Golden lines flowed across the barrier like blood vessels. Every line pulsed like a heartbeat.
They were his.
His six burned-out Great Daos and what remained of his life force had become a shield, enclosing Blue Star.
The enormous figure in the sky no longer looked human.
All that remained was a cloud of golden-red radiance, slowly, irreversibly dissipating.
The last wisp of light drew free of that radiant cloud and fell into the barrier around Blue Star.
The radiant cloud dispersed completely.
The sky was empty.
Only that golden-red barrier remained around Blue Star, its light flowing quietly.
The people on the ground were still looking up.
Some cried. Some knelt. Some stood in a daze.
A female soldier in uniform tilted her head back, tears streaming down her face. Her voice had gone hoarse, and she could only breathe out a single phrase: "High God..."
In the sky of eternal night, that golden-red barrier took the sun's place, becoming Blue Star's only source of light.
It was not dazzling. It was gentle, like sunlight at dusk.
But it was warm.
The barrier shone for three days and three nights.
On the fourth day, its light stabilized and stopped pulsing. The golden-red lines settled into a constant flow, neither fast nor slow, like a heart that had found its rhythm.
The Human Alliance Space Monitoring Bureau's equipment locked onto the barrier immediately.
Seventy-two hours of continuous observation. Cross-verification by forty-eight monitoring stations.
Every researcher on duty at the Star-Core Energy Research Institute worked through the night analyzing the data.
The seventh day.
The Human Alliance broadcast the final survey results worldwide.
After a long silence, the Human Alliance spoke once more.
The announcement came in text—all surviving communication terminals, Wristbands, and public broadcast screens displayed the same message at