Above the Eternal Frozen Wasteland, just moments ago filled with the clash of metal, the roar of magic, battle cries, and screams of agony, the Shura battlefield fell into absolute, deathly silence the instant Zhou Weixi's utterly frigid aura fully erupted.
The cold wind swept across the icy plains, but it could not take away the despair that lingered in the air.The twenty-eight thousand surviving Alliance soldiers and the fifteen thousand remnants of the Doomsday Rebirth forces—whether brave warriors who had fought blood-soaked battles to the death defending their homes, or fanatical followers once devoted to Roman and his twisted ideals—now felt as though an invisible giant hand had seized their throats, making even breathing a luxury. Their pupils trembled; the hatred and enmity in their eyes had been utterly supplanted by a deeper, more primal terror—a sense of utter insignificance and powerlessness before a cosmic-scale despair. It was as if every individual and every civilization's struggles, loves, hatreds, and beliefs would, under the gaze of those indifferent silver-white eyes, be reduced to meaningless streams of data dust, returning to nothingness.
Roman knelt amid the twisted wreckage of the fortress, his face pale as paper, lips quivering uncontrollably from extreme fear and the backlash of his own power. His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the figure in the sky—like a deity, yet like a demon. His teeth ground together audibly, his voice hoarse and shrill:
"See it now?! Do you all understand?! This is no existence we can possibly oppose! It will devour everything! Devour us all! Only by uniting! Only by temporarily setting aside that ridiculous hatred! Can we even grasp a sliver of a chance to survive!"
The Alliance's nine kings exchanged rapid glances. Nuti Ursa's tiger-like eyes flashed with struggle and ferocity, but in the end, helpless reality and the desperate craving for survival overwhelmed him. He roared:
"Damn it! The madman is right! That monster… it doesn't distinguish between friend and foe! Alliance forces! On my command! Cease all attacks on the Doomsday Rebirth remnants! Entire army, about-face! Target lock: that Star-Eyed monster! This is a war for survival!"
Queen Sylvia Sunshine's silver-moon eyes flickered violently. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. Her clear, resolute voice pierced the frozen air through magic amplification:
"Release Virginia! Doomsday Rebirth forces! If you still wish to see tomorrow's sun, take up your weapons and join us! This is your… our only chance!"
Virginia was freed from the Alliance soldiers' anti-magic shackles. She rubbed her purple-bruised wrists and wounds. Beneath her hood, her face twisted with humiliation and rage, yet she understood the nature of the threat better than anyone:
"Hmph… What an absurd twist. Doomsday Rebirth troops, listen up! For now, set everything aside. About-face! Target—that monster!"
Thus, at this absurd and utterly despairing turning point of fate, the two sides that had slaughtered each other until rivers of blood flowed—the Doomsday Rebirth and the Alliance—were forced, on the brink of annihilation, to set aside their blood-soaked generational hatred and murderous intent, forming an unprecedented, fragile, temporary alliance for survival.
"Form ranks! Continuous energy output! Target locked! Attack!" Queen Sylvia Sunshine's voice carried a barely perceptible tremor, yet she maintained a monarch's composure as she issued the final command.
The surviving Alliance and Doomsday Rebirth forces unleashed their last, hysterical roars. They poured out every last drop of remaining mana, seething battle qi, exhausted mental power—even burning their very life essence for a fleeting moment of brilliance—without reservation!
Countless streams of multicolored energy—elf emerald arrow magic, dwarven blazing rune artillery, orcish frenzied blood qi, human radiant focused beams, sea clan's abyssal vortex shockwaves, winged clan's dazzling star chains, soul entity's intangible soul assaults, The Night Elves' eerie shadow magic, reptilian corrosive venom sprays, and the Doomsday Rebirth legion's remaining ghostly blue mechanical energy cannons, mutated soldiers' twisted biochemical attacks, blood elves' vile blood curses—converged into a chaotic, twisted, yet incomparably tragic tidal wave of power. Like billions of moths hurling themselves toward a cold, eternal star, they charged without hesitation toward the silver-white figure in the sky.
This unified strike, pooling the last strength and will of over four hundred thousand dying soldiers, possessed energy on a scale capable of instantly vaporizing mountain ranges, rending continental plates, reshaping terrain—a cataclysm worthy of being recorded in the annals of Mureth as the most tragic elegy in epic legend.
Yet before "Fa (Zhou Weixi)", this desperate, world-exhausting act of defiance was like a child tossing a pebble into the vast ocean—incapable of even rippling the surface.
She didn't even adopt any obvious defensive or evasive stance. Her silver-white right eye merely shifted slightly. Deep within the pupil, countless miniature silver-white gears and light threads spun, meshed, and reconfigured at unimaginable speeds, performing calculations and analyses beyond mortal comprehension.
Elemental Deconstruction · Dust to Dust.
No earth-shattering explosion. No dazzling clash of energies. Everything within the扇形 sector defined by her slender fingertip—whether Alliance or Doomsday Rebirth soldiers, regardless of race or strength, whether flesh, enchanted armor, or energy shields—began silently disintegrating and annihilating. Enchanted armor flaked away like iron rusted for ten thousand years, dissolving into base metallic particles; robust flesh and bone melted like wax under heat, vaporizing into fundamental carbon, hydrogen, oxygen micro-particles; stray energies were forcibly extracted, tamed, and absorbed into her seemingly bottomless form, becoming part of her power.
Thousands of warriors, along with their weapons and dreams, vanished in mere one or two seconds under their comrades' horrified, near-breaking gazes—as if deleted with highest administrative privileges, leaving no trace of ever having existed.
Despair, like the eternal frost of the deepest permafrost, instantly froze every survivor's heart and soul.
The battle had become pure, efficient, cold reaping.
"Fa (Zhou Weixi)"'s figure flickered like a void phantom across the vast battlefield. Each appearance brought wide-area, incomprehensible, undefendable, unavoidable attacks.
She appeared amid the dwarven rune-war chariot formation they took greatest pride in. With a casual tap of her left hand, the dwarves' thousand-times-forged, supposedly indestructible rune-metal softened and flowed like molten iron fresh from the forge, mercilessly engulfing the roaring dwarven soldiers trying to escape, casting them into twisted, despairing metallic tombstones.
She flashed into the core of the orc berserker elite. Her right eye glinted imperceptibly—local time slowed a thousandfold. The mountain-strong, roaring orcs moved like decrepit elders. They could only watch helplessly as their skin lost luster and wrinkled at normal time speed, muscles atrophying, life force draining rapidly until, in silent terror, they crumbled into pale ashes scattered by the wind.
She hovered above the joint mental barrier of the elf mage corps. The immense, intangible psychic energy was swept aside like reeds in a hurricane. The elves' lifelong-cultivated, unyielding mental wall shattered like paper. They clutched their heads, screaming in agony as the light of intelligence and spirit in their eyes was snuffed out like candles in the wind. Their souls were forcibly extracted and devoured, leaving only empty husks to collapse like cut marionettes.
The Doomsday Rebirth forces fared no better. Powerful combat mechs were casually dismantled into basic parts and screws, clattering to the ground; mutated soldiers' enhanced grotesque flesh boiled and dissolved as if thrown into aqua regia, reeking; blood elf mages' carefully prepared blood magic backfired before it could even activate, exploding them into filthy, nauseating blood mists.
Yet amid this pure slaughter, an extremely bizarre exception appeared.
No matter how violent or indiscriminate Zhou Weixi's attacks, whenever her gaze swept over—or an attack was about to strike—the figure constantly calling "Fa", her movements would exhibit an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible lag.
Deep in those silver-white, supposedly emotionless eyes, a faint ripple would flash for the briefest instant—like a tiny pebble dropped into a still lake. The hand raised to strike in Arya's direction would pause in mid-air for a mere zero-point-zero-several seconds.
Once was coincidence. Twice was anomaly. But three times, four times… every single time.
"Fa (Zhou Weixi)" tilted her head slightly, seeming to take cold "interest" in this minuscule "stutter" in her own operations.
"Arya (elf/dark elf hybrid). This body's original emotional core… exhibits extreme attachment and protective inclination toward this target unit. The residual romantic obsession… truly fascinating."
Thus, out of something akin to "research" curiosity, Fa (Zhou Weixi) decided to leave "Arya" for last, prioritizing the elimination of all other targets.
At that moment, Rex's entire swarm of nanomachines surged out, forming an ice-blue metallic storm that blanketed the sky toward Zhou Weixi in a suicide interference and freezing seal attempt. Yet the instant they entered within a hundred meters of her, her right eye flashed imperceptibly—local time froze. All internal energy conduction structures and core command units were simultaneously destroyed and overwritten in a ten-thousandth of a second, as if struck at their fatal point. They lost all power, raining down as cold metallic droplets, clinking pathetically on the ground.
Tisk roared, channeling "Burning Vine" warhammer and "Earthshaker" to their absolute limit. Beard and hair bristling, muscles knotted, he unleashed the strongest strike of his life—an ice-fire explosive shockwave capable of freezing volcanic lava and incinerating ten-thousand-forged steel, tearing the earth as it howled forth! Yet she casually formed a micro "spatial fault" before herself, swallowing it whole. The city-destroying energy vanished like a mud ox into the sea, without even a ripple.
"Roar!" Kayla transformed into her Thunder-Frost Annihilation Beast form, charging alongside her father Kayle, Miasis, General Balg, and all surviving orc warriors in a final, tragic assault! Lightning and frost intertwined, ripping frozen soil, momentum shaking heaven and earth!
"Pointless." Fa (Zhou Weixi) merely commented indifferently. An invisible "Psychic Shock · Soul Detonation" radiated outward from her as center, indiscriminate. Charging orcs fell in waves, rigid, eyes instantly losing all light. Their powerful bodies remained intact, but their souls were shattered and annihilated. General Kayle, with his last will and paternal love, shoved Kayla backward. He himself collapsed in the shockwave, silent forever. Miasis's flame spear shattered inch by inch. Balg's giant shield and his mountain-firm body were crushed and broken by invisible force.
Celestia pushed her speed to the limit of her life, six wings blazing, becoming a purple lightning tearing space. "Spear of Delusion-Breaking" condensed her full power, aimed straight at Zhou Weixi's back vital point! Yet the indestructible spear tip was stopped an inch from contact by an absolute "spatial barrier." Celestia was horrified to find herself and the surrounding space completely frozen and imprisoned, unable to move.
"Wind-thunder power? Inefficient energy utilization mode." Zhou Weixi didn't even turn. The imprisoning space suddenly compressed inward! King Wyrselon roared and lunged to rescue, star power exploding regardless of cost—only managing to barely pull the gravely wounded, near-death Celestia from the crushing spatial cage. He himself was struck hard by the residual spatial compression force. Silver-blue wings snapped instantly, blood spraying as he plummeted.
Lin Ya pushed her natural life force to the extreme. The ground shook violently; countless ancient giant trees burst through ten-thousand-year permafrost, roaring toward Zhou Weixi with the fury of life, giant vines trying to drain her energy. Yet they were reverse-plundered by Zhou Weixi's left-eye "Absolute Wood Element Dominion." Trees and vines withered to ash instantly. Lin Ya suffered severe backlash, vomiting blood and collapsing, life force draining rapidly.
Yuyuer and Zhamisi combined forces, summoning towering waves and corrosive world-destroying poison fog—only for Zhou Weixi to casually deconstruct and reconstruct them into massive ice-crystal storms and concentrated venom deluges, turning them back on the sea clan and reptilian forces, inflicting catastrophic casualties.
Salsa and Soul King Erebus attempted a joint soul seal. Salsa summoned the Shadow Demon Dragon; Erebus's Soul Crystal Dragon fought side by side. The two colossal dragons coiled and danced, forming countless soul chains to bind Zhou Weixi's movements. Salsa poured all her strength into chanting an ancient incantation: "Corridor of Souls!" Distorting space to reflect Zhou Weixi's attacks back upon herself. But Zhou Weixi's dark-attribute power easily created micro black holes that devoured the soul chains. A stronger psychic impact struck Salsa's soul core like a hammer.
"Senior Brother… I… can't hold on…" Salsa's soul body turned transparent and thin, nearly disintegrating.
Erebus roared: "Salsa! Fall back!" The Soul Crystal Dragon charged fearlessly, only to be instantly enveloped and shattered by Zhou Weixi's casual lightning net. Erebus's soul fire dimmed rapidly. He collapsed, consciousness sinking into endless darkness: "Damn it… this monster… truly flawless…"
The battlefield had become utterly one-sided carnage. Queen Sylvia Sunshine's emerald barrier shattered. Nuti Ursa's soul projection dissipated completely. Secret Forging Titan fought until his armor broke and he was bathed in blood. Aldrich's sword snapped. Queen Yulena fainted from exhaustion. Xuanjia Elder's turtle-shell phantom flickered and finally extinguished. Malagoth King's shadow domain was forcibly dispelled… Even the nine kings united could not withstand her edge, falling one by one in tragic defeat.
Roman frantically drove every scrap of his technological and magical knowledge—mixed energy cannons, spatial jammers, mind-disruption beams—pouring out a rain of attacks toward Zhou Weixi. Yet she effortlessly neutralized and absorbed them, even converting them into her own power.
"Why?! Why is it like this?! My calculations… my ideals… my…" Roman watched his last companions fall: Mandras drained dry and withered by his own berserk Devouring Earth Vines; Maris dismantled into smoking scrap; Sistar reduced to a desiccated corpse by blood magic backlash; Virginia bisected mid spatial leap without a sound… He uttered a final, despairing, unwilling howl before a seemingly insignificant spatial fissure quietly swallowed him whole, erasing him.
In the end, no one remained standing. Soldiers' corpses piled like mountains; technological wreckage and magical afterglow intertwined in tragic beauty, forming a post-apocalyptic tableau of despair. Silence reigned.
Zhou Weixi's figure appeared like a ghost directly before Arya. The overwhelming, suffocating pressure felt like a tangible mountain, rendering Arya's body nearly immobile, breathing itself a struggle.
Zhou Weixi slowly extended a finger. Her icy fingertip gently lifted Arya's tear-streaked, dust- and wound-covered face.
Arya gazed at the face so achingly familiar, etched into her soul, yet now so alien and heart-crushingly cold. Her voice choked and trembled, yet filled with boundless sorrow and stubborn love:
"Fa… is that you? Please… wake up… look at me… I'm Arya… You promised me… we'd be together forever… You promised… You can't…"
At that moment—
Fa (Zhou Weixi)'s body shuddered violently, unnaturally! Within those silver-white eyes, twelve-colored stellar rivers blazed and flickered madly, clashing with the absolute pure silver-white. Two consciousnesses fought like trapped beasts for control of the body! Her face contorted rapidly—now ice-cold and inhuman like a statue, now wracked with endless pain and struggle. Fa's emotions furiously assaulted the prison of absolute rationality!
"Mere… residual… consciousness… dares…" The cold, stuttering voice forced its way out.
"Get out… of my… body! Don't you dare… don't you dare hurt Arya!!" Fa's voice—the少女's voice, brimming with emotion, determination, and tearful sobs—burst forth like a beast in desperation, breaking through the suppression!
The struggle was brief, yet crucial.
The finger Zhou Weixi had raised, brimming with annihilating energy, deviated slightly. The silver-white beam meant to erase Arya grazed her shoulder instead, silently vaporizing a distant, sturdy ice hill into nothingness.
Before Arya could react to this sudden change, the silver-white light in Zhou Weixi's eyes surged again, forcibly suppressing the boiling twelve-colored flow. Her expression returned to absolute cold indifference, as if the struggle had never happened.
"Pointless resistance. Eliminate her, and permanent takeover of the body will be complete."
Her fingertip steadied once more, aimed at the bleeding, tear-stained Arya.
"Farewell, insignificant yet stubborn ant."
A pure, attribute-less silver-white beam, like the Grim Reaper's invitation, fired gently—piercing straight through Arya's chest.
Arya's face froze. She looked down in disbelief at the rapidly expanding void in her chest. Life force ebbed like a retreating tide. She opened her mouth, seemingly trying to call that name one last time, but no sound came. Her eyes dimmed rapidly. Her body slowly crumpled.
"NO!!! NO—!!!!"
This time, Fa's consciousness exploded like a billion stars detonating simultaneously! Witnessing her beloved Arya slain by "her own" hand—the ultimate pain, despair, and boundless regret—became the supreme force that tore through every rational chain and data barrier! Love and grief became the final miraculous key!
The twelve-colored stellar rivers in those silver-white eyes erupted, surged, and burned with unprecedented brilliance! They forcibly dispersed and overrode the cold silver-white! In this instant, through her bone-deep love and vow to protect Arya, Fa's consciousness miraculously seized back control of the body!
The silver hue receded like a tide from her eyes, replaced by her original pair—reflecting brilliant stars, now brimming with endless grief and tears.
"ARYA!!!" Fa's heart-rending, tear-inducing cry tore through the heavens. She flung herself to Arya's collapsing, rapidly cooling form, trembling as she clutched her tightly. Warm blood soaked her cold clothing. The body of her most beloved grew colder by the second. Those eyes that once held only gentleness, smiles, and stars now stared emptily at the gray sky, reflecting her image no more.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… Arya… I'm back… I'm sorry… I'm back… I'm sorry…" Fa held Arya as if to fuse her into her very bones and blood. Tears poured like a breached dam, dripping onto Arya's pale, cold cheeks—yet they could no longer warm her, no longer awaken her. Endless self-reproach, pain, and despair drowned her completely. She had lost the most important person—and the murderer was herself.
Fa's Final Decision
At that moment, five hazy yet immensely powerful figures slowly emerged as if rendered from ink wash or coalesced from starlight. Space and time rippled faintly around them. They were the five Stellar Inheritors: Casa del, Saladin, Lantis, Villanette, and Rhea Medusa.
Their auras were vast and ancient, utterly out of place in this broken, grieving world—as if observers from a higher dimension.
Fa jerked her head up, tear-blurred eyes fixing on them like a drowning person grasping the final straw. Her voice, hoarse from ultimate sorrow:
"Please! Save her! Save everyone! No matter the price! I'm willing to pay anything! My life! My soul! Everything I have! Please! As long as… as long as she can live again…"
Casa del's soul fire flared violently, his tone unprecedentedly urgent:
"Listen, Star-Eyed Daughter! Zhou Weixi's consciousness is only temporarily suppressed by your intense emotional outburst. It will soon regain control. There's no time for grief, Star-Eyed Daughter!"
Saladin's voice remained steady, yet carried a cruel calm:
"There is indeed a way to save them. By utilizing the deepest, most primal creative force of the Stellar Heart, combined with the time laws you have touched, a large-scale, fixed-point time reversal can be performed—returning everything to before the catastrophe began."
Lantis added in a low, heavy voice, each word like a boulder:
"But the cost is immense and irreversible. As the core guide and anchor of the time reversal, your soul origin and Stellar Eye will bear the full backlash and erosion of all temporal paradoxes. The moment the reversal completes and the miracle occurs… will be the moment of your complete annihilation. Your existence, your traces, your past and future will be erased entirely from this timeline—as the 'price' paid to spacetime itself."
Villanette's voice was ethereal and detached, devoid of emotion:
"This is the only equation that satisfies equivalent exchange. Your existence for the continuation of countless lives. The choice is yours, Stellar Inheritor."
Rhea Medusa, unusually dropping her flippant tone yet still carrying a peculiar temptation:
"By the way, little one, time reversal is an area effect—it won't discriminate between friend and foe~ Roman and his Doomsday Rebirth legion will also revive fully, with all their power and memories, ready to rise again. Of course," she changed tack, "as the leader of the time reversal ritual, you have one single, unique opportunity at the moment of activation. With the supreme authority granted by the stars, you can forcibly strip away every trace of Stellar Fragment power from their bodies, along with all those messy forbidden technological roots—reducing them to… well, relatively harmless ordinary lunatics with nothing but memories of failure? How about it? A great deal, right? One life for world peace, and conveniently turning your enemies into trash~"
Fa's body trembled violently. She lowered her head, gazing deeply at Arya's lifeless face with infinite attachment. Her eyes swept over the cold corpses of her companions—Iron Tisk, Rex, Kayla, Salsa, Yuyuer, Zhamisi, Lin Ya, Celestia…—and across this corpse-strewn hellscape of a battlefield.
Infinite reluctance, unwillingness, and soul-deep pain flashed through her eyes. But ultimately, all emotion coalesced into a calm, profound resolve. A gentle yet heartbreakingly beautiful smile bloomed amid the tear tracks on her face—like a flower stubbornly blooming in ruins.
"So… this is my destiny? Not to fight Doomsday Rebirth, not to become a hero… but… to become the final cornerstone that repairs it all, to become… the bridge carrying everyone toward the future." She murmured to herself, as if in that instant she understood the meaning of everything that had come before.
She turned to the five Inheritors, her gaze clear and calm, no longer confused:
"I accept. Please tell me what to do."
A faint, almost imperceptible ripple seemed to pass through Saladin's eyes. He slowly raised his hand. A complex runic stream containing endless stellar mysteries and time laws flowed gently into Fa's mind like a mild galaxy:
"Concentrate all your power. Ignite your soul and Stellar Eye. Invoke the true name of the stars. The rest—we will assist in stabilizing the time channel and ensuring the reversal anchors precisely."
Fa nodded. One final time, she looked deeply—profoundly—at this world, at the person she loved, at her companions, at the land where she had fought, laughed, and grieved.
She spread her arms, raised her head. The twelve-colored stellar river in her left eye and the time-space eye in her right both blazed to their utmost! Her body began emitting incomparably brilliant starlight, as if she were transforming into a star itself, illuminating this hopeless ruin.
"By my name—Fa, possessor of the Stellar Soul and existence—as sacrifice! I invoke the slumbering pulse of the stars! Reverse! Time!"
Her voice, clear and resolute—like a final prayer and farewell—rang through heaven and earth, imprinting itself upon time itself.
An incomparably vast, pure stellar power surged from within her, piercing the clouds, connecting to the eternal stars. A colossal, intricate stellar magic array unfolded with her at its center—gentle yet unstoppable radiance enveloping the entire battlefield, rapidly expanding outward to the horizon, blanketing the entire Eternal Frozen Wasteland and every departed life.
In that moment, time began to reverse.
Blood flowed backward into wounds. Scattered energy reconverged. Shattered weapons reformed. Fallen warriors opened their eyes one by one, rising in confusion… General Kayle, Miasis, General Balg re-coalesced…
And in the very instant the reversal activated, Fa's consciousness precisely locked onto Roman and all core Doomsday Rebirth members. She invoked the sole authority of the Time Sovereign, issuing the final, irresistible command:
"Strip!"
Every trace of Stellar Fragment power within the Doomsday members, every bio-engineered enhancement, every dark link to Devouring Earth Vines, every core energy and data of their cutting-edge combat tech—vanished utterly from the root, as if erased by an invisible eraser! Roman stared in disbelief at his suddenly ordinary, even frail hands. The surging power within him was gone. For the first time, his face showed complete bewilderment, shock, and an incomprehensible blankness.
The reversal continued.
Fa watched the void in Arya's chest disappear, her pale cheeks regain color, her lashes tremble as if about to awaken. She watched the pain and death on her companions' faces replaced by confusion and vitality.
Her own body began disintegrating from the edges—like wind-eroded sand sculpture, or sublimating starlight—turning bit by bit into twinkling, radiant stardust. There was no pain—only a serene return to the stars.
Her gaze remained gentle, reluctant, fixed on Arya—filled with infinite attachment and the deepest blessing.
"Everyone… please live happily… carry my share as well…"
The last wisp of stardust drifted away. Fa's existence was completely erased from this spacetime. The stellar magic array's light slowly faded.
Time reversal complete.
Sunlight once again bathed the Eternal Frozen Wasteland. The ice remained cold, yet no longer lifeless. Warriors of every race stood resurrected on the intact battlefield, looking at one another in bewilderment. Their memories halted at the moment just before the united assault—uncertain what had happened, only feeling a fleeting daze. Only the nine kings and a very few peak powerhouses with exceptionally strong souls or wills retained vague fragments of memory—of ultimate despair and a warm stellar light—like a dream impossible to grasp clearly, leaving only an indescribable sorrow and loss.
The Doomsday Rebirth forces were stunned to discover their powers gone. Powerful gear reduced to mundane scrap. They were easily subdued and captured by the reacting Alliance forces. Roman stared blankly at it all, offering no resistance. His eyes held only endless emptiness, confusion, and an inexplicable, overwhelming sense of loss—as if he had lost something far more important than life or ideals.
Arya awoke with a start. A piercing, indescribable pain lingered in her heart. She looked around in confusion at the familiar companions and enemies, feeling as though she had lost something utterly vital. Her heart felt hollow. Tears poured uncontrollably.
"Arya? Why are you crying?" Tisk scratched his head, shouldering Earthshaker, utterly puzzled.
"I don't know… I just feel… so sad… my heart feels empty… like I've forgotten someone… someone incredibly, incredibly important…" Arya sobbed, tears unstoppable. Her gaze drifted involuntarily to the empty center of the battlefield.
There, quietly lay a simple short blade, a now-dull and ordinary stellar pendant, and a neatly folded set of empty clothing—the exact style Fa always wore.
In that instant!
All memories sealed and masked by the time reversal broke through spacetime's boundaries like a flood bursting a dam—surging madly into the minds of every companion with deep bonds to Fa!
Fa's smiles, Fa's tears, Fa's tenacity, Fa's resolve, Fa's sacrifice… the moments fighting side by side, everyday laughter, and that final figure dissolving into stardust with a gentle smile…
"NO!!! FA—!!!" Arya's scream of ultimate anguish tore through the air. She threw herself onto the clothing, clutching it and the pendant tightly—as if she could still feel the owner's lingering warmth and scent. She cried until she nearly fainted, her heart shattered.
"Fa…" Even the stalwart dwarf Tisk's eyes reddened instantly. His massive fist smashed into the ice, releasing pained sobs.
Rex's electronic eyes flickered violently before settling into dead silence and sorrow. His metal palm clenched tight.
Kayla collapsed to her knees, unleashing a beast-like wail of grief.
Salsa's soul body shuddered violently. Tears fell like tangible drops, nearly disintegrating her.
Yuyuer and Zhamisi embraced, weeping, their tears melting into the icefield.
Lin Ya wept silently. The surrounding plants seemed to sense the immense sorrow and bowed in mourning.
Celestia raised her head, letting tears stream down, wings drooping powerlessly.
The entire battlefield—where victorious cheers had yet to rise—sank into boundless sorrow and silence. The joy of victory was utterly eclipsed by this immense, crushing sacrifice. Only endless mourning and remembrance remained.
Eternal Vigil
Seven days passed.
The continent of Mureth held the grandest yet most heartbreaking funeral in its history for Fa. No body remained—only the short blade, the neatly folded clothes, and the dimmed pendant were placed in a coffin blanketed with pure white star-anemone flowers. Representatives of nearly every race attended. People silently offered flowers, expressing their deepest respect and endless grief for this nameless hero who saved the world yet whose very existence was erased from memory.
After the funeral, the companions faced parting, each shouldering the duty of rebuilding.
Arya and Lin Ya chose to stay. Beside Fa's cenotaph, Lin Ya used natural magic and her life origin to instantly grow into a towering tree—its branches forever emitting soft stellar light—the **Starlight Tree**, eternally guarding this resting place. Arya built a simple yet warm cabin beside the tree, vowing to remain forever, keeping watch over the futures and promises they never had time to fulfill.
"I will stay here forever, with her, watching the stars—until eternity." Arya gently touched the cold gravestone, her voice sorrowful yet resolute.
Tisk and Rex clapped each other's shoulders firmly.
"Come on, Tisk. Let's rebuild Steelforge City together! We can't let her sacrifice be in vain!"
"Agreed. Data logs must continue. Her sacrifice demands a better, peaceful world to remember it."
Kayla supported her equally grieving but surviving father, Kayle.
"Father, let's return to Golden Merchant Fortress. Mother, Kate, and little sister are waiting." She glanced back one last time at Lin Ya's radiant Starlight Tree, burying boundless gratitude and sorrow deep in her heart, turning it into strength to move forward.
Salsa's soul body bowed slightly to the group.
"I too must return to the Land of Eternal Night with my senior brother. May the tranquility of the eternal dark soothe this endless grief a little." Her form gradually faded into shadow, carrying away a deep longing.
Yuyuer took Zhamisi's hand.
"We should head back too. The alliance between sea and swamp will grow even stronger because of her sacrifice. We will guard this peace in her name." Zhamisi nodded firmly, her bold face unable to hide sorrow and determination.
Celestia spread her newly healed wings, soaring into the sky, gaze directed toward the Lightfeather Vault.
"Aelios… is still waiting. We will inherit her will and protect this hard-won peace she paid for with her existence."
They made a pact: every year, on Fa's memorial day, no matter where duty took them, they would return without fail to the Starlight Tree.
Tisk would bring newly forged, exquisitely crafted iron pieces engraved with stellar patterns and Fa's favorite motifs, placing them before the grave while grumbling about dwarven city affairs; Rex would quietly share the year's restoration progress and technological advances across the continent, data streams hiding remembrance; Kayla would bring hometown specialties and childish yet heartfelt drawings from her younger siblings for "Fa"; Salsa would emerge from shadows bearing otherworldly tranquility flowers and whispers; Yuyuer and Zhamisi would recount fresh news and amusing tales from ocean and swamp; Lin Ya would make the Starlight Tree bloom with especially brilliant, star-like flowers, scattering gentle radiance; Celestia and Aelios would bring their gradually growing children, letting the children's clear laughter and play briefly dispel the enveloping melancholy.
Arya would always sit quietly beneath the tree, tenderly polishing the no-longer-shining yet eternally precious pendant. She would smile gently at each visitor, recounting their past adventures—bit by bit, detail by detail—as if Fa had never left, only transformed into the stars, watching over them tenderly from above.
Year after year, the Starlight Tree bloomed and shed. Its gentle stellar light forever enveloped this peaceful gravesite—like Fa's never-departed, tender embrace—eternally guarding the companions and world she loved and gave everything for.
A breeze rustled the treetops, carrying distant floral scents and whispers—as if softly narrating a legend of sacrifice, love, courage, and eternal vigil—drifting with the starlight into the distance, unto eternity.
(The End)