Super Righteous Player
Chapter 889 - 426

Chapter 889: 426

"And Your Majesty must be especially careful, for these three Sirens... must never be released simultaneously."

Chiron warned, "The power of any single Siren by itself has its limits... which is bounded by ’the furthest reach of its voice.’ Their strength wanes from the center to the fringes, so if the White Lady loses control, she will merely submerge the capital in water.

"But if the three Sirens exist at the same time and sing together, they will activate the apocalypse protocol. Their voices will then spread across the entire world."

It would be the ultimate world-ending mechanism, reverting the heavens and earth to their primordial state, utterly destroying the world.

By then, the majority of the gods would perish with it.

The world would no longer harbor life, nor would civilization exist, and even all crafted objects would dissolve into transient foam and phantoms. Hence, there would be no more wars, no more trade... no palaces or sculptures, murders, or conspiracies would remain.

It would be akin to a "factory reset."

From the "present" of any given individual human, tracing back to the very beginning of "biological civilization"... this is but a negligible moment, short beyond compare when it comes to this planet.

To reset it to the beginning would be no loss to the world.

But for humanity, for civilization, it would be an unequivocal catastrophe.

Thinking this, Annan couldn’t help feeling the "Siren of the Third" he held becoming significantly heavier.

He had already heard from Ivan that its true nature was actually a sealing device. Its capabilities were merely the power seeping from the seal.

Like the warmth on the exterior of a thermos—such an imperceptibly faint residue of heat. Even so... its Transcendent power was enough for it to be dubbed a Great Calamity Curio.

"...I even feel they are more dangerous than the Worm," Annan frowned deeply.

He wasn’t quite sure that, after the "Siren of the Third" releases one Siren, it would still be possible to reseal it.

With the concept of such wide-ranging destructive capability, almost instantaneous and without cost, even if the White Lady were considered a world boss, the players... would clearly be out of their league.

But upon hearing this, Chiron’s expression immediately grew stern, "Your Majesty must never think like that.

"The Worm is the great enemy of this world. Although the Non-Snake was birthed in this world, the destruction it causes is not limited to this world alone... It’s far more dangerous than the Sirens, or to put it another way... it is one of the Sirens’ missions, should the world become unable to defeat or imprison the Worm, to reset the entire world, including the Worm."

"...Is such a measure really necessary?"

Annan drew a sharp breath, "I’ve heard that the Worm devours other worlds, doesn’t it?"

"But that’s not because the Worm ’can only’ consume other worlds. It doesn’t devour this world, not because it has any particular fondness for it, but merely because the Pillar of Life of this world can suppress the Worm.

"The Elves once worshiped the Non-Snake, but contrary to modern historians’ belief—the Elves did not choose to follow it because of its irresistible mighty powers. It was because the Elves discovered a desperate truth..."

At this point, the centaur Chiron gazed deeply at Annan, "After the Charioteer’s death, this world no longer possesses the ’Infinite Light.’ The path to the realm of light slowly closes, and the whole world has become an enormous, sealed ’box.’

"In this ’box,’ any change will bring the world one step closer to its ultimate destruction."

Chiron spoke patiently to Annan, like a tutor imparting known wisdom, "Just as a mortal needs to push a heavy object, this strength doesn’t come from nowhere—it requires the energy obtained from digesting a piece of bread."

"And this bread requires wheat to be ground into flour, and needs to be fermented and then baked. The reason why wheat transforms from a single seed into a sheaf is because it draws energy from the earth and light.

"Just as hot water will always turn into cold water, but cold water can only become hot with the addition of another heat source. This process is inevitable, and eternal."

I understand, it’s entropy...

Annan nodded.

He didn’t question this theory concluded by the Elves and Centaurs any further, but instead asked, "What about the Transcendents? Transcendents do not draw energy from food... where does their energy come from?"

"Their energy comes from curses, and the power of curses comes from the entire world."

Without any hesitation, Chiron answered the question, "Just like seeds transform into wheat... the seeds do not know that they are able to grow and mature because of the sacrifice of the earth and light, and Transcendents similarly do not know that the Transcendent powers they use also come at a price—just that the price is not paid by themselves."

"Are you saying... the essence of curses and curse energy is the same?"

"To say they’re completely the same would be too far. The relationship between the curses in the body and curse energy is like that between olive oil and butter."

Chiron explained the question that had puzzled Annan for a long time, "There is no direct relationship between them—just as butter is not extracted from olives. And perhaps, Your Majesty, you do not know, although both olive oil and butter contain oil, they are not actually the same thing.

"But when you taste them, you would feel that they are both greasy and not very good for the body. In a broad sense, they are indeed similar.

"If we say that curse energy is blood, then the curses in the body are nothing but sweat—or perhaps it can also be said to be the moist vapor with warmth released from the surface of the body. But to obtain this warmth, there is still a prerequisite."

"The world is alive... right?"

Annan’s expression became serious.

Chiron nodded, "The so-called ’The Worm feeds on the world’ is actually closer to an abstract metaphor.

"If the world is a person, curse energy is blood, curses are sweat, then The Worm to this person... is their body that is constantly being reborn and aging, but generally speaking, aging outweighs rebirth.

"In this box, energy is always being wasted. Just as the energy from light given to wheat cannot be completely transformed into physical strength after it becomes bread that is digested by people.

"—So, Your Majesty. Where does this ’wasted’ energy go?"

Chiron looked at Annan and spoke slowly, "Correct... it is the energy consumed by The Worm.

"The Elves are not worshiping the Non-Snake, but the Elves understood the principle that ’this world will eventually perish’... and this is also the theoretical foundation for the Elves’ use of curse energy.

"It is because they have realized that this world cannot exist forever. That’s why they would use ’an ultimate energy source that accelerates the death of the world’... but even the Elves do not know, just like the earth and night possessed Wisdom in the past.

"When the scholars of the Elves grasped the concept of ’Non-Snake’... it truly came into being.

"Rather than say we exiled ’The Worm’, it would be better to say we exiled the deity of the phenomenon ’Non-Snake’—we named it The Worm. The phenomenon of ’Non-Snake’ itself is irreversible because all the energy in this world can be traced to an end."

"Then in this case," Annan blurted out, "the basis requirement of the sublimation ritual of the Four Wheels—where does it come from?"

Chiron did not answer the question, only looked at Annan with a meaningful gaze.

...Annan suddenly came to a realization.