Chapter 129: Dual Lines - Xiao Qi
The Moon-Eater is falling faster than gravity allows.
Like something's pulling it down. Like an invisible thread dragging it from Side A's sky straight toward Side B.
I'm standing in a crack in the Spiral Tower, UV gun pointed at the sky. Will it help? No. But at least dying with a weapon in your hand looks less pathetic.
"Ophelia!" I shout back. "Can you still move?"
No answer.
I turn around. She's collapsed in the rubble, black threads spreading up to her neck. Her one eye is still open, but there's no light in it.
Dead.
Or completely eaten away.
I clench my jaw, turn back, and keep running. The crack is just ahead—the leftover passage rift. I jump in.
The void.
No up, no down, no light, no sound. Just the feeling of my body being yanked around, like being tossed in a washing machine.
I grip the bell fragment tight. The metal cuts into my palm, the pain keeping me awake.
Then I feel it.
Another pulse. Coming from the other end of the void. Not the Moon-Eater. Something warmer, more rhythmic—
The blood bond.
Leah.
She's on Side B. On the other end of the crystal.
I focus hard, pushing my thoughts toward her. This isn't my power—the bell fragment is helping. It's burning up, consuming itself, building a temporary bridge.
"Leah!"
No answer.
But images come through.
Broken up. Like a TV with bad signal.
I see the castle's stone room. Scorched walls. Leah holding Adrian's body. Kael gripping the crystal.
Then I hear his voice. Right in my head, like a broadcast:
"Xiao Qi. Make door. Kill moon. True?"
"It's true," I answer, not sure if he can even hear me. "White Box wants to kill you to make the door. The Moon-Eater is a hunting dog. It's crossing the barrier right now, coming to Side B to eat you!"
"How stop it?"
"Two ways," I say. The bell fragment is burning hot in my hand now, almost melting. "First, you erase yourselves willingly. Delete yourselves from the network. Not death—complete erasure. No blood, no energy, White Box's door-making fails, the Moon-Eater loses its target. But you'll become regular humans. Living on Side B. Forever forgetting Side A."
"And second?"
"The second is..." I pause for one second.
The Moon-Eater's shadow has already covered me. Even through the void, I can feel it pressing down. It's about to cross the barrier.
"The second way is to reverse the Exile Door," I say. "Bounce the Moon-Eater and the fragment monster back into the void together. But it's complicated. Side B needs a Gatekeeper to work the crystal, Side A needs a receiver. And—"
"And what?"
"And the receiver takes the full impact of both monsters at once," I say. "Like getting hit by the Moon-Eater and the fragment creature at the same time. Survival odds... under ten percent."
Silence on the other end.
I can picture Leah's face. She's weighing it. Running the numbers.
"I'll go to Side A," Leah's voice suddenly comes through clear. "I'll be the receiver."
"No!" Kael's voice explodes. "You go, you die!"
"So you go then?" Leah shoots back. "With your incomplete origin, taking that impact—you won't even have half a percent!"
"I'm the Gatekeeper—"
"The Gatekeeper isn't supposed to throw his life away!"
They're arguing. Through the blood bond, I can feel both of them—anger, fear, and something underneath all of it—
Not wanting to let go.
The bell fragment starts to melt. Liquid metal drips onto the back of my hand, burning through skin.
"We're out of time!" I scream. "The Moon-Eater crosses the barrier in thirty seconds! Decide now!"
Silence.
Then Leah speaks. Her voice is quiet, but each word lands like a nail being driven in:
"Xiao Qi. If I go as the receiver. If I die. Does the Moon-Eater stop?"
"Yes," I say. "Without Silver Moon, it has no target. It goes back to sleep."
"And White Box?"
"The door-forging fails. The whole plan falls apart. At least... bought us a few decades."
Leah smiles. I feel it through the blood bond, and it squeezes something in my chest.
"Good," she says.
"Not good!" Kael roars.
"Kael." Her voice goes soft. "Listen. You stay on Side B and work the crystal. You know Gatekeeper tech better than I do. And I—"
She stops.
"—I'm Silver Moon. The Moon-Eater is hunting me. I go to Side A and draw it in, you exile it from there. This is the only way... where we both win."
"How is you dying a win?"
"You living," Leah says. "That's the win."
The bell fragment melts completely.
The connection cuts.
Just me left in the void, and the Moon-Eater still falling.
But it's not coming for me. It's heading for the weak point in the barrier—the link between where Leah and Kael are standing.
It's going through.
I raise my UV gun, aim at the weak point.
"Come on then," I murmur. "Let's see who's faster."