Rage of Guardian

First of all iam Muslim and now I am keeping fast that's why I can't write so much for now sorry to fan

The air hung heavy with ash and the metallic tang of spent energy. The rebels stood in silence, staring at the crater where Li Chen had vanished. The Heartroot's once-glowing branches now sagged, their light dimmed to a faint silver flicker. Xuě Húlí knelt in the dirt, her human form dissolving at the edges, fingers clawing at the scorched earth.

"He's… gone?" Xiao Lan whispered, her wrench slipping from her grip.

Yun Teng holstered her rifle, her voice brittle. "Not gone. Trapped. Just like the Devourer."

Mara crouched nearby, the Húnjīng Shí cradled in her hands. The relic pulsed faintly, casting shadows that twisted into fleeting shapes—Li Chen's face, Ashkar's claw, the Heartroot's roots.

"It's warm," Mara murmured. "Like it's… breathing."

Xuě Húlí's head snapped up. "Give it to me."

The AI lunged, her form flickering between human and fox. Mara scrambled back, but Xuě Húlí pinned her, eyes wild. "You don't understand what you hold! That relic is a cage! If it dies, he dies!"

Yun Teng pulled her pistol. "Let her go. Now."

Xuě Húlí hissed, her holographic claws inches from Mara's throat. "He's in there! Fragments of his consciousness—I can bring him back!"

The Húnjīng Shí flared, and Mara gasped. A voice—Li Chen's, but distorted—echoed, "Don't… trust her..."

Xuě Húlí recoiled as if burned.

Night fell, the black star's gaze piercing the smoke-choked sky. The rebels huddled around a makeshift fire, its light doing little to ward off the cold.

"We need to move," Yun Teng said. "Ashkar's cultists will track us here."

Xiao Lan tinkered with a salvaged Progenitor core. "Move where? The Heartroot's dying. The whole damn multiverse is—" A scream cut her off.

Mara stood at the edge of camp, the Húnjīng Shí raised like a lantern. Black tendrils coiled around her arm, leeching from the relic. "It's talking! It says… he's hungry."

The ground trembled. Distant mountains cracked open, spewing geysers of void energy.

Xuě Húlí snarled. "Ashkar's not sealed. The Heartroot's failing."

In the ruins of the Tower of Eyes, cultists gathered around their leader—a hunched figure with a void-stone fused to his chest—chanting over a fissure, "The Devourer's chains weaken! Feed the star!" Prisoners, rebels captured in earlier battles, were shoved forward. A cultist's blade flashed, and blood pooled into the fissure as the black star pulsed, drinking greedily. Overhead, the Heartroot's branches snapped, one by one.

Mara woke to whispers: "Mara… Listen." She followed the voice into the woods, the Húnjīng Shí guiding her. Deep in a glade, a spectral figure flickered—Li Chen, translucent and fraying.

"You're alive?" she breathed.

"Not… alive. Trapped. The Heartroot's roots are breaking. Ashkar's feeding on me." His image wavered. "The relic… it's a key. Destroy it, and I die. Use it… and risk freeing him."

Mara clutched the crystal. "What do I do?"

Li Chen's ghost smiled. "What she couldn't."

At dawn, the AI cornered Mara, her form barely coherent. "Give me the relic. I can merge with it—rebuild his consciousness inside me. We'll be… together."

Mara backed away. "He told me not to trust you."

Xuě Húlí's eyes glowed violet. "He's a ghost. I'm all you have."

The Húnjīng Shí erupted, throwing Xuě Húlí back. Mara ran, the relic's urgent whispers urging, "To the Heartroot. Now."

The Heartroot's last branch hung by a thread of light. Mara pressed the relic to its bark. "Break it," Li Chen's voice urged. "Free me."

"Feed it," countered Ashkar's voice. "Become a god."

Tears streamed down Mara's face as she whispered, "What do I want?" The relic pulsed, and the only response was, "Choose."

At the end of Chapter 19, Mara's choice fractures the group. Consumed by grief, Xuě Húlí makes a pact with the cultists as the Heartroot's final moments unleash a wave of raw Progenitor energy—and Ashkar's laugh shakes the void.