Indeed, time is so vast that nothing can offset its attrition save for renewed thought and burgeoning hope.
Thus, the individual personalities that composed the fungal gestalt were eroded of their capacity for thought, one by one, from the weakest to the strongest. They gradually became simplified and mechanized, eventually merging completely into the gestalt to perfect its form. Until finally, even the distinction between different personalities vanished entirely.
"That doesn't explain everything," Lei Ting said.
Everyone knew that a gestalt consciousness would erase the concept of the 'internal individual'; it was equivalent to the collective murder of every personality within the civilization. So, why did they feel compelled to choose such a form for their survival? And what had turned their behavior from simple preservation into the current state of predatory consumption and infinite fission?
【...Because... they... wished... to save.】 the Silver Star Council said.
Lei Ting almost thought he had misheard, even though everyone knew that was impossible for him.
Subsequently, a brief but information-dense argument seemed to break out within the Silver Star Council. The projected human face fluctuated and shifted constantly between countless different countenances before finally stabilizing back into its original form.
Even though they had reached a temporary tacit agreement with Lei Ting to refrain from violence, they were still engaged in infinite internal strife.
Lei Ting blinked. He was certain these beings had to die; therefore, such a display was advantageous to him.
The Silver Star Council did not know his thoughts; no one could fathom what Lei Ting was thinking. They simply continued the story of 'Chemister' after their internal opinions reached a consensus.
...
Becoming a rolling cosmic fungus was indeed the result of a resolution passed by more than half of that civilization’s members. However, that civilization—which had found despair in war and rebirth through it—did not transform itself into such a thing merely to find a way out for itself.
—*‘If we succeed, let us merge with other races who cannot survive and who voluntarily choose to agree. Let us live on together.’*
In a civilization whose very name had long been lost to the ages, the last of the living entered their choices into the voting system. Those beings, who would be considered 'humanoid' by modern standards, had already seen their hopes for the future severed by years of continuous warfare and the environmental pollution weapons that had just struck them.
Born from fighting, annexing, merging with, and supporting other weak civilizations, they raised their battle standard against fate one last time.
—*Do the weak not have the right to exist?*
—*Just because oppression has existed for so long, does that make it right?*
The burning forest decided to launch its final resistance.
The trampled dust refused to bow to fate.
To protect the continuation of life, a plan was born.
It succeeded.
Thereafter, the new lifeform, broadcasting its message far and wide, took in countless civilizations and races of all sizes over a long period of time. Some were born into slavery and had finally waited for their masters' civilization to perish, only to be affected by the spreading fires of cosmic war and mutate, losing their ability to reproduce. Some had never bowed their heads but perished in resistance due to their weakness, leaving only a few elderly and infirm survivors.
In that era, the only beings in the universe were carbon-based lifeforms whose fundamental structures were composed of carbon chains. Fragile, suffering carbon-based beings—they did their best to survive, yet they repeated the failures of their predecessors time and again, meeting their ends in despair.
Was there a way to ensure their stories never ended?
And was there a way to ensure that even if they perished, they would be remembered?
—The nameless civilization extended a helping hand to all living beings who were as weak and powerless as themselves.
Annexation, fusion, and the joining of new members.
*'From this day forth, you and I shall never be enemies.'*
*'New compatriots, we shall weather these hardships together.'*
In the midst of despair, the rationality and sensibility of all beings reached a delicate yet resilient balance. Their path was proven correct—at least, correct for that stage.
White strains, a white world, a white hope, that seemingly pristine future... In the light spectrum, white is the light of eternal tolerance for all things, and the color of that fungus was precisely the hue closest to such light of truth and benevolence. It appeared pure white, but in reality, such a color could only be manifested by fairly and justly accommodating all colors. It appeared fragile, but only the strongest life was worthy of remaining soft while flourishing eternally.
War rewrote life and death; war rewrote the star charts; war rewrote the rules. And a civilization remembered by no one, even as it walked toward its own end, still chose to provide a sanctuary for the myriad forms of life to face despair and destruction in its own way.
【'Bayer Chemister'—a name bestowed by the giant civilization 'Kaligan',】 the Silver Star Council said. 【It... was... one... pole... of the... war.】
As for the name of that civilization itself, the name they once used to refer to themselves, the name they were proud of, the name that anchored their self-perception, the name they engraved with history, love, and hate... it had long been lost.
People who had once submitted to authority out of vanity and profit chose, in the face of death and despair, to struggle while giving their fellow beings a hand due to a single change of heart.
But precisely because they abandoned their past and forgot their own name and history, this selfless tolerance that shone with the brilliance of ideals... was destined to spoil from the very beginning, destined to become a disaster.
A gestalt-type civilization needs to acquire a large amount of information from the outside world to stimulate its internal environment and maintain the vitality of its personalities. But after the war passed, the starry sky fell silent, leaving only the echo of a message calling for fellow travelers.
Although the concept of 'boredom' did not exist, through the attrition of time, the personalities within the gestalt consciousness still stagnated within their comfort zones. Having mostly not participated in the decision-making from the start, they marched one by one toward the end of their autonomous consciousness.
'Chemister' wanted to solve this problem, but...
"...Obviously, it failed," Lei Ting said softly. "The preparations made under wartime conditions were insufficient? Moreover, the universe before that war must have been entirely different from now. The starry sky is silent—did the previous means of interstellar communication fail?"
Yes, of course. War changed the rules. Permanently.
At the end of the war, the two giant civilizations finally decided the victor. 'Kaligan' vanished. This civilization, accustomed to converting all matter into energy and compressing energy into crystals, tore apart most of the cosmic space at the time and turned it into a void following a world-shaking explosion of their central engine.
As their opponent, that civilization was inevitably affected. Not one in a hundred members remained from a population already thinned by war. They even had to activate gene banks, violating their own original regulations to mass-produce synthetic life of their own race in hopes of replenishing administrative human resources.
The universe was in extreme chaos, bordering on shattered. Such an environment even began to cause some stars to decay prematurely. 'Chemister' naturally could not find a target for dialogue and could only cruise infinitely through the long loneliness.
Ten thousand years, another ten thousand, and yet another... Navigation through the stars without hyperspace technology meant that every ten thousand years might only be a small step forward in the endless darkness. Such terrifying loneliness, an infinite and unending torture.
The once-noisy starry sky was now tragically silent. The horizon where stars once flickered was now a void.
Strange supernatural forces began to be born. Immense power began to converge within individuals. The art of science, which belonged purely to the logic of the universe, ceased to exist, and the rules of the new generation allowed the term 'superpower' to appear in experimental processes. The energy fluctuations left behind after the death of life no longer dissipated naturally; the massive lingering thoughts of the war split into two of their own accord.
One remained in the world and merged into the rules of the universe; the other sank down, descending into an irrational world that was hollow, starless, dark, and terrifying.
The explosion of the central engine, which Kaligan had originally prepared for a realm-wide ascension to a higher dimension, created that bizarre darkness.
Yes...
"...The 'Bottom of Spirits' is the grave of all that has passed and that piece of spacetime, an eternal void." Lei Ting murmured, looking down at his hand. "The rules of supernatural power might have always existed outside the universe, but from that moment on, they flowed into this universe... No, who is to say this cannot be a form of science? Regardless of where it came from, it filled the distorted rule-void of this universe..."
"...And because of that, we exist."
The Silver Star Council remained silent, not uttering a word.
The changes in phenomena were a mass of tangled threads. However, although some tangles might have no beginning and some no end... within them, there were no broken circuits. From the initial turbulence of the universe to the birth and struggle of civilizations, to the strong oppressing the weak and the latter launching a resistance, and finally to the threat the oppressed weak now posed to other things...
All of this had its own internal logic. Such were the laws of the universe's operation.
—All things exist, and thus, they leave a trail.
"Because it lost its self-perception and only remembers the most basic information, it devours carbon-based life and other adjacent matter everywhere..." Lei Ting murmured, "...No, that isn't true 'devouring.' It is adding new burdens to its already massive and cumbersome self."
【The Silent Kingdom】. A terrifying name, a great name.
A silent grave.
A silent... 'home.'
Looking at Chemister's current behavior, there was likely no longer a true 'will' or a single active personality left within it. Because such a personality might not necessarily be a peerless villain, but they would certainly be a peerless saint who would not allow things to develop this way.
In this era, all its actions followed that original pact...
【Extremely selfless selfishness】. Was it not?
Because of an extreme, blind selflessness, it manifested a terrifying, malicious selfishness—
【Annexation, fusion, and the joining of new members.】
The ultimate response of a certain ancient civilization to interstellar war had finally become the source of disaster for the new era.
Only with corresponding perception and tolerant wisdom can there be 'respect,' and tolerance is merely a byproduct of wisdom and perception. To communicate, then understand; to acknowledge that something's existence must be supported by internal logic even if one does not understand it; to know why things happen even if one is an enemy, and then to explore the reasons behind it... To possess such truly 'wise' thinking, knowledge, perception, and 'self' are necessities. These things are never separate; they interfere with one another.
But there are too many people in this world who possess neither knowledge nor self.
And now, having lost its self and perception, Chemister had naturally lost its wisdom and begun to force its will upon all living beings. Thus, it was impossible for the masses to understand it from the beginning, save for a very few.
Did they succeed? They did. Even if this success had an expiration date, it was a vast period measured in hundreds of thousands of years. They could be considered to have fulfilled the duty they originally set for themselves, weathering that war with those lives. It was just that the aftershocks of the war were still continuing, and they had finally become a part of those 'aftershocks.'
—Time is the manifestation of the transition of matter and thought. Chemister's material form was becoming more powerful by the moment, but its thought had already been worn away to nothing.
Well, since the expiration date had arrived, there was nothing anyone could do.
Even with Lei Ting's current psychological state, he felt a slight ripple floating in his heart. He fell silent for a moment, looking down at the 'Chemister' below. It was still in a state of simulating its external form and reducing the interaction forces with the outside world. Such an incredibly powerful application of knowledge related to optics and mechanics did not fall within the scope of 'biology and chemistry.'
They were perhaps the very civilizations that the nameless civilization had saved, preserved, and merged with back then, contributing their strength to this new collective.
At this moment, sunlight shone within the city of the mental world. Evenheller had just flicked a smear of black mud-like energy off his light blade, only to see it dissipate in a radiance that had suddenly become hot but did not seem harsh.
Amidst the white-gold stardust, he looked up somewhat bewildered, but did not see Lei Ting appear.
Meanwhile, Lei Ting clenched his fingers, looking at the fine stardust polarization on his gauntlet and the emblem of the Human Federation on the back of his hand, slowly closing his eyes. At this moment, he felt as if he were standing in an endless field of wheat within the starry sky, and as if he saw pairs of eyes that had once looked at him, and hands that had once reached out to him.
The keen perception of a 'Limit-Breaker' also made him hear, as if clearly, the ideals, purposes, and oaths from that distant age.
—*'From this day forth, you and I shall never be enemies.'*
—*'New compatriots, we shall weather these hardships together.'*
***
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