Then the two of them went to the city wall again.
Paimon said, "In summary, that's everything that has happened up to now."
Lumine said, "So that information just now was left by the me who went outside the city."
Nahida nodded. "That's right. Though the signal was intermittent and had some interference, we still received two pieces of information from you outside the city."
Nahida played the information again.
"There's no turning back. There are countless spaces there. The one we're in is just one of them."
"Entered another space. Flowing sand, howling fish. Scenery that couldn't possibly exist."
[Paimon: I'm curious—what kind of person dreams of howling fish? Fish don't make sounds, do they?]
[Nahida: Fish are creatures that live in water, so their vocal organs can't produce sound in air. However, fish do make sounds.]
[Lumine: I think you've been eating too many fish heads.]
[Paimon: In a foodie's dreams, there wouldn't be ingredients—only finished dishes!]
[Ningguang: What a beautiful space it is.]
"There are no people in any of the spaces. Only silent puppets. I can't sense any human presence."
Paimon said, "That's a lot of information. So once you leave Sumeru City, you've already gone outside this space?"
"But looking out from inside the city, everything seems perfectly normal. It's unbelievable. And those spaces all sound so eerie."
Nahida's voice rang out. "There's one more piece, received at night."
"During this time, those spaces kept disappearing, being absorbed by something in the sky that looks like the sun."
"After the beep sounded, the last space also disappeared."
"Behind me, countless spaces appeared out of nowhere. I think I understand now. Those spaces are actually... zzz..."
Paimon complained vigorously, "How annoying! Why did it cut off there? What was the Traveler trying to say? What were those spaces actually?"
[Yae Miko: Oh, a classic cliffhanger technique used in serialized novels. Very well done.]
[Paimon: We were only one second away from the truth. If only the message had been two words longer.]
[Lumine: Many times, fate is just like that. It toys with you at the most critical moment.]
[Ei: If only I could have arrived a little earlier that day.]
[Kaedehara Kazuha: Yes. If only I could have arrived a day earlier that day.]
[Yae Miko: Kazuha, blocking Ei's blade was quite cool, you know.]
[Kaedehara Kazuha: I would rather that Vision had never gone out.]
[Nahida: Regrets are like that. You never know when they'll appear, and then they stay with you for life.]
[Lumine: I have regrets of my own too.]
Nahida said, "It seems that's when it ended yesterday."
Paimon scratched her head. "By the way, I just heard an Akasha notification sound. Was that from reality or from the recording?"
Nahida said, "It was from the recording. That was the sound of the Traveler's Akasha Terminal at that time."
Paimon said, "After that notification sound, the last space disappeared too."
"Lumine, what do you think the last space was?"
Both of them fell into painful thought.
Seeing that neither could find the answer, Nahida offered a hint. "The most brutal part of the Archon War back then was nothing more than a game among gods fighting for seven seats in a hall."
"No matter how strange the scene before your eyes may be, it might only be revealing a small secret."
[Furina: That's such a strange metaphor.]
[Zhongli: That game broke mountains and rivers, scattered people from their homes, left only Xiao among the Yakshas, and took many adepti from this world. I don't want to experience it a second time.]
[Ningguang: That was a heavy piece of historical memory.]