Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 757: Is it a terrifying power?
Although she didn't know what the so-called "Reality Project" was, Nevile felt that it should be something very important. After all, it involved the work of Saint Tumi, "The Beginning of Spirituality", and Professor Heinrich also mentioned in this document that the Reality Project was a key research project of the association's directly affiliated magical research institute - even the "Eden Project" mentioned by the Witch of Dread Fei'er herself did not have such treatment.

If she could find more information about the Real Plan, it would be very helpful to understand the internal dynamics of the Witch Society, which was also her original intention of taking the risk to sneak into this place. Nevill thought that the key point should be the work "The Beginning of Spirituality" by Saint Tumi mentioned in the document. If she could master some of its contents, she might be able to get a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of the Real Plan.

Even if this factor is not considered, the Countess herself is quite interested in it. After all, it is the origin of human mysticism and the only authoritative book that has deeply analyzed the concept of "spirituality" in mysticism. Since it was lost, countless extraordinary people and magicians have been searching for the traces of this book. Even if there are only a few words left, it is enough to trigger the fanatical pursuit of scholars.

This is mainly due to the wide influence of the author Saint Tomi in the field of mystery. The theories proposed by other magicians who have also tried to study "spirituality" and published related research results are not recognized by the public, such as the "spiritual self theory" proposed by the famous black magician Alec or the "spiritual wisdom theory" proposed by Elio the Silent.

The stone carving of "The Beginning of Spirituality" should still be preserved in the ruins of the ancient city of Yaldes under the Roald District, but it doesn't matter, even if there is no original, a copied version will do. Professor Heinrich should have copied a copy of such an important ancient book and kept it in his secret study, right?
Nevile put down the documents in her hand and began to search in the filing cabinet, but after searching for several minutes, she did not find the copied version of "The Beginning of Spirituality". Instead, there was a pile of various messy documents: comparative studies of ancient characters, periodic verification of several plate movements and crustal movements in ancient times, analysis of the properties of many extinct ancient plants and feasibility studies on their re-cultivation... These are all topics derived from the archaeological discoveries in the ancient city of Yaldes. If they were published in the academic world, they would surely cause a huge sensation. Unfortunately, none of them were what Nevile was looking for.

"No?"

She said to herself, "Could it be that Professor Heinrich has put it somewhere else?"

She looked around, her eyes passing through rows of bookshelves and filing cabinets. The vast archives were enough to drown out all the knowledge accumulated by a scholar over a hundred years. How could she continue to procrastinate when she just didn't have time? Every minute and every second wasted here meant that the probability of being exposed increased a lot. Linger and Gloria in the main hall of the party took the most risks. Saint Xia Liya and others who were still waiting for the results in the carriage must have been very anxious...

Is there nothing I can do but give up?

This thought flashed through her mind, and at the same time, a voice suddenly sounded behind her: "Why do I feel like someone is here? Is it Heinrich? Didn't you go to receive the guests? Could the party be over so soon..."

The countess turned around in astonishment, and met a pair of equally astonished eyes. The girl came out from the corner of the bookshelf, holding a document in her arms, and was staring at the uninvited guest in front of her. For a moment, she seemed to be unable to react to what had happened. She had an incredible beauty, and it could even be said that the word "beauty" itself existed for her. Therefore, even at such a critical moment, the first thought that emerged in the countess's mind was "What a beautiful girl", followed by "I was actually exposed."

This is impossible! Before entering the secret study, I had sensed the situation inside and didn't detect any human breath. Or did this girl come in after me? But even if so, I shouldn't have ignored her footsteps! The perception of the demigod blood race is so sharp that they can even hear the sound of dust falling to the ground. How could they be so close to someone and still not notice it?
The surge of thoughts only lasted for a moment, and it is naturally very complicated to describe it in words, but in reality not even half a second had passed before the Countess reacted instinctively: a pair of black bat wings behind her tore through the expensive tuxedo and spread out like a huge shadow. The howling storm swept across the entire hall, making the sliding doors of the filing cabinets clang, and countless files and materials on the bookshelves were blown into the sky, dancing wildly with a rustling sound, as if thousands or tens of thousands of white paper butterflies were flying through the air, blurring people's vision.

The dark bat wings stretched to their limit, and the ends were drawn upwards, forming the arc of a crescent moon. In the bat wings, a bright silver moon slowly rose, casting a piece of cold moonlight. Under the control of the countess, it fell like a sky full of ice arrows towards the girl who had not yet reacted. The chill generated by the moonlight penetrated the bone marrow, and even covered the surface of the floor, bookshelves, filing cabinets and ceiling with a thin layer of frost.

As soon as Nevill started to attack, she used the most powerful blood magic. Although the other party looked like an ordinary person, she did not believe that an ordinary person could hide from the perception of the demigod blood race. However, when she saw that the girl was still standing there blankly without any reaction in the face of the moonlight arrows falling from the sky, she began to doubt: Is it her illusion? There is really nothing special about the other party. She just happened to run into him...

Crack! The sound of something breaking clearly reached the ear of the Countess, bringing her back to her senses. The next moment, the Countess opened her eyes in disbelief and saw a scene beyond common sense: with the place where the girl stood as the center, the surrounding space began to shatter like a tangible substance, and cracks like broken glass appeared on the surface of the void. Clearly without any external stimulation, these cracks were gradually expanding, accompanied by increasingly harsh cracking sounds, as if there was an invisible giant hand on the back of the void that was hitting the space hard, trying to break a cage that imprisoned itself and regain freedom.

In the fleeting moment when thoughts and ideas were just born but had no time to be fully expressed, the invisible existence finally broke the cage completely. The space was so fragile under His power that it was broken into countless fragments and flew everywhere. The countess could even feel the slight pain left when these fragments brushed across her cheeks, but she could not care about that at the moment. She watched helplessly as two spheres, one black and one white, rotating in opposite directions, broke free from the cage and quietly floated beside the girl.

The black sphere is like the deepest chaos and the most original nothingness. Every rotation squeezes the surrounding space that is on the verge of breaking, and emits a harsh and heavy groan like a rusty gear. Looking with the naked eye, you can see that inside the black hole, it is an incomprehensible state of fragmentation and chaos. Even the darkness itself is in conflict, fighting against unknown matter, pursuing the end of annihilation. This is the original state of the universe: an unstable structure. Everyone knows that it will collapse one day, but no one can say which day it will be. Unpredictable things exist in an unpredictable state.

The white sphere symbolizes the purest order and the most fundamental light. It is also rotating, but in the opposite direction of the black hole, emitting a firm and powerful low hum. Inside the white hole, there are things that all intelligent creatures are familiar with and have experienced: the confrontation between light and darkness, the struggle between cold and heat, the balance between up and down, the discussion of life and death... The defined rules have the most complex, precise and delicate texture in the universe, like a huge and tight network woven with silk threads, which contains everything and gives its existence meaning and purpose.

The spheres of bidirectional vortexes seemed to symbolize two eternally opposing natural phenomena in the universe. Within their coverage, the birth and end of all matter were strictly defined: light was swallowed, color was rejected, matter was annihilated... So, as soon as the arrows of moonlight falling from the sky broke into this field, they instantly wiped out their original colors and turned into a gray line, which was absorbed by the counterclockwise rotating black hole and annihilated into residue in the chaotic and disordered world. At the same time, a pure and majestic energy was released from the clockwise rotating white hole, sweeping across like an invisible gravitational tide, and completely swallowed up the Countess's figure in an instant.

The process of annihilation was completed silently, because the most fundamental power of the universe did not need to demonstrate its existence with any shocking momentum. Even before the controller of the power could react, the Countess's offensive had been contained, or in other words, wiped out.

In the devastated and desolate universe, only the girl's figure still stood, her hair as beautiful and dazzling as the aurora fluttering in the wind, the only precious color. She looked at the place where Countess Neviel disappeared, blinked, and a trace of regret and sadness seemed to flash across her rainbow eyes. Only she knew how powerful and terrifying the power she held was. She did not intend to release this power, but it would react to external threats by itself.

Black holes collapse, contract, and absorb, while white holes expand, swell, and release.

Black holes are the chaos before the birth of the universe, and white holes are the order after the birth of the universe.

The process of order being born from chaos and returning to chaos from order, from nothing to something and from something to nothing, is the end.

The Witch of the End, Timeis.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)