Chapter 71: The Cracks in Now​

The osmanthus-scented breeze carried the song of Now through the Spirit Pattern Plaza, but Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core thrummed uneasily. He stood beneath the Starlight Flower, watching Xiao Tao adjust the mirror they'd placed at the tree's roots. Its surface rippled with futures—some bright, some fuzzy, one flickering with a storm of shadow.

"See?" Xiao Tao said, pointing. "There's the house with the garden, and the child—look, she has your eyes!" She laughed, but her smile faded as the storm future pulsed brighter. "But… why does that one keep changing?"

Lin Ye stepped closer, his hand brushing hers. The mirror's reflection warped, showing not their future but a memory: the Lighthouse of Echoes, its fractured seal oozing black light. A shadowy figure loomed behind Yuehuan, its form indistinct but its voice clear. "You think sealing me away stops the rot? Fear breeds faster than light."

"Lin Ye?" Xiao Tao's voice was soft. "What is it?"

He hesitated. "Last night, I dreamed of the Lighthouse again. Not the past—this time, it was… hungry. And the shadow in the mirror… it felt like the pollution Yuehuan sealed, but worse."

Xiao Tao's Shadow Crow Bells jingled faintly, as if in warning. Before she could speak, Sakura's voice cut through the air.

"Lin Ye, Xiao Tao—you need to see this."

The two followed Sakura to the arena's broadcast station, where a hologram of Grandma Chizuru flickered. Her face was drawn, her usual composure fraying. "Just an hour ago, the temporal monitors spiked," she said. "All over the world—Paris, Cairo, Rio—people are reporting… gaps. Like someone erased a chunk of their day. And in those gaps? Artifacts. Old weapons, broken seals, even… fragments of spirit cores."

Aji, leaning against the doorframe, grunted. "My forge's been acting up. The metal's humming like it's scared. Said something about 'the past biting the future.'"

Sakura tapped her tablet, pulling up a live feed from Egypt. A sandstorm raged around the Pyramids, but at the center stood a figure—clad in armor that mirrored Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core, its surface cracked and oozing black.

"Echo… but not Yuehuan's," Xiao Tao whispered. "This one's different. Darker."

The figure raised a hand; the sand froze mid-air, forming a rune identical to the one on the mirror. Then, with a shriek, it vanished—only to reappear in Tokyo, standing atop the Spirit Pattern Tree.

"Now," it crooned, its voice a distortion of Yuehuan's. "Now is the lie. The past is the truth. Let me show you—"

The mirror at their feet shattered.

Shards flew, each reflecting a different past: Yuehuan's final battle, the Eclipse Beast's roar, the day Lin Ye's core was shattered by the Lighthouse's light. Xiao Tao staggered, her breath ragged. "No—those are memories. Not real anymore."

"But they are," the shadow figure said, its form solidifying. "Fear doesn't fade, little girl. It waits. And when you let your guard down… it eats."

Lin Ye stepped forward, his core blazing gold. "You're not Yuehuan. You're just a scar."

The figure laughed, a sound like shattering glass. "A scar? No. I am the wound. The pollution Yuehuan thought she buried? It seeped into the cracks of time. And now… it's hungry for the one thing that outshines it."

"Love," Xiao Tao said, her voice steady.

The figure lunged.

The battle was swift and brutal. The shadow creature moved like smoke, phasing through attacks, its claws raking through reality itself. Aji's hammer shattered on impact; Zhao Yan's Spirit Cannon sputtered, overpowered. Sakura's Shadow Crows were swallowed by the darkness, leaving only faint chirps in their wake.

"Focus on the core!" Lin Ye yelled, deflecting a strike meant for Xiao Tao. His Reverse Scale Core flared, weaving a golden net around the creature. "It's using fear—don't let it in!"

Xiao Tao closed her eyes, her Shadow Crow Bells singing a high, clear note. The sound cut through the darkness, and for a moment, the creature faltered. Its form wavered, revealing a core of its own—a black, pulsing mass, identical to the pollution Yuehuan had sealed.

"See?" Xiao Tao said, opening her eyes. "It's not alive. It's just… leftover pain."

She reached out, her hand glowing with silver light. "Yuehuan taught us to face the past, not run from it. So let's show you—this is what happens when we don't."

She plunged her hand into the creature's core.

Black light erupted, but Xiao Tao didn't flinch. Instead, she smiled. "Remember the Lighthouse? The Eclipse Beast? We beat them because we fought together. This is just another shadow. And shadows can't exist without light."

The black core splintered. The shadow creature shrieked, disintegrating into stardust.

Later, beneath the Spirit Pattern Tree, Xiao Tao sat with the shards of the mirror. Most had reformed, but one piece remained cracked, showing a vision of the future: Lin Ye and Xiao Tao, older, holding a child with silver hair—her hair, Xiao Tao realized, the same shade as Yuehuan's.

"She's… Yuehuan's daughter?" she asked, turning to Lin Ye.

He sat beside her, taking her hand. "Or ours. Doesn't matter. What matters is that she's ours. And we're going to protect her—and this now—from anything that tries to take it."

Xiao Tao leaned her head on his shoulder. "Do you think… the mirror will ever stop showing us the past?"

Lin Ye kissed her forehead. "No. But we won't let it define us. The past is a teacher, not a jailer. And right now…" He gestured to the Starlight Flower, blooming brighter than ever. "Right now is our lesson."

Above them, the Spirit Pattern Arena's broadcast flickered to life. "Tonight's featured story? A love that doesn't just outshine the stars—it rewrites the sky."

Somewhere, in a place beyond time, Yuehuan smiled.

Now, she thought, is the bravest part of all.

(Wind carried the scent of osmanthus. In the distance, a single black shard, unnoticed, sank into the earth—waiting.)