**When the flames licked the sky, Xu Wu vanished.**
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi69vA3Vnlk
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbO1nk5kVQH
For the first time, I understood what it meant to *lose*.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRiBWzZpY17
*Why?* I wondered.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVX2x5bOlD
*We barely knew each other for a few days.*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk4Um724Voc
The ruins crumbled beneath me. Before darkness swallowed my consciousness, the shape of Xu Wu’s final words lingered on my retinas:
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbCpZ3inSa5
*"This time… take my hand."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQCPQqPyJlr
But I hadn’t.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJbCRX1iF4
---
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8FgB1lEK9
When I woke, the world was silent as a grave.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyBbCCmRRS
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq77gDYtONl
*"Survive."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWA3TDEToDL
The command echoed again, not from outside, but from some awakened protocol deep within my consciousness.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PDWsFvWLd
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKjKfI3b2z
She had been here.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpK0MUcAch
And then she was gone.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTnbEVYEc4v
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu9976q6wlh
"Purifier A-09," she announced, her voice like two old radios speaking in unison. "Assigned to retrieve the Prime Construct."
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1TapnMKxa
My throat spasmed—not from fear, but from my body resisting some hidden directive.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSq7u3XxZ5
"Where is Xu Wu?"
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqk5CF13A2
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."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Q624dnxJX
In the projection, Xu Wu’s lips moved. Through the silent words, I read:
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgEbV0154U
*"The Water Nation."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOax0K3C2Hy
---
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpR5uQH2RAv
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngI3U5H9mf
"Memory Jellies," A-09 said, lifting one with her sickle. *"They feed on human memories. The people of Isia call them ‘God’s Blessing.’"*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWy73RsrEWI
When the jelly burst, my vision flooded with unfamiliar images—
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ8QSgrtgwC
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:
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE9AauMn7lW
*"Xu Wu!"*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTDqZ6XeuNO
A-09’s mechanical eye contracted violently. She seized my throat and slammed me into the swamp. *"What did you see?!"*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs52ZEcAORC
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPCy8ygAah
Xu Wu was alive.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjLLNjnt2Xm
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—
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp4xWisoA5I
Long enough for Xu Wu’s sickle to kiss her throat.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaDWJvSqKv
*"You took someone else’s hand."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9CMFw4QPfO
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQOjqb8XztJ
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuOZS7FYxQl
*"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—"*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTj3zgmBJl
The swamp erupted.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeix5JDYqCW
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.
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmVmS0CoLH
*"Welcome home, Xu Wu,"* the priestess said, her voice like a million whispers. *"And welcome… Prime Construct Zero."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDCmP7oOuM
Xu Wu’s sickle hummed with high-frequency vibrations. *"High Priestess of Isia… You stopped being human long ago."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK8tWQIN5vR
*"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."*
37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuCS9nZHKK
The water’s surface rippled, revealing a grotesque vision—me driving a sickle through the priestess’s ches
ns216.73.216.154da2
