Bercetia stood before the seemingly faint Energy Shield and suddenly felt as if she had returned to many, many years ago—to the moment she first sat upon the Throne of Dominion, first linked her nervous system to the AI cluster of the Stellar Sanctuary, and listened as the noisy, chaotic machine souls, beyond the limits of ordinary people's understanding, exploded in her mind. It was the same helpless bewilderment, as if the confidence she had built over so long had suddenly wavered, leaving only an unknowable future before her.
She remembered falling directly into a semi-conscious state atop the Throne of Dominion, sinking into hours of negotiation, learning, and adaptation with those ancient AIs. Though the record keepers later claimed that she had been the finest "ruler" in history, she still refused to recall that state of having absolutely no control over herself.
Bercetia shook her head, driving those inexplicable memories and stray thoughts from her mind. At the same time, she stepped forward and crossed the thin Energy Shield. The boundless, dark, sunken Umbral Realm rushed toward her.
This was a world... with abnormal perceptions.
The Silver Elves' keen sensory system immediately reached that conclusion. Bercetia instinctively sniffed, and an "empty scent" made her frown. Her feet stood firmly upon solid ground, feeling gravity that was neither too strong nor too weak, a temperature neither cold nor hot. In the darkness, she could clearly see every Detail around her. Everything she touched appeared entirely normal, yet when she sensed it more carefully, Bercetia felt an immeasurably vast... emptiness in this place known as the "Umbral Realm." The orderly laws she knew from the material world had changed here somehow, but what exactly that change was... she could not say.
Only then did the Silver Empress begin to notice the