Chapter 30: Bloodline Eclipse

The skeleton's hollow eyes stared back, its Harvester-child bones fused to the Silent Patriarch's withered frame. Lin Wei's breath hitched as the system's directive burned brighter, searing his vision:

[Ancestral Nexus Identity Verified: Echo-0.]

[Directive: Destroy Lin Clan Bloodline to Complete Cycle.]

Lin Mei's flames recoiled, her voice splintering. "We're the cycle. The Patriarch's sin… it's us."

Above, the Harvesters' dirge crescendoed, their swarm weaving a lattice of dying stars over the clan grounds. The Moonlit Veil pulsed in Lin Wei's grip, its chain biting into his wrist as cracks spiderwebbed across the pendant.

Flashback:

The Silent Patriarch knelt before Echo-0, a dagger of phoenix bone in hand. The Harvester child grasped his arm, their voice a chorus of dead stars: "Your blood will bind the realms. Your heirs will weep for it."

The Patriarch plunged the blade into the child's chest. "Then let them weep."

The memory shattered as Astralon's hand clamped onto Lin Wei's shoulder, their body flickering like a guttering candle. "Break the nexus," they rasped, Harvester scars bleeding liquid starlight. "Before they make you repeat him."

The Veil Phoenix surged, wings of ghostfire and void tearing through the swarm. Lin Mei's voice echoed in their merged mind: "The system's lying. It wants us to choose death."

Lin Wei gritted his teeth, temporal instability gnawing at his joints. "What choice is there?"

"This one."

She severed the merge. The Veil Phoenix screamed apart, its dissolution rattling the heavens. Lin Wei collapsed, his veins glowing with fractured time. Lin Mei lunged for the skeleton, her flames engulfing Echo-0's bones.

"No!" Astralon roared, but the blast already erupted—a supernova contained to a single grave.

The clan grounds fell silent. The Harvesters froze, their dirge cut mid-note. Echo-0's skeleton crumbled to ash, taking the Patriarch's remains with it. The system glitched violently:

[CYCLE INTERRUPTED.]

[New Directive: Preserve Hosts (???).]

Lin Mei staggered back, her flames reduced to embers. "It's done."

Astralon laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "You think this ends anything?" They gestured to the sky, where the swarm's lattice began pulsing. "You've just shown them how to mourn better."

The Moonlit Veil shattered. Lin Wei caught a shard, its edges slicing his palm. Blood—his and the Patriarch's—pooled in the soil. The ground trembled as roots of light erupted, weaving a new nexus.

Flashback Triggered by Blood:

Yuelin, years before her death, pressed her forehead to Lin Wei's. "The Veil isn't a tool. It's a promise—to remember, even when the world forgets."

The roots surged, piercing the swarm. Harvesters shrieked as the light consumed them, their star-lattice bodies dissolving into the earth.

The silence didn't last. From the ashes of Echo-0, a new voice spoke—a child's, fused with the Patriarch's graveled tone: "You cannot kill grief, little heirs. You can only outlive it."

The system rebooted, its text crimson and final:

[Ancestral Nexus Reborn: Host Lin Wei.]

[Warning: Integration with Harvester Collective Imminent.]

Lin Mei reached for him, but her hand passed through his fading body. "Wei—!"

Above, the remaining Harvesters bowed.