"See you all on the other side soon!"
Irene finally put down the phone she had been absorbed in. She turned back and said goodbye to Feliciana, Cyra, and the others one by one, then turned around and stepped into the cross-world teleportation passage that led from Earth to Eldoria Continent.
This took place during the period when Feliciana had returned to Earth—before the Earth-side passage underwent its abnormal change. It was also the last time Irene ever saw Feliciana in her life.
But when she walked out of the passage, she discovered—unexpectedly—that this was not Eldoria Continent at all, but a completely unfamiliar world…
"'Spring' is the true god who saves humanity, guiding mankind forward. Offer your entire body and soul into the embrace of the god, and together with the god create a brighter future!"
"Purge the heretics and restore peace to the world!"
"All resisters are toxins within humanity. History proves they are demons! If you notice anything suspicious, report it immediately—'Spring' will grant you blessings and dispel all calamity!"
…
When Irene came back to herself, she realized she was in a filthy, chaotic alley littered with trash. Towering steel skyscrapers rose on both sides, vanishing into the clouds. She had only ever seen this style of architecture occasionally in Earth's sci‑fi films and shows. She had no idea where she was.
After she stepped out, the teleportation passage behind her shut down on its own and vanished completely, leaving no trace. Irene was inexplicably stranded in this strange world alone.
Only after she left the alley did she figure out that those looping slogans she had heard were being broadcast from various flying metal "boxes" in the sky. She was inside an enormous city.
What she saw on the streets was almost entirely high-tech creations. Irene had a rough idea what those flying "boxes" were—they resembled the "future cars" Earth people often imagined. Besides flying cars, the streets were full of humans. Many wore portable devices—things like electronic wristwatches and floating virtual display screens—but most people were dressed in uniform red robes. Compared with Earth's colorful variety of clothing styles, it looked monotonous.
"Could it be… I'm still on Earth?"
Doubt rose in Irene's mind. Earth's land area was vast. When she had accompanied the delegation before, the areas she had visited were extremely limited. She had also heard that other countries on Earth possessed more advanced technology.
However, when she randomly stopped a passerby to ask, she discovered the person was speaking a language extremely similar to Eldoria Continent's common tongue—so similar that Irene could largely understand it directly.
"How can you not even know basic common sense? I've heard that some resisters refuse Lord Spring's blessings so fiercely that they don't even allow children under their control to know anything about Lord Spring. Don't tell me you escaped from the resistance too?"
The reason this red-robed woman was willing to talk to Irene for so long was clearly because she had begun to suspect Irene's identity. Thinking of the slogans those flying vehicles kept broadcasting, Irene immediately became alert and pretended to agree.
"Exactly! Those resisters are despicable. I'm actually very interested in Lord Spring. I was locked up by the resistance for so long that I know nothing. Could you tell me more about Lord Spring?"
Thanks to her quick response, the red-robed woman let down her guard. After some conversation, Irene finally understood her situation:
This was indeed Earth—but it was likely more than a thousand years after the Earth Irene had entered the passage from.
Over a thousand years of change had transformed Earth completely. Technology had advanced dramatically. Countless major events had also occurred: global wars, the disappearance and merger of nations, and ultimately—hundreds of years ago—the consolidation into a single unified world government. A global lingua franca gradually formed, and humanity steadily began large-scale colonization of other planets in the solar system.
But just as everything seemed to be heading toward a brighter future, a massive black hole was confirmed to be gradually approaching the solar system. That implied the entire system would be swallowed. Humanity had not developed technology for interstellar travel between galaxies. The foreseeable outcome was only one:
Extinction.
Earth fell into overwhelming panic. And then, a group of mysterious beings called "Spring" descended. They had no fixed form and could not be understood by ordinary reason, yet they used incomprehensible "divine power" to drive the black hole away. Humanity worshipped them with fanatic devotion, and they were enshrined as supreme new gods. The old religions collapsed entirely after this event. Before long, only a single religion remained on Earth:
The Spring Faith, worshipping "Spring."
"So that's what happened…"
Unfortunately, Irene had never been particularly interested in Earth's history. What she wanted—right now—was to return to Eldoria Continent.
But she had no way to do that by herself. So the only hope she could cling to was the "Spring" the red-robed woman described—beings supposedly capable of anything.
"It's wonderful that you're willing to abandon the darkness and join the Spring Faith. Perfect timing—there's a major gathering in the plaza next door. To punish those despicable scum with heretical thoughts, one Lord Spring will personally descend to carry out the sentence. Why don't I take you with me? If you can provide valuable intelligence about the resistance in front of Lord Spring, you might even get promoted across ranks and gain a much higher status!"
Facing the woman's proposal, Irene had no other option but to go along.
At the gathering site, Irene watched with her own eyes as several hundred humans were marched onto a raised platform in neat rows. A high-ranking Spring cleric—something like a bishop—announced their crimes.
"These people foolishly claim there is no god, deny the existence of the divine, and refuse Lord Spring's blessings! If Lord Spring did not exist, Earth—and they themselves—would already be nothing but fuel for the black hole! In that case, let them become the 'fuel' they imagine!"
As the verdict and punishment were declared, a white sphere of light behind the platform suddenly flared with blinding brightness. Wherever the light reached, those hundreds of "heretics" cried out in agony and then quickly vanished without a trace—not even dust remained.
"Lord Spring's divine power is boundless! May Spring rule the universe forever!"
All Spring believers—including the red-robed woman—prostrated themselves and shouted slogans to show reverence. Only Irene remained standing, rooted in place, her scalp prickling.
Her abnormal behavior was painfully conspicuous in the plaza. Others might not have noticed immediately, but the sphere of light representing "Spring" clearly detected something off about Irene. Its glow flickered several times in rapid pulses. The bishop nearby seemed to receive some message from afar, and immediately raised a hand and pointed in Irene's direction.
"There's still a fish that slipped through the net—seize her!"
In that instant, Irene knew she had been exposed. The only thing she could do was turn and run for her life.
Fortunately, she was not human—she was a Light Elf. Her physical strength and basic abilities were several times greater than an ordinary human's. After taking a few turns, she managed to throw her pursuers off by several streets.
But something was strange. No matter how far she fled, the Spring believers seemed able to lock onto her position remotely. After some time, they would always reorganize and close in again. Irene could never get enough rest. Exhausted and constantly on the move, being caught in this steel forest of a city was only a matter of time.
Just then, a mysterious group of gray-clad people appeared and rescued her.
They first poured a basin of water over Irene from head to toe—saying it could wash away the mental tracking mark imposed by "Spring." Then they led her into a highly concealed underground facility. Only then did she finally shake off the red-robed believers completely.
At last, Irene understood: the gray-clad group that saved her was the Resistance—the very group the red-robed woman and the propaganda flying vehicles kept denouncing.
The Resistance hid beneath the city with special skills. Because they had noticed the large-scale pursuit underway above ground, they had paid attention to Irene.
The reason they specifically chose to rescue her was because their supreme commander had personally ordered it. The Resistance seemed to already know something unusual about Irene—know that she was not human and differed from humans in many ways. And the source of those details was the supreme commander himself.
This made Irene intensely curious, and she requested to meet their leader.
"Don't worry. Our boss is unbelievably capable. He actually wanted to meet you in person—that's why we brought you here. Just… don't be too shocked."
Compared with the Spring believers, the Resistance members seemed far more humane—more like ordinary people, and easier to talk to.
Soon, Irene was led into a massive circular chamber deep underground. There she met the leader of the Resistance—and to her shock, the leader was also a sphere of light, not a human at all.
At first Irene thought the leader was one of "Spring," and she instinctively tried to flee. But the sphere of light spoke in a human voice and stopped her.
"I am indeed the leader of the Resistance. I'm the same kind of being as those 'Spring,' but you don't need to be afraid."
Those words calmed Irene, at least a little. She hesitated for a long time, then finally gathered the courage to stay and talk.
The Resistance leader said he had noticed Irene carried extremely high levels of Alpha energy, utterly unlike ordinary humans. That was why he chose to save her and bring her here to investigate. The "Spring" had likely noticed it too—which was why they had been so relentless in hunting her across the entire city.
At close range, the Resistance leader could directly read Irene's memories. So as soon as they met, he learned Irene's full story—including why she had suddenly arrived in this era.
"The passage you entered must have malfunctioned somehow, so it sent you here by mistake."
Seeing how powerful he was, Irene immediately seized the chance and asked for help.
"Then can you send me back to my world?"
But the leader answered with regret.
"You may have misunderstood something. In the history of this Earth—and in certain classified archives of H‑country—there has never been any record of the teleportation passage connecting Earth to Eldoria Continent that exists in your memories."
"What… does that mean?"
Irene was stunned. Was he saying that, a thousand years ago, there was no such connection between Eldoria Continent and Earth's H‑country at all? Then how had she ever reached Earth, and how had she traveled through a passage into this era?
The explanation, however, made the situation clear:
The Earth Irene had visited before, and the Earth she was now standing on, were not the same universe.
They were parallel worlds.
There were countless parallel worlds sharing similar details—too many to enumerate. Even "Spring" could not determine which specific world Irene originally came from. So even if they wanted to, they could not send her back.
With that, Irene could only give up for the time being. But the situation on this Earth was so grim, and there were so many "Spring" watching for her. Seeing that the Resistance leader looked similar to "Spring" and possessed such great abilities, Irene's curiosity surged again:
Who exactly was he? Why would he help humans—and oppose his own kind?
It was complicated, but within the Resistance it was basically common knowledge. Since Irene was an outsider and didn't know, the leader did not hide anything. He began explaining the story behind the birth of "Spring":
In fact, so-called "Spring" had originally been human.
Everything began several hundred years ago, when a human research team captured a creature from another world—an angel.
Back then, a team dedicated to uncovering hidden alien life on Earth accidentally discovered a human-like female being who moved constantly across the globe and never seemed to age.
At first, they suspected she might be an alien or some reptilian creature. But after closer surveillance, they saw that when she faced extreme danger, she could transform: six white wings would unfold from her back, her body would radiate intense light, and her combat ability would increase dramatically. That was how they confirmed she was an angel.
After years of investigation, the team found she seemed to live alone, with no sign of other angels. So they made a bold decision—to capture her. With advanced equipment and meticulous planning, taking advantage of surprise, they succeeded after a struggle.
Interrogation followed. They learned her true name was Cyrae. She came from another world, held no hostility toward humanity, and had no hidden agenda. The only clue she could provide was that she had first arrived in H‑country. Beyond that, she had no information.
When Irene heard the name Cyrae, she immediately remembered something Feliciana had once told her and Reed—that they had encountered a parallel-world visitor named Cyrae. But Irene had been obsessed with online content back then and had not paid attention to that "mysterious angel" at all. Besides, she had no way of knowing whether this Cyrae was connected to the Cyrae Feliciana knew. So she did not interrupt, and let the Resistance leader continue.
…
Because the team could extract only limited information—and because Cyrae's description of her world sounded fantastical to Earth's people (many creatures she mentioned did not exist here)—and because Cyrae herself said she could not return, the team ultimately transferred her to a biological research institute for long-term study.
"I used to be one of that institute's staff. Back then, my name was Julian."
The Resistance leader continued. This was centuries after Cyrae had been delivered to the institute. With the technology of that era, it was easy to build a deep underground facility designed specifically to imprison an angel, tightly monitored by multiple AIs. As human technology advanced rapidly, Cyrae remained isolated and was confined for centuries—unable to escape.
During those centuries, the surface world underwent repeated upheavals. Yet research on the angel made no progress for a long time, limited by technological bottlenecks. Until one day, someone finally discovered, within sunlight, an energy of the same nature as the Light-element energy in Cyrae—what they called Alpha energy.
Alpha energy, as Julian explained, was essentially what Irene understood as "Light element."
In Earth science, energy that remains in a stable form over extremely long periods—tens or hundreds of thousands of years, even millions—can "separate" into two opposite natures. Earth scientists named them Alpha and Beta.
Normally, because energy is constantly transforming into other forms, this separation rarely occurs. Sunlight was the exception: light generated inside the sun took an extraordinarily long time to reach Earth while maintaining the same energy form, allowing the separation to happen.
Alpha energy's greatest trait was that it carried information. But most Alpha energy dispersed into the universe in a free state, making it difficult for scientists to collect in large quantities.
What they did not realize was that a certain institute possessed a special otherworldly being: an angel.
"If the existence of souls had never been confirmed, perhaps none of what followed would have happened—but human civilization would still have been destroyed by the black hole sooner or later."
At this point, the sphere of light in front of Irene let out a quiet sigh, foreshadowing a grim outcome.
"About a hundred years ago, a military project called 'Source Code' accidentally confirmed that human observation can indeed lead to the branching of parallel worlds. Our research into the true nature of reality finally broke through. We began to suspect that the world might be built on information rather than matter—because matter itself is just basic particles arranged according to information. Once we understood the importance of information, many old scientific puzzles unraveled, including the soul. The soul was later confirmed to exist on a higher-dimensional level—an energy body that is, in essence, a collection of information. When a higher-dimensional information-energy body influences the information of a lower-dimensional universe through Alpha energy, the logic of parallel-world branching becomes fully coherent."
"Huh…?"
By this stage, Irene could barely follow. She had no foundational education in such advanced future science, so she could not truly grasp it. Julian did not force her to.
He gave her a simplified summary:
"All you need to understand is this: everything that makes you 'you'—your memories, personality, and traits—are stored in the soul as an information-collection energy body. The information inside the soul can be reduced, erased, or dissipate on its own. Conversely, it can also be strengthened and expanded—almost without limit."
"Normally, the soul's information mostly comes from the outside world through human eyes receiving light, then the brain storing it and passing it into the connected soul. This process is extremely inefficient. So for decades, our institute focused on a method: directly injecting information into the soul through Alpha energy. Cyrae's enormous Alpha energy was the key."
Although the sphere of light had no face, Irene could hear a trace of reluctance in his voice at this part.
"They dissected her. By extracting vast Alpha energy from an angel's body, experiments advanced rapidly and succeeded. The fourteenth test subject could clearly feel an endless stream of information arriving through Alpha energy—information that even covered the theoretical rules governing everything from the birth of the universe to its end. Once the total information received by the soul exceeded a certain threshold, the subject effectively became nearly all‑knowing within a specific scope. At that point, the human brain could no longer process such an amount of information, so the subject's lifeform had to change. Before our eyes, the subject's body transformed into a sphere of white light—becoming a true god."
"Huh…?"
Irene was still confused, but she understood the essentials: Cyrae had been killed and used for research, and the result was the creation of Spring—beings with godlike power.
The rest was easier to follow.
"Once the first person became a god, the entire institute fell into ecstatic frenzy. They named that being 'Spring'. Many researchers even volunteered themselves to recreate the process and ascend as well. As for the newly born energy lifeforms—because their souls existed in higher dimensions, they themselves became higher-dimensional beings. They could easily manipulate energy and matter, and could even copy the information they obtained into other people's souls, directly helping others reach the same level. Of course, that required tremendous energy. I was only a logistics worker who used to deliver Cyrae's meals every day—but even I benefited from the spillover."
In short, Julian was a textbook example of "one rises, all rise." Although he was not a principal researcher, once he became a higher-dimensional energy lifeform, he initially held roughly the same amount of information as the others—so his power level was similar too.
But becoming a god was not an endpoint. It was merely the beginning of a new form of existence. Among "Spring," the amount of information one possessed became the concrete measure of power differences.
Although "Spring" could absorb information from Alpha energy, the amount of truly new information they could gain gradually diminished. Alpha energy—Light element—was finite in the universe, and at that level, acquiring further new information required an unimaginably massive amount of Alpha energy.
Not long after, after saving humanity from the black hole crisis, "Spring" received intense worship. In that process, "Spring" discovered that human faith could share the information contained within human souls with the object of worship. The information inside any single human soul was small—but once the number of believers became large enough, the result produced a qualitative leap. Faith could also dramatically increase the speed at which information was harvested from Alpha energy.
Eventually, a massive "human faith cultivation" plan became consensus among the other "Spring." From then on, they would no longer help any humans ascend. The Spring Faith was born.
Julian, unable to accept the ideology of his kind, chose to split away and become the leader of the human Resistance.
"So that's why… Without you, the Resistance would probably have been wiped out long ago—especially right under their noses."
As a being of the same level, Julian could partially prevent "Spring" from obtaining the Resistance's information. But he was outnumbered. With massive faith enhancing the other "Spring," Julian had been forced into an increasingly unfavorable situation. The Resistance being completely eradicated was only a matter of time.
To prevent that outcome, Julian prepared two major plans to ensure the continuation of human free will—and preserve even a slim possibility of ultimately destroying "Spring."
The first plan: the escape plan.
The ideal solution was to open a passage and flee to another world without "Spring." But first, it was difficult to find such a world. Second, the Resistance numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Moving so many people into another inhabited world might not actually be a good thing—and would not be fair to the people of that world.
Julian found an alternative: the universe was vast, and there would always be places "Spring" had not yet discovered. For Julian, creating a super interstellar ship capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of Resistance members and performing instantaneous interstellar space jumps was not difficult. The greatest obstacle was finding a suitable planet where humans could survive.
But after meeting Irene, Julian finally found the answer to that problem.
The second plan: the system cultivation plan.
To fight "Spring," Julian poured everything into building a high-dimensional AI system. The system possessed abilities comparable to "Spring": it could create objects from nothing and had effectively limitless energy. Its function was to enter different parallel universes, seek out the most suitable talents, and train them until they could stand against—and kill—"Spring."
Because once activated, the system would lead its members through continuous travel across countless parallel universes, in theory it would eventually and randomly enter Irene's home world.
Julian offered Irene a choice: follow the system, or join the escape ship plan.
Although joining the system meant real risk—possibly even dying without ever finding her home—Irene chose firmly to join. She became the system's first member. At the same time, Julian granted her special privileges: the system would actively search for Irene's home world, and Irene could withdraw from the system or switch teams at any time.
And then came the day of departure.
To ensure the entire Resistance could escape, Julian had no choice but to expose himself to the other "Spring." He traded his life for the interstellar ship's successful jump away. The ship's destination was the star system NGS‑512.
At the same moment, the system officially activated.
And Irene began her long journey home.