**When the flames licked the sky, Xu Wu vanished.**
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgEfJ6Zx0Lw
The molten giant's fingers pierced through the ruins like divine retribution, the heatwave tearing the air apart. My vision flooded with violent orange-red, my ears filled with nothing but the roar of fire. My skin registered no pain—this body was immune to scorching heat—but something deeper burned inside my chest.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0bKo7xBFyX
For the first time, I understood what it meant to *lose*.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVhNrZQ4Eal
*Why?* I wondered.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjMmQ7Mmh0f
*We barely knew each other for a few days.*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvpIWKEFWKM
The ruins crumbled beneath me. Before darkness swallowed my consciousness, the shape of Xu Wu’s final words lingered on my retinas:
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjmJAJ1htnH
*"This time… take my hand."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZSXa6P55R
But I hadn’t.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡujJ3eLL1gj
---
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnMToxEZoWB
When I woke, the world was silent as a grave.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBFlfhriio
The fires still burned in the distance, reduced to faint red flickers on the horizon. I lay sprawled across cracked earth, my silver hair caked in ash. Raising my hand, I found a twisted shard of metal lodged between my fingers—a fragment of Xu Wu’s sickle, its edges stained with dried blood.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2WD0FfvwT
*"Survive."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfCh3N5VBQ
The command echoed again, not from outside, but from some awakened protocol deep within my consciousness.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4INZ6EBNV1
I staggered to my feet and found three charred corpses fanned out nearby. They wore fire-patterned robes, each with a fatal wound in their chest—the edges of their injuries laced with faint blue crystals. The mark of Xu Wu’s sickle.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrTazzc07bw
She had been here.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkAsvOv4oc
And then she was gone.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9VZN2syxl
The night wind carried a faint tremor. Following the sound, I spotted a figure perched on a broken wall a hundred meters away. Gray cloak, silver-white hair—but slimmer than Xu Wu. When she turned, her face was eerily similar, except for her right eye, replaced by a mechanical one, its gear-like pupil glowing faint red.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGk9VBRVBQJ
"Purifier A-09," she announced, her voice like two old radios speaking in unison. "Assigned to retrieve the Prime Construct."
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrKsKrLsPAf
My throat spasmed—not from fear, but from my body resisting some hidden directive.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26Xy1q3aJK
"Where is Xu Wu?"
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWdUWfbZAeq
The mechanical eye whirred as it focused. *"The deserter has been marked KIA."* She raised her wrist-guard, projecting an image of Xu Wu collapsing in a sea of blue flames. *"You’ve been reassigned to me."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTgIyWw8CU
In the projection, Xu Wu’s lips moved. Through the silent words, I read:
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeJFAhlPejR
*"The Water Nation."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8LZ3x66ma
---
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkf3VWXc78N
The border of Isia was shrouded in damp mist. Unlike the scorching heat of the Fire Nation, breathing here felt like swallowing liquid. I followed A-09 through the reeds, our steps sinking into mud where translucent, jellyfish-like creatures floated, their bodies pulsing with fluorescent blue blood.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ40DvvJfKiR
"Memory Jellies," A-09 said, lifting one with her sickle. *"They feed on human memories. The people of Isia call them ‘God’s Blessing.’"*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuK7pq1j6P
When the jelly burst, my vision flooded with unfamiliar images—
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH79NzepOjp
A little girl crouched on a beach, writing in the sand, only for the waves to erase her words. Over and over, she wrote the same name:
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC2bxnneiFS
*"Xu Wu!"*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjGfl5hjWq
A-09’s mechanical eye contracted violently. She seized my throat and slammed me into the swamp. *"What did you see?!"*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1B83YekUq4
Before the mud could fill my lungs, three silver streaks shot from the reeds. A-09’s mechanical arm was severed at the root, green coolant spraying from the stump. A figure cloaked in waterweeds lunged from the marsh, sickle carving a familiar azure arc.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvk5TDHbOi0
Xu Wu was alive.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg65DZUPson
Her left arm hung limp, a fresh gash split her brow, but her gaze was as sharp as ever. As A-09 stumbled back, she stepped onto a cluster of Memory Jellies—the shockwave of a hundred exploding memories froze her for a single second—
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz3Q1IKjnDx
Long enough for Xu Wu’s sickle to kiss her throat.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJY3y9dtDl
*"You took someone else’s hand."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKC9unqzPP7
Xu Wu crouched beside A-09’s corpse, prying out the mechanical eye with her blade. When she looked up at me, blood from her wound dyed half her vision red.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdIS0Mo6cH7
I didn’t answer. A strange emotion swelled in my chest, like rusted gears finally locking into place. I reached for her injury, but she caught my wrist mid-air.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs6ufXAmASp
*"We leave. Now."* She shoved me away, pointing into the mist. *"Isia’s High Priestess monitors the entire territory through the jellies. We need to—"*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtT40mc3cfW
The swamp erupted.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zMWWuvuzA
Thousands of Memory Jellies surged upward, coalescing into a humanoid shape. As the water curtain fell away, a woman in a flowing liquid robe emerged, her face hidden behind a crystal mask. Droplets of memory fragments fell from her sleeves with every step.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMrugXP6Ht
*"Welcome home, Xu Wu,"* the priestess said, her voice like a million whispers. *"And welcome… Prime Construct Zero."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5u6mdJgorU
Xu Wu’s sickle hummed with high-frequency vibrations. *"High Priestess of Isia… You stopped being human long ago."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi2m63dN2pb
*"Of course."* The mask cracked into a smile. *"I am the incarnation of memory—the last vessel of Water God Isia."* She pointed at me. *"And he was made to kill me."*
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfeLYSe0jqX
The water’s surface rippled, revealing a grotesque vision—me driving a sickle through the priestess’s ches
ns216.73.216.80da2
and then Add to home screen.