Chapter 26: Veil of Shattered Stars

The Bastion's core erupted in a cascade of light, its brilliance searing Lin Wei's vision as Lin Mei's fingers dissolved into the containment field. The air hummed with a frequency that vibrated in his teeth, a dissonant chorus of mechanical whirring and something alive—a voice, raw and fractured, keening like a wounded animal. Lin Mei's flames twisted, cobalt bleeding into the Harvester's void-black, her eyes reflecting galaxies torn at the seams.

"It's not a song," she murmured, her voice splintering into static. "It's a scream."

The system's warning blared crimson across his vision:

[Harvester Resonance Detected: 92% Alignment.]

[Recommend Immediate Disengagement.]

Lin Wei lunged, but the air thickened, viscous and heavy, as if the room itself resisted him. Astralon materialized in a burst of fractured light, their usual ethereal form glitching violently, edges fraying into pixelated static. "Too late, little guardian," they hissed, their voice stripped of mockery. "The child has seen her."

The chamber doors exploded inward, shards of crystallized sound embedding themselves into the walls like jagged teeth. The council's holographic veils flickered and died, revealing faces lined with cracks—fear, guilt, the weight of centuries of lies. Elder Tsu stood at the periphery, her silver circuitry dimmed, one human eye fixed on Lin Mei.

"You dare defile our sanctum!" the central elder thundered, their voice a synthetic roar that rattled the floor.

Lin Wei stepped forward, Yuelin's dagger clutched tight, its blade catching the core's unstable glow. "Sanctum? You've caged a child."

A hologram erupted above them—the core's true form. A translucent boy, no older than ten, curled in a nest of pulsing cables, his hair a river of dying stars. Lin Mei's flames shuddered, her voice a whisper. "He's… alone. They left him."

Flashback Triggered by System:

A younger Yuelin, bloodied and defiant, stood in this same chamber, her fists clenched. "You're torturing them!" she screamed at the council. "They're not weapons—they're scared!" The memory dissolved as Elder Tsu's mechanical eye whirred—she remembered. They all did.

Astralon's form stabilized, their usual detached amusement replaced by a razor-sharp urgency. "The youngling is a fracture. Unstable. Your sister can calm it… or consume it."

Lin Mei drifted toward the core, her flames threading through the containment field like smoke. The boy stirred, his eyelids fluttering open—twin supernovae that seared Lin Wei's retinas. "Sister?" The word echoed not in the air but in the marrow of Lin Wei's bones.

The system flickered, text bleeding crimson:

[Symbiosis Protocol: Available.]

[Risk: Soul Dissolution (Lin Mei) / Reward: Bastion Core Stabilization.]

"Don't." Lin Wei gripped her wrist, her skin cold as the void between stars. "We'll find another way."

"There is no way." Her smile was a ghost, a flicker of the girl who once stole sweets from the clan kitchens. "Only echoes."

The Bastion shuddered, alarms wailing in dissonant chords that scraped against Lin Wei's nerves. They fled through corridors of living metal, walls pulsing like terrified hearts. Lin Mei melted security barriers with a touch, her ghostfire now edged with the Harvester's void, each step leaving cracks in the floor that hissed with static.

"You're quieter," Lin Wei noted, ducking as a swarm of security drones buzzed overhead, their stingers crackling with lethal charge.

"I'm remembering," she said, her voice distant. "What it's like to be hunted."

They reached the core chamber. Guards lay crumpled like discarded puppets, their armor seared through by ghostfire—Lin Mei's doing. The youngling's chrysalis glowed, cables snapping like severed tendons as the boy floated free, his form flickering between human and something vast, ancient, hungry.

Lin Mei reached out, her flames weaving around the boy's trembling form. "It's okay," she murmured, her voice layered with static and starlight. "I'm here."

Astralon materialized, their hand clamping onto Lin Wei's shoulder, fingers digging into flesh. "Decide! Bridge or bomb—now!"

The system overrode his protests, its text flooding his vision:

[Soul Merger Initiated.]

Light erupted—a supernova contained within glass. Lin Mei and the youngling collapsed into a singularity, a vortex of flame and void that devoured sound, color, breath. The chamber dissolved, walls melting into streaks of light.

The Bastion's spires trembled. Beyond the fractured sky, shadows shifted—colossal, ancient, their forms blotting out stars. The council's screens lit with panicked warnings: [Harvester Swarm Approaching.]

From the heart of the maelstrom, Lin Mei's voice echoed, fractured and vast: "They're coming. They heard him cry."