Chapter 41: Echoes of What Shouldn’t Be
The ground hit them like a memory.
Dust rose in swirls that shimmered with pale light, each mote reflecting an image that did not belong to the present. Yun Xi coughed, rolling to his feet, eyes narrowing at the broken beauty of the place.
They had landed on what was once the stage of the Grand Aerilon Opera House. The velvet curtains hung like mourning shrouds, decayed but somehow still resonating with the final note once sung here. The audience seats were filled not with people, but with frozen silhouettes—fragments of time turned to glass. Each face was familiar.
Yun Xi saw himself in the third row—sitting beside his mother. His younger self smiled, unaware of the future. Yue Lan stood beside him now, daggers drawn, eyes scanning the dark.
"Why are there so many versions of us here?" she whispered.
"Because this place is a memory graveyard," Yun Xi replied, stepping down from the stage. "Every regret that could've been born here… stayed."
The lights above them flickered to life.
And the curtain rose.
A figure stood at center stage, surrounded by shadowed copies of Yun Xi and Yue Lan. The figure's form shimmered—fluid like ink, but its core was unmistakable.
It was Aria.
But her eyes…
They were empty.
"Welcome back," she said, voice echoing twice—once in song, once in sorrow. "To the performance that should never end."
Yun Xi stepped forward, gripping the Regret Blade. "Aria. Is it really you?"
She tilted her head. "Does it matter, if I remember you more clearly than you remember yourself?"
The shadows moved, stepping off the stage like dancers returning for a final act.
Yue Lan growled. "These things… they're copies."
"More than that," Yun Xi said. "They're possibilities. Versions of us that failed."
Aria raised her hand. "Shall we begin?"
The music started. A haunting violin solo—the same melody Yun Xi remembered from their last day together before the world turned.
Then the attack came.
Five shadows—five Yun Xis—all bearing weapons shaped by pain. One wielded a blade made of broken promises. Another sang in dissonant tones, forcing the air to warp. They fought without hesitation, mimicking his old styles with terrifying accuracy.
But Yun Xi was no longer the same man.
He parried one, disarmed another. With each strike, he remembered the lessons hidden in failure. The version of himself who ran. The one who stayed silent. The one who hesitated.
Now, he moved with resolve.
Yue Lan danced beside him, her daggers flashing in symmetrical arcs, disrupting rhythm and rerouting the echo energy pulsing from their enemies.
"Don't let the music lead you!" she shouted. "Stay on your own beat!"
Yun Xi locked eyes with Aria again.
"You're not just a memory," he said, stepping forward through the battlefield. "You're something more."
She smiled sadly. "Maybe I'm what's left of the real me. Maybe I'm a test. Or maybe—" she lifted her hand, and the shadows stilled, "—I'm still waiting for you to finish the song we started."
The fourth fragment pulsed behind her, glowing bright within an ornate music box.
Yun Xi reached toward it.
And Aria stepped aside.
The moment he touched it, the world shattered.
---
FLASH VISION – FRAGMENT MEMORY UNLOCKED
He saw himself and Aria beneath the stars—before the fall. They played together. Sang. Promised a future.
Then came the betrayal.
Not hers. His.
He had chosen to forget her. To save her from the burden of the war.
To erase her from the Song.
---
END VISION
Yun Xi fell to his knees, tears stinging his eyes.
"She didn't leave me," he whispered. "I left her…"
The opera house began to collapse around them, as if the truth had broken the illusion's spine.
Yue Lan pulled him to his feet. "We have to go—now!"
They ran, dodging falling memories and crumbling echoes. Aria's figure faded, her voice lingering.
"Find me, Yun Xi. Find the real me."
They crossed the threshold as the last wall fell—and reemerged beyond the Echo Wall, fragment in hand, hearts heavier.
The past was no longer just behind them.
It was waiting.