Burning Memories

Ashen PagesThe burned Church library stood amid radioactive acid rain, its charred bookshelves jutting upward like the ribs of a giant. Kane's silver-sand prosthetic brushed against the wall, and suddenly Ash's brand began to heat up—the seemingly random scorch marks were, in truth, coordinates burned in Church code.

"Seventh District Forbidden Archive," Alice's scepter declared as it pried open a collapsed crossbeam, while Ice Roses sprouted atop the moldy piles of books. "Years ago, Ash stole Elena's prenatal report from here."

Seline's mechanical ocular implant suddenly sparked; she staggered as she gripped the bookshelf, subcutaneous gears uncontrollably ejecting. "Something is interfering with my neural link… It's a living firewall!"

No sooner had she spoken than the charred pages of the "Holy Canon" began to whirl and coalesce into a human shape. It bore Ash's face and the voice of the High Inquisitor, and in its hand a flaming spear pointed directly at the Ice Rose on Alice's abdomen. "Blasphemer, surrender the divine embryo."

Memory CorridorThe moment the spear pierced Alice's left shoulder, Kane's silver-sand prosthesis plunged into the core of the firewall. All the pages exploded outward, dragging them into Ash's Memory Corridor—

There, a twenty-year-old Ash cowered in a corner of the forbidden archive, clutching Elena's genetic map. Flames surged in through the gaps in the door as the shadow of the High Inquisitor was cast on the wall: "Hand over the stolen item, or Alice won't survive until the next full moon."

Then the memory twisted. Kane saw Ash trembling as he ignited the archive, the tongues of fire engulfing the "Godslayer Cultivation Manual." At that moment, Elena's silver blood seeped from the pages, condensing in midair into the hidden truth of the Church: the first-generation godslayer was not a mere weapon, but a "maternal vessel" prepared by the Church for the coming of the Old God.

"Run!" In the memory, Ash suddenly turned and shouted, his eyes reflecting the reality of Kane before him, "Take Alice and leave this timeline!"

Temporal EchoesAt that instant, the charred corpses of the library's books reanimated. They advanced wielding burning scriptures; from their wounds did not flow blood, but Church symbols composed of radioactive dust. Alice's scepter froze the nearest charred corpse, only to find that frost was now backfiring along the weapon—these monsters carried a field of temporal distortion.

Seline tore open the synthetic skin of her chest and inserted a flaming data cable into a charred corpse's ocular socket. "They're re-enacting the moment Ash burned the books... We must break the cycle!"

Kane's silver-sand prosthesis stabbed into the ground, and Lia's ceramic effigy levitated upward. All the silver sand converged into a temporal anchor, pulling everyone back to reality. The library began to collapse, yet the door to the Seventh District Forbidden Archive remained intact amid the ashes.

Maternal CovenantInside the archive, there were no bookshelves—only a crystal coffin. Elena's corpse lay within, her hands folded over an old sword wound on her abdomen. When Alice touched the coffin's lid, the Ice Rose birthmark suddenly glowed, and a holographic covenant appeared inside:

[Covenant: Elena Saint Roland, willingly becoming the maternal vessel for the Old God, in exchange for her daughter, Alice Saint Roland, surviving until reproductive age.]

Ash's phantom stepped out from the covenant; his flaming spear transformed into a key that he inserted into the crystal coffin. "She thought she could deceive the Old God… but we have all been used."

The moment the coffin lid opened, every Flesh Giant Tree outside the library let out a piercing wail. Elena's corpse sat up, and from an old wound in her abdomen, twelve glowing umbilical cords emerged, entwining around Alice's limbs.

Umbilical Judgment"Mother…" Alice's scepter shattered in her grasp. The umbilical cords pierced her Ice Rose birthmark, and a spike in radiation caused most of Seline's mechanical brain to melt. Kane's silver-sand prosthesis severed the cords, but Elena's corpse clutched his throat—the eyes of her gaze were the gear-eyes of the Old God.

"The vessel is full." Speaking through Elena's vocal cords, the Old God declared as the charred corpses in the library knelt in unison, "The maternal vessel will give birth to a new god."

At that moment, Lia's ceramic effigy self-destructed, its silver sand merging into Kane's prosthesis. He tore open Elena's abdomen with his bare hands, ripping out a pulsing, glowing mass of flesh—a divine nucleus formed from the fusion of Ash's brand and Alice's genes.

Remnant ReconstructedThe flesh mass collapsed into a black box in Kane's palm. Suddenly, the spatial-temporal distortion field of the library reversed, and all the ashes and flames flowed back to that rainy night twenty years ago. The birthmark on Alice's abdomen turned to ice crystals, sealing the divine nucleus within.

Before dissipating, Ash's phantom flung scorched remnants of the "Holy Canon" pages, on which he had written a new hint in his own blood:

"Act III – Go to the place of my birth—the filthiest 'Sacred Egg' laboratory of the Church."

Seline used her final power to start the battle tank. In the rearview mirror, the reassembled corpse of Elena was reforming amid the ashes. Her abdomen bulged, with twelve umbilical cords anchoring into the ground, as a new Flesh Giant Tree broke through the earth.