Falling.
This time, Shen Liuxue did not experience the slightest reaction to the heartbeat but the rushing void.
The cold air bit at her face, scattering her breathing, stealing the warmth from her skin. The darkness enveloped her completely, until even the sound of her scream seemed too small to survive the fall.
Then there was.....a
Light!
It came as blinding flare of rays that burst beneath her, and she found herself caught within a suddenly weightless embrace
Her footsteps were so light that she hardly even touched the ground.
Liuxue opened her eyes.
She stood within a tremendous, glittering vastness that was not a cave, and not the physical world. The ground that supported her was smooth glass, reflecting the pale illumination of a sky that wasn't a sky. Symbols hung above her, drifting across the heavens like constellations, each shining with a soft, almost intentional light.
The air smelled odd. Not of Earth. Not living.
Something between dream and memory.
She slowed her breathing. "Where am I?"
An answer came in a calm, deep voice, resonant enough to vibrate the air.
"The Chamber of Echoes."
The same voice that called to her before.
Liuxue spun around suddenly. And then a figure materialized out of the starlight. Not a person for it had no flesh, no breathing. Made of a silhouette of golden light that rippled and shifted as if it were composed of memory rather than matter.
It bowed its head.
"Bearer of the Reversal Seal. You have awakened the lock I keep."
Liuxue's face remained expressionless, calm. "What are you?"
The monster raised its head slightly.
"A remnant. A custodian left behind by the one who bore the seal before you."
Her pulse quickened.
The one before her.
The woman whose works Yining's writings spoke of—anomaly, a heretic—Heaven eradicated.
"Then why summon me?" Liuxue's voice emerged tentatively, but sharper than she meant it to be.
The custodian raised a hand. With a wave of the intangible hand, the starlight symbols reconfigured themselves into a gigantic circular formation. The sigils shone brightly, casting sufficient light to illuminate the entire room.
One image is formed at the center.
A woman who was tall, queenly, with a face both serene and terrifying. Her eyes gleamed like molten gold. Her hair cascaded like black silk across the wind of a long-lost battlefield. She wore the radiant armor of the celestial bodies, forged somehow from the shards of heaven itself.
Liuxue's breathing caught
Not because the woman was beautiful
But because she knew her.
Rather, however…. she used to be her!
The shape of the jawbone.
The arch of the brows.
The cold, shining eye.
It was her face.
The custodian spoke.
"This is the memory you must reclaim. Not the full truth but only the first thread."
History of Stones
Liuxue gazed at the photograph, her chest aching painfully. Her rib cage constricted, as if a prisoned truth within her fought to escape.
"Show me," she whispered.
The custodian put his hand up.
The memory imploded, sucking her into the collapse.
The Vision started with her finding herself right in the middle of a platform.
Above her, the sky itself split apart. The gold of the lightning bolts clashed with the edges of the blue swords. The smell of holy anger filled the air.
And the woman....the woman of the past stood immobile at the center, ringed with a circle of Celestial Wardens. Hundreds. Thousands. An incoming wave of shining constructs, all rushing to eradicate the woman.
Her past self raised a hand.
The crescent sigil shone through her palm.
And one word escaped her mouth.
"Return"
"Light burst outward, enveloping the field of battle."
"This ray" they said
The Wardens stood frozen. Shattered. Then reformed backwards, time itself twisted and reversing.
The heavens themselves shook.
And even as the vision lurched violently, a voice broke through the din.
"Seal her"
The decree of the god thundered.
Chains of heavenly law enveloped the woman's limbs, her neck, and her soul. The woman's power caused the world to warp, but the chains grew tighter and brighter with the very soul of the gods.
Her younger self's eyes faltered with a trace of anger, arrogance and regret.
Then she looked at Liuxue straight.
Not at the memory.
At her.
"Wake," the woman mouthed.
Pain laced through Liuxue's skull. The world shattered.
The Chamber Again
Liuxue gasped and sank to her knees, her hands grasping her head. The cold sweat broke out across her skin. Her pulse pounded wildly within her ears.
The custodian stood silently.
"W… what was that?" she coughed, her breathing trembling.
"A fraction of the truth."
"Why let me see that memory"
"That wasn't me," she whispered. She wanted to believe it. Needed to. But the pain behind her eyes betrayed her.
"It was who you once were," the custodian corrected gently. "You are not yet her. But the seal remembers."
Her stomach twisted with memories she did not want.
"A destiny she had not chosen."
"Born and given great power to wield "
This is a power that heaven wanted reversed.
Liuxue forced herself to stand. Her legs shook, but her will did not.
"I didn't ask for any of this," she spoke icily.
"Nobody asks for fate."
"I do not want her life."
"Then take your own. Change what she could not."
The star-filled room dimmed. The custodian's voice roughened.
"But know this: if you awaken the full memory before you are ready, your mind may fracture."
Liuxue clenched his fists. "Well, I'll awake them slowly then."
The custodian tipped his head.
"Then receive your first gift."
There was a soft glow that settled on her wrist. The crescent symbol illuminated, and the edges refined into a clearer form.
[Reversal Seal: First Fragment Unlocked.]
[New Ability: Causal Echo – View the past of object and/or location places]
Before she could do anything, the room shook.
The cracks of darkness stretch across the sky-like surface.
The custodian's form wavered
"The celestial sensors have detected your presence. You must go."
"The seal will guide you."
The ground broke apart beneath her feet.
Light enveloped her.
"Am back"she said while
She suddenly sat up with loud gulps, as dust dripped from her hair.
She found herself back in the cave—Crystals dull and faded, smell of decay and rot.
Yining was kneeling beside her, looking pale with concern.
"Liuxue! are you...."
But she caught his wrist, her breathing erratic but her eyes steady.
"The Celestial Court remembers me."
He swallowed. "And… do you remember them?" .
"Only enough to be dangerous." Her voice was soft but firm. Yining nodded, but fear lurked behind his eyes—not fear of her, but fear for her.
"Then we must move," he said. "The Wardens are closing in."
Liuxue rose, the echo of the memory still burning within her. Her road was no longer one of survival. It was reclamation.
"Lead the way," she told him.
the System spoke a final warning:
"[Heaven has located you.]"
The Hunt will never stop.