**When the flames licked the sky, Xu Wu vanished.**
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡucYlcaf6Z2
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ25Y0N7q4gC
For the first time, I understood what it meant to *lose*.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdw7jAOMM6I
*Why?* I wondered.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDIDSGuo1e
*We barely knew each other for a few days.*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSueCc9E9OB
The ruins crumbled beneath me. Before darkness swallowed my consciousness, the shape of Xu Wu’s final words lingered on my retinas:
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaedptM0d6
*"This time… take my hand."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwiaAFlnmVZ
But I hadn’t.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8dNkYjjEz
---
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡywU4DAk9KT
When I woke, the world was silent as a grave.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVoNuW4yZI
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeAOCX25gU
*"Survive."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaFAOIZ3RfB
The command echoed again, not from outside, but from some awakened protocol deep within my consciousness.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEoBZi7tTHM
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYyoMyE1xqY
She had been here.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNrgxTMJN0h
And then she was gone.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ39OFzVqKHa
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu1fcfAy0Zg
"Purifier A-09," she announced, her voice like two old radios speaking in unison. "Assigned to retrieve the Prime Construct."
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2NqPupjrJu
My throat spasmed—not from fear, but from my body resisting some hidden directive.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgn6nCXZ63
"Where is Xu Wu?"
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY1SudduTy1
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."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2R0pIA4uH8
In the projection, Xu Wu’s lips moved. Through the silent words, I read:
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92O0kj5LTt
*"The Water Nation."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRtCZtq8m4
---
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxN3KcmRixH
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTh8pyF9CAd
"Memory Jellies," A-09 said, lifting one with her sickle. *"They feed on human memories. The people of Isia call them ‘God’s Blessing.’"*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJTRU7362x
When the jelly burst, my vision flooded with unfamiliar images—
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGl7V0ZiQx0
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:
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEfUsARI7Wl
*"Xu Wu!"*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RSdvXsNMA
A-09’s mechanical eye contracted violently. She seized my throat and slammed me into the swamp. *"What did you see?!"*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcB6DgefA1o
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUyKCCIGuuO
Xu Wu was alive.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr1ehuBEzIY
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—
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHhC60RUHJZ
Long enough for Xu Wu’s sickle to kiss her throat.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7wTDaFEodX
*"You took someone else’s hand."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3l3uLknz31
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT6wQ7JSwNs
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aU8vEhzsX
*"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—"*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LW6796CaK
The swamp erupted.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNowV5TaWwB
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.
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoXLTEcXZ2t
*"Welcome home, Xu Wu,"* the priestess said, her voice like a million whispers. *"And welcome… Prime Construct Zero."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ZbtMvpYnT
Xu Wu’s sickle hummed with high-frequency vibrations. *"High Priestess of Isia… You stopped being human long ago."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQnawcapXCY
*"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."*
89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLyASLme1H
The water’s surface rippled, revealing a grotesque vision—me driving a sickle through the priestess’s ches
ns216.73.216.148da2
and then Add to home screen.