Divine Flame Crystal

Xiao Hei's chest heaved slightly. The dragon didn't nod, but he raised his claw and placed the tip firmly on a intact rock beside the well—not a provocation, but "claiming a spot." Nicholas grinned in mid-air, as if laughing at Xiao Hei for not giving him face, or perhaps at his own cowardice in the past. He folded his long wings, placing all the corridors of thunder, fire, frost, and wind near Xingluo's "hand"—dragon and man, here, formed the strongest alliance.

“The Mirror Realm is coming,” Luo Luo suddenly said. “I saw signs of its return in the ‘Star Abyss Record’.”

"Describe it," Xinglu said, her hands moving without stopping.

"The circuit of light is 'folding inward,' and if you unleash a powerful spell, it will use your spell as a brick to smash you."

“I know.” Xingluo uttered just two words. He narrowed the “plane” of time and space in his hand, replacing a thick piece of paper that would be folded back with a thinner “needle.” “Frozen front” was changed to “frozen point,” and he only froze a corner above the well’s edge—like pointing a finger at the center of Guangming’s brow.

As the finger touched the surface, the Holy Light's "brow" indeed paused, and its "eyes" momentarily lost focus. In that instant, another ring appeared around Isabel's circle, and Pandora's needle, following that moment of "distraction," tightened the seam. Monica's bone team passed a group of people through this opening, carrying away the three remaining elderly people by the well. The dwarf craftsman casually grabbed the broken hearth door from under the eaves of those three houses and stuffed it into his tool bag—grumbling, "This piece of junk, I'll have to get a new one made later!"

The God of Light was not angry; His voice was simply calm: "You are using yourself to plug a hole in the world."

“Yes,” Xingluo said. “So you should think it over carefully: who will fall, you or me?”

Pandora suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist. Her palm was cold, as if it had been pressing down on the chaotic fire in his heart. She didn't look at him, only at the sliver of white in the distance: "Don't die."

Xingluo didn't turn around, but the tendons on her wrist loosened slightly in her hand: "Wait for me."

She hummed in response, as if answering a routine chore. Isabel glanced at her, a silent smirk playing on her lips before she quickly suppressed it—she was laughing at herself for still being able to see even a trace of these two people at a time like this.

A deeper crack shot straight up from the bottom of the well to the sky. It wasn't light splitting the sky, but rather the sky itself parting to make way for the light. Luo Luo's voice suddenly became shrill: "The Mirror Domain has taken shape! The Return Activation is about to begin!"

"Everyone, be quiet," Xinglu said in a deep voice. "Do not use any power that could 'turn back on us'."

Oros's lightning sank into the clouds, leaving only the "pressure difference wall"; Monica's bone team retracted all the outward-extending bone blades, leaving only "lock" and "retreat"; Isabel narrowed the circle of fallen divine power, using only "suppression" instead of "swallowing"; Pandora put the needles into her palm and used blood threads to "stick" every edge that was about to scatter; Arnold's shadow changed from "piercing" to "curtain," first covering every heart that trembled the most with a layer of darkness.

Xingluo himself began to gather his power. He gathered the power of spacetime from a "plane" into a "line," then from a "line" into a "point," and finally pressed it down on his chest, leaving a mark of "Here." He said to Xiao Hei, "Ling San."

The third bell rang out from the silver horn, not loud, but exceptionally precise. The dragons' breaths aligned once more, and Nicholas flipped his wings in mid-air, like an old general leading a troop of new recruits across "the thin line between life and death." Oros's mane pressed even lower, the thunderous pressure like still water, the entire sky like a still, stagnant lake.

The mirror field descended at that moment. A very thin membrane rose between heaven and earth, and everyone saw a "self" within it. Some saw themselves fleeing, some saw themselves crying, and some saw themselves laughing. It wasn't an illusion; it was "returning" using you as a weapon to stab you in the back.

"Stare at me." Xingluo's voice was as cold as a knife piercing through a cotton coat. "Stop looking at yourselves, look at me."

All eyes turned to him from those he had called upon. He straightened his back, adjusted his cloak, and the rune pen in his hand stood like a nail, firmly planted between heaven and earth. He didn't pierce the membrane—piercing it would only result in a backlash; he simply pressed down on the edge of the membrane, "One finger, here." With each press, the membrane seemed to be pressed into inconspicuous dents by the fingertips, and the reflected light sank into those dents, no longer as smooth as before.

"Try again." Xingluo suddenly chuckled softly, her fingertip carefully flicking the silver bell. Xiao Hei's dragon roar didn't come out in full, only a low "hmm." That "hmm" landed at the edge of the mirror domain, and the entire mirror domain actually trembled slightly.

“You’re using dragon language magic to tap its ‘crack’,” Nicholas murmured in the clouds, a hint of boyish excitement in his voice as he uttered the words. “Good.”

The God of Light "looked" at Little Black for the first time. He had no face or eyes, yet everyone felt that His perspective swept past the black dragon, like salt rubbing against a knife. Little Black did not raise his head, nor did he display his power. He simply pressed his claws more firmly against the stone, as if to tell Him: "I am right here."

The wind surged from all directions, causing the hills outside Fallen God Village to undulate. This most inconspicuous little village had become the center of attention for the entire continent overnight. The retreating mercenaries had already retreated to the side of the valley, and the thirtieth shift of the Moonfall Blade carried the last group of children out of the light barrier. Monica flung the Bone Team to the left, forcefully sweeping away the two white lines that had bounced back from the Mirror Domain with her bone wings. Isabel's black and gold rings tightly hooked onto the last line on the edge of the well. Pandora, like a meticulous but inhuman seamstress, had stitched up every "cracked" space with an extra stitch in advance, preventing the final descent of the God of Light.

Xinglu raised his head and did the most dangerous thing he had done all night—he stepped forward, placing himself beside the shadow of the God of Light. He pressed down with his rune pen, not on the ground, nor on empty air, but on a "name." He wrote a single word: "Stop."

The heavens and earth did not stop, the light did not go out, and the mirror domain did not shatter, but everyone heard a very faint sound—like an invisible door clicking shut in their hearts.

“That was a beautiful kick.” Arnold laughed from behind the wall, his laughter tinged with blood. “Since you dare to stomp like that, I dare to stab you from the darkest place.”

The God of Light was silent for a moment, a moment that felt like an entire chapter of history. Then He spoke: "Starfall, you are using your finite life to fight against my eternity. You will tire, but I will not."

“Then let’s see who catches their breath first,” Xingluo said.