As the barrier rapidly faded, the enormous Starlight Figure standing in the void lowered his head and stared at the figure shrouded in light.
His appearance had not changed, but there was a faint sense of confusion about him.
The brilliant starlight flashed violently, as if making one last struggle to break through the defenses and reach this part of the void.
But as the Navigator disappeared, the overlapping spacetime began to restore itself. The starlight appeared to have only a thin crack to cross, but its distance from the Main World was rapidly growing.
The figure shrouded in light raised his head and looked at the Starlight Figure. The hazy radiance flickered.
It was as though he were smiling at him.
Then the shrouded figure fell backward, hurtling toward the blue planet behind him, toward its vast land.
The Starlight Figure watched him and fell briefly silent.
Just then, an invisible, terrifying pressure swept through the void and across the surrounding stars.
It even passed through the fading barrier and swept around the blue planet.
Boom, boom, boom—
Satellites blinking nearby exploded under that pressure, breaking apart beneath the blazing sun.
The Starlight Figure immediately turned to look behind him.
The figure falling toward the earth also looked up toward the source of that pressure.
Its fierce force swept over him, stripping away most of the radiance around his body. Traces of lightning spilled out from beneath the remaining light, flashing in tiny arcs.
A moment earlier
He Ao stood aboard the Navigator and looked through the enormous viewport at the gray-white planet ahead, deep in space.
Huge Artificial Suns floated above it, casting a little light upon the planet.
The Ruins.
The Navigator had equipment that recorded Spacetime Coordinates. Did it also have the ability to jump