The leading elf nodded.
"Your guess was correct. This key leads to the end of the First Epoch."
He explained to Shade:
"This key itself will not cause the grave consequences of time collapsing, but you must not be the one to use it.
"You should understand: when anyone other than you uses the key, they merely observe a story from the past. But you are beloved by time, accepted by every time you arrive in. Once you activate this key, it means that someone from the eras after the First Epoch's end has entered the First Epoch."
He had not fully explained the logic behind it, but Shade understood:
"You mean the First Epoch was the normal era, while everything afterward has been an era of apocalypse. As someone living in the era after the apocalypse arrived, entering the First Epoch would cause serious problems?"
"That is only one of the reasons."
Envy Edwards said:
"This matter involves much more. Even we cannot be certain what consequences your actual appearance in the First Epoch would bring. But please do not use this key. Absolutely do not."
Shade felt that he understood:
"So you appeared because you wanted to retrieve this key?"
"No."
The tall elf immediately denied it:
"This belongs to you. We have no right to interfere. We merely hope that you understand the problems using this key would cause and promise not to do so. However, others may use this key to observe the origin of this world, the era before Final Death arrived."
"Then can you tell me, in those destroyed Sixth Epochs, who activated it? Or was it never discovered in those vanished Sixth Epochs?"
Shade asked again. This question concerned the Past, and the three fell silent for a moment—not because they did not