Chapter 570
“... and it is precisely under the assumption that Godhoods are the clusters and ‘knots’ of order and being in the universe, my fellows and I ventured into the depths of knowledge and insanity about the world without order - the corners of the world where nothing is conceivable and everything can be and can be not.
“And there we saw but one small chip of the tip of the iceberg of horribleness and terror. The absence of order meant that our tools, our magical and physical measures with which we observe the world, our cognition and even our minds stopped working the moment they encountered actual absolute chaos.
“The absence of order, as we could conclude, meant the absence of anything meaningful or conceivable, and as humans with sentience and conscience, without any morals or concepts of good, bad, functional or dysfunctional. It’s emptier than the void, yet it’s denser and darker than the greatest dark hole.
“Having realized these, it has become much more puzzling to me and my fellows how Defilers, being destructive and corrosive as they might be, could even exist. It has long been documented and remembered that Defilers and Desolators loathe order and crave chaos. Yet existence in itself is a product of order, one could even argue it is the core and foundation of order, more profound than Godhood, energy fields or waves.
“...
“After the long, arduous and painful process of experimenting, experiencing and putting our limits to the test, one common thing we found was that strong will, determination, and steadfast intent, no matter from what kind of it comes from, has enabled my fellows and I to navigate through the insanity and boundless delirium and come out still ourselves. There were many a time where we looked back, we still have no idea how we managed to pull ourselves out. We know not why and how our stubborn clinging to our last grain of sanity and our desperate pleas to survive had pushed some of the darkness and chaos away. But we were infinitely grateful and hopeful that it did, before it provided us with a theory that could prove useful for those that will come after us: that the Defilers are not the unstoppable force that we once thought they were. For they are, still deeply rooted in our collective minds and cognition, bringer of destruction and collapse of order. And the theory is actually quite simple: the fortitude of the sentient beings, the fortitude of the will of the self aware hardens the order of the world, making it even harder for the Defilers to travel through the worlds and act in them as long as they are not yet fully consumed by chaos. And since we know that Defilers follow the rifts and cracks of the fabric of the world and the order that exists in it, one course of action would be to mend the wounds done unto the world, through whatever means by whatever entities.
“It is my humble and possibly naively hopeful observation and conclusion, that only through strong wills can people and civilizations survive the presence and onslaught of these creatures. May this be of help to you.”
The clouds and flames cleared around Jason, Caroline and Laura Jensen, same as the shadow of the narrator walking through the desolated sceneries projected from a stone tome.
“Okay. No weight.” Jason took a deep breath and looked around at Laura Jensen and Caroline: “What about you?”
“No.” “Not that I could tell.” Both responded with negative answers.
“Which is… kinda worrying to me.” Laura Jensen hesitantly said: “If I remember correctly, the weight of knowledge is enforced by the fabric of the world and reality - so …”
“But if the fabric of reality is really torn apart, I think we should be able to feel it.” Jason frowned and said: “At the very least, there should be some signs.”
“I don’t think it’s that serious either, it should be something else. Isn’t there some kind of protective array or trick about the energy field that could lessen the weight of knowledge? With the structures and enchantments placed in this inn by Boss, wouldn’t that be a possibility?” Caroline looked at Laura Jensen.
“In theory, yes. But no array could remove the weight entirely, as the weight ultimately rests on the gainer of knowledge, so you should still be able to feel a small portion of it.” Laura Jensen shook her head.
“Then it’s probably something else - I might even suspect it’s some kind of defence mechanism from the world, because IF the Defilers are coming, then there would be immensely beneficial to any beings in the world to be able to gain as much knowledge as possible in order to defend the order.” Jason nodded: “Just like how all knowledge about the universe and reality itself is weighted, but everything about the nature of Defilers does not have any weight.”
“So what now?” Caroline stretched and asked.
“Godhoods are the knots and clusters of order.” Jason pondered on this phrase used by the narrator of the record they just watched: “‘Knots and clusters…’ I wonder if dealing with bad deeds done by evil gods will help us - ”
“You know, I’m just gonna ask about it.” Laura Jensen shrugged and said: “Other than your boss, who else you have interacted with has Godhood? Does Rash have it?”
“Nah I don’t think so, my brother asked him once before, and he said no.” Caroline shook her head: “But Jason - I think you - ”
“Yeah I know. ” Jason nodded and looked Caroline and Laura Jensen in the eyes: “I think the best place to start will be to go to that SJPD precinct again. I want to look into that notebook and that statue. We’ll have to contact Aimee and Thomas. Laura, do you want to come with us?”
“Huh? Oh! Sure sure! Of course.” Laura Jensen seemed surprised by the question, but soon she answered with a smile: “There’s nothing for me to do here anyway. And I’m glad I could help.”
“Okay, I have some bones to pick with vampires and lycans as well. Let’s find the detectives.” Caroline smiled and nodded: “I think they’re in the inn as well.”