Deep within the Eternal Corridor, amid a relatively calm stretch of energy mist still suffused with eerie colors, the Whisperer slipped like a dying silver fish into the shadow between several enormous wrecks encrusted with energy crystals. Its last momentum spent, it lost power completely. The Origin Resonance Drive at its stern, once aglow with gentle silver light, had gone utterly dark. Fine cracks like fractures in ice had even appeared across its surface. Weak electrical sparks occasionally burst from different parts of the hull-the final cries of overloaded systems and exhausted energy reserves.
Inside the ship, nearly every light had gone out. Only the emergency lights and the medical unit's console still gave off a ghostly blue glow, illuminating faces drained pale and numb by exhaustion, mental trauma, and the loss of a companion, yet still forcing themselves to hold on.
In the cockpit, Lin Ye lay slumped beside the console, barely breathing. The Origin Starmark on his forehead had dimmed almost to nothing, as though it might go out at any moment. The exhausted fragment of the Purification Prism he clutched lay quietly in his palm like an ordinary stone. Only an occasional, exceedingly faint ripple of warm light proved it had not fallen completely dormant. Naruto knelt beside him, his chakra entirely depleted, even his golden hair looking dull. He braced one hand against the floor and tried to support Lin Ye with the other, only to discover he barely had the strength to lift his arm. All he could do was watch anxiously.
Ayami reclined against the pilot's seat. The Starwhisper Crystal on her forehead was also terribly dim, and her amethyst eyes were filled with exhaustion. Still, she stared fixedly at the almost pitch-black monitor, her hands hovering over the control armrests, as though sensing