Xing Jiang-Lin moved like a storm incarnate.
His sword slashed again and again, cutting through bone and rotten flesh. Living skeletons collapsed at his feet, their skulls splitting apart, ribs shattering—but the moment they fell, more crawled out of the ground.
Crack—crack—crack.
Bone scraped against stone as dozens of skeletal hands clawed upward.
"Tsk... they just won't stop!" Xing Jiang-Lin growled.
At the same moment, a sharp rattling sound echoed behind him.
Bai-Xue's eyes narrowed.
Skeletons were closing in on her.
From the left.
From the right.
From behind.
She exhaled slowly, her expression calm—almost indifferent.
So many... and he's completely tied down.
She tilted her head slightly, observing the battlefield.
"If I keep relying on him, we'll both be dragged down."
Her fingers slipped into her sleeve.
Several Spirit Killing Cards slid into her palm, glowing faintly with runes.
"Well then," she murmured, "guess I'll have to do some cleaning myself."
With a flick of her wrist—
"Go."
The cards shot forward.
BOOM—!
BOOM—!
BOOM—!
Explosions roared through the cave. Skeletons were torn apart mid-charge, bones flying in all directions, fragments smashing against the cave walls.
Dust filled the air.
But before the echoes faded—
Crack... crack...
More skeletons rose.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Their empty eye sockets glowed with a sinister purple light, as if something unseen was commanding them.
Bai-Xue frowned slightly.
"...Endless?"
Xing Jiang-Lin saw her surrounded.
"Damn it!"
He tried to force his way toward her, but skeletons poured in from every direction, locking him in place. Blades of bone scraped against his sword, claws reaching for his throat.
"Get out of my way!"
But there was no opening.
For a brief second—
Everything went silent.
Xing Jiang-Lin stopped moving.
He closed his eyes.
Bai-Xue felt it instantly.
A terrifying pressure surged outward.
"...This aura?"
Black flames slowly ignited around Xing Jiang-Lin's body.
Not ordinary fire.
Not spirit fire.
This flame was dark, violent, swallowing light itself. It twisted unnaturally, as if alive, humming with destruction.
Bai-Xue's pupils contracted.
That fire... I've never seen anything like it.
Xing Jiang-Lin opened his eyes.
They were cold.
"Disappear."
He thrust both hands forward.
The black flames erupted like a tidal wave.
The cave shook violently as the fire swept across the battlefield. Skeletons didn't scream. They didn't resist.
They were simply erased.
Bones turned to ash.
Purple light shattered.
Nothing remained.
The flames vanished as suddenly as they appeared.
Silence.
Bai-Xue stared at the empty ground.
"...What kind of fire was that?"
Her voice carried genuine surprise.
Xing Jiang-Lin exhaled, wiping sweat from his brow.
"My spirit power."
He looked around cautiously.
"But don't relax. This place... it's far worse than it looks."
Bai-Xue nodded slowly.
"You're right. The academy attack, the beasts, the illusion, this cave—everything feels connected."
She folded her arms.
"This isn't just a cave. It's a trap built to crush minds."
Before Xing Jiang-Lin could reply—
A voice echoed.
Soft.
Familiar.
"...Jiang-Lin..."
His body stiffened.
His breath caught.
His face drained of color.
Bai-Xue noticed instantly.
"...Who's there?" she asked sharply. "Who did you hear?"
Xing Jiang-Lin didn't answer.
He simply turned and began walking toward the sound.
"Hey—wait!" Bai-Xue snapped. "Where are you going?!"
No response.
"I said stop!"
But he kept going.
"...Idiot," she muttered, chasing after him.
Then—
Another voice echoed from the opposite direction.
"Rayama... my child... Rayama..."
Bai-Xue froze.
Her heart shattered.
"...Mother?"
Her voice trembled.
Without thinking, she turned and ran toward the sound.
A soft white glow appeared ahead.
The moment she stepped through—
The darkness dissolved.
She found herself standing in a warm, radiant world.
Sunlight filtered through the air.
In front of her sat a beautiful woman, gently combing the hair of a little girl. The woman's blue eyes overflowed with love—so deep it hurt to witness.
Bai-Xue's breath hitched.
"...Mother..."
Tears streamed down her face.
The scene shifted.
The little girl sat on the ground, her leg injured. The woman knelt before her, carefully applying medicine, her hands trembling.
Tears fell from the woman's eyes.
Each drop felt like a blade to Bai-Xue's heart.
She stepped forward.
The child and the woman—
They were her.
Her past.
Her lost world.
The woman's voice echoed softly.
"Do you see this, dear?"
"I remember this scene every day."
"I miss you... and your father... every single day."
"I always dreamed... that the three of us could live together peacefully."
The woman appeared behind Bai-Xue, resting her hands gently on her shoulders.
Warm.
Familiar.
Bai-Xue sobbed silently.
Years of loneliness.
Years of restraint.
Years of pretending to be calm—
All cracked at once.
This illusion was cruel.
Because it gave her everything she had lost.
...and tempted her to never leave.
"Mother... I missed you so much."
Her voice trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"After you were gone, all the happiness in my life disappeared with you. This world became unbearably cold."
She clenched her fists, her heart aching.
"Father... he was never the same without you. No matter how broken he was inside, he always forced himself to smile—for me. He pretended to be strong, pretended to be fine... just so I wouldn't feel the pain."
Her lips quivered.
"But I could see it. Every single day. His loneliness. His sorrow."
She lowered her head, tears falling silently.
"I lost you... and he lost his entire world."
Her mother's voice trembled, barely a whisper, yet it pierced straight into Bai-Xue's heart. "Without you... I am nothing, my child..."
Suddenly, another voice called from behind. Bai-Xue turned and saw her mother standing on the other side of the rift of fate, bathed in pale, ethereal light, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
"Bai-Xue..." she called, her voice quivering with hope, "I've longed for this moment. I want the three of us to be together again... to live, to laugh, to cherish each other like we once did. Please... come to me."
Bai-Xue hesitated, the weight of memories and longing pressing down on her. She took a tentative step forward, stopping just one step from the edge. Her mother's eyes burned with desperate hope.
"Just... one step, my child," she pleaded, voice breaking. "One step... and we can be whole again. One step... and our hearts will beat together. Please..."
Time seemed to freeze. The void beneath whispered with unseen winds. Bai-Xue's heart pounded. One step... that's all it would take...