Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

Yangdu High-Speed Rail Station, half collapsed and fallen into deep darkness, as if swallowed by an abyss. The other half, though restored to stability and normalcy, remained dim with unlit lamps. Only a few paths leading to the outside world had light converging, forming brilliant and clear light gates.

In this environment, Zhou Mingrui, with his back to the deep darkness, looked at Lumian and asked in a calm voice, "You know?"

Lumian nodded lightly and said, "Yes.

"Theoretically, I should have waited for Anthony and Ludwig to wake up An Xiaotian, hear words like 'be careful of Zhou Mingrui' from his mouth, then be kicked out of the dream, and through the indirect influence of the Major Arcana cards, receive the corresponding information to know the corresponding truth. But Peng Deng's true hint has already given me the answer.

"On the surface, he was hinting to us that he was the childhood friend of both Mr. Fool and the Celestial Worthy, but the reverse is also true. Zhou Mingrui is both Peng Deng's childhood friend and the childhood friend of the original God Almighty. The two aspects of his identity are unified and merged together.

"In other words, Zhou Mingrui is both Mr. Fool and you, the Celestial Worthy!"

Zhou Mingrui, wearing a faint smile, slightly raised his chin, assuming a listening posture.

Lumian further said, "This also aligns with the magic mirror Arrodes's hint to 'beware of the night’. During the day, Mr. Fool's power takes the upper hand, and Zhou Mingrui equals Mr. Fool. At night, you, the Celestial Worthy, become active, and Zhou Mingrui will be closer to you. So, even just approaching, without any hints, there, would be risks.

"Based on this judgment, any hints, help, or awakening given to Zhou Mingrui would benefit both Mr. Fool and you, the Celestial Worthy."

"And Peng Deng, as a symbol of the original God Almighty, doesn't meet Zhou Mingrui at night because if you two were to meet, there's a high probability that very unpleasant things and accidents would occur."
Zhou Mingrui nodded and said, "He is formed from that bit of power left in the magic mirror and part of the spirit and consciousness that Grisha brought into the dream. He can't compare to me here. If we were to meet at night, it would be advantageous for me, but problematic for Him."

Zhou Mingrui didn't deny that his current self was The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.

Lumian showed an expression of understanding. "That individual's real name is Grisha?"

Without waiting for Zhou Mingrui to respond, he continued, "Combining Peng Deng's true hint, Chief Yagates's state, the fundamental reason for the dream's restrictions, and other facts, I had roughly guessed what had happened before and your current situation when I entered the dream for the third time.

"Several years ago, shortly after Mr. Fool had just fallen asleep, he probably used himself as bait to lure you out and sealed you into the Zhou Mingrui manifestation formed from his spirit and consciousness.

"From a mystical perspective, this symbolizes the fusion and opposition of the both of you, while in reality, you are indeed within his body, indeed restricted by him. This is reflected in the dream with a similar symbolism!"

At this point, Lumian paused, as if observing Zhou Mingrui's reaction.

Zhou Mingrui, with his smile unchanged, said, "Continue, I'm listening."

Smiling, Lumian replied, "This also explains why only Peng Deng and Zhang Yujia from Zhou Mingrui's original character relationships appeared, while others came from the identities of Klein Moretti, Gehrman Sparrow, and so on.

"He doesn't want those feelings buried deep in his to be exploited by you. Of heart, the softest ones, to be course, for those you already know, there's nothing he can do."

Zhou Mingrui nodded lightly and said, "Peng Deng and Zhang Yujia didn't originally exist either. They were created by Grisha using the Dreamweaver ability and Zhou Mingrui's subconscious cognition."

"I see, no wonder Zhou Mingrui suddenly froze when mentioning other childhood friends. That might be the true reflection of Peng Deng." Lumian had a sudden realization.

He continued, "Afterwards, Mr. Fool might have made a wish or used some other ability to remove Beyonder powers from the dream city, allowing Zhou Mingrui to live as an ordinary human. During this process, he might have been fooled by you, forgetting who he really was, forgetting many things.

"Overall, this ordinary human state is very advantageous for Mr. Fool, because he became a great existence step by step from being an ordinary person. Even though he has inevitably been influenced and eroded by godhood, he still retains a part of his humanity, the part that is intense and fervent for him. But you, The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings, are naturally great and don't possess such humanity at all.

"When the battlefield between you two is fixed on an ordinary human with only humanity and in an urban environment without Beyonder powers, you are naturally suppressed, restricted, and weakened. Humanity temporarily triumphs over godhood,

"This can also be interpreted symbolically. The fact that Zhou Mingrui, who has merged Mr. Fool and you. the Celestial Worthy, is an ordinary person symbolizes that humanity has gained the upper hand, with godhood suppressed to a corner, temporarily negligible."

"Yes, at that time I was influenced by that drop of river water and couldn't do more. I could only accept this change," Zhou Mingrui frankly admitted.

Lumian glanced at those dream figures running out of the high-speed rail station and said,

"When you recovered, you started influencing this dream city, either with the help of other beings or by summoning your original believers, bringing items involving the supernatural, like automatic vending machines, onto the stage.

"One of their important meanings is to gradually guide Mr. Fool, letting him recognize that this is a world with supernatural abilities, recognizing from Sequence 9 step by step to Sequence 0. And as this recognition and sequence level changes, the godhood will gradually grow stronger, step by step suppressing humanity.

"According to this plan, the longer we linger in the dream city, the more we use supernatural abilities, the more beneficial it actually is for you. This is something you didn't tell Zaratulstra and other believers, fearing it might invite interference from other beings.

"Similarly, you don't want to wait that long, which is why you induced Zhou Mingrui to consume the Assassin potion and let the mirrored Emperor Roselle enter here.

"You wanted to use the method of creating a stable Mirror Person to split Zhou Mingrui. This is equivalent to opening a gap in the seal that Mr. Fool constructed with himself. Once the Mirror Person is gradually mastered by you, you can walk out of the mirror, replace the 'original body', using truth as falsehood and turning falsehood into truth. As for the gender change affecting cognition, those are just smoke and mirrors.

"But unfortunately, the original God Almighty foresaw this scene before His fall and left arrangements spanning several eras, leaving behind the magic mirror Arrodes.

"One of the functions of the great horror in the depths of the special mirror world is prepared for you!”

Zhou Mingrui said with a smile, "When I initially woke up and saw that magic mirror, I roughly guessed what kind of things would happen."

Lumian nodded quite approvingly. "Yes, you should have made extra preparations for this.

"However..."

At this point, he smiled and said, "Of all the things Amon said, the one I agree with most is:

"Filter out the interference of complex information and see the most fundamental facts.

"So, what is the most fundamental fact now?"

Lumian stared into Zhou Mingrui's deep brown eyes behind his plain glasses and said,

"The most fundamental fact now is that I'm standing in front of you, saying so many words about your true situation, yet I haven't been kicked out of this dream, nor do I feel myself being marionettized!"

Lumian smiled again. "You had Zhou Sasa arrive in Yangdu early, not only to disrupt our rhythm and prevent the original God Almighty's arrangements from truly becoming reality, but also to prevent interference from other beings, wanting to create a stable, long-term Mirror Person for Zhou Mingruis before They were ready.

"This shows that you still attach great importance to and anticipate this matter. Extra preparations, if possible, are better left unused as they're not as convenient.

"I watched as things deteriorated step by step, as you truly found an opportunity to awaken, and had Anthony and Ludwig go to wake up An Xiaotian, which actually no longer had much significance. I asked Queen Mystic to help direct the dream's main consciousness's attention, asked Stiano and other gods to help confuse the information world and contain other places, all to attract your attention, to make you feel that you could win, to invest more power and stakes in this matter.

"This way, when the original God Almighty's arrangements erupted through the medium of the magic mirror Arrodes, you would be weakened to the greatest extent.

"So, I, who entered the dream for the third time, came right before you, spoke the truth of the facts, and still wasn't kicked out on the spot.

"You temporarily don't have this ability!"

Zhou Mingrui laughed. "Don't you think you're like bait right now?"

Lumian sighed and said, "I know, you're waiting for your extra preparations to arrive. Otherwise, how could I have this opportunity to dialogue with you?

"But, I'm also waiting."

At this point, a brilliant smile appeared on Lumian's face.

"Haven't you noticed that one of my companions is missing?

"So many things erupting simultaneously just now was also to distract your attention, to make you overlook her actions!"

Seeing Zhou Mingrui gazing at him, Lumian slightly raised his chin and said emphatically, "The Major Arcana card holders' guesses weren't wrong, their attempts weren't wrong either!"

…

Dream City, inside a movie theater.

Franca was sitting in the second row, watching the screen in front where The Great Pirate 3 was playing.

At this moment, her body was faint and indistinct, as if a sketch had been erased with an eraser. Around her, the few spectators had all become blurry, but were slowly stabilizing, gradually becoming clear.

Franca had checked earlier and found that due to The Great Pirate 3 about to end its run, only two theaters were showing it for the noon screening. So she specifically took a taxi to this one, the farthest from Yangdu High-Speed Rail Station.

And her search information had been lost in the current chaos and disorder of the Internet.

Hearing the thunder in the sky quickly recede, seeing Gehrman Sparrow standing on the bow of the pirate ship appear on the screen, Franca suddenly stood up.

She walked to the front of the projection room in a few steps, and before the few spectators could protest, she took a breath, stretched out her right palm, and pressed it against the screen.

Her figure quickly became ethereal, leaning forward, entering that screen.