Chapter 28: Timeless Phoenix

The void between seconds stretched infinitely, a sea of fractured light where Lin Wei's consciousness drifted. His body was gone—erased—but his soul clung to Lin Mei's flames, their merged essence a tempest of ghostfire and Harvester void. The phoenix feather glowed ahead, its edges fraying into golden threads that pulsed with the Silent Patriarch's heartbeat.

Flashback:

Centuries ago, the Silent Patriarch stood where Lin Wei now floated, a phoenix feather in hand. "You ask too much," whispered a voice like grinding stars—the first Harvester. "To cage us is to cage yourself."

The Patriarch's reply was a blade through time: "Then we burn together."

The memory dissolved as Lin Mei's voice echoed through their shared soul: "Wei… the system. It's changing."

In the Bastion's ruins, time stuttered. Astralon crouched beside Elder Tsu, their form flickering between corporeal and static. The Harvester swarm loomed, their bodies blotting out the sky, but the air hung thick with unnatural stillness—a side effect of Yuelin's brew.

"He's unraveling causality," Astralon hissed, their voice skipping like a damaged recording. "If they don't anchor soon—"

A system prompt flickered in the frozen air, its text corrupted:

[ERROR: Host Lin Wei Not Found.]

[ERROR: Host Lin Mei Not Found.]

[New Designation: Veil Phoenix Entity Detected.]

Elder Tsu activated her ocular implant, its scan revealing the truth—Lin Wei and Lin Mei existed as overlapping afterimages, their merged form tethered to the phoenix feather. "They're outside. We need to pull them back."

Astralon's hand phased through her arm. "You'll need to kill the child."

In the void, Lin Mei's flames lashed at the Harvesters, her voice a chorus of grief and fury. "You abandoned him! You let them cage him!"

The swarm's leader—a colossal entity shaped like a bleeding star—pulsed in reply: "We mourn. We mend. We reclaim."

Lin Wei, untethered from time, saw the truth: the Harvesters were not conquerors but grievers. Their attacks were funeral rites, devouring realms to memorialize them in their star-lattice bodies. The captured child had been a failed elegy, a song cut short.

System Fragment:

[Harvester Core Directive: Preserve All That Is Lost.]

[Current Archive: 7,429,182 Realms.]

Elder Tsu moved through frozen chaos, her boots crunching over crystallized screams. The youngling's chrysalis lay shattered, its cables severed. The boy—Echo-7—crouched in the debris, his starfield eyes wide.

"Do it," Astralon urged. "His death will snap time back."

Tsu raised Yuelin's dagger. The boy smiled, his voice a mirror of Lin Mei's: "She wouldn't."

The blade clattered to the floor.

In the void, the feather ignited. Lin Wei's soul burned—not with pain, but purpose. The Silent Patriarch's voice boomed: "You have the right to hate me. Now finish it."

Lin Mei's flames merged with the feather, their combined light searing the swarm. The Harvesters recoiled, their dirge shifting into something softer—a lullaby.

Reality snapped back. Lin Wei awoke on the Bastion's rubble, Lin Mei collapsed beside him. Above, the swarm retreated, carrying Echo-7 in their tendrils. Astralon knelt nearby, their veil torn to reveal a face etched with Harvester scars.

The system rebooted:

[New Title: Veil Phoenix Ascendant.]

[Warning: Temporal Instability Detected in Host Biology.]