s lives without a second thought. We must always remember: even if Gidales are dead, they can still unleash unimaginable disasters and impacts on this world!]
[Their vitality is beyond stubborn, more than we little beings could ever comprehend. Even if their essence is annihilated, the remnants of their bodies will still undergo some bizarre and terrifying changes over time. They’ll devour everything—plants, rocks, animals, land, even our thoughts and spirits—gradually spreading disaster across the world, siphoning off nutrients from the remains of everything until their essence is reborn… Can you believe it?]
[Our founders overlooked this fact. Their inability to let go of the power Gidales granted humanity led them to make some really bad decisions.]
[But here we are, still following through on those decisions.]
[I know this is unavoidable, which is why I have to remind everyone again. I’ve already mentioned this in the Church: our ultimate goal is to stop the calamity, not to let new ones breed! Isn’t the tragedy of Cartelgarin enough of a wake-up call for all of us?]
[We’ve already lost too much land and too many followers, yet all that greed has brought us are results that are truly not worth it!]
[Fortunately, what we’re doing now has progressed into a completely new, unknown area. It makes me start to envision actually seeing real light in my lifetime. But, let’s be honest, we’re about to face truly unprecedented challenges. None of us knows what’s going to happen next, and even if success seems near, we can’t afford to be careless.]
[As of now, the only somewhat accurate assessments we can make are based on our limited understanding of the characteristics of the Divine Body, and through repeated experiments, those insights are enough to push us to the next stage. But please, never, EVER think that the “Remains of the Divine” are absolutely safe! That kind of foolishness has no place here!]
[We’re walking on a razor’s edge, so I beg you all to keep this in mind. I wrote this in the experimental record to remind everyone that we have seriously crossed boundaries. Many of our methods are essentially no different from what the original Gate of Truth did. Isn’t that a comforting thought?]
[The failure of the “Oblivion” Abyss is a lesson we can’t afford to ignore. We must not make the same arrogant mistakes again.]
[So everyone, please remember this!]
And that’s it for this page.
The Sword Demon Miss beside me seemed a bit fidgety; her torchlight was flickering all over the place. But I couldn’t care less to look up and see what she was doing. I quickly flipped to the next page, only to find complex patterns and symbols that looked like something from a medical journal or maybe a chemical equation. But to me? It was complete gibberish, and I felt a surge of irritation.
d*mn it…
What’s the difference between you lot and the Gate of Truth…?
But perhaps it was too early to judge. I kept a straight face and flipped three pages in a row, finally landing on something relatively normal that I could actually read.
[August 19]
[During the night patrol, I found that out of the eight people guarding the Chain of Divine Lock, two of them had fallen asleep. More importantly, the others didn’t seem to notice! But the divine miracle lockdown had been properly set; this had never happened before. I caught a whiff of that unusual scent.]
[August 20: Reinforced the lockdown measures by increasing the team from eight to sixteen and requested to use the Black Coffin to contain the Eye of Wisdom as a precaution.]
[August 22: I heard news that the Eastern Continent operation failed spectacularly. That punk from the Rossius family messed everything up! The Choir of Saints couldn’t destroy or recover the lost Seed in the Eastern Continent—completely wiped out, and all five members went missing. What a furious, shaking news! I knew those Rossius people couldn’t be relied on, and now, we don’t even know where that Seed went! The person responsible for this operation should face the harshest judgment from the Church! Doesn’t he know the trouble this will cause us?!]
He’s talking about what happened in the Eastern Continent last year…
The Seed—the “Divine Essence”? I eventually absorbed that thing…
[August 29.]
[More and more followers have started showing symptoms of dreaming. It began with vomiting, but since yesterday, some have already fallen into a coma, while others are acting strangely. I knew that was due to the influence of the Eye of Wisdom, but the Sin Barrier and the Chain of Divine Lock were completely intact. The protective measures had no apparent flaws. Theoretically, only people outside the city and experimental subjects should be subjected to mental pollution from the dream force, not the clerics or knights.]
[I ordered the team to fully investigate this issue within two days. Cardinal Michel has devoted all his energy to the experiments, and the ineptitude of the Rossius family has made things start to get messy. We can’t afford to make a wrong move; we must not let this experiment spiral out of control again.]
[September 1.]
[The first batch of experimental subjects, recently screened, has only two survivors from the first phase.]
[Those two survivors are originally from the Silent Fortress, side family members of the House Alanst. Their spirits have been severely tormented during the Heretic Wars, and they still need to use Mandala serum to temporarily stabilize, but the effects of the serum are becoming less and less effective.]
[This further confirms Cardinal Michel’s “Splitting Theory”—only those who are deeply trapped in madness are likely to withstand the erosion and harm of the Mother Deity’s will.]
[I fed them larger doses of Divine bl**d capsules.]
[I believe that after a while, Mandala will no longer work on them, just like it did with Silvya back then. Of course, that’s assuming they survive to that point—I genuinely hope they do. But the next steps are the truly brutal ones; every time I think about it, I get a knot in my stomach.]
[I can never get used to all of this, especially after becoming a participant myself.]
[I know there are countless innocent and unfortunate souls dying because of our actions. I suffer from immense guilt, but I wouldn’t question our position.]
[I believe all sacrifices are valuable, as the survival rate of the first-phase experiment has significantly improved compared to three years ago. Each of our contributions, the choices we’ve made, the pain we’re enduring, are monumental and undeniable.]
[So this is what I tell myself to ensure I won’t go mad before the patients do.]
[We can attempt the next phase of the experiment. This time, I believe we can create another Silvya, or even a being superior to her.]
