You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

A shimmering, iridescent light streamed down from the dome, as if the heavens were pierced by intricate engravings, converging in the deepest part of the Echoes Courtyard into a vortex resembling star trails. It was the final echo of the Realm of Language, the gate to the end, awakened by the "Unspoken Words."

“This is the passage to the ‘Sentence End Stele Forest’…” Noria murmured softly, her voice seemingly swept up in the surging river of light, becoming ethereal and dreamlike.

“It’s time.” Fufu stepped forward, her Star Language Short Sword “Sundial” vibrating on its own as it was half-drawn from its sheath, like a horn responding to the final chapter.

Ahead of the passage stood an obsidian-colored pillar, about three people tall, its surface densely engraved with countless forgotten names and incantations. In the center of the pillar, a groove perfectly fitted the short sword in her hand. Fufu took a deep breath, twisted her wrist, and slowly thrust "Sundial" into it.

——Click.

The incantation stele trembled, and the inscriptions on its surface began to burn like flames. Light and shadow intertwined to form a vortex portal, tearing through space and revealing a desolate alien wasteland that resembled a shattered starry sea.

“This is… ‘Sentence End Stele Forest’?” Alicia took a step forward, her cloak billowing with starlight. She tapped her wand lightly in the air, and a protective barrier of spiritual energy unfolded around everyone.

The world before my eyes is completely different.

The sky was pitch black, with stars hanging very close, seemingly within reach. The earth was composed of countless enormous stone tablets, each like a mountain, tilting, collapsing, and piling up, resembling a forest of ruins after some kind of collapse.

“These steles… all have names written on them.” Jingze slowly approached a huge stele standing in the setting sun. He ran his fingers over it, but suddenly felt a jolt in his heart.

—That was an echo belonging to the "deceased".

Sylvia Frank

Cardin Merowe

Joris Lyman

【Fufu·……】

"Wait!" Noria exclaimed in surprise, "These are... your names?"

Fufu stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned her head to look at the characters that were still gradually emerging on the stone tablet—her name, the carving in the present tense.

“This is—the Prophecy Stele,” Jingze whispered. “The ‘Sentence-Ending Stele Forest’ does not record the dead of the past, but those who are about to die.”

"In other words... if we die here, our names will live on forever." Alicia said, already preparing for battle.

The air began to vibrate.

Footsteps echoed through the forest of steles—first the sound of crumbling stones, then the echo of stomping on giant steles, and finally, a figure descended from the sky, draped in a gray-white trench coat and holding a bladeless sword inscribed with Manchu characters.

"You are finally here."

The man's voice was deep, and his eyes burned with pale flames. He had no physical form, but was a phantom composed of hundreds of linguistic imprints, known as—

“The Keeper of the Phraseology.” Fufu stared at the man. “You are… the Judge of the Final Words.”

The other party did not deny it, but instead nodded slightly.

“Everyone who enters the ‘Sentence-Ending Stele Forest’ must prove with their own words that the chapter has not yet ended. Otherwise, the words will fall and existence will be reduced to nothing.”

“Then I shall wield my sword against you.” Jingze stepped forward, his “Blade of Final Words” quietly gathering in his left hand, while his right hand raised his sleeve, and several fragmented runes appeared between his fingers.

"Your language quality is already on the verge of collapse, Jingze." The guardian of the rules of speech said in a calm, iron-like voice, "You are merely using silence to deceive existence."

"That's still freer than you, these lingering shadows bound to the inscriptions!" Jingze said, then leaped into the air.

In an instant, the blade of final farewell fell.

"—Severing Words: Blade of Emptiness!"

The silver light fell like a meteor, heading straight for the intangible phantom. But the tomb keeper merely raised his sword and, with a "final judgment" technique, reversed space, reflecting the strike back.

"Jingze!"

Fufu hurriedly reached out, and her fingertips instantly released "Sundial of the Clouds," a star-time shield that blocked the rebounding blade of language.

The battle begins.

The forest of steles trembled, the resonance of their sounds creating ripples that stirred up a storm throughout the space. Alicia leaped into the air, her wand raised high, swiftly drawing a triple-ringed script in the sky.

"Ancient incantation—Star Language Ring, Seventh Magic Array, Celestial Blaze!"

The sky suddenly brightened, and a blazing star crashed down from the clouds, striking the very spot where the tomb keeper was located.

boom--! !

The sound of the explosion swept through the forest of steles, sending debris flying, but a cold whisper could be heard amidst the light.

"...Those who have not entered the true teachings are not worthy of being spoken to."

The tomb keeper emerged from the flames unharmed. With a wave of his hand, the inscription on the stele flowed, and the stone beneath everyone's feet suddenly trembled violently, rising like a tide and coalescing into a giant made of "language stele".

"The Wordstone Golem!?" Alicia's expression changed. "It can absorb the feedback from spells!"

"Then stop relying on spells!" Noria drew her twin swords from behind her back, leaped up, bypassed the flank of the Wordstone Golem, and suddenly launched a whirlwind attack on the Gravekeeper.

Fufu finally made her move.

She held the sundial horizontally across her chest and whispered a spell she hadn't used in a long time:
"—With stars as the orbit and words as the blade. The unfallen sound descends upon this realm."

"Sundial Mist - Crescent Slash!"

The crescent-shaped slash tore through the sea of ​​inscriptions, forming a magnificent halo in the air, as if the night sky had been cleaved, pointing directly at the heart of the tomb guardian.

However, just as the attack was about to hit, the tomb guardian's figure suddenly turned into millions of fragments and disappeared, only to re-coalesce behind Fou in the next moment!
"Too slow." His bladeless sword was about to pierce Fou's back.

"Coo coo coo coo coo! Who said only you can twist syntax—!"

A strange and loud laugh broke the silence of the battle. From the depths of the stele forest, a gigantic bird with silver-plated feathers and its body flashing with seven-colored syllables soared through the air—it was Laticas!
"Lady Fufu! You can't die before I, the bird, arrive!"

With a long cry, a series of complex bird-shaped sound patterns bloomed in the sky, and those linguistic sparks gathered into a giant net, temporarily imprisoning the tomb guardian.

"Now!"

Fufu turned and swung her sword. In the light, Guixia shattered the illusion and pierced directly into the core of the entangled illusory words.

"—Break!"

A burst of white light erupted, and the tomb keeper's figure finally disintegrated, leaving only the bladeless sword slowly falling to the ground.

The Stele Forest fell silent.

Amidst the whistling wind, the bladeless sword transformed into a bridge of light, connecting to the deeper reaches of the heavens—the true gate to the final chapter, the entrance to the "Tower of the End."

"It seems the next scene is right there," Jingze murmured, wiping the blood from his lips.

Fufu picked up the sundial and looked at the end of the bridge of light, at the ultimate tower shadow that looked like a falling star.

"Let's go, let's meet our respective 'ends'." There was no longer any confusion in her eyes, only determination.

Everyone agreed in unison.

The next step will be the echo of an ending statement, and the true resolution of the "unspoken war"—

—At the end of the sentence, the words return to their conclusion.

The last rays of dusk fell upon the forest of steles, flowing like a gentle rain of crimson gold. Each stele, inscribed with fragments and broken words, trembled, as if texts dormant for millennia were awakening. The moment Fufu stepped out of the "Courtyard of Lost Voices," the air suddenly felt heavy, as if each breath filled her lungs with thousands of "final sounds." Those unfinished words, those forgotten languages, surrounded her like a shadow, murmuring, echoing, whispering—

"—The final note, etched into the depths of the soul..."

"...Only you can reach the realm of annihilation."

Noria gently tugged at her, her voice muffled by the air currents: "Don't look back, the language of this forest of steles will devour your past."

Fufu nodded, clutching the "Fragment of the Flame" tightly in her hand. The golden character on it, known as the "Beginning Character," was now shining faintly, guiding them forward in the twilight.

The forest of steles is endless, and the paths are like a net. Only by relying on "the flame of language" can one distinguish the true thoroughfares from the abandoned dead ends.

"Has Jingze already entered the Tower of Ending Sentences?" Fufu asked in a low voice.

“Very likely.” Noria narrowed her eyes, gazing at the silhouette of the tower that soared into the clouds in the distance. “The tower is located at the end of the Stele Forest, and the Stele Forest… is not just testing our sense of direction.”

Before she could finish speaking, the ground rumbled, and a completely obsidian-colored stone tablet fell from the sky, blocking their path.

——Boom!

Above it, a blurry figure emerged—a man clad in tattered armor, his eyes hollowed out by melting away. He slowly raised his head, and a hoarse, deep voice echoed from the monument:
"Have you ever been burdened by the curse of your own language?"

Fufu paused, recalling the "silent words" that had escaped her lips when she was a child, the whisper that had kept the entire village asleep for seven days and seven nights.

She stepped forward and looked back at him: "We all use words as swords, and we are also wounded by words. If this is a curse, I have already borne it."

The man in black armor remained silent. After a moment of contemplation, he slowly drew a black sword made of shattered characters from his side.

"Then, bear the blade of my words. If you are not corrupted by the end of the sentence, the gate of the tower will open for you."

The battle began suddenly.

Noria swiftly waved her staff, and several "Symphonic Rings" appeared in the air, like shimmering fragments of a musical piece, sealing off the opponent's movements. However, the black-armored man simply swung his sword, and those runes were torn apart like pieces of paper.

"That's incredible!" Noria exclaimed.

Fufu closed her eyes, igniting the remaining "flame of language" within her body, and whispered the ancient words passed down from Jingze: "The vow was not spoken, the blade became the voice of the heart."

In an instant, a sword forged from her true name appeared in her hand—"Unvoiced".

The blade is like the last star in the night sky, shining, shattering, and then being reconstructed.

The two swords clashed, and a deafening roar seemed to shatter the entire forest of steles.

Fufu felt a violent tremor in her arm, but she gritted her teeth and refused to back down. Instead, she used the echo of her words to intensify her sword intent.

"What is your name?" she demanded loudly.

The black-armored man trembled, and the inscription on the stele suddenly warped, as if the words on it had been torn apart. A shattered name flowed from the stone's texture:

“…Soles…the Keeper of the Word…I…have forgotten my words.”

“Then I will use my name to liberate you,” Fufu said softly, turning her sword to pierce the “Unsworn” in the heart of the monument.

——Qiang!

The black-armored man slowly dispersed into dust, causing the surface of the monument to crack open, revealing a door composed of characters that slowly opened.

"The Path of the Tower...begins." The voice faded into the distance like the wind.

The two exchanged a glance, said nothing, and stepped through the door.

**
"This tower is so quiet," Noria murmured.

The moment they entered the "Tower of Ending Sentences," all sound seemed to be stripped away. Even their breathing, footsteps, and heartbeats were as if covered by some invisible force.

The tower has a spiral structure, with each level centered around a "linguistic structure," and the light source comes from fragments of sentences suspended in the air. These fragments of sentences are like forgotten lines of poetry, slowly rotating and whispering incantations that no one can decipher.

"Is Jingze really here?" Fufu asked softly, gripping her sword tightly.

“Not only him, but also… ‘The End Speaker’.” Noria’s voice trembled slightly as she stared at the end of a staircase above.

In that spot, a wisp of white hair, like the aurora borealis, could be faintly seen fluttering in the wind.

Fufu's eyes widened, and she drew her sword and stepped forward.

But unexpectedly, a chill suddenly swept over them—

- Swish!

A white figure emerged from the fragments of text, its face indistinct, its eyes, composed only of characters, staring directly at them.

"You should not climb this tower."

Its sound was not language, but an infusion of "meaning," which made Fufu's mind resound, as if a piece of her soul had been torn apart.

“It’s the ‘Sentence Guardian’.” Noria gritted her teeth. “This tower is a sealing tower built to prevent the end of language… As long as there is an unfinished language, the Guardian will never fall.”

“Then I will use my sword to complete my language.” Fufu rose against the wind, her sword of words slicing through the air as if cutting through the silent night.

——Boom!

The white shadow coalesced into a massive "hammer of famous quotes," colliding head-on with her.

Where the two forces converged, the tower trembled, and fragments flew like snowflakes. Fufu was forced back several steps, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

In that instant, Jingze's voice appeared in her mind:
"Fou, when you truly understand what 'words' are, your sword will become the last poem of the Astral Plane."

She raised her head, her eyes blazing with light.

"I will not lose. Because I am going to see him."

The sword of words is raised once more, this time—

New phrases appeared on the sword:

—"My name is Fufu, and I vow to dedicate my life to poetry."

The sword light surged, falling like stars from the tower's peak.

The tower trembled, and fragments danced wildly. At the very top of the tower, the figure finally turned slowly.

"Jingze..." she called softly.

Jingze looked at her and smiled slightly.

"You finally... made it."

Jingze's figure remained upright, his long silver-white hair shimmering in the dim light, his eyes revealing a complex emotion. He slowly approached Fufu, his voice low and gentle: "You've finally come, Fufu."

Fufu gripped the sword "Unsworn" tightly, her eyes resolute: "I came to end all of this."

Jingze smiled slightly and pointed to the top of the tower: "The End Speaker has awakened. Only you can stop him."

Just then, a violent tremor shook the top of the tower, shattering the fragments into countless points of light that vanished. A massive black shadow slowly descended from the top—it was the End Speaker. He was shrouded in a black cloak, his face adorned with a mask composed of fragmented characters, radiating a suffocating aura of oppression. (End of Chapter)