LIGHT 03: A Phenomenon Beyond Understanding

LIGHT 03: A Phenomenon Beyond Understanding

The expansion of the distortion had settled for the moment.

But it was not over.

Only that place, left at the far end of the collapsed passage, seemed to float slightly apart from the surrounding space. The dust gathered on the floor did not move, yet the white particles drifting near the distortion continued to slowly change direction.

Too quiet.

The guardian bodies did not lower their guard.

One of the three moved silently toward the edge of the distortion. There was almost no sound from its steps. Its outline, formed of light, cast a faint reflection against the broken stone wall.

The guardian body raised one hand.

Immediately after, a thin circle of light unfolded beneath its feet.

The circular glow spread across the cracks in the floor, rotating slowly as if measuring the area around the distortion. Thin white lines rose into the air, trembling as they searched for an unseen boundary.

Lumira remained on one knee beside Elia, watching the light circle.

The observation showed an abnormality almost at once.

Part of the light circle flashed sharply. The density of light particles within the space had reached a level that should have been impossible for an ordinary collapsed zone.

But the problem was not only the height of the value.

The flashing of the light circle was not steady.

A result appeared, then changed into another value in the next instant. It rose, fell, then jumped again. It was as if they were measuring the same place, yet the target itself changed every time it was measured.

Something was wrong.

Lumira narrowed her eyes.

The guardian body sent light toward the same point again.

The result did not match.

Again.

Still different.

If this were only spatial disturbance caused by the collapse, there should have been some pattern left in the fluctuation. But the distortion before them had no such regularity.

Lumira looked toward the guardian body.

“Measure it again.”

Her order was brief.

Another guardian body moved around to the opposite side.

A new light circle unfolded, and a pale ring rose from the floor as if enclosing the distortion between them. The two circles should have been measuring the same place.

But the reactions they showed did not align.

On one side, the light was converging.

On the other, it was spreading outward.

They should have been measuring the same distortion, yet the flow of light indicated two different phenomena.

Only inside the distortion, distance refused to settle.

It seemed close.

It seemed to sink far into the depths.

Near.

Far.

Her senses wavered.

Lumira picked up a small stone from the floor.

A fragment broken away from the collapsed wall.

Nothing more than an ordinary piece of stone.

She threw it toward the distortion.

The stone traced a gentle arc, moving toward the edge of the warped space.

Then, halfway through, it vanished.

There was no sound of it falling.

No sound of impact.

It simply slipped out of sight.

It could not be stopped.

A few seconds later, a small sound echoed to Lumira’s left.

It was the sound of the stone falling.

The stone rolled in a place completely separate from the distortion, in a direction that did not match where she had thrown it.

One guardian body checked the point where it had landed.

Another moved closer to the distortion.

It paused once before the boundary, then slowly stepped forward.

That was when it happened.

The guardian body’s outline distorted.

The end of its arm, made of light, wavered as if it had been submerged beneath water. Its form itself did not collapse. And yet, part of it seemed displaced into another position.

Lumira immediately looked back at Elia.

Elia lay still, unmoving.

But a faint light had returned to her fingertips.

It grew stronger.

Then weaker.

Just like the unknown white light running through the distortion, Elia’s light repeated its rise and fall.

It was synchronized.

There was enough to make that judgment.

It was starting again.

Lumira placed a hand on Elia’s shoulder and tried to move her even a little farther away from the distortion.

She pulled her closer.

There was almost no weight.

Too light.

That made it more dangerous.

The moment Lumira moved Elia only a few steps away, both light circles trembled at once.

The reactions that had been fluctuating violently until a moment ago dropped sharply.

The flickering of the distortion weakened as well.

But it had not become stable.

The measured value nearly disappeared, returned again, then jumped in a different position. The guardian bodies’ light circles showed a displacement so large that it was hard to believe they were measuring the same distortion.

In the next instant, light gathered inside the distortion.

It was coming again.

Something like a human figure emerged.

Only an outline.

A shape like a head.

A line like shoulders.

It looked human.

But it could not be confirmed.

The shape did not last for more than a few seconds. It unraveled into white particles and disappeared.

The guardian bodies did not move.

They could not attack.

They could not defend.

They could not decide what to do next.

They were simply unable to grasp the existence before them.

The light circle that had continued observing suddenly fractured and collapsed.

There was no sound.

Only the lines of light were severed, turning into fine particles across the floor before vanishing.

One guardian body quietly lowered its arm.

It could not be measured.

That was what the movement seemed to indicate.

Lumira did not move as she stared at the distortion.

It was not that space was broken.

That thought slowly began to take shape.

What was collapsing was something much closer.

Distance.

Position.

Result.

The assumption on which reality rested—that the same measurement would return the same value.

Deep within the distortion, white light flashed one more time.

Lumira shifted slightly, shielding Elia with her body.

There was nothing left but to protect her.

What was happening before her was not merely an abnormality.

In this place, the laws of reality itself had begun to bend, little by little.

Then, the light at Elia’s fingertips went out.

The distortion fell silent at the same time.

And in the next instant, all of the guardian bodies looked at Elia at once.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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