Sword of Dawnbreaker

”It was very enlightening,” Gawain nodded immediately, ”At least now we can confirm that launching unmanned probes into space won’t cause a ’system collapse’—only the individuals with wisdom in the current of thought can complete the transgression, in other words, only rational beings have the qualification to become ’Observers.’ This allows us to proceed with certain endeavors courageously, but...”

He frowned as he spoke here, his expression turning somewhat peculiar: ”Perhaps I’m being pedantic, but I’m now quite curious about one thing—even if there really is an ’Observer’ acting as the eyes of the gods, jumping out of the Closed System and making substantial contact with information from outside the system, is this contact truly undeniable? The divine ’nature’ of God could still argue that everything seen by the Observer is false, consider it a grand illusion and deceit, assume some force has altered all the sensory perceptions and cognition of the Observer, and fundamentally deny the occurrence of ’jumping out of the system’ ever happened...”

”Are you suggesting... ’sophistry’?” Enya seemed not at all surprised by Gawain’s convoluted question, as if she had thought about it similarly, ”Like burying one’s head in the sand and turning a blind eye to the facts, refusing to acknowledge the information injected from outside the system by deceiving oneself, in order to maintain the self-recognition and logical establishment of their own divinity?”

Gawain looked serious: ”Is this not possible?”

”For individuals among mortals, ’self-deception’ is a very effective means of escape, sometimes even allowing people to survive in desperate situations, but for gods...” Enya laughed lightly, seemingly with heavy self-mockery, ”Gods can’t deceive themselves. We are essentially a vast logical system, everything we have is built on the process of ’cognition-interpretation-feedback,’ which means that once a piece of information stimulus occurs, even if our self-will denies it, the feedback triggered by this stimulus... has already happened.”

Gawain gazed at Enya: ”An uncontrollable natural response?”

A certain voice came from the golden giant egg: ”An uncontrollable natural response.”

”Then I’m curious—do you, as you are now, remain subject to such uncontrollable natural responses?” Gawain asked suddenly in a very serious tone, ”Is there any stimulus that could make you lose control of your will, causing your instincts to deviate from your true nature?”

”If my human nature part had not truly achieved freedom, I wouldn’t be here discussing with you these topics sufficient to catalyze self-collapse,” Enya said calmly, ”I know what you’re worried about, but rest assured—you are facing the freedom gained by the Dragonkin of Talronde at the cost of millions of years of patience and the fate of the entire clan. If even such a desperate strike cannot break away from the dark destiny, then there is no need for this world to pursue any hope.”

Gawain pondered for a moment, then nodded gently: ”...You’re right.”

He then took a breath, bringing the topic back to the original point: ”I remember we originally started by discussing those signals that suddenly went dark in the starry sky. We mentioned that there are two ’filter factors’ that caused our universe, which should be exceptionally prosperous, to become barren, so that apart from the Voyager, there are no other civilizations breaking the planetary bonds between the stars. One factor is the out-of-control gods, and the other... is the chaotic wave.

”Now let’s talk about the chaotic wave.

”What exactly is the essence of the chaotic wave? How did it sweep through and reshape this world? The disaster that befell the Gondor Empire seven hundred years ago, how does it differ from the truly world-destroying ’Great Magic Tide’?”

”Are these questions something you can address now?”

The Hatching Room fell into a period of silence, as if Enya was carefully considering what she was going to say next. The slight hum of low-power operation from the ventilation device and Magic-Guide Device became noticeable in the quiet, like the breeze of a summer afternoon surrounding the area—until Enya finally broke the silence.