[The Star God told me, we humans are fortunate. We do not need to become a spark, we do not need to make a choice.]
[Because, when our ancient ancestors were still using stone tools to battle magical beasts, during our first encounter with ’Heavenfall’, we were fortunate to meet the Star God and the True Dragon. They helped us prevent a disaster that could destroy the entire planet, and then watched us develop step by step to where we are today.]
[Do you know this, later generations?]
[Our civilization, is a miracle in itself.]
The words of the Pioneer were somewhat disjointed, but everyone could understand his meaning.
Because the entire Orbital Control Room began to undergo dramatic changes.
Ian silently watched the endless phantasms crisscrossing before him, and soon, the domain of void around him transformed into a vast open field. It was now dusk, and a group of Stone Age primitives were warming themselves by a fire.
Knee-high long grass swayed with the wind, the air was filled with a moist and slightly chilly scent, and a sky without clouds was full of stars, thousands of starlights twinkling with the glow of the twin moons.
It was an evening as ordinary as any could be.
But it was at this moment.
The first Heavenfall occurred.
Raising his head, alongside the Pioneer, Ian witnessed this scene, even he couldn’t help but feel stunned.
The entire night sky was filled with countless meteor showers. Their origins and destinations were unknown; they burned in the darkness, fell, and then extinguished... But these were not true meteors, but an incredible omen.
The primitives were also shocked by this scene. They lifted their heads in amazement, gazing at the starry sky... and then they saw, as countless meteors flew across, escaping, the light of many stars in the center of the sky suddenly became intensely bright, but after becoming incandescent, they turned red, then dark red, and finally continued to dim... fading into black.
One after another, stars burst into brightness, turned red, became black, until they fully merged into the night sky, no longer existing.
Only stars about to extinguish, with extremely low temperatures, would appear red and dark red... and only those stars that have completely burned out, no longer emitting light or heat, would turn pitch black.
That was not even a white dwarf but a black dwarf, or even... a black hole.
Watching this unfold, Ian did not even have time to contemplate, ’Why is all of this happening simultaneously? Even if countless stars were extinguished at the same time, their light shouldn’t reach Terra at the same moment, right?’ This question... because he witnessed an even more terrifying scene.
As the myriad stars faded to black, a quietly appeared stark black rift emerged in the endlessly vast Star Sea.
This rift tore through the brilliant web of stars and continued to expand at a speed visible to the naked eye, stretching towards the other side of the infinite universe.
And just as the rift was expanding, a real meteor came hurtling towards the Tella Continent.
It struck the surface of the planet, unleashing a deluge that covered the entire globe.
[This is the ’Abyss of the End’, surpassing the speed of light, extinguishing the stars, an incredible cosmic disaster, the enemy of the Star God and all civilizations.]
The voice of the Pioneer echoed again, speaking in a detached tone as if he saw through everything: [This was the first ’Heavenfall’... and the scene of the ’Thousand-Star Beast’ falling onto our planet, transforming it.]
[Later generations, we have been well protected. The civilization behind the Thousand-Star Beast fought alongside the Star God until the final moment of its demise to unleash the spark, fortunately or unfortunately landing on our planet—Terra became special because of this, drawing the attention of the Star God.]
[Since then, all disasters had nothing to do with us, our starfield was chosen as the forge of the ’Cradle World’, the sparks of countless stars, the hopes of hundreds and thousands of civilizations converged on this land—they are the remnants after destruction, the final tombstones of civilization.]
[And now, it is our turn.]
At this point, the Pioneer smiled bleakly: [Finally. It is our turn.]
[But sadly, we didn’t even have the chance to fight, to walk towards the end with glory, or to leave behind a true spark, waiting for the dream of the cradle to awaken... We encountered a devastating blow before even setting out, welcoming the second Heavenfall.]
[Our civilization has already perished, there is no time to create a spark again.]
[Therefore, I created the Echo.]
"You should at least explain about the Star God and ’Abyss of the End’!"
At this moment, even the usually indifferent Ian couldn’t help but speak, somewhat exasperated: "I’ve known for a long time that you have Echo, don’t act as if everyone knows about the Star God and Abyss of the End—tsk, this part of the inheritance is probably only known to the core inheritors of major forces, my status is still lacking!"
Though it seemed the Pioneer was speaking to someone, he was, after all, just a projection from the past, so regardless of Ian’s agitation, the old man continued to narrate what he deemed important.
[Later generations, at first, I believed that humans were the most important part of civilization. Without humans, there would be no civilization.]
[Compared to preserving gene banks and technology, it is better to preserve human thoughts and memories... Although these thoughts and memories are just echoes, they are not our true souls, yet echoes with our memories and thinking patterns are surely more human-like than humans who have lost their civilization and knowledge.]