Li finally understood where that unease had come from.
She shouted at Xia Fan, trying to break free from the Heavenly Court's embrace, but the upload had reached its final stage. No matter how she struggled, she could not move even a single step, nor could she make any sound.
Soon, her consciousness sped toward the sky along streaks of blue light.
Before all her thoughts froze solid, Li saw the outline of a face emerge from the black curtain above the Silver Sphere.
It vaguely resembled Xia Fan.
His lips moved, as though he were saying, "I'm sorry."
Then the warm Heavenly Court embraced her.
"All warriors have been uploaded to the Heavenly Court. No trace of living beings remains within ten miles!" Thought Control called out.
Yet for a long while, she received no response.
"Xia Fan... Xia Fan!"
Only then did Xia Fan come back to himself. "I understand. Next, land according to plan. The next million years will be entrusted to you."
"Don't worry. I will serve humanity until the very last moment."
For the first time, Thought Control no longer called them artificial syntheses. She regarded them as legitimate members of humanity in the making.
"Enough, get moving!" An urged. "If the Chaos entities keep tossing things around like this, the moon probably won't last until it crashes!"
To make the moon collide with Earth before it was torn apart by the Roche limit, they had to reduce its orbital time. Ideally, it would plunge straight down in a vertical dive. The moon had originally been propelled by the matter Xia Fan had blasted out from its core, so that condition had naturally been met. But two Chaos entities, each with a relative mass comparable to a planet, were wrestling against each other, effectively weakening