"Mhm, mhm, this way, the fairy Elysia is about to be born~♪"
Elysia clapped her hands.
"She's being born!"
Vya also cheered excitedly, her little arms and legs bouncing up and down.
"Hmm…"
Einstein covered her face, looking somewhat helplessly at this energetic pair of sisters.
She really couldn't understand why the startup program test had to be conducted in her laboratory, and why it had to be such a lively affair…
"Dear Dr. Einstein, would you like one too?"
Elysia had somehow slipped silently beside Einstein, her tone carrying a hint of mischievous laughter.
"No."
Einstein refused instantly.
"Then… how about a custom 'Fairy Einstein' for you? Guaranteed to be just as smart as you~"
"Pass."
Einstein lowered her hand and shook her head,
"We already have more than enough armed dolls here. One more, and I'm afraid I'll be busy around the clock."
"Ah, what a shame."
Elysia feigned a sigh of regret, though a smile lingered in her eyes.
Einstein didn't see it that way.
Just thinking about that soon-to-be-"born" Fairy Elysia, which not only had most of Elysia's data uploaded but also some story background about a "Land of Divine Music" personally written by Elysia, sent a chill down her spine.
If she really accepted it, it would undoubtedly be a little troublemaker causing daily headaches, who knows what chaos it would unleash in the lab.
"Alright then… let's set a nice startup incantation first!"
Elysia clapped her hands, announcing enthusiastically, completely ignoring Einstein's exasperation.
"Uh… you think of one yourself."
Einstein simply didn't have the energy to get involved. She turned to head back to her workstation, intending to focus on her current research.
"Hey~! Got it! Just like this…"
Before Elysia could finish her sentence—
Suddenly!
Everyone present except for Vya and those armed dolls, including Einstein and Elysia, felt an inexplicable wave of dizziness, as if something had violently jerked their consciousness away.
Immediately after, an intense feeling of unease spread from the depths of their hearts, like icy vines coiling around them, tightening their breaths.
Almost simultaneously, a sharp alarm began blaring in the laboratory.
Beep—beep— The sound was urgent and piercing.
"Huh? What's going on!?"
Elysia frowned.
"Reporting, Doctor! Intense seismic waves detected!"
An armed doll responsible for monitoring data hurried over from the control console.
"?"
Einstein's heart sank. Forgetting everything else, she rushed to the virtual computer, fingers flying across the keyboard, pulling up all monitoring data.
On the screen, numbers and symbols for gravity, geology, electromagnetism, spectrum… were all wildly fluctuating, distorted beyond recognition.
Looking at the real-time feed—
One feed clearly showed the sky. What made one's scalp crawl was that in the sky, where there should have been blue skies and white clouds, a massive, deep black circle had appeared.
Its edges were blurred, surrounded by a ring of eerie light, like an all-devouring eye staring fixedly at the ground.
In other feeds, the scenes at sea had become completely indistinct. The normally formed clouds looked as if kneaded by an invisible giant hand.
Even more terrifying, the seawater had begun uncontrollably surging backward, rushing violently towards the land, leaving devastation in its wake.
"This… how is this possible?"
Einstein looked at the images on the screen, unconsciously taking two steps back.
It was unbelievable.
"Dr. Einstein, what's happening?"
Elysia also hurried over, her face full of shock as she looked at the horrifying images on the screen.
"A black hole…?"
Einstein murmured to herself. As a world-renowned physicist, she almost instantly realized what might be happening the moment she saw that black circle, but the conclusion was too startling.
"Black hole? The kind that devours everything?"
Elysia stared at the expanding black area on the screen.
"Why would it suddenly appear here?"
"Wow, a black hole. Vya remembers reading about it in books, but… why is it here?"
Vya also leaned in, her little face full of confusion. Though she didn't fully grasp the terror of the thing, she could sense the heavy atmosphere.
Just then, the communicator on Elysia suddenly rang, shattering the deathly silence in the lab.
"It's Mei! I'll ask her!"
Elysia immediately answered the call. Mei's always serious face appeared on the screen, the background seeming slightly shaky, with faint noises from outside audible.
"Elysia, two pieces of news."
Mei's voice came through the communicator, grave.
Elysia composed herself, listening intently:
"Good news and bad news?"
"Don't joke."
Mei cut her off directly, her tone leaving no room for doubt,
"First, a new Herrscher has appeared."
"Second,"
Mei paused, as if choosing her words,
"This Herrscher has created a celestial body resembling a black hole above the Mu Continent. The density of its core singularity approaches infinity."
"Is there a way?"
Einstein, who had been silently watching the screen, suddenly spoke up, her voice slightly hoarse.
She knew now was not the time for panic; they had to find a solution quickly.
"…It's not that there's no way, but there's no time."
Mei's voice carried a note of helplessness,
"Under the gravitational pull of that 'black hole,' the entire Mu Continent will be completely swallowed, crushed, and utterly vanish within a few hours."
"If possible, have Vya bring you all back first. Save as many as you can."
Mei's tone was calm, a calmness that was unnerving. Clearly, she was already prepared for the worst.
Elysia immediately shook her head:
"What about the others! We can't just leave them behind!"
"There's no time, Elysia."
Mei's voice grew firmer,
"We save who we can now. If we hesitate any longer, no one will get out."
"I have a way."
At that moment, Einstein suddenly looked up, a flash of resolve in her eyes,
"In the Deep… the Deep lab is where we are now. The Eye of the Deep here is less of an eye and more of a two-way spatial gate."
"Vya once took us inside. Not long ago, I also attempted to actively open the Eye of the Deep and successfully transmitted some experimental objects into it…"
Einstein explained rapidly, her words almost tumbling over each other.
Mei instantly understood her idea on the other end:
"You want to open that gate and transport everyone on the Mu Continent away?"
"Correct."
Einstein nodded, her gaze firm,
"It's the only option we have right now."
Without a moment's hesitation, Mei said directly:
"I haven't studied the Eye of the Deep much. You're the one who knows it best. Do you think it can succeed?"
Einstein took a deep breath, glanced around at the tense faces in the room, then looked again at the expanding black threat on the screen, and said slowly:
"Do we have a choice?"
Mei was silent for a moment, as if assessing the feasibility of the plan, and finally said only:
"Then… good luck to you. Don't waste time."
With that, the communication feed disappeared.
It seemed external communications were already severely disrupted, the signal becoming extremely unstable.
"Let's go!"
Einstein hesitated no longer, immediately calling out to a few key researchers and armed dolls.
"Everyone, follow me to the Eye of the Deep! Quickly!"
The group hurried towards the direction of the Eye of the Deep. Passing through the long corridors, the alarms around them were still piercing, but no one paid them any mind now.
The Eye of the Deep still hung quietly in the center of the vast space, emitting a soft, mysterious glow.
Compared to the chaos outside, it was relatively peaceful here, as if none of the disaster from the outside world could touch this place.
They quickly checked the equipment, confirmed energy reserves. All preparations were completed hastily yet in an orderly manner.
Einstein stood before the control console, looking at the glowing "gate" before her. Her calm voice echoed throughout the space:
"Everyone, I know this is sudden. This is a choice I am making, in haste, on behalf of all the people on this continent."
"If I fail, then I am the culprit, the one who personally pushed everyone into an unknown Deep"
"If I succeed, people may enter another completely unfamiliar world. That place might be heaven, or it could be another hell."
"But… compared to staying here, being utterly crushed by that 'black hole,' leaving not even a trace behind…"
She paused, once again looking at the black circle surrounded by a ring of light on the display screen, her eyes becoming incredibly determined:
"We have a choice… No matter what, we must try."
Einstein made her choice. For the people of this land, and for the armed dolls she regarded as her children… She reached out and pressed the activation button.
…
The Mu Continent vanished.
At the location where the Mu Continent once was, an immense, bottomless oceanic basin instantly appeared in the Pacific. The surrounding seawater began to surge madly inward, trying to fill the gigantic void, stirring up monstrous waves.
…
2 Chapters Per Day. For more chapters/fics, goto ErbiumTL on Patreon.