More rifts opened.
A booming voice thundered:
"THE MORTAL-BORN MUST FALL."
Lin Yue bristled."I heard that! Rude!"
Threads of fate twisted toward her like chains of light, trying to bind her soul.
Xuan Mo intercepted them, grabbing the chains with his bare hands.
The chains screamed — actually screamed — as they cracked under his grip.
"Do not touch her," he snarled.
One chain slipped past—
It wrapped around Lin Yue's waist.
It pulled.
Her soul burned.
She stumbled, gasping.
Xuan Mo's expression collapsed into raw terror — a sight more shocking than the sky breaking.
"LIN YUE!"
She fell forward—
And awakened something new.
Not moonlight.
Not violet resonance.
A third power.
Black-and-silver flame erupted from her chest — soft, brilliant, terrifying.
A celestial beast that charged her evaporated mid-step.
The chains recoiled in agony.
The sky itself dimmed.
Xuan Mo stared at her like she'd just rewritten the dictionary.
"Lin Yue…"He stepped toward her, voice shaking."That power… it does not belong to this cosmos."
"…Then whose is it?" she whispered.
"Yours," he said.
"But I thought—"
He cupped her face gently.
"You are not a prophecy-bearer," he said. "You are the prophecy-breaker."
The sky screamed again.