Chapter 11: In the end… it was worth it
Valeria hovered motionless in the vacuum, at the very spot where Earth should have been. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, lips pressed together. The silence surrounding her felt too full—like space itself was hiding something.
"That’s impossible..." she whispered, trying to comprehend what she was seeing.
Or rather—what she wasn’t seeing.
She floated forward a few paces, rising slightly. Her eyes glowed red as they scanned the void.
Then suddenly, Earth reappeared. As if slipping out from behind an illusion. As if it had only allowed itself to be seen once Valeria got close enough.
"A barrier..." she said slowly, almost in disbelief. "Someone... or something... cloaked the entire planet."
She circled it in silence. Every few seconds she would stop, raising her hand as if to feel the texture of something invisible. Her gaze wandered along unseen lines, sometimes her brow furrowed, other times she peered through her fingers, as if perceiving something no mortal could see. She drifted closer and farther, analyzing the symmetry of space, reading the way light refracted at the edge of the barrier. Every motion she made was silent and precise—like a dance with something only she could sense.
And then she felt it.
A subtle pulsing. A delicate, rhythmic wave of energy, imperceptible to human senses but to her—it was as clear as the heartbeat of the planet. It was the Echo of Activation: the signal that the Essence Record had just embedded itself into this world, like a seed planted in freshly turned soil. Raw, primal energy—chaotic, unstable, but pure. This pulse only occurred once: during the moment of a system’s initiation. And right now... she felt it here.
She shivered.
"The Essence Record... has only just arrived here..."