The surroundings strangely quieted down. Less than twenty ters ahead of us stood a hologram of a high-ranking officer from the mysterious side of the Ancient Xyrin Empire, known as "Reiji". Yes, she was a hologram, as insubstantial as a recording, the creation of which was tens of thousands of years ago. What we were witnessing was the actions of this "Reiji" many eons past, and although we were only ters apart from these projections, the gulf between us was far greater: a gulf of ti.
Yet, this image, recorded in the ancient era, now bore its gaze upon us. Surely, in her ti, there was nothing but void in front of her. What did she see?
Due to interference, the image of "Reiji" was unclear and her appearance undiscernable, her eyes concealed. Yet suddenly, I felt a gaze upon —it was that projection’s sight, a powerful gaze piercing through eons and distances to fall upon . She seed to smile faintly, and I heard a distorted voice, "Seeing so things... interesting, but not related to you now."
She spoke to her emperor, but I sensed that this ssage was also for us, saying, "I see you."
"Is that so," the Fifteen-day Zone Emperor paused montarily, as if recalling sothing, then chuckled softly, "Alright, I know your rule, I won’t ask more. Prepare to depart, we have less than a hundred years to complete this final expedition. Within a century, whether we find that Void Creature or gain its aid, we must return to et the impact. As for who can awaken again with this fifty percent chance, only fate will decide." The old emperor seed to give a self-deprecating shake of the head, then rallied his spirit and slowly raised his hand, "But no matter who awakens, always rember, for the Empire! We will have revenge!"
All commanders saluted in unison, their voices resounding, "For the Empire! We will have revenge!"
Then everything returned to silence, the holographic display frozen, just like the prior ancient projections after "playing", the information recorded on this platform ended there, and what happened afterwards is unknown. That last emperor embarked on her century-long expedition into the depths of the Void, seeking the last sliver of hope, searching for a newly born Void Creature...
The surrounding projections began to rapidly dissipate after a few tremors. My mind was in chaos, and I failed to notice this until almost all projections beca vanishing particles of light. Only then did I realize that one figure remained.
She was a Xyrin Angel standing there previously, with pure white wings on her back and wearing a long white gown similar in style to Alaya’s, slender and female. She stood among the group of angels behind Alaya, and like all other projections, had her back to us, so no one noticed her difference from the other ancient projections. When all projections dissipated, this last remaining shadow caught our attention, just as I was about to step forward to see, she suddenly spoke!
"Before the Queen left, she left her sword here, but eventually, they never returned, and no one took it from the platform again," the female Xyrin Angel, still with her back to everyone, said softly, her voice clear yet gentle, distinct from the previous ancient projections because no one expected such a situation, causing us all to halt with surprise and exchange looks. Sandora couldn’t help but speak, "Do you an that emperor didn’t return?"
"A century passed quickly, and there has been no news of Her Majesty or her fleet, no traces of battle in the Void, yet the entire force vanished," it sounded like she was talking to herself, showing no concern with Sandora, but it was clearly answering us all. "I waited until the last mont, hoping to see Her Majesty return, but nothing ca. Since the conceptual fracture began, I’ve been forgetting many things daily, this process lasted a century, I forgot for a century, yet I only knew I forgot sothing, but not what it was. Enormous voids appeared daily on the mother planet, then filled with randomly assigned information, and finally, I could no longer realize I lost half my siblings, closing this world."
"Until today," she suddenly turned around, and I saw... a vague face shrouded in light mist, "you ca and brought back the Thought Body fragnt I left in the tower as a defense core."
Previously, we only saw her back, and her sudden speech had distracted , making fail to realize her familiarity. When she turned, I recognized the angel before and blurted out, "Eh? Kite?!"
Indeed, the ethereal silhouette, most of the body cloaked in layers of mist, was the Angel Kite, who had accompanied for several days!
"...My na is Orelia, but... call whatever you like." The angel, shrouded in mist, lightly flapped her wings, hopping softly, "It seems that after such long calculations, the plan back then still deviated unexpectedly. The current situation was unforeseen, yet overall, it isn’t bad. Although there have been constant errors in recognizing your identities, I believe you are the ones I’ve been waiting for. But the remnants of the conceptual fracture effect persist in this world. My mory recovery is poor, as confused as you. Perhaps we can exchange what we know to piece together the truth."
"..." I silently gazed at the "Kite" I’d spent days with. Her sudden animation was disconcerting, unintelligible what led to this present state. Perhaps she regained consciousness upon being absorbed into the Hall of Gathering, or maybe the previous projection phenona influenced it. But now, our group urgently needed ti to clear our thoughts, so I gestured toward her, "Wait a mont, we need a mont to sort this out."
"Please take your ti." Declared the angel who called herself Orelia, fluttering a few paces back to signify she wouldn’t intrude.
The perplexed gathered in a cluster, looking back and forth amongst ourselves until Bingdis, the most straightforward of us, spoke first, "Chen, it seems your entire family can’t escape this; sothing’s up with all of you."
I ignored Bingdis’s sarcastic comnt, focusing on my sister, "Sis, what do you... think?"
"Heh," big sister showed a troubled smile, her usually calm disposition slightly faltering too, but finally, she sighed, "Although it seems unimaginable, it seems we have a significant connection to the old Fifteenth Day Zone."
"A connection beyond imagination indeed," Bingdis blandly remarked, "From experience, ancient projections here are only disturbed within a certain proximity of their true forms. Count how many severely distorted images were in the footage, including the Fifteenth Day Zone Emperor — let’s be blunt: if you can accept this, I think one of you might be the Fifteenth Day Zone Emperor of the Old Empire..."
We exchanged looks again; Bingdis directly vocalized the suspicion we all held but couldn’t quite affirm — the theory was too bizarre. But undeniably, it was the most logical. If Bingdis’s speculation was correct, let’s narrow it down: Alaya and Pandora each found their corresponding projections, eliminate them. Sandora and Visca have clear identities, eliminate them too. The sa applies to Bingdis, Lin, and Monina, I myself am out too. This leaves only Qianqian, Lin Xue, and big sister within the projection’s disturbance zone during interference... making it especially astounding.
"Can we not be so dramatic?" My mind was a ss, utterly unable to fathom why reality turned so strange. I thought being identified as a Void Creature had toughened , only to find life can play jokes beyond imagination—this one bigger than big.
"If it weren’t dramatic, you wouldn’t be your peculiar family," Bingdis concluded, watching summatively, "See that Kite over there? She knows more than all of us combined, let’s see if she’s willing to talk. Chen, as the charger for past days, go exchange with your battery; we’re counting on you."
: "...Wind... um, Orelia, we’ve wrapped things up, so let’s talk about what you know now."
Orelia—alright, I’m still used to calling her Kite—floated over leisurely when she heard my words. She always had an air of calmness and unhurriedness about her. I figured that facing her forr superior’s self wouldn’t be any more composed than us, but at least for now, she really seed as calm as a breeze. After floating in front of us, she first saluted Alaya and said softly, "Welco back, Commander."
"I can’t rember," Alaya said honestly. "Sorry, I can’t rember who you are."
"That’s normal because His Majesty split the Mother Star’s information equivalently and in parallel into two parts. Each part of the Mother Star is the true and only Mother Star, so it is necessary to ensure that these two parts of Mother Star’s information are completely isolated and never communicated. This way, stability can be maintained. Currently, only a small portion of the split state has been undone, and it happens that your mory is not included in that portion."
"Was the Emperor of the Fifteenth Day Zone one of us back then?" Lin Xue looked at Kite’s indistinct face and asked a question that seed unnecessary to answer.
"Yes," Kite turned slightly, bowing towards the Big Sister who still held the Commander’s Sword, "It’s a pleasure to see you again, my Emperor—although you have beco like this, you’re still my Emperor."
A silence fell; everyone was caught between shock and a state of sothing we long suspected. We were silent for a few seconds, each fixing our shattered worldview. Qianqian was the easiest to nd—because it was hard to say if she even had one to start with, so she was the first to ask: "Is Sister Chen Qian really the Emperor back then? Are you sure? Do you have any evidence? Sister Chen Qian is human! She was born on Earth, I’ve been with her since childhood..."
I pointed to myself helplessly: "I also thought I was an Earthling two years ago, and you were also with since childhood."
"Soul similarity, information mark, several key information points, and this sword," Orelia Kite pointed to the Commander’s Sword in Big Sister’s hand. "This sword and this space together form an information entanglent body integrated with the Empire’s most advanced mysticism technology, and His Majesty herself is one of the parts of this entanglent. When splitting the information into two parts of the Mother Star, she left a key to unlock the split state in each part. I don’t know the other side’s situation, but on this side, the key to unlock it is His Majesty herself; only she can resonate with this sword and then release the ’lock core’ in this space. When I began to regain partial mory, His Majesty the Emperor’s identity was unquestionable."
"Alright, I understand. Let’s set this topic aside for now," Big Sister suddenly spoke. Her face was complex, mixed with rare confusion and unease, but she still controlled her emotions well and gently squeezed my hand. "Ah Jun, don’t worry, I’m fine—Orelia, can you start explaining what happened back then, from beginning to end? Why did the Mother Star need to split, and why did the Emperor... which back then was , go to the depths of the Void and disappear, tell us everything you know. We are... quite confused right now."
Orelia Kite seed to contemplate for a mont before nodding: "I’ll do my best. It’s a long story."
Everyone quieted down, ready to listen intently to this history shrouded in mystery.
"I suppose there’s no need to explain the disaster; you should already know that part of history," Orelia glanced at us, receiving affirmation from everyone. "What I want to talk about is the actions taken by His Majesty the Emperor on the eve of the Empire being swept by disaster. Unlike other Zone Emperors, the forr Emperor of the Fifteenth Day Zone was never enthusiastic about that insane plan back then. She was farsighted and had realized early on that should any issues occur with those large-scale experints, they would lead to catastrophic consequences. But among the council of one hundred and thirty-five emperors, fewer than ten were not participating in the plan, and even fewer—only four or five—were explicitly against it, so it was unstoppable."
His Majesty had been trying tirelessly and even attempted to unite with other emperors to act. She indeed persuaded several Emperors who opposed the Void experint, but disaster broke out before they could act—even Lady Reiji, with her foreknowledge ability, couldn’t predict the form and exact ti of the outbreak.
"That’s quite normal," Sandora sighed. "The Void, the Abyss, both are not simple things that can be foreseen, let alone an explosive mixture of the two. It’s impressive you sensed sothing wrong beforehand."
I detected a tinge of helplessness in Sandora’s tone, and even though she didn’t say it outright, after being connected with her for so long, I could sense what she was thinking—actually, everything could have been avoided if the Emperor of the Fifteenth Day Zone and her prophets had successfully warned the organizers of the experint, then the disaster wouldn’t have happened.
But in the end, no one heeded such warnings. The once powerful and wise Xyrin Apostles, god-like and omnipotent, had collectively fallen into a state of blindness and fanaticism back then. Their arrogance didn’t allow them to acknowledge their race could be destroyed by a fictitious disaster. Even prophets and their warnings couldn’t change the minds of those fanatical researchers—of course, perhaps there was so effect. The warnings from the Fifteenth Day Zone might have made them place a few more Ghost Energy Barriers on the test site, perhaps recheck the test equipnt, or slightly reduce the energy supply to the Void Converter. But for an Abyss Impact about to erupt in the Xyrin Apostles’ Spirit Network, what good could these asures do?
"Not listening to the prophets ultimately costs dearly," Lin Xue shook her head, not quite sure what her feelings were while listening to others discuss possible stories of her past life. I glanced at her in agreent: as far as we’re concerned, nobody dares to ignore anything this girl says, even if most of the ti she says stuff like, ’If you don’t take to eat roast duck, there will be a bloodshed tomorrow."
The handful of opposing voices were eventually drowned out by more than a hundred fanatical voices. After the disaster broke out, the Fifteenth Day Zone had to act alone to save itself. I don’t understand why the Emperor here didn’t participate in the "Literature Hall" plan back then. It seems like Orelia doesn’t even know people established a Literature Hall after the disaster, nor that more than thirty Xyrin Emperors sacrificed themselves for it. The Fifteenth Day Zone was entirely acting on its own; had they given up on communicating with their comrades?
When I posed these questions, Orelia seed to chuckle.
"I don’t know what the Literature Hall is, but Lady Reiji ordered the complete closure of all external communication channels of the Fifteenth Day Zone and even cut off our Spirit Network with the Empire’s heartland. Looking back, our actions were the right ones."
"Listening to prophets ans staying alive."
Lin Xue started shaking her head again. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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