The light of the sealing formation trembled, its runes flickering like a heartbeat on the brink of collapse.
Li stood at the centre of the formation, his Judgment Eye suppressed to its limit, yet his vision remained unnaturally clear. He could see Grey's hands trembling slightly and the look in the Student Council members' eyes that no longer regarded him as 'human'.
The next instant, the formation's core suddenly shifted.
Not collapse.
Manipulation.
"Who?!"
Hui whipped his head around and the rune circuits were forcibly severed. The backlash of energy exploded, hurling several members backwards. In that instant of chaos, a dark figure streaked in from beyond the barrier, moving with the speed of a stretched shadow:
White Crow.
He landed in front of Li, with his back to the Student Council. With one hand pressed against the ground, he crushed the incomplete sealing array beneath his foot.
There was a crisp snap.
Like shattering glass.
"Bai Ya." Grey's voice turned icy. "Do you realise what you're doing?"
Bai Ya didn't turn. He merely chuckled softly — a faint laugh tinged with the weary resignation of someone who had made up their mind a long time ago.
'Of course I do.'
He rose to his feet and turned to face Grey, revealing eyes that were perpetually cynical yet never truly at ease.
'I'm choosing sides.'
The air froze abruptly.
The Student Council's rune flared once more, this time directed squarely at White Crow.
Traitor.
The word remained unspoken, yet it was etched on every face.
Li faltered, his voice catching in his throat. "You—"
"Silence!" White Crow cut him off, his tone unusually stern. 'Now is not the time for hesitation.'
He seized Li's wrist tightly, as if fearing that if he loosened his hold, the man would be swept away by the world itself.
"You knew all along, didn't you?" Li whispered.
Bai Ya paused for a second.
Then he nodded.
'I know you never truly belonged here.
'I know the rift has always been claiming you.'
'And I know that if the day comes when they must sacrifice someone to stabilise the world, you will be the one they choose.'
Grey's voice lowered, tinged with a dangerous chill. 'So you chose to destroy the order?'
White Crow finally turned to face him.
In that instant, the expression on his face shifted utterly — no longer mocking or flippant, but with a cruel lucidity.
"Order?"
"You call treating a person as a 'tool' order?"
He snorted derisively.
'Then I'd rather stand on the opposite side of the world.'
The tremors from the fissure intensified once more, and Nishira's low hum echoed from the depths of space as if in response to this choice.
White Crow hesitated no longer, activating the prepared escape formation. Space folded violently, the light warping into a narrow, elongated passage.
'Hold on tight,' he said.
The next instant, the Student Council's assault struck.
Runes, barriers and lockdown protocols activated simultaneously with annihilation-level authorisation.
White Crow gritted his teeth and shielded Li, putting her entirely behind him. Energy streaked across his shoulder and blood seeped out instantly, yet he did not even utter a muffled groan.
'White Crow!' Grey roared.
Before vanishing, White Crow cast one final glance at him.
That look held neither hatred nor remorse.
It was as if he was saying: 'If this world can only be sustained by sacrificing the right people, it will perish sooner or later.'
Light collapsed.
Space closed.
Li only had time to see the Student Council Hall being swallowed whole by the light of the fissure.
And that fleeting, rare moment of distraction in Grey's eyes.
Teleportation complete.
The world fell silent.
Li staggered and was caught by Bai Ya. They stood in the abandoned passageways of the academy's old district, where the lights flickered as if on the verge of failure.
Bai Ya released him and leaned against the wall with a long sigh.
"From now on," he murmured, "there truly is no tu."
"From now on," he murmured, "there truly is no turning back for you."
Li looked at him, her Judgment Eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.
'And you?'
Bai Ya lifted his head to meet his gaze and smiled.
This time, it was genuine.
'I ceased to be one of them a long time ago.
Only now have I finally admitted it.'
In the distance, the low hum of the rift persisted.
The world had made its choice.
And so had they.
The world lost its weight in an instant.
Before Li could blink, the ground beneath his feet disappeared. Light was sucked away, sound was silenced, and time itself seemed to pause. The next moment, he was standing in front of a door.
It was old, its white paint peeling and a faded label stuck to the handle.
Memory Judgement Chamber.
The Judgement Eye stung without warning.
Not a warning or hostility, but a near-compulsory 'retrospection'.
It was as if someone had seized the back of his neck and dragged him into the deepest recesses of his mind.
The door opened of its own accord.
Act One: Home.
A cramped flat with an old sofa and crooked sticky notes plastered to the corner of the wall. Outside, rain fell, the droplets tapping rhythmically against the glass. The air carried the faint yet distinct scent of cooking.
Li stood in the doorway, watching a woman with her back to him.
His mother.
She looked younger than he remembered, her hair not yet so dishevelled. Yet her silhouette already bore the weight of weariness. She stood in the kitchen, slicing vegetables while humming softly to herself. Her voice was unsteady yet gentle.
This was the memory he believed to be the most authentic.
"Mum?"
The moment the words left his lips, the scene shuddered slightly.
His mother paused, but did not turn around.
"You shouldn't be standing here," she murmured softly.
Li's breath caught.
"This isn't a memory meant for you to see."
The space shattered abruptly, like broken glass. The warm light was torn asunder, revealing the cold, brutal structure beneath.
Act Two commenced forcibly.
An altar.
Not the Academy's sealing array, but an older, cruder ritual site. Runes were carved into the ground like wounds and the air was thick with the acrid mingling of blood and spiritual pressure.
Mother knelt at the centre of the array.
Before her lay her younger self, still swaddled in a cradle.
Li recoiled abruptly.
"No—"
His throat tightened, yet his voice was laughably faint.
Nishira's whisper echoed through the space. This time, there was no mockery.
Only a statement:
"The moment you were born, the coordinates were wrong."
Her mother's hands trembled.
She reached out and gently brushed the infant's cheek, as if to verify that this was real. Then she lifted her head and gazed into the void, towards where Li stood.
Of course, she could not see him.
Yet, in that instant, her expression suggested that she knew everything.
"I'm sorry," she murmured.
Not to the world.
To him.
Act Three: the cruelest.
Memories accelerated.
Li watched her mother lose things bit by bit.
Not life.
Her very existence.
Her colleagues began to forget her and her relatives became indifferent. Her image in photographs faded and her name was crossed out in documents. Ultimately, the world still permitted her to live, yet no longer acknowledged her existence.
She sat in an empty room, talking to thin air.
"It's all right... as long as he stays."
The Eye of Judgement trembled violently.
Li finally understood.
His mother hadn't died.
She had been deemed a 'superfluous variable' by the world and erased bit by bit.
The reason for this sacrifice was singular:
Him.
Nishila's voice grew clear and composed.
"Without you, this world would be more stable.
'Without you, she would not have been erased.'
This is not malice, but causality.'
Li's legs grew weak, yet he stood rigidly upright.
He watched the mother from his memories write a line and pin it to the door, before the world recorded her final moments.
'Remember to live well.'
The vision ended there.
The Memory Tribunal fell silent once more.
Li stood in the centre, his eyes dry and shedding no tears.
This trial required no tears.
"So?" he said, his voice low yet steady. "What do you want me to admit?"
The fissure trembled faintly.
Nishira paused for a moment.
"Admit that you are the original sin."
Li closed his eyes, then opened them again.
The Judgment Eye slowly illuminated.
It was not a loss of control.
It was a state of clarity.
'Then I admit it,' he said.
Then, for the first time, he turned the spear of judgment towards himself and this world.
The door of the Memory Judgment Chamber slowly closed behind him.
The next time it opened, the price would be even greater.