Phantoms of the Past

Whoosh—

When Mo Bai opened his eyes again, he saw a familiar space in chaos.

Damaged buildings flew past him, and the warped space made it feel as though the sun and moon had traded places.

There was no doubt about it. He was beyond the Tunneler Gate, inside Aleph-1.

Clap!

Mo Bai clapped his hands, trying to summon a Shikigami, but nothing appeared.

That was only natural. Everything around him was a memory shown to him when those frequencies touched him earlier.

In other words, he was like a ghost. No one could hurt him, and he could hurt no one.

Assuming there were any living people here, of course.

After looking around, Mo Bai spotted several faintly golden figures nearby.

At a glance, their shapes were unmistakably human.

But something like a layer of shadow covered every face, hiding their features from Mo Bai.

Whoosh—

Mo Bai stepped across the Void Matter beneath his feet and approached them.

"Was it because Aleph-1 swallowed them?"

Mo Bai murmured as he studied the figures. Even up close, their faces remained shrouded in shadow.

These "people" had died long ago. As for what they were now...

According to Solaris, they were aggregates of human frequencies.

Mo Bai would have called the golden figures before him ghosts.

As he watched, the figures slowly pushed themselves up.

Then one of them opened their mouth and spoke.

"It's so dark... Where am I?"

The words sounded familiar. The first scrap of frequency Mo Bai had received earlier had said much the same thing.

Does that mean the frequencies I received are finally starting to send me information?

With that thought, Mo Bai stood beside the figures to see what they wanted to tell him.

Or what whoever had released these frequencies wanted to do.