"Run—!"
Lin Yao shouted, throat full of rust.
Not for Rhea or Qing He. For his own two legs that felt ready to snap.
Guì's bone whip slammed down. The whole mountain shook like a giant kicked it. The stone outpost collapsed. Gray mist snapped shut like a curtain.
But Lin Yao remembered Kael's last words:
"Bone Tower… bottom floor…"
Neuroth Crystal Tower east, Aethra Bone Tower west. Two worlds, same coordinate.
"West!" he grabbed Qing He, dragged Rhea with his other arm. "Bone Tower! Now!"
Rhea's prosthetic was toast, dragging cables on the ground. She drew a knife with her left hand—Neuroth military blade, still coated in Xihua gold blood, black-red crusted.
"You two… go first…" she panted.
"Bullshit!" Lin Yao swung her arm over his shoulder. "You go last? Bite me with your teeth?"
Qing He didn't speak. She bent down, dug up a piece of stone from the mud—the last glimmer from the outpost stuck to it. Slid it into Rhea's left hand. She pressed her fingers.
Blue light flashed.
Vines sprouted under her skin, crawling up her arm, stabilizing her trembling hand.
"…Thanks," Rhea gritted, teeth red.
They sprinted down the mountain path.
Rain lessened. Mist thickened. Ten meters ahead, nothing visible.
"Something's… off," Rhea's radar-eye flashed. "In the fog… something's moving."
Clatter!
Not wind. Bones.
White bones shot out from the mist! Ribs, fingers, legs—all glowing with Xihua gold, twisting like living snakes.
"Silent Bone Puppets!" Qing He screamed, voice raw. "Guì… dug up the mountain graves!"
Lin Yao dove, a leg bone grazing his neck, slammed into a tree with a thunk—bark blackened, smoke curling.
Qing He threw three grass balls. Hit bones. Green mist spread. Puppets staggered. Half a second.
"Useless!" Rhea yelled. "Xihua's burning the grass!"
Lightning in Lin Yao's mind. Bones… bone…
"Qing He! Soil!" he roared. "The blood-mixed mud! Into the joints!"
She got it. Biting her finger, mixing blood into mud, hurled at the nearest puppet's knee.
Thunk!
Joint jammed, like rusty gears in sand.
"Rhea! Joint!"
She stabbed her knife into the locked joint.
Shhhhk!
Xihua gold splattered. Puppet collapsed.
"…So…" Rhea panted. "Bones… can get blocked?"
"Not blocked," Lin Yao wiped mud and blood off his face. "Alive things grow. Grass takes root… bones hate being tangled by life."
Qing He nodded. Face paler. Her left arm vine charred, black creeping from fingers to shoulder.
No time.
Mist parted slightly.
Ahead, standing tall: Bone Tower.
Not a building. Giant skeletons stacked. Ribs as beams, spine as pillars, skulls on top. Xihua flowed like golden blood, dripping into a massive pelvis at the base—a Xihua pool.
Seven star-ring insignias glowed faintly atop.
"…Shit," Rhea muttered. "They dug up the whole mountain… made a blood-sucking machine."
Lin Yao stared at the base. Tiny inscriptions—Neuroth binary mixed with Aethra ancient script.
He squinted. The letters… moved.
Binary turned ancient script, ancient script turned binary… forming one line:
[Warning: Xihua Purity 97.3%—Contaminant: Symbiote #07]
[Action Recommended: Clear or… Reclaim.]
Symbiote #07?
Tower doors—scapula halves—no lock. Golden light formed a living curtain.
"Rush?" Rhea switched knife to left hand.
"Wait." Qing He pressed them down.
She squatted, ear to the ground. Ten seconds.
Eyes wide. Right hand plunged into her left arm—not pulling vine. Digging.
Blood and black liquid poured. She pulled out a seed.
Walnut-sized, dark green.
Pressed it into the tower's base soil.
Three seconds.
Seed split.
Sprout shot up, vines like snakes wrapping around the Xihua light in the door—
Zzzt!
Light dimmed for a heartbeat.
"Go!" Qing He pushed them. "Three seconds!"
Lin Yao rammed the doors.
Inside: honeycomb.
Bone cavities embedded in walls. Each held a human form.
Some in Neuroth suits, arms charred. Some in Aethra robes, veins gold. All failed. Mid-mirror-jump echoes. Eye sockets empty. Chest still faintly rising.
Xihua veins fed into tower's main conduit.
At the end: massive bone cocoon.
Inserted with Xihua pipes, golden liquid flowing. Human silhouette visible inside.
"Kael…?" Rhea trembled.
Lin Yao rushed. Inside, pale, thin, left eye covered, right eye silver data streams…
The face from the mist.
He sensed it. Silver eye slowly opened.
Lips moved.
In his mind, static exploded:
"Don't… touch the cocoon…"
"They're feeding it…"
"Xihua… not medicine… it's… a lock…"
"Dual-Hua truth… under my left eye patch…"
Words cut off.
Tower alarm blared. Red lights scanning.
[Unauthorized intrusion detected]
[Bone Tower Self-Destruct Initiated]
[T-18:50…]
"Shit!" Rhea lunged. "How do we save you?!"
Kael's silver eye locked on Lin Yao. Hand raised, pointing at left eye patch.
Ripped it off!
Beneath: micro prism.
Gold-purple light whirled—Xihua and Entropy Hua, consuming each other.
Lin Yao's mind… BOOM!
Everything clicked:
Zhenxing Alliance harvested Xihua & Entropy Hua…
Not for power.
To prevent them from fusing again.
Dual-Hua same source. Complete Taiyi split in two. Extraction keeps eternal control.
Once reunited…
"Not… a counterattack." Kael's voice exploded in their heads, blood-tinged.
"It's… restoration."
"Taiyi… will awaken."
"They fear… what wakes… isn't the planet."
"It's us."
T-17:35.
Bone Tower shook.
Ceiling beams cracked, falling.
Qing He lunged, vines surged, wrapping Lin Yao and Rhea—left arm entirely blackened.
"Move…" she rasped. "Bottom… has escape route…"
Kael's silver-eye flicked last glance at Lin Yao.
Paused.
Like a blink.
Like goodbye.
"Take the prism…"
"It recognizes you…"
"…Mirror Keeper."
Crash!
Tower collapsed inward.
Author's Note | After Chapter 5
Kael removing eye patch? Shook my hands three times before final draft.
Not blood fear. Fear you wouldn't believe it.
Dual-Hua truth: not energy, but chains.
Zhenxing Alliance? Not greedy. Afraid of what wakes—not the planet, us.
I paused five minutes after writing that. Coffee cold.
Qing He's arm black.
Kael trapped in cocoon.
Bone Tower collapsed.
But Lin Yao… held the prism.
Gold-purple light whirling, burning like coal in his palm.
Some say chapter five should be "sweet."
I say: in the moment the world collapses, someone hands you truth—even at the cost of an eye.
Thanks for not closing the page when bones pierced.
Thanks for believing:
"What wakes… is us."
Next chapter: Mirror Rift.
—KHChing
(Hands shaking, but prism… in my hand)