Roth looked up and down and then reviewed the cinematic. “A little that way, I think.” Something about his current angle felt off. Europe seemed too big compared to the cinematic and he couldn’t see Japan. After several teleportations and adjustments, he was finally satisfied with his placement.

This was it. He was at the same rough location where every player began their journey in AstroTerra. He didn’t know if this was the exact place. The cinematic didn’t show coordinates; without them, he could be several miles off without being the wiser.

“Now what?” he asked his planet. He had hoped that finding this spot would have been the key to triggering the next part of the quest. However, the blue gem floating in the darkness of space remained silent. No canon shots were fired, there was no hint of movement on the planet, and there was no incoming Astro collision.

Roth bit his lip and took a few deep breaths, trying to slow his racing heart. The emptiness of space and Lin’s absence was eating away at him. He just wanted to finish this quest and return to the regular AstroTerra.

This place was depressing and too catless! Even the Dark Abyss was better than this. At least there, he could chat with his friends via messages, interact with his pets, and see other living things. Things that tried to kill him, true, but somehow, this complete peace and absence of life felt more terrifying than the aggressive fauna and flora of the dark lands.

Roth replayed the cinematic again. It began with a view of Earth and then a swooshing meteor coming from behind him at an angle. Then, the planetary defenses activated, shooting at the meteor. With a little patience, if he paused the video in the right frame, he might be able to determine where the shots were being fired from. However, his gut told him that wasn’t what he needed to do.

The goal of this quest was to find the reason for the Rain of Fire; therefore, it was the meteor's point of origin that mattered to him, not its impact. There was only one thing left to do. Turning his back to his planet, Roth focused on the most distant point in space and teleported away.

After several jumps, as he glanced over his shoulder, the Earth had shrunk to the size of a marble. The thought of losing track of his home planet made his mouth dry. It was as if he was swimming farther away from the shore. What if he didn’t have the strength to make it back? Roth bit his lip, threw all caution to the wind, and teleported farther away.

He didn’t know if the developers had projected this virtual representation of the universe to scale, but if they did, space was a scary place, even scarier than the deep ocean. No matter how fast or far he teleported, there were millions of miles of nothing.

After several minutes, just as he was about to give up and turn back, he finally spotted it: Astro. The massive chunk of rock cut through space, leaving a blue tail of debris, ice, and gasses in its wake. “Bingo!” His hunch had been correct! He had found the meteor! Roth teleported closer.

Initially, Astro seemed to be a still pebble. However, the more Roth approached, the more of his vision it occupied. It was insanely fast, too. The huge mass filled his vision one moment, only to be completely gone the next. He could only catch a blur of it passing. How could something so big move so fast?

Roth had to teleport in short bursts to keep pace with Astro and get a closer look. He was looking for anything unusual, maybe a pilot, machines, or something artificial that hinted at it being more than a random tragedy. No matter how much he looked, though, all he saw was a rock. He was only getting snapshots of the cosmic object between teleportations, but he was almost sure this was just a regular comet.

He tried to focus more on the meteor's material. It was made of glassy rock with clouds of light and gas whirling inside it.

“Where have I seen this?”

Then it hit Roth—the lizardmen’s orbs. They looked remarkably similar.

He let the meteor continue its inevitable trajectory toward Earth. Were the orbs owned by the lizardmen fragments of Astro? If so, did that have any significance for this quest? Scratching his beard, he looked down, shaking his head.

The Rain of Fire was mentioned frequently in the game’s quests and when he interacted with NPCs. Knowing what the Rain of Fire had done, where some of its fragments were, when and where it landed wasn’t what he was looking for. The proof of that was that no quest window had popped up.

He watched as the meteor disappeared into the distance, heading toward Earth. There was no point in chasing after it. He already knew what it did and what the effects of its impact would be. The Crow Emperor had been clear that he was only interested in discovering why it happened.

Thankfully, he had a trail to follow. The blue tail of the asteroid was like a road. Clenching his fists, he focused on the farthest point of the tail and traveled at the speed of light toward whatever it was that had triggered the Rain of Fire.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

*

There were games that tested players’ perseverance and patience. Back in New Earth, there was that cursed pyramid and its impossible puzzles and dungeons. He had never imagined that AstroTerra would make him miss the cruel dungeon master of New Earth to such an extent.

Roth had been chasing the trail for over an hour. He had never traveled this fast in any game. With a blink of an eye, he could cross thousands of kilometers. However, that was nothing in the big scale of the universe. No matter how often he teleported, this trail stretched forever. Earth was just a dot in the distance, and he had no idea if he was still in the Solar System.

The only thing keeping him going was the comet's blue, shiny tail. He took that as a sign that he was in the right direction.

Roth stopped, frowning. Something had changed. The blue tail seemed to end just ahead. He teleported a few more times, and it was gone.

Roth looked around, looking for clues. There was nothing here. He had imagined different scenarios, everything from a colossal alien spaceship with giant cannons shooting meteors to an abandoned space station filled with rogue, mad astronauts with an evil plan to eradicate Earth. What he hadn’t expected was to find nothing. A big, fat piece of nothing.

“There must be something more to this. What am I missing?” Roth turned toward the trail he had followed here. In the distance, the sun was just the size of a pinhead.

“Uh?”

The stars seemed to be moving. He tried to fixate his gaze on the sun again. Nothing moved. However, when he looked away and stared at more distant stars, they seemed to shift.

He focused again on the trail. So far, the gaseous matter had seemed to swirl in the zero gravity of space, trying to catch up with the meteor; however, now it seemed to be heading somewhere as if a powerful vacuum was sucking it. Whatever was sucking the gases was sucking him, too. Roth tried to follow the direction the gasses were being sucked toward, and that’s when he saw it.

Seeing it wasn’t the right term. He saw the absence of it. Space was empty, but there were always stars in the distance. However, in front of him, there was nothing. It was an unnatural void. It caused a feeling similar to when he first met the Crow Emperor.

“This has to be it.” Roth tried to fixate his gaze and activated the teleportation skill. His body disappeared, and when it reappeared, he felt like he had run against a wall.

You’ve entered the Black Hole!

A black hole? Roth looked down at his hands. His fingers and body were stretching unnaturally as if they were made out of rubber. The stars and the sun were still there, but he felt as if he was underwater somehow, dissolving.

“Well done, Lightbringer.”

“Crow Emperor?” Roth looked for the source of his voice but couldn’t see anyone. “Is this a black hole?” His body and the light of the stars around him were dragging and stretching. The whole universe was transforming into a swirling bowl of spaghetti.

“Yes! Yes! I can see that now. Well done, Lightbringer. But this makes no sense. Nothing can break out of a black hole. How could the meteor have come from here? I need you to go deeper, Lightbringer.”

“Deeper?” Didn’t he just say that nothing can break out? How will I?!

“Go deeper!”

“But, I…” He wasn’t given a choice. Roth felt the air around him crack and twist. He felt he was being transferred from a bowl of pasta into a Picasso painting. Floating in space and teleporting was off-putting and unnatural. However, the feelings of distortion and overwhelming confusion around him were too much. He wanted to feel sick, but the game didn’t let him. He felt disorientated, stuck in the worst nightmare ever. Finally, everything stopped.

He was standing on a plain so black that it made the Black Abyss look gray in comparison. There was only one thin line of light on the horizon. Thankfully, everything was still, and his feet were firmly planted on solid ground. He tried looking up, but no matter what direction he looked, all he could see was the line of light.

“W-were we wrong?”

This time, Roth could see the Crow Emperor. The large crow stared at the horizon, terrified.

“What is this, Your Majesty?”

“The singularity. A point of infinite density,” the Emperor explained.

That didn't clear Roth's confusion. He tried a different approach. “And why are you saying you were wrong?”

“Look.” He said, gesturing to the right. Roth followed the gesture and found that the line on the horizon wasn’t perfect. There was a small dent, a bulge, as if there was a piece of darkness missing.

“Is that…”

“Yes. Astro. It was torn from this singularity and sent toward Earth,” the Emperor mumbled, looking everywhere but at Roth. He looked as disoriented as Roth felt.

“What? By who? What does this mean?” Roth insisted, trying to get some answers.

“All this time, I’ve worshiped the light. I loved it and how shiny it is. I and my people dove into the darkness to see it better, but we were missing the point. Yes. The ultimate riddle. It was all backward.”

Roth prompted the Emperor. “What? What is it?!”

“Darkness! Darkness is where true beauty lies, not light. Look, Martyr. This black hole is alive. Astro is its child. The great darkness has traveled to our system to bear its offspring.”

“What? The black hole is alive? Astro is its baby?” Roth asked with a frown.

The Emperor was not on the same wavelength as Roth. He kept babbling like a lunatic. “How could I have missed it? The signs were all there! Not even light can escape a point of infinite density. Darkness isn’t nothing. Darkness is everything. The ultimate darkness comes from infinite density. Light is just a part of what darkness is.”

“W-what? I don’t understand!”

And the horizon was gone. Roth was back at the summit of the mountain. The Emperor was panting on the ground, exhausted by whatever effort had allowed him to travel with Roth into the black hole.

“Meow! My human!” Lin jumped on Roth, clutching him with his claws, licking him desperately, and purring like a driller machine. “Hey! Calm down, Lin. It’s just me. It’s all good.” He petted his cat happily and held him tightly.

Roth hurried over to the Crow Emperor. “Your majesty? Are you alright?”

The Emperor struggled up and straightened his feathers and jacket. “Yes, Lightbringer. I am. You’ve helped me see the path. Finally, I understand.”

“Does that mean that my job here is done?”

"Yes."

[Audience with the Emperor] completed!