Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 404 The End of Destruction
Those who have ventured into the depths and been fortunate enough to return have almost all seen that shattered celestial body.

If they don't forget it as a nightmare, it's not hard to realize that something broken and incomplete must have been whole before, and something must have happened between being whole and breaking.

A very small number of people may know from the ruins and obscure records that there was an impact that shaped the world as we know it today.

The disintegration of the celestial body is a foregone conclusion. The debris has pierced the membrane and scattered throughout the deep layers and the present world, mixed with unidentified black matter, while the other side of the impact remains missing.

No one has ever been able to pinpoint that exact moment; it seems so distant that few traces remain on the surface, yet it also seems so recent that it has been recorded in human history.

Or perhaps it doesn't occur in the space-time that people understand, otherwise it's impossible to explain how the aftershocks propagate or why they echo here.

The "sound" rolled in from the void, like a wave crashing onto land. The closer it got, the higher it rose, until a violent tremor erupted from within the body and consciousness, engulfing all the senses and captivating the mind.

Consciousness can perceive it precisely, and it also experiences the impact.

It far exceeds the limits of what we can accept, and even possesses a certain "texture," washing away everything else and filling our senses the moment we come into contact with it.

But what was most affected was not consciousness itself, but the living knowledge trapped within it. It was almost unable to put up any effective resistance and disintegrated like a sandcastle in the wave of the same origin.

A certain substance decays and settles from high to low, precipitating out from the virtual reality of the air.

Through his blurred vision, he saw black snowflakes, dark, light-absorbing tiny crystals that seemed to multiply from dust particles to the size of salt grains.

They fell around me, tapping softly on the stone slabs, producing incomprehensible, echoing sounds, as if the sound were returning from another vast, silent space.

The remnants of existence, the part that was not completely annihilated, become the aftershocks of destructive power, entering the extension of consciousness—the spiritual body.

It seemed to be extremely high-density information, surging in in the form of high-frequency oscillations, like molten iron being poured into a mold, forcing the spiritual body to fully perceive its own boundaries.

He could clearly feel that strange and terrifying experience, like a challenger in mythology being stared at by Gorgon, his invisible limbs frozen, representing the loss of vitality, flexibility, and extensibility, becoming stiff, heavy, rigid, and stagnant.

The extremities, unable to bear the burden, crumbled, like fingers scorched by high temperatures, becoming brittle and shattering, disintegrating into tiny, ethereal things.

However, the "dead spirit" did not completely disappear; instead, it was magnetically attracted to the pure black crystal.

Sharp edges blunt, contours collapse—a familiar transformation is activated. Like snowflakes gaining warmth, or a creature awakening from hibernation, the crystals rapidly melt, converging along the uneven floor to form flowing, matte liquid surfaces, eventually stabilizing in a liquid state.

He slowly rose from his knees, avoiding the abyss-like darkness.

The change has temporarily ended, in a form never imagined.

A distant collision, by chance and destiny, is reenacted here, with the only spectator being the stage itself, bearing the brunt of the chaos after the show.

The wounded body and mind need time to heal, and some parts may never fully recover. But what he gained was far more than just physical pain; there were things far more unsettling than physical pain. He learned certain things, and his suspicions were confirmed.

The entity or concept that can be tentatively called a "snake" is another culprit and victim of the collision.

Fragments of celestial bodies fell and were reshaped into bodies by the population of believers, enabling them to walk on the earth.

The remains of the "snake" are more complex. The still-active parts reside in information, wandering in the cracks between all things, it is unknown whether they only retain instinct and limited self-awareness, or if they were originally like this.

The most thoroughly fallen part became completely materialized, becoming a solid called "black salt," which can occasionally be activated by deep fluctuations and temporarily melt.

Back in Dunling, Kraft, upon seeing the stable black liquid inside the bodies of the dead heretics, had guessed that the price for fixing the liquid must also be on the human body, and now it seems that this was indeed the case.

Just as the dead bodies are used by the lunar skeletons to become limbs for hunting more living matter, the spirits that have lost their consciousness become the nourishment for the birth of the black liquid, pulling more spirits towards that world.

This is a competition with two sides, with biological groups possessing both physical bodies and spiritual will as the arena, constantly expanding their own size.

Progress on one side will also lead to progress on the other. Those who come into contact with the black liquid can hardly avoid encountering lunar skeletons, and the dead spiritual bodies of the lunar skeleton-derived organisms—whether they are the host or the manipulated biomass shells—provide new nutrients for the liquefaction of black salt.

A standard positive feedback mechanism.

It's impossible to know whether the mechanism's formation was accidental or inevitable, when it started, or how long it lasted. But one thing is certain: the snowball will only get bigger and bigger.

To date, he only knows how the black liquid is born, but he has never seen how this substance is annihilated.

The black liquid doesn't always appear in the bottles carried by heretics; it can exist anywhere, silently mixing into water bodies and flowing into rivers and oceans as one spiritual entity dies and is reborn.

There is reason to believe that trace amounts of black liquid have already diffused in the water cycle, but the concentration has not yet reached a level that would have a significant effect within the average lifespan of a normal person.

But in some enriched areas, such as Dunling, is the concentration even higher, making it easier for sensitive individuals to access deeper layers?

From Edward to Morrison, two pioneers of in-depth research from completely different eras both lived in Dunlin. Was this a coincidence or an inevitability?
Is the frequent outbreak of fever and hysteria in this small village, where black salt hexagonal prisms are first seen, also related to drinking water pollution?
The impact occurred no earlier than the beginning of history, while the reinforcement of positive feedback mechanisms has always been increasingly rapid and exponential.

If the hypothesis is correct, what would the world look like if the black liquor content in the water cycle doubled or more in just a few hundred years?
More "Edwards" and "Morrisons" will emerge in the world; they are products of the positive feedback loop, and also its driving force. Perhaps a second or third "priest-professor duo" will try to stop them, but it will be meaningless to the overall trend.

More likely, one of "Edwards" or "Morrison" will succeed, not necessarily at Tun Ling; any landing point could be "Tun Ling".

One day, the concentration of black liquor in the water will reach a critical point, enough to have an effect on the normal lifespan of an average person who is not so sensitive.

As for what will happen then, the salt tide area has already provided the answer.