Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 226 | The Long Way Home | Novela.app

Sunlight shone, and waves of wheat swayed. A scroll fell, dissolving into a scattering of light. One person walked into the golden waves—a black-haired woman. Then two—joined by a white-haired man. Soon, a crowd followed, their steps rhythmic and unified, dressed in identical uniforms embroidered with the emblem of the Solar System Human Federation. Within the phantasmagoria that bridged reality and the Bottom of Spirit, they returned from the starry void to the darkness, walking along golden fields toward a distant lakeshore. On their way, they passed a fleet through the barrier of reality, finally stepping into a black portal at the original site of Earth. They came to a halt upon Gaia, the non-rotating planet fixed between the physical world and the Bottom of Spirit. It was not "Psionic Thought," nor was it some supernatural power; it was merely a subtle obsession embarking on a journey from which there was no return. And now, that journey had reached its end. They had walked back to the very first stroke of the past they had ever recorded. ... Raytine dragged his enemies further and further away as he fought. For some reason, the emotional sectors simulated within his mind were in a state of eerie chaos. It could perhaps be described as a form of panic—a feeling that he was about to lose something, yet again. But given that he lost something every single day, this panic did not command much of his attention during the heat of battle. It wasn't until he successfully resolved the issue and teleported back to the *United Victory*—his armor newly marred by over a dozen different scars—that the feeling crystallized. "He... He is gone," Valianna said. She was leaning back in a standard-issue hover-chair. "I was very close. I saw it..." As a student who had been aboard the *Solaris* over a century ago, her voice trembled slightly. "We... we didn't expect to survive. But we did nothing, yet we all lived," she said. "He sent us back here, like a breeze blowing through a wheat field. And in that wind... I felt... love." She opened her hand, staring at the lines on her palm. It was said that ancient humans read palm lines to discern a person's fate. In years past, she had never thought to do such a thing. But today, she had lost something. They had all lost something. A transcendent entity who had accompanied all of humanity for centuries had vanished, leaving behind a massive sanctuary for the Federation. After sensing the area for a moment, Raytine said, "It moves with the main body of the Federation. It should last for about fifty years. During this time, it will be difficult for the Bottom of Spirit to fully erode the Federation. Our war will have a stable rear." His tone was so calm it made Valianna shudder. "...You really are becoming less and less like a human," she said hoarsely. The day's events seemed to have momentarily stripped her of her emotional control. "I miss the you from back then, 'Raytine.' Do you still remember your departed old friends? Do you remember yourself, jumping into a stellar corona just to suppress your rage and pain?" "I remember," Raytine said flatly. He was telling the truth. "No," Valianna countered. "You don't." She was also telling the truth. Then, the former First Legion Commander stood up and walked slowly toward the door. "It's time for me to retire, Speaker," she left those words behind amidst the vast, dreamlike forest of grain. "At my age, by normal standards, I'm already considered elderly... It's time for me to retire." ... Raytine did not stop a weary old soldier from leaving the Legion; she wasn't alone, anyway. Furthermore, having a "former" leader remain there for too long would indeed make the situation awkward. Even if he had no lust for power and she would not interfere with the Legion's internal movements, logic dictated that she had to leave. This day should have come long ago. Raytine simply hadn't cared exactly when it arrived, so it had been delayed by over a decade. Raytine sat with his hands clasped, suspended in the air of his office hall. Today, the space was filled with staggered, minimalist-futurist structures and consoles, but there was not a single soul present. Not one person. His adjutants, his subordinates, his guards, and anyone he had ever watched over—none of them were here. It was as if everyone shared a silent understanding, a tacit agreement not to disturb him at a time like this... or perhaps they simply didn't dare to approach. But truth be told, over these years, how many people still dared to approach him as they always had? Raytine counted in his mind for a moment and reached an objective answer: not a single one. Even if the people he placed his hopes in mostly maintained their trust in him and their loyalty to the Federation, after the Recorder's passing, there was no one left among them who dared to get close to him, to treat him as a friend or a child. Speaking of the "Recorder," Raytine suddenly realized he still preferred to call the other "Principal," even though the latter was merely an anchor point encompassed within the former—a phantom that didn't actually exist. Over the years, the other had said "I am going to die" more than once. Raytine's reaction had evolved from the shock of their first meeting to later composure, and finally, after completely suppressing his emotional responses, to indifference. Time flew like a shuttle; they were all changing. Even if the "Principal" seemed unchanged, it was only because His perception of the passage of time was not acute. When He had said "going to" back then, He likely meant this moment, twenty or thirty years later. No matter how much He maintained a "human" cognition, as a transcendent entity, His way of thinking possessed an absurd disparity from that of humanity. Perhaps in His eyes, these centuries of life were like the few decades of an original human's lifespan. And an endless death was merely the final conclusion of a long journey. Raytine raised his hand, plucking a paper-like phantom from a shimmer of golden light. It was the last thing the "Principal" had left him, and the information recorded upon it was beyond counting. Whether it was scattered information regarding the fungal lifeform "Commist," intelligence on the "Stars" or certain mysterious, sapient Xenodemons, or things concerning the "Ring World" or Project "Gaze"—He had likely been organizing them from various parts of His journals onto this single page for the past ten years. By using this single sheet of paper, He had violated His own rules as a transcendent entity in His final moments. This would only cause Him to dissipate more completely. Raytine turned it over and over, looking at it for a long time. He stared at a sentence written in the corner for a while: "Good child, keep it up." He didn't know why he stared at such a meaningless message for so long, but at this moment, his heart was calm and open. Only, within his mental space, the portion of his spirit he had partitioned off was finally dyed completely pitch-black. The twisted radiation was no longer limited to the vicinity of the dividing line; it was spreading toward the broader light. Raytine remained silent, carefully folding that faintly glowing "paper." After a thought, he didn't throw it into his city as he usually did, but instead tucked it inside his armor. He stood up and wandered, walking out of the range observable by the giant screens and into the starry sky. The phantoms of golden wheat swayed around him. He remembered the sentence he had seen in the records: *I see the stars shining through all things, shining within my waves of grain...* For now, with the protection of the "Recorder's Lakeside Wheat Field," the Federation's situation seemed to have eased. But as he cast his "gaze" out, Raytine could clearly see deep shadows surging within the space of the Bottom of Spirit corresponding to the "Ring World." As bright and dazzling as the red dwarfs and red giants at the silver core of the material realm were, those shadows were just as pitch-black and hideous. "...I have no time to think about this," he whispered, his voice vanishing into space, seemingly audible only to himself. "I..." His voice suddenly paused. He looked up into the distant darkness. Several streaks of light were approaching from the outside. They first arrived at his previous battlefield to patrol for a moment, seemingly marveling at the dark power saturating the area and the golden stellar fragments of transcendent power that were infinitely eroding them, before flying straight toward him. When they drew near, the leading mass of red gel made a gurgling mental communication: "Hey, hey, hey! You're all done fighting?!" "Yes," Raytine replied, answering through the group mental link that was immediately established. "But there is other work unfinished." "Your work?" "It is 'our' work," Raytine said. At a time like this, he obviously wouldn't include ordinary people in the sequence of "us." "The Ring World," he said, looking toward the constant glow of that stellar disc. "If nothing goes wrong, you will receive a battle report immediately." "Why do you say that? What happened?" Fire-Wine grew serious. *It seems they cannot see it,* Raytine thought. "I see a disaster; it is occurring in that artificial paradise," he said, raising his hand. A strange, hollowed-out golden cube floated up from his palm. "If your intelligence system is functioning, someone will soon..." *Ding—!* The cube emitted a crisp chime. The sound of the tiny technological creation echoed in the minds of everyone nearby. "...contact you," Raytine said, connecting to the transmission from Angye. ... "Solar Star!!" Angye shouted from the Ring World. At this moment, his surroundings were filled with fire, the sound of explosions, collapsing buildings, the roar of steel frames thousands of meters high falling inward, the screams of Ring World residents that spanned almost the entire vocal spectrum, and... *BOOM!!!!* *CRACK!* ...and the sound of the Ring World's transparent outer defense layer being struck until it fractured. Angye ducked his head sharply to protect himself. Currently, he was hiding near the Human Federation embassy, which had been sealed for over a decade. He was kneeling on one knee beneath the expanded, massive wing of a black dragon covered in jagged iron scales. That was the true form of his young dragon summon—his mental fragment. "Something's happened to the Ring World!" he shouted into the brooch in his hand amidst the deafening cacophony. "There's a problem with the star systems 'inside the Ring'..." He was drenched in cold sweat. Although he was considered a "failure" compared to the "Solar Star," as an A-rank esper, he could still see the true nature of the impact causing the cracks in the Ring World's defense layer. "...The red stars are restless!!" He looked up from beneath the dragon's wing at that star system where the red light was blinding, and at the shifting shadows within it. He was almost screaming. At this moment, fear and despair for the future of the galaxy burned in his heart. "There are things hidden inside those stars—every single one of them! They've been inside for at least thirty thousand years! "I suspect the civilization that built the Ring World wasn't building a home... they were putting up a wall!" ***