In Babel inside the Atomic Universe…
By the time Lucien returned, Natasha was still in a daze before the minor screen. She looked ahead while turning the Sword of Truth in her hand.
“What’s up?” Lucien asked, finding it strange. Considering her arcana expertise, she shouldn’t have been shocked for such a long time, should she?
Hearing Lucien’s voice, Natasha seemed to be woken up from a dream. Her silver eyes glittering, she said, “Although the delayed choice experiment cannot conclusively prove that the law of causality can be destroyed, I am thinking whether or not the Sword of Truth is crafted based on such a mechanism. Are all the methods of resurrection nullified because the law of causality has been sabotaged?”
Lucien looked at her solemnly up and down. Despite her usual confidence and firmness, she was somewhat stunned. Could she be right?
The atmosphere was frozen for several minutes just like that. Right when Natasha couldn’t stand it any longer and was about to speak again, Lucien suddenly smiled in great delight. “You are thinking too much.”
“Really? I don’t do that very often,” Natasha said in a matter-of-fact, showing no frustration at all.
Lucien’s smile was gone. He nodded and said, “It’s a major progress to consider the arcana mechanism behind the blood power of the Sword of Truth. Only figuring out what it is exactly will you know how to walk on. Although I am still not certain, I have a vague speculation about your blood power. By the time I return from the primeval hell, perhaps I’ll be able to tell you what it is.”
“Really?” Natasha was both surprised and delighted at Lucien’s words. The knight path up ahead was an important focus of her life. The seclusion every month had made her realize that understanding her blood power was an indispensable prerequisite for her to find out her own path of a knight. Otherwise, she could only become a level-three legendary knight after several hundred years like “Heart of Time”, and she wouldn’t be able to make any further progression.
For a knight who was better at fighting and persistence, exploring and studying her blood power was not her advantage. Chances were that she would have to spend a fairly long time on that. Thankfully, she had a grand arcanist by her side, one who was famous for his studies!
After she blurted out, Natasha noticed another point. “You’re going to the primeval hell?”
She did not pursue the previous topic any further because she was certain that Lucien would not lie to her about such an important question. If he said that he had a theory, he definitely had a theory, and everything would be clear after he returned from the primeval hell.
“I have benefited a lot from the two experiments. After I construct another few spells, it will be time for you to pay a visit to the primeval hell to confirm one of my ideas. By then, everything will have an answer,” Lucien said ambiguously. “Although the Lord of Hell has steadily arrived at the main material world, his real body must still be in the depths of hell. So, I have to go alone this time. Also, the situation is rather dangerous today. It’s better to deal with the emergencies if you stay in Rentato.”
Biting her lips, Natasha nodded slowly. “Alright.”
She knew very well that, although she had the Shield of Truth and the Sword of Truth, which gave her an actual combat ability of level three of legendary, she would still be crushed when faced with a demigod. Also, she did not have as many peculiar life-saving spells as sorcerers did, and she would only be a liability if she were to follow Lucien to hell. As a top legend, he could fight or flee freely. There would be ways for him to escape even if he were faced with a demigod.
“I’m going to develop a new legendary spell which will help us communicate across dimensions. Should there be any emergency, we would be able to reach out to each other.” Lucien tried to be prepared, but he was not really too worried. With Mr. President in Allyn, unless Viken performed God’s Arrival without caring about his own life, or all the other demigods joined their hands, there wouldn’t be anything that was worth a cross-dimension call. As a matter of fact, he was probably the one who would encounter strange things after he went to the primeval hell.
“Communicate across dimensions?” Natasha repeated those words. She had never heard of any way to communicate across dimensions except through the Portal to Alternate Realms. So, she was rather confused and curious.
Lucien nodded and smiled. “This legendary method of communication indeed supports communication across different alternate dimensions. However, it can only be used once and deliver limited information. Also, the code of the communication has to be settled in advance. Basically, when you settle a state on your side, a corresponding state will collapse on my side. Information can be delivered by combining such states, like the binary system.”
“It feels like another application of the weird features of microscopic particles…” Having been taught for a long time, Natasha made the conclusion very confidently. Then, she adjusted her mood and chuckled. “You said that you benefited a lot from the two experiments today. What have you earned exactly? The confirmation of the observer effect, or the disruption of the law of causality?”
Lucien could sense her curiosity that she had been hiding. He replied with a smile, “For me, the most important lesson is that electrons can be used to complete the two experiments under such designs and circumstances. Mr. President and I planned to use photons.”
“Is there any difference?” Natasha was confused. She understood the experiment perfectly, but the sophisticated questions where theories were involved were too much for amateurs like her to comprehend.
“You want to know the difference? It involves quantum field theory, wave mechanics, the matrix mechanics…” Lucien intentionally proposed a bunch of theories.
“Stop, stop, stop.” Her head swelling, Natasha hurried to stop him and change the topic. “In the first experiment, the trajectory mark of electrons was erased by the design, thereby preventing the experimenter from obtaining the information. Therefore, the interferometric fringes still existed, and the observer effect was still sensible. However, it cannot prove the conclusion perfectly. If the trajectory mark is not erased, but the experimenter’s eyes, ears, and all other senses are all blocked, will the interferometric fringes still exist? Will there be any ‘observer’ under such circumstances?”
Lucien looked at Natasha in surprise. Perhaps it was exactly because she did not know very much that she could ask such creative questions.
Thinking for a moment, he chuckled in a low voice. “Who knows? Nobody can know the result, because when anybody observes it, there will be an ‘observer’, but if nobody observes it, does the result really matter? It cannot be confirmed anyway.”
“Then, let’s assume that a mysterious existence that doesn’t cause the observer effect is watching it…” Natasha made use of her imagination. “Why don’t you take a guess from the theoretical point of view?”
“My guess?” Lucien smiled and said, “My guess is that there may be interferometric fringes, and there may be not. Hahahaha.”
Natasha raised her head and looked at the ceiling, making up her mind never to discuss arcana questions with him again.
…
In June of 830, everything was being burned by the fiery weather.
In the Salvation Cathedral of Anhadur, a famous city in the Syracuse Kingdom…
An archbishop was pacing back and forth outside the praying room, waiting for the red robes.
“Why is the praying still not finished? Another cult has been discovered in a manor nearby…” The archbishop paced and sighed while scratching his head. In the past few years, cults had been emerging incessantly. After one was destroyed, another would pop up immediately. Although he was in his prime years, his hair had all turned white as he dealt with them. “Also, the cult this time seems able to summon senior-rank evil creatures. I don’t think the people in the inquisition can take care of it.”
Thinking about the ongoing battle over there, the archbishop grew more and more anxious. He decided to summon his courage and knock on the door.
Dum, dum, dum.
The archbishop knocked on the door, but the moment he exerted his strength, the door squeaked and backed off, leaving a gap.
“It’s not closed?” The archbishop had a bad feeling. He hurried to open the door and looked in.
Then, his eyes were frozen.
Before the cross in the praying room, a broken red robe lay on the ground with strange burn marks on his body.
“Has… Has he been swallowed by the holy light?” the archbishop said at a loss.
It was not because he was particularly keen. It was because ever since Evans’ two thought experiments were spread out, dozens of red robes had been swallowed by the holy light while they were praying. As a result, everybody was terrified whenever Lucien Evans was mentioned.
…
The sky was dim and gray, and nothing could be heard at all. The World of Souls was as monotonous as ever.
His hands in the pockets of his black double-breasted suit, Lucien wandered among the undead creatures. There were raging ghouls, slow and hideous zombies, floating ghosts, mummies that were covered in bandages, but none of them detected him, because he seemed to have dispersed in space.
Just like that, Lucien passed through the plain of death quietly and reached the Temple of Spirits. The legendary specters who guarded the place failed to detect him too, and they simply allowed him to visit and press further like a tourist.
On his way, Lucien did not meet any intelligent specter. It seemed that they had smelled danger and were too scared to approach.
Lucien observed the new changes in the Temple of Spirits as he walked, only to discover nothing. It was not until he reached the Furnace of Souls and was about to enter the Realm of Gates that he sensed the legendary specters like the Lich King. However, they did not feel the necessity to attack. After all, Lucien had come twice. There wouldn’t be any losses if he came a few more times. Did they really need to fight at the risk of their lives?
They had been too heavily beaten up!
Lucien came to this place for the second time when he contacted Monster Viken for cooperation.
Looking up at the Furnace of Souls and watching Lucien and Xiafeng’s overlapping faces, Lucien chuckled and walked to the entrance of the Realm of Gates.
“Why are you here again?” Monster Viken’s coarse voice echoed. What he did last time made his situation much worse.
Lucien chuckled. “I’m here to tell you that I am going to pay a visit to the primeval hell.”
“You’ve come for nothing better than that?” Monster Viken raised his voice, feeling that Lucien was the crazy one here.
Lucien took out his Moon Timer and opened the cover to check the time. “Can’t I? Well, now that you’ve known it, I’d better be on my way.”
Monster Viken was already rendered speechless.
Lucien turned around and left. He thought to himself that no changes happened after all.
After he was far away from the Temple of Spirits, from the garden near the entrance, an old man slowly walked out. Wearing a sacred crown and holding a planetarium staff, he stared at the place where Lucien disappeared. It was Pope Viken
