The cruel voice in the mist…
The silver void was quiet.
Too quiet.
Zhu Zhuqing breath caught as the Loom remains faded into a drifting sparks. All was still—until the mist began to churn again.
Then came the voice.
Not mechanical. Not neutral.
Human.
Smooth, amused, and layered with something ancient—like an old man watching insects squirm beneath a magnifying glass.
"Ahhh… so even the Loom sings off-key now. Huh."
The voice chuckled, low and dripping with mockery. "What a delight. What a beautiful mistake you've become."
A ring of black mist bloomed midair, like an eye opening sideways. No form emerged—only the voice and the oppressive presence that weighed down every breath.
Li Wei took a step forward, shielding Zhu Zhuqing without a word.
"It seems like you're not part of the Weaver design," he said slowly. "Who are you?"
The mist swirled, folding like ribbons of ink. The laughter came again, soft and cruel.
"I am what comes when the design breaks.
I am the whisper when the last thread snaps.
Call me 'The End,' if you must give me shape. Born when the first time your kind exist in this world."
Flender narrowed his eyes. "Projection or not, I don't like your tone."
"Good," The End said, voice warming with delight. "You shouldn't."
With that, the fog rolled faster, and from it came a shape.
A thousand spirits emerged—not of flesh or blood, but mist and malice. They resembled beasts—some familiar, others twisted into horror. Fangs made of smoke, claws of howling void, eyes that flickered with hollow hunger.
Zhao Wuji stepped forward, summoning his gravity fields. "Hostile," he growled. "They're not here to test us—they're here to kill."
"Kill?" The End mused, sounding amused. "I don't just kill. I merely... watch. But you—we'll see how long you dance before you crawl."
The first wave of beasts charged.
Zhu Zhuqing darted forward, summoning her clone legion mid-motion, her body vanishing into black streaks of afterimage.
Xiao Wu flipped over a leaping beast, slamming it midair, but it reformed as soon as it struck the ground.
Ning Rongrong cried, "These things don't die!"
"Of course not," the voice purred.
"They are as I am. Echoes. Endings. They don't live, so they cannot cease."
Meng Yiran snarled, her chains dancing like silver serpents. "Then we'll break them again and again!"
Li Wei stepped forward, raising the Diendriver. The light around him flared.
[Buff Ride: Ex-Aid.]
The transformation ignited across his frame—green light surging across his armor and toward the rest of the member of Shrek. Waves of recovery shimmered outward, patching wounds and dulling fatigue.
He glanced at Zhu Zhuqing. "I won't let them touch you."
"Ooooh," the voice cooed. "Such devotion. Such thread. Such.... Amusement."
From behind them, the threads they had once offered—those glowing lines of connection—rose again, glimmering like tendrils of memory.
Then, slowly, they returned to their chests.
Slipping inside like silk through skin.
"You tried to offer your bond," The End said.
"But you lack the weight to sever it completely. It's part of you now. Buried too deep. And offering this thread is just a nonsense to begin with, he should just kill all of you an take your essence completely."
Li Wei felt the thread sink into him, restorimg to normal and he clenched his fist tighter on the Diendriver. So be it. "You talk like you're inevitable," he said, voice steady.
"I am inevitable."
"And yet here you are, talking to us instead of ending us."
The laughter came again.
"Because it's fun. I've watched gods fade, empires fall, and heroes beg. But humans? You always crawl before you break. Especially the rider, most of them rather perish than give up even if all their limb broken they still attack by biting. It amused me."
The beasts surged again.
Zhao Wuji slammed his palms down, sending shockwaves through a mass of mist-wolves. Flender leapt into the air, talons cutting through flying monstrosities.
Meng Yiran snarled beside Ning Rongrong as a massive serpent-shaped beast loomed. "Cover me!"
Rongrong held her pagoda high. "Strength amplification—now!"
Zhu Zhuqing vanished into smoke, blades flashing through five enemies in a heartbeat. But each time, the beasts reformed, mist curling like ink in water.
"They're buying time," she panted. "Why?"
Li Wei gaze rose to the swirling eye of fog. The End is watching us. Not attacking. Not changing.
'There is a way for this all to stop, you know.' A voice then appear inside his head. The voice of The End.
Gritting his teeth, 'What way?' Li Wei ask the question.
"This is entertainment to him."
'Do you remember that black shard of stone with the spiralling rune? Use it.' The voice remind him of the stone that make Meng Yiran martial spirit recoil before.
"Correct," the voice said cheerfully.
"Now keep dancing, little heroes. Let's see how far your precious bonds carry you—before the world reclaims its mistake."
The beasts came faster.
But so did the resolve.
'That unnatural stone. What happen when I use it?' Li Wei wants to know.
The End chuckle a little, but this voice only Li Wei heard. 'Your body will be grind to dust and you will be send to death. Are you able to sacrifice yourself, o young hero?'
Hearing that Li Wei the grip on Diendriver tighten. He did not want to die. No one want to die.
Zhao Wuji roars shook the ground. Liu Erlong flame ignited the mist. Flender struck from the skies like a hawk made of vengeance.
And in the heart of it all—
Li Wei stood at Zhu Zhuqing side, their bonds looking seems to be glowing than before, no longer offered… but embraced.
This wasn't just a test.
This was a war.