Upper Tower · Instance 4: God-Forging Workshop
Rules panel:
Goal: Forge your own "divine core" before the "furnace goes out".
Core Mechanism: The workshop will reflect your "mirror image", which holds your missing "soul fragments". Only by facing and making a choice can you obtain forging materials.
Taboo: Killing a mirror image will infect one with the "sin of autophagy", causing one's soul to be incomplete and unable to forge a core.
Guardian of the dungeon: The furnace god "Soul Forging" is in charge of the distribution and recycling of all soul fragments.
A scorching wind, carrying iron filings, blew towards them as Yun Shuo and Yu Heng stood in the center of a vast workshop. There were no traditional ores here, only dozens of suspended silver mirrors, each reflecting a blurry human figure.
"Those are... ourselves?" Yun Shuo stared at one of the mirrors. The person in the mirror was looking back at him with the same eyes.
The voice of the furnace god, Forge Soul, rang from the depths of the furnace: "In the mirror are the equivalents of your scattered soul fragments. They carry with them the past you escaped from and the future you did not choose. If you want the materials, you must first see yourself clearly."
As soon as he finished speaking, the two mirrors shattered at the same time, and two figures walked out.
Yunshuo's Mirror Image: Unfulfilled Responsibilities
Yun Shuo's reflection was wearing an old school uniform, with a half-yellowed note sticking out of his pocket. It read, "Wait for me after school." This was a promise he'd missed due to his cowardice as a teenager, and it was a regret he'd always buried deep within him.
"You're afraid of the consequences, so you always choose 'safety,'" the mirror sneered. "Are you even qualified to talk about 'continue'?"
Yun Shuo didn't refute. He held out his hand: "I admit that I escaped, but regret is not a shackle. Now I will say what I didn't say back then."
He took the note from the mirror image and whispered his belated response. The mirror image gradually became transparent, transforming into a piece of "iron of obsession" radiating a warm glow.
The Mirror Image of Heng: Unshaken Loneliness
Yu Heng's mirror image held a blood-stained dagger, a mark left behind from his solitary missions. The mirror image exuded a cold and aloof air, much like Yu Heng, who once refused to allow anyone to approach him.
"Do you think you'll feel less lonely if you have someone by your side?" The mirror's voice taunted. "You're just hiding your vulnerability behind the mask of 'protection.'"
"I have never denied loneliness," Yu Heng looked at him calmly, "but now I know that standing shoulder to shoulder is not to relieve loneliness, but to make loneliness no longer a shackle."
The mirrored eyes relaxed, transforming into a piece of "solitary steel" with a faint glow.
Endgame: Soul Forging and Choice
The two of them brought the materials to the furnace, but the furnace god, "Forging Soul," suddenly attacked and knocked the materials to the ground: "There's one last thing missing—accepting each other's fragments."
The ground cracked, and countless mirrors rose up, reflecting every moment from their journey from the Time-Locked Maze to the Echo Theater. The tacit understanding of their cooperation and the trusting glances had already intertwined the fragments of their souls.
"Your core has never been the product of fighting alone." said the Hearth God.
Yun Shuo touched his "Iron of Obsession" to Yu Heng's "Steel of Lonely Courage," and the two materials instantly fused. Just as the core was about to take shape, the furnace trembled violently—Yu Heng from the future suddenly appeared, his reflection peeling from his body, transforming into a wisp of black smoke and rushing towards the core!
"His soul fragments are scattered across the various floors of the tower, and now I need your cores to reassemble them!" shouted the Hearth God.
Yuheng immediately thrusts the "coordinate nail" into the core, securing the scattered fragments. Yunshuo uses the "Aspect of Memory" to read the information within the fragments, discovering that Yuheng in the future is actively scattering his soul in order to stop the tower's ultimate conspiracy, searching for a possible solution.
"We'll help you." Yun Shuo and Yu Heng injected power at the same time, and the core shone brightly in the furnace.
"Congratulations, you have obtained the 'Soul Seal'."
As the core fell into his hands, the future Yuheng's silhouette became clearer. He looked at the two and whispered, "The next level, the 'Universal Core,' holds the truth about the tower—it has been harvesting soul fragments to sustain itself."
Yun Shuo clenched the core in his hand, a look of determination flashing in his eyes: "Then let's put an end to it."
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