Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 717

Poseidon's words, like a cold tide, gradually seeped into Tang Zijun's consciousness, presenting him with the complete ultimate covenant that had been sealed in the age of gods and concerned the survival of the universe.

It was almost exactly as he had guessed, the only, and most cruel, difference being the core of the Mirror God's mission, which was destined to be a one-way trip.

"Reversal Channel... Mind Projection... Tracing Back to the Source..." Tang Zijun's voice trembled slightly with a hoarse tone.

He never imagined that this reversed world, which was regarded as a sewer and a garbage dump, would have such a rule-breaking and almost heaven-defying power hidden in its core authority. This power was enough to make the gods take notice, but it was also... enough to make anyone who dared to use it doomed to eternal damnation.

However, what chilled him to the bone even more was the outcome.

"Even He... couldn't come back..." Tang Zijun murmured to herself. The light seemed to pierce through time and space, revealing the lonely god who wavered between reflection and reality, throwing himself headlong into the river woven from pollution, leading to ultimate darkness. "Not even a single message returned..."

'

It was a complete, suffocating annihilation.

Like throwing a pebble into a bottomless abyss, there is no sound except for a fleeting ripple. The Mirror God, this special being embodying negative energy, is as fragile as dust before the source of the nightmare.

Poseidon and the silent Trova remained silent. The two ancient deities simply watched Tang Zijun quietly, sensing the heavy, mountain-like pressure emanating from this human (or rather, an existence that had transcended the realm of humanity).

He was thinking, digesting, and making an incredibly difficult choice concerning the survival of all living things in the world.

Time flowed silently in the gloom of the reversed world, each second as heavy as lead. In the distance, Shiyao's resentful low pressure seemed to be subdued by the heavy atmosphere, and it only watched uneasily from afar.

I don't know how much time passed.

Tang Zijun finally slowly raised her head.

His eyes no longer held shock or confusion, but rather a calm resolve born from seeing through the abyss of despair.

He looked at Poseidon, his voice low and clear, utterly calm. "So, this is our only chance, isn't it?"

A fleeting hint of pity flashed in Poseidon's azure eyes, but more so an undeniable gravity. He nodded slowly and solemnly.

"Yes, this is the last possibility." His voice carried an oracular certainty. "Although the mirror's attempt failed, her complete disappearance proved that this path...at least in terms of direction, still held a sliver of possibility. It was the only spark ignited in the darkness, which, though quickly extinguished, pointed the way for where the flame might exist."

Poseidon's gaze swept across the desolate land, across the distant Shake, as if penetrating dimensions to see the Black City being rebuilt, the struggling wasteland, and the crumbling cage of the underworld.

"The gods... are history. We no longer have the strength, nor the time, to construct a new dream world as a battlefield or a buffer," when the nightmare truly descends upon reality...

'

Poseidon's voice carries a cold, final sense of closure.

"...Even if we exhaust all our efforts and barely manage to drag the consciousness of all living beings in the real world into the wasteland to eke out a living..."

""

"But the complete collapse of the real world will directly lead to the collapse and demise of its reflection, the inverted world."

"At that time..." Poseidon's gaze, like a final death knell, fell upon Tang Zijun. "The power to reverse the world..."

They will vanish forever. In this universe... there will be no more existence, no more power, no more possibility... able to try, as we are now, through channels and projections, to... explore the source of that nightmare. We will utterly lose the last eye to see the enemy's heart, and can only face complete annihilation in endless darkness and formatting.

This is no longer a choice.

This is the only one-way street, forced to the edge of a cliff by darkness.

As Poseidon laid out the only way to survive and the inevitable destruction clearly before her eyes with the coldest and cruelest logic, Tang Zijun's lips twitched upwards with extreme difficulty beneath her shattered mask.

There was no anger, no fear.

There was only a deep, bitter smile, tinged with endless absurdity.

"...Heh." A soft sigh escaped his lips, as if all his strength had been drained.

"Poseidon..." Tang Zijun's voice carried a weary tone, a resigned acceptance tinged with a clear-headed clarity. "You're not giving me a second choice at all..."

He slowly raised his head, and the light seemed to pierce through the endless void, falling once again in the direction where the Mirror Lake might exist, as if he saw the last silhouette of the Mirror God before he disappeared.

"Ultimately..."

Tang Zijun's voice lowered, yet carried a calmness born of desperation.

"6

...I still have to walk the same path as the Mirror God...

The sunlight in the real world, carrying a hint of warmth, penetrates the gaps between the city's towering buildings and falls on a slightly old residential street.

Tang Zijun stood in front of a six-story residential building, wearing only a simple dark coat, looking like a weary traveler returning home.

Shi Yao curiously looked around the ordinary residential building, then glanced at the silent Tang Zijun, and couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Where is this?"

Tang Zijun did not answer.

His gaze, somewhat unfocused, fell on the mottled blue paint on the unit door, as if it had traversed a long period of time and endless battles before finally returning to this familiar yet unfamiliar land.

He silently walked up the stairs, his footsteps sounding exceptionally clear in the quiet corridor. Each step seemed to measure the distance from the battlefield of gods and demons to the mundane world.

He stopped in front of a dark brown security door on the third floor.

He hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a bunch of old keys from his pocket—keys he used back in college. The metallic scraping sound rang out, and the click of the latch popping open was particularly jarring in the silence.

The door was pushed open.

A smell wafted over, a mixture of the aroma of food, a faint dusty smell, and the scent of some old furniture.

A familiar yet utterly unfamiliar environment suddenly burst into Tang Zijun's view: faded sofa covers, faded ornaments hanging on the wall, several lush green spider plants on the windowsill, and that old television set... Every detail was like a key, trying to unlock the long-sealed box of ordinary memories belonging to "Tang Zijun" in his heart.

A complex mix of indescribable bittersweetness and a sense of being in another world instantly welled up in my heart.

Before I could even savor the belated exclamation, "Oh! My eldest son is back?!"

A woman's voice, filled with surprise and a touch of urgency, came from the inner room.

Immediately afterwards, a middle-aged woman wearing a floral apron and with her hair casually tied up walked out quickly, her hands still covered in flour.

Upon seeing Tang Zijun standing at the door, the woman's face instantly blossomed into a pure and warm smile, and her eyes lit up. However, when she saw that behind Tang Zijun was a beautiful girl with a unique temperament and whose attire was clearly unlike that of ordinary people, she was obviously stunned for a moment.

Looking at the familiar face, Tang Zijun was overwhelmed with emotions. Her lips twitched involuntarily, and her throat tightened. In the end, she could only respond with a low murmur.

"Ah...I'm back...Mom."

"Mom?!" Shi Yao behind her widened her eyes instantly, looking at Tang Zijun's back in disbelief, then at the middle-aged woman with a gentle demeanor wearing an apron. Her mouth was slightly open, clearly shocked by this sudden address.

Tang Zijun's mother immediately came to her senses and hurriedly wiped her flour-covered hands vigorously on her apron. Her face was full of a warm yet slightly awkward smile, and her gaze moved back and forth between Tang Zijun and Shi Yao.

"Oh! Look at me, I'm making dumplings! Come in, come in!...Didn't Xiaocao come back with you?" She habitually asked her daughter first, then looked at Shiyao, her smile becoming even more affectionate. "And this young lady is?"

Shi Yao was caught off guard by the sudden enthusiasm and the atmosphere of "meeting the parents." Her usual cool and aloof demeanor vanished, her fair cheeks flushed slightly, and she stammered, a rare occurrence for her.

"Oh, hello Auntie! You can just call me Shiyao..."

"Shiyao? What a nice name, what a nice name. Come in and sit down." Tang Zijun's mother hurriedly greeted her, stepping aside to let Shiyao into the house while glancing at her son again, her eyes full of inquiry and barely concealed joy—her son had finally brought a girl home, although this girl seemed... well, a bit special.

Tang Zijun followed behind into this long-lost home, watching her mother busily pouring water for Shiyao, listening to the sizzling sounds of her father (who was probably busy in the kitchen) stir-frying vegetables, and smelling the warm and comforting aroma of home cooking in the air...

To be honest, from the moment he transmigrated, he tried his best to treat the couple as family, filling the emotional void left by the original owner, and also trying to find an anchor for his wandering soul.

But deep down, the sense of alienation stemming from his status as a stranger in a foreign land remained like an invisible veil. This alienation led him to choose to live on campus after entering university, and after graduation, he traveled all over the country under the guise of work, rarely returning home. It was as if only by leaving this warm harbor could he focus more on that world full of gods, demons, and crises, and avoid touching the weight of kinship that did not belong to him but that he had to bear.

Yet now, standing in this small, somewhat crowded, but incredibly real space, listening to my mother's familiar nagging, and seeing the rare, embarrassed look on Shi's face as she was pulled aside by my mother for all sorts of questions...

An indescribable, pure sense of ease, like warm spring water, slowly flowed through the depths of Tang Zijun's weary soul.

The nerve that was constantly taut, bearing the heavy burden of saving the world, miraculously relaxed at this moment, in this safe haven called home.

It was as if the claw marks that tore through the galaxy, the restless Great Old Ones, and the deadly path that was about to be trodden out of the world... were all temporarily shut out by this small door.