“Heh.”
“Jiang Huan” let out an ambiguous dry laugh.
Elias was still holding his fingers pinched together, leaving that almost invisible gap.
No matter how he looked at it, the other's laugh didn't sound like he believed Elias only had a “teeny-tiny smidge” he couldn't let go of.
“Then what if you can't go back?”
The ease on Elias's face gradually faded.
He let go of his hand and looked back at the calm lake.
“I don't know.”
So far, he had always taken things one step at a time.
Survive tonight first.
Then survive tomorrow.
Deal with the dream demon first, then find a way to remove the curse; guard the lighthouse first, then deal with whatever was hidden beneath Moon Bay.
As for the distant future, he had never seriously planned for it.
But now, this question he had always pushed off to “worry about later” was finally laid out before him by his other self.
What if, by the time he was capable of taking that step, the path home had already been severed?
Elias pursed his lips.
In the past, he had always treated “returning” as a finish line hidden in the distance.
Once the curse was removed and he was strong enough, he would find the Twelve Earth Veins, break free from this ridiculous life, and return to that world which seemed to still be waiting for him right where he left it.
But what if the finish line didn't exist?
Then this life, which he called an “accident,” would become all he had left.
This thought made him feel more helpless than facing a sea beast.
Would he return to Hope County after all this was over, accompany Arthur and Lottie, and find a place where no one knew him to live as a hermit?
Or would he simply go far away, searching for a place that could accommodate Elias Rockland?
He didn't even know when the so-called “end of everything” would finally come.
The Moon Bay seal, Wayland, the oracle of the Ascetic Society, and why he had appeared here in the first place.
Elias thought for a long time, but in the end, he could only repeat, “I don't know.”
“It's fine not to know.”
“Jiang Huan” patted him on the shoulder, as if he had expected this answer.
“There is more than one path, and no one is forcing you to pick one to die on.”
“You can be homesick, and you can also prevent this place from being destroyed.”
The palm resting on his shoulder had no warmth, but it caused Elias's tense body to relax slightly.
At least before he truly had a choice, he didn't need to rush to declare a winner between his two lives.
He used to think these two goals would eventually force him to choose.
Either go back.
Or stay.
It was as if choosing one side meant he had to personally cut the other side out of himself.
But the Jiang Huan in front of him clearly didn't intend to make him do such multiple-choice questions in advance.
Elias turned his head.
“So what should I do next?”
“Don't ask me.”
“Jiang Huan” looked at him in annoyance.
“How much more do you think I know than you?”
“Besides, you hate it most when others try to arrange your life for you.”
Elias raised an eyebrow.
“Then what are you sitting here for?”
“To remind you of one thing.”
The other raised a finger.
“Your desire to become stronger now is no longer just about surviving to escape back home.”
The wind over the sea of grass quieted down quite a bit at this moment.
“Remove the curse.”
“Protect the people you want to protect.”
“Find out why you came here.”
“And then reach the day when you are truly qualified to decide whether to go back or not.”
Elias listening to these words, only felt the weight that had just lightened on his shoulders being placed right back down, completely intact.
That was easy to say.
Translated, it was nothing more than first dealing with those who could kill him, those who wanted to use him, and those who planned to blast Moon Bay into oblivion.
Only when he became someone whose decisions no longer depended on anyone else could he consider which world to choose.
It was even wrapped up as a bundle deal.
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“Which time did you actually ignore something after complaining about it being troublesome?”
“You know, you knowing me too well makes it easy for me to feel homicidal.”
“Cut the crap.”
“Jiang Huan” unceremoniously flipped him off.
Looking at that familiar middle finger, Elias didn't know whether to be angry or to marvel that it was indeed himself.
The other then stood up from the lakeside and brushed off non-existent grass clippings from his white jacket.
He extended his right hand toward Elias again.
“Before the Audience ends, shall we go through the motions?”
Elias looked up at the hand.
“Make me kneel to myself?”
He grasped it, pulling himself up.
“We're buddies, let's skip that.”
The moment their palms met, the entire starry plain suddenly fell silent.
The horses stopped flicking their tails.
The giant wolf stopped drinking.
Even the moonlight on the lake seemed to freeze in place.
A tiny crack appeared on the back of “Jiang Huan's” hand.
Then, the cracks climbed up his arm, shoulder, and face.
At the same time, the shadow beneath Elias's feet developed the exact same cracks.
“Jiang Huan” looked down, making no attempt to struggle, and simply raised his head again.
“Stop pushing everything onto other people.”
“Got it, got it,” Elias brushed him off instinctively.
“Why do you have to nag a couple of times before disappearing?”
As the words fell, the other's body and Elias's shadow shattered at the same time.
There was no flesh, and no sound.
Countless shards of mirrors of various sizes suddenly scattered, rushing toward Elias from all directions, wrapped in starlight.
He instinctively raised his hand to shield his face.
But those shards did not cut his body; instead, they passed directly through his skin and sank into his sea of consciousness.
The sea of grass, the snowy mountains, and the lake before him crumbled away.
Elias's consciousness plummeted downward.
He saw his own sea of consciousness.
The silver Rational Circuit belonging to the Moon Lord remained submerged beneath the water, quiet and intact, the flowing silver light unaffected by the second potion.
But above the surface of the sea, the shards were piecing themselves together.
They interlocked one by one, gradually forming an inverted corridor made of mirrors.
The corridor did not rest on the sea.
It hung upside down at an unseen height, like another world with its direction reversed above the sea.
In every mirror, a different face was reflected.
Men and women, young and old.
Those faces flashed by, none of them staying on the mirror surfaces for long.
Transparent circuits continuously extended through the corridor, vanishing and reorganizing between different mirrors.
They connected outward to the Origin Web.
All the circuits eventually doubled back along the mirror surfaces, returning to Elias himself.
One above and one below, the two Rational Circuits faced each other across the calm sea.
They did not repel each other, nor did they devour each other.
The spirituality condensed from the second potion was fully accommodated within the inverted corridor, no longer flowing toward the silver circuit beneath the water.
Before Elias could comprehend what this meant, the first transparent node lit up deep within the corridor.
【Trickster's Fingertips】.
Then the second.
【Borrowed Voice】.
【Lucky Coin】.
【Shifting Afterimage】.
【Gauging Expressions】.
【Minor Misunderstanding】.
【Cloak of Mediocrity】.
【Sleight of Hand】.
【Guileless Guise】.
Nine nodes lit up in succession.
Nine complete spell circuits were subsequently branded into his consciousness.
Elias did not even have time to check their specific effects before a massive amount of information unfolded simultaneously within his sea of consciousness.
Those names were not whispered in his ear by anyone; rather, as the nodes lit up, they naturally appeared in his awareness.
It was as if they had always been hidden behind some mirror, only now finally flipping over.
He only had time to think of one thing.
Nine?
Was this second cup a little too full?
The next moment, a strong sensation of being pulled away rushed from the depths of his spiritual body.
The inverted corridor rapidly receded.
The silver sea, the transparent circuits, and the countless faces in the mirrors all vanished into the darkness.
Elias snapped his eyes open.
The wooden ceiling of the lighthouse cottage came back into view.
His chest rose and fell a few times, but his mind was clearer than ever before.
He could clearly perceive both the silver circuit underwater and the inverted corridor above the sea, each operating independently and distinctly.
The white candle behind the mirror was still burning, its flame already significantly shorter.
And Jack was holding a frying pan with both hands, hunched over, cautiously approaching him.
The bottom of the pan was less than a foot away from his head.
This kid had clearly gotten addicted to hitting him.
“Stop.”
Elias spoke immediately.
Jack's movement froze, but he did not lower the pan.
“Sir, you didn't have any reaction just now.”
“So you were going to hit me first and ask questions later?”
“This is the disposal method we agreed on beforehand.”
Jack answered righteously.
Elias was too lazy to argue with him. With a slight nudge of his thoughts, his consciousness swept over the nine nodes of the inverted corridor, and he quickly grasped how to use two of the circuits.
Above his sea of consciousness, the newly born transparent circuits instantly connected to the Origin Web.
【Sleight of Hand】.
Jack only felt his hands suddenly go empty.
The frying pan was snatched away as if by an invisible hand, instantly crossing the distance between them and landing in Elias's hand.
“Huh?”
Jack looked down at his empty hands, then looked up at the pan.
Before he could figure out what had happened, Elias's finger lightly brushed the handle of the pan.
【Trickster's Fingertips】.
The entire frying pan vanished into thin air right before Jack's eyes.
The Landon youth's ten fingers splayed open helplessly, as if he still wanted to check if the pan had grown legs and run off on its own.
“You succeeded?”
“Uh-huh.”
Elias looked at his bewildered expression, and his mood instantly improved.
No matter what this inverted corridor actually was, at least he wouldn't have to worry about this kid giving him a pan to the head at any moment in the future.
“Then...”
Jack was eager and curious, his gaze moving back and forth between the old mirror and Elias.
“Whom did you have an Audience with?”
“An old friend who is even more annoying than me.”
“Who?”
Elias looked at the old mirror, which had already returned to normal.
The mirror reflected the face of Elias Rockland.
Yet the shadow beneath his feet quietly belonged to Jiang Huan.
“Someone you know.”
“Huh?”
Jack pointed a finger at himself, his entire face filled with confusion.
“Someone I know?!”
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