"Greetings. This is the Herald speaking. The Herald is not sentient; it has no will, no communication capabilities, it does not answer questions, and it cannot be used to contact those who sent it. It is merely a message. A message you may listen to—or choose not to listen to.
Some time ago, a disaster occurred in our world. What exactly happened is of no importance; what matters is that we were forced to take measures. To act quickly and decisively. Not only in regard to the inhabitants of our world, but to the world itself.
We carried out a directed detonation of an interworld substance—erhai. The consequences for our world are unlikely to interest you, but you have experienced the consequences for the surrounding worlds yourselves. There was no shockwave as such, but distortions of space swept across neighboring worlds. Only people were affected. Very few. Only those whose physical connection to their world was minimal. The wave from the explosion can be compared to a draft that swept papers off a table, leaving heavier objects behind. In each of the nine worlds caught in the distortion wave, between two and four people were affected. But only you were cast out of your world in a bodiless state.
The chances that the wave would strike you were one in three billion; that it would eject your soul—one in eighteen billion; that you would survive—one in two million. It is difficult for us to judge whether you were fortunate or not, as we do not know whether you were happy there. According to the Herald's data, there are fifty-two dimensions here inhabited by various beings, and all of this is only a part of a single world in which there has never even been a theory of interworld travel. Therefore, unfortunately, you will not be able to return home.
The world you have found yourself in is techno-chemical, with the rudiments of energy-based magic. By developing external energy systems, people here have often intersected with the magic of adjacent dimensions, yet having once chosen the techno-chemical path, they did not forget their past. Technologically, this world does not greatly surpass your own, and in some respects even lags behind. However, its history includes events which, only brushing against Earth, provided an impetus and means for development in certain directions far ahead of your civilization.
Though greatly different in detail, overall this place is very similar to your home world. This message is not an encyclopedia for you; it is not proof that you have not gone mad, nor is it even a way to bring you up to speed. Our message is merely an apology. Perhaps an apology you do not need.
We sincerely ask your forgiveness for what has happened, but we had no other choice. The future of an entire world depended on our actions. The lives of twenty-three people, of whom six survived, are not worth an entire world. Forgive us, if you can…"
— A young Japanese woman in a blue yukata bowed and dissolved like a ghost.