Chapter 15: The Reborn Weaver, Obsidian Grief, and a Very Talkative Sword

Ling Chen's world tilted on its axis. One moment, he was reaching out to Zhan Yi, desperate for answers, for connection, for some semblance of understanding amidst the chaos. The next, a blinding flash of white, a sickening lurch in his stomach, and then… nothing.

He replayed the events in his mind, but even he didn't know what to think. In all his years of living in the shadows, there was a force far greater. Was he being tested. What was coming for them? What more was the universe needed from him?

And why was Zhan Yi here for him. It was the first time he had his existence.

"I'm here," Ling Chen muttered to himself. But a voice, not a real and known voice cut it off.

His own death.

Then everything started all over again. He touched the power that has made him who he was, to do it again. What will happen now was his only concern. He touched the power that he had, with the desire to go outside, to know the real world as it is.

Everything was being repeated, and he was on a loop. Was he? Then someone came and whispered words.

As quickly as it came, it went. With him. As there wasn't ever any presence of him, it was too late.

"Zhan Yi," the voice came through, "if you are thinking to do this, then it's not a good time."

There was so much to do, so much to feel. But what exactly should be said, I, you must decide. As the choice wasn't easy to convey.

Zhan Yi was going to end everything and Ling Chen knew what to do.

"Zhan Yi," Ling Chen called out

And there was no one.

It was a blank and white canvas, with him, alone. Or was he?

He used his resonation power to explore what was around. It came and came, but why, if what power he has always been used to defend against things from coming, and was it always to know what was to come to others.

"So, is it just that?" asked Ling Chen

Then a voice came. But it didn't feel alien like the last one. It felt. It was something. Familiar.

But it felt… a whisper, it said. "You have the power to save the world, why must you wallow yourself in grief"

He couldn't understand it, but he felt the warmth for a moment. This place felt secure. As if, this was a place he had known for all of his life. But how? And was it him?

Before he could speak,

The words were all a mess.

"To save the world, is to lose your mind."

The ground stated to break. And there were just so many words he can muster to think about what to do. It was him. Wasn't it. And he will have to go again.

All that work, all that. And he didn't even get a happy life for himself, to know what was going on, everything. Before his sense has returned there was a lot of thoughts. There was also some sense of him remembering the old.

How he was betrayed.

How he was lonely.

But this time, he wasn't alone. He had a friend, even lover? Whom he didn't know what he thought.

He tried to call out again. What will he do.

And suddenly a word came.

Just as quickly as it came, it turned to dust.

He needed to do everything he could to make sure the world didn't have that. Was the darkness in their minds that must always be there. There was so much that was unknown that this life wasn't enough. But

What can he do.

And everything turned again.

What then was life.

Before he had to touch there was a sudden touch on his face. Who-

When he opened his eyes, as the world has ended again. He was on the ground, as he was still dying from what was going to kill him.

But before his vision could be shut again. As the light, which came from the other place, came to be a silhouette.

It was Zhan Yi.

It was Zhan Yi. But not the cold, distant Zhan Yi he had come to both fear and respect. This Zhan Yi was a whirlwind of raw emotion, his face contorted with grief, his body trembling with a barely suppressed rage. His eyes, usually as impenetrable as polished obsidian, were now pools of molten gold, reflecting the flickering light of the dying crystals. He was a man on the edge, a force of nature about to be unleashed.

"Zhan Yi?" Ling Chen whispered, his voice barely audible above the echoing silence of the shattered cavern. He tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness washed over him, forcing him to remain where he was. His body was weak, his senses scrambled, and his mind still reeling from the visions he had experienced in the void. He was in no condition to face whatever storm was brewing within the Obsidian Tyrant.

Zhan Yi didn't respond. He remained frozen in place, his gaze fixed on Ling Chen, his expression a complex mixture of emotions that the recluse couldn't begin to decipher.

There was pain, there was anger, there was grief… but beneath it all, Ling Chen sensed something else. Something deeper, something more profound. Something that made his heart pound in his chest and his breath catch in his throat. It was like the faint feeling of the soul fragments that were being wept throughout the world.

"I am so sorry, and happy that you lived", were the only words Zhan Yi could muster.

They weren't said aloud, not as Ling Chen felt them.

The words then reminded him of a voice.

What the voice said was. A taste of the power that lies dormant within you" There was so much power that a new world can be made.

But for what. That was the choice that will define their world.

"Get away from me," Ling Chen said, his voice trembling slightly. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew that he needed to distance himself from Zhan Yi, to create some space between them before whatever was brewing inside the Tyrant finally erupted.

Zhan Yi flinched as if he had been struck, his expression twisting with a visible pain. He took a step back, his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of his sword. The blade, still slick with an unidentifiable fluid, gleamed ominously in the dying light of the crystals.

"All that I knew had broken me from within, but what was coming is scarier",

Ling Chen scrambled backward, his body bumping against a jagged piece of rock. He winced, his ribs protesting, his mind racing, desperately searching for a means of escape. He was trapped, cornered, facing a man he had once trusted, a man who now seemed to be on the verge of complete and utter collapse.

"Don't come any closer," Ling Chen said, his voice trembling slightly. "I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, I don't want any part of it. Just… just stay away from me."

Zhan Yi stopped, his body rigid, his face a mask of barely suppressed emotion. The only sound in the cavern was the faint dripping of water and the frantic beating of Ling Chen's heart.

The Underwear were getting anxious again, the end was here. Was it really.

"What do you want from me, Zhan Yi?" Ling Chen asked, his voice laced with desperation. "What do you want me to say?"

"It may be that I am just a pawn or tool, or that I, Zhan Yi, whom has served all with power is just a nobody with a soul-crushing job to do. You will not understand what I'm about to do but trust me. That the time will come"

"The time to choose is not now!" stated the whisper in his head, why, were always the reasons for these choices is what will kill Ling Chen.

Before his mind took another stop, he was in a place again. But it felt wrong,

It was white and empty. It was something that you couldn't even see anymore. Was this what that person meant to be? To choose, as all that was, was never even a choice. But a forced action to be the same.

Where was the fun in it all then. As the great, great Ling Chen was standing right here what to say. As the world didn't offer him something before, now it did? What can I be asked to protect and to sacrifice. What even was a sacrifice. Was power the all thing in this world to begin. As a result, there had to be something that made the power want to be here.

There weren't ever any results or choices that made it the most clear. All that comes are just something that has never really helped

As his thoughts came, a new face came. As if asking him what he must do.

His eyes were wide open. This life, has he not even had a change for himself then, who will hear,

With his own body on the floor, he said-

"No more" as he was crying.

The person then faded into the darkness.

Ling Chen shook. Before his head was ready to blow up. And then the world collapsed.

As all that was left, was nothing.

"Was it enough to save this world" he was asked. But he didn't even know who was he. "You were asked to sacrifice everything, but are you even sure of that".

What was it, that makes someone so that they want to do good when all is said and done. He didn't even know what all of this was, and what was he even. "What is, after all, the point".

There was no one, so what is. He tried to talk to them, and he can't touch. He can't feel or say anything. Then suddenly, his own feelings started to rush back. Was it that hard to be just good.

"And is that what the test is for" Ling Chen said. He was back at the cave. He knew that it would take him some time.

The crystal had broken, and all that was left was. Dust and the sword, to what that was.

Everything seemed to allign this part. He wanted to trust him, but can he. What was trust, as there was no thing that made it right or that thing was even real. He tried everything.

As he finally touched the sword, the sword spoke.

"Can you find the power, and was he even the one"

The sword then turned to the ground.

The love and power that is felt in his heart is also what the sword asked for.

Then it showed a location,

Now all he had to do, was to get there as soon as he could. As that all is said a voice asked.

It was Zhan Yi.

"But you still don't understand what has to happen, but I will come there. Will you be alright then. But you don't have to come to me. You'll see that, everything is not worth it"

"It will never not be worth it" As all of a sudden the world rumbled. There was only two more that was seen in the last place.

What now? It was all dark.

But that darkness

.

.

All that the readers knew was a new beginning. And a door, to everything or to the one path?

Ling Chen reached out, his fingers brushing against the cold, smooth surface of the door. He hesitated, his heart pounding in his chest. He had no idea what awaited him on the other side, what dangers he would face, what sacrifices he would be forced to make.

But he also knew that he couldn't turn back.

He had come too far, endured too much, to simply give up now. He had a purpose, a destiny to fulfill, a world to save. And whatever it was, Ling Chen and everyone will do everything to succeed.

He took a deep breath, steeled his nerves, and pushed open the door.

Beyond the door lay a scene that made his blood run cold.

It was a battlefield, a landscape of carnage and despair. The ground was littered with corpses, the air thick with the stench of blood and the cries of the dying. The sky was a swirling vortex of black clouds, lit by flashes of lightning that revealed glimpses of a horrifying truth.

The world was at war. And Zhan Yi was leading the charge for the other side.