[My teacher, the venerable Baron Callis, was a renowned astrologist, astronomer, and master of alchemical engineering. She is the once-in-a-century champion of the 52nd 'Mobile World Urban Design Competition', and this is the highest achievement in architectural engineering in the entire 'Three Realms and Nine Heavens', for which the Empress of the Heavenly Sword of the Shining Region personally bestowed her knighthood, and a new mobile world city was named after her.

In addition, she is also an extremely legendary, famous for the great 'Continental Explorer' of the Three Realms, in the vast and infinite continent of steel, there are eight 'stable star realms' that she discovered, and determined the law of the stellar cycle Now, those eight stable star realms have become the new frontier of the Shining Regional Alliance of Nations, with hundreds of billions of new immigrants, driving a new 'mobile world city', where they are chasing the glory of the sun.

And all this is due to the teacher. 】

[As a disciple of Master Callis, I feel very honored and inferior, because even if I spend my whole life, I can't surpass my teacher in any field.

But at this point, Mr. Karlis's best friend, my immediate boss, Mrs. McCroft of Royal Roads University, would reassure me: 'There is always someone in a group of people to be a foil, so why can't it be you?' That's your calling. To be honest, I don't know exactly what Ms. McCrove meant, but her tone is very sincere, and I will take it as a motivation from my boss. 】

[There are many disciples of Mr. Karlis, and most of them are related to 'urban design in the mobile world'. After all, the more advanced the technology of moving the world city, the faster it will be, and it will be able to travel to the next stable star realm in the shortest time after the stars in the region are submerged in the steel continent, and naturally, the more likely it is to repel the attacks of the chaos monsters that wander in the dark zone between the many star realms, it is one of the most important disciplines in the entire shining region, which means the future of civilization.

And I, however, am not a student of the teacher in this regard, I am ashamed to say that I used to be just an assistant hired by her when she was exploring the Continent of Steel, and the teacher was willing to accept me as a student and teach me about exploration, which is really a blessing for three lives, and I have benefited a lot from it, and now I am not too big or small, and I am also a well-known bachelor of exploration, and I have formed my own family in the shining area. 】

[But recently, my teacher has had a little trouble.

Her best friend, my boss, Royal Roads University Scholar Lady Croff Zeroya, mysteriously disappeared during an expedition to the 'Twilight Zone'. Before she disappeared, Ms. McCroft sent the map and journal of her explorations to my elegant, wise, virtuous teacher via a private psionic communication. Since then, the teacher has always seemed worried, and even occasionally covered his head and whispered to himself.

"Really? How can it be...... Time flies, it's been so long......"

Once, when I was carefully serving twice as much coffee to the teacher, I heard the teacher muttering to himself. Was she talking about how long she and Ms. McCrove had known each other? It seems that the disappearance of Ms. McCrove is indeed a very big blow to her. 】

[But even so, I never imagined that the teacher who had already achieved fame would actually embark on an expedition again for this purpose When she completely disposed of her assets in the Shining Regional Alliance of Nations, this famous academic master purchased an Ark-class continental exploration ship, she threw away the gems on her head and chest, tied up her ponytail, took off her gorgeous bloated dress, and put on smart short shirts and trousers again, and soon, hundreds of professional explorers who came to join her team, Prepare to embark on another journey to the 'Twilight Zone' under the leadership of this legendary explorer! 】

A middle-aged man's hand stretched out, stroking the words on an old journal book in the light.

You can hear the man's soft sigh, and he stares at the words on it, as if he is stuck in a memory.

"Teacher......" he whispered to himself, then smiled bitterly.

[Three Realms and Nine Heavens]. That's the name of the world. As the name suggests, the so-called Three Realms are the [Central Realm of the Steel Continent] where all living beings live, the [Heavenly Sword Realm] and the [Earth Axe Realm] that intersect with the central realm, and the Nine Heavens are nine super floating continents suspended above the Steel Continent, which are huge enough to cover the sky, but unfortunately, because the Steel Continent is too terrifying gravity, so far, no one has ever climbed above the Nine Heavens, even if it is a god, he can only look at it from afar and sigh.

Countless suns, rising and falling on the infinitely wide continent, they run through the nine layers of heaven and earth, and the dazzling sunlight gives vitality to the billions of ecosystems on this endless continent.

The Continent of Steel is vast, and so far, no explorer has ever explored its end, whether it was the 'Age of the Gods' 100,000 years ago or the 'Age of Chaos' 50,000 years ago. Its central region is an incomparably vast bright 'annular belt' shrouded by a huge group of stars, which is also known as the 'shining region'.

The shining area is the center of all nations and civilizations, and after this continent that does not have to worry about stars being submerged into steel, the world is plunged into a bright ring of darkness, and all civilizations can be bathed in the eternal light in the cycle of star alternation, falling and rising, and do not have to worry about being attacked by those chaotic monsters living in darkness.

The 'twilight area' refers to the area where there are scattered stars outside the 'shining area', but there is no guarantee that every place will be shining brightly all the time. There, a small number of stars will also be sucked into the earth due to the incomparably huge gravitational pull of the Steel Continent, but even if the Steel Continent will recreate stars, it will be at least hundreds of thousands of years later, and unlike the shining region, there are no other dozens or hundreds of stars in the twilight section that can continue to shine on that area after a star falls to the earth.

Therefore, the colonies built by all nations in this place, the incomparably huge 'mobile world cities', must take tens of billions of people to speed across the continent, chasing the ups and downs of the stars one after another, bathing in their light.

It is precisely because of this that all the beings living on the Continent of Steel, no matter how strange their forms, call themselves the Light Chasers.

Although all preparations are made, due to various circumstances, there are often 'mobile world cities' who do not have time to go to other solar regions in time before the energy reserves are exhausted, causing everyone in the entire world city to die in the cold, or to be swallowed by the chaos in the darkness After all, a 'stable stellar realm' with a stable stellar circulation system is very rare and precious, each of which means a living environment similar to the shining region, which can supply hundreds of billions of people and more than a dozen mobile world cities to survive.

Therefore, the twilight area is very dangerous, when exploring, explorers often find the ruins of the city that God knows tens of thousands of years ago, and the chaos monsters that live outside the twilight area, the [Lightless Zone] will occasionally lurk in the dusk area, and attack those mobile cities that want to transfer when the sun falls and the light dissipates.

Legend has it that 100,000 years ago, the gods of the Age of the Gods could create stars in the twilight region and build a huge floating city group with them as the center, and even a huge energy array covering an entire star to create a stable and glorious area and create a brilliant civilization. But 50,000 years ago, all the gods lost their divine power inexplicably, countless floating cities fell, and even the energy cage that was enough to imprison the stars was unable to resist the excessive gravitational force because of the loss of divine power, and it disintegrated with the fall of the stars and fell in the steel earth.

It was a dark age that lasted for nearly 20,000 years, with the death of countless lives, the destruction of countless civilizations, and the dissipation of infinite light. The chaos monsters in the 'Lightless Zone' swarmed out, these greatest enemies of civilization and life, devoured everything unscrupulously during that time period, and the beings who had lost the protection of the gods were powerless to resist this sudden destruction, so they could only continue to retreat from the Dusk Zone and retreat to the Shine Zone, until now, you can still see the terrible ruins left by the war in some remote corners of the Dusk Zone, and in the ruins, there is still a terrible wind wailing.

However, at this moment of despair, there was an endless light coming from the [Heavenly Sword Realm] and the [Earth Axe Realm].

It was a holy sword, and a divine axe, and thousands of 'weapons' of different shapes. They fell from the two unknown worlds that intersected with the Continent of Steel, and slew the endless Chaos, and the Light Chasers, who were powerless to fight against the chaos at that time, picked up the heroic sacrifices of countless heroes of the 'Divine Weapon' that came down from the end of heaven and earth, ended the 'Chaos Era', and drove all the chaos monsters back to the lightless belt again.

They believe that these 'divine weapons' are the transformation of the corpses of the gods who have long since passed away, and the existence that can barely control the existence of the 'Heaven Opening Holy Sword' and the 'Demon Slaying God Axe' is now the supreme leader of the Shining Regional Alliance of Nations, the 'Heavenly Sword Empress' and the 'Demon Slaying Lord'. Until now, no matter who they are, even if they are the sons of criminals or exiles, as long as they can master a divine weapon, their sins will be automatically erased, and they will directly become the nobles of the League of Nations, shouldering the responsibility of guarding the frontier.

[Heavenly Sword Empress, personally bid farewell to the teacher, Her Majesty the Empress blessed the teacher's car 'Rekindling', and wished her a smooth return from exploration. At that time, because of the birth of my eldest daughter, I couldn't follow the teacher to the dusk area, which has to be said to be a huge regret. The magnanimous teacher Karlis, instead of blaming me for the dereliction of duty as an assistant and student, congratulated my daughter on the birth and offered to name her an honor for me and my wife, and a blessing for my daughter. 】

["Let's call it 'Sibeja.'" I remember, she should be called this name, I have to say, this is really nostalgic, you guy, it's really fate. ”】

[Although the teacher's words are a little strange, the sincere tone and incomparably sincere blessings are not false. And my eldest daughter, Siberjafalst, got her own name for this, and her finger-biting smile was the greatest happiness of my life. 】

[More than ten years have passed, Teacher Carlis's exploration has been fruitful, in the ups and downs of the stars, she found several ancient floating city ruins of the chaotic era, and found a new stable stellar realm Teacher has a special talent in this area, she has a unique sense of smell, that is, she can find those places suitable for life to survive. To be honest, it's a little disrespectful, and I've always thought it has nothing to do with the teacher's level of knowledge, it's a godsend!

During this time, my second child was about to be born, a boy, but just as I was thinking about what to name him, bad news came. 】

[It was a dark afternoon, and the artificial sky dome of the City of Learning was slowly closing, and it began to absorb the light of the sun at full power, and many of the scholars living in it had finished their work and returned home to rest. I was reviewing the papers of several graduate students, but I received a communication from a senior brother until then, and it was only then that I was shocked to learn that my inquisitive teacher, in the depths of the distant twilight region, had returned to the bosom of light, and a star had suddenly fallen and smashed down on the steel earth, and the torrent of blazing flames had swallowed everything in the three moons of light, and my teacher, hundreds of professional explorers, and two thousand five hundred crew members, had just dissolved into the too bright light. 】

[The teacher died in a glorious exploration, which is the bad news for all the nations and races of the entire shining region. The Empress of the Heavenly Sword, along with the Demon Slayer, said that Baron Karlis's death was a loss to all Light Chasers, and that all the colonists living in the stable stellar realm discovered by the Teacher mourned for three minutes for her death. As a bachelor, this is already the highest honor, but I still can't believe that that elegant and wise scholar, the most famous astronomer, could have died in such a simple astronomical phenomenon, but the fact is the truth, the teacher has indeed not returned, and I was so sad that I regretted not dying with the teacher in that great exploration.

Soon, however, even more shocking news emerged. Just half a year after the teacher left, after all the turmoil was over, I suddenly received an extremely secret psionic communication, followed by the teacher's secret will!

It was a small state-of-the-art exploration ship, a fortune, several stuffed information crystals, and most importantly, a star map of all the areas that the teacher had explored over the years! And on this star map, there are several marker points that are specially marked, and it just so happens that the place where the teacher 'died' is located in the area marked by one of the marker points! There are even a few markers and route maps, located in the depths of the Lightless Zone, outside of the current twilight zone!

Mr. Carlis gave me all these possessions free of charge, and left a meaningful 'prophecy'. 】

['The day the fire is gone, the flame is rekindled.' ’】

My student, Alfa Falst, son of the Silver Elf, is no ordinary person, and you don't know the meaning of your existence yet, but I know it.

Go to the end of the Steelland, the frontier of the world. You have to open that gate, and then go to the center of the continent, the heart of the Three Realms, and extinguish the existing flames, which is something that only you can do.

[A month later, I did. After saying goodbye to my wife and children, and leaving them a fortune, I decided to follow the star map left by my teacher and explore the unknown. Although I don't know what the teacher is talking about, I know that this is indeed something that only I can do, I want to become the greatest explorer of the entire steel continent, this is my dream, but it was sealed because of love and responsibility, and now, because of the teacher's will, because of the curiosity that has been rekindled, I am selfish, and I have decided to embark on a journey that belongs only to me again. 】

[There is no one else, just myself, and twenty-five artificial intelligence crews.] I can vaguely feel the turbulent undercurrent lurking behind the teacher, I don't even dare to tell other close friends the news to declare to the public, I just suddenly went crazy and wanted to go out alone, this is not surprising, explorers are basically such people, they will stride out on a whim, and then they will not return for more than ten years. 】

[The exploration ship left to me by the teacher is really very advanced, absorbing the light of the sun, I quickly jumped out of the shining area and came to the dusk area. After decades of exploration, I was a little rusty at first, and even misidentified the direction and took tens of thousands of light-years more detours, but soon, I picked up my expertise again and became the right-hand man of the great explorer, but this time, I was the captain.

However, the strange thing is that even though decades have passed, the number of colonies in the twilight region has not increased, but rather decreased, and I wandered around the familiar area for 700,000 light-years, passing through hundreds of colonies, only to find that the number of stars is about a third less than before. This is very abnormal, a few decades is a very short time for the thousands of years of life of stars on the Steel Continent, even if their final fate is to fall to the earth, but it will not die out a third in such a short time.

I continued to wander, and more and more discoveries confirmed my suspicion that the number of stars was rapidly decreasing, both capable and non-life-bearing. Originally, the endless stars suspended on the Steel Continent could only be used by us, as a source of life, only about one in a hundred billion, and even more so in the twilight region, even within a range of hundreds of thousands of light years, there were only hundreds of stars of just the right height and size that could be used by us. In the age of the gods, the gods could move the floating continent and control the distance freely, and then make the most of the suns, but for the lightseekers who were bound by gravity to the surface of the earth, we could only pray.

Maybe it's because I used to live in a shining zone with endless stars, so I was very insensitive to the number of stars, but now, in the twilight region, where every star is precious, I can see it very clearly. But even the hundreds of stars have been reduced by a third, and many of the mobile world cities that I used to be familiar with are now gone, and the people among them have disappeared without a sound. I believe that this is no accident, and the same must be true of leaving this colonial area and going to another colonized area millions of light-years away. 】

[The disappearance of many stars, and the death of the teacher, no, missing, there must be something hidden behind it! ] In order to explore the truth, I began to go deep into the depths of the twilight area, to look for possible clues around the colony, all traces have been erased, and the trajectory of the stars no longer exists, but I believe that no matter who it is, it is impossible to erase all the traces of these billions of stars, and in the depths of the twilight area, there must be clues that they are powerless to erase.

Soon, following the star map left by the teacher, I followed a safe route deep into the depths of the twilight area. There are hardly any colonies of all nations here, and if there are, they are only scattered isolated cities on the frontier, and here I have indeed found a clue! I saw the trajectories of tens of thousands of stars gliding under the nine heavens, and the long space-time dents left by their movements were so obvious that I could see in an instant the direction in which they had returned.

And the direction in which they return is the ring of the shining area of my hometown. 】

[I have to say, I'm starting to wonder why? There is no shortage of light shining at all for the stars in the shining zone, and I have never felt the slightest dimming of brilliance in recent decades...... Even, recently, many scholars have proposed to move the stars of the shining world to the twilight region and open up more colonies, otherwise, even the habitable areas in the shining area will be filled with these tens of thousands of years of continuous life.

Could it be that they intend to gather the stars of the Twilight Region and expand the boundaries of the Shining Zone? But this is too thankless to pull the stars is not a simple matter, except for the Heavenly Sword Empress and the Demon Slayer Lord, in the entire shining area, there are no more than twenty people who can do this, even if they join forces, it is impossible to migrate hundreds of millions of stars in a few decades! Behind this, there must be a bigger mystery! 】

[With this doubt, I ended this exploration, and returned home tired, but I was not greeted by the smiling faces of my wife and daughter, or the disgust that blamed me for not returning for a long time...... I'd rather be disgusted, for all I saw was an empty home and a letter left behind by the Order of the Ashes.

The Order of Ashes is a mysterious order that emerged after the fall of the gods, they control a large number of divine weapons, and claim that they are the remnants of the ashes after the fall of the gods, they are nominally led by the Empress of the Heavenly Sword and the Lord of the Demon Slayer, but in fact they are controlled by the Elder Group of the Order, responsible for the granting and recovery of all divine weapons.

They and I are basically people of two worlds, one is a violent political group with real power, and the other is a bachelor in the capital of learning, but today, I am mercilessly threatened by them, and in that letter, I am indifferently informed that my wife and daughter are now being held in a secret place, and they warn me not to try to find out about the changes in the stars in the Twilight Sector, and to leave the Shining Zone, otherwise their lives will be lost, and I will surely die. 】

[At the same time, to prove their determination, they also sent a small hand bone, which was my son's hand bone.] Presumably, if I don't listen to them, the next time I send it will be his head.

In addition to my anger, my heart was also filled with fear, I woke up from the overly vast fantasy, and found that I was nothing more than an ordinary person, without the aura shrouded by Mr. Karlis, I was just a rather humble explorer, an ordinary bachelor of astral science, not to mention confronting the Ashes Order, and if the other party hinted at the leader of the City of Learning, I would lose all glory and become an inconspicuous dust on the side of the road. 】

[Come to think of it, the disappearance of Teacher Karliss is also related to them, right? The existence of a star that can pull a star has nothing to do with that accidental star fall, if it has nothing to do with it, I absolutely do not believe it.

But if you don't believe it, if you don't want to be willing, what can you do? I was a lost dog, and I could only flee in disgrace, sitting on the exploration ship given by my teacher, and wandering aimlessly through the twilight area...... But can I really let go of the truth? Whether it's the disappearance of my teacher, the displacement of the stars, or the whereabouts of my missing wife and daughter...... How can I trust that they will let them go and simply detain them if they threaten me with their lives and give me no information that they are still alive? 】

[But I can only go away, go away, no longer pay attention to the changes of the stars, I can only go away, to the edge of the world, the deepest part of the twilight. 】

[I've come to the Lightless Zone. I came to a point of light on the teacher's star chart. 】

A middle-aged man's hand caressed the words on the journal, and the last paragraph, the traces of ink were very clear, as if it had been written not long ago. Then, the pair closed the journal and placed it in a backpack on one side.

"Teacher, I have followed your guidance and come here."

On a seemingly 'low' hill, next to an exploration ship with a smooth, sturdy hull that looked very advanced, a middle-aged man was looking up at the distant light.

Standing on the top of the 17.29 million meters of 'hills' in the Steel Continent, standing at the top of the undulating earth of this size, which is the size of two 'moving world cities', the silver-haired and red-eyed man known as the 'Son of the Silver Fairy' looked wearily into the bright distance.

He could see that billions of suns were rising and falling on the vast continent of steel, bringing bright light to everything that was dark, but in the same way, there were clusters of chaos of darkness moving with it, and they were hidden in all the dark areas where there was no sun, lurking, waiting, waiting for the day when the sun would fall, and all the cities that chased the sun would lose their protection.

In the same way, he could see that in the center of all this, in the middle of the Nine Heavens and Heavens, the Three Worlds, the Three Worlds, and the Nine Heavens of the Three Realms, there was a giant star that could never be seen in the Shining Zone, in the Dusk Zone!

It was a superstar that was incomparably huge, incomparably heavy, merely existent, like a superstar that had swallowed up all the existence of the world, pitch black and obliterating all light!

The entire continent of steel is nothing but an accretion disk around this black giant star, and the infinite stars are just a little mist of light around this black giant star, and the shining area on which all civilizations and all living beings depend for their livelihood is a thin layer of land that surrounds its irregular narrow ring-like area.

Is it really a star? But how could the stars be so huge! The black giant star attracts everything, spins everything, and it rotates, as if it is the axis of the three realms and nine heavens, the infinite world!

The middle-aged man could see that at the edge of it, the border between the Steel Continent and its contact, was releasing an incomparably strong light, and the countless stars in the shining zone were rising and falling in this light, releasing endless vitality...... However, no matter what intelligent life is, no matter who it is, it doesn't know why, but it can instinctively know that the giant star that illuminates the 'shining area', and the 'brilliance' that gives birth to endless beings, is actually long dead.

It is long gone.

Everything now, the seemingly magnificent billions of stars, the endless brilliance, is just a little ember of the world's most glorious moment.

"The day of the end of the fire, the time when the flame is rekindled."

Karlis's student, a subordinate of Microf, Sibeya's father, an ordinary man named Alpha Falst, was whispering in confusion.

"Could it be that this black star ......?"

"Is that it, to be rekindled?"