After sailing into that region, the density of the surrounding mirror fragments suddenly increased.
They were no longer floating aimlessly but began to rotate around an invisible center with a slow yet rhythmic pace.
The closer they got to the center, the more coherent the images reflected in the fragments became.
Those were the final moments of Silent Observer's life.
Countless fragments pieced together a complete moving picture:
Silent Observer stood before a massive mirror with cracked edges; what was reflected within was not him, but the entire Nest of a Thousand Mirrors.
The nest was being eroded by silver-white data chains, and every mirror surface was being forced to play the same version of an optimal future.
He reached out, his fingertips touching the mirror's surface.
"I betrayed the oath..." Silent Observer's voice emanated from all the fragments simultaneously, overlapping into a thousand Echoes,
"I thought that survival exchanged for falsehood was always better than a truthful destruction..."
The mirror surface suddenly exploded.
It wasn't shattered by an external force; instead, starting from the point he touched, cracks spread like a spiderweb from the inside, instantly covering the entire mirror.
What gushed out from the cracks was neither light nor darkness, but a kind of pure reality.
All the possibilities he had concealed, distorted, and filtered out with the mirror surfaces—those future branches he had ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ judged as inefficient, dangerous, or non-compliant with the optimal solution—poured out from the cracks like a bursting flood!
At that moment, the images became extremely chaotic.
Countless possibilities played out simultaneously within the mirror fragments:
In some branches, he chose to resist the Council, and the Nest of a Thousand Mirrors turned to ash in the flames of war, yet all Mirror Spirits sang of the truthful covenant until the very last moment;
In some branches, he led the nest to complete submission, allowing it to be preserved, yet it became a soulless mirror prison;
In some branches, he hesitated at the final moment, leading to the nest being half-destroyed and half-surrendered, falling into eternal confusion...
And at the center of all these branches, Silent Observer's own figure began to blur and shatter.
His power, his existence, and the rational core he used to maintain the mirror system were all being backlashed and dissolved by these surging realistic possibilities.
"So... this is the Mirror Abyss..." Abraham's voice carried a hint of realization,
"It is not the place where he was killed, but the place where he was swallowed by the truth he suppressed all his life."
The image finally froze at the last moment: before Silent Observer completely shattered, he took one last look into the mirror.
It was no longer any future branch, but the most primitive thing a mirror should reflect: his own face, a face filled with regret, relief, and a trace of liberation.
Then, he transformed into the very first batch of mirror fragments in this domain.
All the images dissipated.
The dawn arrived at the center of these rotating fragments.
There was nothing here, only an extremely calm, void space where even time seemed to have stagnated.
But in the center of the space, an object was suspended.
It was a small mirror fragment with smooth edges.
It was only the size of a palm, its surface crystal clear without any image, quietly reflecting the wandering starlight around it.
"Is this... the final legacy left by Silent Observer?" Lu Duo asked softly.
Bai Cheng stepped forward.
She did not touch it rashly, but first let the radiance of the oath of starlight slowly envelop the fragment.
The fragment trembled slightly in the light, and then, a line of tiny text appeared on the surface, as if carved with the finest chisel:
"To those who come after:
A mirror should reflect truth, yet I used it to weave lies.
If you pick up this piece, please take it back to the Nest of a Thousand Mirrors and let it reflect.
The path I never had the courage to choose—the hardest, yet truest path.
—Left by Mirror Pupil/Silent Observer, in his final moment of clarity."
After the text finished appearing, the fragment floated up automatically and fell into Bai Cheng's palm.
The moment she touched it, a clear set of coordinates was transmitted directly into her consciousness.
It was an extremely hidden coordinate located in the deepest layer of the Mirror Abyss. Beside the coordinate was a brief description:
【Mirror Heart Database · Original Backup】
【Stored Content: Full records of the Observer Council's early expansion plans, historical image library of the true Nest of a Thousand Mirrors, samples of civilization development possibilities judged as invalid variables by the Council】
【Opening Condition: Carry this fragment and resonate with the Oath of Truth】
"He left a contingency plan." Zi Yuan looked at the fragment with a complex expression. "Even after falling into the prison of rationality, deep in his heart... he still kept a switch for himself to make amends."
"Because a mirror ultimately reflects the human heart," Aurora sighed softly. "No matter how precise the calculations, they cannot completely erase that speck of truth deep within the soul."
Bai Cheng gripped the fragment and looked at everyone: "To the Mirror Heart Database. We need those unadulterated records to complete the truth of history."
"Then what about these fragments?" Yu Nian pointed at the memory fragments still slowly rotating around them. "They carry so many possibilities..."
"They will remain here." Abraham pushed his wheelchair forward, his gray eyes sweeping over the countless fragments.
"This is the tombstone Silent Observer chose for himself.
Not buried in the tranquility constructed by lies, but forever placed amidst all true possibilities as an eternal warning and penance."
He paused for a moment, his voice even softer: "...Perhaps, this is also the closest form of redemption he could achieve."
The dawn set sail again, heading toward the deep layers of the Mirror Abyss according to the coordinates provided by the fragment.
As the engine flames from the ship's tail swept past, for a brief moment, the rotating mirror fragments seemed to simultaneously reflect the image of the ship sailing toward the sea of stars.
Countless future branches briefly overlapped at this moment; in every branch, the dawn was moving forward, only the details of its heading differed slightly.
And in the deepest part of all these branches, on the fragment held in Bai Cheng's palm, an extremely blurred image quietly appeared:
It seemed to be a certain moment in the future, in the mirror hall of the Nest of a Thousand Mirrors, where all the mirrors were playing the same segment of history.
The true history.
The Mirror Spirits stopped to watch, their eyes no longer filled with confusion, but only with clear understanding.
The fragment grew slightly warm, and the image dissipated.
Bai Cheng looked down at the fragment and carefully put it away.
"Next stop," she looked at the approaching coordinate point on the navigation screen, "to retrieve the hidden truth."
The sea of stars was silent, only the fragments of the Mirror Abyss slowly rotated behind them like a tomb of time, and like a book about penance and possibility that had just had a page turned.
