Chapter 1485: Jump
Nightingale touched her own chest — felt the hammering there — then yanked her hand back as if the heartbeat embarrassed her. She flicked Anna’s forehead with two fingers.
“Next time, find a safe place to think. Now explain it. Simply.”
By then Phyllis and the others had closed around them, reading the situation in an instant. The collective exhale was audible.
Anna pressed her palm to her forehead. Her voice, when it came, was small and unsteady. “Jump down.”
Nightingale stared at her. She waited long enough to be sure she hadn’t misheard, then sighed. “Take that back. Start from the beginning.”
“It’s not difficult to explain.” Anna turned to look at the Bottomless Land — the black aperture at the island’s center, featureless and absolute. “Lan knew the rule. She’s an Oracle; she comes from the Realm of Mind. Whatever else she lied about, she could not have forgotten the most basic problem after going to all this trouble.”
“So Roland can’t open the column of light himself?”
“No — and the column probably doesn’t lead where we need to go anyway.” Anna shook her head. “Only the victor of the Battle of Divine Will crosses that bridge. We aren’t victors. We have no other legacy shards. And Lan never mentioned the bridge from the start. If recovering every shard to end the Battle were a critical step, it would be contradictory on its face. She would have said so.”
Nightingale’s brow furrowed. “Then where?”
Anna recited the words exactly as they’d been spoken. “‘The truth is always what you understand.’ If she predicted that God would block her from giving critical information directly, the astrolabe scenes become suspect. Think back: which scene left the deepest impression on you?”
A pause. “Something about gravity?”
“Yes. In the second scene Roland witnessed, the core that forms this world sits at the planet’s center.” Anna’s finger pointed toward the sinkhole. “Not up. Down. The Bottomless Land looks unreachable, but—” she paused there deliberately, the way a teacher does before writing on the board— “‘Gravity is no longer the force which is most deserving of reverence in this world.’”
“Wait.” Phyllis had been working through it. The moment the meaning landed, her expression changed. “You can’t be serious. That’s absurd. If it were safe, someone would have reached the bottom. The Radiation People built towers to try. They built staircases. The murals show everything — and they abandoned the attempt. There’s a reason.”
“Going down and coming back up are two different problems.” Anna’s voice was patient, unhurried, as though she had already rehearsed this argument with herself. “This is probably what the Guardian actually means by ‘the person who has the strength.’ There is no barrier on the descent. But without the bridge of light, anyone who reaches the bottom cannot return to the surface.”
The silence that followed had weight to it. Even the island’s perpetual wind seemed to draw back.
“No limit going down,” Nightingale said slowly. “The bridge of light required to come up.”
“Yes. And there’s something else.” Anna’s gaze moved across all of them, though she was really looking past them — at the reasoning as she had worked it through, each step checking the next. “It was only after speaking with the Guardian that I was able to confirm this. Or rather: it’s the only explanation for why Lan never mentioned a Guardian at all. Because what Roland needs to do has nothing to do with a Guardian. It never did.”
“So you plan to throw Roland into a sinkhole.” Sky Lord’s expression did something complicated.
“I’m going with him.” The words were simple and final. “You will handle the retreat. All of you — there is no need to stay. Return to the floating island as quickly as possible.”
No one spoke.
They all knew her well enough. Once Anna had decided, not even Roland himself had ever moved her. The silence was its own kind of answer.
Hackzord studied them for a moment, then nodded once. He reached up and opened a Distortion Door directly above the sinkhole — the black aperture inside a black aperture. “Young lady,” he said. “What your race has accomplished here is enough. Even failure carries a measure of glory.”
Anna summoned her Blackfire, and the unconscious Roland rose from the ground — held aloft by that cold dark flame, perfectly still. She walked through the door.
Nightingale was simply gone from her spot. No announcement, no hesitation. By the time anyone registered the movement, she had already stepped through.
The last person to cross was Silent Disaster.
Hackzord frowned. “You too?”
Serakkas didn’t turn around. “I said I would accompany them to the Bottomless Land.” One step through the threshold. “Wherever it is.”
When light returned to darkness and the darkness was complete, Roland heard a voice.
It came from no direction. It came from everywhere.
“Where people come from and where they head to has always been a profound and interesting question.”
He turned. A figure — gray, hazy, shaped like a suggestion of a person — glowed faintly in the void. It was the only light in all that blackness. A beacon, or what passed for one.
“Discussed for ten thousand years. Every generation answered differently. Yet regardless of the answer, it was filled with wisdom — a guide toward continuous progress, toward probing the unknown.
“But after ten thousand years, the question changed. It turned meaningless. In the tens of thousands of years that followed, no one asked where they came from or where they were going. Because the answer became clear. Vanishing is the eternal point of refuge.”
The figure released something like a sigh.
“This world was never specially prepared for life.
“From the moment it appeared six quadrillion years ago, the stars have been in decline — burning toward their ends, becoming dwarf stars, becoming black holes. The universe turns dark.
“Under gravity’s guidance, dwarf stars can reignite when they collide to become new stars. But that is only a final brilliance. An oasis in a desert.
“A powerful civilization occupies a lit oasis. The others survive on aging dwarf stars, draining them until the last of it is gone. This is the scene two octillion years from now.
“Gravity becomes the universe’s only ruler. Dead stars fall into black holes. The radiation of that absorption produces the most blinding light, brighter even than any star — and that will be the only source of energy remaining.”
The gray figure’s voice grew heavier with each sentence, as if reciting something memorized from grief.
“Further still. At ten decillion years, the dwarf stars evaporate. The universe holds no material planets, no matter at all. Energy spreads uniformly to every corner. Every point in the universe is dead. Darkness, cold, emptiness — that is its everything. Yet compared to the universe’s full span, this is equivalent to a newborn.
“What follows is a longer adolescence, adulthood, and old age. But that period of time is meaningless, because no life is part of it. Our existence is but an extremely brief instant — a manifestation of anomaly, the outcome of a correction the universe requires.”
The light inside the figure dimmed. Weakened. As though the telling of it had cost something real.
”…We will not be able to go anywhere.”
Chapter 1485: “Jump”
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“…” So that’s why she was in a daze. Was she pondering over this question? Nightingale touched her beating chest, and retracted her hand in a rather peeved manner before flicking Anna’s forehead. “Next time, please find a safe place to do the thinking, alright? So, what’s your conclusion? Please explain it in the simplest of words.”
By this point in time, Phyllis and company had rushed over. Seeing that the both of them were fine, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
Anna was feeling a little unconfident as she held her forehead and whispered, “Jump down.”
Nightingale was taken aback. After making sure that she hadn’t heard wrong, she sighed. “I take that back; it’s best you explain in detail what happened from the beginning to the end.”
“Yes…” She turned to look in the direction of the Bottomless Land. “In fact, it’s not difficult to explain. Since the Oracles and Guardian come from the Realm of Mind, it’s impossible that Lan doesn’t know the rule of requiring a legacy as a key. Regardless of how much truth or fallacy is contained in her words, it’s quite unlikely she would forget the most basic problem after painstakingly putting all of this in motion.
“That seems to make sense.” Nightingale thought and said, “So do you think Roland himself is able to open the column of light that leads to heaven?”
“No, the column of light probably doesn’t lead us to where we would like to go.” Anna shook her head. “Only the victor of the Battle of Divine Will would pass through that bridge to reach the other end. Besides, we aren’t victors, nor do we have other legacy shards. Similarly, Lan had never mentioned this from the beginning. Furthermore, retrieving the legacy shards
of other races to end the Battle of Divine Will is in itself contradictory. If it’s a critical step in actualizing the plan, wouldn’t it appear too illogical?”
“Then… where shall we go?” Nightingale realized that she was unable to keep up with Anna’s train of thought.
“ ‘The truth is always what you understand.’ ” Anna repeated Lan’s original words. “If she had predicted that God would stop her from divulging critical information, then the scenes in the astrolabe would be suspect. Now, thinking back to it, which scene left the greatest impression on you?”
“Uh… something about gravity?”
“That’s right. In the second scene Roland saw, the core that forms this world should be located in the middle of the planet. Therefore, we should be heading down instead of up. The Bottomless Land appears unreachable, but don’t forget—” Anna paused having said that. “ ‘Gravity is no longer the force which is most deserving of reverence in this world.’ ”
“Wait!” Phyllis spent quite a while before realizing what Anna meant by “jump down.”
“Are you sure? That’s too risky! If it’s safe to jump, there should have been people who have reached the bottom. You have also seen the murals left behind by the Radiation People. They had even built towers and staircases, but from the replay of the scenes, they quickly gave up on similar attempts. It tells us that it’s not a workable solution!”
“Being able to go down and up are two completely different matters.” Anna shook her head. “This is probably what the Guardian truly means by “the person who has the strength.” Heading down doesn’t require any keys, but if we are unable to activate the bridge of light, we might never be able to return to the ground.”
“There is no limit heading down, while heading up requires the bridge that leads to heaven…”
“That’s right. As to the question of how entry to the Bottomless Land is gained, I had thought of several possibilities prior to this,” she continued. “And the fact is that only until I spoke with the Guardian was I able to confirm a point. Or perhaps, this is the only way to explain why Lan never mentioned of a Guardian. It’s because what Roland needs to do has nothing to do with a Guardian from the very beginning!”
“So you plan on throwing Roland down the sinkhole?” Sky Lord revealed a look of surprise.
“No, I will accompany him,” Anna said categorically. “The retreat will be handed to all of you. There’s no need to stay here. Return to the floating island as quickly as possible.”
There was an instant silence. Although no one was willing to abandon Anna, everyone knew her character. Once she had decided on something, even His Majesty was unable to change it.
Seeing everyone silent, Hackzord knew the answer. He nodded and opened a teleportation door above the sinkhole. “Young lady, your performance is enough to prove the extraordinariness of a race. Even in failure, there is still glory in it.”
Anna conjured Blackfire to raise up the unconscious Roland and walked into the door.
And the next moment, Nightingale vanished from her spot.
When everyone realized what was happening, it was already too late to stop her—
The last person to walk towards the Distortion Door was Silent Disaster.
“What, you are going with them?” Hackzord said with a frown.
“I’ve said it before. When they head to the Bottomless Land, I will accompany them,” Serakkas said without turning her head as she crossed through the door, “regardless of where it is.”
…
When the light returned to silence and darkness occupied everything, Roland heard a familiar voice in his ears.
“Where people come from and where they head to has always been a profound and interesting question.”
He turned his head and saw a gray, hazy figure. A faint light was coruscating in its interior, and it was the only “beacon” in the space he was in.
“It has been discussed for ten thousand years, and each generation has a completely different answer. But regardless of the answer, it’s filled with wisdom. It will lead them towards continuous progress so as to probe the unknown.
“But after ten thousand years, this question suddenly changed, turning meaningless. In the tens of thousands of years that followed, no one cared about where they came from or where they were going… because the answer is clear. Vanishing is the eternal point of refuge.”
It let out a sigh.
“This world wasn’t specially prepared for life.
“From the moment it appeared six quadrillion years ago, the stars have entered a stage of decline, burning to the end to become dwarf stars or black holes. The universe would turn a swath of blacknesses.
“Under the guidance of gravity, dwarf stars might reignite from collisions to become new stars again, but that is merely their final brilliance, just like a rare oasis in a desert.
“A powerful civilization occupies a lit oasis, while other civilizations rely on the aging dwarf stars to survive, until the large sliver of energy is drained dry. This would also be the scene after two octillion years.
“Gravity will become the only ruler of the world. The dead stars will continuously be absorbed into black holes and the immense amount of
radiation will allow them to produce the most blinding light, even brighter than the stars. But that would be the only possible source of energy at that time.”
The gray figure’s voice gradually turned heavy.
“Even further into the future, at ten decillion years, the dwarf stars would evaporate, and the universe would no longer have any material planets or matter. Energy would be uniformly spread across every corner of the universe, and every spot in the universe would be dead. Darkness, coldness, and emptiness would be its everything. Yet, compared to the age of the universe, it would be equivalent to a newborn.
“In what follows, the universe will go through even longer adolescence, adulthood, and its advanced years. But that period of time would be meaningless because there is no life involved in it. Our existence is but an extremely brief instant, a manifestation of an anomaly, the outcome of a correction the universe needs.”
The light within its body gradually darkened and weakened.
“… We won’t be able to go anywhere.”