The inversion of time began to manifest a subtle sense of the absurd from this moment onward.
To Raytine and Evanheiler, the events they had just experienced were a future that Cortares had yet to touch. It was wondrous, yet... strange. Like a magical, nonsensical tale, every line was saturated with the word "destiny," yet that fate was something created by man himself—a fixed fact already etched into the fabric of time.
A determined fate could not be changed. In the past—or in the thousands of years to follow—those who could interfere with time and space were as rare as phoenix feathers or unicorn horns, but they were never non-existent. Even the Human Union had once attempted to interfere with spacetime through a mature system of quantum mechanics.
However, the storms generated by temporal traversal were enough to easily pulverize a rocky or even a metallic planet, let alone the fragile human body. Even Evanheiler, had he not possessed the power of "Immovability"—even if it was merely a projected shadow of the sunlight—would have perished under the crushing weight of the chronal storm.
Everyone who sought to change the past had died. Most of their deaths were far from peaceful. Though such people were few, when viewed across the scale of the cosmic timeline, they served as proof that the essence of intelligent life is the inability to learn from its lessons.
"What is it?" Cortares asked. He tugged at his clothes—a grey-white hemp robe with thick lime stains on the chest and hem. Raytine noticed a stone hammer and a large pointed chisel tucked into his belt; it seemed he had been busy splitting stone blocks before arriving.
"It's nothing," Raytine said. His tone carried its usual tranquility, but the other two present could detect a heavy sense of melancholy. This was especially true for Evanheiler; hearing Raytine’s voice, a scene suddenly surfaced in his mind.
*Under a warm yellow light, a tall, sturdy young man with black hair bowed his head in dejection. He held two components of a 3D electronic board in his hands. Their silver-black structures should have snapped together perfectly, but some minute error prevented them from aligning.*
That was the first and only time Evanheiler had seen Raytine like that. It was a far cry from his usual confident and high-spirited self. Although he had recovered quickly, Evanheiler had remembered that scene vividly ever since that day.
It was because he realized then that Raytine was not a machine, nor was he a statue forged of iron. This young man could uproot a mountain of steel and level all things to the ground, but he also had things he could not do, or oversights, or something else—in short, he had things he was powerless against.
Looking back now, that had been over twenty, nearly thirty years ago. Seeing such an expression on Raytine’s face again today, Evanheiler was not naive enough to think it was because of a stray two-millimeter screw left in some gear.
But Evanheiler did not speak to ask. He simply took a step forward, standing in front of Raytine and shielding him from Cortares's gaze. The other man’s fire-like hair drifted toward him, caught in the wind and sand.
"We meet again," he said, his demeanor reminiscent of a crisp formal suit with magnificent, glowing embroidery on the lapels. "Time is limited, Cortares. There are things the future version of you didn't tell us..."
"Speak then," Cortares said compliantly, no longer looking at Raytine, who seemed lost in thought. "But I don't guarantee I'll tell you everything I know."
These words were far too honest—so much so that Raytine’s eyes shifted back to focus on him.
"Why do you want to control Earth's civilization?" Evanheiler asked.
Truthfully, he didn't care much about this. Control or no control, did it matter? The fact was already established. He didn't even care how much benefit this could bring to humanity; after all, those were things of the past. To him, the "present" was still in the distant future.
But Cortares's answer made him cautious.
"Because if a galactic civilization wants to survive safely, it must lean toward the 'Stars'," the red-haired youth smiled, a hint of sorrow in his expression. "Not the 'Silver Stars,' but... the 'Stars.' You know the ones. *The* Stars."
The sheer volume of information hidden in those words passed through the minds of an 'S-rank' and a 'Limit-Breaker,' triggering a staggering explosion of realization.
Evanheiler’s breath hitched for a moment. Combining all information from the past to the present, especially what Raytine had told him, he asked in a startled voice, "Isn't this place targeted by the 'Ka' weapon? Isn't leaning toward the 'Stars' just further inviting self-destruction? Wait, your guidance of Earth's civilization... is to bring all of this closer to the 'Stars'?"
Something seemed to flicker in the starry sky. For a moment, Cortares did not speak.
He merely turned his head amidst the wind and sand, his eyes reflecting the cold silver moon over the great desert. The moon was gradually being obscured by the dust, and the wave-like black horizon on the other side was becoming blurred.
A sandstorm was coming.
"Yes," he said. His tone was less of a statement or an answer and more of a sigh.
"An experimental field and weapons base of the 'Stars,' containing a vast amount of information from that aquatic civilization that mastered crystals to a divine degree... Some things have long since set the mold for civilizations in the Milky Way. You, I, and every civilization living in this galaxy are destined to be guided by the environment to lean toward them. It is either the 'Stars' or the 'Crystals.' There is nothing else."
"So, think about it... this is the territory of the 'Stars'."
The red-haired youth spoke. When he looked back, his long hair was submerged in the sandy mist.
The sandstorm rolled over the three of them like a celestial chariot, shifting the dunes. Looking down from the sky, the storm was like a soft wave sweeping across the sea of sand, swallowing everything.
The moonlight vanished, but the light emanating from the people themselves remained. Faint silver stardust enveloped the three, easily pushing back the pitch-black sandstorm and propping up a hemispherical safety zone.
Cortares gazed at the stardust, his eyes filled with a hollow regret and melancholy. Just as he did every time he looked at the stars in the sky.
"Can you imagine the result of becoming like its enemy, exceeding limits and plans, right in the territory of the 'Stars'?" he asked.
Evanheiler instinctively opened his mouth: "Death..."
"No," Cortares said. "It is annihilation. Total annihilation."
"It's like an hourglass." He made a gesture. "Every time a civilization breaks through the boundary and invites a strike, a grain of sand falls from the top to the bottom. It's hard to know when the conical space below will be filled, but you know that when that day comes—whether the hourglass is flipped or the frame itself collapses—it won't be a good thing for the sand itself."
"...So, what do you know about that time limit?"
"I know nothing," Cortares said with a bitter smile.
"None of us know the answer to that question... My friends, we only know that it will eventually be full. Judgment Day will surely come, just as man is destined to die. It might be in the next second, or it might 'never' come within the finite life of the universe, but it does exist, and it exists forever."
"On what basis do you say it exists forever?"
"On the basis that the 'Stars' civilization likewise exists forever," Cortares said, his words shocking. "It was not destroyed; it simply left... Do you understand? The universe we currently inhabit has not lost its monarch; it is merely temporarily unmanaged. I have overstepped my bounds for the sake of the stars in the galaxy, but that doesn't prove I have the right to truly rule all of this. That is why I never even thought I could truly become an 'Emperor'... I am merely experimenting, my friends. I stole someone else's experimental field and launched a new experimental plan. If it succeeds, everyone lives; if it fails, everyone dies."
Evanheiler’s mouth hung open slightly.
Amidst such heavy and sharp information, he almost thought his protective shield hadn't enclosed him. The information poured into his nose and mouth, stung his eyes, scraped long bloody trails across his skin and mucous membranes, and then filled his trachea and alveoli. He nearly suffocated until Raytine pressed a hand to his shoulder and pulled him back.
He saw the broad black pauldrons and the cloak, and the faint, light-reflecting patterns on the cloak that looked like arrangements of stardust.
Those were polarized patterns woven from "Star Alloy," the emblem of the Human Union. Because they were invisible unless viewed up close, until now, probably only Raytine, who had made it himself, and Evanheiler—or perhaps the "lover" who had brought it back to them—knew of its existence.
But it knew each of them. The stars submerged in darkness—it knew each of them.
"In the future, I completely stabilized the state of the Galactic Core, turning it into a controllable energy source," Raytine said.
These words seemed completely unrelated to the previous topic, but Cortares was shaken by them. He stepped forward quickly: "Are you serious?! Can you..."
"I cannot. Whether it is the barriers of time and space, or my own abilities, I am not permitted to replicate such an act at this point in time," Raytine said.
His expression was calm, his handsome features truly as cold and hard as a statue this time.
"This perhaps proves that the control of the 'Stars' over the galaxy is not that tight, but..."
His expression turned solemn as he carefully weighed his words, saying each one deliberately: "'Fire Wine,' my friend... I hope that in nearly ten thousand years, you will still remember these things: If, after the Galactic Core weapon stops, the galaxy still suffers an unknown interstellar-level disaster strike, have your avatar remaining in the Prime Material Plane go to the Galactic Core and shout into it: 'Raytine'!"
"'Raytine'?" Cortares was somewhat bewildered, repeating the pronunciation—
"Not 'Lei Ting,' but 'Raytine.' R-A-Y-T-I-N-E. This is something you must do..."
A heavy, ethereal voice echoed.
In the interstellar era nearly ten thousand years later, within a wandering asteroid in a desolate star sector, a mass of dim red gel gradually became active.
It writhed and emitted light as crimson flames flared up. A fragmented, copied consciousness awakened within it.
In its memories, a blurred human face, along with his voice, gradually became clear.
[*...A person will come out from there. He looks exactly like me.*]
It remembered that voice, completely and utterly.
[*He is me, 'Fire Wine.' You can trust his ability and his reason, but do not trust his emotions. However, you can tell him...*]
[*...'The war never ended, Solar Star'.*]
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 星 (Xing) | The Stars | Refers to a specific precursor civilization or cosmic entity. |
| 阳星 (Yang Xing) | Solar Star | A title or name referring to Raytine. |
| 火酒 (Huo Jiu) | Fire Wine | Cortares's alias/title. |
| 银核 (Yin He) | Galactic Core | The center of the galaxy. |
| 解限体 (Jie Xian Ti) | Limit-Breaker | A high-level evolutionary state for superpowered individuals. |
| 不动 (Bu Dong) | Immovability | A specific power or mental state used by Raytine. |
| 星合金 (Xing He Jin) | Star Alloy | A special material used in the Human Union's equipment. |
| 人联 (Ren Lian) | Human Union | Short for the Human Federation/Union. |
