LIGHT17: The Delay in Judgment

LIGHT 17: The Delay in Judgment

In the passage that had become an unobservable zone, the collapse was beginning to grow even more unstable.

The boundary light running across the walls continued to tremble faintly, and the sealing displays flickered in broken intervals. White particles drifted against the flow of the air, while the outline of the entire corridor kept warping by small degrees.

Lumira continued guiding the residents to safety while hiding the abnormality within herself. The white luminous markings on her arm flickered faintly, but they never remained for long. She gripped the edge of her sleeve and kept her movements restrained so the residents would not see.

I cannot show them.

Not now. I cannot stop.

At the same time, a slight delay had begun to appear in her ability to sense the warning signs of spatial distortion.

Until now, she had been able to feel the air sink just before a collapse faster than anyone around her. But now, by the time she noticed something wrong, the wall had already begun to distort.

She was also beginning to lose the flow of the white particles.

Too late.

I am noticing too late.

One of the guardians indicated a change in evacuation route.

An identification line formed from light extended toward another gallery, beginning to guide the residents away from the current passage. The pale light traced the edge of the wall and continued toward a corridor where the collapse appeared weaker.

But Lumira did not accept the proposal immediately.

The current passage was still collapsing more slowly.

With that judgment, she continued guiding the residents.

They can still move.

There is still time.

At the far end of the passage, the boundary light was sinking irregularly. White particles coiled near the wall, and the air itself gave a shallow creak.

Around then, the shadow of the exceptional person began moving toward the far end of the passage.

The body itself did not move.

Only the shadow slid across the floor, slowly separating toward the place where the boundary light was thin.

Then Lumira’s own shadow followed that movement for a brief moment.

The shadow at her feet stretched slightly and tilted in the same direction as the exceptional person’s shadow. Afterward, it returned to its original place with a delay.

Again.

Lumira tried not to look at her feet.

If she looked, she would have to admit it.

Elia noticed the change and tried to urge Lumira to retreat.

Her white light trembled unstablely and touched Lumira’s arm for a brief moment. A faint warmth passed through the sleeve, and each time it did, the markings on Lumira’s arm flickered softly.

But Lumira prioritized guiding the residents and refused to leave.

There are still people who have not escaped.

If I leave now, I will be abandoning them.

Lumira moved toward the far end of the passage, trying to guide the residents to an area where the collapse was weaker.

At that moment, the entire corridor gave a small tremor.

The boundary light across the walls scattered all at once, and a low creaking sound layered itself deep in the air.

But immediately afterward, the collapse in part of the passage accelerated sharply.

The wall sank inward, and the outline of the floor began to break. White particles rose all at once, and the space itself twisted out of shape.

Several residents who had been in the middle of evacuation were caught in the distortion.

The figure of someone running through the corridor wavered mid-motion, their outline breaking as they shifted into another position. Another resident sank halfway into the boundary light, and a guardian tried to pull them back by force with light.

Pale light seized an arm.

But the distortion of space would not stop.

It will not reach in time.

That place was weak only moments ago.

Lumira moved her gaze.

But she could no longer read where the collapse would occur.

The flow of white particles reversed midway, and the place that should have sunk remained still. Instead, on the side of the passage she had judged safe, the boundary light began collapsing rapidly.

Around that time, one of the guardians began prioritizing surveillance of Lumira over protection of the residents.

The identification light fixed not on the residents, but on Lumira, and the management display showed a rising danger level only around her.

Danger reaction increasing.

Boundary interference expanding.

Invasion progressing.

Pale displays layered over one another in broken intervals.

Lumira saw them.

She was beginning to be treated as the cause.

Even the guardian’s gaze was no longer focused only on the residents.

The luminous markings flowing across its dark garment flickered slowly, and only that one guardian continued tracking Lumira’s movements.

The wall Lumira had touched only moments earlier collapsed sharply as well.

Its collapse should have been slower than the surrounding areas.

But in the next instant, the outline itself broke apart, and the wall sank inward as if turning into particles of light.

I was not stopping it.

Only delaying it.

White particles burst up from the collapsed wall, making the light in the passage even more unstable.

Elia’s white light was beginning to destabilize as well.

It kept appearing in broken bursts, unable to maintain enough spread to stabilize the entire passage.

It opened briefly, vanished, then trembled again.

Lumira looked at that white light.

It is weakening.

It will not hold.

Even so, Elia did not leave Lumira’s side.

Lumira began misreading where the distortions would appear.

Nothing happened in the place she felt would collapse.

Instead, spatial distortion occurred on the side of the passage she had judged safe.

The direction in which Lumira had sent the residents became a collapse zone.

No.

Not there.

By the time she thought it, it was already too late.

The floor of the passage warped like a wave, and the residents who had been evacuating lost their balance. Boundary light rose from the floor, and the collapse zone slowly widened.

Only the shadows of the residents began fleeing in another direction just before the collapse.

The shadows moved before their bodies, sliding across the floor away from the boundary light. The residents noticed nothing at first, then turned back too late.

Only the shadows knew the right place.

There, Lumira finally realized that her evacuation judgment had been delayed.

She had misread the collapse point.

The path she had chosen in order to protect them had instead brought the residents closer to danger.

I chose it.

I was the one who was late.

At the far end of the corridor, another short sound of collapse echoed.

Lumira held her breath.

By then, the shadow of the exceptional person had slowly reached the area near Lumira’s feet.

Its dark, stretched outline began to overlap Lumira’s own shadow.

The two shadows quietly mingled, trembling like a thin boundary line.

At the same time, the shape of the luminous markings on Lumira’s arm began to change.

The lines branched further, starting to resemble the structure of the guardians’ markings.

Pale white light flowed beneath her skin and began leaking through the gap in her sleeve.

Lumira pressed down on her sleeve.

But she could no longer hide it.

At that moment, the markings on the guardian that had been watching her trembled faintly in the same shape as the ones on Lumira’s arm.

In the next instant, they returned to normal.

But Lumira alone had seen it.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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