Chapter 40: Resonance

Chapter 40: Resonance

As Anthony Stevenson’s words echoed through Memorial Day Square and spread to other places, the Loen citizens participating in this Mass for peaceful sleep felt both moved and sorrowful, both warmed and heavy-hearted.

In different squares, different choirs began chanting psalms. Their ethereal, sacred voices seemed to ring within the deepest part of every person’s heart.

“The crimson full moon rises, shining upon the earth,

“All sink into sweet dreams, and dream of themselves,

“Of fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, sons and daughters—this is forever…” (Note 1)

Unknowingly, everyone felt their spirits being cleansed, their spirituality naturally flowing outward.

They seemed to have truly entered a dream, wandering through a stretch of tranquil darkness.

Here slept their children, their parents, their wives, their husbands, their friends. These dead no longer knew suffering, no longer knew pain. Their expressions were peaceful, their faces soft.

“We shall lift our heads and gaze upon that night sky,

“And speak Her name with tenderness:

“Evernight Goddess!

“…If She hears, She will surely answer,

“Surely reveal a pure smile to the departed:

“Come, rest, sleep in peace, My children!” (Note 2)

The people wandering through the dream once again felt powerful sorrow surge within them, as though they understood that this was truly a farewell.

They recalled all those beautiful fragments of the past. They remembered the scene of their families gathered around the dining table, enjoying food and laughing freely. They remembered the person who had once looked at them with warmth. They remembered the soul-tearing pain of seeing those loved ones hurt and of hearing of their deaths. They remembered the clouds and partings this war had brought.

Those people now slept in that tranquil kingdom, no longer troubled by anything. Yet the living had to endure torment day and night, growing haggard and withered.

One tear slid down, then another. In Memorial Day Square, those participating in the Mass could no longer suppress the emotions within their hearts. Silently, with no reservation, they vented the pain they had accumulated.

A vast sadness spread. Amid the chanting of the choir, it intertwined, almost gaining a tangible form.

“Cross your hands,

“Place them upon your chest,

“Make that wordless prayer,

“And cry out with your heart:

“The only destination is peace!” (Note 3)

The people silently weeping with closed eyes instinctively followed the psalm, making similar gestures. Then, infecting one another, they cried out in their hearts:

“The only destination is peace!”

Sorrow reached its extreme. In Memorial Day Square, more than ten thousand hearts produced an intense resonance.

At that moment, Audrey opened her eyes, bent down, and took a bottle of potion from the leather satchel carried by the golden retriever Susie.

Countless fragments of light floated within that potion, making it look like the embodiment of the sea of collective subconscious.

Audrey did not hesitate. In such a scene, she twisted open the cap and gulped down the liquid inside.

Unlike before, when she could still experience the potion sliding down her throat into her stomach, Audrey immediately encountered an abnormality.

She felt that she could no longer sense her body. Her entire person seemed condensed into a cluster of thoughts, merging into the illusory sea around her.

This was the first time she had directly seen the sea of collective subconscious without passing through dreams or the “island” of the mind. It was like returning to the time before birth, returning to her mother’s embrace, returning to the beginning, washed, dissolved, and affected by tidal imprints left behind by humanity’s ancestors.

Within it were fear, madness, and every kind of terrifying mental pollution. For a time, Audrey could barely resist. Her consciousness faded. Her “figure” swayed, on the verge of dissolving.

However, the nearby…