The blinding white light engulfed every outline of the Crystal Heart Chamber, all objects gradually losing their color and boundaries in the intense glare.
As the light faded and vision refocused, the chamber’s dome, rock walls, and the crystalline debris scattered across the floor slowly emerged from the white void, regaining their original shapes.
Xue Yin knelt on one knee, the Moonlight Staff planted diagonally before her.
Its shaft was already riddled with cracks, and the faint light at its tip was nearly extinguished.
Her silver hair was disheveled, the pink-gold particles at the ends having completely dissipated.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and the front of her robe was burned through, revealing the delicate lines of her collarbone and the subtle curves of her chest.
In her Hero Form, the aura was dim; the barrier was so thin it was almost transparent, yet it stubbornly remained over the three of them, shielding them from the oppressive force of the evil god’s forbidden curse.
Silvery blood beads seeped continuously from her wounds.
The life-creating blood was attempting to spontaneously heal her battered body, only to find there was no longer enough life force to draw upon.
“Master…”
Jin struggled to stand, the piercing wound in his left shoulder tearing deeper with every muscle contraction.
Blood streamed down his arm, and his abdomen gushed like a fountain of blood, staining the crystals beneath him a dark color.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood, his gaze fixed stubbornly on the back of the woman who was both his master and his lover, the one now bearing the brunt of destruction for all of them.
He desperately wanted to rush over, even if just to share a fraction of her pain.
A deep sense of powerlessness clogged his chest, scorching his very soul.
He Lian knelt to the side, his right arm raised to block the aftershocks, several deep gashes torn open in his flesh.
Dark purple corrosion spread inward from the edges of the wounds, intertwining with the old injuries accumulated from previous battles into a series of gruesome marks.
“Miss Xue Yin, we have fought long and hard. Both of us are at the end of our tether,” he said, his gray-blue pupils reflecting her swaying figure.
In desperate times, someone always had to speak first.
“I am willing to hold the rear! Please take Master Jin and leave quickly. This is our only path to survival!”
“Presumptuous! You dare to stand in My way?!”
Niefutisi hovered in midair, the dark mist on her right half seething and boiling, her voice filled with the fury of being wounded by an ant.
“What do you have to stop Me with?!”
She raised both arms again.
Hundreds of millions of Blood Crystal Shards flew up from every fissure in the chamber, rearranging themselves in midair into a spiral spear shaft.
This time, she held nothing back, preparing to use her full power to erase them from the level of existence itself—
As the price for blaspheming a deity!
“Brother He Lian,” Xue Yin suddenly spoke, her voice exceptionally clear, “before Niefutisi’s great spear falls for the second time… buy me a little more time.”
He Lian was taken aback, but he understood the meaning in her words.
This was a last-ditch gamble.
At this moment, only trust remained.
“I will not fail your trust!”
He stood up abruptly, tore a strip from his robe, and tightly bound the wound on his right leg.
He stepped forward, shielding Xue Yin behind him, his aura surging like a tidal wave.
“Seeking death! I’ll grant your wish early, then!”
The evil god snorted, baffled as to why these ants, who could clearly flee, insisted on throwing their flesh against Her spear tip.
A blood blade detached from the gathering spear shaft, moving so fast it cut the air with a sharp shriek.
“Utterly foolish!”
He Lian retreated half a step, shifting his center of gravity downward.
His entire aura suddenly contracted.
He formed a fist with his right hand and punched forward to meet the blood blade.
“Mountain Topple: Final Form!”
The force of his fist collided with the blood blade.
The resulting shockwave sent broken stones flying.
The fist’s power and the blood glow locked in a stalemate in midair, each inch gained feeling like splitting the weight of an entire mountain.
Xue Yin closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Now, it was her turn.
Her left hand reached into her bosom and retrieved the “Frost Snow Heart” that Vera had given her, which sealed the purest magical energy of the Frost Snow Wasteland accumulated over thousands of years.
The moment her fingertip touched the ice crystal, a cool sensation seeped in from her fingertip, but a memory, carrying the scent of tea and the crackling of a fireplace, swept over her like a warm breeze.
It was an afternoon spent around a warm stove with three fox-eared girls.
Their fiery tails swayed gently behind them, the clinking of teacups making crisp sounds.
They were happily holding a girls’ tea party.
Mila swirled her teacup with her tail, her eyes sparkling as she leaned in close to Xue Yin, her voice carrying the unique excitement of a young girl.
“Sister Xue Yin, you know what? No matter how strong a human mage is, they dare not compress all their magical power into a single point, because their body can’t withstand it, and their soul would shatter.”
“But we’re different!”
Sefu wiggled her ears, savoring the black tea in her hand with deliberate slowness.
“The contract grants us, magical girls, a ‘vessel’ body, so we can converge a hundred rivers of magic in an instant without harming ourselves.”
Lina continued in a soft voice, a ball of foxfire rising in her palm.
“A single thread of magic is very weak, but if you gather all your magic into a single point, tempered a thousand times, reaching the peak… at that moment, even a tiny spark can tear through the darkness.”
Xue Yin opened her eyes and pressed the first ice crystal into her palm, chanting softly:
“First Core, activate.”
Silver light patterns spread from her palm, illuminating the Frost Snow Heart.
As the second ice crystal lit up, above ground.
Ailia continuously struck every beam of holy light precisely at the same point on the barrier.
Ryan controlled the Erosion Gold Chimera as it roared, burning at the barrier.
“Second magical battalion, prepare! Chain lightning, volley fire at the rift in the barrier!”
Tens of bolts of lightning from the magical corps crashed down, finally weakening the oppressive force within the Cloud Ruins Bazaar for another moment.
The third and fourth crystals lit up, the light patterns climbing to her shoulders.
He Lian charged forward like a mountain, using only his flesh and blood body to block yet another blood blade—
That was a warrior’s simplest promise to his comrades.
The people still resisting throughout the Cloud Ruins Bazaar looked up at the dark purple barrier being continuously torn apart by the gold and red flames, hope rekindling in their eyes.
As the fifth and sixth crystals embedded themselves, the light patterns coiled around her waist.
Bai Li, watching from a higher vantage point, couldn’t tear her gaze away from Xue Yin.
She stared at the figure that refused to be extinguished even on the brink of destruction, her chest heaving violently, tears streaming down her face like rain.
When the seventh crystal lit up, Xue Yin reversed the flow of the high elf’s life-creating blood, meant to heal all things, forcing it to serve as fuel instead.
She traced ancient runes in the air, her movements gentle, as if writing a love letter that would never be sent.
“With blood as the guide, ignite my true blood, call forth the Radiance.”
The moment the word “Radiance” left her lips, the ancient runes suddenly floated in midair, rotating like stars, quiet yet blazing.
Then, the eighth, ninth, and tenth Frost Snow Hearts ignited in sequence, enveloping Xue Yin’s body.
Her Hero Form, on the verge of death, sublimated once more.
A pink-gold halo erupted like a solar corona.
Her silver hair danced in the wind.
Xue Yin was breathtakingly beautiful, yet as fragile as the dying rays of the setting sun.
She looked at Jin.
That single glance pierced through space, time, pain, and silence, reaching the deepest part of his soul, to the boy who always called her “Master.”
The wariness of their first meeting, the strictness of training, the gentleness of late-night talks, the protection at life-or-death moments…
Scenes flooded her heart.
“That kind of dark and oppressive story, where the aftertaste is nothing but bitterness…”
She said softly, as she lit the final Frost Snow Heart.
“…I have never liked it.”
Jin’s eyes were bloodshot, his capillaries bursting.
The black flame within his chest suddenly raged, trying to burn one last time.
It was his body speaking the words he couldn’t say:
“Don’t go.”
“Even if this world is already riddled with holes, even if the truth itself is so cruel… I still don’t want to accept it.”
The blue-green radiance of the Frost Snow Heart shone on the tears welling in Xue Yin’s eyes.
“What I want is a story where hardships can be overcome with friendship and bonds.”
The light spread and grew denser along the star array, illuminating her pale face.
“A story where effort is never looked down upon, and where every heartfelt intention is eventually treasured.”
Up ahead, He Lian was pierced through the leg by Niefutisi’s high-speed blood blade.
His body swayed, but he stubbornly refused to retreat even a single step.
“A story where everyone protects each other and ultimately finds happiness.”
“And you… my beloved disciple…”
Xue Yin finally looked at Jin fully, her voice as soft as a sigh, yet as weighty as a thousand jun, as if she were pouring a lifetime of words into this final sentence.
“…in this story… you are the one I love the most…”
Xue Yin’s gaze pierced through the hail of blood and dust.
She forced a smile at Jin that was uglier than crying, then turned her head.
That twisted yet genuine smile held too much reluctance, too much apology, and the unspoken words “live on.”
The next moment, that smile solidified into silent resolve in her eyes.
Xue Yin never looked back.
Her steps were exceptionally firm, as if she had crushed all hesitation and weakness, walking alone toward the final chapter.
Jin used all his strength to roar out:
“Xue Yin!…”
His shout crashed against her back.
This fills you with determination…
The ten Frost Snow Hearts resonated.
The life-creating blood burned to its absolute limit.
Her Hero Form bloomed with its final radiance on the edge of annihilation.
The evil god seemed to sense something and abruptly turned the spear tip.
The spiral great spear, carrying the force of world-ending destruction, thrust straight at Xue Yin’s heart!
Anyone struck by this spear would not only have their body destroyed but would be utterly erased from the fabric of space-time itself.
The air screamed in a tearing lament.
The temperature in the chamber plummeted in that instant.
“Annihilate, you ants!”
Xue Yin raised the broken Moonlight Staff and spread her arms wide, as if embracing the entire world, and also as if embracing, one last time, the boy who was always behind her, now screaming her name with all his might.
Ten ice-blue beams of light shot up from the star array nodes surrounding her, weaving a star chart beneath the dome.
Xue Yin stood at the center of the star chart, her voice clear and gentle as ever.
It was also her final confession to the world where she had lived, briefly yet profoundly.
“O Light—!”
A silver beam burst forth from the tip of her staff.
Even the ominous darkness surrounding the evil god was forced back several yards by this beam.
At some point, Xue Yin’s tears had broken free, streaming down her blood-stained cheeks.
She stubbornly refused to let out any sobs.
The silver beam and the spiral blood spear collided once more in a thunderous crash—
The world fell silent.