The heavens are round, and the earth is square ------this was the conclusion drawn by the ancients in Sū ěr memories, a byproduct of their limited means and conditions for perceiving the world. It was their concept of spacetime, far more profound than a literal interpretation of a "Flat Earth."
Of course, Sū ěr didn't care about such trivialities. The only reason this theory resurfaced in his mind was that Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, reflecting the moon from afar, was indeed a square. The seawater tumbled off the square's edges, vanished, and reappeared on the opposite side, transcending space and time.
Sū ěr finally confirmed a single truth: this was absolutely not the Earth he knew.
He was certain. He had never once doubted the fact that the world of his first life was a spherical planet.
He felt a pang of disappointment, a flicker of bewilderment. For a fleeting second, he wanted to abandon this world and search for one with a modernized city that matched his memories. But in the next second, he remembered that the power of the One True God who sent them here had been exhausted.
What would the future of this world look like?
Would it ever become the vision he yearned to see?
"Collect the power of the World's Source and leave, then... since you are in such pain," Think voice suddenly jolted Sū ěr awake. "To us, all of this is nothing more than a playground, just a game, isn't it? There is no need to trouble yourself."
"...No. It hasn't come to that yet," Sū ěr replied after a moment of silence, shaking his head.
Though he couldn't explain why, he wanted to see more... just a bit more of this world.
"Let's go. We'll walk around and check things out," Sū ěr said, pushing the disappointment and confusion into the back of his mind as he regained his focus. "This moon feels strange."
Rather than a moon, it felt more as if someone had placed a glowing plate here.
The surface was too flat, devoid of anything to obstruct their view. Choosing a direction was meaningless; Sū ěr simply picked a path at random and set off with Think.
Even at flying speeds, they couldn't reach the edge in a short time. After a period of flight, Think reached a conclusion: the lunar surface beneath their feet possessed absolutely no curvature. It was not a sphere.
To be honest, even after hearing Think assessment, Sū ěr heart didn't waver much. He was already fully convinced that this moon was not a product of nature. It was man-made—or rather, a creation of a god. Its sole purpose was to be called "the moon" and to illuminate the earth at night.
Or perhaps it possessed some other function that they didn't yet know, but which undoubtedly existed.
After a journey that was neither too long nor too short, Sū ěr and Think finally reached the edge of this disc called the moon. The boundary meeting the starry sky was right before them, drawing closer with every step.
Standing at the edge of this jade disc, Sū ěr gazed toward the strikingly clear Silver River. At this distance, it felt as if he were standing within the Silver River itself, yet the river continued to repel the intrusion of all external matter.
Naturally, there was no sun to be seen, and Sū ěr wasn't surprised. After all, when the moon rises, the sun must set—isn't that common sense?
In truth, Sū ěr had opened his mind. From now on, no matter what he saw in this world, he would not be shocked or find it unacceptable. Things that seemed strange to him were perfectly normal for this foreign world; they were the rules of the world's operation, theorems that had remained unchanged since ancient times.
The problem was him, not the world.
Sū ěr had fully accepted it. He couldn't be a stubborn old fogey.
"I'll go."
"Don't be silly. How could I let you stand in front of me at a time like this?"
After a brief exchange, Sū ěr and Think decided who would test the sights on the far side of the great jade disc.
"What do you think is on the back of the moon?" Sū ěr squatted at the edge and tapped the ground. Listening to the somewhat dull sound, he suddenly asked.
The edge they saw only further confirmed their hypothesis: the moon of this world was merely a smooth, giant plate created by something. Not only was it not a sphere, it was a flat object with a thickness less than a palm's width—startlingly large, yet unimaginably thin.
One only had to lean over slightly to see what lay on the reverse side.
"Who knows? It certainly won't be the Tsukuyomi race ," Think shrugged easily. "Should I be the one?"
The Tsukuyomi race were a species from Think world. Shortly after the start of the Eternal War, they had fled to the moon along with the god who created them, living a secluded and mysterious life.
"Don't talk nonsense. I said I'd protect you... anyway, there certainly won't be any Tsukuyomi here, haha," Sū ěr caught Think joke. He laughed as he clung to the edge and looked toward the back of the moon. "You might not believe me, but if I could see a Tsukuyomi in this place, I'd be so happy I'd... dance... for... joy...?"
His words grew slower, his voice lower, and his expression gradually turned vacant. Before he could say another word, Think grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him up. The force she used was so immense that for a second, Sū ěr felt as if his windpipe had been sliced open by his collar.
Like a fishing line severed by a master fisherman.
"Pfft... cough, cough, cough, cough!!"
"Well?! Sū ěr! Are you okay?!" Before Sū ěr could finish coughing, Think was already straddling him, shouting. She used one hand to forcibly pry open his eyelid, carefully observing his eyeball.
"I'm fi— cough, cough —fine! Really fine! Cough! Truly!!" Unable to even catch his breath, Sū ěr could only raise his hands and offer repeated guarantees.
Think intense reaction completely extinguished the little joke he had been considering—to pretend he was injured. To be honest, Sū ěr felt that if he showed any signs of confusion or delirium right now, this Imanity would likely start slapping him left and right.
Since just thinking about it was painful, he decided to let it go.
"...Phew, as long as you're okay," Think finally let out a sigh of relief, then asked curiously: "So, what did you see? That black shadow?"
"It wasn't exactly a shadow... it's hard to describe," Sū ěr recalled the scene, suddenly unsure of how to put it into words. "A giant humanoid, I suppose. It's embedded in the surface. I don't know if it's alive or dead..."
"A corpse?"
"Let's just take a look. I didn't feel any danger just now," Sū ěr said, finding it harder to explain the more he spoke. He simply led Think over the edge of the moon.
Different from his previous perspective of merely peeking over the side, the entirety of the moon's reverse side was now laid bare before Sū ěr and Think.