The petals didn't just cut this time.
They multiplied, spilling like a crimson tide across the air, each one sharp as glass, humming with a rhythm too steady to be random. Qiuyue stood at the center of it, her arms open, a messianic figure, blood weeping from her eyes as if she had chosen martyrdom instead of war.
> "If you will not stay, then both of you will drown here. With me."
The petals spun into formation, hundreds folding into thousands, until the air itself became a single colossal lotus — its petals overlapping into walls, its stem plunging deep beneath their feet.
Liansheng cursed under his breath. "She's anchoring the system directly through herself. If she collapses, the space collapses."
Yinan's sword trembled in his grip, not from fear but from the system's pulse — it throbbed like a living artery, syncing with his heartbeat. "So… the only way out is through her?"
Liansheng's jaw clenched. "Yes. But…"
The "but" was drowned by the world breaking.
The petals folded inward, devouring light. For an instant, they were no longer standing in the shattered room of code and crystal. They were on a dark lotus pond, endless water stretching into a starless sky, each ripple reflecting memories neither of them wanted to see.
Yinan gasped. His reflection wasn't himself — it was his younger self, still bright-eyed, still waiting by the gates for Liansheng to come back.
"Stop this trickery!" he shouted, slashing the water with his blade. The reflection bled, and the water turned red.
Qiuyue's voice rippled across the pond. "Not trickery. Truth. You can't kill me without killing what you've done to each other."
Liansheng moved first, cutting through the petals that swooped like scythes. "Ignore it. She feeds on hesitation."
But the pond wasn't done.
Now it showed him — Liansheng on the night of betrayal, lips against Qiuyue's, a fevered kiss while Yinan's name was still warm in his mouth. The image broke Yinan's breath in two, rage rising sharp as lightning.
He turned on Liansheng, blade almost slipping toward him instead of Qiuyue.
"Don't—" Liansheng barked, parrying without striking back. "Don't give her what she wants."
Qiuyue laughed. Her body flickered into existence above the lotus, spectral, her robes dragging across the water like oil. "What I want? I only wanted to keep us together. But you—" Her gaze sliced to Liansheng. "You abandoned me." Then to Yinan. "You were left behind."
The petals sharpened, descending like guillotines.
Liansheng and Yinan moved as one, back-to-back before they realized it, each slash intercepting blades of crimson light. Their qi bled together, two currents colliding and fusing, sparking arcs that made the lotus realm tremble.
For the first time, they weren't fighting each other. They were aligned.
The lotus pond cracked. The reflection shattered. Qiuyue screamed, her voice splitting into echoes — human, machine, ghost.
Yinan's chest heaved. He turned his head slightly toward Liansheng, their shoulders brushing, their breath mixing in the charged silence between blows. "Then let's finish this… together."
Liansheng met his gaze, a flash of something vulnerable cracking through his usual control. He nodded once.
The petals rained harder. The lotus closed around them like a maw.
But their blades were now a single storm.