Overturned Tower

Even Russell could not say whether the church's philosophy was good or bad;

Even now, he cannot say the words "This is absolutely wrong and sinful" in a sonorous and righteous way.

Because they really have no selfish motives or desires.

All struggles just for "survival" are without distinction between good and evil - it is another choice above the moral concept of good and evil, a choice about life and death.

It is true that someone can sacrifice everything, including their life, for something greater than themselves. However, there are also people who just want to live and will pay any price just to survive... But this does not mean that the latter is wrong, let alone asking others to sacrifice themselves for "great things".

The church is under no obligation to believe Russell. Even if the path they pursue is a last resort, it is still a path that can be followed. A narrow road is better than a dead end.

——The so-called "great integration".

As long as the hidden danger of the monkey-faced eagle is eliminated, it is indeed a way: since the basic point that can be contaminated by illusions is "perceptual", and the damage caused by the pollution occurs in the "group", then as long as we abandon the perceptual and the group, it will not be enough. alright?

Become a mechanical mind that is completely immune to "dreams", a hive mind with only one voice, gather the wisdom of all humans, and combine it with spiritual energy that can reverse reality. This is also a way out for civilization... given time, it may be able to become a great civilization on the level of the "Fallen Empire".

The only question is - how does the church ensure that the monkey-faced eagle is excluded?

The monkey-faced eagle is a thought, and thoughts are immortal. Having completely transformed into an information form, he can completely enter someone's mind through his dormant posture, decode himself in some way after the great fusion, and "decompress" the hive mind. By that time, they became completely unable to resist the monkey-faced eagle.

Just like confronting Russell at close range in real life, humans have no chance of winning if they want to confront a monkey-faced eagle in the cyber world. The Three Sages were able to fight against the Monkey-Faced Eagle, although they had stronger computing power... However, the fundamental difference is that the Monkey-Faced Eagle, who possesses the spiritual power of "Anima Animus", does not Has special attacks against races other than "humans".

As an egg of dusk, his range of infection is far less outrageous than that of Fantasy. He can only pollute, influence, and devour those races with group subconscious...

From another perspective, the monkey-faced eagle is also the "god of the community" believed in by the church.

Although he is not the first, he will be the final - not an absolutely egalitarian god of good, but an absolutely authoritarian god of evil.

The only difference between the monkey-faced eagle and the "god" is that he has not yet devoured "everyone." When he integrates everyone into one, he will even be stronger than the "god" of the first psychic network - because the original god did not have pure self-awareness, he was the confused group consciousness itself. He has no interests, no past, and no position. He is closer to a "natural phenomenon."

But the monkey-faced eagle has a clear personality, purpose, and self-awareness.

The church packages and stores everyone's consciousness, which means completely giving up the possibility of fighting against the Twilight Egg...

Russell does not want to destroy the world, so he will not participate; but the monkey-faced eagle has no such moral constraints.

The two are at the same level. As long as the monkey-faced eagle realizes this and uses some means to bypass the firewall... the moment he enters the "inside" and comes into contact with other human information, it means that he has won. After his existence expanded infinitely, the first person he eroded and devoured was Russell.

Anima means "soul" and animus means "spirit".

At the same time, the anima represents the archetypal image of the feminine being within a man, and the animus represents the masculine component within a woman. Just like the two fish eyes in Yin Yang Fish. These two names taken together are the "inner and archetypal" of all human beings...that is, the "group god".

The monkey-faced eagle's spiritual energy "Anima Animus" is exactly the "name of God".

He is the sleeping god who is locked up in everyone's hearts, unable to realize or detect, and hidden in the sea of ​​subconsciousness.

The god trapped in the container——

no doubt.

Through contact with Andrew and copying the personality of the Pope... through the other person's perspective, Russell has completely understood the nature of the monkey-faced eagle.

"God's Vessel" and "Anima Animus" are a pair of spiritual powers that are mutually exclusive.

Russell is an outsider, someone who does not exist in this world.

He is a genius disguised as a mortal, and has been an alien creature since birth. Can be friends with anyone and become anyone. He is a magical mirror that can reflect all external existence and the dreams and realities in people's hearts. He represents the "outside," the transcendent shell of God.

The monkey-faced eagle is a local aborigine. Although he is an excellent researcher, his essence is just a mortal. He represents the core of mediocrity.

Throughout his entire life as a human being, he has been abandoned, used, and destroyed by people. Because he didn’t understand anyone’s heart, he had no successors, no dreams, no hopes, no friends or colleagues. In the end, he even lost his own descendants and name, and he completely died at the social level.

He was at a point of coincidence - after he took the Source of Holy Orders from Russell, as he lost his son, he finally completely and completely lost everything about himself. Take the initiative to say goodbye to the entire world you own.

He was the only person in the whole world who was completely opposite to Russell at that point in time...when Russell touched the essence of dusk.

Because of this, he formed the Egg of Dusk in his mortal body and became the god in the aluminum film behind the mirror and the container.

The reason why a mirror is a mirror rather than a window, and why a container is a container rather than a block, is precisely because of the thing that rejects light.

If Russell represents the dusk of the "tombstone", the monkey-faced eagle represents the "grave". Without the tombstone, the tombstone is just a stone slab, with only meaning and no substance; without the tombstone, the tombstone is just a piece of earth, empty of content but meaningless.

That's why they become Twin Twilight.

If Russell gets the monkey-faced eagle's ability, he doesn't need to devour anyone to become a god - he can grow slowly by relying only on Russell's "imitation" to provide fuel and burning through the monkey-faced eagle's engine... ...Gradually gain the power of "god" and become a god without paying any price;

And if the monkey-faced eagle obtains Russell's body, he can immediately reach the real world from nothingness with his immortal body and omniscient and omnipotent mind.

As twins, if they don't eat each other, their fight will never end.

The chaotic evil "monkey-faced eagle" is more suitable to be Dusk than Russell, who prefers lawful good. Because morality restrains Russell, preventing him from devouring other people and other civilizations. This means that it is at best an embryo, unable to grow due to malnutrition.

If there is a general consciousness similar to the abyss consciousness in the birth of all dusk species, then he must be more inclined to let the monkey-faced eagle devour Russell, swallow the entire civilization, hatch healthily, and then wander around the multiverse like his predecessors , to devour other civilizations.

Therefore, Russell is just a shell and nourishment - like the contents of a tomb, which is always more important than a tombstone. It's just because the monkey-faced eagle is so mediocre compared to Russell that it must go through this ritual of hunting and devouring Russell to catch up with it.

Compared with the distant "dream", the monkey-faced eagle that is very close at hand is a disaster worth guarding against;

Compared with the dragons who do not interact with ordinary people at all and are completely isolated from the lower class society, compared with those elves who are cowardly because they have too much and are proud because they live too long... they will eventually become absolute dictatorial "tyrants". The monkey-faced eagle, the "finalist" who controls all values, should be hated by people even more.

No matter how bad the order is, it is still order, and it is better than complete extinction and chaos.

Russell believes that Your Excellency "Jian Sheng" will definitely understand this possibility.

So he stretched out his hand and held it to the century-old pope in front of him, the "similar" of the monkey-faced eagle, and the forerunner who uploaded his consciousness to cyberspace——

"terribly sorry."

Looking at the other party's expectant and gratified eyes, Russell held the old man's hand and replied calmly: "I refuse."

"...Is it because of the conflict with Sheath?"

The old man frowned: "If it's because of that..."

"It has nothing to do with that. Compared with the life and death of the world, my personal grudges are nothing."

Value love more than hate. If he had to cooperate with the other party, he wouldn't get angry and leave just because of the sheath - not to mention, he didn't have that much hatred in the first place. It's more disappointment than hatred. It's not hatred, but disgust.

"I shake hands with you, naturally hoping that we can reach cooperation."

Russell said word for word: "What I hate most are those 'prophets' and 'sages' who know a lot but keep telling riddles. Since you want to communicate, you must speak clearly; if you want to communicate Misunderstandings and ambiguities must be eliminated. Any cognitive bias may cause unnecessary contradictions...

"You do know a lot of things. You know the Twilight Seeds, you know the First Psionic Network, you know the plans of the elves, you know the spiritual relatives. I also know that you are all enemies within the church, and you are all opponents wherever you look. Do you want to To use the 'Werewolf' plan to shake the rule of the Seven Giants and cause chaos... I know you must feel pain in your heart, but this is just a necessary evil. If people are not allowed to question the Seven Giants, the church will not be able to implement the great integration plan .

"Yes, you must think so. Because I [know] what you think."

There was a bit of magic in Russell's voice.

The surrounding "dreams" were modified by Russell's will - the Pope was forcibly dragged into a strange world by Russell.

It was a huge "art gallery".

On both sides are towering golden walls that stretch to the sky, with countless moving and talking portraits hanging on them, like the portraits in Harry Potter.

"Zhang Sheng" looked at everything around him in shock - he understood what was here in an instant.

That was not his personal enlightenment, but Russell instilled some knowledge into him from his subconscious.

"...But I think you must not know the secret knowledge about the 'Twilight Egg', about the 'Dragon', about the 'Grey Dome'... about 'another possibility of saving the world'."

The corners of Russell's mouth raised slightly, and he clenched his hands a little harder.

Looking at the old man, he slowly replied: "I can tell you these things and these secrets. I can also save the world, fight against the dusk, and protect everyone. It is not necessary to revive the world again and bring it back to life. Totally impossible.

"We unite, we unite. But it's not that I want to join you...

"——But you, want to join us."

This is the update on the 18th. Today there is only one update of 3,400 words, and it is not two in one...

Because of perfect attendance this month, you will definitely die! There is no need to schedule and continue to live!

Because the cat is really yang (sad)

Now on the first day, it’s 37.4°, my throat is dry and sore, the tip of my tongue hurts, my whole body hurts, but I feel cold and dizzy, and this temperature is not suitable for taking antipyretics. This is the most uncomfortable thing for me...

I wrote a chapter because I couldn’t sleep, and this is the first day! Let’s see if we can update normally when we get up tomorrow. If so, we’ll update. If not, we’ll have to ask for leave...