act25side

Perhaps I just want to see any lifeform able to converse and interact with one another, to continue existing.

You know this—compared with the problems on the distant horizon, there is something that could happen at any moment. War.

Even if I look only through the eyes of Columbia, I sense the imminent danger to your world, and the fire that can ignite at any time.

You will require preparation. Do what you must. To extinguish the flame, or to let it produce new life, this is your choice to make.

Those who are truly able to save the denizens of Terra, are always and only themselves.

This need for awakening has not changed since time immemorial, because it is all part of what 'humanity' is.

Thank you.;......;We will discover the truth.

The sky is about to be opened. But the barrier will soon heal itself. Perhaps it will take a few days, or months, or years.

But the people of Terra will take that limited, veracious scene into their eyes, and will keep the moonlight and the distant planets in their memories.

I hope... Kristen hopes, that this will be a powerful signal.

A signal to herald the next great age.

Saria, would you like to gaze at the stars together? Just like we did before?

We can talk about this after we descend.

...The starry sky.

Or more precisely, what we gaze at is a barrier. The 'starpod.'

There's still a thousand meters to go... our current position is already near the limit of humanity's touch.

The ionization response is too strong. At this height, the instruments can't operate with all the interference.

The control panel is completely useless... I should have known. You have no intention of letting the Galleria Stellaria last much longer.

Yes, it just has to last until I break the barrier.

The barrier... though we have always been inclined towards the usage of 'barrier,' you're well aware that the shape of it is more than just a 'barrier' as per conjecture.

It might not even be a 'barrier' at all, but an extremely wide space.

It might even lack endpoints. This six thousand meters—what we understand as 'normal airspace' is actually 'abnormal.'

And in that case, 'breaking' it was never an option.

It can indeed be broken.

You've never once doubted it.

6972 Meters. If you fly straight up at this angle, as long as you can soar past that height, the Galleria Stellaria will no longer be disturbed by any ionization reactions.

Fine, so you have credible data from that spirit. But this doesn't reduce the danger of exploring the skies at all.

No, even if... if we assume the barrier is enveloping the land like a membrane as you say, it means we know less than nothing about the space beyond it.

This makes your actions even more hazardous. You could even bring disaster upon this land.

I know.

The people are simply inadequately prepared for this.

There will never be 'adequate' preparation. If there is indeed a calamity looming over us, then humanity is already living under a ticking clock.

If that's the case, then we should be even more...

...Even more cautious, right?

Saria, I believe... there will come a day when a much more complete exploration team will be formed, and with more data and full support, they will enter into the depths of space before our very eyes.

This is also the future I hope for.

But you yourself are not in this future of yours.

True.

I'm ill-suited to be called a pioneer. On that point, I fully agree with your view.

If possible... I would prefer to become a starting point.

Just like once, back when... I watched the light of those flames burning in the sky...

That was last thing my parents left me——

——A starting point.

Where's the closest escape pod?

None left. Those with the capability to execute the return module are already gone.

Alright.

Then hold onto me. I will wrap the both of us in calcification. We might not even have a chance of survival, but we can try.

Saria, lower your gaze.

What—

You're the one who didn't look down this time.

The gravity abruptly shifts without warning, and Saria feels only space beneath her feet.

She did not expect Kristen to set up an emergency escape door at the Galleria Stellaria's center.

No, Saria thinks to herself, she should have expected it long before. This door is not for the owner of the planetarium. Kristen knew that at the very last moment, Saria would come.

The sudden change of mass robs Saria of her voice, and she fails to yell out anything at all. She also knows that there is nothing she can grab, but still stretches her hand out.

Starlight and earth pour into her view, while Kristen only gets further and further away.

Saria... you always wanted me to take a good look at the world.

Now I have.

It is... equally beautiful.

You will watch it and the people it nurtures in my stead. This I always knew.

Just as you have in the past, and will in the future.

And I... I'm not the type to lead people on, step by step.

I am just a pair of eyes.

Eyes that... will peer into the unfamiliar depths of space for all that live on that land.

...Friston.

I can almost see the true starry sky... it probably hasn't changed much from what you've told me.

In over ten thousand years...

Me and you, our civilization and yours...

On the scale of the universe, we really are insignificantly small.

A torrent of energy pounds the accumulating area of this giant airborne construct, and the ring hovering up high looks almost swallowed by the tremendous amount of energy.

Immediately afterwards, an even greater amount concentrates at its core.

Enough to destroy any massive nomadic city.

And this world is just so puny and shallow, how could it ever bear it?

The light converges and abandons the earth, stabbing upwards into the air.

Under the unprecedented energy surge, wave after wave of dazzling ripples emerge on the pitch-black curtain devoid of any life.

The false sky is at last rent asunder.

The ancient twin moons expose their real faces.

Tonight, the truth will be perceived by humanity for the very first time.