Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 5902 - 4923: Batman Is Not Here (10)

Ted poured Lilith a cup of warm water. He looked at her with some concern, then said, "Are you okay? You seem a bit different from when you usually use your prophecy ability. What’s going on?"

"I didn’t use my prophecy ability." Lilith nodded at him, took a sip of water, then said, "Have you heard of the collective unconscious?"

Ted formed a question mark with his expression. He said, "You know, I failed psychology at the academy. Even for behavior analysis, I could only score in the forties, and Professor Wayne would avoid me whenever he saw me..."

"Alright then, I’ll explain it to you in the simplest and most straightforward way," Lilith turned around and said, "Since ancient times, humans have inherited not only physical genes but also the souls of ancient ancestors. A part of our ancestors’ souls has always resided in our bodies."

Ted shivered, "Sounds a bit frightening."

Lilith shook her head and said, "Why do even newborns instinctively fear fire? Why are we afraid of heights, dread the sight of bottomless icy pools, and fear the roar of beasts?"

"Isn’t that normal?" Ted said, "Those things are dangerous, so naturally we associate them with being harmed, which makes us feel afraid."

"The question is, why do you know these things are dangerous. You understand that falling from a height means death. But there are certain things that activate your fear from the top of a building, faster than this logic. This is the human race’s collective unconscious."

"I get it," Ted nodded and said, "Because humans have always feared these things, it’s become our instinct to avoid being hurt by them without relying on logic, but in a more straightforward way."

"You can understand it that way. If it required cognition and logic to avoid these dangers, the human race might have already perished. Because that would be too slow. The codes etched at the bottom of human souls are trophies acquired on the evolutionary path, helping us stand out from the beasts and become the rulers of Earth."

"But how does that relate to your reaction just now?"

"The unconscious is unconscious because humans cannot actively discover and utilize it. Only the conscious mind can be actively used, and humans do not have a collective conscious mind. Except for mind power users, people cannot directly communicate psychically with another individual."

Ted nodded and said, "That’s true, so does that mean even you can’t actively use your own unconscious?"

"There are some powerful mind power users who can indeed control their unconscious, but that’s their own," Lilith emphasized, "The human race’s collective unconscious doesn’t belong to any one individual; it’s the collective instinct of humans, impossible for any single individual to control."

"I felt something," Lilith said, "It made me perceive more deeply that there is some kind of bond among the human race linking everyone together. Before, this connection was hidden beneath the surface, even difficult for me to see. But just now, it moved."

Ted shivered again, "Sounds like it’s not a good thing."

But Lilith shook her head. She seemed a bit perplexed, "If I had to say what connects humans together, I’d say it’s the birth of new life. It represents reproduction and inheritance, the moment humans come closest to touching their instincts.

"However, the connection hidden beneath the surface signals to me: Death is the most unbreakable bond for humans. The tomb connects us. I’m not sure if my feeling is wrong, but if it’s true..."

Lilith didn’t continue. Clearly, certain things went beyond her understanding, broke her previous impressions, causing her to sometimes doubt her experiences, sometimes her feelings.

"Your feelings are not wrong, miss," a voice appeared. Lilith looked toward the direction of the voice and froze upon seeing the blue-eyed young man.

"You are... Charles Xavier?" Ted said in surprise, "I’ve heard Professor Wayne mention you, he said you are the most powerful mind power user in another world. I didn’t expect you’d be here too."

Charles chuckled softly, but Lilith looked at Ted and said, "We must show enough respect to Professor Xavier."

"No need for that," Charles said, "I like to use this appearance precisely because I don’t want to hear people constantly calling me ’professor.’ Only old-fashioned folks like that, you can just call me Charles."

Lilith and Ted exchanged a glance. Charles walked over and sat down—though it was actually a psychic projection, a hallucination appearing through interference with their brainwaves—and continued smiling, "I really appreciate your understanding of the collective unconscious, miss. However, regarding the ’death’ of the collective unconscious, perhaps you have some misunderstanding."

"Please enlighten us," Lilith said, "In fact, I haven’t felt a strong sense of decay and destruction, which doesn’t quite match the usual perception of death."

"That is because death within the collective unconscious of the human race represents a certain unhealthy mental state that needs reconstruction. Death is the process of reshaping the self. Rather than death, it is more accurate to say it’s rebirth, living towards death."

Lilith suddenly realized, and she said, "So it’s not death in the usual sense, but ’death of the self.’"

"Yes," Charles said, "This also indicates how death shapes each of us through the collective unconsciousness of humanity—how do you perceive your morbidity?"

Lilith hesitated for a moment, then said, "I do not entirely deny the morbid part of my personality. My fragility and sensitivity give me stronger emotional perception, and my anger makes me more action-oriented. I do not think these need to be eradicated."

Charles nodded and said, "Indeed. Everyone’s personality has morbid aspects; there is never a completely healthy and normal person in this world. But how do we differentiate between acceptable morbidity and those needing healing and improvement?"

"Pain," Lilith said, "If I do not feel pain from my morbidity, then it doesn’t need to be improved. Conversely, if these things often trouble me, causing me great pain and frustration, then I must make changes."

"This is the meaning of the existence of self-death." The inexplicable light flickered in Charles’s blue eyes, "When you feel pain and desperately want to eliminate the morbidity causing it, the God of Death will respond to your summon— ’death’ in the collective unconscious is the intrinsic motivation for humanity to renew personality and mental states. It represents ’letting go of past pain’ and ’welcoming forthcoming rebirth.’

Lilith also fell into contemplation. Charles continued, "But is killing the morbidity that pains you, reshaping your personality and mental state, really that simple?

"Not to mention ordinary people, even for mind power users like us, controlling the intricacies of one’s psychic battlefield, is there enough strong motivation to accomplish all this?"

Lilith gently shook her head. Her eyes flickered. These people with exceptional psychological talent, when considering such questions, always display the same demeanor—looking melancholic, fragile, yet sensitive.

"No," Lilith said, "It’s not that simple. Everyone’s greatest enemy is themselves, even if they are Superman, even if they are Batman, there are moments when they are defeated by themselves.

"But those moments when they overcome themselves, what leads them to victory?" Charles asked, "What prompts them to decide to conquer their morbidity, reshape their psychic battlefield, to achieve rebirth?"

Lilith pondered for a long time silently, finally uttering one word: "Love."

"Yes. Love and death are indeed inseparable," Charles said, "When you love something, someone, a certain lifestyle, only then do you find dissatisfaction with the status quo, desire change, and gain the powerful intrinsic motivation to truly reshape the self.

"How does death become the bond connecting all humans together?" Charles continued, "Not through fear, but through love.

"In that barbaric and primitive age, by healing each other and finding food for companions, we established human society. But all of this did not come naturally or swiftly. Primitive instinct is always selfish; humanity completed the transition from solitary to communal living, from individuality to collectiveness, from personalization to socialization through love for one another, accepting others and society in cycles of death and rebirth, ultimately becoming inseparable and united.

"The death in the collective unconscious of humanity—which will reconstruct its instincts because of love, like other instincts, is a precious legacy from ancient ancestors, an unbreakable connection, and the amniotic fluid and umbilical cord of the human race."

Lilith seemed a bit dazed, and Charles continued, "When applied to a specific person, death is certainly painful. It’s like breaking a deformed bone to let it regrow. The bone will eventually heal, but the scars will remain."

"Yes," Lilith murmured softly, "Even in self-reconstruction, it’s impossible to completely erase the past. Those morbidities, the pain caused by them, will still linger in memory, sometimes leaving marks in the new personality, like shadows, impossible to escape.

"Among the changes brought about by love, the stubborn parts, the things crushed under the powerful intrinsic motivation, are like resentful souls that always haunt us. Does death increase their resentment or is human nature inherently self-loathing?"

Lilith appeared somewhat confused. She gradually entered a mystical prophetic state, as if hearing the connection of death pulse like a heart, uncovering the fog through its rhythm to discern the truth of the collective unconscious.

"A tower built upon ruins looks more like a tomb." Charles’s voice echoed in her ear, "Love is the Tomb Guardian, keeping the reborn self restrained; death is the Grave Digger, allowing morbidity to release, linking the past with the present."

In front of Lilith’s eyes, as the mist cleared, stood the Tower of Babel built by humanity. Through cycles of death and rebirth, they have constructed their society to heights no beast could reach, endlessly spiraling upwards until reaching the limit of the sky.

But within that magnificent Tower of Heaven, there is a hole at the center of the ground, where the morbidity of humanity and society pours forth, likewise spiraling upwards until forming a double helix like a genetic structure, inscribing the countless rises and falls of dynasties onto tombstones, and in the spiral of history, transforming into today’s appearance.