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墨書 Inktalez
Happy Lantern Festival!
Actually, it should be a happy Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. But it seems that people associate all festivals with food, so I can only go along with it. I just hope that one day we won't end up calling the New Year the Dumpling Festival.
A San's Flashlight circle is already large enough, but he is still adjusting it at a very slow pace, allowing the aperture to continue expanding and maintaining a stable state, completely encompassing something in the exact center of the Flashlight's beam.
In fact, the moment A San's Flashlight circle reaches a certain threshold, my heart begins to race uncontrollably. Because in that instant, I see the area of the aperture and the trajectory of light radiating forward.
Although I cannot agree with Jack's description of a black hole, the metaphor is vivid; the light from the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight can form a visible beam in the dark space. However, this beam disappears at a certain point, as if it has been severed, and at that location, light loses its physical properties.
But when A San's One-Eyed Beast Flashlight aperture exceeds a certain threshold, that severed beam of light shines brightly. Not the entire beam becomes visible, but rather the outer ring of the beam lights up. Inside the beam, at that position, it remains severed.
As A San gradually and slowly enlarges the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight's aperture, the outer layer becomes increasingly apparent. I can see light illuminating the wall opposite us, while the center appears to be a dark void on that wall.
However, reality quickly disproves my assumption.
It seems that to complement my observation, Jack steadies his One-Eyed Beast Flashlight towards the front and begins to adjust its aperture.
From my side view, I can more intuitively and three-dimensionally see his One-Eyed Beast Flashlight's light disappearing at a certain point.
I immediately understand why they are divided into several groups to illuminate different positions with their Flashlights. This experiment had already been conducted before I woke up.
Jack's Flashlight circle appears to thicken as I look at it from my position. I can see the area of his aperture approaching the total amount of darkness covered by A San's Flashlight. In an instant, when Jack's Flashlight circle aligns with A San's Flashlight circle within that darkness, a ring of deep black light suddenly presents itself before my eyes.
Black can also reflect brilliance. This is something I have never seen or even thought about before.
I understood immediately. This Black Opening was not on the wall in front of me! It was between us, about a meter above the Ground in the middle of this space, In Midair.
"Fire a Flare!" I shouted as loudly as I could.
"Can you... hold on?" A San hesitated to act and asked me uncertainly.
I removed my arm from his shoulder and swayed slightly; although my legs felt a bit weak, I felt I could manage.
At that moment, the pain in my body was concentrated in my abdomen. A wide bandage was wrapped around my stomach. I had no idea how the wound was healing, but the pain seemed to originate not from the surface of the wound but from deep inside my belly.
I imagined my liver being sliced in half or perhaps not completely severed, still partially connected, which intensified the sensation of pain. I quickly abandoned this self-inflicted torment.
"Alright, I can hold on. Fire the Flare at it; I want to see what the hell this thing is."
A San handed me the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight, turned around, squatted down, and began searching for a Flare in his backpack on the ground.
We had already used up our throwable Flares and incendiary grenades while ambushing the Giant Mosquitoes in the Metal Passage, leaving us with no handheld signal flares left.
However, we still had a few low-heat, high-brightness shooting Flares. These were less effective against a Swarm of Mosquitoes than torches and were more of a nuisance than anything else, which was why we had kept them.
I didn't continue to watch A San. Instead, I focused on the beam of light, trying to give my eyes time to adjust. I didn't want to be blinded again by brightness.
Jack's Flashlight beam had been adjusted to a large size; it not only completely covered the black hole but also created a hollow column of light that shone directly onto the wall opposite the black hole.
Because the aperture was too wide, the light shining on the opposite wall was not very bright. However, since the distance was not far, I could still see clearly that there was no opening in the illuminated area.
I pointed at the wall illuminated by Jack's flashlight and shouted to him, "There's nothing over there."
I believed Jack couldn't see what was in front of him. Neither could I; I could see my One-Eyed Beast Flashlight casting light from the edge of the black hole. But I couldn't see what was behind the black hole.
Sure enough, Jack understood my meaning. He pointed at my side and shouted, "Yes, there's nothing at all. The opening isn't on the wall; it's in the air."
It seemed we both shared the same visual perception. The black hole appeared as an opening on each of our respective walls.
"Don't look up!"
As soon as A San's voice fell, I heard a loud bang. The entire space suddenly lit up as bright as day.
Everyone was prepared; not only did no one look up, but they also placed both hands over their brows to shield their eyes from harm.
However, the damage to our minds and spirits was unavoidable. In that instant when the space lit up, I thought we were all stunned. At least I was.
With my hands pressed against my brow, I could only see a low range of this space. Yet through previous experiments, I already knew how large this black hole was; while my hands blocked out the intense light, they did not obstruct even a hint of the black hole.
What I saw visually was this: in a very bright space roughly the size of two basketball courts, at its center about a meter above the ground, there was a circular opening approximately five meters in diameter.
I want to emphasize one point: it was a flat Black Opening.
I fixed my gaze on the opening not far from me, where the bright, pale light met the pitch-black entrance, as if they belonged to two different worlds. At the intersection of black and white, it was like a black circle painted on a white sheet, starkly contrasting and utterly incompatible.
This Black Opening leaped into view in mid-air in an incredible way, leaving me at a loss for words. It felt as though this Black Opening existed outside our world, presenting itself before me in an indescribable manner.
Please forgive my limited vocabulary and inadequate descriptive ability. I can only express that this Black Opening should not belong to our world; even though it appears within our realm, it absolutely does not belong here.
It’s hard to understand, isn’t it? A simpler and more intuitive way to describe it reflects my feelings at that moment.
It was as if there was a painting before me, completely flat. The space in front of me had been compressed into a two-dimensional surface, where everything lost its sense of distance and perspective. Yet this black hole seemed to leap out from that flat surface.
Yes, although what lay before me was not a flat image, the Black Abyss gave me the impression that it was a three-dimensional object while I and our world were merely a drawing on a white sheet.
(To Be Continued.)
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