Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 267 - 249 Fake Water Moon 2

Chapter 267: 249 Fake Water Moon 2

As I chanted the spell that sounded like scripture, my gaze never left Mazao’s eyes. The glossy black of her pupils reflected the surface of the Fake Water Moon, and the Fake Water Moon’s surface, in turn, reflected her eyes. The two became a pair of mirrors reflecting each other, within which an infinite maze of corridors formed.

The power of the Fake Water Moon took effect. My spirit was drawn into this illusory realm of Mirror Flowers and Water Moon. I was swept away by an irresistible current, helplessly plunging into its depths. With my own strength, I would certainly not be at the mercy of the mere Fake Water Moon, but that was the theory from the perspective of the Caster. Now that I am the Caster, it is my own power that has ensnared me, and so I could only watch as the transformation unfolded.

When I came to my senses, I was no longer in the room at the Fufeng Base.

I stood in an empty courtyard under a dusky sky, surrounded by flower beds and lawns. However, the plants in the flowerbeds were all withered, and the lawns were overgrown with weeds. Buildings of varying heights spread out in all directions, their shapes indistinct in the night, resembling massive blurred monoliths as well as groups of tombstones crafted purely from shadows.

"This is..." Mazao’s voice came from beside me.

She appeared next to me at some unknown time, looking around with a pensive expression.

Just now, I had clearly used the Fake Water Moon to invade her soul, and now I had to confront this eerily bleak landscape. Vaguely, an answer began to form in my mind. This place could be Mazao’s inner world, or an illusionary space fabricated from her spirit and memories.

If this was shaped by Mazao’s memories, that would be rather intriguing. I am certain that Mazao has never been to such a place in the real world. The materials constructing this place might just stem from her memories of living during the Doomsday Era.

I looked up at the night sky. It lacked the moon’s presence or the twinkling of stars, only a monotonous expanse of blackness. Even on the darkest nights, the sky should be clear, but the sky here felt oppressively gloomy. Was it enshrouded in clouds? No, there seemed to be no clouds above. Yet, the night sky was like an endlessly heavy slab of iron, merely looking at it suffocated me.

"There are no stars in the sky," I said.

"The sky of Doomsday has no stars. Nor are there moon or sun."

Mazao spoke with a complex tone, not without an element of nostalgia, but it was definitely not a positive reminiscence. She continued, "They say that when Doomsday first arrived, the nights grew longer each day, and the stars faded one by one. Until at some point, the sun no longer rose from the east, and all the stars had disappeared.

"However, some people could still normally see the moon. Usually, it’s the Blessed Monks and those about to become Sin Demons, with the latter forming the majority. Hence, on the lands of Doomsday, the moon was considered a harbinger of disaster."

"Is this your memory?" I asked.

She nodded: "This is my dream, a place formed by my memories."

The so-called soul is the spirit, the heart, the consciousness. To invade someone’s soul is to invade their innermost being. The phenomenon of entering this dream likely signifies such an invasion was successful.

"So, what specific place from the Doomsday Era is this?"

As I spoke, I began to move forward, intending to delve deeper into this Dream of Doomsday.

"Let me think..."

She followed, observing our surroundings and straining to remember.

Should it really require such an effort to recall this? If it’s a location that appears directly in the dream, then it should be something that can be recalled instantly. While I thought this, another matter came to mind. The land of the Doomsday Era was rife with Frenzy that affected the mind, causing many survivors to gradually forget their past and selves, ultimately succumbing to the madness of Sin Demons. Even Mazao’s memories have been blurred thusly; it seems that not even the Power of Return could make her an exception.

I looked up at the sky again, at its oppressively dark expanse. The vanished stars, the sun that will rise no more...this was far beyond normal comprehension. Although daytime could conceivably be explained away as the earth stopping its rotation—a belief hard to credit but still akin to a Doomsday catastrophe—the incremental disappearance of the stars and moon being visible to some but not others were phenomena beyond reason.

A prophecy from the Doomsday in Luo Mountain surfaced in my mind. It was said that when the Doomsday fully descends, all humans, all creatures, and all supernatural beings would dissipate, and all matter would turn to nothing. "In this world" - does "world" not solely refer to this planet but to the entire universe?

If all matter dissipated, then it would make sense for the stars to vanish. But could that really be the case? Is the Doomsday that Mazao and I aim to challenge actually a universal catastrophe?

Even with the divine seal that could grant any wish, I doubted it had the capacity to affect the cosmos at large. There’s a saying, "to discuss toxicity without dosage is nonsensical." In my understanding, the power of the divine seal is also a power of the strange, just as Yinyue, with her ability to "turn illusions into reality," cannot unconditionally defeat me. No matter how much the divine seal can twist worldly laws, there must be limits.

So, was Doomsday not caused by the divine seal? Or is the notion of Doomsday bringing about the ultimate end of the universe simply a misunderstanding?

Or is it that my thinking, the common view, is itself naive, and the true power of the strange can easily dismiss such logic?

How should we explain the moon that sometimes appears and sometimes disappears?

Perhaps the proper quality needed to explore the abnormal world is to accept the inexplicable as it is; seeking explanations for everything is endless. At the end of this path lies either an incomprehensible explanation or the absence of any explanation from the start. Because the universe has no obligation to explain itself to humanity.

And yet, if we continue to ponder despite this, perhaps it is an aspect of human nature that we can’t let go of.

"Mazao, you just said that only Blessed Monks and those on the brink of becoming Sin Demons can see the moon..." I asked, "You’re a Blessed Monk, you must have seen the Doomsday moon. But why is there no moon in this dream formed by your memories?"

"The fact that Blessed Monks can see the moon is just a rumor I heard, and actually, I never saw the moon at all until I was transported to a time of peace."

Saying this, she seemed to finally remember the scene before her and said, "I remember now... this is the Evangelical Institute."

"Evangelical Institute?"

I don’t know if it’s my stereotype, but the name sounds like that of an orphanage, a nursing home, or some other charitable organization.

"The Evangelical Institute is a power with the most Blessed Monks during the Doomsday Era," she said, "Generally speaking, people of the Doomsday Era are afraid of their companions suddenly turning into Sin Demons. The larger the settlement, the more likely such incidents are to occur, and once they happen, they can easily lead to complete disaster. Therefore, everyone survives either in small groups or little settlements. But the Evangelical Institute is the only large human organization that I know of."

"In the past, when I was still very weak, I received training at the Evangelical Institute to learn how to control my own powers. But later, something happened, and I chose to leave the Evangelical Institute."

"Was it because of your Broom Star Physique?" I asked.

"It doesn’t seem so. It was something else. But... I can’t remember it very clearly," she said.

"Can’t remember it at all?" I questioned.

"At least I can’t remember it from that side. It’s the same for everyone. All memories are like sand held in the palm of your hand, easily lost. Whether it is possible to recover after coming to this side... I don’t know," she explained.

And just as she implied, the memory material of this space is also insufficient. I’ve already found that I can’t leave this courtyard. No matter how far I move, I cannot draw closer to the boundaries of the courtyard, and the distant buildings are like low-resolution textures simply pasted in the background. It seems that this courtyard is indeed the entire area of the dream.

At the same time, I had an odd realization. According to Mazao, on that side, human civilization was obliterated due to the eruption of countless supernatural phenomena and demons. But perhaps if civilization hadn’t been destroyed so violently, it probably would have rapidly decayed and died anyway. After Doomsday arrived, the human spirit seems to have lost the capacity for any kind of accumulation.

Although this space was merely a dream of her memories from a certain segment of the past, in her narrative, the people of the Doomsday Era themselves are numbly wandering over ruins without a sunrise, as if in a dream. It is difficult to feel the passion and desire to struggle for survival against Doomsday disasters. Instead, there is more of a cold indifference, as if they were the walking dead.

Doomsday had dawned not only upon the material world but also upon the Spirit World of humanity.

The past Mazao was living in such a world.

I was curious about how exactly Mazao and Little Bowl survived, and taking this chance, I asked her. She candidly shared with me, and the reality was not far from what I had imagined. They would usually search for food that hadn’t spoiled amidst the ruins while cautiously avoiding the power of the strange creatures they might encounter, and they would also stay away from some dangerous humans.

"Do you still need to gather food? Can’t you rely on your Power of Return to solve that?" I asked.

"Both Little Bowl and I need to develop our bodies; we can’t grow if we always rely on the blessing power. Moreover, once we can grow into adults, the soul can also become stronger in the mature vessel."

Saying this, she seemed to recall something, turned to me, and asked tentatively, "...Would you prefer if I didn’t grow up?"

To say "yes" here really risks being misunderstood as having improper inclinations, so I decisively replied, "I think it’s better for you to grow up."

"Is that so..." she sounded half-convinced.

I thought it necessary to redirect the conversation from this perilous course, and looking at the scenery before me, an idea suddenly appeared in my mind.

This idea might help us find the Impermanence behind the Divine Spear.