Shadow Novelist
Volume 23: The Game Changes
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For the next hours, the Specter told Nick about different concepts of Zephology.
The mind of someone powerful was very fast, and Nick would be able to learn these things very quickly.
However, the speed at which the Specter could hit the wall was limited.
Surprisingly, learning a completely new language through listening to the beats was far easier than learning Zephology since inferring the concepts of the language just required understanding and a bit of calculation.
It was also important to note that the language the two were conversing in wasn't really a traditional language but just a logical construct.
When written down, it looked more like math than a language.
If the two of them could just converse face to face, the Specter could transmit all of these concepts many times faster.
Yet, even with that method, it would take Nick a while to comprehend these things.
It became quite obvious that learning how to split atoms with Zephyx would take Nick months of learning if not years.
And that was the easiest part!
Nick's mind was not even close to strained as he listened to the Specter.
To Nick's mental speed, this way of listening to someone was like shouting one letter every five seconds to someone.
In short, Nick's mind was essentially not being in use 99% of the time while listening.
It was horrendously inefficient.
So, Nick had time to look at a couple of other things in the room and think about stuff.
'Specter Energy, Star Energy, Pure Energy,' Nick repeated in his mind. 'I wonder what that is.'
Naturally, Nick would only need to wait, and the Specter would eventually get to that part.
Sadly, that part was far in the future.
'It's clear that Specter Energy is Zephyx. However, I have no idea what Star Energy and Pure Energy are supposed to be.'
'I don't think any of these things are Prephyx.According to the Specter, you need to fuse Star Energy and Zephyx to create Pure Energy. If Star Energy were Prephyx, it wouldn't ask me whether or not I can fuse atoms. I don't need to fuse atoms to make Prephyx. I can just use up Zephyx to produce Prephyx.'
'Star Energy. Star…'
Nick remembered the concept of a star.
Apparently, in the era of the Ancient Ones, there used to be stars in the sky.
Back then, that was all that Nick knew about the world, but he had learned a lot more over the years.
'The Sun is not the real sun. In fact, it doesn't even really look like one since the Sun is essentially just a glass barrier surrounding the planet.'
'The real sun is much farther away, made of extremely hot fire, and gigantic. Maybe not even the Ancient Ones could destroy a star.'
'If the Sun came anywhere close to the actual sun, it would get annihilated.'
'So, does Star Energy refer to an actual star?'
At that point, Nick was reminded of what he had seen above the biological machine.
Above the machine, Nick had seen a portal leading to an extremely bright ball of fire.
It looked about as big as the Sun, but their lights couldn't be compared.
One of them was dim and foreboding, while the other one was bright, powerful, and aggressive.
'Could that have been the actual sun?' Nick thought.
Back then, Nick had thought that this was just the Sun but different.
But what if it had actually been the true sun?
Nick also remembered how he felt when he saw the sun.
Scared.
Vulnerable.
And with good reason!
After all, Nick felt like he was drowning or breathing poison while being up there.
It was like the actual sun gave off a certain force or power that naturally attacked his existence.
'But how? Humans would not have survived if the sun-'
Nick remembered something.
'I'm not human…'
'I'm a Specter.'
'This force might only affect Specters negatively.'
'Maybe it even helps humans.'
That train of thought changed things.
'If this energy doesn't hurt humans and actually comes from the actual sun, what if we make a hole in the Sun?'
'This energy might fill the world and kill all the Specters.'
'It might also destroy all of the Prephyx.'
'We know that Prephyx comes from the biological machines, but if this strange force comes from the sun, it is essentially endless.'
'If it can destroy Prephyx, the entire world will be cleansed.'
'Was that what the Enlightened Ones tried to do?'
'Maybe they stayed hidden and then charged forth with all of their power in an effort to make a hole in the Sun.'
'And judging by the brutal increase of the suppression factor, they got real close.'
Humanity's goal finally started to take on a visible form.
Nick could see what would happen and how that would solve the problem with the Specters.
Everyone knew that one had to kill the Sun to do something about the Specters, but nobody knew how exactly that would deal with the Specters.
The main assumption was that humanity would be strong enough to suppress all the Specters.
However, the actual issue was the Prephyx that kept appearing.
And finally, Nick could see how that problem could be solved and how the solution worked.
Sadly, a different realization set in at the same time.
'If the Star Energy kills all the Specters…'
'I will also die…'
Nick remained silent while the Specter kept telling him about Zephology.
'So what?' Nick thought. 'If my death can save humanity, I am happy to die.'
'I shouldn't think about the after for now. First, we have to get there.'
'Star Energy. Most likely, the thing that I've felt above the biological machine was the Star Energy that the Specter was talking about.'
'And apparently, Star Energy doesn't necessarily need a star to be created.'
Nick looked at the shaking gate.
'After all, the Specter is in the process of teaching me.'
'When I can produce Star Energy, I should be able to mix it with Zephyx to create Pure Energy,and based on what the Specter said, the Seeds require Pure Energy to work.'
At that moment, Nick imagined putting white dust into some shining liquid to produce a crystal.
When he did that, he had a thought.
The shining liquid in his mind dimmed and became just a bit shinier than water.
'The liquid making the biological machine work,' Nick thought.
'The Star Energy above the machine was dispersed, and most of it was probably absorbed by the machine.'
'Even in this dispersed state, it damaged me.'
'So, a concentrated form of this energy would probably be thousands of times more damaging.'
'Wouldn't that be just like the clear liquid inside the machine?'
'It's possible.'
'The energy from the actual sun is given off as Star Energy, which gets transported to the biological machine. The biological machine then uses the Star Energy as energy to transform Star Energy- wait… that's weird. This is a bit too self-referential.'
'What if the clear liquid is actually Pure Energy?'
At that point, Nick got a thought.
'What if the production of Pure Energy is actually exothermic instead of endothermic?'
'Pure Energy sounds so powerful, which was why I assumed that it was the most powerful form, which means that it needs a lot of energy to be produced.'
'But what if that's actually not true?'
Nick was reminded of how easy it was for the clear liquid to transform his body into white dust.
'But what about Zephyx then?'
'What if Zephyx is the highest state of the three energies?'
'That would be like I was made of very flammable materials.'
'In that case, producing Zephyx would most likely be the most difficult part.'
'Is that why the Sun exists?'
Nick was reminded of his earlier assumptions.
'It does harvest all the Zephyx at the end of an era, which means that the Zephyx is the crop.'
'What would even be the point of using Star Energy or Pure Energy to create Prephyx, which is just going to be made into Zephyx,if Star Energy or Pure Energy have more energy?'
'Speaking of Prephyx, the Specter hasn't mentioned that in any way, but it needs Prephyx to exist.'
'Based on the biological machine, Prephyx is made with Star Energy.'
'Star Energy has to be the rawest resource since you should be able to just grab it since the actual sun keeps spewing it out.'
'Then, you can refine Star Energy into several forms.'
'You can turn it into Prephyx, which then gets turned into Zephyx via a Specter. You can also fuse Star Energy and Zephyx to create Pure Energy.'
'If that is true, the clear liquid turned my Zephyx into Pure Energy, which should be the white dust.'
'Black dust represents Zephyx, while white dust is Pure Energy.'
'When a Specter dies, they turn into black dust, which is Zephyx, which then just gets turned back into Prephyx and enters the atmosphere.'
'But if something turns into white dust, it turns into Pure Energy, but from what I have seen, that also just turns back into Prephyx.'
'What if the production of Prephyx is actually exothermic?'
'That explains how the machine can be run with only Star Energy.'
'In that case, the lowest form of energy is probably Prephyx.'
'Prephyx is most likely similar to ash. Devoid of energy.'
'Star Energy is the next higher level of energy. It is raw and has some energy stored. It is stable enough to exist together with Prephyx, but they probably push each other away like water and oil.'
'Pure Energy is the next higher level. Pure Energy is unstable and will immediately transform into Prephyx if it comes into contact with it.'
'Zephyx should be the highest level of energy. If Zephyx is stored outside of a special container or a living being with a will, it will also just turn back into Prephyx.'
Now, things slowly started to make sense.
'So, the Sun is actually infusing the world with trash and creating a very dense form of energy, which it then harvests.'
'It's turning ash into gold.'
'Is that why all of this shit is happening to humanity?'
Nick was reminded of all the rich people of Crimson City profiting off the starving people in the Dregs.
'It's just the same thing again!'