The moment twelve beams of purple light pierced the sealed core, the silver chains' mournful wail shattered the surface of liquid time. The seventeen-colored gemstone in Lu Li's arms suddenly cracked in spiderweb-like patterns. The oozing liquid starlight resonated violently with the fragments of the entropy core in the mirrored colossus's chest, interweaving in the void to form an ancient star map that constantly disintegrated and reformed. The calico cat's gear collar was nearly disintegrated by the turbulent energy. The sparks flying between the gears solidified into diamond-shaped crystals in liquid time, reflecting countless distorted reflections of the battlefield.
"These beams of light are tampering with the narrative logic of the seal!" The calico cat's voice mingled with the clatter of clashing gears. It gnashed its teeth on the edge of Lu Li's armor, its whiskers flaring into steel needles from static electricity. "We must sever the energy connection! Otherwise, the mirror image will devour it completely..." Its warning was interrupted by the wild laughter of the remnants of the black-robed men. The bodies that had swelled into beams of light crackled with fine lines of entropy. Purple crystal fragments within their chests blazed with blinding light. The scepters, transformed into drills, frantically gnawed at the golden cage.
Lu Li's six afterimages simultaneously injected golden code into the grid, and a defensive matrix composed of binary runes emerged on the surface of the flowing light shield. But when the black-robed figure forced the crystal fragments into the cracks of the cage, the corrosive entropic energy surged over the golden code like a black tide, instantly burning through the vast defensive network. One of the beams of light suddenly split into liquid metal tentacles, wrapping around the calico cat's hind legs. The cold touch was mixed with the sting of tainted memories—images of the corroded universe of the Emerald Dream flashed through its mind, and the scene of the annual ring core disintegrating into ash played a recurring role in its pupils.
"Don't touch it!" Lu Li's golden blade severed the tentacle, only to find more tiny mechanical swarms emerging from the wound. His armor's data patterns began to distort, and a strange purple corrosion stain appeared on his left shoulder where the swarm had stung him. The calico cat seized the opportunity to sling its gear blade, precisely severing the black-robed man's arm as it reached for the chain, and using the momentum to leap onto the silver chain, which was a hundred meters in diameter. The gear collar unfolded into a precision detector, and blue light swept across the ancient totems on the chain's surface. A hologram pieced together the shocking truth in the air: "These seals are interwoven with the narrative power of twelve civilizations, but the energy frequency at the core intersection... is the same as Lin Yue's time thread!"
The backflow of liquid time came without warning. A hundred-meter-high wall of liquid rose across the purple ocean, its surface reflecting images of a steampunk universe, a cogwheel city growing in reverse into ruins, and Cybertron's code python being torn into streams of data. From the center of the vortex came the roar of mechanical gears crushing stars. Lu Li's golden armor blared a shrill alarm, and data lines twisted into spirals in the backflow. The calico cat swung its chain to wrap around his wrist, but the sudden acceleration of the vortex nearly dislocated it, and the metal parts of the gear collar began to spin in reverse.
As they fell, the shattered liquid time crystals pieced together fragments of memories in mid-air: Lin Yue smiling as she wove the threads of time, a silver-armored warrior falling on the battlefield, and the image of a mirrored colossus slumbering within an ancient seal. Lu Li felt his physical form dissolving in the liquid time. His breath nearly stopped when the scene at its core caught his eye—a cage of silver chains the diameter of a galaxy, with a mirrored colossus hovering at its center, awakening. Its liquid metal body shone with the luminous glow of a galaxy, each wrinkle etched with patterns reminiscent of the seventeen-colored gemstones. The moment its enormous purple eyes opened, they echoed the familiar rhythm of the gemstones' pulsing energy before Lin Yue vanished.
"Impossible..." Lu Li's whisper was interrupted by the calico cat's scream. The gear collar spun frantically, emitting a sharp buzzing sound: "The entropy core fragments and the gems are quantum entangled! They want to take Lin Yue's consciousness..." Before it could finish its words, the purple light beam outside the cage suddenly surged. The bodies of the remnants of the black-robed men transformed into liquid energy, flowing through the cracks in the chains and into the seal core. The mirrored colossus' chest began to heave violently. The space between the entropy core fragments and the seventeen-colored gems was covered with spiderweb-like energy patterns, slicing the entire space into a dangerous quantum grid.
Lu Li, forcing himself to hold onto the collapsing data form, transformed the golden code into an arrow of light and shot it towards the node of the light column. The moment the arrow pierced through, the black-robed figure's mask cracked, revealing a half-face clad in silver armor—the remnant of the original Guardian's consciousness struggling. The calico cat seized the opportunity to leap onto the intersection of the chains. The gear collar resonated with the ancient totem, and a blue light outlined a gap in the star map. "Insert the gem in! Perhaps it will awaken the Guardian's remaining consciousness!"
The moment the seventeen-colored gems nestled into their grooves, all the silver chains erupted in dazzling light. The black-robed figure's beam of light began to tremble, and twelve figures in cracked silver armor emerged from the energy. They raised their weapons and stabbed at the core of the mirrored colossus. Lu Li commanded the golden code to form a tractor beam, attempting to separate the runaway entropy core fragments from the gems, but the mirrored colossus's liquid metal suddenly boiled, transforming into a swarm of mechanical bees that pounced on the calico cat.
"Be careful!" Lu Li's afterimage blocked the calico cat's path. The shield of golden code crackled with clashing noises as the swarm of bees impacted it. He felt his consciousness being eroded by memory pollution. Images of the black-robed figure manipulating other universes flashed through his mind: the mechanical heart of a steampunk city beating in reverse, the floating island of a magical civilization entangled in vines of entropy. And in the center of the chaos, the outline of Lin Yue gradually emerged from the liquid metal surface of the mirrored colossus.
Just as the situation threatened to spiral out of control, the familiar roar of gears echoed from the depths of space. The remains of the Entropic Shadow Colossus broke through the spatial barrier, carrying half of its entropic core with it and crashing into the purple planet. Its mechanical grip grasped the Mirror Colossus, the purple crystal on its chest colliding with the core fragments in a deadly collision. A fierce energy storm sent Lu Li and the calico cat careening away. The seventeen-colored gems, freed from their chains, arced in despair through the air. The calico cat desperately lunged at the gems, but was swallowed by a sudden rift in spacetime, leaving only the fragments of its gear collar to fall to the ground.
Lu Li's golden armor completely disintegrated, and six afterimages teetered in the turbulent currents. He watched as the Mirror Image Colossus and the Entropic Shadow Colossus merged into a larger mechanical lifeform. Seventeen-colored lines and entropy spells swirled across the new body's surface. A core suspended in its heart absorbed the entire planet's liquid time. Deep within the core, the fragments of Lin Yue's consciousness flickered like a candle, constantly pulled and twisted by the entropic energy.
"Wait for me..." Lu Li injected the final golden code into the ground, creating a temporary refuge within liquid time. He picked up the shards of gear left behind by the calico cat and discovered the dying message of the First Guardian: "Only by reversing the root of the narrative... can the lock of entropy be unlocked." In the distance, the fused mechanical lifeforms roared, shattering space. The surface of the purple planet began to collapse into a black hole, and Lu Li knew the true decisive battle had just begun.
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