Chapter 1466: The Vortex of History

Amber suddenly felt herself plunging into a swirling vortex—one without up or down, without left or right, without any sense of time passing. All she could see were endlessly spinning shadows of light, tangled together in a chaotic dance, like a mass of faded, intertwined ribbons. They whirled rapidly around her, resembling roaring waves, yet the silence in her ears was absolute.

In the face of such a vast and otherworldly phenomenon, the silence itself became the most terrifying aspect. Any being with a sane mind, suddenly trapped in such a quiet, spinning maelstrom, would surely feel immense psychological pressure. Yet strangely… Amber felt no fear at all.

She thought she should be afraid. She knew herself well enough—beneath her usually loud and brash exterior, she was actually quite timid.

But here, in this endlessly rotating, soundless vortex, not a trace of fear stirred within her. Instead, there was a strange… long-lost sense of familiarity.

Curious, she blinked and focused on the shadows of light spinning swiftly around her. She had no idea where she was, what state she was in, or whether Gawain had noticed anything unusual about her. A peculiar, transcendent “state of mind” seemed to quietly envelop her usual personality, yet she remained as clear-headed and composed as ever. It was a strange feeling—she was still herself, yet somehow no longer quite herself.

As the shadows flew past, she suddenly noticed that among the faded, tangled “ribbons,” faintly discernible “scenes” began to emerge. Instinctively, she focused her gaze, and at that moment, the vortex swirling around her slowed down. She could finally make out the details of the light and shadow—

She saw what looked like cracks in the air, like elongated, twisted “windows.” Beyond these warped frames were countless bizarre and dazzling… landscapes.

The vortex was composed of countless distorted “picture frames,” each frozen with scenes from unknown places and times. Amber stared in astonishment as these images slowly drifted past her eyes. She saw unfamiliar mountains and rivers, strange skies and seas, towns she had never seen before, and “aliens” dressed in bizarre costumes, their appearances and postures utterly strange.

Driven by curiosity, she finally summoned the courage to reach out and touch one of the light shadows—a frozen street scene from an unfamiliar city. The faded, twilight-like image showed crowds dressed in their finest, massive buildings adorned with flags and streamers fluttering atop their roofs, and in the distance, a towering structure rising from the earth.

The instant Amber’s finger brushed the crack in the light, the frozen scene suddenly burst back into color. The street crowds erupted in cheers and celebration, flags fluttered in the wind above the grand buildings, and on a giant crystal-like screen embedded in the stairway, some kind of “program” began to play. A flood of information surged into Amber’s mind—countless thoughts, countless conversations. Amid the storm of data, she caught only a few brief phrases—

“The manned probe ship will launch today… This day will be remembered by history. Our leader delivers an important speech… The Bakrom Republic will leave its first footprint among the stars… Queen Petia sends her congratulations…”

Amber’s finger recoiled as if struck by electricity, a wave of intense tension nearly suffocating her. The “connection” was severed, and the torrent of information abruptly stopped. She felt countless fragments of data swirling rapidly in her mind, too many to process, quickly dissipating. Yet the words she had just heard remained vivid, a reminder that none of this was an illusion.

After a few seconds, she finally understood why she had pulled back so suddenly—in the final moment, the massive tower in the distance had emitted a thunderous roar and begun to rise into the sky. Almost simultaneously, a vast wave of terror and madness flooded her senses. This fear and frenzy seemed to be the “aftershock” frozen in that ancient moment of history. The original event might have long since faded with time, but its lingering aura had been recorded by history itself.

Amber felt she had “foreseen” that dreadful presence, which was why she had withdrawn her hand before it fully descended.

She gasped for breath, her mind turbulent. Looking back at the slowly drifting crack in the light, she saw the frozen scene revert to its original faded twilight state—an ancient city street crowded with people in festive attire, flags hanging motionless in the wind, a towering spire standing tall on the distant land. Every face was fixed in a moment of confident brilliance, captured just minutes before a terrifying apocalypse.

Within this faded historical illusion lay the record of a tragic demise—though Amber still didn’t understand where or when this was.

A sudden coolness brushed her cheek. She instinctively wiped her face and was startled to find tears—tears that had nothing to do with her will, inexplicably streaming down.

“This is really strange… why am I…” she murmured, confused, wiping away the tears. Then, still puzzled, she looked around at the other slowly moving cracks in the light. One by one, scenes frozen at unknown times drifted past her vision. Suddenly, a new crack caught her attention.

Hesitating, Amber reached out again and touched a light shadow unlike the others—a narrow, stretched frame showing an endless ocean.

The salty sea breeze hit her face, the crashing waves thundered in her ears. This crack pulled Amber’s consciousness directly into a moment trapped in a fold of history. She was stunned to see herself floating above an endless expanse of water, her body seemingly dissolved between sky and sea, only her vision suspended in this strange place.

In the distance, a massive island loomed, its jagged cliffs gleaming in the sunlight. Tiny waves lapped against the rocky shore, scattering sparkling silver light.

Before Amber could wonder where she was, a terrifying roar and a sudden pang of dread shattered her thoughts. She instinctively turned toward the sound and witnessed a scene unlike anything she had ever seen—a colossal ship, several times the size of the Dawn of Dust, tore through the sky. Enveloped in scorching flames and crackling lightning, it plummeted from the clouds. Thick clouds evaporated and scattered around the giant vessel. A terrifying storm descended from the heights, the sea boiled, the earth trembled. The towering cliffs of the distant island shattered as if struck by an invisible force.

Amber watched helplessly as the monstrous ship fell toward her, frozen in shock and fear, unable to move her gaze. Then, faintly, she saw tiny figures along the ship’s edge—“people,” but from afar they looked like sea spirits. These figures detached from the ship and fell toward the ocean, but before hitting the water, they exploded into sprays of droplets, scattering like fireworks.

Thousands of these sea spirits disintegrated midair, becoming a violent storm over the boiling sea. The mother ship crashed violently into the island, sending towering waves skyward. The shockwave tore through the seabed, shattering the elemental barriers…

But Amber no longer saw any of this. Her mind was abruptly ejected from the fold of history, returning her to the vortex. The spinning shadows once again whirled uncontrollably before her eyes. No matter how hard she focused, she could not slow their pace. As she tumbled through this chaotic descent, she repeatedly brushed against the shadows, and in those brief contacts, countless fragmented, chaotic pieces of information swept through her consciousness like leaves in a storm.

Memories not her own flooded her mind—flashing images, voices and whispers of unknown origin—

She saw burning cities, indescribable monstrous growths oozing like sludge from cathedral-like buildings, devouring all life in their path. People screamed as they were consumed, glorious kingdoms plunged into darkness overnight.

She saw dragons soaring across the sky, their cold eyes surveying the land below. These dragons were powerful but filled with a dying breath, nothing like the “allied peoples” now desperately rebuilding their homes.

She saw crowds crawling across plains, gouging out their own eyes and deafening themselves in terror. They wailed and prayed to some unseen disaster, begging for mercy. But in the next moment, invisible forces swallowed them whole, turning them into pale fragments scattered by the wind.

Then she saw the war between dragons and the Inverse Tide Empire, the creation of the Talrond Great Shield, stars twinkling in the night sky, countless brilliant lights streaming through space toward distant horizons. Massive fleets silhouetted against the dawn, departing this world…

Throughout it all, countless prayers, blessings, tears, and laughter filled her ears, mingled with conspiracies, praises, oaths, and curses.

Amber finally understood—she was plunging into the very “history” of this planet. The deeper she went into the vortex, the closer she approached the origin of that history, the ancient era over a million years past.

At the same time, a hazy realization dawned on her: this was some kind of observation stretching from ancient times to the present, a memory of an ancient being. She was not traveling through a real time tunnel, but moving through a recorded “storage medium.” What she saw were moments that had already happened and could never be changed, yet had left significant marks on this world.

She didn’t know how she knew this—she just did, as if it were something she was always meant to understand.

And now, she was gradually reaching the very depths of this historical current—the endlessly swirling vortex that seemed infinite, yet did have an end. She could see the chaotic whirl of light and shadow thinning out, smoothing over. If this were an unfathomably deep pool, then she was about to touch the bottom.

Amber’s heart tightened with tension. She didn’t know what she would find at the “bottom of history.” She understood this must be the most crucial moment within the entire vortex—perhaps the most vital fragment of all the forgotten histories of this world. She was eager, curious, yet an inexplicable fear crept over her… a fear without reason.

In the next instant, a vision flashed before her eyes: an ancient starry sky. Beneath the glittering stars lay a land ravaged by war. Between the brilliant constellations, countless massive objects suddenly burst into the physical universe, emitting flashes of light. These strange bursts stretched across the sky, and within each flash, enormous shadows—huge ships or something else—loomed into view.

They were ships—immense, majestic, ancient, and magnificent.

Suddenly, Amber realized: she was witnessing the arrival of the Voyager Fleet.

She saw the very moment the Voyager Fleet descended upon this planet.

But in the next second, the vision sped past her again.

Amber froze, momentarily unaware of anything amiss. Then it hit her—she was still falling deeper into this “historical vortex.” She hadn’t truly reached the bottom yet. She was heading toward a time even older, more obscure than the Voyager Fleet’s arrival!

She had assumed the starting point of this historical memory would be the Voyagers’ landing—in her ingrained understanding, no event older than that existed in any of the world’s ongoing “event lines.” Yet now she realized… she was moving toward a moment predating even that ancient event!

Suddenly, the swirling vortex before her eyes came to an abrupt halt. The last sliver of light and shadow flickered past her vision.

Only then did she finally touch bottom—on a day just before the Voyager Fleet’s arrival on this planet.

Darkness engulfed her sight. That sliver of light held no images anyone could comprehend. Amber felt herself immersed in a void of chaos and nothingness. From the depths of this void, countless clamorous sounds began to rise.

She heard roars, frenzied whispers, the howls of a powerful being on the brink of madness—something far beyond human understanding. She heard prayers and pleas, and the thunderous crashes of colossal entities collapsing and tearing apart.

Amidst this cacophony, a clear, rational voice suddenly reached her ears: “…It’s irreversible…”

Amber’s eyes widened. In the darkness, she seemed to see many towering, majestic figures standing before her. Her own form grew as tall and grand as theirs. These ancient, magnificent beings were speaking to her—or perhaps each was speaking to themselves—

“Irreversible…”

“…On the verge of losing control… malevolence has filled everything…”

“This is our first conversation, and likely our last…”

“Accept it. Accept this outcome…”

“At least they can survive… this may be the last thing we can do for this world.”

“What of that young polar civilization? They sealed everything off…”

“They have their own fate.”

The murmurs surrounding her suddenly ceased. Amber looked around in confusion until… she heard her own voice speaking.

“…Send the signal. Let them know we exist.”

(End of chapter)