“…” 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 s.p.a.ce 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. Vanis.h.i.+ng 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.”
