The base's emergency lights flickered overhead, tearing everyone's shadows into fragments.
The pale golden light in Lin Yi's palm continued to flow out. When those light particles drilled into Aizen's wrist, he could clearly hear the frequency of his heartbeat and the vibration of the Hogyoku—one beat, two beats, like ancient war drums resonating in the depths of a dimension.
"This is impossible..." Aizen's voice trembled with brokenness as the cracks on the surface of the Hogyoku were being filled by golden light at a visible speed.
His dark purple pupils reflected tiny starlight—the arc of Su Qing's hair brushing against the screen as she organized data, Chu Yao's focused bite as she cracked code, and the droplets of blood that Long Wu shook off when he swung his sword. These fragments, which should have dissipated into time, were now solidifying, weaving a golden network within the core of the Hogyoku.
“Because they are not data.” Lin Yi looked down at his hands, his knuckles white from the force. “They are living people.” He remembered the white mist exhaled by Long Wu when he stuffed the last energy biscuit into his arms on a snowy night in the newbie village; he remembered Su Qing’s reddened eyes after 72 hours of continuous calculations in the virtual space to repair his damaged consciousness; he remembered Chu Yao’s soft laughter as she stumbled into his arms when she first materialized, unaccustomed to gravity—these warmth should not be easily erased by “order”.
The alarm suddenly pierced the air.
The holographic projection on the base's dome instantly switched to blood red, and Su Qing's data entity appeared from the wall projection, with the data streams at the tips of her hair fluctuating violently: "Night Owl's residual consciousness is converging in the dimensional membrane! He has absorbed the anchor point energy left by the observer, and now—"
"boom!"
The entire base trembled violently, and sparks flew from the ventilation ducts.
Long Wu's tactical knife clattered to the ground. He grabbed the swaying control panel, veins bulging on his neck: "That bastard is crashing into the defensive barrier!"
Aizen suddenly groaned, and a purplish-black mist rose from the surface of the Hogyoku.
Snake-like patterns appeared beneath his skin, a sign of his spiritual pressure spiraling out of control: "He's fighting for control of the Hogyoku! These cracks... he's tearing at my psionic core!"
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He saw that the cracks on Aizen's Hogyoku, which had been filled with golden light, were expanding in the opposite direction. Each new crack was oozing a black, viscous substance that was climbing up Aizen's arm like a living thing.
"Give me some time!" Aizen gritted his teeth, and a faint blue light emanated from his fingertips, which was his newly developed "Mirror Flower Water Moon - Seal" technique.
But the black substance easily penetrated the light membrane, leaving deep, bone-revealing wounds on the back of his hand. "These consciousnesses... are devouring my spiritual pressure!"
"Su Qing, what is the current energy level of the Hogyoku?" Lin Yi grabbed Aizen's wrist with his other hand, and the power of faith surged like molten lava through their clasped hands.
He could feel the Night Owl's consciousness churning deep within the Hogyoku, like countless screaming ghosts scratching at his sea of consciousness.
"97% critical point!" Su Qing's projection suddenly distorted into snowflakes, and when it reappeared, her hair was a mess. "The dimensional stripping must be completed before energy overload! Use your spacetime rift as an anchor point to drag Night Owl's consciousness into the interdimensional junkyard—"
"That would consume a third of my essence!" Lin Yi's temples throbbed. He could hear the cracking of his bones, the price of forcibly activating a mythical-level ability.
But when his gaze swept over Ryuu's hand, tightly gripping the tactical knife (where the scar from the blow he took for him three days ago still remained), over the drop of blood dripping from Aizen's forehead (falling onto the Hogyoku, merging with the golden light to form a strange purplish-gold color), over Chu Yao's fingertips frantically typing on the virtual keyboard (the data cable connector on the back of her neck was emitting blue smoke due to overclocking) —
"Do it." Lin Yi's voice was unwavering.
He released Aizen's hand, and a silver crack appeared in his palm, the original mark of the master of time and space.
A hollow wailing came from the depths of the rift, as if countless invisible hands were pulling at his consciousness.
The night owl's laughter suddenly exploded in everyone's minds, with a metallic scraping sound: "Foolish ants! Even if you can strip away my consciousness, this body—" his voice suddenly rose, "will also explode into fragments along with the Hogyoku!"
Aizen's body suddenly convulsed violently, his pupils were completely filled with black, and the golden light on the surface of the Hogyoku was squeezed into thin threads.
"Go..." he forced out the two words through gritted teeth, "Don't worry about me..."
"Bullshit!" Long Wu suddenly pounced over, his iron fist shattering the alloy control panel beside him.
He ripped off the wolf fang pendant from his neck—the first piece of equipment Lin Yi had given him in the newbie village. "My life was saved by the boss, and so was Lao Lan's!" He drew his tactical knife, crimson flames dancing on the blade. "Chu Yao, activate the defensive barrier! Su Qing, locate the Night Owl's consciousness source! Boss, I'll buy you ten seconds!"
Chu Yao drew golden runes in the air with her fingers, and a pale blue light shield immediately descended from the base's dome.
The sound of the black substance hitting the light shield was like a downpour hitting a sheet of iron. Su Qing's projection suddenly froze, and when it reappeared, her pupils were filled with starlight: "Location complete! Coordinates a-7, depth -3,000!"
Lin Yi took a deep breath.
He could feel the spacetime rift burning in his palm; it was the backlash of a mythical power on his physical body.
But when he pressed the crack onto the Hōgyoku, the golden rays suddenly darted into the crack as if they were alive, weaving a large net in the void—the power of faith from all his companions, now transformed into the sharpest anchor point.
"Get out of here!"
With Lin Yi's low shout, the Bengyu emitted a dazzling white light.
Aizen screamed and knelt on the ground. Black matter was pulled out of his body and twisted and crawled into the crack like a snake being burned by fire.
The owl's laughter faded into the distance, leaving only a heart-wrenching roar: "I'll be back! I will—"
The crack closed with a "bang".
The base fell into a deathly silence.
Aizen collapsed into Ryugo's arms, his forehead pressed against the hilt of his tactical sword, his whole body trembling violently.
Chu Yao's virtual projection suddenly went black for three seconds, and when it reappeared, her hair smelled burnt: "Energy value is zero, Night Owl's consciousness has been separated. Aizen's spiritual pressure is stable at 32%, and he needs to be injected with spiritual energy repair agent immediately."
Su Qing's projection finally returned to its usual gentle appearance. She raised her hand to wipe away non-existent sweat: "The silver rift in the dimensional membrane... just now resonated with the Hogyoku." She brought up the monitoring footage, and everyone saw a crystal deep within the rift, similar to the Key of Order but even more dazzling, slowly rotating. "It's absorbing the power of faith, it might be... a new core of order?"
Lin Yi did not answer.
He leaned against the control panel, looking at the pale golden marks on his palm—marks of his overdrawn faith power.
But when he looked up, his gaze fell on the communicator at Long Wu's waist.
The thing was vibrating slightly, and the red indicator light was flashing in the darkness.
Long Wu followed his gaze and looked down, his finger hovering over the communicator for a moment before finally pressing the answer button.
A muffled static came through the communicator, mixed with the distant roar of an explosion, and a hoarse male voice: "Team Leader Long, the defense matrix at the edge of the mirror space has weakened. We... need backup."
Long Wu looked up at Lin Yi, twirling his tactical knife in his palm with a flourish.
He curled up his lips into his signature wild dog-like grin: "Boss, shall I take the assault team to walk those otherworldly puppies?"
Lin Yi looked at the flames dancing in his eyes and suddenly remembered the snowfield outside the beginner village.
Long Wu was like that back then. Even though he was so injured that he couldn't stand steadily, he held up his broken sword and stood in front of him, saying, "I've never been a hero, but today I want to protect someone."
He reached out and patted Long Wu on the shoulder, the light mark in his palm and the wolf fang pendant around Long Wu's neck glowing simultaneously: "Take my knife too." His gaze swept over the silver rift outside the base, where the crystals trembled gently with his heartbeat, "By the way... tell the brothers that this time, we're going to destroy their lair."
Long Wu's communicator vibrated again, this time with a series of coordinates.
He tucked his tactical knife into his waistband, and as he turned, his military boots left even deeper marks on the ground: "Chu Yao, charge my mech; Su Qing, send me the defense loopholes in the Mirror Space; Old Lan..." He looked down at Aizen, who was still panting, "When I get back, you'll have to teach me new spiritual pressure techniques."
Aizen smirked and raised his hand to give the middle finger.
But his gaze followed Long Wu's retreating figure until it disappeared at the base entrance.
Lin Yi walked to the window.
In the night sky outside the base, the silver rift was slowly widening, like an eye opening.
He could feel the crystals deep within the rift calling to him—not as an “inheritor of order,” but as a “breaker of boundaries.”
“It’s time to prepare.” He said softly, turning to look at Chu Yao, who was still adjusting the equipment. “Issue the emergency mobilization order for the Time-Space Legion.” His fingers lightly traced the dent that Long Wu had just made on the control panel. “Tell everyone…”
"Our war has only just begun."
As Long Wu's tactical boots shattered the pale blue crystal wall at the edge of the mirror space, the wolf fang pendant between his throats heated up with his violent heartbeat.
He could hear a series of explosions coming from his headset—the beams of his team members' mechs tearing through the void, and the hissing sound of alien creatures' shells being melted by the high temperature.
"Coordinates a-7!" He hurled three electromagnetic bombs, blasting the writhing purple tentacles in front of him into a bloody mess. "Same as always, I'll break through their defenses, you guys clear out the fodder!"
The commando's response was swallowed up by the explosion.
Long Wu's tactical knife sliced through the last gelatinous barrier, finally revealing the eerie connecting pillar—the anchor point used by Night Owl to connect to other dimensions.
His pupils contracted sharply as the back of the blade slammed heavily into the weakest point of the pillar. Sparks flew onto his visor, burning his skin. "Keep a close eye on this thing! If one of these breaks, that old bastard's leg will be crippled!"
"Dragon Team! There's a swarm of insects behind us!" came the team member's shout over the communicator.
Long Wu didn't even turn around. He grabbed the plasma gun from his waist with his left hand and fired it backward, while his right knuckles gripped the hilt of his knife.
The cracks in the connecting pillar spread rapidly under the flash of the blade. He suddenly ripped off his mask, letting the pungent, metallic air rush into his throat: "Listen up—" His roar, mixed with gunfire and the chirping of insects, made his earpiece buzz, "We cannot lose this battle!"
"puff!"
The final, crisp sound was even more decisive than the last note.
The connecting column snapped with a crash, and the eerie light vanished like the receding tide.
Long Wu knelt on one knee, watching the distant swarm of insects descend into chaos due to the loss of their leader. Suddenly, he grinned—the same grin he had when he held up his broken sword to protect Lin Yi in the snowy field of the beginner village.
At the same moment, inside the core module of the base, Lin Yi was staring at the constantly flashing red alert on the holographic screen.
He could feel the crystals deep within the spacetime rift heating up; it was a vibration resonating with Long Wu's wolf fang pendant.
"You did choose this path."
A familiar, aged voice came from behind me.
Lin Yi turned around and saw Xuan Mingzi standing in the shadows, the star patterns on his gray-white Taoist robe fading to reveal the silver light flowing beneath them, forming the pattern of the Key of Order.
The avatar of the game's mastermind looked haggard, but there was a sense of relief in his eyes: "I thought you would accept becoming the new guardian of order."
"Guardians?" Lin Yi looked down at the pale golden mark on his palm, a mark of the fusion of faith and the laws of spacetime. "Are guardians meant to watch their companions be formatted with data, to watch the world be devoured by a cycle?" His voice deepened, like the earth's crust pressing down with magma. "What I want is—"
"Break the boundary." Xuanmingzi finished speaking for him, his fingertips gently pressing on the Key of Order.
The silver patterns suddenly surged, weaving a cocoon of light around him. "You're right, this cycle shouldn't exist in the first place." His voice became hollow, as if it came from countless overlapping dimensions. "I'm releasing part of the seal, but I can only give you three breaths. Within those three breaths, use this power..."
"That's enough," Lin Yi interrupted him.
He could feel the power of the Key of Order surging in like a torrent, colliding with the spacetime origin within his body and the golden light remaining in the Hogyoku deep within his sea of consciousness—those were fragments of what he had experienced together with Long Wu, Su Qing, and Chu Yao, the snow in the beginner village, the light in the base, and the warmth of every battle fought side by side.
"Su Qing! Locate the Night Owl's core!" His pupils shone with a starry brilliance. "Chu Yao! Lock onto the dimensional coordinates!"
"Synchronized!" Su Qing's data body suddenly materialized, reaching out to press his back. Data flowed into his body through the contact point. "This is the power of everyone's faith—the power of the Dragon Five Commando Team, the Reality Alliance, and the Interdimensional Resistance Army." Her voice was choked with emotion. "We are all behind you."
Chu Yao's virtual projection appeared from the other side, her fingertip touching his brow: "The laws of spacetime have been calculated." The data cable connector on the back of her neck stopped smoking, instead shimmering with the same golden light as his palm. "This time, we'll help you defy fate."
Lin Yi closed his eyes.
All sounds disappeared, leaving only the sound of a heartbeat like a war drum.
He could clearly sense that the Night Owl's core consciousness—that black vortex curled up in the deepest part of the mirror space—was frantically devouring the remaining energy of the connection node.
"That's enough." He opened his eyes and slowly clasped his hands together.
A golden beam of light burst forth from his palm, piercing through the heavens and earth.
That light was not simply energy, but a chain woven from timelines, fragments of space, and the beliefs of millions of people.
Where the beam of light passed, the crystalline walls of the mirror space shattered like glass, and the owl's mournful cry pierced the void: "Impossible! You're just a human—"
"No." Lin Yi took a step forward, and the pillar of light spread with his figure. "I am the one who breaks through boundaries."
The owl's core twisted and tore apart in the light.
Lin Yi saw the fragments of consciousness he had devoured detaching and flying back to their original owners like migratory birds returning to their nests—the fiancée of a member of the Dragon Five Commando Team was crying, the grandson of an old man from the other-dimensional resistance army was laughing, and the childhood memories that were forever missing in Su Qing's data body were being filled in.
“This time,” his voice mingled with the roar of collapsing space, “I will define destiny.”
The mirror space began to tremble violently.
Silver cracks spread like a spider web, tearing the entire space into fragments.
Long Wu looked up from a distance and saw the golden beam of light piercing through the sky. Before the smile on his lips could fade, he was suddenly swept away by the spatial turbulence.
"Boss!" He instinctively reached for the communicator, only to find that all the signals were distorted.
Inside the base, Xuanmingzi's light cocoon shattered completely, and his figure became transparent, yet he was still smiling: "Well done..." Before he could finish speaking, he was swept into the silver rift.
The projections of Su Qing and Chu Yao flickered simultaneously, and the data link made a hissing sound in the spatial turbulence.
"Lin Yi!" Chu Yao's voice was filled with anxiety, "The spatial laws have collapsed, we're going to be—"
"Teleport." Lin Yi reached out and grabbed the two people's data bodies. The golden light in his palm suddenly surged, enveloping everyone. "Return to reality."
He could feel the spacetime rift pulling at him, like an invisible hand trying to push them out of this collapsing dimension.
At the last moment, he looked at the crystal deep within the rift—the core of the new order that had absorbed the power of faith, which was gently vibrating with the rhythm of the collapsing space, as if saying: We will meet again.
"Let's go," he said in a low voice.
The next second, all the light and roar disappeared.
As the night wind from the real world blew into his nostrils, Lin Yi was kneeling on the familiar rooftop.
He looked up and saw the city's neon lights swirling overhead, while in the distance, a faint silver crack in the sky was slowly closing.
The communicator vibrated in my pocket.
He pulled out his phone and saw a message from Long Wu: "[Just landed, the entire assault team is assembling at the usual spot.]"
He smiled and stood up.
The wind lifted the corner of his clothes, revealing the familiar tactical knife at his waist—the one Long Wu had shoved into his hand before he left.
"The war has only just begun," he said softly.
Meanwhile, in the laboratory on the other side of the city, Chu Yao's physical capsule suddenly emitted a beeping sound.
As the hatch opened, the girl sat up, rubbing the back of her neck, and saw a notification flashing on the screen: [Abnormal spatial fluctuations detected. It is recommended to activate Level 2 defense].
At the same time, Su Qing's smart bracelet suddenly lit up, and a blurry voice from another dimension automatically played: "Attention... rift... new..."
The words came to an abrupt halt.
In the night sky, the silver rift closed completely.
But no one noticed that at the moment the rift closed, a sliver of starlight pierced through the dimensional membrane and fell into Lin Yi's palm.
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