Chapter 1403 The Return of the Old Ones (11) (Patreon)

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"Carcosa... Aldebaran Star System, Lake Harry... The Dark Sun hangs high in the sky..."

A deep female voice echoed in the dark space. She looked up at the stars and felt a response from the mysterious lake.

She thought that perhaps this ancient being was truly unique, and that the call came from somewhere unknown, or perhaps it was resonating within her own heart, just as before.

The Ancient One in the robe settled her thoughts, following the sound of the dark space until it reached the depths of her own heart. Before the mist dissipated, she took a step into the deepest recesses of the spiritual world and found herself above a massive city.

Is this Carcosa?

The Ancient One stood at the edge of the floating island and looked down at the ghostly image of the immense city, both grand and filled with a sense of abyss-like terror. The countless spires jutting out were reminiscent of the ruins she had seen on a planet in the Aldebaran Star System.

Amidst the swirling mist, strange patterns were revealed, possessing a gothic beauty yet not entirely the same. The Ancient One did not sense darkness, sadness, or contradiction from them, nor the mystical core of gothic aesthetics, only a sense of serenity and peace.

As the mist grew thicker, the Ancient One turned, sensing something, and saw the Black Sun guarded by countless wisps of fog, hovering silently in the sky. The mysterious patterns and swirling particles had already revealed all the answers to the Ancient One.

The Ancient One clasped her hands and performed a gesture of reverence, saying, "I know you will not respond, but as the Sorcerer Supreme, I must still thank you for your warning to Earth. Thank you, ancient one, humanity has taken action, the Old Ones will not return."

The Black Sun would never respond, the Ancient One knew this well. Perhaps it was not truly a living being, but more like a machine in human understanding, following a certain logic. Yet the Ancient One firmly believed it had abundant emotions, could understand order, and possessed love.

In her long life, the Ancient One had seen many such gods. Not all demon gods were chaotic and insane; there were many rule-like entities that truly loved their creations, nurturing them like a father or mother and delighting in their progress.

Based on the Ancient One's experience over the years, the more they could understand and create order, the more ancient and powerful they were. Guarding the order they had created came at a cost, and if they could not easily defeat all invaders and ensure their own self-preservation, they would not have the energy to love their creations.

"We should talk to you." The Ancient One maintained her clasped hands, but raised her head and said, "Your call to me must not be a coincidence. Do you wish to make a deal with me?"

The Black Sun did not respond, still hovering silently in the sky, like the only darkness coalesced in the endless gray, making the other lighter areas appear even brighter. It sounded contradictory, but when observed, it was strikingly beautiful.

"What do you want?" the Ancient One asked again, patiently listing what she could offer: "Energy, souls, portals to the real world, pain and blood, willpower, good character..."

The Ancient One was very familiar with this process. When she laid out her bargaining chips on the table, she could judge the nature of the entity based on their choice.

Neutral gods tended to prefer things related to souls, not soul energy, but the true meaning of a soul's existence, the heartbeat of space life. They would hope the contractor would offer their soul after completing the contract, not to absorb it, but to have them by their side, allowing them to hear the pulse of space.

Benevolent gods often liked the tranquil power born from a long trial, so they would usually provide the contractor with a test, whether to find certain fragments or explore some knowledge. They enjoyed the calm force that the contractor produced in focus, which was their sedative.

Chaotic and evil gods, on the other hand, often demanded the offering of blood, pain, and screams. They would control their followers to destruction, or simply require a powerful life to open the portal for their invasion of the real world, so they could rampage.

As long as the gods proposed conditions, the Ancient One could see through them and decide how to handle them. Of course, she would not spare them just because they were sufficiently benevolent; it all depended on her own needs.

The Black Sun still did not respond, seemingly rejecting the Ancient One's request for a deal, but she did not lose patience. She stood here quietly, like a weathered statue, as if she could remain for thousands or even millions of years.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and the mist grew thicker. The Ancient One looked up, squinting her eyes slightly, and stared intently at the massive Black Sun, without light or sound, only a slight change in the direction of the sun's particles.

The Black Sun presented the Ancient One with a different pattern, and a new knowledge flowed into her mind. As she gradually understood these obscure and difficult concepts, a puzzled expression briefly crossed her face.

Emotion?

The Ancient One lowered her head, taking a light breath, then raised her head again, looking at the Black Sun with a calm and powerful gaze, and said, "You want emotion? What kind of emotion? Joy, pain, tranquility, confusion... do you want them all? You are too greedy."

The Ancient One seemed to have never heard of such a request, but she sighed and looked at the Black Sun, saying, "The passionate emotions of my youth have long since left me. After attaining inner peace, I rarely have emotional fluctuations."

"But you have come at the right time, or perhaps I have come at the right time. Just recently, I did feel a sense of regret for some of my habitual actions. Can this satisfy your request?"

The Black Sun did not respond, and the Sun particles continued to flow silently according to their previous patterns, but the Ancient One knew this was a posture of accepting everything, and she still had a question that needed to be explored.

"So, what can you give me?"

The answer appeared in the Ancient One's mind, still without sound or image, just a concept, like a sudden flash of insight, but she knew that was the response.

Knowledge and truth.

"What kind of knowledge? And what kind of truth?"

Then the Ancient One received the answer again, and she gently murmured the answer: "...everything?"

The Ancient One had a slightly troubled expression on her face, as the other party did not seem like the kind of arrogant demon gods whose brains were fried, but the Ancient One really didn't know how to give all the knowledge and truth.

The Ancient One decided to take a risk, just because this black Sun did not resemble any life form she had ever seen, but simply hung silently in the sky, majestic, terrifying, and magnificent, like another level of Nature.

"I will first tell my story, and then you will tell yours. I will open my heart completely and tell you about my joys, pains, and confusions. I don't ask for much, you should answer my questions and tell me what you are, what is in the depths of the Stars..."

After the Ancient One finished speaking, without any hesitation, her brows furrowed slightly as she fell into reminiscence and began to recount her story with Jennifer.

"After I arrived in that Space, I began to patrol, until I saw a little girl in the backyard of a house, completely different from the other monsters..."

"...Then Jennifer began to tremble constantly, and I realized I had made a terrible mistake, my empiricism was about to kill her..."

"It was an accident, but I would rather believe it was a human error, a mistake I made. I took the little girl away in the guise of a savior, but I failed to truly fulfill the role of a savior..."

"Every Sorcerer Supreme must be convinced of their own infallibility. Once they doubt and waver, they may drag the Earth into disaster..."

"Yes, you are correct, this extreme arrogance constantly tames our spirit and personality, but I do not feel pain, the sense of responsibility is the greatest meaning of existence that humans can find..."

"No, I don't think it has to do with whether I can make amends or not. I have also made many irreparable mistakes, but none have made me as dejected as this one..."

The Ancient One gazed at the changing patterns of the Black Sun, feeling the thoughts constantly welling up in her heart, and what amazed her was that this ancient God was telling her, through this way, that he understood her, that he was analyzing her emotions and explaining their origins.

He was providing another kind of knowledge, a kind that the Ancient One had rarely focused on, knowledge that acts on the abstract aspects of intelligent beings.

The Ancient One began to verbalize the knowledge provided by the Black Sun, in order to better understand it in an orderly manner.

"I have always been balancing my own humanity and divinity. When I was the Sorcerer Supreme, the divine nature prevailed, and the responsibility to all of humanity made me have to become a God, making one choice after another that was beneficial to the majority."

"Perhaps the change occurred when I had a qualified successor, and the responsibility on my shoulders was no longer so heavy, so my humanity gradually returned, and I began to no longer be entangled in gains and losses, no longer struggling to preserve one side or the other, and so I began to become Greedy, hoping that even the smallest salvation would not go wrong."

"In the past, my tolerance for sacrifice was always high. In addition to being willing to sacrifice myself, I was also unafraid to sacrifice a part of my tribe. I would not feel guilty or dejected about this, because the divine nature suppressed everything, and I did my best to preserve what I could, so I could be at peace with myself."

"But when the human nature takes the upper hand, I will hope that there will be no more sacrifices, no sacrifice of Jennifer, nor of all of humanity. And if I fail to do so, I will feel the sadness that I rarely felt when I sacrificed my own kind before... The pursuit of perfection comes from the compassion in human nature, and also from the Greed in human nature."

The Ancient One's words fell silent, and she was silent for a long time, then she clasped her hands again, her robe slightly floating, and she said: "I have always regarded the emotions of humans as a mystery, and sometimes I even feel that demon gods are easier to understand than humans."

"But I will say, yes, Your Highness, this is indeed a wonderful knowledge, a way to observe the world from another perspective. If this is your reward for me, I can accept it, and I don't need any additional knowledge, I think it's enough."

But soon, the Ancient One felt another kind of knowledge flowing into her heart like page after page of a book, and the Ancient One focused her attention and found that they recorded the secrets of the Stars.

"Azathoth, the Nameless Fog, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu..."

The Ancient One recited the names on each page, and she was shocked by the vastness and terribleness of this hidden God System in the depths of the Stars.

She looked down at the gradually forming notebook cover, which had a black Sun on it and Arabic writing in cursive script - "The Book of Necromancy".

And she finally saw a very clear message, or rather a warning, on that huge Black Sun - "Do not circulate."

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