Age of Adepts

"Hey, can you just drop the bad thoughts in your head for a second and talk to me?"

Alice's hands were relatively close together in front of her, making a holding position like a lotus flower.

With her magic power, a strong magical fluorescence radiated from beneath the originally smooth marble floor. Powerful magical power penetrated out from inside, outlining a huge and dense strange witch formation in the void around Alice.

As the astrological ritual unfolded, the vast power of the stars poured down from the vault of the sky, invading the entire astrological platform with fragments of light and shadow that quickly flashed back everywhere. However, when you tried to gaze into the details, it was difficult to grasp the meaning that these strange lights and shadows were trying to express.

"Drops, detecting the presence of the Law of Fate... tentatively determined to be the power of fate..."

"It's an exceptionally powerful mystical power, even at the higher end of rule powers... It's in the process of data collection..."

Grim looked around, the entire astrological platform had been completely enveloped by the power of this strange command, giving the place a cool, ancient atmosphere of time passing and erosion.

The place they were in was no longer the topmost astrological platform of the Tower of Destiny, but a vast desert.

Raising the gaze, the field of vision was all a fine gravel, earthy yellow, shining golden under the dazzling sun overhead.

There were only Grim and Alice in the nor'easter desert.

"Where is this?" Grim leaned over and grabbed a handful of fine sand and crushed it with his fingers, rough and hard, not an illusion of his own, but something real.

"I don't know!" Alice sighed grudgingly, "The power of fate is too magical, and I can't control that power yet. So, where it takes me, many times I can't choose..."

"It?" Grim asked rhetorically.

"It is!" Alice put her hands behind her back and smiled faintly, "When a bitworld grows to its limits, bitworld consciousness awakens, thus giving birth to a great will. Most of the planetary worlds we've seen have only given birth to hazy planetary consciousnesses, but are limited by the lack of planetary resources to continue growing. But the world we're in, the Wizard World, is already qualified to make the leap from a primary bit consciousness to a world will. This... will be a Sorcerer World with a will of its own!"

Grim gazed and listened intently.

As a sorcerer who grew up from a low level, he naturally had a deep understanding of the concept of position consciousness. But when it came to higher occult knowledge, there were many world hidden secrets that he was unable to explore and understand.

Now, however, Alice was clearly teaching him a lesson, presenting the most realistic scene of the bitworld in front of him!

The Wizarding World has given birth to a place consciousness and is poised to grow into a World Will!

Such a hidden secret would never exist in any witchcraft book, and certainly not be understood by a low-level wizard.

"You mean... we live inside a bit world with our own thoughts and consciousness? It can hear and perceive any thoughts and actions of any living thing?" Grim got a little creeped out.

Alice smiled faintly and said, "You shouldn't look at the bit consciousness as a rudimentary consciousness body like humans, it's more just a consciousness aggregate of billions of lives and matter within the bit. Its consciousness aggregates are too large and overgrown, and it is impossible to give birth to direct consciousness."

"Then what does it possess?"

"Instinct!"

"Instinct?"

"The instinct to survive, the instinct to develop, and the instinct to be strong..."

"Wouldn't that be the same as those silly beasts?"

"It is inherently so. The positional consciousness is inherently simple; it can never give birth to emotions and consciousness as complex and keen as that of a human. It is like an infant that has not yet reached its full moon, and though it desperately wants to grow, it is struggling to express it."

"Being told that by you, it makes me feel as if the bit consciousness is very fragile..."

"It's not fragile! Though it has no clear consciousness or mind, it is powerful. It controls the rules, the bits, the forces, and the us within..."

"What made you think of dragging me here?"

"Because it's only here, in the wraith of fate, that our conversation will be safe from that 'guy' overhearing it..."

"That 'guy'?" Grim got thoughtful.

"Yes, the first Destiny Witch Misa. Now she's up to a 7th Order Witch!"

"Seventh Order..." grizzled Grim, feeling a bit of a headache, "You mean, she's our enemy now?"

"It's 'my' enemy!" Alice added emphasis on that 'I' word, "But I'm afraid she'll even count you out if you choose to help me."

"May I ask why she is our enemy?" Grim also increased his tone.

"Because she is too powerful, because she deludedly coveted the authority of the Wizard World Will, because she disturbed the order of the Wizard World's destiny... all along, she has been stealing the Wizard World's destiny with her strange abilities. This has severely affected the birth of the World Will, so the Bit Consciousness is angry... that's why it chose me!"

Grim listened quietly and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Although Alice's words weren't much, they were all the deepest secrets of the wizard world. Without her dissection, it would have been difficult for Grim to glimpse the true side of the world hidden beneath the heavy curtain for the rest of his life.

"You mean, the bit consciousness could no longer tolerate that Misa witch, which is why it pushed for the fight of fate and designed to make her plan fail? Your choices and your growth are under the control of the bit consciousness?" At this point, even Grim shuddered a little.

If... if that bit consciousness really was like a ruler, peeking into everything within the bit all the time, then did he have any privacy in front of it? Any more secrets?

"Where are you going with this..." balked Alice, "Bit consciousness isn't as boring as you are! It just instinctively doesn't like Misha interfering with the rules of fate frequently, so it frequently starts fate battles. Then, it creates variables that Misa can't control in the Fate fight..."

"You and I are the variable!"

"Good!" Alice agreed, "But that doesn't mean we're backed up. The positional consciousness doesn't have the clarity of mind to be able to tell the difference between 'one of us' and 'the enemy'. It doesn't care about my safety or life even though it pushed me out and disrupted Misa's black hand in remotely controlling the fate rules of the wizarding world. If I fail, it won't mourn for me, nor will it shed a single tear for me, just launch another Fate Benefactor from inside the bit."

"You mean, we've become a tool launched by the Bit Consciousness to fight against the 7th Order Witch Misa, but we haven't received any privileges or rewards yet?"

"Yes!" Alice nodded, "Although the Bit Consciousness has given me the title of Fate Dependent, it clearly has no intention of favoring me. Although I was able to enjoy a bit of convenience in the use of Fate's power, it was clearly not enough to fight against a 7th rank witch. So, it's not that I don't want to fall into your arms, but... are you sure you want to pick me up as a *annoyance*?"

Grim laughed greatly at the news.

He was already in trouble, but he never thought that Alice's end was even more troubled than his own....

Just in Alice's self-pitying hesitation and uncertainty, Grim suddenly stood in front of her, took her into his arms, fiercely and fiercely kissed down.

A full half a quarter of a long time, Grim just let go of Alice has some swollen red lips, eye to eye nose to nose to her said: "From now on you are my people. From now on, only I will be allowed to bully you, and if anyone else wants to bully you, let it come to me!"

For some reason, listening to Grim's simple and brutal words, Alice's amber pupils couldn't stop the hot tears flowing from her eyes. Her nose was sore, her vision had been blurred by the tears, and her beautiful eyes were even swollen from crying.

All this time, she had been so alone!

There used to be Endor by her side, comforting her and encouraging her.

But with Endo's death in the battle of the Faen, she lost her only family, full of heart full of words can no longer find a listener, and can not find a partner to share with her.

So, suddenly hearing Grim's heartfelt 'words of love', Alice had long been suffering to create a spiritual barrier for herself instantly collapsed.

Alice's soft arm in turn wrapped around Grim's neck, the first initiative to offer hot kisses. Whirling attached to Grim's ear and murmured, "You're going to make me fall in love with you like this, you big bad..."

This was a perfectly simple sentence, but it stirred up Grim's thick valley yawning fire in no time at all.

Amidst the nearly frantic coiling and fighting, the two figures finally blended together....

...................

Outside the astrolabe, the somewhat unruly elf, Helen, was extremely quiet at the moment.

She gently bit her delicate index finger and hid in a corner of the hall, silently peering into the interior.

She obviously had some difficulty understanding some of the human's actions.

Obviously through the soul contract is transmitted through the joy and happiness, but she heard 'pain' mouths out of the mouth, but saw a tactful plea for mercy.

But the big bad, but so proud, so exuberant, simply almost Alice 'bully' to death.

Two people were obviously fighting, but why were they fighting so strangely?

And...and Alice would never have liked the intrusion of herself bursting in on them....

With a touch of frustration, Helen flapped her transparent wings and flew dejectedly to the 'lair'.

Maybe it would be possible to get some guidance from a partner!

Helen thought silently.