Chapter 596: Shortcuts
The Ithkuil symbol before him only meant a single word: Enlightenment.
Well, it didn't precisely mean Enlightenment. Instead, it meant illumination.
Sylas could remember getting interested in Ithkuil in the past. It was a language that he thought was designed by a modern philosophizing psychologist in order to take the ambiguity out of language.
As anyone walking around in day-to-day life could tell you, it was often hard to understand someone's exact meaning without also being adept at reading their tone, inflections, and even sometimes their state of mind. It could even be said that without being able to read someone's mind, the idea of knowing exactly what they meant by a statement was nigh impossible.
This language sought to take the ambiguity out of daily communication. But it was— rightfully-complex as a result.
The short of it was that every word in Ithkuil had its own unique fingerprint to be used in very specific situations, making their meanings as clear as possible.
While it was "technically" right that this word meant Enlightenment, it was instead more accurate to translate it as Illumination. In this context, it meant lighting up a path. It was a much more physical manifestation of Enlightenment, one taking place in a metaphysical world rather than just in one's mind.
But it did also touch onto the faint edges of the so-called "light bulb moment."
This was the beauty of Ithkuil.
Sylas looked up toward the path ahead. 'I see.'
He stepped around the altar as Alex followed along. He waved a hand and the Illumination Rune appeared in his palm.
At that moment, the straight path ahead suddenly split into countless.
'Still not enough.'
Sylas refined the Rune and suddenly some of the paths ahead became sharper and more focused than others.
With a clench of his fist, Sylas shattered the Rune and shook his head.
He turned back and then drew an Ithkuil symbol instead, driving it into the body of the altar.
A pillar of light rose out of the altar and the empty bowl began to fill up with golden liquid that poured out and slipped onto the grey cobbled stone.
The cracks were filled in by this liquid before jetting off into the distance and suddenly curving off of the main path.
Sylas and Alex didn't need to communicate. They both shot after the overflowing liquid, racing down the path for what felt like hours.
It was hard to measure time in a place like this one as even the system seemed somewhat disoriented. But when they were a few minutes in, they already began to modulate their pace so as to not overshoot their stamina.
Three hours later, the golden liquid came to a stop and the two stood before a tall set of doors.
The doors were formed of smooth grey stone and must have been at least ten meters tall. The golden liquid stopped at its base before suddenly rocketing up the small crack between them. With a crack, the doors slowly opened and a golden light spilled out.
The two walked through, but when their vision cleared... what they saw left them quite speechless.
It was the same stone room they had started in. In fact, if they strained their ears, it felt like they could still faintly hear the commotion going on in the city. Though, the latter was extremely faint.
They had ended up in the same place?
'No, not the same place. The patterns of erosion on the wall are slightly different. But it might
as well be the same place. There's no functional difference.'
Sylas' gaze flickered, trying to piece something together.
However, even after a long while, he realized that there was only one sticking point in all of this.
That world of black mirrors.
It was the only place they had been where he had passively allowed everything to happen to him. But...
'I understand.'
Enlightenment shot through Sylas' body.
When those fragmented pieces of black ice floated around, it was like they were in the middle of a fun house of mirrors that was far more erratic and shocking than usual. In fact, if you took a step further, it was like they were in the middle of chaos as reality itself fragmented and broke apart.
However, if he took a step back from all the disorientation... what did those mirrors remind him of?
If he focused on just the fragmentation and the cracked lines themselves... wasn't it exactly like that paper of scribbles they had put in front of him when he was nine years old? The very same paper of scribbles that he solved by wrapping yarn around pins?
Sylas' mind recalled that image once again. Then, he recalled the changes he made to it as an adult...
Not only did he pull those strings into a two-dimensional image of an eye and a pinecone, but if he pulled from above...
It formed a pyramid.
'I understand. That world of black and silver represents the various nodes across the pyramid in a one-to-one fashion. If I want to make it to the core of this mystery, I need to move quickly when we enter the world of mirrors. The node I stand on in the end will decide where we end up next.
'The question is if there is a systematic way to do this or not...'
Sylas' thoughts ran much smoother with how high his Wisdom was now. And the passive nurturing of <Maddened Enlightenment> only made his mind all the more potent.
It wasn't even a few seconds before he had an understanding.
'I see. There's no way for there to be enough time to make it through the entire world of mirrors. Given how much time we had last time, at most I would have as much time to move about as far as Alex did to approach me.
'This means that the process of moving through the pyramid has to be done incrementally. I can't just jump to the end. But... I can pick out shortcuts... by shifting my position little by
little...'