Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"Jupiter was the Roman god-king, also known as... Zeus!"

Author's Note:

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

It's finally over... I feel like I'm about to ascend to heaven _(:з」∠)_

Damn it! Why is "teenager melancholy" being censored? It's clearly a heart radical!

Section 9: Going All Out

The lightning descended from the sky, but exploded before reaching Alice's head, scattering into hundreds of sharp spears that pierced the ground. Most of the metallic jets ejected from the explosion were struck by the lightning spears, while the remaining small portion was rendered insignificant and was immediately blocked by the witch's eleventh layer of protective shield!

Lightning.

She didn't become 'Jupiter' to control lightning. Rather, she became 'Jupiter' because she controlled lightning under certain conditions. That's how ritual magic works: when the caster stands in the position of a god and does what only a god can do, then the caster temporarily becomes a god of a replaced concept, possessing divine authority.

Controlling lightning requires a force field and a medium, so magic constructed a force field of suitable frequency around her. This force field then drew in a sufficient amount of metallic or non-metallic medium from the atmosphere. The force field and the medium then interlocked, forming a Faraday cage that dispersed the lightning. When the lightning was guided to the appropriate location, the shifting force field directed the medium guiding the lightning toward the point where the explosive jet was pointing.

It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite fast.

Before the ritual was established and the concepts and magic merged, the thunderous authority constructed from force and mediums had already given Alice an extreme amplification of her control over lightning. At the cost of relinquishing interference with other types of energy, she could control the lightning bolts by manipulating this specific force field, commanding them to perform any task they were capable of under her will. Her goal in doing so was naturally to facilitate the establishment of ritual magic, allowing her to quickly acquire more suitable power after surviving this unexpected attack, thus enabling her to effectively counter 'Death'.

She hadn't originally intended to be in such a hurry, but the newly acquired information fundamentally changed her perception of 'Death,' transforming it from a 'troublesome natural phenomenon or unknown enemy' into a 'meme' that had given her painful memories. Therefore, the moment she learned this fact, she understood that she had no room for complacency this time, and the only thing she could do... was to give it her all.

[Give it my all... Without resorting to the Book of Revelation, to what extent can I achieve this?]

The witch pondered.

Becoming 'Jupiter' was just the beginning; there was much more she needed to do. The instant the lightning struck, blocking the shockwave of the gas explosion, the battle dolls she controlled appeared at her will, surrounding her and forming a barrier.

"I am a puppeteer, and my puppets are my siblings," she declared.

Information magic is divided into two categories. One is general magic, which only requires sufficient magic power and can be used freely without rituals or mediums. The other is ritual magic, which has strict activation conditions and requires extensive preparation. The former is quick, simple, and easy to promote. For example, Alice's commonly used optical concealment and gravity manipulation are general magic. This type of magic has very low requirements for the external information environment. As long as it is not an apocalyptic environment like the Dead Magic Zone, any information magician with some combat experience can use it. As for the latter... the latter consumes a lot of energy and is troublesome to cast, but it has only one advantage.

That is strength, enough strength.

As long as there is sufficient magic power and a sufficient concept, it can be continuously strengthened like a snowball—strengthening destructive power, increasing range, and enhancing precision. If pushed to its limit, it can even be used to stack spells to a level that transcends the mortal realm.

So... how should this snowball be rolled?

First of all--

"I am a puppeteer, and my puppets are my siblings." Before her first declaration could spread through the air, her second statement followed closely behind, catching up with the trajectory left by the first in the atmosphere.

“I am Jupiter, and my brothers are the chief gods of Rome.”

This is Roman land, and her mechanical legions have already controlled most of the Apennine Peninsula, making her the master of this land. Furthermore, because she uses the Faraday cage, medium, and gravitational field to control lightning, she simultaneously created the concept of the 'Ruler of Lightning' while becoming the 'King of Rome'. The fusion of these two elements results in the 'Roman King who wields lightning,' which is 'Jupiter'.

After becoming 'Jupiter', she gained the concept of 'King of Gods' because of her status as 'Jupiter'. And because she was the 'King of Gods', she was qualified to summon the twelve Olympian gods of Roman mythology.

So her doll came to her side, surrounding her, protecting her, and at the same time becoming the embodiment of the concept of the 'Twelve Olympians'.

Thus, the puppets became gods.

Shanghai became Juno, the goddess of the gods; Penglai became Minerva, the goddess of wisdom; the French doll became Venus, the goddess of beauty; and the Orleans doll became Diana, the goddess of the moon.

The Dutch doll became the sun god Phoebus, the Lucia doll became the harvest god Cels, the London doll became the fire god Vulcan, and the Tibetan doll became the war god Mars.

The Spring Capital doll became Neptune, the Edo doll became Pluto, Titania became Mercury, and Goliath became Vesta.

Of course, they merely occupied the positions of the twelve Olympian gods, without possessing their power. To unleash ritual magic, both magical power and a concept are indispensable. They only acquired the concept, but Alice did not infuse it with sufficient magical power—therefore, the puppets did not become stronger as a result; they merely embodied the concepts of the twelve Olympian gods. And since the God-King and the twelve Olympian gods were all here, this place naturally became the kingdom of the gods.

This is Rome, and Roman mythology and Greek mythology are two sides of the same coin.

This is the kingdom of the gods, therefore this is Mount Olympus!

"And since this is Mount Olympus, then this entire land and sky should obey my (Jupiter/Zeus) commands!"

Once the words were spoken, the world stood still.

Greek and Roman mythology were originally one, and in Greek mythology, Zeus had the power to lift Mount Olympus with one hand. Now that this place has become Mount Olympus, Alice, who has also become Jupiter/Zeus, can naturally do the same.

Her senses expanded rapidly outwards with the massive influx of magical energy emanating from her internal magic furnace: one meter, five meters, ten meters, one hundred meters, five hundred meters, one kilometer. When her will reached the boundary of a sphere with a radius of one kilometer centered on herself, she sensed a warning emerging from the depths of her heart.

[I cannot go any further. One more step and the ritual magic will be elevated to the level of apocalypse. This is my limit, the maximum I can control without using the apocalypse.]

She blinked gently, and in that instant, the spherical space within a one-kilometer radius centered on her became her domain. With her will and the full-power operation of the magic reactor, everything within that one-kilometer radius sphere came to a standstill.

The wind froze in the air, solidifying into ripples. Sound froze in the air, becoming immovable messages. Thunder froze in the air, and electricity ceased completely, as if sealed in gel. Even light was forcibly stopped due to the lack of a medium, turning everything into a grayish-white expanse.

The inside of the sphere is grayish-white, and if someone could view it from the outside, they would only see a perfect mirror. Because the medium is solidified, all light entering the sphere is not allowed to escape, and this perfect mirror surface naturally produces perfect reflection, making any change on the inside absolutely invisible from the outside. This is not a manipulation of spacetime; Alice simply uses some kind of mechanism to... bring all the molecular-level changes within the sphere under her control.

No matter what kind of 'accident' it is, change is necessary. And when all molecular-level changes are stopped, naturally no accident can happen. The lightning falling from the sky was swallowed and solidified the moment it touched the spherical mirror, while the flames and explosions erupting from the ground became the amber in Alice's hand from the very beginning.

This is the full power Alice can wield as a puppeteer without using the Apocalypse. She is the core of the ritual, the puppets are its fulcrum, and with the massive energy provided by the magic furnace as power, she can simulate a small-scale divine kingdom. Within this simulated divine kingdom, as long as one has not reached the fourth rank and mastered extraordinary power, all things are as insignificant as ants to her.

In the Aegean civilization, the rituals for constructing her divine kingdom used Mount Olympus and the twelve Olympian gods. In Egypt, it was the afterlife and the nine celestial gods. In Northern Europe, it was Asgard and the twelve celestial gods. In the East, it was the celestial court and the five directional deities.

She rarely uses this level of power, because it only makes her invincible among those of the same level. However, in normal circumstances, the formidable opponents she encounters are one or two levels stronger than her. The only way she can turn the tide is by preparing elaborate revelations. Only in situations like now, where the enemy's level is difficult to determine but she is in imminent danger, will she unleash this simulated divine kingdom.

The magic reactor is running at full power. If there are no additional supplies or interference, I can probably continue operating the simulated divine kingdom for about ten more minutes.

Inside the sphere, Alice rested her chin on her hand, deep in thought.

Death had given up its attack on her. Given that she was prepared and her simulated divine realm was in the process of unfolding, the only way to harm her was to use an immense amount of energy beyond limits or fourth-order molecular-level microscopic interference to disrupt her simulated divine realm. Neither of these could be achieved through mere 'accident'.

So Death chose to retreat, and as it retreated, Alice began to ponder.

Meme.

To be honest, when the word popped into Alice's head, her first reaction was to run away, as far away as possible, and erase her memory as she ran to ensure she would never remember ever having come into contact with such a thing. Because this so-called meme... was a rather painful experience for her, so painful that she had long since forgotten the details of her contact by erasing her memories, only retaining basic information and warning messages like 'memes are very evil, if you encounter them, run away immediately' in her mind.

She knew... or she thought she knew, what memes were. Although she had long forgotten what kind of memes she had come into contact with, or what events she had encountered in the process, the concept and principles of memes remained in her memory bank, and would never be forgotten.

Because in her understanding, so-called memes are information pollution.

She sighed softly, and the gas solidified within the spherical space the instant it left her chest cavity. Numerous air molecules compressed against each other in the still air, creating ripples around her that spread out like fish scales.

"Memes are something that really kill whoever gets involved with them. But if you look at it from another angle, perhaps... a quick and convenient death is already a good ending for them."

She sighed softly, recalling the basic concept of memes and when she had defined it. It was ancient history, over two hundred years ago, when she and Patchouli had suffered greatly in some eerie ruins in South America. She had long forgotten the specific events, the only thing she remembered was that she had gone insane three times and her body had died seven times in those ruins. And of those seven physical deaths, Patchouli was responsible for five of them.

—A calamity she would rather be killed by her lover than avoid, something she truly didn't want to be associated with again unless there was absolutely no other way. But now that the other party had come knocking, then… there was no escaping it now.

She pondered, her gaze passing over the sphere to the vast sky shrouded in a solar veil. She mentally calculated an escape strategy that didn't yet exist.

Because so-called memes are actually information carrying strange powers. As long as no one knows about this information, it will not have any effect. But once someone knows this information... even if it is just one person, the power contained in this information will become real and a real disaster.

It's like a note with the word "ghost" written on it. If no one opens it, nothing will happen. However, if someone curiously opens the note, reads and understands the meaning of the word "ghost," then the vengeful spirit or monster that the word refers to will immediately come to life and indiscriminately attack every fool who sees the word "ghost."

Of course, this is just a simplified analogy; the actual situation is far more complex, so complex that Alice doesn't even want to think about it. Even so, however, Alice still harbors doubts.

Why do memes exist in this world?

Section 10: Less Pleasant Memories

Even for most ordinary people, death isn't a terrifying thing. A steadfast will, lofty beliefs, transcendent understanding… there are so many things that can make someone remain unfazed when facing death. And a witch who has lived for countless years is certainly not inferior to ordinary people. Alice is naturally not afraid of death; what she fears is the unknown that leads her to it.

Memes are those unknown things. Because they don't follow logic or reason. At least, they don't follow the logic and reason that Alice understands. At least Alice can't understand how an ordinary person could inadvertently see an ordinary portrait printed on ordinary paper with ordinary ink on an ordinary printer and then be inexplicably killed or transformed into a monster from who-knows-where—she simply can't understand such a thing.

Her thoughts drifted back two hundred...nearly three hundred years, to a time before she was still in Salem, North America, posing as a nun to evade witch hunters, before leaving the civilized world to explore the ancient ruins in the sea. Back then, she encountered something in Salem—she saw a blind man rent a state-of-the-art rotary printing press, print several portraits, and then throw them into the street at night. She didn't initially pay much attention, because the blind man was just an ordinary person, perfectly healthy in body and mind, and before dawn, he had been hit by a freight wagon heading out of town while wandering the streets, leaving him flattened.

She learned of the incident because her tamed owl familiar—back then, there was no convenient satellite network—notified her of the pre-dawn car accident. Then, half an hour later, local police dragged the barely breathing blind man's body to the church to ask her, the imposter nun, to give him his last prayers. She heard him confess his sins before dying, then suddenly pass away before reciting the paintings, dead as night had fallen.

Well, dead is dead. As a fake nun who was actually a witch, she already had no liking for these 'lambs of the Lord'. So when the local sheriff asked her to perform last rites for this poor guy, she readily agreed and prepared to give this unfortunate creature who disturbed her normal sleep a complete and utter annihilation.

After all, she was a witch hunted by the Vatican for years, possessing intimate knowledge of the enemy and far surpassing the priests who came to North America to preach in terms of Vatican sacraments. The soul-consoling ritual she personally arranged ensured that the deceased could completely return to the world without any possibility of resurrection or trouble. The ritual went smoothly and successfully, indicating that the deceased was an ordinary person without any supernatural powers. And it was precisely for this reason that she was so puzzled after the events unfolded—how could this ordinary person have caused such a huge mess?

After dealing with the blind man's remains, she returned to the church to catch her sleep. However, while she slept, a large number of people died in the poor town of Salem. An early riser unfortunately saw one of the portraits thrown to the ground while out in the morning. Then, about two minutes later, a long, thin creature resembling the Wendigo, the cannibalistic monster from Native American legends, emerged from some unknown place and tore the unfortunate man's stomach apart.

This guy was the first, and as the portraits were swept away by the wind, carried off by dogs, and picked up by children, the number of victims in town grew. It wasn't until the frightened townspeople gathered, rushed into the church in terror, and banged on Alice's bedroom door, waking her, that she realized something terrible had happened in the town.

I spent a whole day dealing with those panicked quails, keeping them confined inside the church. Then that very night, a few more unfortunate disbelievers had their insides emptied in their own homes. I genuinely thought a wild Wendigo had wandered in; who knew it would turn out to be something like this?

The girl recalled the memory, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

She spent three days trying to find the 'Wendigo' and planned to teach it a lesson with her magic cannons, showing it just how much it had to pay for causing trouble on someone else's turf. However, she couldn't find the 'Wendigo' until the Salem incident escalated to the point where the Inquisitors and witch hunters arrived.

She couldn't find them, and neither could the witch hunters. The portraits, painted on ordinary paper, had long since been destroyed by various natural or man-made factors over the course of three days. Thus, no new deaths occurred, but the panic among the townspeople remained. And to quell the townspeople's fear, a grand witch trial, orchestrated by the witch hunters, naturally unfolded.

Alice was certain that those accused of witchcraft were innocent, defenseless girls. The witch hunters were likely well aware of this as well. But they needed to maintain order and uphold the authority of the Church, so even innocent girls were used as sacrifices by the inquisitors, tortured and tortured one by one until they tragically confessed and died. She wanted to change things, but she was truly powerless to do so.

She could certainly wipe out these witch hunters, even rewrite the memories of everyone in the town, making it seem as if nothing had ever happened. But doing so would allow her to be tracked down by the mathematical instruments, and the true elite of the Vatican would immediately arrive and wipe out all living things in the area to ensure her escape... Whether she could escape or not, at least there wouldn't be any survivors in this town. So, to turn a blind eye and watch a few innocent people die, or to intervene and cause even more deaths... this choice isn't difficult.

Alice is a time traveler. Although she has lived for hundreds of years and has been largely assimilated by the new world, some of her old beliefs still influence her. Therefore, she chooses to find the 'Wendigo' to end everything. And perhaps by chance, when the witch trials involve the wealthy man who rented the printing press to the blind, some information revealed by him finally leads her to the root of the incident.

She found a fragment of a printed copy that could still be pieced together. While attempting to assemble the puzzle, she took a shrewd approach, having the witch hunters do it instead. Minutes after the witch hunters completed the printed image, she saw a monster resembling a gaunt, naked ghost emerge from the wall and, within seconds, kill all the witch hunters who had seen its face.

A powerful monster, a terrifying monster. It possesses an extremely high degree of immortality, able to move independently and rapidly heal even when shattered into pieces. Moreover, it has extraordinary mobility, seemingly able to pass through rocks, metal, and energy shields unimpeded to reach any place it desires. This also means that its attacks can ignore all known defensive measures.

Alice didn't intervene, nor did she try to see the monster's face. She simply made a printed copy, then orchestrated some coincidences to conveniently conceal her identity as a nun and slipped away unnoticed. The rest was left to the Vatican's follow-up personnel who had found the target. She didn't pay much attention to the town's final fate, but she knew the witch trials in Salem hadn't lasted long, and the death toll wasn't as high as expected.

She then went to South America to study the drawing in the rainforest, beyond the reach of the Vatican's mathematical instruments. After several tests, she finally determined that it was indeed just an ordinary piece of paper and an ordinary drawing, but if anyone saw the drawing or copied the image, the elongated monster depicted in it would cross all obstacles and kill everyone who saw it within two minutes.

It sought out Alice, but it lost. Alice, too, failed to defeat it. Even when she used the solar power of the feathered serpent god from South American mythology to incinerate the monster, it could inexplicably resurrect. It was incapable of communication, and more importantly, its agility was terrifying. Sealing and imprisonment were futile.

It's very strong, but if it were just strong, that would be one thing. In Alice's eyes, this monster's strength is simply unreasonable.

Why does it appear whenever someone sees its image recorded? How does it traverse space? How does it traverse matter? Alice still doesn't understand spatial jumps, and as for the ability to pass through walls… it sounds simple, but it's incredibly difficult. Alice remembers that she only managed to develop the ability to pass through walls after entering Gensokyo. By using probability interference, she managed to trigger the 'quantum tunneling effect' when all the particles in her body passed through physical objects, barely managing to create the spell. And the energy consumed to pass through a wall once, if made into a magic cannon, would be enough to blast a hundred walls to dust!

This bizarre agility was utterly illogical, and Alice's tests at the time revealed no energy consumption. In other words, this monster, resembling a Wendigo, didn't seem to need to expend energy to unleash its powerful abilities. To put it bluntly, its energy was not conserved!

Energy is not conserved!

When the research was first conducted, this discovery nearly shattered the witch's worldview. This wasn't just a matter of the sun rising in the west; it was a cognitive catastrophe—the sun rising from the center, right beneath her feet, setting the entire world ablaze!

Alice couldn't remember how she finally dealt with this guy. But it certainly wasn't a pleasant memory. Her past self had erased all related memories, and the only thing she was certain of was that this thing was called a 'meme' and was related to those ancient ruins in the sea.

And now, this kind of thing has appeared again in the world of Final Destination, which is some distance away from Gensokyo.

Memes... these irrational things. If I weren't truly unable to avoid them, I really wouldn't want to deal with this stuff.

She sighed softly. In her understanding, the 'Grim Reaper' now undoubtedly met the standards of a meme. Equally irrational, it would attack anyone who met the conditions. It had no physical form; its internal mechanisms and energy consumption were complete mysteries.

There's no way to hide now.

Is it possible that its stance differs from that of the angels?

No, that's impossible. Even if this thing truly is one of the reasons the Emperor harvested the civilizations of the stars, its nature is fixed. It only kills people, not machines. My legion has not reported a single instance of losing contact or being attacked. And the same should apply to angels, who are essentially machines as well.

[They won't take the initiative here, and it's even harder to say about the angels. After all, they are merely a means for the Emperor to monitor and harvest civilizations, following specific behavioral patterns. If Death doesn't launch an attack on them and doesn't hinder their world cleansing, then the possibility of them launching an attack on Death is very low.]

Moreover, Death is not an angel. It... may not possess a tangible form that can be attacked. The strategy of using angelic power to break the deadlock would be unreliable.