"No Golden Age lasts forever. That's why it's an "age". Humanity had several well before the Traveler arrived and they were infinitely shorter. The Golden Age after the Traveler will last for centuries. Humanity will colonize the solar system, human life spans triple, disease and defect are eradicated, art and science moves forward in ways previously thought unimaginable. The people you know will live in a time of wonder, Aoba. And even now, in this era when it seems all is lost, we hold on to the most valuable principles. Eventually we will beat back the Darkness, and this beautiful abandoned world will welcome humanity back," Declan murmured, gazing out the windows as they drifted, slowing down in their approach to the mountains on the horizon.

"I try to think about it like controlled burns. If we drifted closer to the cities, you'd see where the wild has taken over. Trees grow out of buildings, roads have cracked and disappeared under wild growth. Humanity pulled back and the world finally healed completely of all the ways we damaged it. When we defeat the Darkness and return to the world we retreated from, we will have learned from our past mistakes. Nothing is lost, here. Only put away until we can come back for it."